HULL HOUSE, CHICAGO: ITS

WORK AND WORKERS.

"There are two great attractions in Chicago this summer," said an intelligent lady the other day, speaking of her visit to that city: "they are Hull House and the World's Fair." That she is not alone in her classification of Hull House as one of Chicago's attractions is evidenced by the large number of visitors who find their way thither. These visitors come largely from the thoughtful people who are combining the World's Fair Congresses with the World's Fair itself.

What and where is Hull House? It was once one of the elegant private residences of Chicago, but has been passed by in the rapid growth of the city in size and wealth. To-day it stands in the midst of one of the poorest districts of the city, an almost solitary landmark of a time when this same section promised to become the chosen abode of wealth and luxury. The cause of the present squalor is not far to seek. The definite location is the nineteenth ward. In this ward are fifty thousand inhabitants, seven churches and two missions, all small and struggling save two Catholic churches and two hundred and fifty-five saloons. This, upon the basis of the registration for the last presidential election, gives one saloon to every twenty-eight voters. The fourteenth precinct of this ward, situated at the intersection of Polk and Halstead Streets, is the exact location of Hull House. This precinct has eight saloons, and the precinct immediately north of it twenty.

But, whatever may be true of the district, Hull House has not failed to realize its early promise. It is to-day the abode of true wealth and luxury,-the wealth of high purpose and endeavor, the luxury of wide and uplifting helpfulness. The makers and proprietors of this home, for such it is, are two college-bred women, Miss Addams and Miss Starr. Miss Addams, on leaving college a few years ago, was confronted by the problem of the where and what of a home. The world was before her, a competence at her disposal, and her choice untrammelled save by a moral purpose, that of making the most of her life in helpful ways. That purpose decided her to locate at Hull House, her thought being not any overt charity or

philanthropy, but simply the location of a refined and cultured home, with open doors, in the midst of squalor and poverty, to see what would come of it. Four years the Hull House home has been established; and what has come of it?

The first work of the ladies, after getting settled, was to make the acquaintance of their neighbors, as they invariably designate all dwellers in the neighborhood. Once acquainted, little groups of neighbors began to be invited to the home for social hours. And, when social relations had been firmly established, almost insensibly the social relations took on an intellectually educational phase. Such were the small beginnings. To-day Hull House is a beehive of varied activities. It has its Social Club of thirty girls between the ages of sixteen and twenty, who have met every week for two years to devote an hour to reading and discussion; its Debating Club of thirty young men, who meet at the same hour in another room for an hour's debate upon topics of national and municipal interest, after which the two clubs unite for a second hour of social intercourse and amusement, which once a month takes the form of dancing. It has a Men's Athletic Class, a Drawing Class, a Greek Art Class, classes in Arithmetic and Geometry, a Working People's Social Science Club; a Young Citizens' Club, made up of boys between fourteen and eighteen years of age; Drawing and Cooking Classes, classes in American History, Latin, Political Economy, Shakespeare, General History, Singing, Reading, German, English Literature, Chemistry, French, Clay-modelling, English and Sewing, classes for Italians, a class in Mediæval Art, class lessons on the piano, a Darning Class, a Crocheting Class, a Plato Class, a Story-telling Club, a Boys' and a Men's Gymnastic Class, also Girls' and Women's Gymnastic Classes; a Columbian Guards Club, composed of twenty-five boys pledged to good citizenship and a clean city; a Women's Club for the discussion of household economics and the study of child nature; classes in Oil Painting and in Sickroom Cooking; a Mothers' Evening Club, composed of workingwomen who are occupied during the day and come in the evening for cooking lessons. Most of the above classes are weekly. Add to these, weekly lectures or concerts, a School-boys' and a

School-girls' Club, a Fairy Story and a Jolly Boys' Club, a Daily Kindergarten, a Free Day Nursery, a Diet Kitchen; a Café and Lunch-room where healthful and economic foods and drinks are sold at cost of preparation, and meals of the same are served; a Bureau for Women's Labor, Free Bathrooms, a summer school and outing at Rockford Seminary, and we stop in wonder to inquire, Who does all this work, and where is it done? Surely, Hull House must be a palace, indeed, to afford room for so much!

