CERTAIN LIMITS TO CHARITY WORK 325

bureau (so as to make work the basis of relief'^, and by chat- ting over a case or two with her neighbor who is almoner for a church charity fund, or with the parish priest, or occasionally securing a bed at a hospital for a sick man, or sending a child to the day nursery (so "securing the cooperation of all charitable agencies ").

Such an agent occasionally deplores that " our friendly visitors do not take the i?iterest they do in Bostoti," and thinks probably they are a different kind of people there. Perhaps she says : "The co7iditions are so differetit with us ; we cannot do as they do in Balti- more a?id Newport." Or, if she is very able and energetic, she says : " I don't want volunteers arou?id me ; let me do my work ivith the poor, but don't bother me with friendly visitors." The above are actual, not imaginary quotations.

The friendly visitors, few in number, wholly untrained, with- out leadership, when they do call at the office, chiefly do it to ask for more relief for their poor families. The directors have a great deal of trouble raising money, and are constantly annoyed because " it costs tivo dollars to give away one." The society holds an annual meeting, at which one or two ministers, usually newcomers to the city, and perhaps new converts to the mod- ern idea of charity, make glowing speeches, rehearsing the time-honored hopes of C. O. S. Reports are read, economy in the office force commended. No one says, " We are only talkittg about these fine things, 7wt doing thetn" and the evils of unorgan- ized charity flourish almost as they did before the society began. The name C. O. S. is spoiled by abuse, and there is a burnt-over district left when the society dies.

This is a sad but a painfully true history of the consequences of relief-giving by a mixed society calling itself C. O. S. That it is not true of all such societies is owing to the devotion and strength of a few individuals. It is the probable history of all.

The tendency of charitable energy to expend itself in its lowest form is analogous with the same tendency in physical energy. Just as physical energy constantly tends to waste itself in the form of radiant heat, so charitable energy tends to waste

itself in the form of giving things, either at our own cost or at