Through the intervention of a private society the three children were committed to an institution. The family passed under numerous aliases, were known to many charitable agencies and churches, and were often estab lished in new rooms, and their rent paid. Mr. Much more used a few wood-yard tickets, but he was frequently arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, and at various times imprisoned. Mrs. Muchmore's father was a begging pedler, and lived with her. Her sister, who had several aliases, lived an immoral life, and aided in the general begging schemes. When Mrs. Muchmore was not dispos sessed, she was usually begging in the street with a baby, often under pretence of selling pencils. Mrs. Muchmore's grandfather was shiftless, and of no help to the family.
Mrs. Muchmore was finally arrested and committed to the workhouse for three months. Her husband disap peared, in fear of arrest, but later requested news of the children, when it was found that he had given a false address.
.De Vaudremont, Felix, a political exile, of the French nobility, had ' exhausted his means, and was at the time of application teaching French. He had received assistance from several private individuals, and now re quested aid iu securing pupils.
Nine months later the family was referred to a chari table agency by a private citizen who had aided. M. de Vaudremout had been librarian at a denominational club, but was dismissed for inefficiency. Two hundred and fifty dollars had been given him with which to return to France, but this he had later refused to do. He is something of a geologist and botanist, and the valuable collection which he had made in his travels was gradually disposed of to meet expenses. A son, Henri, was a stamp and coin expert, and made a little money in this direction, and also by doing some clerical work, but he was nearly blind. One daughter, Louise, was blind, and at one time received the city blind pension, but this had been discon tinued, as her father refused treatment for her, whereupon he had written a letter of protest to the governor of the state. Another daughter, Madeline, was not allowed to do any work except to give occasional French lessons, and any other ambitions of his children were repressed. M. de Vaudremont insisted upon living in high-priced apart ments, and in having his rent supplied by friends and charitable societies. He had received aid from a national society, as well as other private societies, a church, and several private individuals. By some he was thought to be demented, as his idea was that he was being persecuted.
At one time he had been summoned to court on a charge of libel made against him by the almoner of a society which had aided him.
Six years later, when visited, the family had received money from France, and did not need other assistance.
Blake, Grace. Until she was eighteen years old Grace Blake lived with her father and mother and sisters in a little English hamlet. The father was a hard-working stoker on canal-boats, and the family apparently honest and decent. When Grace was eighteen, an older sister, who had married and was living in America, made a visit to her old home. She found that Grace caused anx iety to her parents on account of her general disobedi ence and her habit of "being out nights," and offered to take her back with her to America, in the hope that new surroundings would have a favorable influence. For six years Grace made her home with this sister, taking a posi tion at service from time to time, but never staying long in one place. Finally she stopped going back to the sister or even writing to her, and the sister, being a poor woman with four small children, living in a small Long Island town, lost track of her until she learned from a relief society that a former employer of Grace's had taken her to the society.
She was a very small, slight girl, pale and thin, and, to all appearances, of a childlike innocence. Though twenty one years old she looked not more than fifteen. She was not strong enough to do heavy household work and was much below the average in intelligence. Her employers generally found her quiet and docile, but with no memory, and sometimes in a dazed condition. In her sister's home and in a home for the friendless, in which she was placed later, she was stubborn and disobedient, quiet, but wholly uncontrollable.
Soon after her first application for assistance she became ill, and found care in a hospital from which she was sent to a home for girls. She did well here for a few weeks in the cooking and sewing classes, and in her general con duct, but soon became unmanageable. At the end of five months she left the home on pretext of going to the society to which she had applied originally. It was learned later, through a letter from a probation officer to her sister, that she was in the workhouse. She had been found in a vacant lot with a number of men in the middle of the night, and committed for three months as a disorderly person. At this point communication with her relatives in England was established through the offices of the charity organi zation society nearest the village in which they lived.