No, Hull House is not a palace: it has a good many rooms, and they are all consecrated to this blessed neighborliness of service. But long ago its utmost capacity was reached. Not, however, before the heart of a Chicago public had been touched by the wisdom and worth of the work done there; and, this effected, money was not wanting for any real need. First came a gift for the erection of a building known as the Butler Gallery, to be used for art and other classes, for art loan exhibits, for a free reading-room, and as station for drawing and returning books from the Chicago public library. Then a cottage near was leased for a Day Nursery, in which may be found, on any of these hot August days, an average attendance of forty children, ranging in age from six weeks to six years, the majority, however, babies in arms. On the day of our visit forty-four of these little ones were being carefully cared for while their mothers were away at work, and all for a cost to the mother of five cents a day. A few doors away from the Crèche is the house of the Working-girls' Club, where some forty girls, I believe that is the number, are carrying on housekeeping for themselves, and giving themselves the comforts of a good home and good food at a cost of three dollars per person per week. To make this home possible, Miss Addams thought out the plan, became responsible for the rent and furnishing, and steadily keeps her hand upon it in moral influence, although the girls now take all the responsibility of the house. Recently a company of young men, night-workers, who find it difficult to get a quiet place for day sleeping, have applied to Miss Addams for assistance; and already a flat is rented, and is being fitted up for their use under her super

vision.

In the early days of the Hull House a corner was found for a free bath-room; but, very soon need for larger quarters became imperative, when a few friends stepped forward and supplied the funds to erect an addition to the house, sufficient not only to supply bath accommodations to those in the neighborhood who have no home bathrooms, but also the much needed gymnasium, health-kitchen, and café accommodations. All these are now in working order, the kitchen being furnished with appliances to cook for several hundred people. At the head of the kitchen is a graduate from the New England Soup Kitchen, and thus far the demand for family supplies has steadily outrun the capacity for supplying it. One does not wonder at this in looking over the bill of prices. The wonder is how the prices can be brought so low, and yet pay expenses. This, however, is made an open secret to any poor workingwoman who chooses to come into the evening cooking classes.

The very latest addition to the Hull House beneficent activities is a play-ground for the children of the neighborhood, where boys and girls alike may enjoy various games and sports, with just enough of supervision to see that fair play is had by all. This play-ground was made possible by another friend of the cause, who donated to it a ten years' lease of the ground. The city has placed at Miss Addams's service a policeman, who each evening reports to her for play-ground orders, and sees that they are executed. When the expected Natatorium is added to the attractions of the grounds, as it is hoped it will be very soon, the city promises to donate the water for it.

So much for the places where all this varied work is done. Who are the workers? First and chiefly Miss Jane Addams and Miss Ellen Starr, the originators of the movement. These are assisted by other more or less permanent residents. Among these the names of Miss Farnsworth, Miss Julia Lathrop, and Mrs. Florence Kelly have become well known by considerable turns of residence and efficient work done. This corps of workers is re-enforced from time to time by the temporary residence of various young ladies, mostly, but not wholly, college-bred women, who are attracted by the work. All these residents pay their own

As to what their work shall be, that is decided by the worker herself each elects that for which she thinks herself best fitted, finding her own field and inaugurating and carrying on her work as she herself elects, of course with the approval of Miss Addams; but so little does Miss Addams believe in red tape, and so much in spontaneity, that her supervision is felt not as in any sense a chain hindering freedom, but rather as a spur to one's own freest, and therefore best, work.

But even all these helpers alone would be quite inadequate to the work carried on. For the rest, many of the classes are University Extension classes, Hull House having become a centre for such work in that part of the city. And then, very recently, upon Miss Addams's invitation, the Hull House settlement for women has been re-enforced by a settlement of college young men, lawyers, doctors, ministers, teachers, seven in all, who have taken a house near, and plan to give several hours a day out of their already busy lives to helping in the class and club work and the gymnasium and play-ground work of Hull House.

"Where do you find your pupils for classes in Latin and Plato, Shakespeare and Biology, Advanced Algebra and Greek Art ?" we asked. "Surely, not from the residents in this section?" "Yes," was the answer, "they belong in the neighborhood. The classes you mention are small, and all except the Plato Club are College Extension work; but the members are working people, a clerk here, a dressmaker or book-keeper or ward school-teacher there, who desire the advantages of higher education, but whose necessities prevent them from going to college or giving the hours of the day to study." The present writer had the pleasure of being present at a session of the Working People's Social Science Club; and of its members there was no need to ask, "Do they belong in the neighborhood?" Their faces and dresses located them among the real working people presumably living near; and the same was true of the persons, ranging from children of twelve years to adults of seventy, whom we found reading in the public reading-room. Miss Addams calls the Social Science Club her social safety

cussing these problems from their own standpoint alone, and growing very excited over them it is better they should have opportunity to discuss them just as freely, but under circumstances where they can get a more all-round view. The topic for discussion on the particular evening of our visit was, Should the Government own and control the Telegraph Lines? Other topics which had been discussed on preceding weeks were Child Labor, the Chicago Police, Labor Organizations, Single Tax, and the Municipal Control of Heat, Light, and Transportation.

