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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1897)
ftu" ?- THE COURIER. in the Jibtary her Art library of throe hundred volumes and a largo collection of photographs of foreign views and of the paintings and sculpture in foreign pennies while her mother rang. ' From a woman who happened to know I got tho singer's story. As a girl she had sung in a chorus, had sung with gal.enes. This library is especially light heart and danced with Ifcht feet opened to art clubs and tho study de- She married, was deserted afler a short partmont3 of tho various women's club winterof happ'nees, and went on with of I ho city. her c orU8 einging. But tho bitterness crept somehow into her light eongs and, Ttero is to Lo n novel club in Chicago Bhe ro '"ng" pleased tho public or her' organized this Fiiiiiiurr. It has soino maiaRer. Now sho sings in the streets, of tho features of the girls' nst clubs And last week tho Chicago papers told Lut is more limited in its object. It is of an attempt at doublo suicide. Two to have tort forms, or rojial innvt ments to people were found in a boat with tho work for unlcsia uiovennnt ajainst tho arteries in their wrists cut open. From rcstli Bints; of Chicago streets is to bo tho water "ear them was taken tho body called a social movement It is to bo in ot a ,ittl8 Kirl- When tho man and fact a club for the promotion of rest. As a beginniug "rest rooms"' are to bo established in various places of the down town district?, patterned some what after the rooms already found bo woman regained consciousness in a hos pital they begged to bo allowed to die. They had no work, they said, and could not iive. Not a day passes but tho whole city successful in New York and other cities. reat,s ot southing like this. No wonder In New York rcoaiB are p ovided where tbat thcro 18 a nervous expectancy in tho women, worn out by shopping or busi- a'r actl tnat men "conio either hard ness may go and rest or Bleep till they encd or superstitious, tho one stalo as throw off some of the nervousness that aDnormal as the other and perhaps even is considered Euch a menace to modern Dar3er counteract, health. Tho rooms are partitioned off It follows almost as a corollary that by screens each department with its Chicago should try to neutralize tho un couch. rest as thsy deal with other things, by In Boston small rooms are furnished organization and business methods, that each with a couch and a few books, the clubs should bo formed, not only for index of tho Bcston character of the place. The plan here is to commence in the downtown districts, take suits of rooms and partition them into small apart ments. Each will bo furnished with a work and pleasuro, but for systematic rest. There is in Chicago a distinct settle ment movement. There are at least live settlements already firmlv established. couch or easy chair, a writing table and Two of these are college settlements a supply of stationery. Any womsn by much like our own university settlement the payment of a small fee will be al- in Lincoln, the Chicago university settle lowed tho use of ono of these apart- ment and the Northwestern university, ments while she rests, Bleeps or writes, settlement. Tien there is the Graham-' The rooms will bo made attractive and Taylor settlement, the Sixty ninth street a room will be added where a cup of tea settlement and Hull house, and a sandwich may te bought Of these, Hull houso was first cstab- Lire memberships will be taken, year- lisbed. It is placed oddly enough at ly leases of apartments given and every about the middle of the longest street in possible disturbing influence kept out. tho world, Halstoi street, which runs There will bo few club meetings, little straight through Chicago from north to organization.no programs ordiscussione, south, twenty-four miles. It-is in the no conversations even. very midst of the poorest part of Chi- Everj thing is to be fecussed to the cago, not tho criminal paat Jhut the part one point-quiet and rest. where live the very poor, moBt of them After the many clubs whose organi- foreigners. In theoffic9 of Miss Addams, zation was for the very bringing about the head resident, is a wall map of tho of change and dissatisfaction with ex Hull house neighborhood with colors to isting circumstances this club comes as show where the different classes of for a complete change and jet not a sur- eigners huddle together. Over two prising change. For as people Uarn in thirds of this map is colored, and as tho clubs to work thoy learn tho necessity Americans do not live in such crowded of rest. After a day's hard work a man quarters as the foreigners, the propor tiads sleep good. Perhaps one of the tionof Americans is even less perhaps best rojuits of tho club movement will than ono third. bo to teach tho need