Page:1883 Annual Report of the German Society of the City of New York.djvu/46

Rh THE CHARITIES

are under the administration of the Charity Committee, and comprise: Direct pecuniary assistance; The care of the sick; The Labor Bureau in Castle Garden.

Pecuniary assistance is given to needy families, and, exceptionally, to single persons, after a previous careful investigation of each case by the Inspector of the Society and in accordance with his report. As neither the city authorities nor the Emigrant Commission give pecuniary assistance to needy families, the claims upon our Society have increased considerably, and we were of course unable to help, in all cases, as energetically as the circumstances demanded. During the past few years, it was particularly the newly arrived emigrant families who laid claim to our aid to a great extent, and frequently in urgent cases. There are, unfortunately, among the emigrants, many families who, in consequence of exaggerated reports as to the facility of quickly finding employment with good wages in this country, have sold all they possessed in order to defray the expenses of their passage, and on arriving here spend the remainder of their little capital for the payment of rent and the purchase of necessary furniture, only to find out, when too late, that it is infinitely more difficult than they supposed, to obtain work in this great foreign city. The landlord or his agent demands the rent due and threatens ejectment, for he knows that he will speedily find another tenant for even the most miserable lodging; the slight credit given by the baker, the milkman, the grocer, is exhausted, and all efforts to obtain employment are ineffectual. Again and again the father of the family, who is by no means afraid to work, is obliged, with heavy heart, to seek assistance, "certainly for the last time," for "he has the sure promise of employment for next week." The need is great — greater than the majority of our members dream of—and increases constantly with the growth of our city and the increase of its population. Ought not, then, the number of our