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 and encouraged by the addition of "lady visitors," who would infuse new life and energy into the work. Their assistance might also be extended to the out-door department, where it would be most valuable in discovering and checking imposture, as well as in softening the harsh treatment of the relieving officers towards the decent poor. We care not what name be given to such an association of workers, so that the work done be a reality. The fact of several women combining to carry out a task obviously impossible to one person, need not imply any adherence to particular opinions or to a party; and we believe that it would prove attractive to many who do not wish to devote themselves exclusively either to the care of the sick or to the education of the young. We admit, however, that no such work could be carried out or sustained without it was supported by a strong religious devotion and zeal.

Until some such plan as this which we have attempted to sketch out is adopted, we shall not wonder if our great palace or prison-like unions continue to be regarded with scorn by those who see our ostentatious displays of charity, made without a comprehension of the only true principles on which they can be successfully carried out. And let us observe that these abodes of poverty are regarded with hatred and dread, not by the idle and vicious, whom we might wish to deter from partaking of the charity of the nation, but by the decent, the helpless and afflicted poor, who have no other refuge than that which is offered them within the dreary walls of the union. Let there be justice, stern and uncompromising, for the offender and those who will not work, but let there be discrimination between such and the large class of applicants on whose claims we have dealt in the preceding pages. At all events, let it not be made for any a degrading and deteriorating system; and to prevent this, we must enforce a complete classification and an efficient