r children of the first marriage,
and the second husband. The eldest daughter had married, and with her
husband occupied part of the house in which her mother lived. The other
three children were young. The second husband was a drunken fellow, who
did little for his wife's support and abused her badly. She had been to
the hospital to have a serious operation performed; and, although the
operation had been successful, her health was still poor. When first
known by the Conference the family were {208} in great destitution. The
husband brought home very little, the wife could not work, and one of the
children earned a mere trifle. The rent was unpaid, and almost the only
food the family had was oatmeal. The married daughter and her husband
said the family had been long enough quartered on them, and refused to
help them any more. The only work the woman thought she could do was
sewing, and some of this was found for her. Diet Kitchen order was
obtained for one of the children who was ill, and shoes were given to the
others. Later, the Provident Association gave groceries. At this time
the first visitor left the city, and a new one took charge of the family.
She writes: "On first calling on Mrs. X., I found a tidy,
respectable-looking woman, apparently in delicate health. Her face was
almost that of a lady, and her manners were polite; but she did not make
me very welcome. She spoke with affection of her former visitor, who,
she said, had been very kind; but she presently remarked that she could
not see why 'all these other people' had come prying into her affairs."
On inquiry it was learned that after the former visitor had left town
representatives of several charitable societies had called, and that one
had hurt the woman's feelings by asking all kinds of questions without
giving any explanation of his so doing. The visitor explained that she
knew the former visitor, and had been asked to call in her place; and,
after {209} some sympathetic explanation, the woman seemed a little
cheered. However, she resented the grocery orders she was receiving,
saying that she did not wish charity--that she was willing to earn her
living by sewing. "Why could she not have that instead of grocery
orders?" As to sewing for the shops, she said she could not do that; for
shop-work was too low paid, and she could not work on the machine. Plain
hand-sewing was the only thing she could do. When told that certain
sewing to whi