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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38205-8.txt b/38205-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a1b01 --- /dev/null +++ b/38205-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6882 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Leaven in a Great City, by Lillian +William Betts + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Leaven in a Great City + + +Author: Lillian William Betts + + + +Release Date: December 3, 2011 [eBook #38205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 38205-h.htm or 38205-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38205/38205-h/38205-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38205/38205-h.zip) + + + + + +[Illustration: NO LONGER PROFITABLE.] + + +THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY + +by + +LILLIAN W. BETTS + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +New York +Dodd, Mead & Company +1903 + +Copyright, 1902, +By Dodd, Mead and Company. + +First Edition published September, 1902. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. AT THE BOTTOM, 1 + + II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CENTERS, 37 + + III. THE HOMES UNDER ONE ROOF, 75 + + IV. SLOW-DAWNING CONSCIOUSNESS, 102 + + V. WORKING-GIRLS' CLUBS, 135 + + VI. A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, 162 + + VII. WITHIN THE WALLS OF HOME, 196 + + VIII. FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES, 225 + + IX. HOME STANDARDS, 263 + + X. WHERE LIES THE RESPONSIBILITY? 290 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + + No Longer Profitable--_Frontispiece_ + + The Site of the Old Runway 12 + + Your Choice 24 + + Saturday Morning on the East Side 38 + + The Past, Present, and Middle Period 44 + + A Social Centre that Becomes Political 56 + + A Doorway on the East Side 60 + + Early Morning among the Push-Carts 64 + + Meeting the Needs of the Neighbourhood 70 + + A Remnant of the Past 76 + + A Type of the Present 88 + + A Corner in a Workingman's Home 94 + + A Spiritual Bulwark 128 + + Where the People Share 134 + + A Corner in an Old Section 152 + + Opposite a Corner in an Old Section 154 + + The Woman's Home Improvement Club at the Settlement 168 + + The Kindergarten of the College Settlement 178 + + Making a Selection 184 + + At the Settlement--A Stormy Day 188 + + Yard Day at the Settlement 196 + + The Children's Hour at the College Settlement 200 + + Mutual Interests 206 + + The Forest of the Tenements 212 + + The Children's Playground 218 + + Library Day at the College Settlement 224 + + A Street on the East Side 236 + + A Cooking Class of Mothers and Children 244 + + A Meeting of Neighbours 250 + + The Reading-Room at the Settlement 254 + + After School at the College Settlement 258 + + The Morning Airing of an East Side Heiress 264 + + A Bit of Old Greenwich 274 + + A Little Father 280 + + A Corner in Old Greenwich 286 + + Taking their Turn in the Yard at the Settlement 294 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AT THE BOTTOM. + + +One of the first, and, up to the present time, one of the most interesting +experiments made in New York for the better housing of the poor, was made +in the early eighties by a score or less of philanthropic capitalists. +These gentlemen organized a stock company to hold and manage tenement-house +property, limiting their dividends to three per cent. on the capital; the +surplus dividends, if any, over this amount, to be used in improving the +property, and securing such conditions and opportunities for the tenants as +would stimulate pride and independence. The formation of this company +followed one of the periodic agitations of the tenement-house problems +customary in New York. + +In 1878 a conference was called by the State Charities' Aid Association to +consider the condition of the tenement houses in this city. Mr. Alfred T. +White, of Brooklyn, had at this time proved that model tenements, conducted +on strictly business principles, paid as investments, and stated at this +conference that his model houses made a return of seven one-half per cent. +As a result of this conference a committee was appointed who reported that +they did not find it desirable to recommend the building of model tenements +in New York at this time. Mr. White for many years stood alone as the man +of wealth with the courage of his convictions, that there were wage-earners +compelled to live under tenement-house conditions who would pay for and +respect the best housing that capital would offer them, within their +rent-paying capacity. + +The tenement-house agitation continued. + +In 1879 Mayor Cooper had appointed a committee known as the "Mayor's +Committee," to devise means to effect tenement-house reforms. This +committee reported, and among other suggestions recommended, that companies +be organized to build modern tenements. Some members of this committee, +with others, formed the stock company alluded to with a capital of +$300,000. With a wisdom peculiarly their own, they did not wait until model +buildings could be erected according to plans not yet drawn on sites not +yet selected, but they leased on a long lease property that had been +unproductive for a long time, and occupied by a people at the lowest level +of the home-making people of the city. Below them are the people who do not +even pretend to make a home. This property was located in the old Fourth +Ward. It was the reputation of this ward, and the record of the particular +property, which doubtless led these capitalists to secure it. It was +conceded that the poverty and degradation of the Fourth Ward was at least +as great as in any other section of the city. The property leased had +attracted public attention and been the subject of special investigation +and reports in every agitation of the tenement-house problem since 1856. + +The Fourth Ward criminal and health records figure for an even longer +period in every effort at bettering municipal conditions by the example it +presented of civic indifference, neglect and maladministration. The houses +faced on two alleys, known in their best days as "Single" and "Double" +alley, respectively. As this distinction indicates, on Single Alley one row +of houses faced the walls of the adjoining property, while two rows of +houses faced each other across Double Alley. Later known as Swipe's Alley, +Guzzle Row, Hell's Kitchen, Murderers' Row, showing the gradual descent +from respectability. There is a tradition that Single Alley once had +gardens that extended to Roosevelt Street; that the houses had been +occupied by one family; but this cannot be verified. In their most +degenerate days these houses had an air of exclusiveness, due doubtless to +their fronting on courts and the tall iron fences, with gates, that +separated the houses from the street. The neighborhood at one time was +aristocratic; Franklin Square, but a short distance from the property, was +a social center of national greatness. As business went northward, the +merchants, bankers, tradespeople, followed, for the tie between home and +business was still very close; the midday dinner made distance between the +two impossible. The old homes were left for subdivision among the skilled +workmen and clerks. + +The tide of immigration set in, and the strangers settled near the docks +and wharfs--the source of their wages; in time they crowded into the old +residences, beginning the housing problem of New York. These old homes were +soon overcrowded. They could not be made sanitary. The demand for room was +so great that the large closets--the necessity of the old-time +housekeepers--were counted bedrooms, and are to-day in houses of this type +in tenement-house regions throughout the city. + +The property secured by the new company at the time it was leased was a +part of a large estate, the owner of which during his lifetime had +personally cared for it. He was both strict and just, and these two +attributes preserved these houses for years after the property in the +neighborhood had begun to yield to the character of later residents. This +owner kept the alleys and the houses in repair. The semi-privacy the iron +gate gave the tenants was for years the reason that the better-paid +mechanics remained in the courts or alleys. When the owner died, the +property was put in control of an agent, with the usual result--rapid +degeneracy. It was now conducted to secure the largest returns at the least +outlay. The evils of the absentee landlord are not confined to Ireland. +Absenteeism on the part of owners of tenement-house property is one of the +causes of the social and civic problems that retard the growth of the +highest civilization in New York. Under the management of an agent, the +character of the tenants in the courts changed rapidly, and the people who +took possession added to the disreputable character of the Fourth Ward. For +years before this the largest per cent. of the immigrants settling in New +York settled in this section. They came with distorted notions as to their +place in the new land. Liberty meant to the majority the right to follow +their own will. When hunger and loneliness and nakedness forced them to +reconsider their first conception of what America was, resentment, +recklessness, or adaptability developed. The difference was a matter of +temperament quite as much as of race. + +In 1880 the heads of the families living in the courts were day +laborers--men who worked along the docks, coal shovelers, hucksters, women +who did a day's work, sold newspapers at the ferries, or worked in the +factories. Every child in the alley was ready to do anything that would +earn money from the time he could walk. The people knew every benefit the +city dispensed to the poor: free coal; homes available and how to get in +them; free burial; every organization that dispersed charity, and how to +get it. Even the children were clever in their extremities, and knew how to +get assistance when the Island claimed their parents. From infancy the +children looked forward to wage-earning as a time of happiness. School was +a prison-house to be avoided, except when its warmth and shelter were +preferable to the street, or the home, when intemperance and temper made +life unendurable in it; then they attended school willingly. The truant +officers in this region were not feared. They were the fags of the "boss," +not the officers of a city department. None of the fads of to-day, which so +disturb the conservative people who see ruin of mental ability in modern +educational systems, were then thought of. The kindergarten, nature study, +manual training, were on the educational horizon of New York, in a cloud +scarcely so large as a man's hand. The trustee system was in perfect +working order. The teachers were what God made them, unhampered by the +pressure of superintendent and supervisors to maintain standards. + +It was as true in that day as in 1892, when a man, wholly familiar with all +the systems of education in the country, to the question, "Why is there +such uniformity in the defects of the schools in the tenement-house +regions?" replied, "They represent the demands of the people in the +district who elect the men who control them. You will find that the public +schools always represent the public sentiment and demands of the people +interested in them." + +This was profoundly true of the schools in this region at this time. To-day +there is scarcely any change in the buildings except that of added age. At +least two of them are a disgrace to the city. But there is a great change +in the system. To-day the civilizing force in this community is the public +schools; the remnant does not attract the philanthropist. To the men and +women of our public schools who, preserving the highest ideals, work with +enthusiasm amid the most discouraging surroundings, the city owes a debt +that money cannot repay. + +The liquor saloons numbered then about as they do now, occupying every +available space. More elaborate now, perhaps, for they represent political +headquarters, if not proprietorship, of men identified with the worst forms +of political corruption; then, as now, openly used in the interest of these +men. There is this great change, that children dare not now, as they did +then, enter and leave these places fearlessly at any hour carrying pails, +pitchers or bottles. It was then a neighborly kindness to let children thus +serve a neighbor; it was a source of revenue to the children. + +The gangs were many and notorious in the ward. Frequent were the clashes +and loyal the spirit with which assailed and assailants maintained silence +if there was danger of arrest because of these conflicts. "To squeal" was +to earn the contempt of the community. The number of crimes, the full +measure of degradation, reached in this ward will never be known. The dense +population of this ward is so hidden by business and traffic that in 1901 +the statement was made by some people interested in civic affairs that the +region was given over to office buildings. The district of which the Fourth +Ward is a part cast 10,000 votes in the mayoralty campaign of that year. +Votes that represent a civilization as peculiarly its own as though oceans +separated it from the people a mile and a half away. + +Target companies were the social clubs of that day, the forerunners of the +political organizations of to-day. The climax of their existence were the +annual excursions to some near-by grove for shooting matches. These matches +were the great social occasions of the many "sets." The question of who was +the reigning belle of the locality was settled beyond dispute by selection +of one to present the wreath for the target, or a big bunch of flowers, to +the captain of the target company on the day of the annual parade. These +were always of artificial flowers, and were made gorgeous and splendid by +floating strips and fringes of tinsel paper. The greatest feuds in the Ward +have grown out of the selection of the fair lady to present these trophies. +Her selection changed the political history of her friends often, and her +knights' fists fought her cause, and crowned her, their wounds testifying +to their devotion. The political "boss" of that period presented the +organizations that acknowledged his leadership with silver mugs, castors or +pitchers--prizes for the shooters--but he presented money to keep the +balance of his popularity. The gifts were carried conspicuously over the +route of the procession, which always stopped in front of the house of the +lady, who was to express her favor in the gifts of floral trophies--usually +paid for by the company, sometimes by her knight, or knights combined for +her honor. This house was for the time being the center of interest for the +crowd, as she was of envy or pride to the community. The day of the target +parade was one that called for great sacrifice, that it might be attended +by the requisite formalities and new clothes. Money must be raised to +provide barouches for the great political lights of the ward who gave this +particular company their favor; to pay the attendant colored men who +carried the target and the water and tin cups; for the band with the drum +major. All cost money, and money was scarce; but the prominence and +pleasure paid; and the Fourth Ward had many of these organizations, which +made life exciting, and at times dangerous, when their several groups met, +each struggling for supremacy, each with a leader who must be defended. + +Fresh-air organizations, seaside resorts, were as unknown as trolleys; +hundreds in the Fourth Ward lived and died without ever having seen Central +Park or the ocean. The relief from the sufferings of summer was sitting and +sleeping on the near-by piers. Man's humanity to man at this period of New +York's social history was expressed in hospitals, infirmaries, homes of +many kinds, distribution of food, clothes and medicine. The more +applications secured for these sources of relief, the more tickets given +out in a year at any point for outside relief, the more easy the conscience +of the men who sent the money that maintained them, who measured the value +of their charities by the figures representing human beings that appeared +in the reports. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were then, as now, +"round-ups" for the wretched, the needy and the lazy. The pleasure of the +givers was greatly added to by watching the hungry eating. + +What caused the misery and wretchedness was no secret; but with few +exceptions the men of money and brains were not ready to remove the +prevailing and rooted cause. The exceptions were the men who, impressed by +the example of Mr. Alfred T. White, leased the tenements known as Single +and Double alley, or Gotham Court, the worst piece of property in what was +acknowledged to be the worst ward in the city. + +It had grown more and more difficult to collect rents, and the destruction +of the property by the tenants made any effort at repair futile. Lead pipe, +brass faucets, were wrenched off and sold as rapidly as they were put in; +banisters, stair-rails, blinds, even wooden floors had been used as +firewood. The very bricks on the chimneys were used as missiles of offense +and defense. The Double Alley boasted of a haunted house, which at times +created the greatest excitement in the neighborhood because of mysterious +noises and lights seen and heard at night. Again and again the house had +been raided by the police and stolen goods recovered after the ghostly +exhibits. The police showed to the brave of the neighborhood that sulphur +and brimstone were the ghostly lights, and clever arrangements of ropes and +pulleys and pans the source of the cries and groans that had frozen them +with fear. It was useless. The next appearance of the lights and the sound +of awful groans filled the neighborhood with terror. + +For obvious reasons the only source of water supply was a hydrant in the +center of each alley. The only drainage was the sink sunk in front of it. +When it is remembered that between five and six hundred people lived in +these houses, the opportunities for cleanliness will be appreciated. All +the water used was carried up and down stairs. That pans and pails of water +were emptied from the windows without careful note of the passer-by beneath +is not surprising. This naturally was not conducive to peace; but peace was +not the aim of the people of the court; in fact, its disturbance varied the +monotony of life in the alleys. + +[Illustration: THE SITE OF THE OLD RUNWAY.] + +Single Alley had a narrow opening from its rear, or western, end to +Roosevelt Street. This was paved with brick sunken and broken. It was a +dormitory for the drunken and homeless, a depository for all kinds of +refuse. This alley was a runway. The entrance on the two streets offered +every opportunity of escape to the fleeing fugitive from justice or +vengeance. The code of honor of the alley was to speed the hunted and +obstruct the hunter. The policeman entering the alley in pursuit of a +transgressor knew his fate; he was a target for water, wood, coal, bricks +and unlimited language; unexpected obstructions would be found in the +alley, and the attentions he received when he tripped or fell were intended +to increase the distance between the representative of law and order and +the fleeing offender. He or she might or might not be a friend. The alley's +activity in behalf of the fugitive was based on a new interpretation of the +promised return of bread cast on the waters. + +No matter how bitter the feuds that divided the tenants in the alley, the +appearance of a rent collector in the later days healed the breach, bridged +the widest chasm. He was a common foe and to be downed by common consent. +If abuse and defiance did not drive him beyond the gates, bricks dropped +from the roofs, after a vigorous campaign of water and cooking utensils, +conducted by the feminine contingent from the windows, usually +accomplished his complete rout, not only for that time, but for the future. +As the years passed on, it became almost impossible to get any agent to +make the second attempt to collect rent from the tenants of the alleys. + +The home life of the people in the alley was interesting. Every inch of +space was occupied. The families ranged from a childless old couple, past +seventy, who had lived twenty-eight years in the Single Alley, to the boy +and girl who had just started housekeeping on nothing at all. The women in +the alleys had married, it was found, at about eighteen. They knew +absolutely nothing of housekeeping. Many of them acknowledged that they had +never made a fire before they married. The most elementary knowledge of +cooking, sewing or the use of money was lacking. Of the two hundred and one +mothers in the alley, one could cut and make the garments for herself and +children; four could make bread--one did; one made soup sometimes, but +could not remember the last time. Meals consisted of bread and coffee, or +tea, with beer provided for "him" for breakfast and supper. Dinner was a +"bit" of meat or fish, thought of and cooked between eleven and twelve; the +cooking was frying. Potatoes were substituted for bread at this meal; +rarely any other vegetable except Sunday. On that day, if there was money +enough in the morning, dinner was of corned beef and cabbage, or bacon and +cabbage. One family standing at the head of this community socially had +meat three times each day. This family had in it five wage-earners. They +paid four dollars a month rent for two rooms. The children had all been +born and had grown to manhood and womanhood in the alley. As the writer was +able to win the confidence of these people, it was evident that each mother +was conscious that something was wrong that life yielded no better return. +What was wrong? Where the remedy was to be found did not seem to interest +them. The days drifted. Children ran half naked or in rags, while mothers +sat in neighbors' rooms, stood in doorways, in the halls, or lounged in the +alleys. There were homes in which neither needles, thread nor scissors +could be found. The mother did not know how to use them. A pot and a frying +pan were the only cooking utensils the most lavish closet revealed. Washing +and scrubbing are laborious at any time, but when carrying water from ten +to fifty feet on the level, then up one to four flights of stairs and down +again is added to the labor, it is not astonishing that dishes, clothes and +bodies were at all times freighted with disease and death. A knowledge of +the relation between dirt and disease, cleanliness and health was not the +general knowledge it is to-day. Their relation to moral elevation or +degradation is barely understood to-day. + +The average weekly wages of the men living in the alleys at this period was +between eight and nine dollars per week, and sometimes kept at the latter +figure for weeks. It will be seen at once that the poverty, misery, +degradation and dirt that kept life at the level it was in the alleys was +due to some other cause than wages, for rent was only four dollars a month, +when paid, and it was paid less than eight months of the year. Beer flowed +in the alley; tin cans, pitchers, pails, went back and forth at all times +of the day and night. It was the first errand on which the baby feet were +sent. Every woman in the alley acknowledged that she had seen her husband +drunk before she married him. She knew better how to manage him when he was +drunk than when he was sober. A blow given in drink was not recorded +against a husband either by the wife or her neighbors. A blow given when +the man was sober was remembered and aroused pity and sympathy. Over +seventy per cent. of the women drank to the point of unconsciousness. All +used liquor. Of child training there was none. The act that was laughed at +this hour brought a blow the next. Attending school was for the child to +decide. If he wanted to go, he went. Usually lack of clothing shut out +about half the children of school age in the alley. + +Mother love was largely a matter of animal instinct. While the baby +depended on her for nourishment, she could be found with it in her arms at +all times; it was, so far as life had a concentrated thought, her constant +care. The moment the baby found its feet and used them, the child was cut +loose and began his individual life. His standards, language, habits, were +what his environment made them. His care, so far as the mother was +concerned, was conducted on the lines of the least resistance. If the child +was struck by an outsider, it raised the tiger in the mother; if ill, a +burden to carry for which there was neither money nor knowledge; the mother +had no strength and could not meet cares that demanded continuous thought; +her mind was not trained to it. Health and disease were largely a matter of +luck. Death brought pangs, but life was too much of a struggle for it to be +a crushing blow, even when it was one's child. Children came and went too +fast in the alleys for their coming or going to fill or empty even a +mother's life. + +Not one woman in the alley could remember ever having an entire new outfit +in her life, nor had any of her children; her first baby had worn garments +that had been made for some more fortunate baby. + +Such was the dead level of existence lived in the alleys. Without the +stimulus of drink it would be lethargy, and was when there was no money to +treat or be treated. Pleasure? It was unknown outside of the beer can. If +that did not give pleasure, why life was a hand-to-hand, hopeless struggle +with homelessness, hunger and nakedness. In the alleys a fight became a +pleasure and death a social opportunity. Even love seemed denied the people +of the alleys. Marriage often was a part of the habitual drifting when not +a matter of compulsion. Homes were established with no bond but that of +law, and sometimes not that. That they even were what they were was a +tribute to the fundamental morality that is the salvation of the civilized +world. + +These were the people who had made the alleys between 1855 and 1880, when +the owners of the estate gladly leased the property on a long lease. As has +been stated, spasmodic attempts had been made to reclaim the property, to +make it productive, but always by men acting for the owners; they never +came in personal contact with the tenants. It is doubtful if they even had +any conception of the effect of their delegated responsibility on the +people, or had any knowledge of the change that resulted when the property +ceased to have the personal supervision of the owner. + +The lessees put two ladies in control of the property. One or the other was +to be found there each day. + +The tenants were notified that rent must be paid weekly; that the rooms +would be white-washed and painted; that the agents would be at liberty to +visit the rooms daily; that no child would be permitted to carry liquor on +the premises; every bundle or basket carried by a child would be examined, +and any liquor found would be emptied into the sink in the yard. Water +would be put in the halls on each floor; destruction of property would mean +eviction. All who were unwilling to accept these conditions were asked to +move at once. The rent remained the same, four dollars per month for two +rooms. Families desiring four rooms could have them for eight dollars per +month, the company cutting a door through the party walls, giving direct +ventilation through the floor, with windows opening on both alleys. The +absolute impossibility of getting two equally good rooms in the +neighborhood for the same rent kept the majority of the families. A few +tacitly accepted the change, largely because acquiescence was their habit +of mind, while some expected to set at naught any rules or regulations +that they found obnoxious. No tenant moved voluntarily. + +The new ownership took possession with the same human beings who had +occupied the houses for years. The first step was to insist on cleanliness. +The alleys were swept and washed every morning, as were the halls and +stairways. Garbage cans were provided and their use insisted on. Every can +or bundle carried by a child was examined, and all liquors found in them +were emptied into the sink in the yard. Quarrels and fights grew less +frequent, especially among the women. The children attended school, for +their appearance during school hours led to investigations that the +majority of the tenants preferred to avoid. The aim was to establish such +relations between the representatives of the company and the tenants as +would give opportunities to reduce the ignorance and indifference that were +quite as responsible, if not more responsible, for the misery in the homes +than lack of money. The tenants held aloof. They were tenants because they +could not get as much comfort for the money elsewhere; but there could be +no friendship where the payment of rent was insisted upon, where +drunkenness involved the risk of, and abuse of property positive, eviction. + +Several young couples were tenants. The aim and hope of the agents were to +gain the confidence of these young mothers. The first child of one died +late that summer. Potter's Field was the place of burial. The young father +could have worked six days in the week, but that would have been slavery +intolerable. He refused it, and followed his lifelong habit of drifting, +which was also that of the young mother. She had never resented her +husband's days of idleness until this baby died and there was not one cent +to provide for the care and disposition of the little body. This was the +opportunity of the two women who were waiting to prove that they were not +oppressors. A little coffin, a white slip and socks, some flowers--at that +time an unheard-of tribute to death--a carriage and a grave in the cemetery +approved by the mother's church was provided. The battle was won. Every +man, woman and child in the alley surrendered to this evidence of +comradeship. That this act gave birth to hopes that must be stifled was +natural. Rules must be enforced and comradeship expressed at the times of +emergency. The first and hardest battle was won. Confidences were gained +that led to marriages and baptisms that had been neglected or forgotten. +The office, simply but tastefully furnished, became a school-room, where +the mothers and the children learned to sew. Goods were bought in +quantities and sold at cost to the learners. A sewing machine and a +teacher appeared and were welcomed. Practical talks, or, more properly, +conversations, were held; but no one took note of them as special efforts +in philanthropy, they were so naturally a part of each day's experience. +The daily visits to each tenant resulted in establishing relations that +justified reproof, suggestion, commendation. The standards of pleasure, +pain, suffering, accomplishment were elementary in the alleys. An hour's +work with the needle left the worker exhausted, and diversion then meant +moral safety. The homes were barren, and the acme of hope was wages to pay +rent, buy food and clothes; the last rarely realized. The months, and even +years, passed without the people passing beyond the confines of the ward. +The generations lived this life, and it was a fixed habit. The world had +nothing to offer to the habitual residents of the ward that the ward did +not provide; it has but little to-day to offer them. + +In spite of the emptiness of life and barrenness of these homes, they were +on the whole better than the homes of the preceding generation. + +When the wives laid the cause of their burdens on their husbands' shoulders +because they drank, the question, "Did you know he drank when you married +him?" would be answered easily, with no thought of self-condemnation, +"Yes," in frank confession. + +"Do you drink?" + +"I drink beer, mostly. Sure, ye get discouraged just working and washing, +and never a cent; not a decent rag to go on the street, and no place to go +when you get there but a neighbor's house. What is there but a glass of +beer? You don't mean to get drunk; yer that before ye know." + +This total lack of personal relation to life was me mental attitude of +almost every woman. If she was a widow, she worked to make a home for her +children, who, again and again, so often that it ceased to attract +attention, heard how much harder life was because they were in it. This +seemed the accepted attitude, and accounted for the expression on the faces +of these children--a puzzled, hardened expression that blotted out all +suggestion of childhood. That time was an element in the problem of life +was not accepted. That the garment made at home would last longer and cost +less was conceded; but what was the use of making things when they could be +bought so cheaply. The total absence of reasoning powers was shown here. To +make soup would mean staying at home, thinking and planning for hours in +advance of a meal. The soup would cost no more than steak and provide two +meals, but it would mean loneliness, when the time, through ignorance, +could not be turned to interesting uses. + +There were women in these alleys, mothers of grown children, who could not +tell a bias from a straight edge; who could not put a gingham apron +together having straight and bias selvages. Beyond sewing on occasional +buttons, there was no use in their minds for needles. They had worked in +tin factories. They had worked at all kinds of employment that called into +play the minimum amount of brains and the maximum of muscles. Not one woman +was found who before her marriage had worked in any line of employment that +had the slightest connection with the arts of home-making. The wages they +earned was that of unskilled labor, in lines of employment known to be +intermittent. Wages, large or small, went into the common family fund. The +future was not a matter of care. When all in the family worked, life was +lived merrily; when hard luck came, life was lived stoically. This spirit +went into the home of the wage-earners when they married. There was far +less physical suffering than the privations of their lives made natural. +Often these limitations were self-imposed; there was money enough to give +life color and purpose, if only there had been knowledge to guide in the +adjustment between necessities and income; a conception of time as an +element in the financial problem. + +[Illustration: YOUR CHOICE.] + +The closer one entered into the individual life, the more clearly was it +revealed that the problems of poverty grew out of the inability to see the +relations of things, to comprehend life in its entirety. Even after two +years of close relation with these people in the alleys, it was with the +utmost caution and tact that the subject of free coal could be broached. It +was then distributed by the city--an intimate source of political +corruption. A large quantity of coal was purchased and put in the cellar. +It was offered to the tenants at the same price the grocer sold it by the +pail, with the difference that it was delivered in the rooms. First, pride, +a desire to appear somewhat above the neighbors, moved to independence on +the coal question. In two years' time free coal was in the category of +disgraces in the alley, and marked a rising moral tide. + +A young woman and her husband were special objects of attention to the +agents. They were young, good-looking, bright, and, when sober, ambitious +as their conception of life made possible. Both drank, the woman more than +the man, and she sank lower when drunk. For years she had spent more time +on the Island than off it. What could be done? The whitewashing and +painting of the two hopelessly barren rooms seemed to bring the woman to a +pause. It was not possible to get beer through a neighbor's child now, and +until she was drunk this woman would not go into a saloon. The clean alley, +washed every morning, by some process of reasoning seemed to demand +corresponding effort indoors, and the barren rooms were never dirty when +the woman was sober. Even this gave employment to hands that had never used +a needle, therefore less time was spent lounging in the doorway or other +rooms. The washing of clothes, though ragged and few, took time and +centered the interest, if but for a short time. The look of utter weariness +and indifference in the face of the woman was slowly disappearing. There +was really a purpose in life; the four walls and little else that was home +required thought and effort. Life had an object at last. But the devil of +drink was not so easily conquered; she was gone one morning from home. The +neighbors explained to the agents her absence, being familiar with the +habits of the type. In court she listened again indifferently to "Ten +dollars or ten days." This time a woman came forward, paid the ten dollars, +and Agnes was free. Surprised, dumb-stricken, wondering why, Agnes followed +the friend home. New clothes, simple, suitable, were waiting for her. Then +the fight began. At times it was hourly. Work was provided that the clumsy, +untrained hands could do. The proceeds were to pay for a new carpet, that +had to be unrolled many times to hold Agnes from the street. At last it was +down, and the two friends added a rocker and a picture. Tom was a new man, +and every penny of his wages came home. All this time the prosperity of the +couple was viewed by most of the people as due to passing "good luck." That +there was a moral battle being fought did not seem to enter their +consciousness. Four years later, on the stairway, the writer saw Agnes with +her beautiful baby boy, her first-born, on her arm. The comprehension of +what the sight must have been on the Mount of Transfiguration has always +been clearer when the expression on the face of Agnes, as she met the woman +who had fought for her salvation for time and eternity, is recalled. Two +years had passed since Agnes had tasted liquor in any form. Her passionate +devotion to her baby, her new knowledge of the arts of home-making, kept +her so busy that Agnes was rarely a visitor to her neighbors, except in the +case of sickness. Tom's love of liquor seemed limited; largely a matter of +companionship or discouragement. When his home became a center of interest +to Agnes, his buoyant nature responded to the new environment. When liquor +disappeared from the home, it ceased to be a constant temptation. Outside +of his home Tom found for a time that his new departure attracted to him +unpleasant attention, guying, teasing, coaxing, which he met with jokes. +Force as an inducement to make him drink was met by blows; and Tom struck +heavily. The new impulse for a better life brought heavy social penalties +on Tom and Agnes. It meant nothing in common with those about them. When a +man and woman will neither treat nor be treated at that social level social +ostracism follows. Their home was the refuge of the children driven by +frenzied, drunken parents from their own homes. What they had they shared +with the children when the parents were on the Island. When sickness came +to homes in the alleys, Tom and Agnes could be relied upon to share and +help in carrying the added burdens. Tom's muscles and the knowledge of +their power saved many a wife from blows that, without Tom, would have +fallen freely. Back of their every effort stood the two wise women who were +redeeming this corner of the great city. The day came when Tom and Agnes +realized the boy must grow up in a different neighborhood, and Tom and +Agnes moved. + +The making of a laundry compelled the removal of a childless couple who had +occupied their rooms over thirty years. It was impossible to make them +accept the fact that the children could play in the alley under the new +_régime_. For years the old woman and her stick were familiar to the sight +and the feelings of the children of the alley. "I'm in Dixie's Land. Dixie +ain't home!" had been shouted under their windows, at their room door, +which was very near the alley door, to bring them out in torrents of rage. +As age made the old couple less fleet and more quarrelsome, the daring of +the children grew, and any time of the day or night the conflict between +the old couple and the children, in which parents figured, was a +possibility. Peace became impossible. The decision was final; the old +couple must go; their rooms were necessary to the new improvements. It was +pathetic to discover that no amount of persuasion would make the old couple +live north of Roosevelt Street; it meant a lowering in their social world. +"I've always lived respectable, and I always will. I would not live in that +block," announced the old woman, with conscious pride. Even the alley, it +was found, had standards of residence, a line that must not be crossed, to +maintain respectability. + +By this time the mental attitude of every woman in the alleys had changed +toward her home. Positive determination to overcome inertia, or ambition to +excel, it was impossible to create. Innate predilections were the chief +factor in individual development among the women. What a woman liked to do +she attempted to learn how to do, or what she found she could do most +easily. Some would learn to cook who absolutely refused to sew; some would +sew who refused to cook; some would take care of the babies while the +mothers were learning who would neither cook nor sew, feeling they could do +both well enough; these it was impossible to make home-makers. The shackles +of the past could never be thrown off wholly by the home-makers in the +alleys. The children responded; could be won by personal affection, by +prizes, by the mother's insistence. For it was soon learned that nimble +fingers in the home lightened the mother's work; but the mothers were the +unwilling victims of their own past. + +The use of money was the most difficult lesson of all to teach. If there +was money, the food was bought lavishly; pennies were given freely to the +children. If there was no money, the barrenness was accepted even +cheerfully. Wages were given at the maximum weekly amount remembered. No +deductions were made for idle days. It requires a knowledge of advanced +arithmetic to adjust intelligently forty weeks of wages to fifty-two weeks +of expenses. It requires more than an elementary knowledge of arithmetic to +adjust five days' wages to the seven days' expenses, fixed and emergency, +of a growing family. When a week comes that brings six or seven days' +wages, is it a marvel that in view of the many weeks of imposed +restrictions this week of wealth should be welcomed as a period of freedom +from care? That the money should be lavishly used? It takes the ability to +think, to connect cause and effect, imagination, to see possible results, +memory of experiences to hold men and women constantly in check, and this +means mental training. Not a woman in the alley had attended school +regularly during even the short period of her school life; each one had +gone to work the moment she could earn money. Neither she nor any one about +her questioned the value of the work she found to do beyond the money it +gave at once. Nobody ever thought of the present as in relation to the +future. Now that she was a mother, she met life the same way. Her children +must earn money. To make sacrifices that their wage-earning capacity in the +future might be greater would, if suggested to her, have been merely an +evidence of how little the rich know of life. What was the estimate of life +these mothers in the alley made? The differences between them were +external, not mental. One answers for nearly all. To get as much comfort +out of to-day as possible and to-morrow work hard, and be careful. To the +majority that to be used to-morrow never came. When plenty came, it was +always to-day--a glad, free day that might never come again. + +At the end of four years but four of the tenants of the alleys who were +tenants when the lease was executed had been evicted. The death rate had +lowered from 85 to 22 per cent. The tenants rarely appeared in the police +courts. Wife-beating created excitement and indignation. But in spite of +the awakening, a moral, mental, physical inertia, stagnation, held more +than the majority of the tenants in control. There was spasmodic response; +but the painful truth had to be accepted that there must be redemptive +power within to respond to redemptive conditions without before the home +could be vitalized with the spirit of hope and energy. Fifty years and more +of neglect and indifference cannot be overcome in five years of moral +activity exerted to overcome the evils man neglected to prevent. + +The alleys are gone; some tenants drifted to other scenes, more settled in +the tall, dark tenements that have sprung up through the whole district, +the worst type erected in New York. The rear buildings abound even back of +the tall factories, reached by dark, noisome alleys. No amount of care or +repair could save the old houses. They have gone the way of all material +things. Their history is a part of the social and political history of New +York. + +How slowly moral sentiment grows in a large city is shown by the years that +elapsed before active measures were taken to redeem what was known as a +plague spot, a menace to the body politic, a constant source of moral +degeneracy. + +The Citizens' Association, organized in 1864, through its Council of +Hygiene and Public Health, districted the city for special investigation by +sanitary experts. One of these gives a large part of his report to Gotham +Court, and presents sectional drawings to show the impossibility of +securing proper sanitary conditions for the people living in the notorious +houses. It seems incredible that these conditions once known should not +have aroused public interest to the point of action. Nothing was done. The +physical and moral degeneracy continued until 1880, when a few private +individuals made the experiment of redemption. Even this came when the +houses had gone beyond the point of reclaiming. On the site of the old +buildings rises a new business building. + +Not far away two of the most brutal and atrocious murders of recent years +in New York have occurred. In July, 1901, three blocks from the old +buildings, in broad daylight, a man known to be the collecting agent for +property in the neighborhood was robbed by three members of a well-known +gang. The children are thin, precocious. Their language, even in their +play, is vulgar, coarse, profane. Babies have at their command strange +oaths, probably never heard elsewhere. The streets are neglected, the +sidewalks uneven and broken. For almost half a century this region has had +a reputation peculiar to itself. Efforts have been made to reach the +people, but they have not been persistent. Even the church efforts are +perfunctory, as though faith as to the redemptive power in this people did +not exist. + +This fact remains: within the boundaries of this region lives a community +that is shaping the political control of New York City and State, and will +for years to come. It has its traditions of loyalty; it has fixed standards +of its own peculiar privileges; its standards of rights. The very police of +the region expect certain things to occur; misdemeanors of a certain +character that would bring punishment anywhere else are passed by here; +they are part of the civilization of the region. Snuggled down under the +shadow of the bridge and the elevated road, a center of business interests +which the moral standards of the residents do not affect, because their +activities, other than of the muscles, are not exercised until carts, +drays, drivers, clerks, proprietors have gone northward or across the +river. The community lives within itself, has created its own standards, +and is New York in its own estimation. + +Writing of the people in this section in 1865, a sanitary expert quotes +with an apology a medical term common in the hospitals and dispensaries as +a disease of the people in this section, "tenement-house rot." The term +has, perhaps, in the interests of civilization, died out; but no one can +walk through these streets, observing the faces of the people, and not +realize that the old, unsanitary, germ-laden tenements of this section have +produced a physical condition peculiar to this region, as it has a moral +degeneracy that is peculiarly its own. The section, as a whole, has not +attracted the philanthropist. He is wise in his day and generation and puts +forth his efforts where the tide of humanity is rising, and not falling, +even though it means three or four generations before the tide is out. + +New York has a gospel all its own. Work where the crowds are greatest, that +the printed reports may count people in great numbers, for ye gain dollars +thereby. New York counts the remnant only at the polls, and ignores the +penalty her indifference imposes on her own advancement. + +The opening years of the century hold promise that there is at least a +partial realization of the solidarity of the interest of the people. That +conditions make for degradation in the homes means degradation of citizens; +and this means burdens laid, not on the sections where the homes and the +citizens are found, but on the whole city. What altruism has not +accomplished, selfishness may. It may be that where all else has failed, +intelligent politics may redeem, and the section again may be the center of +the moral as well as commercial activity. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CENTERS. + + +The centralization of the interests of the tenement-house population is not +understood by those who broaden their mental, if not their active, interest +by reading and travel; who in the varied interest of a broader life are +forced to see the multiplicity of factors that enter into the settlement of +every problem. This is what we mean by knowing the relation of things; +marking the distinction between those who see only and those who +comprehend. The man who is a machine set in the place where he bears his +relation to the whole by an authority which he dares not question loses all +opportunity to comprehend his relation to that whole. He is interested in +immediate results as related to himself only. This is the relation which +the mass of the tenement-house workers and voters bear to life. + +The people of whole sections live entirely within certain geographical +lines, every interest centered within these limits. + +The race sections are logical, based on the law of natural selection; of +family interest. The first generation of immigrants naturally hold the +second generation of home-makers near them, and these together hold the +relatives and friends who follow. Three generations are not infrequently +found in the same house, each maintaining its own home. The new arrivals +keep alive the foreign home traditions, the foreign home habits of living. +Poverty and greed make the people crowd together. The last arrivals are +taught what their predecessors have learned of American life and law. The +race section perpetuates itself; it retains all that it can of the old +life, and interprets the new according to the lessons learned from +environment, and power as it is exercised on the people. Each race section +has its own thoroughfare. The people on the street use their own language, +and trade in shops of their own countrymen. In some sections newspapers are +published in the language of the section, giving prominence to the local +news. Were it not for the public schools, one wonders what would be the +result of this race centralization. + +[Illustration: SATURDAY MORNING ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +The writer once met a man who had voted for twenty-three years in one ward. +For sixteen of these years he had cast his vote from one house in Orchard +Street. He had never been farther north than Houston Street, farther south +than Hester and had never crossed the Bowery. He had positive convictions +on every subject relating to the ward; he knew the life history of every +political leader in that portion of the city; could rehearse the disasters +that had followed every man who failed to fall in line at the polls; knew +what saloon-keepers were forced to obey the law, and who "didn't care a +cent" for the law; knew why this man could put his goods on the walk and +why the other man could not. He protected his own two daughters from the +evils of his home environment as he saw them; was strict to rigorousness +about their home-coming; watched the kind of people who moved into the +house in which he lived, and doubtless kept it above the average of the +neighborhood by his watchfulness. But he did not know who was President of +the United States, and did not consider it the business of the poor man. He +refused a "job" under the city, because he didn't want to be "beholden." It +was all right for the man who needed a job to take it. The only grievance +the man had was that the Hebrews were crowding into the neighborhood. This +was an invasion of his personal rights; they had their own place on the +south side of Grand Street, as the Italians had west of the Bowery, and +coming into that region north of Grand Street was an intrusion on the +personal rights of himself and his countrymen. The first thing which would +happen, if they--his own people--did not look sharp, would be the Hebrews +would have a say in politics. The man's mental attitude is typical of the +race settlement, the race political rights theory in many sections of New +York; the difference is only in the race dominant. + +This man was a porter, who for seventeen years was employed in an East Side +department store, working in a sub-cellar nine hours a day for nine dollars +a week. He could not read, though he came to this country when five years +of age. He became a wage-earner at eleven. His daughters became +wage-earners at fourteen, having attended public schools until that age. +The pride with which this man referred to his daughters' education made one +comprehend the gradual absorption by the foreign peoples who come to us of +American ideas. Those girls knew they were not educated; they had been +forced to contrast their mental equipment with that of the "club ladies," +as they called the residents at the College Settlement, where the club of +which they were members met. They, too, had been satisfied until brought +into relationship with those who represented another world. The revelation, +because of contact with the minds of these college-trained women, showed +them, so far as they could comprehend it, their own lack of mental +training, the first step in their true education. + +Women are by nature more conservative than men; they cling longer to early +traditions and habits; find it more difficult to adopt new habits of +thought. The more closely they are surrounded by people of their own way of +life, their own habits of thinking, the more strongly intrenched are they +in the customs and habits of their native country, the less are the homes +they regulate modified by the new environment. The result is that whole +sections of New York to-day are as foreign as the villages from which the +people in them came. There are women in New York whose children and +grandchildren were born in the city who cannot speak English, nor +understand it beyond the merest assent or dissent. Their lives in old age +are pitiable. + +A sweet, motherly German once said to the writer, and but a short time ago: +"I am so lonely. I cannot speak English. I never learn it. I sit in my +daughter's house, where German is not used. The children all want to be +Americans; they will not talk German. When I sit at the table, I never +speak. They all talk, but I do not understand. Sometimes I ask, and the +children say they have not time to tell me. They buy only the English +papers, and so I cannot read. I wish I had learned English when I first +came. I was young then, but I had eight children after I came here, and I +did everything for them. I could not take the time, I thought. I see now +the children could have taught me. Now they have not the time." This woman +was a German in her sympathies, her interests, her standards. Positive race +antagonism existed between her and her family. She measured everything by +German life and rule, and lived a critic among a people her own only in +blood. In answer to the question, she explained that her husband learned +English for his "work." The family attended the mission church when they +attended church. She attended the German services, but the rest of the +family, even her husband, the English services. Her constant plaint was: "I +am so lonely. Some day I never speak all day. At the table they speak +English." + +Hundreds of women like this one sit in homes in New York in which they have +no part, barred out by the fact that they speak a foreign tongue. One of +the mistakes made in even our church work has been the maintaining of +distinctive church services in a foreign tongue. In so far as the churches +have done this, they have been an obstruction to good citizenship for time, +whatever they may have accomplished for eternity, for the people they call +their own. + +One of the most earnest of missionary workers in New York, an American +citizen born in Italy, protested vigorously to the writer on the policy of +maintaining church services in New York in a foreign tongue. "You cannot +make a united people using many languages. I would preach that to the +people all the time. I use English words in my sermons to my own people, +and I tell them to learn English; it is better for them in business. The +women ought to learn, for they lose their children. They go away from them +because they do not speak the English. In New York they are the victims of +oppression, my people, because they cannot speak English. They have to bow +the head to the yoke because they are foreigners in a strange land in which +they vote. It is a great wrong to them and to the country. It makes the +'boss.'" + +The first interest of the mother in the tenement, as of the mother +everywhere, is the support of her children; to get for them all that she +can. She would prefer that her husband should be honest, which may mean +that the only dishonesty of which she has any comprehension is stealing +money or other tangible property. In politics the tenement-house women have +only a secondary interest. They accept without question the statements of +their male relatives as to issues and men. Even this degree of interest +represents only the most intelligent of the tenement-house women. The +charge that a man used his political position and affiliations to further +his own advancement, that he purchased the votes and enthusiasms of less +clever voters, would mean to the women educated in their conception of +right and wrong under the systems of machine politics that the man was +intelligent and trying to do the best he could for his family and his +friends. To say that he refused to rally voters to support the party that +gave him a position because he was convinced that the party was dishonest +in the use it made of the victory it gained at the polls, would arouse the +deepest contempt for the man. He would be considered not only untrue to his +family, but to his friends. Had he remained in close relation to the +politicians who gave him his chance, he would not only provide for his +family, but his friends would have the benefit of his influence; he could +give them a chance in time. + +[Illustration: THE PAST, PRESENT AND MIDDLE PERIOD.] + +The man of brains they see drop his tools, take off his overalls and stand +in high hat, and eventually frock-coat, the center of a crowd of men who +smile at his nod, though they worked shoulder to shoulder but a short time +ago--in a trench, perhaps; yes, even came over in the same ship with him. +The women do not understand the process of evolution, but they see the +results. They soon know that from street sweeper to car conductor, the man +who has become a politician under a strong partisan government regulates, +and often decides, the wage-earning opportunities of the greater portion of +the men in the tenement-house sections. They learn, these women, that it is +not a question of how faithful the worker is in the discharge of his duty +that insures him work, but that it is some mysterious influence they call +"politics," that means work and wages or no work and no wages, and +suffering. This conception of the relation of the petty politician to the +voters' chance to earn even a meager and uncertain living under the sway of +his influence rarely excites more than passing indignation from the women +who suffer most because of the system. When the women of the politician's +family grow arrogant and snobbish, then the floods of eloquence break loose +for a time, and the listener may learn many things of which he would +otherwise be ignorant. The increased power of the petty henchman rarely +enables him to change the way of living of his family. Sometimes he does +not when he can, for he knows that he increases his power as he lives on +the level of the average voter in his district. The less conscience he +has, the more patient he is in waiting for the day when his district is +only one factor in his political strength. + +Even the little children reveal deference to the family of the man who is +known to have "pull." There came to an East Side library one afternoon a +little girl better dressed than any child who had yet appeared there. She +was impudent, noisy, aggressive. In the game-room she cheated in the games, +and finally broke up several games of checkers and dominoes by pushing over +the boards. No child resented this. The little girl when spoken to seemed +astonished by the reprimand. As she was leaving, the writer said to her: "I +am sorry, little girl, but I shall have to tell you that you must not come +here again unless you mean to obey; you must not talk in the reading-room, +and in the games you must play fair. I hope I shall not have to tell you +not to come here again." The child stared in astonishment. She went out on +the street. In a few minutes several little girls who had frequented the +rooms for months came running back in great excitement, one saying +breathlessly: "Why, that little girl's father is a school trustee; she does +just as she likes in school." "Yes," added another, "and now she says she +won't come here any more. She's awful mad." From her point of view this was +a calamity. "Well, I hope she will not come if she cannot behave," was the +comment made. The children stood aghast. The trustee system had been +abolished in New York at least two years when this incident occurred. Later +the writer found that the father was in the council of Tammany Hall. + +A boy of the same neighborhood rang the bell, interfered with children +leaving the house, and broke the windows. The time for kindly persuasion +ended. When the members of a woman's club in that section using that house +were consulted, it was made perfectly clear to the writer that worse +troubles would follow if the boy were arrested, for he would not be +detained and he would be more ugly than ever. His father was a ward leader +who had formerly been a street sweeper, then foreman of the gang, etc., +going through the gradations that mark the making of the minor "boss." This +boy bullied little children, stole their toys, would break up their games. +Yet to have him join in their play was evidently an honor which they bore +much to retain. He was only fourteen, yet he was found to be the leader of +a gang of boys in the most disgusting immoralities. Even this did not rouse +the mothers of the neighborhood to fight for their children's protection. +The boy was spreading immorality of a disgusting nature through a whole +neighborhood. The evil he wrought was told in tears in private, but denied +in public through fear of the father's power in preventing the accusers' +husbands and sons from getting work--one result of the Tammany system that +enslaves homes and blasts the innocence of little children in New York. + +A clever, hard-working Irish woman was once telling the writer the story of +her life and that of her children. At the time she was deeply interested in +the future of four nephews, who were the motherless sons of her brother. +Out of her experience with sons-in-law she enunciated her conclusions: "I +tell me brother, don't let them b'ys learn politics; it's a mighty poor +thrade. Sure, when Tammany's in they're all right; but when Tammany's out, +where are they? Sure, it's a mighty poor thrade, as I learnt to me sorrer. +Betther have them blacksmiths, sez I, like their grandfather at home. I do +hope he be's listening to me, for they're foine b'ys." It will be easier +for the four "b'ys" to learn politics than any other "thrade," for it is an +open union making one demand, obedience to the "boss." + +To this woman Tammany was an employer good to the poor man--a doctrine that +is taught to the smallest boy. He breathes it in the air; he nurses it in +the milk that nourishes him. As he gets older he adds a new article to his +faith. The Tammany system is the protector of his liberties. It does not +restrict him in his right of private judgment. As one studies the race +sections, the discovery is made that hundreds of votes are cast for Tammany +candidates in the belief that obnoxious restrictions on the sale of liquor +on Sundays will be removed, or that the laws will not be enforced. The hope +of raising the moral tone of the voters is futile while any portion of them +justify the casting of a ballot for the sole reason that it will make it +possible for the voter to break the law with impunity. The most +demoralizing legislation is that which makes a man a sneak as well as a +law-breaker. May the day be hastened when no man who stands in moral +rectitude in the presence of man and God will be forced to maintain what he +believes his rights in defiance of the law. We are a cosmopolitan country, +owing power and greatness to the sons and daughters of many lands. The +Puritan conception of government is out of place to-day. The larger +conception of man not controlled by the law, but the master in himself of +the restraints it would place upon him, is the American conception of +manhood, and toward this the best legislative action must trend. Thinking +men and women who have studied the social conditions of New York know that +no more calamitous influence is set in motion in New York than a sense of +injustice that protects and justifies to the people the breaking of a law. +When this goes farther, and any considerable number of the citizens combine +for the purpose of overcoming it by defying or by ignoring it, the +foundations of the government are threatened. It is time for fanaticism to +feel the pressure of broad-minded balanced public opinion. A law +administered at the demand and according to the conscience of people +unaffected by its administration, used by them against an equally +intelligent class who feel that personal liberty has been curtailed at the +expense of their right of judgment, is class legislation. No greater evil +influence has been active in New York than the creating of a sentiment that +endorsed the breaking of the liquor laws. It has been a prolific source of +blackmail; it has enabled politicians, who live at the public expense, to +pose to men whose personal right of judgment had been curtailed as the +apostles of freedom. The short-sighted friends of temperance have by their +misdirected activities created political capital for the men who in +official life have made New York's problems. + +Legislation enacted without the will of the people governed is provocative +of two things: contempt and defiance of the law; unrest that makes for +antagonism to government. The lower in the scale of reason the voter is, +the less able he is to get any point of view but his own. His comprehension +of the rights of others depends on the comprehension of his rights +expressed in the law designed for his regeneration. He certainly never goes +higher in the scale of reason while he defies the law in satisfying his +sense of justice and freedom; he cannot rise in the scale of living while +he stoops to acts he would avoid if his sense of justice were not outraged. +He justifies his act because of his sense of oppression. He cannot respond +to any effort looking to the general good of the city while he smarts under +a sense of liberties curtailed by the very people who ask for his help. + +When President Roosevelt was Police Commissioner he enforced the law +governing the sale of liquor on Sunday. The city was torn asunder for +weeks. The discussion filled the columns of the daily press. The fact, +after weeks of discussion with one group of tenement-house women--all the +wives of skilled workers--was finally made clear that the law was at fault, +if fault there was, not the Commissioner. The law, if bad, must be +repealed; but as long as it was the law it must be enforced. During this +discussion much light was obtained. One woman told how cleverly the law +was evaded by the liquor dealer two doors from her house. He hired the back +room on the top floor of the house next door, keeping the liquor in a +closet. The men in the secret entered the house two doors distant, went up +to the roof and down the scuttle to the room where the liquor was to be +had. Some of the group listened to her description with flashing eyes. When +she finished she was given to understand that she had played the part of +traitor. It was all right for her to do it. She was safe. Her husband was +in a good, independent position; it made no difference to him how much +trouble came because of her "telling tales." To others it was a disgrace +that men who had only a few cents to spend for a little pleasure with their +friends should have to sneak like thieves, as one of the women expressed +it. All condemned having the liquor in their own homes in quantities, as +they condemned the illegal selling. "When a man sneaks in like that he +stays longer and spends more than when he can walk in openly and walk out +again as he does other days. When he has it in the house he never stops +treating and drinking until it's gone." The "free lunch" was deplored; but +every one of the forty-five women decided that it was the only meal fit to +eat that hundreds of laboring men ever had; that men were forced to eat at +lunch counters in barrooms and buy liquor who would never go there if +their mothers and wives knew how to cook. They claimed that the women would +cook for their families if they knew how. They did not know how. They were +forced to go to work in factories as soon as they left school, and never +had a chance to learn anything about housekeeping; their mothers never knew +how to keep house. Could a stronger argument for domestic science teaching +in our public schools be advanced? + +When the High License bill was before the Legislature at Albany several +years ago, the writer was asked to speak at a mothers' meeting in one of +the poorest sections of what was then the city of Brooklyn. On her way to +the mission she counted nineteen liquor saloons on three blocks; in every +case they were on the lower floor of a tenement house. The hall was over a +pork and provision store; a loft without any attempt at more than broom +cleanliness, walls bare, grimy, and seeming to ooze grease. The atmosphere +of smoked meat was sickening. Nothing in the way of a shelter could have +been more barren and repellent, yet it was a mission maintained by a +church. + +About one hundred women--the wives of day laborers and longshoremen--were +present. Some were bareheaded: several with babies in their arms. The +subject chosen was the High License bill. It was a discussion. At least ten +of the women spoke. The scene will never be forgotten. One woman, about +thirty, after listening intently, rose with a baby on her arm, and turning +passionately to those in the hall, said: "Why don't yer talk honest? Every +one of us drink. Some of us, not many, drink because we love it. Most of us +drink because we're discouraged and don't know what else to do. We're +fools; it don't help us; it makes it worse. Some of us would never touch it +if it were not brought to us. We know that anything that would take away +the drink from our doors would save us. Drive them out!" She turned to the +platform appealingly. "Drive them out, so that we, yes, and the men, would +have to walk four or five blocks to them, and we'll be different. It is +easy sending the children now. Make it harder! Make it harder!" + +"Shall we close them?" + +"You couldn't do it," she said. "You couldn't do that. Make it cost more to +start them, and there won't be so many. They'll be farther apart, and they +won't try so hard to make us drink. Many a woman has learned to drink +because she had to pass the holes to get to her home. Tell the truth like +me, or say whether I'm telling the truth!" was her appeal to the audience. + +The flood-gates were opened. Every woman agreed with the first speaker that +the saloon could never be abolished; it could be regulated. Beer, they +thought, to most women was a greater temptation than strong liquors. The +number of saloons near their homes they thought the heaviest burden the +poor man's family had to bear. They understood perfectly that the brewers +paid for the licenses, and that the saloons were the meeting places where +votes were controlled. They thought the saloons ought to be open at least +Sunday afternoon, but they would have them close earlier Saturday night. +They thought that any law that made a man a sneak to get a drink was an +evil. They saw that such a law enabled the politician to say which man +could sell liquor and which could not. One of them, who could neither read +nor write, had discovered that the saloons selling a certain brewer's beer +had more freedom than any of the saloons selling other beers; they thought +the saloon-keepers paid either in money or drinks for the votes of the men +who frequented their places in the interest of the politicians who owned +the saloons or protected them. There was not the slightest evidence that +one woman there saw any dishonesty in the system. There were no principles +in politics, only men. Things remained with them the same no matter who was +elected. It was a district which was under the control of one party, having +an unquestioned majority, which steadily increased through the efforts of a +shrewd leader who had no visible means of support. + +The section in which this group of women lived was a long, narrow strip +bordering on the East River. The residences of a population each occupying +its own house at this time held the reeking tenements in check on the east. +Within ten years this has been wholly changed. The handsome old residences +have become tenement houses, overcrowded, uncared for, occupied by people +now at the level of former despised neighbors. The better class of the +laborers' families have left the houses bordering on the river, and these +have been given over to the poorest and most hopeless of the day laborers. +There is a thoroughfare which has stores brilliantly lighted for five +blocks. Every want of the people can be supplied in them. The people, old +and young, settle placidly in the region. It is their world. The language +of the little children on the streets, from early morning until late at +night, is appalling. A kindergarten was started, but the people who started +it did not have money enough to secure the right kind of a room, nor to +make the room attractive, nor to keep it so clean that that would in itself +make it more attractive than the homes of the children. It was finally +given up, because even the small amount expended was not forthcoming at the +end of the third year. It could have had four times the number of children +the room would accommodate at one time, but no one cared enough to support +it. + +[Illustration: A SOCIAL CENTER BECOMES POLITICAL.] + +The half-grown boys are coarse-looking, use profane and coarse language +unknowingly in their ordinary conversation on the street. Their attitude +toward girls is brutal. The girls of this section are free in their +manners, slangy and coarse in their conversation. They earn the lowest +wages paid to women in the factories and lofts that abound in the region. +The schoolhouses are old and dark; the streets are neglected and dirty. The +smoky, grimy mission-room disappeared long ago. Not one influence is at +work to raise the general moral tone of this community, the voting power of +which outnumbers four to one regions where every influence in and out of +the homes tends to develop moral standards and political intelligence in +the same political unit. + +The region is a social plague spot, neglected and allowed to spread. It +does not present as a special feature to arouse activity the evils of the +"Red Light" district, but only the blasting influence of a region sunk in +the apathy of deadened moral natures, killed by the hopelessness of +changing the environment of their homes until it represents all they ask of +life. The poverty of the people makes well-nourished bodies impossible, and +lack of physical power makes moral resistance impossible. + +Recently in one of the most crowded of the tenement-house sections of New +York, where the grip of poverty holds degradation, where the people live as +remote from American civilization as when in their own land, the writer +viewed the parade in the evening of the voters of the district, who had +been the guests of the district leader, a State Senator, at an outing. +These outings are the annual "round-ups" of the voters. The expenses of +these outings run into the five figures, it is said, in this district. +Boats and a grove are hired. Chowder, coffee, sandwiches and beer are +provided free. Games of chance, to which, it is whispered, the district +leaders are not disinterested observers, and athletics are the features of +the outings. The return at night is an occasion for fireworks and a parade. +Caps and canes are provided for the voters often; sometimes only a ribbon +badge. The expenses are met by the sale of tickets, which sometimes sell +as high as five dollars. These tickets the liquor dealers, in fact, the +tradesmen of all kinds in the district, men holding office under the city +government who are affiliated with the leader and the men who hope to +secure rights or privileges, legal or illegal, through the leader's +influence, know it is wise to purchase. To the mass of the men of the +district it means perhaps the one day of freedom in the year, when they +have the pleasure of enjoying drinks and food wholly at the cost of +another. + +In this particular parade were five thousand men, not one thousand of whom +bore the slightest outward evidence of American citizenship, but the right +to vote, as their presence in the column indicated. It scarcely seemed +possible that the scene was in America. Swarthy women and children crowded +gayly decorated fire-escapes, crowded the windows, and made movement +impossible on the streets. Arches of lights, lanterns swinging from +fire-escapes and on ropes from sidewalks to roofs, were in the colors of +the land from which these people came. The flags and bunting displayed +presented colors of a foreign land, with here and there the flag of the +country whose political destiny their votes controlled to a large degree. +The next day the white caps worn by the men in this parade appeared on the +heads of schoolboys and working boys by the hundred, the wearers proud to +wear the colors of the man who, so far as their knowledge or experience, or +that of their parents, went, was the greatest man, the man of the widest +range of authority, in the United States. What do they care who is at the +head of the city government? The men do not need to ask who is the district +leader; he finds them through his unpaid workers and the coalition is +accomplished. Soon the immigrant, turned citizen, understands the +principle. He gets work and votes for the leader. It is simple and direct. +When the extent of one's knowledge enables him to handle a broom or to sell +peanuts or bananas in the new country, and that under the supervision of a +blue-coated tyrant who levies on the voter's cart, if not his pocket, when +and where he pleases, moral arguments in a foreign tongue are not +convincing to that voter. He would rather not submit to the supervision and +its attendant tax; he would rather not have his work intermittent; but he +learns that protest increases his evils, and he submits. The blue-coated +tyrant is a friend of the "boss" who helped get his license, and it must be +right. Whatever comes to him, he must not antagonize the "boss." That is +the first lesson he learns in American citizenship, at the point where it +is most effective, his wage-earning privileges. + +[Illustration: A DOORWAY ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +There are leaders so strong and tactful that year after year their reign is +unquestioned. Only the police and the ambulance surgeons know when there is +an attempted revolution--when the leader's right is questioned by another +would-be leader. There is only one issue--the man; nobody cares for the +principle--if there be a difference of principle--involved. + +In one of the old sections of the city in which is a ward that for forty +years has excelled in crime; a section which at the present time presents +the meanest and lowest of the tenements in New York; in which there is less +effort to counteract the evils of the environment of the homes or change +the environment due to the control of the "boss" than in any other section, +a political feud culminated in the fall of 1901, defeating the man who had +been the leader for years. It was stated that the man who won had expended +$35,000; the man who lost, $12,000 in the struggle. This is a section where +poverty is the universal inheritance of the people who make this section +home. + +For weeks the section was in a condition of constant warfare. The smallest +boys were organized as gangs and shouted the name of the leader they had +chosen their hero. Boys of five wore the buttons of their heroes. From +fire-escapes, on wagons hung bits of white cloth declaring the names of +the contestants. One of these, to avoid unpleasant embarrassment, had gone +to California after the Lexow investigation. A favorite legend displayed by +his enemy's friends was, "Paddy is the man who to Californy ran." This was +displayed on one fire-escape on which opened the windows of two families, +each espousing the cause of the contending leaders. The week before the +balloting for leader the legend was kept in place by the constant vigilance +for twenty-four hours of the day by the family whose sentiments it +expressed. "Paddy" was defeated. The next morning the two neighbors, who +had been enemies for weeks, leaned, each from her own window, chatting +amicably, while the son of one was arranging the legend on the fire-escape +to include both families. On either side was gracefully arranged an +American flag, while the harp of Erin hung just in the middle of the +fire-escape. Peace reigned in Warsaw. "Paddy's" friends, like the fairies +of childhood, disappeared in the night. The whole district, as one man, +accepted the change of rulers, and the new leader's banners were thrown to +the breeze everywhere. Nothing succeeds like success in the tenement-house +regions. For a couple of weeks peace seemed to reign in the district. The +followers of the old leader found themselves displaced; new followers +controlled the favors in the district. There began a new distribution of +patronage. Then the old leader's displaced friends, with a few loyal souls, +rallied about him. He had made money enough through his political +affiliations to be defiant, and announced that the political corruption of +the party to which he had belonged compelled him to rally to the support of +the movement to overthrow it. Some of his followers were loyal to bravery, +and declared, too, against the political system. Two of them, because of +these declarations, were discharged forty-eight hours later from places in +a city department where they drew salaries of $1200 per year. Their places +were given to two of the new leader's followers. Two weeks later all had +returned to the old allegiance, and the papers announced that the head of +the Tammany system had decided that the patronage of the district would be +evenly divided between the two factions. + +Independence of action is costly under such a system; costly in loss of +wages to the voter; of food, raiment, shelter to his family. + +A voter who refuses to surrender the ease of his home or the pleasure of +his club for the good of the district in which his home is located is not +in a position to criticise his poor neighbor who will not jeopardize the +position secured by his vote that supports his family to maintain the +theory of American citizenship. Why should he make sacrifices to free the +city from disgrace when his independent neighbor refuses to sacrifice his +ease to protect his family from the inevitable evils of a corrupt city +government? + +It was the conferring the rights of citizenship on immigrants almost as +soon as they landed that fastened on New York an evil that has grown until +the city has been held in the shackles of a spoils system that overshadows +its commercial supremacy and makes it the argument against democratic +government. The heaviest disgrace for this condition rests not on the men +who profit by the system but on the good men who permit it to develop. It +was the logical result of their indifference to the city's good and their +responsibility for that good. This inactivity on the part of the mass of +responsible citizens made the control of the city offices for personal ends +easy to the men who, because of lack of training and moral turpitude, could +not conceive of a service for other than personal ends. Shrewdness made +them see that the immigrant was the ladder on which they could climb to +political power and stability. They met the immigrant as friend and +neighbor; they secured him work; they schooled him to citizenship, and +began at once to train him in that deadliest of all influences in a +democracy, class in politics. So long as this system of education prevails, +the appearance of a candidate for local office who does not bear the +"hall-mark" of the neighborhood will be resented. + +[Illustration: EARLY MORNING AMONG THE PUSHCARTS.] + +As time went on and the immigrants came from many countries, a new evil +sprang up--the race section; the section where, maintaining all the +characteristics of the country from which the people came, the men exercise +the rights of citizenship at the behest of a political trainer who is able +to promise favors for obedience, and work vengeance for disobedience. +Behind him is a power which he must obey until the day comes when by his +own shrewdness he is able to cross swords with those above him in the +political system, becoming himself a dictator. In the process of his +evolution from ward heeler to district leader he has trained those who +follow him so well that he duplicates himself scores of times, increasing +his power every time he makes a follower, either by fear or favor, +perpetuating the system that makes the city, as has been aptly said, a +"gold mine" which it costs the operators nothing to work. + +The man at the bottom knows the duplicate of the leader nearest his own +level; this man is his friend, his countryman often. The links in the +chain are unbroken, and the man who dares to disobey the orders issued from +the top feels not only the displeasure of the henchman, but the combined +strength of the chain, or as much of it as is necessary to compel him to +obey or to crush him. The poor man whose tool to earn a living is a shovel, +a pick or a broom is not in a position to defend his rights; he has no +public sentiment in the only world he knows to support him in any attempt +he may make to attain his rights when defrauded by the political system he, +in utter ignorance, has helped to establish. When he is thrown out of work +given to secure his vote, he has no redress. The man at the bottom must +make the rule of his life "Small favors thankfully received." His hope for +work in the future depends on keeping in friendly touch with the system; +this is the first principle of American citizenship grasped by the +naturalized citizen. + +Just before our last national election a number of men employed in skilled +labor in one of our city departments were laid off. To some of those men +this loss of work meant suffering for their families; to others it meant +debt and dependence. It was startling the spirit in which this loss of work +and wages were accepted by these men. The district leader, elected by the +people to make the laws at Albany, in order "to hold his district in line" +for this election, had to provide forty-eight voters with places. He +demanded from the department forty-eight places; the work was in his +district. No one questioned his right to make this demand; these places +represented his political capital. In no way could his demands be met +except by the discharge of forty-eight men then at work who lived outside +the district. It was done. The men laid off, almost to a man, accepted it +as the fortune of the political protégé. Scarcely a word of resentment was +expressed. There were removals into this special district before the next +municipal election, and new enrollments under the leader's banner, +irrespective of the political bias of the voters. Some of the men were +sullen and felt the loss of manhood; some said, "I'll vote as I like, but I +must have work;" others believed that only under this leader's banner could +a poor man hope to get his rights--the privilege to earn his living; or, in +their language, "He is hustling for his friends." + +Not only does the skilled and unskilled manual laborer find that the +approval of his district leaders is necessary to secure work under the +city, but that the affiliations and power of the district leader and his +political followers can secure him work under corporations holding public +franchises. He knows that the district leader secures privileges, +licenses, votes for franchises, directly or indirectly, with the distinct +understanding that his recommendations insure places to the men who carry +them. Under corrupt city government the man in business who does not cater +to the political powers finds his privileges curtailed; that he is made the +target for petty annoyances. Especially is this true in the downtown +districts, where in the transaction of business the rights of citizens to +the streets are ignored. Until one has lived close to it, it is almost +impossible to believe the power over the working masses the smallest cog in +the political machine exercises. It is this that makes imperative the +control of the city by men of high moral standing. No amount of unselfish +philanthropy can save a city governed by the corrupt. + +There are sections in the city of New York where from the time the boy is +old enough to recognize the power of a policeman he guides his life to +curry favor with this visible expression of power. He knows almost as soon +as he can talk the man who rules in the world in which he lives. He sees +his playmate defy the policeman because his father is a man of power, or +the friend of the man who rules the district. "Pull" is the law, all the +law he recognizes. He hears discussed from his earliest years the +dependence of his class on the political powers who govern, not for the +good of the city, but that they may have their rights; their rights, as +interpreted, being the securing of a place for a longer or shorter period +at the nod of a "boss." Their district is all the city thousands of the +inhabitants of these sections know. How can it be otherwise? They are never +called for any purpose to any other part of the city, unless it be the +cemetery. Family, friends, business all center within a score of blocks. If +a distance must be traversed, it is through thoroughfares that but +duplicate regions they know, all a part of the kingdom of the "boss." + +When the observer sees five thousand men walking behind a banner conferred +on the leader of the district because every man in it who votes votes at +his dictation, there comes to him a faint apprehension of what political +power in the tenement-house district is. This district leader interprets +all these men know of this country or its institutions. They know that he +secures work for them; that he befriends them in time of trouble. He +interprets Christ's doctrine to them: "I was hungry and ye gave me meat; +thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and +ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came +unto me." This is what the district leader does, if not in person, by +proxy. Is it any wonder he can control votes? Is it any wonder that the +poor, ignorant, unequipped voter should curry favor, bow to him, +acknowledge his supremacy even to the law? For this the voter can break the +law, and the leader secure remission of the penalty. The leader's nod has +been known to guide the judge on the bench. The leader can make the +innocent suffer because his power is greater than the law to which the +innocent appeal. This is the moral doctrine with which we inoculate our +newly made citizens, and under which the children of our overcrowded +tenement houses grow up. As the boys approach manhood they know no greater +privilege than to serve the man who has the power to give them place, and +he begins to cultivate their acquaintance early. + +It takes brains, moral standards, a knowledge of life and experience to put +the district leaders and their cohorts in the place they belong. Talking +against them accomplishes nothing while the majority he represents keeps +him in power, yes, makes him possible. He makes morality an evil, +dishonesty justice to the people who know him as the representative of +republican principles. They are the people. They have left one land because +it deprived them of rights. Rights as they know them are personal, and the +district leader secures them. + +[Illustration: MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD.] + +The opposition to the reform movement by the people governed by the +district leader comes from the conviction, dimly conceived or implanted, +that the election of the men who represent it would mean that everywhere +merit and not "pull" would keep the voter at work; that business would have +to be conducted according to law; that crime would be punished; that no man +would hold the keys of the prison for their benefit, but for the protection +of the community. + +One of the greatest moral lessons administered to the people of New York in +a language that all understood, and one which all classes in the community +needed, was given by the late Colonel George E. Waring. When he organized +the Department of Street Cleaning on the merit system; when he proved to +every man in the department that if he did his work no man could displace +him; that he could defend himself, a man before men, if charges were +brought against him, Colonel Waring changed the moral character of New +York. Every man in that department had his friends to whom he carried the +message; stood a free man employed by the city; a man who dared to vote as +he would though in public service; would not be deprived of the right to +earn his daily bread because of the use he made of his rights as an +American citizen. This moral lesson went into every home. The woman whose +husband handled a broom, drove a cart, held her head up, for the magic D. +S. C. had changed a "job" that enslaved her husband to an employment that +honored him. + +The enforcement of the law in the gathering of the garbage; the cleanliness +of the streets in the tenement-house districts equal to those of the +avenues, for the first time in generations brought the great truth to the +consciousness of the people in the tenement-house regions that all men were +equal. That the clean streets led to clean halls and cleaner homes was +natural; and the further evolution meant clean characters, because of moral +freedom to express opinion in a ballot cast at no man's command. + +And then came the summers when, for the sake of the children, extra +exertions were made to keep the streets clean. Slowly the truth dawned on +the dullest mother that the babies were not dying in such numbers; were not +so ill, because the streets were clean, the garbage collected and the +streets washed and cool. Twenty years of Colonel Waring, and the moral tone +of the most ignorant would be changed. For the right to earn his living +honestly, honorably, to cast his ballot as an American citizen, would be +guaranteed to every voter employed in a city department employing the +greatest number of voters with the least manual ability, the least +education. + +A city is just as honest as the greatest number of citizens casting a +ballot with the least knowledge of its value and effect; it comes no higher +in the scale of integrity than that. Every man who stands behind a broom +because he earns what is paid him, and knows that he stays there just as +long as he continues to earn his wages, represents a wealth of manhood in a +democracy, a part of the nation's capital as a world power. + +When Colonel Waring discharged the first man convicted of accepting a bribe +for collecting the refuse of the city contrary to the law of the +department, he gave a practical demonstration of the truth of the +Declaration of Independence that all men are born free and equal. He showed +by that act that the poor man who could not pay a bribe was protected by +the law; that wealth purchased no privileges at the expense of the city. +Just where the spoils system had worked its deepest degradation it received +its most effective lesson. The greatest benefit that Colonel Waring, that +man of law and order, conferred upon New York, was not its clean streets, +but the moral lesson that a city department can be administered to secure +the best interests of the people on the principles that control the best +business houses of the city. + +To the shame of the city be it said that it had so long been accustomed to +the spoils system that it could not accept the theory of Colonel Waring. It +was impossible for even the philanthropic workers to believe that a man +would not be placed, if they used their personal "pull" with the head of +the department. The politicians learned quickly that the system in that +department ignored "pull." When they did accept it, they determined to +overthrow the man who robbed the spoils system of its largest perquisite +where it was most effective in numbers. The combination of the political +machines accomplished the city's disgrace in 1897. It was redeemed in 1901 +by a people who had suffered cruelly; who saw in the four years of misrule +that they had made their own chains of bondage. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HOMES UNDER ONE ROOF. + + +The importance of environment is at last admitted as a factor in +character-building. That light and air are indispensable to cleanliness, +and physical cleanliness to health, and health to morals, is the gospel +that the evils of the tenements have forced the philanthropists to declare +until the thinking public is convinced of its truth. + +There are tenement houses that have reputations as positive as individuals. +Thoughtful, intelligent wives of working-men would not, could not be +persuaded to move into them because of their reputations. Often the evils +of these tenements are justly attributed to the housekeepers. Housekeepers +of tenements are women who pay the whole or a part of their rent by +overseeing the house; attending to the cleaning, collecting the rents, +letting the rooms, adjusting differences between tenants--"a go-between" +between the agent or the owner and the tenants. The owner or agent +employing these women upholds their decisions when differences between the +tenants and housekeepers arise. This clothes them with great authority, +and often enables them to do great injustice. They are feared usually. +Families will endure restrictions of liberties, every deprivation of their +rights, because protest would mean eviction or discomforts that would +compel them to move. + +Under some agents and owners these housekeepers have absolute control of +the property. They frequently make and enforce rules that utterly ignore +the rights of tenants. This rule is often as absolute as though they were +the owners of the house. Strange as it may seem, this class of housekeepers +usually make the property under their control pay; they usually keep up the +character of the houses under their control because they have standards and +compel those about them to live up to them. + +[Illustration: A REMNANT OF THE PAST.] + +On an East Side street a few blocks from the East River are four 27-foot +front houses of the English-basement type. The plan of these houses +indicates that they were designed as residences for people of ample means. +The halls are broad, the stairways wide, ascending in recesses on the first +floor that leaves the entrance halls clear from front to rear doorways. The +yards of these four houses, wide and deep, are paved with broad flagging +stones, such as are used on the sidewalks. The fences are kept in good +order and well painted. Not a child living in these four houses dares to +play in those yards. The housekeeper--one woman has charge of the four +houses--would order them out. If the children did not leave at once, +complaint would be made to the mothers; and if they did not uphold the +housekeeper and insist that the children play in the street, the mothers +who failed would have to move. Every mother-tenant knows this well. A +mother of three children who had lived in these houses all her married +life, when asked why the children could not play in the yard, where she +could watch them, replied: "Why, if the children played in the yard they +would make a lot of work for the housekeeper. She would not stand it." This +mother's tone indicated that she thought the housekeeper was right. The +youngest of the three children in another family living in these houses was +ill all winter. When convalescent, the doctor ordered him to be kept out of +doors as much as possible. The mother had all the work to do for five in +family, and had to devise some means of keeping the child out that would +not interfere with her work. She arranged the fire-escape outside of the +window, putting pillows and toys out there. The little fellow climbed over +the rail and struck a stone beneath, breaking his arms. + +"Why did you not put him in the yard, where you could watch him, and where +he could run about?" + +"Oh! the housekeeper would be so angry; I wouldn't dare." + +"Must you keep the children out of the yard?" + +"Yes; they would make an awful lot of work for the housekeeper." + +Investigation proved that the owner of this property supported the +housekeeper in depriving even the babies of the use of these yards. A +mother could not roll a baby carriage around the yards, because her older +children, if she had any, would be sure to go into the yards to see her. +The rents for four rooms, two absolutely dark, ventilated through the dark +and unventilated halls by a window eighteen inches square, were $22, $20 +and $18 per month, respectively, for each floor. The streets in front are +overcrowded, dirty; when the trucks were in the streets, two were always +standing in front of these houses. Push-carts now replace the trucks. + +The people stay in these houses year after year. A bill never appears on +them. The arbitrary restriction as to the use of the yard is not counted +against the property, because it is so clean, kept in such good repair, and +the character of the people scrutinized before they are accepted as +tenants. It is generally understood that the renting of furnished rooms is +not approved. The housekeeper finds a tenant who rents rooms objectionable. +In a neighborhood where every house shows year after year a loss of +character, people poorer and more ignorant becoming tenants, these four +houses retain the appearance of comfort and respectability. Among the +tenants there is but little intimacy; they appear to have little in common. +The women are never heard in the halls, nor do they loiter about the +doorways. The men are all skilled workmen, earning good wages--clerks on +small salaries, or in city departments, all natives of New York. The wives +were all wage-earners before they were married. They dress well; most of +them are fairly good housekeepers. All buy their children's clothes ready +made; two make their own dresses. For their children they are ambitious, +and expect to keep them in school until they are sixteen. This the children +defeat. The boys get places during the summer vacations in their fourteenth +year, refusing to go back to school. The girls are contented until +fourteen, and then they grow restless, becoming wage-earners; all that they +earn is spent for their clothes. The wages of the father may no more than +meet the expenses of the family, but this is not considered. Clothes are +the essentials. A man having a salary of $1,400, living in one of these +houses, had to go in debt the first week of a serious illness of his wife. +He did not have a dollar in advance to meet emergencies. He was a proud, +indulgent, tender husband and father. + +This type of house and this class of tenants are disappearing from the East +Side. The remnant of this class who remain are held by political +affiliations or family ties. The men enjoy the sense of power that comes +from this connection, and realize fully that to leave the district would +mean a loss of social prestige, or, if minor politicians, a loosening of +their hold on the people to whom they represent political power. Many of +this class remain in the section because they hold positions in the city +departments in return for active service in the interest of the political +machines. + +Not far away from these tenements is another in which are sixteen families. +The rents in this house range from $5 to $9.50 per month for two to three +rooms. The house is dirty, neglected; violations of the sanitary laws are +evident from the front door to the roof, on which tenants occupying the +front rooms must dry their clothes. The water is in the dark halls; in +winter, for days at a time, the pipes, both water and drain, are frozen and +burst; yet the tenants stay year after year. One woman, the mother of four +children, was born, married, her four children were born, and her husband, +mother and father died in this house. She has never moved, except across +the hall, up and downstairs, as she has been able to pay more or has been +forced to reduce her rent. The women in this house know almost nothing of +housekeeping. The men are employed only about half the time. The number of +children in the house averages three to each family. It is a New England +hamlet under one roof in this particular. If there is sickness in any +family, it is the concern of every tenant; if a man is out of work, it is a +community misfortune, and to be shared. A new hat for man or woman is the +cause of rejoicing, for it is the badge of respectability for any in the +house who may need it in an emergency. The whole household, for such it +seems to be, are poor, very poor; thriftless, unambitious; the men somewhat +given to drink to excess; yet the spirit of neighborliness shames +criticism. A woman in this house ill four months was nursed by her +neighbors night and day. Her house and children were cared for, food +provided when necessary. Comment on their loyalty and devotion was met with +the response: "God knows how soon she may be doing it for one of us." Yet +when that woman, whom most of them had known all her life, gave evidence of +pregnancy a few months after her husband's death, not a woman crossed her +doorsill until the birth of twin babies within the period of time redeemed +her character. Whether from remorse or love, ample return for this cruelty +has been made many times. + +In the two-room apartments in this house there is one closet, with shelves +about six inches wide. This is in the one room that serves as living-room, +kitchen, dining-room--a room less than eight feet wide. The bedroom is +perfectly dark, ventilated by a square window into perfectly dark, +unventilated halls. A full-sized bed leaves the width of the door between +it and the wall. The three-room apartments have outside windows--five to +the three rooms. There is a closet in the kitchen and one in the large +room. People talk of poverty, but few people know what it is. A woman who +had moved into the three-room apartment had hung all the clothing for five +in family in the one bedroom on four nails. In reply to a protest, she said +patiently and quietly: "There are no hooks in the closet in the front room, +and I hadn't a penny to buy any." Ten cents provided that closet with +hooks. A comment was made on the keeping of the washtub under the kitchen +table. "Why do you not have the tub carried to the cellar?" An expression +of self-pity passed over the woman's face as she explained that the tub +would have to be carried down three flights of stairs, out on the street, +around the corner, down the cellar stairs, and then to her coal cellar at +the extreme end of the cellar. + +The house stands on a corner, the entrance from the street at the extreme +end of the west wall. The cellar door was formerly close to the entrance +door, but the landlord built in the back end of the cellar an oven when a +baker hired the store on the first floor. A cellar door was then opened at +the farthest part of the front, or south wall, one hundred and twenty-five +feet from the entrance door of the house. Is it surprising that coal is +bought by the pail by all the tenants? That tubs are kept anywhere in their +rooms where there is space? + +Shiftlessness, thriftless uncleanliness marks even the sidewalk about this +house. The dirt inside or out troubles nobody. Children will spill half the +contents of the garbage pail they are carrying to the cans in the tiny +yard, in halls and on the stairway. It is kicked out of the way without +comment. Dogs or cats, and ofttimes both, are members of the families who +live under this roof. The unsanitary conditions of the closets in the yard +arouse pity for the tenants on the first floor; but no tenant thinks of +complaining to either the housekeeper or the authorities. It would be +useless, and would get them into trouble. The present owner is willing to +kalsomine the bedrooms and halls each spring, but the tenants object +because it makes a lot of work. + +In August, two years ago, the writer was going up the first flight of +stairs in this house, when a baby voice was heard pleading: "Pease tum +fas'er; oh, pease tum fas'er; I 'ant to do p'ay; I 'ant to doe on steet; +pease tum fas'er." On the third floor a tiny boy stood in front of the sink +talking to the faucet, from which a tiny stream was flowing into a little +tin pail. An infant's voice from one of the rooms told the story. The +mother needed water and could not leave the baby. Perhaps this was the tiny +nurse of mother and baby, big enough to call a neighbor to do what he could +not do. + +When it is remembered that this stream of water from the faucet represented +the water supply for four families, the difficulties of cleanliness under +those conditions may be slightly appreciated. In spite of the dirt, the +darkness, the unsanitary conditions of this house, the thriftlessness and +ignorance of the tenants, there is a spirit of neighborliness in it that +puts the critical to blush. Without a doubt the housekeeper, who is a +shrewd woman, fosters this spirit of neighborliness. She smiles as she +says: "They gets so used to each other they hates to be separated." Neither +house nor tenants seem to go below the level established twelve years ago. + +There is a housekeeper who does mission work of which the world takes no +note. She is the woman who in the true sense is an altruist. By her force +of character, her hatred of inefficiency, her love of order, she compels +the women who become tenants who do not know how to keep house to learn +how. + +The writer knows intimately such a housekeeper. She had charge of a +four-story tenement on the lower East Side. The house was of the type known +as "double decker." There were four apartments on each floor; the front +consisting of a kitchen, living-room and two bedrooms; the back, of one +room and two bedrooms. Small windows near the ceiling in kitchen and +bedrooms opened on a narrow space between this and the next house, which +was an old-fashioned residence. A similar opening in that house enabled the +neighbors to look into each other's rooms. Water and refuse were thrown +into this space between the two houses, and sometimes into the rooms of +neighbors unintentionally. There was war, bitter war, because of this; for +the large tenement was occupied by a part of the remnant having social +standards left on the lower East Side. + +There was water in all the kitchens of the large tenement. The halls were +absolutely dark, but were free from the nuisances of hallways having sinks. +Stairs and halls were covered with light oilcloth, the stairs having brass +treads on the edge. Everything was kept as clean as soap, water and +muscular strength could keep it. + +The first visit was made to this house long before Colonel Waring had shown +what clean streets would do in the tenement-house districts. On the street +curb in front of the door stood three ash barrels filled within three +inches of the top, carefully covered with newspapers tucked in around the +edge of the contents. This indicates the standards of this housekeeper. She +hated dirt and disorder. She could not be happy where it was. She forced by +tact, coercion, persuasion, any and every means, her way to the heart and +home of every ignorant housekeeper who came under that roof. She taught +cooking by sending cake, bread, soup she had made to the tenants, and +arousing the desire in them to learn how to make that particular dish. She +instituted an exchange of skill among the tenants. The woman who could make +a dress and not a hat exchanged skill with the one who had been a milliner. +The woman who made bread and failed with cake exchanged skill with the +cakemaker. They even took turns in going to the theatre, the neighbor +staying home and taking care of the children. + +The property was more valuable every year; no bill appeared at the door. It +stood apart from its neighbors for years. This housekeeper was compelled to +give up her responsibility and left the house, as she wisely said: "No one +would manage it in my way. I could not get on in peace." Six months after +every tenant had moved but the liquor dealer; and even his bar-room had +sunk to a lower level. A building in which many homes might be maintained +is now merely a place of shelter. People move in and out; no relations are +established; there is nothing to hold the tenant here above any other +house. The owner has sold the property, hating its present character. + +Again, tenants will be the victims of vindictive housekeepers, who for any +and no reason will begin a system of petty persecutions to compel a tenant +to move. Then there is the gossiping housekeeper, who keeps the tenants at +war. It is no secret that the method of rent collecting of some +housekeepers holds tenants year after year. They will take the rent in the +smallest sums, daily or weekly. By the end of the month they will usually +have the full amount collected. The houses where this system prevails are +the most objectionable. The tenants for this leniency endure positive +evils. The important thing is a place of shelter for the family. Work is +uncertain, or long periods of idleness has made the payment of rent +impossible for a period. The housekeeper understands and becomes +responsible for keeping the tenant until the rent is paid. In return the +tenants endure neglect of duty on the part of the housekeeper. Silence is +their expression of gratitude. No repairs are made, for none are demanded. +The house sinks lower and lower; anybody can move in on the payment of part +of a month's rent. The vacant rooms are dirty--give visible evidence of the +presence of vermin; but the family evicted with only half a month's rent in +hand cannot afford to be critical. This is the house that makes the slum. + +Two housekeepers of tenements were discussing owners and tenants before the +writer. One was rigid, keeping the house astonishingly clean, with rooms +rarely vacant; the other, always in trouble with the tenants, always having +some one to evict, threw the blame for her troubles on the tenants. The +first one listened, finally saying slowly: "No, you are the one. You get +cross and abuse the children. You make pets of some children and some +mothers, and the others see it and get mad. Then there is a fight. To keep +a house you must treat everybody the same. You must make good rules; you +must do your part and make every tenant do her part. I've had two of the +tenants you put out of your house five years. They are good tenants; watch +yourself." + +[Illustration: A TYPE OF THE PRESENT.] + +There are landlords who care for nothing but the income from their +property. Any kind of tenant who will pay rent is acceptable. Any +housekeeper who collects the specified amount may hold control without +question. The housekeeper may have standards, but these are swept aside by +the exactions of the landlord. The rents in such houses are usually high, +because there is such a percentage of loss in rents. This house also +contributes to the creation of the slum. + +The careless and apparently malicious destruction of property by tenants is +not appreciated by those who touch this question of tenement houses +superficially. No means has yet been found to make the tenement-house +population understand that the abuse of property is a factor in their rent +problem. Within a year the writer was walking with a group of women, two of +whom were housekeepers in tenement houses. This question of tenants was +being discussed freely by the women who were tenants as well as the +housekeepers. It was interesting to find that all agreed that one family +could change the character of a tenement house for the worst, but one +family could not improve its character. The reason was that the family +above the tenement came only to reduce their rent during a hard time, while +the family with evil tendencies stayed until they were put out, to go into +a cheaper tenement and lower that. They agreed that where housekeeper and +tenant got on well together both hated a change. The two things that +dragged down the character of a tenement was beer-drinking and destructive +children--children allowed to "run wild." These women insisted that there +never would be quarrels in tenement houses were it not for these two +causes. A woman who drank beer would invite her new neighbors to drink. +They would treat in return, and the house would show it at once. The women +who drink beer in this fashion grow careless of their persons and their +homes; they get rid of their children, who soon learn to enjoy the freedom +from control. The children destroy the property first in play, through +carelessness, and later grow malicious. + +If a housekeeper is sharp and shrewd, these women tenants claimed that she +could at any time get rid of an objectionable tenant; but the housekeepers +held that if the owner did not care for anything but rents, the +housekeeper was often compelled to let in and keep in objectionable +tenants. They admitted, one and all, that houses fairly indicated the +character of the people who would live in them, and that rents regulated +the class of tenants to a very great degree. They admitted that at times +one could find tenants who had lived for many years in one house where +conditions had changed for the worst. But it was unusual. People now +selected houses where those of their own faith, and, if foreign, those of +their own nationality, at least predominated. That this tendency was seen +more and more every year. This group of women were among the remnant of +Christians left on the lower East Side. All had been born there of Irish +parentage. They lived in the houses bordering on the edge of the East +River--old houses on the plan of the first tenements erected in New York, +or in houses designed for one family and now holding four to eight. Two of +them lived in houses built in a row erected eighty-three years ago. They +were two-story, dormer windows and basement frame houses, built without an +area, the door to the basements opening like a cellar door on the street. +These basements were occupied by a family each. Fourteen of these houses +are still standing. The people in this section live a life entirely their +own. They have been crowded out, the more prosperous, by the Hebrews, +while the remnant find themselves hemmed in by them. + +These people live in the confines of a Roman Catholic parish that twenty +years ago contained nearly eleven thousand souls of that faith. Three years +ago the priest in charge estimated his parish at less than four thousand, +and that four thousand remained because they were too poor to get away, he +declared. + +The Hebrews, as tenants will, on the same block show many social grades, +many degrees of poverty and prosperity, many stages of development in +American civilization. There is a sense of feeling of brotherhood that +other people lack. The houses will range from the most uncleanly, ill-kept, +to the new tenement with ornate entrance and modern improvements. The most +modern will, on entering, be found with walls marked and broken when the +wood-work is new. No one seems troubled by this destruction. The +housekeeper does not struggle, for it is expected and charged for in the +rent. Plumbing is of the simplest, for it is expected to present the +largest percentage of loss in the administration of the property. One of +the most elaborate of the new tenements erected on the lower East Side was +visited three months after it was occupied. Every hallway from top to +bottom of the house had broken plaster and was marked by pencil and crayon. +The plumber was then a daily visitor. This house a year afterward bore on +the interior evidences that years of hard usage might have brought. The +housekeeper collected rents and attended to the garbage. She was utterly +indifferent to the appearance of the house, which, intended for prosperous +families, was a nest of sweat-shops, where even children of six and seven +were employed. The rents had been collected; that was the owner's only +requirement. + +The West Side is congested, because manufacture and storehouses are +displacing the houses. Rents are high, and the houses for the most part old +residences occupied by several families. The people, generally, are +Americans. They are deeply attached to this old section, because it is +their birthplace; and for many of them an even deeper attachment prevails, +for this section was the birthplace of parents. The houses often are found +to have lifelong friends, often relatives, as tenants. The tenants keep the +halls and stairways clean in turn, and the houses generally are well kept +up. Here one tenant is allowed a rebate on rent for renting rooms, +collecting the rent, caring for the sidewalk and stoop, the garbage and +ash-cans. The majority of the people in this section are Protestants. The +Protestant churches are well maintained. The Trinity Corporation supports +kindergartens, cooking and sewing schools. The Judson Memorial is a very +attractive gymnasium, that brings children from as far west as the North +River. The Methodist Church holds many who in no other section could find +the same equality and freedom. The vocabulary of the people through this +section shows the effect of the newer activities in the modern churches; +the effect of the enlarging interests of the children in art and nature +through the public school education. + +While the people are living on small incomes, often on uncertain incomes, +life is lived at a much higher level than on the East Side. Children are +not so precocious in evil knowledge. This difference is due largely to the +fact that the houses contain three and four families at the most; that the +apartment houses in the section are beyond the reach of any but the skilled +working man. He holds his own at high rental in the house that shelters but +three other families like his own. His neighbors are people of like +ambitions as his own, and demand what he demands. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN A WORKINGMAN'S HOME.] + +The housekeepers in this section differ essentially in their relation to +the tenants from those of the more heterogeneous population of the East +Side of the city. One resemblance is recognized--the effect of the +character of the housekeeper. Here, as on the East Side, to a very large +degree, the comfort, health, peace and good-will of the tenants in every +house depends on the character and the spirit of the woman who controls the +property for the landlord. + +The law of natural selection holds good. The housekeeper holds the tenants +who are satisfied with the conditions she creates. They, especially the +children, develop in habits of cleanliness, in care of property, in respect +for the rights of others, as the rules of the house enforced by the +housekeeper compel. It is in her power to get rid of those who do not +accept her dictates, let them be what they may--just or unjust. The +housekeeper will make her presence felt. If she violates the law in the +disposal of garbage outside of the house, tenants will violate the law she +makes for them in the care and disposal of garbage inside the house. If she +is compelled to obey the law, she will compel tenants to obey the law. It +is this that makes the morale of the Department of Street Cleaning so +important. If the part of the house which in renting tenants agree to keep +clean is not kept clean, the observer will discover that the housekeeper +does not keep her part of the agreement in keeping the entrance clean. + +A large factor in the tenement house for character building or destroying +is the housekeeper who has charge of it. Where she is well paid she makes +the property valuable. She cares for it, for the character of the tenants. +Tenants remain in the house because of the advantages her offices control +for the poor man and his wife anxious to provide for their children's best +welfare. Property under this type of woman resists decay. She holds it in +spite of the decay about it. The characterless, slovenly, indifferent +housekeeper is a factor in destroying property, because of the destructive +character of the tenants who will tolerate her and her methods. + +The house that is the property of the man with "a pull" is an obstruction +to civilization almost impossible to overcome. By connivance the law is +inoperative. If pushed, such an owner can easily rid himself of the tenants +who attempt, or have attempted for them, efforts to compel the owners to +repair the property. A mill owner on the water front on the lower East Side +owned three three-story and basement houses adjoining the mill property. +They had been built for one family each. The basements were altered into +stores, and the floors above altered at the least cost to accommodate one +or two families. This meant two inside bedrooms absolutely without +ventilation. The tenants of this property and all in the neighborhood were +tormented by the smoke and gas from the chimney of the mill. When the wind +blew directly toward the houses, windows were kept closed for hours in the +warmest weather. All the tenants dried their clothes on pulley lines. +Frequently the soot made the clothes unwearable, and they had to be washed +the second time. Ten years of effort have failed to compel the building of +the chimney of that mill to the legal height. + +The houses the mill owner owned were in a disgraceful condition. The +closets in the yards had no flow of water. The engineer of the mill was +required to carry a hose from the mill over the fences to the closets to +flush them. Sometimes he forgot to turn the water off, and the yards were +flooded and made disgusting. Sometimes he forgot for days at a time to +flush the closets, when the conditions were even worse. Only people who +were helpless or hopeless would endure such conditions. One of the workers +of the College Settlement discovered the conditions in these houses. She +took immediate steps to compel the necessary improvements. The owner +discovered that the wife and children of one of the tenants went to clubs +at the Settlement, and he ordered that family to move. Before the mother +moved her education had begun, and she imparted to her neighbors the +information that the conditions were unlawful and could be changed if they +would fight for it. The man exacted his rent on the first of the month; he +was hard and unyielding; the tenants continued the warfare until he had +evicted every one who spoke English and filled his houses with foreigners. +One of the stores is used for storing and sorting rags and paper; next door +is a meat shop. The fight was given up. The owner had "a pull," and the law +is defied to this day on that property. + +All the land on the river front in this neighborhood for blocks is made +land, filled in by the city refuse, on which houses were built years ago. +This kind of property extends back from the North River for three, and at +one point four, blocks. In some of the houses near the river the high tides +of spring and fall rise in the cellars. The College Settlement workers who +visited families in one of these houses had been distressed by the amount +of illness in it. Malaria had attacked every family. Spring and fall wages +were lost at times by as many as three wage-earners in one family for two +and three days each week. In addition to loss of wages, there was the +expense of medicine and doctors. At last came the urgent request that a +worker should call on a girl of sixteen who was dying of consumption on the +first floor. This consisted of four rooms, two being inside bedrooms, each +of which would hold a three-quarter bed and a chair between the bed and the +wall. One was absolutely unventilated, except through the doors. It was, in +fact, a passageway between the front and rear rooms. This plan is the usual +plan in houses altered from residences for one family to a tenement house. + +The door of the other bedroom, which opened into the large room, was closed +at night because the large room was used as a bedroom by the male members +of the family and one lodger. The girl of sixteen had slept with two others +in that room for eight years. The floors of the four rooms were covered +with carpets. The odor was sickening. The visitor asked the tenant who +brought her to the sick girl what caused the odor perceptible in the hall, +with front and rear windows always open, unbearable in the rooms where +doors and windows were closed. + +"Oh, that! The water has been in the cellar now for two or three weeks. The +tides are high now." A visit to the cellar showed the water at the height +of the second step of the cellar stairs; also a sewer pipe that had burst. +Visits were made to the proper city department once a week for eleven +weeks. The clerk, on the last visit, evidently intending to be facetious, +said: "Say, what's the matter with those people taking baths in that +cellar? They ain't got no bathtubs." + +The owner of the property had "pull" enough to escape even an investigation +by the department. It was years before the cellar of that house was +concreted and the necessary connections of pipes and sewers made. It was +done when the property had changed hands and a man comparatively poor and +wholly free from political affiliations became the owner. + +The people of this whole region are the victims of political corruption. +Some of them have more fear of offending a political light, let his glimmer +be ever so small, than of offending against even God's law. They could be +turned out of house and home, deprived of the means of earning a living, by +men who openly defy the law, and who become heroes to the growing boys and +girls for no reason but because of their power to use and defy the law. + +The moral natures of the men and the women who grow up under this influence +are dwarfed and warped until it is impossible for them to have distinct +conceptions of right and wrong. The education they receive does not reveal +the relations of ethics to life; the struggle for existence dulls the mind; +while the depleted physical conditions caused by bad air, mal-nutrition and +ignorance of real values reduce moral resistance almost to zero. Enforce +the tenement-house laws, and the moral strength of the people of New York +will rise to higher levels of moral resistance. Not poverty, but the burden +imposed by political corruption, is the blight of home life in the +tenement-house sections of New York. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SLOW-DAWNING CONSCIOUSNESS. + + +In a preceding chapter an attempt was made to show how hopeless the task of +home-making was for women who had neither knowledge nor ideals to guide +them. When it is remembered that the environment of these homes was in +itself degrading, to maintain even the semblance of a home was a remarkable +achievement. + +These women knew but three educating influences--home, school and Church. +Four, perhaps, if one chooses to count the streets, where most of their +time was spent, as one. The value of the first they revealed in the homes +they made. The school at the time it was a factor in their development was +a place that had no connection with anything else in their lives. What they +learned there was but to the exceptional few without any practical value. +They learned to read to get promoted, or because they could not help it. +The arithmetic which they found valuable they learned in doing errands and +spending their own pennies. They learned to form letters with their pens; +but as they had no use for the knowledge, they soon forgot it. Their +conception of education and that of their world left them perfectly at ease +in their accomplishment. The Church had to do with their souls; and to the +majority the care of their souls was a delegated responsibility, and gave +them little concern, if any. Personal effort in that direction was a matter +of old age. + +The Church was, by its own traditions and sentiment, a spiritual light and +guide; the end and aim of its service to develop spiritual life by teaching +and prayer. The social life of the people, or, for that matter, the civic +conditions that to the last degree regulated and controlled their +pleasures, were not the concern of the Church. The parish house did not +exist. The institutional church had not been conceived even in thought. + +Yet at this period, 1880 and 1881, there was a growing consciousness that +something was wrong in the social order; that neither churches, schools nor +homes were meeting the necessities of the working people or their children. +The Church found itself losing ground; the people could not be held in +allegiance to it. This was so true of the Protestant churches downtown that +already the wisdom of moving uptown was being questioned. Some had even +then left their old buildings to be used as mission churches; others sold +their downtown buildings, moving uptown, giving up any attempt at holding +the masses, who manifested no interest in the Church or its work. The +missions then established were and are maintained with more or less wisdom +and success. That mistakes should be made was natural. There was no +precedent as to how one class in this democratic community should work for +another. It took years for the churches to learn that the secret of success +was in working _with_, and not _for_, the people. + +The overcrowding went on. Neighborhoods changed so rapidly that it was +impossible to adopt any system to meet the necessities of the social +conditions. These conditions were created by race standards of living, +pleasure and religion. No man or organization was prepared to grapple with +them intelligently, for they viewed them as observers. + +The Church had still the first interpretation of feeding the hungry, +clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison. Secular work was +not yet a part of the redemptive work of the Church. Poverty and ignorance +reigned where prosperity and intelligence had been. The mission church +became a distributing station. It was but natural that the men and women +who followed Christ in their lives should feed and clothe the hungry and +the naked. It was quite as natural that people whose struggle for life was +constant, a struggle in which they were rarely successful, even when they +accepted their own standards of success, should develop shrewdness in +securing all possible aid at the least possible effort. The more they +received without effort, the easier life was made for them. This was one +method of adjustment. Where there were several children in a family they +were often sent to as many Sunday-schools. The churches, all unconsciously, +for a long period carried on the work of the missions on a commercial +basis, competing energetically to secure attendants at mission services and +Sunday-schools. The workers found their success measured by the numbers +that appeared in their reports. It was the American standard of success. It +became profitable to go to Sunday-school. The approach of the holidays +found them crowded. The mission churches boomed. They provided an outlet +for the energies of devoted, consecrated men and women, determined to make +the world better because they were in it. The missions were an outlet for +the generous; for the men and the women who considered themselves stewards +of the properties in their possession. The blunders made are a tribute to +the faith which established and maintained churches. The very blunders of +those years were the seeds of wisdom these latter days are beginning to +garner in the fruits of coöperation and federation. The forces are +beginning to marshal under one banner and emblem, with one aim born of the +nineteenth century conception, that Christ taught civic duty to His +followers when He declared, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are +Cæsar's." That the Church is the guardian of the people's rights, as well +as their example, is a long-delayed conception. It has taken thirty years +to bring the evolution in Church work from competition to coöperation in +the work of personal and civic regeneration. + +Many of the difficulties hardest to overcome have grown out of the mistakes +of those years, when the rapid influx of foreigners changed the character +of the people of the tenement regions, and the Church failed to change its +methods. They came, many of them, paupers, a charge at once upon the +charitable and the humane. Neither their ignorance nor poverty was a bar to +their citizenship; their presence on the municipal stage in the character +of voters, sovereigns, increased the civic problems of New York, and +naturally these the Church problems. + +Unfortunately the charitable work of the churches was too often left to the +management of sentimental people, who failed to see what has been forced +upon workers of the present day: that hunger is sometimes a moral educator; +that the salvation of a family may sometimes be best secured by letting +them suffer, the innocent with the guilty, because in the suffering is an +educating power impossible to secure in any other way. + +One evening to a working-girls' club a teacher in a mission school not far +away brought a girl of sixteen, introducing her as one of her girls who had +been in her class two years. Privately she told one of the directors of the +club of the poverty of the girl's family. The father was a man of +seventy-five, who could do only the lightest work, and found getting the +work he could do very difficult. This girl was the eldest of seven +children, all attending the mission. "It is a mystery what would become of +the family, were it not for what the mission does for them," was the +comment of the teacher. A close inspection of the girl did not reveal +distressing poverty, and the directors of the club were puzzled. The girl +was employed in a store at a very small salary. She was anxious to go to +the country. Of course, she must be sent away without any cost to herself. +She doubted if the family could spare her wages, even if she could go free. +She explained that she and her brothers and sisters had gone in "Tribune +Fresh-Air Parties," but she was now too old. "The trouble with our family +is," she commented, "that we are all too old." It seemed a hopeless +doctrine to become fixed in the mind of a girl of sixteen, so the club +directors secured a vacation for her through the Working-Girls' Vacation +Society, deciding that, if it were necessary, they would pay the mother her +wages for the time the girl was away. No question arose as to her wages. At +the expiration of her two weeks' vacation, when she should have been +penniless, she appeared at the club in a new hat and gloves. When the girl +joined the club her Sunday-school teacher paid one month's dues. She had +been present at several business meetings; she had seen the other girls +paying their dues, she had heard the treasurer's report, but she never +attempted to assume her financial obligations. She was spoken to finally in +regard to her dues, and responded calmly by saying she could not pay her +dues; she had no money. Various suggestions were made as to the possibility +of her paying part. At last, to relieve the club treasury, one of the +directors said: "I will pay what you owe and one month in advance. You may +pay me as you can." The girl never came to the club again. No effort was +made to trace her, as she contributed nothing to the life of the club, and +many girls kept their dues paid who dressed far more plainly; these very +girls she had on more than one occasion treated discourteously. + +Two years afterward one of the club officers was calling on a friend. "I am +so glad you came in," she exclaimed. "One of your club girls is in trouble +and is coming here with Miss ----, a mission worker in Dr. ----'s church, +this morning. Now you can help solve her problem." To have a member of a +working-girls' club go to an outsider for help is to have one of your own +family appeal to strangers in time of need. The club worker kept still. She +was covered with shame. She had failed to establish relations with one it +was her sole purpose to help. Who the girl was she did not know, as her +friend had forgotten the girl's name. The girl came. It was our old friend +of sixteen. She was, as may be imagined, not pleased to see the director of +the club. The history of that family is fairly indicative of how missions +were conducted at that time. How many of them are conducted at the present +with the same results? Originally this family was found by the workers of a +mission established by a wealthy church, and apparently in need. Rent was +paid; food and clothes provided; doctors sent when necessary. The return +for this, as tacitly agreed, was the presence of the children, as rapidly +as they were old enough, in the Sunday-school, and the father and mother at +the Sunday evening service, the only service this mission maintained. + +The timidity of the first contact disappeared early. The wants soon outgrew +the needs of the family. The mission people failed to respond to the wants, +and watched more closely what it cost the church to meet the needs after +the first years of acquaintance. This was not to be borne. The family went +in a body to another mission of the same church ten blocks away. They made +not the slightest effort to deceive, for they did not change their address. +Here were nine persons to add to the roll of the mission, and they were +added. The family was enthusiastically welcomed. No impudent or intrusive +questions were asked. Shoes, coats, rent money in whole or part was +generously given. At the end of two years discoveries were made that led +the mission workers to question what was done with the supplies provided. +The family would not stand this. They went bodily to a church less than a +mile away, still living at the old address. The family was again taken up +without question. That the father could not work was accepted and +generosity was increased. The other missions contrasted unfavorably in +generous impulses; the girl urged her former classmates to join the last +mission. The church meanwhile was walking by faith in its treatment of the +poor; aiming to live up to the conception of its days; strengthening the +influence of its prayers with gifts of potatoes; certainly a great advance +on prayers and no potatoes. + +At about this time a young girl was met in a Sunday-school class very +attractive, always well and prettily dressed. She had been in the +Sunday-school all her life, and had joined the church with her mother, a +gentle, quiet woman, who leaned on her daughter for guidance. The daughter +was a tower of strength. By accident it was learned that the girl was a +wage-earner, working with her mother in a large suit house in New York; +that they kept house, doing the housework, even the washing and ironing, +before and after their day's work. Added to this they made all their own +clothes, which must have involved a vast amount of labor, as they both +dressed well. + +The position of this mother and daughter is fairly typical of a large army +of women workers, and explains, in part, at least, why two women of so much +character should have accepted charity for so many years and why they could +not change their economic relation. The work they did was to a degree a +trade. Each was a special "hand" on a certain part of women's suits. They +were paid by the piece. When they had work, they made good wages; but the +seasons were short. The beginning of every season found them in debt. By +the time the debt was paid work had grown slack or stopped. It was simply +impossible to get beyond this, try as they would. When the girl broke down, +she explained it by saying, "I worked all night to finish my dress. If I +could buy the material in the slack season I could make our things then. We +never have the money, and they have to be made just when work is hardest at +the store." She was but nineteen. The girl was pretty, ambitious, entirely +above the men of her own station in refinement, and yet quite as far +beneath the brothers of the girls she met in her Sunday-school class. She +lived in mental terror lest they should attempt to call on her. It was +pitiful to see the struggle she made to conceal the fact that she was poor. +The other girls knew she worked, knew the church helped the family, but +were very tactful in assisting her in keeping her secret. + +When the mother came to the notice of the officers of the church she was a +widow with three young children, one a baby. She could support her family +if the rent was paid. The church officers were glad to do this. They did +not support a mission and had very little outlet for the church's +generosity, except the mission societies--Home and Foreign--to which they +were devoted as a church. + +For thirteen years the church had been faithful to its promise and paid the +rent. Nobody questioned the mother as to how her children were getting on, +or what was being done to make them self-supporting. The younger were two +boys. When they were large enough to play on the street, the mother put +them in an institution and paid a small sum for them. The girl went to work +with the mother as soon as she could. The elder boy came home at fourteen +and became a wage-earner. He was troublesome, most difficult to manage, was +out of work more time than he was employed, and yet he would not when +unemployed even keep the fire, that the house might be comfortable when his +mother and sister came home. They always left the house in order when they +went to work, but found it littered when they returned. The boy had no +sense of moral responsibility for his own support. His temper was wholly +untrained. At the time the family history was connected, the youngest boy +was to come home, and naturally his return was dreaded. The mother and +daughter met the problem unaided as to advice or suggestion. Apparently the +church would continue to pay the rent without question, though there were +three, and would soon be four, wage-earners in the family. + +When these facts were discovered, the church committee was asked to advance +money enough to pay for the girl's lessons at a school where dress-cutting +was taught, and to notify the widow that her rent would no longer be paid. + +The girl accepted the offer at once. She proved a great success, and to-day +is earning a salary as a designer equal to that of many college professors. +She educated her younger brother in a profession, and has entirely +forgotten the days when the church helped her. Her social affiliations are +in another part of the city, and she bows, or forgets to bow, when she +meets those who may remember it, as they would, to her credit. Had the +church retained its claim on her through its financial aid, she would not +be where she is to-day. Her development came when the church made another +future possible to her by refusing to pauperize the family. + +We all know the families who have more turkeys at Christmas than members. +We still have churches and sewing schools in the same neighborhood, giving +their Christmas entertainments at different hours and at different dates, +to suit the convenience of those who attend both and profit thereby. We +even have different entertainments given for different branches of work in +the same church at different hours. We succeeded in impressing one boy with +the idea that what he received at the various organizations maintained for +his profit was "Christmas loot," and that he was clever at getting more +than his share. We have become accustomed to conducting an exchange after +our Christmas entertainments, because in giving we have, unfortunately, +duplicated the gifts received elsewhere. Mollie finds herself with two +dolls and no bed, and Katie has two beds and no doll, and Alice has two +sets of dishes and no table. Like fate has attended the gifts to the boys. +We, as a result, enact the rôle of patient, sweet generosity and +redistribute gifts. + +We know that comparisons are made as to which church, sewing school or club +is the one to give the major portion of the coming year's attendance. But +all this will disappear as rapidly as sectarianism and competition between +churches and in philanthropic effort disappear. Competition created it; +coöperation will dispel it, because all will come to a higher conception of +the relations of efforts toward improvement. Then the "profit" of church +and Sunday-school attendance will not be measured by the "things" +distributed. + +Nothing marks the growth of public intelligence more than the federations, +and the systems that have grown out of the knowledge of the injury done the +poor by misplaced generosity. Sometimes the children of the poor seem +uncanny in the knowledge they possess of how to use the public and private +charities. + +A girl of seventeen gave astonishing evidence of this in a family crisis. +She was a member of a working-girls' club; quiet, studious, reserved. She +was always one of the poorest dressed girls in the club. Her devotion to +those classes which she joined and attended regularly attracted the +attention and admiration of the club directors. Discovering that her dress +was in part responsible for the treatment accorded her by two or three +members, it was decided to make it possible for her to make a better +appearance. She had shown qualities which, if allowed free play, would make +her an influential member of the club. + +It was discovered that she attended a near-by mission of a Congregational +church. Consultation with the mission workers brought the unwelcome +knowledge that the mother was immoral, hopelessly immoral, but that her +children loved her dearly and that she was devoted to them. The paying of +rent seemed to support a shelter that ought not to exist, but no one had +the courage to attempt to separate the mother and children. Even this girl +of seventeen had no idea of her mother's wrong-doing. It was a case that +needed the wisdom of Solomon to solve. Just before Christmas the mother +fell ill. The passion of grief that convulsed that group of children was +convincing testimony of the mother's tenderness and devotion. Her eyes +followed them constantly. When able to speak, she would whisper: "What will +become of them? There is no one to care for them." She was removed to a +hospital, with the knowledge that the rent had been paid for a month and +that the children would be looked after. She died two days later. When the +house was visited that morning, the elder girl was out "getting things," +the children said. When she came in, she was told that provision had been +made to send them all together to a home, where they would not be separated +for a month. The girl sprang to her feet, grabbed the fifteen-months-old +baby from the floor, and swept the others in a circle about her. She +panted, rather than said: "You shall not take the baby away! I will not let +them go! Nobody shall take them. They are mine. I can take care of them. +You just pay the rent. I can do everything else. See?" She put the baby +down, and thrusting her hands into her pockets, brought out tickets to the +Diet Kitchen, the Charities Department for coal and groceries. She had +been to two missionaries connected with different churches she knew, and +secured orders on a near-by grocery for dry groceries. There was not a +public or private charity that gave out-door assistance that that girl of +seventeen did not know just what must be done to get their help. The amount +of knowledge of this kind that she possessed was astounding. + +Besides, there was not an institution in the city where children were taken +for longer or shorter periods of time that she did not know. In many of +them she had been herself. In others she had visited the other children of +the family when they were inmates. She found out the defects of each +one--the kind of matron, of food, of punishments that governed in each, and +made out a case against each one. White, with blazing eyes, she looked +capable of doing just what she said she would do, take care of the family +of five little children. They were grouped about her, clinging to her, all +crying in the face of the awful calamity that was about to befall +them--separation. It was agreed that they should stay where they were for +the balance of the month. The question of the future beyond that would be +discussed later. The girl quieted down. + +The mother had been insured in one of the insurance companies on the weekly +payment plan. The girl had secured an undertaker who would go to the +hospital and take the mother's body to his establishment for the funeral to +be held the next morning. + +"We will have our own minister," she said, with dignity, "not the mission." +Her visitors were again astounded. The mission had looked after the family +for years. The girl had for several years been connected with the +Sunday-school. The address of the minister was secured. The girl explained: +"My mother was confirmed in that church, in her own country, her own home. +She had a letter to the church when she came to this country with my father +after they were married. At first my father earned good money, but he got +sick and they did not get along, and my mother stopped going there, except +to communion; and for three years now she ain't had the clothes to go even +then. She had us confirmed there as soon as we were old enough, and we went +there to communion when we had the clothes. The minister is going to come +to the funeral, and I am going to send word to some of mother's friends +from the old country who go there to church. I could not have them come +here; mother would feel awful." Glancing about the barren, dirty rooms with +a look of scorn, she continued: "We could not let our church friends know +how poor we are. Mother tried hard enough. She was away from home days at a +time looking for work. She took boarders. She did everything she could. You +know I've worked when I could get it." Her voice broke for the first time. +"She took boarders and gave them the beds; we all slept on the floor. She +married the last boarder, the baby's father. She told me to stay here until +he came home, this month--he's a sailor--and to do just what he says. He +was always kind to me and gave me things. You've paid the rent, and you +need not do anything more. I'll stay right here and keep the children till +the baby's father comes home; you need not trouble any more." + +She was quiet a moment, but evidently felt the doubt and the decision in +her visitors' minds. Rising, she said fiercely: "I'll not; I'll never let +these children be taken from me!" + +The problem was too much for her visitors. They decided to leave the +question of the immediate future to the family's own minister, who +certainly had not carried these lambs in his arms, nor watched very closely +over their erring mother. + +The family was separated. Nothing else was possible. The baby's father +repudiated any responsibility for any of the children, and disappeared. The +girl drooped for a time after the separation; but she finally secured a +good home, making a capable, devoted servant until she married. She owes +allegiance only to her own church, saying: "The minister talked so +beautifully at mother's funeral." Her whole conception of the mission +church is that it is an institution for helping the poor. + +She never doubted her mother, whose picture, enlarged from a small +photograph, is the chief ornament in her parlor, her most cherished +possession, outside of her husband and children. + +In spite of the outburst of passionate devotion at the time of her mother's +funeral, this woman, now with a comfortable home of her own, knows nothing +of the children for whose protection she attained, for a time at least, +sublime heroism. In a few months her indifference was as astonishing as her +devotion had been. Her own life and its concerns filled her mental horizon +to their entire exclusion. For her own home and children she has the +passionate love that she gave to her mother and the crowd of half-brothers +and sisters. She is ambitious for her children, and has two in the High +School. This woman is a fair illustration of the evolution that is making +this nation great. + +The churches, when first the social disintegration began, had neither the +intelligence born of experience nor the money to place the mission work in +charge of people of high intellectual and social development. There were no +training schools for Christian workers, and to that degree the Church was +hampered in inaugurating its work among the poor. The selection was too +often a question of pleasing some wealthy member of the church, by giving +positions to protégés who had absolutely no qualification for the work but +their necessities. This basis of selection--not yet wholly eliminated--put +the work of the missions under the control of men and women who lacked +social training. Neither by nature nor grace were they fitted for the work +they attempted to do. + +Their attitude of mind was too often that of patron, which, as any one of +experience knows, is one of the most demoralizing influences active among +the poor. + +There comes to mind now a downtown church, the mission of one of the +leading uptown churches. It was Thanksgiving evening. For weeks placards +had been on the front of the building announcing an entertainment for that +evening, to which all the people were invited. On the platform were a +number of young men and women, sons and daughters of the uptown church +members, the entertainers for the evening. + +The church was packed with the people of the region, self-respecting poor. +The mission, fortunately for them, was limited in money, so its +possibility for pauperizing was limited to just that degree. The mission +pastor, before the entertainment began, opened with a prayer, in which he +thanked God for the warm-hearted, generous people who were giving +themselves and their money for the uplifting of the poor and degraded. God +was asked to implant a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of those +assembled to enjoy this pure entertainment provided for their benefit. When +he opened his eyes he continued his theme in two variations for twenty +minutes longer, in what he called an address. It was this attitude of mind +on the part of many of the workers that drove out of the church the mass of +the poor; that began the breach that has widened, until in September, 1901, +we stand appalled as we realize all that has entered into the making of +that awful national tragedy. + +The standards of cleanliness and beauty maintained in the mission churches +have been far from what they should be. As the visitor enters to-day one of +the first buildings erected on the East Side as a mission church, he is +repelled by the general air of neglect; the dirt on walls and ceiling, made +still more repellent by water stains from leaks; the ugliness of the whole +interior, as well as the entire lack of adaptation to the work of to-day, +which one of the most devoted of pastors, a friend to every man, woman and +child in the region, is establishing. There is not one thing in that +building that is not ugly and cheap. The very platform on which the pastor +preaches lacks furniture, that would impart an air of cheer or +impressiveness. Instead of the building being an unconscious influence in +the neighborhood for beauty, tidiness, cleanliness, it is a part of the +general result of the greed and poverty which has made one of the most +sordid, character-destroying neighborhoods in New York. + +One Sunday afternoon, as the writer was passing this building, the children +began pouring out of it. The Sunday-school had just closed. They yelled, +fought, ran. Suddenly they discovered a half-drunken wretch of a woman +reeling down the street. The elder boys pulled her clothes, dragged off her +hat, tormented her, yelling and laughing at the foul language they called +forth. It was appalling, yet not surprising. The building remains as first +erected. No attempt has been made to adapt it to the needs of the region. +It was built for church and Sunday-school services, and the work which the +devoted, consecrated pastor has put into it to meet the needs of the time +is done under conditions that make the highest success impossible. There is +not a room in the neighborhood for boys' clubs, for reading-room, for +pleasure, where boy nature can have the fullest expression under wise +direction. For adults the saloon and the streets are the only resources +outside of their overcrowded homes. The pastor knows that to succeed in +changing the character of that neighborhood it is necessary to hold the +people through seven days of the week. He knows that this can be done if he +can provide for the people pleasures, opportunities that express their +social development. He knows that people express themselves in their +pleasures, and that, whether they will or not, that expression is +controlled by environment. If the trustees will not, cannot be made to see +this, let the pastor of the mission be what he will, his work will be +limited by the men who, in the very nature of their relations to the +mission, cannot see the truth. + +The pastor of the mission had a long vacation given him. The man sent to +take his place wore soiled linen, would sit for an hour at a time tipped on +the back legs of his chair. He would refer to the people in their presence +as "they" and "these people." One of the young men who belonged to a club +where some attention had been paid to manners and dress said one night: +"Say, wouldn't you think that feller would wear clean collars, and stand +up when talking to a lady? I don't care if he is a minister, he ain't +much." + +The people who were responsible for putting that man in that position were +generous, held the best social positions, filled responsible positions in +the commercial world. Not one of them would have chosen that man to +represent them in the business world, because of his carelessness in dress +and lack of manners. But they did not hesitate to send him to represent the +Lord Jesus Christ to the poor; not a demoralized and degraded people, but a +self-respecting body of Americans, born and trained, so far as they had +been trained, to believe in the equality of man under the flag and before +God. Is it any wonder that the more intelligent of the people resented the +placing of this man over them, and remained away from the church of which +he had charge? His person, his mind or his manners were not contradictory. + +One evening, going through the audience room of this building on an errand +to the rear room, the visitor heard one of the women missionaries say to a +little girl who had evidently been troublesome and inattentive: "If you +don't sit still, Mollie, I'll come there and shake you until you'll be glad +to sit still." The woman was training a group of little girls to take part +in a Christmas entertainment. They were each to recite a verse and turn a +gold paper-covered letter as they recited, so that when the last one had +spoken her verse the sentence "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth +and good-will to men" would be revealed. The woman, in temper, language, +conception of her duty to these children, differed in nowise from their +ignorant, tired, worried mothers at home, who probably made no claim as a +teacher of morals and religion. What ideals of womanhood did this woman +represent? + +A minister came to attend the funeral of a little baby in a surplice so +soiled and rumpled that a friend of the mother, who was a good laundress, +said afterward: "I wish he'd given me that yesterday morning. I would have +washed and ironed it." "He wouldn't have worn it if it had been a rich +man's child," was the little mother's response. "Well, he acted like his +surplice, rumpled," said the first speaker. And the writer was struck with +the perfect characterization of the man's manner. + +Fortunately, there are men who see the divine in every human being; who +know that sorrow, grief, shame and suffering bear as cruelly, as bitterly +on the poor as the rich, and in their ministration know no difference +between them. + +The writer was present at a funeral in an East Side home in a tenement +having sixteen families. A wife and mother had died. The family occupied +the floor through. Nothing was known to the writer of the creed of the +family, though she had known them for years. The minister came in a +spotless surplice, most carefully put on. His manner of greeting the family +and friends was so expressive of fraternal sympathy that one felt it a +privilege to witness it. He stood in that East Side home the herald of +hope. Since the blow had fallen he had visited it every day. On the day of +the funeral he had so filled the hearts in that home with the spirit of +resignation that the lesson that it taught left an impress on all who were +present. Not once in the earnest address did he use the word "death." It +was "release," and he made all feel that gratitude for relief from cruel +suffering was the occasion for the assembling of the friends together. He +gave out the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." There was no musical +instrument in the home. All present were wage-earners. The writer trembled +for the result. The minister's beautiful tenor voice started the hymn, +assisted at once by boys' voices in the different rooms. He had brought the +choir of his church to assist, and stationed them through the rooms by +direction before they came to the house. The people all sang. When the +services were over, this minister remained with the family, a courtesy +which to the poor is so unusual that the memory of it is still one of the +events of life on the East Side. + +[Illustration: A SPIRITUAL BULWARK.] + +This represents this clergyman's attitude toward his people; and all who +are their friends are his people. Is it any wonder that they never go +beyond his care? He has baptized the children of three generations. Easter +service is the home-coming of these families. They come from as far as they +have money to pay their fare. The gray stone church is pretty. It has +stained-glass windows, a baptistry, and maintains a surpliced choir. It is +delightful to see the positive influence of these accessories on the +people. Other churches to which they have access lack them, and the +contrast deepens the love for the old church. It needs renovating, a parish +house, a corps of modern workers. But these can well be dispensed with +while that towering gray head leads the people. For the noble, unselfish +life of the man stands before them always, the embodiment of eternal love +and sympathy, interpreting both under conditions that would at times seem +to justify doubt. + +There is another phase of the Church's attitude toward its work in the +poorer districts that lies at the root of the rejection of the Church by +the majority of the thinking, self-respecting poor, and that is the +assembling of the poor together as an exhibit of its work; the making of +reports of which the poor are the statistics. The defence that this is +necessary to stimulate the interest of the rich, and by that means secure +the money for the continuing of the work in the poorer sections of the +city, is but the evidence of the lack of spiritual life in the Church; the +absence of the very foundation of Christianity and brotherly love. + +The consciousness that watching the hungry eating Christmas and +Thanksgiving dinners is hardly what Christ meant when he gave forth the +decree, "Feed my lambs," is becoming a conviction; but it is due to the +positive teaching of workers outside of the Church, who felt the +irreparable loss of self-respect that must follow from such an exhibition. +To gather the beneficiaries of their generosity together and take stock, as +it were, of the investments, the dividends of which are to be realized +wholly in the future life, has antagonized the self-respecting poor. They +refuse to assemble as objects of interest, even in a church. + +So dense is the spiritual perception of even some very good people, so +materialistic is the plane on which work for the poor is conducted in some +churches, that the results have been cruel--unconscious on the part of the +offenders--but nevertheless cruel. + +A group of very young girls worked in a factory on the borders of a section +in which lived people of wealth and intelligence. The factory made no +provision for a lunch room. When the weather permitted, the girls ate their +lunches on the curbs and on the stoops of houses in the immediate +neighborhood. This was demoralizing to the girls and distressing to several +women in the neighborhood. Not far away was a large house hired and +controlled by a church long noted for its broadness and its generosity. The +basement of the house was not used, except twice a week in the evening by a +working-girls' club. The use of this basement from half-past eleven till +one was asked for and granted. + +The plan was to have a woman arrange the tables, make tea, and wash the +dishes used by the girls each day. The girls were to pay five cents a week +for the use of the room and the tea. They were to bring their own lunches. +The plan met with their warmest approval, and the lunch room was opened, +with three young girls from a society in the church to help. The girls +poured their own tea. For three days everything promised well. The girls +accepted the one condition imposed, that they would go quietly to and from +the factory at the noon hour, to avoid comments from the residents about. +The fourth day some of the righteous, energetic souls belonging to the +church thought they would see the result of their generous gift of the use +of the room for which they had no other use. + +Nine of them, personally conducted by one of the assistant ministers, +crowded the two doorways to see these girls eat the lunch they brought from +their own homes and drink the tea for which they were paying all they had +been asked to pay. One small girl, with her hair still hanging in braids +down her back, tried in every way to break off pieces of her luncheon +without uncovering it. Finding she could not, she gave up, and tied the +string about the paper again, sitting quietly with her hands in her lap. It +was this child's first week out of school. Her father was now in the +hospital for the third month. There were five children, of which this girl +was the eldest. All the money saved by this skillful mechanic and his +thrifty wife was gone, and this girl had to go to work. One can imagine +faintly her feelings as she looked at the crowded doorways and knew that +the whispered comments included her. The less refined, though more +independent, girls sat with flaming cheeks, and holding papers over their +lunches, ate them and drank the tea. + +The first week represented the life of that lunch club. The girls went back +to the curb and the sidewalk and stoops as lunch rooms. Here, at least, no +personally conducted parties came to view them. If any one looked at them +and they objected, they were on terms of equality, and at once notified the +offenders of their offence. To the credit of the people who used that +street, few stopped to look at the girls. + +It would have surprised those very good people to have known the opinion +those crude, uneducated girls had of them. A day or two later, standing +with a group of girls who had not been present, with a half dozen of the +men who worked in the factory, as spectators, the leader of the girls +described the scene, caricaturing the "church gang," as she called them, +and some of the girls who had been distressed by their presence. The group +shrieked with laughter; yet there was an unpleasant note in it. "---- them! +That's what they always do. Stay away from them after this," was the +comment and advice of one of the men. "You bet!" responded the girl actor, +as she curveted down toward the factory in response to the whistle calling +them back to their work. + +If the years as they passed did not clearly reveal that the Church that +holds the poor is one over which men of the highest intellectual and social +training are placed in charge, the mistakes of the present would be +extenuated. Such churches do exist. Men of strong, vivid spiritual +perception have erected and maintained bulwarks of righteousness in +neighborhoods where the environment, the civic order is degrading. They +have done this by conducting all the departments of their work with the +view of developing the gifts of the people to whom they are ministering. +The choir is the boys and girls trained by the best teachers they can +secure. The Sunday-school teachers are the working boys, girls, men and +women who are instructed by the pastor for their Sunday-school work. The +officers of the church are the men of the neighborhood. The people are +married and buried from the church; the children are baptized in it. The +preaching is teaching that salvation is of time, as well as of eternity. +The sins of the people are made visible. The pulpit holds the mirror up to +nature. It is a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading them +into the promised land, made so by their own civic honesty, their own +personal character. + +These men do not have to make reports; to bow before a board of trustees. +They do not have to suppress or expand to meet the ideas of theorists. A +few men give them the financial support they need, and let them, like men, +stand before God and their own souls responsible for what they do for the +people whom, when Christ was on earth, He chose for His friends--the poor. + +[Illustration: WHERE THE PEOPLE SHARE.