of systematic, Among these foreigners and their thorough rest, to givo habits of quiet littlobetter-off American neighbors, tho together with habits of energy. A resiJentB of Hull house work. Theob good engico needs two qualifications, jects or Hull house as stated in its charter It must move to tho touch of the en- are: "To provide a center for a higher gineer but it must also stop at his will, civic and social lift; to institute and 1 hat this movement towards rest is an maintain educational and philanthropic outgrowth of necessity need hardly be enterprises, and to investigato and im said. If historians and psychologists prove the conditions in tho industrial consider the general nervousness and districts of Chicago.' There is hero no restless energy ot tho Americans a fore- direct religious work. No roligious runner of Eocial disaster it is in the cities meetings are held, and no direct relig that the cure must be commenced. For ious instruction is given. If there is re it is in tho cities that tho extremes will lig'ous intlucncc it is only such as would bo found. "The great congre g tion of all come in any ordinary intercourse in classes is a sort of stimulant. Keen business or society, competition makes hurry a necessity The residents of tho Hull house try to life i'sslf. simply to help people as they seem to And in a lcrge city there is always an need halp. Some by giv'ng them na undeicurrcntof intense living hard to tional aid, some by giving them good be realized by those who have lived all things to think about, to counteract in their lives in a community of uniformly part at least the sordidness and dullness successful people. of their environment. With these aims The very fact that some Chicago men in view the staff ot residents is organ have risen to the top carries with it the ized with almost military defioitencs3. probability that some men have gone There are twenty-one of these residents to the very bottom. with Miss Jane Addamsat thehead.Each lhis afternoon a woman came into th has special work and to all is assigned 8lley with a little girl and an accordion the common task of being always ready She had a refined face and she sang to answer cal!s for aid or sympathy. To with a cultivated contralto voice, some them the foreigners come with much rather old fashioned light opera songs, more readiness than thsy would goto After thes9 sho sang the flower song each other. Miss Addams, the othar from "Faust." The little girl begged residents say, is almost an idol among them. Hull house is practically her work. Sho has bojn at its head from the beginning and has given her waolo energy to what, even as a child, she had planum! as her lifo work. Mis3 Addams is a quiet rather pretty woman, somewhat younger looking than I had expected. That sho give her whole attention to helping others is cvi dent in her face. Thtre is evidence ther, too, that sho works beyond her strength. Tho summer she sajs is almcHther busiest time, even if tho classes at Hull house are discontinued through the hot weather, for sho is busy attending coavent'ons and epeakirg in tho inter ests of social settlements. Thrro aio very few residents in the houso now. All classes aio discontinued except a class in carpentry for boyB and a Bowicg clas for girls. So tho hous3 seems somewhat de serted. Tho open court aronnd which tho house is built and through which one goes to the front door is empty. Its brick pavement is perfectly clean cleaner perhaps than it is in winter when two or three hundred children have the run of it on their way from club meetings and cla9se3. Tho chil dren's building with low window sills and wido balconies opening on the court faces south. The residence quarters take up tho other two sides of the court, the main entrance looking ccrcua the court into tho street. At this entrance I stood for some time after ringicg tho bell. So few residents were in the houso now, tho bright-faced young woman said apologetically, as she let me in. I wanted to look through the build ing. Would I like to take tho keys and look through tho children's building. Then she would 1)3 atliborlytoshow mo the others. So I took the keys with in structions us to which was which aud went with something of a burglar's tim idity, climbing deserted stairways, open ing locked doors and starting back shamefacedly when I surprised a young girl on her knees scrubbing ono ot the class-rooms. I went the rounds of tho building, staring into glass doors whjre rested little dried clay things with tho print of childish fingers dried hard and fast into them. I saw dirt tilled boxts on tho window sills where three-leave J lit'le oaks grew tall and spindling. I even stopped to read tho quotations under the poster pictures between the win dows. I stepped with unconscious care over the bright painted ring whero the kindergarten