| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 965 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
dwellings of their poor `sisters' and talked to them of `religion', lectured them about sobriety and thrift, and - sometimes - gave them tickets for soup or orders for shillingsworths of groceries or coal. Some of these overfed females - the wives of tradesmen, for instance - belonged to the Organized Benevolence Society, and engaged in this `work' for the purpose of becoming acquainted with people of superior social position - one of the members was a colonel, and Sir Graball 'Encloseland - the Member of Parliament for the borough - also belonged to the Society and occasionally attended its meetings. Others took up district visiting as a hobby; they had nothing to do, and being densely ignorant and of inferior mentality, they had no desire or capacity for any intellectual pursuit. So they took up this work for the pleasure of playing the grand lady and the superior person at a very small expense. Other of these visiting ladies were middle-aged, unmarried women with small private incomes - some of them well-meaning, compassionate, |
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