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WORKING-GIRLS' CLUBS. + + +Twenty-five or thirty years ago in New York the question of the wisdom, if +not the necessity, of moving the downtown churches uptown began to agitate +the pastors and church leaders. The congregations, or part of the +congregations, who had contributed most liberally to the support of the +Church were beginning to move uptown, crowded out by business and the +incoming foreign element which settles near the shipping and factory +districts. The new-comers did not support the churches, especially the +Protestant, not even by attendance. It was natural that the churches should +follow their congregations. Some sold their buildings to the sects that +came with the foreigners; some made a brave effort to maintain a church for +the people; some became missions, distributing stations to the poor people +who had settled in the now overcrowded houses that formerly were the homes +of one family. The change in the downtown communities was so rapid that no +one could understand how to deal with the new element. The Church had to +spend years in learning how to adapt its methods to the needs of the new +peoples who settled by hundreds where scores had been. Not only was this +feature bewildering in itself, but the people spoke an unknown tongue, were +foreign in thought and sentiment; were social, rather than religious. + +The saloon far outstripped the Church in the ease with which it adapted +itself to the new element. The Church encountered not merely the new people +degraded, but an environment that in itself was a tremendous obstacle to +decent living. The Church shortly discovered an entirely unlooked-for evil, +insidious, demoralizing--the political corruption of voters. The Church to +the smallest degree only in recent times has come into the larger +conception of its function as a teacher of good citizenship, a link between +the voter and the ballot-box, preaching the duty of the exercise of the +franchise governed by conscience. It took the moral degradation of the city +to rouse the churches to activity as redemptive civic powers. + +The corrupting influence of corrupt politicians was evidenced in the +conditions that developed in sections of the city left to their control. As +the years went on and the men of conscience and intelligence became more +absorbed in business and profession, more given to money-making, because of +increasing social demands, the city became, in the minds not only of these +politicians, but of the voters they trained, a mine to be worked for +personal gain. Ignorance contributed to the rapid degeneracy of the people +in the old home sections of New York. + +The saloon became very early in the development of the tenement-house +sections the only social center. The result was an increasing of the drink +habit and the establishment of political headquarters in saloons. Often the +politician in embryo was the saloon-keeper, often the bartender. The social +side of life thirty years ago was not a subject for church consideration +and study. + +The Church ministering to a people having standards of social life +established by the churches, the outgrowth of its teachings and creeds, can +ignore questions that the Church ministering, or trying to minister, to a +people poverty-stricken, overworked, living lives barren of any pleasures +but those of the senses, in an environment that of itself would be a +deteriorating influence, must meet and answer. + +The Church downtown discovered it must work seven days in the week; that +its office, its function was secular, as well as religious; that its Sunday +work was but one-seventh of its work, and that the six-sevenths must +minister to that one. The Church must go out into the highways and hedges, +to use a misplaced metaphor for a city street, and win the people. This +evolution of conception marks a spiritual Renaissance. + +Industrial training was introduced by the churches, the natural result of +discovering the ignorance of the women of household arts. Far more valuable +than the skill imparted to the children gathered in these classes was the +contact with the earnest, refined women and young girls who were the +teachers in the now established mission churches. The revelation was +mutual. If the tenement-house child gained new ideas of cleanliness, of +order, of neatness, of dexterity, of manners, the uptown teacher also +gained knowledge of which she stood quite as much in need. When a panting, +shining-faced child came to sewing school half to three-quarters of an hour +late because she scrubbed the halls and stairs of a three-story tenement +house to help her mother, the housekeeper, who paid the whole or part of +the rent for the family by this service, the uptown woman of leisure gained +a new view of life and its responsibilities. When the mission worker who +was giving time and strength and knowledge as the expression of her faith +and conscience, found children scarcely more than babies working far beyond +their strength in the service of their families, the uptown worker gained a +new conception of sacrifice, of poverty, and, what was far more important, +a new conception of the causes of ignorance. The uptown woman of leisure +saw that often children were sacrificed to greed; forced to become +wage-earners by parents anxious to increase their bank accounts. + +As time went on, they saw that, whether poverty or greed was responsible +for the sacrifice of the children, the protection of the children was the +safeguard of the State, of the nation. There came from this, by the process +of evolution, the factory laws for the protection of women and children; +the compulsory school law. In these latter days this last has been made +ridiculous by the failure of the municipality to provide school +accommodations for the children of school age, especially the children +under fourteen living in the overcrowded sections. + +The church workers in the tenement-house sections were able to find means +to meet some of the evils of oppression, of poverty, of ignorance. They had +concrete facts to present to a semi-indifferent public; but when the social +side of the people in the tenements became a problem, especially the social +life of the young people, the remedies did not present themselves. The +legislation proposed and executed was restrictive, not recreative. It was +not the function of the State or the Church to provide social +opportunities for uneducated, overworked young people. + +The older girls in the Sunday-school classes presented not only all the +problems of the little children, but the larger one of social opportunity. +The homes were too small, too overcrowded to give social opportunity to the +family. Besides, there was that saddest of all features too often found in +the home of the working girls--the absence of all sense of personal +responsibility on the part of parents for the social life of the children, +girls and boys. The children in all but the exceptional home were free to +choose friends, free to go and come as suited them. Home was a place in +which to eat and to sleep; a place of shelter; a place often entered only +when there was no place to go out of working hours. + +The problem of providing social opportunity faced the downtown churches. In +the very nature of things the social opportunities the Church could offer +must be limited; must be of the nature that appealed to the more quiet, the +phlegmatic, the element that presented the least factors in the social +problem. The parish house, the church house did not exist. All the +amusements offered the people must be in a building consecrated to +religious life and service. It was a serious question how far the Church +was justified in introducing the purely social. + +It was natural that the young women brought into touch with the young +working girls in the Sunday-school should apprehend the restrictions that +life in a tenement imposed on a working girl. Everything in this life +tended to make her gregarious. She was born into a house probably +overcrowded before she came into it; she slept, ate, lived with crowds. The +street, her only playground, was teeming with children like herself. When +she worked, she rubbed elbows with the workers on each side of her. She +went and came from her work one of a group. The working girl lived free, +and pleasure she would have. + +The girl of wealth and leisure working in the mission Sunday-school, by her +own youth and natural inclinations, could appreciate this side of the +working-girl's nature, and with the same clearness of vision see the +limitations imposed on the Church in trying to meet the social needs of the +people for whom it primarily existed. + +Visiting the homes of their girl pupils, the Sunday-school teachers +discovered the limitations of the homes. Between the homes as they existed +and the churches as they must exist, the social center for the working girl +must be created that would meet her social needs. The streets were the +working-girl's reception-room, drawing-room, living-room, where she +received her most intimate friends; where mutual entertainment was provided +in ways that made no drafts on purse or inventiveness. Halls were open for +dancing, where her presence was so desirable that she was admitted free or +at half the price demanded of her brother. Excursion grounds with dancing +platforms were then popular within the city limits. The immorality of the +present temptations that make perilous the way of the working girl in 1901 +were almost wholly unknown twenty years ago. + +The work the earnest-hearted women interested in the working-girl's life +faced was how to enlarge her social opportunities in connection with +educational opportunities that would meet her peculiar need, and which she +would accept. New methods of intercourse, new places of meeting must be +found. + +Every organization that has developed in these latter days for bettering +the condition of the people has its root in the doctrines of the churches; +workers and money come from the people who receive their impulse from the +teachings of Christ. These organizations are as truly as the churches the +expression of brotherly love; the positive declaration of the +consciousness that no man liveth to himself. + +To Miss Grace H. Dodge the women of this country owe a great debt. She, +from the standpoint of a Church worker, devoted and faithful, saw that +outside of the Church, but governed by all that the Church believed and +taught, the natural outcome of both, a social center for working girls must +be created. This center must be independent of any other organization. It +must be at once a natural expression of the working-girls' standards. It +must be flexible, as well as progressive, during every period of evolution +in each group; it must keep in touch with the least progressive mentally, +the most progressive socially. + +A place must be created where recreation was possible; where classes to +meet the educational wants of every member could be established. Above all, +a place must be made where wealth and poverty, education and ignorance, +could meet on the common level of mutual helpfulness. + +A conference with a group of working girls but strengthened Miss Dodge's +conviction that this social center would not only give to the working girls +the social opportunity that New York lacked, but it would give to the woman +of wealth and leisure the opportunity to meet the people whom she must know +if she would use her time, her money, her education wisely in the interest +of social development. + +With Miss Dodge as president, the first working-girls' club was organized. +It marked a new epoch. It made the opportunity that had never existed--the +working of rich and poor to secure the same end. This country reaps the +benefit of this first step in altruism based on the highest Christian and +democratic doctrines. + +The working-girls' club has from that time been a positive factor in the +social development of working women, not only of New York, but the whole +country. It has enabled the students of economics and sociology to get at +facts that have revolutionized theories. The working-girls' club taught the +working girls themselves the causes of their economic disadvantages. + +Hardly was the first club formed when the practical results inseparable +from this new combination of interests and sympathies met the approval of +all interested in the problem of the working-girl's life. Everywhere clubs +began to form. The idea has been adapted and adopted by the churches. +Working-girls' clubs of all degrees of development, under many kinds of +constitutions, managed and mismanaged, are to be found north, east, south +and west. + +The question of support was one of primary importance. Miss Dodge had +studied this side of the question thoroughly, and from the first it was +decided that dues must be paid by the members. As new clubs were formed, +this question of dues was met differently. Usually the wages of the +majority of each group of girls forming a club decided the amount of dues, +and naturally the dues varied in the clubs. In some clubs the dues were +five cents per month; in others, five cents per week; in some the dues were +twenty-five cents per month. Even this amount could not meet the expenses +of a club conducted to elevate the standards of the members by the +environment, as well as the social and educational opportunities provided. +The financial managements of the clubs differ greatly, and always have. +Strenuous effort has always been made in some clubs to make them +self-supporting; they seem almost to live for that purpose. Entertainments, +sub-letting of rooms, fairs, every means is resorted to accomplish this +end. Naturally the members of such clubs develop a good deal of business +ability; sometimes at the expense of qualities that in a woman count for +more in life. + +The highest form of club life developed among working girls represents, to +the working girl, her college. She realizes, as does the rich girl or boy +who enters college, that what she pays does not, cannot, pay for what she +receives. This conception of the financial side of the working-girls' club +management controls in the clubs, with few exceptions, to-day. + +The club must give every educational and social opportunity that will meet +the needs of the members. As the college meets the demands of its students +in the electives it offers, so must the working-girls' club. As the college +student must meet the financial obligations he assumes when he enters +college, so must the member of the working-girls' club keep her financial +engagement. As the college makes it possible for the worthy student to +complete his course of study after financial disaster makes it impossible +for him to meet his financial obligations, so must the working girl who has +contributed to the life of the club, or who has shown her desire to profit +by what it offers, be kept in good and regular standing when financial +disaster makes personal independence impossible. In short, the +working-girls' clubs that are conducted on the broader lines, and with the +most comprehensive knowledge of our social conditions, are in management +and purpose a college for working girls. The idea of self-support may have +been strained for a time, but it was an error in the right direction, and +led to the truer conception which regulates the management of the best +clubs to-day. + +It was curious, is curious, the attitude of mind with which some girls +approach the club idea. There comes to mind now the effort to form a second +club in the rooms of a club of several years' standing. The need of the +second club had grown out of the refusal of the girls who earned from five +to nine dollars a week in various employments to associate with a number of +girls working in a tobacco factory, and earning on an average three dollars +and a half per week. The last-named were rough in speech and manner, and +far from stylish in dress--the standard of the elder club. The introduction +of the girls from the tobacco factory to the club was the result of the +sentiment of one of the members of the club, a bright, wealthy, healthy +girl, a great favorite with the other club girls. She had wanted for two +years to work with girls less prosperous than the girls in the club of +which she was a member. + +A large tobacco factory not far from where the club met attracted her +attention, and she invited the girls working there to join the club. +Twenty-two came to the club-room. Mentally they were in a state of nature. +This group of girls represented just what intermittent school attendance, +uninterrupted freedom of the streets, from the time they could walk alone +to the present time, might be expected to produce. They were strangers even +to the degree of social opportunities the members of the club represented. + +Their standards of manners and morals were what the neighborhood in which +they grew up made them. Their homes were in one of the worse sections of +the city, in which an institution wholly charitable pretending to do +educational work had been, not what was intended, an elevating influence, +but the reverse for the children of this section. When these girls went to +school they alternated between this and the public school, so that it was +impossible to compel their attendance at the public school through officers +of the law. The neighborhood in which most of these girls had been born and +grew up was a section as remote from the life of the city of which it was a +part as though it were in another country. Through it ran a thoroughfare in +which were stores that could supply every want. It was another political +unit where one man ruled, whose approval meant work in the city department, +in the street railroads, on the docks; even in the factories, of which +there were many in the section. The streets were in a shocking condition, +unpaved and dirty, and no one objected because no one cared. + +The tenement houses were formerly the residences of the prosperous. These +houses were badly kept, old and unsanitary. Liquor saloons were on two, and +sometimes three, corners of the streets through the whole section. +Beer-sodden women were so common a sight that the women who did not bear +evidence of over-indulgence were remarkable. These girls had never known +personal ownership, even in a bureau drawer; not so much as the right to +one peg on which to hang their clothes to the exclusion of others. It is +doubtful if they ever owned a change of under-clothing that another child +of the family could not claim. + +Naturally, the girls took possession of the club-rooms. Quite as naturally +the older members resented it. It was seen at once that an attempt to have +the new girls elected as club members would be equivalent to ejection. They +were tolerated, but not tolerable to the older members. At the end of four +weeks the two sets of girls lined up on opposite sides of the room, utterly +refusing to intermingle. This passive attitude changed to the aggressive, +which approached open hostilities so closely as to make the danger line. +When this point was reached it was decided to form the new girls into a +club by themselves. The rooms were not used every evening by the club for +which they were hired. Sub-letting would give more money for educational +purposes. + +As this attempt at club-making is one of the worst, and for that reason one +of the failures, it would be well to describe it: + +The directors hired rooms each fall, in September or October, until the +first of May following. As one recalls this club, it presents one of the +best evidences of the barrenness of the working-girl's life in New York. +Every fall for years a few notes written to the leading girls, and a group +of twenty or twenty-five working girls, would gather and start anew on this +club life. This method of conducting a club made it seem useless to spend +money in making the rooms attractive. They were usually on the second floor +of a house occupied by two or more families; the halls dark and bare; the +rooms rarely clean as to walls and ceiling, barren of ornament. The floors +were bare, and not infrequently stood sadly in need of scrubbing. They were +lighted by smoking kerosene lamps, which but added to their +unattractiveness. Frequently the caretaker started the fires a few minutes +before the time for the girls to appear. Yet the girls came and remained +winter after winter. + +The new girls accepted the same conditions, and assembled one stormy night +to form their own club, with several additions to their number of their +own selection, among the rest their forewoman. The leaders of the club +realized that she might be an element of strength; she might be the source +of infinite trouble. She had been young many years before, a fact of which +she was wholly unconscious. She was dressed in what at the time was called +laquer--a warm shade of tan--silk, trimmed with bead trimming; a lace +collar, and a most remarkable hat completed the kind of a costume that +always is discouraging to a true club worker. + +Naturally the forewoman was the spokeswoman for the girls. It was useless +to attempt to draw out a personal opinion from the girls, all of whom +worked under her. Knowing the wages of the girls, it had been decided that +five cents per month should be the dues, leaving the girls a margin from +which they might pay for classes. The indignation of the forewoman at the +suggestion of five cents a month dues would have been amusing if it had not +revealed her utter blindness to the poverty of the girls. Being determined +that no girl there should be kept out of her club by poverty, the +suggestion was made to the forewoman that as her wages equalled the wages +of any three of the girls, and as she chose to join a club where the others +received such small wages, she might pay the same dues, and each month +make a donation to the club to meet its current expenses. She could see the +dues alone would not do that. + +The forewoman, after a few minutes, consented to accept the condition. The +worried look left the faces of the young girls, and they beamed on the +gracious lady who consented to waive her own dignity in their behalf. +Perhaps it is well to state here that the forewoman never made any +donation, and that she would have been dropped from the club for +non-payment of dues but for the knowledge that such a step would mean that +she would make the girls leave the club. She was by them considered a good +forewoman, kind, and ready to help a girl if a girl tried to earn more +money. She had to be consulted in everything attempted for the girls. +Fortunately she was so afraid of revealing her ignorance, which was dense +outside of her work, that she always supported the workers directing the +club affairs. + +This woman was taken ill. The director of the club found that she boarded +with a family consisting of a father, mother and three children, living in +three rooms. She was found lying on a mattress on the floor, destitute of +sheets or pillow-cases. She did not own a nightdress. The tan silk dress +with the bead trimming hung on a nail over her head, surmounted by the +gorgeous hat. She was very ill and penniless; yet the poor about her were +devoted to her and considered her most remarkable. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.] + +Several years ago both of the clubs referred to consolidated with another +club whose directors kept the club-rooms open throughout the entire year. +After the consolidation a house of three stories in a good neighborhood was +rented, and devoted entirely to the use of the club. Only those who have +watched the development of these girls could appreciate what the club has +done for them. Cooking and sewing classes, lectures on city government, +talks on books, on art and nature; the weekly contact with women of culture +and refinement, who carry the conviction that club work is a pleasure, that +service for others is a delight, has borne fruit, and the girls in turn +give their service to those whom they may help--oftenest the members of +their own club. + +The evolution of character through the contact with others is, after all, +the highest attainment of the working-girls' club movement. It brought the +working girl into entirely new relations. Constantly she was forced to see +the folly of placing emphasis on the wrong thing. + +A nice-looking girl, very well dressed, joined a working-girls' club. Her +face indicated character and intelligence. She was elected to office, but +never re-elected, for she was ignorant--too ignorant to perform the +smallest duties in club life. She came every week on the social evening, +always the best-dressed girl in the club. As she grew more familiar she +grew snobbish. She lived in a very poor neighborhood, where her clothes +must have been even more out of place than in the club-room. She held a +position which required special manual skill, and in her own field was an +expert. Unfortunately, she obtained an influence over certain girls and +headed a clique. Every week she became a greater problem. One night a +rather rough, but frank and intelligent, girl was introduced as a candidate +for membership by a member who worked in the same shop. The girl who was +the club problem had been away two weeks working overtime, and did not come +to the club until after the new girl had been elected a member. The +amazement of both as they faced each other as members of the same club +aroused questions as to their social and family background. All that +appeared was that they were neighbors. + +[Illustration: OPPOSITE A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.] + +The first reception to mothers was given by the club about this time. When +the night of the reception came, the "problem" came in a new dress having a +jetted front. Her appearance amazed the members, and made it clear that the +"problem" must be solved or eliminated. The new member appeared with two +mothers, both plainly dressed, one not warmly enough. This one was timid, +reluctant to enter the room, and but for the urging of the new member and +her mother she would have gone home. She refused to remove the shabby shawl +she wore, and adjusted again and again the straw hat, on which a narrow +black ribbon was pinned. The "problem" stood in front of the mantel, +surrounded by an admiring crowd. The two mothers and the new member walked +into the room. It was a dramatic moment. The new member, with an expression +of deep scorn, said: "You forgot to ask your mother; we brought her." The +"problem" grew white and then crimson. The girls fell back and gazed +spellbound at the shabby, uncomfortable, timid mother. The scales fell from +their eyes. The "problem," so far as influence in the club was concerned, +ceased to be a problem. A girl who would sacrifice her mother's comfort, +who used her simply to keep house for her, could not hold any position in a +working-girls' club. + +The story crept out. The "problem" felt the loss of prestige. Clothes had +satisfied her ambition; she had through them enjoyed a sense of power. The +experience of that evening doubtless opened her eyes to things in life to +which she had been blind. Again and again she was seen during that evening +reception to look at her mother searchingly. She seemed to see her in a new +light, and by its reflection, herself. The mother was afraid of her and +showed it. The daughter, it was evident, discovered that fear for the first +time and sought to overcome it. It was determined to hold fast to the +"problem" and help her solve herself. Great progress was made. Her dress no +longer astonished; her mother came to the club receptions comfortably and +suitably dressed. Out of consideration for her mother, she remained in the +wretched tenement, because the mother and the house had grown old together; +but the rooms were now furnished. The new member had supplanted the +"problem" as an influence in the club. The "problem" became engaged, and +the club lost her. The man was a store-keeper in a town not far from New +York. The girl married and forgot to take her mother to her new home. The +mother remained a club legacy for two years, when she died. The daughter +sent the money to bury her, but did not come to the funeral. Her husband is +successful, and she is a social power in the Church to-day; a devoted +mother and wife, strange as it may seem. + +The centering of experience, the revelations of character inevitable in a +working-girls' club, are the largest factors in educating the members. As +the years go on, emphasis is laid on the right things. Harmony results, +because a sense of proportion is gained. Girls who have had the benefit of +a public school education that enables them to fill positions that prove +they have had such opportunities, often in the beginning of their club life +will manifest a feeling of superiority over the girl who works with her +hands. But eventually some experience will reveal to them the pettiness of +their estimate, and a readjustment of values is made. + +A girl, long a member of a club, had won the love and admiration of all +connected with it. She earned wages far above the average of working girls, +a fact well understood in the club. She was always an officer, and a +dependable power in the management of the club. The girls were to give a +play. No amount of urging won this girl's consent to take part in the play. +A girl who had taken a part dropped out, and some one must take her place +at once. Now the girls refused to take "no" for an answer, and the favorite +went down in the basement with the others who were in the play. Each had +her book to read her part, as a help to the girl pressed into the service. +When it came her turn to read there was absolute silence. The girl sat +white and trembling, trying to speak. At last jerkingly the words came: "I +cannot read. I never learned beyond the small words. I had to take care of +the children when mother went to work, while my father was sick. I went to +work as soon as I could and helped keep them in school. They all read and +write. I cannot. Now you know why I did not say 'yes.'" + +There was silence for the space of several minutes. No one could speak. +Then the baby of the club, the one everybody petted, whose very naughtiness +was attractive, ran around the table, threw her arms around the speaker's +neck, saying: "You're worth all the rest of us put together. We'll never +give the old play. We all hate it." This followed by a half dozen kisses +placed wherever she could touch the crimson, tear-stained face of the girl +through her hands. + +Education had been put in its right place in the field of accomplishment. +When the entertainment was given, the girl who could not read was made +manager, because no one could do so well. + +For more than twenty years the working-girls' club has been a power in +thousands of lives. The process of character building through accretion and +elimination has been going on. Through its influence the club method has +been applied under every guise, but perhaps it is just to say that it has +been at its best where its formation and management has been purely +democratic and absolutely non-sectarian. In the nature of things, in +affiliation with any organization, it must take its place as the fraction +of a unit, and be in its management considered always as only a part of a +whole to whose success it owes an allegiance. + +Now the working-girls' clubs have their State organizations, even their +national organization. The Pan-American Exposition brought working girls to +the number of five hundred together in a convention to consider the +questions vital to club life and management. Can any one doubt the effect +of this journey into the world, the first that hundreds of these girls had +ever made? Of the readjustment of ideas, the revelation of beauty, the new +birth of values, because of the vision of a larger world lying beyond +factory, workshop, office, school-room? For it has come to this: that the +professional as well as the manual worker finds inspiration in the +working-girls' club. + +As the years went on, a new problem grew out of the working-girls' club +movement. The members married, but they were not willing to lose the social +affiliations of girlhood; they were unwilling often, reluctant always, to +sever club relationship. On the other hand, the members felt that a married +woman should remain home in the evening with her husband. Often the +married member would come carrying her baby, for the club represented the +mother's social relations. The next step was natural, the forming of a club +of the married members to meet in the afternoon. The first working-girls' +club, of which Miss Dodge is still president, formed, as the Domestic +Circle, a club of married members. + +The A. O. V. Matrons at the Cottage Settlement are the married members of +the A. O. V. Club, formed when the matrons were little girls. Other +working-girls' clubs have contributed to the membership of other married +women's clubs. + +Naturally, the subjects discussed in these clubs are those bearing on +housekeeping and the training of children. The training received in the +clubs enables the married members to conduct their business with dignity +and dispatch. They are trained to club life, and have learned how to avoid +unnecessary friction. + +Some clubs plan a winter's work ahead. These programmes show a broadening +of interest and sympathy, not only in the technical affairs, the home and +the care of children, but the larger affairs outside of the home that makes +its environment. It must be that the girls who have been club members make +more companionable wives than the women who have not had their +opportunities. The children are always present at the meetings of the +mothers. Various devices and methods are employed to entertain and interest +them. What the mothers' club means to the little ones was unconsciously +revealed very recently in the statement of a young mother: "---- is always +home from school five minutes earlier club day. She runs home to get +ready." + +The working-girls' club has in the process of its evolution become a family +institution. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. + + +The Residents of the College Settlement learned in the first year of their +work in Rivington Street to sympathize deeply with the married women, the +mothers in the region. + +Mothers, after nights spent in overcrowded, unventilated bedrooms caring +for nursing babies, began getting breakfast at five o'clock in the morning. +Husband and children of every age must be wakened for work or for school, +often irritable because of the unhygienic conditions under which they had +slept. Friction and quarreling is to be expected when there is one +wash-basin for the use of the whole family; one sink for the morning bath +of the family when there is running water in the rooms. Breakfast of bread +and strong coffee, perhaps with the family waiting turns because only three +sides of the table are available, as there is not room to pull the table +out from the wall to make the four sides useful. Floor space costs in the +tenements. + +Friction, adjustment and hurry do not tend to develop a serene spirit in +the house-mother whose office is purely executive. How much less in the +house-mother whose hands must do all the work of the home? When the working +and school-going members of the family are cared for and have gone their +several ways, there is left to the house-mother almost always a baby and +another child too young to go to school, to care for and amuse. In addition +there is the round of work--washing, ironing, mending, making, cooking--all +to be done under limitations of space and conveniences; often with the +handicap of ignorance. Whatever the advantage of self-made money-makers, +the self-made housekeeper, taught only by experience, not only pays dearly +for her education, but is more than apt to be satisfied with her +self-taught accomplishments, thus increasing her disadvantages in the use +of time and money. + +Even with a small family the house-mother with the usual round of work +would not have many moments of leisure. When it is a large family, with all +the disadvantages of the tenement-house home, the days are not long enough +for the work to be done. It crowds the hours, and accumulates until often +discouragement and nervous exhaustion follow. If the mother have a +conscience, she wars with herself, battling against conditions that she +feels but cannot understand nor overcome. + +Three hundred and sixty-five days in the year the Residents found these +mothers who needed the change of pleasure that made no demands on purses. +Even good wages did not permit these families money to buy pleasure and +recreation. Mothers, good mothers, grew old before their time. They often +grew careless of their personal appearance, and by this risked their +influence in their homes, separation from their children, alert and often +overconscious on the subject of dress. + +Then there were semi-apathetic mothers because of discouragement; the +mothers who drifted, never having an aim in life or an ideal; then the +mothers who long ago ceased to make any struggle against environment, every +year becoming more inert; the mothers, now grand-mothers, who were +remembered only in time of need by their children. The Residents saw the +need of the mothers of all types. How could the apathetic be awakened, the +discouraged stimulated, the overworked rested and cheered? Hundreds, +thousands of mothers were losing the best things of life because for them +the activities that increase interest and sympathies could not be brought +into their lives. Their environment made social opportunities in their own +homes impossible. Husband and children, through contact with life in shop, +factory, store, street and school, enlarged their interest every day; while +the wife and mother came to a mental standstill, often losing interest in +everything outside of her home; often failing through lack of knowledge and +discouragement in making that a place of rest and refreshing. + +The Settlement was the bright spot in the lives of hundreds of young people +and children. The mothers who could be stimulated must be reached and held +in a center where pleasure would be the controlling element and education +an incident. There were mothers who had lost all desire for social life. It +was found difficult to arouse in them even a momentary interest in the +thought of seeing new things, new people. The grind of life had blunted all +social instincts. There were women who on the social side of their natures +were dead; could not be roused by any thought outside of the routine of +their lives. Interest enough to do for their families what required the +least effort of mind and body was all that was left. The hope in these +homes was the children. To them the Settlement must give inspiration and +ideals; the home would never give either. + +In the second year of the College Settlement's activity a persistent effort +was made to reach the mothers, especially the mothers of the more alert and +active boys and girls affiliated with the Settlement, in clubs and classes. +These mothers came, but never the same group twice. The smallest obstacle +would prevent the very women who most needed social opportunity from +accepting it. When they needed help, they came to the Settlement; they were +most cordial hostesses when the Residents called; delighted in the +opportunities the Settlement made for their children; but the habit of +staying indoors, out of touch with any life but that of the tenement-house +halls, was a fixed habit most difficult to dislodge. + +Some of the workers who were interested in this question were led to +conclude that it was only the exceptional woman in the tenements who +retained the capacity to plan her work to secure a specified hour or two of +freedom in a whole week. The life imposed on the tenement-house mother does +not make time an element in adjustment of her day, still less of her week. +The breakfast over, the day unfolds itself, and the mother is free to meet +it. Only in the exceptional home is life considered in its relation to the +time of day. One thing was clear: that in the homes of the better paid +wage-earners the mothers did not get their share of life's brightness. A +College Settlement worker, enthusiastically supported by the Head Resident, +determined to secure it for some of them. Failures would not discourage the +worker, for every effort would be considered an experiment until success +was attained. The club idea had proved successful for the children and +young people; it had for mothers of larger opportunities elsewhere in the +social world; it might for these mothers. At least, it could be tried. + +Twenty-two calls were made on the mothers of children and young people then +coming to the Settlement, asking them to the Settlement for a certain +afternoon in the following week. All accepted the invitation; ten came. The +women who responded were told of the plan to start a club to meet once a +week. There would be music, a short talk and refreshments. The plan seemed +to please all who were present, and it was agreed to meet the following +week. + +At once a problem was faced. Some of the mothers came without hats, wearing +not overclean aprons, and apparently looking upon the movement as some new +phase of almsgiving. Others were alert, well-dressed, comprehended that +they must contribute their share in money and interest or the effort would +die out. The children of these two types of mothers could not be +distinguished by outward signs. American public school life and the very +atmosphere of the street life had already begun its leveling-up process in +dress and independence. How could these two types be brought into a common +social relation, when they held nothing in common but the experience of +living under the roof with many? + +It was decided to let the law of natural selection operate freely. The club +was an experiment, and it must not start with preconceived plans; its life +must be one of evolution. The next week only the alert women appeared. + +The club was formed, a president elected, and dues placed at ten cents per +week. This the projectors tried to reduce, but the members insisted that +they could and would pay it. That it would cost almost that to pay for the +cake and coffee, and they could help somebody if there was any money over. +The club was limited to ten members, and filled at the second meeting. It +enlarged to fifteen the next year. In its fifth year it numbered +forty-five. + +The subject of the first formal talk, informally conducted, as its subject +demanded, was: "How long after the hair is out of curling-papers is it +becoming?" This, of course, gave the opportunity of laying stress on a +wife's personal appearance; the necessity of being as attractive as +possible to one's own husband and children. That was, is, the keynote of +the club, its creed, its religion to-day, when mothers and married +daughters are members. The time of meeting was two o'clock, that the +mothers might be at home in time to get supper for their husbands and +children. Babies came with their mothers, and children in school came to +the Settlement instead of going home after school. Many of the little girls +belonged to a sewing club that met the same afternoon at the Settlement. +The club, named in the first month of its existence "The Woman's Home +Improvement Club," celebrated its eleventh anniversary at the College +Settlement, October, 1901. + +[Illustration: THE WOMAN'S HOME IMPROVEMENT CLUB AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +As the first anniversary approached, the members suggested an evening +meeting, that their husbands might come. The proposition received the most +enthusiastic support from the Settlement Residents. Husbands, all the +children who worked, and a friend of each member--if married, her +husband--were included in the invitation. Dancing and music occupied the +evening. What a revelation! Fathers dancing with their own daughters for +the first time; mothers with their sons; daughters and sons spellbound at +the sight of their mothers and fathers dancing together! It was evident +that the club was a feature of the family life. The husbands and grown +children knew what had been talked about, what had been done at the +meetings. One husband, watching his wife dancing with their son, said: "I +don't know how you've done it, but this club has made my wife young again; +she's as young as when we were married." This wife and mother of nine +children at the club one afternoon wished there were a hundred such clubs. +"'Tis a mistake to just stay shut up." She waited a minute, and then said: +"I had not bought a hat for eighteen years until I joined this club; I did +not need it; I never went anywhere; the children did all the errands." + +This was the very type of mother the projectors of the club hoped to reach. +The first evening reception proved such a success that it was decided to +hold one evening reception each month for the family and friends of the +members. Thanksgiving and Christmas receptions belonged to the children. +Apples, nuts, gingerbread, cake and peanut brittle, with coffee, are the +refreshments for Thanksgiving evening; new milk for the children. The games +are Blind Man's Buff, Going to Jerusalem, with the Virginia Reel as an +alternate, because the little children can dance it. "America" and "Home, +Sweet Home," sung in chorus, close the evening. More than one family is now +represented by three generations on these evenings. At the first evening +reception a father and son of twenty years stood side by side. When the +father began singing, the son stopped and looked at him in amazement. This +changed to one of enjoyment, as he said between the verses: "Dad, I didn't +know you could sing." "I haven't in twenty years, I guess," was the reply. +Both father and son had good voices. The son had made the discovery that he +had a voice, at the Settlement, in his club. He edged closer to his father; +there was a new bond of sympathy. The boy's Christmas present from his +father, mother, brother and sisters was a mandolin, the first time a +combination present had been given. It was quite natural that the next year +a table for the new parlor should be the gift of the children to the +parents. + +An incident occurring in the third year after the club was organized is, +perhaps, as perfect an illustration of the lack of social opportunity in a +tenement-house home as can be given. + +One of the most faithful and interested of the members was a woman about +fifty-seven when she joined the club. She was slow to respond to the club +idea; to the right of personal judgment outside her own affairs. Her +responses to a question that involved an expression of opinion was usually: +"It don't make no difference to me." After a time she grasped the idea that +she was one of many, but had equal rights with all the members in deciding +questions relating to the club, and she began assuming responsibilities; +expressing her views. In the third year she came to the president, and +with every evidence of wishing to disclose a secret, said: "Next week +Thursday is my birthday. I never had a birthday party in my life. I've +always wanted one, but never had the room, and I never had the dishes. Do +you believe I could have a birthday party here next week?" + +"Yes, I'm sure you could." + +"I can't do much; and I only have two friends besides the club that I want +to have. I want to pay for all the coffee and cake, that I may feel that +it's my party. Just my two daughters, and my two friends, and my +grandchildren--four, that's all. I've been saving the money for a year." + +One night early in the next week the bell rang. A working man stood at the +door. He handed a five-dollar bill to one of the Residents, saying: "My +wife, she's goin' to have a party here Thursday. I want you to give her a +good time. She's been a good wife to me. Don't tell her; just spend it for +her;" and the man disappeared in the darkness. + +It was decided to order a birthday cake and light sixty candles. + +The day came. Every member brought a remembrance. Radiantly, tearfully +happy stood the hostess. She loved music, and a sweet, gracious woman whose +music wins the most cultured sang song after song. Time for refreshments +came. In the front parlor a club of little girls were sewing. It seemed a +pity that they should not see the cake and the candles lighted. They were +told that the doors would open, a lady was having her first birthday party, +and it would be kind to wish her many returns of the day. + +The cake was brought in with the sixty candles burning, and placed before +the hostess, a gift from her husband. "I didn't know," the wife kept +whispering under her breath as she stood beside it at the table. The doors +rolled slowly backward, and twenty children breathed "Ah!" Then in a piping +chorus, "Wish you many returns of the day." A moment the woman stood still. +Then turning a shining face on all about, she moved toward the children, +the tears falling fast. Raising her hands and face heavenward, she said +solemnly: "O God, what have I done that you should be so good to me?" The +volume of her life was opened. + +A cake with a few shining candles, a few friends with their little +offerings, and the wishes of a few children, and to one woman God had +reached out of His high heaven and selected her as the special object of +His care and love. + +Not all of the five dollars had been used. The hostess was asked what she +wanted done with it. She was radiant. "I'll give a party to those children +what said that sweet thing to me." Suggestions of other uses were cast +aside. The children must have a party--ice cream and cake. When she found +out that cake and ice cream would cost more than the money in hand, she +announced: "I will wait to give it. In a month I save money to put to it." +She made all her own arrangements, and proved a hostess of resource and +tact. + +She received her guests most cordially. Perhaps the most wildly exciting +hours of her life were when, after much coaxing, she joined in the games of +Drop the Handkerchief, Blind Man's Buff and Going to Jerusalem, the last +game sending her crimson and panting into a chair in the corner, with the +children crowding about her shrieking with laughter. + +Time for refreshments found her anxious and watchful. The members of the +club had fallen into the spirit of the day, and nobody was grown up. + +An incident occurred during the serving of refreshments which showed the +educational value of a story written for pleasure, not education; at the +same time a very deep compliment to the book. "The Birds' Christmas Carol" +was a favorite book in the club. It had been read twenty-seven times in +one tenement house by eleven members of one family, and four times by one +member, who said she would own a copy whenever she could spare the money. +She wanted to read it when she felt cross. As there were not chairs enough +for all at the party, some of the children sat on the floor. The little +daughter of the mother who wanted to own "The Birds' Christmas Carol" sat +on the floor in front of her mother. She did something while eating her ice +cream of which her mother disapproved. With a quick glance at one of the +workers who stood near her, the mother said: "If I had been as wise as Mrs. +Ruggles, she would not have done that." Mrs. Ruggles was a thoroughly +appreciated character. Her struggles to equip her children were perfectly +understood, as were her ambitions for them. The hostess of the day was as +disappointed as the youngest child when the lighting of the gas told that +the day was done. She was the last to leave, saying: "I never was so happy +in my life. It has been beautiful. All my life I wanted a birthday party. +Now I have two;" and she turned a radiant face to say "Good-night" as she +went down the stoop into the gathering darkness. + +The weeks went by. The club had tickets to go to Glen Island, through the +generosity of Mr. Starin. In August another member had a birthday, and +confided the secret to the giver of the birthday party, saying, "I wanted +to give a birthday party as you did. I never had one in my life; but I +could not get money enough. I tried hard since yours." In September the +elder member confided this conversation to the president of the club, +saying, "Now we will give her a surprise. She shall have the party. I have +talked with every member. But we will not each buy her a present; we put +our money together and buy her a dress." The president doubted the wisdom +of this, and suggested a dozen other gifts. "No, we give a dress. She does +not have as nice a dress as other members. It is not right that one member +of a club should not dress as good as every other member. Why not she take +that dress? She know we love her, and we give her this because we want her +to look as good as anybody; she is so pretty." + +The dress was bought and given by the oldest member of the club, who in her +speech announced her views on dress, and the need of one member looking as +well-dressed as any other member; that if one could not have things, then +the others must share with her; that was being a true member. The dress was +received in the spirit in which it was given. When it was found that it +could not be made by the receiver in time for the next reception because +she had so much work, it was cut and made by five members of the club. The +wisdom of putting money together to buy one present was learned, and from +that time on the custom has been to make joint gifts when gifts are given. +This is done in families, greatly reducing the valueless things that were +formerly bought when only a little money, a few cents perhaps, could be +spent by each one. + +About the time this club was established the kindergarten had been added to +the vocabulary of philanthropists. The kindergarten existed as part of the +secular work of many of the churches, and individuals here and there +supported kindergartens. It was generally conceded that the mothers of the +children did not appreciate the work the kindergarten was doing for their +children; that too often they felt that permitting them to go was +conferring a favor on the kindergartners or those who had asked for their +children's attendance. The Residents and workers at the Settlement did not +believe that this was a healthy attitude of mind. They believed it was +responsible for the irregular attendance of many of the children, as well +as the lack of punctuality. There was no kindergarten in connection with +the Settlement, nor room for one, but one was greatly needed. Much as it +was needed, it must not come until the mothers wanted it and were willing +to work for it. + +Miss Brooks was then at the head of the Kindergarten Training School in +connection with the Teachers' College. She was consulted. The result was +that the members of the Woman's Home Improvement Club became on several +afternoons members of a kindergarten. They used the materials, took part in +the games directed by Miss Brooks and the members of her training class. +The names of the material used, the things made, the stories, the games, +the songs, became a part of the vocabulary of the mothers. Some of the +material was bought and taken home to entertain the children. The natural +result followed. "If only we could have a kindergarten for our children!" + +[Illustration: THE KINDERGARTEN OF THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +It was suggested that if seventy children could be found near enough to the +DeWitt Memorial, where a room for the kindergarten was available, that +perhaps the kindergarten would be established there. Over one hundred calls +were made by the nine members of this club, which resulted in securing the +promised attendance of seventy children. The Lowell Kindergarten was then +opened at the DeWitt Memorial by the New York Kindergarten Association as a +result of this effort. The difficulties the mothers put in the way of good +work in the kindergarten was explained to the members of the club, who +agreed to call on mothers whose children did not come to the kindergarten +in time, or were irregular in attendance. It was most interesting to watch +the growth of public sentiment in favor of regular and punctual attendance, +not only at the kindergarten, but at school. If the kindergarten child +reported Johnny Jones, who was a neighbor's child, as absent, the elder +brother or visitor after school was sent to find out if Johnny Jones were +ill. It became a badge of good motherhood to have the child in the +kindergarten on time. Before this, through talks by doctors and nurses, the +relation between health and cleanliness had been discovered. Cleanliness +was imposed on their own children, and exacted from other mothers of +kindergarten children. + +The influx of Hebrews, toward whom the members of this club had a deep race +prejudice, drove them out of this neighborhood. Before seven years had +passed but four of the members were residents of this district. But a +change of residence did not change their belief in the value of the +kindergarten. Wherever they have gone they have sought it for their young +children, who have found always intelligent and sympathetic listeners in +their mothers to all the events and incidents in their kindergarten world. +One mother learned accompaniments to songs, and the children sing +kindergarten songs at the club entertainments, even those in the grammar +grade join. + +As time went on, the conviction grew stronger that the real pressure of +poverty or lack of money, among the self-respecting independent poor came +not on the physical nature but the mental and emotional. The pressure was +incessant. There never was a time when there was money to buy pleasure. +Months, years went by without life offering the opportunity for enlarging +the mental horizon of thousands of capable, receptive, devoted mothers. To +the children the Church entertainments were opportunities; clubs and sewing +schools were doing their share, but the mothers were only onlookers. There +was no active part for them except in the world of work. The churches +provided religious opportunity and social opportunity, regulated by the +Church environment. Hundreds were not attracted, and often one sympathized +with their rejection of this kind of social opportunity, tinged too +frequently with patronage, and of necessity, narrow in its scope. + +Early in the history of this club the love of music was so evident that it +was decided that the members should hear "The Messiah." That would be the +Christmas treat that year. The cost of the tickets was far beyond the means +of the members, but friends made the purchase of the tickets for every +member possible. + +Two days before the giving of the Oratorio, Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith came +to the Settlement and gave a recital. Handel's picture was displayed, the +story of his life told. The themes of the Oratorio were explained, and then +sung by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. A new world was opened. The night for the +Oratorio came. The journey so far uptown was into a land wholly unknown. +Carnegie Hall was a revelation of another world. Its size and beauty, the +audience, all a revelation. From the opening bar to the close of the +Oratorio the club members listened entranced. It was the enlarging of the +world revealed by Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith. As the chorus "Unto us a child +is born, Unto us a son is given," closed, every one of the mothers sat with +shining face but moist eyes. A new message had come. One little mother, +whose battle so bravely fought won reverence for her, leaned down and +whispered: "I'm so glad I have sons; I'm so glad. I think I know now what +it means." The echo came back for weeks, yes, for years. One member, in +trying to tell her husband, said: "I saw while I was talking how +impossible it was to make him understand, so I said: 'John, you'll never +know till you get to Heaven what I heard and saw to-night.'" + +The result justified the effort. It was seen that it was wise to have the +best of everything for the members of the club in the way of entertainment. +Musicians have given most generously of their time and talent. Speakers who +are sought for in the highest intellectual world have been secured for the +evening receptions, when the husbands and working children and friends were +present. The result has been to develop just at the level where it was most +needed standards that protect the home from enjoyments tinged with +vulgarity, and even crudeness is now detected and accepted grudgingly or +with apology. + +The hard times of 1893-94 gave a new opportunity to test the value of such +a club. The stories of suffering, of helplessness, made it seem wise to +control money to be expended through the club members. They were brought +into contact with families who never before were reduced to the point of +asking charity. About four hundred dollars was expended under the direction +of the members of this club. Work tickets were bought and given to men and +women whose life history they knew, men and women they had known for years. +When cases of strangers were brought to their notice, they investigated +and advised as to the best way to give help. To prevent eviction, payment +of rent was the first effort of the club members. + +The education they received was invaluable. For the first time it was +possible for them to help others in a large way; they saw that the number +they could help depended on the wisdom shown in expending the money on +which they could call. Their indignation knew no bounds when they found +they had been deceived, as they were in half a dozen cases of families +brought to their attention. One case caused a complete revolution in their +theory that if people suffered it was because the world was hard with them, +had not given them a chance. One woman, a widow, was brought to the +attention of the club early in the winter. She had one child, and they had +not had a fire in weeks; had no outside garments to go on the street, +because they had pawned them for food. They had eaten nothing but bread and +coffee for seven weeks. Now they were to be evicted from the one room they +had occupied, because no rent had been paid for two months. The club had +decided that paying back rents only benefited landlords; that, having so +little money and so many demands, rent in advance was all they could pay. +They voted to move the woman, then to find work for her. It was decided +that she must learn to operate a sewing machine. The Charities' +Organization Society made that possible. After two weeks' trial, it was +found that the woman could not learn. Then the society gave her a chance to +learn laundry work, and for two weeks more money to support the woman and +child--cared for by one of the members in turn while the mother was away +from home--was given. Again the report came that the woman would not learn. +Then the members decided to teach her. This individual teaching, with what +the society had done, seemed to make an impression. It was decided that the +woman could iron. + +[Illustration: MAKING A SELECTION.] + +When this stage was reached the fourteen-year-old daughter of one of the +members passed on her way from work a laundry. At the door a sign hung, +"Hands Wanted." The little girl went in and asked about wages. The man at +the desk laughed at her. "It made me mad. I just looked at him," drawing +herself up as she told the story. "I said: 'I do not want the work for +myself, but for a woman _our_ club is trying to help; she's poor, and a +widow.' Then the man looked at me, and told me to tell the woman to come. I +told him we'd all been teaching her." The use of the plural possessive +thrilled the heart of the workers; the club was a family possession. The +woman was told to go to work the next morning. As the little girl was +returning from work the next night, she stopped at the laundry to ask about +the woman; to walk home with her, if she were going home. She was told the +woman had not appeared. Before going to her own home, the child went to see +why the woman had not gone to work. The woman had overslept. For three +weeks that little girl got up earlier and went after that woman, delivering +her at the laundry as though she were a package. It was decided that the +sacrifice was too much; if the woman was not willing to keep the work by +her own effort, she was not worth helping. An alarm clock was bought and +given her, and she was taught how to wind it. She lost the place before the +end of the first week because she could not get there on time. + +The club found out that there were people it was impossible to help, do +what the world would. + +This little girl during this period of struggle with this woman was met one +Sunday afternoon. She carried a doll to which she was devoted, and for +which she made a cloak that Sunday morning. "Isn't she pretty?" she said, +holding up the doll. "I often wish I could see her when I'm working." What +a combination of child and woman! As the years have passed, this little +girl has paid the penalty of shop life. She has grown hard, aggressive, +self-assertive, untruthful. If only her environment could have been +different, she would have made a magnificent woman. The world of struggle +has been too much for her; it has strangled the spirit of helpfulness. + +The lessons of that winter have been well learned. Every mother in the club +wants a trade for her child; something learned that has in it wage-earning +promise because the worker has special knowledge. + +The time came when it was possible to turn the attention of these mothers +to the administration of those city departments that make the environment +of their homes. The streets naturally claimed first attention. They learned +to take the numbers of the street sweepers who failed to do their work; to +take the numbers of the carts improperly and carelessly filled, and report +them at the club meeting. Leaking roofs, broken stairways, unlighted halls, +contagious diseases were reported, and conditions in the stores and +factories where their daughters worked. + +The criminality of concealing dangers that threatened many to protect one +was comprehended. The club motto became "A helping hand to all." + +The club members felt that it was possible for them to give special help +to little children. In a thousand ways the women in the house of many +families find the opportunity to help children; often through the children +they helped the mothers. Sometimes through personal influence they secured +the regular attendance of children at school; sometimes it meant calling in +the aid of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to secure +the rights of children, to protect them from evils in their own homes. + +One day a wealthy woman who had lost a little girl told the president of +this club this incident, which, she said, changed the course of her life. +For months she had shut out the world. God and man were cruel. Nothing +interested her; life was empty. She sat by the window in her home one +November afternoon. It was drizzling and blowing. A little girl without hat +or coat stood shivering and crying against the church railing opposite. As +she watched the child her mind reverted to the clothes she handled so +constantly, because they had been worn by her child. She sent for the +little stranger, and when she went on the street again she was warm, tidy +and comfortable. Then came the thought, "God never meant a woman should be +a mother just to one little girl. She must be a mother to every child who +needs her." From that day this woman has given her life and service to +children. The story was told to the club. + +One of the members, after the meeting had adjourned and while the +refreshments were being served, was overheard saying: "Why, certainly it +would change everything if every woman would live in that way. Think how +many times you could save children, how many times you could help them, if +you were their mother just for the time they needed you--often only a few +minutes." + +Months after a member reported: "Well, I don't know what you'll all think +when I tell you what I did last week. I've been bothered because such a +nice-looking little girl came every morning about school time and went +upstairs in the house opposite. She carried a lunch-box and books. I would +see her with a baby at the window, and see her in the morning run on +errands. At three o'clock she went away in the direction from which she +came. That child is playing 'hookey.' That woman is to blame, I said to +myself. One morning last week I saw the child go to the corner grocery. I +went after her. + +[Illustration: AT THE SETTLEMENT--A STORMY DAY.] + +"'Where you live, little girl?' I asked. She grew red and hung her head, +and tried to get out of the store. I stand in front of her. 'No, you must +not be afraid of me. I have little girls. I love all little girls. Where is +your mother? Child, you deceive her. She thinks you are in school, and you +play "hookey."' The child ran out of the store, crying. I went right +upstairs after her. I knock. The woman would not open the door. I knock +louder, then she come. When she see me, she tried to close the door. I put +my foot in the door and keep it open. I say, 'You are doing wrong. I belong +to a club where every member is to be a mother to every child what needs +her. If that little girl come here one more day, I follow her home and tell +her mother. It be bad for you if any child come here so young as that +child. It is against the law for such little children to work. That little +girl is playing "hookey," and you make her. You do that any more, and I +make a complaint against you to the Children's Society. Good-morning;' and +I took out my foot, bowed and went downstairs. When I got home, that little +girl is running down the street where she comes every morning. I never see +her now, and that woman do her own errands and mind her own baby." + +The members applauded. A child out of school is a child to be looked after. +It has been concluded by the members of this club that they can do their +best missionary work in the houses where they live, by keeping their rooms +and their children in the best possible condition; that every home, every +child so cared for, is the best possible sermon preached, the purpose of +which is to make life better. + +The League for Political Education, the Woman's Auxiliary of the Civil +Service Reform Association, the City History Club have sent speakers to the +club, some conducting courses of lectures. Even the Assembly District work +undertaken by the League for Political Education was attempted by the club, +but did not succeed. It could hardly be expected that it would. + +During all those years the members had been trained to self-government. All +questions are decided by the majority. There came a time when the majority +voted to leave the College Settlement. It was deplored by the projectors, +but accepted. After a few weeks a small house was taken a couple of blocks +from the East River. The house had a large yard, and by expending a small +amount of money was made very attractive. The attempt was made to have the +members of the club do neighborhood work. A very short trial proved this +was impracticable. Two things were revealed: That the mother of a +working-man's family has neither strength nor time to give away; that the +very conditions of tenement-house neighborhoods require trained, impersonal +workers. The women who gave time to the club work in the neighborhood +neglected their homes and families. The few members who tried to do +neighborhood work in the house used every advantage the club-house offered, +which they controlled, to curry favor, to revenge slights, real or fancied, +to themselves or their children. The best mothers made no attempt to do any +neighborhood work. The house became a social center, an educational center. +But it was not a success until paid workers were put in charge of different +departments, with a very few volunteer workers; and the most faithful of +these were women of wealth. + +It was hoped that uptown organizations would establish branches of their +work in this house. Some did attempt it, but it failed for the reason that +so many efforts to better the conditions of the tenement-house dwellers +fail. Women lacking the right qualities volunteered, or the work was +important when other things did not interfere. Clubs were established to +which the organizers came when it was convenient. Again and again children +connected with clubs waited until darkness came, but no "dear lady" whom +they trusted appeared. In another case, numbers were the standard of +success, and scores were crowded in where units should have been. All this +forced the employment of paid workers, and centered the responsibility on +one until the burden was too great to be borne. + +Added to this, the principle of self-government had given a one-sided +development to some of the members, and friction would develop when large +questions were to be decided, an aggressive minority combating a +conservative and less demonstrative majority. + +The reform campaign of 1897 began. The picture of the candidate of the +Citizens' Union hung in the window. The Citizens' Union used the house and +yard for its lectures. When the campaign was ended, the friction developed +to the unbearable point, and it seemed, in view of the dissension, best to +disband the club. The club voted to keep together and return to the College +Settlement, if the privilege could be secured. This was generously given, +and the club unanimously voted to return, pledging the members to give all +the aid possible to the Settlement work. Since 1898 the club has again been +a part of the work at the Settlement. + +For six years this club has had a country club-house--a large house, easy +of access, in New Jersey, admirably adapted to the purposes of the club. +The house is surrounded by lawns and an apple orchard. Two kitchens make it +possible for two families to occupy the house at the same time. The rent +is paid and the house cleaned each spring. All other expenses, including +car fares, are paid by the members of the club using the house. The plan is +for each member to use half the house for two weeks. By a system of +evolution and working of the law of natural selection, four families use +the house at the same time. Mrs. A. invites Mrs. B. for the two weeks that +she is entitled to half of the house; and Mrs. B., arranging her two weeks +to follow Mrs. A., reciprocates by asking Mrs. A. to remain for her two +weeks. Co-operative housekeeping has developed, as has the sharing in the +care of the children. The barn, equipped for the children, has been an +endless delight. Two members have in the past been debarred the use of the +house. One because of the character of the men invited by the husband; one +because of the language used to her children. Both were asked to resign +from the club, or to make it inconvenient to use the club-house. One +resigned. The average number of people using this club-house has been +between four and five hundred each season. Sick children of neighbors have +been taken up by the members and cared for during their whole vacation. On +Sundays, friends, relatives and city neighbors are guests. + +There has never been any supervision over the house, except that of the +members. Each member leaves the part of the house she has used clean for +the one coming after her. For several years the club paid part of two +months' rent, raised through entertainments. One year the members made a +donation of thirty dollars. Broken dishes are replaced, and the cost of +repairing furniture broken is paid by the member using the furniture at the +time. The large parlor is a club-room, and used by every member who goes up +for a day. A closet is provided with dishes to be used when picnics are +given by the members. The theory is that the grounds--four acres--can be +used by the members at any time, but the families in the house must not be +interfered with in any way. + +The story of this club has been told at this length because it has proved +what can be done in broadening the life of women of natural intelligence +living under tenement-house conditions; how the family can have a common +interest, to which each contributes, a center that can create social +opportunity for the friends of every member and the members of every +family. + +This club has been able to do much to lighten the burdens in the time of +financial crisis for people who could only have been helped through such a +medium. It was the help of a friend always. For years it has been able to +distribute Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners; but it grows more cautious +every year, for it has made discoveries of the abuses of the Christmas +dinner-giving. Through the children it has been possible to reach other +children who needed Christmas cheer, but who would not take it from ever so +kind-hearted a public. + +The long years of working together has cemented friendships that are the +inheritances of the children, and sons and daughters have intermarried. +Baby after baby finds its godmother in the club. + +There have been mortifying failures, but there have been positive successes +in the eleven years. The club has proved conclusively that the +working-men's wives can be determining factors in arousing and demanding +better environment for their homes; that the wife and mother who keeps in +touch with life commands greater influence in and outside her home, where +all that she learns is used to make that home better; that she keeps her +place in her family best when she makes herself the companion of her +husband and children; when she, as far as she may, is herself the source of +their social life, and contributes to their mental interests by sharing +with them all the educational opportunity that life gives her. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WITHIN THE WALLS OF HOME. + + +One day a group of unusually intelligent wives of working men were driving +through Central Park in a Park carriage. All were mothers, some of grown +children, yet it was the first time that twelve of the twenty (all but two +born in New York) had seen Central Park. Coming back on the east drive, the +closed houses on Fifth Avenue attracted their attention. Various +suggestions were made as to what use these houses could be put in the +summer, when one woman, slight, delicate and extremely nervous, said: "I +don't want anything in those houses but the room, just the room. I've never +had all the room I want. I would have if I lived in them." After a moment +she continued: "The reason we don't love each other as we should is because +we don't have room; we crowd each other. All the time I lived in my +father's home I was crowded. How we used to fight! Fight in the night, as +well as the day, just because we did not have room. The beds were so +crowded that one of the young ones had to sleep across the foot. The big +ones would keep their feet up while they were awake, but when they went to +sleep they would stretch out and kick the one across the foot. When I was +so little that I slept that way, I used to lie awake in terror expecting +the kick, and how I scratched when it came! I know we would have loved each +other much more if we could have had room to grow up in, as the children in +those houses do. And my mother! She didn't have a room to herself when she +had the sickness that killed her." + +[Illustration: YARD DAY AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +It was pathetic to hear the revelations of the little miseries of childhood +due to lack of room in the home. "My mother used to drive us out of the +house to get a chance to sweep it," said another mother of children. "I +remember lots of times standing down at the hall door, shivering, waiting +for her to get through. I would go into the neighbors' rooms, but often +they had got rid of their own children for the reason my mother had of +hers." + +"I tell you what used to make me mad; it was to have to wait for the others +to get through eating," said another. "When I hire a place I always look +first to see if the kitchen is big enough to pull the table from the wall +and sit about it. I don't think I ever had any hot dinner when I was +little, and it used to make me mad. When I had three children I moved just +to get a large kitchen; it ain't near so nice a place, but the kitchen is +big." There was not a woman there who did not have a grievance against her +childhood because there was not room. One of them with crimson cheeks told +how she remembered the sense of comfort that came to her after the death of +an older sister because she had a bed to herself; she said it was a long +time before she knew the cause, for she missed her sister's companionship, +but she was more comfortable; she enjoyed having the five nails at the foot +of the bed for her own clothes. The woman who spoke first interrupted: "I +never in my life had even a hook in the wall that was my own until I was +married. We were so near of a size we could wear each other's things, and +we did. The one who was quickest got the best of that size. You never knew +whose clothes you'd have to put on in the morning. I'll never have but this +child. She likes me. She hates being pushed and crowded. She has a bed and +bureau of her own. Never, never until my husband can pay more rent will we +have another child." She paid the penalty of death for this determination. + +As one thinks of the number of human beings with all their belongings +crowded into the floor space of a tenement-house home, the marvel at the +endurance grows greater. Think of its limitations of conveniences! + +To those who know the limitations of a tenement-house home, the criticisms +and suggestions that the superficially informed reformers make on and for +the hygienic management of these homes are at once the source of amusement +and indignation. When stress is laid on airing a bed every morning, and one +in imagination sees the only windows in another room with a breakfast table +between them, a room already overcrowded with things, the only room for the +mother and baby during the process, one wonders what the speaker would do +under the same circumstances. Then when the horrors of dust are revealed +and the necessity of keeping the floors clean by frequent washing is made +to be imperative, one sees the bed that just fits between the walls at the +head and foot, with half of its own space free in front of it, and again +comes the question, what would the expert do living under like +circumstances? What is needed everywhere is scientific knowledge in +conjunction with intimate knowledge of the evils inseparable from the small +dark rooms of even the best tenements, and then we will have suggestions +that the woman can use--can apply to her own family conditions--who must do +the work for a family within this space. + +In the best of the tenements it will be found that where the tenants can +afford a parlor, access to it is across the kitchen, where all the work of +the family must be done. It will be seen at once the disadvantage at which +the house-mother is when friends who are not intimate call. Nothing stands +between her and the outer world but the door into a public hallway. The +bedrooms admit of a bed, and sometimes, but only in the exceptional +bedroom, a bureau. This is usually found in the parlor, if there is one, +and in it all the clothes that can be folded, all the little accessories +belonging to the family; to this, however, all must have access. If there +is a closet for clothes, or if the family can own and house a wardrobe, it +is usually in this room, and the common convenience of the family. The +bedrooms, dark, offer no space for a washstand. The kitchen is the common +wash-room. The kitchens of the tenement houses built in these later years +are a marvel of inconvenience. The dish closet is a few shelves up near the +ceiling, the lower one of which can be reached by a woman five feet four +standing on the soles of her feet; a chair is necessary to reach the other +shelves. Beneath this space is the pot closet, or it may be the stationary +tubs, the top of which provides table space for cooking conveniences. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S HOUR AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +There comes to mind now one of the best plans for a tenement having four +families on each floor on the East Side. The stairways are lighted by a +window on each landing opening on an air shaft, and on each floor is a +lavatory with a large window. Each suite consists of four rooms. The parlor +has two windows on the street; a kitchen window opening into the parlor, +never raised if the family have social standards; and a window on a large +air shaft, or space between the two houses, on which the bedroom windows, +which are large, open. The rent for these four rooms is seventeen dollars +per month, and they are on the fifth floor. The kitchens in this house have +been described. The family have to sit at three sides of the table; there +is no room to pull it from the wall; even then one side is uncomfortably +near the stove. The only space except the parlor for a refrigerator is in +the bedroom. As there are three young wage-earners supporting the home, who +are social, who are encouraged by the widowed mother to have their friends +in their own home, this is not to be tolerated. The refrigerator is in the +bedroom. It was in that room when it was occupied for four years by a girl +dying of tuberculosis. Is it any wonder that the fight against this disease +is again being waged in that family? Yet it is above the average of its +class in intelligence, as the apartments are above the average in the +region. + +The very elementary necessity of space and place for privacy in taking a +bath is exceptional. For space, place and light are necessary. A very +bright woman, perfectly familiar with the limitations of the tenement-house +homes, once said to the writer: "The truth is they cannot be clean if they +are decent." A cruel truth which was brought forcibly to the remembrance of +the writer one winter afternoon in an East Side home, where a mother was +trying to bring up a family to the best of her ability. When the caller +went into the living-room of the family a tub stood at the side of the +stove, in which was the youngest daughter, a girl about eight; a brother of +ten and his boy friend of twelve or fourteen years were playing checkers on +the other side of the room. The mother was ironing. There was no +consciousness of embarrassment shown by the children. The mother was +ashamed, not at the exposure, but at being found out in permitting such an +exposure. She was a member of a club where the training of children was a +constant theme. The necessity of physical cleanliness, its relation to +health, she had grasped, and her children profited by it. The relation +between privacy and morals she had not grasped. It was as though a veil +had fallen from her eyes as she looked at her daughter of eight standing +naked before the two boys. Whether such a thing ever occurred again the +caller does not know; that the mother never forgave the caller for finding +her out she does know. The family had three bedrooms, but none would permit +the placing of a washstand in them. One was the passageway from front to +rear, for the family occupied a floor, but could afford only one fire. + +Privacy is almost impossible in the tenement-house home. One bedroom is +usually the passageway to the next, if there are two, or both bedrooms are +passageways from front to rear of the home, and must be used by all the +family. Privacy is impossible in these rooms, and there are thousands of +just such apartments. Children must grow up in them subject to the +limitations, restrictions and exposures their walls compel. This division +of space must fix standards of reserve, of privacy, of social life. No +amount of love, not even of intelligence, can save the children from the +evils such division of space imposes on family life. It deadens the +sensibilities. The insidious effects of this is not always realized, even +by the intelligent parents who accept them as inevitable. + +One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry at the inconsistencies of the +standards of those who go to Albany to secure the passage of bills for the +betterment of the conditions of the working people. We have secured a law +compelling separate closets for men and women in stores and factories, a +righteous measure in the interest of morality. But the closets in the +tenements must be used by men, women and children of several families. A +neighborly courtesy is the loaning of the key, to save a neighbor a journey +upstairs. Children run in from the street, several at a time, for it is the +only place provided. This publicity and freedom is the crying evil of the +tenements, the one from which tragedies come. The marvel is that so few +follow; that in spite, seemingly in defiance, of it all, characters develop +that are beautiful, harmonious, true. + +Can one condemn the girl facing the worst that can befall her who under +pressure that her appeal justifies, yes, makes necessary, confides that her +relations with the man who is the father of the coming child began when +each were little things six or eight years old? A relation that grew out of +lack of privacy, the intimacy forced by tenement-house conditions. Both +families have gone far beyond their social position at the time these two +were children, but the blasting of innocency has left its burning scar on +the girl, and she must bear it alone. + +Perhaps it is this necessarily open living that gives the love-making in +the tenement region a character peculiarly its own. When interest between +the sexes is aroused, it is expressed so frankly and publicly. There are +times when restraint would seem to improve manners; but among the working +young men and women one is constantly reminded of Adam and Eve in the +garden of Eden. How frankly and unconsciously they must have shown their +interest in each other, and how unconsciously they must have revealed their +interest in each other to all the other breathing creatures. Perhaps +nothing about the love-making is more interesting than that numbers add to +the enjoyment of both lovers. Nothing adds more to the happiness of a +wage-earning girl than to have her "chum" deeply interested in and deeply +interesting to a young man at the same time she is. It seems to be conceded +that two couples can have so much more pleasure than one. The terms applied +by these young people to each other will reveal their social level in the +wage-earning world. If the term "steady" is used where the world of wealth +and leisure would use _fiancé_, the under wage-earning world is reached. If +"friend" is used, the social ladder covered by that word, used in that +sense, has many rounds. Knowing many working girls who would use the term +"friend" when referring to the man they had accepted as a future husband, +or who would in time hold that relation, the writer was constantly +impressed by the unconscious protection the girls threw about each other. +One would rarely hear of plans made that did not include two beside the +couple engaged, or willing to be. Sometimes two girls were to complete the +party. It is evident that the more means the merrier time. In every group +of girls there will be two or three who cause anxiety; two or three whose +influence, unchecked, may lead to trouble. It is not easy to restrain the +young people, for so often the offenses are so naturally the result of +environment that to speak directly of them would be most unwise. The +chances are that reference to them would put the speaker in the position of +possessing knowledge of an undesirable kind; it would seem to suggest evil. +Often it would be a moral shock to many working girls to have their actions +criticised from the impression their freedom makes before the cause is +understood. + +[Illustration: MUTUAL INTERESTS.] + +A young girl joined a club for young people. From the first she caused +anxiety. Her face was innocent and attractive, but her actions with young +men were just the reverse. At last it became necessary to speak to her. It +was evident that she attributed the criticism to what she termed +"fussiness." Not the least modification in her manner followed. At last, +after many interviews, she was told that she would never be spoken to +again. If she offended in the club-room once more, she would be given her +hat. That would mean that she was not to again enter those rooms. She +confided to her intimate friend that no one had ever told her that what she +did was wrong. After this interview, a modification of her manner was +noticed, not because she was convinced she was wrong, but because she +thought it wise to heed. A group of young people were returning from a +picnic. Just after the homeward journey had begun, it was seen that this +young girl was sitting in the lap of a young man whom she had always known; +as children they lived for years in the same tenement. Beside him sat the +young girl whom he had invited to the club picnic. The club girl sat so +unconscious of any infringement of manners, public or private, that a young +man who had grown up under the same conditions was asked what he thought of +the act. He started at once to tell the girl to stand up, but was +restrained. Evidently he was shocked, and the act was wrong from his +standpoint, the only standpoint fair to the girl. A seat was made for the +girl elsewhere, who, for the first time, showed distress, or rather +anxiety, because of her own acts. Nothing was said to her. + +Occasion was made to speak to the young man who had kept his seat and let +the girl sit in his lap. He was a working man, and his hands showed it. All +his life of twenty-two years he had lived under tenement-house conditions. + +"Frank, would you marry a girl who sat in a man's lap in a railroad train?" +he was asked. + +"No," he responded indignantly. + +"Do you suppose you are the only man in the world who has that feeling? +What right have you to let any girl cheapen herself so that the man who saw +her with you, doing what you permitted, if you did not suggest and +encourage, would not marry her?" + +The man's face grew white. He had a sister of whom he was very fond and +very proud. + +"What would you do to the man who permitted your sister, when she was +tired, to do what you permitted a girl to do to-night--a girl who has no +brother to watch over her?" + +The young man was six feet tall. He rose to his feet, and, raising his +hands toward the starlit sky, he said: + +"As true as there is a God above me, I will never while I live let any girl +do what I am not willing my own sister should do anywhere." + +After a moment's quiet, the chaperon said: + +"I shall never mention this to the girl. I hold you responsible. You are +stronger mentally, morally and physically, and are wholly to blame." +Whether he spoke to the girl or not, no one knows, but never again was it +necessary to even mentally criticise that young girl's manners with young +men. Not only did her manners change, but the expression of her face. One +grew to love and trust her, and ask her help for other girls. + +The chivalry of the working boys and young men is constantly seen, +unconsciously revealed. Sometimes it is dangerous the degree in which it +shows itself among the finest of the boys. A sick girl, unable to go out, +will command attentions so special and direct that the fear of her +misunderstanding, and suffering because she has not understood, will make +those interested who know the danger unhappy; sympathy from any cause will +make a great-hearted working boy place himself in a position where he may +be easily misunderstood. + +It is astonishing how long the spirit of childhood will live in working +boys and girls, even under conditions that seem never to justify happiness +and spontaneity! + +One Sunday a group of working men and girls went nutting, being duly and +properly chaperoned. Four of the young men climbed a big walnut tree. The +girls, with some of the young men, were gathered at the foot, waiting for +the shower of nuts. The chaperon sat on a stone fence a little way off. The +wind began to blow, swaying the top branches. One of the young men having a +good voice laid himself along a limb high from the ground, singing +"Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top." The others took it up and the girls +joined in. Over and over it was sung. Then the girls and boys on the ground +joined hands outside the span of the tree and sang "Ring around a rosy." +Every singing game of childhood was enthusiastically played. Every one of +these young people were poor as the world counts wealth--every one over +eighteen--all had worked from the first moment they could earn wages. Each +one had suffered the wearing anxiety of no wages when the family needed +what they could earn, and yet they sang--they felt like children. No amount +of money at the time could have bought them this happiness. + +The sun poured down a glory of yellow light on the trees that seemed to +have caught its color dashed with red flames. Across the field came one of +the girls slowly--a girl who never had manifested any enthusiasm, except +for dancing; who never gave expression to any emotion of feeling. It was +thought impossible to move her. As she came nearer, it was seen that she +was deeply stirred; her face was expressive. Putting her head against the +arm of the chaperon, she whispered, rather than spoke: "I did not know +trees were any color but green before." The tears were chasing each other +down her cheeks, while her mouth was wreathed with smiles. The girl was +over twenty. Had she been born in a family that would use the privileges of +the various Fresh-Air organizations, she would have known more of the +country. It was this year that she first saw the stars over the trees, and +the moon at the full in the sky when it had a horizon. Obedience to her was +not easy, but to her brother she gave it willingly; he had been her nurse +in babyhood, her friend and companion in childhood, and was now her +protector. In every plan of these young people he considered his sister +first. If she had an escort, he invited some other girl to go with him; if +not, he took his sister. The girl never manifested any interest in young +men beyond their ability to dance well. She would find a dozen reasons for +not dancing if she found herself on the floor with an awkward dancer. + +This group of twenty-two young men and women, all from homes that would +bar the door to charity, even when suffering, were fairly representative of +the social standard of the better part of the wage-earning world of New +York. Among them was the independent girl, the one who had no desire to be +sought in marriage; she saw the worries of her sisters married to men +having small and uncertain wages; saw the wearing side of motherhood rather +than its joys. She skillfully kept her young men friends as friends, +changing from one to the other as soon as she saw the line of friendship +being crossed. The girl who never won attention till she wooed it was among +them; the girl who was treated discourteously or neglected was one of them. +The girl who was sought for exhibition because she dressed well, yet who +never roused any deeper feeling, was there, for some of the men were very +observant, and had standards of style for the girls they escorted. + +[Illustration: THE FOREST OF THE TENEMENTS.] + +There was the young man who willfully played with a girl's feelings; the +young man who openly exhibited the love he had awakened, but to which he +did not respond; the girl whose adoration received indifferent treatment, +yet who was never entirely cast aside by the man too selfish to marry. In +that company there was one couple who were sentimental in their actions; +they would sit and hold hands, if permitted, rather than dance. As soon as +it was discovered that their actions were influencing others, they were +given the choice to restrain the expression of their affection in public +completely or resign. The lesson was effectual. When it was seen that one +of the young men was very deeply interested in one of the young women, that +she was only semi-conscious of his interest, yet enjoyed it, while not at +all interested in him, just a few words, pointing out how unkind it was to +permit his interest to develop and how unfair to let him spend money for +her when she never meant to hold any relation but that of friend, changed +her attitude toward him. She made the young man understand her position. +More than that, she gave her lesson to the other girls, and escorts were +changed frequently; groups arranged to go to the theater instead of +couples. As one girl put it, "We don't want any nonsense." Yet several +marriages have occurred among these members, the new homes making centers +of social interest for the others. The babies are objects of deepest +interest to all, and it is a lesson to see the ease and freedom with which +even the young men will hold them. Much is said of the "little mothers," +but the "little fathers" are as unselfish and devoted a part of the family +life in the tenements as the little mothers. When a great, strong young man +picks up a baby with the ease of a woman, is interested in its ills of the +moment, one is grateful for the hours that, as a child, he spent as nurse; +sees the beauty of strength and tenderness, and the humanizing effect of +the maternal in the character of a boy whose character must be molded by +the environment of a tenement-house region. + +The rapidity with which a complete change of standard of manners can be +attained amazed those who watched these young people. Outdoor life was +possible to them only on Sunday. When first the trips on the railroad +began, the noise, freedom, constant changing of seats mortified those who +chaperoned the group. The journeys began in the spring. One Sunday evening +in November, when returning from a nutting party, a group of young people +entered the car laughing, pushing, slapping one another. The young men and +women who had been going to the country almost every Sunday for the summer +looked in amazement at one another, and with very evident disapproval at +the new group. Yet they had offended, if offense can be committed in +perfect innocence, in just that way many times a few months before. It is +this adaptability, this quickness of comprehension of the little things, +that give the outward stamp, that make the American wage-earning young +people so intensely interesting, so wonderful in social achievement. + +These young people were all Americans, of Christian parentage, as the word +means, not Hebrews. The young women worked in shops with girls of Hebrew +parentage. There were deep race antagonisms, due to many causes, but +principally to the willingness of the Hebrews to accept any wages and work +anywhere and any number of hours. These American girls grew to have the +deepest sympathy with the girls of Hebrew birth when they found that many +Hebrew parents coerced, while all regulated, the marriage of their +daughters. That parents would dare to assume such authority in so personal +a matter as marriage aroused the most extravagant terms of condemnation. +One listening could well believe the hopelessness of trying to make one of +these girls marry against her will. + +No greater contrast could be conceived than the entire independence of +these girls in their social relations, which they did not view as a +privilege but considered a right. Beyond the fact that some of them must be +at home at ten or half-past, there was no law but their own will. This +freedom is one of the most serious influences in the life of working girls +in New York. Were it not for their common sense and the knowledge of life +thrust on them when children, the effect would be most disastrous for the +country. As it is, in certain ways young men and women retain the frankness +of childhood in their intercourse. One realizes what perfect equality +between the sexes is when mingling freely with them. Doubtless this comes +from playing in the street together from earliest childhood, with no favors +asked or conceded because one is a girl, and the impossibility of privacy. +This last is the saddest fact in the life of tenement-house children. + +At the lower rounds of the social ladder in the wage-earning world the +mother and baby are inseparable, if the mother does not drink. Night and +day the baby is cared for, often in hopeless ignorance, but cared for. +Often everything else is neglected. When the baby sleeps, the mother is too +tired to work, too indifferent. When awake, the baby insists on being held. +One is frequently reminded of the story of the woman whose moan when her +baby died was: "What excuse can I give John now?" Yet the day that baby is +able to walk alone on the street the mother loosens her hold. The baby +finds its freedom limited only by its ability to remain upright, and to +return to its home for meals and at night. "Throw me the key and a piece of +bread," is often the extent of its demands from the sidewalk. True, the +mother knows every woman in the block will be, in an emergency, a mother. +The child learns to care for itself; it makes less and less demands on the +mother, who may even now have another baby compelling all her thought and +time. Above this scale, where home-making assumes importance, the child +remains longer under the mother's care; is watched when on the street by +glances from the window; is sent to school, and some oversight maintained +over its school life; but the wage-earning period means emancipation from +oversight often even at this level. Hundreds of girls start out and find +work for the first time without any evident responsibility on the part of +even good mothers. No amount of familiarity with this exercise of freedom +deadens the horror of it to the outsider. Women, mothers of attractive +daughters, will not know the street on which the daughters work. After one +of the most disastrous fires in New York, in which many working girls +perished, four mothers notified the police the next day that their +daughters had disappeared. It was the failure to trace the girls and the +advertising of their disappearance that led, through companions who had +escaped from the building, to the awful conclusion that these four had +perished in the flames. + +Sometimes it would be difficult for a mother to go to the place where the +daughter finds employment; but here, as in everything else in life, that +which is deemed the more important receives attention. Perhaps it is the +habit of trust, or indifference, that governs mothers' activities. + +A girl will make intimate friendships unhindered, unguided by mothers who +act up to the measure of their comprehension of the duties of a mother. +Girls are admitted to the homes who are unknown outside of the workshop; +they work with the daughter; no other background is known. The mother knows +that other mothers are accepting her daughters on the same basis of +knowledge. For their young men friends there may be, but as frequently +there will not be, any greater sense of responsibility than for the girl +friends. In homes where the income would seem to demand a sense of social +responsibility it is found wanting, and young people come and go +unhindered. If there are two or more young wage-earners in the family, +their conversation may bring knowledge of what they are doing, where they +are going. But they also make compacts at concealments of disobedience +where there are laws to be obeyed. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND.] + +The world has been shocked by the tragedies of death and disgrace that came +to the homes of two young working girls within the past year. In each case +the father and mother had gone to bed with the daughters out in the night, +where they did not know; one a girl of eighteen, the other less. The +"cadet" system would never exist were the parents of every girl alert to +train and guard her the more closely because she was a working girl. + +Until by some direct process the control of daughters and of sons is made +desirable, and then natural in the wage-earners' homes, the problem of +family life in the tenements will remain unsolved. It is a question +sometimes whether, and sometimes it is very evident, that by the giving up +of wages to the parents the freedom of the workers, even though but +children, from obedience and parental oversight is purchased. + +Those who know working girls know how high is the average of morality. +Years will go by in intimate relations with the same group of girls and no +tragedy will mar it; no echo of tragedy among their friends. The hardness +with which even the suggestion of looseness is treated in any group of +working girls is simply an expression of self-preservation. A group of +sixty girls, earning the lowest wages and living under the worst +conditions, were watched five years and one girl fell. As one goes over her +history from birth, any other result would seem a miracle. A girl arrested +gave the first name and address of one of the girls in this factory. The +case was reported in the papers. By an unfortunate circumstance, the +working girl living at that number was away from the factory two days at +this time. When she learned of the connection that had been made because of +the chance use of her Christian name and her address, she told a lie as to +where she was at the time of that arrest. The other girls struck until she +was discharged. The girl was innocent of everything but the lie; +investigation proved this. The girls would not recede from their position; +work had to be found for the girl elsewhere. She was publicly marked. They +could not convince everybody of her innocence; lots of people believed the +story, and they would not work with her; go back and forth with her. + +A room was hired as a lunch-room for these girls. They brought their own +lunches and paid a small amount of dues, which were used to pay for tea +served daily. The projectors of this little enterprise were girls of wealth +and social position; three were at the lunch-room every day. By +representing themselves as friends of the projectors to the caretaker, two +representatives of a "yellow journal" gained access to the room. One, a +woman, engaged the caretaker in conversation for some time in the hall, +getting all the information she could give her. The Sunday edition of that +paper contained an illustration of the room filled with wretched-looking +girls, while young women holding up trailing skirts were passing cups. The +text was as far from the truth as the picture. The working girls absolutely +refused to go to the lunch-room again. At last they agreed that if the +paper would publish a true account--that they provided their own lunches +and paid dues, and waited on themselves--they would go back. The paper +refused. Two of those girls would never enter the rooms again. + +The working girl has suffered quite as much at the hands of yellow +journalism as the woman of wealth and social position. Not one of these +girls went to school until she was fourteen; nor during any year since she +began working had she earned on an average more than $3.50 per week. Yet +they had social standards to maintain, and compelled recognition of them by +those who opened opportunities to them. + +The inspiring fact remains that the standard of home life in ethics, as in +necessities, is raising. Without doubt much of this is due to the +improvement in the class of readers used in our public schools. They are +not perfect in the matter of selection, but they carry messages to the +hearts, as well as the heads, of the children, few of whom would pass an +examination on their contents. Even the primary grades introduce the +children to the best thoughts of all time, and the crumbs, at least, are +carried to the homes. + +The girls who belong to the working-girls' club carry with them everywhere +the influence that is molding their characters to a brighter type of +American womanhood. The Settlements soon become centers of education +through the social activities they make possible to the people. They +surpass the clubs in this, that boys and girls, young men and women, each +have in them the center that makes possible social occasions that are +within their means and under rightful guides; together men and women are +trained socially. The Settlements have been in existence long enough to +have the children that were the first friends of the Residents now the +fathers and mothers of children. The years of contact show results in the +homes established, in the kind of care and the ambitions held for the +children still babies. Wages have not greatly changed from those earned by +the fathers of these new home-makers; but money represents different +values. The kindergarten is the first thing demanded for their children, +and the seeds sown in the minds of these young mothers bear fruit one +hundred-fold because it is prepared. + +The kindergarten mother clubs have also borne fruit in the homes where even +the youngest child has gone beyond the kindergarten's age. These mothers +learn for the first time the need of sympathy; of living with the children +through every period of growth; of sharing and of making together a home. +The result is, the homes gain in moral fiber and moral purpose. The schools +and the homes are brought into close relation through these beginnings, and +the child finds its interests a unit, and home the place where its whole +good is of vital importance. The mother establishes the home often on the +basis of contrast. "It shall not be what mine was; their lives shall not be +what mine was when I was a child." + +The churches, many of them, provide for the social life of their people; +these social activities must be of a character that wins those who have the +least to contend with in themselves, who find a pleasure and inspiration in +religious life, which often is far more a matter of temperament than of +spiritual development. + +One sees the highest expression of spiritual development in lives apart +from the Church as well as in the Church. This it is that develops a +feeling of reverence for any movement having for its object the bettering +of the social life of the people. One learns that every vulgarity that +becomes obnoxious; every freedom that is brought within the bounds of +restraint by new standards of education and refinement; every influence set +in motion because of the spiritual perception of the answer to the +question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" means spiritual life growing toward +that of the Master of time, whose laws are but two for the guiding of men, +"Love the Lord thy God," "Thy neighbor as thyself;" and these make neither +cross nor steeple necessary, for they may be obeyed in the heart and guide +the life wherever it is lived. + +[Illustration: LIBRARY DAY AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES. + + +The women of education who attempted to make the conditions of +working-men's families better, found their own education advanced, their +values of essentials greatly modified in some respects, greatly enlarged in +others. This was due to the bravery, the unselfishness, the contradictions +of character forced on their attention through the natural, familiar +intercourse made possible through neighborhood and club relations. + +Probably the most astonishing experience in working-girls' club life is the +revelation of the entire lack of self-consciousness on the part of working +girls as to anything remarkable in their giving up wages not only week +after week, but year after year, for the benefit of their families. The +closer one gets to the poorest paid of the working girls, the more common +is this unconscious unselfishness. In fact, the girl at this level who +would attempt to hold or even to introduce a business relation in her +family relation, would find herself an object of contempt, even when the +personal habits of those who controlled the use of the money she earned +were of such a character as to certainly mean waste of the money, perhaps +worse. + +However one's judgment may at times condemn this unselfishness and +recognize in it a positive evil, one's heart is thrilled by the spirit of +loyalty and devotion of which it is the evidence. Three sisters belonged to +a working-girls' club. They were all employed in one establishment and +earned good wages, yet they never had clothes that made them even +comfortable. It was a mystery. They did not belong to the race which too +frequently make thrift a vice, but were descendants of one the world counts +thriftless. The months passed on. One of the sisters became indispensable +to the club. She had the rarest tact, while straightforward and frank. When +the second winter came, the pressure of life on these girls was very +evident. How to relieve it, how even to approach the subject without +appearing intrusive and meddlesome, was the wearing problem of the club +directors. After the holidays the influence of one of the directors was +asked by one of the sisters in behalf of a brother. Then the cause of the +pressure was unconsciously revealed. There were five brothers and a father +in the family. + +The story unfolded. For years these three girls had supported the family; +the six men had always been the victims of cruel "bosses." Worthy, +industrious, anxious to work, looking for work all the time, they never +succeeded in finding work under conditions that made it possible for them +to continue. The years of self-sacrifice had not shaken the faith of these +sisters in the smallest degree. "What would happen if your foreman would +become arbitrary and cross?" was asked. The reply revealed the whole +conception of woman's relation to life as they held it. "It's different +with women; they have to bear things." + +Another year passed without any change, except that the sisters grew old +faster than they should. A quiet, determined effort was made to influence +these girls to pay board to their mother instead of giving all their wages. +They listened to the argument that as long as they continued their present +system the brothers would not work steadily. The sisters listened, but the +system did not change. Every penny was handed to the mother for +disbursement. + +One morning in the early spring, three years after these girls had joined +the club, word came that the sister who had grown dear to the club +directors, to every member of the club, was dead. She had dropped to the +floor at her bench the day before, and died in the night. "Greater love +hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The +sacrifice was complete. Standing in the room of death with the six +able-bodied men for whom this girl had given up her life, the sacrifice +seemed barren, for its fruits had been garnered in her own character and +had gone out of this life. + +A year later the mother sent for one of the directors of the club to have +her plead with the sisters remaining that they would give her their wages +as formerly. "They only pay board now; they refuse to do anything for the +poor boys. 'Twas a bad day when ---- died. Shure, she gave me every cent. +Not one did she keep back. Ever since she died, the girls just pay board, +not a cent more. See how comfortable they are. They bought waterproofs, +both of them, last week, and Jim has no overcoat. ---- would have bought +him an overcoat." + +"Yes, doubtless she would. I remember the winter before she died she wore a +spring jacket all winter, and that her shoes had been broken for weeks +before she died." "Shure, I know." Tears fell from the woman's eyes, and +her face bore every evidence of sorrow. "The boys could not get work that +winter. God knows they tried. They had to have clothes, and ---- was a good +daughter. 