It is a simple problem on the whole, after all. The mother's ailment is not one that makes her in any way an unfit companion for her children. Her character is such as to make her a peculiarly fit guardian for them. The relief problem now resolves itself into three subordinate problems : a sufficient income to pay rent and all other expenses ; medical or surgical care when needed, and constant oversight by a physician or nurse to relieve un necessary pain and to advise as to when definite treatment is required ; such personal, friendly encouragement as semi-invalids especially need, whether otherwise well to-do, or poor, and such personal interest in the children as will give them a chance in life when their time comes. The Widows' Society, the German Society, a general relief society, the church of which Mrs. Friedrich is a member, or any private citizen or group of individuals whose inter est in this particular need can be secured, might appropri ately provide the income required ; or it might come from a combination of two or more of these sources. For it will not do to shrink from the fact that it is no mere dole for a fortnight, or even for a single winter, that is required. About thirty dollars a mouth, through the summer as well as through the winter, will be needed, and there must be a guarantee that there will be some element of perma nence in the arrangement.
What would be the alternatives ? There are, of course, several. The children might be adopted into foster-homes. The sacrifice of maternal affection involved in this plan, under the circumstances here described, condemns it out of hand. The children might be committed to a half orphan asylum, where their mother could see them at stated times, and the mother herself cared for in a home for incurables — with the tacit understanding that on the mother's death the children should be placed in foster homes. The objections to this plan are that while, for the community as a whole, it is fully as expensive as to keep the children together, the latter would be deprived of their natural and most suitable guardian, while neither mother nor children would be physically better cared for than is possible at their own modest home. It is in weigh ing such considerations as these, that every case must stand strictly upon its own merits, and it is possibly true that in the larger number of instances in which it is necessary to decide, the balance of physical comfort would be on the side of institutions. So far as Mrs. Friedrich and the children were concerned, however, every advantage, senti mental and real, lay on the side of preserving the excep tionally favorable home life.
It would be possible to send the family back to the mother's childhood home in Germany. The argument in favor of this course would turn upon the probability of a reconciliation with her relatives. Her own parents were not living. Her nearest kin had refused to answer her letters, or to answer letters from others in her behalf. She had married and borne her children in America. Her ineradicable tenderness for her fatherland, of which there was evidence enough, did not take the form of a desire to return. To have insisted upon it, against her own incli
nations, and in face of the absence of any assurance of aid from her own people on her arrival, would have led either to an obstinate attempt by Mrs. Friedrich to earn her own support, hastening her death, or to an application on her own part to the city authorities to receive her children great as would have been her regret to take this step.
The final alternative would have been to do nothing— leaving the mother to accept such kindly occasional help as might come from a neighbor ; to send her boy out to sell papers long before it should be lawful for him to do so ; to move from month to month instead of paying rent, by the ingenious arrangement which yields such extraordi nary returns on the poorest tenement-houses, while cost ing the tenants only what they have to pay — that is, sometimes, nothing ; and, in general, to fall through all those makeshifts of penury by which the recovery of the sick is made impossible, and the rearing of children im possible also. Of course, this is really no alternative at all, or one to be adopted only in ignorance.
We come back, therefore, to the plan of a regular monthly pension, definitely assured, if possible, for at least a year at a time, and practically assured if there is some one to take this responsibility, for so long a time as outside aid is required — probably until at least two of the children have become wage-earners, or until, on the mother's death, some other disposition is made of such children as have not become self-supporting. I speak of the feasibility of this plan in the particular instance with that confidence which is based on the sure foundation of trial and success.
A pension was provided, and with a single interruption of a few months, during which period Mrs. Friedrich lived on a small legacy from one of the relatives who had refused communication with her during the testator's lifetime, it has been continued through several years. It began at $30 a month, but recently has been much reduced, for twelve dollars a week are now earned by the two older children, both of whom are in positions suited to their abilities and strength, and both of whom remained in school until they were fourteen. There have been the usual vicissitudes of health and spirits in this family, but there have always been friends to whom they could turn. A district nurse has been in weekly attendance on account of Mrs. Fried rich's illness, and she has had the benefit of the most expert surgical skill. Her pension has been supplemented by Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts, she has enjoyed the poor relative's perquisites in discarded clothing from more than one family, but at the same time she has not been pauperized, nor has any one of her three bright and every way promising children. They have weathered the dangers of the street, have done well in school, and are a just source of maternal pride.