children had marched; and I studied with real interest the many pictures on tho walls and along tho stairway?, for they aro pictures ono would hardly suppose adapted to the class of children that como there to school. Many of them are classic copies of famous madonnas,St. Cecsliasand Sir Launfdls. "They are not for the children to understand," one of tho residents ex plained later, "but for them to wonder at. They are all pictures that have stor ies. We give them the story and thry study the picture. There ars some pic ture3 among them that the children can understand alone." The only children in tho building were a few in tho day nursery, children wheso mothers hnre to work and who aro left here for the day in the charge of two of tho residents. From tho children's building I wa3 shown to tho Hull house public lunch room by tho energetic little woman who has it in charge and who pointed out to me proudly what she called a Middlcby oven. She noted with a laugh my sur prise at the appearance of the lunch room. "It is to give the effect of a Ne-v England kitchen." sho said. I had never seen a New England kitchen but tho effect hero was certainly novel after the Hashing cut-glass and silver, electric lights and white tables. I had come to imagine as the type of Chicago restaur ants. Hero thcro was a low broad ceil ing of rough beams smoked and itaintJ yellow walls and high wainscoting. At one end was a broad old-faahionod lire placo with dark cruckery on the mantel. Tho tables aro ot dark wcod without covering. Near tho door is tho lunch counter where they Bell bowls of soup and tins of ctiffco to tho poor who como for lunch end can afford nothing bet'er. Tho main building, besides bein tho homo of the residents, has tho club rooms. Miss Addam'a office, the library and tho gymnasium. Hero is wheni the main direct intluenco of Hull house is extended. For it is through tho clubs and the gymnasium that men and women i.ro given new iiit.reet3. Since a branch of tho city library was placed near Hull houso tho library has been ma Jo simply a reading room. In it, however, is a cir culating library of pictures, each picture biing let out for two wcoks and re turned. Tho gymnasium w n large rcom heav ily timbered, and fitted out with goed but rather raoagro npparutus. At one ond is a stage with curtains. Ifoie are given nil of tho exhibitions of tho gym nasium aud besides, any entertainments that tho different clubs may give. They say that the dramatic entertainments, sjberly acted bitHofShakespearo among them, rouso more interest in tho neigh borhood than almost any ono other thing. That these peoplo find tho gymnasium work interesting is shown by tho recent decision of tho director of th gymnbs ium that next fall membership in the gymnasium will bo mado competitive depending upon good practice, regular work and practice, since the gymnasium will cot accommodate all who want to work in it. Clubs thrive hero as everywhere else in Chicago. Twenty-livo adult clubs meot in Hull houso for various purpos. Eleven are fjr social meet'ngs, ore :s a mandolin cub, two are dramatic. The others have program 3 or discussions. Of those the Mo is club and the Woman's club do the most systcma ic work in the line of study though tho Men's club has made provisions for a number of games, and lay imie stress on tho social sido than tho Woman's club, which gives but one meeting out of tho four in the month to social gatherings. The clubs rellcct of course tiio naturo of tho people of whom they ato forced. A club of Italians gives a weekly re cept'on with a reception committee mado up of Signora Mirabeila and Signor I'eluio. The reception committee of the Bohemians club has on it Mrs. Dvorak, tbo unpronouncab'o. Tho Eldorado club a society of young Jewish men is devoted to "literary and educational interests." Tho three clubs of boys meet for de bales and aro porhaps the clubs where most enthusiasm is shown. There are seven children's clubs, ono for reading, the others for games and to give enter tainments. Butof course tha clubs aro not so we I suited to tho children as other thinge arranged by Hu!l House. Tho thing most popular with the children, is of course the play ground. This "3 ia the rear of the building and is open to all children from three to six in the afterncon presided over by officer Murray. Outs'd of this" play ground tbeso children have no place to play ex cept in tho streets and alleys for the blocks are built up almost solid. It is quite likely that the mixed crowd ot Hungarians and Bohemians, Negroes and Italians does not give officer Murray any too easy a time. Bc3ides the playground, excursions aro planed fjr the children to the parks, into the country or out to tho lake, fresh air excursions as they call them. Then much attention is given to make the children able to mako their own