'Twas a bad day for me when she died." The mother had not the +slightest conception of the sacrifice her daughter had made--a sacrifice +that had cost her her life. Her thought was for her sons; their comforts +were to be secured through the daughters, who were a secondary +consideration. + +When her visitor protested against the sisters working to support the +brothers in idleness, the mother was indignant. When she tried to show the +woman that if the boys were forced by hunger and cold to go to work it +would be their moral salvation, the mother insisted that they did try to +get work, but that it was their "fate" to have unreasonable "bosses," who +made it impossible for them to work under them. + +"Do you think the girls always work under conditions that are easy?" + +"No; but it is easier for a woman to stand a hard 'boss,'" was the mother's +answer, without any expression of sympathy. Again she urged that the +visitor use her influence with the two sisters for them to go back to their +old method of giving the mother their wages. When the visitor refused, the +amazement of the woman at her refusal was pathetic. When the visitor +confessed that she was largely responsible for the change in the girls' use +of their wages, the mother's indignation rose to the point of abuse. That +her boys were robbed was the idea fastened in her mind. That the club was +the enemy of that home was the mother's conviction. + +The mental attitude of this mother is by no means unusual. It is a common +thing to find mothers who insist on controlling the wages of daughters who +make no exactions in regard to the wages of sons. The effect is to lessen +the self-respect of the girls and the sense of personal responsibility of +the boys. In the family referred to the experiment of paying board to the +mother was watched carefully. It was a success. The effect on the girls was +positive. They developed a sense of personal responsibility; they grew more +dignified and more reliable; above all, they developed self-respect. The +fight was a hard one, but the moral victory was won. The brothers either +found work under men who were fair, or they learned to endure control and +discipline under a "boss," which was probably what they needed. The girls +grew to have a care for their father's and mother's appearance and bought +them clothes. Never as long as the mother lived did her feeling of her +resentment against working-girls' clubs die out. + +After her death, the father and brothers agreed to pay one of the sisters +so much each week if she would stay home and keep the house. The sister did +it, though it meant hours of loneliness, and, from her point of view, +dependence. She had taken courses in cooking and sewing in the club; she +had listened to talks on sanitation and hygiene; she had learned the value +of money through the management of her own wages. She created for that +family a far better home than it had ever known under the shiftless, +thriftless management of an undisciplined mother. + +The daughter was able to pay more rent from the money given to support the +house, and the pride and self-respect of the family were greatly increased +by the possession of a parlor, which was furnished on the installment plan +out of the weekly sum paid to the sister. The home became a social center +for the friends. The boys bring even their girl friends to their home, +because it possesses more attractions than any other place to which they +have access. A banjo lies on top of a piano--hired--and two of the boys +take music lessons. In a family of seven wage-earners, even though the +wages of each may be small, the combined income is large in proportion to +the standards of outlay, and secures more than comfort, if rightly managed. + +In this family a home maintained at a social level is of greater importance +than clothes, and all work to keep it. Sacrifices are made to buy things +for the home by every member of the family. The sisters are to these +brothers the finest type of women, and no girl whom they meet quite comes +to their level. The sisters will never marry. The home, the father and +brothers fill their cup of interest. There is still a latent suspicion that +men are non-dependable, and they must be in a position to meet emergencies; +the unjust "boss" may appear at any time, and they may be needed. Their +brothers are a trust and must be guarded. + +A visit was made to a home in which a girl of sixteen was dying of +tuberculosis. The plaint of the mother, even in the presence of the girl, +was, "She was such a good child. She always brought home her envelope +unopened." To the visitor this was at the time incomprehensible, as the +advantages of the envelope to her were two-fold, that it could be opened as +well as closed. The child had worked nearly three years, had been paid her +wages in a sealed envelope, which she always gave to her mother as she +received it. This is the measure of goodness for husband and child in +thousands of working-men's homes. This mother was unconsciously brutal. +Whether from lack of sensitiveness, or because of a life spent in fighting +just homelessness and hunger, to the very last hour of her child's life her +moan was, "What will I do without her wages?" + +Not once did that little girl hear her mother give expression to any sense +of personal loss for her companionship. The child herself became weighed +down with the sense of responsibility, and resented the lack of strength +because it added to her mother's burdens. This was her regret, the only +thing she mentioned: "I wish I could have helped mother till the others +grew up. I've cost such a lot being sick so long and not earning anything." +That was her estimate of life at sixteen. + +A son went wrong in that family, and as the time approached for his return +home, the mother moved, lest he should be annoyed by questions and comments +on his absence by neighbors. No power could be brought to bear on that +mother to make her move that the daughter might sleep in a room having an +outside window. One influence came within the range of her experience, the +other was beyond her comprehension, and her daughter died in an absolutely +dark, unventilated bedroom, in which she had slept eight years. + +She was a dainty girl, in spite of the bad taste with which she dressed, +this second victim. She floated, rather than walked, and her cheeks were +like carnations. The girls in the club all liked her, and their young men +friends at the receptions showed at once how attractive they found this +girl. She was reticent as to her affairs, except in the question of work. +When out of work, she did not hesitate to speak of it and ask to be +remembered if any of the club members knew where she could get work. At +last she came quietly one morning to the director and said the doctor told +her she must stop working for three months. The expression in her eyes +filled the listener with fear. In a voice that trembled, she said: "I am +the only one working. Mother has a baby and cannot work, and--and"--her +voice lowered and her eyes fell--"my father will not be home for three +months from last Monday. He got into trouble. He would not if he had been +sober," she added, in proud defence. Two months later the end was near, and +the girl knew it. All that could be done under the conditions had been +done. It was little, for an unreasonable, drunken mother had to be reckoned +with all the time. She would stand railing against the girl for not going +to work when the girl could not walk across the floor for lack of strength. +The girl was under eighteen, and her mother was the controlling power in +her life. + +One of the young men who had been frequently a guest at the club receptions +worked in an office near the girl's home. He passed one day as she sat by +the window, and she saw him. "If he knew where I lived, he'd come in and +see me," she said with a smile, full of friendship as the young man turned +down the street. "I'll run after him. I know he would like to see you. He +asked about you at the club last night." She clutched convulsively at her +visitor's hand, saying: "Oh, don't! I wouldn't for the world have him see +this place." She closed her eyes, after a searching glance about the room. +Of course, the mother broke out in wailing about how hard she tried to do +for the children and how ungrateful they were--ashamed of their home. + +The girl gathered her strength and sat up, her eyes blazing with +indignation. "Mamma, I'm dying. I'll not be here another week. There are +three more girls; I don't want them to live through what I have." Slowly, +solemnly, she continued: "You have not been good. Papa earned good wages, +enough to keep us all comfortable; you know what you did with the money. He +stopped giving it to you, and you got what you wanted on credit. You kept +that up. You know what happened to him. I went to work. You know what you +did with my money. I could not keep it from you even when I knew the little +ones were hungry, for you beat me and took it, unless I had spent it for +groceries and meat and coal before I came home pay-day. I heard what the +doctor said, that I was dying because I have not had food and have to sleep +in that hole, or holes like it." She pointed to the horrible bedroom. "I am +dying. You are planning with the insurance money to have a big funeral. +Have your own friends, but not one of the girls from the club or their +friends, even when I am dead. I don't want them to come here. Promise me," +she panted to her visitor, "that you will not let them come." The promise +was given. + +The mother was shrieking, whether from grief, or rage, or remorse the +visitor could not determine. That night death came. + +The girl was buried from the church she attended. When the club members +were requested not to go to the house, there was scarcely concealed +indignation. "Did she ever ask you to call on her when she was well?" There +was no assent. "Have you any right to intrude there when she is silent? The +church is open to all." No comment was made. At the church early in the +morning the young men and women friends met. The mother could not even that +morning hold herself in control. The girl's secret was out, and a great +sympathy was added to the love her friends bore her. Her memory was an +incense because of what her life must have been. Her unconscious +unselfishness, her devotion to her little brothers and sisters, was +revealed to them when they saw her mother. Good fathers and mothers found +new expressions of affection for awhile at least, while the sharpness of +contrast stood out between the dead girl's parents and their own, her life +and theirs. + +[Illustration: A STREET ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +The girl who presents the most difficult problem in club life is the one +whose social impulses are dominant. Noise, activity, excitement, seem +inseparable from her presence. This type of girl arouses enthusiastic +friends. She leads because she is daring; because she does not in any +experience question results. One such girl had been studied for months. +There was a superficial response to the efforts to win her regard, but the +response was too transparent not to be understood. The girl would speak to +any man who looked at her. One day she was playing "tag" with the other +girls in front of the factory where she worked. A rag-picker pushing a cart +made some remark as he passed. The girl, Molly, gave a spring and alighted +on the man's shoulders like a cat. She clung there. He began to run, but he +could not throw her off. She twined her fingers in his hair, made him turn +back and carry her to the place where her shrieking, laughing companions +stood. She sprang off. Still holding the man, she made him get down on his +knees on the curb to the girls and apologize. Like a bird she flew to the +place where he had dropped his push-cart, and, pumping the handle up and +down to make the bells jingle, she brought it back to the man, still +exhausted by his unwonted exertions, and with a mocking bow placed the +handle of the cart in his hand. Then she stood up straight and ordered him +to move on, adding: "If you ever show your nose around here again, you'll +get more than you got this time." The man ran as if for his life. + +Molly then turned and saw the friend whom she had promised she would be +more quiet on the street. Her face crimsoned as she came toward her. "I +could not help it. You don't know what he said. He won't never speak to +another girl minding her own business as he spoke to us. I won't tell you +what he said; it was too bad." The girl was about seventeen years old. She +had cut off her hair, and it was bleached. She wore the gayest hats, which +only served to emphasize the poverty and shabbiness of the rest of her +clothes. One day she passed her friend's house without a jacket. She ran, +holding her hands under her arms. Her jacket had been bought with money +earned by working overtime, a result secured by the most persistent effort +and argument. + +Now the jacket was gone, and the slack season coming. As five o'clock +approached, the girl's self-appointed guardian took her station at the +window to watch for the girl on her way home. She came skipping along, +slapping her arms to keep warm. She entered the house reluctantly in +response to the call, "Where is your jacket, Molly?" + +"I ain't cold. I ain't a bit cold." + +"Where is your jacket?" + +"Really and truly, I ain't cold. I'm thin, but I don't feel the cold as +much as other girls. I ain't a mite cold." + +It was impossible for the girl to stand still. She was shivering with cold, +and her teeth, which were beautiful, were chattering. After a time the +explanation was given. + +There were five in family. The girl's mother, a stepfather about fifteen +years younger than the mother, a brother one year younger than the girl, +and a feeble-minded sister of fourteen. The girl was the only regular +wage-earner in the family. The brother was a worthless fellow, who bore +every evidence of degeneracy and rarely worked. The stepfather drank, and +worked only occasionally. Molly earned six dollars a week, except in the +slack seasons, two a year, when she earned about three dollars a week for +four weeks each time. She began working when she was fourteen, and had +never kept back one penny of her wages. Her mother had bought her new hats, +but in all her life no other new garment except the jacket had ever been +bought for her. She never asked any questions about the money, but she +supposed the rent was paid. When she reached home the night before +everything was on the sidewalk, and her feeble-minded sister was watching +them. The jacket was the only thing owned on which money could be raised; +it was pawned. "Molly, may I call on your mother?" A reluctant consent was +given. + +The home now was in a rear basement, the ceiling just above the level of +the yard. The mother and husband occupied the bedroom; Molly and her sister +slept on a narrow lounge covered with Brussels carpet, every spring broken. +It was a series of humps. It was impossible to sit on it. In reply to a +question, the mother acknowledged that no provision was made to make it +more comfortable. The brother slept on the floor. The rooms were dirty and +overcrowded. Food was of necessity poor, and because of the mother's +indifference and ignorance, was poorer than it need have been. + +This was what Molly received for six dollars a week. The moment the mother +knew who the visitor was, she began abusing the girl. One special cause of +offense was the keeping back of overtime money to buy a new jacket. She +evidently imagined that she did not get all the girl's money every week. +When it was pointed out to her that the new jacket had paid half a month's +rent, she refused to be mollified, because the money paid for it would have +paid the rent for a month and a half. Of course, this extra money would +have gone like the regular wages if it had been given to the woman. + +The walls were covered with pretty advertising cards and pictures cut from +papers. Not a vulgar nor ugly picture was on the walls. "Who put up those +pictures?" "Molly. Shure, that's all she's good for when she's home, +a-cutting and putting up these things." This was one more charge against +the girl. Evidently the girl gave her wages, and gave them willingly; but +that ended her interest in her home and measured the mother's in her. + +It was decided to move the family into one of the model tenements and +furnish a room for the girl and her sister, paying the difference in rent +for one year, to see what the result would be in health and morals in that +family. When the proposition was made one evening to Molly, her face +lighted and she emitted a sigh of perfect consent. But the light died out, +and an expression of almost self-pity supplanted it. + +"No, I must not let you do it. It would be lovely to have a room for Katie +and me alone. I must not let you do it." She was silent for some minutes; +then, with eyes cast down, she said in a quiet voice that indicated that +persuasion was useless: "I know them houses. They're awful nice. I'd like +to live in them. They're awful particular. They won't let no noisy people +in. They make them move right out." Then slowly, with burning cheeks, she +said in barely distinct tones: "Mamma is noisy sometimes, and when she's +noisy she gets into fights with people. There ain't no use of moving in +there; they'd not let us stay. Then, Billy"--the stepfather--"and I fight. +I never speaks to him, excepts when he speaks ugly to Katie or mamma. He's +drunk a lot now, most all the time, and then he's ugly to them. He ain't to +me, 'cos he knows I'd break his head; but he is to them, and then I has to +shut him up. I ain't spoke to him since he struck mamma, just after they +was married." + +"But your wages give him a home and food." + +"Yes, I know it, but I can't help that, 'cos he's married to mamma and must +be where she is." There was silence again, and then the girl continued: +"Mamma didn't do it so much till she married him; she's worse now. I wish +I was dead;" and the head of many shades was buried with the limp, +"frowzled" feathers in the sofa cushion. "No, I can earn enough to keep +them where they are. I must not move; but it would be lovely," she added +with a sob. + +A couple of weeks later she came in the evening. It was raining hard. After +a moment's silence, she announced, with shining face: "We have the +loveliest baby at our house, born last night week. I wanted to tell you +before, but I had to do the work night and morning. He's lovely." She +fussed at her pocket and brought out a pair of baby shoes of worsted. "I +got them with some money I earned overtime. You say I ought to get what I +want with that money." The eyes of the hostess followed the lines of +Molly's dress to her feet. Her swollen, purple foot was seen through the +broken upper of her shoe. Molly was looking with pride and love at the tiny +shoes on her knee. "I named the baby Willie, and I'm his godmother," she +added with pride, without the slightest conception of the relation between +"Billy" and "Willie." + +"Billy? Oh, he's drunk; been drunk a week. I ain't let him in yet; I'm +goin' to wait until the baby's bigger and mamma's up. She'll let him in," +she added, with disgust. + +Matters grew worse with the advent of the new baby, for Molly had to fight +with her mother to get it cared for. At last it died, to Molly's pathetic +grief. The mother had consented to Katie's removal to an institution, where +she could receive care and training. Molly was persuaded she owed a duty to +herself. No impression was made until her mother had been arrested twice. +Then Molly consented to leave home. It was deemed best that she should +contribute part of the rent to insure her mother a home and to maintain a +natural human tie. Molly did this _for three years_. Then she married a man +controlling a good business. Molly is a quiet, devoted wife. She married a +man old enough to be her father. When the wisdom of this was questioned, +she said, with emphasis and a nod of her curly head: "No young man for me, +thank you. Look at Billy!" + +It was Friday morning--a warm, sultry morning in August. The bell rang. A +mother in black and a young daughter of eighteen were in the +reception-room. The daughter had evidently been crying. "I've come to tell +yer that Annie can't go to the country to-morrow. She's sick'm. She's cried +all night. Her brother was discharged'm. He do be havin' a bad man for a +'boss.' He's discharged'm, and Annie can't go to the country with the girls +to-morrow. I can't spare her wages. It's all I got. Shure, if I could get +work in washin', or anything to do, I'd do it, but I can't'm. I'll look all +the week; and the boy'll get somethin', perhaps. She can't go this week; +will yer let her go next? Shure, the rent is due, and her wages is all I +got for three of us. Yer can go to work to-day, even if it be a bit late, +and yer can go next week to the country." + +[Illustration: A COOKING CLASS OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.] + +"Oh, mamma! the girls talk nothing but country. I can't go to-day," was the +sobbing response. + +The girl did not go that summer. There was no room for her until September. +By that time the work at the factory had increased and not one girl could +be spared. Patiently Annie commented: "It wouldn't be any good if they +could spare me. My brother is out of work yet. He's awfully unlucky." + +The quiet heroism of thousands of working girls can be appreciated only by +those who become familiar with their lives in the natural intercourse of +club life. There is, of course, the other type of girl--the girl who +insists on spending the major portion, if not all, of her wages for +clothes; who assumes no responsibility for the family, and who has conceded +to her the right to spend her money for clothes. She would make life most +uncomfortable if she were compelled to share what she earned, even when the +family live under conditions that make the home merely a place of +shelter--conditions that make even decency impossible. The fathers and +mothers seemingly have no rights that this type of girl feels she is bound +to respect. When such girls marry, the mothers will do the washing for +their daughters, hold the menial relation, and neither mother nor daughter +questions the justice of the relation. Sometimes the daughter will pay the +mother for doing the washing, "to," as she expresses it, "help her mother +out." Such families usually cannot be helped through any influence but the +evolution that comes through environment and neighborhood development. +There is a superficial difference in the social development of such parents +and children. The parents concede the higher position to their children, +and the children take it as a matter of right. + +The wages of skilled workmen enable them to keep their children in school +until they are sixteen or seventeen years old, if the children will stay. +These fathers can support their families, but not dress them as they +desire. The girls go to work for the sole purpose of dressing better than +their fathers could dress them. This indulgence creates false standards, +and is a serious blot on the American working-man's life. It prevents +marriage. Both young men and young women understand that the wages of one +cannot buy luxuries for two that the wages used for one bought. The army of +clerks on small salaries increase yearly. This class, through association, +develop tastes and standards of living that make impossible the +establishment of homes on their incomes and at the same time the continued +indulgence of developed tastes. No type of family develops less that adds +to the wealth and attainment of the country than this type. The children +are selfish; they marry; they discover that the wages that bought clothes +to suit the extravagance of one is wholly inadequate to support a family. +Discouragement, friction, ennui follow, and life becomes a grind, without +hope, without inspiration. The second family slips backward, and it is but +two generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves, with this difference, +that the arms covered by the shirt sleeves of the third generation lack the +muscles of the first, as the spirit lacks its moral fiber. It is this type +of family that keeps alive the most vexing of social problems. The skilled +working-man's family, the family of the small salaried men, present the +most difficult problems not only in the use of money, but the use of time. +Their daughters are often far more helpless than the daughters of men of +wealth. During their school days, except in the exceptional home, they are +not trained to do housework; do not learn to sew. As soon as school days +end, office or store work begins, and then there is no time to learn the +household arts. If in these homes the money-saving value of time were +taught, independence and freedom impossible in wage-earning would be +secured; the standards of life would be the essentials, not the +non-essentials, that so often rob life of what is best and most valuable. + +Hundreds of girls become wage-earners because they dislike housework. +Anything else is preferable. Dean Gill, of Barnard College, New York, in an +address recently delivered, said there were three types of college girl: +The girl who never could learn any of the arts of home-making. She advised +that that girl be allowed to choose a career, and that men make no attempt +to interfere with it. The girl who had in her the latent qualities that, if +developed, would make her a home-maker. Such a girl it might be wise to +keep home for one year between Sophomore and Junior year. And the third +girl had the home-making gifts so well developed naturally that no amount +of college training would modify them. This classification holds good of +the daughters of men earning small salaries, wages, and no wages. + +As the Domestic Science department is developed in our public schools, the +homes of working men of the better class will benefit by it. This distaste +of housework will disappear, because it will have gained a place equal in +value to geography and mental arithmetic, and these will have value because +a knowledge of them adds to the home-maker's ability. + +There are homes of thrift and order where all must be wage-earners; homes +where the claims of parents on the wages of children are conceded. There is +a bank account, but on this the children have no claim, no matter how much +of their wages may have gone into it, or how much educational opportunity +they may have lost because its demands have been paramount. When the +children marry they establish homes without any or very little help from +their parents. They do not expect it. Home, food, clothes have been given +them; all claims have been met. They are as free as their parents when they +began. Usually there is a gift of a piece of furniture or table linen; but +money to start a new bank account is not expected. Without doubt, much of +the inability to use money to prepare for future emergencies is due to the +fact that financially the new home-makers from these homes are infants in +practical experience. The marvel is that they keep homes as well as they +do, and meet the future as well as they do without planning to meet it. + +The second generation of this type of thrifty families rarely carry the +habits of thrift of their parents into their home-making. The new financial +freedom is a novelty, and presents in itself enjoyment that the new +home-makers use. Here and there is a recovery from the danger of +extravagance by a young couple, but the recovery is rarely so complete as +to repeat the restrictions that the thrift of the parents compelled in +their homes. The new generation demand better clothes and better furniture. +Food and rent are regulated to meet these demands. + +One stands appalled sometimes at the degree of vitality, the hope and the +cheerfulness that prevail in the homes protected only by the muscles of one +man; what they can buy representing all that the home may have. There is no +spirit of recklessness; there is no failure to comprehend the slight +protection a husband and father can give, though he be skillful; but there +is a sublime confidence in the future. Though familiar with suffering, if +not personally, then sympathetically, with full knowledge of what sickness +and death bring to other unprotected homes, such men and women, and there +are thousands, live from youth to and through age cheerfully, happily, +without any financial safeguard except against Potter's Field. This weekly +insurance is kept up; the family live cheerfully, gayly, sometimes to the +end. + +[Illustration: A MEETING OF NEIGHBORS.] + +One result of doling out small sums to young wage-earners, whether thrift +or necessity is responsible, is disastrous, especially disastrous for young +girls. It has seemed to the writer that if mothers and fathers could be +brought to a realizing sense of its dangers, they would endure hunger +rather than have their daughters exposed to it. After all, it could be +averted by making a division of the money spent for dress. Girls are often +dressed out of all proportion to the sums they earn, if a fair division of +their wages were made, if the dignity of the daughters was protected by any +degree of independence financially. Of course this disproportionate use of +money is due to false standards that will only be regulated when the people +on salaries learn to universally live true to the law of proportion in +their expenditures. + +It seems to be a fixed idea that a girl is dependent on invitations from +young men for her social pleasures. If she is not invited, it is not only +her misfortune, but her fault; she should be more attractive. On the other +hand, the young man is scarcely any better off than the young girl +financially, yet he expects, and his world expects, that he shall bear, not +only his own social expenses, but those of at least one girl. His impulse +is to be chivalrous, for chivalry is not regulated by income nor deadened +by pennilessness. + +It is oppressive at times to see how the lack of money prevents the natural +association of young men and women; how often the young men are forced to +give up the society of girls for this reason. Girls often unconsciously +force invitations. As one goes down the scale, the girls invite themselves, +where the young men have to bear the expenses. So small a matter as carfare +will make a girl thrust herself on a young man's care. The girl will not +resent indifference, even discourtesy and neglect, if only her aim is +accomplished. The young men suffer the reflex of this attitude of mind, and +their estimate of women is regulated by these misconceptions, and even +their manner as husbands is regulated by this conception of the relations +of the sexes, and wife and daughters suffer in consequence. + +The higher up one goes in the social scale, the less evident is this +aggressiveness on the part of girls, and the more natural relation of man +as the suitor is apparent. As girls are brought more familiarly under the +guidance of women willing to discuss the financial relations that should be +maintained between the unmarried of both sexes, the more careful girls +become in permitting the expending of money by men for their social +pleasures; especially so where the limitation of a man's resources is +understood, or even suspected. + +How to make mothers put their daughters in an independent position where +their pleasures are concerned is a very important and at the same time a +very difficult question. When it is a question, as it often is, of the very +necessities of life for a family and the allowing of money for the pleasure +of a fun-loving daughter, necessities bear down the scale, even of justice, +and dignity ceases to have value. For it must be remembered that the girl's +wages, used for her exclusively, would often allow the exercise of +independence in her social affiliations. This it is that makes Settlements +so important in our social life. Here boys and girls do meet on a platform +of independence, chaperoned naturally by those who know intimately the home +surroundings, the social standards, the limitations of life in the regions, +and all that creates environment, that most positive factor in the making +of character. The social attitude of the young people who grow up in +affiliation with the Settlements is found to differ greatly from that of +young people untrammeled by oversight or influence that develops dignity. + +The influence of working-girls' clubs is positive in its effect on the +majority of the members. The girls are taught in the clubs directly and +indirectly. It is not only in the teaching of the home arts, but through +lectures, talks, books and contact with women of education. The members +often astonish those who know them best by their responses to their +opportunities. This mental development makes them critical. The men they +meet rarely have had their opportunities, and they suffer by comparison. +The young women often find they have larger interests and sympathies; far +clearer ideas of the responsibilities of life; are better equipped than the +men they meet. Every girls' club shows members who thus develop. Often they +will not marry. They are the support of one or both parents, now too old to +work; they help married sisters and brothers; they are the prop and stay of +all the halt and lame of their families; wiser and better guides for +growing nephews and nieces than their own mothers and fathers. Frequently +they are the most important helpers in club life, exerting a positive, +upbuilding influence. Yet one always grows sad when thinking of them. Not +thriftlessness, but unselfishness, may leave them penniless in old age. +There is no place for them. Rarely is there a corner to which they are +welcome in the tenement house; often even where there is love and gratitude +there may not be space. Floor space often regulates the expression of love, +where the heart may have unlimited space. + +[Illustration: THE READING ROOM AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +The saddest figure in tenement-house life is the unmarried woman who can no +longer work and is dependent. In her effort to serve her people she may +have played the critic, and that is remembered when her service is +forgotten. It is this type of girl who by instinct refuses to accept +attentions that mean the spending of money by men who cannot afford it. +Their wages would, if used for themselves, have given social opportunities +that did not involve obligations, but family demands seemed to make such +use impossible. Sometimes the fun-loving sister will secure both shares. +One is taken to a home of her own; the other left to carry the family +burden, and no one questions why. If it is unanswered, it is attributed to +the lack of attraction in the unmarried sister. + +There are homes in the tenements where the wages of the earners make a +family income, in which all share equally, independent of the amount +contributed. There is a bank account. It may be in the joint name of father +and mother, but it is far more commonly the unquestioned property of the +mother. The children look upon this as the protection of the parents from +dependence in old age, should it not be called upon by illness or +misfortune. Such families represent the highest moral development in +tenement-house life. The children have been trained to appreciate +educational opportunities, and school is through childhood an important +factor in life. When the wage-earning period comes, night-school advantages +are appreciated and used. When the work is chosen, some thought is given to +the promise of future wage-earning powers by the acquiring of skill in that +employment. The maximum wages possible at the present time is not the +controlling element in the decision. The future is not sacrificed to the +present. Such a home is kept, no matter how small, in a condition that +makes social life in it possible. + +Hallways, street corners, store steps are not the only places for the +development of the social instincts of the members of such families. After +marriage the family is united, and home, though it be in the top of a +tenement, is the Mecca for children and grandchildren. + +At the other end of the social scale in this world of workers is the +happy-go-lucky family. Here the system of financial management has its +faults, but much is found that is better than wisdom in money matters. +Spending extravagantly when there is money, going without cheerfully when +there is none. Why, the going without is scarcely treated even with the +respect of making it a subject of conversation. The habit of sharing when +any member has anything to share becomes a fixed habit, and "mine" and +"thine" are not in the family vocabulary. The result is a close and +inter-dependent family relation, of which the mother is the center. Often +you will find that this mother has never had any clothes that would do to +wear on the street, except to early Mass, if she is a Romanist, or that she +rarely goes to church, if a Protestant, because her clothes are not what +she calls "fit." Her life is the gospel of unselfishness, and she reaps the +reward of love. One may fret at the waste, resent the short-sightedness, +which means ignorance and shiftlessness; but there is so much pleasure in +these families, so much that means happiness in them, that one even learns +to forget the frets. They never grow beyond childhood in worldly wisdom, +and childhood is always attractive. It is so rich in promise. Happiness is +the cement of human life. Poverty does not change its power of holding the +members together through weal or woe. There is a common inheritance of +memories that never lose their power of cohesion where love and friendship +reign in families. + +The people who do not know the lives of the working people can have no idea +of the extent to which the working men trust their wives. The majority of +working-men's wives are financially in a far more independent position than +the wives even of capitalists, where the wives are without an independent +income. Not only is the money given to the wives, but their use of the +money is unquestioned. There is a constant revelation of the unselfishness +of these men. Children will be overdressed, while the father will not even +be comfortable; but there is no complaint, for the pride of the father is +gratified. He, with the mother, has one standard--clothes. There are men +who say frankly that they would waste the money if it were in their care; +that their wives secure far better results than they could; that the +practice of having only carfare, at the most lunch money, reduces greatly +the much abused social habit of "treating." The married man who can +"treat," it is generally conceded, is not fair to his family; he keeps his +wages at their expense. + +Sometimes the observer marvels at the infinite patience of many men. Their +wives drift. Neither money nor time is used for their families. A week's +loss of work, and there is debt; a day's sickness, and to its suffering is +added the knowledge that there is no money in reserve to meet this +emergency, even though the wages insure it. While knowing well the cause, +one resents the unjust conditions that control many marriages among the +young people of the wage-earning class. The young women rarely have the +knowledge that will enable them to do their share in establishing the home. +The young man contracting a marriage without the prospect of supporting a +home is condemned and his bride pitied; but there is little criticism if +she spends years--years that mean discomfort and waste--in learning to do +her part, if she ever learns. + +[Illustration: AFTER SCHOOL AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +The mental attitude of the wage-earners toward their income is confusing +and yet interesting. In reply to any question of wages, the maximum sum is +always given. The question of idle time does not enter into computations of +the year's possible income and necessary outlays. This holds good before as +well as after marriage. Work may last for only forty weeks of the year, but +the other twelve, even among intelligent wage-earners, sometimes are not +counted in their relation to income. This perhaps explains much that is +counted as thriftlessness. It is, in fact, a failure to apply arithmetic to +daily life. + +After all is said, no one who is familiar with the income of the +wage-earning class can fail to see that the results obtained prove +conclusively that the use of money in the well-regulated home is a fine +art; that many working-men's wives could give post-graduate courses in the +use of money to women who consider they have the right to teach them. Even +waste and misuse are regulated by education and experience where there is +even a modicum of intelligence. The second conclusion is that thrift under +certain conditions is a vice that causes distinct deterioration of +character. It should be combated as vigorously as thriftlessness. It can +only be done by raising the standards of living; by creating other +standards of value than money. + +But everywhere among the wage-earning people the independence of the wife +in money matters is apparent. + +There are men who are niggardly and who hand out small sums daily, and +never recognize that the wife has a right to anything beyond food and +shelter, who grudgingly buy clothes when they must. These men are despised, +spoken of with contempt as not being good fathers or husbands, and their +wives are openly pitied. But the mass of working men place their wives in a +perfectly independent position by making them the absolute disbursers of +their incomes. The small shopkeepers, to all intents and purposes, treat +their wives as partners. The wives work with them, sharing their knowledge, +their responsibilities, and appear as joint owner in the bank account. The +wife usually is the safe until the money goes to the bank account. + +When a wife is a good financial manager, she is the head of the house, +whose reign is never questioned. "Her children rise up and call her +blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her," though the Book of +Proverbs may be unknown. This financial independence of the wives of +working men develops the spirit of independence and aggressiveness that so +often disturbs and upsets the plans of the woman who would do them good, +and is the cause of the charge of ingratitude that is often made against +the women of the tenement-house regions. It is scarcely natural to develop +gratitude for efforts made in the wrong direction. Poverty has its degrees, +as has wealth. There are families living in tenements whose conditions +represent wealth when contrasted with that of their neighbors. One fact +remains. Both women do not need the same opportunities, the same help. The +student of the management of wages in a tenement-house home rapidly +acquires a spirit of humility. While everywhere there is waste, there are +times when money seems to buy double the amount that the student thought +possible. With the wage-earners' families, as with all others, the income +buys that which is most desired by those spending it. Choice is the master +of decision, even in necessities. What is needed in the wage-earner's +family is that education, that opportunity for development that will make a +choice of the highest things, those that will mean a body and mind so +nourished and cared for that moral resistance is the available capital of +every member of the family in time of need. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOME STANDARDS. + + +The world knows two aspects of involuntary poverty: The one inseparable +from degradation; the other picturesque, appealing to the emotions, and +giving a field for the play of sympathetic activity that frequently +neglects to note the results it attains. + +There are few who discern that poverty is a comparative term, and these do +not use the word in its financial sense wholly. + +Those who know intimately the struggling, up-growing poor know that the +rich can never give the exquisite expression to love that life at this +level makes possible. Who would dream when looking at the Hercules, with +clothes and hands soiled by his daily labor, that he is the tender nurse of +wife and baby; that he is hurrying to a house cared for with joy. He will +wash dishes, cook, scrub the floor, walk the baby to sleep, and coddle and +pet a wife who from sheer loneliness and worry over work undone may be the +harder to please and quiet. All this, and perhaps, almost certainly, not +once will any terms of endearment be heard, and, strange as it may seem, no +kiss given. How one rebels and rejoices that love can be thus expressed! + +When sickness enters the home of the poor man, money is not present to +relieve the able from personal service, often made more difficult through +ignorance. Pride shuts the door to charity and the burden is carried in +love. Those who know life at this level can never, never lose faith in the +Eternal love, for they see always, however disguised, the divine spark in +every human being. The silence of love thus expressed, the revelation of it +where least expected, makes the one who witnesses it conscious of what +power lies outside and beyond and above his own life, not witnessed to the +ear. Every day at this level of life in our great city it is proved to the +privileged that tenderness is the winning element in strength; that love +daily, hourly here proves its power of self-abnegation. Here, too, it fills +its function of inspiration. Days, weeks, months, years go by and the +burden of moral weakness is borne with the cloak of faith wrapped about its +fears. When so expressed, its loyal unconsciousness adds to its beauty and +makes it an inspiration to all who come into its presence as friends; the +lips voice its faith, the eyes alone reveal its fears even to friends. + +[Illustration: THE MORNING AIRING OF AN EAST SIDE HEIRESS.] + +The more intimately one comes into the home circle of the independent +wage-earners the more clearly does the disadvantages of wealth stand +revealed. Life must be lived so simply, the interests of life are so +evident, that the value of words decreases; action expresses the heart +perfectly. The very services the children render each other train them for +the family life they will establish. The baby tended by an older brother +and sister learns to depend on them for care, and that dependence in turn +draws out a love and responsibility that could not have birth under any +other conditions. The child who finds that in pain, weariness, suffering, a +father and mother alone share its care; the elder children who see how +naturally sacrifices are made for them, how little the father and mother +value themselves, their ease, even their comfort, learn to value the love +in the home and depend on it, give love to it, that money to buy service +would bar out. The child who sees parents make sacrifices to enlarge his +opportunities for education, seeing him as a positive factor in his own +manhood, sees more than parental love in such sacrifices and stands in more +than the relation of child to parents. + +At the level where charity and dependence are large factors in the home +life, the relation of parents to children is changed by their presence. +Art has given Charity the figure of a noble, benign woman, in the ample +folds of whose garments children are protected. Too often in life she wears +a short skirt, to make speed possible, suggesting in movements and voice +the need of nervines, when she does not seem to have taken the bandage from +the eyes of Justice for her own use, while neglecting to borrow her scales. +Where Charity is the welcome guest, instinct is greater than intelligence +in the parental relation. The home tie is slight; children become shrewdly +self-dependent, physical hardships are more easily borne, and life is often +a mere matter of shelter and food; the animal alone is kept alive. This +represents a social level as remote from that of the independent +wage-earner as is represented between the home's standards and requirements +of a family living on fifteen hundred dollars a year and that of a family +living on fifteen thousand dollars a year. + +We use the word poor so carelessly that there is confusion where absolute +misapprehension has not developed as to the character of the largest, most +receptive, most responsive and most responsible class of citizens of New +York. Politically they have been neglected, until the Citizens' Union gave +them a formative part in political decisions. Here and there a score or +more independent working men would be found in political organizations, +because of an active political conscience, always hoping for better days, +when the city would be given its imperative rights without regard to the +State or national political complications. It was a hopeless fight, and has +sent into the erratic political parties the majority of the independent +working men now in them. The schemes of the politicians disgusted them, and +new principals seemed to be the only hope for the clean-minded mind who did +its own thinking. + +The great mass of these independent, self-respecting, intelligent +working-men voters were hunted for at election, but were not counted worthy +to take a place in the councils of the politically active because they were +feared. The Citizens' Union recognized their value and power, and they have +come into their own as citizens. No greater service have the Settlements +done the city than discovering this unused element in political power and +centering it where it is recognized as the saving power in municipal +government. These men stand at the head of the homes that reveal +love--tender, protecting inspiring love--serving in unspoken unselfishness +to the largest degree. + +Thousands of mothers can testify to the cheerful sharing by fathers in the +household burdens after a day of hard work; of cheerful going without +necessities on the part of a father to give more than necessities to the +children. Thousands of husbands and fathers will note the unselfishness and +wisdom of a mother in caring for and enlarging the opportunities for the +children, who are the common objects of love and ambition, and the +confidence and love of the husband grows with the years. To the observer +there is at the same time no more inspiring and depressing revelation than +the parental love which asks nothing for itself, but all that life can give +for the children, the visible expression of their mutual love. Often there +is no thought given to a future of possible dependence. Wages do not make +possible the care of the children at the standards of the parents, the +buying of an environment that the experience of intelligent parents demands +for them, and a bank account. The last is desirable, the first demand +imperative. Faith is the anchor kept to be thrown out when the life +currents are running toward the rocks of want and dependence. Nothing is +kept back for personal use by these fathers and mothers. Sometimes this +very unselfishness, when unregulated by wisdom, leaves them lonely and +forsaken in old age. Those to whom they have given their lives have by the +gift been placed in social positions that seemingly bar out the parents who +made achievement possible. Even in the loneliness of old age the parents +rejoice at the success and forget and forgive the separation. The end for +which they worked has been attained, their children are successful, and +they still count themselves nothing compared with their children. + +It is the independent wage-earners who make the largest contributions to +our wealth, commercial greatness, national prestige; yet the world, +counting wealth by dollars, classifies these as poor. They are as far +removed from the incapable, the degraded, the vicious, the dependent, the +ignorant--who provide the themes for books--as far removed from the +worthless, the deficient, the mentally, morally weak, so familiar to the +people of wealth who give money or time, or both, to lessen their miseries, +as they are in standard and ambition from the people counted wealthy. The +cost of floor space on which to make a home may make them neighbors of the +people who are the problems of a great city; they may live in regions that +are the laboratory of the student of social and political conditions, but +they live behind closed doors, bring up their children, so far as they can, +uncontaminated by neighborhood evils, and overcome their environment to a +surprising degree. There is no word to distinguish them from those who make +capital of their poverty, and the world loses much because of the lack of a +term that would express the class who are the hope of this nation, whose +children are the promise of its established greatness. + +The very limitations that small incomes impose on husbands and wives, +strangers to social ambitions, bring into the relation an independence and +_camaraderie_ that possibilities of wealth would bar out. When a father and +mother have one object in life, their children, they have no personal +ambitions; their minds run in the same groove; they live of necessity a +unit. When the aim is to give their children a better education than they +had; to place them on a firmer foundation in the wage-earning world than +the one on which the father and mother started; to save the children from +the contaminating world as they had to meet it, there of necessity is a +welded interest that bars out a world of distractions. The world in which +such fathers and mothers live may seem narrow, but the smallness of the +world makes the companionship the closer. As one gets into the inner circle +of these homes, the small part that wealth plays in happiness is realized, +and the comprehension of what constitutes essentials is gained. The man who +knows the measure of his wage-earning power does not waste his nerve and +vitality to earn more; the family grow to have fixed habits of expenditure, +and content is attained that the social strugglers never know. The victim +of nervous prostration is not found in the working-man's world; the fixed +rate of wages relieves the nerves, but exercises the muscles and the +balance of health is kept. The exceptions to this happy attainment are +those whose mental or moral natures have not been adjusted to the happy, +even life of the skilled, sober, industrious, thrifty working-man's family +in New York. + +The world of wealth would find itself rejected if it brought with it into +the wage-earning world its moral standards, the rules of conduct are so +simple in this world, the standards so elemental. An aldermanic candidate +who in his own world is not counted ignorant, during the campaign of 1901 +conceived the idea, which he had never held before, though this was the +fourth time he had appealed to the suffrages of the people, that the women +were a factor in political success. He decided to call on the wives, +mothers and sisters of the voters in his district. It would be interesting +to know his conclusions after his experience. He must have gained wisdom by +his experiment, and heard some unwelcome truths. He announced to one of his +hostesses that he thought if he called and showed himself they might see in +him something that would persuade them that their husbands, fathers, +brothers, or sons ought to vote for him. It would have been interesting to +have seen his face when more than one hostess assured him that, having seen +him, she felt bound to urge her husband to vote for the other candidate. Or +when he was told by others that he must understand how certain he was of +defeat, or he would not appeal to women. Still more interesting it would +have been to see him when an outraged wife let down the flood-gates of her +wrath because she blamed him for the periodic lapses from industry and +sobriety of which her husband was guilty. The better class of voters of +this candidate's party resented angrily the man calling on their wives. The +root cause of the indignation of the men and women it was found was that +this man dared to call when the husbands were not at home. In the world of +work there is no place for social life in the day-time, and it argues ill +for those who indulge in it. The Metropolitan Opera House in the evening +would so shock the working man and his wife that they would never recover +respect for those who frequent it. A high-necked lace dress with a low +lining, worn in the evening by one from the other world to an East Side +party, brought out this comment: "Oh! yes, she's all right. They all do it, +the women; but isn't it awful?" + +The moral standards for men and women in the world of work are the same. +The immoral man is despised and avoided by the women. A woman who should +maintain the smallest degree of friendship or acquaintance with a man known +to be immoral would be avoided by her neighbors; she would be made to +realize at once the cause of her offending. + +A silly, pretty little woman, whose husband at times was cruel and brutal, +ran away from him with another man. No one in the neighborhood could +remember when such a thing had happened before, and the neighborhood +resented it as a disgrace. The husband's brutality was well known; he was +despised and ignored by the better element of men in the neighborhood. Had +the wife gone alone, she would have had the support of a respectable +minority, but now the husband was the object of deep sympathy. When the +wife was found, and declared she would gladly starve with the partner of +her disgrace--and there was a fair prospect at the time that she +would--"than have the best in the land with my husband; he has kicked me +out for the last time," she was cast out of the books of remembrance in +that neighborhood. "She married him for better or worse," was the measure +of a wife's duty among these wives and mothers. + +The admiration of the explorer into this world of work and homes grows with +the years for the people who make it, as indignation grows at the +misunderstanding of its limitations, its possibilities, its beauty and +greatness. For Matthew Arnold gave the true definition of greatness when he +said it was the obstacles overcome, not his attainments, that made a man +great. The explorer makes many discoveries--some that stimulate and +surprise, some that puzzle and depress. The silence of love in this world +is a revelation. Whether the terms of endearment are not in the language of +this world, or whether the want of leisure and privacy stifle them, it is +difficult to decide. Perhaps it is that the language of love is learned in +a mother's arms; that when her service to her child must be physical, when +it is but one of a thousand things demanding her care and thought--when her +muscles must serve unceasingly--she has no time to express the love that +strengthens them by words. It may be that the language of love does not +grow within crowded walls, and that it is forced to express itself in +service. + +[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD GREENWICH.] + +A man ranking high in the intellectual world once took for his theme, when +preaching to a company of wage-earners and their wives, "Home Life." It was +a rare inspiration that moved him to point out how much was lost to the +home where the verbal expression of love was never heard. He said no higher +inspiration to work his best could be given a man than his wife's good-bye +kiss in the morning; nor a charm that would drive away care, worry and +exhaustion more perfect than her welcoming kiss when he returned from his +work at the close of the day. He pictured the feelings of the man who found +his wife silent and unresponsive when he entered the house; who answered +his query as to what was the matter with "Nothing." In his audience was a +wife whose faithfulness and intelligence had made her husband far more than +he could ever have been without her, a fact of which he was fully +conscious; he was not allowed to forget it. This wife was deeply impressed +by what she heard. She was ignorant because of lack of opportunity, +untruthful because she was ignorant; she could not see the relations of +things. Vindictive, because in her moral code you must resent any wrong, +real or fancied, by an action that goes far deeper than that of the +offender in its effect. Anything else would be an evidence of weakness. She +expressed her contempt for one who would forgive an injury, and prided +herself that she never did. She had enthusiasm, could inspire others, and +proved herself as capable in leading them to do wrong as to do right. She +was the power in her home, and established its standard of right and wrong +that gave motive to the lives of her children. This night the speaker +lifted the veil. There was something that belonged in the home that she +alone could put there, and she had not. She resolved that she would part +from and meet her husband with a kiss. It is best to let her tell her own +story: + +"I just made up my mind I'd do it." No girl of eighteen giving a confidence +of a love affair could have shown more embarrassment than this mother of +wage-earning children. "I did not know how I would do it, or what ---- +would say, but I just made up my mind I would kiss him when he came home. I +thought about it all the next day. Late in the afternoon I made up my mind. +Of course, I could not kiss him before the children. When it was most time +for ---- to come home, I sent them each on an errand that would keep them +away until long after ---- got home. I had the table all set and the supper +cooking. At last I heard him come up the stairs. My land! How I trembled! I +stood so that when the door opened he would not see me, and then I just +kissed him before I had a chance to think. He staggered back, he was so +surprised." She waited while an expression that should have been habitual +changed her shrewd, hard face into a loving woman's. "But I never saw him +look so happy," she continued. "I made up my mind I would kiss him every +day when he came home. I could not kiss him in the morning, for the +children were all there," she added decidedly; "but I can always send the +little ones on errands at night." + +Perhaps it was three weeks later that she told of the climax. "I had a +toothache all day; I was tired and cross, for I had been washing. I stood +by the fire, making the hash. Kittie was setting the table, when ---- +opened the door. I did not look up. He stood in the door a minute; then he +asked, 'What's the matter, Jennie?' 'Nothing.' I knew I said it cross. I +looked up then. ---- looked so disappointed that I thought he'd cry. I just +forgot the children, and right before them I kissed ---- twice. I wish you +could have seen his face. I burst out laughing when I looked at the two +children. They stood staring at us with their mouths wide open. Do you know +what I did? I kissed each of them. I don't believe I've kissed either since +they were babies. I think they told the big ones in the front room when +they came from work." This experiment in love-making did not continue. ---- +came home drunk one night, and for punishment the experiment was dropped +and never resumed. While it lasted, it had a most harmonizing effect on +the whole family, and one wondered if it had been begun earlier, when the +habit could have been easily fixed, what would have been the result. + +The mother, from a worldly point of view, has been most successful. The +children are in positions where skill is required, and wages seem to depend +on health only. Yet they are not popular; are selfish and unsympathetic. +They point to their own success as the reason why every family should +succeed. The family has moved into new environment, establishing relations +that have placed it several rounds higher than the level at which the +home-making began; but it has no fixed place in the social world. The +combined income of the five wages equals at times two thousand dollars a +year. + +Not every wife in this world of silent love is encouraged as this wife was. +Another, a gentle, quiet woman, without children, thought she would try. +"He sit so still when he came home. I bought a flower and put it on the +table. I have what he like best for supper, and I wait. I listen over the +banister. When he come near our flight, I slip back and wait in the room, +leaving the door open so he can see. When he close the door I go up to him, +put mine arms around his neck and kiss him. He take my arms, shove me back +and say: 'What the matter mit you? You crazy?'" The woman was crying. The +three friends sat silent a moment, and then one said: "You haf no +children," and the wife nodded. That was her explanation, and theirs. + +Perhaps no greater charm prevails in this world of wage-earners than the +attitude toward motherhood. There will be found here and there the young +woman who rebels against it, who may risk life rather than assume the care +of a baby. When one goes back of this rebellion there is always found the +influence of some older woman who has other ambitions, clothes, pleasure; +who influences, or tries to influence, the young married women she meets; a +woman who will even talk freely to girls against motherhood. There is in +this world of workers the strong active public sentiment against childless +women that more than counteracts this influence, and babies are welcomed +when there is nothing but love to greet them, not much more to feed them or +clothe them; but they are welcomed. The training of the children--natural, +not acquired--to be fathers and mothers has doubtless a far-reaching effect +in keeping this natural attitude of mind toward parenthood. + +We get up a lot of wasted sentiment about the little mothers and fathers, +not seeing that the offices are fitting them to meet a future when all +that they learn in the care of baby brothers and sisters will make their +lives easier as fathers and mothers. Often the only opportunity they have +for expressing affection is the little baby given to their care. + +How well one must know this part of the wage-earning world before it is +possible to appreciate the fact that the boy is being trained by "his baby" +for that future when he will share with the mother of his child its care. +It is a constant revelation to find how intelligent the young men at this +level are about children, and how frankly and unconsciously they will +express it and condemn the ignorant or careless treatment of a child. The +relation of the wage-earning children to the little children is paternal +often. The little ones know that the elder ones work and care for them, and +they render an obedience that is often amusing. With sisters this takes +another form. If the elder girl has ideas and tastes, especially if she has +skill, she will often entirely decide how the younger children shall dress; +often the younger children would not be at all satisfied with clothes the +elder girls did not select and design. Here again will be found a +half-maternal attitude that secures obedience and regulates privileges; +that sometimes ignores the rightful authority in the home. The young girl +who has an elder sister working and secures work with her is considered +very fortunate. Two sisters are known, now past middle life. One is quite a +handsome woman, the other plain. The handsome sister is the younger; she +never, when she was a wage-earner, went through the streets alone. The +elder sister, when they did not work together, escorted the younger one +back and forth to her work. Now, the mother of three children, nothing +could persuade her to go on the streets alone beyond the corner store. Her +husband, in a city department on a small salary, always attends her in +shopping expeditions, and all social engagements are made with respect to +his hours of freedom. She receives a wealth of love, and tenderness, and +protection. Selfish? Yes, till one wonders at the blindness of those who do +her homage. + +[Illustration: A LITTLE FATHER.] + +Once a very sensible wife and mother, whose intelligence and devotion are +raising the family many degrees above that of the generation preceding her +and her husband, said: "I shall watch my children. My mother let one of my +sisters exact far more than her share of wages. She coaxed or cried, or +both, until she got what she wanted. The rest of us gave in, because we +would not worry mother; you see that, now we are all married, she expects +us to save her from worry and work; we have to; she cannot get along." In +a moment she continued: "Haven't you seen it, that in every large family +there is one who gets more and gives less than the others?" A statement +profoundly true, but not confined to any one social level. + +Among the discoveries the explorer into this world makes is that life is +full of compensations. One learns to overlook bad housekeeping, when it is +discovered that a cross, impatient word is never spoken by the +house-mother; that the children are the companions of the mother; that no +one else is so attractive; that she is never too busy to listen to anything +that interests them. One learns to forgive the needlessly shabby dressing +of children, when it is discovered that they are well nourished and cared +for, and that the husband and father never fails to declare that his wife +is the best cook in the city and always has his meals on time. Usually this +mother is fat, full of fun, and laughs as though tears were not in the +world. + +Order, cleanliness and economy do not appeal as cardinal virtues when it is +found that there is no room for the children in the house, no money to buy +them the smallest pleasure where these over-estimated virtues predominate. +It is found usually that the worry of maintaining standards that ignore +the rights of the family, and to which they have been sacrificed, have +seared the mother's head and heart, and she no longer responds to the +maternal emotions; she becomes the victim of her own habits and cannot +reform. Perhaps it is this type of woman who creates the most barren home; +the one that is quite as prolific a source of supply to the saloons and the +streets as that of the degenerate housekeeper out of whose life spiritual +impulse has departed, and into which ideals and ambitions were never born. + +It is difficult at times to decide whether to laugh at or resent the +criticisms one often hears of the extravagances of the poor. When one +becomes familiar with the demands for rent, coal, shoes, for clothes that +must be worn to work and school; for the things the cost of which cannot be +put below a certain sum--food always can be regulated--and compares these +fixed charges with the income available, the management of money in the +independent working man's family amounts to genius, and it must take +generations of economists to produce it. + +Unfortunately, in New York emphasis is laid on clothes. Extravagance in +dress is the habit of the city. The people seen in the streets, in the +stores, in public conveyances, show a singular uniformity in clothes; this +is as true of men as of women. The differences are in manners and English. +The spirit of the land is as yet materialistic, and the democratic spirit +shows itself in the outward forms. The tailor-made gown was not looked upon +as a regenerator of æsthetic standards, but it has proved that. Its +simplicity and durability has released money that formerly was used in +useless trimming. The ready-trimmed hat is also a lever in throwing the +scale in the right direction. + +The attention to school decoration of recent years has given new standards +for the home. The wage-earning world grows more harmonious in its demands +on wages; the home now makes its demands for decoration that the workers +obey. Signs outside of tenement houses renting suites of four rooms for +twenty and twenty-five dollars per month announce: "Burlaped halls; parlors +in white and blue;" or, "Tiled halls, open gas grates, fancy chandeliers." +The men who hire these apartments earn from fifteen to twenty-five dollars +a week or more. Thousands of American working men pay these rentals to save +their children from the environment inseparable from the surroundings that +must be endured if a fair proportion of their wages were used for rent. One +grows to reverence the courage that enables a husband and wife, with only +one pair of hands earning the home needs, to assume such rents. No higher +evidence of the manhood and righteous ambition of the American citizen +could be given than this: that he places his all to secure for his children +a home that is reasonably protected; that offers opportunities for +cleanliness and privacy. Renting a room to a lodger will sometimes make +less demands on a father's wages for rent; sometimes the rent is assumed in +the hope of securing lodgers, and then the struggle is pathetic, but borne +because the children must not grow up in a less desirable neighborhood. If +one were asked for the standard by which to measure the civilization of +each family in the wage-earning world, the reply would have to be, "Rent." +It at once makes the most and the least return; it is the tyrant which +makes or mars the home life. When a family of eight, having a combined +income of thirty-six dollars a week, are content to live in three rooms, +one knows about what to expect in social standards, and how many +generations it will take to raise the home level. When a family of +six--five wage-earners--who began life at almost the homeless level, +gradually come into a combined income of two thousand dollars a year, it is +not to be expected that its standards of needs will be those of a college +graduate on the same income. Often no member of the family can read +readily. School life was, especially for the elder children, an +intermittent one, and truth did not regulate the beginning of wage-earning +of any of the children. The younger children probably warred against school +long before fourteen years of life gave them freedom. There is natural +intelligence, a certain manner acquired through observation, but no +standard of intellectual life. Their very intelligence makes such families +conscious of their shortcomings, and it is this consciousness that leads to +the aggressiveness of manner that is so offensive, so often mistakenly +called the American manner. It is the manner that is due to awakened +consciousness which in the next generation will know when to wear evening +dress, if not how. + +The use of money in such families is for show. It would be counted +extravagant to buy a book, or a ticket to an oratorio or a concert to hear +the best music. It would in such a family be counted useless to train the +younger children to wage-earning by education. The heads of the family will +be hospitable where it counts as showing how much more they have than the +others in their world. They receive from their world what snobbishness +receives everywhere. Snobbishness, on the whole, is not common even where +the income would remove the family from a tenement-house environment. The +uncertainty of work, and the absolute dependence of the worker on wages, +make snobbishness dangerous; that often proves a boomerang their +observation shows. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN OLD GREENWICH.] + +The spirit of helpfulness may not find so free a field of operations when +wages are two dollars and a half and over a day, but it is in readiness. +Sickness in a neighbor's family will show that it has not been lost because +of prosperity, but it is less lavish; there is dawning consciousness that +self-preservation is the first law of nature; that home has the first right +to strength and thought; that only the surplus is available for the world +of friends. The same thriftlessness which makes a family accept charity +without question is the cause of their generosity. As the sense of +responsibility develops, the observer discovers a reserve in the giving of +either their money or their strength to those about them; kindness abounds, +but generosity is regulated as one goes up the scale in the world of +wage-earners. Not only that, but in the direst need the needy, as one goes +up the scale, regulate the degree of freedom given the closest friends. It +often borders on the tragic, the suffering borne in silence, and revealed +often when the time for help is passed. + +This division of the people into rich and poor without gradations and +without a comprehension of the standards and needs that make new worlds up +and down the scale, has had a serious effect on the home life, the church +life of the people, the political life of the people. The churches have +driven out the very people in the tenement-house regions who needed them +and whom they needed. + +Corrupt administration has imposed burdens on the homes which for a time +the voters in turn felt powerless to lift. The independent wage-earner +found his hope of political recognition in allegiance to the political +machines. The leaders, his inferiors often mentally, and still more surely +morally, were at least approachable and familiar, and the man who made his +own life found too often that only in the political circle of interest was +he the equal of those who led. Here there was no manner that expressed +condescension or superiority. His own language was spoken; he was at home. +That these men allowed themselves to be used was the natural result of the +habit of indifference to the real issues in a municipal campaign so common +in New York. When the burdens of a corrupt administration pressed on the +homes; when the leaders for righteous government acknowledged by appealing +to the makers of this country, the plain people, that they were an integral +part of the city's government, they responded, and by their response +overthrew the corrupt government that the indifference of all classes had +helped to make powerful. + +The century opens well. Capitalist and wage-earner sit at the same board, +having equal voice in the plans for redeeming the city from partisan +machine control. + +As one thinks of the change, one sees that the evils that disgraced New +York were due to the indifference of the millionaires and the honest +working men. It is the response of the political conscience of both to the +need of the city that has been its redemption; its only sure protection is +the activity of that conscience three hundred and sixty-five days of each +year in all the years to come. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WHERE LIES THE RESPONSIBILITY? + + +It took years for the evils of political machines to make life unbearable +in New York. Not until the tremendous evils it imposed on child-life were +given emphasis did the public sentiment of the city find intelligent +expression--voice the moral conscience of the whole people. That dishonest +administration of the city government imposed burdens on the home of the +poor man no intelligent person disputed; but few knew how heavy the burdens +or how far-reaching the effects on character. The people who suffered most +were, in the very nature of things, the ones who could not see these +influences, or estimate truly the degrading effect on character. The people +who resented the conditions that made life harder in the tenements; who +resented the environment which made the bringing up of children in +innocence, integrity, and decency often impossible, were those who were in +the minority. Hopelessness of overcoming the evils made some voters the +forgers of their own chains. + +Newspapers gave columns to the exposure of the evils of the political +methods which made individuals rich at the cost of the homes of the city, +especially the homes of the poor. But the phase of this influence that was +most degrading could only be learned by living in the regions, one of the +people, suffering with them the burdens dishonesty imposed. + +When college-trained men and women established their homes in the regions +of the tenements, making friends with the people, associating freely with +them, especially with the young people and the children, they discovered +that the worst evil with which the people were contending was the constant +lowering of the moral standards due to the influence of the political +organization that seemed to regulate even the right of the people to earn a +living. It was but a step from fear to favor; but a little time before the +man out-weighed the principle; Justice became the hand-maid of "pull," and +the people living wholly under the environment corrupt political power +created, knew no government but that of the "leader" and the man who +represented him. To trade votes was no disgrace, for it meant a share in +the perquisites that political power held. These men and women of trained +intelligence saw that the corrupting of the moral standards of the people +was a far greater evil--an evil that was of far greater moment to the +whole people than the maladministrations that affected their physical +being, though it led to death. + +It was the revelations the Settlement workers were able to make to a +half-informed community of wealth and trained intelligence that led to the +redeeming of the city. It made the active combination of wealth and poverty +that brought into the political arena the dormant consciences that created +in 1901 the Apotheosis, New York redeemed, that is the justification of +democracy to the world. + +The iniquity, ignorance and indifference that create and maintain a system +of municipal administration based on the theory that politics is a +profession, and each promoter the architect of his own fortune, to be built +at the expense of the citizens, is the reflection of the character of the +citizens. The system is never the product of one man's brains, nor does its +growth ever begin at the top. It begins always in the smallest political +unit, where the man who wishes the office in the gift of that unit stands +closest to the people. The bargaining for votes begins there. The number of +exchanges of votes for favors and places successfully accomplished makes +the "boss," the man who represents law and order; who is judge, and jury, +and keeper of the jail to those who do his bidding. As the political units +develop their bosses--"leaders," in voters' parlance--the system grows +until the chain is complete, and each political henchman, in the order of +his importance, takes his share of the people's money. The perquisites +reach millions before the thousands are distributed that enables the leader +to pose as the all-pervading friend to the district in time of need. + +The political units where this system of government in the interest of the +"boss" have their strongest hold are the best evidences of the moral +degeneracy that follows. Here the liquor saloons flourish, the headquarters +of the "leader" and his cohorts, used in the order of rank in the system, +from the gayly lighted, silver-bedecked, mirror-lined bar-room to the +smoky, dirty, vilely kept den where those gather who have no use in life +but to vote according to orders and work for the political leader's +entrenchment. These saloons represent the primary school and the university +of the voters of the district. They represent all the educational and +recreative opportunity of most of the adults. They establish the habits of +thinking for the majority of the people, for they are the lyceum where all +questions are discussed that interest the people. The most interesting is +how to get wages, as it is the most important. The common struggle creates +common bonds of sympathy. All principles go down before the concrete, +understandable fact that if the "boss" is beaten, work will cease for +neighbor, friend, and friend's friend. Each man learns through every course +in this training school of citizens that the paramount duty of each voter +is to keep the "boss" in power. It means wages, or the hope of wages, under +the least strenuous of employers, the city. Men work hard for the system, +not because the moral nature of many of them is not in revolt against the +system, but because the keeping of a home for wife and children is at +stake. Often the voter's necessities, his ignorance often, his rebellion +against wealth often, his unrest, undermine his moral nature, blind his +intelligence, and he forges the chains that bind him in slavery to a system +that will cast him aside, and refuse him a reason when there is no use for +him. The voter may work during an election campaign half knowing that to +secure another worker in the interests of the political system the place he +holds has been promised to another after election. This fear and this hope +enters the homes; women and children are educated under the moral +degradation that enslaves husbands, sons, brothers, friends, lovers. The +standards of morals are established even in childhood by the working of the +systems of political machines. There is one measure of morals, _success_. +What succeeds is right. + +[Illustration: TAKING THEIR TURN IN THE YARD AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +A small house was hired, through the generosity of several women, for the +purpose of providing a place for recreation and social opportunity for a +number of Christians--that is, people not Hebrews--left in a thickly +settled Hebrew district. These Christians, a mere remnant, resented the +opportunities offered the Hebrews, and while they might have availed +themselves of them, they would not, so strong was the race prejudice. +Shortly after the house was opened a delegation of boys appeared asking for +the use of the large room for a boys' club. The privilege was given on the +conditions that one of the workers interested in the house should have the +privilege of visiting the room freely when the club was in session; that +the club should pay twenty cents per month for the use of the room; that it +should be limited to twenty members for three months. Before the first +month had passed, it was decided that unless the club would accept a +director, it was a waste of the space and light to let these boys use the +room. They called themselves a debating and literary club. They knew +nothing of literature naturally and less of debating. They were told that +they must accept a director, a man who would instruct them in parliamentary +law, guide them in debate and suggest subjects for study, or they must +give up the room. They were very angry, but finally decided to accept the +director. Their constitution provided for an election every month, a +provision which kept them in a turmoil all the time. When the majority were +convinced of this, and voted that officers should be elected every three +months, the dissenting minority withdrew to form a new club, to meet +somewhere else. Two weeks later, on club night, the bell rang. The leader +of the minority, who had been elected president of the new club, asked if +they might come back. They did not like the place where they met. After a +conference with the original club, it was decided that, if they chose to +come back as members of the club and pay their dues--three cents per +week--they might come back. The conditions were accepted, and the seceding +minority were to be reinstated as members of the original club on the next +meeting night. As the petitioner was leaving, he turned innocently to the +director and said: "Say, we've elected a couple of new fellows. They can +come in, can't they?" The club consented conditionally on the "new fellows" +being peaceable. The next meeting night came. The bell rang. In order to do +full honor to the returning prodigals, the president went to the door. +There was a rush and a scramble; the eight boys who withdrew, followed by +twenty-two others, crowded into the room and demanded an election at once. +They declared they were in the majority now, and had a right to the +presidency for one of their own number. It was impossible to eject them, +had it been wise. The question was postponed for one week and an arbitrator +selected. + +When the next meeting night came, some of the new recruits had dropped out +and their places had been taken by older boys. The original members, who +had maintained the club, were told to sit together and keep absolutely +quiet. The constitution declared that no boy was a member of the club who +did not pay an initiation fee of five cents; this included the first +month's dues. The first strange boy was asked: "Have you paid your +initiation fee?" The leader, a boy not fourteen, sprang forward and pressed +a five-cent piece in the boy's hand, saying: "Pay it now. Joe's the +treasurer." The cue had been given him, and he proceeded to give out +nickels to the new boys, urging them to "pay Joe quick." During this scene +another of the receding minority took his position in front of the door to +prevent any boy leaving the room with the money. The performance was +stopped; the opulent small boy, who it was evident was buying votes for the +presidency, was told to gather up his nickels. The recruits were told, +after an explanation, why they must leave, and to their credit be it +recorded some of them resented the position in which they had been placed +and promised the misleading leader an unhappy next day before they left. It +was then decided that the twelve members who had constituted the majority +should ballot individually for the eight who had seceded, as though they +had never belonged to the club. It is unnecessary to say that the boy who +made the trouble was rejected. Not one of those boys was fifteen years old, +yet they had learned and understood the method of the political +organizations of the region. Their elders, those they loved, used these +methods, and succeeded by them in getting place and power. The man who +succeeded in sharp practice in politics was the "boss." The man who was +beaten was not smart. The measure of morals was success, not methods used +to attain that success. + +A woman's club, organized several years before, used this house. The +husbands of several of them organized a men's club, and met in the house +one evening in the week. Several of those men were affiliated with the +political organizations of the district; some held positions under the city +government through these affiliations. + +When the Citizens' Union campaign began in 1897, the women who established +the house offered it and the yard for one evening a week to the Citizens' +Union Campaign Committee. Illustrated lectures were given to the people of +the neighborhood, the friends of the clubs using the house, and the parents +of children in the children's clubs. This declared the sentiments of the +women who established the house, which were emphasized when a picture of +the Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor was put in the window. It became +evident at once that there was trouble in the women's club; some of the +members of the men's club never entered the house after the picture was +placed. The Citizens' Union was defeated. At once the friction in the +women's club developed, till it seemed wise to disband it. It was announced +that the house had been given up, and that all the work done there must be +placed elsewhere. The younger clubs were housed in the Clark Memorial. The +women's club, in spite of the friction, voted to keep together, and, with +the City History Club, asked to be received at the College Settlement, +which generously, and at great inconvenience, arranged to receive them. The +members of the women's club, numbering forty-five, voted unanimously to +become identified with the College Settlement work, and pledged themselves +to that work. The one woman who had resisted this decision in secret stood +with the rest pledged to the Settlement. At once she incited trouble at the +Settlement. She was voted out of the club. When the decision was announced, +she, with the treasurer of the club and three others, walked out of the +house, the treasurer taking the club treasurer's book and the money, over +seventeen dollars. Sunday's papers announced the incorporation of a club +under the old name. The incorporators were the five women who had left the +club at the Settlement. The business of incorporating was attended to by a +political leader in the State Assembly. One of these women had held a +position in a city department, secured for her by a leader of one of the +political parties; one was the wife of a man holding a city position +through active affiliation with the other political party; another was the +wife of a man who was striving for prominence in political affairs in the +district, irrespective of party; the other was shrewd, ambitious, +vindictive. The club before this break had done charitable work; had helped +families who needed help, through the generosity of friends of wealth. It +had a limited membership, and election was the assurance of certain +qualities in the woman who was received as a member. All this had commanded +attention and could furnish political capital. To hold this for one or the +other of the political parties was the intention of the women who +incorporated under the club name and persuaded six of the club members to +join them. + +The treasurer was so evidently the cat's-paw of those who were managing the +affair that, while steps were being taken to punish her for taking the +money, the club at the Settlement voted not to prosecute her, because it +would be a stigma on her as long as she lived, because she would have to +stand with women arrested for drunkenness and disorderly characters in the +dock. The original club remained at the Settlement. The minority who +withdrew, a total of eleven, began active and aggressive work. They hired +the use of a working-girls' club-room. They began to work according to the +most approved methods of political leaders. They attended the outings of a +political association; tried to do what they called charitable work, but +which this very group proved they could not do justly while in the little +house. + +The Fusion campaign of 1901 brought unexpected complications to the club +woman. The Tammany influence was stronger than the Republican, and the +women who had led in the incorporating of the club withdrew. Unfortunately, +the opportunity to give this whole group a strong lesson in morals was +lost, and they have been accepted where, had the genesis of their club been +understood, it is but reasonable to suppose they would have had no moral +support, and for that reason would have gained a moral lesson. + +The training most needed by the people of narrow experience and limited +intelligence is that of clear distinctions between right and wrong by those +they class above themselves. That shrewdness is not a moral virtue; that +revenge is mean and not the function of mortals, is the one lesson +intelligence and moral standards can teach convincingly. + +Recently it was the privilege of the writer to visit a Parents' Society +connected with a school in the outskirts of Brooklyn. The spirit of good +fellowship that existed, not only among the teachers of the school, but +between the teachers and the parents, was a revelation. That there was a +unifying cause was certain. What was it? One of the mothers, during a walk +to the station, revealed it. In response to a comment on the good feeling +so evident, the mother replied: "Yes, I feel it. Mr. ----," naming a member +of the Board of Education, "at prayer meeting the other night spoke of the +school and what a power it was in this part of the city. We owe it all to +him. He's done everything he could do for the school, and he has made all +the ministers and the priests friends of the school." She was quiet a +minute, and then added: "Years ago, when he first began fighting for the +school, people used to call him a 'boss.' I think that kind of a boss would +be good in every school. I tell my husband we ought to be glad that we +bought that lot out here and built when we did, for we helped to make Mr. +---- successful. If leading men to do your will means being a 'boss,' Mr. +---- is one. But the city needs hundreds of such 'bosses.'" The man is a +simple American citizen, bearing a foreign name, who saw clearly there were +more ways of serving and saving his country than by carrying a rifle. + +In the last analysis the "boss" as he is in New York to-day is the product +of many roots. The one that goes deepest in the soil, the course of his +deepest hold, can be traced to the doors of our churches. The men who have +failed to see that they owed an allegiance to the city that does not differ +in degree from what they owed the Church; the men who failed to see that +the Church was a positive factor in civic life; that its effectiveness in +the community was dependent on the standards it demanded and helped to +maintain in the city; that on it rested the responsibility for civic +character-building--on these men rest the heaviest responsibility for the +evolution of the political "boss" and the evils of which he is the +personification. + +Men and women give money to maintain church services in sections where +political corruption and civic neglect have resulted in creating an +environment that makes decent living impossible; an environment that has so +degenerating an influence that the people become a factor in the problem it +presents, for they have sunk to its level. + +In those sections the tools of the "boss," his active political agents, use +the most despicable methods. The tool of the principal is valuable as he is +conscienceless. His crumbs are the minor offices in the gift of the people; +the lesser tools get "jobs," which the very limitations of their minds make +them believe they must use to secure the largest return of money and power +to themselves--a conception largely due to the indifference of the men who +willingly delegate their civic responsibilities. Every man and woman who +pays the slightest attention to the conditions under which the poor are +forced to live, know that these conditions are responsible for the +existence of nine-tenths of the eleemosynary institutions, private and +public. They know that many of these institutions, could they stand before +the community in their true character, would be recognized as disgraceful +blots upon our civilization. They exist because so many good people in the +community have found greater pleasure in establishing and maintaining them +than in working actively to prevent the growth of the conditions that +peoples them. + +Again and again one sees the names of men and women working actively on +these boards of management who would not give a moment's thought to a +meeting called in the interests of better civilization in sections of the +city where their own homes are located; who know nothing of the conditions +of the schools, the streets, the tenement houses, the factories, or the +administration of the law in regard to them. There are men who would resent +the charge of ignorance who do not know the names of the officers they +either actively or passively elected to office in the political unit in +which are their homes. They do not attend the primaries, defending their +absence on the ground that they could accomplish nothing by their +presence--a defense that is in itself a self-accusation. If their divine +right of citizenship has been forfeited, it is by their own civic sin of +omission. The longer one studies the evils that have grown up in the +administration of the business of the great municipality of New York, the +clearer one sees that the sins of omission are responsible for their +growth--far more responsible than the sins of commission against which +intelligent voters rail, when they do not use them as salve for their +political consciences. It is a profound truth that in a republic the +character of the people is shown in the character of the men the people +elect to office. This is as true of the ward as of the nation. + +The political units of government in New York are, in the main, inhabited +by the rich and poor, the intelligent and the ignorant; those who can +reason from effect to cause, and those who cannot reason at all. Yet in +these sections the worst possible home conditions will exist--unsanitary +schools, dirty streets, badly paved. Saloons will abound and political +corruption will go unheeded. Why? Because no men of intelligence and +responsibility will accept the minor offices that mean the administration +of the affairs of this unit in the interest and for the protection of the +whole people. + +When men of position in the professional and business world signify their +willingness to accept the least office in the gift of the people, the daily +papers announce the fact in large headlines, and the men become marked as +capable of great self-sacrifice, they become preëminent for the time. The +men who have controlled the nominations, those who have no other visible +means of support than these minor offices and political patronage, resent +the suggestion of men of professional and financial fortunes accepting +these offices; they consider the appearance of a man holding business or +professional positions of power or influence as a candidate for a minor +office as an invasion, an intrusion of their personal rights; it is an +attempt to defraud them. They do not hesitate to publicly claim the right +to nomination and election as the reward for their activity in politics. +And they do this when they cannot point to one thing done officially to +justify their claims to the suffrages of the people. They dare to do it in +the face of the knowledge, held by the people, that they use their offices +often for personal ends, defrauding the people. + +The scores of voters who have places within the patronage of a minor +official see the danger to them of an official who would place merit in +advance of votes. The man of position may be far from wealthy; may consent +to serve the city at a financial loss; but the active voters live so remote +from the voters at the top that the election is almost certain to be +decided on class lines; and the defeat of the non-professional politician +is accepted by every man, woman and child in the poorer portion of the +district as a personal triumph; the evidence that the poor man has friends +to back him in his fight for place and power; that the poor must work +together politically. + +Whose fault is it? The good, intelligent, responsible citizens who +delegated the government of their city to the men who use it for their +personal gain. The good men in active politics, who openly concede the +right to the minor offices in the city government to men whom they know are +ignorant, and not infrequently know equally well are dishonest, and who +will sacrifice the interest of the people to strengthen the system that +means personal gains. + +The political conditions of the city several years ago gave birth to one of +the periodic moral upheavals that resulted in the election of a strong, +earnest, loyal, church-supporting citizen as Mayor. This Mayor was anxious +to raise the character of the city government. He determined to accomplish +this by the character of his appointments. He had more than a superficial +knowledge of the public schools, which at that time were the theater for +the exercise of political "pulls." It was known for years that the Board of +Education had been used to a greater or less extent to pay political debts, +to create political capital for future use by some of its most active +members. The new Mayor had it in his power to change the character of the +Board, and he carefully considered his appointments. + +In one of the sections of the city where, numerically as to families, +wealth and poverty were fairly balanced, a section having in it churches of +every denomination, many of them maintaining missions in the same political +unit--there was at least this expression of neighborly interest--the +schools were among the first built in the city. The last school building +erected at the time of this Mayor's election had been built twenty years +before; one had been built when the foundation for the pillars of the +elevated road had been set in front of the site before it was purchased by +the Board of Education, and was now in the heart of a crowded foreign +settlement, had no out-door playground; the third building in the school +district was so old, so badly planned, that for years effort had been made +to secure a new building, but were defeated by the indifference, and at +times the opposition, of the best citizens of the district, according to +their own estimate. + +The new Mayor determined to put the best men in the district on the Board. +Twenty-eight men in that district, men of power, men of standards, some of +them philanthropists actively interested in work for the poor, declined. +The men appointed, the best he could get to serve, were unfit for the +position--mentally unfit, for they were uneducated; or morally unfit, +because any position paid or unpaid under the city government was conceived +by them as just so great an opportunity to create political capital or +realize perquisites put within their control by their appointments. The +Mayor had begun at the top to make his appointments. The declinations of +the honor were because of lack of time, a lack of knowledge. When the +appointments were announced, there was a storm of criticism, and none more +violent than the majority of the men who declined to serve on the Board. + +At this time there was a great deal of activity among many leading women in +the State to have a bill passed by the Legislature that would compel the +Mayor of cities of the first class to appoint women in the proportion of +one-third of the whole number appointed to the Boards of Education of those +cities. The greatest activity for this measure was exercised in Brooklyn. +One of the leaders, when asked a question about one of the schools in her +own district, did not know where the school was. She had been a tax-payer +in the district twenty-two years, and was considered a progressive woman. +Her chief reason for working for this bill, for spending money freely in +the interest of its success, was man's indifference to school matters. +Perhaps if the command, "Feed my lambs" had been given to Dorcas instead of +Peter, she might have developed enough sense of responsibility about the +mental food given to know where the school buildings of her own school +district were located. + +In this school district, October, 1901, there were 574 children on half-day +classes. There was no manual training, though the pupils in the schools +were, for the most part, the children of day laborers, mechanics, and +clerks on small salaries. There was no free library, nor prospect of any, +because public sentiment did not demand it. There was one small park, +difficult of access. To reach it from the outer sections of the district, +the tracks used by nine lines of trolley cars must be crossed. There were +no public baths, except one in summer, near the mouth of a large sewer. One +of the schools had no out-door playground; two had the closets in the +in-door playgrounds. There was no room where the teachers could retire if +ill, or where they could take their luncheons; no rooms where pupils could +be privately interviewed or taken if ill. Yet it is in this very district, +where the oldest and wealthiest families of the city live; where +nine-tenths of the philanthropic enterprises of the city have been born, +and where the moral upheavals for the regeneration of the city will always +find their quota of leaders, that there is developing some of the worst +evils of a cosmopolitan city. Within its borders is a fair-sized Italian +city, with scores of sweat-shops. Across the thoroughfare is a large Irish +village lying at the foot of the hill, the streets dirty, unpaved, the +houses in an unsanitary condition. Some of them are overrun with rats of +enormous size. The streets at the top of the hill are beginning to yield to +the pressure of the crowds at the foot. Specific houses seem to have in +them the very germs of immorality and degeneracy. Women who have made a +struggle when, by misfortune, forced to move into these houses cease to +struggle, and yield to the influences about them. The tenement-house laws +are violated openly. + +There are not less than six missions, with twice that number of churches, +in this one section; but so far as the environment of the poor is +concerned, they might as well not exist. The majority of the tax-payers, +those who command public respect and confidence, will not serve +authoritatively in the political unit in which are their homes, in which +their children must grow up. They will not take offices that would put it +in their power to change the environment of the homes of the poor by +securing the rights, enforcing the laws, that would protect all of the +homes from the evils of vice, ignorance and unsanitary conditions. But +these men when wealthy will support liberally institutions made necessary +by their civic indifference. + +No man in a pulpit in the section has ever made a study of it to arouse the +conscience and energies of the members of his church to their political +duties. Unfortunately the women, for the most part, are as ignorant of the +condition, and as indifferent. Because of the unsanitary conditions of the +houses occupied by the poor, the dirty streets, the restrictions of child +life, the lack of opportunity for moral development, the total dearth of +recreative opportunity for the boys and girls, the young men and women who +are wage-earners, the lack of educational facilities for the children who +must be educated, if at all, at the expense of the State, the section is a +prolific source of supply to the institutions the intelligent, sympathetic, +wealthy women of the section are so active in creating and sustaining. + +The indifference of the wealthy and responsible to the conditions +prevailing in parts of this section is so well known that officers at the +heads of the city department ignore complaints, or treat them as incidents +to be tolerated as part of the experiences of their official life. + +The penalty is being paid in the steady decline of real estate values, the +gradual spread of the undesirable part of the community, the exodus of the +wealthiest to the sections more remote from the tenements. + +The environment that has a degenerating influence on the people of limited +means in that section is not due primarily to the political corruption of +those using their positions to secure their own ends, but to the criminal +attitude of the men in the churches and intelligent men not in them, who +refuse to assume the political responsibilities that are their birthrights; +the criminal indifference of those who fail to know the necessities of +which the homes of the poor whom God gave into their charge stand in need. +This section of the city is typical, not peculiar. Every section of New +York gives evidence of the divorce between the churches and the political +control that makes the environment of the home and the churches. + +The city is what the good, active people of the city want it to be--no +better, no worse. The condition of the most uncared-for section gives the +church's answer to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The mark of +Cain may not be visible, but every child who goes out of life because its +right to light, air, sunshine has not been protected is a charge against +the Church. Every boy and girl whose life record is shadowed, blackened +because their right to education, to training, to freedom to develop +physically, mentally, morally, spiritually was denied them through +political indifference, are the evidences of the failure of the churches to +live up to the light which Christ left to their keeping. His followers do +not march through the cities of the poor, an army. + +When Christ said, "The second is like unto it, love thy neighbor as +thyself," He did not not mean the ethical conception for which the Church +has stood, but the broad, Christ-like conception of brotherhood which would +protect "thy neighbor" from the evils of his own ignorance and weakness; +that would use one's best strength in his interest seven days in the week. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY*** + + +******* This file should be named 38205-8.txt or 38205-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/2/0/38205 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Leaven in a Great City</p> +<p>Author: Lillian William Betts</p> +<p>Release Date: December 3, 2011 [eBook #38205]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by<br /> + Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="416" height="640" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 281px;"> +<img src="images/fig001.jpg" width="281" height="640" alt="NO LONGER PROFITABLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">NO LONGER PROFITABLE.</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY</h1> + +<h2><i>By</i> <span class="smcap">Lillian W. Betts</span></h2> + +<h3>ILLUSTRATED</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 87px;"> +<img src="images/tp.jpg" width="87" height="150" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">New York</span><br /> +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br /> +1903<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1902</span>,<br /> +By <span class="smcap">Dodd, Mead and Company</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>First Edition published September, 1902.</i><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<p> +CHAPTER <span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +I. <span class="smcap">At the Bottom</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></span><br /> +<br /> +II. <span class="smcap">The Development of Social Centers</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></span><br /> +<br /> +III. <span class="smcap">The Homes Under One Roof</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IV. <span class="smcap">Slow-Dawning Consciousness</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></span><br /> +<br /> +V. <span class="smcap">Working-Girls' Clubs</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VI. <span class="smcap">A Social Experiment</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_162'>162</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VII. <span class="smcap">Within the Walls of Home</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VIII. <span class="smcap">Financial Relations in Families</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_225'>225</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IX. <span class="smcap">Home Standards</span>, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_263'>263</a></span><br /> +<br /> +X. <span class="smcap">Where Lies the Responsibility?</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_290'>290</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +No Longer Profitable—<i><a href="#front">Frontispiece</a></i><br /> +<br /> +The Site of the Old Runway <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Your Choice <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Saturday Morning on the East Side <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Past, Present, and Middle Period <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Social Centre that Becomes Political <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Doorway on the East Side <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Early Morning among the Push-Carts <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Meeting the Needs of the Neighbourhood <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Remnant of the Past <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_76'>76</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Type of the Present <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Corner in a Workingman's Home <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Spiritual Bulwark <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Where the People Share <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_134'>134</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Corner in an Old Section <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Opposite a Corner in an Old Section <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Woman's Home Improvement Club at the Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Kindergarten of the College Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_178'>178</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Making a Selection <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></span><br /> +<br /> +At the Settlement—A Stormy Day <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_188'>188</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Yard Day at the Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Children's Hour at the College Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mutual Interests <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Forest of the Tenements <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_212'>212</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Children's Playground <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Library Day at the College Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_224'>224</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Street on the East Side <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_236'>236</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Cooking Class of Mothers and Children <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_244'>244</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Meeting of Neighbours <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Reading-Room at the Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_254'>254</a></span><br /> +<br /> +After School at the College Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_258'>258</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The Morning Airing of an East Side Heiress <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Bit of Old Greenwich <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_274'>274</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Little Father <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_280'>280</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Corner in Old Greenwich <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_286'>286</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Taking their Turn in the Yard at the Settlement <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_294'>294</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>AT THE BOTTOM.</h3> + + +<p>One of the first, and, up to the present time, one of the most interesting +experiments made in New York for the better housing of the poor, was made +in the early eighties by a score or less of philanthropic capitalists. +These gentlemen organized a stock company to hold and manage tenement-house +property, limiting their dividends to three per cent. on the capital; the +surplus dividends, if any, over this amount, to be used in improving the +property, and securing such conditions and opportunities for the tenants as +would stimulate pride and independence. The formation of this company +followed one of the periodic agitations of the tenement-house problems +customary in New York.</p> + +<p>In 1878 a conference was called by the State Charities' Aid Association to +consider the condition of the tenement houses in this city. Mr. Alfred T. +White, of Brooklyn, had at this time proved that model tenements, conducted +on strictly business principles, paid as investments, and stated at this +conference that his model houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> made a return of seven one-half per cent. +As a result of this conference a committee was appointed who reported that +they did not find it desirable to recommend the building of model tenements +in New York at this time. Mr. White for many years stood alone as the man +of wealth with the courage of his convictions, that there were wage-earners +compelled to live under tenement-house conditions who would pay for and +respect the best housing that capital would offer them, within their +rent-paying capacity.</p> + +<p>The tenement-house agitation continued.</p> + +<p>In 1879 Mayor Cooper had appointed a committee known as the "Mayor's +Committee," to devise means to effect tenement-house reforms. This +committee reported, and among other suggestions recommended, that companies +be organized to build modern tenements. Some members of this committee, +with others, formed the stock company alluded to with a capital of +$300,000. With a wisdom peculiarly their own, they did not wait until model +buildings could be erected according to plans not yet drawn on sites not +yet selected, but they leased on a long lease property that had been +unproductive for a long time, and occupied by a people at the lowest level +of the home-making people of the city. Below them are the people who do not +even pretend to make a home. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> property was located in the old Fourth +Ward. It was the reputation of this ward, and the record of the particular +property, which doubtless led these capitalists to secure it. It was +conceded that the poverty and degradation of the Fourth Ward was at least +as great as in any other section of the city. The property leased had +attracted public attention and been the subject of special investigation +and reports in every agitation of the tenement-house problem since 1856.</p> + +<p>The Fourth Ward criminal and health records figure for an even longer +period in every effort at bettering municipal conditions by the example it +presented of civic indifference, neglect and maladministration. The houses +faced on two alleys, known in their best days as "Single" and "Double" +alley, respectively. As this distinction indicates, on Single Alley one row +of houses faced the walls of the adjoining property, while two rows of +houses faced each other across Double Alley. Later known as Swipe's Alley, +Guzzle Row, Hell's Kitchen, Murderers' Row, showing the gradual descent +from respectability. There is a tradition that Single Alley once had +gardens that extended to Roosevelt Street; that the houses had been +occupied by one family; but this cannot be verified. In their most +degenerate days these houses had an air of exclusiveness, due doubtless to +their fronting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> on courts and the tall iron fences, with gates, that +separated the houses from the street. The neighborhood at one time was +aristocratic; Franklin Square, but a short distance from the property, was +a social center of national greatness. As business went northward, the +merchants, bankers, tradespeople, followed, for the tie between home and +business was still very close; the midday dinner made distance between the +two impossible. The old homes were left for subdivision among the skilled +workmen and clerks.</p> + +<p>The tide of immigration set in, and the strangers settled near the docks +and wharfs—the source of their wages; in time they crowded into the old +residences, beginning the housing problem of New York. These old homes were +soon overcrowded. They could not be made sanitary. The demand for room was +so great that the large closets—the necessity of the old-time +housekeepers—were counted bedrooms, and are to-day in houses of this type +in tenement-house regions throughout the city.</p> + +<p>The property secured by the new company at the time it was leased was a +part of a large estate, the owner of which during his lifetime had +personally cared for it. He was both strict and just, and these two +attributes preserved these houses for years after the property in the +neighborhood had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> begun to yield to the character of later residents. This +owner kept the alleys and the houses in repair. The semi-privacy the iron +gate gave the tenants was for years the reason that the better-paid +mechanics remained in the courts or alleys. When the owner died, the +property was put in control of an agent, with the usual result—rapid +degeneracy. It was now conducted to secure the largest returns at the least +outlay. The evils of the absentee landlord are not confined to Ireland. +Absenteeism on the part of owners of tenement-house property is one of the +causes of the social and civic problems that retard the growth of the +highest civilization in New York. Under the management of an agent, the +character of the tenants in the courts changed rapidly, and the people who +took possession added to the disreputable character of the Fourth Ward. For +years before this the largest per cent. of the immigrants settling in New +York settled in this section. They came with distorted notions as to their +place in the new land. Liberty meant to the majority the right to follow +their own will. When hunger and loneliness and nakedness forced them to +reconsider their first conception of what America was, resentment, +recklessness, or adaptability developed. The difference was a matter of +temperament quite as much as of race.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1880 the heads of the families living in the courts were day +laborers—men who worked along the docks, coal shovelers, hucksters, women +who did a day's work, sold newspapers at the ferries, or worked in the +factories. Every child in the alley was ready to do anything that would +earn money from the time he could walk. The people knew every benefit the +city dispensed to the poor: free coal; homes available and how to get in +them; free burial; every organization that dispersed charity, and how to +get it. Even the children were clever in their extremities, and knew how to +get assistance when the Island claimed their parents. From infancy the +children looked forward to wage-earning as a time of happiness. School was +a prison-house to be avoided, except when its warmth and shelter were +preferable to the street, or the home, when intemperance and temper made +life unendurable in it; then they attended school willingly. The truant +officers in this region were not feared. They were the fags of the "boss," +not the officers of a city department. None of the fads of to-day, which so +disturb the conservative people who see ruin of mental ability in modern +educational systems, were then thought of. The kindergarten, nature study, +manual training, were on the educational horizon of New York, in a cloud +scarcely so large as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> man's hand. The trustee system was in perfect +working order. The teachers were what God made them, unhampered by the +pressure of superintendent and supervisors to maintain standards.</p> + +<p>It was as true in that day as in 1892, when a man, wholly familiar with all +the systems of education in the country, to the question, "Why is there +such uniformity in the defects of the schools in the tenement-house +regions?" replied, "They represent the demands of the people in the +district who elect the men who control them. You will find that the public +schools always represent the public sentiment and demands of the people +interested in them."</p> + +<p>This was profoundly true of the schools in this region at this time. To-day +there is scarcely any change in the buildings except that of added age. At +least two of them are a disgrace to the city. But there is a great change +in the system. To-day the civilizing force in this community is the public +schools; the remnant does not attract the philanthropist. To the men and +women of our public schools who, preserving the highest ideals, work with +enthusiasm amid the most discouraging surroundings, the city owes a debt +that money cannot repay.</p> + +<p>The liquor saloons numbered then about as they do now, occupying every +available space. More<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> elaborate now, perhaps, for they represent political +headquarters, if not proprietorship, of men identified with the worst forms +of political corruption; then, as now, openly used in the interest of these +men. There is this great change, that children dare not now, as they did +then, enter and leave these places fearlessly at any hour carrying pails, +pitchers or bottles. It was then a neighborly kindness to let children thus +serve a neighbor; it was a source of revenue to the children.</p> + +<p>The gangs were many and notorious in the ward. Frequent were the clashes +and loyal the spirit with which assailed and assailants maintained silence +if there was danger of arrest because of these conflicts. "To squeal" was +to earn the contempt of the community. The number of crimes, the full +measure of degradation, reached in this ward will never be known. The dense +population of this ward is so hidden by business and traffic that in 1901 +the statement was made by some people interested in civic affairs that the +region was given over to office buildings. The district of which the Fourth +Ward is a part cast 10,000 votes in the mayoralty campaign of that year. +Votes that represent a civilization as peculiarly its own as though oceans +separated it from the people a mile and a half away.</p> + +<p>Target companies were the social clubs of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> day, the forerunners of the +political organizations of to-day. The climax of their existence were the +annual excursions to some near-by grove for shooting matches. These matches +were the great social occasions of the many "sets." The question of who was +the reigning belle of the locality was settled beyond dispute by selection +of one to present the wreath for the target, or a big bunch of flowers, to +the captain of the target company on the day of the annual parade. These +were always of artificial flowers, and were made gorgeous and splendid by +floating strips and fringes of tinsel paper. The greatest feuds in the Ward +have grown out of the selection of the fair lady to present these trophies. +Her selection changed the political history of her friends often, and her +knights' fists fought her cause, and crowned her, their wounds testifying +to their devotion. The political "boss" of that period presented the +organizations that acknowledged his leadership with silver mugs, castors or +pitchers—prizes for the shooters—but he presented money to keep the +balance of his popularity. The gifts were carried conspicuously over the +route of the procession, which always stopped in front of the house of the +lady, who was to express her favor in the gifts of floral trophies—usually +paid for by the company, sometimes by her knight, or knights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> combined for +her honor. This house was for the time being the center of interest for the +crowd, as she was of envy or pride to the community. The day of the target +parade was one that called for great sacrifice, that it might be attended +by the requisite formalities and new clothes. Money must be raised to +provide barouches for the great political lights of the ward who gave this +particular company their favor; to pay the attendant colored men who +carried the target and the water and tin cups; for the band with the drum +major. All cost money, and money was scarce; but the prominence and +pleasure paid; and the Fourth Ward had many of these organizations, which +made life exciting, and at times dangerous, when their several groups met, +each struggling for supremacy, each with a leader who must be defended.</p> + +<p>Fresh-air organizations, seaside resorts, were as unknown as trolleys; +hundreds in the Fourth Ward lived and died without ever having seen Central +Park or the ocean. The relief from the sufferings of summer was sitting and +sleeping on the near-by piers. Man's humanity to man at this period of New +York's social history was expressed in hospitals, infirmaries, homes of +many kinds, distribution of food, clothes and medicine. The more +applications secured for these sources<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> of relief, the more tickets given +out in a year at any point for outside relief, the more easy the conscience +of the men who sent the money that maintained them, who measured the value +of their charities by the figures representing human beings that appeared +in the reports. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were then, as now, +"round-ups" for the wretched, the needy and the lazy. The pleasure of the +givers was greatly added to by watching the hungry eating.</p> + +<p>What caused the misery and wretchedness was no secret; but with few +exceptions the men of money and brains were not ready to remove the +prevailing and rooted cause. The exceptions were the men who, impressed by +the example of Mr. Alfred T. White, leased the tenements known as Single +and Double alley, or Gotham Court, the worst piece of property in what was +acknowledged to be the worst ward in the city.</p> + +<p>It had grown more and more difficult to collect rents, and the destruction +of the property by the tenants made any effort at repair futile. Lead pipe, +brass faucets, were wrenched off and sold as rapidly as they were put in; +banisters, stair-rails, blinds, even wooden floors had been used as +firewood. The very bricks on the chimneys were used as missiles of offense +and defense. The Double Alley boasted of a haunted house, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> at times +created the greatest excitement in the neighborhood because of mysterious +noises and lights seen and heard at night. Again and again the house had +been raided by the police and stolen goods recovered after the ghostly +exhibits. The police showed to the brave of the neighborhood that sulphur +and brimstone were the ghostly lights, and clever arrangements of ropes and +pulleys and pans the source of the cries and groans that had frozen them +with fear. It was useless. The next appearance of the lights and the sound +of awful groans filled the neighborhood with terror.</p> + +<p>For obvious reasons the only source of water supply was a hydrant in the +center of each alley. The only drainage was the sink sunk in front of it. +When it is remembered that between five and six hundred people lived in +these houses, the opportunities for cleanliness will be appreciated. All +the water used was carried up and down stairs. That pans and pails of water +were emptied from the windows without careful note of the passer-by beneath +is not surprising. This naturally was not conducive to peace; but peace was +not the aim of the people of the court; in fact, its disturbance varied the +monotony of life in the alleys.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;"> +<img src="images/fig020.jpg" width="630" height="480" alt="THE SITE OF THE OLD RUNWAY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE SITE OF THE OLD RUNWAY.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Single Alley had a narrow opening from its rear, or western, end to +Roosevelt Street. This was paved with brick sunken and broken. It was a +dormitory for the drunken and homeless, a depository for all kinds of +refuse. This alley was a runway. The entrance on the two streets offered +every opportunity of escape to the fleeing fugitive from justice or +vengeance. The code of honor of the alley was to speed the hunted and +obstruct the hunter. The policeman entering the alley in pursuit of a +transgressor knew his fate; he was a target for water, wood, coal, bricks +and unlimited language; unexpected obstructions would be found in the +alley, and the attentions he received when he tripped or fell were intended +to increase the distance between the representative of law and order and +the fleeing offender. He or she might or might not be a friend. The alley's +activity in behalf of the fugitive was based on a new interpretation of the +promised return of bread cast on the waters.</p> + +<p>No matter how bitter the feuds that divided the tenants in the alley, the +appearance of a rent collector in the later days healed the breach, bridged +the widest chasm. He was a common foe and to be downed by common consent. +If abuse and defiance did not drive him beyond the gates, bricks dropped +from the roofs, after a vigorous campaign of water and cooking utensils, +conducted by the feminine contingent from the windows, usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +accomplished his complete rout, not only for that time, but for the future. +As the years passed on, it became almost impossible to get any agent to +make the second attempt to collect rent from the tenants of the alleys.</p> + +<p>The home life of the people in the alley was interesting. Every inch of +space was occupied. The families ranged from a childless old couple, past +seventy, who had lived twenty-eight years in the Single Alley, to the boy +and girl who had just started housekeeping on nothing at all. The women in +the alleys had married, it was found, at about eighteen. They knew +absolutely nothing of housekeeping. Many of them acknowledged that they had +never made a fire before they married. The most elementary knowledge of +cooking, sewing or the use of money was lacking. Of the two hundred and one +mothers in the alley, one could cut and make the garments for herself and +children; four could make bread—one did; one made soup sometimes, but +could not remember the last time. Meals consisted of bread and coffee, or +tea, with beer provided for "him" for breakfast and supper. Dinner was a +"bit" of meat or fish, thought of and cooked between eleven and twelve; the +cooking was frying. Potatoes were substituted for bread at this meal; +rarely any other vegetable except Sunday. On that day, if there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> was money +enough in the morning, dinner was of corned beef and cabbage, or bacon and +cabbage. One family standing at the head of this community socially had +meat three times each day. This family had in it five wage-earners. They +paid four dollars a month rent for two rooms. The children had all been +born and had grown to manhood and womanhood in the alley. As the writer was +able to win the confidence of these people, it was evident that each mother +was conscious that something was wrong that life yielded no better return. +What was wrong? Where the remedy was to be found did not seem to interest +them. The days drifted. Children ran half naked or in rags, while mothers +sat in neighbors' rooms, stood in doorways, in the halls, or lounged in the +alleys. There were homes in which neither needles, thread nor scissors +could be found. The mother did not know how to use them. A pot and a frying +pan were the only cooking utensils the most lavish closet revealed. Washing +and scrubbing are laborious at any time, but when carrying water from ten +to fifty feet on the level, then up one to four flights of stairs and down +again is added to the labor, it is not astonishing that dishes, clothes and +bodies were at all times freighted with disease and death. A knowledge of +the relation between dirt and disease, cleanliness and health<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> was not the +general knowledge it is to-day. Their relation to moral elevation or +degradation is barely understood to-day.</p> + +<p>The average weekly wages of the men living in the alleys at this period was +between eight and nine dollars per week, and sometimes kept at the latter +figure for weeks. It will be seen at once that the poverty, misery, +degradation and dirt that kept life at the level it was in the alleys was +due to some other cause than wages, for rent was only four dollars a month, +when paid, and it was paid less than eight months of the year. Beer flowed +in the alley; tin cans, pitchers, pails, went back and forth at all times +of the day and night. It was the first errand on which the baby feet were +sent. Every woman in the alley acknowledged that she had seen her husband +drunk before she married him. She knew better how to manage him when he was +drunk than when he was sober. A blow given in drink was not recorded +against a husband either by the wife or her neighbors. A blow given when +the man was sober was remembered and aroused pity and sympathy. Over +seventy per cent. of the women drank to the point of unconsciousness. All +used liquor. Of child training there was none. The act that was laughed at +this hour brought a blow the next. Attending school was for the child to +decide. If he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> wanted to go, he went. Usually lack of clothing shut out +about half the children of school age in the alley.</p> + +<p>Mother love was largely a matter of animal instinct. While the baby +depended on her for nourishment, she could be found with it in her arms at +all times; it was, so far as life had a concentrated thought, her constant +care. The moment the baby found its feet and used them, the child was cut +loose and began his individual life. His standards, language, habits, were +what his environment made them. His care, so far as the mother was +concerned, was conducted on the lines of the least resistance. If the child +was struck by an outsider, it raised the tiger in the mother; if ill, a +burden to carry for which there was neither money nor knowledge; the mother +had no strength and could not meet cares that demanded continuous thought; +her mind was not trained to it. Health and disease were largely a matter of +luck. Death brought pangs, but life was too much of a struggle for it to be +a crushing blow, even when it was one's child. Children came and went too +fast in the alleys for their coming or going to fill or empty even a +mother's life.</p> + +<p>Not one woman in the alley could remember ever having an entire new outfit +in her life, nor had any of her children; her first baby had worn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> garments +that had been made for some more fortunate baby.</p> + +<p>Such was the dead level of existence lived in the alleys. Without the +stimulus of drink it would be lethargy, and was when there was no money to +treat or be treated. Pleasure? It was unknown outside of the beer can. If +that did not give pleasure, why life was a hand-to-hand, hopeless struggle +with homelessness, hunger and nakedness. In the alleys a fight became a +pleasure and death a social opportunity. Even love seemed denied the people +of the alleys. Marriage often was a part of the habitual drifting when not +a matter of compulsion. Homes were established with no bond but that of +law, and sometimes not that. That they even were what they were was a +tribute to the fundamental morality that is the salvation of the civilized +world.</p> + +<p>These were the people who had made the alleys between 1855 and 1880, when +the owners of the estate gladly leased the property on a long lease. As has +been stated, spasmodic attempts had been made to reclaim the property, to +make it productive, but always by men acting for the owners; they never +came in personal contact with the tenants. It is doubtful if they even had +any conception of the effect of their delegated responsibility on the +people, or had any knowledge of the change<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> that resulted when the property +ceased to have the personal supervision of the owner.</p> + +<p>The lessees put two ladies in control of the property. One or the other was +to be found there each day.</p> + +<p>The tenants were notified that rent must be paid weekly; that the rooms +would be white-washed and painted; that the agents would be at liberty to +visit the rooms daily; that no child would be permitted to carry liquor on +the premises; every bundle or basket carried by a child would be examined, +and any liquor found would be emptied into the sink in the yard. Water +would be put in the halls on each floor; destruction of property would mean +eviction. All who were unwilling to accept these conditions were asked to +move at once. The rent remained the same, four dollars per month for two +rooms. Families desiring four rooms could have them for eight dollars per +month, the company cutting a door through the party walls, giving direct +ventilation through the floor, with windows opening on both alleys. The +absolute impossibility of getting two equally good rooms in the +neighborhood for the same rent kept the majority of the families. A few +tacitly accepted the change, largely because acquiescence was their habit +of mind, while some expected to set at naught any rules or regulations +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> they found obnoxious. No tenant moved voluntarily.</p> + +<p>The new ownership took possession with the same human beings who had +occupied the houses for years. The first step was to insist on cleanliness. +The alleys were swept and washed every morning, as were the halls and +stairways. Garbage cans were provided and their use insisted on. Every can +or bundle carried by a child was examined, and all liquors found in them +were emptied into the sink in the yard. Quarrels and fights grew less +frequent, especially among the women. The children attended school, for +their appearance during school hours led to investigations that the +majority of the tenants preferred to avoid. The aim was to establish such +relations between the representatives of the company and the tenants as +would give opportunities to reduce the ignorance and indifference that were +quite as responsible, if not more responsible, for the misery in the homes +than lack of money. The tenants held aloof. They were tenants because they +could not get as much comfort for the money elsewhere; but there could be +no friendship where the payment of rent was insisted upon, where +drunkenness involved the risk of, and abuse of property positive, eviction.</p> + +<p>Several young couples were tenants. The aim and hope of the agents were to +gain the confidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> of these young mothers. The first child of one died +late that summer. Potter's Field was the place of burial. The young father +could have worked six days in the week, but that would have been slavery +intolerable. He refused it, and followed his lifelong habit of drifting, +which was also that of the young mother. She had never resented her +husband's days of idleness until this baby died and there was not one cent +to provide for the care and disposition of the little body. This was the +opportunity of the two women who were waiting to prove that they were not +oppressors. A little coffin, a white slip and socks, some flowers—at that +time an unheard-of tribute to death—a carriage and a grave in the cemetery +approved by the mother's church was provided. The battle was won. Every +man, woman and child in the alley surrendered to this evidence of +comradeship. That this act gave birth to hopes that must be stifled was +natural. Rules must be enforced and comradeship expressed at the times of +emergency. The first and hardest battle was won. Confidences were gained +that led to marriages and baptisms that had been neglected or forgotten. +The office, simply but tastefully furnished, became a school-room, where +the mothers and the children learned to sew. Goods were bought in +quantities and sold at cost to the learners. A sewing machine and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +teacher appeared and were welcomed. Practical talks, or, more properly, +conversations, were held; but no one took note of them as special efforts +in philanthropy, they were so naturally a part of each day's experience. +The daily visits to each tenant resulted in establishing relations that +justified reproof, suggestion, commendation. The standards of pleasure, +pain, suffering, accomplishment were elementary in the alleys. An hour's +work with the needle left the worker exhausted, and diversion then meant +moral safety. The homes were barren, and the acme of hope was wages to pay +rent, buy food and clothes; the last rarely realized. The months, and even +years, passed without the people passing beyond the confines of the ward. +The generations lived this life, and it was a fixed habit. The world had +nothing to offer to the habitual residents of the ward that the ward did +not provide; it has but little to-day to offer them.</p> + +<p>In spite of the emptiness of life and barrenness of these homes, they were +on the whole better than the homes of the preceding generation.</p> + +<p>When the wives laid the cause of their burdens on their husbands' shoulders +because they drank, the question, "Did you know he drank when you married +him?" would be answered easily, with no thought of self-condemnation, +"Yes," in frank confession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you drink?"</p> + +<p>"I drink beer, mostly. Sure, ye get discouraged just working and washing, +and never a cent; not a decent rag to go on the street, and no place to go +when you get there but a neighbor's house. What is there but a glass of +beer? You don't mean to get drunk; yer that before ye know."</p> + +<p>This total lack of personal relation to life was me mental attitude of +almost every woman. If she was a widow, she worked to make a home for her +children, who, again and again, so often that it ceased to attract +attention, heard how much harder life was because they were in it. This +seemed the accepted attitude, and accounted for the expression on the faces +of these children—a puzzled, hardened expression that blotted out all +suggestion of childhood. That time was an element in the problem of life +was not accepted. That the garment made at home would last longer and cost +less was conceded; but what was the use of making things when they could be +bought so cheaply. The total absence of reasoning powers was shown here. To +make soup would mean staying at home, thinking and planning for hours in +advance of a meal. The soup would cost no more than steak and provide two +meals, but it would mean loneliness, when the time, through ignorance, +could not be turned to interesting uses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were women in these alleys, mothers of grown children, who could not +tell a bias from a straight edge; who could not put a gingham apron +together having straight and bias selvages. Beyond sewing on occasional +buttons, there was no use in their minds for needles. They had worked in +tin factories. They had worked at all kinds of employment that called into +play the minimum amount of brains and the maximum of muscles. Not one woman +was found who before her marriage had worked in any line of employment that +had the slightest connection with the arts of home-making. The wages they +earned was that of unskilled labor, in lines of employment known to be +intermittent. Wages, large or small, went into the common family fund. The +future was not a matter of care. When all in the family worked, life was +lived merrily; when hard luck came, life was lived stoically. This spirit +went into the home of the wage-earners when they married. There was far +less physical suffering than the privations of their lives made natural. +Often these limitations were self-imposed; there was money enough to give +life color and purpose, if only there had been knowledge to guide in the +adjustment between necessities and income; a conception of time as an +element in the financial problem.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig034.jpg" width="640" height="432" alt="YOUR CHOICE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">YOUR CHOICE.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>The closer one entered into the individual life, the more clearly was it +revealed that the problems of poverty grew out of the inability to see the +relations of things, to comprehend life in its entirety. Even after two +years of close relation with these people in the alleys, it was with the +utmost caution and tact that the subject of free coal could be broached. It +was then distributed by the city—an intimate source of political +corruption. A large quantity of coal was purchased and put in the cellar. +It was offered to the tenants at the same price the grocer sold it by the +pail, with the difference that it was delivered in the rooms. First, pride, +a desire to appear somewhat above the neighbors, moved to independence on +the coal question. In two years' time free coal was in the category of +disgraces in the alley, and marked a rising moral tide.</p> + +<p>A young woman and her husband were special objects of attention to the +agents. They were young, good-looking, bright, and, when sober, ambitious +as their conception of life made possible. Both drank, the woman more than +the man, and she sank lower when drunk. For years she had spent more time +on the Island than off it. What could be done? The whitewashing and +painting of the two hopelessly barren rooms seemed to bring the woman to a +pause. It was not possible to get beer through a neighbor's child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> now, and +until she was drunk this woman would not go into a saloon. The clean alley, +washed every morning, by some process of reasoning seemed to demand +corresponding effort indoors, and the barren rooms were never dirty when +the woman was sober. Even this gave employment to hands that had never used +a needle, therefore less time was spent lounging in the doorway or other +rooms. The washing of clothes, though ragged and few, took time and +centered the interest, if but for a short time. The look of utter weariness +and indifference in the face of the woman was slowly disappearing. There +was really a purpose in life; the four walls and little else that was home +required thought and effort. Life had an object at last. But the devil of +drink was not so easily conquered; she was gone one morning from home. The +neighbors explained to the agents her absence, being familiar with the +habits of the type. In court she listened again indifferently to "Ten +dollars or ten days." This time a woman came forward, paid the ten dollars, +and Agnes was free. Surprised, dumb-stricken, wondering why, Agnes followed +the friend home. New clothes, simple, suitable, were waiting for her. Then +the fight began. At times it was hourly. Work was provided that the clumsy, +untrained hands could do. The proceeds were to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> pay for a new carpet, that +had to be unrolled many times to hold Agnes from the street. At last it was +down, and the two friends added a rocker and a picture. Tom was a new man, +and every penny of his wages came home. All this time the prosperity of the +couple was viewed by most of the people as due to passing "good luck." That +there was a moral battle being fought did not seem to enter their +consciousness. Four years later, on the stairway, the writer saw Agnes with +her beautiful baby boy, her first-born, on her arm. The comprehension of +what the sight must have been on the Mount of Transfiguration has always +been clearer when the expression on the face of Agnes, as she met the woman +who had fought for her salvation for time and eternity, is recalled. Two +years had passed since Agnes had tasted liquor in any form. Her passionate +devotion to her baby, her new knowledge of the arts of home-making, kept +her so busy that Agnes was rarely a visitor to her neighbors, except in the +case of sickness. Tom's love of liquor seemed limited; largely a matter of +companionship or discouragement. When his home became a center of interest +to Agnes, his buoyant nature responded to the new environment. When liquor +disappeared from the home, it ceased to be a constant temptation. Outside +of his home Tom found for a time that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> new departure attracted to him +unpleasant attention, guying, teasing, coaxing, which he met with jokes. +Force as an inducement to make him drink was met by blows; and Tom struck +heavily. The new impulse for a better life brought heavy social penalties +on Tom and Agnes. It meant nothing in common with those about them. When a +man and woman will neither treat nor be treated at that social level social +ostracism follows. Their home was the refuge of the children driven by +frenzied, drunken parents from their own homes. What they had they shared +with the children when the parents were on the Island. When sickness came +to homes in the alleys, Tom and Agnes could be relied upon to share and +help in carrying the added burdens. Tom's muscles and the knowledge of +their power saved many a wife from blows that, without Tom, would have +fallen freely. Back of their every effort stood the two wise women who were +redeeming this corner of the great city. The day came when Tom and Agnes +realized the boy must grow up in a different neighborhood, and Tom and +Agnes moved.</p> + +<p>The making of a laundry compelled the removal of a childless couple who had +occupied their rooms over thirty years. It was impossible to make them +accept the fact that the children could play in the alley under the new +<i>régime</i>. For years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the old woman and her stick were familiar to the sight +and the feelings of the children of the alley. "I'm in Dixie's Land. Dixie +ain't home!" had been shouted under their windows, at their room door, +which was very near the alley door, to bring them out in torrents of rage. +As age made the old couple less fleet and more quarrelsome, the daring of +the children grew, and any time of the day or night the conflict between +the old couple and the children, in which parents figured, was a +possibility. Peace became impossible. The decision was final; the old +couple must go; their rooms were necessary to the new improvements. It was +pathetic to discover that no amount of persuasion would make the old couple +live north of Roosevelt Street; it meant a lowering in their social world. +"I've always lived respectable, and I always will. I would not live in that +block," announced the old woman, with conscious pride. Even the alley, it +was found, had standards of residence, a line that must not be crossed, to +maintain respectability.</p> + +<p>By this time the mental attitude of every woman in the alleys had changed +toward her home. Positive determination to overcome inertia, or ambition to +excel, it was impossible to create. Innate predilections were the chief +factor in individual development among the women.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> What a woman liked to do +she attempted to learn how to do, or what she found she could do most +easily. Some would learn to cook who absolutely refused to sew; some would +sew who refused to cook; some would take care of the babies while the +mothers were learning who would neither cook nor sew, feeling they could do +both well enough; these it was impossible to make home-makers. The shackles +of the past could never be thrown off wholly by the home-makers in the +alleys. The children responded; could be won by personal affection, by +prizes, by the mother's insistence. For it was soon learned that nimble +fingers in the home lightened the mother's work; but the mothers were the +unwilling victims of their own past.</p> + +<p>The use of money was the most difficult lesson of all to teach. If there +was money, the food was bought lavishly; pennies were given freely to the +children. If there was no money, the barrenness was accepted even +cheerfully. Wages were given at the maximum weekly amount remembered. No +deductions were made for idle days. It requires a knowledge of advanced +arithmetic to adjust intelligently forty weeks of wages to fifty-two weeks +of expenses. It requires more than an elementary knowledge of arithmetic to +adjust five days' wages to the seven days' expenses, fixed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> emergency, +of a growing family. When a week comes that brings six or seven days' +wages, is it a marvel that in view of the many weeks of imposed +restrictions this week of wealth should be welcomed as a period of freedom +from care? That the money should be lavishly used? It takes the ability to +think, to connect cause and effect, imagination, to see possible results, +memory of experiences to hold men and women constantly in check, and this +means mental training. Not a woman in the alley had attended school +regularly during even the short period of her school life; each one had +gone to work the moment she could earn money. Neither she nor any one about +her questioned the value of the work she found to do beyond the money it +gave at once. Nobody ever thought of the present as in relation to the +future. Now that she was a mother, she met life the same way. Her children +must earn money. To make sacrifices that their wage-earning capacity in the +future might be greater would, if suggested to her, have been merely an +evidence of how little the rich know of life. What was the estimate of life +these mothers in the alley made? The differences between them were +external, not mental. One answers for nearly all. To get as much comfort +out of to-day as possible and to-morrow work hard, and be careful. To the +majority that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> to be used to-morrow never came. When plenty came, it was +always to-day—a glad, free day that might never come again.</p> + +<p>At the end of four years but four of the tenants of the alleys who were +tenants when the lease was executed had been evicted. The death rate had +lowered from 85 to 22 per cent. The tenants rarely appeared in the police +courts. Wife-beating created excitement and indignation. But in spite of +the awakening, a moral, mental, physical inertia, stagnation, held more +than the majority of the tenants in control. There was spasmodic response; +but the painful truth had to be accepted that there must be redemptive +power within to respond to redemptive conditions without before the home +could be vitalized with the spirit of hope and energy. Fifty years and more +of neglect and indifference cannot be overcome in five years of moral +activity exerted to overcome the evils man neglected to prevent.</p> + +<p>The alleys are gone; some tenants drifted to other scenes, more settled in +the tall, dark tenements that have sprung up through the whole district, +the worst type erected in New York. The rear buildings abound even back of +the tall factories, reached by dark, noisome alleys. No amount of care or +repair could save the old houses. They have gone the way of all material<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +things. Their history is a part of the social and political history of New +York.</p> + +<p>How slowly moral sentiment grows in a large city is shown by the years that +elapsed before active measures were taken to redeem what was known as a +plague spot, a menace to the body politic, a constant source of moral +degeneracy.</p> + +<p>The Citizens' Association, organized in 1864, through its Council of +Hygiene and Public Health, districted the city for special investigation by +sanitary experts. One of these gives a large part of his report to Gotham +Court, and presents sectional drawings to show the impossibility of +securing proper sanitary conditions for the people living in the notorious +houses. It seems incredible that these conditions once known should not +have aroused public interest to the point of action. Nothing was done. The +physical and moral degeneracy continued until 1880, when a few private +individuals made the experiment of redemption. Even this came when the +houses had gone beyond the point of reclaiming. On the site of the old +buildings rises a new business building.</p> + +<p>Not far away two of the most brutal and atrocious murders of recent years +in New York have occurred. In July, 1901, three blocks from the old +buildings, in broad daylight, a man known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> to be the collecting agent for +property in the neighborhood was robbed by three members of a well-known +gang. The children are thin, precocious. Their language, even in their +play, is vulgar, coarse, profane. Babies have at their command strange +oaths, probably never heard elsewhere. The streets are neglected, the +sidewalks uneven and broken. For almost half a century this region has had +a reputation peculiar to itself. Efforts have been made to reach the +people, but they have not been persistent. Even the church efforts are +perfunctory, as though faith as to the redemptive power in this people did +not exist.</p> + +<p>This fact remains: within the boundaries of this region lives a community +that is shaping the political control of New York City and State, and will +for years to come. It has its traditions of loyalty; it has fixed standards +of its own peculiar privileges; its standards of rights. The very police of +the region expect certain things to occur; misdemeanors of a certain +character that would bring punishment anywhere else are passed by here; +they are part of the civilization of the region. Snuggled down under the +shadow of the bridge and the elevated road, a center of business interests +which the moral standards of the residents do not affect, because their +activities, other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> than of the muscles, are not exercised until carts, +drays, drivers, clerks, proprietors have gone northward or across the +river. The community lives within itself, has created its own standards, +and is New York in its own estimation.</p> + +<p>Writing of the people in this section in 1865, a sanitary expert quotes +with an apology a medical term common in the hospitals and dispensaries as +a disease of the people in this section, "tenement-house rot." The term +has, perhaps, in the interests of civilization, died out; but no one can +walk through these streets, observing the faces of the people, and not +realize that the old, unsanitary, germ-laden tenements of this section have +produced a physical condition peculiar to this region, as it has a moral +degeneracy that is peculiarly its own. The section, as a whole, has not +attracted the philanthropist. He is wise in his day and generation and puts +forth his efforts where the tide of humanity is rising, and not falling, +even though it means three or four generations before the tide is out.</p> + +<p>New York has a gospel all its own. Work where the crowds are greatest, that +the printed reports may count people in great numbers, for ye gain dollars +thereby. New York counts the remnant only at the polls, and ignores the +penalty her indifference imposes on her own advancement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>The opening years of the century hold promise that there is at least a +partial realization of the solidarity of the interest of the people. That +conditions make for degradation in the homes means degradation of citizens; +and this means burdens laid, not on the sections where the homes and the +citizens are found, but on the whole city. What altruism has not +accomplished, selfishness may. It may be that where all else has failed, +intelligent politics may redeem, and the section again may be the center of +the moral as well as commercial activity.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CENTERS.</h3> + + +<p>The centralization of the interests of the tenement-house population is not +understood by those who broaden their mental, if not their active, interest +by reading and travel; who in the varied interest of a broader life are +forced to see the multiplicity of factors that enter into the settlement of +every problem. This is what we mean by knowing the relation of things; +marking the distinction between those who see only and those who +comprehend. The man who is a machine set in the place where he bears his +relation to the whole by an authority which he dares not question loses all +opportunity to comprehend his relation to that whole. He is interested in +immediate results as related to himself only. This is the relation which +the mass of the tenement-house workers and voters bear to life.</p> + +<p>The people of whole sections live entirely within certain geographical +lines, every interest centered within these limits.</p> + +<p>The race sections are logical, based on the law<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> of natural selection; of +family interest. The first generation of immigrants naturally hold the +second generation of home-makers near them, and these together hold the +relatives and friends who follow. Three generations are not infrequently +found in the same house, each maintaining its own home. The new arrivals +keep alive the foreign home traditions, the foreign home habits of living. +Poverty and greed make the people crowd together. The last arrivals are +taught what their predecessors have learned of American life and law. The +race section perpetuates itself; it retains all that it can of the old +life, and interprets the new according to the lessons learned from +environment, and power as it is exercised on the people. Each race section +has its own thoroughfare. The people on the street use their own language, +and trade in shops of their own countrymen. In some sections newspapers are +published in the language of the section, giving prominence to the local +news. Were it not for the public schools, one wonders what would be the +result of this race centralization.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 599px;"> +<img src="images/fig050.jpg" width="599" height="480" alt="SATURDAY MORNING ON THE EAST SIDE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">SATURDAY MORNING ON THE EAST SIDE.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>The writer once met a man who had voted for twenty-three years in one ward. +For sixteen of these years he had cast his vote from one house in Orchard +Street. He had never been farther north than Houston Street, farther south +than Hester and had never crossed the Bowery. He had positive convictions +on every subject relating to the ward; he knew the life history of every +political leader in that portion of the city; could rehearse the disasters +that had followed every man who failed to fall in line at the polls; knew +what saloon-keepers were forced to obey the law, and who "didn't care a +cent" for the law; knew why this man could put his goods on the walk and +why the other man could not. He protected his own two daughters from the +evils of his home environment as he saw them; was strict to rigorousness +about their home-coming; watched the kind of people who moved into the +house in which he lived, and doubtless kept it above the average of the +neighborhood by his watchfulness. But he did not know who was President of +the United States, and did not consider it the business of the poor man. He +refused a "job" under the city, because he didn't want to be "beholden." It +was all right for the man who needed a job to take it. The only grievance +the man had was that the Hebrews were crowding into the neighborhood. This +was an invasion of his personal rights; they had their own place on the +south side of Grand Street, as the Italians had west of the Bowery, and +coming into that region north of Grand Street was an intrusion on the +personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> rights of himself and his countrymen. The first thing which would +happen, if they—his own people—did not look sharp, would be the Hebrews +would have a say in politics. The man's mental attitude is typical of the +race settlement, the race political rights theory in many sections of New +York; the difference is only in the race dominant.