I do not happen to know the particular phase of religious belief of Miss Addams or any one of her colaborers; but, according to the New Testament standard, there can be no question on which side they must be ranked in the final judgment. For are not their whole lives a constant feeding of the hungry, clothing of the naked, visiting the sick and in prison, giving more than a cup of cold water to God's little ones?

Is not this Social Settlement of Hull House, with others similar in others of our cities, schools to which the whole Christian Church may well go to learn the meaning of the brotherhood which Jesus preached? If Christianity could open, not one, but all, Christian homes in, not one, but all, wards of our great cities to those lower down in the moral, social, and intellectual scale; and if the Christian Church could make living and effective, as the Hull House is doing it, Jesus' idea of my neighbor as any one to whom I can in any way be of service, then, truly, would Christianity deserve its title of "Gospel," "Glad Tidings"; for glad tidings, indeed, it would then be.

Ann Arbor, Mich.

ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND.

God is always near, waiting to impart this life. Let us be sure of this: that he is close to all our hearts, and ready always to put new life into our souls. 0 mourner! O sad heart! poor spirit, wounded, heavy, feeble, take courage!

Let us, then, come to ourselves by coming to God,-by obeying him, by living for his truth, by giving ourselves to true and just ends, by filling life with nobleness, truth, purity, and love.

WHAT CAN THE MORE PROSPER

OUS DO FOR THE LESS

PROSPEROUS?

II. WHAT TO DO.

In my article of last month I considered the negative side of my subject, or What not to do. We are now ready for the positive side, or the inquiry, What to do. Under this head I may, without hesitation, say to the prosperous classes :

First, do your part of the world's work, instead of being a parasite sucking the life of others. Either engage in that higher kind of work, literary, scientific, philanthropic, or inventive, that will not compete with the working class, or else engage in such agricultural or manufacturing operations as will be sure to produce more, instead of trying (as well-to-do people with incomes are so apt to do) to crowd in as an agent or middleman or speculator of some sort, and take a slice out of the total stock already produced.

Resist the shuttlecock of fashion. Dress simply, keep a plain aud moderate table, and, when you wish to spend generously, spend on what will add to the permanent stock of the world's wealth, maintain honest industry, and foster the higher and purer sources of joy and social growth. Instead of relieving your impulses of pity by injurious almsgiving, seek to systematize the philanthropic work of your city or town by an efficient Bureau of Associated Charities. Let friendly visitors be found to investigate thoroughly every case of alleged want, and so to circulate among them as to know their real condition. Give them temporary aid, if really necessary. But, more than this, secure them labor: bring capitalist and workmen together; and by wise counsel and helpful sympathy give them more than alms,-the opportunity and spirit of self-support.

To such a scientific charity organization let all well-to-do people give their money in generous amounts; and, if you have the requisite leisure, strength, and tact, enroll yourselves among its friendly visitors to the poor. In Elberfeld in Germany, in Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore (and I believe Brooklyn may rightly be added to this list, not to speak of scores of smaller cities) the most marked diminution in poverty and improvement in the tottering class, just

above the slums, has been worked by this method.

This is the A, B, C, of the matter. Now, for further and more positive help. First look after the health of the poor. Get the city government to provide free swimmingbaths all the year round for the working people, or, if they cannot be induced to take such a wise precaution, establish them by private philanthropy.

Then have the sanitary conditions of the dwellings of the poor carefully attended to. That is not so much charity as practical self-defence against contagion. If you are a capitalist with a good sum to invest, put it into something better than 4 per cent. bonds or risky Western real estate. Put it into model tenement-houses that, like those Mr. White and others have put up in Brooklyn, will pay six per cent. annual profit, besides four per cent. to meet wear and tear, and also be a grand boon to the poor people, who have been packed in unhealthy, overcrowded tenements at higher rates. And if, like Octavia Hill, you will collect the rents yourself, or, like the Philadelphia lady who rehabilitated Wrightsville, you will give your personal supervision to the development of order, honesty, cleanliness, and temperance among those living in your dwellings, you can work a social and moral transformation whose beneficent results will be too great to be computed in dollars and cents.

