HOW GIRLS CAN HELP WORKHOUSE INMATES (Part Three)
by B.C.Saward
The Girl's Own Paper (February 2nd, 1895
Having given, we trust, a few useful hints upon some of the simplest methods by which women of means and leisure can help those whose lot in life is very dreary, before leaving the subject we are anxious to point out a way of usefulness the sphere of which lies outside the workhouse, but which is connected with it.
For many years those who compassionated the condition of the orphaned or deserted child, whose only home was the workhouse, could form no plan to modify the evils their bringing up engendered. Compelled as all must of necessity be who are brought up upon a system to conform to rigid rules and regulations, the idle freedom and happiness of child-life was unknown to them. The individual care of a mother or a woman standing in that position to them, found no equivalent in the kindness of a busy matron who could not indulge one child more than another, and who had no time at her disposal to watch and note the frailty of body, or the bent of mind of any particular little waif and stray. Debarred therefore from all home-life, from its influences, its cares, its love and the teaching of mixing as equals with others of its own station, a workhouse child when it had to earn its own living came into the world utterly unfitted for the battle of life. Without any ties of love or friendship, without the tradition of morality and respectability that hedges in the child brought up in an honest, God-fearing home, it fell an easy victim to the first temptation, and added the pitiful sum of its life to the ranks of the criminal classes.
How to combat the evils that arose from the workhouse system was long anxiously debated by philanthropic men, who at last determined to propose a scheme to the government for the outdoor instead of indoor relief of children, that should allow the guardians of a union or parish to send a child to live with respectable cottagers who had been recommended for the purpose by a boarding-out committee formed of independent ladies and gentlemen. This scheme fortunately was favourably received and was sanctioned in 1877 by the Local Government Board. By becoming a member of a local boarding-out committee, or a visitor to the children, and so a helper of the committee, the help we mentioned is given, not of money (which is never required) but of time, and of kindly interest in the well-being of the children visited; and this help is rarely withheld when it is realised how great a boon to the child is this return to home-life, and how beneficial to the welfare of the nation is the chance of that child being trained to love a domestic and God-fearing life.
A boarding-out committee must consist of three or more members who are known to and approved of by the guardians of their parish, and who have no pecuniary interest in the matter; they have the power of selecting their own secretary, who communicates or sends in returns twice a year to the Local Government Board, and who reports to the local guardians the death and resignation of any of the committe quarterly, and of all the business that has passed through their hands.
It is the duty of this committee to find the cottagers who will take in the child for a weekly payment, and to see that they are respectable people, clean, honest and well-behaved, and who are in the habit of frequenting some place of worship and taking their children.
The home of the foster-parent must be within two miles of a school, and five of the lady who visits; the religious persuasion of the child (ascertained from the registrar of the workhouse) should be the same as the foster-parent, who must sign a paper promising to take it to church or chapel and train it in habits of industry, truthfulness, honesty and cleanliness. To bring it up with her own children and see that it is happy, well-fed and suitably lodged, and to mend its clothes and wash them. Four shillings a week is allowed to a foster-parent, and besides this, extra money for school-fees and medicine, while new clothing and medical attendance are provided by the authorities.
A foster-parent taking a child is not allowed to receive relief from the poor-rate during the time the child is with them, and cannot take in more than two children at the same time unless they are of one family, nor are they allowed to take in a child should they have five of their own children. Want of clothing and illness must be reported to the relieving officer when he pays for the weekly board or to the lady-visitor of the boarding-out committee who must call to see the child once in six weeks, and may call once a week if the boarding-out committee undertake to distribute the weekly payments. A child can be taken away from any foster-parent at once, and is only promised to them for three months, when the agreement has to be re-signed.
The duties of a lady-visitor consist in calling upon the foster-parents (already selected by the boarding-out committee) and asking to see the child, and taking note of its health, cleanliness and general appearance; seeing where it sleeps, and inquiring into its conduct at home and school, and listening to any complaints made by the foster-parent or the child. A report of these visits (which must be made every six weeks and can be made oftener) is drawn up by the lady-visitor and sent in quarterly to the boarding-out committee. A child not visited or reported as to health and condition for four consecutive months is either taken back to the workhouse by the guardians, or the relieving officer is required to make a report of the matter.