</p> + +<p>This man was a porter, who for seventeen years was employed in an East Side +department store, working in a sub-cellar nine hours a day for nine dollars +a week. He could not read, though he came to this country when five years +of age. He became a wage-earner at eleven. His daughters became +wage-earners at fourteen, having attended public schools until that age. +The pride with which this man referred to his daughters' education made one +comprehend the gradual absorption by the foreign peoples who come to us of +American ideas. Those girls knew they were not educated; they had been +forced to contrast their mental equipment with that of the "club ladies," +as they called the residents at the College Settlement, where the club of +which they were members met. They, too, had been satisfied until brought +into relationship with those who represented another world. The revelation, +because of contact with the minds of these college-trained women, showed +them, so far as they could comprehend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> it, their own lack of mental +training, the first step in their true education.</p> + +<p>Women are by nature more conservative than men; they cling longer to early +traditions and habits; find it more difficult to adopt new habits of +thought. The more closely they are surrounded by people of their own way of +life, their own habits of thinking, the more strongly intrenched are they +in the customs and habits of their native country, the less are the homes +they regulate modified by the new environment. The result is that whole +sections of New York to-day are as foreign as the villages from which the +people in them came. There are women in New York whose children and +grandchildren were born in the city who cannot speak English, nor +understand it beyond the merest assent or dissent. Their lives in old age +are pitiable.</p> + +<p>A sweet, motherly German once said to the writer, and but a short time ago: +"I am so lonely. I cannot speak English. I never learn it. I sit in my +daughter's house, where German is not used. The children all want to be +Americans; they will not talk German. When I sit at the table, I never +speak. They all talk, but I do not understand. Sometimes I ask, and the +children say they have not time to tell me. They buy only the English +papers, and so I cannot read. I wish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> I had learned English when I first +came. I was young then, but I had eight children after I came here, and I +did everything for them. I could not take the time, I thought. I see now +the children could have taught me. Now they have not the time." This woman +was a German in her sympathies, her interests, her standards. Positive race +antagonism existed between her and her family. She measured everything by +German life and rule, and lived a critic among a people her own only in +blood. In answer to the question, she explained that her husband learned +English for his "work." The family attended the mission church when they +attended church. She attended the German services, but the rest of the +family, even her husband, the English services. Her constant plaint was: "I +am so lonely. Some day I never speak all day. At the table they speak +English."</p> + +<p>Hundreds of women like this one sit in homes in New York in which they have +no part, barred out by the fact that they speak a foreign tongue. One of +the mistakes made in even our church work has been the maintaining of +distinctive church services in a foreign tongue. In so far as the churches +have done this, they have been an obstruction to good citizenship for time, +whatever they may have accomplished for eternity, for the people they call +their own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the most earnest of missionary workers in New York, an American +citizen born in Italy, protested vigorously to the writer on the policy of +maintaining church services in New York in a foreign tongue. "You cannot +make a united people using many languages. I would preach that to the +people all the time. I use English words in my sermons to my own people, +and I tell them to learn English; it is better for them in business. The +women ought to learn, for they lose their children. They go away from them +because they do not speak the English. In New York they are the victims of +oppression, my people, because they cannot speak English. They have to bow +the head to the yoke because they are foreigners in a strange land in which +they vote. It is a great wrong to them and to the country. It makes the +'boss.'"</p> + +<p>The first interest of the mother in the tenement, as of the mother +everywhere, is the support of her children; to get for them all that she +can. She would prefer that her husband should be honest, which may mean +that the only dishonesty of which she has any comprehension is stealing +money or other tangible property. In politics the tenement-house women have +only a secondary interest. They accept without question the statements of +their male relatives as to issues and men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Even this degree of interest +represents only the most intelligent of the tenement-house women. The +charge that a man used his political position and affiliations to further +his own advancement, that he purchased the votes and enthusiasms of less +clever voters, would mean to the women educated in their conception of +right and wrong under the systems of machine politics that the man was +intelligent and trying to do the best he could for his family and his +friends. To say that he refused to rally voters to support the party that +gave him a position because he was convinced that the party was dishonest +in the use it made of the victory it gained at the polls, would arouse the +deepest contempt for the man. He would be considered not only untrue to his +family, but to his friends. Had he remained in close relation to the +politicians who gave him his chance, he would not only provide for his +family, but his friends would have the benefit of his influence; he could +give them a chance in time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;"> +<img src="images/fig058i.jpg" width="420" height="640" alt="THE PAST, PRESENT AND MIDDLE PERIOD." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE PAST, PRESENT AND MIDDLE PERIOD.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>The man of brains they see drop his tools, take off his overalls and stand +in high hat, and eventually frock-coat, the center of a crowd of men who +smile at his nod, though they worked shoulder to shoulder but a short time +ago—in a trench, perhaps; yes, even came over in the same ship with him. +The women do not understand the process of evolution, but they see the +results. They soon know that from street sweeper to car conductor, the man +who has become a politician under a strong partisan government regulates, +and often decides, the wage-earning opportunities of the greater portion of +the men in the tenement-house sections. They learn, these women, that it is +not a question of how faithful the worker is in the discharge of his duty +that insures him work, but that it is some mysterious influence they call +"politics," that means work and wages or no work and no wages, and +suffering. This conception of the relation of the petty politician to the +voters' chance to earn even a meager and uncertain living under the sway of +his influence rarely excites more than passing indignation from the women +who suffer most because of the system. When the women of the politician's +family grow arrogant and snobbish, then the floods of eloquence break loose +for a time, and the listener may learn many things of which he would +otherwise be ignorant. The increased power of the petty henchman rarely +enables him to change the way of living of his family. Sometimes he does +not when he can, for he knows that he increases his power as he lives on +the level of the average voter in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> district. The less conscience he +has, the more patient he is in waiting for the day when his district is +only one factor in his political strength.</p> + +<p>Even the little children reveal deference to the family of the man who is +known to have "pull." There came to an East Side library one afternoon a +little girl better dressed than any child who had yet appeared there. She +was impudent, noisy, aggressive. In the game-room she cheated in the games, +and finally broke up several games of checkers and dominoes by pushing over +the boards. No child resented this. The little girl when spoken to seemed +astonished by the reprimand. As she was leaving, the writer said to her: "I +am sorry, little girl, but I shall have to tell you that you must not come +here again unless you mean to obey; you must not talk in the reading-room, +and in the games you must play fair. I hope I shall not have to tell you +not to come here again." The child stared in astonishment. She went out on +the street. In a few minutes several little girls who had frequented the +rooms for months came running back in great excitement, one saying +breathlessly: "Why, that little girl's father is a school trustee; she does +just as she likes in school." "Yes," added another, "and now she says she +won't come here any more. She's awful mad." From her point of view this was +a calamity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> "Well, I hope she will not come if she cannot behave," was the +comment made. The children stood aghast. The trustee system had been +abolished in New York at least two years when this incident occurred. Later +the writer found that the father was in the council of Tammany Hall.</p> + +<p>A boy of the same neighborhood rang the bell, interfered with children +leaving the house, and broke the windows. The time for kindly persuasion +ended. When the members of a woman's club in that section using that house +were consulted, it was made perfectly clear to the writer that worse +troubles would follow if the boy were arrested, for he would not be +detained and he would be more ugly than ever. His father was a ward leader +who had formerly been a street sweeper, then foreman of the gang, etc., +going through the gradations that mark the making of the minor "boss." This +boy bullied little children, stole their toys, would break up their games. +Yet to have him join in their play was evidently an honor which they bore +much to retain. He was only fourteen, yet he was found to be the leader of +a gang of boys in the most disgusting immoralities. Even this did not rouse +the mothers of the neighborhood to fight for their children's protection. +The boy was spreading immorality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> of a disgusting nature through a whole +neighborhood. The evil he wrought was told in tears in private, but denied +in public through fear of the father's power in preventing the accusers' +husbands and sons from getting work—one result of the Tammany system that +enslaves homes and blasts the innocence of little children in New York.</p> + +<p>A clever, hard-working Irish woman was once telling the writer the story of +her life and that of her children. At the time she was deeply interested in +the future of four nephews, who were the motherless sons of her brother. +Out of her experience with sons-in-law she enunciated her conclusions: "I +tell me brother, don't let them b'ys learn politics; it's a mighty poor +thrade. Sure, when Tammany's in they're all right; but when Tammany's out, +where are they? Sure, it's a mighty poor thrade, as I learnt to me sorrer. +Betther have them blacksmiths, sez I, like their grandfather at home. I do +hope he be's listening to me, for they're foine b'ys." It will be easier +for the four "b'ys" to learn politics than any other "thrade," for it is an +open union making one demand, obedience to the "boss."</p> + +<p>To this woman Tammany was an employer good to the poor man—a doctrine that +is taught to the smallest boy. He breathes it in the air; he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> nurses it in +the milk that nourishes him. As he gets older he adds a new article to his +faith. The Tammany system is the protector of his liberties. It does not +restrict him in his right of private judgment. As one studies the race +sections, the discovery is made that hundreds of votes are cast for Tammany +candidates in the belief that obnoxious restrictions on the sale of liquor +on Sundays will be removed, or that the laws will not be enforced. The hope +of raising the moral tone of the voters is futile while any portion of them +justify the casting of a ballot for the sole reason that it will make it +possible for the voter to break the law with impunity. The most +demoralizing legislation is that which makes a man a sneak as well as a +law-breaker. May the day be hastened when no man who stands in moral +rectitude in the presence of man and God will be forced to maintain what he +believes his rights in defiance of the law. We are a cosmopolitan country, +owing power and greatness to the sons and daughters of many lands. The +Puritan conception of government is out of place to-day. The larger +conception of man not controlled by the law, but the master in himself of +the restraints it would place upon him, is the American conception of +manhood, and toward this the best legislative action must trend. Thinking +men and women who have studied the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> social conditions of New York know that +no more calamitous influence is set in motion in New York than a sense of +injustice that protects and justifies to the people the breaking of a law. +When this goes farther, and any considerable number of the citizens combine +for the purpose of overcoming it by defying or by ignoring it, the +foundations of the government are threatened. It is time for fanaticism to +feel the pressure of broad-minded balanced public opinion. A law +administered at the demand and according to the conscience of people +unaffected by its administration, used by them against an equally +intelligent class who feel that personal liberty has been curtailed at the +expense of their right of judgment, is class legislation. No greater evil +influence has been active in New York than the creating of a sentiment that +endorsed the breaking of the liquor laws. It has been a prolific source of +blackmail; it has enabled politicians, who live at the public expense, to +pose to men whose personal right of judgment had been curtailed as the +apostles of freedom. The short-sighted friends of temperance have by their +misdirected activities created political capital for the men who in +official life have made New York's problems.</p> + +<p>Legislation enacted without the will of the people governed is provocative +of two things: contempt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and defiance of the law; unrest that makes for +antagonism to government. The lower in the scale of reason the voter is, +the less able he is to get any point of view but his own. His comprehension +of the rights of others depends on the comprehension of his rights +expressed in the law designed for his regeneration. He certainly never goes +higher in the scale of reason while he defies the law in satisfying his +sense of justice and freedom; he cannot rise in the scale of living while +he stoops to acts he would avoid if his sense of justice were not outraged. +He justifies his act because of his sense of oppression. He cannot respond +to any effort looking to the general good of the city while he smarts under +a sense of liberties curtailed by the very people who ask for his help.</p> + +<p>When President Roosevelt was Police Commissioner he enforced the law +governing the sale of liquor on Sunday. The city was torn asunder for +weeks. The discussion filled the columns of the daily press. The fact, +after weeks of discussion with one group of tenement-house women—all the +wives of skilled workers—was finally made clear that the law was at fault, +if fault there was, not the Commissioner. The law, if bad, must be +repealed; but as long as it was the law it must be enforced. During this +discussion much light was obtained. One woman told how cleverly the law<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +was evaded by the liquor dealer two doors from her house. He hired the back +room on the top floor of the house next door, keeping the liquor in a +closet. The men in the secret entered the house two doors distant, went up +to the roof and down the scuttle to the room where the liquor was to be +had. Some of the group listened to her description with flashing eyes. When +she finished she was given to understand that she had played the part of +traitor. It was all right for her to do it. She was safe. Her husband was +in a good, independent position; it made no difference to him how much +trouble came because of her "telling tales." To others it was a disgrace +that men who had only a few cents to spend for a little pleasure with their +friends should have to sneak like thieves, as one of the women expressed +it. All condemned having the liquor in their own homes in quantities, as +they condemned the illegal selling. "When a man sneaks in like that he +stays longer and spends more than when he can walk in openly and walk out +again as he does other days. When he has it in the house he never stops +treating and drinking until it's gone." The "free lunch" was deplored; but +every one of the forty-five women decided that it was the only meal fit to +eat that hundreds of laboring men ever had; that men were forced to eat at +lunch counters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> in barrooms and buy liquor who would never go there if +their mothers and wives knew how to cook. They claimed that the women would +cook for their families if they knew how. They did not know how. They were +forced to go to work in factories as soon as they left school, and never +had a chance to learn anything about housekeeping; their mothers never knew +how to keep house. Could a stronger argument for domestic science teaching +in our public schools be advanced?</p> + +<p>When the High License bill was before the Legislature at Albany several +years ago, the writer was asked to speak at a mothers' meeting in one of +the poorest sections of what was then the city of Brooklyn. On her way to +the mission she counted nineteen liquor saloons on three blocks; in every +case they were on the lower floor of a tenement house. The hall was over a +pork and provision store; a loft without any attempt at more than broom +cleanliness, walls bare, grimy, and seeming to ooze grease. The atmosphere +of smoked meat was sickening. Nothing in the way of a shelter could have +been more barren and repellent, yet it was a mission maintained by a +church.</p> + +<p>About one hundred women—the wives of day laborers and longshoremen—were +present. Some were bareheaded: several with babies in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> arms. The +subject chosen was the High License bill. It was a discussion. At least ten +of the women spoke. The scene will never be forgotten. One woman, about +thirty, after listening intently, rose with a baby on her arm, and turning +passionately to those in the hall, said: "Why don't yer talk honest? Every +one of us drink. Some of us, not many, drink because we love it. Most of us +drink because we're discouraged and don't know what else to do. We're +fools; it don't help us; it makes it worse. Some of us would never touch it +if it were not brought to us. We know that anything that would take away +the drink from our doors would save us. Drive them out!" She turned to the +platform appealingly. "Drive them out, so that we, yes, and the men, would +have to walk four or five blocks to them, and we'll be different. It is +easy sending the children now. Make it harder! Make it harder!"</p> + +<p>"Shall we close them?"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't do it," she said. "You couldn't do that. Make it cost more to +start them, and there won't be so many. They'll be farther apart, and they +won't try so hard to make us drink. Many a woman has learned to drink +because she had to pass the holes to get to her home. Tell the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> truth like +me, or say whether I'm telling the truth!" was her appeal to the audience.</p> + +<p>The flood-gates were opened. Every woman agreed with the first speaker that +the saloon could never be abolished; it could be regulated. Beer, they +thought, to most women was a greater temptation than strong liquors. The +number of saloons near their homes they thought the heaviest burden the +poor man's family had to bear. They understood perfectly that the brewers +paid for the licenses, and that the saloons were the meeting places where +votes were controlled. They thought the saloons ought to be open at least +Sunday afternoon, but they would have them close earlier Saturday night. +They thought that any law that made a man a sneak to get a drink was an +evil. They saw that such a law enabled the politician to say which man +could sell liquor and which could not. One of them, who could neither read +nor write, had discovered that the saloons selling a certain brewer's beer +had more freedom than any of the saloons selling other beers; they thought +the saloon-keepers paid either in money or drinks for the votes of the men +who frequented their places in the interest of the politicians who owned +the saloons or protected them. There was not the slightest evidence that +one woman there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> saw any dishonesty in the system. There were no principles +in politics, only men. Things remained with them the same no matter who was +elected. It was a district which was under the control of one party, having +an unquestioned majority, which steadily increased through the efforts of a +shrewd leader who had no visible means of support.</p> + +<p>The section in which this group of women lived was a long, narrow strip +bordering on the East River. The residences of a population each occupying +its own house at this time held the reeking tenements in check on the east. +Within ten years this has been wholly changed. The handsome old residences +have become tenement houses, overcrowded, uncared for, occupied by people +now at the level of former despised neighbors. The better class of the +laborers' families have left the houses bordering on the river, and these +have been given over to the poorest and most hopeless of the day laborers. +There is a thoroughfare which has stores brilliantly lighted for five +blocks. Every want of the people can be supplied in them. The people, old +and young, settle placidly in the region. It is their world. The language +of the little children on the streets, from early morning until late at +night, is appalling. A kindergarten was started, but the people who started +it did not have money enough to secure the right kind of a room, nor to +make the room attractive, nor to keep it so clean that that would in itself +make it more attractive than the homes of the children. It was finally +given up, because even the small amount expended was not forthcoming at the +end of the third year. It could have had four times the number of children +the room would accommodate at one time, but no one cared enough to support +it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 509px;"> +<img src="images/fig072.jpg" width="509" height="480" alt="A SOCIAL CENTER BECOMES POLITICAL." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A SOCIAL CENTER BECOMES POLITICAL.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>The half-grown boys are coarse-looking, use profane and coarse language +unknowingly in their ordinary conversation on the street. Their attitude +toward girls is brutal. The girls of this section are free in their +manners, slangy and coarse in their conversation. They earn the lowest +wages paid to women in the factories and lofts that abound in the region. +The schoolhouses are old and dark; the streets are neglected and dirty. The +smoky, grimy mission-room disappeared long ago. Not one influence is at +work to raise the general moral tone of this community, the voting power of +which outnumbers four to one regions where every influence in and out of +the homes tends to develop moral standards and political intelligence in +the same political unit.</p> + +<p>The region is a social plague spot, neglected and allowed to spread. It +does not present as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> special feature to arouse activity the evils of the +"Red Light" district, but only the blasting influence of a region sunk in +the apathy of deadened moral natures, killed by the hopelessness of +changing the environment of their homes until it represents all they ask of +life. The poverty of the people makes well-nourished bodies impossible, and +lack of physical power makes moral resistance impossible.</p> + +<p>Recently in one of the most crowded of the tenement-house sections of New +York, where the grip of poverty holds degradation, where the people live as +remote from American civilization as when in their own land, the writer +viewed the parade in the evening of the voters of the district, who had +been the guests of the district leader, a State Senator, at an outing. +These outings are the annual "round-ups" of the voters. The expenses of +these outings run into the five figures, it is said, in this district. +Boats and a grove are hired. Chowder, coffee, sandwiches and beer are +provided free. Games of chance, to which, it is whispered, the district +leaders are not disinterested observers, and athletics are the features of +the outings. The return at night is an occasion for fireworks and a parade. +Caps and canes are provided for the voters often; sometimes only a ribbon +badge. The expenses are met by the sale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> of tickets, which sometimes sell +as high as five dollars. These tickets the liquor dealers, in fact, the +tradesmen of all kinds in the district, men holding office under the city +government who are affiliated with the leader and the men who hope to +secure rights or privileges, legal or illegal, through the leader's +influence, know it is wise to purchase. To the mass of the men of the +district it means perhaps the one day of freedom in the year, when they +have the pleasure of enjoying drinks and food wholly at the cost of +another.</p> + +<p>In this particular parade were five thousand men, not one thousand of whom +bore the slightest outward evidence of American citizenship, but the right +to vote, as their presence in the column indicated. It scarcely seemed +possible that the scene was in America. Swarthy women and children crowded +gayly decorated fire-escapes, crowded the windows, and made movement +impossible on the streets. Arches of lights, lanterns swinging from +fire-escapes and on ropes from sidewalks to roofs, were in the colors of +the land from which these people came. The flags and bunting displayed +presented colors of a foreign land, with here and there the flag of the +country whose political destiny their votes controlled to a large degree. +The next day the white caps worn by the men in this parade appeared on the +heads of schoolboys and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> working boys by the hundred, the wearers proud to +wear the colors of the man who, so far as their knowledge or experience, or +that of their parents, went, was the greatest man, the man of the widest +range of authority, in the United States. What do they care who is at the +head of the city government? The men do not need to ask who is the district +leader; he finds them through his unpaid workers and the coalition is +accomplished. Soon the immigrant, turned citizen, understands the +principle. He gets work and votes for the leader. It is simple and direct. +When the extent of one's knowledge enables him to handle a broom or to sell +peanuts or bananas in the new country, and that under the supervision of a +blue-coated tyrant who levies on the voter's cart, if not his pocket, when +and where he pleases, moral arguments in a foreign tongue are not +convincing to that voter. He would rather not submit to the supervision and +its attendant tax; he would rather not have his work intermittent; but he +learns that protest increases his evils, and he submits. The blue-coated +tyrant is a friend of the "boss" who helped get his license, and it must be +right. Whatever comes to him, he must not antagonize the "boss." That is +the first lesson he learns in American citizenship, at the point where it +is most effective, his wage-earning privileges.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 555px;"> +<img src="images/fig078.jpg" width="555" height="480" alt="A DOORWAY ON THE EAST SIDE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A DOORWAY ON THE EAST SIDE.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are leaders so strong and tactful that year after year their reign is +unquestioned. Only the police and the ambulance surgeons know when there is +an attempted revolution—when the leader's right is questioned by another +would-be leader. There is only one issue—the man; nobody cares for the +principle—if there be a difference of principle—involved.</p> + +<p>In one of the old sections of the city in which is a ward that for forty +years has excelled in crime; a section which at the present time presents +the meanest and lowest of the tenements in New York; in which there is less +effort to counteract the evils of the environment of the homes or change +the environment due to the control of the "boss" than in any other section, +a political feud culminated in the fall of 1901, defeating the man who had +been the leader for years. It was stated that the man who won had expended +$35,000; the man who lost, $12,000 in the struggle. This is a section where +poverty is the universal inheritance of the people who make this section +home.</p> + +<p>For weeks the section was in a condition of constant warfare. The smallest +boys were organized as gangs and shouted the name of the leader they had +chosen their hero. Boys of five wore the buttons of their heroes. From +fire-escapes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> on wagons hung bits of white cloth declaring the names of +the contestants. One of these, to avoid unpleasant embarrassment, had gone +to California after the Lexow investigation. A favorite legend displayed by +his enemy's friends was, "Paddy is the man who to Californy ran." This was +displayed on one fire-escape on which opened the windows of two families, +each espousing the cause of the contending leaders. The week before the +balloting for leader the legend was kept in place by the constant vigilance +for twenty-four hours of the day by the family whose sentiments it +expressed. "Paddy" was defeated. The next morning the two neighbors, who +had been enemies for weeks, leaned, each from her own window, chatting +amicably, while the son of one was arranging the legend on the fire-escape +to include both families. On either side was gracefully arranged an +American flag, while the harp of Erin hung just in the middle of the +fire-escape. Peace reigned in Warsaw. "Paddy's" friends, like the fairies +of childhood, disappeared in the night. The whole district, as one man, +accepted the change of rulers, and the new leader's banners were thrown to +the breeze everywhere. Nothing succeeds like success in the tenement-house +regions. For a couple of weeks peace seemed to reign in the district. The +followers of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the old leader found themselves displaced; new followers +controlled the favors in the district. There began a new distribution of +patronage. Then the old leader's displaced friends, with a few loyal souls, +rallied about him. He had made money enough through his political +affiliations to be defiant, and announced that the political corruption of +the party to which he had belonged compelled him to rally to the support of +the movement to overthrow it. Some of his followers were loyal to bravery, +and declared, too, against the political system. Two of them, because of +these declarations, were discharged forty-eight hours later from places in +a city department where they drew salaries of $1200 per year. Their places +were given to two of the new leader's followers. Two weeks later all had +returned to the old allegiance, and the papers announced that the head of +the Tammany system had decided that the patronage of the district would be +evenly divided between the two factions.</p> + +<p>Independence of action is costly under such a system; costly in loss of +wages to the voter; of food, raiment, shelter to his family.</p> + +<p>A voter who refuses to surrender the ease of his home or the pleasure of +his club for the good of the district in which his home is located is not +in a position to criticise his poor neighbor who will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> not jeopardize the +position secured by his vote that supports his family to maintain the +theory of American citizenship. Why should he make sacrifices to free the +city from disgrace when his independent neighbor refuses to sacrifice his +ease to protect his family from the inevitable evils of a corrupt city +government?</p> + +<p>It was the conferring the rights of citizenship on immigrants almost as +soon as they landed that fastened on New York an evil that has grown until +the city has been held in the shackles of a spoils system that overshadows +its commercial supremacy and makes it the argument against democratic +government. The heaviest disgrace for this condition rests not on the men +who profit by the system but on the good men who permit it to develop. It +was the logical result of their indifference to the city's good and their +responsibility for that good. This inactivity on the part of the mass of +responsible citizens made the control of the city offices for personal ends +easy to the men who, because of lack of training and moral turpitude, could +not conceive of a service for other than personal ends. Shrewdness made +them see that the immigrant was the ladder on which they could climb to +political power and stability. They met the immigrant as friend and +neighbor; they secured him work; they schooled him to citizenship, and +began at once to train him in that deadliest of all influences in a +democracy, class in politics. So long as this system of education prevails, +the appearance of a candidate for local office who does not bear the +"hall-mark" of the neighborhood will be resented.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"> +<img src="images/fig084.jpg" width="429" height="640" alt="EARLY MORNING AMONG THE PUSHCARTS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">EARLY MORNING AMONG THE PUSHCARTS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>As time went on and the immigrants came from many countries, a new evil +sprang up—the race section; the section where, maintaining all the +characteristics of the country from which the people came, the men exercise +the rights of citizenship at the behest of a political trainer who is able +to promise favors for obedience, and work vengeance for disobedience. +Behind him is a power which he must obey until the day comes when by his +own shrewdness he is able to cross swords with those above him in the +political system, becoming himself a dictator. In the process of his +evolution from ward heeler to district leader he has trained those who +follow him so well that he duplicates himself scores of times, increasing +his power every time he makes a follower, either by fear or favor, +perpetuating the system that makes the city, as has been aptly said, a +"gold mine" which it costs the operators nothing to work.</p> + +<p>The man at the bottom knows the duplicate of the leader nearest his own +level; this man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> is his friend, his countryman often. The links in the +chain are unbroken, and the man who dares to disobey the orders issued from +the top feels not only the displeasure of the henchman, but the combined +strength of the chain, or as much of it as is necessary to compel him to +obey or to crush him. The poor man whose tool to earn a living is a shovel, +a pick or a broom is not in a position to defend his rights; he has no +public sentiment in the only world he knows to support him in any attempt +he may make to attain his rights when defrauded by the political system he, +in utter ignorance, has helped to establish. When he is thrown out of work +given to secure his vote, he has no redress. The man at the bottom must +make the rule of his life "Small favors thankfully received." His hope for +work in the future depends on keeping in friendly touch with the system; +this is the first principle of American citizenship grasped by the +naturalized citizen.</p> + +<p>Just before our last national election a number of men employed in skilled +labor in one of our city departments were laid off. To some of those men +this loss of work meant suffering for their families; to others it meant +debt and dependence. It was startling the spirit in which this loss of work +and wages were accepted by these men. The district leader, elected by the +people to make the laws<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> at Albany, in order "to hold his district in line" +for this election, had to provide forty-eight voters with places. He +demanded from the department forty-eight places; the work was in his +district. No one questioned his right to make this demand; these places +represented his political capital. In no way could his demands be met +except by the discharge of forty-eight men then at work who lived outside +the district. It was done. The men laid off, almost to a man, accepted it +as the fortune of the political protégé. Scarcely a word of resentment was +expressed. There were removals into this special district before the next +municipal election, and new enrollments under the leader's banner, +irrespective of the political bias of the voters. Some of the men were +sullen and felt the loss of manhood; some said, "I'll vote as I like, but I +must have work;" others believed that only under this leader's banner could +a poor man hope to get his rights—the privilege to earn his living; or, in +their language, "He is hustling for his friends."</p> + +<p>Not only does the skilled and unskilled manual laborer find that the +approval of his district leaders is necessary to secure work under the +city, but that the affiliations and power of the district leader and his +political followers can secure him work under corporations holding public +franchises. He knows that the district leader secures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> privileges, +licenses, votes for franchises, directly or indirectly, with the distinct +understanding that his recommendations insure places to the men who carry +them. Under corrupt city government the man in business who does not cater +to the political powers finds his privileges curtailed; that he is made the +target for petty annoyances. Especially is this true in the downtown +districts, where in the transaction of business the rights of citizens to +the streets are ignored. Until one has lived close to it, it is almost +impossible to believe the power over the working masses the smallest cog in +the political machine exercises. It is this that makes imperative the +control of the city by men of high moral standing. No amount of unselfish +philanthropy can save a city governed by the corrupt.</p> + +<p>There are sections in the city of New York where from the time the boy is +old enough to recognize the power of a policeman he guides his life to +curry favor with this visible expression of power. He knows almost as soon +as he can talk the man who rules in the world in which he lives. He sees +his playmate defy the policeman because his father is a man of power, or +the friend of the man who rules the district. "Pull" is the law, all the +law he recognizes. He hears discussed from his earliest years the +dependence of his class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> on the political powers who govern, not for the +good of the city, but that they may have their rights; their rights, as +interpreted, being the securing of a place for a longer or shorter period +at the nod of a "boss." Their district is all the city thousands of the +inhabitants of these sections know. How can it be otherwise? They are never +called for any purpose to any other part of the city, unless it be the +cemetery. Family, friends, business all center within a score of blocks. If +a distance must be traversed, it is through thoroughfares that but +duplicate regions they know, all a part of the kingdom of the "boss."</p> + +<p>When the observer sees five thousand men walking behind a banner conferred +on the leader of the district because every man in it who votes votes at +his dictation, there comes to him a faint apprehension of what political +power in the tenement-house district is. This district leader interprets +all these men know of this country or its institutions. They know that he +secures work for them; that he befriends them in time of trouble. He +interprets Christ's doctrine to them: "I was hungry and ye gave me meat; +thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and +ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came +unto me." This is what the district leader does, if not in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> person, by +proxy. Is it any wonder he can control votes? Is it any wonder that the +poor, ignorant, unequipped voter should curry favor, bow to him, +acknowledge his supremacy even to the law? For this the voter can break the +law, and the leader secure remission of the penalty. The leader's nod has +been known to guide the judge on the bench. The leader can make the +innocent suffer because his power is greater than the law to which the +innocent appeal. This is the moral doctrine with which we inoculate our +newly made citizens, and under which the children of our overcrowded +tenement houses grow up. As the boys approach manhood they know no greater +privilege than to serve the man who has the power to give them place, and +he begins to cultivate their acquaintance early.</p> + +<p>It takes brains, moral standards, a knowledge of life and experience to put +the district leaders and their cohorts in the place they belong. Talking +against them accomplishes nothing while the majority he represents keeps +him in power, yes, makes him possible. He makes morality an evil, +dishonesty justice to the people who know him as the representative of +republican principles. They are the people. They have left one land because +it deprived them of rights. Rights as they know them are personal, and the +district leader secures them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 622px;"> +<img src="images/fig092.jpg" width="622" height="480" alt="MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<p>The opposition to the reform movement by the people governed by the +district leader comes from the conviction, dimly conceived or implanted, +that the election of the men who represent it would mean that everywhere +merit and not "pull" would keep the voter at work; that business would have +to be conducted according to law; that crime would be punished; that no man +would hold the keys of the prison for their benefit, but for the protection +of the community.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest moral lessons administered to the people of New York in +a language that all understood, and one which all classes in the community +needed, was given by the late Colonel George E. Waring. When he organized +the Department of Street Cleaning on the merit system; when he proved to +every man in the department that if he did his work no man could displace +him; that he could defend himself, a man before men, if charges were +brought against him, Colonel Waring changed the moral character of New +York. Every man in that department had his friends to whom he carried the +message; stood a free man employed by the city; a man who dared to vote as +he would though in public service;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> would not be deprived of the right to +earn his daily bread because of the use he made of his rights as an +American citizen. This moral lesson went into every home. The woman whose +husband handled a broom, drove a cart, held her head up, for the magic D. +S. C. had changed a "job" that enslaved her husband to an employment that +honored him.</p> + +<p>The enforcement of the law in the gathering of the garbage; the cleanliness +of the streets in the tenement-house districts equal to those of the +avenues, for the first time in generations brought the great truth to the +consciousness of the people in the tenement-house regions that all men were +equal. That the clean streets led to clean halls and cleaner homes was +natural; and the further evolution meant clean characters, because of moral +freedom to express opinion in a ballot cast at no man's command.</p> + +<p>And then came the summers when, for the sake of the children, extra +exertions were made to keep the streets clean. Slowly the truth dawned on +the dullest mother that the babies were not dying in such numbers; were not +so ill, because the streets were clean, the garbage collected and the +streets washed and cool. Twenty years of Colonel Waring, and the moral tone +of the most ignorant would be changed. For the right to earn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> his living +honestly, honorably, to cast his ballot as an American citizen, would be +guaranteed to every voter employed in a city department employing the +greatest number of voters with the least manual ability, the least +education.</p> + +<p>A city is just as honest as the greatest number of citizens casting a +ballot with the least knowledge of its value and effect; it comes no higher +in the scale of integrity than that. Every man who stands behind a broom +because he earns what is paid him, and knows that he stays there just as +long as he continues to earn his wages, represents a wealth of manhood in a +democracy, a part of the nation's capital as a world power.</p> + +<p>When Colonel Waring discharged the first man convicted of accepting a bribe +for collecting the refuse of the city contrary to the law of the +department, he gave a practical demonstration of the truth of the +Declaration of Independence that all men are born free and equal. He showed +by that act that the poor man who could not pay a bribe was protected by +the law; that wealth purchased no privileges at the expense of the city. +Just where the spoils system had worked its deepest degradation it received +its most effective lesson. The greatest benefit that Colonel Waring, that +man of law and order, conferred upon New York, was not its clean streets, +but the moral lesson that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> a city department can be administered to secure +the best interests of the people on the principles that control the best +business houses of the city.</p> + +<p>To the shame of the city be it said that it had so long been accustomed to +the spoils system that it could not accept the theory of Colonel Waring. It +was impossible for even the philanthropic workers to believe that a man +would not be placed, if they used their personal "pull" with the head of +the department. The politicians learned quickly that the system in that +department ignored "pull." When they did accept it, they determined to +overthrow the man who robbed the spoils system of its largest perquisite +where it was most effective in numbers. The combination of the political +machines accomplished the city's disgrace in 1897. It was redeemed in 1901 +by a people who had suffered cruelly; who saw in the four years of misrule +that they had made their own chains of bondage.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE HOMES UNDER ONE ROOF.</h3> + + +<p>The importance of environment is at last admitted as a factor in +character-building. That light and air are indispensable to cleanliness, +and physical cleanliness to health, and health to morals, is the gospel +that the evils of the tenements have forced the philanthropists to declare +until the thinking public is convinced of its truth.</p> + +<p>There are tenement houses that have reputations as positive as individuals. +Thoughtful, intelligent wives of working-men would not, could not be +persuaded to move into them because of their reputations. Often the evils +of these tenements are justly attributed to the housekeepers. Housekeepers +of tenements are women who pay the whole or a part of their rent by +overseeing the house; attending to the cleaning, collecting the rents, +letting the rooms, adjusting differences between tenants—"a go-between" +between the agent or the owner and the tenants. The owner or agent +employing these women upholds their decisions when differences between the +tenants and housekeepers arise. This clothes them with great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> authority, +and often enables them to do great injustice. They are feared usually. +Families will endure restrictions of liberties, every deprivation of their +rights, because protest would mean eviction or discomforts that would +compel them to move.</p> + +<p>Under some agents and owners these housekeepers have absolute control of +the property. They frequently make and enforce rules that utterly ignore +the rights of tenants. This rule is often as absolute as though they were +the owners of the house. Strange as it may seem, this class of housekeepers +usually make the property under their control pay; they usually keep up the +character of the houses under their control because they have standards and +compel those about them to live up to them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/fig100.jpg" width="480" height="624" alt="A REMNANT OF THE PAST." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A REMNANT OF THE PAST.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>On an East Side street a few blocks from the East River are four 27-foot +front houses of the English-basement type. The plan of these houses +indicates that they were designed as residences for people of ample means. +The halls are broad, the stairways wide, ascending in recesses on the first +floor that leaves the entrance halls clear from front to rear doorways. The +yards of these four houses, wide and deep, are paved with broad flagging +stones, such as are used on the sidewalks. The fences are kept in good +order and well painted. Not a child living in these four houses dares to +play in those yards. The housekeeper—one woman has charge of the four +houses—would order them out. If the children did not leave at once, +complaint would be made to the mothers; and if they did not uphold the +housekeeper and insist that the children play in the street, the mothers +who failed would have to move. Every mother-tenant knows this well. A +mother of three children who had lived in these houses all her married +life, when asked why the children could not play in the yard, where she +could watch them, replied: "Why, if the children played in the yard they +would make a lot of work for the housekeeper. She would not stand it." This +mother's tone indicated that she thought the housekeeper was right. The +youngest of the three children in another family living in these houses was +ill all winter. When convalescent, the doctor ordered him to be kept out of +doors as much as possible. The mother had all the work to do for five in +family, and had to devise some means of keeping the child out that would +not interfere with her work. She arranged the fire-escape outside of the +window, putting pillows and toys out there. The little fellow climbed over +the rail and struck a stone beneath, breaking his arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why did you not put him in the yard, where you could watch him, and where +he could run about?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! the housekeeper would be so angry; I wouldn't dare."</p> + +<p>"Must you keep the children out of the yard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; they would make an awful lot of work for the housekeeper."</p> + +<p>Investigation proved that the owner of this property supported the +housekeeper in depriving even the babies of the use of these yards. A +mother could not roll a baby carriage around the yards, because her older +children, if she had any, would be sure to go into the yards to see her. +The rents for four rooms, two absolutely dark, ventilated through the dark +and unventilated halls by a window eighteen inches square, were $22, $20 +and $18 per month, respectively, for each floor. The streets in front are +overcrowded, dirty; when the trucks were in the streets, two were always +standing in front of these houses. Push-carts now replace the trucks.</p> + +<p>The people stay in these houses year after year. A bill never appears on +them. The arbitrary restriction as to the use of the yard is not counted +against the property, because it is so clean, kept in such good repair, and +the character of the people scrutinized before they are accepted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> as +tenants. It is generally understood that the renting of furnished rooms is +not approved. The housekeeper finds a tenant who rents rooms objectionable. +In a neighborhood where every house shows year after year a loss of +character, people poorer and more ignorant becoming tenants, these four +houses retain the appearance of comfort and respectability. Among the +tenants there is but little intimacy; they appear to have little in common. +The women are never heard in the halls, nor do they loiter about the +doorways. The men are all skilled workmen, earning good wages—clerks on +small salaries, or in city departments, all natives of New York. The wives +were all wage-earners before they were married. They dress well; most of +them are fairly good housekeepers. All buy their children's clothes ready +made; two make their own dresses. For their children they are ambitious, +and expect to keep them in school until they are sixteen. This the children +defeat. The boys get places during the summer vacations in their fourteenth +year, refusing to go back to school. The girls are contented until +fourteen, and then they grow restless, becoming wage-earners; all that they +earn is spent for their clothes. The wages of the father may no more than +meet the expenses of the family, but this is not considered. Clothes are +the essentials.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> A man having a salary of $1,400, living in one of these +houses, had to go in debt the first week of a serious illness of his wife. +He did not have a dollar in advance to meet emergencies. He was a proud, +indulgent, tender husband and father.</p> + +<p>This type of house and this class of tenants are disappearing from the East +Side. The remnant of this class who remain are held by political +affiliations or family ties. The men enjoy the sense of power that comes +from this connection, and realize fully that to leave the district would +mean a loss of social prestige, or, if minor politicians, a loosening of +their hold on the people to whom they represent political power. Many of +this class remain in the section because they hold positions in the city +departments in return for active service in the interest of the political +machines.</p> + +<p>Not far away from these tenements is another in which are sixteen families. +The rents in this house range from $5 to $9.50 per month for two to three +rooms. The house is dirty, neglected; violations of the sanitary laws are +evident from the front door to the roof, on which tenants occupying the +front rooms must dry their clothes. The water is in the dark halls; in +winter, for days at a time, the pipes, both water and drain, are frozen and +burst; yet the tenants stay year after year. One woman, the mother of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> four +children, was born, married, her four children were born, and her husband, +mother and father died in this house. She has never moved, except across +the hall, up and downstairs, as she has been able to pay more or has been +forced to reduce her rent. The women in this house know almost nothing of +housekeeping. The men are employed only about half the time. The number of +children in the house averages three to each family. It is a New England +hamlet under one roof in this particular. If there is sickness in any +family, it is the concern of every tenant; if a man is out of work, it is a +community misfortune, and to be shared. A new hat for man or woman is the +cause of rejoicing, for it is the badge of respectability for any in the +house who may need it in an emergency. The whole household, for such it +seems to be, are poor, very poor; thriftless, unambitious; the men somewhat +given to drink to excess; yet the spirit of neighborliness shames +criticism. A woman in this house ill four months was nursed by her +neighbors night and day. Her house and children were cared for, food +provided when necessary. Comment on their loyalty and devotion was met with +the response: "God knows how soon she may be doing it for one of us." Yet +when that woman, whom most of them had known all her life, gave evidence of +pregnancy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> a few months after her husband's death, not a woman crossed her +doorsill until the birth of twin babies within the period of time redeemed +her character. Whether from remorse or love, ample return for this cruelty +has been made many times.</p> + +<p>In the two-room apartments in this house there is one closet, with shelves +about six inches wide. This is in the one room that serves as living-room, +kitchen, dining-room—a room less than eight feet wide. The bedroom is +perfectly dark, ventilated by a square window into perfectly dark, +unventilated halls. A full-sized bed leaves the width of the door between +it and the wall. The three-room apartments have outside windows—five to +the three rooms. There is a closet in the kitchen and one in the large +room. People talk of poverty, but few people know what it is. A woman who +had moved into the three-room apartment had hung all the clothing for five +in family in the one bedroom on four nails. In reply to a protest, she said +patiently and quietly: "There are no hooks in the closet in the front room, +and I hadn't a penny to buy any." Ten cents provided that closet with +hooks. A comment was made on the keeping of the washtub under the kitchen +table. "Why do you not have the tub carried to the cellar?" An expression +of self-pity passed over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> woman's face as she explained that the tub +would have to be carried down three flights of stairs, out on the street, +around the corner, down the cellar stairs, and then to her coal cellar at +the extreme end of the cellar.</p> + +<p>The house stands on a corner, the entrance from the street at the extreme +end of the west wall. The cellar door was formerly close to the entrance +door, but the landlord built in the back end of the cellar an oven when a +baker hired the store on the first floor. A cellar door was then opened at +the farthest part of the front, or south wall, one hundred and twenty-five +feet from the entrance door of the house. Is it surprising that coal is +bought by the pail by all the tenants? That tubs are kept anywhere in their +rooms where there is space?</p> + +<p>Shiftlessness, thriftless uncleanliness marks even the sidewalk about this +house. The dirt inside or out troubles nobody. Children will spill half the +contents of the garbage pail they are carrying to the cans in the tiny +yard, in halls and on the stairway. It is kicked out of the way without +comment. Dogs or cats, and ofttimes both, are members of the families who +live under this roof. The unsanitary conditions of the closets in the yard +arouse pity for the tenants on the first floor; but no tenant thinks of +complaining to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> either the housekeeper or the authorities. It would be +useless, and would get them into trouble. The present owner is willing to +kalsomine the bedrooms and halls each spring, but the tenants object +because it makes a lot of work.</p> + +<p>In August, two years ago, the writer was going up the first flight of +stairs in this house, when a baby voice was heard pleading: "Pease tum +fas'er; oh, pease tum fas'er; I 'ant to do p'ay; I 'ant to doe on steet; +pease tum fas'er." On the third floor a tiny boy stood in front of the sink +talking to the faucet, from which a tiny stream was flowing into a little +tin pail. An infant's voice from one of the rooms told the story. The +mother needed water and could not leave the baby. Perhaps this was the tiny +nurse of mother and baby, big enough to call a neighbor to do what he could +not do.</p> + +<p>When it is remembered that this stream of water from the faucet represented +the water supply for four families, the difficulties of cleanliness under +those conditions may be slightly appreciated. In spite of the dirt, the +darkness, the unsanitary conditions of this house, the thriftlessness and +ignorance of the tenants, there is a spirit of neighborliness in it that +puts the critical to blush. Without a doubt the housekeeper, who is a +shrewd woman, fosters this spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> of neighborliness. She smiles as she +says: "They gets so used to each other they hates to be separated." Neither +house nor tenants seem to go below the level established twelve years ago.</p> + +<p>There is a housekeeper who does mission work of which the world takes no +note. She is the woman who in the true sense is an altruist. By her force +of character, her hatred of inefficiency, her love of order, she compels +the women who become tenants who do not know how to keep house to learn +how.</p> + +<p>The writer knows intimately such a housekeeper. She had charge of a +four-story tenement on the lower East Side. The house was of the type known +as "double decker." There were four apartments on each floor; the front +consisting of a kitchen, living-room and two bedrooms; the back, of one +room and two bedrooms. Small windows near the ceiling in kitchen and +bedrooms opened on a narrow space between this and the next house, which +was an old-fashioned residence. A similar opening in that house enabled the +neighbors to look into each other's rooms. Water and refuse were thrown +into this space between the two houses, and sometimes into the rooms of +neighbors unintentionally. There was war, bitter war, because of this; for +the large tenement was occupied by a part of the remnant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> having social +standards left on the lower East Side.</p> + +<p>There was water in all the kitchens of the large tenement. The halls were +absolutely dark, but were free from the nuisances of hallways having sinks. +Stairs and halls were covered with light oilcloth, the stairs having brass +treads on the edge. Everything was kept as clean as soap, water and +muscular strength could keep it.</p> + +<p>The first visit was made to this house long before Colonel Waring had shown +what clean streets would do in the tenement-house districts. On the street +curb in front of the door stood three ash barrels filled within three +inches of the top, carefully covered with newspapers tucked in around the +edge of the contents. This indicates the standards of this housekeeper. She +hated dirt and disorder. She could not be happy where it was. She forced by +tact, coercion, persuasion, any and every means, her way to the heart and +home of every ignorant housekeeper who came under that roof. She taught +cooking by sending cake, bread, soup she had made to the tenants, and +arousing the desire in them to learn how to make that particular dish. She +instituted an exchange of skill among the tenants. The woman who could make +a dress and not a hat exchanged skill with the one who had been a milliner. +The woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> who made bread and failed with cake exchanged skill with the +cakemaker. They even took turns in going to the theatre, the neighbor +staying home and taking care of the children.</p> + +<p>The property was more valuable every year; no bill appeared at the door. It +stood apart from its neighbors for years. This housekeeper was compelled to +give up her responsibility and left the house, as she wisely said: "No one +would manage it in my way. I could not get on in peace." Six months after +every tenant had moved but the liquor dealer; and even his bar-room had +sunk to a lower level. A building in which many homes might be maintained +is now merely a place of shelter. People move in and out; no relations are +established; there is nothing to hold the tenant here above any other +house. The owner has sold the property, hating its present character.</p> + +<p>Again, tenants will be the victims of vindictive housekeepers, who for any +and no reason will begin a system of petty persecutions to compel a tenant +to move. Then there is the gossiping housekeeper, who keeps the tenants at +war. It is no secret that the method of rent collecting of some +housekeepers holds tenants year after year. They will take the rent in the +smallest sums, daily or weekly. By the end of the month they will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> usually +have the full amount collected. The houses where this system prevails are +the most objectionable. The tenants for this leniency endure positive +evils. The important thing is a place of shelter for the family. Work is +uncertain, or long periods of idleness has made the payment of rent +impossible for a period. The housekeeper understands and becomes +responsible for keeping the tenant until the rent is paid. In return the +tenants endure neglect of duty on the part of the housekeeper. Silence is +their expression of gratitude. No repairs are made, for none are demanded. +The house sinks lower and lower; anybody can move in on the payment of part +of a month's rent. The vacant rooms are dirty—give visible evidence of the +presence of vermin; but the family evicted with only half a month's rent in +hand cannot afford to be critical. This is the house that makes the slum.</p> + +<p>Two housekeepers of tenements were discussing owners and tenants before the +writer. One was rigid, keeping the house astonishingly clean, with rooms +rarely vacant; the other, always in trouble with the tenants, always having +some one to evict, threw the blame for her troubles on the tenants. The +first one listened, finally saying slowly: "No, you are the one. You get +cross and abuse the children. You make pets of some children and some +mothers, and the others see it and get mad. Then there is a fight. To keep +a house you must treat everybody the same. You must make good rules; you +must do your part and make every tenant do her part. I've had two of the +tenants you put out of your house five years. They are good tenants; watch +yourself."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/fig114.jpg" width="480" height="595" alt="A TYPE OF THE PRESENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A TYPE OF THE PRESENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are landlords who care for nothing but the income from their +property. Any kind of tenant who will pay rent is acceptable. Any +housekeeper who collects the specified amount may hold control without +question. The housekeeper may have standards, but these are swept aside by +the exactions of the landlord. The rents in such houses are usually high, +because there is such a percentage of loss in rents. This house also +contributes to the creation of the slum.</p> + +<p>The careless and apparently malicious destruction of property by tenants is +not appreciated by those who touch this question of tenement houses +superficially. No means has yet been found to make the tenement-house +population understand that the abuse of property is a factor in their rent +problem. Within a year the writer was walking with a group of women, two of +whom were housekeepers in tenement houses. This question of tenants was +being discussed freely by the women who were tenants as well as the +housekeepers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> It was interesting to find that all agreed that one family +could change the character of a tenement house for the worst, but one +family could not improve its character. The reason was that the family +above the tenement came only to reduce their rent during a hard time, while +the family with evil tendencies stayed until they were put out, to go into +a cheaper tenement and lower that. They agreed that where housekeeper and +tenant got on well together both hated a change. The two things that +dragged down the character of a tenement was beer-drinking and destructive +children—children allowed to "run wild." These women insisted that there +never would be quarrels in tenement houses were it not for these two +causes. A woman who drank beer would invite her new neighbors to drink. +They would treat in return, and the house would show it at once. The women +who drink beer in this fashion grow careless of their persons and their +homes; they get rid of their children, who soon learn to enjoy the freedom +from control. The children destroy the property first in play, through +carelessness, and later grow malicious.</p> + +<p>If a housekeeper is sharp and shrewd, these women tenants claimed that she +could at any time get rid of an objectionable tenant; but the housekeepers +held that if the owner did not care<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> for anything but rents, the +housekeeper was often compelled to let in and keep in objectionable +tenants. They admitted, one and all, that houses fairly indicated the +character of the people who would live in them, and that rents regulated +the class of tenants to a very great degree. They admitted that at times +one could find tenants who had lived for many years in one house where +conditions had changed for the worst. But it was unusual. People now +selected houses where those of their own faith, and, if foreign, those of +their own nationality, at least predominated. That this tendency was seen +more and more every year. This group of women were among the remnant of +Christians left on the lower East Side. All had been born there of Irish +parentage. They lived in the houses bordering on the edge of the East +River—old houses on the plan of the first tenements erected in New York, +or in houses designed for one family and now holding four to eight. Two of +them lived in houses built in a row erected eighty-three years ago. They +were two-story, dormer windows and basement frame houses, built without an +area, the door to the basements opening like a cellar door on the street. +These basements were occupied by a family each. Fourteen of these houses +are still standing. The people in this section live a life entirely their +own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> They have been crowded out, the more prosperous, by the Hebrews, +while the remnant find themselves hemmed in by them.</p> + +<p>These people live in the confines of a Roman Catholic parish that twenty +years ago contained nearly eleven thousand souls of that faith. Three years +ago the priest in charge estimated his parish at less than four thousand, +and that four thousand remained because they were too poor to get away, he +declared.</p> + +<p>The Hebrews, as tenants will, on the same block show many social grades, +many degrees of poverty and prosperity, many stages of development in +American civilization. There is a sense of feeling of brotherhood that +other people lack. The houses will range from the most uncleanly, ill-kept, +to the new tenement with ornate entrance and modern improvements. The most +modern will, on entering, be found with walls marked and broken when the +wood-work is new. No one seems troubled by this destruction. The +housekeeper does not struggle, for it is expected and charged for in the +rent. Plumbing is of the simplest, for it is expected to present the +largest percentage of loss in the administration of the property. One of +the most elaborate of the new tenements erected on the lower East Side was +visited three months after it was occupied. Every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> hallway from top to +bottom of the house had broken plaster and was marked by pencil and crayon. +The plumber was then a daily visitor. This house a year afterward bore on +the interior evidences that years of hard usage might have brought. The +housekeeper collected rents and attended to the garbage. She was utterly +indifferent to the appearance of the house, which, intended for prosperous +families, was a nest of sweat-shops, where even children of six and seven +were employed. The rents had been collected; that was the owner's only +requirement.</p> + +<p>The West Side is congested, because manufacture and storehouses are +displacing the houses. Rents are high, and the houses for the most part old +residences occupied by several families. The people, generally, are +Americans. They are deeply attached to this old section, because it is +their birthplace; and for many of them an even deeper attachment prevails, +for this section was the birthplace of parents. The houses often are found +to have lifelong friends, often relatives, as tenants. The tenants keep the +halls and stairways clean in turn, and the houses generally are well kept +up. Here one tenant is allowed a rebate on rent for renting rooms, +collecting the rent, caring for the sidewalk and stoop, the garbage and +ash-cans. The majority of the people in this section are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> Protestants. The +Protestant churches are well maintained. The Trinity Corporation supports +kindergartens, cooking and sewing schools. The Judson Memorial is a very +attractive gymnasium, that brings children from as far west as the North +River. The Methodist Church holds many who in no other section could find +the same equality and freedom. The vocabulary of the people through this +section shows the effect of the newer activities in the modern churches; +the effect of the enlarging interests of the children in art and nature +through the public school education.</p> + +<p>While the people are living on small incomes, often on uncertain incomes, +life is lived at a much higher level than on the East Side. Children are +not so precocious in evil knowledge. This difference is due largely to the +fact that the houses contain three and four families at the most; that the +apartment houses in the section are beyond the reach of any but the skilled +working man. He holds his own at high rental in the house that shelters but +three other families like his own. His neighbors are people of like +ambitions as his own, and demand what he demands.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig122.jpg" width="640" height="457" alt="A CORNER IN A WORKINGMAN'S HOME." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A CORNER IN A WORKINGMAN'S HOME.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>The housekeepers in this section differ essentially in their relation to +the tenants from those of the more heterogeneous population of the East +Side of the city. One resemblance is recognized—the effect of the +character of the housekeeper. Here, as on the East Side, to a very large +degree, the comfort, health, peace and good-will of the tenants in every +house depends on the character and the spirit of the woman who controls the +property for the landlord.</p> + +<p>The law of natural selection holds good. The housekeeper holds the tenants +who are satisfied with the conditions she creates. They, especially the +children, develop in habits of cleanliness, in care of property, in respect +for the rights of others, as the rules of the house enforced by the +housekeeper compel. It is in her power to get rid of those who do not +accept her dictates, let them be what they may—just or unjust. The +housekeeper will make her presence felt. If she violates the law in the +disposal of garbage outside of the house, tenants will violate the law she +makes for them in the care and disposal of garbage inside the house. If she +is compelled to obey the law, she will compel tenants to obey the law. It +is this that makes the morale of the Department of Street Cleaning so +important. If the part of the house which in renting tenants agree to keep +clean is not kept clean, the observer will discover that the housekeeper +does not keep her part of the agreement in keeping the entrance clean.</p> + +<p>A large factor in the tenement house for character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> building or destroying +is the housekeeper who has charge of it. Where she is well paid she makes +the property valuable. She cares for it, for the character of the tenants. +Tenants remain in the house because of the advantages her offices control +for the poor man and his wife anxious to provide for their children's best +welfare. Property under this type of woman resists decay. She holds it in +spite of the decay about it. The characterless, slovenly, indifferent +housekeeper is a factor in destroying property, because of the destructive +character of the tenants who will tolerate her and her methods.</p> + +<p>The house that is the property of the man with "a pull" is an obstruction +to civilization almost impossible to overcome. By connivance the law is +inoperative. If pushed, such an owner can easily rid himself of the tenants +who attempt, or have attempted for them, efforts to compel the owners to +repair the property. A mill owner on the water front on the lower East Side +owned three three-story and basement houses adjoining the mill property. +They had been built for one family each. The basements were altered into +stores, and the floors above altered at the least cost to accommodate one +or two families. This meant two inside bedrooms absolutely without +ventilation. The tenants of this property and all in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> the neighborhood were +tormented by the smoke and gas from the chimney of the mill. When the wind +blew directly toward the houses, windows were kept closed for hours in the +warmest weather. All the tenants dried their clothes on pulley lines. +Frequently the soot made the clothes unwearable, and they had to be washed +the second time. Ten years of effort have failed to compel the building of +the chimney of that mill to the legal height.</p> + +<p>The houses the mill owner owned were in a disgraceful condition. The +closets in the yards had no flow of water. The engineer of the mill was +required to carry a hose from the mill over the fences to the closets to +flush them. Sometimes he forgot to turn the water off, and the yards were +flooded and made disgusting. Sometimes he forgot for days at a time to +flush the closets, when the conditions were even worse. Only people who +were helpless or hopeless would endure such conditions. One of the workers +of the College Settlement discovered the conditions in these houses. She +took immediate steps to compel the necessary improvements. The owner +discovered that the wife and children of one of the tenants went to clubs +at the Settlement, and he ordered that family to move. Before the mother +moved her education had begun, and she imparted to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> neighbors the +information that the conditions were unlawful and could be changed if they +would fight for it. The man exacted his rent on the first of the month; he +was hard and unyielding; the tenants continued the warfare until he had +evicted every one who spoke English and filled his houses with foreigners. +One of the stores is used for storing and sorting rags and paper; next door +is a meat shop. The fight was given up. The owner had "a pull," and the law +is defied to this day on that property.</p> + +<p>All the land on the river front in this neighborhood for blocks is made +land, filled in by the city refuse, on which houses were built years ago. +This kind of property extends back from the North River for three, and at +one point four, blocks. In some of the houses near the river the high tides +of spring and fall rise in the cellars. The College Settlement workers who +visited families in one of these houses had been distressed by the amount +of illness in it. Malaria had attacked every family. Spring and fall wages +were lost at times by as many as three wage-earners in one family for two +and three days each week. In addition to loss of wages, there was the +expense of medicine and doctors. At last came the urgent request that a +worker should call on a girl of sixteen who was dying of consumption on the +first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> floor. This consisted of four rooms, two being inside bedrooms, each +of which would hold a three-quarter bed and a chair between the bed and the +wall. One was absolutely unventilated, except through the doors. It was, in +fact, a passageway between the front and rear rooms. This plan is the usual +plan in houses altered from residences for one family to a tenement house.</p> + +<p>The door of the other bedroom, which opened into the large room, was closed +at night because the large room was used as a bedroom by the male members +of the family and one lodger. The girl of sixteen had slept with two others +in that room for eight years. The floors of the four rooms were covered +with carpets. The odor was sickening. The visitor asked the tenant who +brought her to the sick girl what caused the odor perceptible in the hall, +with front and rear windows always open, unbearable in the rooms where +doors and windows were closed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that! The water has been in the cellar now for two or three weeks. The +tides are high now." A visit to the cellar showed the water at the height +of the second step of the cellar stairs; also a sewer pipe that had burst. +Visits were made to the proper city department once a week for eleven +weeks. The clerk, on the last visit, evidently intending to be facetious, +said: "Say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> what's the matter with those people taking baths in that +cellar? They ain't got no bathtubs."</p> + +<p>The owner of the property had "pull" enough to escape even an investigation +by the department. It was years before the cellar of that house was +concreted and the necessary connections of pipes and sewers made. It was +done when the property had changed hands and a man comparatively poor and +wholly free from political affiliations became the owner.</p> + +<p>The people of this whole region are the victims of political corruption. +Some of them have more fear of offending a political light, let his glimmer +be ever so small, than of offending against even God's law. They could be +turned out of house and home, deprived of the means of earning a living, by +men who openly defy the law, and who become heroes to the growing boys and +girls for no reason but because of their power to use and defy the law.</p> + +<p>The moral natures of the men and the women who grow up under this influence +are dwarfed and warped until it is impossible for them to have distinct +conceptions of right and wrong. The education they receive does not reveal +the relations of ethics to life; the struggle for existence dulls the mind; +while the depleted physical conditions caused by bad air, mal-nutrition and +ignorance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> of real values reduce moral resistance almost to zero. Enforce +the tenement-house laws, and the moral strength of the people of New York +will rise to higher levels of moral resistance. Not poverty, but the burden +imposed by political corruption, is the blight of home life in the +tenement-house sections of New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>SLOW-DAWNING CONSCIOUSNESS.</h3> + + +<p>In a preceding chapter an attempt was made to show how hopeless the task of +home-making was for women who had neither knowledge nor ideals to guide +them. When it is remembered that the environment of these homes was in +itself degrading, to maintain even the semblance of a home was a remarkable +achievement.</p> + +<p>These women knew but three educating influences—home, school and Church. +Four, perhaps, if one chooses to count the streets, where most of their +time was spent, as one. The value of the first they revealed in the homes +they made. The school at the time it was a factor in their development was +a place that had no connection with anything else in their lives. What they +learned there was but to the exceptional few without any practical value. +They learned to read to get promoted, or because they could not help it. +The arithmetic which they found valuable they learned in doing errands and +spending their own pennies. They learned to form letters with their pens; +but as they had no use for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> knowledge, they soon forgot it. Their +conception of education and that of their world left them perfectly at ease +in their accomplishment. The Church had to do with their souls; and to the +majority the care of their souls was a delegated responsibility, and gave +them little concern, if any. Personal effort in that direction was a matter +of old age.</p> + +<p>The Church was, by its own traditions and sentiment, a spiritual light and +guide; the end and aim of its service to develop spiritual life by teaching +and prayer. The social life of the people, or, for that matter, the civic +conditions that to the last degree regulated and controlled their +pleasures, were not the concern of the Church. The parish house did not +exist. The institutional church had not been conceived even in thought.</p> + +<p>Yet at this period, 1880 and 1881, there was a growing consciousness that +something was wrong in the social order; that neither churches, schools nor +homes were meeting the necessities of the working people or their children. +The Church found itself losing ground; the people could not be held in +allegiance to it. This was so true of the Protestant churches downtown that +already the wisdom of moving uptown was being questioned. Some had even +then left their old buildings to be used as mission churches; others sold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +their downtown buildings, moving uptown, giving up any attempt at holding +the masses, who manifested no interest in the Church or its work. The +missions then established were and are maintained with more or less wisdom +and success. That mistakes should be made was natural. There was no +precedent as to how one class in this democratic community should work for +another. It took years for the churches to learn that the secret of success +was in working <i>with</i>, and not <i>for</i>, the people.</p> + +<p>The overcrowding went on. Neighborhoods changed so rapidly that it was +impossible to adopt any system to meet the necessities of the social +conditions. These conditions were created by race standards of living, +pleasure and religion. No man or organization was prepared to grapple with +them intelligently, for they viewed them as observers.</p> + +<p>The Church had still the first interpretation of feeding the hungry, +clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison. Secular work was +not yet a part of the redemptive work of the Church. Poverty and ignorance +reigned where prosperity and intelligence had been. The mission church +became a distributing station. It was but natural that the men and women +who followed Christ in their lives should feed and clothe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> the hungry and +the naked. It was quite as natural that people whose struggle for life was +constant, a struggle in which they were rarely successful, even when they +accepted their own standards of success, should develop shrewdness in +securing all possible aid at the least possible effort. The more they +received without effort, the easier life was made for them. This was one +method of adjustment. Where there were several children in a family they +were often sent to as many Sunday-schools. The churches, all unconsciously, +for a long period carried on the work of the missions on a commercial +basis, competing energetically to secure attendants at mission services and +Sunday-schools. The workers found their success measured by the numbers +that appeared in their reports. It was the American standard of success. It +became profitable to go to Sunday-school. The approach of the holidays +found them crowded. The mission churches boomed. They provided an outlet +for the energies of devoted, consecrated men and women, determined to make +the world better because they were in it. The missions were an outlet for +the generous; for the men and the women who considered themselves stewards +of the properties in their possession. The blunders made are a tribute to +the faith which established and maintained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> churches. The very blunders of +those years were the seeds of wisdom these latter days are beginning to +garner in the fruits of coöperation and federation. The forces are +beginning to marshal under one banner and emblem, with one aim born of the +nineteenth century conception, that Christ taught civic duty to His +followers when He declared, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are +Cæsar's." That the Church is the guardian of the people's rights, as well +as their example, is a long-delayed conception. It has taken thirty years +to bring the evolution in Church work from competition to coöperation in +the work of personal and civic regeneration.</p> + +<p>Many of the difficulties hardest to overcome have grown out of the mistakes +of those years, when the rapid influx of foreigners changed the character +of the people of the tenement regions, and the Church failed to change its +methods. They came, many of them, paupers, a charge at once upon the +charitable and the humane. Neither their ignorance nor poverty was a bar to +their citizenship; their presence on the municipal stage in the character +of voters, sovereigns, increased the civic problems of New York, and +naturally these the Church problems.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the charitable work of the churches was too often left to the +management of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> sentimental people, who failed to see what has been forced +upon workers of the present day: that hunger is sometimes a moral educator; +that the salvation of a family may sometimes be best secured by letting +them suffer, the innocent with the guilty, because in the suffering is an +educating power impossible to secure in any other way.</p> + +<p>One evening to a working-girls' club a teacher in a mission school not far +away brought a girl of sixteen, introducing her as one of her girls who had +been in her class two years. Privately she told one of the directors of the +club of the poverty of the girl's family. The father was a man of +seventy-five, who could do only the lightest work, and found getting the +work he could do very difficult. This girl was the eldest of seven +children, all attending the mission. "It is a mystery what would become of +the family, were it not for what the mission does for them," was the +comment of the teacher. A close inspection of the girl did not reveal +distressing poverty, and the directors of the club were puzzled. The girl +was employed in a store at a very small salary. She was anxious to go to +the country. Of course, she must be sent away without any cost to herself. +She doubted if the family could spare her wages, even if she could go free. +She explained that she and her brothers and sisters had gone in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> "Tribune +Fresh-Air Parties," but she was now too old. "The trouble with our family +is," she commented, "that we are all too old." It seemed a hopeless +doctrine to become fixed in the mind of a girl of sixteen, so the club +directors secured a vacation for her through the Working-Girls' Vacation +Society, deciding that, if it were necessary, they would pay the mother her +wages for the time the girl was away. No question arose as to her wages. At +the expiration of her two weeks' vacation, when she should have been +penniless, she appeared at the club in a new hat and gloves. When the girl +joined the club her Sunday-school teacher paid one month's dues. She had +been present at several business meetings; she had seen the other girls +paying their dues, she had heard the treasurer's report, but she never +attempted to assume her financial obligations. She was spoken to finally in +regard to her dues, and responded calmly by saying she could not pay her +dues; she had no money. Various suggestions were made as to the possibility +of her paying part. At last, to relieve the club treasury, one of the +directors said: "I will pay what you owe and one month in advance. You may +pay me as you can." The girl never came to the club again. No effort was +made to trace her, as she contributed nothing to the life of the club, and +many girls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> kept their dues paid who dressed far more plainly; these very +girls she had on more than one occasion treated discourteously.</p> + +<p>Two years afterward one of the club officers was calling on a friend. "I am +so glad you came in," she exclaimed. "One of your club girls is in trouble +and is coming here with Miss ——, a mission worker in Dr. ——'s church, +this morning. Now you can help solve her problem." To have a member of a +working-girls' club go to an outsider for help is to have one of your own +family appeal to strangers in time of need. The club worker kept still. She +was covered with shame. She had failed to establish relations with one it +was her sole purpose to help. Who the girl was she did not know, as her +friend had forgotten the girl's name. The girl came. It was our old friend +of sixteen. She was, as may be imagined, not pleased to see the director of +the club. The history of that family is fairly indicative of how missions +were conducted at that time. How many of them are conducted at the present +with the same results? Originally this family was found by the workers of a +mission established by a wealthy church, and apparently in need. Rent was +paid; food and clothes provided; doctors sent when necessary. The return +for this, as tacitly agreed, was the presence of the children, as rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +as they were old enough, in the Sunday-school, and the father and mother at +the Sunday evening service, the only service this mission maintained.</p> + +<p>The timidity of the first contact disappeared early. The wants soon outgrew +the needs of the family. The mission people failed to respond to the wants, +and watched more closely what it cost the church to meet the needs after +the first years of acquaintance. This was not to be borne. The family went +in a body to another mission of the same church ten blocks away. They made +not the slightest effort to deceive, for they did not change their address. +Here were nine persons to add to the roll of the mission, and they were +added. The family was enthusiastically welcomed. No impudent or intrusive +questions were asked. Shoes, coats, rent money in whole or part was +generously given. At the end of two years discoveries were made that led +the mission workers to question what was done with the supplies provided. +The family would not stand this. They went bodily to a church less than a +mile away, still living at the old address. The family was again taken up +without question. That the father could not work was accepted and +generosity was increased. The other missions contrasted unfavorably in +generous impulses; the girl urged her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> former classmates to join the last +mission. The church meanwhile was walking by faith in its treatment of the +poor; aiming to live up to the conception of its days; strengthening the +influence of its prayers with gifts of potatoes; certainly a great advance +on prayers and no potatoes.</p> + +<p>At about this time a young girl was met in a Sunday-school class very +attractive, always well and prettily dressed. She had been in the +Sunday-school all her life, and had joined the church with her mother, a +gentle, quiet woman, who leaned on her daughter for guidance. The daughter +was a tower of strength. By accident it was learned that the girl was a +wage-earner, working with her mother in a large suit house in New York; +that they kept house, doing the housework, even the washing and ironing, +before and after their day's work. Added to this they made all their own +clothes, which must have involved a vast amount of labor, as they both +dressed well.</p> + +<p>The position of this mother and daughter is fairly typical of a large army +of women workers, and explains, in part, at least, why two women of so much +character should have accepted charity for so many years and why they could +not change their economic relation. The work they did was to a degree a +trade. Each was a special "hand" on a certain part of women's suits. They +were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> paid by the piece. When they had work, they made good wages; but the +seasons were short. The beginning of every season found them in debt. By +the time the debt was paid work had grown slack or stopped. It was simply +impossible to get beyond this, try as they would. When the girl broke down, +she explained it by saying, "I worked all night to finish my dress. If I +could buy the material in the slack season I could make our things then. We +never have the money, and they have to be made just when work is hardest at +the store." She was but nineteen. The girl was pretty, ambitious, entirely +above the men of her own station in refinement, and yet quite as far +beneath the brothers of the girls she met in her Sunday-school class. She +lived in mental terror lest they should attempt to call on her. It was +pitiful to see the struggle she made to conceal the fact that she was poor. +The other girls knew she worked, knew the church helped the family, but +were very tactful in assisting her in keeping her secret.</p> + +<p>When the mother came to the notice of the officers of the church she was a +widow with three young children, one a baby. She could support her family +if the rent was paid. The church officers were glad to do this. They did +not support a mission and had very little outlet for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> church's +generosity, except the mission societies—Home and Foreign—to which they +were devoted as a church.</p> + +<p>For thirteen years the church had been faithful to its promise and paid the +rent. Nobody questioned the mother as to how her children were getting on, +or what was being done to make them self-supporting. The younger were two +boys. When they were large enough to play on the street, the mother put +them in an institution and paid a small sum for them. The girl went to work +with the mother as soon as she could. The elder boy came home at fourteen +and became a wage-earner. He was troublesome, most difficult to manage, was +out of work more time than he was employed, and yet he would not when +unemployed even keep the fire, that the house might be comfortable when his +mother and sister came home. They always left the house in order when they +went to work, but found it littered when they returned. The boy had no +sense of moral responsibility for his own support. His temper was wholly +untrained. At the time the family history was connected, the youngest boy +was to come home, and naturally his return was dreaded. The mother and +daughter met the problem unaided as to advice or suggestion. Apparently the +church would continue to pay the rent without question, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> there were +three, and would soon be four, wage-earners in the family.</p> + +<p>When these facts were discovered, the church committee was asked to advance +money enough to pay for the girl's lessons at a school where dress-cutting +was taught, and to notify the widow that her rent would no longer be paid.</p> + +<p>The girl accepted the offer at once. She proved a great success, and to-day +is earning a salary as a designer equal to that of many college professors. +She educated her younger brother in a profession, and has entirely +forgotten the days when the church helped her. Her social affiliations are +in another part of the city, and she bows, or forgets to bow, when she +meets those who may remember it, as they would, to her credit. Had the +church retained its claim on her through its financial aid, she would not +be where she is to-day. Her development came when the church made another +future possible to her by refusing to pauperize the family.</p> + +<p>We all know the families who have more turkeys at Christmas than members. +We still have churches and sewing schools in the same neighborhood, giving +their Christmas entertainments at different hours and at different dates, +to suit the convenience of those who attend both and profit thereby. We +even have different entertainments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> given for different branches of work in +the same church at different hours. We succeeded in impressing one boy with +the idea that what he received at the various organizations maintained for +his profit was "Christmas loot," and that he was clever at getting more +than his share. We have become accustomed to conducting an exchange after +our Christmas entertainments, because in giving we have, unfortunately, +duplicated the gifts received elsewhere. Mollie finds herself with two +dolls and no bed, and Katie has two beds and no doll, and Alice has two +sets of dishes and no table. Like fate has attended the gifts to the boys. +We, as a result, enact the rôle of patient, sweet generosity and +redistribute gifts.</p> + +<p>We know that comparisons are made as to which church, sewing school or club +is the one to give the major portion of the coming year's attendance. But +all this will disappear as rapidly as sectarianism and competition between +churches and in philanthropic effort disappear. Competition created it; +coöperation will dispel it, because all will come to a higher conception of +the relations of efforts toward improvement. Then the "profit" of church +and Sunday-school attendance will not be measured by the "things" +distributed.</p> + +<p>Nothing marks the growth of public intelligence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> more than the federations, +and the systems that have grown out of the knowledge of the injury done the +poor by misplaced generosity. Sometimes the children of the poor seem +uncanny in the knowledge they possess of how to use the public and private +charities.</p> + +<p>A girl of seventeen gave astonishing evidence of this in a family crisis. +She was a member of a working-girls' club; quiet, studious, reserved. She +was always one of the poorest dressed girls in the club. Her devotion to +those classes which she joined and attended regularly attracted the +attention and admiration of the club directors. Discovering that her dress +was in part responsible for the treatment accorded her by two or three +members, it was decided to make it possible for her to make a better +appearance. She had shown qualities which, if allowed free play, would make +her an influential member of the club.</p> + +<p>It was discovered that she attended a near-by mission of a Congregational +church. Consultation with the mission workers brought the unwelcome +knowledge that the mother was immoral, hopelessly immoral, but that her +children loved her dearly and that she was devoted to them. The paying of +rent seemed to support a shelter that ought not to exist, but no one had +the courage to attempt to separate the mother and children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Even this girl +of seventeen had no idea of her mother's wrong-doing. It was a case that +needed the wisdom of Solomon to solve. Just before Christmas the mother +fell ill. The passion of grief that convulsed that group of children was +convincing testimony of the mother's tenderness and devotion. Her eyes +followed them constantly. When able to speak, she would whisper: "What will +become of them? There is no one to care for them." She was removed to a +hospital, with the knowledge that the rent had been paid for a month and +that the children would be looked after. She died two days later. When the +house was visited that morning, the elder girl was out "getting things," +the children said. When she came in, she was told that provision had been +made to send them all together to a home, where they would not be separated +for a month. The girl sprang to her feet, grabbed the fifteen-months-old +baby from the floor, and swept the others in a circle about her. She +panted, rather than said: "You shall not take the baby away! I will not let +them go! Nobody shall take them. They are mine. I can take care of them. +You just pay the rent. I can do everything else. See?" She put the baby +down, and thrusting her hands into her pockets, brought out tickets to the +Diet Kitchen, the Charities Department for coal and groceries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> She had +been to two missionaries connected with different churches she knew, and +secured orders on a near-by grocery for dry groceries. There was not a +public or private charity that gave out-door assistance that that girl of +seventeen did not know just what must be done to get their help. The amount +of knowledge of this kind that she possessed was astounding.</p> + +<p>Besides, there was not an institution in the city where children were taken +for longer or shorter periods of time that she did not know. In many of +them she had been herself. In others she had visited the other children of +the family when they were inmates. She found out the defects of each +one—the kind of matron, of food, of punishments that governed in each, and +made out a case against each one. White, with blazing eyes, she looked +capable of doing just what she said she would do, take care of the family +of five little children. They were grouped about her, clinging to her, all +crying in the face of the awful calamity that was about to befall +them—separation. It was agreed that they should stay where they were for +the balance of the month. The question of the future beyond that would be +discussed later. The girl quieted down.</p> + +<p>The mother had been insured in one of the insurance companies on the weekly +payment plan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> The girl had secured an undertaker who would go to the +hospital and take the mother's body to his establishment for the funeral to +be held the next morning.</p> + +<p>"We will have our own minister," she said, with dignity, "not the mission." +Her visitors were again astounded. The mission had looked after the family +for years. The girl had for several years been connected with the +Sunday-school. The address of the minister was secured. The girl explained: +"My mother was confirmed in that church, in her own country, her own home. +She had a letter to the church when she came to this country with my father +after they were married. At first my father earned good money, but he got +sick and they did not get along, and my mother stopped going there, except +to communion; and for three years now she ain't had the clothes to go even +then. She had us confirmed there as soon as we were old enough, and we went +there to communion when we had the clothes. The minister is going to come +to the funeral, and I am going to send word to some of mother's friends +from the old country who go there to church. I could not have them come +here; mother would feel awful." Glancing about the barren, dirty rooms with +a look of scorn, she continued: "We could not let our church friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> know +how poor we are. Mother tried hard enough. She was away from home days at a +time looking for work. She took boarders. She did everything she could. You +know I've worked when I could get it." Her voice broke for the first time. +"She took boarders and gave them the beds; we all slept on the floor. She +married the last boarder, the baby's father. She told me to stay here until +he came home, this month—he's a sailor—and to do just what he says. He +was always kind to me and gave me things. You've paid the rent, and you +need not do anything more. I'll stay right here and keep the children till +the baby's father comes home; you need not trouble any more."</p> + +<p>She was quiet a moment, but evidently felt the doubt and the decision in +her visitors' minds. Rising, she said fiercely: "I'll not; I'll never let +these children be taken from me!"</p> + +<p>The problem was too much for her visitors. They decided to leave the +question of the immediate future to the family's own minister, who +certainly had not carried these lambs in his arms, nor watched very closely +over their erring mother.</p> + +<p>The family was separated. Nothing else was possible. The baby's father +repudiated any responsibility for any of the children, and disappeared. The +girl drooped for a time after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> separation; but she finally secured a +good home, making a capable, devoted servant until she married. She owes +allegiance only to her own church, saying: "The minister talked so +beautifully at mother's funeral." Her whole conception of the mission +church is that it is an institution for helping the poor.</p> + +<p>She never doubted her mother, whose picture, enlarged from a small +photograph, is the chief ornament in her parlor, her most cherished +possession, outside of her husband and children.</p> + +<p>In spite of the outburst of passionate devotion at the time of her mother's +funeral, this woman, now with a comfortable home of her own, knows nothing +of the children for whose protection she attained, for a time at least, +sublime heroism. In a few months her indifference was as astonishing as her +devotion had been. Her own life and its concerns filled her mental horizon +to their entire exclusion. For her own home and children she has the +passionate love that she gave to her mother and the crowd of half-brothers +and sisters. She is ambitious for her children, and has two in the High +School. This woman is a fair illustration of the evolution that is making +this nation great.</p> + +<p>The churches, when first the social disintegration began, had neither the +intelligence born of experience nor the money to place the mission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> work in +charge of people of high intellectual and social development. There were no +training schools for Christian workers, and to that degree the Church was +hampered in inaugurating its work among the poor. The selection was too +often a question of pleasing some wealthy member of the church, by giving +positions to protégés who had absolutely no qualification for the work but +their necessities. This basis of selection—not yet wholly eliminated—put +the work of the missions under the control of men and women who lacked +social training. Neither by nature nor grace were they fitted for the work +they attempted to do.</p> + +<p>Their attitude of mind was too often that of patron, which, as any one of +experience knows, is one of the most demoralizing influences active among +the poor.</p> + +<p>There comes to mind now a downtown church, the mission of one of the +leading uptown churches. It was Thanksgiving evening. For weeks placards +had been on the front of the building announcing an entertainment for that +evening, to which all the people were invited. On the platform were a +number of young men and women, sons and daughters of the uptown church +members, the entertainers for the evening.</p> + +<p>The church was packed with the people of the region, self-respecting poor. +The mission, fortunately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> for them, was limited in money, so its +possibility for pauperizing was limited to just that degree. The mission +pastor, before the entertainment began, opened with a prayer, in which he +thanked God for the warm-hearted, generous people who were giving +themselves and their money for the uplifting of the poor and degraded. God +was asked to implant a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of those +assembled to enjoy this pure entertainment provided for their benefit. When +he opened his eyes he continued his theme in two variations for twenty +minutes longer, in what he called an address. It was this attitude of mind +on the part of many of the workers that drove out of the church the mass of +the poor; that began the breach that has widened, until in September, 1901, +we stand appalled as we realize all that has entered into the making of +that awful national tragedy.</p> + +<p>The standards of cleanliness and beauty maintained in the mission churches +have been far from what they should be. As the visitor enters to-day one of +the first buildings erected on the East Side as a mission church, he is +repelled by the general air of neglect; the dirt on walls and ceiling, made +still more repellent by water stains from leaks; the ugliness of the whole +interior, as well as the entire lack of adaptation to the work of to-day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +which one of the most devoted of pastors, a friend to every man, woman and +child in the region, is establishing. There is not one thing in that +building that is not ugly and cheap. The very platform on which the pastor +preaches lacks furniture, that would impart an air of cheer or +impressiveness. Instead of the building being an unconscious influence in +the neighborhood for beauty, tidiness, cleanliness, it is a part of the +general result of the greed and poverty which has made one of the most +sordid, character-destroying neighborhoods in New York.</p> + +<p>One Sunday afternoon, as the writer was passing this building, the children +began pouring out of it. The Sunday-school had just closed. They yelled, +fought, ran. Suddenly they discovered a half-drunken wretch of a woman +reeling down the street. The elder boys pulled her clothes, dragged off her +hat, tormented her, yelling and laughing at the foul language they called +forth. It was appalling, yet not surprising. The building remains as first +erected. No attempt has been made to adapt it to the needs of the region. +It was built for church and Sunday-school services, and the work which the +devoted, consecrated pastor has put into it to meet the needs of the time +is done under conditions that make the highest success impossible. There is +not a room in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> neighborhood for boys' clubs, for reading-room, for +pleasure, where boy nature can have the fullest expression under wise +direction. For adults the saloon and the streets are the only resources +outside of their overcrowded homes. The pastor knows that to succeed in +changing the character of that neighborhood it is necessary to hold the +people through seven days of the week. He knows that this can be done if he +can provide for the people pleasures, opportunities that express their +social development. He knows that people express themselves in their +pleasures, and that, whether they will or not, that expression is +controlled by environment. If the trustees will not, cannot be made to see +this, let the pastor of the mission be what he will, his work will be +limited by the men who, in the very nature of their relations to the +mission, cannot see the truth.</p> + +<p>The pastor of the mission had a long vacation given him. The man sent to +take his place wore soiled linen, would sit for an hour at a time tipped on +the back legs of his chair. He would refer to the people in their presence +as "they" and "these people." One of the young men who belonged to a club +where some attention had been paid to manners and dress said one night: +"Say, wouldn't you think that feller would wear clean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> collars, and stand +up when talking to a lady? I don't care if he is a minister, he ain't +much."</p> + +<p>The people who were responsible for putting that man in that position were +generous, held the best social positions, filled responsible positions in +the commercial world. Not one of them would have chosen that man to +represent them in the business world, because of his carelessness in dress +and lack of manners. But they did not hesitate to send him to represent the +Lord Jesus Christ to the poor; not a demoralized and degraded people, but a +self-respecting body of Americans, born and trained, so far as they had +been trained, to believe in the equality of man under the flag and before +God. Is it any wonder that the more intelligent of the people resented the +placing of this man over them, and remained away from the church of which +he had charge? His person, his mind or his manners were not contradictory.</p> + +<p>One evening, going through the audience room of this building on an errand +to the rear room, the visitor heard one of the women missionaries say to a +little girl who had evidently been troublesome and inattentive: "If you +don't sit still, Mollie, I'll come there and shake you until you'll be glad +to sit still." The woman was training a group of little girls to take part +in a Christmas entertainment. They were each to recite a verse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> and turn a +gold paper-covered letter as they recited, so that when the last one had +spoken her verse the sentence "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth +and good-will to men" would be revealed. The woman, in temper, language, +conception of her duty to these children, differed in nowise from their +ignorant, tired, worried mothers at home, who probably made no claim as a +teacher of morals and religion. What ideals of womanhood did this woman +represent?</p> + +<p>A minister came to attend the funeral of a little baby in a surplice so +soiled and rumpled that a friend of the mother, who was a good laundress, +said afterward: "I wish he'd given me that yesterday morning. I would have +washed and ironed it." "He wouldn't have worn it if it had been a rich +man's child," was the little mother's response. "Well, he acted like his +surplice, rumpled," said the first speaker. And the writer was struck with +the perfect characterization of the man's manner.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, there are men who see the divine in every human being; who +know that sorrow, grief, shame and suffering bear as cruelly, as bitterly +on the poor as the rich, and in their ministration know no difference +between them.</p> + +<p>The writer was present at a funeral in an East Side home in a tenement +having sixteen families.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> A wife and mother had died. The family occupied +the floor through. Nothing was known to the writer of the creed of the +family, though she had known them for years. The minister came in a +spotless surplice, most carefully put on. His manner of greeting the family +and friends was so expressive of fraternal sympathy that one felt it a +privilege to witness it. He stood in that East Side home the herald of +hope. Since the blow had fallen he had visited it every day. On the day of +the funeral he had so filled the hearts in that home with the spirit of +resignation that the lesson that it taught left an impress on all who were +present. Not once in the earnest address did he use the word "death." It +was "release," and he made all feel that gratitude for relief from cruel +suffering was the occasion for the assembling of the friends together. He +gave out the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." There was no musical +instrument in the home. All present were wage-earners. The writer trembled +for the result. The minister's beautiful tenor voice started the hymn, +assisted at once by boys' voices in the different rooms. He had brought the +choir of his church to assist, and stationed them through the rooms by +direction before they came to the house. The people all sang. When the +services were over, this minister remained with the family, a courtesy +which to the poor is so unusual that the memory of it is still one of the +events of life on the East Side.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 442px;"> +<img src="images/fig158.jpg" width="442" height="640" alt="A SPIRITUAL BULWARK." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A SPIRITUAL BULWARK.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>This represents this clergyman's attitude toward his people; and all who +are their friends are his people. Is it any wonder that they never go +beyond his care? He has baptized the children of three generations. Easter +service is the home-coming of these families. They come from as far as they +have money to pay their fare. The gray stone church is pretty. It has +stained-glass windows, a baptistry, and maintains a surpliced choir. It is +delightful to see the positive influence of these accessories on the +people. Other churches to which they have access lack them, and the +contrast deepens the love for the old church. It needs renovating, a parish +house, a corps of modern workers. But these can well be dispensed with +while that towering gray head leads the people. For the noble, unselfish +life of the man stands before them always, the embodiment of eternal love +and sympathy, interpreting both under conditions that would at times seem +to justify doubt.</p> + +<p>There is another phase of the Church's attitude toward its work in the +poorer districts that lies at the root of the rejection of the Church by +the majority of the thinking, self-respecting poor, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> that is the +assembling of the poor together as an exhibit of its work; the making of +reports of which the poor are the statistics. The defence that this is +necessary to stimulate the interest of the rich, and by that means secure +the money for the continuing of the work in the poorer sections of the +city, is but the evidence of the lack of spiritual life in the Church; the +absence of the very foundation of Christianity and brotherly love.</p> + +<p>The consciousness that watching the hungry eating Christmas and +Thanksgiving dinners is hardly what Christ meant when he gave forth the +decree, "Feed my lambs," is becoming a conviction; but it is due to the +positive teaching of workers outside of the Church, who felt the +irreparable loss of self-respect that must follow from such an exhibition. +To gather the beneficiaries of their generosity together and take stock, as +it were, of the investments, the dividends of which are to be realized +wholly in the future life, has antagonized the self-respecting poor. They +refuse to assemble as objects of interest, even in a church.</p> + +<p>So dense is the spiritual perception of even some very good people, so +materialistic is the plane on which work for the poor is conducted in some +churches, that the results have been cruel—unconscious on the part of the +offenders—but nevertheless cruel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>A group of very young girls worked in a factory on the borders of a section +in which lived people of wealth and intelligence. The factory made no +provision for a lunch room. When the weather permitted, the girls ate their +lunches on the curbs and on the stoops of houses in the immediate +neighborhood. This was demoralizing to the girls and distressing to several +women in the neighborhood. Not far away was a large house hired and +controlled by a church long noted for its broadness and its generosity. The +basement of the house was not used, except twice a week in the evening by a +working-girls' club. The use of this basement from half-past eleven till +one was asked for and granted.</p> + +<p>The plan was to have a woman arrange the tables, make tea, and wash the +dishes used by the girls each day. The girls were to pay five cents a week +for the use of the room and the tea. They were to bring their own lunches. +The plan met with their warmest approval, and the lunch room was opened, +with three young girls from a society in the church to help. The girls +poured their own tea. For three days everything promised well. The girls +accepted the one condition imposed, that they would go quietly to and from +the factory at the noon hour, to avoid comments from the residents about. +The fourth day some of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> righteous, energetic souls belonging to the +church thought they would see the result of their generous gift of the use +of the room for which they had no other use.</p> + +<p>Nine of them, personally conducted by one of the assistant ministers, +crowded the two doorways to see these girls eat the lunch they brought from +their own homes and drink the tea for which they were paying all they had +been asked to pay. One small girl, with her hair still hanging in braids +down her back, tried in every way to break off pieces of her luncheon +without uncovering it. Finding she could not, she gave up, and tied the +string about the paper again, sitting quietly with her hands in her lap. It +was this child's first week out of school. Her father was now in the +hospital for the third month. There were five children, of which this girl +was the eldest. All the money saved by this skillful mechanic and his +thrifty wife was gone, and this girl had to go to work. One can imagine +faintly her feelings as she looked at the crowded doorways and knew that +the whispered comments included her. The less refined, though more +independent, girls sat with flaming cheeks, and holding papers over their +lunches, ate them and drank the tea.</p> + +<p>The first week represented the life of that lunch club. The girls went back +to the curb and the sidewalk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> and stoops as lunch rooms. Here, at least, no +personally conducted parties came to view them. If any one looked at them +and they objected, they were on terms of equality, and at once notified the +offenders of their offence. To the credit of the people who used that +street, few stopped to look at the girls.</p> + +<p>It would have surprised those very good people to have known the opinion +those crude, uneducated girls had of them. A day or two later, standing +with a group of girls who had not been present, with a half dozen of the +men who worked in the factory, as spectators, the leader of the girls +described the scene, caricaturing the "church gang," as she called them, +and some of the girls who had been distressed by their presence. The group +shrieked with laughter; yet there was an unpleasant note in it. "—— them! +That's what they always do. Stay away from them after this," was the +comment and advice of one of the men. "You bet!" responded the girl actor, +as she curveted down toward the factory in response to the whistle calling +them back to their work.</p> + +<p>If the years as they passed did not clearly reveal that the Church that +holds the poor is one over which men of the highest intellectual and social +training are placed in charge, the mistakes of the present would be +extenuated. Such churches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> do exist. Men of strong, vivid spiritual +perception have erected and maintained bulwarks of righteousness in +neighborhoods where the environment, the civic order is degrading. They +have done this by conducting all the departments of their work with the +view of developing the gifts of the people to whom they are ministering. +The choir is the boys and girls trained by the best teachers they can +secure. The Sunday-school teachers are the working boys, girls, men and +women who are instructed by the pastor for their Sunday-school work. The +officers of the church are the men of the neighborhood. The people are +married and buried from the church; the children are baptized in it. The +preaching is teaching that salvation is of time, as well as of eternity. +The sins of the people are made visible. The pulpit holds the mirror up to +nature. It is a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading them +into the promised land, made so by their own civic honesty, their own +personal character.</p> + +<p>These men do not have to make reports; to bow before a board of trustees. +They do not have to suppress or expand to meet the ideas of theorists. A +few men give them the financial support they need, and let them, like men, +stand before God and their own souls responsible for what they do for the +people whom, when Christ was on earth, He chose for His friends—the poor.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/fig166.jpg" width="480" height="561" alt="WHERE THE PEOPLE SHARE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">WHERE THE PEOPLE SHARE.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>WORKING-GIRLS' CLUBS.</h3> + + +<p>Twenty-five or thirty years ago in New York the question of the wisdom, if +not the necessity, of moving the downtown churches uptown began to agitate +the pastors and church leaders. The congregations, or part of the +congregations, who had contributed most liberally to the support of the +Church were beginning to move uptown, crowded out by business and the +incoming foreign element which settles near the shipping and factory +districts. The new-comers did not support the churches, especially the +Protestant, not even by attendance. It was natural that the churches should +follow their congregations. Some sold their buildings to the sects that +came with the foreigners; some made a brave effort to maintain a church for +the people; some became missions, distributing stations to the poor people +who had settled in the now overcrowded houses that formerly were the homes +of one family. The change in the downtown communities was so rapid that no +one could understand how to deal with the new element. The Church had to +spend years in learning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> how to adapt its methods to the needs of the new +peoples who settled by hundreds where scores had been. Not only was this +feature bewildering in itself, but the people spoke an unknown tongue, were +foreign in thought and sentiment; were social, rather than religious.</p> + +<p>The saloon far outstripped the Church in the ease with which it adapted +itself to the new element. The Church encountered not merely the new people +degraded, but an environment that in itself was a tremendous obstacle to +decent living. The Church shortly discovered an entirely unlooked-for evil, +insidious, demoralizing—the political corruption of voters. The Church to +the smallest degree only in recent times has come into the larger +conception of its function as a teacher of good citizenship, a link between +the voter and the ballot-box, preaching the duty of the exercise of the +franchise governed by conscience. It took the moral degradation of the city +to rouse the churches to activity as redemptive civic powers.</p> + +<p>The corrupting influence of corrupt politicians was evidenced in the +conditions that developed in sections of the city left to their control. As +the years went on and the men of conscience and intelligence became more +absorbed in business and profession, more given to money-making, because of +increasing social demands, the city became, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> the minds not only of these +politicians, but of the voters they trained, a mine to be worked for +personal gain. Ignorance contributed to the rapid degeneracy of the people +in the old home sections of New York.</p> + +<p>The saloon became very early in the development of the tenement-house +sections the only social center. The result was an increasing of the drink +habit and the establishment of political headquarters in saloons. Often the +politician in embryo was the saloon-keeper, often the bartender. The social +side of life thirty years ago was not a subject for church consideration +and study.</p> + +<p>The Church ministering to a people having standards of social life +established by the churches, the outgrowth of its teachings and creeds, can +ignore questions that the Church ministering, or trying to minister, to a +people poverty-stricken, overworked, living lives barren of any pleasures +but those of the senses, in an environment that of itself would be a +deteriorating influence, must meet and answer.</p> + +<p>The Church downtown discovered it must work seven days in the week; that +its office, its function was secular, as well as religious; that its Sunday +work was but one-seventh of its work, and that the six-sevenths must +minister to that one. The Church must go out into the highways and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> hedges, +to use a misplaced metaphor for a city street, and win the people. This +evolution of conception marks a spiritual Renaissance.</p> + +<p>Industrial training was introduced by the churches, the natural result of +discovering the ignorance of the women of household arts. Far more valuable +than the skill imparted to the children gathered in these classes was the +contact with the earnest, refined women and young girls who were the +teachers in the now established mission churches. The revelation was +mutual. If the tenement-house child gained new ideas of cleanliness, of +order, of neatness, of dexterity, of manners, the uptown teacher also +gained knowledge of which she stood quite as much in need. When a panting, +shining-faced child came to sewing school half to three-quarters of an hour +late because she scrubbed the halls and stairs of a three-story tenement +house to help her mother, the housekeeper, who paid the whole or part of +the rent for the family by this service, the uptown woman of leisure gained +a new view of life and its responsibilities. When the mission worker who +was giving time and strength and knowledge as the expression of her faith +and conscience, found children scarcely more than babies working far beyond +their strength in the service of their families, the uptown worker gained a +new conception<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> of sacrifice, of poverty, and, what was far more important, +a new conception of the causes of ignorance. The uptown woman of leisure +saw that often children were sacrificed to greed; forced to become +wage-earners by parents anxious to increase their bank accounts.</p> + +<p>As time went on, they saw that, whether poverty or greed was responsible +for the sacrifice of the children, the protection of the children was the +safeguard of the State, of the nation. There came from this, by the process +of evolution, the factory laws for the protection of women and children; +the compulsory school law. In these latter days this last has been made +ridiculous by the failure of the municipality to provide school +accommodations for the children of school age, especially the children +under fourteen living in the overcrowded sections.</p> + +<p>The church workers in the tenement-house sections were able to find means +to meet some of the evils of oppression, of poverty, of ignorance. They had +concrete facts to present to a semi-indifferent public; but when the social +side of the people in the tenements became a problem, especially the social +life of the young people, the remedies did not present themselves. The +legislation proposed and executed was restrictive, not recreative. It was +not the function of the State or the Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> to provide social +opportunities for uneducated, overworked young people.</p> + +<p>The older girls in the Sunday-school classes presented not only all the +problems of the little children, but the larger one of social opportunity. +The homes were too small, too overcrowded to give social opportunity to the +family. Besides, there was that saddest of all features too often found in +the home of the working girls—the absence of all sense of personal +responsibility on the part of parents for the social life of the children, +girls and boys. The children in all but the exceptional home were free to +choose friends, free to go and come as suited them. Home was a place in +which to eat and to sleep; a place of shelter; a place often entered only +when there was no place to go out of working hours.</p> + +<p>The problem of providing social opportunity faced the downtown churches. In +the very nature of things the social opportunities the Church could offer +must be limited; must be of the nature that appealed to the more quiet, the +phlegmatic, the element that presented the least factors in the social +problem. The parish house, the church house did not exist. All the +amusements offered the people must be in a building consecrated to +religious life and service. It was a serious question<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> how far the Church +was justified in introducing the purely social.</p> + +<p>It was natural that the young women brought into touch with the young +working girls in the Sunday-school should apprehend the restrictions that +life in a tenement imposed on a working girl. Everything in this life +tended to make her gregarious. She was born into a house probably +overcrowded before she came into it; she slept, ate, lived with crowds. The +street, her only playground, was teeming with children like herself. When +she worked, she rubbed elbows with the workers on each side of her. She +went and came from her work one of a group. The working girl lived free, +and pleasure she would have.</p> + +<p>The girl of wealth and leisure working in the mission Sunday-school, by her +own youth and natural inclinations, could appreciate this side of the +working-girl's nature, and with the same clearness of vision see the +limitations imposed on the Church in trying to meet the social needs of the +people for whom it primarily existed.</p> + +<p>Visiting the homes of their girl pupils, the Sunday-school teachers +discovered the limitations of the homes. Between the homes as they existed +and the churches as they must exist, the social center for the working girl +must be created that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> would meet her social needs. The streets were the +working-girl's reception-room, drawing-room, living-room, where she +received her most intimate friends; where mutual entertainment was provided +in ways that made no drafts on purse or inventiveness. Halls were open for +dancing, where her presence was so desirable that she was admitted free or +at half the price demanded of her brother. Excursion grounds with dancing +platforms were then popular within the city limits. The immorality of the +present temptations that make perilous the way of the working girl in 1901 +were almost wholly unknown twenty years ago.</p> + +<p>The work the earnest-hearted women interested in the working-girl's life +faced was how to enlarge her social opportunities in connection with +educational opportunities that would meet her peculiar need, and which she +would accept. New methods of intercourse, new places of meeting must be +found.</p> + +<p>Every organization that has developed in these latter days for bettering +the condition of the people has its root in the doctrines of the churches; +workers and money come from the people who receive their impulse from the +teachings of Christ. These organizations are as truly as the churches the +expression of brotherly love; the positive declaration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> of the +consciousness that no man liveth to himself.</p> + +<p>To Miss Grace H. Dodge the women of this country owe a great debt. She, +from the standpoint of a Church worker, devoted and faithful, saw that +outside of the Church, but governed by all that the Church believed and +taught, the natural outcome of both, a social center for working girls must +be created. This center must be independent of any other organization. It +must be at once a natural expression of the working-girls' standards. It +must be flexible, as well as progressive, during every period of evolution +in each group; it must keep in touch with the least progressive mentally, +the most progressive socially.</p> + +<p>A place must be created where recreation was possible; where classes to +meet the educational wants of every member could be established. Above all, +a place must be made where wealth and poverty, education and ignorance, +could meet on the common level of mutual helpfulness.</p> + +<p>A conference with a group of working girls but strengthened Miss Dodge's +conviction that this social center would not only give to the working girls +the social opportunity that New York lacked, but it would give to the woman +of wealth and leisure the opportunity to meet the people whom she must know +if she would use her time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> her money, her education wisely in the interest +of social development.</p> + +<p>With Miss Dodge as president, the first working-girls' club was organized. +It marked a new epoch. It made the opportunity that had never existed—the +working of rich and poor to secure the same end. This country reaps the +benefit of this first step in altruism based on the highest Christian and +democratic doctrines.</p> + +<p>The working-girls' club has from that time been a positive factor in the +social development of working women, not only of New York, but the whole +country. It has enabled the students of economics and sociology to get at +facts that have revolutionized theories. The working-girls' club taught the +working girls themselves the causes of their economic disadvantages.</p> + +<p>Hardly was the first club formed when the practical results inseparable +from this new combination of interests and sympathies met the approval of +all interested in the problem of the working-girl's life. Everywhere clubs +began to form. The idea has been adapted and adopted by the churches. +Working-girls' clubs of all degrees of development, under many kinds of +constitutions, managed and mismanaged, are to be found north, east, south +and west.</p> + +<p>The question of support was one of primary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> importance. Miss Dodge had +studied this side of the question thoroughly, and from the first it was +decided that dues must be paid by the members. As new clubs were formed, +this question of dues was met differently. Usually the wages of the +majority of each group of girls forming a club decided the amount of dues, +and naturally the dues varied in the clubs. In some clubs the dues were +five cents per month; in others, five cents per week; in some the dues were +twenty-five cents per month. Even this amount could not meet the expenses +of a club conducted to elevate the standards of the members by the +environment, as well as the social and educational opportunities provided. +The financial managements of the clubs differ greatly, and always have. +Strenuous effort has always been made in some clubs to make them +self-supporting; they seem almost to live for that purpose. Entertainments, +sub-letting of rooms, fairs, every means is resorted to accomplish this +end. Naturally the members of such clubs develop a good deal of business +ability; sometimes at the expense of qualities that in a woman count for +more in life.</p> + +<p>The highest form of club life developed among working girls represents, to +the working girl, her college. She realizes, as does the rich girl or boy +who enters college, that what she pays does not,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> cannot, pay for what she +receives. This conception of the financial side of the working-girls' club +management controls in the clubs, with few exceptions, to-day.</p> + +<p>The club must give every educational and social opportunity that will meet +the needs of the members. As the college meets the demands of its students +in the electives it offers, so must the working-girls' club. As the college +student must meet the financial obligations he assumes when he enters +college, so must the member of the working-girls' club keep her financial +engagement. As the college makes it possible for the worthy student to +complete his course of study after financial disaster makes it impossible +for him to meet his financial obligations, so must the working girl who has +contributed to the life of the club, or who has shown her desire to profit +by what it offers, be kept in good and regular standing when financial +disaster makes personal independence impossible. In short, the +working-girls' clubs that are conducted on the broader lines, and with the +most comprehensive knowledge of our social conditions, are in management +and purpose a college for working girls. The idea of self-support may have +been strained for a time, but it was an error in the right direction, and +led to the truer conception<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> which regulates the management of the best +clubs to-day.</p> + +<p>It was curious, is curious, the attitude of mind with which some girls +approach the club idea. There comes to mind now the effort to form a second +club in the rooms of a club of several years' standing. The need of the +second club had grown out of the refusal of the girls who earned from five +to nine dollars a week in various employments to associate with a number of +girls working in a tobacco factory, and earning on an average three dollars +and a half per week. The last-named were rough in speech and manner, and +far from stylish in dress—the standard of the elder club. The introduction +of the girls from the tobacco factory to the club was the result of the +sentiment of one of the members of the club, a bright, wealthy, healthy +girl, a great favorite with the other club girls. She had wanted for two +years to work with girls less prosperous than the girls in the club of +which she was a member.</p> + +<p>A large tobacco factory not far from where the club met attracted her +attention, and she invited the girls working there to join the club. +Twenty-two came to the club-room. Mentally they were in a state of nature. +This group of girls represented just what intermittent school attendance, +uninterrupted freedom of the streets, from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> time they could walk alone +to the present time, might be expected to produce. They were strangers even +to the degree of social opportunities the members of the club represented.</p> + +<p>Their standards of manners and morals were what the neighborhood in which +they grew up made them. Their homes were in one of the worse sections of +the city, in which an institution wholly charitable pretending to do +educational work had been, not what was intended, an elevating influence, +but the reverse for the children of this section. When these girls went to +school they alternated between this and the public school, so that it was +impossible to compel their attendance at the public school through officers +of the law. The neighborhood in which most of these girls had been born and +grew up was a section as remote from the life of the city of which it was a +part as though it were in another country. Through it ran a thoroughfare in +which were stores that could supply every want. It was another political +unit where one man ruled, whose approval meant work in the city department, +in the street railroads, on the docks; even in the factories, of which +there were many in the section. The streets were in a shocking condition, +unpaved and dirty, and no one objected because no one cared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<p>The tenement houses were formerly the residences of the prosperous. These +houses were badly kept, old and unsanitary. Liquor saloons were on two, and +sometimes three, corners of the streets through the whole section. +Beer-sodden women were so common a sight that the women who did not bear +evidence of over-indulgence were remarkable. These girls had never known +personal ownership, even in a bureau drawer; not so much as the right to +one peg on which to hang their clothes to the exclusion of others. It is +doubtful if they ever owned a change of under-clothing that another child +of the family could not claim.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the girls took possession of the club-rooms. Quite as naturally +the older members resented it. It was seen at once that an attempt to have +the new girls elected as club members would be equivalent to ejection. They +were tolerated, but not tolerable to the older members. At the end of four +weeks the two sets of girls lined up on opposite sides of the room, utterly +refusing to intermingle. This passive attitude changed to the aggressive, +which approached open hostilities so closely as to make the danger line. +When this point was reached it was decided to form the new girls into a +club by themselves. The rooms were not used every evening by the club for +which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> were hired. Sub-letting would give more money for educational +purposes.</p> + +<p>As this attempt at club-making is one of the worst, and for that reason one +of the failures, it would be well to describe it:</p> + +<p>The directors hired rooms each fall, in September or October, until the +first of May following. As one recalls this club, it presents one of the +best evidences of the barrenness of the working-girl's life in New York. +Every fall for years a few notes written to the leading girls, and a group +of twenty or twenty-five working girls, would gather and start anew on this +club life. This method of conducting a club made it seem useless to spend +money in making the rooms attractive. They were usually on the second floor +of a house occupied by two or more families; the halls dark and bare; the +rooms rarely clean as to walls and ceiling, barren of ornament. The floors +were bare, and not infrequently stood sadly in need of scrubbing. They were +lighted by smoking kerosene lamps, which but added to their +unattractiveness. Frequently the caretaker started the fires a few minutes +before the time for the girls to appear. Yet the girls came and remained +winter after winter.</p> + +<p>The new girls accepted the same conditions, and assembled one stormy night +to form their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> club, with several additions to their number of their +own selection, among the rest their forewoman. The leaders of the club +realized that she might be an element of strength; she might be the source +of infinite trouble. She had been young many years before, a fact of which +she was wholly unconscious. She was dressed in what at the time was called +laquer—a warm shade of tan—silk, trimmed with bead trimming; a lace +collar, and a most remarkable hat completed the kind of a costume that +always is discouraging to a true club worker.</p> + +<p>Naturally the forewoman was the spokeswoman for the girls. It was useless +to attempt to draw out a personal opinion from the girls, all of whom +worked under her. Knowing the wages of the girls, it had been decided that +five cents per month should be the dues, leaving the girls a margin from +which they might pay for classes. The indignation of the forewoman at the +suggestion of five cents a month dues would have been amusing if it had not +revealed her utter blindness to the poverty of the girls. Being determined +that no girl there should be kept out of her club by poverty, the +suggestion was made to the forewoman that as her wages equalled the wages +of any three of the girls, and as she chose to join a club where the others +received such small wages, she might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> pay the same dues, and each month +make a donation to the club to meet its current expenses. She could see the +dues alone would not do that.</p> + +<p>The forewoman, after a few minutes, consented to accept the condition. The +worried look left the faces of the young girls, and they beamed on the +gracious lady who consented to waive her own dignity in their behalf. +Perhaps it is well to state here that the forewoman never made any +donation, and that she would have been dropped from the club for +non-payment of dues but for the knowledge that such a step would mean that +she would make the girls leave the club. She was by them considered a good +forewoman, kind, and ready to help a girl if a girl tried to earn more +money. She had to be consulted in everything attempted for the girls. +Fortunately she was so afraid of revealing her ignorance, which was dense +outside of her work, that she always supported the workers directing the +club affairs.</p> + +<p>This woman was taken ill. The director of the club found that she boarded +with a family consisting of a father, mother and three children, living in +three rooms. She was found lying on a mattress on the floor, destitute of +sheets or pillow-cases. She did not own a nightdress. The tan silk dress +with the bead trimming hung on a nail over her head, surmounted by the +gorgeous hat. She was very ill and penniless; yet the poor about her were +devoted to her and considered her most remarkable.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 603px;"> +<img src="images/fig186.jpg" width="603" height="480" alt="A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>Several years ago both of the clubs referred to consolidated with another +club whose directors kept the club-rooms open throughout the entire year. +After the consolidation a house of three stories in a good neighborhood was +rented, and devoted entirely to the use of the club. Only those who have +watched the development of these girls could appreciate what the club has +done for them. Cooking and sewing classes, lectures on city government, +talks on books, on art and nature; the weekly contact with women of culture +and refinement, who carry the conviction that club work is a pleasure, that +service for others is a delight, has borne fruit, and the girls in turn +give their service to those whom they may help—oftenest the members of +their own club.</p> + +<p>The evolution of character through the contact with others is, after all, +the highest attainment of the working-girls' club movement. It brought the +working girl into entirely new relations. Constantly she was forced to see +the folly of placing emphasis on the wrong thing.</p> + +<p>A nice-looking girl, very well dressed, joined a working-girls' club. Her +face indicated character and intelligence. She was elected to office,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> but +never re-elected, for she was ignorant—too ignorant to perform the +smallest duties in club life. She came every week on the social evening, +always the best-dressed girl in the club. As she grew more familiar she +grew snobbish. She lived in a very poor neighborhood, where her clothes +must have been even more out of place than in the club-room. She held a +position which required special manual skill, and in her own field was an +expert. Unfortunately, she obtained an influence over certain girls and +headed a clique. Every week she became a greater problem. One night a +rather rough, but frank and intelligent, girl was introduced as a candidate +for membership by a member who worked in the same shop. The girl who was +the club problem had been away two weeks working overtime, and did not come +to the club until after the new girl had been elected a member. The +amazement of both as they faced each other as members of the same club +aroused questions as to their social and family background. All that +appeared was that they were neighbors.