For those who have some considerable capital to invest, or by clubbing together their moderate investments in stock companies, four other enterprises, which will, if well managed, pay better interest than most railroad stock or city bonds, may be recommended.

1st. The temperance lodging-house, clean, cheap, and well ventilated, where the workingman who wants a bed for a night or two can get accommodated without resorting to such vile dens as most of the city lodginghouses are.

2d. The fostering of savings and habits of thrift among the poor, by assisting whatever organizations for this purpose are started or may be started. I have in mind here municipal and postal savings-banks, loan and building associations, co-operative societies for securing homes to workingmen, penny savings-banks, school savings tickets, and similar enterprises.

3d. The fostering of the co-operative and profit-sharing principle.

Mr. Gilman, in his admirable work on Profit Sharing, has well shown how much this helps both employer and employed. In the one hundred and seventy-six cases in which this method has been employed, it has succeeded in five cases out of every six; and it has not only added to the income of the workingman, prevented strikes, and fostered friendly relations between employer and employed, but it has also, as Mr. Gilman finds, "advanced the prosperity of the establishment by increasing the quantity of the product and improving the quality, by promoting care of implements and economy of materials, and by diminishing labor difficulties and the cost of superintendence." The other form of co-operation, that between seller and buyer, in the form of the cooperative store, furnishing goods nearly at wholesale prices to the co-operators, has been little tried in this country; but in England it has had fine success. I think it might and ought to be introduced here. In Worcester, Mass., such a co-operative store supplies the working people in its membership with their groceries and drugs at a greatly reduced price; and, as the largest and finest store in the city, it is patronized largely by the well-to-do people of the town, who are not members. I suggest that, in particular, it might be very profitably applied in furnishing coal and wood, in small lots, to the working people, who now pay so much higher than any one else for their fuel.

4th. Some philanthropic capitalist might do what Herbert Spencer calls an absolutely good deed-one that benefits both parties by setting up a model pawnshop, or collateral loan association (if a more dignified name be desired), to relieve the temporarily embarrassed poor. Few of us realize, I fancy, how often the worthy poor are driven to the pawn-shop or some chattel-mortgage office, to tide over some financial shoal; nor how, when driven to these straits, they are squeezed and robbed by merciless Shylocks, who demand the most exorbitant usury and commissions. In New York the law allows the pawnbroker to charge six times the legal rate of interest for other loans; i.e., at the rate of three per cent. a month, or thirty-six per cent. a

year, for the first half-year, and twenty-four per cent. a year, or two per cent. a month, after that. As the pawnbroker will usually loan only a tenth or twentieth of the value (a gentleman, e.g., who investigated the system could get only five dollars' loan on a hundred and fifty dollar watch), the borrower who is in great need begs hard for a larger loan, on which the pawnbroker offers to increase the amount if the borrower will remunerate him for his risk by paying a higher interest than the legal; and often in this way he gets ten per cent. a month. In Boston the pawnbroker often gets ninety-six per cent., and legally, too. In New York City 300,000 tickets are estimated to be issued every year. Putting this at the low average of $3.00 a ticket, we have $900,000 loaned, on which the pawnbroker reaps legally over $300,000, and illegally probably much more. It is evident what a heavy burden this is on the poor, who cannot, like rich people, run along for months on credit, or, if they must borrow, get a loan at five or six per cent.

What is needed in every city of considerable size is an institution like the Mont-dePietè of Paris and the similarly well-managed municipal or charitable loan associations found in every large European city, at which the worthy poor can get temporary loans on the security of their personal or household effects at a reasonable rate. To the credit of the poor, statistics show that at the Mont-de-Pietè only about one-twentieth part of the articles pledged are abandoned. and that there is no species of banking more secure than these banks of charity.

The Mont-de-Pietè in Paris, though its borrowers get their loans at six per cent. (one-sixth the price charged by American pawnbrokers), makes a profit of 75,000 to 80,000 francs a year, which is given to the hospitals. The Collateral Loan Company of Boston, which has been organized on the same principle, pays eight per cent. on its capital of $150,000. All our large cities ought to have institutions of this sort, which are of invaluable service to the deserving poor, who from accident, sickness, or the loss of employment, often get into a strait, and to whom an honest business loan that will temporarily bridge it is far better than any alms.

In the next place—and, in fact, I believe