"Self help is the best."  From the Duluth Herald, 1911.

"Society receives rich dividends from money invested in aid to the fatherless poor."  From Advanced Course in Homemaking by Maude Richman Calvert and Leila Bunce Smith, 1939.

From Upland News, 1920.

"The trouble with help is that there are several kinds; the kind you want, the kind you need, the kind you think you deserve — too many kinds."  Froim Astounding magazine, 1959.

May your enthusiasm never be deflated by a rich benefactor's condescension and griping, and may you even still enjoy your consolation prizes.  From Together, 1965.

From The Campus Enquirer (University of Alberta), 1982.

Alms for the human-headed carrot and his pet chicken.  From L'Eclipse, 1872.

From Pick Me Up, 1893.

Here's a precursor to our Collected Lost Meanings of Christmas.  The caption reads, "Old Christmas — 'On acts of charity intent.'"  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1882.

Bottom illustration: "The rejected alms." (The Letters of Charles Dickens, 1893.)

We find an explanation in Frank Crane's Just Human (1915): "Most so-called charity is evil.  It is bad both ways.  It deceives the giver by a false salve to his conscience. ... The gift is also a curse to the recipient.  It destroys self-respect.  Both takers and givers of charity are debased."

The awakening of Father Christmas, from the Dec. 26, 1891 issue of Punch.