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig190.jpg" width="640" height="446" alt="OPPOSITE A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION." title="" /> +<span class="caption">OPPOSITE A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first reception to mothers was given by the club about this time. When +the night of the reception came, the "problem" came in a new dress having a +jetted front. Her appearance amazed the members, and made it clear that the +"problem" must be solved or eliminated. The new member appeared with two +mothers, both plainly dressed, one not warmly enough. This one was timid, +reluctant to enter the room, and but for the urging of the new member and +her mother she would have gone home. She refused to remove the shabby shawl +she wore, and adjusted again and again the straw hat, on which a narrow +black ribbon was pinned. The "problem" stood in front of the mantel, +surrounded by an admiring crowd. The two mothers and the new member walked +into the room. It was a dramatic moment. The new member, with an expression +of deep scorn, said: "You forgot to ask your mother; we brought her." The +"problem" grew white and then crimson. The girls fell back and gazed +spellbound at the shabby, uncomfortable, timid mother. The scales fell from +their eyes. The "problem," so far as influence in the club was concerned, +ceased to be a problem. A girl who would sacrifice her mother's comfort, +who used her simply to keep house for her, could not hold any position in a +working-girls' club.</p> + +<p>The story crept out. The "problem" felt the loss of prestige. Clothes had +satisfied her ambition; she had through them enjoyed a sense of power. The +experience of that evening doubtless opened her eyes to things in life to +which she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> had been blind. Again and again she was seen during that evening +reception to look at her mother searchingly. She seemed to see her in a new +light, and by its reflection, herself. The mother was afraid of her and +showed it. The daughter, it was evident, discovered that fear for the first +time and sought to overcome it. It was determined to hold fast to the +"problem" and help her solve herself. Great progress was made. Her dress no +longer astonished; her mother came to the club receptions comfortably and +suitably dressed. Out of consideration for her mother, she remained in the +wretched tenement, because the mother and the house had grown old together; +but the rooms were now furnished. The new member had supplanted the +"problem" as an influence in the club. The "problem" became engaged, and +the club lost her. The man was a store-keeper in a town not far from New +York. The girl married and forgot to take her mother to her new home. The +mother remained a club legacy for two years, when she died. The daughter +sent the money to bury her, but did not come to the funeral. Her husband is +successful, and she is a social power in the Church to-day; a devoted +mother and wife, strange as it may seem.</p> + +<p>The centering of experience, the revelations of character inevitable in a +working-girls' club, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the largest factors in educating the members. As +the years go on, emphasis is laid on the right things. Harmony results, +because a sense of proportion is gained. Girls who have had the benefit of +a public school education that enables them to fill positions that prove +they have had such opportunities, often in the beginning of their club life +will manifest a feeling of superiority over the girl who works with her +hands. But eventually some experience will reveal to them the pettiness of +their estimate, and a readjustment of values is made.</p> + +<p>A girl, long a member of a club, had won the love and admiration of all +connected with it. She earned wages far above the average of working girls, +a fact well understood in the club. She was always an officer, and a +dependable power in the management of the club. The girls were to give a +play. No amount of urging won this girl's consent to take part in the play. +A girl who had taken a part dropped out, and some one must take her place +at once. Now the girls refused to take "no" for an answer, and the favorite +went down in the basement with the others who were in the play. Each had +her book to read her part, as a help to the girl pressed into the service. +When it came her turn to read there was absolute silence. The girl sat +white and trembling, trying to speak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> At last jerkingly the words came: "I +cannot read. I never learned beyond the small words. I had to take care of +the children when mother went to work, while my father was sick. I went to +work as soon as I could and helped keep them in school. They all read and +write. I cannot. Now you know why I did not say 'yes.'"</p> + +<p>There was silence for the space of several minutes. No one could speak. +Then the baby of the club, the one everybody petted, whose very naughtiness +was attractive, ran around the table, threw her arms around the speaker's +neck, saying: "You're worth all the rest of us put together. We'll never +give the old play. We all hate it." This followed by a half dozen kisses +placed wherever she could touch the crimson, tear-stained face of the girl +through her hands.</p> + +<p>Education had been put in its right place in the field of accomplishment. +When the entertainment was given, the girl who could not read was made +manager, because no one could do so well.</p> + +<p>For more than twenty years the working-girls' club has been a power in +thousands of lives. The process of character building through accretion and +elimination has been going on. Through its influence the club method has +been applied under every guise, but perhaps it is just to say that it has +been at its best where its formation and management<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> has been purely +democratic and absolutely non-sectarian. In the nature of things, in +affiliation with any organization, it must take its place as the fraction +of a unit, and be in its management considered always as only a part of a +whole to whose success it owes an allegiance.</p> + +<p>Now the working-girls' clubs have their State organizations, even their +national organization. The Pan-American Exposition brought working girls to +the number of five hundred together in a convention to consider the +questions vital to club life and management. Can any one doubt the effect +of this journey into the world, the first that hundreds of these girls had +ever made? Of the readjustment of ideas, the revelation of beauty, the new +birth of values, because of the vision of a larger world lying beyond +factory, workshop, office, school-room? For it has come to this: that the +professional as well as the manual worker finds inspiration in the +working-girls' club.</p> + +<p>As the years went on, a new problem grew out of the working-girls' club +movement. The members married, but they were not willing to lose the social +affiliations of girlhood; they were unwilling often, reluctant always, to +sever club relationship. On the other hand, the members felt that a married +woman should remain home in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> evening with her husband. Often the +married member would come carrying her baby, for the club represented the +mother's social relations. The next step was natural, the forming of a club +of the married members to meet in the afternoon. The first working-girls' +club, of which Miss Dodge is still president, formed, as the Domestic +Circle, a club of married members.</p> + +<p>The A. O. V. Matrons at the Cottage Settlement are the married members of +the A. O. V. Club, formed when the matrons were little girls. Other +working-girls' clubs have contributed to the membership of other married +women's clubs.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the subjects discussed in these clubs are those bearing on +housekeeping and the training of children. The training received in the +clubs enables the married members to conduct their business with dignity +and dispatch. They are trained to club life, and have learned how to avoid +unnecessary friction.</p> + +<p>Some clubs plan a winter's work ahead. These programmes show a broadening +of interest and sympathy, not only in the technical affairs, the home and +the care of children, but the larger affairs outside of the home that makes +its environment. It must be that the girls who have been club members make +more companionable wives than the women who have not had their +opportunities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> The children are always present at the meetings of the +mothers. Various devices and methods are employed to entertain and interest +them. What the mothers' club means to the little ones was unconsciously +revealed very recently in the statement of a young mother: "—— is always +home from school five minutes earlier club day. She runs home to get +ready."</p> + +<p>The working-girls' club has in the process of its evolution become a family +institution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT.</h3> + + +<p>The Residents of the College Settlement learned in the first year of their +work in Rivington Street to sympathize deeply with the married women, the +mothers in the region.</p> + +<p>Mothers, after nights spent in overcrowded, unventilated bedrooms caring +for nursing babies, began getting breakfast at five o'clock in the morning. +Husband and children of every age must be wakened for work or for school, +often irritable because of the unhygienic conditions under which they had +slept. Friction and quarreling is to be expected when there is one +wash-basin for the use of the whole family; one sink for the morning bath +of the family when there is running water in the rooms. Breakfast of bread +and strong coffee, perhaps with the family waiting turns because only three +sides of the table are available, as there is not room to pull the table +out from the wall to make the four sides useful. Floor space costs in the +tenements.</p> + +<p>Friction, adjustment and hurry do not tend to develop a serene spirit in +the house-mother whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> office is purely executive. How much less in the +house-mother whose hands must do all the work of the home? When the working +and school-going members of the family are cared for and have gone their +several ways, there is left to the house-mother almost always a baby and +another child too young to go to school, to care for and amuse. In addition +there is the round of work—washing, ironing, mending, making, cooking—all +to be done under limitations of space and conveniences; often with the +handicap of ignorance. Whatever the advantage of self-made money-makers, +the self-made housekeeper, taught only by experience, not only pays dearly +for her education, but is more than apt to be satisfied with her +self-taught accomplishments, thus increasing her disadvantages in the use +of time and money.</p> + +<p>Even with a small family the house-mother with the usual round of work +would not have many moments of leisure. When it is a large family, with all +the disadvantages of the tenement-house home, the days are not long enough +for the work to be done. It crowds the hours, and accumulates until often +discouragement and nervous exhaustion follow. If the mother have a +conscience, she wars with herself, battling against conditions that she +feels but cannot understand nor overcome.</p> + +<p>Three hundred and sixty-five days in the year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> the Residents found these +mothers who needed the change of pleasure that made no demands on purses. +Even good wages did not permit these families money to buy pleasure and +recreation. Mothers, good mothers, grew old before their time. They often +grew careless of their personal appearance, and by this risked their +influence in their homes, separation from their children, alert and often +overconscious on the subject of dress.</p> + +<p>Then there were semi-apathetic mothers because of discouragement; the +mothers who drifted, never having an aim in life or an ideal; then the +mothers who long ago ceased to make any struggle against environment, every +year becoming more inert; the mothers, now grand-mothers, who were +remembered only in time of need by their children. The Residents saw the +need of the mothers of all types. How could the apathetic be awakened, the +discouraged stimulated, the overworked rested and cheered? Hundreds, +thousands of mothers were losing the best things of life because for them +the activities that increase interest and sympathies could not be brought +into their lives. Their environment made social opportunities in their own +homes impossible. Husband and children, through contact with life in shop, +factory, store, street and school, enlarged their interest every day; while +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> wife and mother came to a mental standstill, often losing interest in +everything outside of her home; often failing through lack of knowledge and +discouragement in making that a place of rest and refreshing.</p> + +<p>The Settlement was the bright spot in the lives of hundreds of young people +and children. The mothers who could be stimulated must be reached and held +in a center where pleasure would be the controlling element and education +an incident. There were mothers who had lost all desire for social life. It +was found difficult to arouse in them even a momentary interest in the +thought of seeing new things, new people. The grind of life had blunted all +social instincts. There were women who on the social side of their natures +were dead; could not be roused by any thought outside of the routine of +their lives. Interest enough to do for their families what required the +least effort of mind and body was all that was left. The hope in these +homes was the children. To them the Settlement must give inspiration and +ideals; the home would never give either.</p> + +<p>In the second year of the College Settlement's activity a persistent effort +was made to reach the mothers, especially the mothers of the more alert and +active boys and girls affiliated with the Settlement, in clubs and classes. +These mothers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> came, but never the same group twice. The smallest obstacle +would prevent the very women who most needed social opportunity from +accepting it. When they needed help, they came to the Settlement; they were +most cordial hostesses when the Residents called; delighted in the +opportunities the Settlement made for their children; but the habit of +staying indoors, out of touch with any life but that of the tenement-house +halls, was a fixed habit most difficult to dislodge.</p> + +<p>Some of the workers who were interested in this question were led to +conclude that it was only the exceptional woman in the tenements who +retained the capacity to plan her work to secure a specified hour or two of +freedom in a whole week. The life imposed on the tenement-house mother does +not make time an element in adjustment of her day, still less of her week. +The breakfast over, the day unfolds itself, and the mother is free to meet +it. Only in the exceptional home is life considered in its relation to the +time of day. One thing was clear: that in the homes of the better paid +wage-earners the mothers did not get their share of life's brightness. A +College Settlement worker, enthusiastically supported by the Head Resident, +determined to secure it for some of them. Failures would not discourage the +worker, for every effort would be considered an experiment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> until success +was attained. The club idea had proved successful for the children and +young people; it had for mothers of larger opportunities elsewhere in the +social world; it might for these mothers. At least, it could be tried.</p> + +<p>Twenty-two calls were made on the mothers of children and young people then +coming to the Settlement, asking them to the Settlement for a certain +afternoon in the following week. All accepted the invitation; ten came. The +women who responded were told of the plan to start a club to meet once a +week. There would be music, a short talk and refreshments. The plan seemed +to please all who were present, and it was agreed to meet the following +week.</p> + +<p>At once a problem was faced. Some of the mothers came without hats, wearing +not overclean aprons, and apparently looking upon the movement as some new +phase of almsgiving. Others were alert, well-dressed, comprehended that +they must contribute their share in money and interest or the effort would +die out. The children of these two types of mothers could not be +distinguished by outward signs. American public school life and the very +atmosphere of the street life had already begun its leveling-up process in +dress and independence. How could these two types be brought into a common +social relation, when they held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> nothing in common but the experience of +living under the roof with many?</p> + +<p>It was decided to let the law of natural selection operate freely. The club +was an experiment, and it must not start with preconceived plans; its life +must be one of evolution. The next week only the alert women appeared.</p> + +<p>The club was formed, a president elected, and dues placed at ten cents per +week. This the projectors tried to reduce, but the members insisted that +they could and would pay it. That it would cost almost that to pay for the +cake and coffee, and they could help somebody if there was any money over. +The club was limited to ten members, and filled at the second meeting. It +enlarged to fifteen the next year. In its fifth year it numbered +forty-five.</p> + +<p>The subject of the first formal talk, informally conducted, as its subject +demanded, was: "How long after the hair is out of curling-papers is it +becoming?" This, of course, gave the opportunity of laying stress on a +wife's personal appearance; the necessity of being as attractive as +possible to one's own husband and children. That was, is, the keynote of +the club, its creed, its religion to-day, when mothers and married +daughters are members. The time of meeting was two o'clock, that the +mothers might be at home in time to get supper for their husbands and +children. Babies came with their mothers, and children in school came to +the Settlement instead of going home after school. Many of the little girls +belonged to a sewing club that met the same afternoon at the Settlement. +The club, named in the first month of its existence "The Woman's Home +Improvement Club," celebrated its eleventh anniversary at the College +Settlement, October, 1901.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig206.jpg" width="640" height="445" alt="THE WOMAN'S HOME IMPROVEMENT CLUB AT THE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE WOMAN'S HOME IMPROVEMENT CLUB AT THE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>As the first anniversary approached, the members suggested an evening +meeting, that their husbands might come. The proposition received the most +enthusiastic support from the Settlement Residents. Husbands, all the +children who worked, and a friend of each member—if married, her +husband—were included in the invitation. Dancing and music occupied the +evening. What a revelation! Fathers dancing with their own daughters for +the first time; mothers with their sons; daughters and sons spellbound at +the sight of their mothers and fathers dancing together! It was evident +that the club was a feature of the family life. The husbands and grown +children knew what had been talked about, what had been done at the +meetings. One husband, watching his wife dancing with their son, said: "I +don't know how you've done it, but this club has made my wife young again; +she's as young as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> when we were married." This wife and mother of nine +children at the club one afternoon wished there were a hundred such clubs. +"'Tis a mistake to just stay shut up." She waited a minute, and then said: +"I had not bought a hat for eighteen years until I joined this club; I did +not need it; I never went anywhere; the children did all the errands."</p> + +<p>This was the very type of mother the projectors of the club hoped to reach. +The first evening reception proved such a success that it was decided to +hold one evening reception each month for the family and friends of the +members. Thanksgiving and Christmas receptions belonged to the children. +Apples, nuts, gingerbread, cake and peanut brittle, with coffee, are the +refreshments for Thanksgiving evening; new milk for the children. The games +are Blind Man's Buff, Going to Jerusalem, with the Virginia Reel as an +alternate, because the little children can dance it. "America" and "Home, +Sweet Home," sung in chorus, close the evening. More than one family is now +represented by three generations on these evenings. At the first evening +reception a father and son of twenty years stood side by side. When the +father began singing, the son stopped and looked at him in amazement. This +changed to one of enjoyment, as he said between the verses:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> "Dad, I didn't +know you could sing." "I haven't in twenty years, I guess," was the reply. +Both father and son had good voices. The son had made the discovery that he +had a voice, at the Settlement, in his club. He edged closer to his father; +there was a new bond of sympathy. The boy's Christmas present from his +father, mother, brother and sisters was a mandolin, the first time a +combination present had been given. It was quite natural that the next year +a table for the new parlor should be the gift of the children to the +parents.</p> + +<p>An incident occurring in the third year after the club was organized is, +perhaps, as perfect an illustration of the lack of social opportunity in a +tenement-house home as can be given.</p> + +<p>One of the most faithful and interested of the members was a woman about +fifty-seven when she joined the club. She was slow to respond to the club +idea; to the right of personal judgment outside her own affairs. Her +responses to a question that involved an expression of opinion was usually: +"It don't make no difference to me." After a time she grasped the idea that +she was one of many, but had equal rights with all the members in deciding +questions relating to the club, and she began assuming responsibilities; +expressing her views. In the third year she came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> to the president, and +with every evidence of wishing to disclose a secret, said: "Next week +Thursday is my birthday. I never had a birthday party in my life. I've +always wanted one, but never had the room, and I never had the dishes. Do +you believe I could have a birthday party here next week?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sure you could."</p> + +<p>"I can't do much; and I only have two friends besides the club that I want +to have. I want to pay for all the coffee and cake, that I may feel that +it's my party. Just my two daughters, and my two friends, and my +grandchildren—four, that's all. I've been saving the money for a year."</p> + +<p>One night early in the next week the bell rang. A working man stood at the +door. He handed a five-dollar bill to one of the Residents, saying: "My +wife, she's goin' to have a party here Thursday. I want you to give her a +good time. She's been a good wife to me. Don't tell her; just spend it for +her;" and the man disappeared in the darkness.</p> + +<p>It was decided to order a birthday cake and light sixty candles.</p> + +<p>The day came. Every member brought a remembrance. Radiantly, tearfully +happy stood the hostess. She loved music, and a sweet, gracious woman whose +music wins the most cultured sang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> song after song. Time for refreshments +came. In the front parlor a club of little girls were sewing. It seemed a +pity that they should not see the cake and the candles lighted. They were +told that the doors would open, a lady was having her first birthday party, +and it would be kind to wish her many returns of the day.</p> + +<p>The cake was brought in with the sixty candles burning, and placed before +the hostess, a gift from her husband. "I didn't know," the wife kept +whispering under her breath as she stood beside it at the table. The doors +rolled slowly backward, and twenty children breathed "Ah!" Then in a piping +chorus, "Wish you many returns of the day." A moment the woman stood still. +Then turning a shining face on all about, she moved toward the children, +the tears falling fast. Raising her hands and face heavenward, she said +solemnly: "O God, what have I done that you should be so good to me?" The +volume of her life was opened.</p> + +<p>A cake with a few shining candles, a few friends with their little +offerings, and the wishes of a few children, and to one woman God had +reached out of His high heaven and selected her as the special object of +His care and love.</p> + +<p>Not all of the five dollars had been used. The hostess was asked what she +wanted done with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> She was radiant. "I'll give a party to those children +what said that sweet thing to me." Suggestions of other uses were cast +aside. The children must have a party—ice cream and cake. When she found +out that cake and ice cream would cost more than the money in hand, she +announced: "I will wait to give it. In a month I save money to put to it." +She made all her own arrangements, and proved a hostess of resource and +tact.</p> + +<p>She received her guests most cordially. Perhaps the most wildly exciting +hours of her life were when, after much coaxing, she joined in the games of +Drop the Handkerchief, Blind Man's Buff and Going to Jerusalem, the last +game sending her crimson and panting into a chair in the corner, with the +children crowding about her shrieking with laughter.</p> + +<p>Time for refreshments found her anxious and watchful. The members of the +club had fallen into the spirit of the day, and nobody was grown up.</p> + +<p>An incident occurred during the serving of refreshments which showed the +educational value of a story written for pleasure, not education; at the +same time a very deep compliment to the book. "The Birds' Christmas Carol" +was a favorite book in the club. It had been read twenty-seven times in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +one tenement house by eleven members of one family, and four times by one +member, who said she would own a copy whenever she could spare the money. +She wanted to read it when she felt cross. As there were not chairs enough +for all at the party, some of the children sat on the floor. The little +daughter of the mother who wanted to own "The Birds' Christmas Carol" sat +on the floor in front of her mother. She did something while eating her ice +cream of which her mother disapproved. With a quick glance at one of the +workers who stood near her, the mother said: "If I had been as wise as Mrs. +Ruggles, she would not have done that." Mrs. Ruggles was a thoroughly +appreciated character. Her struggles to equip her children were perfectly +understood, as were her ambitions for them. The hostess of the day was as +disappointed as the youngest child when the lighting of the gas told that +the day was done. She was the last to leave, saying: "I never was so happy +in my life. It has been beautiful. All my life I wanted a birthday party. +Now I have two;" and she turned a radiant face to say "Good-night" as she +went down the stoop into the gathering darkness.</p> + +<p>The weeks went by. The club had tickets to go to Glen Island, through the +generosity of Mr. Starin. In August another member had a birthday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> and +confided the secret to the giver of the birthday party, saying, "I wanted +to give a birthday party as you did. I never had one in my life; but I +could not get money enough. I tried hard since yours." In September the +elder member confided this conversation to the president of the club, +saying, "Now we will give her a surprise. She shall have the party. I have +talked with every member. But we will not each buy her a present; we put +our money together and buy her a dress." The president doubted the wisdom +of this, and suggested a dozen other gifts. "No, we give a dress. She does +not have as nice a dress as other members. It is not right that one member +of a club should not dress as good as every other member. Why not she take +that dress? She know we love her, and we give her this because we want her +to look as good as anybody; she is so pretty."</p> + +<p>The dress was bought and given by the oldest member of the club, who in her +speech announced her views on dress, and the need of one member looking as +well-dressed as any other member; that if one could not have things, then +the others must share with her; that was being a true member. The dress was +received in the spirit in which it was given. When it was found that it +could not be made by the receiver in time for the next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> reception because +she had so much work, it was cut and made by five members of the club. The +wisdom of putting money together to buy one present was learned, and from +that time on the custom has been to make joint gifts when gifts are given. +This is done in families, greatly reducing the valueless things that were +formerly bought when only a little money, a few cents perhaps, could be +spent by each one.</p> + +<p>About the time this club was established the kindergarten had been added to +the vocabulary of philanthropists. The kindergarten existed as part of the +secular work of many of the churches, and individuals here and there +supported kindergartens. It was generally conceded that the mothers of the +children did not appreciate the work the kindergarten was doing for their +children; that too often they felt that permitting them to go was +conferring a favor on the kindergartners or those who had asked for their +children's attendance. The Residents and workers at the Settlement did not +believe that this was a healthy attitude of mind. They believed it was +responsible for the irregular attendance of many of the children, as well +as the lack of punctuality. There was no kindergarten in connection with +the Settlement, nor room for one, but one was greatly needed. Much as it +was needed, it must not come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> until the mothers wanted it and were willing +to work for it.</p> + +<p>Miss Brooks was then at the head of the Kindergarten Training School in +connection with the Teachers' College. She was consulted. The result was +that the members of the Woman's Home Improvement Club became on several +afternoons members of a kindergarten. They used the materials, took part in +the games directed by Miss Brooks and the members of her training class. +The names of the material used, the things made, the stories, the games, +the songs, became a part of the vocabulary of the mothers. Some of the +material was bought and taken home to entertain the children. The natural +result followed. "If only we could have a kindergarten for our children!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig218.jpg" width="640" height="414" alt="THE KINDERGARTEN OF THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE KINDERGARTEN OF THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was suggested that if seventy children could be found near enough to the +DeWitt Memorial, where a room for the kindergarten was available, that +perhaps the kindergarten would be established there. Over one hundred calls +were made by the nine members of this club, which resulted in securing the +promised attendance of seventy children. The Lowell Kindergarten was then +opened at the DeWitt Memorial by the New York Kindergarten Association as a +result of this effort. The difficulties the mothers put in the way of good +work in the kindergarten was explained to the members of the club, who +agreed to call on mothers whose children did not come to the kindergarten +in time, or were irregular in attendance. It was most interesting to watch +the growth of public sentiment in favor of regular and punctual attendance, +not only at the kindergarten, but at school. If the kindergarten child +reported Johnny Jones, who was a neighbor's child, as absent, the elder +brother or visitor after school was sent to find out if Johnny Jones were +ill. It became a badge of good motherhood to have the child in the +kindergarten on time. Before this, through talks by doctors and nurses, the +relation between health and cleanliness had been discovered. Cleanliness +was imposed on their own children, and exacted from other mothers of +kindergarten children.</p> + +<p>The influx of Hebrews, toward whom the members of this club had a deep race +prejudice, drove them out of this neighborhood. Before seven years had +passed but four of the members were residents of this district. But a +change of residence did not change their belief in the value of the +kindergarten. Wherever they have gone they have sought it for their young +children, who have found always intelligent and sympathetic listeners in +their mothers to all the events and incidents in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> their kindergarten world. +One mother learned accompaniments to songs, and the children sing +kindergarten songs at the club entertainments, even those in the grammar +grade join.</p> + +<p>As time went on, the conviction grew stronger that the real pressure of +poverty or lack of money, among the self-respecting independent poor came +not on the physical nature but the mental and emotional. The pressure was +incessant. There never was a time when there was money to buy pleasure. +Months, years went by without life offering the opportunity for enlarging +the mental horizon of thousands of capable, receptive, devoted mothers. To +the children the Church entertainments were opportunities; clubs and sewing +schools were doing their share, but the mothers were only onlookers. There +was no active part for them except in the world of work. The churches +provided religious opportunity and social opportunity, regulated by the +Church environment. Hundreds were not attracted, and often one sympathized +with their rejection of this kind of social opportunity, tinged too +frequently with patronage, and of necessity, narrow in its scope.</p> + +<p>Early in the history of this club the love of music was so evident that it +was decided that the members should hear "The Messiah." That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> would be the +Christmas treat that year. The cost of the tickets was far beyond the means +of the members, but friends made the purchase of the tickets for every +member possible.</p> + +<p>Two days before the giving of the Oratorio, Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith came +to the Settlement and gave a recital. Handel's picture was displayed, the +story of his life told. The themes of the Oratorio were explained, and then +sung by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. A new world was opened. The night for the +Oratorio came. The journey so far uptown was into a land wholly unknown. +Carnegie Hall was a revelation of another world. Its size and beauty, the +audience, all a revelation. From the opening bar to the close of the +Oratorio the club members listened entranced. It was the enlarging of the +world revealed by Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith. As the chorus "Unto us a child +is born, Unto us a son is given," closed, every one of the mothers sat with +shining face but moist eyes. A new message had come. One little mother, +whose battle so bravely fought won reverence for her, leaned down and +whispered: "I'm so glad I have sons; I'm so glad. I think I know now what +it means." The echo came back for weeks, yes, for years. One member, in +trying to tell her husband, said: "I saw while I was talking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> how +impossible it was to make him understand, so I said: 'John, you'll never +know till you get to Heaven what I heard and saw to-night.'"</p> + +<p>The result justified the effort. It was seen that it was wise to have the +best of everything for the members of the club in the way of entertainment. +Musicians have given most generously of their time and talent. Speakers who +are sought for in the highest intellectual world have been secured for the +evening receptions, when the husbands and working children and friends were +present. The result has been to develop just at the level where it was most +needed standards that protect the home from enjoyments tinged with +vulgarity, and even crudeness is now detected and accepted grudgingly or +with apology.</p> + +<p>The hard times of 1893-94 gave a new opportunity to test the value of such +a club. The stories of suffering, of helplessness, made it seem wise to +control money to be expended through the club members. They were brought +into contact with families who never before were reduced to the point of +asking charity. About four hundred dollars was expended under the direction +of the members of this club. Work tickets were bought and given to men and +women whose life history they knew, men and women they had known for years. +When cases of strangers were brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> to their notice, they investigated +and advised as to the best way to give help. To prevent eviction, payment +of rent was the first effort of the club members.</p> + +<p>The education they received was invaluable. For the first time it was +possible for them to help others in a large way; they saw that the number +they could help depended on the wisdom shown in expending the money on +which they could call. Their indignation knew no bounds when they found +they had been deceived, as they were in half a dozen cases of families +brought to their attention. One case caused a complete revolution in their +theory that if people suffered it was because the world was hard with them, +had not given them a chance. One woman, a widow, was brought to the +attention of the club early in the winter. She had one child, and they had +not had a fire in weeks; had no outside garments to go on the street, +because they had pawned them for food. They had eaten nothing but bread and +coffee for seven weeks. Now they were to be evicted from the one room they +had occupied, because no rent had been paid for two months. The club had +decided that paying back rents only benefited landlords; that, having so +little money and so many demands, rent in advance was all they could pay. +They voted to move the woman, then to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> find work for her. It was decided +that she must learn to operate a sewing machine. The Charities' +Organization Society made that possible. After two weeks' trial, it was +found that the woman could not learn. Then the society gave her a chance to +learn laundry work, and for two weeks more money to support the woman and +child—cared for by one of the members in turn while the mother was away +from home—was given. Again the report came that the woman would not learn. +Then the members decided to teach her. This individual teaching, with what +the society had done, seemed to make an impression. It was decided that the +woman could iron.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig226.jpg" width="640" height="463" alt="MAKING A SELECTION." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MAKING A SELECTION.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>When this stage was reached the fourteen-year-old daughter of one of the +members passed on her way from work a laundry. At the door a sign hung, +"Hands Wanted." The little girl went in and asked about wages. The man at +the desk laughed at her. "It made me mad. I just looked at him," drawing +herself up as she told the story. "I said: 'I do not want the work for +myself, but for a woman <i>our</i> club is trying to help; she's poor, and a +widow.' Then the man looked at me, and told me to tell the woman to come. I +told him we'd all been teaching her." The use of the plural possessive +thrilled the heart of the workers; the club was a family possession. The +woman was told to go to work the next morning. As the little girl was +returning from work the next night, she stopped at the laundry to ask about +the woman; to walk home with her, if she were going home. She was told the +woman had not appeared. Before going to her own home, the child went to see +why the woman had not gone to work. The woman had overslept. For three +weeks that little girl got up earlier and went after that woman, delivering +her at the laundry as though she were a package. It was decided that the +sacrifice was too much; if the woman was not willing to keep the work by +her own effort, she was not worth helping. An alarm clock was bought and +given her, and she was taught how to wind it. She lost the place before the +end of the first week because she could not get there on time.</p> + +<p>The club found out that there were people it was impossible to help, do +what the world would.</p> + +<p>This little girl during this period of struggle with this woman was met one +Sunday afternoon. She carried a doll to which she was devoted, and for +which she made a cloak that Sunday morning. "Isn't she pretty?" she said, +holding up the doll. "I often wish I could see her when I'm working." What +a combination of child and woman! As the years have passed, this little +girl has paid the penalty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> of shop life. She has grown hard, aggressive, +self-assertive, untruthful. If only her environment could have been +different, she would have made a magnificent woman. The world of struggle +has been too much for her; it has strangled the spirit of helpfulness.</p> + +<p>The lessons of that winter have been well learned. Every mother in the club +wants a trade for her child; something learned that has in it wage-earning +promise because the worker has special knowledge.</p> + +<p>The time came when it was possible to turn the attention of these mothers +to the administration of those city departments that make the environment +of their homes. The streets naturally claimed first attention. They learned +to take the numbers of the street sweepers who failed to do their work; to +take the numbers of the carts improperly and carelessly filled, and report +them at the club meeting. Leaking roofs, broken stairways, unlighted halls, +contagious diseases were reported, and conditions in the stores and +factories where their daughters worked.</p> + +<p>The criminality of concealing dangers that threatened many to protect one +was comprehended. The club motto became "A helping hand to all."</p> + +<p>The club members felt that it was possible for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> them to give special help +to little children. In a thousand ways the women in the house of many +families find the opportunity to help children; often through the children +they helped the mothers. Sometimes through personal influence they secured +the regular attendance of children at school; sometimes it meant calling in +the aid of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to secure +the rights of children, to protect them from evils in their own homes.</p> + +<p>One day a wealthy woman who had lost a little girl told the president of +this club this incident, which, she said, changed the course of her life. +For months she had shut out the world. God and man were cruel. Nothing +interested her; life was empty. She sat by the window in her home one +November afternoon. It was drizzling and blowing. A little girl without hat +or coat stood shivering and crying against the church railing opposite. As +she watched the child her mind reverted to the clothes she handled so +constantly, because they had been worn by her child. She sent for the +little stranger, and when she went on the street again she was warm, tidy +and comfortable. Then came the thought, "God never meant a woman should be +a mother just to one little girl. She must be a mother to every child who +needs her." From that day this woman has given her life and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> service to +children. The story was told to the club.</p> + +<p>One of the members, after the meeting had adjourned and while the +refreshments were being served, was overheard saying: "Why, certainly it +would change everything if every woman would live in that way. Think how +many times you could save children, how many times you could help them, if +you were their mother just for the time they needed you—often only a few +minutes."</p> + +<p>Months after a member reported: "Well, I don't know what you'll all think +when I tell you what I did last week. I've been bothered because such a +nice-looking little girl came every morning about school time and went +upstairs in the house opposite. She carried a lunch-box and books. I would +see her with a baby at the window, and see her in the morning run on +errands. At three o'clock she went away in the direction from which she +came. That child is playing 'hookey.' That woman is to blame, I said to +myself. One morning last week I saw the child go to the corner grocery. I +went after her.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 361px;"> +<img src="images/fig232.jpg" width="361" height="640" alt="AT THE SETTLEMENT—A STORMY DAY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">AT THE SETTLEMENT—A STORMY DAY.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Where you live, little girl?' I asked. She grew red and hung her head, +and tried to get out of the store. I stand in front of her. 'No, you must +not be afraid of me. I have little girls. I love all little girls. Where is +your mother? Child, you deceive her. She thinks you are in school, and you +play "hookey."' The child ran out of the store, crying. I went right +upstairs after her. I knock. The woman would not open the door. I knock +louder, then she come. When she see me, she tried to close the door. I put +my foot in the door and keep it open. I say, 'You are doing wrong. I belong +to a club where every member is to be a mother to every child what needs +her. If that little girl come here one more day, I follow her home and tell +her mother. It be bad for you if any child come here so young as that +child. It is against the law for such little children to work. That little +girl is playing "hookey," and you make her. You do that any more, and I +make a complaint against you to the Children's Society. Good-morning;' and +I took out my foot, bowed and went downstairs. When I got home, that little +girl is running down the street where she comes every morning. I never see +her now, and that woman do her own errands and mind her own baby."</p> + +<p>The members applauded. A child out of school is a child to be looked after. +It has been concluded by the members of this club that they can do their +best missionary work in the houses where they live, by keeping their rooms +and their children in the best possible condition; that every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> home, every +child so cared for, is the best possible sermon preached, the purpose of +which is to make life better.</p> + +<p>The League for Political Education, the Woman's Auxiliary of the Civil +Service Reform Association, the City History Club have sent speakers to the +club, some conducting courses of lectures. Even the Assembly District work +undertaken by the League for Political Education was attempted by the club, +but did not succeed. It could hardly be expected that it would.</p> + +<p>During all those years the members had been trained to self-government. All +questions are decided by the majority. There came a time when the majority +voted to leave the College Settlement. It was deplored by the projectors, +but accepted. After a few weeks a small house was taken a couple of blocks +from the East River. The house had a large yard, and by expending a small +amount of money was made very attractive. The attempt was made to have the +members of the club do neighborhood work. A very short trial proved this +was impracticable. Two things were revealed: That the mother of a +working-man's family has neither strength nor time to give away; that the +very conditions of tenement-house neighborhoods require trained, impersonal +workers. The women who gave time to the club work in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> the neighborhood +neglected their homes and families. The few members who tried to do +neighborhood work in the house used every advantage the club-house offered, +which they controlled, to curry favor, to revenge slights, real or fancied, +to themselves or their children. The best mothers made no attempt to do any +neighborhood work. The house became a social center, an educational center. +But it was not a success until paid workers were put in charge of different +departments, with a very few volunteer workers; and the most faithful of +these were women of wealth.</p> + +<p>It was hoped that uptown organizations would establish branches of their +work in this house. Some did attempt it, but it failed for the reason that +so many efforts to better the conditions of the tenement-house dwellers +fail. Women lacking the right qualities volunteered, or the work was +important when other things did not interfere. Clubs were established to +which the organizers came when it was convenient. Again and again children +connected with clubs waited until darkness came, but no "dear lady" whom +they trusted appeared. In another case, numbers were the standard of +success, and scores were crowded in where units should have been. All this +forced the employment of paid workers, and centered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> responsibility on +one until the burden was too great to be borne.</p> + +<p>Added to this, the principle of self-government had given a one-sided +development to some of the members, and friction would develop when large +questions were to be decided, an aggressive minority combating a +conservative and less demonstrative majority.</p> + +<p>The reform campaign of 1897 began. The picture of the candidate of the +Citizens' Union hung in the window. The Citizens' Union used the house and +yard for its lectures. When the campaign was ended, the friction developed +to the unbearable point, and it seemed, in view of the dissension, best to +disband the club. The club voted to keep together and return to the College +Settlement, if the privilege could be secured. This was generously given, +and the club unanimously voted to return, pledging the members to give all +the aid possible to the Settlement work. Since 1898 the club has again been +a part of the work at the Settlement.</p> + +<p>For six years this club has had a country club-house—a large house, easy +of access, in New Jersey, admirably adapted to the purposes of the club. +The house is surrounded by lawns and an apple orchard. Two kitchens make it +possible for two families to occupy the house at the same time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> The rent +is paid and the house cleaned each spring. All other expenses, including +car fares, are paid by the members of the club using the house. The plan is +for each member to use half the house for two weeks. By a system of +evolution and working of the law of natural selection, four families use +the house at the same time. Mrs. A. invites Mrs. B. for the two weeks that +she is entitled to half of the house; and Mrs. B., arranging her two weeks +to follow Mrs. A., reciprocates by asking Mrs. A. to remain for her two +weeks. Co-operative housekeeping has developed, as has the sharing in the +care of the children. The barn, equipped for the children, has been an +endless delight. Two members have in the past been debarred the use of the +house. One because of the character of the men invited by the husband; one +because of the language used to her children. Both were asked to resign +from the club, or to make it inconvenient to use the club-house. One +resigned. The average number of people using this club-house has been +between four and five hundred each season. Sick children of neighbors have +been taken up by the members and cared for during their whole vacation. On +Sundays, friends, relatives and city neighbors are guests.</p> + +<p>There has never been any supervision over the house, except that of the +members. Each member<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> leaves the part of the house she has used clean for +the one coming after her. For several years the club paid part of two +months' rent, raised through entertainments. One year the members made a +donation of thirty dollars. Broken dishes are replaced, and the cost of +repairing furniture broken is paid by the member using the furniture at the +time. The large parlor is a club-room, and used by every member who goes up +for a day. A closet is provided with dishes to be used when picnics are +given by the members. The theory is that the grounds—four acres—can be +used by the members at any time, but the families in the house must not be +interfered with in any way.</p> + +<p>The story of this club has been told at this length because it has proved +what can be done in broadening the life of women of natural intelligence +living under tenement-house conditions; how the family can have a common +interest, to which each contributes, a center that can create social +opportunity for the friends of every member and the members of every +family.</p> + +<p>This club has been able to do much to lighten the burdens in the time of +financial crisis for people who could only have been helped through such a +medium. It was the help of a friend always. For years it has been able to +distribute Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners; but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> grows more cautious +every year, for it has made discoveries of the abuses of the Christmas +dinner-giving. Through the children it has been possible to reach other +children who needed Christmas cheer, but who would not take it from ever so +kind-hearted a public.</p> + +<p>The long years of working together has cemented friendships that are the +inheritances of the children, and sons and daughters have intermarried. +Baby after baby finds its godmother in the club.</p> + +<p>There have been mortifying failures, but there have been positive successes +in the eleven years. The club has proved conclusively that the +working-men's wives can be determining factors in arousing and demanding +better environment for their homes; that the wife and mother who keeps in +touch with life commands greater influence in and outside her home, where +all that she learns is used to make that home better; that she keeps her +place in her family best when she makes herself the companion of her +husband and children; when she, as far as she may, is herself the source of +their social life, and contributes to their mental interests by sharing +with them all the educational opportunity that life gives her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>WITHIN THE WALLS OF HOME.</h3> + + +<p>One day a group of unusually intelligent wives of working men were driving +through Central Park in a Park carriage. All were mothers, some of grown +children, yet it was the first time that twelve of the twenty (all but two +born in New York) had seen Central Park. Coming back on the east drive, the +closed houses on Fifth Avenue attracted their attention. Various +suggestions were made as to what use these houses could be put in the +summer, when one woman, slight, delicate and extremely nervous, said: "I +don't want anything in those houses but the room, just the room. I've never +had all the room I want. I would have if I lived in them." After a moment +she continued: "The reason we don't love each other as we should is because +we don't have room; we crowd each other. All the time I lived in my +father's home I was crowded. How we used to fight! Fight in the night, as +well as the day, just because we did not have room. The beds were so +crowded that one of the young ones had to sleep across the foot. The big +ones would keep their feet up while they were awake, but when they went to +sleep they would stretch out and kick the one across the foot. When I was +so little that I slept that way, I used to lie awake in terror expecting +the kick, and how I scratched when it came! I know we would have loved each +other much more if we could have had room to grow up in, as the children in +those houses do. And my mother! She didn't have a room to herself when she +had the sickness that killed her."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 563px;"> +<img src="images/fig242.jpg" width="563" height="480" alt="YARD DAY AT THE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">YARD DAY AT THE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was pathetic to hear the revelations of the little miseries of childhood +due to lack of room in the home. "My mother used to drive us out of the +house to get a chance to sweep it," said another mother of children. "I +remember lots of times standing down at the hall door, shivering, waiting +for her to get through. I would go into the neighbors' rooms, but often +they had got rid of their own children for the reason my mother had of +hers."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what used to make me mad; it was to have to wait for the others +to get through eating," said another. "When I hire a place I always look +first to see if the kitchen is big enough to pull the table from the wall +and sit about it. I don't think I ever had any hot dinner when I was +little, and it used to make me mad. When I had three children I moved just +to get a large kitchen;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> it ain't near so nice a place, but the kitchen is +big." There was not a woman there who did not have a grievance against her +childhood because there was not room. One of them with crimson cheeks told +how she remembered the sense of comfort that came to her after the death of +an older sister because she had a bed to herself; she said it was a long +time before she knew the cause, for she missed her sister's companionship, +but she was more comfortable; she enjoyed having the five nails at the foot +of the bed for her own clothes. The woman who spoke first interrupted: "I +never in my life had even a hook in the wall that was my own until I was +married. We were so near of a size we could wear each other's things, and +we did. The one who was quickest got the best of that size. You never knew +whose clothes you'd have to put on in the morning. I'll never have but this +child. She likes me. She hates being pushed and crowded. She has a bed and +bureau of her own. Never, never until my husband can pay more rent will we +have another child." She paid the penalty of death for this determination.</p> + +<p>As one thinks of the number of human beings with all their belongings +crowded into the floor space of a tenement-house home, the marvel at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +endurance grows greater. Think of its limitations of conveniences!</p> + +<p>To those who know the limitations of a tenement-house home, the criticisms +and suggestions that the superficially informed reformers make on and for +the hygienic management of these homes are at once the source of amusement +and indignation. When stress is laid on airing a bed every morning, and one +in imagination sees the only windows in another room with a breakfast table +between them, a room already overcrowded with things, the only room for the +mother and baby during the process, one wonders what the speaker would do +under the same circumstances. Then when the horrors of dust are revealed +and the necessity of keeping the floors clean by frequent washing is made +to be imperative, one sees the bed that just fits between the walls at the +head and foot, with half of its own space free in front of it, and again +comes the question, what would the expert do living under like +circumstances? What is needed everywhere is scientific knowledge in +conjunction with intimate knowledge of the evils inseparable from the small +dark rooms of even the best tenements, and then we will have suggestions +that the woman can use—can apply to her own family conditions—who must do +the work for a family within this space.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the best of the tenements it will be found that where the tenants can +afford a parlor, access to it is across the kitchen, where all the work of +the family must be done. It will be seen at once the disadvantage at which +the house-mother is when friends who are not intimate call. Nothing stands +between her and the outer world but the door into a public hallway. The +bedrooms admit of a bed, and sometimes, but only in the exceptional +bedroom, a bureau. This is usually found in the parlor, if there is one, +and in it all the clothes that can be folded, all the little accessories +belonging to the family; to this, however, all must have access. If there +is a closet for clothes, or if the family can own and house a wardrobe, it +is usually in this room, and the common convenience of the family. The +bedrooms, dark, offer no space for a washstand. The kitchen is the common +wash-room. The kitchens of the tenement houses built in these later years +are a marvel of inconvenience. The dish closet is a few shelves up near the +ceiling, the lower one of which can be reached by a woman five feet four +standing on the soles of her feet; a chair is necessary to reach the other +shelves. Beneath this space is the pot closet, or it may be the stationary +tubs, the top of which provides table space for cooking conveniences.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 589px;"> +<img src="images/fig248.jpg" width="589" height="480" alt="THE CHILDREN'S HOUR AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE CHILDREN'S HOUR AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>There comes to mind now one of the best plans for a tenement having four +families on each floor on the East Side. The stairways are lighted by a +window on each landing opening on an air shaft, and on each floor is a +lavatory with a large window. Each suite consists of four rooms. The parlor +has two windows on the street; a kitchen window opening into the parlor, +never raised if the family have social standards; and a window on a large +air shaft, or space between the two houses, on which the bedroom windows, +which are large, open. The rent for these four rooms is seventeen dollars +per month, and they are on the fifth floor. The kitchens in this house have +been described. The family have to sit at three sides of the table; there +is no room to pull it from the wall; even then one side is uncomfortably +near the stove. The only space except the parlor for a refrigerator is in +the bedroom. As there are three young wage-earners supporting the home, who +are social, who are encouraged by the widowed mother to have their friends +in their own home, this is not to be tolerated. The refrigerator is in the +bedroom. It was in that room when it was occupied for four years by a girl +dying of tuberculosis. Is it any wonder that the fight against this disease +is again being waged in that family? Yet it is above the average of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +class in intelligence, as the apartments are above the average in the +region.</p> + +<p>The very elementary necessity of space and place for privacy in taking a +bath is exceptional. For space, place and light are necessary. A very +bright woman, perfectly familiar with the limitations of the tenement-house +homes, once said to the writer: "The truth is they cannot be clean if they +are decent." A cruel truth which was brought forcibly to the remembrance of +the writer one winter afternoon in an East Side home, where a mother was +trying to bring up a family to the best of her ability. When the caller +went into the living-room of the family a tub stood at the side of the +stove, in which was the youngest daughter, a girl about eight; a brother of +ten and his boy friend of twelve or fourteen years were playing checkers on +the other side of the room. The mother was ironing. There was no +consciousness of embarrassment shown by the children. The mother was +ashamed, not at the exposure, but at being found out in permitting such an +exposure. She was a member of a club where the training of children was a +constant theme. The necessity of physical cleanliness, its relation to +health, she had grasped, and her children profited by it. The relation +between privacy and morals she had not grasped. It was as though a veil +had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> fallen from her eyes as she looked at her daughter of eight standing +naked before the two boys. Whether such a thing ever occurred again the +caller does not know; that the mother never forgave the caller for finding +her out she does know. The family had three bedrooms, but none would permit +the placing of a washstand in them. One was the passageway from front to +rear, for the family occupied a floor, but could afford only one fire.</p> + +<p>Privacy is almost impossible in the tenement-house home. One bedroom is +usually the passageway to the next, if there are two, or both bedrooms are +passageways from front to rear of the home, and must be used by all the +family. Privacy is impossible in these rooms, and there are thousands of +just such apartments. Children must grow up in them subject to the +limitations, restrictions and exposures their walls compel. This division +of space must fix standards of reserve, of privacy, of social life. No +amount of love, not even of intelligence, can save the children from the +evils such division of space imposes on family life. It deadens the +sensibilities. The insidious effects of this is not always realized, even +by the intelligent parents who accept them as inevitable.</p> + +<p>One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry at the inconsistencies of the +standards of those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> go to Albany to secure the passage of bills for the +betterment of the conditions of the working people. We have secured a law +compelling separate closets for men and women in stores and factories, a +righteous measure in the interest of morality. But the closets in the +tenements must be used by men, women and children of several families. A +neighborly courtesy is the loaning of the key, to save a neighbor a journey +upstairs. Children run in from the street, several at a time, for it is the +only place provided. This publicity and freedom is the crying evil of the +tenements, the one from which tragedies come. The marvel is that so few +follow; that in spite, seemingly in defiance, of it all, characters develop +that are beautiful, harmonious, true.</p> + +<p>Can one condemn the girl facing the worst that can befall her who under +pressure that her appeal justifies, yes, makes necessary, confides that her +relations with the man who is the father of the coming child began when +each were little things six or eight years old? A relation that grew out of +lack of privacy, the intimacy forced by tenement-house conditions. Both +families have gone far beyond their social position at the time these two +were children, but the blasting of innocency has left its burning scar on +the girl, and she must bear it alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps it is this necessarily open living that gives the love-making in +the tenement region a character peculiarly its own. When interest between +the sexes is aroused, it is expressed so frankly and publicly. There are +times when restraint would seem to improve manners; but among the working +young men and women one is constantly reminded of Adam and Eve in the +garden of Eden. How frankly and unconsciously they must have shown their +interest in each other, and how unconsciously they must have revealed their +interest in each other to all the other breathing creatures. Perhaps +nothing about the love-making is more interesting than that numbers add to +the enjoyment of both lovers. Nothing adds more to the happiness of a +wage-earning girl than to have her "chum" deeply interested in and deeply +interesting to a young man at the same time she is. It seems to be conceded +that two couples can have so much more pleasure than one. The terms applied +by these young people to each other will reveal their social level in the +wage-earning world. If the term "steady" is used where the world of wealth +and leisure would use <i>fiancé</i>, the under wage-earning world is reached. If +"friend" is used, the social ladder covered by that word, used in that +sense, has many rounds. Knowing many working girls who would use the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> term +"friend" when referring to the man they had accepted as a future husband, +or who would in time hold that relation, the writer was constantly +impressed by the unconscious protection the girls threw about each other. +One would rarely hear of plans made that did not include two beside the +couple engaged, or willing to be. Sometimes two girls were to complete the +party. It is evident that the more means the merrier time. In every group +of girls there will be two or three who cause anxiety; two or three whose +influence, unchecked, may lead to trouble. It is not easy to restrain the +young people, for so often the offenses are so naturally the result of +environment that to speak directly of them would be most unwise. The +chances are that reference to them would put the speaker in the position of +possessing knowledge of an undesirable kind; it would seem to suggest evil. +Often it would be a moral shock to many working girls to have their actions +criticised from the impression their freedom makes before the cause is +understood.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig256.jpg" width="640" height="453" alt="MUTUAL INTERESTS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MUTUAL INTERESTS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>A young girl joined a club for young people. From the first she caused +anxiety. Her face was innocent and attractive, but her actions with young +men were just the reverse. At last it became necessary to speak to her. It +was evident that she attributed the criticism to what she termed +"fussiness." Not the least modification in her manner followed. At last, +after many interviews, she was told that she would never be spoken to +again. If she offended in the club-room once more, she would be given her +hat. That would mean that she was not to again enter those rooms. She +confided to her intimate friend that no one had ever told her that what she +did was wrong. After this interview, a modification of her manner was +noticed, not because she was convinced she was wrong, but because she +thought it wise to heed. A group of young people were returning from a +picnic. Just after the homeward journey had begun, it was seen that this +young girl was sitting in the lap of a young man whom she had always known; +as children they lived for years in the same tenement. Beside him sat the +young girl whom he had invited to the club picnic. The club girl sat so +unconscious of any infringement of manners, public or private, that a young +man who had grown up under the same conditions was asked what he thought of +the act. He started at once to tell the girl to stand up, but was +restrained. Evidently he was shocked, and the act was wrong from his +standpoint, the only standpoint fair to the girl. A seat was made for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> the +girl elsewhere, who, for the first time, showed distress, or rather +anxiety, because of her own acts. Nothing was said to her.</p> + +<p>Occasion was made to speak to the young man who had kept his seat and let +the girl sit in his lap. He was a working man, and his hands showed it. All +his life of twenty-two years he had lived under tenement-house conditions.</p> + +<p>"Frank, would you marry a girl who sat in a man's lap in a railroad train?" +he was asked.</p> + +<p>"No," he responded indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose you are the only man in the world who has that feeling? +What right have you to let any girl cheapen herself so that the man who saw +her with you, doing what you permitted, if you did not suggest and +encourage, would not marry her?"</p> + +<p>The man's face grew white. He had a sister of whom he was very fond and +very proud.</p> + +<p>"What would you do to the man who permitted your sister, when she was +tired, to do what you permitted a girl to do to-night—a girl who has no +brother to watch over her?"</p> + +<p>The young man was six feet tall. He rose to his feet, and, raising his +hands toward the starlit sky, he said:</p> + +<p>"As true as there is a God above me, I will never while I live let any girl +do what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> I am not willing my own sister should do anywhere."</p> + +<p>After a moment's quiet, the chaperon said:</p> + +<p>"I shall never mention this to the girl. I hold you responsible. You are +stronger mentally, morally and physically, and are wholly to blame." +Whether he spoke to the girl or not, no one knows, but never again was it +necessary to even mentally criticise that young girl's manners with young +men. Not only did her manners change, but the expression of her face. One +grew to love and trust her, and ask her help for other girls.</p> + +<p>The chivalry of the working boys and young men is constantly seen, +unconsciously revealed. Sometimes it is dangerous the degree in which it +shows itself among the finest of the boys. A sick girl, unable to go out, +will command attentions so special and direct that the fear of her +misunderstanding, and suffering because she has not understood, will make +those interested who know the danger unhappy; sympathy from any cause will +make a great-hearted working boy place himself in a position where he may +be easily misunderstood.</p> + +<p>It is astonishing how long the spirit of childhood will live in working +boys and girls, even under conditions that seem never to justify happiness +and spontaneity!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>One Sunday a group of working men and girls went nutting, being duly and +properly chaperoned. Four of the young men climbed a big walnut tree. The +girls, with some of the young men, were gathered at the foot, waiting for +the shower of nuts. The chaperon sat on a stone fence a little way off. The +wind began to blow, swaying the top branches. One of the young men having a +good voice laid himself along a limb high from the ground, singing +"Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top." The others took it up and the girls +joined in. Over and over it was sung. Then the girls and boys on the ground +joined hands outside the span of the tree and sang "Ring around a rosy." +Every singing game of childhood was enthusiastically played. Every one of +these young people were poor as the world counts wealth—every one over +eighteen—all had worked from the first moment they could earn wages. Each +one had suffered the wearing anxiety of no wages when the family needed +what they could earn, and yet they sang—they felt like children. No amount +of money at the time could have bought them this happiness.</p> + +<p>The sun poured down a glory of yellow light on the trees that seemed to +have caught its color dashed with red flames. Across the field came one of +the girls slowly—a girl who never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> had manifested any enthusiasm, except +for dancing; who never gave expression to any emotion of feeling. It was +thought impossible to move her. As she came nearer, it was seen that she +was deeply stirred; her face was expressive. Putting her head against the +arm of the chaperon, she whispered, rather than spoke: "I did not know +trees were any color but green before." The tears were chasing each other +down her cheeks, while her mouth was wreathed with smiles. The girl was +over twenty. Had she been born in a family that would use the privileges of +the various Fresh-Air organizations, she would have known more of the +country. It was this year that she first saw the stars over the trees, and +the moon at the full in the sky when it had a horizon. Obedience to her was +not easy, but to her brother she gave it willingly; he had been her nurse +in babyhood, her friend and companion in childhood, and was now her +protector. In every plan of these young people he considered his sister +first. If she had an escort, he invited some other girl to go with him; if +not, he took his sister. The girl never manifested any interest in young +men beyond their ability to dance well. She would find a dozen reasons for +not dancing if she found herself on the floor with an awkward dancer.</p> + +<p>This group of twenty-two young men and women,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> all from homes that would +bar the door to charity, even when suffering, were fairly representative of +the social standard of the better part of the wage-earning world of New +York. Among them was the independent girl, the one who had no desire to be +sought in marriage; she saw the worries of her sisters married to men +having small and uncertain wages; saw the wearing side of motherhood rather +than its joys. She skillfully kept her young men friends as friends, +changing from one to the other as soon as she saw the line of friendship +being crossed. The girl who never won attention till she wooed it was among +them; the girl who was treated discourteously or neglected was one of them. +The girl who was sought for exhibition because she dressed well, yet who +never roused any deeper feeling, was there, for some of the men were very +observant, and had standards of style for the girls they escorted.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 451px;"> +<img src="images/fig264.jpg" width="451" height="640" alt="THE FOREST OF THE TENEMENTS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE FOREST OF THE TENEMENTS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was the young man who willfully played with a girl's feelings; the +young man who openly exhibited the love he had awakened, but to which he +did not respond; the girl whose adoration received indifferent treatment, +yet who was never entirely cast aside by the man too selfish to marry. In +that company there was one couple who were sentimental in their actions; +they would sit and hold hands, if permitted, rather than dance. As soon as +it was discovered that their actions were influencing others, they were +given the choice to restrain the expression of their affection in public +completely or resign. The lesson was effectual. When it was seen that one +of the young men was very deeply interested in one of the young women, that +she was only semi-conscious of his interest, yet enjoyed it, while not at +all interested in him, just a few words, pointing out how unkind it was to +permit his interest to develop and how unfair to let him spend money for +her when she never meant to hold any relation but that of friend, changed +her attitude toward him. She made the young man understand her position. +More than that, she gave her lesson to the other girls, and escorts were +changed frequently; groups arranged to go to the theater instead of +couples. As one girl put it, "We don't want any nonsense." Yet several +marriages have occurred among these members, the new homes making centers +of social interest for the others. The babies are objects of deepest +interest to all, and it is a lesson to see the ease and freedom with which +even the young men will hold them. Much is said of the "little mothers," +but the "little fathers" are as unselfish and devoted a part of the family +life in the tenements as the little mothers. When a great, strong young man +picks up a baby<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> with the ease of a woman, is interested in its ills of the +moment, one is grateful for the hours that, as a child, he spent as nurse; +sees the beauty of strength and tenderness, and the humanizing effect of +the maternal in the character of a boy whose character must be molded by +the environment of a tenement-house region.</p> + +<p>The rapidity with which a complete change of standard of manners can be +attained amazed those who watched these young people. Outdoor life was +possible to them only on Sunday. When first the trips on the railroad +began, the noise, freedom, constant changing of seats mortified those who +chaperoned the group. The journeys began in the spring. One Sunday evening +in November, when returning from a nutting party, a group of young people +entered the car laughing, pushing, slapping one another. The young men and +women who had been going to the country almost every Sunday for the summer +looked in amazement at one another, and with very evident disapproval at +the new group. Yet they had offended, if offense can be committed in +perfect innocence, in just that way many times a few months before. It is +this adaptability, this quickness of comprehension of the little things, +that give the outward stamp, that make the American wage-earning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> young +people so intensely interesting, so wonderful in social achievement.</p> + +<p>These young people were all Americans, of Christian parentage, as the word +means, not Hebrews. The young women worked in shops with girls of Hebrew +parentage. There were deep race antagonisms, due to many causes, but +principally to the willingness of the Hebrews to accept any wages and work +anywhere and any number of hours. These American girls grew to have the +deepest sympathy with the girls of Hebrew birth when they found that many +Hebrew parents coerced, while all regulated, the marriage of their +daughters. That parents would dare to assume such authority in so personal +a matter as marriage aroused the most extravagant terms of condemnation. +One listening could well believe the hopelessness of trying to make one of +these girls marry against her will.</p> + +<p>No greater contrast could be conceived than the entire independence of +these girls in their social relations, which they did not view as a +privilege but considered a right. Beyond the fact that some of them must be +at home at ten or half-past, there was no law but their own will. This +freedom is one of the most serious influences in the life of working girls +in New York. Were it not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> for their common sense and the knowledge of life +thrust on them when children, the effect would be most disastrous for the +country. As it is, in certain ways young men and women retain the frankness +of childhood in their intercourse. One realizes what perfect equality +between the sexes is when mingling freely with them. Doubtless this comes +from playing in the street together from earliest childhood, with no favors +asked or conceded because one is a girl, and the impossibility of privacy. +This last is the saddest fact in the life of tenement-house children.</p> + +<p>At the lower rounds of the social ladder in the wage-earning world the +mother and baby are inseparable, if the mother does not drink. Night and +day the baby is cared for, often in hopeless ignorance, but cared for. +Often everything else is neglected. When the baby sleeps, the mother is too +tired to work, too indifferent. When awake, the baby insists on being held. +One is frequently reminded of the story of the woman whose moan when her +baby died was: "What excuse can I give John now?" Yet the day that baby is +able to walk alone on the street the mother loosens her hold. The baby +finds its freedom limited only by its ability to remain upright, and to +return to its home for meals and at night. "Throw me the key and a piece of +bread," is often the extent of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> demands from the sidewalk. True, the +mother knows every woman in the block will be, in an emergency, a mother. +The child learns to care for itself; it makes less and less demands on the +mother, who may even now have another baby compelling all her thought and +time. Above this scale, where home-making assumes importance, the child +remains longer under the mother's care; is watched when on the street by +glances from the window; is sent to school, and some oversight maintained +over its school life; but the wage-earning period means emancipation from +oversight often even at this level. Hundreds of girls start out and find +work for the first time without any evident responsibility on the part of +even good mothers. No amount of familiarity with this exercise of freedom +deadens the horror of it to the outsider. Women, mothers of attractive +daughters, will not know the street on which the daughters work. After one +of the most disastrous fires in New York, in which many working girls +perished, four mothers notified the police the next day that their +daughters had disappeared. It was the failure to trace the girls and the +advertising of their disappearance that led, through companions who had +escaped from the building, to the awful conclusion that these four had +perished in the flames.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sometimes it would be difficult for a mother to go to the place where the +daughter finds employment; but here, as in everything else in life, that +which is deemed the more important receives attention. Perhaps it is the +habit of trust, or indifference, that governs mothers' activities.</p> + +<p>A girl will make intimate friendships unhindered, unguided by mothers who +act up to the measure of their comprehension of the duties of a mother. +Girls are admitted to the homes who are unknown outside of the workshop; +they work with the daughter; no other background is known. The mother knows +that other mothers are accepting her daughters on the same basis of +knowledge. For their young men friends there may be, but as frequently +there will not be, any greater sense of responsibility than for the girl +friends. In homes where the income would seem to demand a sense of social +responsibility it is found wanting, and young people come and go +unhindered. If there are two or more young wage-earners in the family, +their conversation may bring knowledge of what they are doing, where they +are going. But they also make compacts at concealments of disobedience +where there are laws to be obeyed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig272.jpg" width="640" height="462" alt="THE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> + +<p>The world has been shocked by the tragedies of death and disgrace that came +to the homes of two young working girls within the past year. In each case +the father and mother had gone to bed with the daughters out in the night, +where they did not know; one a girl of eighteen, the other less. The +"cadet" system would never exist were the parents of every girl alert to +train and guard her the more closely because she was a working girl.</p> + +<p>Until by some direct process the control of daughters and of sons is made +desirable, and then natural in the wage-earners' homes, the problem of +family life in the tenements will remain unsolved. It is a question +sometimes whether, and sometimes it is very evident, that by the giving up +of wages to the parents the freedom of the workers, even though but +children, from obedience and parental oversight is purchased.</p> + +<p>Those who know working girls know how high is the average of morality. +Years will go by in intimate relations with the same group of girls and no +tragedy will mar it; no echo of tragedy among their friends. The hardness +with which even the suggestion of looseness is treated in any group of +working girls is simply an expression of self-preservation. A group of +sixty girls, earning the lowest wages and living under the worst +conditions, were watched five years and one girl fell. As one goes over her +history from birth, any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> other result would seem a miracle. A girl arrested +gave the first name and address of one of the girls in this factory. The +case was reported in the papers. By an unfortunate circumstance, the +working girl living at that number was away from the factory two days at +this time. When she learned of the connection that had been made because of +the chance use of her Christian name and her address, she told a lie as to +where she was at the time of that arrest. The other girls struck until she +was discharged. The girl was innocent of everything but the lie; +investigation proved this. The girls would not recede from their position; +work had to be found for the girl elsewhere. She was publicly marked. They +could not convince everybody of her innocence; lots of people believed the +story, and they would not work with her; go back and forth with her.</p> + +<p>A room was hired as a lunch-room for these girls. They brought their own +lunches and paid a small amount of dues, which were used to pay for tea +served daily. The projectors of this little enterprise were girls of wealth +and social position; three were at the lunch-room every day. By +representing themselves as friends of the projectors to the caretaker, two +representatives of a "yellow journal" gained access to the room. One, a +woman, engaged the caretaker in conversation for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> some time in the hall, +getting all the information she could give her. The Sunday edition of that +paper contained an illustration of the room filled with wretched-looking +girls, while young women holding up trailing skirts were passing cups. The +text was as far from the truth as the picture. The working girls absolutely +refused to go to the lunch-room again. At last they agreed that if the +paper would publish a true account—that they provided their own lunches +and paid dues, and waited on themselves—they would go back. The paper +refused. Two of those girls would never enter the rooms again.</p> + +<p>The working girl has suffered quite as much at the hands of yellow +journalism as the woman of wealth and social position. Not one of these +girls went to school until she was fourteen; nor during any year since she +began working had she earned on an average more than $3.50 per week. Yet +they had social standards to maintain, and compelled recognition of them by +those who opened opportunities to them.</p> + +<p>The inspiring fact remains that the standard of home life in ethics, as in +necessities, is raising. Without doubt much of this is due to the +improvement in the class of readers used in our public schools. They are +not perfect in the matter of selection, but they carry messages to the +hearts, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> well as the heads, of the children, few of whom would pass an +examination on their contents. Even the primary grades introduce the +children to the best thoughts of all time, and the crumbs, at least, are +carried to the homes.</p> + +<p>The girls who belong to the working-girls' club carry with them everywhere +the influence that is molding their characters to a brighter type of +American womanhood. The Settlements soon become centers of education +through the social activities they make possible to the people. They +surpass the clubs in this, that boys and girls, young men and women, each +have in them the center that makes possible social occasions that are +within their means and under rightful guides; together men and women are +trained socially. The Settlements have been in existence long enough to +have the children that were the first friends of the Residents now the +fathers and mothers of children. The years of contact show results in the +homes established, in the kind of care and the ambitions held for the +children still babies. Wages have not greatly changed from those earned by +the fathers of these new home-makers; but money represents different +values. The kindergarten is the first thing demanded for their children, +and the seeds sown in the minds of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> young mothers bear fruit one +hundred-fold because it is prepared.</p> + +<p>The kindergarten mother clubs have also borne fruit in the homes where even +the youngest child has gone beyond the kindergarten's age. These mothers +learn for the first time the need of sympathy; of living with the children +through every period of growth; of sharing and of making together a home. +The result is, the homes gain in moral fiber and moral purpose. The schools +and the homes are brought into close relation through these beginnings, and +the child finds its interests a unit, and home the place where its whole +good is of vital importance. The mother establishes the home often on the +basis of contrast. "It shall not be what mine was; their lives shall not be +what mine was when I was a child."</p> + +<p>The churches, many of them, provide for the social life of their people; +these social activities must be of a character that wins those who have the +least to contend with in themselves, who find a pleasure and inspiration in +religious life, which often is far more a matter of temperament than of +spiritual development.</p> + +<p>One sees the highest expression of spiritual development in lives apart +from the Church as well as in the Church. This it is that develops a +feeling of reverence for any movement having for its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> object the bettering +of the social life of the people. One learns that every vulgarity that +becomes obnoxious; every freedom that is brought within the bounds of +restraint by new standards of education and refinement; every influence set +in motion because of the spiritual perception of the answer to the +question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" means spiritual life growing toward +that of the Master of time, whose laws are but two for the guiding of men, +"Love the Lord thy God," "Thy neighbor as thyself;" and these make neither +cross nor steeple necessary, for they may be obeyed in the heart and guide +the life wherever it is lived.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig280.jpg" width="640" height="443" alt="LIBRARY DAY AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">LIBRARY DAY AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES.</h3> + + +<p>The women of education who attempted to make the conditions of +working-men's families better, found their own education advanced, their +values of essentials greatly modified in some respects, greatly enlarged in +others. This was due to the bravery, the unselfishness, the contradictions +of character forced on their attention through the natural, familiar +intercourse made possible through neighborhood and club relations.</p> + +<p>Probably the most astonishing experience in working-girls' club life is the +revelation of the entire lack of self-consciousness on the part of working +girls as to anything remarkable in their giving up wages not only week +after week, but year after year, for the benefit of their families. The +closer one gets to the poorest paid of the working girls, the more common +is this unconscious unselfishness. In fact, the girl at this level who +would attempt to hold or even to introduce a business relation in her +family relation, would find herself an object of contempt, even when the +personal habits of those who controlled the use of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> the money she earned +were of such a character as to certainly mean waste of the money, perhaps +worse.</p> + +<p>However one's judgment may at times condemn this unselfishness and +recognize in it a positive evil, one's heart is thrilled by the spirit of +loyalty and devotion of which it is the evidence. Three sisters belonged to +a working-girls' club. They were all employed in one establishment and +earned good wages, yet they never had clothes that made them even +comfortable. It was a mystery. They did not belong to the race which too +frequently make thrift a vice, but were descendants of one the world counts +thriftless. The months passed on. One of the sisters became indispensable +to the club. She had the rarest tact, while straightforward and frank. When +the second winter came, the pressure of life on these girls was very +evident. How to relieve it, how even to approach the subject without +appearing intrusive and meddlesome, was the wearing problem of the club +directors. After the holidays the influence of one of the directors was +asked by one of the sisters in behalf of a brother. Then the cause of the +pressure was unconsciously revealed. There were five brothers and a father +in the family.</p> + +<p>The story unfolded. For years these three girls had supported the family; +the six men had always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> been the victims of cruel "bosses." Worthy, +industrious, anxious to work, looking for work all the time, they never +succeeded in finding work under conditions that made it possible for them +to continue. The years of self-sacrifice had not shaken the faith of these +sisters in the smallest degree. "What would happen if your foreman would +become arbitrary and cross?" was asked. The reply revealed the whole +conception of woman's relation to life as they held it. "It's different +with women; they have to bear things."</p> + +<p>Another year passed without any change, except that the sisters grew old +faster than they should. A quiet, determined effort was made to influence +these girls to pay board to their mother instead of giving all their wages. +They listened to the argument that as long as they continued their present +system the brothers would not work steadily. The sisters listened, but the +system did not change. Every penny was handed to the mother for +disbursement.</p> + +<p>One morning in the early spring, three years after these girls had joined +the club, word came that the sister who had grown dear to the club +directors, to every member of the club, was dead. She had dropped to the +floor at her bench the day before, and died in the night. "Greater love +hath no man than this,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> that a man lay down his life for his friends." The +sacrifice was complete. Standing in the room of death with the six +able-bodied men for whom this girl had given up her life, the sacrifice +seemed barren, for its fruits had been garnered in her own character and +had gone out of this life.</p> + +<p>A year later the mother sent for one of the directors of the club to have +her plead with the sisters remaining that they would give her their wages +as formerly. "They only pay board now; they refuse to do anything for the +poor boys. 'Twas a bad day when —— died. Shure, she gave me every cent. +Not one did she keep back. Ever since she died, the girls just pay board, +not a cent more. See how comfortable they are. They bought waterproofs, +both of them, last week, and Jim has no overcoat. —— would have bought +him an overcoat."</p> + +<p>"Yes, doubtless she would. I remember the winter before she died she wore a +spring jacket all winter, and that her shoes had been broken for weeks +before she died." "Shure, I know." Tears fell from the woman's eyes, and +her face bore every evidence of sorrow. "The boys could not get work that +winter. God knows they tried. They had to have clothes, and —— was a good +daughter. 'Twas a bad day for me when she died." The mother had not the +slightest conception<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> of the sacrifice her daughter had made—a sacrifice +that had cost her her life. Her thought was for her sons; their comforts +were to be secured through the daughters, who were a secondary +consideration.</p> + +<p>When her visitor protested against the sisters working to support the +brothers in idleness, the mother was indignant. When she tried to show the +woman that if the boys were forced by hunger and cold to go to work it +would be their moral salvation, the mother insisted that they did try to +get work, but that it was their "fate" to have unreasonable "bosses," who +made it impossible for them to work under them.</p> + +<p>"Do you think the girls always work under conditions that are easy?"</p> + +<p>"No; but it is easier for a woman to stand a hard 'boss,'" was the mother's +answer, without any expression of sympathy. Again she urged that the +visitor use her influence with the two sisters for them to go back to their +old method of giving the mother their wages. When the visitor refused, the +amazement of the woman at her refusal was pathetic. When the visitor +confessed that she was largely responsible for the change in the girls' use +of their wages, the mother's indignation rose to the point of abuse. That +her boys were robbed was the idea fastened in her mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> That the club was +the enemy of that home was the mother's conviction.</p> + +<p>The mental attitude of this mother is by no means unusual. It is a common +thing to find mothers who insist on controlling the wages of daughters who +make no exactions in regard to the wages of sons. The effect is to lessen +the self-respect of the girls and the sense of personal responsibility of +the boys. In the family referred to the experiment of paying board to the +mother was watched carefully. It was a success. The effect on the girls was +positive. They developed a sense of personal responsibility; they grew more +dignified and more reliable; above all, they developed self-respect. The +fight was a hard one, but the moral victory was won. The brothers either +found work under men who were fair, or they learned to endure control and +discipline under a "boss," which was probably what they needed. The girls +grew to have a care for their father's and mother's appearance and bought +them clothes. Never as long as the mother lived did her feeling of her +resentment against working-girls' clubs die out.</p> + +<p>After her death, the father and brothers agreed to pay one of the sisters +so much each week if she would stay home and keep the house. The sister did +it, though it meant hours of loneliness, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> from her point of view, +dependence. She had taken courses in cooking and sewing in the club; she +had listened to talks on sanitation and hygiene; she had learned the value +of money through the management of her own wages. She created for that +family a far better home than it had ever known under the shiftless, +thriftless management of an undisciplined mother.</p> + +<p>The daughter was able to pay more rent from the money given to support the +house, and the pride and self-respect of the family were greatly increased +by the possession of a parlor, which was furnished on the installment plan +out of the weekly sum paid to the sister. The home became a social center +for the friends. The boys bring even their girl friends to their home, +because it possesses more attractions than any other place to which they +have access. A banjo lies on top of a piano—hired—and two of the boys +take music lessons. In a family of seven wage-earners, even though the +wages of each may be small, the combined income is large in proportion to +the standards of outlay, and secures more than comfort, if rightly managed.</p> + +<p>In this family a home maintained at a social level is of greater importance +than clothes, and all work to keep it. Sacrifices are made to buy things +for the home by every member of the family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> The sisters are to these +brothers the finest type of women, and no girl whom they meet quite comes +to their level. The sisters will never marry. The home, the father and +brothers fill their cup of interest. There is still a latent suspicion that +men are non-dependable, and they must be in a position to meet emergencies; +the unjust "boss" may appear at any time, and they may be needed. Their +brothers are a trust and must be guarded.</p> + +<p>A visit was made to a home in which a girl of sixteen was dying of +tuberculosis. The plaint of the mother, even in the presence of the girl, +was, "She was such a good child. She always brought home her envelope +unopened." To the visitor this was at the time incomprehensible, as the +advantages of the envelope to her were two-fold, that it could be opened as +well as closed. The child had worked nearly three years, had been paid her +wages in a sealed envelope, which she always gave to her mother as she +received it. This is the measure of goodness for husband and child in +thousands of working-men's homes. This mother was unconsciously brutal. +Whether from lack of sensitiveness, or because of a life spent in fighting +just homelessness and hunger, to the very last hour of her child's life her +moan was, "What will I do without her wages?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not once did that little girl hear her mother give expression to any sense +of personal loss for her companionship. The child herself became weighed +down with the sense of responsibility, and resented the lack of strength +because it added to her mother's burdens. This was her regret, the only +thing she mentioned: "I wish I could have helped mother till the others +grew up. I've cost such a lot being sick so long and not earning anything." +That was her estimate of life at sixteen.</p> + +<p>A son went wrong in that family, and as the time approached for his return +home, the mother moved, lest he should be annoyed by questions and comments +on his absence by neighbors. No power could be brought to bear on that +mother to make her move that the daughter might sleep in a room having an +outside window. One influence came within the range of her experience, the +other was beyond her comprehension, and her daughter died in an absolutely +dark, unventilated bedroom, in which she had slept eight years.</p> + +<p>She was a dainty girl, in spite of the bad taste with which she dressed, +this second victim. She floated, rather than walked, and her cheeks were +like carnations. The girls in the club all liked her, and their young men +friends at the receptions showed at once how attractive they found this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +girl. She was reticent as to her affairs, except in the question of work. +When out of work, she did not hesitate to speak of it and ask to be +remembered if any of the club members knew where she could get work. At +last she came quietly one morning to the director and said the doctor told +her she must stop working for three months. The expression in her eyes +filled the listener with fear. In a voice that trembled, she said: "I am +the only one working. Mother has a baby and cannot work, and—and"—her +voice lowered and her eyes fell—"my father will not be home for three +months from last Monday. He got into trouble. He would not if he had been +sober," she added, in proud defence. Two months later the end was near, and +the girl knew it. All that could be done under the conditions had been +done. It was little, for an unreasonable, drunken mother had to be reckoned +with all the time. She would stand railing against the girl for not going +to work when the girl could not walk across the floor for lack of strength. +The girl was under eighteen, and her mother was the controlling power in +her life.</p> + +<p>One of the young men who had been frequently a guest at the club receptions +worked in an office near the girl's home. He passed one day as she sat by +the window, and she saw him. "If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> he knew where I lived, he'd come in and +see me," she said with a smile, full of friendship as the young man turned +down the street. "I'll run after him. I know he would like to see you. He +asked about you at the club last night." She clutched convulsively at her +visitor's hand, saying: "Oh, don't! I wouldn't for the world have him see +this place." She closed her eyes, after a searching glance about the room. +Of course, the mother broke out in wailing about how hard she tried to do +for the children and how ungrateful they were—ashamed of their home.</p> + +<p>The girl gathered her strength and sat up, her eyes blazing with +indignation. "Mamma, I'm dying. I'll not be here another week. There are +three more girls; I don't want them to live through what I have." Slowly, +solemnly, she continued: "You have not been good. Papa earned good wages, +enough to keep us all comfortable; you know what you did with the money. He +stopped giving it to you, and you got what you wanted on credit. You kept +that up. You know what happened to him. I went to work. You know what you +did with my money. I could not keep it from you even when I knew the little +ones were hungry, for you beat me and took it, unless I had spent it for +groceries and meat and coal before I came home pay-day. I heard what the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +doctor said, that I was dying because I have not had food and have to sleep +in that hole, or holes like it." She pointed to the horrible bedroom. "I am +dying. You are planning with the insurance money to have a big funeral. +Have your own friends, but not one of the girls from the club or their +friends, even when I am dead. I don't want them to come here. Promise me," +she panted to her visitor, "that you will not let them come." The promise +was given.</p> + +<p>The mother was shrieking, whether from grief, or rage, or remorse the +visitor could not determine. That night death came.</p> + +<p>The girl was buried from the church she attended. When the club members +were requested not to go to the house, there was scarcely concealed +indignation. "Did she ever ask you to call on her when she was well?" There +was no assent. "Have you any right to intrude there when she is silent? The +church is open to all." No comment was made. At the church early in the +morning the young men and women friends met. The mother could not even that +morning hold herself in control. The girl's secret was out, and a great +sympathy was added to the love her friends bore her. Her memory was an +incense because of what her life must have been. Her unconscious +unselfishness, her devotion to her little brothers and sisters, was +revealed to them when they saw her mother. Good fathers and mothers found +new expressions of affection for awhile at least, while the sharpness of +contrast stood out between the dead girl's parents and their own, her life +and theirs.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig294.jpg" width="640" height="441" alt="A STREET ON THE EAST SIDE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A STREET ON THE EAST SIDE.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + +<p>The girl who presents the most difficult problem in club life is the one +whose social impulses are dominant. Noise, activity, excitement, seem +inseparable from her presence. This type of girl arouses enthusiastic +friends. She leads because she is daring; because she does not in any +experience question results. One such girl had been studied for months. +There was a superficial response to the efforts to win her regard, but the +response was too transparent not to be understood. The girl would speak to +any man who looked at her. One day she was playing "tag" with the other +girls in front of the factory where she worked. A rag-picker pushing a cart +made some remark as he passed. The girl, Molly, gave a spring and alighted +on the man's shoulders like a cat. She clung there. He began to run, but he +could not throw her off. She twined her fingers in his hair, made him turn +back and carry her to the place where her shrieking, laughing companions +stood. She sprang off. Still holding the man, she made him get down on his +knees on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> the curb to the girls and apologize. Like a bird she flew to the +place where he had dropped his push-cart, and, pumping the handle up and +down to make the bells jingle, she brought it back to the man, still +exhausted by his unwonted exertions, and with a mocking bow placed the +handle of the cart in his hand. Then she stood up straight and ordered him +to move on, adding: "If you ever show your nose around here again, you'll +get more than you got this time." The man ran as if for his life.</p> + +<p>Molly then turned and saw the friend whom she had promised she would be +more quiet on the street. Her face crimsoned as she came toward her. "I +could not help it. You don't know what he said. He won't never speak to +another girl minding her own business as he spoke to us. I won't tell you +what he said; it was too bad." The girl was about seventeen years old. She +had cut off her hair, and it was bleached. She wore the gayest hats, which +only served to emphasize the poverty and shabbiness of the rest of her +clothes. One day she passed her friend's house without a jacket. She ran, +holding her hands under her arms. Her jacket had been bought with money +earned by working overtime, a result secured by the most persistent effort +and argument.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now the jacket was gone, and the slack season coming. As five o'clock +approached, the girl's self-appointed guardian took her station at the +window to watch for the girl on her way home. She came skipping along, +slapping her arms to keep warm. She entered the house reluctantly in +response to the call, "Where is your jacket, Molly?"</p> + +<p>"I ain't cold. I ain't a bit cold."</p> + +<p>"Where is your jacket?"</p> + +<p>"Really and truly, I ain't cold. I'm thin, but I don't feel the cold as +much as other girls. I ain't a mite cold."</p> + +<p>It was impossible for the girl to stand still. She was shivering with cold, +and her teeth, which were beautiful, were chattering. After a time the +explanation was given.</p> + +<p>There were five in family. The girl's mother, a stepfather about fifteen +years younger than the mother, a brother one year younger than the girl, +and a feeble-minded sister of fourteen. The girl was the only regular +wage-earner in the family. The brother was a worthless fellow, who bore +every evidence of degeneracy and rarely worked. The stepfather drank, and +worked only occasionally. Molly earned six dollars a week, except in the +slack seasons, two a year, when she earned about three dollars a week for +four weeks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> each time. She began working when she was fourteen, and had +never kept back one penny of her wages. Her mother had bought her new hats, +but in all her life no other new garment except the jacket had ever been +bought for her. She never asked any questions about the money, but she +supposed the rent was paid. When she reached home the night before +everything was on the sidewalk, and her feeble-minded sister was watching +them. The jacket was the only thing owned on which money could be raised; +it was pawned. "Molly, may I call on your mother?" A reluctant consent was +given.</p> + +<p>The home now was in a rear basement, the ceiling just above the level of +the yard. The mother and husband occupied the bedroom; Molly and her sister +slept on a narrow lounge covered with Brussels carpet, every spring broken. +It was a series of humps. It was impossible to sit on it. In reply to a +question, the mother acknowledged that no provision was made to make it +more comfortable. The brother slept on the floor. The rooms were dirty and +overcrowded. Food was of necessity poor, and because of the mother's +indifference and ignorance, was poorer than it need have been.</p> + +<p>This was what Molly received for six dollars a week. The moment the mother +knew who the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> visitor was, she began abusing the girl. One special cause of +offense was the keeping back of overtime money to buy a new jacket. She +evidently imagined that she did not get all the girl's money every week. +When it was pointed out to her that the new jacket had paid half a month's +rent, she refused to be mollified, because the money paid for it would have +paid the rent for a month and a half. Of course, this extra money would +have gone like the regular wages if it had been given to the woman.</p> + +<p>The walls were covered with pretty advertising cards and pictures cut from +papers. Not a vulgar nor ugly picture was on the walls. "Who put up those +pictures?" "Molly. Shure, that's all she's good for when she's home, +a-cutting and putting up these things." This was one more charge against +the girl. Evidently the girl gave her wages, and gave them willingly; but +that ended her interest in her home and measured the mother's in her.</p> + +<p>It was decided to move the family into one of the model tenements and +furnish a room for the girl and her sister, paying the difference in rent +for one year, to see what the result would be in health and morals in that +family. When the proposition was made one evening to Molly, her face +lighted and she emitted a sigh of perfect consent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> But the light died out, +and an expression of almost self-pity supplanted it.</p> + +<p>"No, I must not let you do it. It would be lovely to have a room for Katie +and me alone. I must not let you do it." She was silent for some minutes; +then, with eyes cast down, she said in a quiet voice that indicated that +persuasion was useless: "I know them houses. They're awful nice. I'd like +to live in them. They're awful particular. They won't let no noisy people +in. They make them move right out." Then slowly, with burning cheeks, she +said in barely distinct tones: "Mamma is noisy sometimes, and when she's +noisy she gets into fights with people. There ain't no use of moving in +there; they'd not let us stay. Then, Billy"—the stepfather—"and I fight. +I never speaks to him, excepts when he speaks ugly to Katie or mamma. He's +drunk a lot now, most all the time, and then he's ugly to them. He ain't to +me, 'cos he knows I'd break his head; but he is to them, and then I has to +shut him up. I ain't spoke to him since he struck mamma, just after they +was married."</p> + +<p>"But your wages give him a home and food."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know it, but I can't help that, 'cos he's married to mamma and must +be where she is." There was silence again, and then the girl continued: +"Mamma didn't do it so much till she married<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> him; she's worse now. I wish +I was dead;" and the head of many shades was buried with the limp, +"frowzled" feathers in the sofa cushion. "No, I can earn enough to keep +them where they are. I must not move; but it would be lovely," she added +with a sob.</p> + +<p>A couple of weeks later she came in the evening. It was raining hard. After +a moment's silence, she announced, with shining face: "We have the +loveliest baby at our house, born last night week. I wanted to tell you +before, but I had to do the work night and morning. He's lovely." She +fussed at her pocket and brought out a pair of baby shoes of worsted. "I +got them with some money I earned overtime. You say I ought to get what I +want with that money." The eyes of the hostess followed the lines of +Molly's dress to her feet. Her swollen, purple foot was seen through the +broken upper of her shoe. Molly was looking with pride and love at the tiny +shoes on her knee. "I named the baby Willie, and I'm his godmother," she +added with pride, without the slightest conception of the relation between +"Billy" and "Willie."</p> + +<p>"Billy? Oh, he's drunk; been drunk a week. I ain't let him in yet; I'm +goin' to wait until the baby's bigger and mamma's up. She'll let him in," +she added, with disgust.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>Matters grew worse with the advent of the new baby, for Molly had to fight +with her mother to get it cared for. At last it died, to Molly's pathetic +grief. The mother had consented to Katie's removal to an institution, where +she could receive care and training. Molly was persuaded she owed a duty to +herself. No impression was made until her mother had been arrested twice. +Then Molly consented to leave home. It was deemed best that she should +contribute part of the rent to insure her mother a home and to maintain a +natural human tie. Molly did this <i>for three years</i>. Then she married a man +controlling a good business. Molly is a quiet, devoted wife. She married a +man old enough to be her father. When the wisdom of this was questioned, +she said, with emphasis and a nod of her curly head: "No young man for me, +thank you. Look at Billy!"</p> + +<p>It was Friday morning—a warm, sultry morning in August. The bell rang. A +mother in black and a young daughter of eighteen were in the +reception-room. The daughter had evidently been crying. "I've come to tell +yer that Annie can't go to the country to-morrow. She's sick'm. She's cried +all night. Her brother was discharged'm. He do be havin' a bad man for a +'boss.' He's discharged'm, and Annie can't go to the country with the girls +to-morrow. I can't spare her wages. It's all I got. Shure, if I could get +work in washin', or anything to do, I'd do it, but I can't'm. I'll look all +the week; and the boy'll get somethin', perhaps. She can't go this week; +will yer let her go next? Shure, the rent is due, and her wages is all I +got for three of us. Yer can go to work to-day, even if it be a bit late, +and yer can go next week to the country."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig304.jpg" width="640" height="400" alt="A COOKING CLASS OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A COOKING CLASS OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, mamma! the girls talk nothing but country. I can't go to-day," was the +sobbing response.</p> + +<p>The girl did not go that summer. There was no room for her until September. +By that time the work at the factory had increased and not one girl could +be spared. Patiently Annie commented: "It wouldn't be any good if they +could spare me. My brother is out of work yet. He's awfully unlucky."</p> + +<p>The quiet heroism of thousands of working girls can be appreciated only by +those who become familiar with their lives in the natural intercourse of +club life. There is, of course, the other type of girl—the girl who +insists on spending the major portion, if not all, of her wages for +clothes; who assumes no responsibility for the family, and who has conceded +to her the right to spend her money for clothes. She would make life most +uncomfortable if she were compelled to share what she earned, even when the +family live under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> conditions that make the home merely a place of +shelter—conditions that make even decency impossible. The fathers and +mothers seemingly have no rights that this type of girl feels she is bound +to respect. When such girls marry, the mothers will do the washing for +their daughters, hold the menial relation, and neither mother nor daughter +questions the justice of the relation. Sometimes the daughter will pay the +mother for doing the washing, "to," as she expresses it, "help her mother +out." Such families usually cannot be helped through any influence but the +evolution that comes through environment and neighborhood development. +There is a superficial difference in the social development of such parents +and children. The parents concede the higher position to their children, +and the children take it as a matter of right.</p> + +<p>The wages of skilled workmen enable them to keep their children in school +until they are sixteen or seventeen years old, if the children will stay. +These fathers can support their families, but not dress them as they +desire. The girls go to work for the sole purpose of dressing better than +their fathers could dress them. This indulgence creates false standards, +and is a serious blot on the American working-man's life. It prevents +marriage. Both young men and young women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> understand that the wages of one +cannot buy luxuries for two that the wages used for one bought. The army of +clerks on small salaries increase yearly. This class, through association, +develop tastes and standards of living that make impossible the +establishment of homes on their incomes and at the same time the continued +indulgence of developed tastes. No type of family develops less that adds +to the wealth and attainment of the country than this type. The children +are selfish; they marry; they discover that the wages that bought clothes +to suit the extravagance of one is wholly inadequate to support a family. +Discouragement, friction, ennui follow, and life becomes a grind, without +hope, without inspiration. The second family slips backward, and it is but +two generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves, with this difference, +that the arms covered by the shirt sleeves of the third generation lack the +muscles of the first, as the spirit lacks its moral fiber. It is this type +of family that keeps alive the most vexing of social problems. The skilled +working-man's family, the family of the small salaried men, present the +most difficult problems not only in the use of money, but the use of time. +Their daughters are often far more helpless than the daughters of men of +wealth. During their school days, except in the exceptional home, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> are +not trained to do housework; do not learn to sew. As soon as school days +end, office or store work begins, and then there is no time to learn the +household arts. If in these homes the money-saving value of time were +taught, independence and freedom impossible in wage-earning would be +secured; the standards of life would be the essentials, not the +non-essentials, that so often rob life of what is best and most valuable.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of girls become wage-earners because they dislike housework. +Anything else is preferable. Dean Gill, of Barnard College, New York, in an +address recently delivered, said there were three types of college girl: +The girl who never could learn any of the arts of home-making. She advised +that that girl be allowed to choose a career, and that men make no attempt +to interfere with it. The girl who had in her the latent qualities that, if +developed, would make her a home-maker. Such a girl it might be wise to +keep home for one year between Sophomore and Junior year. And the third +girl had the home-making gifts so well developed naturally that no amount +of college training would modify them. This classification holds good of +the daughters of men earning small salaries, wages, and no wages.</p> + +<p>As the Domestic Science department is developed in our public schools, the +homes of working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> men of the better class will benefit by it. This distaste +of housework will disappear, because it will have gained a place equal in +value to geography and mental arithmetic, and these will have value because +a knowledge of them adds to the home-maker's ability.</p> + +<p>There are homes of thrift and order where all must be wage-earners; homes +where the claims of parents on the wages of children are conceded. There is +a bank account, but on this the children have no claim, no matter how much +of their wages may have gone into it, or how much educational opportunity +they may have lost because its demands have been paramount. When the +children marry they establish homes without any or very little help from +their parents. They do not expect it. Home, food, clothes have been given +them; all claims have been met. They are as free as their parents when they +began. Usually there is a gift of a piece of furniture or table linen; but +money to start a new bank account is not expected. Without doubt, much of +the inability to use money to prepare for future emergencies is due to the +fact that financially the new home-makers from these homes are infants in +practical experience. The marvel is that they keep homes as well as they +do, and meet the future as well as they do without planning to meet it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<p>The second generation of this type of thrifty families rarely carry the +habits of thrift of their parents into their home-making. The new financial +freedom is a novelty, and presents in itself enjoyment that the new +home-makers use. Here and there is a recovery from the danger of +extravagance by a young couple, but the recovery is rarely so complete as +to repeat the restrictions that the thrift of the parents compelled in +their homes. The new generation demand better clothes and better furniture. +Food and rent are regulated to meet these demands.</p> + +<p>One stands appalled sometimes at the degree of vitality, the hope and the +cheerfulness that prevail in the homes protected only by the muscles of one +man; what they can buy representing all that the home may have. There is no +spirit of recklessness; there is no failure to comprehend the slight +protection a husband and father can give, though he be skillful; but there +is a sublime confidence in the future. Though familiar with suffering, if +not personally, then sympathetically, with full knowledge of what sickness +and death bring to other unprotected homes, such men and women, and there +are thousands, live from youth to and through age cheerfully, happily, +without any financial safeguard except against Potter's Field. This weekly +insurance is kept up; the family live cheerfully, gayly, sometimes to the +end.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig312.jpg" width="640" height="461" alt="A MEETING OF NEIGHBORS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A MEETING OF NEIGHBORS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>One result of doling out small sums to young wage-earners, whether thrift +or necessity is responsible, is disastrous, especially disastrous for young +girls. It has seemed to the writer that if mothers and fathers could be +brought to a realizing sense of its dangers, they would endure hunger +rather than have their daughters exposed to it. After all, it could be +averted by making a division of the money spent for dress. Girls are often +dressed out of all proportion to the sums they earn, if a fair division of +their wages were made, if the dignity of the daughters was protected by any +degree of independence financially. Of course this disproportionate use of +money is due to false standards that will only be regulated when the people +on salaries learn to universally live true to the law of proportion in +their expenditures.</p> + +<p>It seems to be a fixed idea that a girl is dependent on invitations from +young men for her social pleasures. If she is not invited, it is not only +her misfortune, but her fault; she should be more attractive. On the other +hand, the young man is scarcely any better off than the young girl +financially, yet he expects, and his world expects, that he shall bear, not +only his own social expenses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> but those of at least one girl. His impulse +is to be chivalrous, for chivalry is not regulated by income nor deadened +by pennilessness.</p> + +<p>It is oppressive at times to see how the lack of money prevents the natural +association of young men and women; how often the young men are forced to +give up the society of girls for this reason. Girls often unconsciously +force invitations. As one goes down the scale, the girls invite themselves, +where the young men have to bear the expenses. So small a matter as carfare +will make a girl thrust herself on a young man's care. The girl will not +resent indifference, even discourtesy and neglect, if only her aim is +accomplished. The young men suffer the reflex of this attitude of mind, and +their estimate of women is regulated by these misconceptions, and even +their manner as husbands is regulated by this conception of the relations +of the sexes, and wife and daughters suffer in consequence.</p> + +<p>The higher up one goes in the social scale, the less evident is this +aggressiveness on the part of girls, and the more natural relation of man +as the suitor is apparent. As girls are brought more familiarly under the +guidance of women willing to discuss the financial relations that should be +maintained between the unmarried of both sexes, the more careful girls +become in permitting the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> expending of money by men for their social +pleasures; especially so where the limitation of a man's resources is +understood, or even suspected.</p> + +<p>How to make mothers put their daughters in an independent position where +their pleasures are concerned is a very important and at the same time a +very difficult question. When it is a question, as it often is, of the very +necessities of life for a family and the allowing of money for the pleasure +of a fun-loving daughter, necessities bear down the scale, even of justice, +and dignity ceases to have value. For it must be remembered that the girl's +wages, used for her exclusively, would often allow the exercise of +independence in her social affiliations. This it is that makes Settlements +so important in our social life. Here boys and girls do meet on a platform +of independence, chaperoned naturally by those who know intimately the home +surroundings, the social standards, the limitations of life in the regions, +and all that creates environment, that most positive factor in the making +of character. The social attitude of the young people who grow up in +affiliation with the Settlements is found to differ greatly from that of +young people untrammeled by oversight or influence that develops dignity.</p> + +<p>The influence of working-girls' clubs is positive in its effect on the +majority of the members. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> girls are taught in the clubs directly and +indirectly. It is not only in the teaching of the home arts, but through +lectures, talks, books and contact with women of education. The members +often astonish those who know them best by their responses to their +opportunities. This mental development makes them critical. The men they +meet rarely have had their opportunities, and they suffer by comparison. +The young women often find they have larger interests and sympathies; far +clearer ideas of the responsibilities of life; are better equipped than the +men they meet. Every girls' club shows members who thus develop. Often they +will not marry. They are the support of one or both parents, now too old to +work; they help married sisters and brothers; they are the prop and stay of +all the halt and lame of their families; wiser and better guides for +growing nephews and nieces than their own mothers and fathers. Frequently +they are the most important helpers in club life, exerting a positive, +upbuilding influence. Yet one always grows sad when thinking of them. Not +thriftlessness, but unselfishness, may leave them penniless in old age. +There is no place for them. Rarely is there a corner to which they are +welcome in the tenement house; often even where there is love and gratitude +there may not be space. Floor space often regulates the expression of love, +where the heart may have unlimited space.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig318.jpg" width="640" height="437" alt="THE READING ROOM AT THE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE READING ROOM AT THE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>The saddest figure in tenement-house life is the unmarried woman who can no +longer work and is dependent. In her effort to serve her people she may +have played the critic, and that is remembered when her service is +forgotten. It is this type of girl who by instinct refuses to accept +attentions that mean the spending of money by men who cannot afford it. +Their wages would, if used for themselves, have given social opportunities +that did not involve obligations, but family demands seemed to make such +use impossible. Sometimes the fun-loving sister will secure both shares. +One is taken to a home of her own; the other left to carry the family +burden, and no one questions why. If it is unanswered, it is attributed to +the lack of attraction in the unmarried sister.</p> + +<p>There are homes in the tenements where the wages of the earners make a +family income, in which all share equally, independent of the amount +contributed. There is a bank account. It may be in the joint name of father +and mother, but it is far more commonly the unquestioned property of the +mother. The children look upon this as the protection of the parents from +dependence in old age, should it not be called upon by illness or +misfortune. Such families represent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> the highest moral development in +tenement-house life. The children have been trained to appreciate +educational opportunities, and school is through childhood an important +factor in life. When the wage-earning period comes, night-school advantages +are appreciated and used. When the work is chosen, some thought is given to +the promise of future wage-earning powers by the acquiring of skill in that +employment. The maximum wages possible at the present time is not the +controlling element in the decision. The future is not sacrificed to the +present. Such a home is kept, no matter how small, in a condition that +makes social life in it possible.</p> + +<p>Hallways, street corners, store steps are not the only places for the +development of the social instincts of the members of such families. After +marriage the family is united, and home, though it be in the top of a +tenement, is the Mecca for children and grandchildren.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the social scale in this world of workers is the +happy-go-lucky family. Here the system of financial management has its +faults, but much is found that is better than wisdom in money matters. +Spending extravagantly when there is money, going without cheerfully when +there is none. Why, the going without is scarcely treated even with the +respect of making it a subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> of conversation. The habit of sharing when +any member has anything to share becomes a fixed habit, and "mine" and +"thine" are not in the family vocabulary. The result is a close and +inter-dependent family relation, of which the mother is the center. Often +you will find that this mother has never had any clothes that would do to +wear on the street, except to early Mass, if she is a Romanist, or that she +rarely goes to church, if a Protestant, because her clothes are not what +she calls "fit." Her life is the gospel of unselfishness, and she reaps the +reward of love. One may fret at the waste, resent the short-sightedness, +which means ignorance and shiftlessness; but there is so much pleasure in +these families, so much that means happiness in them, that one even learns +to forget the frets. They never grow beyond childhood in worldly wisdom, +and childhood is always attractive. It is so rich in promise. Happiness is +the cement of human life. Poverty does not change its power of holding the +members together through weal or woe. There is a common inheritance of +memories that never lose their power of cohesion where love and friendship +reign in families.</p> + +<p>The people who do not know the lives of the working people can have no idea +of the extent to which the working men trust their wives. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> majority of +working-men's wives are financially in a far more independent position than +the wives even of capitalists, where the wives are without an independent +income. Not only is the money given to the wives, but their use of the +money is unquestioned. There is a constant revelation of the unselfishness +of these men. Children will be overdressed, while the father will not even +be comfortable; but there is no complaint, for the pride of the father is +gratified. He, with the mother, has one standard—clothes. There are men +who say frankly that they would waste the money if it were in their care; +that their wives secure far better results than they could; that the +practice of having only carfare, at the most lunch money, reduces greatly +the much abused social habit of "treating." The married man who can +"treat," it is generally conceded, is not fair to his family; he keeps his +wages at their expense.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the observer marvels at the infinite patience of many men. Their +wives drift. Neither money nor time is used for their families. A week's +loss of work, and there is debt; a day's sickness, and to its suffering is +added the knowledge that there is no money in reserve to meet this +emergency, even though the wages insure it. While knowing well the cause, +one resents the unjust conditions that control many marriages among the +young people of the wage-earning class. The young women rarely have the +knowledge that will enable them to do their share in establishing the home. +The young man contracting a marriage without the prospect of supporting a +home is condemned and his bride pitied; but there is little criticism if +she spends years—years that mean discomfort and waste—in learning to do +her part, if she ever learns.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 624px;"> +<img src="images/fig324.jpg" width="624" height="480" alt="AFTER SCHOOL AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">AFTER SCHOOL AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>The mental attitude of the wage-earners toward their income is confusing +and yet interesting. In reply to any question of wages, the maximum sum is +always given. The question of idle time does not enter into computations of +the year's possible income and necessary outlays. This holds good before as +well as after marriage. Work may last for only forty weeks of the year, but +the other twelve, even among intelligent wage-earners, sometimes are not +counted in their relation to income. This perhaps explains much that is +counted as thriftlessness. It is, in fact, a failure to apply arithmetic to +daily life.</p> + +<p>After all is said, no one who is familiar with the income of the +wage-earning class can fail to see that the results obtained prove +conclusively that the use of money in the well-regulated home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> is a fine +art; that many working-men's wives could give post-graduate courses in the +use of money to women who consider they have the right to teach them. Even +waste and misuse are regulated by education and experience where there is +even a modicum of intelligence. The second conclusion is that thrift under +certain conditions is a vice that causes distinct deterioration of +character. It should be combated as vigorously as thriftlessness. It can +only be done by raising the standards of living; by creating other +standards of value than money.</p> + +<p>But everywhere among the wage-earning people the independence of the wife +in money matters is apparent.</p> + +<p>There are men who are niggardly and who hand out small sums daily, and +never recognize that the wife has a right to anything beyond food and +shelter, who grudgingly buy clothes when they must. These men are despised, +spoken of with contempt as not being good fathers or husbands, and their +wives are openly pitied. But the mass of working men place their wives in a +perfectly independent position by making them the absolute disbursers of +their incomes. The small shopkeepers, to all intents and purposes, treat +their wives as partners. The wives work with them, sharing their knowledge, +their responsibilities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> and appear as joint owner in the bank account. The +wife usually is the safe until the money goes to the bank account.</p> + +<p>When a wife is a good financial manager, she is the head of the house, +whose reign is never questioned. "Her children rise up and call her +blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her," though the Book of +Proverbs may be unknown. This financial independence of the wives of +working men develops the spirit of independence and aggressiveness that so +often disturbs and upsets the plans of the woman who would do them good, +and is the cause of the charge of ingratitude that is often made against +the women of the tenement-house regions. It is scarcely natural to develop +gratitude for efforts made in the wrong direction. Poverty has its degrees, +as has wealth. There are families living in tenements whose conditions +represent wealth when contrasted with that of their neighbors. One fact +remains. Both women do not need the same opportunities, the same help. The +student of the management of wages in a tenement-house home rapidly +acquires a spirit of humility. While everywhere there is waste, there are +times when money seems to buy double the amount that the student thought +possible. With the wage-earners' families, as with all others, the income +buys that which is most desired by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> those spending it. Choice is the master +of decision, even in necessities. What is needed in the wage-earner's +family is that education, that opportunity for development that will make a +choice of the highest things, those that will mean a body and mind so +nourished and cared for that moral resistance is the available capital of +every member of the family in time of need.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>HOME STANDARDS.</h3> + + +<p>The world knows two aspects of involuntary poverty: The one inseparable +from degradation; the other picturesque, appealing to the emotions, and +giving a field for the play of sympathetic activity that frequently +neglects to note the results it attains.</p> + +<p>There are few who discern that poverty is a comparative term, and these do +not use the word in its financial sense wholly.</p> + +<p>Those who know intimately the struggling, up-growing poor know that the +rich can never give the exquisite expression to love that life at this +level makes possible. Who would dream when looking at the Hercules, with +clothes and hands soiled by his daily labor, that he is the tender nurse of +wife and baby; that he is hurrying to a house cared for with joy. He will +wash dishes, cook, scrub the floor, walk the baby to sleep, and coddle and +pet a wife who from sheer loneliness and worry over work undone may be the +harder to please and quiet. All this, and perhaps, almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> certainly, not +once will any terms of endearment be heard, and, strange as it may seem, no +kiss given. How one rebels and rejoices that love can be thus expressed!</p> + +<p>When sickness enters the home of the poor man, money is not present to +relieve the able from personal service, often made more difficult through +ignorance. Pride shuts the door to charity and the burden is carried in +love. Those who know life at this level can never, never lose faith in the +Eternal love, for they see always, however disguised, the divine spark in +every human being. The silence of love thus expressed, the revelation of it +where least expected, makes the one who witnesses it conscious of what +power lies outside and beyond and above his own life, not witnessed to the +ear. Every day at this level of life in our great city it is proved to the +privileged that tenderness is the winning element in strength; that love +daily, hourly here proves its power of self-abnegation. Here, too, it fills +its function of inspiration. Days, weeks, months, years go by and the +burden of moral weakness is borne with the cloak of faith wrapped about its +fears. When so expressed, its loyal unconsciousness adds to its beauty and +makes it an inspiration to all who come into its presence as friends; the +lips voice its faith, the eyes alone reveal its fears even to friends.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig332.jpg" width="640" height="437" alt="THE MORNING AIRING OF AN EAST SIDE HEIRESS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE MORNING AIRING OF AN EAST SIDE HEIRESS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<p>The more intimately one comes into the home circle of the independent +wage-earners the more clearly does the disadvantages of wealth stand +revealed. Life must be lived so simply, the interests of life are so +evident, that the value of words decreases; action expresses the heart +perfectly. The very services the children render each other train them for +the family life they will establish. The baby tended by an older brother +and sister learns to depend on them for care, and that dependence in turn +draws out a love and responsibility that could not have birth under any +other conditions. The child who finds that in pain, weariness, suffering, a +father and mother alone share its care; the elder children who see how +naturally sacrifices are made for them, how little the father and mother +value themselves, their ease, even their comfort, learn to value the love +in the home and depend on it, give love to it, that money to buy service +would bar out. The child who sees parents make sacrifices to enlarge his +opportunities for education, seeing him as a positive factor in his own +manhood, sees more than parental love in such sacrifices and stands in more +than the relation of child to parents.</p> + +<p>At the level where charity and dependence are large factors in the home +life, the relation of parents to children is changed by their presence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +Art has given Charity the figure of a noble, benign woman, in the ample +folds of whose garments children are protected. Too often in life she wears +a short skirt, to make speed possible, suggesting in movements and voice +the need of nervines, when she does not seem to have taken the bandage from +the eyes of Justice for her own use, while neglecting to borrow her scales. +Where Charity is the welcome guest, instinct is greater than intelligence +in the parental relation. The home tie is slight; children become shrewdly +self-dependent, physical hardships are more easily borne, and life is often +a mere matter of shelter and food; the animal alone is kept alive. This +represents a social level as remote from that of the independent +wage-earner as is represented between the home's standards and requirements +of a family living on fifteen hundred dollars a year and that of a family +living on fifteen thousand dollars a year.</p> + +<p>We use the word poor so carelessly that there is confusion where absolute +misapprehension has not developed as to the character of the largest, most +receptive, most responsive and most responsible class of citizens of New +York. Politically they have been neglected, until the Citizens' Union gave +them a formative part in political decisions. Here and there a score or +more independent working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> men would be found in political organizations, +because of an active political conscience, always hoping for better days, +when the city would be given its imperative rights without regard to the +State or national political complications. It was a hopeless fight, and has +sent into the erratic political parties the majority of the independent +working men now in them. The schemes of the politicians disgusted them, and +new principals seemed to be the only hope for the clean-minded mind who did +its own thinking.</p> + +<p>The great mass of these independent, self-respecting, intelligent +working-men voters were hunted for at election, but were not counted worthy +to take a place in the councils of the politically active because they were +feared. The Citizens' Union recognized their value and power, and they have +come into their own as citizens. No greater service have the Settlements +done the city than discovering this unused element in political power and +centering it where it is recognized as the saving power in municipal +government. These men stand at the head of the homes that reveal +love—tender, protecting inspiring love—serving in unspoken unselfishness +to the largest degree.</p> + +<p>Thousands of mothers can testify to the cheerful sharing by fathers in the +household burdens after a day of hard work; of cheerful going without +necessities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> on the part of a father to give more than necessities to the +children. Thousands of husbands and fathers will note the unselfishness and +wisdom of a mother in caring for and enlarging the opportunities for the +children, who are the common objects of love and ambition, and the +confidence and love of the husband grows with the years. To the observer +there is at the same time no more inspiring and depressing revelation than +the parental love which asks nothing for itself, but all that life can give +for the children, the visible expression of their mutual love. Often there +is no thought given to a future of possible dependence. Wages do not make +possible the care of the children at the standards of the parents, the +buying of an environment that the experience of intelligent parents demands +for them, and a bank account. The last is desirable, the first demand +imperative. Faith is the anchor kept to be thrown out when the life +currents are running toward the rocks of want and dependence. Nothing is +kept back for personal use by these fathers and mothers. Sometimes this +very unselfishness, when unregulated by wisdom, leaves them lonely and +forsaken in old age. Those to whom they have given their lives have by the +gift been placed in social positions that seemingly bar out the parents who +made achievement possible. Even in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> loneliness of old age the parents +rejoice at the success and forget and forgive the separation. The end for +which they worked has been attained, their children are successful, and +they still count themselves nothing compared with their children.