The schoolmaster of the school the child attends, besides the school fees, recieves a penny a week as a remuneration for drawing up a quarterly paper stating the progress in learning made, and the general conduct, while the medical officer is called into a case or visiting to see to general conditions recives a fee of two shillings and sixpence.
It is left to the discretion of the guardians to allow the boarding-out committee to select homes in their union or in neighbouring parishes, and it has been found by experience that it is better to send the children away from their own parish. They are not so well known then, and escape the influence of idle and impoverished relations, and are more likely to form respectable ties of their own. Some enlightened guardians have under their consideration the merciful idea of clothing the boys who remain in the union, or are boarded out, like the children of their own class, as they are anxious to increase the self-respect, by freeing them from the stigma of "workhouse brat," so freely bestowed by town boys upon these unfortunate mortals, and all who have their well-being at heart trust that when home influence is combined with the removal of a dress that points out their friendliness, that nothing will remain to hinder their attaining and keeping a position of usefulness and dignity in life.
Arrangements can be made by the boarding-out committee to take under their own supervision the weekly payments to the parents, thus relieving them of the visit of the union officer. This when carried out throws more work upon the lady-visitor, and necessitates a larger staff, but in some towns and villages it is considered to do good. It is more gratifying to the foster-parents to be directly under the supervision of one person, and that a lady, than to be liable to the visits of two people. And the frequent visits made enable the lady to see clearly whether or no the reports of the foster-parents are to be credited, and what the daily habits of life, and tone of thought of the whole establishment is. We all unhappily know who visit the poor, how easily it is to be plausible, sensible, affectionate, etc., when the deception has only to be maintained once in six weeks; but that the play is apt to be ill-sustained, and the real nature appear when the rehearsal is too frequent. It is so necessary to find out the real character and lives led by foster-parents, that no trouble at first is too great, but when once a satisfactory account can be honestly given, a good loving home is found for many a child, and a work begun in the children's hearts that will help them through all their after-lives.
And these children do need pity and love; think of the "deserted child," with no knowledge of any relation, of the "orphan child," with both parents dead, or one dead and the other in penal-servitude; what a condition is theirs, with no one to care if they live or die; no one to tell their small troubles or hopes to, and no future, but a life of toil to look forward to. Is it any wonder that they take arms against fate, throw back upon their fellow-creatures the scorn visited on them in their childhood, and knowing no pity, no love, and no home, believe that there is none in the world, and so allow the evil born in all our natures to stifle the good, and snatch at every pleasure, whatever punishment it brings with it. Now contrast this early life with that of the ordinary working man's child. The food may be scanty at times, the home rough with the father cross, or the mother irritable; but the child is in its natural place, it has a certain position, and is often treated with great tenderness, and it has someone to look to, and to take its part; it knows well enough that mother may beat it unjustly, but it also knows that the same mother will stand up for it hotly, should a neighbour assail it; and then its days of pleasure, of visiting, of school triumphs, they are none of them made alone, but are shared by brother or sister, mother or friend. With all these aids to a virtuous life withdrawn, can we wonder at the falling into sin of a charity child, and can we hesitate everyone to do a little towards helping them to a share of such simple joys.
In concluding these papers upon the contion of the helpless poor, it is necessary to draw the attention of all would-be workers to the great success of the Brabazon scheme in the workhouses where it has been allowed by the guardians a trial, and to recommend to the attention of our readers the reports published from time to time by the medical officers; but as there are still many unions that decline to allow this scheme to be tried, and yet allow ladies to visit the infirm old men and women, and to read to them, and give them materials for making comforts in the way of warm things for their own use, much can be done in this way to help the helpless, and to cheer the end of lives that so soon will be summoned home. Surely when we all stand as equals before God's throne, the patience under suffering and desertion that these poor people show will weigh much against their sins, and the question that we may have to answer, may be - "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me."