Number vaccinated within three months,

All the members of this family must be vaccinated or revaccinated before receiving further aid.

Come to the office to be vaccinated. Always bring this ticket with

you.

Superintendent of District.

All the members of the above family have been satisfactorily vaccinated.

A

CHAPTER XIV.

EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.

T no time since the fire has there been lack of employment, particularly of unskilled labor; nevertheless it was thought prudent to establish an Employment Bureau in connection with the general work.

The usefulness of this department has increased almost daily from the time of its commencement, as will appear in the Tables indicating its work.

An Employment Committee, N. K. Fairbank, Chairman, was appointed and began systematically its labors on the 16th of October, 1871, with headquarters in a temporary building in the Court-house yard. This was a sort of labor exchange in the very heart of the burnt district, where those wanting mechanics or laborers could find them, and where those in need of work were provided with it. The Superintendents at all the points of distribution were instructed to send every able-bodied man or boy who applied to them for aid to the Bureau of the Employment Committee, and the ticket he took became a certificate of character. If labor was found for him— as was almost invariably the case-he surrendered the ticket and it was returned to the Superintendent who issued it. If the ticket was not presented at the Employment Bureau, and not returned, therefore, to the Superintendent, it was presumptive evidence that the bearer preferred to eat the bread of idleness rather than work for his own subsistence, and if he again presented himself at the distributing station, his claim for relief was rejected. If,

having obtained work of which the returned ticket was evidence he asked again for relief, the proper inquiry decided whether his labor was not sufficient to sustain himself and his family, if he had one, or whether he had asked for bounty of which he was not in need. This check upon imposition served its purpose admirably, though it was no more than common justice to say that to shirk work and live upon charity by preference was the exception and not the rule among the laboring people of Chicago.

Most of the mechanics who applied at the Employment Bureau for work were in want of tools, without which they could do nothing at their trades. This want the Committee supplied, and by giving the applicant from ten to twenty dollars' worth of tools he was at once made self-supporting, and ceased to be dependent upon the Relief Society. A large number of carpenters were thus effectively and permanently helped, as the demand for their labor was greater than for that of any other class. Brick layers, gas fitters, shoemakers, and other mechanics were also aided in the same way. The Bureau did not undertake to find employment for women, but turned that class over to other organizations which have hitherto made its care their special business. Seamstresses were given abundant employment by the Ladies' Relief Society, the Ladies' Christian Union, the Womans' Aid Society, and other kindred institutions, and were otherwise cared for by the Bureau of Special Relief. Women seeking other kinds of employment were left under the direction of the societies above mentioned, which in this branch of the work were valuable coadjutors of the Relief and Aid Society.

The Bureau is still a useful branch of the Relief Society, and is conducted upon the same general principles as when first set in operation, though modified in the extent of its work.