A year later application was made for the commitment of three children. The cause of the trouble was found to be increased intemperance of the father, who was then idle. Relatives again aided. The Department of Public Chari ties secured from a magistrate an order requiring Hender son to support his family. He was induced to take a pledge of total abstinence and has kept it. The crippled boy was sent to a state institution for crippled children, and relief was supplied to move the family, and to provide for a month's rent and for necessary clothing. Except for a serious illness from typhoid, the family, in the year that has elapsed since it was decided not to commit the three children as public charges, has been in no serious trouble, and relief has been required only in moderate amount.
Koern, Edward and Elizabeth. Aid was asked origi nally on account of approaching confinement of Mrs. Koern. They were taken in charge by a church, which during the following year aided frequently, although re porting Mr. Koern as drunken. In the five years following, on account of the illness of the wife and children, the fam ily was aided also by a relief society, Koern's record through out being that of intemperance and irregularity at work.
Q Two of the children were placed in an institution by the church, but were taken back by the father. Later, appli cation was made for the commitment of two other children, but it was disapproved. Mrs. Koern has a lame foot which frequently incapacitates her for work. Mr. Koern now began to show improvement, and was earning $15 to $20 a month caring for furnaces. The younger children were placed in a day nursery. Mrs. Koern was treated by a physician and a district nurse, and nourishing food was provided for her. The eldest child was sent regularly to school, and for the last two years of the record Mr. Koern had regular work as watchman on a street railway.
Hardy, Ferdinand, twenty-one years of age, was a driver by occupation, strong, very intemperate, and on that account out of employment, abusive to wife and children. His wife was a year younger, in rather delicate health, but said to be a good mother. Mrs. Hardy had her husband arrested and sentenced to six months for non-support. They had been married for five years, during which time Hardy had never worked more than two or three months at a time. His relatives were abundantly able to help them, but, prob ably because of earlier discouraging experiences, allowed the family to be dispossessed from their rooms. On being interviewed, however, Hardy's mother promised to assume the care of the family, if her son was released, not other wise. It was apparently her desire that her son should be
rid of his family, but he was not himself inclined to de sert them. Mrs. Hardy secured her husband's pardon, the relatives aided them to start in new rooms, and the man went to work. They have two healthy, attractive children, but both parents are of weak character. If they become entirely estranged from their wealthy relatives, or if the latter lose their property, the family is likely to become chronically dependent.
Bruce, Emily, a widow who appeared not to be in need, but who applied for assistance, was found in an apartment of seven rooms, for which the rent was forty-five dollars a month. It developed, however, that Mrs. Bruce had really been living on a sum which she had received on her hus band's death from a beneficial society to which he had belonged. She had taken the larger apartment in the expectation of being able to rent rooms, and at the time of the visitor's call two artists were in fact boarding with her, paying together, however, only eight dollars a week for their board. Her sensible suggestion was that if aided to move to rooms at moderate rent, she would be able to support herself and her children as a seamstress, in which occupation she had had experience.
Bonner, Thomas and Cora, an English family, were in vestigated at the request of a national relief society, to which Mr. Bonner had applied for assistance. References were favorable, except that former employers in London wrote that Mr. Bonner had been discharged for losing time, and it was found that he was addicted to drink. English relatives refused to give assistance. Mr. Bonner con tinued to drink, and abused his family. Many efforts were made to reform him by friendly visitation from churches and charitable societies, but these efforts were unsuccessful, and about two years after the first applica tion he was placed under arrest for disorderly conduct and abuse of family, and was sentenced for one month. Immediately after his discharge he was sentenced to a second term of six months.
Mrs. Bonner supported the family with little difficulty when he was away, and did not wish to have him return. She was persuaded, however, to receive him again, and he apparently made an effort to reform. In the following year he gave further evidence of this desire by entering a home for intemperate men, but after his discharge again succumbed to his appetite. A son, William, refused to stay at home with his father, who several times reformed and worked well for a time, but each time again fell away.