</p> + +<p>It is the independent wage-earners who make the largest contributions to +our wealth, commercial greatness, national prestige; yet the world, +counting wealth by dollars, classifies these as poor. They are as far +removed from the incapable, the degraded, the vicious, the dependent, the +ignorant—who provide the themes for books—as far removed from the +worthless, the deficient, the mentally, morally weak, so familiar to the +people of wealth who give money or time, or both, to lessen their miseries, +as they are in standard and ambition from the people counted wealthy. The +cost of floor space on which to make a home may make them neighbors of the +people who are the problems of a great city; they may live in regions that +are the laboratory of the student of social and political conditions, but +they live behind closed doors, bring up their children, so far as they can, +uncontaminated by neighborhood evils, and overcome their environment to a +surprising degree. There is no word to distinguish them from those who make +capital of their poverty, and the world loses much because of the lack of a +term that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> would express the class who are the hope of this nation, whose +children are the promise of its established greatness.</p> + +<p>The very limitations that small incomes impose on husbands and wives, +strangers to social ambitions, bring into the relation an independence and +<i>camaraderie</i> that possibilities of wealth would bar out. When a father and +mother have one object in life, their children, they have no personal +ambitions; their minds run in the same groove; they live of necessity a +unit. When the aim is to give their children a better education than they +had; to place them on a firmer foundation in the wage-earning world than +the one on which the father and mother started; to save the children from +the contaminating world as they had to meet it, there of necessity is a +welded interest that bars out a world of distractions. The world in which +such fathers and mothers live may seem narrow, but the smallness of the +world makes the companionship the closer. As one gets into the inner circle +of these homes, the small part that wealth plays in happiness is realized, +and the comprehension of what constitutes essentials is gained. The man who +knows the measure of his wage-earning power does not waste his nerve and +vitality to earn more; the family grow to have fixed habits of expenditure, +and content is attained that the social strugglers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> never know. The victim +of nervous prostration is not found in the working-man's world; the fixed +rate of wages relieves the nerves, but exercises the muscles and the +balance of health is kept. The exceptions to this happy attainment are +those whose mental or moral natures have not been adjusted to the happy, +even life of the skilled, sober, industrious, thrifty working-man's family +in New York.</p> + +<p>The world of wealth would find itself rejected if it brought with it into +the wage-earning world its moral standards, the rules of conduct are so +simple in this world, the standards so elemental. An aldermanic candidate +who in his own world is not counted ignorant, during the campaign of 1901 +conceived the idea, which he had never held before, though this was the +fourth time he had appealed to the suffrages of the people, that the women +were a factor in political success. He decided to call on the wives, +mothers and sisters of the voters in his district. It would be interesting +to know his conclusions after his experience. He must have gained wisdom by +his experiment, and heard some unwelcome truths. He announced to one of his +hostesses that he thought if he called and showed himself they might see in +him something that would persuade them that their husbands, fathers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +brothers, or sons ought to vote for him. It would have been interesting to +have seen his face when more than one hostess assured him that, having seen +him, she felt bound to urge her husband to vote for the other candidate. Or +when he was told by others that he must understand how certain he was of +defeat, or he would not appeal to women. Still more interesting it would +have been to see him when an outraged wife let down the flood-gates of her +wrath because she blamed him for the periodic lapses from industry and +sobriety of which her husband was guilty. The better class of voters of +this candidate's party resented angrily the man calling on their wives. The +root cause of the indignation of the men and women it was found was that +this man dared to call when the husbands were not at home. In the world of +work there is no place for social life in the day-time, and it argues ill +for those who indulge in it. The Metropolitan Opera House in the evening +would so shock the working man and his wife that they would never recover +respect for those who frequent it. A high-necked lace dress with a low +lining, worn in the evening by one from the other world to an East Side +party, brought out this comment: "Oh! yes, she's all right. They all do it, +the women; but isn't it awful?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<p>The moral standards for men and women in the world of work are the same. +The immoral man is despised and avoided by the women. A woman who should +maintain the smallest degree of friendship or acquaintance with a man known +to be immoral would be avoided by her neighbors; she would be made to +realize at once the cause of her offending.</p> + +<p>A silly, pretty little woman, whose husband at times was cruel and brutal, +ran away from him with another man. No one in the neighborhood could +remember when such a thing had happened before, and the neighborhood +resented it as a disgrace. The husband's brutality was well known; he was +despised and ignored by the better element of men in the neighborhood. Had +the wife gone alone, she would have had the support of a respectable +minority, but now the husband was the object of deep sympathy. When the +wife was found, and declared she would gladly starve with the partner of +her disgrace—and there was a fair prospect at the time that she +would—"than have the best in the land with my husband; he has kicked me +out for the last time," she was cast out of the books of remembrance in +that neighborhood. "She married him for better or worse," was the measure +of a wife's duty among these wives and mothers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> + +<p>The admiration of the explorer into this world of work and homes grows with +the years for the people who make it, as indignation grows at the +misunderstanding of its limitations, its possibilities, its beauty and +greatness. For Matthew Arnold gave the true definition of greatness when he +said it was the obstacles overcome, not his attainments, that made a man +great. The explorer makes many discoveries—some that stimulate and +surprise, some that puzzle and depress. The silence of love in this world +is a revelation. Whether the terms of endearment are not in the language of +this world, or whether the want of leisure and privacy stifle them, it is +difficult to decide. Perhaps it is that the language of love is learned in +a mother's arms; that when her service to her child must be physical, when +it is but one of a thousand things demanding her care and thought—when her +muscles must serve unceasingly—she has no time to express the love that +strengthens them by words. It may be that the language of love does not +grow within crowded walls, and that it is forced to express itself in +service.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/fig344.jpg" width="640" height="404" alt="A BIT OF OLD GREENWICH." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A BIT OF OLD GREENWICH.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>A man ranking high in the intellectual world once took for his theme, when +preaching to a company of wage-earners and their wives, "Home Life." It was +a rare inspiration that moved him to point out how much was lost to the +home where the verbal expression of love was never heard. He said no higher +inspiration to work his best could be given a man than his wife's good-bye +kiss in the morning; nor a charm that would drive away care, worry and +exhaustion more perfect than her welcoming kiss when he returned from his +work at the close of the day. He pictured the feelings of the man who found +his wife silent and unresponsive when he entered the house; who answered +his query as to what was the matter with "Nothing." In his audience was a +wife whose faithfulness and intelligence had made her husband far more than +he could ever have been without her, a fact of which he was fully +conscious; he was not allowed to forget it. This wife was deeply impressed +by what she heard. She was ignorant because of lack of opportunity, +untruthful because she was ignorant; she could not see the relations of +things. Vindictive, because in her moral code you must resent any wrong, +real or fancied, by an action that goes far deeper than that of the +offender in its effect. Anything else would be an evidence of weakness. She +expressed her contempt for one who would forgive an injury, and prided +herself that she never did. She had enthusiasm, could inspire others, and +proved herself as capable in leading them to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> do wrong as to do right. She +was the power in her home, and established its standard of right and wrong +that gave motive to the lives of her children. This night the speaker +lifted the veil. There was something that belonged in the home that she +alone could put there, and she had not. She resolved that she would part +from and meet her husband with a kiss. It is best to let her tell her own +story:</p> + +<p>"I just made up my mind I'd do it." No girl of eighteen giving a confidence +of a love affair could have shown more embarrassment than this mother of +wage-earning children. "I did not know how I would do it, or what —— +would say, but I just made up my mind I would kiss him when he came home. I +thought about it all the next day. Late in the afternoon I made up my mind. +Of course, I could not kiss him before the children. When it was most time +for —— to come home, I sent them each on an errand that would keep them +away until long after —— got home. I had the table all set and the supper +cooking. At last I heard him come up the stairs. My land! How I trembled! I +stood so that when the door opened he would not see me, and then I just +kissed him before I had a chance to think. He staggered back, he was so +surprised." She waited while an expression that should have been habitual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +changed her shrewd, hard face into a loving woman's. "But I never saw him +look so happy," she continued. "I made up my mind I would kiss him every +day when he came home. I could not kiss him in the morning, for the +children were all there," she added decidedly; "but I can always send the +little ones on errands at night."</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was three weeks later that she told of the climax. "I had a +toothache all day; I was tired and cross, for I had been washing. I stood +by the fire, making the hash. Kittie was setting the table, when —— +opened the door. I did not look up. He stood in the door a minute; then he +asked, 'What's the matter, Jennie?' 'Nothing.' I knew I said it cross. I +looked up then. —— looked so disappointed that I thought he'd cry. I just +forgot the children, and right before them I kissed —— twice. I wish you +could have seen his face. I burst out laughing when I looked at the two +children. They stood staring at us with their mouths wide open. Do you know +what I did? I kissed each of them. I don't believe I've kissed either since +they were babies. I think they told the big ones in the front room when +they came from work." This experiment in love-making did not continue. —— +came home drunk one night, and for punishment the experiment was dropped +and never resumed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> While it lasted, it had a most harmonizing effect on +the whole family, and one wondered if it had been begun earlier, when the +habit could have been easily fixed, what would have been the result.</p> + +<p>The mother, from a worldly point of view, has been most successful. The +children are in positions where skill is required, and wages seem to depend +on health only. Yet they are not popular; are selfish and unsympathetic. +They point to their own success as the reason why every family should +succeed. The family has moved into new environment, establishing relations +that have placed it several rounds higher than the level at which the +home-making began; but it has no fixed place in the social world. The +combined income of the five wages equals at times two thousand dollars a +year.</p> + +<p>Not every wife in this world of silent love is encouraged as this wife was. +Another, a gentle, quiet woman, without children, thought she would try. +"He sit so still when he came home. I bought a flower and put it on the +table. I have what he like best for supper, and I wait. I listen over the +banister. When he come near our flight, I slip back and wait in the room, +leaving the door open so he can see. When he close the door I go up to him, +put mine arms around his neck and kiss him. He take my arms, shove me back +and say:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> 'What the matter mit you? You crazy?'" The woman was crying. The +three friends sat silent a moment, and then one said: "You haf no +children," and the wife nodded. That was her explanation, and theirs.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no greater charm prevails in this world of wage-earners than the +attitude toward motherhood. There will be found here and there the young +woman who rebels against it, who may risk life rather than assume the care +of a baby. When one goes back of this rebellion there is always found the +influence of some older woman who has other ambitions, clothes, pleasure; +who influences, or tries to influence, the young married women she meets; a +woman who will even talk freely to girls against motherhood. There is in +this world of workers the strong active public sentiment against childless +women that more than counteracts this influence, and babies are welcomed +when there is nothing but love to greet them, not much more to feed them or +clothe them; but they are welcomed. The training of the children—natural, +not acquired—to be fathers and mothers has doubtless a far-reaching effect +in keeping this natural attitude of mind toward parenthood.</p> + +<p>We get up a lot of wasted sentiment about the little mothers and fathers, +not seeing that the offices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> are fitting them to meet a future when all +that they learn in the care of baby brothers and sisters will make their +lives easier as fathers and mothers. Often the only opportunity they have +for expressing affection is the little baby given to their care.</p> + +<p>How well one must know this part of the wage-earning world before it is +possible to appreciate the fact that the boy is being trained by "his baby" +for that future when he will share with the mother of his child its care. +It is a constant revelation to find how intelligent the young men at this +level are about children, and how frankly and unconsciously they will +express it and condemn the ignorant or careless treatment of a child. The +relation of the wage-earning children to the little children is paternal +often. The little ones know that the elder ones work and care for them, and +they render an obedience that is often amusing. With sisters this takes +another form. If the elder girl has ideas and tastes, especially if she has +skill, she will often entirely decide how the younger children shall dress; +often the younger children would not be at all satisfied with clothes the +elder girls did not select and design. Here again will be found a +half-maternal attitude that secures obedience and regulates privileges; +that sometimes ignores the rightful authority in the home. The young girl +who has an elder sister working and secures work with her is considered +very fortunate. Two sisters are known, now past middle life. One is quite a +handsome woman, the other plain. The handsome sister is the younger; she +never, when she was a wage-earner, went through the streets alone. The +elder sister, when they did not work together, escorted the younger one +back and forth to her work. Now, the mother of three children, nothing +could persuade her to go on the streets alone beyond the corner store. Her +husband, in a city department on a small salary, always attends her in +shopping expeditions, and all social engagements are made with respect to +his hours of freedom. She receives a wealth of love, and tenderness, and +protection. Selfish? Yes, till one wonders at the blindness of those who do +her homage.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;"> +<img src="images/fig352.jpg" width="625" height="480" alt="A LITTLE FATHER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A LITTLE FATHER.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> + +<p>Once a very sensible wife and mother, whose intelligence and devotion are +raising the family many degrees above that of the generation preceding her +and her husband, said: "I shall watch my children. My mother let one of my +sisters exact far more than her share of wages. She coaxed or cried, or +both, until she got what she wanted. The rest of us gave in, because we +would not worry mother; you see that, now we are all married, she expects +us to save her from worry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> and work; we have to; she cannot get along." In +a moment she continued: "Haven't you seen it, that in every large family +there is one who gets more and gives less than the others?" A statement +profoundly true, but not confined to any one social level.</p> + +<p>Among the discoveries the explorer into this world makes is that life is +full of compensations. One learns to overlook bad housekeeping, when it is +discovered that a cross, impatient word is never spoken by the +house-mother; that the children are the companions of the mother; that no +one else is so attractive; that she is never too busy to listen to anything +that interests them. One learns to forgive the needlessly shabby dressing +of children, when it is discovered that they are well nourished and cared +for, and that the husband and father never fails to declare that his wife +is the best cook in the city and always has his meals on time. Usually this +mother is fat, full of fun, and laughs as though tears were not in the +world.</p> + +<p>Order, cleanliness and economy do not appeal as cardinal virtues when it is +found that there is no room for the children in the house, no money to buy +them the smallest pleasure where these over-estimated virtues predominate. +It is found usually that the worry of maintaining standards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> that ignore +the rights of the family, and to which they have been sacrificed, have +seared the mother's head and heart, and she no longer responds to the +maternal emotions; she becomes the victim of her own habits and cannot +reform. Perhaps it is this type of woman who creates the most barren home; +the one that is quite as prolific a source of supply to the saloons and the +streets as that of the degenerate housekeeper out of whose life spiritual +impulse has departed, and into which ideals and ambitions were never born.</p> + +<p>It is difficult at times to decide whether to laugh at or resent the +criticisms one often hears of the extravagances of the poor. When one +becomes familiar with the demands for rent, coal, shoes, for clothes that +must be worn to work and school; for the things the cost of which cannot be +put below a certain sum—food always can be regulated—and compares these +fixed charges with the income available, the management of money in the +independent working man's family amounts to genius, and it must take +generations of economists to produce it.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, in New York emphasis is laid on clothes. Extravagance in +dress is the habit of the city. The people seen in the streets, in the +stores, in public conveyances, show a singular uniformity in clothes; this +is as true of men as of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> women. The differences are in manners and English. +The spirit of the land is as yet materialistic, and the democratic spirit +shows itself in the outward forms. The tailor-made gown was not looked upon +as a regenerator of æsthetic standards, but it has proved that. Its +simplicity and durability has released money that formerly was used in +useless trimming. The ready-trimmed hat is also a lever in throwing the +scale in the right direction.</p> + +<p>The attention to school decoration of recent years has given new standards +for the home. The wage-earning world grows more harmonious in its demands +on wages; the home now makes its demands for decoration that the workers +obey. Signs outside of tenement houses renting suites of four rooms for +twenty and twenty-five dollars per month announce: "Burlaped halls; parlors +in white and blue;" or, "Tiled halls, open gas grates, fancy chandeliers." +The men who hire these apartments earn from fifteen to twenty-five dollars +a week or more. Thousands of American working men pay these rentals to save +their children from the environment inseparable from the surroundings that +must be endured if a fair proportion of their wages were used for rent. One +grows to reverence the courage that enables a husband and wife, with only +one pair of hands earning the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> home needs, to assume such rents. No higher +evidence of the manhood and righteous ambition of the American citizen +could be given than this: that he places his all to secure for his children +a home that is reasonably protected; that offers opportunities for +cleanliness and privacy. Renting a room to a lodger will sometimes make +less demands on a father's wages for rent; sometimes the rent is assumed in +the hope of securing lodgers, and then the struggle is pathetic, but borne +because the children must not grow up in a less desirable neighborhood. If +one were asked for the standard by which to measure the civilization of +each family in the wage-earning world, the reply would have to be, "Rent." +It at once makes the most and the least return; it is the tyrant which +makes or mars the home life. When a family of eight, having a combined +income of thirty-six dollars a week, are content to live in three rooms, +one knows about what to expect in social standards, and how many +generations it will take to raise the home level. When a family of +six—five wage-earners—who began life at almost the homeless level, +gradually come into a combined income of two thousand dollars a year, it is +not to be expected that its standards of needs will be those of a college +graduate on the same income. Often no member of the family can read<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +readily. School life was, especially for the elder children, an +intermittent one, and truth did not regulate the beginning of wage-earning +of any of the children. The younger children probably warred against school +long before fourteen years of life gave them freedom. There is natural +intelligence, a certain manner acquired through observation, but no +standard of intellectual life. Their very intelligence makes such families +conscious of their shortcomings, and it is this consciousness that leads to +the aggressiveness of manner that is so offensive, so often mistakenly +called the American manner. It is the manner that is due to awakened +consciousness which in the next generation will know when to wear evening +dress, if not how.</p> + +<p>The use of money in such families is for show. It would be counted +extravagant to buy a book, or a ticket to an oratorio or a concert to hear +the best music. It would in such a family be counted useless to train the +younger children to wage-earning by education. The heads of the family will +be hospitable where it counts as showing how much more they have than the +others in their world. They receive from their world what snobbishness +receives everywhere. Snobbishness, on the whole, is not common even where +the income would remove the family from a tenement-house environment. The +uncertainty of work, and the absolute dependence of the worker on wages, +make snobbishness dangerous; that often proves a boomerang their +observation shows.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 571px;"> +<img src="images/fig360.jpg" width="571" height="480" alt="A CORNER IN OLD GREENWICH." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A CORNER IN OLD GREENWICH.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> + +<p>The spirit of helpfulness may not find so free a field of operations when +wages are two dollars and a half and over a day, but it is in readiness. +Sickness in a neighbor's family will show that it has not been lost because +of prosperity, but it is less lavish; there is dawning consciousness that +self-preservation is the first law of nature; that home has the first right +to strength and thought; that only the surplus is available for the world +of friends. The same thriftlessness which makes a family accept charity +without question is the cause of their generosity. As the sense of +responsibility develops, the observer discovers a reserve in the giving of +either their money or their strength to those about them; kindness abounds, +but generosity is regulated as one goes up the scale in the world of +wage-earners. Not only that, but in the direst need the needy, as one goes +up the scale, regulate the degree of freedom given the closest friends. It +often borders on the tragic, the suffering borne in silence, and revealed +often when the time for help is passed.</p> + +<p>This division of the people into rich and poor without gradations and +without a comprehension<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> of the standards and needs that make new worlds up +and down the scale, has had a serious effect on the home life, the church +life of the people, the political life of the people. The churches have +driven out the very people in the tenement-house regions who needed them +and whom they needed.</p> + +<p>Corrupt administration has imposed burdens on the homes which for a time +the voters in turn felt powerless to lift. The independent wage-earner +found his hope of political recognition in allegiance to the political +machines. The leaders, his inferiors often mentally, and still more surely +morally, were at least approachable and familiar, and the man who made his +own life found too often that only in the political circle of interest was +he the equal of those who led. Here there was no manner that expressed +condescension or superiority. His own language was spoken; he was at home. +That these men allowed themselves to be used was the natural result of the +habit of indifference to the real issues in a municipal campaign so common +in New York. When the burdens of a corrupt administration pressed on the +homes; when the leaders for righteous government acknowledged by appealing +to the makers of this country, the plain people, that they were an integral +part of the city's government, they responded, and by their response +overthrew the corrupt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> government that the indifference of all classes had +helped to make powerful.</p> + +<p>The century opens well. Capitalist and wage-earner sit at the same board, +having equal voice in the plans for redeeming the city from partisan +machine control.</p> + +<p>As one thinks of the change, one sees that the evils that disgraced New +York were due to the indifference of the millionaires and the honest +working men. It is the response of the political conscience of both to the +need of the city that has been its redemption; its only sure protection is +the activity of that conscience three hundred and sixty-five days of each +year in all the years to come.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>WHERE LIES THE RESPONSIBILITY?</h3> + + +<p>It took years for the evils of political machines to make life unbearable +in New York. Not until the tremendous evils it imposed on child-life were +given emphasis did the public sentiment of the city find intelligent +expression—voice the moral conscience of the whole people. That dishonest +administration of the city government imposed burdens on the home of the +poor man no intelligent person disputed; but few knew how heavy the burdens +or how far-reaching the effects on character. The people who suffered most +were, in the very nature of things, the ones who could not see these +influences, or estimate truly the degrading effect on character. The people +who resented the conditions that made life harder in the tenements; who +resented the environment which made the bringing up of children in +innocence, integrity, and decency often impossible, were those who were in +the minority. Hopelessness of overcoming the evils made some voters the +forgers of their own chains.</p> + +<p>Newspapers gave columns to the exposure of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> the evils of the political +methods which made individuals rich at the cost of the homes of the city, +especially the homes of the poor. But the phase of this influence that was +most degrading could only be learned by living in the regions, one of the +people, suffering with them the burdens dishonesty imposed.</p> + +<p>When college-trained men and women established their homes in the regions +of the tenements, making friends with the people, associating freely with +them, especially with the young people and the children, they discovered +that the worst evil with which the people were contending was the constant +lowering of the moral standards due to the influence of the political +organization that seemed to regulate even the right of the people to earn a +living. It was but a step from fear to favor; but a little time before the +man out-weighed the principle; Justice became the hand-maid of "pull," and +the people living wholly under the environment corrupt political power +created, knew no government but that of the "leader" and the man who +represented him. To trade votes was no disgrace, for it meant a share in +the perquisites that political power held. These men and women of trained +intelligence saw that the corrupting of the moral standards of the people +was a far greater evil—an evil that was of far greater moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> to the +whole people than the maladministrations that affected their physical +being, though it led to death.</p> + +<p>It was the revelations the Settlement workers were able to make to a +half-informed community of wealth and trained intelligence that led to the +redeeming of the city. It made the active combination of wealth and poverty +that brought into the political arena the dormant consciences that created +in 1901 the Apotheosis, New York redeemed, that is the justification of +democracy to the world.</p> + +<p>The iniquity, ignorance and indifference that create and maintain a system +of municipal administration based on the theory that politics is a +profession, and each promoter the architect of his own fortune, to be built +at the expense of the citizens, is the reflection of the character of the +citizens. The system is never the product of one man's brains, nor does its +growth ever begin at the top. It begins always in the smallest political +unit, where the man who wishes the office in the gift of that unit stands +closest to the people. The bargaining for votes begins there. The number of +exchanges of votes for favors and places successfully accomplished makes +the "boss," the man who represents law and order; who is judge, and jury, +and keeper of the jail to those who do his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> bidding. As the political units +develop their bosses—"leaders," in voters' parlance—the system grows +until the chain is complete, and each political henchman, in the order of +his importance, takes his share of the people's money. The perquisites +reach millions before the thousands are distributed that enables the leader +to pose as the all-pervading friend to the district in time of need.</p> + +<p>The political units where this system of government in the interest of the +"boss" have their strongest hold are the best evidences of the moral +degeneracy that follows. Here the liquor saloons flourish, the headquarters +of the "leader" and his cohorts, used in the order of rank in the system, +from the gayly lighted, silver-bedecked, mirror-lined bar-room to the +smoky, dirty, vilely kept den where those gather who have no use in life +but to vote according to orders and work for the political leader's +entrenchment. These saloons represent the primary school and the university +of the voters of the district. They represent all the educational and +recreative opportunity of most of the adults. They establish the habits of +thinking for the majority of the people, for they are the lyceum where all +questions are discussed that interest the people. The most interesting is +how to get wages, as it is the most important. The common struggle creates +common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> bonds of sympathy. All principles go down before the concrete, +understandable fact that if the "boss" is beaten, work will cease for +neighbor, friend, and friend's friend. Each man learns through every course +in this training school of citizens that the paramount duty of each voter +is to keep the "boss" in power. It means wages, or the hope of wages, under +the least strenuous of employers, the city. Men work hard for the system, +not because the moral nature of many of them is not in revolt against the +system, but because the keeping of a home for wife and children is at +stake. Often the voter's necessities, his ignorance often, his rebellion +against wealth often, his unrest, undermine his moral nature, blind his +intelligence, and he forges the chains that bind him in slavery to a system +that will cast him aside, and refuse him a reason when there is no use for +him. The voter may work during an election campaign half knowing that to +secure another worker in the interests of the political system the place he +holds has been promised to another after election. This fear and this hope +enters the homes; women and children are educated under the moral +degradation that enslaves husbands, sons, brothers, friends, lovers. The +standards of morals are established even in childhood by the working of the +systems of political machines. There is one measure of morals, <i>success</i>. +What succeeds is right.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;"> +<img src="images/fig370.jpg" width="480" height="594" alt="TAKING THEIR TURN IN THE YARD AT THE SETTLEMENT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">TAKING THEIR TURN IN THE YARD AT THE SETTLEMENT.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + +<p>A small house was hired, through the generosity of several women, for the +purpose of providing a place for recreation and social opportunity for a +number of Christians—that is, people not Hebrews—left in a thickly +settled Hebrew district. These Christians, a mere remnant, resented the +opportunities offered the Hebrews, and while they might have availed +themselves of them, they would not, so strong was the race prejudice. +Shortly after the house was opened a delegation of boys appeared asking for +the use of the large room for a boys' club. The privilege was given on the +conditions that one of the workers interested in the house should have the +privilege of visiting the room freely when the club was in session; that +the club should pay twenty cents per month for the use of the room; that it +should be limited to twenty members for three months. Before the first +month had passed, it was decided that unless the club would accept a +director, it was a waste of the space and light to let these boys use the +room. They called themselves a debating and literary club. They knew +nothing of literature naturally and less of debating. They were told that +they must accept a director, a man who would instruct them in parliamentary +law,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> guide them in debate and suggest subjects for study, or they must +give up the room. They were very angry, but finally decided to accept the +director. Their constitution provided for an election every month, a +provision which kept them in a turmoil all the time. When the majority were +convinced of this, and voted that officers should be elected every three +months, the dissenting minority withdrew to form a new club, to meet +somewhere else. Two weeks later, on club night, the bell rang. The leader +of the minority, who had been elected president of the new club, asked if +they might come back. They did not like the place where they met. After a +conference with the original club, it was decided that, if they chose to +come back as members of the club and pay their dues—three cents per +week—they might come back. The conditions were accepted, and the seceding +minority were to be reinstated as members of the original club on the next +meeting night. As the petitioner was leaving, he turned innocently to the +director and said: "Say, we've elected a couple of new fellows. They can +come in, can't they?" The club consented conditionally on the "new fellows" +being peaceable. The next meeting night came. The bell rang. In order to do +full honor to the returning prodigals, the president went to the door. +There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> a rush and a scramble; the eight boys who withdrew, followed by +twenty-two others, crowded into the room and demanded an election at once. +They declared they were in the majority now, and had a right to the +presidency for one of their own number. It was impossible to eject them, +had it been wise. The question was postponed for one week and an arbitrator +selected.</p> + +<p>When the next meeting night came, some of the new recruits had dropped out +and their places had been taken by older boys. The original members, who +had maintained the club, were told to sit together and keep absolutely +quiet. The constitution declared that no boy was a member of the club who +did not pay an initiation fee of five cents; this included the first +month's dues. The first strange boy was asked: "Have you paid your +initiation fee?" The leader, a boy not fourteen, sprang forward and pressed +a five-cent piece in the boy's hand, saying: "Pay it now. Joe's the +treasurer." The cue had been given him, and he proceeded to give out +nickels to the new boys, urging them to "pay Joe quick." During this scene +another of the receding minority took his position in front of the door to +prevent any boy leaving the room with the money. The performance was +stopped; the opulent small boy, who it was evident was buying votes for the +presidency,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> was told to gather up his nickels. The recruits were told, +after an explanation, why they must leave, and to their credit be it +recorded some of them resented the position in which they had been placed +and promised the misleading leader an unhappy next day before they left. It +was then decided that the twelve members who had constituted the majority +should ballot individually for the eight who had seceded, as though they +had never belonged to the club. It is unnecessary to say that the boy who +made the trouble was rejected. Not one of those boys was fifteen years old, +yet they had learned and understood the method of the political +organizations of the region. Their elders, those they loved, used these +methods, and succeeded by them in getting place and power. The man who +succeeded in sharp practice in politics was the "boss." The man who was +beaten was not smart. The measure of morals was success, not methods used +to attain that success.</p> + +<p>A woman's club, organized several years before, used this house. The +husbands of several of them organized a men's club, and met in the house +one evening in the week. Several of those men were affiliated with the +political organizations of the district; some held positions under the city +government through these affiliations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the Citizens' Union campaign began in 1897, the women who established +the house offered it and the yard for one evening a week to the Citizens' +Union Campaign Committee. Illustrated lectures were given to the people of +the neighborhood, the friends of the clubs using the house, and the parents +of children in the children's clubs. This declared the sentiments of the +women who established the house, which were emphasized when a picture of +the Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor was put in the window. It became +evident at once that there was trouble in the women's club; some of the +members of the men's club never entered the house after the picture was +placed. The Citizens' Union was defeated. At once the friction in the +women's club developed, till it seemed wise to disband it. It was announced +that the house had been given up, and that all the work done there must be +placed elsewhere. The younger clubs were housed in the Clark Memorial. The +women's club, in spite of the friction, voted to keep together, and, with +the City History Club, asked to be received at the College Settlement, +which generously, and at great inconvenience, arranged to receive them. The +members of the women's club, numbering forty-five, voted unanimously to +become identified with the College Settlement work, and pledged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> themselves +to that work. The one woman who had resisted this decision in secret stood +with the rest pledged to the Settlement. At once she incited trouble at the +Settlement. She was voted out of the club. When the decision was announced, +she, with the treasurer of the club and three others, walked out of the +house, the treasurer taking the club treasurer's book and the money, over +seventeen dollars. Sunday's papers announced the incorporation of a club +under the old name. The incorporators were the five women who had left the +club at the Settlement. The business of incorporating was attended to by a +political leader in the State Assembly. One of these women had held a +position in a city department, secured for her by a leader of one of the +political parties; one was the wife of a man holding a city position +through active affiliation with the other political party; another was the +wife of a man who was striving for prominence in political affairs in the +district, irrespective of party; the other was shrewd, ambitious, +vindictive. The club before this break had done charitable work; had helped +families who needed help, through the generosity of friends of wealth. It +had a limited membership, and election was the assurance of certain +qualities in the woman who was received as a member. All this had commanded +attention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> and could furnish political capital. To hold this for one or the +other of the political parties was the intention of the women who +incorporated under the club name and persuaded six of the club members to +join them.</p> + +<p>The treasurer was so evidently the cat's-paw of those who were managing the +affair that, while steps were being taken to punish her for taking the +money, the club at the Settlement voted not to prosecute her, because it +would be a stigma on her as long as she lived, because she would have to +stand with women arrested for drunkenness and disorderly characters in the +dock. The original club remained at the Settlement. The minority who +withdrew, a total of eleven, began active and aggressive work. They hired +the use of a working-girls' club-room. They began to work according to the +most approved methods of political leaders. They attended the outings of a +political association; tried to do what they called charitable work, but +which this very group proved they could not do justly while in the little +house.</p> + +<p>The Fusion campaign of 1901 brought unexpected complications to the club +woman. The Tammany influence was stronger than the Republican, and the +women who had led in the incorporating of the club withdrew. Unfortunately, +the opportunity to give this whole group a strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> lesson in morals was +lost, and they have been accepted where, had the genesis of their club been +understood, it is but reasonable to suppose they would have had no moral +support, and for that reason would have gained a moral lesson.</p> + +<p>The training most needed by the people of narrow experience and limited +intelligence is that of clear distinctions between right and wrong by those +they class above themselves. That shrewdness is not a moral virtue; that +revenge is mean and not the function of mortals, is the one lesson +intelligence and moral standards can teach convincingly.</p> + +<p>Recently it was the privilege of the writer to visit a Parents' Society +connected with a school in the outskirts of Brooklyn. The spirit of good +fellowship that existed, not only among the teachers of the school, but +between the teachers and the parents, was a revelation. That there was a +unifying cause was certain. What was it? One of the mothers, during a walk +to the station, revealed it. In response to a comment on the good feeling +so evident, the mother replied: "Yes, I feel it. Mr. ——," naming a member +of the Board of Education, "at prayer meeting the other night spoke of the +school and what a power it was in this part of the city. We owe it all to +him. He's done everything he could do for the school, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> he has made all +the ministers and the priests friends of the school." She was quiet a +minute, and then added: "Years ago, when he first began fighting for the +school, people used to call him a 'boss.' I think that kind of a boss would +be good in every school. I tell my husband we ought to be glad that we +bought that lot out here and built when we did, for we helped to make Mr. +---- successful. If leading men to do your will means being a 'boss,' Mr. +---- is one. But the city needs hundreds of such 'bosses.'" The man is a +simple American citizen, bearing a foreign name, who saw clearly there were +more ways of serving and saving his country than by carrying a rifle.</p> + +<p>In the last analysis the "boss" as he is in New York to-day is the product +of many roots. The one that goes deepest in the soil, the course of his +deepest hold, can be traced to the doors of our churches. The men who have +failed to see that they owed an allegiance to the city that does not differ +in degree from what they owed the Church; the men who failed to see that +the Church was a positive factor in civic life; that its effectiveness in +the community was dependent on the standards it demanded and helped to +maintain in the city; that on it rested the responsibility for civic +character-building—on these men rest the heaviest responsibility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> for the +evolution of the political "boss" and the evils of which he is the +personification.</p> + +<p>Men and women give money to maintain church services in sections where +political corruption and civic neglect have resulted in creating an +environment that makes decent living impossible; an environment that has so +degenerating an influence that the people become a factor in the problem it +presents, for they have sunk to its level.</p> + +<p>In those sections the tools of the "boss," his active political agents, use +the most despicable methods. The tool of the principal is valuable as he is +conscienceless. His crumbs are the minor offices in the gift of the people; +the lesser tools get "jobs," which the very limitations of their minds make +them believe they must use to secure the largest return of money and power +to themselves—a conception largely due to the indifference of the men who +willingly delegate their civic responsibilities. Every man and woman who +pays the slightest attention to the conditions under which the poor are +forced to live, know that these conditions are responsible for the +existence of nine-tenths of the eleemosynary institutions, private and +public. They know that many of these institutions, could they stand before +the community in their true character, would be recognized as disgraceful +blots upon our civilization.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> They exist because so many good people in the +community have found greater pleasure in establishing and maintaining them +than in working actively to prevent the growth of the conditions that +peoples them.</p> + +<p>Again and again one sees the names of men and women working actively on +these boards of management who would not give a moment's thought to a +meeting called in the interests of better civilization in sections of the +city where their own homes are located; who know nothing of the conditions +of the schools, the streets, the tenement houses, the factories, or the +administration of the law in regard to them. There are men who would resent +the charge of ignorance who do not know the names of the officers they +either actively or passively elected to office in the political unit in +which are their homes. They do not attend the primaries, defending their +absence on the ground that they could accomplish nothing by their +presence—a defense that is in itself a self-accusation. If their divine +right of citizenship has been forfeited, it is by their own civic sin of +omission. The longer one studies the evils that have grown up in the +administration of the business of the great municipality of New York, the +clearer one sees that the sins of omission are responsible for their +growth—far more responsible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> than the sins of commission against which +intelligent voters rail, when they do not use them as salve for their +political consciences. It is a profound truth that in a republic the +character of the people is shown in the character of the men the people +elect to office. This is as true of the ward as of the nation.</p> + +<p>The political units of government in New York are, in the main, inhabited +by the rich and poor, the intelligent and the ignorant; those who can +reason from effect to cause, and those who cannot reason at all. Yet in +these sections the worst possible home conditions will exist—unsanitary +schools, dirty streets, badly paved. Saloons will abound and political +corruption will go unheeded. Why? Because no men of intelligence and +responsibility will accept the minor offices that mean the administration +of the affairs of this unit in the interest and for the protection of the +whole people.</p> + +<p>When men of position in the professional and business world signify their +willingness to accept the least office in the gift of the people, the daily +papers announce the fact in large headlines, and the men become marked as +capable of great self-sacrifice, they become preëminent for the time. The +men who have controlled the nominations, those who have no other visible +means of support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> than these minor offices and political patronage, resent +the suggestion of men of professional and financial fortunes accepting +these offices; they consider the appearance of a man holding business or +professional positions of power or influence as a candidate for a minor +office as an invasion, an intrusion of their personal rights; it is an +attempt to defraud them. They do not hesitate to publicly claim the right +to nomination and election as the reward for their activity in politics. +And they do this when they cannot point to one thing done officially to +justify their claims to the suffrages of the people. They dare to do it in +the face of the knowledge, held by the people, that they use their offices +often for personal ends, defrauding the people.</p> + +<p>The scores of voters who have places within the patronage of a minor +official see the danger to them of an official who would place merit in +advance of votes. The man of position may be far from wealthy; may consent +to serve the city at a financial loss; but the active voters live so remote +from the voters at the top that the election is almost certain to be +decided on class lines; and the defeat of the non-professional politician +is accepted by every man, woman and child in the poorer portion of the +district as a personal triumph; the evidence that the poor man has friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +to back him in his fight for place and power; that the poor must work +together politically.</p> + +<p>Whose fault is it? The good, intelligent, responsible citizens who +delegated the government of their city to the men who use it for their +personal gain. The good men in active politics, who openly concede the +right to the minor offices in the city government to men whom they know are +ignorant, and not infrequently know equally well are dishonest, and who +will sacrifice the interest of the people to strengthen the system that +means personal gains.</p> + +<p>The political conditions of the city several years ago gave birth to one of +the periodic moral upheavals that resulted in the election of a strong, +earnest, loyal, church-supporting citizen as Mayor. This Mayor was anxious +to raise the character of the city government. He determined to accomplish +this by the character of his appointments. He had more than a superficial +knowledge of the public schools, which at that time were the theater for +the exercise of political "pulls." It was known for years that the Board of +Education had been used to a greater or less extent to pay political debts, +to create political capital for future use by some of its most active +members. The new Mayor had it in his power to change the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> character of the +Board, and he carefully considered his appointments.</p> + +<p>In one of the sections of the city where, numerically as to families, +wealth and poverty were fairly balanced, a section having in it churches of +every denomination, many of them maintaining missions in the same political +unit—there was at least this expression of neighborly interest—the +schools were among the first built in the city. The last school building +erected at the time of this Mayor's election had been built twenty years +before; one had been built when the foundation for the pillars of the +elevated road had been set in front of the site before it was purchased by +the Board of Education, and was now in the heart of a crowded foreign +settlement, had no out-door playground; the third building in the school +district was so old, so badly planned, that for years effort had been made +to secure a new building, but were defeated by the indifference, and at +times the opposition, of the best citizens of the district, according to +their own estimate.</p> + +<p>The new Mayor determined to put the best men in the district on the Board. +Twenty-eight men in that district, men of power, men of standards, some of +them philanthropists actively interested in work for the poor, declined. +The men appointed, the best he could get to serve, were unfit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> for the +position—mentally unfit, for they were uneducated; or morally unfit, +because any position paid or unpaid under the city government was conceived +by them as just so great an opportunity to create political capital or +realize perquisites put within their control by their appointments. The +Mayor had begun at the top to make his appointments. The declinations of +the honor were because of lack of time, a lack of knowledge. When the +appointments were announced, there was a storm of criticism, and none more +violent than the majority of the men who declined to serve on the Board.</p> + +<p>At this time there was a great deal of activity among many leading women in +the State to have a bill passed by the Legislature that would compel the +Mayor of cities of the first class to appoint women in the proportion of +one-third of the whole number appointed to the Boards of Education of those +cities. The greatest activity for this measure was exercised in Brooklyn. +One of the leaders, when asked a question about one of the schools in her +own district, did not know where the school was. She had been a tax-payer +in the district twenty-two years, and was considered a progressive woman. +Her chief reason for working for this bill, for spending money freely in +the interest of its success, was man's indifference to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> school matters. +Perhaps if the command, "Feed my lambs" had been given to Dorcas instead of +Peter, she might have developed enough sense of responsibility about the +mental food given to know where the school buildings of her own school +district were located.</p> + +<p>In this school district, October, 1901, there were 574 children on half-day +classes. There was no manual training, though the pupils in the schools +were, for the most part, the children of day laborers, mechanics, and +clerks on small salaries. There was no free library, nor prospect of any, +because public sentiment did not demand it. There was one small park, +difficult of access. To reach it from the outer sections of the district, +the tracks used by nine lines of trolley cars must be crossed. There were +no public baths, except one in summer, near the mouth of a large sewer. One +of the schools had no out-door playground; two had the closets in the +in-door playgrounds. There was no room where the teachers could retire if +ill, or where they could take their luncheons; no rooms where pupils could +be privately interviewed or taken if ill. Yet it is in this very district, +where the oldest and wealthiest families of the city live; where +nine-tenths of the philanthropic enterprises of the city have been born, +and where the moral upheavals for the regeneration of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> city will always +find their quota of leaders, that there is developing some of the worst +evils of a cosmopolitan city. Within its borders is a fair-sized Italian +city, with scores of sweat-shops. Across the thoroughfare is a large Irish +village lying at the foot of the hill, the streets dirty, unpaved, the +houses in an unsanitary condition. Some of them are overrun with rats of +enormous size. The streets at the top of the hill are beginning to yield to +the pressure of the crowds at the foot. Specific houses seem to have in +them the very germs of immorality and degeneracy. Women who have made a +struggle when, by misfortune, forced to move into these houses cease to +struggle, and yield to the influences about them. The tenement-house laws +are violated openly.</p> + +<p>There are not less than six missions, with twice that number of churches, +in this one section; but so far as the environment of the poor is +concerned, they might as well not exist. The majority of the tax-payers, +those who command public respect and confidence, will not serve +authoritatively in the political unit in which are their homes, in which +their children must grow up. They will not take offices that would put it +in their power to change the environment of the homes of the poor by +securing the rights, enforcing the laws, that would protect all of the +homes from the evils<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> of vice, ignorance and unsanitary conditions. But +these men when wealthy will support liberally institutions made necessary +by their civic indifference.</p> + +<p>No man in a pulpit in the section has ever made a study of it to arouse the +conscience and energies of the members of his church to their political +duties. Unfortunately the women, for the most part, are as ignorant of the +condition, and as indifferent. Because of the unsanitary conditions of the +houses occupied by the poor, the dirty streets, the restrictions of child +life, the lack of opportunity for moral development, the total dearth of +recreative opportunity for the boys and girls, the young men and women who +are wage-earners, the lack of educational facilities for the children who +must be educated, if at all, at the expense of the State, the section is a +prolific source of supply to the institutions the intelligent, sympathetic, +wealthy women of the section are so active in creating and sustaining.</p> + +<p>The indifference of the wealthy and responsible to the conditions +prevailing in parts of this section is so well known that officers at the +heads of the city department ignore complaints, or treat them as incidents +to be tolerated as part of the experiences of their official life.</p> + +<p>The penalty is being paid in the steady decline<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> of real estate values, the +gradual spread of the undesirable part of the community, the exodus of the +wealthiest to the sections more remote from the tenements.</p> + +<p>The environment that has a degenerating influence on the people of limited +means in that section is not due primarily to the political corruption of +those using their positions to secure their own ends, but to the criminal +attitude of the men in the churches and intelligent men not in them, who +refuse to assume the political responsibilities that are their birthrights; +the criminal indifference of those who fail to know the necessities of +which the homes of the poor whom God gave into their charge stand in need. +This section of the city is typical, not peculiar. Every section of New +York gives evidence of the divorce between the churches and the political +control that makes the environment of the home and the churches.</p> + +<p>The city is what the good, active people of the city want it to be—no +better, no worse. The condition of the most uncared-for section gives the +church's answer to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The mark of +Cain may not be visible, but every child who goes out of life because its +right to light, air, sunshine has not been protected is a charge against +the Church. Every boy and girl whose life record is shadowed, blackened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +because their right to education, to training, to freedom to develop +physically, mentally, morally, spiritually was denied them through +political indifference, are the evidences of the failure of the churches to +live up to the light which Christ left to their keeping. His followers do +not march through the cities of the poor, an army.</p> + +<p>When Christ said, "The second is like unto it, love thy neighbor as +thyself," He did not not mean the ethical conception for which the Church +has stood, but the broad, Christ-like conception of brotherhood which would +protect "thy neighbor" from the evils of his own ignorance and weakness; +that would use one's best strength in his interest seven days in the week.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 38205-h.txt or 38205-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/2/0/38205">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/0/38205</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c663dd --- /dev/null +++ b/38205-h/images/tp.jpg diff --git a/38205.txt b/38205.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33b84c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/38205.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6882 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Leaven in a Great City, by Lillian +William Betts + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Leaven in a Great City + + +Author: Lillian William Betts + + + +Release Date: December 3, 2011 [eBook #38205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 38205-h.htm or 38205-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38205/38205-h/38205-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38205/38205-h.zip) + + + + + +[Illustration: NO LONGER PROFITABLE.] + + +THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY + +by + +LILLIAN W. BETTS + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +New York +Dodd, Mead & Company +1903 + +Copyright, 1902, +By Dodd, Mead and Company. + +First Edition published September, 1902. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. AT THE BOTTOM, 1 + + II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CENTERS, 37 + + III. THE HOMES UNDER ONE ROOF, 75 + + IV. SLOW-DAWNING CONSCIOUSNESS, 102 + + V. WORKING-GIRLS' CLUBS, 135 + + VI. A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, 162 + + VII. WITHIN THE WALLS OF HOME, 196 + + VIII. FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES, 225 + + IX. HOME STANDARDS, 263 + + X. WHERE LIES THE RESPONSIBILITY? 290 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + + No Longer Profitable--_Frontispiece_ + + The Site of the Old Runway 12 + + Your Choice 24 + + Saturday Morning on the East Side 38 + + The Past, Present, and Middle Period 44 + + A Social Centre that Becomes Political 56 + + A Doorway on the East Side 60 + + Early Morning among the Push-Carts 64 + + Meeting the Needs of the Neighbourhood 70 + + A Remnant of the Past 76 + + A Type of the Present 88 + + A Corner in a Workingman's Home 94 + + A Spiritual Bulwark 128 + + Where the People Share 134 + + A Corner in an Old Section 152 + + Opposite a Corner in an Old Section 154 + + The Woman's Home Improvement Club at the Settlement 168 + + The Kindergarten of the College Settlement 178 + + Making a Selection 184 + + At the Settlement--A Stormy Day 188 + + Yard Day at the Settlement 196 + + The Children's Hour at the College Settlement 200 + + Mutual Interests 206 + + The Forest of the Tenements 212 + + The Children's Playground 218 + + Library Day at the College Settlement 224 + + A Street on the East Side 236 + + A Cooking Class of Mothers and Children 244 + + A Meeting of Neighbours 250 + + The Reading-Room at the Settlement 254 + + After School at the College Settlement 258 + + The Morning Airing of an East Side Heiress 264 + + A Bit of Old Greenwich 274 + + A Little Father 280 + + A Corner in Old Greenwich 286 + + Taking their Turn in the Yard at the Settlement 294 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AT THE BOTTOM. + + +One of the first, and, up to the present time, one of the most interesting +experiments made in New York for the better housing of the poor, was made +in the early eighties by a score or less of philanthropic capitalists. +These gentlemen organized a stock company to hold and manage tenement-house +property, limiting their dividends to three per cent. on the capital; the +surplus dividends, if any, over this amount, to be used in improving the +property, and securing such conditions and opportunities for the tenants as +would stimulate pride and independence. The formation of this company +followed one of the periodic agitations of the tenement-house problems +customary in New York. + +In 1878 a conference was called by the State Charities' Aid Association to +consider the condition of the tenement houses in this city. Mr. Alfred T. +White, of Brooklyn, had at this time proved that model tenements, conducted +on strictly business principles, paid as investments, and stated at this +conference that his model houses made a return of seven one-half per cent. +As a result of this conference a committee was appointed who reported that +they did not find it desirable to recommend the building of model tenements +in New York at this time. Mr. White for many years stood alone as the man +of wealth with the courage of his convictions, that there were wage-earners +compelled to live under tenement-house conditions who would pay for and +respect the best housing that capital would offer them, within their +rent-paying capacity. + +The tenement-house agitation continued. + +In 1879 Mayor Cooper had appointed a committee known as the "Mayor's +Committee," to devise means to effect tenement-house reforms. This +committee reported, and among other suggestions recommended, that companies +be organized to build modern tenements. Some members of this committee, +with others, formed the stock company alluded to with a capital of +$300,000. With a wisdom peculiarly their own, they did not wait until model +buildings could be erected according to plans not yet drawn on sites not +yet selected, but they leased on a long lease property that had been +unproductive for a long time, and occupied by a people at the lowest level +of the home-making people of the city. Below them are the people who do not +even pretend to make a home. This property was located in the old Fourth +Ward. It was the reputation of this ward, and the record of the particular +property, which doubtless led these capitalists to secure it. It was +conceded that the poverty and degradation of the Fourth Ward was at least +as great as in any other section of the city. The property leased had +attracted public attention and been the subject of special investigation +and reports in every agitation of the tenement-house problem since 1856. + +The Fourth Ward criminal and health records figure for an even longer +period in every effort at bettering municipal conditions by the example it +presented of civic indifference, neglect and maladministration. The houses +faced on two alleys, known in their best days as "Single" and "Double" +alley, respectively. As this distinction indicates, on Single Alley one row +of houses faced the walls of the adjoining property, while two rows of +houses faced each other across Double Alley. Later known as Swipe's Alley, +Guzzle Row, Hell's Kitchen, Murderers' Row, showing the gradual descent +from respectability. There is a tradition that Single Alley once had +gardens that extended to Roosevelt Street; that the houses had been +occupied by one family; but this cannot be verified. In their most +degenerate days these houses had an air of exclusiveness, due doubtless to +their fronting on courts and the tall iron fences, with gates, that +separated the houses from the street. The neighborhood at one time was +aristocratic; Franklin Square, but a short distance from the property, was +a social center of national greatness. As business went northward, the +merchants, bankers, tradespeople, followed, for the tie between home and +business was still very close; the midday dinner made distance between the +two impossible. The old homes were left for subdivision among the skilled +workmen and clerks. + +The tide of immigration set in, and the strangers settled near the docks +and wharfs--the source of their wages; in time they crowded into the old +residences, beginning the housing problem of New York. These old homes were +soon overcrowded. They could not be made sanitary. The demand for room was +so great that the large closets--the necessity of the old-time +housekeepers--were counted bedrooms, and are to-day in houses of this type +in tenement-house regions throughout the city. + +The property secured by the new company at the time it was leased was a +part of a large estate, the owner of which during his lifetime had +personally cared for it. He was both strict and just, and these two +attributes preserved these houses for years after the property in the +neighborhood had begun to yield to the character of later residents. This +owner kept the alleys and the houses in repair. The semi-privacy the iron +gate gave the tenants was for years the reason that the better-paid +mechanics remained in the courts or alleys. When the owner died, the +property was put in control of an agent, with the usual result--rapid +degeneracy. It was now conducted to secure the largest returns at the least +outlay. The evils of the absentee landlord are not confined to Ireland. +Absenteeism on the part of owners of tenement-house property is one of the +causes of the social and civic problems that retard the growth of the +highest civilization in New York. Under the management of an agent, the +character of the tenants in the courts changed rapidly, and the people who +took possession added to the disreputable character of the Fourth Ward. For +years before this the largest per cent. of the immigrants settling in New +York settled in this section. They came with distorted notions as to their +place in the new land. Liberty meant to the majority the right to follow +their own will. When hunger and loneliness and nakedness forced them to +reconsider their first conception of what America was, resentment, +recklessness, or adaptability developed. The difference was a matter of +temperament quite as much as of race. + +In 1880 the heads of the families living in the courts were day +laborers--men who worked along the docks, coal shovelers, hucksters, women +who did a day's work, sold newspapers at the ferries, or worked in the +factories. Every child in the alley was ready to do anything that would +earn money from the time he could walk. The people knew every benefit the +city dispensed to the poor: free coal; homes available and how to get in +them; free burial; every organization that dispersed charity, and how to +get it. Even the children were clever in their extremities, and knew how to +get assistance when the Island claimed their parents. From infancy the +children looked forward to wage-earning as a time of happiness. School was +a prison-house to be avoided, except when its warmth and shelter were +preferable to the street, or the home, when intemperance and temper made +life unendurable in it; then they attended school willingly. The truant +officers in this region were not feared. They were the fags of the "boss," +not the officers of a city department. None of the fads of to-day, which so +disturb the conservative people who see ruin of mental ability in modern +educational systems, were then thought of. The kindergarten, nature study, +manual training, were on the educational horizon of New York, in a cloud +scarcely so large as a man's hand. The trustee system was in perfect +working order. The teachers were what God made them, unhampered by the +pressure of superintendent and supervisors to maintain standards. + +It was as true in that day as in 1892, when a man, wholly familiar with all +the systems of education in the country, to the question, "Why is there +such uniformity in the defects of the schools in the tenement-house +regions?" replied, "They represent the demands of the people in the +district who elect the men who control them. You will find that the public +schools always represent the public sentiment and demands of the people +interested in them." + +This was profoundly true of the schools in this region at this time. To-day +there is scarcely any change in the buildings except that of added age. At +least two of them are a disgrace to the city. But there is a great change +in the system. To-day the civilizing force in this community is the public +schools; the remnant does not attract the philanthropist. To the men and +women of our public schools who, preserving the highest ideals, work with +enthusiasm amid the most discouraging surroundings, the city owes a debt +that money cannot repay. + +The liquor saloons numbered then about as they do now, occupying every +available space. More elaborate now, perhaps, for they represent political +headquarters, if not proprietorship, of men identified with the worst forms +of political corruption; then, as now, openly used in the interest of these +men. There is this great change, that children dare not now, as they did +then, enter and leave these places fearlessly at any hour carrying pails, +pitchers or bottles. It was then a neighborly kindness to let children thus +serve a neighbor; it was a source of revenue to the children. + +The gangs were many and notorious in the ward. Frequent were the clashes +and loyal the spirit with which assailed and assailants maintained silence +if there was danger of arrest because of these conflicts. "To squeal" was +to earn the contempt of the community. The number of crimes, the full +measure of degradation, reached in this ward will never be known. The dense +population of this ward is so hidden by business and traffic that in 1901 +the statement was made by some people interested in civic affairs that the +region was given over to office buildings. The district of which the Fourth +Ward is a part cast 10,000 votes in the mayoralty campaign of that year. +Votes that represent a civilization as peculiarly its own as though oceans +separated it from the people a mile and a half away. + +Target companies were the social clubs of that day, the forerunners of the +political organizations of to-day. The climax of their existence were the +annual excursions to some near-by grove for shooting matches. These matches +were the great social occasions of the many "sets." The question of who was +the reigning belle of the locality was settled beyond dispute by selection +of one to present the wreath for the target, or a big bunch of flowers, to +the captain of the target company on the day of the annual parade. These +were always of artificial flowers, and were made gorgeous and splendid by +floating strips and fringes of tinsel paper. The greatest feuds in the Ward +have grown out of the selection of the fair lady to present these trophies. +Her selection changed the political history of her friends often, and her +knights' fists fought her cause, and crowned her, their wounds testifying +to their devotion. The political "boss" of that period presented the +organizations that acknowledged his leadership with silver mugs, castors or +pitchers--prizes for the shooters--but he presented money to keep the +balance of his popularity. The gifts were carried conspicuously over the +route of the procession, which always stopped in front of the house of the +lady, who was to express her favor in the gifts of floral trophies--usually +paid for by the company, sometimes by her knight, or knights combined for +her honor. This house was for the time being the center of interest for the +crowd, as she was of envy or pride to the community. The day of the target +parade was one that called for great sacrifice, that it might be attended +by the requisite formalities and new clothes. Money must be raised to +provide barouches for the great political lights of the ward who gave this +particular company their favor; to pay the attendant colored men who +carried the target and the water and tin cups; for the band with the drum +major. All cost money, and money was scarce; but the prominence and +pleasure paid; and the Fourth Ward had many of these organizations, which +made life exciting, and at times dangerous, when their several groups met, +each struggling for supremacy, each with a leader who must be defended. + +Fresh-air organizations, seaside resorts, were as unknown as trolleys; +hundreds in the Fourth Ward lived and died without ever having seen Central +Park or the ocean. The relief from the sufferings of summer was sitting and +sleeping on the near-by piers. Man's humanity to man at this period of New +York's social history was expressed in hospitals, infirmaries, homes of +many kinds, distribution of food, clothes and medicine. The more +applications secured for these sources of relief, the more tickets given +out in a year at any point for outside relief, the more easy the conscience +of the men who sent the money that maintained them, who measured the value +of their charities by the figures representing human beings that appeared +in the reports. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were then, as now, +"round-ups" for the wretched, the needy and the lazy. The pleasure of the +givers was greatly added to by watching the hungry eating. + +What caused the misery and wretchedness was no secret; but with few +exceptions the men of money and brains were not ready to remove the +prevailing and rooted cause. The exceptions were the men who, impressed by +the example of Mr. Alfred T. White, leased the tenements known as Single +and Double alley, or Gotham Court, the worst piece of property in what was +acknowledged to be the worst ward in the city. + +It had grown more and more difficult to collect rents, and the destruction +of the property by the tenants made any effort at repair futile. Lead pipe, +brass faucets, were wrenched off and sold as rapidly as they were put in; +banisters, stair-rails, blinds, even wooden floors had been used as +firewood. The very bricks on the chimneys were used as missiles of offense +and defense. The Double Alley boasted of a haunted house, which at times +created the greatest excitement in the neighborhood because of mysterious +noises and lights seen and heard at night. Again and again the house had +been raided by the police and stolen goods recovered after the ghostly +exhibits. The police showed to the brave of the neighborhood that sulphur +and brimstone were the ghostly lights, and clever arrangements of ropes and +pulleys and pans the source of the cries and groans that had frozen them +with fear. It was useless. The next appearance of the lights and the sound +of awful groans filled the neighborhood with terror. + +For obvious reasons the only source of water supply was a hydrant in the +center of each alley. The only drainage was the sink sunk in front of it. +When it is remembered that between five and six hundred people lived in +these houses, the opportunities for cleanliness will be appreciated. All +the water used was carried up and down stairs. That pans and pails of water +were emptied from the windows without careful note of the passer-by beneath +is not surprising. This naturally was not conducive to peace; but peace was +not the aim of the people of the court; in fact, its disturbance varied the +monotony of life in the alleys. + +[Illustration: THE SITE OF THE OLD RUNWAY.] + +Single Alley had a narrow opening from its rear, or western, end to +Roosevelt Street. This was paved with brick sunken and broken. It was a +dormitory for the drunken and homeless, a depository for all kinds of +refuse. This alley was a runway. The entrance on the two streets offered +every opportunity of escape to the fleeing fugitive from justice or +vengeance. The code of honor of the alley was to speed the hunted and +obstruct the hunter. The policeman entering the alley in pursuit of a +transgressor knew his fate; he was a target for water, wood, coal, bricks +and unlimited language; unexpected obstructions would be found in the +alley, and the attentions he received when he tripped or fell were intended +to increase the distance between the representative of law and order and +the fleeing offender. He or she might or might not be a friend. The alley's +activity in behalf of the fugitive was based on a new interpretation of the +promised return of bread cast on the waters. + +No matter how bitter the feuds that divided the tenants in the alley, the +appearance of a rent collector in the later days healed the breach, bridged +the widest chasm. He was a common foe and to be downed by common consent. +If abuse and defiance did not drive him beyond the gates, bricks dropped +from the roofs, after a vigorous campaign of water and cooking utensils, +conducted by the feminine contingent from the windows, usually +accomplished his complete rout, not only for that time, but for the future. +As the years passed on, it became almost impossible to get any agent to +make the second attempt to collect rent from the tenants of the alleys. + +The home life of the people in the alley was interesting. Every inch of +space was occupied. The families ranged from a childless old couple, past +seventy, who had lived twenty-eight years in the Single Alley, to the boy +and girl who had just started housekeeping on nothing at all. The women in +the alleys had married, it was found, at about eighteen. They knew +absolutely nothing of housekeeping. Many of them acknowledged that they had +never made a fire before they married. The most elementary knowledge of +cooking, sewing or the use of money was lacking. Of the two hundred and one +mothers in the alley, one could cut and make the garments for herself and +children; four could make bread--one did; one made soup sometimes, but +could not remember the last time. Meals consisted of bread and coffee, or +tea, with beer provided for "him" for breakfast and supper. Dinner was a +"bit" of meat or fish, thought of and cooked between eleven and twelve; the +cooking was frying. Potatoes were substituted for bread at this meal; +rarely any other vegetable except Sunday. On that day, if there was money +enough in the morning, dinner was of corned beef and cabbage, or bacon and +cabbage. One family standing at the head of this community socially had +meat three times each day. This family had in it five wage-earners. They +paid four dollars a month rent for two rooms. The children had all been +born and had grown to manhood and womanhood in the alley. As the writer was +able to win the confidence of these people, it was evident that each mother +was conscious that something was wrong that life yielded no better return. +What was wrong? Where the remedy was to be found did not seem to interest +them. The days drifted. Children ran half naked or in rags, while mothers +sat in neighbors' rooms, stood in doorways, in the halls, or lounged in the +alleys. There were homes in which neither needles, thread nor scissors +could be found. The mother did not know how to use them. A pot and a frying +pan were the only cooking utensils the most lavish closet revealed. Washing +and scrubbing are laborious at any time, but when carrying water from ten +to fifty feet on the level, then up one to four flights of stairs and down +again is added to the labor, it is not astonishing that dishes, clothes and +bodies were at all times freighted with disease and death. A knowledge of +the relation between dirt and disease, cleanliness and health was not the +general knowledge it is to-day. Their relation to moral elevation or +degradation is barely understood to-day. + +The average weekly wages of the men living in the alleys at this period was +between eight and nine dollars per week, and sometimes kept at the latter +figure for weeks. It will be seen at once that the poverty, misery, +degradation and dirt that kept life at the level it was in the alleys was +due to some other cause than wages, for rent was only four dollars a month, +when paid, and it was paid less than eight months of the year. Beer flowed +in the alley; tin cans, pitchers, pails, went back and forth at all times +of the day and night. It was the first errand on which the baby feet were +sent. Every woman in the alley acknowledged that she had seen her husband +drunk before she married him. She knew better how to manage him when he was +drunk than when he was sober. A blow given in drink was not recorded +against a husband either by the wife or her neighbors. A blow given when +the man was sober was remembered and aroused pity and sympathy. Over +seventy per cent. of the women drank to the point of unconsciousness. All +used liquor. Of child training there was none. The act that was laughed at +this hour brought a blow the next. Attending school was for the child to +decide. If he wanted to go, he went. Usually lack of clothing shut out +about half the children of school age in the alley. + +Mother love was largely a matter of animal instinct. While the baby +depended on her for nourishment, she could be found with it in her arms at +all times; it was, so far as life had a concentrated thought, her constant +care. The moment the baby found its feet and used them, the child was cut +loose and began his individual life. His standards, language, habits, were +what his environment made them. His care, so far as the mother was +concerned, was conducted on the lines of the least resistance. If the child +was struck by an outsider, it raised the tiger in the mother; if ill, a +burden to carry for which there was neither money nor knowledge; the mother +had no strength and could not meet cares that demanded continuous thought; +her mind was not trained to it. Health and disease were largely a matter of +luck. Death brought pangs, but life was too much of a struggle for it to be +a crushing blow, even when it was one's child. Children came and went too +fast in the alleys for their coming or going to fill or empty even a +mother's life. + +Not one woman in the alley could remember ever having an entire new outfit +in her life, nor had any of her children; her first baby had worn garments +that had been made for some more fortunate baby. + +Such was the dead level of existence lived in the alleys. Without the +stimulus of drink it would be lethargy, and was when there was no money to +treat or be treated. Pleasure? It was unknown outside of the beer can. If +that did not give pleasure, why life was a hand-to-hand, hopeless struggle +with homelessness, hunger and nakedness. In the alleys a fight became a +pleasure and death a social opportunity. Even love seemed denied the people +of the alleys. Marriage often was a part of the habitual drifting when not +a matter of compulsion. Homes were established with no bond but that of +law, and sometimes not that. That they even were what they were was a +tribute to the fundamental morality that is the salvation of the civilized +world. + +These were the people who had made the alleys between 1855 and 1880, when +the owners of the estate gladly leased the property on a long lease. As has +been stated, spasmodic attempts had been made to reclaim the property, to +make it productive, but always by men acting for the owners; they never +came in personal contact with the tenants. It is doubtful if they even had +any conception of the effect of their delegated responsibility on the +people, or had any knowledge of the change that resulted when the property +ceased to have the personal supervision of the owner. + +The lessees put two ladies in control of the property. One or the other was +to be found there each day. + +The tenants were notified that rent must be paid weekly; that the rooms +would be white-washed and painted; that the agents would be at liberty to +visit the rooms daily; that no child would be permitted to carry liquor on +the premises; every bundle or basket carried by a child would be examined, +and any liquor found would be emptied into the sink in the yard. Water +would be put in the halls on each floor; destruction of property would mean +eviction. All who were unwilling to accept these conditions were asked to +move at once. The rent remained the same, four dollars per month for two +rooms. Families desiring four rooms could have them for eight dollars per +month, the company cutting a door through the party walls, giving direct +ventilation through the floor, with windows opening on both alleys. The +absolute impossibility of getting two equally good rooms in the +neighborhood for the same rent kept the majority of the families. A few +tacitly accepted the change, largely because acquiescence was their habit +of mind, while some expected to set at naught any rules or regulations +that they found obnoxious. No tenant moved voluntarily. + +The new ownership took possession with the same human beings who had +occupied the houses for years. The first step was to insist on cleanliness. +The alleys were swept and washed every morning, as were the halls and +stairways. Garbage cans were provided and their use insisted on. Every can +or bundle carried by a child was examined, and all liquors found in them +were emptied into the sink in the yard. Quarrels and fights grew less +frequent, especially among the women. The children attended school, for +their appearance during school hours led to investigations that the +majority of the tenants preferred to avoid. The aim was to establish such +relations between the representatives of the company and the tenants as +would give opportunities to reduce the ignorance and indifference that were +quite as responsible, if not more responsible, for the misery in the homes +than lack of money. The tenants held aloof. They were tenants because they +could not get as much comfort for the money elsewhere; but there could be +no friendship where the payment of rent was insisted upon, where +drunkenness involved the risk of, and abuse of property positive, eviction. + +Several young couples were tenants. The aim and hope of the agents were to +gain the confidence of these young mothers. The first child of one died +late that summer. Potter's Field was the place of burial. The young father +could have worked six days in the week, but that would have been slavery +intolerable. He refused it, and followed his lifelong habit of drifting, +which was also that of the young mother. She had never resented her +husband's days of idleness until this baby died and there was not one cent +to provide for the care and disposition of the little body. This was the +opportunity of the two women who were waiting to prove that they were not +oppressors. A little coffin, a white slip and socks, some flowers--at that +time an unheard-of tribute to death--a carriage and a grave in the cemetery +approved by the mother's church was provided. The battle was won. Every +man, woman and child in the alley surrendered to this evidence of +comradeship. That this act gave birth to hopes that must be stifled was +natural. Rules must be enforced and comradeship expressed at the times of +emergency. The first and hardest battle was won. Confidences were gained +that led to marriages and baptisms that had been neglected or forgotten. +The office, simply but tastefully furnished, became a school-room, where +the mothers and the children learned to sew. Goods were bought in +quantities and sold at cost to the learners. A sewing machine and a +teacher appeared and were welcomed. Practical talks, or, more properly, +conversations, were held; but no one took note of them as special efforts +in philanthropy, they were so naturally a part of each day's experience. +The daily visits to each tenant resulted in establishing relations that +justified reproof, suggestion, commendation. The standards of pleasure, +pain, suffering, accomplishment were elementary in the alleys. An hour's +work with the needle left the worker exhausted, and diversion then meant +moral safety. The homes were barren, and the acme of hope was wages to pay +rent, buy food and clothes; the last rarely realized. The months, and even +years, passed without the people passing beyond the confines of the ward. +The generations lived this life, and it was a fixed habit. The world had +nothing to offer to the habitual residents of the ward that the ward did +not provide; it has but little to-day to offer them. + +In spite of the emptiness of life and barrenness of these homes, they were +on the whole better than the homes of the preceding generation. + +When the wives laid the cause of their burdens on their husbands' shoulders +because they drank, the question, "Did you know he drank when you married +him?" would be answered easily, with no thought of self-condemnation, +"Yes," in frank confession. + +"Do you drink?" + +"I drink beer, mostly. Sure, ye get discouraged just working and washing, +and never a cent; not a decent rag to go on the street, and no place to go +when you get there but a neighbor's house. What is there but a glass of +beer? You don't mean to get drunk; yer that before ye know." + +This total lack of personal relation to life was me mental attitude of +almost every woman. If she was a widow, she worked to make a home for her +children, who, again and again, so often that it ceased to attract +attention, heard how much harder life was because they were in it. This +seemed the accepted attitude, and accounted for the expression on the faces +of these children--a puzzled, hardened expression that blotted out all +suggestion of childhood. That time was an element in the problem of life +was not accepted. That the garment made at home would last longer and cost +less was conceded; but what was the use of making things when they could be +bought so cheaply. The total absence of reasoning powers was shown here. To +make soup would mean staying at home, thinking and planning for hours in +advance of a meal. The soup would cost no more than steak and provide two +meals, but it would mean loneliness, when the time, through ignorance, +could not be turned to interesting uses. + +There were women in these alleys, mothers of grown children, who could not +tell a bias from a straight edge; who could not put a gingham apron +together having straight and bias selvages. Beyond sewing on occasional +buttons, there was no use in their minds for needles. They had worked in +tin factories. They had worked at all kinds of employment that called into +play the minimum amount of brains and the maximum of muscles. Not one woman +was found who before her marriage had worked in any line of employment that +had the slightest connection with the arts of home-making. The wages they +earned was that of unskilled labor, in lines of employment known to be +intermittent. Wages, large or small, went into the common family fund. The +future was not a matter of care. When all in the family worked, life was +lived merrily; when hard luck came, life was lived stoically. This spirit +went into the home of the wage-earners when they married. There was far +less physical suffering than the privations of their lives made natural. +Often these limitations were self-imposed; there was money enough to give +life color and purpose, if only there had been knowledge to guide in the +adjustment between necessities and income; a conception of time as an +element in the financial problem. + +[Illustration: YOUR CHOICE.] + +The closer one entered into the individual life, the more clearly was it +revealed that the problems of poverty grew out of the inability to see the +relations of things, to comprehend life in its entirety. Even after two +years of close relation with these people in the alleys, it was with the +utmost caution and tact that the subject of free coal could be broached. It +was then distributed by the city--an intimate source of political +corruption. A large quantity of coal was purchased and put in the cellar. +It was offered to the tenants at the same price the grocer sold it by the +pail, with the difference that it was delivered in the rooms. First, pride, +a desire to appear somewhat above the neighbors, moved to independence on +the coal question. In two years' time free coal was in the category of +disgraces in the alley, and marked a rising moral tide. + +A young woman and her husband were special objects of attention to the +agents. They were young, good-looking, bright, and, when sober, ambitious +as their conception of life made possible. Both drank, the woman more than +the man, and she sank lower when drunk. For years she had spent more time +on the Island than off it. What could be done? The whitewashing and +painting of the two hopelessly barren rooms seemed to bring the woman to a +pause. It was not possible to get beer through a neighbor's child now, and +until she was drunk this woman would not go into a saloon. The clean alley, +washed every morning, by some process of reasoning seemed to demand +corresponding effort indoors, and the barren rooms were never dirty when +the woman was sober. Even this gave employment to hands that had never used +a needle, therefore less time was spent lounging in the doorway or other +rooms. The washing of clothes, though ragged and few, took time and +centered the interest, if but for a short time. The look of utter weariness +and indifference in the face of the woman was slowly disappearing. There +was really a purpose in life; the four walls and little else that was home +required thought and effort. Life had an object at last. But the devil of +drink was not so easily conquered; she was gone one morning from home. The +neighbors explained to the agents her absence, being familiar with the +habits of the type. In court she listened again indifferently to "Ten +dollars or ten days." This time a woman came forward, paid the ten dollars, +and Agnes was free. Surprised, dumb-stricken, wondering why, Agnes followed +the friend home. New clothes, simple, suitable, were waiting for her. Then +the fight began. At times it was hourly. Work was provided that the clumsy, +untrained hands could do. The proceeds were to pay for a new carpet, that +had to be unrolled many times to hold Agnes from the street. At last it was +down, and the two friends added a rocker and a picture. Tom was a new man, +and every penny of his wages came home. All this time the prosperity of the +couple was viewed by most of the people as due to passing "good luck." That +there was a moral battle being fought did not seem to enter their +consciousness. Four years later, on the stairway, the writer saw Agnes with +her beautiful baby boy, her first-born, on her arm. The comprehension of +what the sight must have been on the Mount of Transfiguration has always +been clearer when the expression on the face of Agnes, as she met the woman +who had fought for her salvation for time and eternity, is recalled. Two +years had passed since Agnes had tasted liquor in any form. Her passionate +devotion to her baby, her new knowledge of the arts of home-making, kept +her so busy that Agnes was rarely a visitor to her neighbors, except in the +case of sickness. Tom's love of liquor seemed limited; largely a matter of +companionship or discouragement. When his home became a center of interest +to Agnes, his buoyant nature responded to the new environment. When liquor +disappeared from the home, it ceased to be a constant temptation. Outside +of his home Tom found for a time that his new departure attracted to him +unpleasant attention, guying, teasing, coaxing, which he met with jokes. +Force as an inducement to make him drink was met by blows; and Tom struck +heavily. The new impulse for a better life brought heavy social penalties +on Tom and Agnes. It meant nothing in common with those about them. When a +man and woman will neither treat nor be treated at that social level social +ostracism follows. Their home was the refuge of the children driven by +frenzied, drunken parents from their own homes. What they had they shared +with the children when the parents were on the Island. When sickness came +to homes in the alleys, Tom and Agnes could be relied upon to share and +help in carrying the added burdens. Tom's muscles and the knowledge of +their power saved many a wife from blows that, without Tom, would have +fallen freely. Back of their every effort stood the two wise women who were +redeeming this corner of the great city. The day came when Tom and Agnes +realized the boy must grow up in a different neighborhood, and Tom and +Agnes moved. + +The making of a laundry compelled the removal of a childless couple who had +occupied their rooms over thirty years. It was impossible to make them +accept the fact that the children could play in the alley under the new +_regime_. For years the old woman and her stick were familiar to the sight +and the feelings of the children of the alley. "I'm in Dixie's Land. Dixie +ain't home!" had been shouted under their windows, at their room door, +which was very near the alley door, to bring them out in torrents of rage. +As age made the old couple less fleet and more quarrelsome, the daring of +the children grew, and any time of the day or night the conflict between +the old couple and the children, in which parents figured, was a +possibility. Peace became impossible. The decision was final; the old +couple must go; their rooms were necessary to the new improvements. It was +pathetic to discover that no amount of persuasion would make the old couple +live north of Roosevelt Street; it meant a lowering in their social world. +"I've always lived respectable, and I always will. I would not live in that +block," announced the old woman, with conscious pride. Even the alley, it +was found, had standards of residence, a line that must not be crossed, to +maintain respectability. + +By this time the mental attitude of every woman in the alleys had changed +toward her home. Positive determination to overcome inertia, or ambition to +excel, it was impossible to create. Innate predilections were the chief +factor in individual development among the women. What a woman liked to do +she attempted to learn how to do, or what she found she could do most +easily. Some would learn to cook who absolutely refused to sew; some would +sew who refused to cook; some would take care of the babies while the +mothers were learning who would neither cook nor sew, feeling they could do +both well enough; these it was impossible to make home-makers. The shackles +of the past could never be thrown off wholly by the home-makers in the +alleys. The children responded; could be won by personal affection, by +prizes, by the mother's insistence. For it was soon learned that nimble +fingers in the home lightened the mother's work; but the mothers were the +unwilling victims of their own past. + +The use of money was the most difficult lesson of all to teach. If there +was money, the food was bought lavishly; pennies were given freely to the +children. If there was no money, the barrenness was accepted even +cheerfully. Wages were given at the maximum weekly amount remembered. No +deductions were made for idle days. It requires a knowledge of advanced +arithmetic to adjust intelligently forty weeks of wages to fifty-two weeks +of expenses. It requires more than an elementary knowledge of arithmetic to +adjust five days' wages to the seven days' expenses, fixed and emergency, +of a growing family. When a week comes that brings six or seven days' +wages, is it a marvel that in view of the many weeks of imposed +restrictions this week of wealth should be welcomed as a period of freedom +from care? That the money should be lavishly used? It takes the ability to +think, to connect cause and effect, imagination, to see possible results, +memory of experiences to hold men and women constantly in check, and this +means mental training. Not a woman in the alley had attended school +regularly during even the short period of her school life; each one had +gone to work the moment she could earn money. Neither she nor any one about +her questioned the value of the work she found to do beyond the money it +gave at once. Nobody ever thought of the present as in relation to the +future. Now that she was a mother, she met life the same way. Her children +must earn money. To make sacrifices that their wage-earning capacity in the +future might be greater would, if suggested to her, have been merely an +evidence of how little the rich know of life. What was the estimate of life +these mothers in the alley made? The differences between them were +external, not mental. One answers for nearly all. To get as much comfort +out of to-day as possible and to-morrow work hard, and be careful. To the +majority that to be used to-morrow never came. When plenty came, it was +always to-day--a glad, free day that might never come again. + +At the end of four years but four of the tenants of the alleys who were +tenants when the lease was executed had been evicted. The death rate had +lowered from 85 to 22 per cent. The tenants rarely appeared in the police +courts. Wife-beating created excitement and indignation. But in spite of +the awakening, a moral, mental, physical inertia, stagnation, held more +than the majority of the tenants in control. There was spasmodic response; +but the painful truth had to be accepted that there must be redemptive +power within to respond to redemptive conditions without before the home +could be vitalized with the spirit of hope and energy. Fifty years and more +of neglect and indifference cannot be overcome in five years of moral +activity exerted to overcome the evils man neglected to prevent. + +The alleys are gone; some tenants drifted to other scenes, more settled in +the tall, dark tenements that have sprung up through the whole district, +the worst type erected in New York. The rear buildings abound even back of +the tall factories, reached by dark, noisome alleys. No amount of care or +repair could save the old houses. They have gone the way of all material +things. Their history is a part of the social and political history of New +York. + +How slowly moral sentiment grows in a large city is shown by the years that +elapsed before active measures were taken to redeem what was known as a +plague spot, a menace to the body politic, a constant source of moral +degeneracy. + +The Citizens' Association, organized in 1864, through its Council of +Hygiene and Public Health, districted the city for special investigation by +sanitary experts. One of these gives a large part of his report to Gotham +Court, and presents sectional drawings to show the impossibility of +securing proper sanitary conditions for the people living in the notorious +houses. It seems incredible that these conditions once known should not +have aroused public interest to the point of action. Nothing was done. The +physical and moral degeneracy continued until 1880, when a few private +individuals made the experiment of redemption. Even this came when the +houses had gone beyond the point of reclaiming. On the site of the old +buildings rises a new business building. + +Not far away two of the most brutal and atrocious murders of recent years +in New York have occurred. In July, 1901, three blocks from the old +buildings, in broad daylight, a man known to be the collecting agent for +property in the neighborhood was robbed by three members of a well-known +gang. The children are thin, precocious. Their language, even in their +play, is vulgar, coarse, profane. Babies have at their command strange +oaths, probably never heard elsewhere. The streets are neglected, the +sidewalks uneven and broken. For almost half a century this region has had +a reputation peculiar to itself. Efforts have been made to reach the +people, but they have not been persistent. Even the church efforts are +perfunctory, as though faith as to the redemptive power in this people did +not exist. + +This fact remains: within the boundaries of this region lives a community +that is shaping the political control of New York City and State, and will +for years to come. It has its traditions of loyalty; it has fixed standards +of its own peculiar privileges; its standards of rights. The very police of +the region expect certain things to occur; misdemeanors of a certain +character that would bring punishment anywhere else are passed by here; +they are part of the civilization of the region. Snuggled down under the +shadow of the bridge and the elevated road, a center of business interests +which the moral standards of the residents do not affect, because their +activities, other than of the muscles, are not exercised until carts, +drays, drivers, clerks, proprietors have gone northward or across the +river. The community lives within itself, has created its own standards, +and is New York in its own estimation. + +Writing of the people in this section in 1865, a sanitary expert quotes +with an apology a medical term common in the hospitals and dispensaries as +a disease of the people in this section, "tenement-house rot." The term +has, perhaps, in the interests of civilization, died out; but no one can +walk through these streets, observing the faces of the people, and not +realize that the old, unsanitary, germ-laden tenements of this section have +produced a physical condition peculiar to this region, as it has a moral +degeneracy that is peculiarly its own. The section, as a whole, has not +attracted the philanthropist. He is wise in his day and generation and puts +forth his efforts where the tide of humanity is rising, and not falling, +even though it means three or four generations before the tide is out. + +New York has a gospel all its own. Work where the crowds are greatest, that +the printed reports may count people in great numbers, for ye gain dollars +thereby. New York counts the remnant only at the polls, and ignores the +penalty her indifference imposes on her own advancement. + +The opening years of the century hold promise that there is at least a +partial realization of the solidarity of the interest of the people. That +conditions make for degradation in the homes means degradation of citizens; +and this means burdens laid, not on the sections where the homes and the +citizens are found, but on the whole city. What altruism has not +accomplished, selfishness may. It may be that where all else has failed, +intelligent politics may redeem, and the section again may be the center of +the moral as well as commercial activity. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CENTERS. + + +The centralization of the interests of the tenement-house population is not +understood by those who broaden their mental, if not their active, interest +by reading and travel; who in the varied interest of a broader life are +forced to see the multiplicity of factors that enter into the settlement of +every problem. This is what we mean by knowing the relation of things; +marking the distinction between those who see only and those who +comprehend. The man who is a machine set in the place where he bears his +relation to the whole by an authority which he dares not question loses all +opportunity to comprehend his relation to that whole. He is interested in +immediate results as related to himself only. This is the relation which +the mass of the tenement-house workers and voters bear to life. + +The people of whole sections live entirely within certain geographical +lines, every interest centered within these limits. + +The race sections are logical, based on the law of natural selection; of +family interest. The first generation of immigrants naturally hold the +second generation of home-makers near them, and these together hold the +relatives and friends who follow. Three generations are not infrequently +found in the same house, each maintaining its own home. The new arrivals +keep alive the foreign home traditions, the foreign home habits of living. +Poverty and greed make the people crowd together. The last arrivals are +taught what their predecessors have learned of American life and law. The +race section perpetuates itself; it retains all that it can of the old +life, and interprets the new according to the lessons learned from +environment, and power as it is exercised on the people. Each race section +has its own thoroughfare. The people on the street use their own language, +and trade in shops of their own countrymen. In some sections newspapers are +published in the language of the section, giving prominence to the local +news. Were it not for the public schools, one wonders what would be the +result of this race centralization. + +[Illustration: SATURDAY MORNING ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +The writer once met a man who had voted for twenty-three years in one ward. +For sixteen of these years he had cast his vote from one house in Orchard +Street. He had never been farther north than Houston Street, farther south +than Hester and had never crossed the Bowery. He had positive convictions +on every subject relating to the ward; he knew the life history of every +political leader in that portion of the city; could rehearse the disasters +that had followed every man who failed to fall in line at the polls; knew +what saloon-keepers were forced to obey the law, and who "didn't care a +cent" for the law; knew why this man could put his goods on the walk and +why the other man could not. He protected his own two daughters from the +evils of his home environment as he saw them; was strict to rigorousness +about their home-coming; watched the kind of people who moved into the +house in which he lived, and doubtless kept it above the average of the +neighborhood by his watchfulness. But he did not know who was President of +the United States, and did not consider it the business of the poor man. He +refused a "job" under the city, because he didn't want to be "beholden." It +was all right for the man who needed a job to take it. The only grievance +the man had was that the Hebrews were crowding into the neighborhood. This +was an invasion of his personal rights; they had their own place on the +south side of Grand Street, as the Italians had west of the Bowery, and +coming into that region north of Grand Street was an intrusion on the +personal rights of himself and his countrymen. The first thing which would +happen, if they--his own people--did not look sharp, would be the Hebrews +would have a say in politics. The man's mental attitude is typical of the +race settlement, the race political rights theory in many sections of New +York; the difference is only in the race dominant. + +This man was a porter, who for seventeen years was employed in an East Side +department store, working in a sub-cellar nine hours a day for nine dollars +a week. He could not read, though he came to this country when five years +of age. He became a wage-earner at eleven. His daughters became +wage-earners at fourteen, having attended public schools until that age. +The pride with which this man referred to his daughters' education made one +comprehend the gradual absorption by the foreign peoples who come to us of +American ideas. Those girls knew they were not educated; they had been +forced to contrast their mental equipment with that of the "club ladies," +as they called the residents at the College Settlement, where the club of +which they were members met. They, too, had been satisfied until brought +into relationship with those who represented another world. The revelation, +because of contact with the minds of these college-trained women, showed +them, so far as they could comprehend it, their own lack of mental +training, the first step in their true education. + +Women are by nature more conservative than men; they cling longer to early +traditions and habits; find it more difficult to adopt new habits of +thought. The more closely they are surrounded by people of their own way of +life, their own habits of thinking, the more strongly intrenched are they +in the customs and habits of their native country, the less are the homes +they regulate modified by the new environment. The result is that whole +sections of New York to-day are as foreign as the villages from which the +people in them came. There are women in New York whose children and +grandchildren were born in the city who cannot speak English, nor +understand it beyond the merest assent or dissent. Their lives in old age +are pitiable. + +A sweet, motherly German once said to the writer, and but a short time ago: +"I am so lonely. I cannot speak English. I never learn it. I sit in my +daughter's house, where German is not used. The children all want to be +Americans; they will not talk German. When I sit at the table, I never +speak. They all talk, but I do not understand. Sometimes I ask, and the +children say they have not time to tell me. They buy only the English +papers, and so I cannot read. I wish I had learned English when I first +came. I was young then, but I had eight children after I came here, and I +did everything for them. I could not take the time, I thought. I see now +the children could have taught me. Now they have not the time." This woman +was a German in her sympathies, her interests, her standards. Positive race +antagonism existed between her and her family. She measured everything by +German life and rule, and lived a critic among a people her own only in +blood. In answer to the question, she explained that her husband learned +English for his "work." The family attended the mission church when they +attended church. She attended the German services, but the rest of the +family, even her husband, the English services. Her constant plaint was: "I +am so lonely. Some day I never speak all day. At the table they speak +English." + +Hundreds of women like this one sit in homes in New York in which they have +no part, barred out by the fact that they speak a foreign tongue. One of +the mistakes made in even our church work has been the maintaining of +distinctive church services in a foreign tongue. In so far as the churches +have done this, they have been an obstruction to good citizenship for time, +whatever they may have accomplished for eternity, for the people they call +their own. + +One of the most earnest of missionary workers in New York, an American +citizen born in Italy, protested vigorously to the writer on the policy of +maintaining church services in New York in a foreign tongue. "You cannot +make a united people using many languages. I would preach that to the +people all the time. I use English words in my sermons to my own people, +and I tell them to learn English; it is better for them in business. The +women ought to learn, for they lose their children. They go away from them +because they do not speak the English. In New York they are the victims of +oppression, my people, because they cannot speak English. They have to bow +the head to the yoke because they are foreigners in a strange land in which +they vote. It is a great wrong to them and to the country. It makes the +'boss.'" + +The first interest of the mother in the tenement, as of the mother +everywhere, is the support of her children; to get for them all that she +can. She would prefer that her husband should be honest, which may mean +that the only dishonesty of which she has any comprehension is stealing +money or other tangible property. In politics the tenement-house women have +only a secondary interest. They accept without question the statements of +their male relatives as to issues and men. Even this degree of interest +represents only the most intelligent of the tenement-house women. The +charge that a man used his political position and affiliations to further +his own advancement, that he purchased the votes and enthusiasms of less +clever voters, would mean to the women educated in their conception of +right and wrong under the systems of machine politics that the man was +intelligent and trying to do the best he could for his family and his +friends. To say that he refused to rally voters to support the party that +gave him a position because he was convinced that the party was dishonest +in the use it made of the victory it gained at the polls, would arouse the +deepest contempt for the man. He would be considered not only untrue to his +family, but to his friends. Had he remained in close relation to the +politicians who gave him his chance, he would not only provide for his +family, but his friends would have the benefit of his influence; he could +give them a chance in time. + +[Illustration: THE PAST, PRESENT AND MIDDLE PERIOD.] + +The man of brains they see drop his tools, take off his overalls and stand +in high hat, and eventually frock-coat, the center of a crowd of men who +smile at his nod, though they worked shoulder to shoulder but a short time +ago--in a trench, perhaps; yes, even came over in the same ship with him. +The women do not understand the process of evolution, but they see the +results. They soon know that from street sweeper to car conductor, the man +who has become a politician under a strong partisan government regulates, +and often decides, the wage-earning opportunities of the greater portion of +the men in the tenement-house sections. They learn, these women, that it is +not a question of how faithful the worker is in the discharge of his duty +that insures him work, but that it is some mysterious influence they call +"politics," that means work and wages or no work and no wages, and +suffering. This conception of the relation of the petty politician to the +voters' chance to earn even a meager and uncertain living under the sway of +his influence rarely excites more than passing indignation from the women +who suffer most because of the system. When the women of the politician's +family grow arrogant and snobbish, then the floods of eloquence break loose +for a time, and the listener may learn many things of which he would +otherwise be ignorant. The increased power of the petty henchman rarely +enables him to change the way of living of his family. Sometimes he does +not when he can, for he knows that he increases his power as he lives on +the level of the average voter in his district. The less conscience he +has, the more patient he is in waiting for the day when his district is +only one factor in his political strength. + +Even the little children reveal deference to the family of the man who is +known to have "pull." There came to an East Side library one afternoon a +little girl better dressed than any child who had yet appeared there. She +was impudent, noisy, aggressive. In the game-room she cheated in the games, +and finally broke up several games of checkers and dominoes by pushing over +the boards. No child resented this. The little girl when spoken to seemed +astonished by the reprimand. As she was leaving, the writer said to her: "I +am sorry, little girl, but I shall have to tell you that you must not come +here again unless you mean to obey; you must not talk in the reading-room, +and in the games you must play fair. I hope I shall not have to tell you +not to come here again." The child stared in astonishment. She went out on +the street. In a few minutes several little girls who had frequented the +rooms for months came running back in great excitement, one saying +breathlessly: "Why, that little girl's father is a school trustee; she does +just as she likes in school." "Yes," added another, "and now she says she +won't come here any more. She's awful mad." From her point of view this was +a calamity. "Well, I hope she will not come if she cannot behave," was the +comment made. The children stood aghast. The trustee system had been +abolished in New York at least two years when this incident occurred. Later +the writer found that the father was in the council of Tammany Hall. + +A boy of the same neighborhood rang the bell, interfered with children +leaving the house, and broke the windows. The time for kindly persuasion +ended. When the members of a woman's club in that section using that house +were consulted, it was made perfectly clear to the writer that worse +troubles would follow if the boy were arrested, for he would not be +detained and he would be more ugly than ever. His father was a ward leader +who had formerly been a street sweeper, then foreman of the gang, etc., +going through the gradations that mark the making of the minor "boss." This +boy bullied little children, stole their toys, would break up their games. +Yet to have him join in their play was evidently an honor which they bore +much to retain. He was only fourteen, yet he was found to be the leader of +a gang of boys in the most disgusting immoralities. Even this did not rouse +the mothers of the neighborhood to fight for their children's protection. +The boy was spreading immorality of a disgusting nature through a whole +neighborhood. The evil he wrought was told in tears in private, but denied +in public through fear of the father's power in preventing the accusers' +husbands and sons from getting work--one result of the Tammany system that +enslaves homes and blasts the innocence of little children in New York. + +A clever, hard-working Irish woman was once telling the writer the story of +her life and that of her children. At the time she was deeply interested in +the future of four nephews, who were the motherless sons of her brother. +Out of her experience with sons-in-law she enunciated her conclusions: "I +tell me brother, don't let them b'ys learn politics; it's a mighty poor +thrade. Sure, when Tammany's in they're all right; but when Tammany's out, +where are they? Sure, it's a mighty poor thrade, as I learnt to me sorrer. +Betther have them blacksmiths, sez I, like their grandfather at home. I do +hope he be's listening to me, for they're foine b'ys." It will be easier +for the four "b'ys" to learn politics than any other "thrade," for it is an +open union making one demand, obedience to the "boss." + +To this woman Tammany was an employer good to the poor man--a doctrine that +is taught to the smallest boy. He breathes it in the air; he nurses it in +the milk that nourishes him. As he gets older he adds a new article to his +faith. The Tammany system is the protector of his liberties. It does not +restrict him in his right of private judgment. As one studies the race +sections, the discovery is made that hundreds of votes are cast for Tammany +candidates in the belief that obnoxious restrictions on the sale of liquor +on Sundays will be removed, or that the laws will not be enforced. The hope +of raising the moral tone of the voters is futile while any portion of them +justify the casting of a ballot for the sole reason that it will make it +possible for the voter to break the law with impunity. The most +demoralizing legislation is that which makes a man a sneak as well as a +law-breaker. May the day be hastened when no man who stands in moral +rectitude in the presence of man and God will be forced to maintain what he +believes his rights in defiance of the law. We are a cosmopolitan country, +owing power and greatness to the sons and daughters of many lands. The +Puritan conception of government is out of place to-day. The larger +conception of man not controlled by the law, but the master in himself of +the restraints it would place upon him, is the American conception of +manhood, and toward this the best legislative action must trend. Thinking +men and women who have studied the social conditions of New York know that +no more calamitous influence is set in motion in New York than a sense of +injustice that protects and justifies to the people the breaking of a law. +When this goes farther, and any considerable number of the citizens combine +for the purpose of overcoming it by defying or by ignoring it, the +foundations of the government are threatened. It is time for fanaticism to +feel the pressure of broad-minded balanced public opinion. A law +administered at the demand and according to the conscience of people +unaffected by its administration, used by them against an equally +intelligent class who feel that personal liberty has been curtailed at the +expense of their right of judgment, is class legislation. No greater evil +influence has been active in New York than the creating of a sentiment that +endorsed the breaking of the liquor laws. It has been a prolific source of +blackmail; it has enabled politicians, who live at the public expense, to +pose to men whose personal right of judgment had been curtailed as the +apostles of freedom. The short-sighted friends of temperance have by their +misdirected activities created political capital for the men who in +official life have made New York's problems. + +Legislation enacted without the will of the people governed is provocative +of two things: contempt and defiance of the law; unrest that makes for +antagonism to government. The lower in the scale of reason the voter is, +the less able he is to get any point of view but his own. His comprehension +of the rights of others depends on the comprehension of his rights +expressed in the law designed for his regeneration. He certainly never goes +higher in the scale of reason while he defies the law in satisfying his +sense of justice and freedom; he cannot rise in the scale of living while +he stoops to acts he would avoid if his sense of justice were not outraged. +He justifies his act because of his sense of oppression. He cannot respond +to any effort looking to the general good of the city while he smarts under +a sense of liberties curtailed by the very people who ask for his help. + +When President Roosevelt was Police Commissioner he enforced the law +governing the sale of liquor on Sunday. The city was torn asunder for +weeks. The discussion filled the columns of the daily press. The fact, +after weeks of discussion with one group of tenement-house women--all the +wives of skilled workers--was finally made clear that the law was at fault, +if fault there was, not the Commissioner. The law, if bad, must be +repealed; but as long as it was the law it must be enforced. During this +discussion much light was obtained. One woman told how cleverly the law +was evaded by the liquor dealer two doors from her house. He hired the back +room on the top floor of the house next door, keeping the liquor in a +closet. The men in the secret entered the house two doors distant, went up +to the roof and down the scuttle to the room where the liquor was to be +had. Some of the group listened to her description with flashing eyes. When +she finished she was given to understand that she had played the part of +traitor. It was all right for her to do it. She was safe. Her husband was +in a good, independent position; it made no difference to him how much +trouble came because of her "telling tales." To others it was a disgrace +that men who had only a few cents to spend for a little pleasure with their +friends should have to sneak like thieves, as one of the women expressed +it. All condemned having the liquor in their own homes in quantities, as +they condemned the illegal selling. "When a man sneaks in like that he +stays longer and spends more than when he can walk in openly and walk out +again as he does other days. When he has it in the house he never stops +treating and drinking until it's gone." The "free lunch" was deplored; but +every one of the forty-five women decided that it was the only meal fit to +eat that hundreds of laboring men ever had; that men were forced to eat at +lunch counters in barrooms and buy liquor who would never go there if +their mothers and wives knew how to cook. They claimed that the women would +cook for their families if they knew how. They did not know how. They were +forced to go to work in factories as soon as they left school, and never +had a chance to learn anything about housekeeping; their mothers never knew +how to keep house. Could a stronger argument for domestic science teaching +in our public schools be advanced? + +When the High License bill was before the Legislature at Albany several +years ago, the writer was asked to speak at a mothers' meeting in one of +the poorest sections of what was then the city of Brooklyn. On her way to +the mission she counted nineteen liquor saloons on three blocks; in every +case they were on the lower floor of a tenement house. The hall was over a +pork and provision store; a loft without any attempt at more than broom +cleanliness, walls bare, grimy, and seeming to ooze grease. The atmosphere +of smoked meat was sickening. Nothing in the way of a shelter could have +been more barren and repellent, yet it was a mission maintained by a +church. + +About one hundred women--the wives of day laborers and longshoremen--were +present. Some were bareheaded: several with babies in their arms. The +subject chosen was the High License bill. It was a discussion. At least ten +of the women spoke. The scene will never be forgotten. One woman, about +thirty, after listening intently, rose with a baby on her arm, and turning +passionately to those in the hall, said: "Why don't yer talk honest? Every +one of us drink. Some of us, not many, drink because we love it. Most of us +drink because we're discouraged and don't know what else to do. We're +fools; it don't help us; it makes it worse. Some of us would never touch it +if it were not brought to us. We know that anything that would take away +the drink from our doors would save us. Drive them out!" She turned to the +platform appealingly. "Drive them out, so that we, yes, and the men, would +have to walk four or five blocks to them, and we'll be different. It is +easy sending the children now. Make it harder! Make it harder!" + +"Shall we close them?" + +"You couldn't do it," she said. "You couldn't do that. Make it cost more to +start them, and there won't be so many. They'll be farther apart, and they +won't try so hard to make us drink. Many a woman has learned to drink +because she had to pass the holes to get to her home. Tell the truth like +me, or say whether I'm telling the truth!" was her appeal to the audience. + +The flood-gates were opened. Every woman agreed with the first speaker that +the saloon could never be abolished; it could be regulated. Beer, they +thought, to most women was a greater temptation than strong liquors. The +number of saloons near their homes they thought the heaviest burden the +poor man's family had to bear. They understood perfectly that the brewers +paid for the licenses, and that the saloons were the meeting places where +votes were controlled. They thought the saloons ought to be open at least +Sunday afternoon, but they would have them close earlier Saturday night. +They thought that any law that made a man a sneak to get a drink was an +evil. They saw that such a law enabled the politician to say which man +could sell liquor and which could not. One of them, who could neither read +nor write, had discovered that the saloons selling a certain brewer's beer +had more freedom than any of the saloons selling other beers; they thought +the saloon-keepers paid either in money or drinks for the votes of the men +who frequented their places in the interest of the politicians who owned +the saloons or protected them. There was not the slightest evidence that +one woman there saw any dishonesty in the system. There were no principles +in politics, only men. Things remained with them the same no matter who was +elected. It was a district which was under the control of one party, having +an unquestioned majority, which steadily increased through the efforts of a +shrewd leader who had no visible means of support. + +The section in which this group of women lived was a long, narrow strip +bordering on the East River. The residences of a population each occupying +its own house at this time held the reeking tenements in check on the east. +Within ten years this has been wholly changed. The handsome old residences +have become tenement houses, overcrowded, uncared for, occupied by people +now at the level of former despised neighbors. The better class of the +laborers' families have left the houses bordering on the river, and these +have been given over to the poorest and most hopeless of the day laborers. +There is a thoroughfare which has stores brilliantly lighted for five +blocks. Every want of the people can be supplied in them. The people, old +and young, settle placidly in the region. It is their world. The language +of the little children on the streets, from early morning until late at +night, is appalling. A kindergarten was started, but the people who started +it did not have money enough to secure the right kind of a room, nor to +make the room attractive, nor to keep it so clean that that would in itself +make it more attractive than the homes of the children. It was finally +given up, because even the small amount expended was not forthcoming at the +end of the third year. It could have had four times the number of children +the room would accommodate at one time, but no one cared enough to support +it. + +[Illustration: A SOCIAL CENTER BECOMES POLITICAL.] + +The half-grown boys are coarse-looking, use profane and coarse language +unknowingly in their ordinary conversation on the street. Their attitude +toward girls is brutal. The girls of this section are free in their +manners, slangy and coarse in their conversation. They earn the lowest +wages paid to women in the factories and lofts that abound in the region. +The schoolhouses are old and dark; the streets are neglected and dirty. The +smoky, grimy mission-room disappeared long ago. Not one influence is at +work to raise the general moral tone of this community, the voting power of +which outnumbers four to one regions where every influence in and out of +the homes tends to develop moral standards and political intelligence in +the same political unit. + +The region is a social plague spot, neglected and allowed to spread. It +does not present as a special feature to arouse activity the evils of the +"Red Light" district, but only the blasting influence of a region sunk in +the apathy of deadened moral natures, killed by the hopelessness of +changing the environment of their homes until it represents all they ask of +life. The poverty of the people makes well-nourished bodies impossible, and +lack of physical power makes moral resistance impossible. + +Recently in one of the most crowded of the tenement-house sections of New +York, where the grip of poverty holds degradation, where the people live as +remote from American civilization as when in their own land, the writer +viewed the parade in the evening of the voters of the district, who had +been the guests of the district leader, a State Senator, at an outing. +These outings are the annual "round-ups" of the voters. The expenses of +these outings run into the five figures, it is said, in this district. +Boats and a grove are hired. Chowder, coffee, sandwiches and beer are +provided free. Games of chance, to which, it is whispered, the district +leaders are not disinterested observers, and athletics are the features of +the outings. The return at night is an occasion for fireworks and a parade. +Caps and canes are provided for the voters often; sometimes only a ribbon +badge. The expenses are met by the sale of tickets, which sometimes sell +as high as five dollars. These tickets the liquor dealers, in fact, the +tradesmen of all kinds in the district, men holding office under the city +government who are affiliated with the leader and the men who hope to +secure rights or privileges, legal or illegal, through the leader's +influence, know it is wise to purchase. To the mass of the men of the +district it means perhaps the one day of freedom in the year, when they +have the pleasure of enjoying drinks and food wholly at the cost of +another. + +In this particular parade were five thousand men, not one thousand of whom +bore the slightest outward evidence of American citizenship, but the right +to vote, as their presence in the column indicated. It scarcely seemed +possible that the scene was in America. Swarthy women and children crowded +gayly decorated fire-escapes, crowded the windows, and made movement +impossible on the streets. Arches of lights, lanterns swinging from +fire-escapes and on ropes from sidewalks to roofs, were in the colors of +the land from which these people came. The flags and bunting displayed +presented colors of a foreign land, with here and there the flag of the +country whose political destiny their votes controlled to a large degree. +The next day the white caps worn by the men in this parade appeared on the +heads of schoolboys and working boys by the hundred, the wearers proud to +wear the colors of the man who, so far as their knowledge or experience, or +that of their parents, went, was the greatest man, the man of the widest +range of authority, in the United States. What do they care who is at the +head of the city government? The men do not need to ask who is the district +leader; he finds them through his unpaid workers and the coalition is +accomplished. Soon the immigrant, turned citizen, understands the +principle. He gets work and votes for the leader. It is simple and direct. +When the extent of one's knowledge enables him to handle a broom or to sell +peanuts or bananas in the new country, and that under the supervision of a +blue-coated tyrant who levies on the voter's cart, if not his pocket, when +and where he pleases, moral arguments in a foreign tongue are not +convincing to that voter. He would rather not submit to the supervision and +its attendant tax; he would rather not have his work intermittent; but he +learns that protest increases his evils, and he submits. The blue-coated +tyrant is a friend of the "boss" who helped get his license, and it must be +right. Whatever comes to him, he must not antagonize the "boss." That is +the first lesson he learns in American citizenship, at the point where it +is most effective, his wage-earning privileges. + +[Illustration: A DOORWAY ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +There are leaders so strong and tactful that year after year their reign is +unquestioned. Only the police and the ambulance surgeons know when there is +an attempted revolution--when the leader's right is questioned by another +would-be leader. There is only one issue--the man; nobody cares for the +principle--if there be a difference of principle--involved. + +In one of the old sections of the city in which is a ward that for forty +years has excelled in crime; a section which at the present time presents +the meanest and lowest of the tenements in New York; in which there is less +effort to counteract the evils of the environment of the homes or change +the environment due to the control of the "boss" than in any other section, +a political feud culminated in the fall of 1901, defeating the man who had +been the leader for years. It was stated that the man who won had expended +$35,000; the man who lost, $12,000 in the struggle. This is a section where +poverty is the universal inheritance of the people who make this section +home. + +For weeks the section was in a condition of constant warfare. The smallest +boys were organized as gangs and shouted the name of the leader they had +chosen their hero. Boys of five wore the buttons of their heroes. From +fire-escapes, on wagons hung bits of white cloth declaring the names of +the contestants. One of these, to avoid unpleasant embarrassment, had gone +to California after the Lexow investigation. A favorite legend displayed by +his enemy's friends was, "Paddy is the man who to Californy ran." This was +displayed on one fire-escape on which opened the windows of two families, +each espousing the cause of the contending leaders. The week before the +balloting for leader the legend was kept in place by the constant vigilance +for twenty-four hours of the day by the family whose sentiments it +expressed. "Paddy" was defeated. The next morning the two neighbors, who +had been enemies for weeks, leaned, each from her own window, chatting +amicably, while the son of one was arranging the legend on the fire-escape +to include both families. On either side was gracefully arranged an +American flag, while the harp of Erin hung just in the middle of the +fire-escape. Peace reigned in Warsaw. "Paddy's" friends, like the fairies +of childhood, disappeared in the night. The whole district, as one man, +accepted the change of rulers, and the new leader's banners were thrown to +the breeze everywhere. Nothing succeeds like success in the tenement-house +regions. For a couple of weeks peace seemed to reign in the district. The +followers of the old leader found themselves displaced; new followers +controlled the favors in the district. There began a new distribution of +patronage. Then the old leader's displaced friends, with a few loyal souls, +rallied about him. He had made money enough through his political +affiliations to be defiant, and announced that the political corruption of +the party to which he had belonged compelled him to rally to the support of +the movement to overthrow it. Some of his followers were loyal to bravery, +and declared, too, against the political system. Two of them, because of +these declarations, were discharged forty-eight hours later from places in +a city department where they drew salaries of $1200 per year. Their places +were given to two of the new leader's followers. Two weeks later all had +returned to the old allegiance, and the papers announced that the head of +the Tammany system had decided that the patronage of the district would be +evenly divided between the two factions. + +Independence of action is costly under such a system; costly in loss of +wages to the voter; of food, raiment, shelter to his family. + +A voter who refuses to surrender the ease of his home or the pleasure of +his club for the good of the district in which his home is located is not +in a position to criticise his poor neighbor who will not jeopardize the +position secured by his vote that supports his family to maintain the +theory of American citizenship. Why should he make sacrifices to free the +city from disgrace when his independent neighbor refuses to sacrifice his +ease to protect his family from the inevitable evils of a corrupt city +government? + +It was the conferring the rights of citizenship on immigrants almost as +soon as they landed that fastened on New York an evil that has grown until +the city has been held in the shackles of a spoils system that overshadows +its commercial supremacy and makes it the argument against democratic +government. The heaviest disgrace for this condition rests not on the men +who profit by the system but on the good men who permit it to develop. It +was the logical result of their indifference to the city's good and their +responsibility for that good. This inactivity on the part of the mass of +responsible citizens made the control of the city offices for personal ends +easy to the men who, because of lack of training and moral turpitude, could +not conceive of a service for other than personal ends. Shrewdness made +them see that the immigrant was the ladder on which they could climb to +political power and stability. They met the immigrant as friend and +neighbor; they secured him work; they schooled him to citizenship, and +began at once to train him in that deadliest of all influences in a +democracy, class in politics. So long as this system of education prevails, +the appearance of a candidate for local office who does not bear the +"hall-mark" of the neighborhood will be resented. + +[Illustration: EARLY MORNING AMONG THE PUSHCARTS.] + +As time went on and the immigrants came from many countries, a new evil +sprang up--the race section; the section where, maintaining all the +characteristics of the country from which the people came, the men exercise +the rights of citizenship at the behest of a political trainer who is able +to promise favors for obedience, and work vengeance for disobedience. +Behind him is a power which he must obey until the day comes when by his +own shrewdness he is able to cross swords with those above him in the +political system, becoming himself a dictator. In the process of his +evolution from ward heeler to district leader he has trained those who +follow him so well that he duplicates himself scores of times, increasing +his power every time he makes a follower, either by fear or favor, +perpetuating the system that makes the city, as has been aptly said, a +"gold mine" which it costs the operators nothing to work. + +The man at the bottom knows the duplicate of the leader nearest his own +level; this man is his friend, his countryman often. The links in the +chain are unbroken, and the man who dares to disobey the orders issued from +the top feels not only the displeasure of the henchman, but the combined +strength of the chain, or as much of it as is necessary to compel him to +obey or to crush him. The poor man whose tool to earn a living is a shovel, +a pick or a broom is not in a position to defend his rights; he has no +public sentiment in the only world he knows to support him in any attempt +he may make to attain his rights when defrauded by the political system he, +in utter ignorance, has helped to establish. When he is thrown out of work +given to secure his vote, he has no redress. The man at the bottom must +make the rule of his life "Small favors thankfully received." His hope for +work in the future depends on keeping in friendly touch with the system; +this is the first principle of American citizenship grasped by the +naturalized citizen. + +Just before our last national election a number of men employed in skilled +labor in one of our city departments were laid off. To some of those men +this loss of work meant suffering for their families; to others it meant +debt and dependence. It was startling the spirit in which this loss of work +and wages were accepted by these men. The district leader, elected by the +people to make the laws at Albany, in order "to hold his district in line" +for this election, had to provide forty-eight voters with places. He +demanded from the department forty-eight places; the work was in his +district. No one questioned his right to make this demand; these places +represented his political capital. In no way could his demands be met +except by the discharge of forty-eight men then at work who lived outside +the district. It was done. The men laid off, almost to a man, accepted it +as the fortune of the political protege. Scarcely a word of resentment was +expressed. There were removals into this special district before the next +municipal election, and new enrollments under the leader's banner, +irrespective of the political bias of the voters. Some of the men were +sullen and felt the loss of manhood; some said, "I'll vote as I like, but I +must have work;" others believed that only under this leader's banner could +a poor man hope to get his rights--the privilege to earn his living; or, in +their language, "He is hustling for his friends." + +Not only does the skilled and unskilled manual laborer find that the +approval of his district leaders is necessary to secure work under the +city, but that the affiliations and power of the district leader and his +political followers can secure him work under corporations holding public +franchises. He knows that the district leader secures privileges, +licenses, votes for franchises, directly or indirectly, with the distinct +understanding that his recommendations insure places to the men who carry +them. Under corrupt city government the man in business who does not cater +to the political powers finds his privileges curtailed; that he is made the +target for petty annoyances. Especially is this true in the downtown +districts, where in the transaction of business the rights of citizens to +the streets are ignored. Until one has lived close to it, it is almost +impossible to believe the power over the working masses the smallest cog in +the political machine exercises. It is this that makes imperative the +control of the city by men of high moral standing. No amount of unselfish +philanthropy can save a city governed by the corrupt. + +There are sections in the city of New York where from the time the boy is +old enough to recognize the power of a policeman he guides his life to +curry favor with this visible expression of power. He knows almost as soon +as he can talk the man who rules in the world in which he lives. He sees +his playmate defy the policeman because his father is a man of power, or +the friend of the man who rules the district. "Pull" is the law, all the +law he recognizes. He hears discussed from his earliest years the +dependence of his class on the political powers who govern, not for the +good of the city, but that they may have their rights; their rights, as +interpreted, being the securing of a place for a longer or shorter period +at the nod of a "boss." Their district is all the city thousands of the +inhabitants of these sections know. How can it be otherwise? They are never +called for any purpose to any other part of the city, unless it be the +cemetery. Family, friends, business all center within a score of blocks. If +a distance must be traversed, it is through thoroughfares that but +duplicate regions they know, all a part of the kingdom of the "boss." + +When the observer sees five thousand men walking behind a banner conferred +on the leader of the district because every man in it who votes votes at +his dictation, there comes to him a faint apprehension of what political +power in the tenement-house district is. This district leader interprets +all these men know of this country or its institutions. They know that he +secures work for them; that he befriends them in time of trouble. He +interprets Christ's doctrine to them: "I was hungry and ye gave me meat; +thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and +ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came +unto me." This is what the district leader does, if not in person, by +proxy. Is it any wonder he can control votes? Is it any wonder that the +poor, ignorant, unequipped voter should curry favor, bow to him, +acknowledge his supremacy even to the law? For this the voter can break the +law, and the leader secure remission of the penalty. The leader's nod has +been known to guide the judge on the bench. The leader can make the +innocent suffer because his power is greater than the law to which the +innocent appeal. This is the moral doctrine with which we inoculate our +newly made citizens, and under which the children of our overcrowded +tenement houses grow up. As the boys approach manhood they know no greater +privilege than to serve the man who has the power to give them place, and +he begins to cultivate their acquaintance early. + +It takes brains, moral standards, a knowledge of life and experience to put +the district leaders and their cohorts in the place they belong. Talking +against them accomplishes nothing while the majority he represents keeps +him in power, yes, makes him possible. He makes morality an evil, +dishonesty justice to the people who know him as the representative of +republican principles. They are the people. They have left one land because +it deprived them of rights. Rights as they know them are personal, and the +district leader secures them. + +[Illustration: MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD.] + +The opposition to the reform movement by the people governed by the +district leader comes from the conviction, dimly conceived or implanted, +that the election of the men who represent it would mean that everywhere +merit and not "pull" would keep the voter at work; that business would have +to be conducted according to law; that crime would be punished; that no man +would hold the keys of the prison for their benefit, but for the protection +of the community. + +One of the greatest moral lessons administered to the people of New York in +a language that all understood, and one which all classes in the community +needed, was given by the late Colonel George E. Waring. When he organized +the Department of Street Cleaning on the merit system; when he proved to +every man in the department that if he did his work no man could displace +him; that he could defend himself, a man before men, if charges were +brought against him, Colonel Waring changed the moral character of New +York. Every man in that department had his friends to whom he carried the +message; stood a free man employed by the city; a man who dared to vote as +he would though in public service; would not be deprived of the right to +earn his daily bread because of the use he made of his rights as an +American citizen. This moral lesson went into every home. The woman whose +husband handled a broom, drove a cart, held her head up, for the magic D. +S. C. had changed a "job" that enslaved her husband to an employment that +honored him. + +The enforcement of the law in the gathering of the garbage; the cleanliness +of the streets in the tenement-house districts equal to those of the +avenues, for the first time in generations brought the great truth to the +consciousness of the people in the tenement-house regions that all men were +equal. That the clean streets led to clean halls and cleaner homes was +natural; and the further evolution meant clean characters, because of moral +freedom to express opinion in a ballot cast at no man's command. + +And then came the summers when, for the sake of the children, extra +exertions were made to keep the streets clean. Slowly the truth dawned on +the dullest mother that the babies were not dying in such numbers; were not +so ill, because the streets were clean, the garbage collected and the +streets washed and cool. Twenty years of Colonel Waring, and the moral tone +of the most ignorant would be changed. For the right to earn his living +honestly, honorably, to cast his ballot as an American citizen, would be +guaranteed to every voter employed in a city department employing the +greatest number of voters with the least manual ability, the least +education. + +A city is just as honest as the greatest number of citizens casting a +ballot with the least knowledge of its value and effect; it comes no higher +in the scale of integrity than that. Every man who stands behind a broom +because he earns what is paid him, and knows that he stays there just as +long as he continues to earn his wages, represents a wealth of manhood in a +democracy, a part of the nation's capital as a world power. + +When Colonel Waring discharged the first man convicted of accepting a bribe +for collecting the refuse of the city contrary to the law of the +department, he gave a practical demonstration of the truth of the +Declaration of Independence that all men are born free and equal. He showed +by that act that the poor man who could not pay a bribe was protected by +the law; that wealth purchased no privileges at the expense of the city. +Just where the spoils system had worked its deepest degradation it received +its most effective lesson. The greatest benefit that Colonel Waring, that +man of law and order, conferred upon New York, was not its clean streets, +but the moral lesson that a city department can be administered to secure +the best interests of the people on the principles that control the best +business houses of the city. + +To the shame of the city be it said that it had so long been accustomed to +the spoils system that it could not accept the theory of Colonel Waring. It +was impossible for even the philanthropic workers to believe that a man +would not be placed, if they used their personal "pull" with the head of +the department. The politicians learned quickly that the system in that +department ignored "pull." When they did accept it, they determined to +overthrow the man who robbed the spoils system of its largest perquisite +where it was most effective in numbers. The combination of the political +machines accomplished the city's disgrace in 1897. It was redeemed in 1901 +by a people who had suffered cruelly; who saw in the four years of misrule +that they had made their own chains of bondage. