THE POOR IN THE “SUNNY SOUTH.”
A TEACHER of a mission school in one of the Southern States, writing to the American Missionary, presents this pathetic picture:— “I am sure you never saw anyone clothed as some of these people are. One man came for trousers whose garment answering to that name seemed made up entirely of patches not larger than my hand and of every conceivable color and texture, while in the midst of these were several openings and corners fluttering loosely in the breeze. And there were no trousers for him, poor fellow! Then a girl came for shoes whose feet were encased in mere fragments of leather, held together in places by safety pins, while a shoulder cape partly covered a waist that nowhere met in front, and she seemed to be wearing nothing but skin under that. These will represent the far too common class of improvident poor. But there is another class who appeal quite as strongly to our sympathies, even if they do not appear in such desperate circumstances; these are the families where the father can earn but a dollar a day, which the mother tries to piece out by taking in washing, in addition to the care of her house and several small children. With the most careful economy, the children’s shoes and jackets will not hold together till the savings have amounted to enough to buy a full new suit, but the money invested in the best of second-hand stock renders the child neat and comfortable from head to foot.”