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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, December 30, 1913, LAST EDITION, Image 11

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1913-12-30/ed-1/seq-11/

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THE WAY THE UNITED CHARITIES CHASED A
MOTHER AND SON ABOUT
dears It to one. One remembers how
many children have been born how
Did you ever see a puppy chasing
its tail? Seems sort of foolis"h, but it
fills in time for the puppy and it
makes him believe he is really doing
something.
That's what the following story of
the United Charities' interference
suggests a puppy chasing its tail in
order that it might seem to be doing
something.
Mrs. Jane Carmody is a feeble old
mother, and her son, Charles, is, ac
cording to the Rush Medical Clinic,
tubercular.
They had lived in one neighbor
hood for 23 years before the'U. C.
started "investigating" and all of
their friends were right near them
so that even though the Carmodys
were having trouble they were re
ceiving a lot of sympathy, which
helps quite a little.
Enter the United Charities.
Two investigators. Not both to
gether, but one after the other.
They first persuaded airs. Car
mody to stop working and stay at
home and take care of her son, and
then they handed her $2 a week on
which to live. They handed this $2
allowance for quite a few weeks, and
while it might seem a small pittance
$1 for seven days for each person,
this is such unusual generosity on
the part of the U. C. that it deserves
mention. .
Thien they concluded they weren't
doing enough.
No, they didn't raise the allowance
per week for an old lady and her
sick son they just started chasing
their tails.
'"You must leave this neighbor
hood," they said. "You must have
a nice house with a nice porch where
Charles can sleep out of doors. Now,
wouldn't that be nice?" and they
made just the same gleesome noise
the puppy does.
- Mrs. Carmody protested. 23 years
in one neighborhood somehow en-
many have grown to womanhood
how many have died. One becomes
sentimental over the very houses,
themselves.
But there is no sentimentality
about the U. C. They moved the
Carmodys. Incidentally a mirror
was broken in the moving, and other
furniture damaged, but then the
puppy chasing its tail usually does
some damage to the furniture, too.
No, the U. C. didn't fix up the
porch. They didn't eve nselect a
house with a porch worth fixing up.
This particular porch faced a filthy
alley and was cluttered with heaps
of dirty wall paper.
But Mrs. Carmody didn't know
about the puppy chasing its tail, so
shetook the U. C. seriously and ask
ed them what they were going to do
about the porch.
The U. C. looked just as surprised
as the puppy does if you whack him
across the snout with a stick.
"Fix the porch?" they echoed. "Let
your pastor do that."
Charles, the invalid, for whose sake
the U. C. had done the tail-chasing,
got busy and filled several bags with
the dirty paper, took them into the
yard and burned them, and then was
worse.
His friends heard about t and got
up a raffle for him and collected $100
to send him to the country.
You ought to have seen the U. C.
then. The puppy smelled fresh meat.
kRight after Charles' friends they
went and asked for the $100 that they
might send Charles to Oak Forest
(a county institution). They also
proposed to send Mrs. Carmody to the
poorhouse, and judging by- the "fuss
they made over their willingness to
do this, one might get the idea that
they were the main support of th,e
poorhouse. ' 4
They didn't get the $100. The
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