The Next Street But One (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ... week, a well-to-do working farmer's wife sent her daughter, aged twelve, to a children's party some miles away, and intended allowing her to remain for two or three days, but was warned that if she did not recall the girl instantly she would be summoned. Literally next door to the first of these women lived some ragged, ill-fed children who were kept at home for weeks at a stretch on the pretext of illness, --illness which did not prevent them from scrubbing floors and cleaning grates and carrying home wood and coal, nor even from having boots flung at their heads. Naturally inequalities of this kind do not reconcile hard-working parents to the only halfrecognised need of education and " growing time " for their children. The numerous Societies for inducing other people to do our duty to our neighbour, and counting up how often they have done it, have a very ludicrous side to their performances. A lady who certainly bestows half of her goods to feeding the poor, and much more than half of her waking hours to that less-talked-of duty "considering the poor," was invited to join a Mutual Kindness Association. "What does it mean?" she asked gravely. "Oh, you only have to pay a shilling a year, and then you're a member," replied the propagandist breathlessly. "But what do the members undertake to do?" "Oh, you undertake Kind Actions, and it's only a shilling." "But has anyone bought up the monopoly of Kind Actions? Surely if I want to do a Kind Action I can do it? Why must I pay a shilling in addition?" "The members are to help one another find out suitable Kind Actions." "I know of more than I can do. More even than I wish to do." "Then you could pass them on to other...