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HOMES UNDER ONE ROOF. + + +The importance of environment is at last admitted as a factor in +character-building. That light and air are indispensable to cleanliness, +and physical cleanliness to health, and health to morals, is the gospel +that the evils of the tenements have forced the philanthropists to declare +until the thinking public is convinced of its truth. + +There are tenement houses that have reputations as positive as individuals. +Thoughtful, intelligent wives of working-men would not, could not be +persuaded to move into them because of their reputations. Often the evils +of these tenements are justly attributed to the housekeepers. Housekeepers +of tenements are women who pay the whole or a part of their rent by +overseeing the house; attending to the cleaning, collecting the rents, +letting the rooms, adjusting differences between tenants--"a go-between" +between the agent or the owner and the tenants. The owner or agent +employing these women upholds their decisions when differences between the +tenants and housekeepers arise. This clothes them with great authority, +and often enables them to do great injustice. They are feared usually. +Families will endure restrictions of liberties, every deprivation of their +rights, because protest would mean eviction or discomforts that would +compel them to move. + +Under some agents and owners these housekeepers have absolute control of +the property. They frequently make and enforce rules that utterly ignore +the rights of tenants. This rule is often as absolute as though they were +the owners of the house. Strange as it may seem, this class of housekeepers +usually make the property under their control pay; they usually keep up the +character of the houses under their control because they have standards and +compel those about them to live up to them. + +[Illustration: A REMNANT OF THE PAST.] + +On an East Side street a few blocks from the East River are four 27-foot +front houses of the English-basement type. The plan of these houses +indicates that they were designed as residences for people of ample means. +The halls are broad, the stairways wide, ascending in recesses on the first +floor that leaves the entrance halls clear from front to rear doorways. The +yards of these four houses, wide and deep, are paved with broad flagging +stones, such as are used on the sidewalks. The fences are kept in good +order and well painted. Not a child living in these four houses dares to +play in those yards. The housekeeper--one woman has charge of the four +houses--would order them out. If the children did not leave at once, +complaint would be made to the mothers; and if they did not uphold the +housekeeper and insist that the children play in the street, the mothers +who failed would have to move. Every mother-tenant knows this well. A +mother of three children who had lived in these houses all her married +life, when asked why the children could not play in the yard, where she +could watch them, replied: "Why, if the children played in the yard they +would make a lot of work for the housekeeper. She would not stand it." This +mother's tone indicated that she thought the housekeeper was right. The +youngest of the three children in another family living in these houses was +ill all winter. When convalescent, the doctor ordered him to be kept out of +doors as much as possible. The mother had all the work to do for five in +family, and had to devise some means of keeping the child out that would +not interfere with her work. She arranged the fire-escape outside of the +window, putting pillows and toys out there. The little fellow climbed over +the rail and struck a stone beneath, breaking his arms. + +"Why did you not put him in the yard, where you could watch him, and where +he could run about?" + +"Oh! the housekeeper would be so angry; I wouldn't dare." + +"Must you keep the children out of the yard?" + +"Yes; they would make an awful lot of work for the housekeeper." + +Investigation proved that the owner of this property supported the +housekeeper in depriving even the babies of the use of these yards. A +mother could not roll a baby carriage around the yards, because her older +children, if she had any, would be sure to go into the yards to see her. +The rents for four rooms, two absolutely dark, ventilated through the dark +and unventilated halls by a window eighteen inches square, were $22, $20 +and $18 per month, respectively, for each floor. The streets in front are +overcrowded, dirty; when the trucks were in the streets, two were always +standing in front of these houses. Push-carts now replace the trucks. + +The people stay in these houses year after year. A bill never appears on +them. The arbitrary restriction as to the use of the yard is not counted +against the property, because it is so clean, kept in such good repair, and +the character of the people scrutinized before they are accepted as +tenants. It is generally understood that the renting of furnished rooms is +not approved. The housekeeper finds a tenant who rents rooms objectionable. +In a neighborhood where every house shows year after year a loss of +character, people poorer and more ignorant becoming tenants, these four +houses retain the appearance of comfort and respectability. Among the +tenants there is but little intimacy; they appear to have little in common. +The women are never heard in the halls, nor do they loiter about the +doorways. The men are all skilled workmen, earning good wages--clerks on +small salaries, or in city departments, all natives of New York. The wives +were all wage-earners before they were married. They dress well; most of +them are fairly good housekeepers. All buy their children's clothes ready +made; two make their own dresses. For their children they are ambitious, +and expect to keep them in school until they are sixteen. This the children +defeat. The boys get places during the summer vacations in their fourteenth +year, refusing to go back to school. The girls are contented until +fourteen, and then they grow restless, becoming wage-earners; all that they +earn is spent for their clothes. The wages of the father may no more than +meet the expenses of the family, but this is not considered. Clothes are +the essentials. A man having a salary of $1,400, living in one of these +houses, had to go in debt the first week of a serious illness of his wife. +He did not have a dollar in advance to meet emergencies. He was a proud, +indulgent, tender husband and father. + +This type of house and this class of tenants are disappearing from the East +Side. The remnant of this class who remain are held by political +affiliations or family ties. The men enjoy the sense of power that comes +from this connection, and realize fully that to leave the district would +mean a loss of social prestige, or, if minor politicians, a loosening of +their hold on the people to whom they represent political power. Many of +this class remain in the section because they hold positions in the city +departments in return for active service in the interest of the political +machines. + +Not far away from these tenements is another in which are sixteen families. +The rents in this house range from $5 to $9.50 per month for two to three +rooms. The house is dirty, neglected; violations of the sanitary laws are +evident from the front door to the roof, on which tenants occupying the +front rooms must dry their clothes. The water is in the dark halls; in +winter, for days at a time, the pipes, both water and drain, are frozen and +burst; yet the tenants stay year after year. One woman, the mother of four +children, was born, married, her four children were born, and her husband, +mother and father died in this house. She has never moved, except across +the hall, up and downstairs, as she has been able to pay more or has been +forced to reduce her rent. The women in this house know almost nothing of +housekeeping. The men are employed only about half the time. The number of +children in the house averages three to each family. It is a New England +hamlet under one roof in this particular. If there is sickness in any +family, it is the concern of every tenant; if a man is out of work, it is a +community misfortune, and to be shared. A new hat for man or woman is the +cause of rejoicing, for it is the badge of respectability for any in the +house who may need it in an emergency. The whole household, for such it +seems to be, are poor, very poor; thriftless, unambitious; the men somewhat +given to drink to excess; yet the spirit of neighborliness shames +criticism. A woman in this house ill four months was nursed by her +neighbors night and day. Her house and children were cared for, food +provided when necessary. Comment on their loyalty and devotion was met with +the response: "God knows how soon she may be doing it for one of us." Yet +when that woman, whom most of them had known all her life, gave evidence of +pregnancy a few months after her husband's death, not a woman crossed her +doorsill until the birth of twin babies within the period of time redeemed +her character. Whether from remorse or love, ample return for this cruelty +has been made many times. + +In the two-room apartments in this house there is one closet, with shelves +about six inches wide. This is in the one room that serves as living-room, +kitchen, dining-room--a room less than eight feet wide. The bedroom is +perfectly dark, ventilated by a square window into perfectly dark, +unventilated halls. A full-sized bed leaves the width of the door between +it and the wall. The three-room apartments have outside windows--five to +the three rooms. There is a closet in the kitchen and one in the large +room. People talk of poverty, but few people know what it is. A woman who +had moved into the three-room apartment had hung all the clothing for five +in family in the one bedroom on four nails. In reply to a protest, she said +patiently and quietly: "There are no hooks in the closet in the front room, +and I hadn't a penny to buy any." Ten cents provided that closet with +hooks. A comment was made on the keeping of the washtub under the kitchen +table. "Why do you not have the tub carried to the cellar?" An expression +of self-pity passed over the woman's face as she explained that the tub +would have to be carried down three flights of stairs, out on the street, +around the corner, down the cellar stairs, and then to her coal cellar at +the extreme end of the cellar. + +The house stands on a corner, the entrance from the street at the extreme +end of the west wall. The cellar door was formerly close to the entrance +door, but the landlord built in the back end of the cellar an oven when a +baker hired the store on the first floor. A cellar door was then opened at +the farthest part of the front, or south wall, one hundred and twenty-five +feet from the entrance door of the house. Is it surprising that coal is +bought by the pail by all the tenants? That tubs are kept anywhere in their +rooms where there is space? + +Shiftlessness, thriftless uncleanliness marks even the sidewalk about this +house. The dirt inside or out troubles nobody. Children will spill half the +contents of the garbage pail they are carrying to the cans in the tiny +yard, in halls and on the stairway. It is kicked out of the way without +comment. Dogs or cats, and ofttimes both, are members of the families who +live under this roof. The unsanitary conditions of the closets in the yard +arouse pity for the tenants on the first floor; but no tenant thinks of +complaining to either the housekeeper or the authorities. It would be +useless, and would get them into trouble. The present owner is willing to +kalsomine the bedrooms and halls each spring, but the tenants object +because it makes a lot of work. + +In August, two years ago, the writer was going up the first flight of +stairs in this house, when a baby voice was heard pleading: "Pease tum +fas'er; oh, pease tum fas'er; I 'ant to do p'ay; I 'ant to doe on steet; +pease tum fas'er." On the third floor a tiny boy stood in front of the sink +talking to the faucet, from which a tiny stream was flowing into a little +tin pail. An infant's voice from one of the rooms told the story. The +mother needed water and could not leave the baby. Perhaps this was the tiny +nurse of mother and baby, big enough to call a neighbor to do what he could +not do. + +When it is remembered that this stream of water from the faucet represented +the water supply for four families, the difficulties of cleanliness under +those conditions may be slightly appreciated. In spite of the dirt, the +darkness, the unsanitary conditions of this house, the thriftlessness and +ignorance of the tenants, there is a spirit of neighborliness in it that +puts the critical to blush. Without a doubt the housekeeper, who is a +shrewd woman, fosters this spirit of neighborliness. She smiles as she +says: "They gets so used to each other they hates to be separated." Neither +house nor tenants seem to go below the level established twelve years ago. + +There is a housekeeper who does mission work of which the world takes no +note. She is the woman who in the true sense is an altruist. By her force +of character, her hatred of inefficiency, her love of order, she compels +the women who become tenants who do not know how to keep house to learn +how. + +The writer knows intimately such a housekeeper. She had charge of a +four-story tenement on the lower East Side. The house was of the type known +as "double decker." There were four apartments on each floor; the front +consisting of a kitchen, living-room and two bedrooms; the back, of one +room and two bedrooms. Small windows near the ceiling in kitchen and +bedrooms opened on a narrow space between this and the next house, which +was an old-fashioned residence. A similar opening in that house enabled the +neighbors to look into each other's rooms. Water and refuse were thrown +into this space between the two houses, and sometimes into the rooms of +neighbors unintentionally. There was war, bitter war, because of this; for +the large tenement was occupied by a part of the remnant having social +standards left on the lower East Side. + +There was water in all the kitchens of the large tenement. The halls were +absolutely dark, but were free from the nuisances of hallways having sinks. +Stairs and halls were covered with light oilcloth, the stairs having brass +treads on the edge. Everything was kept as clean as soap, water and +muscular strength could keep it. + +The first visit was made to this house long before Colonel Waring had shown +what clean streets would do in the tenement-house districts. On the street +curb in front of the door stood three ash barrels filled within three +inches of the top, carefully covered with newspapers tucked in around the +edge of the contents. This indicates the standards of this housekeeper. She +hated dirt and disorder. She could not be happy where it was. She forced by +tact, coercion, persuasion, any and every means, her way to the heart and +home of every ignorant housekeeper who came under that roof. She taught +cooking by sending cake, bread, soup she had made to the tenants, and +arousing the desire in them to learn how to make that particular dish. She +instituted an exchange of skill among the tenants. The woman who could make +a dress and not a hat exchanged skill with the one who had been a milliner. +The woman who made bread and failed with cake exchanged skill with the +cakemaker. They even took turns in going to the theatre, the neighbor +staying home and taking care of the children. + +The property was more valuable every year; no bill appeared at the door. It +stood apart from its neighbors for years. This housekeeper was compelled to +give up her responsibility and left the house, as she wisely said: "No one +would manage it in my way. I could not get on in peace." Six months after +every tenant had moved but the liquor dealer; and even his bar-room had +sunk to a lower level. A building in which many homes might be maintained +is now merely a place of shelter. People move in and out; no relations are +established; there is nothing to hold the tenant here above any other +house. The owner has sold the property, hating its present character. + +Again, tenants will be the victims of vindictive housekeepers, who for any +and no reason will begin a system of petty persecutions to compel a tenant +to move. Then there is the gossiping housekeeper, who keeps the tenants at +war. It is no secret that the method of rent collecting of some +housekeepers holds tenants year after year. They will take the rent in the +smallest sums, daily or weekly. By the end of the month they will usually +have the full amount collected. The houses where this system prevails are +the most objectionable. The tenants for this leniency endure positive +evils. The important thing is a place of shelter for the family. Work is +uncertain, or long periods of idleness has made the payment of rent +impossible for a period. The housekeeper understands and becomes +responsible for keeping the tenant until the rent is paid. In return the +tenants endure neglect of duty on the part of the housekeeper. Silence is +their expression of gratitude. No repairs are made, for none are demanded. +The house sinks lower and lower; anybody can move in on the payment of part +of a month's rent. The vacant rooms are dirty--give visible evidence of the +presence of vermin; but the family evicted with only half a month's rent in +hand cannot afford to be critical. This is the house that makes the slum. + +Two housekeepers of tenements were discussing owners and tenants before the +writer. One was rigid, keeping the house astonishingly clean, with rooms +rarely vacant; the other, always in trouble with the tenants, always having +some one to evict, threw the blame for her troubles on the tenants. The +first one listened, finally saying slowly: "No, you are the one. You get +cross and abuse the children. You make pets of some children and some +mothers, and the others see it and get mad. Then there is a fight. To keep +a house you must treat everybody the same. You must make good rules; you +must do your part and make every tenant do her part. I've had two of the +tenants you put out of your house five years. They are good tenants; watch +yourself." + +[Illustration: A TYPE OF THE PRESENT.] + +There are landlords who care for nothing but the income from their +property. Any kind of tenant who will pay rent is acceptable. Any +housekeeper who collects the specified amount may hold control without +question. The housekeeper may have standards, but these are swept aside by +the exactions of the landlord. The rents in such houses are usually high, +because there is such a percentage of loss in rents. This house also +contributes to the creation of the slum. + +The careless and apparently malicious destruction of property by tenants is +not appreciated by those who touch this question of tenement houses +superficially. No means has yet been found to make the tenement-house +population understand that the abuse of property is a factor in their rent +problem. Within a year the writer was walking with a group of women, two of +whom were housekeepers in tenement houses. This question of tenants was +being discussed freely by the women who were tenants as well as the +housekeepers. It was interesting to find that all agreed that one family +could change the character of a tenement house for the worst, but one +family could not improve its character. The reason was that the family +above the tenement came only to reduce their rent during a hard time, while +the family with evil tendencies stayed until they were put out, to go into +a cheaper tenement and lower that. They agreed that where housekeeper and +tenant got on well together both hated a change. The two things that +dragged down the character of a tenement was beer-drinking and destructive +children--children allowed to "run wild." These women insisted that there +never would be quarrels in tenement houses were it not for these two +causes. A woman who drank beer would invite her new neighbors to drink. +They would treat in return, and the house would show it at once. The women +who drink beer in this fashion grow careless of their persons and their +homes; they get rid of their children, who soon learn to enjoy the freedom +from control. The children destroy the property first in play, through +carelessness, and later grow malicious. + +If a housekeeper is sharp and shrewd, these women tenants claimed that she +could at any time get rid of an objectionable tenant; but the housekeepers +held that if the owner did not care for anything but rents, the +housekeeper was often compelled to let in and keep in objectionable +tenants. They admitted, one and all, that houses fairly indicated the +character of the people who would live in them, and that rents regulated +the class of tenants to a very great degree. They admitted that at times +one could find tenants who had lived for many years in one house where +conditions had changed for the worst. But it was unusual. People now +selected houses where those of their own faith, and, if foreign, those of +their own nationality, at least predominated. That this tendency was seen +more and more every year. This group of women were among the remnant of +Christians left on the lower East Side. All had been born there of Irish +parentage. They lived in the houses bordering on the edge of the East +River--old houses on the plan of the first tenements erected in New York, +or in houses designed for one family and now holding four to eight. Two of +them lived in houses built in a row erected eighty-three years ago. They +were two-story, dormer windows and basement frame houses, built without an +area, the door to the basements opening like a cellar door on the street. +These basements were occupied by a family each. Fourteen of these houses +are still standing. The people in this section live a life entirely their +own. They have been crowded out, the more prosperous, by the Hebrews, +while the remnant find themselves hemmed in by them. + +These people live in the confines of a Roman Catholic parish that twenty +years ago contained nearly eleven thousand souls of that faith. Three years +ago the priest in charge estimated his parish at less than four thousand, +and that four thousand remained because they were too poor to get away, he +declared. + +The Hebrews, as tenants will, on the same block show many social grades, +many degrees of poverty and prosperity, many stages of development in +American civilization. There is a sense of feeling of brotherhood that +other people lack. The houses will range from the most uncleanly, ill-kept, +to the new tenement with ornate entrance and modern improvements. The most +modern will, on entering, be found with walls marked and broken when the +wood-work is new. No one seems troubled by this destruction. The +housekeeper does not struggle, for it is expected and charged for in the +rent. Plumbing is of the simplest, for it is expected to present the +largest percentage of loss in the administration of the property. One of +the most elaborate of the new tenements erected on the lower East Side was +visited three months after it was occupied. Every hallway from top to +bottom of the house had broken plaster and was marked by pencil and crayon. +The plumber was then a daily visitor. This house a year afterward bore on +the interior evidences that years of hard usage might have brought. The +housekeeper collected rents and attended to the garbage. She was utterly +indifferent to the appearance of the house, which, intended for prosperous +families, was a nest of sweat-shops, where even children of six and seven +were employed. The rents had been collected; that was the owner's only +requirement. + +The West Side is congested, because manufacture and storehouses are +displacing the houses. Rents are high, and the houses for the most part old +residences occupied by several families. The people, generally, are +Americans. They are deeply attached to this old section, because it is +their birthplace; and for many of them an even deeper attachment prevails, +for this section was the birthplace of parents. The houses often are found +to have lifelong friends, often relatives, as tenants. The tenants keep the +halls and stairways clean in turn, and the houses generally are well kept +up. Here one tenant is allowed a rebate on rent for renting rooms, +collecting the rent, caring for the sidewalk and stoop, the garbage and +ash-cans. The majority of the people in this section are Protestants. The +Protestant churches are well maintained. The Trinity Corporation supports +kindergartens, cooking and sewing schools. The Judson Memorial is a very +attractive gymnasium, that brings children from as far west as the North +River. The Methodist Church holds many who in no other section could find +the same equality and freedom. The vocabulary of the people through this +section shows the effect of the newer activities in the modern churches; +the effect of the enlarging interests of the children in art and nature +through the public school education. + +While the people are living on small incomes, often on uncertain incomes, +life is lived at a much higher level than on the East Side. Children are +not so precocious in evil knowledge. This difference is due largely to the +fact that the houses contain three and four families at the most; that the +apartment houses in the section are beyond the reach of any but the skilled +working man. He holds his own at high rental in the house that shelters but +three other families like his own. His neighbors are people of like +ambitions as his own, and demand what he demands. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN A WORKINGMAN'S HOME.] + +The housekeepers in this section differ essentially in their relation to +the tenants from those of the more heterogeneous population of the East +Side of the city. One resemblance is recognized--the effect of the +character of the housekeeper. Here, as on the East Side, to a very large +degree, the comfort, health, peace and good-will of the tenants in every +house depends on the character and the spirit of the woman who controls the +property for the landlord. + +The law of natural selection holds good. The housekeeper holds the tenants +who are satisfied with the conditions she creates. They, especially the +children, develop in habits of cleanliness, in care of property, in respect +for the rights of others, as the rules of the house enforced by the +housekeeper compel. It is in her power to get rid of those who do not +accept her dictates, let them be what they may--just or unjust. The +housekeeper will make her presence felt. If she violates the law in the +disposal of garbage outside of the house, tenants will violate the law she +makes for them in the care and disposal of garbage inside the house. If she +is compelled to obey the law, she will compel tenants to obey the law. It +is this that makes the morale of the Department of Street Cleaning so +important. If the part of the house which in renting tenants agree to keep +clean is not kept clean, the observer will discover that the housekeeper +does not keep her part of the agreement in keeping the entrance clean. + +A large factor in the tenement house for character building or destroying +is the housekeeper who has charge of it. Where she is well paid she makes +the property valuable. She cares for it, for the character of the tenants. +Tenants remain in the house because of the advantages her offices control +for the poor man and his wife anxious to provide for their children's best +welfare. Property under this type of woman resists decay. She holds it in +spite of the decay about it. The characterless, slovenly, indifferent +housekeeper is a factor in destroying property, because of the destructive +character of the tenants who will tolerate her and her methods. + +The house that is the property of the man with "a pull" is an obstruction +to civilization almost impossible to overcome. By connivance the law is +inoperative. If pushed, such an owner can easily rid himself of the tenants +who attempt, or have attempted for them, efforts to compel the owners to +repair the property. A mill owner on the water front on the lower East Side +owned three three-story and basement houses adjoining the mill property. +They had been built for one family each. The basements were altered into +stores, and the floors above altered at the least cost to accommodate one +or two families. This meant two inside bedrooms absolutely without +ventilation. The tenants of this property and all in the neighborhood were +tormented by the smoke and gas from the chimney of the mill. When the wind +blew directly toward the houses, windows were kept closed for hours in the +warmest weather. All the tenants dried their clothes on pulley lines. +Frequently the soot made the clothes unwearable, and they had to be washed +the second time. Ten years of effort have failed to compel the building of +the chimney of that mill to the legal height. + +The houses the mill owner owned were in a disgraceful condition. The +closets in the yards had no flow of water. The engineer of the mill was +required to carry a hose from the mill over the fences to the closets to +flush them. Sometimes he forgot to turn the water off, and the yards were +flooded and made disgusting. Sometimes he forgot for days at a time to +flush the closets, when the conditions were even worse. Only people who +were helpless or hopeless would endure such conditions. One of the workers +of the College Settlement discovered the conditions in these houses. She +took immediate steps to compel the necessary improvements. The owner +discovered that the wife and children of one of the tenants went to clubs +at the Settlement, and he ordered that family to move. Before the mother +moved her education had begun, and she imparted to her neighbors the +information that the conditions were unlawful and could be changed if they +would fight for it. The man exacted his rent on the first of the month; he +was hard and unyielding; the tenants continued the warfare until he had +evicted every one who spoke English and filled his houses with foreigners. +One of the stores is used for storing and sorting rags and paper; next door +is a meat shop. The fight was given up. The owner had "a pull," and the law +is defied to this day on that property. + +All the land on the river front in this neighborhood for blocks is made +land, filled in by the city refuse, on which houses were built years ago. +This kind of property extends back from the North River for three, and at +one point four, blocks. In some of the houses near the river the high tides +of spring and fall rise in the cellars. The College Settlement workers who +visited families in one of these houses had been distressed by the amount +of illness in it. Malaria had attacked every family. Spring and fall wages +were lost at times by as many as three wage-earners in one family for two +and three days each week. In addition to loss of wages, there was the +expense of medicine and doctors. At last came the urgent request that a +worker should call on a girl of sixteen who was dying of consumption on the +first floor. This consisted of four rooms, two being inside bedrooms, each +of which would hold a three-quarter bed and a chair between the bed and the +wall. One was absolutely unventilated, except through the doors. It was, in +fact, a passageway between the front and rear rooms. This plan is the usual +plan in houses altered from residences for one family to a tenement house. + +The door of the other bedroom, which opened into the large room, was closed +at night because the large room was used as a bedroom by the male members +of the family and one lodger. The girl of sixteen had slept with two others +in that room for eight years. The floors of the four rooms were covered +with carpets. The odor was sickening. The visitor asked the tenant who +brought her to the sick girl what caused the odor perceptible in the hall, +with front and rear windows always open, unbearable in the rooms where +doors and windows were closed. + +"Oh, that! The water has been in the cellar now for two or three weeks. The +tides are high now." A visit to the cellar showed the water at the height +of the second step of the cellar stairs; also a sewer pipe that had burst. +Visits were made to the proper city department once a week for eleven +weeks. The clerk, on the last visit, evidently intending to be facetious, +said: "Say, what's the matter with those people taking baths in that +cellar? They ain't got no bathtubs." + +The owner of the property had "pull" enough to escape even an investigation +by the department. It was years before the cellar of that house was +concreted and the necessary connections of pipes and sewers made. It was +done when the property had changed hands and a man comparatively poor and +wholly free from political affiliations became the owner. + +The people of this whole region are the victims of political corruption. +Some of them have more fear of offending a political light, let his glimmer +be ever so small, than of offending against even God's law. They could be +turned out of house and home, deprived of the means of earning a living, by +men who openly defy the law, and who become heroes to the growing boys and +girls for no reason but because of their power to use and defy the law. + +The moral natures of the men and the women who grow up under this influence +are dwarfed and warped until it is impossible for them to have distinct +conceptions of right and wrong. The education they receive does not reveal +the relations of ethics to life; the struggle for existence dulls the mind; +while the depleted physical conditions caused by bad air, mal-nutrition and +ignorance of real values reduce moral resistance almost to zero. Enforce +the tenement-house laws, and the moral strength of the people of New York +will rise to higher levels of moral resistance. Not poverty, but the burden +imposed by political corruption, is the blight of home life in the +tenement-house sections of New York. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SLOW-DAWNING CONSCIOUSNESS. + + +In a preceding chapter an attempt was made to show how hopeless the task of +home-making was for women who had neither knowledge nor ideals to guide +them. When it is remembered that the environment of these homes was in +itself degrading, to maintain even the semblance of a home was a remarkable +achievement. + +These women knew but three educating influences--home, school and Church. +Four, perhaps, if one chooses to count the streets, where most of their +time was spent, as one. The value of the first they revealed in the homes +they made. The school at the time it was a factor in their development was +a place that had no connection with anything else in their lives. What they +learned there was but to the exceptional few without any practical value. +They learned to read to get promoted, or because they could not help it. +The arithmetic which they found valuable they learned in doing errands and +spending their own pennies. They learned to form letters with their pens; +but as they had no use for the knowledge, they soon forgot it. Their +conception of education and that of their world left them perfectly at ease +in their accomplishment. The Church had to do with their souls; and to the +majority the care of their souls was a delegated responsibility, and gave +them little concern, if any. Personal effort in that direction was a matter +of old age. + +The Church was, by its own traditions and sentiment, a spiritual light and +guide; the end and aim of its service to develop spiritual life by teaching +and prayer. The social life of the people, or, for that matter, the civic +conditions that to the last degree regulated and controlled their +pleasures, were not the concern of the Church. The parish house did not +exist. The institutional church had not been conceived even in thought. + +Yet at this period, 1880 and 1881, there was a growing consciousness that +something was wrong in the social order; that neither churches, schools nor +homes were meeting the necessities of the working people or their children. +The Church found itself losing ground; the people could not be held in +allegiance to it. This was so true of the Protestant churches downtown that +already the wisdom of moving uptown was being questioned. Some had even +then left their old buildings to be used as mission churches; others sold +their downtown buildings, moving uptown, giving up any attempt at holding +the masses, who manifested no interest in the Church or its work. The +missions then established were and are maintained with more or less wisdom +and success. That mistakes should be made was natural. There was no +precedent as to how one class in this democratic community should work for +another. It took years for the churches to learn that the secret of success +was in working _with_, and not _for_, the people. + +The overcrowding went on. Neighborhoods changed so rapidly that it was +impossible to adopt any system to meet the necessities of the social +conditions. These conditions were created by race standards of living, +pleasure and religion. No man or organization was prepared to grapple with +them intelligently, for they viewed them as observers. + +The Church had still the first interpretation of feeding the hungry, +clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison. Secular work was +not yet a part of the redemptive work of the Church. Poverty and ignorance +reigned where prosperity and intelligence had been. The mission church +became a distributing station. It was but natural that the men and women +who followed Christ in their lives should feed and clothe the hungry and +the naked. It was quite as natural that people whose struggle for life was +constant, a struggle in which they were rarely successful, even when they +accepted their own standards of success, should develop shrewdness in +securing all possible aid at the least possible effort. The more they +received without effort, the easier life was made for them. This was one +method of adjustment. Where there were several children in a family they +were often sent to as many Sunday-schools. The churches, all unconsciously, +for a long period carried on the work of the missions on a commercial +basis, competing energetically to secure attendants at mission services and +Sunday-schools. The workers found their success measured by the numbers +that appeared in their reports. It was the American standard of success. It +became profitable to go to Sunday-school. The approach of the holidays +found them crowded. The mission churches boomed. They provided an outlet +for the energies of devoted, consecrated men and women, determined to make +the world better because they were in it. The missions were an outlet for +the generous; for the men and the women who considered themselves stewards +of the properties in their possession. The blunders made are a tribute to +the faith which established and maintained churches. The very blunders of +those years were the seeds of wisdom these latter days are beginning to +garner in the fruits of cooperation and federation. The forces are +beginning to marshal under one banner and emblem, with one aim born of the +nineteenth century conception, that Christ taught civic duty to His +followers when He declared, "Render unto Caesar the things that are +Caesar's." That the Church is the guardian of the people's rights, as well +as their example, is a long-delayed conception. It has taken thirty years +to bring the evolution in Church work from competition to cooperation in +the work of personal and civic regeneration. + +Many of the difficulties hardest to overcome have grown out of the mistakes +of those years, when the rapid influx of foreigners changed the character +of the people of the tenement regions, and the Church failed to change its +methods. They came, many of them, paupers, a charge at once upon the +charitable and the humane. Neither their ignorance nor poverty was a bar to +their citizenship; their presence on the municipal stage in the character +of voters, sovereigns, increased the civic problems of New York, and +naturally these the Church problems. + +Unfortunately the charitable work of the churches was too often left to the +management of sentimental people, who failed to see what has been forced +upon workers of the present day: that hunger is sometimes a moral educator; +that the salvation of a family may sometimes be best secured by letting +them suffer, the innocent with the guilty, because in the suffering is an +educating power impossible to secure in any other way. + +One evening to a working-girls' club a teacher in a mission school not far +away brought a girl of sixteen, introducing her as one of her girls who had +been in her class two years. Privately she told one of the directors of the +club of the poverty of the girl's family. The father was a man of +seventy-five, who could do only the lightest work, and found getting the +work he could do very difficult. This girl was the eldest of seven +children, all attending the mission. "It is a mystery what would become of +the family, were it not for what the mission does for them," was the +comment of the teacher. A close inspection of the girl did not reveal +distressing poverty, and the directors of the club were puzzled. The girl +was employed in a store at a very small salary. She was anxious to go to +the country. Of course, she must be sent away without any cost to herself. +She doubted if the family could spare her wages, even if she could go free. +She explained that she and her brothers and sisters had gone in "Tribune +Fresh-Air Parties," but she was now too old. "The trouble with our family +is," she commented, "that we are all too old." It seemed a hopeless +doctrine to become fixed in the mind of a girl of sixteen, so the club +directors secured a vacation for her through the Working-Girls' Vacation +Society, deciding that, if it were necessary, they would pay the mother her +wages for the time the girl was away. No question arose as to her wages. At +the expiration of her two weeks' vacation, when she should have been +penniless, she appeared at the club in a new hat and gloves. When the girl +joined the club her Sunday-school teacher paid one month's dues. She had +been present at several business meetings; she had seen the other girls +paying their dues, she had heard the treasurer's report, but she never +attempted to assume her financial obligations. She was spoken to finally in +regard to her dues, and responded calmly by saying she could not pay her +dues; she had no money. Various suggestions were made as to the possibility +of her paying part. At last, to relieve the club treasury, one of the +directors said: "I will pay what you owe and one month in advance. You may +pay me as you can." The girl never came to the club again. No effort was +made to trace her, as she contributed nothing to the life of the club, and +many girls kept their dues paid who dressed far more plainly; these very +girls she had on more than one occasion treated discourteously. + +Two years afterward one of the club officers was calling on a friend. "I am +so glad you came in," she exclaimed. "One of your club girls is in trouble +and is coming here with Miss ----, a mission worker in Dr. ----'s church, +this morning. Now you can help solve her problem." To have a member of a +working-girls' club go to an outsider for help is to have one of your own +family appeal to strangers in time of need. The club worker kept still. She +was covered with shame. She had failed to establish relations with one it +was her sole purpose to help. Who the girl was she did not know, as her +friend had forgotten the girl's name. The girl came. It was our old friend +of sixteen. She was, as may be imagined, not pleased to see the director of +the club. The history of that family is fairly indicative of how missions +were conducted at that time. How many of them are conducted at the present +with the same results? Originally this family was found by the workers of a +mission established by a wealthy church, and apparently in need. Rent was +paid; food and clothes provided; doctors sent when necessary. The return +for this, as tacitly agreed, was the presence of the children, as rapidly +as they were old enough, in the Sunday-school, and the father and mother at +the Sunday evening service, the only service this mission maintained. + +The timidity of the first contact disappeared early. The wants soon outgrew +the needs of the family. The mission people failed to respond to the wants, +and watched more closely what it cost the church to meet the needs after +the first years of acquaintance. This was not to be borne. The family went +in a body to another mission of the same church ten blocks away. They made +not the slightest effort to deceive, for they did not change their address. +Here were nine persons to add to the roll of the mission, and they were +added. The family was enthusiastically welcomed. No impudent or intrusive +questions were asked. Shoes, coats, rent money in whole or part was +generously given. At the end of two years discoveries were made that led +the mission workers to question what was done with the supplies provided. +The family would not stand this. They went bodily to a church less than a +mile away, still living at the old address. The family was again taken up +without question. That the father could not work was accepted and +generosity was increased. The other missions contrasted unfavorably in +generous impulses; the girl urged her former classmates to join the last +mission. The church meanwhile was walking by faith in its treatment of the +poor; aiming to live up to the conception of its days; strengthening the +influence of its prayers with gifts of potatoes; certainly a great advance +on prayers and no potatoes. + +At about this time a young girl was met in a Sunday-school class very +attractive, always well and prettily dressed. She had been in the +Sunday-school all her life, and had joined the church with her mother, a +gentle, quiet woman, who leaned on her daughter for guidance. The daughter +was a tower of strength. By accident it was learned that the girl was a +wage-earner, working with her mother in a large suit house in New York; +that they kept house, doing the housework, even the washing and ironing, +before and after their day's work. Added to this they made all their own +clothes, which must have involved a vast amount of labor, as they both +dressed well. + +The position of this mother and daughter is fairly typical of a large army +of women workers, and explains, in part, at least, why two women of so much +character should have accepted charity for so many years and why they could +not change their economic relation. The work they did was to a degree a +trade. Each was a special "hand" on a certain part of women's suits. They +were paid by the piece. When they had work, they made good wages; but the +seasons were short. The beginning of every season found them in debt. By +the time the debt was paid work had grown slack or stopped. It was simply +impossible to get beyond this, try as they would. When the girl broke down, +she explained it by saying, "I worked all night to finish my dress. If I +could buy the material in the slack season I could make our things then. We +never have the money, and they have to be made just when work is hardest at +the store." She was but nineteen. The girl was pretty, ambitious, entirely +above the men of her own station in refinement, and yet quite as far +beneath the brothers of the girls she met in her Sunday-school class. She +lived in mental terror lest they should attempt to call on her. It was +pitiful to see the struggle she made to conceal the fact that she was poor. +The other girls knew she worked, knew the church helped the family, but +were very tactful in assisting her in keeping her secret. + +When the mother came to the notice of the officers of the church she was a +widow with three young children, one a baby. She could support her family +if the rent was paid. The church officers were glad to do this. They did +not support a mission and had very little outlet for the church's +generosity, except the mission societies--Home and Foreign--to which they +were devoted as a church. + +For thirteen years the church had been faithful to its promise and paid the +rent. Nobody questioned the mother as to how her children were getting on, +or what was being done to make them self-supporting. The younger were two +boys. When they were large enough to play on the street, the mother put +them in an institution and paid a small sum for them. The girl went to work +with the mother as soon as she could. The elder boy came home at fourteen +and became a wage-earner. He was troublesome, most difficult to manage, was +out of work more time than he was employed, and yet he would not when +unemployed even keep the fire, that the house might be comfortable when his +mother and sister came home. They always left the house in order when they +went to work, but found it littered when they returned. The boy had no +sense of moral responsibility for his own support. His temper was wholly +untrained. At the time the family history was connected, the youngest boy +was to come home, and naturally his return was dreaded. The mother and +daughter met the problem unaided as to advice or suggestion. Apparently the +church would continue to pay the rent without question, though there were +three, and would soon be four, wage-earners in the family. + +When these facts were discovered, the church committee was asked to advance +money enough to pay for the girl's lessons at a school where dress-cutting +was taught, and to notify the widow that her rent would no longer be paid. + +The girl accepted the offer at once. She proved a great success, and to-day +is earning a salary as a designer equal to that of many college professors. +She educated her younger brother in a profession, and has entirely +forgotten the days when the church helped her. Her social affiliations are +in another part of the city, and she bows, or forgets to bow, when she +meets those who may remember it, as they would, to her credit. Had the +church retained its claim on her through its financial aid, she would not +be where she is to-day. Her development came when the church made another +future possible to her by refusing to pauperize the family. + +We all know the families who have more turkeys at Christmas than members. +We still have churches and sewing schools in the same neighborhood, giving +their Christmas entertainments at different hours and at different dates, +to suit the convenience of those who attend both and profit thereby. We +even have different entertainments given for different branches of work in +the same church at different hours. We succeeded in impressing one boy with +the idea that what he received at the various organizations maintained for +his profit was "Christmas loot," and that he was clever at getting more +than his share. We have become accustomed to conducting an exchange after +our Christmas entertainments, because in giving we have, unfortunately, +duplicated the gifts received elsewhere. Mollie finds herself with two +dolls and no bed, and Katie has two beds and no doll, and Alice has two +sets of dishes and no table. Like fate has attended the gifts to the boys. +We, as a result, enact the role of patient, sweet generosity and +redistribute gifts. + +We know that comparisons are made as to which church, sewing school or club +is the one to give the major portion of the coming year's attendance. But +all this will disappear as rapidly as sectarianism and competition between +churches and in philanthropic effort disappear. Competition created it; +cooperation will dispel it, because all will come to a higher conception of +the relations of efforts toward improvement. Then the "profit" of church +and Sunday-school attendance will not be measured by the "things" +distributed. + +Nothing marks the growth of public intelligence more than the federations, +and the systems that have grown out of the knowledge of the injury done the +poor by misplaced generosity. Sometimes the children of the poor seem +uncanny in the knowledge they possess of how to use the public and private +charities. + +A girl of seventeen gave astonishing evidence of this in a family crisis. +She was a member of a working-girls' club; quiet, studious, reserved. She +was always one of the poorest dressed girls in the club. Her devotion to +those classes which she joined and attended regularly attracted the +attention and admiration of the club directors. Discovering that her dress +was in part responsible for the treatment accorded her by two or three +members, it was decided to make it possible for her to make a better +appearance. She had shown qualities which, if allowed free play, would make +her an influential member of the club. + +It was discovered that she attended a near-by mission of a Congregational +church. Consultation with the mission workers brought the unwelcome +knowledge that the mother was immoral, hopelessly immoral, but that her +children loved her dearly and that she was devoted to them. The paying of +rent seemed to support a shelter that ought not to exist, but no one had +the courage to attempt to separate the mother and children. Even this girl +of seventeen had no idea of her mother's wrong-doing. It was a case that +needed the wisdom of Solomon to solve. Just before Christmas the mother +fell ill. The passion of grief that convulsed that group of children was +convincing testimony of the mother's tenderness and devotion. Her eyes +followed them constantly. When able to speak, she would whisper: "What will +become of them? There is no one to care for them." She was removed to a +hospital, with the knowledge that the rent had been paid for a month and +that the children would be looked after. She died two days later. When the +house was visited that morning, the elder girl was out "getting things," +the children said. When she came in, she was told that provision had been +made to send them all together to a home, where they would not be separated +for a month. The girl sprang to her feet, grabbed the fifteen-months-old +baby from the floor, and swept the others in a circle about her. She +panted, rather than said: "You shall not take the baby away! I will not let +them go! Nobody shall take them. They are mine. I can take care of them. +You just pay the rent. I can do everything else. See?" She put the baby +down, and thrusting her hands into her pockets, brought out tickets to the +Diet Kitchen, the Charities Department for coal and groceries. She had +been to two missionaries connected with different churches she knew, and +secured orders on a near-by grocery for dry groceries. There was not a +public or private charity that gave out-door assistance that that girl of +seventeen did not know just what must be done to get their help. The amount +of knowledge of this kind that she possessed was astounding. + +Besides, there was not an institution in the city where children were taken +for longer or shorter periods of time that she did not know. In many of +them she had been herself. In others she had visited the other children of +the family when they were inmates. She found out the defects of each +one--the kind of matron, of food, of punishments that governed in each, and +made out a case against each one. White, with blazing eyes, she looked +capable of doing just what she said she would do, take care of the family +of five little children. They were grouped about her, clinging to her, all +crying in the face of the awful calamity that was about to befall +them--separation. It was agreed that they should stay where they were for +the balance of the month. The question of the future beyond that would be +discussed later. The girl quieted down. + +The mother had been insured in one of the insurance companies on the weekly +payment plan. The girl had secured an undertaker who would go to the +hospital and take the mother's body to his establishment for the funeral to +be held the next morning. + +"We will have our own minister," she said, with dignity, "not the mission." +Her visitors were again astounded. The mission had looked after the family +for years. The girl had for several years been connected with the +Sunday-school. The address of the minister was secured. The girl explained: +"My mother was confirmed in that church, in her own country, her own home. +She had a letter to the church when she came to this country with my father +after they were married. At first my father earned good money, but he got +sick and they did not get along, and my mother stopped going there, except +to communion; and for three years now she ain't had the clothes to go even +then. She had us confirmed there as soon as we were old enough, and we went +there to communion when we had the clothes. The minister is going to come +to the funeral, and I am going to send word to some of mother's friends +from the old country who go there to church. I could not have them come +here; mother would feel awful." Glancing about the barren, dirty rooms with +a look of scorn, she continued: "We could not let our church friends know +how poor we are. Mother tried hard enough. She was away from home days at a +time looking for work. She took boarders. She did everything she could. You +know I've worked when I could get it." Her voice broke for the first time. +"She took boarders and gave them the beds; we all slept on the floor. She +married the last boarder, the baby's father. She told me to stay here until +he came home, this month--he's a sailor--and to do just what he says. He +was always kind to me and gave me things. You've paid the rent, and you +need not do anything more. I'll stay right here and keep the children till +the baby's father comes home; you need not trouble any more." + +She was quiet a moment, but evidently felt the doubt and the decision in +her visitors' minds. Rising, she said fiercely: "I'll not; I'll never let +these children be taken from me!" + +The problem was too much for her visitors. They decided to leave the +question of the immediate future to the family's own minister, who +certainly had not carried these lambs in his arms, nor watched very closely +over their erring mother. + +The family was separated. Nothing else was possible. The baby's father +repudiated any responsibility for any of the children, and disappeared. The +girl drooped for a time after the separation; but she finally secured a +good home, making a capable, devoted servant until she married. She owes +allegiance only to her own church, saying: "The minister talked so +beautifully at mother's funeral." Her whole conception of the mission +church is that it is an institution for helping the poor. + +She never doubted her mother, whose picture, enlarged from a small +photograph, is the chief ornament in her parlor, her most cherished +possession, outside of her husband and children. + +In spite of the outburst of passionate devotion at the time of her mother's +funeral, this woman, now with a comfortable home of her own, knows nothing +of the children for whose protection she attained, for a time at least, +sublime heroism. In a few months her indifference was as astonishing as her +devotion had been. Her own life and its concerns filled her mental horizon +to their entire exclusion. For her own home and children she has the +passionate love that she gave to her mother and the crowd of half-brothers +and sisters. She is ambitious for her children, and has two in the High +School. This woman is a fair illustration of the evolution that is making +this nation great. + +The churches, when first the social disintegration began, had neither the +intelligence born of experience nor the money to place the mission work in +charge of people of high intellectual and social development. There were no +training schools for Christian workers, and to that degree the Church was +hampered in inaugurating its work among the poor. The selection was too +often a question of pleasing some wealthy member of the church, by giving +positions to proteges who had absolutely no qualification for the work but +their necessities. This basis of selection--not yet wholly eliminated--put +the work of the missions under the control of men and women who lacked +social training. Neither by nature nor grace were they fitted for the work +they attempted to do. + +Their attitude of mind was too often that of patron, which, as any one of +experience knows, is one of the most demoralizing influences active among +the poor. + +There comes to mind now a downtown church, the mission of one of the +leading uptown churches. It was Thanksgiving evening. For weeks placards +had been on the front of the building announcing an entertainment for that +evening, to which all the people were invited. On the platform were a +number of young men and women, sons and daughters of the uptown church +members, the entertainers for the evening. + +The church was packed with the people of the region, self-respecting poor. +The mission, fortunately for them, was limited in money, so its +possibility for pauperizing was limited to just that degree. The mission +pastor, before the entertainment began, opened with a prayer, in which he +thanked God for the warm-hearted, generous people who were giving +themselves and their money for the uplifting of the poor and degraded. God +was asked to implant a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of those +assembled to enjoy this pure entertainment provided for their benefit. When +he opened his eyes he continued his theme in two variations for twenty +minutes longer, in what he called an address. It was this attitude of mind +on the part of many of the workers that drove out of the church the mass of +the poor; that began the breach that has widened, until in September, 1901, +we stand appalled as we realize all that has entered into the making of +that awful national tragedy. + +The standards of cleanliness and beauty maintained in the mission churches +have been far from what they should be. As the visitor enters to-day one of +the first buildings erected on the East Side as a mission church, he is +repelled by the general air of neglect; the dirt on walls and ceiling, made +still more repellent by water stains from leaks; the ugliness of the whole +interior, as well as the entire lack of adaptation to the work of to-day, +which one of the most devoted of pastors, a friend to every man, woman and +child in the region, is establishing. There is not one thing in that +building that is not ugly and cheap. The very platform on which the pastor +preaches lacks furniture, that would impart an air of cheer or +impressiveness. Instead of the building being an unconscious influence in +the neighborhood for beauty, tidiness, cleanliness, it is a part of the +general result of the greed and poverty which has made one of the most +sordid, character-destroying neighborhoods in New York. + +One Sunday afternoon, as the writer was passing this building, the children +began pouring out of it. The Sunday-school had just closed. They yelled, +fought, ran. Suddenly they discovered a half-drunken wretch of a woman +reeling down the street. The elder boys pulled her clothes, dragged off her +hat, tormented her, yelling and laughing at the foul language they called +forth. It was appalling, yet not surprising. The building remains as first +erected. No attempt has been made to adapt it to the needs of the region. +It was built for church and Sunday-school services, and the work which the +devoted, consecrated pastor has put into it to meet the needs of the time +is done under conditions that make the highest success impossible. There is +not a room in the neighborhood for boys' clubs, for reading-room, for +pleasure, where boy nature can have the fullest expression under wise +direction. For adults the saloon and the streets are the only resources +outside of their overcrowded homes. The pastor knows that to succeed in +changing the character of that neighborhood it is necessary to hold the +people through seven days of the week. He knows that this can be done if he +can provide for the people pleasures, opportunities that express their +social development. He knows that people express themselves in their +pleasures, and that, whether they will or not, that expression is +controlled by environment. If the trustees will not, cannot be made to see +this, let the pastor of the mission be what he will, his work will be +limited by the men who, in the very nature of their relations to the +mission, cannot see the truth. + +The pastor of the mission had a long vacation given him. The man sent to +take his place wore soiled linen, would sit for an hour at a time tipped on +the back legs of his chair. He would refer to the people in their presence +as "they" and "these people." One of the young men who belonged to a club +where some attention had been paid to manners and dress said one night: +"Say, wouldn't you think that feller would wear clean collars, and stand +up when talking to a lady? I don't care if he is a minister, he ain't +much." + +The people who were responsible for putting that man in that position were +generous, held the best social positions, filled responsible positions in +the commercial world. Not one of them would have chosen that man to +represent them in the business world, because of his carelessness in dress +and lack of manners. But they did not hesitate to send him to represent the +Lord Jesus Christ to the poor; not a demoralized and degraded people, but a +self-respecting body of Americans, born and trained, so far as they had +been trained, to believe in the equality of man under the flag and before +God. Is it any wonder that the more intelligent of the people resented the +placing of this man over them, and remained away from the church of which +he had charge? His person, his mind or his manners were not contradictory. + +One evening, going through the audience room of this building on an errand +to the rear room, the visitor heard one of the women missionaries say to a +little girl who had evidently been troublesome and inattentive: "If you +don't sit still, Mollie, I'll come there and shake you until you'll be glad +to sit still." The woman was training a group of little girls to take part +in a Christmas entertainment. They were each to recite a verse and turn a +gold paper-covered letter as they recited, so that when the last one had +spoken her verse the sentence "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth +and good-will to men" would be revealed. The woman, in temper, language, +conception of her duty to these children, differed in nowise from their +ignorant, tired, worried mothers at home, who probably made no claim as a +teacher of morals and religion. What ideals of womanhood did this woman +represent? + +A minister came to attend the funeral of a little baby in a surplice so +soiled and rumpled that a friend of the mother, who was a good laundress, +said afterward: "I wish he'd given me that yesterday morning. I would have +washed and ironed it." "He wouldn't have worn it if it had been a rich +man's child," was the little mother's response. "Well, he acted like his +surplice, rumpled," said the first speaker. And the writer was struck with +the perfect characterization of the man's manner. + +Fortunately, there are men who see the divine in every human being; who +know that sorrow, grief, shame and suffering bear as cruelly, as bitterly +on the poor as the rich, and in their ministration know no difference +between them. + +The writer was present at a funeral in an East Side home in a tenement +having sixteen families. A wife and mother had died. The family occupied +the floor through. Nothing was known to the writer of the creed of the +family, though she had known them for years. The minister came in a +spotless surplice, most carefully put on. His manner of greeting the family +and friends was so expressive of fraternal sympathy that one felt it a +privilege to witness it. He stood in that East Side home the herald of +hope. Since the blow had fallen he had visited it every day. On the day of +the funeral he had so filled the hearts in that home with the spirit of +resignation that the lesson that it taught left an impress on all who were +present. Not once in the earnest address did he use the word "death." It +was "release," and he made all feel that gratitude for relief from cruel +suffering was the occasion for the assembling of the friends together. He +gave out the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." There was no musical +instrument in the home. All present were wage-earners. The writer trembled +for the result. The minister's beautiful tenor voice started the hymn, +assisted at once by boys' voices in the different rooms. He had brought the +choir of his church to assist, and stationed them through the rooms by +direction before they came to the house. The people all sang. When the +services were over, this minister remained with the family, a courtesy +which to the poor is so unusual that the memory of it is still one of the +events of life on the East Side. + +[Illustration: A SPIRITUAL BULWARK.] + +This represents this clergyman's attitude toward his people; and all who +are their friends are his people. Is it any wonder that they never go +beyond his care? He has baptized the children of three generations. Easter +service is the home-coming of these families. They come from as far as they +have money to pay their fare. The gray stone church is pretty. It has +stained-glass windows, a baptistry, and maintains a surpliced choir. It is +delightful to see the positive influence of these accessories on the +people. Other churches to which they have access lack them, and the +contrast deepens the love for the old church. It needs renovating, a parish +house, a corps of modern workers. But these can well be dispensed with +while that towering gray head leads the people. For the noble, unselfish +life of the man stands before them always, the embodiment of eternal love +and sympathy, interpreting both under conditions that would at times seem +to justify doubt. + +There is another phase of the Church's attitude toward its work in the +poorer districts that lies at the root of the rejection of the Church by +the majority of the thinking, self-respecting poor, and that is the +assembling of the poor together as an exhibit of its work; the making of +reports of which the poor are the statistics. The defence that this is +necessary to stimulate the interest of the rich, and by that means secure +the money for the continuing of the work in the poorer sections of the +city, is but the evidence of the lack of spiritual life in the Church; the +absence of the very foundation of Christianity and brotherly love. + +The consciousness that watching the hungry eating Christmas and +Thanksgiving dinners is hardly what Christ meant when he gave forth the +decree, "Feed my lambs," is becoming a conviction; but it is due to the +positive teaching of workers outside of the Church, who felt the +irreparable loss of self-respect that must follow from such an exhibition. +To gather the beneficiaries of their generosity together and take stock, as +it were, of the investments, the dividends of which are to be realized +wholly in the future life, has antagonized the self-respecting poor. They +refuse to assemble as objects of interest, even in a church. + +So dense is the spiritual perception of even some very good people, so +materialistic is the plane on which work for the poor is conducted in some +churches, that the results have been cruel--unconscious on the part of the +offenders--but nevertheless cruel. + +A group of very young girls worked in a factory on the borders of a section +in which lived people of wealth and intelligence. The factory made no +provision for a lunch room. When the weather permitted, the girls ate their +lunches on the curbs and on the stoops of houses in the immediate +neighborhood. This was demoralizing to the girls and distressing to several +women in the neighborhood. Not far away was a large house hired and +controlled by a church long noted for its broadness and its generosity. The +basement of the house was not used, except twice a week in the evening by a +working-girls' club. The use of this basement from half-past eleven till +one was asked for and granted. + +The plan was to have a woman arrange the tables, make tea, and wash the +dishes used by the girls each day. The girls were to pay five cents a week +for the use of the room and the tea. They were to bring their own lunches. +The plan met with their warmest approval, and the lunch room was opened, +with three young girls from a society in the church to help. The girls +poured their own tea. For three days everything promised well. The girls +accepted the one condition imposed, that they would go quietly to and from +the factory at the noon hour, to avoid comments from the residents about. +The fourth day some of the righteous, energetic souls belonging to the +church thought they would see the result of their generous gift of the use +of the room for which they had no other use. + +Nine of them, personally conducted by one of the assistant ministers, +crowded the two doorways to see these girls eat the lunch they brought from +their own homes and drink the tea for which they were paying all they had +been asked to pay. One small girl, with her hair still hanging in braids +down her back, tried in every way to break off pieces of her luncheon +without uncovering it. Finding she could not, she gave up, and tied the +string about the paper again, sitting quietly with her hands in her lap. It +was this child's first week out of school. Her father was now in the +hospital for the third month. There were five children, of which this girl +was the eldest. All the money saved by this skillful mechanic and his +thrifty wife was gone, and this girl had to go to work. One can imagine +faintly her feelings as she looked at the crowded doorways and knew that +the whispered comments included her. The less refined, though more +independent, girls sat with flaming cheeks, and holding papers over their +lunches, ate them and drank the tea. + +The first week represented the life of that lunch club. The girls went back +to the curb and the sidewalk and stoops as lunch rooms. Here, at least, no +personally conducted parties came to view them. If any one looked at them +and they objected, they were on terms of equality, and at once notified the +offenders of their offence. To the credit of the people who used that +street, few stopped to look at the girls. + +It would have surprised those very good people to have known the opinion +those crude, uneducated girls had of them. A day or two later, standing +with a group of girls who had not been present, with a half dozen of the +men who worked in the factory, as spectators, the leader of the girls +described the scene, caricaturing the "church gang," as she called them, +and some of the girls who had been distressed by their presence. The group +shrieked with laughter; yet there was an unpleasant note in it. "---- them! +That's what they always do. Stay away from them after this," was the +comment and advice of one of the men. "You bet!" responded the girl actor, +as she curveted down toward the factory in response to the whistle calling +them back to their work. + +If the years as they passed did not clearly reveal that the Church that +holds the poor is one over which men of the highest intellectual and social +training are placed in charge, the mistakes of the present would be +extenuated. Such churches do exist. Men of strong, vivid spiritual +perception have erected and maintained bulwarks of righteousness in +neighborhoods where the environment, the civic order is degrading. They +have done this by conducting all the departments of their work with the +view of developing the gifts of the people to whom they are ministering. +The choir is the boys and girls trained by the best teachers they can +secure. The Sunday-school teachers are the working boys, girls, men and +women who are instructed by the pastor for their Sunday-school work. The +officers of the church are the men of the neighborhood. The people are +married and buried from the church; the children are baptized in it. The +preaching is teaching that salvation is of time, as well as of eternity. +The sins of the people are made visible. The pulpit holds the mirror up to +nature. It is a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading them +into the promised land, made so by their own civic honesty, their own +personal character. + +These men do not have to make reports; to bow before a board of trustees. +They do not have to suppress or expand to meet the ideas of theorists. A +few men give them the financial support they need, and let them, like men, +stand before God and their own souls responsible for what they do for the +people whom, when Christ was on earth, He chose for His friends--the poor. + +[Illustration: WHERE THE PEOPLE SHARE.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WORKING-GIRLS' CLUBS. + + +Twenty-five or thirty years ago in New York the question of the wisdom, if +not the necessity, of moving the downtown churches uptown began to agitate +the pastors and church leaders. The congregations, or part of the +congregations, who had contributed most liberally to the support of the +Church were beginning to move uptown, crowded out by business and the +incoming foreign element which settles near the shipping and factory +districts. The new-comers did not support the churches, especially the +Protestant, not even by attendance. It was natural that the churches should +follow their congregations. Some sold their buildings to the sects that +came with the foreigners; some made a brave effort to maintain a church for +the people; some became missions, distributing stations to the poor people +who had settled in the now overcrowded houses that formerly were the homes +of one family. The change in the downtown communities was so rapid that no +one could understand how to deal with the new element. The Church had to +spend years in learning how to adapt its methods to the needs of the new +peoples who settled by hundreds where scores had been. Not only was this +feature bewildering in itself, but the people spoke an unknown tongue, were +foreign in thought and sentiment; were social, rather than religious. + +The saloon far outstripped the Church in the ease with which it adapted +itself to the new element. The Church encountered not merely the new people +degraded, but an environment that in itself was a tremendous obstacle to +decent living. The Church shortly discovered an entirely unlooked-for evil, +insidious, demoralizing--the political corruption of voters. The Church to +the smallest degree only in recent times has come into the larger +conception of its function as a teacher of good citizenship, a link between +the voter and the ballot-box, preaching the duty of the exercise of the +franchise governed by conscience. It took the moral degradation of the city +to rouse the churches to activity as redemptive civic powers. + +The corrupting influence of corrupt politicians was evidenced in the +conditions that developed in sections of the city left to their control. As +the years went on and the men of conscience and intelligence became more +absorbed in business and profession, more given to money-making, because of +increasing social demands, the city became, in the minds not only of these +politicians, but of the voters they trained, a mine to be worked for +personal gain. Ignorance contributed to the rapid degeneracy of the people +in the old home sections of New York. + +The saloon became very early in the development of the tenement-house +sections the only social center. The result was an increasing of the drink +habit and the establishment of political headquarters in saloons. Often the +politician in embryo was the saloon-keeper, often the bartender. The social +side of life thirty years ago was not a subject for church consideration +and study. + +The Church ministering to a people having standards of social life +established by the churches, the outgrowth of its teachings and creeds, can +ignore questions that the Church ministering, or trying to minister, to a +people poverty-stricken, overworked, living lives barren of any pleasures +but those of the senses, in an environment that of itself would be a +deteriorating influence, must meet and answer. + +The Church downtown discovered it must work seven days in the week; that +its office, its function was secular, as well as religious; that its Sunday +work was but one-seventh of its work, and that the six-sevenths must +minister to that one. The Church must go out into the highways and hedges, +to use a misplaced metaphor for a city street, and win the people. This +evolution of conception marks a spiritual Renaissance. + +Industrial training was introduced by the churches, the natural result of +discovering the ignorance of the women of household arts. Far more valuable +than the skill imparted to the children gathered in these classes was the +contact with the earnest, refined women and young girls who were the +teachers in the now established mission churches. The revelation was +mutual. If the tenement-house child gained new ideas of cleanliness, of +order, of neatness, of dexterity, of manners, the uptown teacher also +gained knowledge of which she stood quite as much in need. When a panting, +shining-faced child came to sewing school half to three-quarters of an hour +late because she scrubbed the halls and stairs of a three-story tenement +house to help her mother, the housekeeper, who paid the whole or part of +the rent for the family by this service, the uptown woman of leisure gained +a new view of life and its responsibilities. When the mission worker who +was giving time and strength and knowledge as the expression of her faith +and conscience, found children scarcely more than babies working far beyond +their strength in the service of their families, the uptown worker gained a +new conception of sacrifice, of poverty, and, what was far more important, +a new conception of the causes of ignorance. The uptown woman of leisure +saw that often children were sacrificed to greed; forced to become +wage-earners by parents anxious to increase their bank accounts. + +As time went on, they saw that, whether poverty or greed was responsible +for the sacrifice of the children, the protection of the children was the +safeguard of the State, of the nation. There came from this, by the process +of evolution, the factory laws for the protection of women and children; +the compulsory school law. In these latter days this last has been made +ridiculous by the failure of the municipality to provide school +accommodations for the children of school age, especially the children +under fourteen living in the overcrowded sections. + +The church workers in the tenement-house sections were able to find means +to meet some of the evils of oppression, of poverty, of ignorance. They had +concrete facts to present to a semi-indifferent public; but when the social +side of the people in the tenements became a problem, especially the social +life of the young people, the remedies did not present themselves. The +legislation proposed and executed was restrictive, not recreative. It was +not the function of the State or the Church to provide social +opportunities for uneducated, overworked young people. + +The older girls in the Sunday-school classes presented not only all the +problems of the little children, but the larger one of social opportunity. +The homes were too small, too overcrowded to give social opportunity to the +family. Besides, there was that saddest of all features too often found in +the home of the working girls--the absence of all sense of personal +responsibility on the part of parents for the social life of the children, +girls and boys. The children in all but the exceptional home were free to +choose friends, free to go and come as suited them. Home was a place in +which to eat and to sleep; a place of shelter; a place often entered only +when there was no place to go out of working hours. + +The problem of providing social opportunity faced the downtown churches. In +the very nature of things the social opportunities the Church could offer +must be limited; must be of the nature that appealed to the more quiet, the +phlegmatic, the element that presented the least factors in the social +problem. The parish house, the church house did not exist. All the +amusements offered the people must be in a building consecrated to +religious life and service. It was a serious question how far the Church +was justified in introducing the purely social. + +It was natural that the young women brought into touch with the young +working girls in the Sunday-school should apprehend the restrictions that +life in a tenement imposed on a working girl. Everything in this life +tended to make her gregarious. She was born into a house probably +overcrowded before she came into it; she slept, ate, lived with crowds. The +street, her only playground, was teeming with children like herself. When +she worked, she rubbed elbows with the workers on each side of her. She +went and came from her work one of a group. The working girl lived free, +and pleasure she would have. + +The girl of wealth and leisure working in the mission Sunday-school, by her +own youth and natural inclinations, could appreciate this side of the +working-girl's nature, and with the same clearness of vision see the +limitations imposed on the Church in trying to meet the social needs of the +people for whom it primarily existed. + +Visiting the homes of their girl pupils, the Sunday-school teachers +discovered the limitations of the homes. Between the homes as they existed +and the churches as they must exist, the social center for the working girl +must be created that would meet her social needs. The streets were the +working-girl's reception-room, drawing-room, living-room, where she +received her most intimate friends; where mutual entertainment was provided +in ways that made no drafts on purse or inventiveness. Halls were open for +dancing, where her presence was so desirable that she was admitted free or +at half the price demanded of her brother. Excursion grounds with dancing +platforms were then popular within the city limits. The immorality of the +present temptations that make perilous the way of the working girl in 1901 +were almost wholly unknown twenty years ago. + +The work the earnest-hearted women interested in the working-girl's life +faced was how to enlarge her social opportunities in connection with +educational opportunities that would meet her peculiar need, and which she +would accept. New methods of intercourse, new places of meeting must be +found. + +Every organization that has developed in these latter days for bettering +the condition of the people has its root in the doctrines of the churches; +workers and money come from the people who receive their impulse from the +teachings of Christ. These organizations are as truly as the churches the +expression of brotherly love; the positive declaration of the +consciousness that no man liveth to himself. + +To Miss Grace H. Dodge the women of this country owe a great debt. She, +from the standpoint of a Church worker, devoted and faithful, saw that +outside of the Church, but governed by all that the Church believed and +taught, the natural outcome of both, a social center for working girls must +be created. This center must be independent of any other organization. It +must be at once a natural expression of the working-girls' standards. It +must be flexible, as well as progressive, during every period of evolution +in each group; it must keep in touch with the least progressive mentally, +the most progressive socially. + +A place must be created where recreation was possible; where classes to +meet the educational wants of every member could be established. Above all, +a place must be made where wealth and poverty, education and ignorance, +could meet on the common level of mutual helpfulness. + +A conference with a group of working girls but strengthened Miss Dodge's +conviction that this social center would not only give to the working girls +the social opportunity that New York lacked, but it would give to the woman +of wealth and leisure the opportunity to meet the people whom she must know +if she would use her time, her money, her education wisely in the interest +of social development. + +With Miss Dodge as president, the first working-girls' club was organized. +It marked a new epoch. It made the opportunity that had never existed--the +working of rich and poor to secure the same end. This country reaps the +benefit of this first step in altruism based on the highest Christian and +democratic doctrines. + +The working-girls' club has from that time been a positive factor in the +social development of working women, not only of New York, but the whole +country. It has enabled the students of economics and sociology to get at +facts that have revolutionized theories. The working-girls' club taught the +working girls themselves the causes of their economic disadvantages. + +Hardly was the first club formed when the practical results inseparable +from this new combination of interests and sympathies met the approval of +all interested in the problem of the working-girl's life. Everywhere clubs +began to form. The idea has been adapted and adopted by the churches. +Working-girls' clubs of all degrees of development, under many kinds of +constitutions, managed and mismanaged, are to be found north, east, south +and west. + +The question of support was one of primary importance. Miss Dodge had +studied this side of the question thoroughly, and from the first it was +decided that dues must be paid by the members. As new clubs were formed, +this question of dues was met differently. Usually the wages of the +majority of each group of girls forming a club decided the amount of dues, +and naturally the dues varied in the clubs. In some clubs the dues were +five cents per month; in others, five cents per week; in some the dues were +twenty-five cents per month. Even this amount could not meet the expenses +of a club conducted to elevate the standards of the members by the +environment, as well as the social and educational opportunities provided. +The financial managements of the clubs differ greatly, and always have. +Strenuous effort has always been made in some clubs to make them +self-supporting; they seem almost to live for that purpose. Entertainments, +sub-letting of rooms, fairs, every means is resorted to accomplish this +end. Naturally the members of such clubs develop a good deal of business +ability; sometimes at the expense of qualities that in a woman count for +more in life. + +The highest form of club life developed among working girls represents, to +the working girl, her college. She realizes, as does the rich girl or boy +who enters college, that what she pays does not, cannot, pay for what she +receives. This conception of the financial side of the working-girls' club +management controls in the clubs, with few exceptions, to-day. + +The club must give every educational and social opportunity that will meet +the needs of the members. As the college meets the demands of its students +in the electives it offers, so must the working-girls' club. As the college +student must meet the financial obligations he assumes when he enters +college, so must the member of the working-girls' club keep her financial +engagement. As the college makes it possible for the worthy student to +complete his course of study after financial disaster makes it impossible +for him to meet his financial obligations, so must the working girl who has +contributed to the life of the club, or who has shown her desire to profit +by what it offers, be kept in good and regular standing when financial +disaster makes personal independence impossible. In short, the +working-girls' clubs that are conducted on the broader lines, and with the +most comprehensive knowledge of our social conditions, are in management +and purpose a college for working girls. The idea of self-support may have +been strained for a time, but it was an error in the right direction, and +led to the truer conception which regulates the management of the best +clubs to-day. + +It was curious, is curious, the attitude of mind with which some girls +approach the club idea. There comes to mind now the effort to form a second +club in the rooms of a club of several years' standing. The need of the +second club had grown out of the refusal of the girls who earned from five +to nine dollars a week in various employments to associate with a number of +girls working in a tobacco factory, and earning on an average three dollars +and a half per week. The last-named were rough in speech and manner, and +far from stylish in dress--the standard of the elder club. The introduction +of the girls from the tobacco factory to the club was the result of the +sentiment of one of the members of the club, a bright, wealthy, healthy +girl, a great favorite with the other club girls. She had wanted for two +years to work with girls less prosperous than the girls in the club of +which she was a member. + +A large tobacco factory not far from where the club met attracted her +attention, and she invited the girls working there to join the club. +Twenty-two came to the club-room. Mentally they were in a state of nature. +This group of girls represented just what intermittent school attendance, +uninterrupted freedom of the streets, from the time they could walk alone +to the present time, might be expected to produce. They were strangers even +to the degree of social opportunities the members of the club represented. + +Their standards of manners and morals were what the neighborhood in which +they grew up made them. Their homes were in one of the worse sections of +the city, in which an institution wholly charitable pretending to do +educational work had been, not what was intended, an elevating influence, +but the reverse for the children of this section. When these girls went to +school they alternated between this and the public school, so that it was +impossible to compel their attendance at the public school through officers +of the law. The neighborhood in which most of these girls had been born and +grew up was a section as remote from the life of the city of which it was a +part as though it were in another country. Through it ran a thoroughfare in +which were stores that could supply every want. It was another political +unit where one man ruled, whose approval meant work in the city department, +in the street railroads, on the docks; even in the factories, of which +there were many in the section. The streets were in a shocking condition, +unpaved and dirty, and no one objected because no one cared. + +The tenement houses were formerly the residences of the prosperous. These +houses were badly kept, old and unsanitary. Liquor saloons were on two, and +sometimes three, corners of the streets through the whole section. +Beer-sodden women were so common a sight that the women who did not bear +evidence of over-indulgence were remarkable. These girls had never known +personal ownership, even in a bureau drawer; not so much as the right to +one peg on which to hang their clothes to the exclusion of others. It is +doubtful if they ever owned a change of under-clothing that another child +of the family could not claim. + +Naturally, the girls took possession of the club-rooms. Quite as naturally +the older members resented it. It was seen at once that an attempt to have +the new girls elected as club members would be equivalent to ejection. They +were tolerated, but not tolerable to the older members. At the end of four +weeks the two sets of girls lined up on opposite sides of the room, utterly +refusing to intermingle. This passive attitude changed to the aggressive, +which approached open hostilities so closely as to make the danger line. +When this point was reached it was decided to form the new girls into a +club by themselves. The rooms were not used every evening by the club for +which they were hired. Sub-letting would give more money for educational +purposes. + +As this attempt at club-making is one of the worst, and for that reason one +of the failures, it would be well to describe it: + +The directors hired rooms each fall, in September or October, until the +first of May following. As one recalls this club, it presents one of the +best evidences of the barrenness of the working-girl's life in New York. +Every fall for years a few notes written to the leading girls, and a group +of twenty or twenty-five working girls, would gather and start anew on this +club life. This method of conducting a club made it seem useless to spend +money in making the rooms attractive. They were usually on the second floor +of a house occupied by two or more families; the halls dark and bare; the +rooms rarely clean as to walls and ceiling, barren of ornament. The floors +were bare, and not infrequently stood sadly in need of scrubbing. They were +lighted by smoking kerosene lamps, which but added to their +unattractiveness. Frequently the caretaker started the fires a few minutes +before the time for the girls to appear. Yet the girls came and remained +winter after winter. + +The new girls accepted the same conditions, and assembled one stormy night +to form their own club, with several additions to their number of their +own selection, among the rest their forewoman. The leaders of the club +realized that she might be an element of strength; she might be the source +of infinite trouble. She had been young many years before, a fact of which +she was wholly unconscious. She was dressed in what at the time was called +laquer--a warm shade of tan--silk, trimmed with bead trimming; a lace +collar, and a most remarkable hat completed the kind of a costume that +always is discouraging to a true club worker. + +Naturally the forewoman was the spokeswoman for the girls. It was useless +to attempt to draw out a personal opinion from the girls, all of whom +worked under her. Knowing the wages of the girls, it had been decided that +five cents per month should be the dues, leaving the girls a margin from +which they might pay for classes. The indignation of the forewoman at the +suggestion of five cents a month dues would have been amusing if it had not +revealed her utter blindness to the poverty of the girls. Being determined +that no girl there should be kept out of her club by poverty, the +suggestion was made to the forewoman that as her wages equalled the wages +of any three of the girls, and as she chose to join a club where the others +received such small wages, she might pay the same dues, and each month +make a donation to the club to meet its current expenses. She could see the +dues alone would not do that. + +The forewoman, after a few minutes, consented to accept the condition. The +worried look left the faces of the young girls, and they beamed on the +gracious lady who consented to waive her own dignity in their behalf. +Perhaps it is well to state here that the forewoman never made any +donation, and that she would have been dropped from the club for +non-payment of dues but for the knowledge that such a step would mean that +she would make the girls leave the club. She was by them considered a good +forewoman, kind, and ready to help a girl if a girl tried to earn more +money. She had to be consulted in everything attempted for the girls. +Fortunately she was so afraid of revealing her ignorance, which was dense +outside of her work, that she always supported the workers directing the +club affairs. + +This woman was taken ill. The director of the club found that she boarded +with a family consisting of a father, mother and three children, living in +three rooms. She was found lying on a mattress on the floor, destitute of +sheets or pillow-cases. She did not own a nightdress. The tan silk dress +with the bead trimming hung on a nail over her head, surmounted by the +gorgeous hat. She was very ill and penniless; yet the poor about her were +devoted to her and considered her most remarkable. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.] + +Several years ago both of the clubs referred to consolidated with another +club whose directors kept the club-rooms open throughout the entire year. +After the consolidation a house of three stories in a good neighborhood was +rented, and devoted entirely to the use of the club. Only those who have +watched the development of these girls could appreciate what the club has +done for them. Cooking and sewing classes, lectures on city government, +talks on books, on art and nature; the weekly contact with women of culture +and refinement, who carry the conviction that club work is a pleasure, that +service for others is a delight, has borne fruit, and the girls in turn +give their service to those whom they may help--oftenest the members of +their own club. + +The evolution of character through the contact with others is, after all, +the highest attainment of the working-girls' club movement. It brought the +working girl into entirely new relations. Constantly she was forced to see +the folly of placing emphasis on the wrong thing. + +A nice-looking girl, very well dressed, joined a working-girls' club. Her +face indicated character and intelligence. She was elected to office, but +never re-elected, for she was ignorant--too ignorant to perform the +smallest duties in club life. She came every week on the social evening, +always the best-dressed girl in the club. As she grew more familiar she +grew snobbish. She lived in a very poor neighborhood, where her clothes +must have been even more out of place than in the club-room. She held a +position which required special manual skill, and in her own field was an +expert. Unfortunately, she obtained an influence over certain girls and +headed a clique. Every week she became a greater problem. One night a +rather rough, but frank and intelligent, girl was introduced as a candidate +for membership by a member who worked in the same shop. The girl who was +the club problem had been away two weeks working overtime, and did not come +to the club until after the new girl had been elected a member. The +amazement of both as they faced each other as members of the same club +aroused questions as to their social and family background. All that +appeared was that they were neighbors. + +[Illustration: OPPOSITE A CORNER IN AN OLD SECTION.] + +The first reception to mothers was given by the club about this time. When +the night of the reception came, the "problem" came in a new dress having a +jetted front. Her appearance amazed the members, and made it clear that the +"problem" must be solved or eliminated. The new member appeared with two +mothers, both plainly dressed, one not warmly enough. This one was timid, +reluctant to enter the room, and but for the urging of the new member and +her mother she would have gone home. She refused to remove the shabby shawl +she wore, and adjusted again and again the straw hat, on which a narrow +black ribbon was pinned. The "problem" stood in front of the mantel, +surrounded by an admiring crowd. The two mothers and the new member walked +into the room. It was a dramatic moment. The new member, with an expression +of deep scorn, said: "You forgot to ask your mother; we brought her." The +"problem" grew white and then crimson. The girls fell back and gazed +spellbound at the shabby, uncomfortable, timid mother. The scales fell from +their eyes. The "problem," so far as influence in the club was concerned, +ceased to be a problem. A girl who would sacrifice her mother's comfort, +who used her simply to keep house for her, could not hold any position in a +working-girls' club. + +The story crept out. The "problem" felt the loss of prestige. Clothes had +satisfied her ambition; she had through them enjoyed a sense of power. The +experience of that evening doubtless opened her eyes to things in life to +which she had been blind. Again and again she was seen during that evening +reception to look at her mother searchingly. She seemed to see her in a new +light, and by its reflection, herself. The mother was afraid of her and +showed it. The daughter, it was evident, discovered that fear for the first +time and sought to overcome it. It was determined to hold fast to the +"problem" and help her solve herself. Great progress was made. Her dress no +longer astonished; her mother came to the club receptions comfortably and +suitably dressed. Out of consideration for her mother, she remained in the +wretched tenement, because the mother and the house had grown old together; +but the rooms were now furnished. The new member had supplanted the +"problem" as an influence in the club. The "problem" became engaged, and +the club lost her. The man was a store-keeper in a town not far from New +York. The girl married and forgot to take her mother to her new home. The +mother remained a club legacy for two years, when she died. The daughter +sent the money to bury her, but did not come to the funeral. Her husband is +successful, and she is a social power in the Church to-day; a devoted +mother and wife, strange as it may seem. + +The centering of experience, the revelations of character inevitable in a +working-girls' club, are the largest factors in educating the members. As +the years go on, emphasis is laid on the right things. Harmony results, +because a sense of proportion is gained. Girls who have had the benefit of +a public school education that enables them to fill positions that prove +they have had such opportunities, often in the beginning of their club life +will manifest a feeling of superiority over the girl who works with her +hands. But eventually some experience will reveal to them the pettiness of +their estimate, and a readjustment of values is made. + +A girl, long a member of a club, had won the love and admiration of all +connected with it. She earned wages far above the average of working girls, +a fact well understood in the club. She was always an officer, and a +dependable power in the management of the club. The girls were to give a +play. No amount of urging won this girl's consent to take part in the play. +A girl who had taken a part dropped out, and some one must take her place +at once. Now the girls refused to take "no" for an answer, and the favorite +went down in the basement with the others who were in the play. Each had +her book to read her part, as a help to the girl pressed into the service. +When it came her turn to read there was absolute silence. The girl sat +white and trembling, trying to speak. At last jerkingly the words came: "I +cannot read. I never learned beyond the small words. I had to take care of +the children when mother went to work, while my father was sick. I went to +work as soon as I could and helped keep them in school. They all read and +write. I cannot. Now you know why I did not say 'yes.'" + +There was silence for the space of several minutes. No one could speak. +Then the baby of the club, the one everybody petted, whose very naughtiness +was attractive, ran around the table, threw her arms around the speaker's +neck, saying: "You're worth all the rest of us put together. We'll never +give the old play. We all hate it." This followed by a half dozen kisses +placed wherever she could touch the crimson, tear-stained face of the girl +through her hands. + +Education had been put in its right place in the field of accomplishment. +When the entertainment was given, the girl who could not read was made +manager, because no one could do so well. + +For more than twenty years the working-girls' club has been a power in +thousands of lives. The process of character building through accretion and +elimination has been going on. Through its influence the club method has +been applied under every guise, but perhaps it is just to say that it has +been at its best where its formation and management has been purely +democratic and absolutely non-sectarian. In the nature of things, in +affiliation with any organization, it must take its place as the fraction +of a unit, and be in its management considered always as only a part of a +whole to whose success it owes an allegiance. + +Now the working-girls' clubs have their State organizations, even their +national organization. The Pan-American Exposition brought working girls to +the number of five hundred together in a convention to consider the +questions vital to club life and management. Can any one doubt the effect +of this journey into the world, the first that hundreds of these girls had +ever made? Of the readjustment of ideas, the revelation of beauty, the new +birth of values, because of the vision of a larger world lying beyond +factory, workshop, office, school-room? For it has come to this: that the +professional as well as the manual worker finds inspiration in the +working-girls' club. + +As the years went on, a new problem grew out of the working-girls' club +movement. The members married, but they were not willing to lose the social +affiliations of girlhood; they were unwilling often, reluctant always, to +sever club relationship. On the other hand, the members felt that a married +woman should remain home in the evening with her husband. Often the +married member would come carrying her baby, for the club represented the +mother's social relations. The next step was natural, the forming of a club +of the married members to meet in the afternoon. The first working-girls' +club, of which Miss Dodge is still president, formed, as the Domestic +Circle, a club of married members. + +The A. O. V. Matrons at the Cottage Settlement are the married members of +the A. O. V. Club, formed when the matrons were little girls. Other +working-girls' clubs have contributed to the membership of other married +women's clubs. + +Naturally, the subjects discussed in these clubs are those bearing on +housekeeping and the training of children. The training received in the +clubs enables the married members to conduct their business with dignity +and dispatch. They are trained to club life, and have learned how to avoid +unnecessary friction. + +Some clubs plan a winter's work ahead. These programmes show a broadening +of interest and sympathy, not only in the technical affairs, the home and +the care of children, but the larger affairs outside of the home that makes +its environment. It must be that the girls who have been club members make +more companionable wives than the women who have not had their +opportunities. The children are always present at the meetings of the +mothers. Various devices and methods are employed to entertain and interest +them. What the mothers' club means to the little ones was unconsciously +revealed very recently in the statement of a young mother: "---- is always +home from school five minutes earlier club day. She runs home to get +ready." + +The working-girls' club has in the process of its evolution become a family +institution. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. + + +The Residents of the College Settlement learned in the first year of their +work in Rivington Street to sympathize deeply with the married women, the +mothers in the region. + +Mothers, after nights spent in overcrowded, unventilated bedrooms caring +for nursing babies, began getting breakfast at five o'clock in the morning. +Husband and children of every age must be wakened for work or for school, +often irritable because of the unhygienic conditions under which they had +slept. Friction and quarreling is to be expected when there is one +wash-basin for the use of the whole family; one sink for the morning bath +of the family when there is running water in the rooms. Breakfast of bread +and strong coffee, perhaps with the family waiting turns because only three +sides of the table are available, as there is not room to pull the table +out from the wall to make the four sides useful. Floor space costs in the +tenements. + +Friction, adjustment and hurry do not tend to develop a serene spirit in +the house-mother whose office is purely executive. How much less in the +house-mother whose hands must do all the work of the home? When the working +and school-going members of the family are cared for and have gone their +several ways, there is left to the house-mother almost always a baby and +another child too young to go to school, to care for and amuse. In addition +there is the round of work--washing, ironing, mending, making, cooking--all +to be done under limitations of space and conveniences; often with the +handicap of ignorance. Whatever the advantage of self-made money-makers, +the self-made housekeeper, taught only by experience, not only pays dearly +for her education, but is more than apt to be satisfied with her +self-taught accomplishments, thus increasing her disadvantages in the use +of time and money. + +Even with a small family the house-mother with the usual round of work +would not have many moments of leisure. When it is a large family, with all +the disadvantages of the tenement-house home, the days are not long enough +for the work to be done. It crowds the hours, and accumulates until often +discouragement and nervous exhaustion follow. If the mother have a +conscience, she wars with herself, battling against conditions that she +feels but cannot understand nor overcome. + +Three hundred and sixty-five days in the year the Residents found these +mothers who needed the change of pleasure that made no demands on purses. +Even good wages did not permit these families money to buy pleasure and +recreation. Mothers, good mothers, grew old before their time. They often +grew careless of their personal appearance, and by this risked their +influence in their homes, separation from their children, alert and often +overconscious on the subject of dress. + +Then there were semi-apathetic mothers because of discouragement; the +mothers who drifted, never having an aim in life or an ideal; then the +mothers who long ago ceased to make any struggle against environment, every +year becoming more inert; the mothers, now grand-mothers, who were +remembered only in time of need by their children. The Residents saw the +need of the mothers of all types. How could the apathetic be awakened, the +discouraged stimulated, the overworked rested and cheered? Hundreds, +thousands of mothers were losing the best things of life because for them +the activities that increase interest and sympathies could not be brought +into their lives. Their environment made social opportunities in their own +homes impossible. Husband and children, through contact with life in shop, +factory, store, street and school, enlarged their interest every day; while +the wife and mother came to a mental standstill, often losing interest in +everything outside of her home; often failing through lack of knowledge and +discouragement in making that a place of rest and refreshing. + +The Settlement was the bright spot in the lives of hundreds of young people +and children. The mothers who could be stimulated must be reached and held +in a center where pleasure would be the controlling element and education +an incident. There were mothers who had lost all desire for social life. It +was found difficult to arouse in them even a momentary interest in the +thought of seeing new things, new people. The grind of life had blunted all +social instincts. There were women who on the social side of their natures +were dead; could not be roused by any thought outside of the routine of +their lives. Interest enough to do for their families what required the +least effort of mind and body was all that was left. The hope in these +homes was the children. To them the Settlement must give inspiration and +ideals; the home would never give either. + +In the second year of the College Settlement's activity a persistent effort +was made to reach the mothers, especially the mothers of the more alert and +active boys and girls affiliated with the Settlement, in clubs and classes. +These mothers came, but never the same group twice. The smallest obstacle +would prevent the very women who most needed social opportunity from +accepting it. When they needed help, they came to the Settlement; they were +most cordial hostesses when the Residents called; delighted in the +opportunities the Settlement made for their children; but the habit of +staying indoors, out of touch with any life but that of the tenement-house +halls, was a fixed habit most difficult to dislodge. + +Some of the workers who were interested in this question were led to +conclude that it was only the exceptional woman in the tenements who +retained the capacity to plan her work to secure a specified hour or two of +freedom in a whole week. The life imposed on the tenement-house mother does +not make time an element in adjustment of her day, still less of her week. +The breakfast over, the day unfolds itself, and the mother is free to meet +it. Only in the exceptional home is life considered in its relation to the +time of day. One thing was clear: that in the homes of the better paid +wage-earners the mothers did not get their share of life's brightness. A +College Settlement worker, enthusiastically supported by the Head Resident, +determined to secure it for some of them. Failures would not discourage the +worker, for every effort would be considered an experiment until success +was attained. The club idea had proved successful for the children and +young people; it had for mothers of larger opportunities elsewhere in the +social world; it might for these mothers. At least, it could be tried. + +Twenty-two calls were made on the mothers of children and young people then +coming to the Settlement, asking them to the Settlement for a certain +afternoon in the following week. All accepted the invitation; ten came. The +women who responded were told of the plan to start a club to meet once a +week. There would be music, a short talk and refreshments. The plan seemed +to please all who were present, and it was agreed to meet the following +week. + +At once a problem was faced. Some of the mothers came without hats, wearing +not overclean aprons, and apparently looking upon the movement as some new +phase of almsgiving. Others were alert, well-dressed, comprehended that +they must contribute their share in money and interest or the effort would +die out. The children of these two types of mothers could not be +distinguished by outward signs. American public school life and the very +atmosphere of the street life had already begun its leveling-up process in +dress and independence. How could these two types be brought into a common +social relation, when they held nothing in common but the experience of +living under the roof with many? + +It was decided to let the law of natural selection operate freely. The club +was an experiment, and it must not start with preconceived plans; its life +must be one of evolution. The next week only the alert women appeared. + +The club was formed, a president elected, and dues placed at ten cents per +week. This the projectors tried to reduce, but the members insisted that +they could and would pay it. That it would cost almost that to pay for the +cake and coffee, and they could help somebody if there was any money over. +The club was limited to ten members, and filled at the second meeting. It +enlarged to fifteen the next year. In its fifth year it numbered +forty-five. + +The subject of the first formal talk, informally conducted, as its subject +demanded, was: "How long after the hair is out of curling-papers is it +becoming?" This, of course, gave the opportunity of laying stress on a +wife's personal appearance; the necessity of being as attractive as +possible to one's own husband and children. That was, is, the keynote of +the club, its creed, its religion to-day, when mothers and married +daughters are members. The time of meeting was two o'clock, that the +mothers might be at home in time to get supper for their husbands and +children. Babies came with their mothers, and children in school came to +the Settlement instead of going home after school. Many of the little girls +belonged to a sewing club that met the same afternoon at the Settlement. +The club, named in the first month of its existence "The Woman's Home +Improvement Club," celebrated its eleventh anniversary at the College +Settlement, October, 1901. + +[Illustration: THE WOMAN'S HOME IMPROVEMENT CLUB AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +As the first anniversary approached, the members suggested an evening +meeting, that their husbands might come. The proposition received the most +enthusiastic support from the Settlement Residents. Husbands, all the +children who worked, and a friend of each member--if married, her +husband--were included in the invitation. Dancing and music occupied the +evening. What a revelation! Fathers dancing with their own daughters for +the first time; mothers with their sons; daughters and sons spellbound at +the sight of their mothers and fathers dancing together! It was evident +that the club was a feature of the family life. The husbands and grown +children knew what had been talked about, what had been done at the +meetings. One husband, watching his wife dancing with their son, said: "I +don't know how you've done it, but this club has made my wife young again; +she's as young as when we were married." This wife and mother of nine +children at the club one afternoon wished there were a hundred such clubs. +"'Tis a mistake to just stay shut up." She waited a minute, and then said: +"I had not bought a hat for eighteen years until I joined this club; I did +not need it; I never went anywhere; the children did all the errands." + +This was the very type of mother the projectors of the club hoped to reach. +The first evening reception proved such a success that it was decided to +hold one evening reception each month for the family and friends of the +members. Thanksgiving and Christmas receptions belonged to the children. +Apples, nuts, gingerbread, cake and peanut brittle, with coffee, are the +refreshments for Thanksgiving evening; new milk for the children. The games +are Blind Man's Buff, Going to Jerusalem, with the Virginia Reel as an +alternate, because the little children can dance it. "America" and "Home, +Sweet Home," sung in chorus, close the evening. More than one family is now +represented by three generations on these evenings. At the first evening +reception a father and son of twenty years stood side by side. When the +father began singing, the son stopped and looked at him in amazement. This +changed to one of enjoyment, as he said between the verses: "Dad, I didn't +know you could sing." "I haven't in twenty years, I guess," was the reply. +Both father and son had good voices. The son had made the discovery that he +had a voice, at the Settlement, in his club. He edged closer to his father; +there was a new bond of sympathy. The boy's Christmas present from his +father, mother, brother and sisters was a mandolin, the first time a +combination present had been given. It was quite natural that the next year +a table for the new parlor should be the gift of the children to the +parents. + +An incident occurring in the third year after the club was organized is, +perhaps, as perfect an illustration of the lack of social opportunity in a +tenement-house home as can be given. + +One of the most faithful and interested of the members was a woman about +fifty-seven when she joined the club. She was slow to respond to the club +idea; to the right of personal judgment outside her own affairs. Her +responses to a question that involved an expression of opinion was usually: +"It don't make no difference to me." After a time she grasped the idea that +she was one of many, but had equal rights with all the members in deciding +questions relating to the club, and she began assuming responsibilities; +expressing her views. In the third year she came to the president, and +with every evidence of wishing to disclose a secret, said: "Next week +Thursday is my birthday. I never had a birthday party in my life. I've +always wanted one, but never had the room, and I never had the dishes. Do +you believe I could have a birthday party here next week?" + +"Yes, I'm sure you could." + +"I can't do much; and I only have two friends besides the club that I want +to have. I want to pay for all the coffee and cake, that I may feel that +it's my party. Just my two daughters, and my two friends, and my +grandchildren--four, that's all. I've been saving the money for a year." + +One night early in the next week the bell rang. A working man stood at the +door. He handed a five-dollar bill to one of the Residents, saying: "My +wife, she's goin' to have a party here Thursday. I want you to give her a +good time. She's been a good wife to me. Don't tell her; just spend it for +her;" and the man disappeared in the darkness. + +It was decided to order a birthday cake and light sixty candles. + +The day came. Every member brought a remembrance. Radiantly, tearfully +happy stood the hostess. She loved music, and a sweet, gracious woman whose +music wins the most cultured sang song after song. Time for refreshments +came. In the front parlor a club of little girls were sewing. It seemed a +pity that they should not see the cake and the candles lighted. They were +told that the doors would open, a lady was having her first birthday party, +and it would be kind to wish her many returns of the day. + +The cake was brought in with the sixty candles burning, and placed before +the hostess, a gift from her husband. "I didn't know," the wife kept +whispering under her breath as she stood beside it at the table. The doors +rolled slowly backward, and twenty children breathed "Ah!" Then in a piping +chorus, "Wish you many returns of the day." A moment the woman stood still. +Then turning a shining face on all about, she moved toward the children, +the tears falling fast. Raising her hands and face heavenward, she said +solemnly: "O God, what have I done that you should be so good to me?" The +volume of her life was opened. + +A cake with a few shining candles, a few friends with their little +offerings, and the wishes of a few children, and to one woman God had +reached out of His high heaven and selected her as the special object of +His care and love. + +Not all of the five dollars had been used. The hostess was asked what she +wanted done with it. She was radiant. "I'll give a party to those children +what said that sweet thing to me." Suggestions of other uses were cast +aside. The children must have a party--ice cream and cake. When she found +out that cake and ice cream would cost more than the money in hand, she +announced: "I will wait to give it. In a month I save money to put to it." +She made all her own arrangements, and proved a hostess of resource and +tact. + +She received her guests most cordially. Perhaps the most wildly exciting +hours of her life were when, after much coaxing, she joined in the games of +Drop the Handkerchief, Blind Man's Buff and Going to Jerusalem, the last +game sending her crimson and panting into a chair in the corner, with the +children crowding about her shrieking with laughter. + +Time for refreshments found her anxious and watchful. The members of the +club had fallen into the spirit of the day, and nobody was grown up. + +An incident occurred during the serving of refreshments which showed the +educational value of a story written for pleasure, not education; at the +same time a very deep compliment to the book. "The Birds' Christmas Carol" +was a favorite book in the club. It had been read twenty-seven times in +one tenement house by eleven members of one family, and four times by one +member, who said she would own a copy whenever she could spare the money. +She wanted to read it when she felt cross. As there were not chairs enough +for all at the party, some of the children sat on the floor. The little +daughter of the mother who wanted to own "The Birds' Christmas Carol" sat +on the floor in front of her mother. She did something while eating her ice +cream of which her mother disapproved. With a quick glance at one of the +workers who stood near her, the mother said: "If I had been as wise as Mrs. +Ruggles, she would not have done that." Mrs. Ruggles was a thoroughly +appreciated character. Her struggles to equip her children were perfectly +understood, as were her ambitions for them. The hostess of the day was as +disappointed as the youngest child when the lighting of the gas told that +the day was done. She was the last to leave, saying: "I never was so happy +in my life. It has been beautiful. All my life I wanted a birthday party. +Now I have two;" and she turned a radiant face to say "Good-night" as she +went down the stoop into the gathering darkness. + +The weeks went by. The club had tickets to go to Glen Island, through the +generosity of Mr. Starin. In August another member had a birthday, and +confided the secret to the giver of the birthday party, saying, "I wanted +to give a birthday party as you did. I never had one in my life; but I +could not get money enough. I tried hard since yours." In September the +elder member confided this conversation to the president of the club, +saying, "Now we will give her a surprise. She shall have the party. I have +talked with every member. But we will not each buy her a present; we put +our money together and buy her a dress." The president doubted the wisdom +of this, and suggested a dozen other gifts. "No, we give a dress. She does +not have as nice a dress as other members. It is not right that one member +of a club should not dress as good as every other member. Why not she take +that dress? She know we love her, and we give her this because we want her +to look as good as anybody; she is so pretty." + +The dress was bought and given by the oldest member of the club, who in her +speech announced her views on dress, and the need of one member looking as +well-dressed as any other member; that if one could not have things, then +the others must share with her; that was being a true member. The dress was +received in the spirit in which it was given. When it was found that it +could not be made by the receiver in time for the next reception because +she had so much work, it was cut and made by five members of the club. The +wisdom of putting money together to buy one present was learned, and from +that time on the custom has been to make joint gifts when gifts are given. +This is done in families, greatly reducing the valueless things that were +formerly bought when only a little money, a few cents perhaps, could be +spent by each one. + +About the time this club was established the kindergarten had been added to +the vocabulary of philanthropists. The kindergarten existed as part of the +secular work of many of the churches, and individuals here and there +supported kindergartens. It was generally conceded that the mothers of the +children did not appreciate the work the kindergarten was doing for their +children; that too often they felt that permitting them to go was +conferring a favor on the kindergartners or those who had asked for their +children's attendance. The Residents and workers at the Settlement did not +believe that this was a healthy attitude of mind. They believed it was +responsible for the irregular attendance of many of the children, as well +as the lack of punctuality. There was no kindergarten in connection with +the Settlement, nor room for one, but one was greatly needed. Much as it +was needed, it must not come until the mothers wanted it and were willing +to work for it. + +Miss Brooks was then at the head of the Kindergarten Training School in +connection with the Teachers' College. She was consulted. The result was +that the members of the Woman's Home Improvement Club became on several +afternoons members of a kindergarten. They used the materials, took part in +the games directed by Miss Brooks and the members of her training class. +The names of the material used, the things made, the stories, the games, +the songs, became a part of the vocabulary of the mothers. Some of the +material was bought and taken home to entertain the children. The natural +result followed. "If only we could have a kindergarten for our children!" + +[Illustration: THE KINDERGARTEN OF THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +It was suggested that if seventy children could be found near enough to the +DeWitt Memorial, where a room for the kindergarten was available, that +perhaps the kindergarten would be established there. Over one hundred calls +were made by the nine members of this club, which resulted in securing the +promised attendance of seventy children. The Lowell Kindergarten was then +opened at the DeWitt Memorial by the New York Kindergarten Association as a +result of this effort. The difficulties the mothers put in the way of good +work in the kindergarten was explained to the members of the club, who +agreed to call on mothers whose children did not come to the kindergarten +in time, or were irregular in attendance. It was most interesting to watch +the growth of public sentiment in favor of regular and punctual attendance, +not only at the kindergarten, but at school. If the kindergarten child +reported Johnny Jones, who was a neighbor's child, as absent, the elder +brother or visitor after school was sent to find out if Johnny Jones were +ill. It became a badge of good motherhood to have the child in the +kindergarten on time. Before this, through talks by doctors and nurses, the +relation between health and cleanliness had been discovered. Cleanliness +was imposed on their own children, and exacted from other mothers of +kindergarten children. + +The influx of Hebrews, toward whom the members of this club had a deep race +prejudice, drove them out of this neighborhood. Before seven years had +passed but four of the members were residents of this district. But a +change of residence did not change their belief in the value of the +kindergarten. Wherever they have gone they have sought it for their young +children, who have found always intelligent and sympathetic listeners in +their mothers to all the events and incidents in their kindergarten world. +One mother learned accompaniments to songs, and the children sing +kindergarten songs at the club entertainments, even those in the grammar +grade join. + +As time went on, the conviction grew stronger that the real pressure of +poverty or lack of money, among the self-respecting independent poor came +not on the physical nature but the mental and emotional. The pressure was +incessant. There never was a time when there was money to buy pleasure. +Months, years went by without life offering the opportunity for enlarging +the mental horizon of thousands of capable, receptive, devoted mothers. To +the children the Church entertainments were opportunities; clubs and sewing +schools were doing their share, but the mothers were only onlookers. There +was no active part for them except in the world of work. The churches +provided religious opportunity and social opportunity, regulated by the +Church environment. Hundreds were not attracted, and often one sympathized +with their rejection of this kind of social opportunity, tinged too +frequently with patronage, and of necessity, narrow in its scope. + +Early in the history of this club the love of music was so evident that it +was decided that the members should hear "The Messiah." That would be the +Christmas treat that year. The cost of the tickets was far beyond the means +of the members, but friends made the purchase of the tickets for every +member possible. + +Two days before the giving of the Oratorio, Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith came +to the Settlement and gave a recital. Handel's picture was displayed, the +story of his life told. The themes of the Oratorio were explained, and then +sung by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. A new world was opened. The night for the +Oratorio came. The journey so far uptown was into a land wholly unknown. +Carnegie Hall was a revelation of another world. Its size and beauty, the +audience, all a revelation. From the opening bar to the close of the +Oratorio the club members listened entranced. It was the enlarging of the +world revealed by Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Smith. As the chorus "Unto us a child +is born, Unto us a son is given," closed, every one of the mothers sat with +shining face but moist eyes. A new message had come. One little mother, +whose battle so bravely fought won reverence for her, leaned down and +whispered: "I'm so glad I have sons; I'm so glad. I think I know now what +it means." The echo came back for weeks, yes, for years. One member, in +trying to tell her husband, said: "I saw while I was talking how +impossible it was to make him understand, so I said: 'John, you'll never +know till you get to Heaven what I heard and saw to-night.'" + +The result justified the effort. It was seen that it was wise to have the +best of everything for the members of the club in the way of entertainment. +Musicians have given most generously of their time and talent. Speakers who +are sought for in the highest intellectual world have been secured for the +evening receptions, when the husbands and working children and friends were +present. The result has been to develop just at the level where it was most +needed standards that protect the home from enjoyments tinged with +vulgarity, and even crudeness is now detected and accepted grudgingly or +with apology. + +The hard times of 1893-94 gave a new opportunity to test the value of such +a club. The stories of suffering, of helplessness, made it seem wise to +control money to be expended through the club members. They were brought +into contact with families who never before were reduced to the point of +asking charity. About four hundred dollars was expended under the direction +of the members of this club. Work tickets were bought and given to men and +women whose life history they knew, men and women they had known for years. +When cases of strangers were brought to their notice, they investigated +and advised as to the best way to give help. To prevent eviction, payment +of rent was the first effort of the club members. + +The education they received was invaluable. For the first time it was +possible for them to help others in a large way; they saw that the number +they could help depended on the wisdom shown in expending the money on +which they could call. Their indignation knew no bounds when they found +they had been deceived, as they were in half a dozen cases of families +brought to their attention. One case caused a complete revolution in their +theory that if people suffered it was because the world was hard with them, +had not given them a chance. One woman, a widow, was brought to the +attention of the club early in the winter. She had one child, and they had +not had a fire in weeks; had no outside garments to go on the street, +because they had pawned them for food. They had eaten nothing but bread and +coffee for seven weeks. Now they were to be evicted from the one room they +had occupied, because no rent had been paid for two months. The club had +decided that paying back rents only benefited landlords; that, having so +little money and so many demands, rent in advance was all they could pay. +They voted to move the woman, then to find work for her. It was decided +that she must learn to operate a sewing machine. The Charities' +Organization Society made that possible. After two weeks' trial, it was +found that the woman could not learn. Then the society gave her a chance to +learn laundry work, and for two weeks more money to support the woman and +child--cared for by one of the members in turn while the mother was away +from home--was given. Again the report came that the woman would not learn. +Then the members decided to teach her. This individual teaching, with what +the society had done, seemed to make an impression. It was decided that the +woman could iron. + +[Illustration: MAKING A SELECTION.] + +When this stage was reached the fourteen-year-old daughter of one of the +members passed on her way from work a laundry. At the door a sign hung, +"Hands Wanted." The little girl went in and asked about wages. The man at +the desk laughed at her. "It made me mad. I just looked at him," drawing +herself up as she told the story. "I said: 'I do not want the work for +myself, but for a woman _our_ club is trying to help; she's poor, and a +widow.' Then the man looked at me, and told me to tell the woman to come. I +told him we'd all been teaching her." The use of the plural possessive +thrilled the heart of the workers; the club was a family possession. The +woman was told to go to work the next morning. As the little girl was +returning from work the next night, she stopped at the laundry to ask about +the woman; to walk home with her, if she were going home. She was told the +woman had not appeared. Before going to her own home, the child went to see +why the woman had not gone to work. The woman had overslept. For three +weeks that little girl got up earlier and went after that woman, delivering +her at the laundry as though she were a package. It was decided that the +sacrifice was too much; if the woman was not willing to keep the work by +her own effort, she was not worth helping. An alarm clock was bought and +given her, and she was taught how to wind it. She lost the place before the +end of the first week because she could not get there on time. + +The club found out that there were people it was impossible to help, do +what the world would. + +This little girl during this period of struggle with this woman was met one +Sunday afternoon. She carried a doll to which she was devoted, and for +which she made a cloak that Sunday morning. "Isn't she pretty?" she said, +holding up the doll. "I often wish I could see her when I'm working." What +a combination of child and woman! As the years have passed, this little +girl has paid the penalty of shop life. She has grown hard, aggressive, +self-assertive, untruthful. If only her environment could have been +different, she would have made a magnificent woman. The world of struggle +has been too much for her; it has strangled the spirit of helpfulness. + +The lessons of that winter have been well learned. Every mother in the club +wants a trade for her child; something learned that has in it wage-earning +promise because the worker has special knowledge. + +The time came when it was possible to turn the attention of these mothers +to the administration of those city departments that make the environment +of their homes. The streets naturally claimed first attention. They learned +to take the numbers of the street sweepers who failed to do their work; to +take the numbers of the carts improperly and carelessly filled, and report +them at the club meeting. Leaking roofs, broken stairways, unlighted halls, +contagious diseases were reported, and conditions in the stores and +factories where their daughters worked. + +The criminality of concealing dangers that threatened many to protect one +was comprehended. The club motto became "A helping hand to all." + +The club members felt that it was possible for them to give special help +to little children. In a thousand ways the women in the house of many +families find the opportunity to help children; often through the children +they helped the mothers. Sometimes through personal influence they secured +the regular attendance of children at school; sometimes it meant calling in +the aid of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to secure +the rights of children, to protect them from evils in their own homes. + +One day a wealthy woman who had lost a little girl told the president of +this club this incident, which, she said, changed the course of her life. +For months she had shut out the world. God and man were cruel. Nothing +interested her; life was empty. She sat by the window in her home one +November afternoon. It was drizzling and blowing. A little girl without hat +or coat stood shivering and crying against the church railing opposite. As +she watched the child her mind reverted to the clothes she handled so +constantly, because they had been worn by her child. She sent for the +little stranger, and when she went on the street again she was warm, tidy +and comfortable. Then came the thought, "God never meant a woman should be +a mother just to one little girl. She must be a mother to every child who +needs her." From that day this woman has given her life and service to +children. The story was told to the club. + +One of the members, after the meeting had adjourned and while the +refreshments were being served, was overheard saying: "Why, certainly it +would change everything if every woman would live in that way. Think how +many times you could save children, how many times you could help them, if +you were their mother just for the time they needed you--often only a few +minutes." + +Months after a member reported: "Well, I don't know what you'll all think +when I tell you what I did last week. I've been bothered because such a +nice-looking little girl came every morning about school time and went +upstairs in the house opposite. She carried a lunch-box and books. I would +see her with a baby at the window, and see her in the morning run on +errands. At three o'clock she went away in the direction from which she +came. That child is playing 'hookey.' That woman is to blame, I said to +myself. One morning last week I saw the child go to the corner grocery. I +went after her. + +[Illustration: AT THE SETTLEMENT--A STORMY DAY.] + +"'Where you live, little girl?' I asked. She grew red and hung her head, +and tried to get out of the store. I stand in front of her. 