nfrequently happens, for instance, that the
members of one poor family will come in contact with dozens of
charitable people representing many forms of charitable activity, and
that none of these will ever have considered the family as a whole.
The Sunday-school teacher, the kindergartner, the day nursery manager,
the fresh air charity agent, the district nurse, the obstetric nurse,
the church almoner, the {45} city missionary, the relief agent, the
head of the mothers' meeting, the guild teacher, the manager of the
boys' brigade or girls' friendly,--all these will have touched the
family at some point, but will never have taken the trouble to make a
picture of the family life as a whole, and of the effect of their
charity upon it. They may have assumed important responsibilities now
and again, home responsibilities that belonged primarily to members of
the family, and helped to hold the family together; but the chances are
that they will none of them have worked continuously or thoroughly
enough to learn from their blunders or to repair their mistakes.

I have mentioned home responsibilities. Let us consider, for a moment,
what these are. They have an old-fashioned and conservative sound, but
the fundamental facts of life are old-fashioned. The man is still the
head of the normal family, and, as the head, still owes his best
endeavor to secure for the other members of the family the means of
subsistence. The wife's part in the family is to transform the means
provided into a home. The children, {46} for their part, should be
teachable and obedient; and, as their own strength waxes and their
parents' wanes, they should stand ready to provide for father and
mother both the means of subsistence and the home environment. These
are the prosaic but fundamental elements of home life, and, when they
are lacking, neither the marriage ceremony, nor the sanctions of law
and custom, can prevent the home from becoming a sham home, a breeding
place of sin and social disorder.

It is my misfortune that, in attempting to meet the needs of those who
visit the poor, I must dwell more upon the difficulties than upon the
encouragements of such work. There are many poor homes where every
essential element of home life exists. The home may be of the humblest
sort,--it may be in one room,--but, to the best of his ability, the man
is struggling to provide for his family; the woman is striving to make
the little shelter homelike; and