'No, you must +not be afraid of me. I have little girls. I love all little girls. Where is +your mother? Child, you deceive her. She thinks you are in school, and you +play "hookey."' The child ran out of the store, crying. I went right +upstairs after her. I knock. The woman would not open the door. I knock +louder, then she come. When she see me, she tried to close the door. I put +my foot in the door and keep it open. I say, 'You are doing wrong. I belong +to a club where every member is to be a mother to every child what needs +her. If that little girl come here one more day, I follow her home and tell +her mother. It be bad for you if any child come here so young as that +child. It is against the law for such little children to work. That little +girl is playing "hookey," and you make her. You do that any more, and I +make a complaint against you to the Children's Society. Good-morning;' and +I took out my foot, bowed and went downstairs. When I got home, that little +girl is running down the street where she comes every morning. I never see +her now, and that woman do her own errands and mind her own baby." + +The members applauded. A child out of school is a child to be looked after. +It has been concluded by the members of this club that they can do their +best missionary work in the houses where they live, by keeping their rooms +and their children in the best possible condition; that every home, every +child so cared for, is the best possible sermon preached, the purpose of +which is to make life better. + +The League for Political Education, the Woman's Auxiliary of the Civil +Service Reform Association, the City History Club have sent speakers to the +club, some conducting courses of lectures. Even the Assembly District work +undertaken by the League for Political Education was attempted by the club, +but did not succeed. It could hardly be expected that it would. + +During all those years the members had been trained to self-government. All +questions are decided by the majority. There came a time when the majority +voted to leave the College Settlement. It was deplored by the projectors, +but accepted. After a few weeks a small house was taken a couple of blocks +from the East River. The house had a large yard, and by expending a small +amount of money was made very attractive. The attempt was made to have the +members of the club do neighborhood work. A very short trial proved this +was impracticable. Two things were revealed: That the mother of a +working-man's family has neither strength nor time to give away; that the +very conditions of tenement-house neighborhoods require trained, impersonal +workers. The women who gave time to the club work in the neighborhood +neglected their homes and families. The few members who tried to do +neighborhood work in the house used every advantage the club-house offered, +which they controlled, to curry favor, to revenge slights, real or fancied, +to themselves or their children. The best mothers made no attempt to do any +neighborhood work. The house became a social center, an educational center. +But it was not a success until paid workers were put in charge of different +departments, with a very few volunteer workers; and the most faithful of +these were women of wealth. + +It was hoped that uptown organizations would establish branches of their +work in this house. Some did attempt it, but it failed for the reason that +so many efforts to better the conditions of the tenement-house dwellers +fail. Women lacking the right qualities volunteered, or the work was +important when other things did not interfere. Clubs were established to +which the organizers came when it was convenient. Again and again children +connected with clubs waited until darkness came, but no "dear lady" whom +they trusted appeared. In another case, numbers were the standard of +success, and scores were crowded in where units should have been. All this +forced the employment of paid workers, and centered the responsibility on +one until the burden was too great to be borne. + +Added to this, the principle of self-government had given a one-sided +development to some of the members, and friction would develop when large +questions were to be decided, an aggressive minority combating a +conservative and less demonstrative majority. + +The reform campaign of 1897 began. The picture of the candidate of the +Citizens' Union hung in the window. The Citizens' Union used the house and +yard for its lectures. When the campaign was ended, the friction developed +to the unbearable point, and it seemed, in view of the dissension, best to +disband the club. The club voted to keep together and return to the College +Settlement, if the privilege could be secured. This was generously given, +and the club unanimously voted to return, pledging the members to give all +the aid possible to the Settlement work. Since 1898 the club has again been +a part of the work at the Settlement. + +For six years this club has had a country club-house--a large house, easy +of access, in New Jersey, admirably adapted to the purposes of the club. +The house is surrounded by lawns and an apple orchard. Two kitchens make it +possible for two families to occupy the house at the same time. The rent +is paid and the house cleaned each spring. All other expenses, including +car fares, are paid by the members of the club using the house. The plan is +for each member to use half the house for two weeks. By a system of +evolution and working of the law of natural selection, four families use +the house at the same time. Mrs. A. invites Mrs. B. for the two weeks that +she is entitled to half of the house; and Mrs. B., arranging her two weeks +to follow Mrs. A., reciprocates by asking Mrs. A. to remain for her two +weeks. Co-operative housekeeping has developed, as has the sharing in the +care of the children. The barn, equipped for the children, has been an +endless delight. Two members have in the past been debarred the use of the +house. One because of the character of the men invited by the husband; one +because of the language used to her children. Both were asked to resign +from the club, or to make it inconvenient to use the club-house. One +resigned. The average number of people using this club-house has been +between four and five hundred each season. Sick children of neighbors have +been taken up by the members and cared for during their whole vacation. On +Sundays, friends, relatives and city neighbors are guests. + +There has never been any supervision over the house, except that of the +members. Each member leaves the part of the house she has used clean for +the one coming after her. For several years the club paid part of two +months' rent, raised through entertainments. One year the members made a +donation of thirty dollars. Broken dishes are replaced, and the cost of +repairing furniture broken is paid by the member using the furniture at the +time. The large parlor is a club-room, and used by every member who goes up +for a day. A closet is provided with dishes to be used when picnics are +given by the members. The theory is that the grounds--four acres--can be +used by the members at any time, but the families in the house must not be +interfered with in any way. + +The story of this club has been told at this length because it has proved +what can be done in broadening the life of women of natural intelligence +living under tenement-house conditions; how the family can have a common +interest, to which each contributes, a center that can create social +opportunity for the friends of every member and the members of every +family. + +This club has been able to do much to lighten the burdens in the time of +financial crisis for people who could only have been helped through such a +medium. It was the help of a friend always. For years it has been able to +distribute Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners; but it grows more cautious +every year, for it has made discoveries of the abuses of the Christmas +dinner-giving. Through the children it has been possible to reach other +children who needed Christmas cheer, but who would not take it from ever so +kind-hearted a public. + +The long years of working together has cemented friendships that are the +inheritances of the children, and sons and daughters have intermarried. +Baby after baby finds its godmother in the club. + +There have been mortifying failures, but there have been positive successes +in the eleven years. The club has proved conclusively that the +working-men's wives can be determining factors in arousing and demanding +better environment for their homes; that the wife and mother who keeps in +touch with life commands greater influence in and outside her home, where +all that she learns is used to make that home better; that she keeps her +place in her family best when she makes herself the companion of her +husband and children; when she, as far as she may, is herself the source of +their social life, and contributes to their mental interests by sharing +with them all the educational opportunity that life gives her. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WITHIN THE WALLS OF HOME. + + +One day a group of unusually intelligent wives of working men were driving +through Central Park in a Park carriage. All were mothers, some of grown +children, yet it was the first time that twelve of the twenty (all but two +born in New York) had seen Central Park. Coming back on the east drive, the +closed houses on Fifth Avenue attracted their attention. Various +suggestions were made as to what use these houses could be put in the +summer, when one woman, slight, delicate and extremely nervous, said: "I +don't want anything in those houses but the room, just the room. I've never +had all the room I want. I would have if I lived in them." After a moment +she continued: "The reason we don't love each other as we should is because +we don't have room; we crowd each other. All the time I lived in my +father's home I was crowded. How we used to fight! Fight in the night, as +well as the day, just because we did not have room. The beds were so +crowded that one of the young ones had to sleep across the foot. The big +ones would keep their feet up while they were awake, but when they went to +sleep they would stretch out and kick the one across the foot. When I was +so little that I slept that way, I used to lie awake in terror expecting +the kick, and how I scratched when it came! I know we would have loved each +other much more if we could have had room to grow up in, as the children in +those houses do. And my mother! She didn't have a room to herself when she +had the sickness that killed her." + +[Illustration: YARD DAY AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +It was pathetic to hear the revelations of the little miseries of childhood +due to lack of room in the home. "My mother used to drive us out of the +house to get a chance to sweep it," said another mother of children. "I +remember lots of times standing down at the hall door, shivering, waiting +for her to get through. I would go into the neighbors' rooms, but often +they had got rid of their own children for the reason my mother had of +hers." + +"I tell you what used to make me mad; it was to have to wait for the others +to get through eating," said another. "When I hire a place I always look +first to see if the kitchen is big enough to pull the table from the wall +and sit about it. I don't think I ever had any hot dinner when I was +little, and it used to make me mad. When I had three children I moved just +to get a large kitchen; it ain't near so nice a place, but the kitchen is +big." There was not a woman there who did not have a grievance against her +childhood because there was not room. One of them with crimson cheeks told +how she remembered the sense of comfort that came to her after the death of +an older sister because she had a bed to herself; she said it was a long +time before she knew the cause, for she missed her sister's companionship, +but she was more comfortable; she enjoyed having the five nails at the foot +of the bed for her own clothes. The woman who spoke first interrupted: "I +never in my life had even a hook in the wall that was my own until I was +married. We were so near of a size we could wear each other's things, and +we did. The one who was quickest got the best of that size. You never knew +whose clothes you'd have to put on in the morning. I'll never have but this +child. She likes me. She hates being pushed and crowded. She has a bed and +bureau of her own. Never, never until my husband can pay more rent will we +have another child." She paid the penalty of death for this determination. + +As one thinks of the number of human beings with all their belongings +crowded into the floor space of a tenement-house home, the marvel at the +endurance grows greater. Think of its limitations of conveniences! + +To those who know the limitations of a tenement-house home, the criticisms +and suggestions that the superficially informed reformers make on and for +the hygienic management of these homes are at once the source of amusement +and indignation. When stress is laid on airing a bed every morning, and one +in imagination sees the only windows in another room with a breakfast table +between them, a room already overcrowded with things, the only room for the +mother and baby during the process, one wonders what the speaker would do +under the same circumstances. Then when the horrors of dust are revealed +and the necessity of keeping the floors clean by frequent washing is made +to be imperative, one sees the bed that just fits between the walls at the +head and foot, with half of its own space free in front of it, and again +comes the question, what would the expert do living under like +circumstances? What is needed everywhere is scientific knowledge in +conjunction with intimate knowledge of the evils inseparable from the small +dark rooms of even the best tenements, and then we will have suggestions +that the woman can use--can apply to her own family conditions--who must do +the work for a family within this space. + +In the best of the tenements it will be found that where the tenants can +afford a parlor, access to it is across the kitchen, where all the work of +the family must be done. It will be seen at once the disadvantage at which +the house-mother is when friends who are not intimate call. Nothing stands +between her and the outer world but the door into a public hallway. The +bedrooms admit of a bed, and sometimes, but only in the exceptional +bedroom, a bureau. This is usually found in the parlor, if there is one, +and in it all the clothes that can be folded, all the little accessories +belonging to the family; to this, however, all must have access. If there +is a closet for clothes, or if the family can own and house a wardrobe, it +is usually in this room, and the common convenience of the family. The +bedrooms, dark, offer no space for a washstand. The kitchen is the common +wash-room. The kitchens of the tenement houses built in these later years +are a marvel of inconvenience. The dish closet is a few shelves up near the +ceiling, the lower one of which can be reached by a woman five feet four +standing on the soles of her feet; a chair is necessary to reach the other +shelves. Beneath this space is the pot closet, or it may be the stationary +tubs, the top of which provides table space for cooking conveniences. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S HOUR AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +There comes to mind now one of the best plans for a tenement having four +families on each floor on the East Side. The stairways are lighted by a +window on each landing opening on an air shaft, and on each floor is a +lavatory with a large window. Each suite consists of four rooms. The parlor +has two windows on the street; a kitchen window opening into the parlor, +never raised if the family have social standards; and a window on a large +air shaft, or space between the two houses, on which the bedroom windows, +which are large, open. The rent for these four rooms is seventeen dollars +per month, and they are on the fifth floor. The kitchens in this house have +been described. The family have to sit at three sides of the table; there +is no room to pull it from the wall; even then one side is uncomfortably +near the stove. The only space except the parlor for a refrigerator is in +the bedroom. As there are three young wage-earners supporting the home, who +are social, who are encouraged by the widowed mother to have their friends +in their own home, this is not to be tolerated. The refrigerator is in the +bedroom. It was in that room when it was occupied for four years by a girl +dying of tuberculosis. Is it any wonder that the fight against this disease +is again being waged in that family? Yet it is above the average of its +class in intelligence, as the apartments are above the average in the +region. + +The very elementary necessity of space and place for privacy in taking a +bath is exceptional. For space, place and light are necessary. A very +bright woman, perfectly familiar with the limitations of the tenement-house +homes, once said to the writer: "The truth is they cannot be clean if they +are decent." A cruel truth which was brought forcibly to the remembrance of +the writer one winter afternoon in an East Side home, where a mother was +trying to bring up a family to the best of her ability. When the caller +went into the living-room of the family a tub stood at the side of the +stove, in which was the youngest daughter, a girl about eight; a brother of +ten and his boy friend of twelve or fourteen years were playing checkers on +the other side of the room. The mother was ironing. There was no +consciousness of embarrassment shown by the children. The mother was +ashamed, not at the exposure, but at being found out in permitting such an +exposure. She was a member of a club where the training of children was a +constant theme. The necessity of physical cleanliness, its relation to +health, she had grasped, and her children profited by it. The relation +between privacy and morals she had not grasped. It was as though a veil +had fallen from her eyes as she looked at her daughter of eight standing +naked before the two boys. Whether such a thing ever occurred again the +caller does not know; that the mother never forgave the caller for finding +her out she does know. The family had three bedrooms, but none would permit +the placing of a washstand in them. One was the passageway from front to +rear, for the family occupied a floor, but could afford only one fire. + +Privacy is almost impossible in the tenement-house home. One bedroom is +usually the passageway to the next, if there are two, or both bedrooms are +passageways from front to rear of the home, and must be used by all the +family. Privacy is impossible in these rooms, and there are thousands of +just such apartments. Children must grow up in them subject to the +limitations, restrictions and exposures their walls compel. This division +of space must fix standards of reserve, of privacy, of social life. No +amount of love, not even of intelligence, can save the children from the +evils such division of space imposes on family life. It deadens the +sensibilities. The insidious effects of this is not always realized, even +by the intelligent parents who accept them as inevitable. + +One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry at the inconsistencies of the +standards of those who go to Albany to secure the passage of bills for the +betterment of the conditions of the working people. We have secured a law +compelling separate closets for men and women in stores and factories, a +righteous measure in the interest of morality. But the closets in the +tenements must be used by men, women and children of several families. A +neighborly courtesy is the loaning of the key, to save a neighbor a journey +upstairs. Children run in from the street, several at a time, for it is the +only place provided. This publicity and freedom is the crying evil of the +tenements, the one from which tragedies come. The marvel is that so few +follow; that in spite, seemingly in defiance, of it all, characters develop +that are beautiful, harmonious, true. + +Can one condemn the girl facing the worst that can befall her who under +pressure that her appeal justifies, yes, makes necessary, confides that her +relations with the man who is the father of the coming child began when +each were little things six or eight years old? A relation that grew out of +lack of privacy, the intimacy forced by tenement-house conditions. Both +families have gone far beyond their social position at the time these two +were children, but the blasting of innocency has left its burning scar on +the girl, and she must bear it alone. + +Perhaps it is this necessarily open living that gives the love-making in +the tenement region a character peculiarly its own. When interest between +the sexes is aroused, it is expressed so frankly and publicly. There are +times when restraint would seem to improve manners; but among the working +young men and women one is constantly reminded of Adam and Eve in the +garden of Eden. How frankly and unconsciously they must have shown their +interest in each other, and how unconsciously they must have revealed their +interest in each other to all the other breathing creatures. Perhaps +nothing about the love-making is more interesting than that numbers add to +the enjoyment of both lovers. Nothing adds more to the happiness of a +wage-earning girl than to have her "chum" deeply interested in and deeply +interesting to a young man at the same time she is. It seems to be conceded +that two couples can have so much more pleasure than one. The terms applied +by these young people to each other will reveal their social level in the +wage-earning world. If the term "steady" is used where the world of wealth +and leisure would use _fiance_, the under wage-earning world is reached. If +"friend" is used, the social ladder covered by that word, used in that +sense, has many rounds. Knowing many working girls who would use the term +"friend" when referring to the man they had accepted as a future husband, +or who would in time hold that relation, the writer was constantly +impressed by the unconscious protection the girls threw about each other. +One would rarely hear of plans made that did not include two beside the +couple engaged, or willing to be. Sometimes two girls were to complete the +party. It is evident that the more means the merrier time. In every group +of girls there will be two or three who cause anxiety; two or three whose +influence, unchecked, may lead to trouble. It is not easy to restrain the +young people, for so often the offenses are so naturally the result of +environment that to speak directly of them would be most unwise. The +chances are that reference to them would put the speaker in the position of +possessing knowledge of an undesirable kind; it would seem to suggest evil. +Often it would be a moral shock to many working girls to have their actions +criticised from the impression their freedom makes before the cause is +understood. + +[Illustration: MUTUAL INTERESTS.] + +A young girl joined a club for young people. From the first she caused +anxiety. Her face was innocent and attractive, but her actions with young +men were just the reverse. At last it became necessary to speak to her. It +was evident that she attributed the criticism to what she termed +"fussiness." Not the least modification in her manner followed. At last, +after many interviews, she was told that she would never be spoken to +again. If she offended in the club-room once more, she would be given her +hat. That would mean that she was not to again enter those rooms. She +confided to her intimate friend that no one had ever told her that what she +did was wrong. After this interview, a modification of her manner was +noticed, not because she was convinced she was wrong, but because she +thought it wise to heed. A group of young people were returning from a +picnic. Just after the homeward journey had begun, it was seen that this +young girl was sitting in the lap of a young man whom she had always known; +as children they lived for years in the same tenement. Beside him sat the +young girl whom he had invited to the club picnic. The club girl sat so +unconscious of any infringement of manners, public or private, that a young +man who had grown up under the same conditions was asked what he thought of +the act. He started at once to tell the girl to stand up, but was +restrained. Evidently he was shocked, and the act was wrong from his +standpoint, the only standpoint fair to the girl. A seat was made for the +girl elsewhere, who, for the first time, showed distress, or rather +anxiety, because of her own acts. Nothing was said to her. + +Occasion was made to speak to the young man who had kept his seat and let +the girl sit in his lap. He was a working man, and his hands showed it. All +his life of twenty-two years he had lived under tenement-house conditions. + +"Frank, would you marry a girl who sat in a man's lap in a railroad train?" +he was asked. + +"No," he responded indignantly. + +"Do you suppose you are the only man in the world who has that feeling? +What right have you to let any girl cheapen herself so that the man who saw +her with you, doing what you permitted, if you did not suggest and +encourage, would not marry her?" + +The man's face grew white. He had a sister of whom he was very fond and +very proud. + +"What would you do to the man who permitted your sister, when she was +tired, to do what you permitted a girl to do to-night--a girl who has no +brother to watch over her?" + +The young man was six feet tall. He rose to his feet, and, raising his +hands toward the starlit sky, he said: + +"As true as there is a God above me, I will never while I live let any girl +do what I am not willing my own sister should do anywhere." + +After a moment's quiet, the chaperon said: + +"I shall never mention this to the girl. I hold you responsible. You are +stronger mentally, morally and physically, and are wholly to blame." +Whether he spoke to the girl or not, no one knows, but never again was it +necessary to even mentally criticise that young girl's manners with young +men. Not only did her manners change, but the expression of her face. One +grew to love and trust her, and ask her help for other girls. + +The chivalry of the working boys and young men is constantly seen, +unconsciously revealed. Sometimes it is dangerous the degree in which it +shows itself among the finest of the boys. A sick girl, unable to go out, +will command attentions so special and direct that the fear of her +misunderstanding, and suffering because she has not understood, will make +those interested who know the danger unhappy; sympathy from any cause will +make a great-hearted working boy place himself in a position where he may +be easily misunderstood. + +It is astonishing how long the spirit of childhood will live in working +boys and girls, even under conditions that seem never to justify happiness +and spontaneity! + +One Sunday a group of working men and girls went nutting, being duly and +properly chaperoned. Four of the young men climbed a big walnut tree. The +girls, with some of the young men, were gathered at the foot, waiting for +the shower of nuts. The chaperon sat on a stone fence a little way off. The +wind began to blow, swaying the top branches. One of the young men having a +good voice laid himself along a limb high from the ground, singing +"Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top." The others took it up and the girls +joined in. Over and over it was sung. Then the girls and boys on the ground +joined hands outside the span of the tree and sang "Ring around a rosy." +Every singing game of childhood was enthusiastically played. Every one of +these young people were poor as the world counts wealth--every one over +eighteen--all had worked from the first moment they could earn wages. Each +one had suffered the wearing anxiety of no wages when the family needed +what they could earn, and yet they sang--they felt like children. No amount +of money at the time could have bought them this happiness. + +The sun poured down a glory of yellow light on the trees that seemed to +have caught its color dashed with red flames. Across the field came one of +the girls slowly--a girl who never had manifested any enthusiasm, except +for dancing; who never gave expression to any emotion of feeling. It was +thought impossible to move her. As she came nearer, it was seen that she +was deeply stirred; her face was expressive. Putting her head against the +arm of the chaperon, she whispered, rather than spoke: "I did not know +trees were any color but green before." The tears were chasing each other +down her cheeks, while her mouth was wreathed with smiles. The girl was +over twenty. Had she been born in a family that would use the privileges of +the various Fresh-Air organizations, she would have known more of the +country. It was this year that she first saw the stars over the trees, and +the moon at the full in the sky when it had a horizon. Obedience to her was +not easy, but to her brother she gave it willingly; he had been her nurse +in babyhood, her friend and companion in childhood, and was now her +protector. In every plan of these young people he considered his sister +first. If she had an escort, he invited some other girl to go with him; if +not, he took his sister. The girl never manifested any interest in young +men beyond their ability to dance well. She would find a dozen reasons for +not dancing if she found herself on the floor with an awkward dancer. + +This group of twenty-two young men and women, all from homes that would +bar the door to charity, even when suffering, were fairly representative of +the social standard of the better part of the wage-earning world of New +York. Among them was the independent girl, the one who had no desire to be +sought in marriage; she saw the worries of her sisters married to men +having small and uncertain wages; saw the wearing side of motherhood rather +than its joys. She skillfully kept her young men friends as friends, +changing from one to the other as soon as she saw the line of friendship +being crossed. The girl who never won attention till she wooed it was among +them; the girl who was treated discourteously or neglected was one of them. +The girl who was sought for exhibition because she dressed well, yet who +never roused any deeper feeling, was there, for some of the men were very +observant, and had standards of style for the girls they escorted. + +[Illustration: THE FOREST OF THE TENEMENTS.] + +There was the young man who willfully played with a girl's feelings; the +young man who openly exhibited the love he had awakened, but to which he +did not respond; the girl whose adoration received indifferent treatment, +yet who was never entirely cast aside by the man too selfish to marry. In +that company there was one couple who were sentimental in their actions; +they would sit and hold hands, if permitted, rather than dance. As soon as +it was discovered that their actions were influencing others, they were +given the choice to restrain the expression of their affection in public +completely or resign. The lesson was effectual. When it was seen that one +of the young men was very deeply interested in one of the young women, that +she was only semi-conscious of his interest, yet enjoyed it, while not at +all interested in him, just a few words, pointing out how unkind it was to +permit his interest to develop and how unfair to let him spend money for +her when she never meant to hold any relation but that of friend, changed +her attitude toward him. She made the young man understand her position. +More than that, she gave her lesson to the other girls, and escorts were +changed frequently; groups arranged to go to the theater instead of +couples. As one girl put it, "We don't want any nonsense." Yet several +marriages have occurred among these members, the new homes making centers +of social interest for the others. The babies are objects of deepest +interest to all, and it is a lesson to see the ease and freedom with which +even the young men will hold them. Much is said of the "little mothers," +but the "little fathers" are as unselfish and devoted a part of the family +life in the tenements as the little mothers. When a great, strong young man +picks up a baby with the ease of a woman, is interested in its ills of the +moment, one is grateful for the hours that, as a child, he spent as nurse; +sees the beauty of strength and tenderness, and the humanizing effect of +the maternal in the character of a boy whose character must be molded by +the environment of a tenement-house region. + +The rapidity with which a complete change of standard of manners can be +attained amazed those who watched these young people. Outdoor life was +possible to them only on Sunday. When first the trips on the railroad +began, the noise, freedom, constant changing of seats mortified those who +chaperoned the group. The journeys began in the spring. One Sunday evening +in November, when returning from a nutting party, a group of young people +entered the car laughing, pushing, slapping one another. The young men and +women who had been going to the country almost every Sunday for the summer +looked in amazement at one another, and with very evident disapproval at +the new group. Yet they had offended, if offense can be committed in +perfect innocence, in just that way many times a few months before. It is +this adaptability, this quickness of comprehension of the little things, +that give the outward stamp, that make the American wage-earning young +people so intensely interesting, so wonderful in social achievement. + +These young people were all Americans, of Christian parentage, as the word +means, not Hebrews. The young women worked in shops with girls of Hebrew +parentage. There were deep race antagonisms, due to many causes, but +principally to the willingness of the Hebrews to accept any wages and work +anywhere and any number of hours. These American girls grew to have the +deepest sympathy with the girls of Hebrew birth when they found that many +Hebrew parents coerced, while all regulated, the marriage of their +daughters. That parents would dare to assume such authority in so personal +a matter as marriage aroused the most extravagant terms of condemnation. +One listening could well believe the hopelessness of trying to make one of +these girls marry against her will. + +No greater contrast could be conceived than the entire independence of +these girls in their social relations, which they did not view as a +privilege but considered a right. Beyond the fact that some of them must be +at home at ten or half-past, there was no law but their own will. This +freedom is one of the most serious influences in the life of working girls +in New York. Were it not for their common sense and the knowledge of life +thrust on them when children, the effect would be most disastrous for the +country. As it is, in certain ways young men and women retain the frankness +of childhood in their intercourse. One realizes what perfect equality +between the sexes is when mingling freely with them. Doubtless this comes +from playing in the street together from earliest childhood, with no favors +asked or conceded because one is a girl, and the impossibility of privacy. +This last is the saddest fact in the life of tenement-house children. + +At the lower rounds of the social ladder in the wage-earning world the +mother and baby are inseparable, if the mother does not drink. Night and +day the baby is cared for, often in hopeless ignorance, but cared for. +Often everything else is neglected. When the baby sleeps, the mother is too +tired to work, too indifferent. When awake, the baby insists on being held. +One is frequently reminded of the story of the woman whose moan when her +baby died was: "What excuse can I give John now?" Yet the day that baby is +able to walk alone on the street the mother loosens her hold. The baby +finds its freedom limited only by its ability to remain upright, and to +return to its home for meals and at night. "Throw me the key and a piece of +bread," is often the extent of its demands from the sidewalk. True, the +mother knows every woman in the block will be, in an emergency, a mother. +The child learns to care for itself; it makes less and less demands on the +mother, who may even now have another baby compelling all her thought and +time. Above this scale, where home-making assumes importance, the child +remains longer under the mother's care; is watched when on the street by +glances from the window; is sent to school, and some oversight maintained +over its school life; but the wage-earning period means emancipation from +oversight often even at this level. Hundreds of girls start out and find +work for the first time without any evident responsibility on the part of +even good mothers. No amount of familiarity with this exercise of freedom +deadens the horror of it to the outsider. Women, mothers of attractive +daughters, will not know the street on which the daughters work. After one +of the most disastrous fires in New York, in which many working girls +perished, four mothers notified the police the next day that their +daughters had disappeared. It was the failure to trace the girls and the +advertising of their disappearance that led, through companions who had +escaped from the building, to the awful conclusion that these four had +perished in the flames. + +Sometimes it would be difficult for a mother to go to the place where the +daughter finds employment; but here, as in everything else in life, that +which is deemed the more important receives attention. Perhaps it is the +habit of trust, or indifference, that governs mothers' activities. + +A girl will make intimate friendships unhindered, unguided by mothers who +act up to the measure of their comprehension of the duties of a mother. +Girls are admitted to the homes who are unknown outside of the workshop; +they work with the daughter; no other background is known. The mother knows +that other mothers are accepting her daughters on the same basis of +knowledge. For their young men friends there may be, but as frequently +there will not be, any greater sense of responsibility than for the girl +friends. In homes where the income would seem to demand a sense of social +responsibility it is found wanting, and young people come and go +unhindered. If there are two or more young wage-earners in the family, +their conversation may bring knowledge of what they are doing, where they +are going. But they also make compacts at concealments of disobedience +where there are laws to be obeyed. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND.] + +The world has been shocked by the tragedies of death and disgrace that came +to the homes of two young working girls within the past year. In each case +the father and mother had gone to bed with the daughters out in the night, +where they did not know; one a girl of eighteen, the other less. The +"cadet" system would never exist were the parents of every girl alert to +train and guard her the more closely because she was a working girl. + +Until by some direct process the control of daughters and of sons is made +desirable, and then natural in the wage-earners' homes, the problem of +family life in the tenements will remain unsolved. It is a question +sometimes whether, and sometimes it is very evident, that by the giving up +of wages to the parents the freedom of the workers, even though but +children, from obedience and parental oversight is purchased. + +Those who know working girls know how high is the average of morality. +Years will go by in intimate relations with the same group of girls and no +tragedy will mar it; no echo of tragedy among their friends. The hardness +with which even the suggestion of looseness is treated in any group of +working girls is simply an expression of self-preservation. A group of +sixty girls, earning the lowest wages and living under the worst +conditions, were watched five years and one girl fell. As one goes over her +history from birth, any other result would seem a miracle. A girl arrested +gave the first name and address of one of the girls in this factory. The +case was reported in the papers. By an unfortunate circumstance, the +working girl living at that number was away from the factory two days at +this time. When she learned of the connection that had been made because of +the chance use of her Christian name and her address, she told a lie as to +where she was at the time of that arrest. The other girls struck until she +was discharged. The girl was innocent of everything but the lie; +investigation proved this. The girls would not recede from their position; +work had to be found for the girl elsewhere. She was publicly marked. They +could not convince everybody of her innocence; lots of people believed the +story, and they would not work with her; go back and forth with her. + +A room was hired as a lunch-room for these girls. They brought their own +lunches and paid a small amount of dues, which were used to pay for tea +served daily. The projectors of this little enterprise were girls of wealth +and social position; three were at the lunch-room every day. By +representing themselves as friends of the projectors to the caretaker, two +representatives of a "yellow journal" gained access to the room. One, a +woman, engaged the caretaker in conversation for some time in the hall, +getting all the information she could give her. The Sunday edition of that +paper contained an illustration of the room filled with wretched-looking +girls, while young women holding up trailing skirts were passing cups. The +text was as far from the truth as the picture. The working girls absolutely +refused to go to the lunch-room again. At last they agreed that if the +paper would publish a true account--that they provided their own lunches +and paid dues, and waited on themselves--they would go back. The paper +refused. Two of those girls would never enter the rooms again. + +The working girl has suffered quite as much at the hands of yellow +journalism as the woman of wealth and social position. Not one of these +girls went to school until she was fourteen; nor during any year since she +began working had she earned on an average more than $3.50 per week. Yet +they had social standards to maintain, and compelled recognition of them by +those who opened opportunities to them. + +The inspiring fact remains that the standard of home life in ethics, as in +necessities, is raising. Without doubt much of this is due to the +improvement in the class of readers used in our public schools. They are +not perfect in the matter of selection, but they carry messages to the +hearts, as well as the heads, of the children, few of whom would pass an +examination on their contents. Even the primary grades introduce the +children to the best thoughts of all time, and the crumbs, at least, are +carried to the homes. + +The girls who belong to the working-girls' club carry with them everywhere +the influence that is molding their characters to a brighter type of +American womanhood. The Settlements soon become centers of education +through the social activities they make possible to the people. They +surpass the clubs in this, that boys and girls, young men and women, each +have in them the center that makes possible social occasions that are +within their means and under rightful guides; together men and women are +trained socially. The Settlements have been in existence long enough to +have the children that were the first friends of the Residents now the +fathers and mothers of children. The years of contact show results in the +homes established, in the kind of care and the ambitions held for the +children still babies. Wages have not greatly changed from those earned by +the fathers of these new home-makers; but money represents different +values. The kindergarten is the first thing demanded for their children, +and the seeds sown in the minds of these young mothers bear fruit one +hundred-fold because it is prepared. + +The kindergarten mother clubs have also borne fruit in the homes where even +the youngest child has gone beyond the kindergarten's age. These mothers +learn for the first time the need of sympathy; of living with the children +through every period of growth; of sharing and of making together a home. +The result is, the homes gain in moral fiber and moral purpose. The schools +and the homes are brought into close relation through these beginnings, and +the child finds its interests a unit, and home the place where its whole +good is of vital importance. The mother establishes the home often on the +basis of contrast. "It shall not be what mine was; their lives shall not be +what mine was when I was a child." + +The churches, many of them, provide for the social life of their people; +these social activities must be of a character that wins those who have the +least to contend with in themselves, who find a pleasure and inspiration in +religious life, which often is far more a matter of temperament than of +spiritual development. + +One sees the highest expression of spiritual development in lives apart +from the Church as well as in the Church. This it is that develops a +feeling of reverence for any movement having for its object the bettering +of the social life of the people. One learns that every vulgarity that +becomes obnoxious; every freedom that is brought within the bounds of +restraint by new standards of education and refinement; every influence set +in motion because of the spiritual perception of the answer to the +question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" means spiritual life growing toward +that of the Master of time, whose laws are but two for the guiding of men, +"Love the Lord thy God," "Thy neighbor as thyself;" and these make neither +cross nor steeple necessary, for they may be obeyed in the heart and guide +the life wherever it is lived. + +[Illustration: LIBRARY DAY AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FINANCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES. + + +The women of education who attempted to make the conditions of +working-men's families better, found their own education advanced, their +values of essentials greatly modified in some respects, greatly enlarged in +others. This was due to the bravery, the unselfishness, the contradictions +of character forced on their attention through the natural, familiar +intercourse made possible through neighborhood and club relations. + +Probably the most astonishing experience in working-girls' club life is the +revelation of the entire lack of self-consciousness on the part of working +girls as to anything remarkable in their giving up wages not only week +after week, but year after year, for the benefit of their families. The +closer one gets to the poorest paid of the working girls, the more common +is this unconscious unselfishness. In fact, the girl at this level who +would attempt to hold or even to introduce a business relation in her +family relation, would find herself an object of contempt, even when the +personal habits of those who controlled the use of the money she earned +were of such a character as to certainly mean waste of the money, perhaps +worse. + +However one's judgment may at times condemn this unselfishness and +recognize in it a positive evil, one's heart is thrilled by the spirit of +loyalty and devotion of which it is the evidence. Three sisters belonged to +a working-girls' club. They were all employed in one establishment and +earned good wages, yet they never had clothes that made them even +comfortable. It was a mystery. They did not belong to the race which too +frequently make thrift a vice, but were descendants of one the world counts +thriftless. The months passed on. One of the sisters became indispensable +to the club. She had the rarest tact, while straightforward and frank. When +the second winter came, the pressure of life on these girls was very +evident. How to relieve it, how even to approach the subject without +appearing intrusive and meddlesome, was the wearing problem of the club +directors. After the holidays the influence of one of the directors was +asked by one of the sisters in behalf of a brother. Then the cause of the +pressure was unconsciously revealed. There were five brothers and a father +in the family. + +The story unfolded. For years these three girls had supported the family; +the six men had always been the victims of cruel "bosses." Worthy, +industrious, anxious to work, looking for work all the time, they never +succeeded in finding work under conditions that made it possible for them +to continue. The years of self-sacrifice had not shaken the faith of these +sisters in the smallest degree. "What would happen if your foreman would +become arbitrary and cross?" was asked. The reply revealed the whole +conception of woman's relation to life as they held it. "It's different +with women; they have to bear things." + +Another year passed without any change, except that the sisters grew old +faster than they should. A quiet, determined effort was made to influence +these girls to pay board to their mother instead of giving all their wages. +They listened to the argument that as long as they continued their present +system the brothers would not work steadily. The sisters listened, but the +system did not change. Every penny was handed to the mother for +disbursement. + +One morning in the early spring, three years after these girls had joined +the club, word came that the sister who had grown dear to the club +directors, to every member of the club, was dead. She had dropped to the +floor at her bench the day before, and died in the night. "Greater love +hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The +sacrifice was complete. Standing in the room of death with the six +able-bodied men for whom this girl had given up her life, the sacrifice +seemed barren, for its fruits had been garnered in her own character and +had gone out of this life. + +A year later the mother sent for one of the directors of the club to have +her plead with the sisters remaining that they would give her their wages +as formerly. "They only pay board now; they refuse to do anything for the +poor boys. 'Twas a bad day when ---- died. Shure, she gave me every cent. +Not one did she keep back. Ever since she died, the girls just pay board, +not a cent more. See how comfortable they are. They bought waterproofs, +both of them, last week, and Jim has no overcoat. ---- would have bought +him an overcoat." + +"Yes, doubtless she would. I remember the winter before she died she wore a +spring jacket all winter, and that her shoes had been broken for weeks +before she died." "Shure, I know." Tears fell from the woman's eyes, and +her face bore every evidence of sorrow. "The boys could not get work that +winter. God knows they tried. They had to have clothes, and ---- was a good +daughter. 'Twas a bad day for me when she died." The mother had not the +slightest conception of the sacrifice her daughter had made--a sacrifice +that had cost her her life. Her thought was for her sons; their comforts +were to be secured through the daughters, who were a secondary +consideration. + +When her visitor protested against the sisters working to support the +brothers in idleness, the mother was indignant. When she tried to show the +woman that if the boys were forced by hunger and cold to go to work it +would be their moral salvation, the mother insisted that they did try to +get work, but that it was their "fate" to have unreasonable "bosses," who +made it impossible for them to work under them. + +"Do you think the girls always work under conditions that are easy?" + +"No; but it is easier for a woman to stand a hard 'boss,'" was the mother's +answer, without any expression of sympathy. Again she urged that the +visitor use her influence with the two sisters for them to go back to their +old method of giving the mother their wages. When the visitor refused, the +amazement of the woman at her refusal was pathetic. When the visitor +confessed that she was largely responsible for the change in the girls' use +of their wages, the mother's indignation rose to the point of abuse. That +her boys were robbed was the idea fastened in her mind. That the club was +the enemy of that home was the mother's conviction. + +The mental attitude of this mother is by no means unusual. It is a common +thing to find mothers who insist on controlling the wages of daughters who +make no exactions in regard to the wages of sons. The effect is to lessen +the self-respect of the girls and the sense of personal responsibility of +the boys. In the family referred to the experiment of paying board to the +mother was watched carefully. It was a success. The effect on the girls was +positive. They developed a sense of personal responsibility; they grew more +dignified and more reliable; above all, they developed self-respect. The +fight was a hard one, but the moral victory was won. The brothers either +found work under men who were fair, or they learned to endure control and +discipline under a "boss," which was probably what they needed. The girls +grew to have a care for their father's and mother's appearance and bought +them clothes. Never as long as the mother lived did her feeling of her +resentment against working-girls' clubs die out. + +After her death, the father and brothers agreed to pay one of the sisters +so much each week if she would stay home and keep the house. The sister did +it, though it meant hours of loneliness, and, from her point of view, +dependence. She had taken courses in cooking and sewing in the club; she +had listened to talks on sanitation and hygiene; she had learned the value +of money through the management of her own wages. She created for that +family a far better home than it had ever known under the shiftless, +thriftless management of an undisciplined mother. + +The daughter was able to pay more rent from the money given to support the +house, and the pride and self-respect of the family were greatly increased +by the possession of a parlor, which was furnished on the installment plan +out of the weekly sum paid to the sister. The home became a social center +for the friends. The boys bring even their girl friends to their home, +because it possesses more attractions than any other place to which they +have access. A banjo lies on top of a piano--hired--and two of the boys +take music lessons. In a family of seven wage-earners, even though the +wages of each may be small, the combined income is large in proportion to +the standards of outlay, and secures more than comfort, if rightly managed. + +In this family a home maintained at a social level is of greater importance +than clothes, and all work to keep it. Sacrifices are made to buy things +for the home by every member of the family. The sisters are to these +brothers the finest type of women, and no girl whom they meet quite comes +to their level. The sisters will never marry. The home, the father and +brothers fill their cup of interest. There is still a latent suspicion that +men are non-dependable, and they must be in a position to meet emergencies; +the unjust "boss" may appear at any time, and they may be needed. Their +brothers are a trust and must be guarded. + +A visit was made to a home in which a girl of sixteen was dying of +tuberculosis. The plaint of the mother, even in the presence of the girl, +was, "She was such a good child. She always brought home her envelope +unopened." To the visitor this was at the time incomprehensible, as the +advantages of the envelope to her were two-fold, that it could be opened as +well as closed. The child had worked nearly three years, had been paid her +wages in a sealed envelope, which she always gave to her mother as she +received it. This is the measure of goodness for husband and child in +thousands of working-men's homes. This mother was unconsciously brutal. +Whether from lack of sensitiveness, or because of a life spent in fighting +just homelessness and hunger, to the very last hour of her child's life her +moan was, "What will I do without her wages?" + +Not once did that little girl hear her mother give expression to any sense +of personal loss for her companionship. The child herself became weighed +down with the sense of responsibility, and resented the lack of strength +because it added to her mother's burdens. This was her regret, the only +thing she mentioned: "I wish I could have helped mother till the others +grew up. I've cost such a lot being sick so long and not earning anything." +That was her estimate of life at sixteen. + +A son went wrong in that family, and as the time approached for his return +home, the mother moved, lest he should be annoyed by questions and comments +on his absence by neighbors. No power could be brought to bear on that +mother to make her move that the daughter might sleep in a room having an +outside window. One influence came within the range of her experience, the +other was beyond her comprehension, and her daughter died in an absolutely +dark, unventilated bedroom, in which she had slept eight years. + +She was a dainty girl, in spite of the bad taste with which she dressed, +this second victim. She floated, rather than walked, and her cheeks were +like carnations. The girls in the club all liked her, and their young men +friends at the receptions showed at once how attractive they found this +girl. She was reticent as to her affairs, except in the question of work. +When out of work, she did not hesitate to speak of it and ask to be +remembered if any of the club members knew where she could get work. At +last she came quietly one morning to the director and said the doctor told +her she must stop working for three months. The expression in her eyes +filled the listener with fear. In a voice that trembled, she said: "I am +the only one working. Mother has a baby and cannot work, and--and"--her +voice lowered and her eyes fell--"my father will not be home for three +months from last Monday. He got into trouble. He would not if he had been +sober," she added, in proud defence. Two months later the end was near, and +the girl knew it. All that could be done under the conditions had been +done. It was little, for an unreasonable, drunken mother had to be reckoned +with all the time. She would stand railing against the girl for not going +to work when the girl could not walk across the floor for lack of strength. +The girl was under eighteen, and her mother was the controlling power in +her life. + +One of the young men who had been frequently a guest at the club receptions +worked in an office near the girl's home. He passed one day as she sat by +the window, and she saw him. "If he knew where I lived, he'd come in and +see me," she said with a smile, full of friendship as the young man turned +down the street. "I'll run after him. I know he would like to see you. He +asked about you at the club last night." She clutched convulsively at her +visitor's hand, saying: "Oh, don't! I wouldn't for the world have him see +this place." She closed her eyes, after a searching glance about the room. +Of course, the mother broke out in wailing about how hard she tried to do +for the children and how ungrateful they were--ashamed of their home. + +The girl gathered her strength and sat up, her eyes blazing with +indignation. "Mamma, I'm dying. I'll not be here another week. There are +three more girls; I don't want them to live through what I have." Slowly, +solemnly, she continued: "You have not been good. Papa earned good wages, +enough to keep us all comfortable; you know what you did with the money. He +stopped giving it to you, and you got what you wanted on credit. You kept +that up. You know what happened to him. I went to work. You know what you +did with my money. I could not keep it from you even when I knew the little +ones were hungry, for you beat me and took it, unless I had spent it for +groceries and meat and coal before I came home pay-day. I heard what the +doctor said, that I was dying because I have not had food and have to sleep +in that hole, or holes like it." She pointed to the horrible bedroom. "I am +dying. You are planning with the insurance money to have a big funeral. +Have your own friends, but not one of the girls from the club or their +friends, even when I am dead. I don't want them to come here. Promise me," +she panted to her visitor, "that you will not let them come." The promise +was given. + +The mother was shrieking, whether from grief, or rage, or remorse the +visitor could not determine. That night death came. + +The girl was buried from the church she attended. When the club members +were requested not to go to the house, there was scarcely concealed +indignation. "Did she ever ask you to call on her when she was well?" There +was no assent. "Have you any right to intrude there when she is silent? The +church is open to all." No comment was made. At the church early in the +morning the young men and women friends met. The mother could not even that +morning hold herself in control. The girl's secret was out, and a great +sympathy was added to the love her friends bore her. Her memory was an +incense because of what her life must have been. Her unconscious +unselfishness, her devotion to her little brothers and sisters, was +revealed to them when they saw her mother. Good fathers and mothers found +new expressions of affection for awhile at least, while the sharpness of +contrast stood out between the dead girl's parents and their own, her life +and theirs. + +[Illustration: A STREET ON THE EAST SIDE.] + +The girl who presents the most difficult problem in club life is the one +whose social impulses are dominant. Noise, activity, excitement, seem +inseparable from her presence. This type of girl arouses enthusiastic +friends. She leads because she is daring; because she does not in any +experience question results. One such girl had been studied for months. +There was a superficial response to the efforts to win her regard, but the +response was too transparent not to be understood. The girl would speak to +any man who looked at her. One day she was playing "tag" with the other +girls in front of the factory where she worked. A rag-picker pushing a cart +made some remark as he passed. The girl, Molly, gave a spring and alighted +on the man's shoulders like a cat. She clung there. He began to run, but he +could not throw her off. She twined her fingers in his hair, made him turn +back and carry her to the place where her shrieking, laughing companions +stood. She sprang off. Still holding the man, she made him get down on his +knees on the curb to the girls and apologize. Like a bird she flew to the +place where he had dropped his push-cart, and, pumping the handle up and +down to make the bells jingle, she brought it back to the man, still +exhausted by his unwonted exertions, and with a mocking bow placed the +handle of the cart in his hand. Then she stood up straight and ordered him +to move on, adding: "If you ever show your nose around here again, you'll +get more than you got this time." The man ran as if for his life. + +Molly then turned and saw the friend whom she had promised she would be +more quiet on the street. Her face crimsoned as she came toward her. "I +could not help it. You don't know what he said. He won't never speak to +another girl minding her own business as he spoke to us. I won't tell you +what he said; it was too bad." The girl was about seventeen years old. She +had cut off her hair, and it was bleached. She wore the gayest hats, which +only served to emphasize the poverty and shabbiness of the rest of her +clothes. One day she passed her friend's house without a jacket. She ran, +holding her hands under her arms. Her jacket had been bought with money +earned by working overtime, a result secured by the most persistent effort +and argument. + +Now the jacket was gone, and the slack season coming. As five o'clock +approached, the girl's self-appointed guardian took her station at the +window to watch for the girl on her way home. She came skipping along, +slapping her arms to keep warm. She entered the house reluctantly in +response to the call, "Where is your jacket, Molly?" + +"I ain't cold. I ain't a bit cold." + +"Where is your jacket?" + +"Really and truly, I ain't cold. I'm thin, but I don't feel the cold as +much as other girls. I ain't a mite cold." + +It was impossible for the girl to stand still. She was shivering with cold, +and her teeth, which were beautiful, were chattering. After a time the +explanation was given. + +There were five in family. The girl's mother, a stepfather about fifteen +years younger than the mother, a brother one year younger than the girl, +and a feeble-minded sister of fourteen. The girl was the only regular +wage-earner in the family. The brother was a worthless fellow, who bore +every evidence of degeneracy and rarely worked. The stepfather drank, and +worked only occasionally. Molly earned six dollars a week, except in the +slack seasons, two a year, when she earned about three dollars a week for +four weeks each time. She began working when she was fourteen, and had +never kept back one penny of her wages. Her mother had bought her new hats, +but in all her life no other new garment except the jacket had ever been +bought for her. She never asked any questions about the money, but she +supposed the rent was paid. When she reached home the night before +everything was on the sidewalk, and her feeble-minded sister was watching +them. The jacket was the only thing owned on which money could be raised; +it was pawned. "Molly, may I call on your mother?" A reluctant consent was +given. + +The home now was in a rear basement, the ceiling just above the level of +the yard. The mother and husband occupied the bedroom; Molly and her sister +slept on a narrow lounge covered with Brussels carpet, every spring broken. +It was a series of humps. It was impossible to sit on it. In reply to a +question, the mother acknowledged that no provision was made to make it +more comfortable. The brother slept on the floor. The rooms were dirty and +overcrowded. Food was of necessity poor, and because of the mother's +indifference and ignorance, was poorer than it need have been. + +This was what Molly received for six dollars a week. The moment the mother +knew who the visitor was, she began abusing the girl. One special cause of +offense was the keeping back of overtime money to buy a new jacket. She +evidently imagined that she did not get all the girl's money every week. +When it was pointed out to her that the new jacket had paid half a month's +rent, she refused to be mollified, because the money paid for it would have +paid the rent for a month and a half. Of course, this extra money would +have gone like the regular wages if it had been given to the woman. + +The walls were covered with pretty advertising cards and pictures cut from +papers. Not a vulgar nor ugly picture was on the walls. "Who put up those +pictures?" "Molly. Shure, that's all she's good for when she's home, +a-cutting and putting up these things." This was one more charge against +the girl. Evidently the girl gave her wages, and gave them willingly; but +that ended her interest in her home and measured the mother's in her. + +It was decided to move the family into one of the model tenements and +furnish a room for the girl and her sister, paying the difference in rent +for one year, to see what the result would be in health and morals in that +family. When the proposition was made one evening to Molly, her face +lighted and she emitted a sigh of perfect consent. But the light died out, +and an expression of almost self-pity supplanted it. + +"No, I must not let you do it. It would be lovely to have a room for Katie +and me alone. I must not let you do it." She was silent for some minutes; +then, with eyes cast down, she said in a quiet voice that indicated that +persuasion was useless: "I know them houses. They're awful nice. I'd like +to live in them. They're awful particular. They won't let no noisy people +in. They make them move right out." Then slowly, with burning cheeks, she +said in barely distinct tones: "Mamma is noisy sometimes, and when she's +noisy she gets into fights with people. There ain't no use of moving in +there; they'd not let us stay. Then, Billy"--the stepfather--"and I fight. +I never speaks to him, excepts when he speaks ugly to Katie or mamma. He's +drunk a lot now, most all the time, and then he's ugly to them. He ain't to +me, 'cos he knows I'd break his head; but he is to them, and then I has to +shut him up. I ain't spoke to him since he struck mamma, just after they +was married." + +"But your wages give him a home and food." + +"Yes, I know it, but I can't help that, 'cos he's married to mamma and must +be where she is." There was silence again, and then the girl continued: +"Mamma didn't do it so much till she married him; she's worse now. I wish +I was dead;" and the head of many shades was buried with the limp, +"frowzled" feathers in the sofa cushion. "No, I can earn enough to keep +them where they are. I must not move; but it would be lovely," she added +with a sob. + +A couple of weeks later she came in the evening. It was raining hard. After +a moment's silence, she announced, with shining face: "We have the +loveliest baby at our house, born last night week. I wanted to tell you +before, but I had to do the work night and morning. He's lovely." She +fussed at her pocket and brought out a pair of baby shoes of worsted. "I +got them with some money I earned overtime. You say I ought to get what I +want with that money." The eyes of the hostess followed the lines of +Molly's dress to her feet. Her swollen, purple foot was seen through the +broken upper of her shoe. Molly was looking with pride and love at the tiny +shoes on her knee. "I named the baby Willie, and I'm his godmother," she +added with pride, without the slightest conception of the relation between +"Billy" and "Willie." + +"Billy? Oh, he's drunk; been drunk a week. I ain't let him in yet; I'm +goin' to wait until the baby's bigger and mamma's up. She'll let him in," +she added, with disgust. + +Matters grew worse with the advent of the new baby, for Molly had to fight +with her mother to get it cared for. At last it died, to Molly's pathetic +grief. The mother had consented to Katie's removal to an institution, where +she could receive care and training. Molly was persuaded she owed a duty to +herself. No impression was made until her mother had been arrested twice. +Then Molly consented to leave home. It was deemed best that she should +contribute part of the rent to insure her mother a home and to maintain a +natural human tie. Molly did this _for three years_. Then she married a man +controlling a good business. Molly is a quiet, devoted wife. She married a +man old enough to be her father. When the wisdom of this was questioned, +she said, with emphasis and a nod of her curly head: "No young man for me, +thank you. Look at Billy!" + +It was Friday morning--a warm, sultry morning in August. The bell rang. A +mother in black and a young daughter of eighteen were in the +reception-room. The daughter had evidently been crying. "I've come to tell +yer that Annie can't go to the country to-morrow. She's sick'm. She's cried +all night. Her brother was discharged'm. He do be havin' a bad man for a +'boss.' He's discharged'm, and Annie can't go to the country with the girls +to-morrow. I can't spare her wages. It's all I got. Shure, if I could get +work in washin', or anything to do, I'd do it, but I can't'm. I'll look all +the week; and the boy'll get somethin', perhaps. She can't go this week; +will yer let her go next? Shure, the rent is due, and her wages is all I +got for three of us. Yer can go to work to-day, even if it be a bit late, +and yer can go next week to the country." + +[Illustration: A COOKING CLASS OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.] + +"Oh, mamma! the girls talk nothing but country. I can't go to-day," was the +sobbing response. + +The girl did not go that summer. There was no room for her until September. +By that time the work at the factory had increased and not one girl could +be spared. Patiently Annie commented: "It wouldn't be any good if they +could spare me. My brother is out of work yet. He's awfully unlucky." + +The quiet heroism of thousands of working girls can be appreciated only by +those who become familiar with their lives in the natural intercourse of +club life. There is, of course, the other type of girl--the girl who +insists on spending the major portion, if not all, of her wages for +clothes; who assumes no responsibility for the family, and who has conceded +to her the right to spend her money for clothes. She would make life most +uncomfortable if she were compelled to share what she earned, even when the +family live under conditions that make the home merely a place of +shelter--conditions that make even decency impossible. The fathers and +mothers seemingly have no rights that this type of girl feels she is bound +to respect. When such girls marry, the mothers will do the washing for +their daughters, hold the menial relation, and neither mother nor daughter +questions the justice of the relation. Sometimes the daughter will pay the +mother for doing the washing, "to," as she expresses it, "help her mother +out." Such families usually cannot be helped through any influence but the +evolution that comes through environment and neighborhood development. +There is a superficial difference in the social development of such parents +and children. The parents concede the higher position to their children, +and the children take it as a matter of right. + +The wages of skilled workmen enable them to keep their children in school +until they are sixteen or seventeen years old, if the children will stay. +These fathers can support their families, but not dress them as they +desire. The girls go to work for the sole purpose of dressing better than +their fathers could dress them. This indulgence creates false standards, +and is a serious blot on the American working-man's life. It prevents +marriage. Both young men and young women understand that the wages of one +cannot buy luxuries for two that the wages used for one bought. The army of +clerks on small salaries increase yearly. This class, through association, +develop tastes and standards of living that make impossible the +establishment of homes on their incomes and at the same time the continued +indulgence of developed tastes. No type of family develops less that adds +to the wealth and attainment of the country than this type. The children +are selfish; they marry; they discover that the wages that bought clothes +to suit the extravagance of one is wholly inadequate to support a family. +Discouragement, friction, ennui follow, and life becomes a grind, without +hope, without inspiration. The second family slips backward, and it is but +two generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves, with this difference, +that the arms covered by the shirt sleeves of the third generation lack the +muscles of the first, as the spirit lacks its moral fiber. It is this type +of family that keeps alive the most vexing of social problems. The skilled +working-man's family, the family of the small salaried men, present the +most difficult problems not only in the use of money, but the use of time. +Their daughters are often far more helpless than the daughters of men of +wealth. During their school days, except in the exceptional home, they are +not trained to do housework; do not learn to sew. As soon as school days +end, office or store work begins, and then there is no time to learn the +household arts. If in these homes the money-saving value of time were +taught, independence and freedom impossible in wage-earning would be +secured; the standards of life would be the essentials, not the +non-essentials, that so often rob life of what is best and most valuable. + +Hundreds of girls become wage-earners because they dislike housework. +Anything else is preferable. Dean Gill, of Barnard College, New York, in an +address recently delivered, said there were three types of college girl: +The girl who never could learn any of the arts of home-making. She advised +that that girl be allowed to choose a career, and that men make no attempt +to interfere with it. The girl who had in her the latent qualities that, if +developed, would make her a home-maker. Such a girl it might be wise to +keep home for one year between Sophomore and Junior year. And the third +girl had the home-making gifts so well developed naturally that no amount +of college training would modify them. This classification holds good of +the daughters of men earning small salaries, wages, and no wages. + +As the Domestic Science department is developed in our public schools, the +homes of working men of the better class will benefit by it. This distaste +of housework will disappear, because it will have gained a place equal in +value to geography and mental arithmetic, and these will have value because +a knowledge of them adds to the home-maker's ability. + +There are homes of thrift and order where all must be wage-earners; homes +where the claims of parents on the wages of children are conceded. There is +a bank account, but on this the children have no claim, no matter how much +of their wages may have gone into it, or how much educational opportunity +they may have lost because its demands have been paramount. When the +children marry they establish homes without any or very little help from +their parents. They do not expect it. Home, food, clothes have been given +them; all claims have been met. They are as free as their parents when they +began. Usually there is a gift of a piece of furniture or table linen; but +money to start a new bank account is not expected. Without doubt, much of +the inability to use money to prepare for future emergencies is due to the +fact that financially the new home-makers from these homes are infants in +practical experience. The marvel is that they keep homes as well as they +do, and meet the future as well as they do without planning to meet it. + +The second generation of this type of thrifty families rarely carry the +habits of thrift of their parents into their home-making. The new financial +freedom is a novelty, and presents in itself enjoyment that the new +home-makers use. Here and there is a recovery from the danger of +extravagance by a young couple, but the recovery is rarely so complete as +to repeat the restrictions that the thrift of the parents compelled in +their homes. The new generation demand better clothes and better furniture. +Food and rent are regulated to meet these demands. + +One stands appalled sometimes at the degree of vitality, the hope and the +cheerfulness that prevail in the homes protected only by the muscles of one +man; what they can buy representing all that the home may have. There is no +spirit of recklessness; there is no failure to comprehend the slight +protection a husband and father can give, though he be skillful; but there +is a sublime confidence in the future. Though familiar with suffering, if +not personally, then sympathetically, with full knowledge of what sickness +and death bring to other unprotected homes, such men and women, and there +are thousands, live from youth to and through age cheerfully, happily, +without any financial safeguard except against Potter's Field. This weekly +insurance is kept up; the family live cheerfully, gayly, sometimes to the +end. + +[Illustration: A MEETING OF NEIGHBORS.] + +One result of doling out small sums to young wage-earners, whether thrift +or necessity is responsible, is disastrous, especially disastrous for young +girls. It has seemed to the writer that if mothers and fathers could be +brought to a realizing sense of its dangers, they would endure hunger +rather than have their daughters exposed to it. After all, it could be +averted by making a division of the money spent for dress. Girls are often +dressed out of all proportion to the sums they earn, if a fair division of +their wages were made, if the dignity of the daughters was protected by any +degree of independence financially. Of course this disproportionate use of +money is due to false standards that will only be regulated when the people +on salaries learn to universally live true to the law of proportion in +their expenditures. + +It seems to be a fixed idea that a girl is dependent on invitations from +young men for her social pleasures. If she is not invited, it is not only +her misfortune, but her fault; she should be more attractive. On the other +hand, the young man is scarcely any better off than the young girl +financially, yet he expects, and his world expects, that he shall bear, not +only his own social expenses, but those of at least one girl. His impulse +is to be chivalrous, for chivalry is not regulated by income nor deadened +by pennilessness. + +It is oppressive at times to see how the lack of money prevents the natural +association of young men and women; how often the young men are forced to +give up the society of girls for this reason. Girls often unconsciously +force invitations. As one goes down the scale, the girls invite themselves, +where the young men have to bear the expenses. So small a matter as carfare +will make a girl thrust herself on a young man's care. The girl will not +resent indifference, even discourtesy and neglect, if only her aim is +accomplished. The young men suffer the reflex of this attitude of mind, and +their estimate of women is regulated by these misconceptions, and even +their manner as husbands is regulated by this conception of the relations +of the sexes, and wife and daughters suffer in consequence. + +The higher up one goes in the social scale, the less evident is this +aggressiveness on the part of girls, and the more natural relation of man +as the suitor is apparent. As girls are brought more familiarly under the +guidance of women willing to discuss the financial relations that should be +maintained between the unmarried of both sexes, the more careful girls +become in permitting the expending of money by men for their social +pleasures; especially so where the limitation of a man's resources is +understood, or even suspected. + +How to make mothers put their daughters in an independent position where +their pleasures are concerned is a very important and at the same time a +very difficult question. When it is a question, as it often is, of the very +necessities of life for a family and the allowing of money for the pleasure +of a fun-loving daughter, necessities bear down the scale, even of justice, +and dignity ceases to have value. For it must be remembered that the girl's +wages, used for her exclusively, would often allow the exercise of +independence in her social affiliations. This it is that makes Settlements +so important in our social life. Here boys and girls do meet on a platform +of independence, chaperoned naturally by those who know intimately the home +surroundings, the social standards, the limitations of life in the regions, +and all that creates environment, that most positive factor in the making +of character. The social attitude of the young people who grow up in +affiliation with the Settlements is found to differ greatly from that of +young people untrammeled by oversight or influence that develops dignity. + +The influence of working-girls' clubs is positive in its effect on the +majority of the members. The girls are taught in the clubs directly and +indirectly. It is not only in the teaching of the home arts, but through +lectures, talks, books and contact with women of education. The members +often astonish those who know them best by their responses to their +opportunities. This mental development makes them critical. The men they +meet rarely have had their opportunities, and they suffer by comparison. +The young women often find they have larger interests and sympathies; far +clearer ideas of the responsibilities of life; are better equipped than the +men they meet. Every girls' club shows members who thus develop. Often they +will not marry. They are the support of one or both parents, now too old to +work; they help married sisters and brothers; they are the prop and stay of +all the halt and lame of their families; wiser and better guides for +growing nephews and nieces than their own mothers and fathers. Frequently +they are the most important helpers in club life, exerting a positive, +upbuilding influence. Yet one always grows sad when thinking of them. Not +thriftlessness, but unselfishness, may leave them penniless in old age. +There is no place for them. Rarely is there a corner to which they are +welcome in the tenement house; often even where there is love and gratitude +there may not be space. Floor space often regulates the expression of love, +where the heart may have unlimited space. + +[Illustration: THE READING ROOM AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +The saddest figure in tenement-house life is the unmarried woman who can no +longer work and is dependent. In her effort to serve her people she may +have played the critic, and that is remembered when her service is +forgotten. It is this type of girl who by instinct refuses to accept +attentions that mean the spending of money by men who cannot afford it. +Their wages would, if used for themselves, have given social opportunities +that did not involve obligations, but family demands seemed to make such +use impossible. Sometimes the fun-loving sister will secure both shares. +One is taken to a home of her own; the other left to carry the family +burden, and no one questions why. If it is unanswered, it is attributed to +the lack of attraction in the unmarried sister. + +There are homes in the tenements where the wages of the earners make a +family income, in which all share equally, independent of the amount +contributed. There is a bank account. It may be in the joint name of father +and mother, but it is far more commonly the unquestioned property of the +mother. The children look upon this as the protection of the parents from +dependence in old age, should it not be called upon by illness or +misfortune. Such families represent the highest moral development in +tenement-house life. The children have been trained to appreciate +educational opportunities, and school is through childhood an important +factor in life. When the wage-earning period comes, night-school advantages +are appreciated and used. When the work is chosen, some thought is given to +the promise of future wage-earning powers by the acquiring of skill in that +employment. The maximum wages possible at the present time is not the +controlling element in the decision. The future is not sacrificed to the +present. Such a home is kept, no matter how small, in a condition that +makes social life in it possible. + +Hallways, street corners, store steps are not the only places for the +development of the social instincts of the members of such families. After +marriage the family is united, and home, though it be in the top of a +tenement, is the Mecca for children and grandchildren. + +At the other end of the social scale in this world of workers is the +happy-go-lucky family. Here the system of financial management has its +faults, but much is found that is better than wisdom in money matters. +Spending extravagantly when there is money, going without cheerfully when +there is none. Why, the going without is scarcely treated even with the +respect of making it a subject of conversation. The habit of sharing when +any member has anything to share becomes a fixed habit, and "mine" and +"thine" are not in the family vocabulary. The result is a close and +inter-dependent family relation, of which the mother is the center. Often +you will find that this mother has never had any clothes that would do to +wear on the street, except to early Mass, if she is a Romanist, or that she +rarely goes to church, if a Protestant, because her clothes are not what +she calls "fit." Her life is the gospel of unselfishness, and she reaps the +reward of love. One may fret at the waste, resent the short-sightedness, +which means ignorance and shiftlessness; but there is so much pleasure in +these families, so much that means happiness in them, that one even learns +to forget the frets. They never grow beyond childhood in worldly wisdom, +and childhood is always attractive. It is so rich in promise. Happiness is +the cement of human life. Poverty does not change its power of holding the +members together through weal or woe. There is a common inheritance of +memories that never lose their power of cohesion where love and friendship +reign in families. + +The people who do not know the lives of the working people can have no idea +of the extent to which the working men trust their wives. The majority of +working-men's wives are financially in a far more independent position than +the wives even of capitalists, where the wives are without an independent +income. Not only is the money given to the wives, but their use of the +money is unquestioned. There is a constant revelation of the unselfishness +of these men. Children will be overdressed, while the father will not even +be comfortable; but there is no complaint, for the pride of the father is +gratified. He, with the mother, has one standard--clothes. There are men +who say frankly that they would waste the money if it were in their care; +that their wives secure far better results than they could; that the +practice of having only carfare, at the most lunch money, reduces greatly +the much abused social habit of "treating." The married man who can +"treat," it is generally conceded, is not fair to his family; he keeps his +wages at their expense. + +Sometimes the observer marvels at the infinite patience of many men. Their +wives drift. Neither money nor time is used for their families. A week's +loss of work, and there is debt; a day's sickness, and to its suffering is +added the knowledge that there is no money in reserve to meet this +emergency, even though the wages insure it. While knowing well the cause, +one resents the unjust conditions that control many marriages among the +young people of the wage-earning class. The young women rarely have the +knowledge that will enable them to do their share in establishing the home. +The young man contracting a marriage without the prospect of supporting a +home is condemned and his bride pitied; but there is little criticism if +she spends years--years that mean discomfort and waste--in learning to do +her part, if she ever learns. + +[Illustration: AFTER SCHOOL AT THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENT.] + +The mental attitude of the wage-earners toward their income is confusing +and yet interesting. In reply to any question of wages, the maximum sum is +always given. The question of idle time does not enter into computations of +the year's possible income and necessary outlays. This holds good before as +well as after marriage. Work may last for only forty weeks of the year, but +the other twelve, even among intelligent wage-earners, sometimes are not +counted in their relation to income. This perhaps explains much that is +counted as thriftlessness. It is, in fact, a failure to apply arithmetic to +daily life. + +After all is said, no one who is familiar with the income of the +wage-earning class can fail to see that the results obtained prove +conclusively that the use of money in the well-regulated home is a fine +art; that many working-men's wives could give post-graduate courses in the +use of money to women who consider they have the right to teach them. Even +waste and misuse are regulated by education and experience where there is +even a modicum of intelligence. The second conclusion is that thrift under +certain conditions is a vice that causes distinct deterioration of +character. It should be combated as vigorously as thriftlessness. It can +only be done by raising the standards of living; by creating other +standards of value than money. + +But everywhere among the wage-earning people the independence of the wife +in money matters is apparent. + +There are men who are niggardly and who hand out small sums daily, and +never recognize that the wife has a right to anything beyond food and +shelter, who grudgingly buy clothes when they must. These men are despised, +spoken of with contempt as not being good fathers or husbands, and their +wives are openly pitied. But the mass of working men place their wives in a +perfectly independent position by making them the absolute disbursers of +their incomes. The small shopkeepers, to all intents and purposes, treat +their wives as partners. The wives work with them, sharing their knowledge, +their responsibilities, and appear as joint owner in the bank account. The +wife usually is the safe until the money goes to the bank account. + +When a wife is a good financial manager, she is the head of the house, +whose reign is never questioned. "Her children rise up and call her +blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her," though the Book of +Proverbs may be unknown. This financial independence of the wives of +working men develops the spirit of independence and aggressiveness that so +often disturbs and upsets the plans of the woman who would do them good, +and is the cause of the charge of ingratitude that is often made against +the women of the tenement-house regions. It is scarcely natural to develop +gratitude for efforts made in the wrong direction. Poverty has its degrees, +as has wealth. There are families living in tenements whose conditions +represent wealth when contrasted with that of their neighbors. One fact +remains. Both women do not need the same opportunities, the same help. The +student of the management of wages in a tenement-house home rapidly +acquires a spirit of humility. While everywhere there is waste, there are +times when money seems to buy double the amount that the student thought +possible. With the wage-earners' families, as with all others, the income +buys that which is most desired by those spending it. Choice is the master +of decision, even in necessities. What is needed in the wage-earner's +family is that education, that opportunity for development that will make a +choice of the highest things, those that will mean a body and mind so +nourished and cared for that moral resistance is the available capital of +every member of the family in time of need. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOME STANDARDS. + + +The world knows two aspects of involuntary poverty: The one inseparable +from degradation; the other picturesque, appealing to the emotions, and +giving a field for the play of sympathetic activity that frequently +neglects to note the results it attains. + +There are few who discern that poverty is a comparative term, and these do +not use the word in its financial sense wholly. + +Those who know intimately the struggling, up-growing poor know that the +rich can never give the exquisite expression to love that life at this +level makes possible. Who would dream when looking at the Hercules, with +clothes and hands soiled by his daily labor, that he is the tender nurse of +wife and baby; that he is hurrying to a house cared for with joy. He will +wash dishes, cook, scrub the floor, walk the baby to sleep, and coddle and +pet a wife who from sheer loneliness and worry over work undone may be the +harder to please and quiet. All this, and perhaps, almost certainly, not +once will any terms of endearment be heard, and, strange as it may seem, no +kiss given. How one rebels and rejoices that love can be thus expressed! + +When sickness enters the home of the poor man, money is not present to +relieve the able from personal service, often made more difficult through +ignorance. Pride shuts the door to charity and the burden is carried in +love. Those who know life at this level can never, never lose faith in the +Eternal love, for they see always, however disguised, the divine spark in +every human being. The silence of love thus expressed, the revelation of it +where least expected, makes the one who witnesses it conscious of what +power lies outside and beyond and above his own life, not witnessed to the +ear. Every day at this level of life in our great city it is proved to the +privileged that tenderness is the winning element in strength; that love +daily, hourly here proves its power of self-abnegation. Here, too, it fills +its function of inspiration. Days, weeks, months, years go by and the +burden of moral weakness is borne with the cloak of faith wrapped about its +fears. When so expressed, its loyal unconsciousness adds to its beauty and +makes it an inspiration to all who come into its presence as friends; the +lips voice its faith, the eyes alone reveal its fears even to friends. + +[Illustration: THE MORNING AIRING OF AN EAST SIDE HEIRESS.] + +The more intimately one comes into the home circle of the independent +wage-earners the more clearly does the disadvantages of wealth stand +revealed. Life must be lived so simply, the interests of life are so +evident, that the value of words decreases; action expresses the heart +perfectly. The very services the children render each other train them for +the family life they will establish. The baby tended by an older brother +and sister learns to depend on them for care, and that dependence in turn +draws out a love and responsibility that could not have birth under any +other conditions. The child who finds that in pain, weariness, suffering, a +father and mother alone share its care; the elder children who see how +naturally sacrifices are made for them, how little the father and mother +value themselves, their ease, even their comfort, learn to value the love +in the home and depend on it, give love to it, that money to buy service +would bar out. The child who sees parents make sacrifices to enlarge his +opportunities for education, seeing him as a positive factor in his own +manhood, sees more than parental love in such sacrifices and stands in more +than the relation of child to parents. + +At the level where charity and dependence are large factors in the home +life, the relation of parents to children is changed by their presence. +Art has given Charity the figure of a noble, benign woman, in the ample +folds of whose garments children are protected. Too often in life she wears +a short skirt, to make speed possible, suggesting in movements and voice +the need of nervines, when she does not seem to have taken the bandage from +the eyes of Justice for her own use, while neglecting to borrow her scales. +Where Charity is the welcome guest, instinct is greater than intelligence +in the parental relation. The home tie is slight; children become shrewdly +self-dependent, physical hardships are more easily borne, and life is often +a mere matter of shelter and food; the animal alone is kept alive. This +represents a social level as remote from that of the independent +wage-earner as is represented between the home's standards and requirements +of a family living on fifteen hundred dollars a year and that of a family +living on fifteen thousand dollars a year. + +We use the word poor so carelessly that there is confusion where absolute +misapprehension has not developed as to the character of the largest, most +receptive, most responsive and most responsible class of citizens of New +York. Politically they have been neglected, until the Citizens' Union gave +them a formative part in political decisions. Here and there a score or +more independent working men would be found in political organizations, +because of an active political conscience, always hoping for better days, +when the city would be given its imperative rights without regard to the +State or national political complications. It was a hopeless fight, and has +sent into the erratic political parties the majority of the independent +working men now in them. The schemes of the politicians disgusted them, and +new principals seemed to be the only hope for the clean-minded mind who did +its own thinking. + +The great mass of these independent, self-respecting, intelligent +working-men voters were hunted for at election, but were not counted worthy +to take a place in the councils of the politically active because they were +feared. The Citizens' Union recognized their value and power, and they have +come into their own as citizens. No greater service have the Settlements +done the city than discovering this unused element in political power and +centering it where it is recognized as the saving power in municipal +government. These men stand at the head of the homes that reveal +love--tender, protecting inspiring love--serving in unspoken unselfishness +to the largest degree. + +Thousands of mothers can testify to the cheerful sharing by fathers in the +household burdens after a day of hard work; of cheerful going without +necessities on the part of a father to give more than necessities to the +children. Thousands of husbands and fathers will note the unselfishness and +wisdom of a mother in caring for and enlarging the opportunities for the +children, who are the common objects of love and ambition, and the +confidence and love of the husband grows with the years. To the observer +there is at the same time no more inspiring and depressing revelation than +the parental love which asks nothing for itself, but all that life can give +for the children, the visible expression of their mutual love. Often there +is no thought given to a future of possible dependence. Wages do not make +possible the care of the children at the standards of the parents, the +buying of an environment that the experience of intelligent parents demands +for them, and a bank account. The last is desirable, the first demand +imperative. Faith is the anchor kept to be thrown out when the life +currents are running toward the rocks of want and dependence. Nothing is +kept back for personal use by these fathers and mothers. Sometimes this +very unselfishness, when unregulated by wisdom, leaves them lonely and +forsaken in old age. Those to whom they have given their lives have by the +gift been placed in social positions that seemingly bar out the parents who +made achievement possible. Even in the loneliness of old age the parents +rejoice at the success and forget and forgive the separation. The end for +which they worked has been attained, their children are successful, and +they still count themselves nothing compared with their children. + +It is the independent wage-earners who make the largest contributions to +our wealth, commercial greatness, national prestige; yet the world, +counting wealth by dollars, classifies these as poor. They are as far +removed from the incapable, the degraded, the vicious, the dependent, the +ignorant--who provide the themes for books--as far removed from the +worthless, the deficient, the mentally, morally weak, so familiar to the +people of wealth who give money or time, or both, to lessen their miseries, +as they are in standard and ambition from the people counted wealthy. The +cost of floor space on which to make a home may make them neighbors of the +people who are the problems of a great city; they may live in regions that +are the laboratory of the student of social and political conditions, but +they live behind closed doors, bring up their children, so far as they can, +uncontaminated by neighborhood evils, and overcome their environment to a +surprising degree. There is no word to distinguish them from those who make +capital of their poverty, and the world loses much because of the lack of a +term that would express the class who are the hope of this nation, whose +children are the promise of its established greatness. + +The very limitations that small incomes impose on husbands and wives, +strangers to social ambitions, bring into the relation an independence and +_camaraderie_ that possibilities of wealth would bar out. When a father and +mother have one object in life, their children, they have no personal +ambitions; their minds run in the same groove; they live of necessity a +unit. When the aim is to give their children a better education than they +had; to place them on a firmer foundation in the wage-earning world than +the one on which the father and mother started; to save the children from +the contaminating world as they had to meet it, there of necessity is a +welded interest that bars out a world of distractions. The world in which +such fathers and mothers live may seem narrow, but the smallness of the +world makes the companionship the closer. As one gets into the inner circle +of these homes, the small part that wealth plays in happiness is realized, +and the comprehension of what constitutes essentials is gained. The man who +knows the measure of his wage-earning power does not waste his nerve and +vitality to earn more; the family grow to have fixed habits of expenditure, +and content is attained that the social strugglers never know. The victim +of nervous prostration is not found in the working-man's world; the fixed +rate of wages relieves the nerves, but exercises the muscles and the +balance of health is kept. The exceptions to this happy attainment are +those whose mental or moral natures have not been adjusted to the happy, +even life of the skilled, sober, industrious, thrifty working-man's family +in New York. + +The world of wealth would find itself rejected if it brought with it into +the wage-earning world its moral standards, the rules of conduct are so +simple in this world, the standards so elemental. An aldermanic candidate +who in his own world is not counted ignorant, during the campaign of 1901 +conceived the idea, which he had never held before, though this was the +fourth time he had appealed to the suffrages of the people, that the women +were a factor in political success. He decided to call on the wives, +mothers and sisters of the voters in his district. It would be interesting +to know his conclusions after his experience. He must have gained wisdom by +his experiment, and heard some unwelcome truths. He announced to one of his +hostesses that he thought if he called and showed himself they might see in +him something that would persuade them that their husbands, fathers, +brothers, or sons ought to vote for him. It would have been interesting to +have seen his face when more than one hostess assured him that, having seen +him, she felt bound to urge her husband to vote for the other candidate. Or +when he was told by others that he must understand how certain he was of +defeat, or he would not appeal to women. Still more interesting it would +have been to see him when an outraged wife let down the flood-gates of her +wrath because she blamed him for the periodic lapses from industry and +sobriety of which her husband was guilty. The better class of voters of +this candidate's party resented angrily the man calling on their wives. The +root cause of the indignation of the men and women it was found was that +this man dared to call when the husbands were not at home. In the world of +work there is no place for social life in the day-time, and it argues ill +for those who indulge in it. The Metropolitan Opera House in the evening +would so shock the working man and his wife that they would never recover +respect for those who frequent it. A high-necked lace dress with a low +lining, worn in the evening by one from the other world to an East Side +party, brought out this comment: "Oh! yes, she's all right. They all do it, +the women; but isn't it awful?" + +The moral standards for men and women in the world of work are the same. +The immoral man is despised and avoided by the women. A woman who should +maintain the smallest degree of friendship or acquaintance with a man known +to be immoral would be avoided by her neighbors; she would be made to +realize at once the cause of her offending. + +A silly, pretty little woman, whose husband at times was cruel and brutal, +ran away from him with another man. No one in the neighborhood could +remember when such a thing had happened before, and the neighborhood +resented it as a disgrace. The husband's brutality was well known; he was +despised and ignored by the better element of men in the neighborhood. Had +the wife gone alone, she would have had the support of a respectable +minority, but now the husband was the object of deep sympathy. When the +wife was found, and declared she would gladly starve with the partner of +her disgrace--and there was a fair prospect at the time that she +would--"than have the best in the land with my husband; he has kicked me +out for the last time," she was cast out of the books of remembrance in +that neighborhood. "She married him for better or worse," was the measure +of a wife's duty among these wives and mothers. + +The admiration of the explorer into this world of work and homes grows with +the years for the people who make it, as indignation grows at the +misunderstanding of its limitations, its possibilities, its beauty and +greatness. For Matthew Arnold gave the true definition of greatness when he +said it was the obstacles overcome, not his attainments, that made a man +great. The explorer makes many discoveries--some that stimulate and +surprise, some that puzzle and depress. The silence of love in this world +is a revelation. Whether the terms of endearment are not in the language of +this world, or whether the want of leisure and privacy stifle them, it is +difficult to decide. Perhaps it is that the language of love is learned in +a mother's arms; that when her service to her child must be physical, when +it is but one of a thousand things demanding her care and thought--when her +muscles must serve unceasingly--she has no time to express the love that +strengthens them by words. It may be that the language of love does not +grow within crowded walls, and that it is forced to express itself in +service. + +[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD GREENWICH.] + +A man ranking high in the intellectual world once took for his theme, when +preaching to a company of wage-earners and their wives, "Home Life." It was +a rare inspiration that moved him to point out how much was lost to the +home where the verbal expression of love was never heard. He said no higher +inspiration to work his best could be given a man than his wife's good-bye +kiss in the morning; nor a charm that would drive away care, worry and +exhaustion more perfect than her welcoming kiss when he returned from his +work at the close of the day. He pictured the feelings of the man who found +his wife silent and unresponsive when he entered the house; who answered +his query as to what was the matter with "Nothing." In his audience was a +wife whose faithfulness and intelligence had made her husband far more than +he could ever have been without her, a fact of which he was fully +conscious; he was not allowed to forget it. This wife was deeply impressed +by what she heard. She was ignorant because of lack of opportunity, +untruthful because she was ignorant; she could not see the relations of +things. Vindictive, because in her moral code you must resent any wrong, +real or fancied, by an action that goes far deeper than that of the +offender in its effect. Anything else would be an evidence of weakness. She +expressed her contempt for one who would forgive an injury, and prided +herself that she never did. She had enthusiasm, could inspire others, and +proved herself as capable in leading them to do wrong as to do right. She +was the power in her home, and established its standard of right and wrong +that gave motive to the lives of her children. This night the speaker +lifted the veil. There was something that belonged in the home that she +alone could put there, and she had not. She resolved that she would part +from and meet her husband with a kiss. It is best to let her tell her own +story: + +"I just made up my mind I'd do it." No girl of eighteen giving a confidence +of a love affair could have shown more embarrassment than this mother of +wage-earning children. "I did not know how I would do it, or what ---- +would say, but I just made up my mind I would kiss him when he came home. I +thought about it all the next day. Late in the afternoon I made up my mind. +Of course, I could not kiss him before the children. When it was most time +for ---- to come home, I sent them each on an errand that would keep them +away until long after ---- got home. I had the table all set and the supper +cooking. At last I heard him come up the stairs. My land! How I trembled! I +stood so that when the door opened he would not see me, and then I just +kissed him before I had a chance to think. He staggered back, he was so +surprised." She waited while an expression that should have been habitual +changed her shrewd, hard face into a loving woman's. "But I never saw him +look so happy," she continued. "I made up my mind I would kiss him every +day when he came home. I could not kiss him in the morning, for the +children were all there," she added decidedly; "but I can always send the +little ones on errands at night." + +Perhaps it was three weeks later that she told of the climax. "I had a +toothache all day; I was tired and cross, for I had been washing. I stood +by the fire, making the hash. Kittie was setting the table, when ---- +opened the door. I did not look up. He stood in the door a minute; then he +asked, 'What's the matter, Jennie?' 'Nothing.' I knew I said it cross. I +looked up then. ---- looked so disappointed that I thought he'd cry. I just +forgot the children, and right before them I kissed ---- twice. I wish you +could have seen his face. I burst out laughing when I looked at the two +children. They stood staring at us with their mouths wide open. Do you know +what I did? I kissed each of them. I don't believe I've kissed either since +they were babies. I think they told the big ones in the front room when +they came from work." This experiment in love-making did not continue. ---- +came home drunk one night, and for punishment the experiment was dropped +and never resumed. While it lasted, it had a most harmonizing effect on +the whole family, and one wondered if it had been begun earlier, when the +habit could have been easily fixed, what would have been the result. + +The mother, from a worldly point of view, has been most successful. The +children are in positions where skill is required, and wages seem to depend +on health only. Yet they are not popular; are selfish and unsympathetic. +They point to their own success as the reason why every family should +succeed. The family has moved into new environment, establishing relations +that have placed it several rounds higher than the level at which the +home-making began; but it has no fixed place in the social world. The +combined income of the five wages equals at times two thousand dollars a +year. + +Not every wife in this world of silent love is encouraged as this wife was. +Another, a gentle, quiet woman, without children, thought she would try. +"He sit so still when he came home. I bought a flower and put it on the +table. I have what he like best for supper, and I wait. I listen over the +banister. When he come near our flight, I slip back and wait in the room, +leaving the door open so he can see. When he close the door I go up to him, +put mine arms around his neck and kiss him. He take my arms, shove me back +and say: 'What the matter mit you? You crazy?'" The woman was crying. The +three friends sat silent a moment, and then one said: "You haf no +children," and the wife nodded. That was her explanation, and theirs. + +Perhaps no greater charm prevails in this world of wage-earners than the +attitude toward motherhood. There will be found here and there the young +woman who rebels against it, who may risk life rather than assume the care +of a baby. When one goes back of this rebellion there is always found the +influence of some older woman who has other ambitions, clothes, pleasure; +who influences, or tries to influence, the young married women she meets; a +woman who will even talk freely to girls against motherhood. There is in +this world of workers the strong active public sentiment against childless +women that more than counteracts this influence, and babies are welcomed +when there is nothing but love to greet them, not much more to feed them or +clothe them; but they are welcomed. The training of the children--natural, +not acquired--to be fathers and mothers has doubtless a far-reaching effect +in keeping this natural attitude of mind toward parenthood. + +We get up a lot of wasted sentiment about the little mothers and fathers, +not seeing that the offices are fitting them to meet a future when all +that they learn in the care of baby brothers and sisters will make their +lives easier as fathers and mothers. Often the only opportunity they have +for expressing affection is the little baby given to their care. + +How well one must know this part of the wage-earning world before it is +possible to appreciate the fact that the boy is being trained by "his baby" +for that future when he will share with the mother of his child its care. +It is a constant revelation to find how intelligent the young men at this +level are about children, and how frankly and unconsciously they will +express it and condemn the ignorant or careless treatment of a child. The +relation of the wage-earning children to the little children is paternal +often. The little ones know that the elder ones work and care for them, and +they render an obedience that is often amusing. With sisters this takes +another form. If the elder girl has ideas and tastes, especially if she has +skill, she will often entirely decide how the younger children shall dress; +often the younger children would not be at all satisfied with clothes the +elder girls did not select and design. Here again will be found a +half-maternal attitude that secures obedience and regulates privileges; +that sometimes ignores the rightful authority in the home. The young girl +who has an elder sister working and secures work with her is considered +very fortunate. Two sisters are known, now past middle life. One is quite a +handsome woman, the other plain. The handsome sister is the younger; she +never, when she was a wage-earner, went through the streets alone. The +elder sister, when they did not work together, escorted the younger one +back and forth to her work. Now, the mother of three children, nothing +could persuade her to go on the streets alone beyond the corner store. Her +husband, in a city department on a small salary, always attends her in +shopping expeditions, and all social engagements are made with respect to +his hours of freedom. She receives a wealth of love, and tenderness, and +protection. Selfish? Yes, till one wonders at the blindness of those who do +her homage. + +[Illustration: A LITTLE FATHER.] + +Once a very sensible wife and mother, whose intelligence and devotion are +raising the family many degrees above that of the generation preceding her +and her husband, said: "I shall watch my children. My mother let one of my +sisters exact far more than her share of wages. She coaxed or cried, or +both, until she got what she wanted. The rest of us gave in, because we +would not worry mother; you see that, now we are all married, she expects +us to save her from worry and work; we have to; she cannot get along." In +a moment she continued: "Haven't you seen it, that in every large family +there is one who gets more and gives less than the others?" A statement +profoundly true, but not confined to any one social level. + +Among the discoveries the explorer into this world makes is that life is +full of compensations. One learns to overlook bad housekeeping, when it is +discovered that a cross, impatient word is never spoken by the +house-mother; that the children are the companions of the mother; that no +one else is so attractive; that she is never too busy to listen to anything +that interests them. One learns to forgive the needlessly shabby dressing +of children, when it is discovered that they are well nourished and cared +for, and that the husband and father never fails to declare that his wife +is the best cook in the city and always has his meals on time. Usually this +mother is fat, full of fun, and laughs as though tears were not in the +world. + +Order, cleanliness and economy do not appeal as cardinal virtues when it is +found that there is no room for the children in the house, no money to buy +them the smallest pleasure where these over-estimated virtues predominate. +It is found usually that the worry of maintaining standards that ignore +the rights of the family, and to which they have been sacrificed, have +seared the mother's head and heart, and she no longer responds to the +maternal emotions; she becomes the victim of her own habits and cannot +reform. Perhaps it is this type of woman who creates the most barren home; +the one that is quite as prolific a source of supply to the saloons and the +streets as that of the degenerate housekeeper out of whose life spiritual +impulse has departed, and into which ideals and ambitions were never born. + +It is difficult at times to decide whether to laugh at or resent the +criticisms one often hears of the extravagances of the poor. When one +becomes familiar with the demands for rent, coal, shoes, for clothes that +must be worn to work and school; for the things the cost of which cannot be +put below a certain sum--food always can be regulated--and compares these +fixed charges with the income available, the management of money in the +independent working man's family amounts to genius, and it must take +generations of economists to produce it. + +Unfortunately, in New York emphasis is laid on clothes. Extravagance in +dress is the habit of the city. The people seen in the streets, in the +stores, in public conveyances, show a singular uniformity in clothes; this +is as true of men as of women. The differences are in manners and English. +The spirit of the land is as yet materialistic, and the democratic spirit +shows itself in the outward forms. The tailor-made gown was not looked upon +as a regenerator of aesthetic standards, but it has proved that. Its +simplicity and durability has released money that formerly was used in +useless trimming. The ready-trimmed hat is also a lever in throwing the +scale in the right direction. + +The attention to school decoration of recent years has given new standards +for the home. The wage-earning world grows more harmonious in its demands +on wages; the home now makes its demands for decoration that the workers +obey. Signs outside of tenement houses renting suites of four rooms for +twenty and twenty-five dollars per month announce: "Burlaped halls; parlors +in white and blue;" or, "Tiled halls, open gas grates, fancy chandeliers." +The men who hire these apartments earn from fifteen to twenty-five dollars +a week or more. Thousands of American working men pay these rentals to save +their children from the environment inseparable from the surroundings that +must be endured if a fair proportion of their wages were used for rent. One +grows to reverence the courage that enables a husband and wife, with only +one pair of hands earning the home needs, to assume such rents. No higher +evidence of the manhood and righteous ambition of the American citizen +could be given than this: that he places his all to secure for his children +a home that is reasonably protected; that offers opportunities for +cleanliness and privacy. Renting a room to a lodger will sometimes make +less demands on a father's wages for rent; sometimes the rent is assumed in +the hope of securing lodgers, and then the struggle is pathetic, but borne +because the children must not grow up in a less desirable neighborhood. If +one were asked for the standard by which to measure the civilization of +each family in the wage-earning world, the reply would have to be, "Rent." +It at once makes the most and the least return; it is the tyrant which +makes or mars the home life. When a family of eight, having a combined +income of thirty-six dollars a week, are content to live in three rooms, +one knows about what to expect in social standards, and how many +generations it will take to raise the home level. When a family of +six--five wage-earners--who began life at almost the homeless level, +gradually come into a combined income of two thousand dollars a year, it is +not to be expected that its standards of needs will be those of a college +graduate on the same income. Often no member of the family can read +readily. School life was, especially for the elder children, an +intermittent one, and truth did not regulate the beginning of wage-earning +of any of the children. The younger children probably warred against school +long before fourteen years of life gave them freedom. There is natural +intelligence, a certain manner acquired through observation, but no +standard of intellectual life. Their very intelligence makes such families +conscious of their shortcomings, and it is this consciousness that leads to +the aggressiveness of manner that is so offensive, so often mistakenly +called the American manner. It is the manner that is due to awakened +consciousness which in the next generation will know when to wear evening +dress, if not how. + +The use of money in such families is for show. It would be counted +extravagant to buy a book, or a ticket to an oratorio or a concert to hear +the best music. It would in such a family be counted useless to train the +younger children to wage-earning by education. The heads of the family will +be hospitable where it counts as showing how much more they have than the +others in their world. They receive from their world what snobbishness +receives everywhere. Snobbishness, on the whole, is not common even where +the income would remove the family from a tenement-house environment. The +uncertainty of work, and the absolute dependence of the worker on wages, +make snobbishness dangerous; that often proves a boomerang their +observation shows. + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN OLD GREENWICH.] + +The spirit of helpfulness may not find so free a field of operations when +wages are two dollars and a half and over a day, but it is in readiness. +Sickness in a neighbor's family will show that it has not been lost because +of prosperity, but it is less lavish; there is dawning consciousness that +self-preservation is the first law of nature; that home has the first right +to strength and thought; that only the surplus is available for the world +of friends. The same thriftlessness which makes a family accept charity +without question is the cause of their generosity. As the sense of +responsibility develops, the observer discovers a reserve in the giving of +either their money or their strength to those about them; kindness abounds, +but generosity is regulated as one goes up the scale in the world of +wage-earners. Not only that, but in the direst need the needy, as one goes +up the scale, regulate the degree of freedom given the closest friends. It +often borders on the tragic, the suffering borne in silence, and revealed +often when the time for help is passed. + +This division of the people into rich and poor without gradations and +without a comprehension of the standards and needs that make new worlds up +and down the scale, has had a serious effect on the home life, the church +life of the people, the political life of the people. The churches have +driven out the very people in the tenement-house regions who needed them +and whom they needed. + +Corrupt administration has imposed burdens on the homes which for a time +the voters in turn felt powerless to lift. The independent wage-earner +found his hope of political recognition in allegiance to the political +machines. The leaders, his inferiors often mentally, and still more surely +morally, were at least approachable and familiar, and the man who made his +own life found too often that only in the political circle of interest was +he the equal of those who led. Here there was no manner that expressed +condescension or superiority. His own language was spoken; he was at home. +That these men allowed themselves to be used was the natural result of the +habit of indifference to the real issues in a municipal campaign so common +in New York. When the burdens of a corrupt administration pressed on the +homes; when the leaders for righteous government acknowledged by appealing +to the makers of this country, the plain people, that they were an integral +part of the city's government, they responded, and by their response +overthrew the corrupt government that the indifference of all classes had +helped to make powerful. + +The century opens well. Capitalist and wage-earner sit at the same board, +having equal voice in the plans for redeeming the city from partisan +machine control. + +As one thinks of the change, one sees that the evils that disgraced New +York were due to the indifference of the millionaires and the honest +working men. It is the response of the political conscience of both to the +need of the city that has been its redemption; its only sure protection is +the activity of that conscience three hundred and sixty-five days of each +year in all the years to come. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WHERE LIES THE RESPONSIBILITY? + + +It took years for the evils of political machines to make life unbearable +in New York. Not until the tremendous evils it imposed on child-life were +given emphasis did the public sentiment of the city find intelligent +expression--voice the moral conscience of the whole people. That dishonest +administration of the city government imposed burdens on the home of the +poor man no intelligent person disputed; but few knew how heavy the burdens +or how far-reaching the effects on character. The people who suffered most +were, in the very nature of things, the ones who could not see these +influences, or estimate truly the degrading effect on character. The people +who resented the conditions that made life harder in the tenements; who +resented the environment which made the bringing up of children in +innocence, integrity, and decency often impossible, were those who were in +the minority. Hopelessness of overcoming the evils made some voters the +forgers of their own chains. + +Newspapers gave columns to the exposure of the evils of the political +methods which made individuals rich at the cost of the homes of the city, +especially the homes of the poor. But the phase of this influence that was +most degrading could only be learned by living in the regions, one of the +people, suffering with them the burdens dishonesty imposed. + +When college-trained men and women established their homes in the regions +of the tenements, making friends with the people, associating freely with +them, especially with the young people and the children, they discovered +that the worst evil with which the people were contending was the constant +lowering of the moral standards due to the influence of the political +organization that seemed to regulate even the right of the people to earn a +living. It was but a step from fear to favor; but a little time before the +man out-weighed the principle; Justice became the hand-maid of "pull," and +the people living wholly under the environment corrupt political power +created, knew no government but that of the "leader" and the man who +represented him. To trade votes was no disgrace, for it meant a share in +the perquisites that political power held. These men and women of trained +intelligence saw that the corrupting of the moral standards of the people +was a far greater evil--an evil that was of far greater moment to the +whole people than the maladministrations that affected their physical +being, though it led to death. + +It was the revelations the Settlement workers were able to make to a +half-informed community of wealth and trained intelligence that led to the +redeeming of the city. It made the active combination of wealth and poverty +that brought into the political arena the dormant consciences that created +in 1901 the Apotheosis, New York redeemed, that is the justification of +democracy to the world. + +The iniquity, ignorance and indifference that create and maintain a system +of municipal administration based on the theory that politics is a +profession, and each promoter the architect of his own fortune, to be built +at the expense of the citizens, is the reflection of the character of the +citizens. The system is never the product of one man's brains, nor does its +growth ever begin at the top. It begins always in the smallest political +unit, where the man who wishes the office in the gift of that unit stands +closest to the people. The bargaining for votes begins there. The number of +exchanges of votes for favors and places successfully accomplished makes +the "boss," the man who represents law and order; who is judge, and jury, +and keeper of the jail to those who do his bidding. As the political units +develop their bosses--"leaders," in voters' parlance--the system grows +until the chain is complete, and each political henchman, in the order of +his importance, takes his share of the people's money. The perquisites +reach millions before the thousands are distributed that enables the leader +to pose as the all-pervading friend to the district in time of need. + +The political units where this system of government in the interest of the +"boss" have their strongest hold are the best evidences of the moral +degeneracy that follows. Here the liquor saloons flourish, the headquarters +of the "leader" and his cohorts, used in the order of rank in the system, +from the gayly lighted, silver-bedecked, mirror-lined bar-room to the +smoky, dirty, vilely kept den where those gather who have no use in life +but to vote according to orders and work for the political leader's +entrenchment. These saloons represent the primary school and the university +of the voters of the district. They represent all the educational and +recreative opportunity of most of the adults. They establish the habits of +thinking for the majority of the people, for they are the lyceum where all +questions are discussed that interest the people. The most interesting is +how to get wages, as it is the most important. The common struggle creates +common bonds of sympathy. All principles go down before the concrete, +understandable fact that if the "boss" is beaten, work will cease for +neighbor, friend, and friend's friend. Each man learns through every course +in this training school of citizens that the paramount duty of each voter +is to keep the "boss" in power. It means wages, or the hope of wages, under +the least strenuous of employers, the city. Men work hard for the system, +not because the moral nature of many of them is not in revolt against the +system, but because the keeping of a home for wife and children is at +stake. Often the voter's necessities, his ignorance often, his rebellion +against wealth often, his unrest, undermine his moral nature, blind his +intelligence, and he forges the chains that bind him in slavery to a system +that will cast him aside, and refuse him a reason when there is no use for +him. The voter may work during an election campaign half knowing that to +secure another worker in the interests of the political system the place he +holds has been promised to another after election. This fear and this hope +enters the homes; women and children are educated under the moral +degradation that enslaves husbands, sons, brothers, friends, lovers. The +standards of morals are established even in childhood by the working of the +systems of political machines. There is one measure of morals, _success_. +What succeeds is right. + +[Illustration: TAKING THEIR TURN IN THE YARD AT THE SETTLEMENT.] + +A small house was hired, through the generosity of several women, for the +purpose of providing a place for recreation and social opportunity for a +number of Christians--that is, people not Hebrews--left in a thickly +settled Hebrew district. These Christians, a mere remnant, resented the +opportunities offered the Hebrews, and while they might have availed +themselves of them, they would not, so strong was the race prejudice. +Shortly after the house was opened a delegation of boys appeared asking for +the use of the large room for a boys' club. The privilege was given on the +conditions that one of the workers interested in the house should have the +privilege of visiting the room freely when the club was in session; that +the club should pay twenty cents per month for the use of the room; that it +should be limited to twenty members for three months. Before the first +month had passed, it was decided that unless the club would accept a +director, it was a waste of the space and light to let these boys use the +room. They called themselves a debating and literary club. They knew +nothing of literature naturally and less of debating. They were told that +they must accept a director, a man who would instruct them in parliamentary +law, guide them in debate and suggest subjects for study, or they must +give up the room. They were very angry, but finally decided to accept the +director. Their constitution provided for an election every month, a +provision which kept them in a turmoil all the time. When the majority were +convinced of this, and voted that officers should be elected every three +months, the dissenting minority withdrew to form a new club, to meet +somewhere else. Two weeks later, on club night, the bell rang. The leader +of the minority, who had been elected president of the new club, asked if +they might come back. They did not like the place where they met. After a +conference with the original club, it was decided that, if they chose to +come back as members of the club and pay their dues--three cents per +week--they might come back. The conditions were accepted, and the seceding +minority were to be reinstated as members of the original club on the next +meeting night. As the petitioner was leaving, he turned innocently to the +director and said: "Say, we've elected a couple of new fellows. They can +come in, can't they?" The club consented conditionally on the "new fellows" +being peaceable. The next meeting night came. The bell rang. In order to do +full honor to the returning prodigals, the president went to the door. +There was a rush and a scramble; the eight boys who withdrew, followed by +twenty-two others, crowded into the room and demanded an election at once. +They declared they were in the majority now, and had a right to the +presidency for one of their own number. It was impossible to eject them, +had it been wise. The question was postponed for one week and an arbitrator +selected. + +When the next meeting night came, some of the new recruits had dropped out +and their places had been taken by older boys. The original members, who +had maintained the club, were told to sit together and keep absolutely +quiet. The constitution declared that no boy was a member of the club who +did not pay an initiation fee of five cents; this included the first +month's dues. The first strange boy was asked: "Have you paid your +initiation fee?" The leader, a boy not fourteen, sprang forward and pressed +a five-cent piece in the boy's hand, saying: "Pay it now. Joe's the +treasurer." The cue had been given him, and he proceeded to give out +nickels to the new boys, urging them to "pay Joe quick." During this scene +another of the receding minority took his position in front of the door to +prevent any boy leaving the room with the money. The performance was +stopped; the opulent small boy, who it was evident was buying votes for the +presidency, was told to gather up his nickels. The recruits were told, +after an explanation, why they must leave, and to their credit be it +recorded some of them resented the position in which they had been placed +and promised the misleading leader an unhappy next day before they left. It +was then decided that the twelve members who had constituted the majority +should ballot individually for the eight who had seceded, as though they +had never belonged to the club. It is unnecessary to say that the boy who +made the trouble was rejected. Not one of those boys was fifteen years old, +yet they had learned and understood the method of the political +organizations of the region. Their elders, those they loved, used these +methods, and succeeded by them in getting place and power. The man who +succeeded in sharp practice in politics was the "boss." The man who was +beaten was not smart. The measure of morals was success, not methods used +to attain that success. + +A woman's club, organized several years before, used this house. The +husbands of several of them organized a men's club, and met in the house +one evening in the week. Several of those men were affiliated with the +political organizations of the district; some held positions under the city +government through these affiliations. + +When the Citizens' Union campaign began in 1897, the women who established +the house offered it and the yard for one evening a week to the Citizens' +Union Campaign Committee. Illustrated lectures were given to the people of +the neighborhood, the friends of the clubs using the house, and the parents +of children in the children's clubs. This declared the sentiments of the +women who established the house, which were emphasized when a picture of +the Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor was put in the window. It became +evident at once that there was trouble in the women's club; some of the +members of the men's club never entered the house after the picture was +placed. The Citizens' Union was defeated. At once the friction in the +women's club developed, till it seemed wise to disband it. It was announced +that the house had been given up, and that all the work done there must be +placed elsewhere. The younger clubs were housed in the Clark Memorial. The +women's club, in spite of the friction, voted to keep together, and, with +the City History Club, asked to be received at the College Settlement, +which generously, and at great inconvenience, arranged to receive them. The +members of the women's club, numbering forty-five, voted unanimously to +become identified with the College Settlement work, and pledged themselves +to that work. The one woman who had resisted this decision in secret stood +with the rest pledged to the Settlement. At once she incited trouble at the +Settlement. She was voted out of the club. When the decision was announced, +she, with the treasurer of the club and three others, walked out of the +house, the treasurer taking the club treasurer's book and the money, over +seventeen dollars. Sunday's papers announced the incorporation of a club +under the old name. The incorporators were the five women who had left the +club at the Settlement. The business of incorporating was attended to by a +political leader in the State Assembly. One of these women had held a +position in a city department, secured for her by a leader of one of the +political parties; one was the wife of a man holding a city position +through active affiliation with the other political party; another was the +wife of a man who was striving for prominence in political affairs in the +district, irrespective of party; the other was shrewd, ambitious, +vindictive. The club before this break had done charitable work; had helped +families who needed help, through the generosity of friends of wealth. It +had a limited membership, and election was the assurance of certain +qualities in the woman who was received as a member. All this had commanded +attention and could furnish political capital. To hold this for one or the +other of the political parties was the intention of the women who +incorporated under the club name and persuaded six of the club members to +join them. + +The treasurer was so evidently the cat's-paw of those who were managing the +affair that, while steps were being taken to punish her for taking the +money, the club at the Settlement voted not to prosecute her, because it +would be a stigma on her as long as she lived, because she would have to +stand with women arrested for drunkenness and disorderly characters in the +dock. The original club remained at the Settlement. The minority who +withdrew, a total of eleven, began active and aggressive work. They hired +the use of a working-girls' club-room. They began to work according to the +most approved methods of political leaders. They attended the outings of a +political association; tried to do what they called charitable work, but +which this very group proved they could not do justly while in the little +house. + +The Fusion campaign of 1901 brought unexpected complications to the club +woman. The Tammany influence was stronger than the Republican, and the +women who had led in the incorporating of the club withdrew. Unfortunately, +the opportunity to give this whole group a strong lesson in morals was +lost, and they have been accepted where, had the genesis of their club been +understood, it is but reasonable to suppose they would have had no moral +support, and for that reason would have gained a moral lesson. + +The training most needed by the people of narrow experience and limited +intelligence is that of clear distinctions between right and wrong by those +they class above themselves. That shrewdness is not a moral virtue; that +revenge is mean and not the function of mortals, is the one lesson +intelligence and moral standards can teach convincingly. + +Recently it was the privilege of the writer to visit a Parents' Society +connected with a school in the outskirts of Brooklyn. The spirit of good +fellowship that existed, not only among the teachers of the school, but +between the teachers and the parents, was a revelation. That there was a +unifying cause was certain. What was it? One of the mothers, during a walk +to the station, revealed it. In response to a comment on the good feeling +so evident, the mother replied: "Yes, I feel it. Mr. ----," naming a member +of the Board of Education, "at prayer meeting the other night spoke of the +school and what a power it was in this part of the city. We owe it all to +him. He's done everything he could do for the school, and he has made all +the ministers and the priests friends of the school." She was quiet a +minute, and then added: "Years ago, when he first began fighting for the +school, people used to call him a 'boss.' I think that kind of a boss would +be good in every school. I tell my husband we ought to be glad that we +bought that lot out here and built when we did, for we helped to make Mr. +---- successful. If leading men to do your will means being a 'boss,' Mr. +---- is one. But the city needs hundreds of such 'bosses.'" The man is a +simple American citizen, bearing a foreign name, who saw clearly there were +more ways of serving and saving his country than by carrying a rifle. + +In the last analysis the "boss" as he is in New York to-day is the product +of many roots. The one that goes deepest in the soil, the course of his +deepest hold, can be traced to the doors of our churches. The men who have +failed to see that they owed an allegiance to the city that does not differ +in degree from what they owed the Church; the men who failed to see that +the Church was a positive factor in civic life; that its effectiveness in +the community was dependent on the standards it demanded and helped to +maintain in the city; that on it rested the responsibility for civic +character-building--on these men rest the heaviest responsibility for the +evolution of the political "boss" and the evils of which he is the +personification. + +Men and women give money to maintain church services in sections where +political corruption and civic neglect have resulted in creating an +environment that makes decent living impossible; an environment that has so +degenerating an influence that the people become a factor in the problem it +presents, for they have sunk to its level. + +In those sections the tools of the "boss," his active political agents, use +the most despicable methods. The tool of the principal is valuable as he is +conscienceless. His crumbs are the minor offices in the gift of the people; +the lesser tools get "jobs," which the very limitations of their minds make +them believe they must use to secure the largest return of money and power +to themselves--a conception largely due to the indifference of the men who +willingly delegate their civic responsibilities. Every man and woman who +pays the slightest attention to the conditions under which the poor are +forced to live, know that these conditions are responsible for the +existence of nine-tenths of the eleemosynary institutions, private and +public. They know that many of these institutions, could they stand before +the community in their true character, would be recognized as disgraceful +blots upon our civilization. They exist because so many good people in the +community have found greater pleasure in establishing and maintaining them +than in working actively to prevent the growth of the conditions that +peoples them. + +Again and again one sees the names of men and women working actively on +these boards of management who would not give a moment's thought to a +meeting called in the interests of better civilization in sections of the +city where their own homes are located; who know nothing of the conditions +of the schools, the streets, the tenement houses, the factories, or the +administration of the law in regard to them. There are men who would resent +the charge of ignorance who do not know the names of the officers they +either actively or passively elected to office in the political unit in +which are their homes. They do not attend the primaries, defending their +absence on the ground that they could accomplish nothing by their +presence--a defense that is in itself a self-accusation. If their divine +right of citizenship has been forfeited, it is by their own civic sin of +omission. The longer one studies the evils that have grown up in the +administration of the business of the great municipality of New York, the +clearer one sees that the sins of omission are responsible for their +growth--far more responsible than the sins of commission against which +intelligent voters rail, when they do not use them as salve for their +political consciences. It is a profound truth that in a republic the +character of the people is shown in the character of the men the people +elect to office. This is as true of the ward as of the nation. + +The political units of government in New York are, in the main, inhabited +by the rich and poor, the intelligent and the ignorant; those who can +reason from effect to cause, and those who cannot reason at all. Yet in +these sections the worst possible home conditions will exist--unsanitary +schools, dirty streets, badly paved. Saloons will abound and political +corruption will go unheeded. Why? Because no men of intelligence and +responsibility will accept the minor offices that mean the administration +of the affairs of this unit in the interest and for the protection of the +whole people. + +When men of position in the professional and business world signify their +willingness to accept the least office in the gift of the people, the daily +papers announce the fact in large headlines, and the men become marked as +capable of great self-sacrifice, they become preeminent for the time. The +men who have controlled the nominations, those who have no other visible +means of support than these minor offices and political patronage, resent +the suggestion of men of professional and financial fortunes accepting +these offices; they consider the appearance of a man holding business or +professional positions of power or influence as a candidate for a minor +office as an invasion, an intrusion of their personal rights; it is an +attempt to defraud them. They do not hesitate to publicly claim the right +to nomination and election as the reward for their activity in politics. +And they do this when they cannot point to one thing done officially to +justify their claims to the suffrages of the people. They dare to do it in +the face of the knowledge, held by the people, that they use their offices +often for personal ends, defrauding the people. + +The scores of voters who have places within the patronage of a minor +official see the danger to them of an official who would place merit in +advance of votes. The man of position may be far from wealthy; may consent +to serve the city at a financial loss; but the active voters live so remote +from the voters at the top that the election is almost certain to be +decided on class lines; and the defeat of the non-professional politician +is accepted by every man, woman and child in the poorer portion of the +district as a personal triumph; the evidence that the poor man has friends +to back him in his fight for place and power; that the poor must work +together politically. + +Whose fault is it? The good, intelligent, responsible citizens who +delegated the government of their city to the men who use it for their +personal gain. The good men in active politics, who openly concede the +right to the minor offices in the city government to men whom they know are +ignorant, and not infrequently know equally well are dishonest, and who +will sacrifice the interest of the people to strengthen the system that +means personal gains. + +The political conditions of the city several years ago gave birth to one of +the periodic moral upheavals that resulted in the election of a strong, +earnest, loyal, church-supporting citizen as Mayor. This Mayor was anxious +to raise the character of the city government. He determined to accomplish +this by the character of his appointments. He had more than a superficial +knowledge of the public schools, which at that time were the theater for +the exercise of political "pulls." It was known for years that the Board of +Education had been used to a greater or less extent to pay political debts, +to create political capital for future use by some of its most active +members. The new Mayor had it in his power to change the character of the +Board, and he carefully considered his appointments. + +In one of the sections of the city where, numerically as to families, +wealth and poverty were fairly balanced, a section having in it churches of +every denomination, many of them maintaining missions in the same political +unit--there was at least this expression of neighborly interest--the +schools were among the first built in the city. The last school building +erected at the time of this Mayor's election had been built twenty years +before; one had been built when the foundation for the pillars of the +elevated road had been set in front of the site before it was purchased by +the Board of Education, and was now in the heart of a crowded foreign +settlement, had no out-door playground; the third building in the school +district was so old, so badly planned, that for years effort had been made +to secure a new building, but were defeated by the indifference, and at +times the opposition, of the best citizens of the district, according to +their own estimate. + +The new Mayor determined to put the best men in the district on the Board. +Twenty-eight men in that district, men of power, men of standards, some of +them philanthropists actively interested in work for the poor, declined. +The men appointed, the best he could get to serve, were unfit for the +position--mentally unfit, for they were uneducated; or morally unfit, +because any position paid or unpaid under the city government was conceived +by them as just so great an opportunity to create political capital or +realize perquisites put within their control by their appointments. The +Mayor had begun at the top to make his appointments. The declinations of +the honor were because of lack of time, a lack of knowledge. When the +appointments were announced, there was a storm of criticism, and none more +violent than the majority of the men who declined to serve on the Board. + +At this time there was a great deal of activity among many leading women in +the State to have a bill passed by the Legislature that would compel the +Mayor of cities of the first class to appoint women in the proportion of +one-third of the whole number appointed to the Boards of Education of those +cities. The greatest activity for this measure was exercised in Brooklyn. +One of the leaders, when asked a question about one of the schools in her +own district, did not know where the school was. She had been a tax-payer +in the district twenty-two years, and was considered a progressive woman. +Her chief reason for working for this bill, for spending money freely in +the interest of its success, was man's indifference to school matters. +Perhaps if the command, "Feed my lambs" had been given to Dorcas instead of +Peter, she might have developed enough sense of responsibility about the +mental food given to know where the school buildings of her own school +district were located. + +In this school district, October, 1901, there were 574 children on half-day +classes. There was no manual training, though the pupils in the schools +were, for the most part, the children of day laborers, mechanics, and +clerks on small salaries. There was no free library, nor prospect of any, +because public sentiment did not demand it. There was one small park, +difficult of access. To reach it from the outer sections of the district, +the tracks used by nine lines of trolley cars must be crossed. There were +no public baths, except one in summer, near the mouth of a large sewer. One +of the schools had no out-door playground; two had the closets in the +in-door playgrounds. There was no room where the teachers could retire if +ill, or where they could take their luncheons; no rooms where pupils could +be privately interviewed or taken if ill. Yet it is in this very district, +where the oldest and wealthiest families of the city live; where +nine-tenths of the philanthropic enterprises of the city have been born, +and where the moral upheavals for the regeneration of the city will always +find their quota of leaders, that there is developing some of the worst +evils of a cosmopolitan city. Within its borders is a fair-sized Italian +city, with scores of sweat-shops. Across the thoroughfare is a large Irish +village lying at the foot of the hill, the streets dirty, unpaved, the +houses in an unsanitary condition. Some of them are overrun with rats of +enormous size. The streets at the top of the hill are beginning to yield to +the pressure of the crowds at the foot. Specific houses seem to have in +them the very germs of immorality and degeneracy. Women who have made a +struggle when, by misfortune, forced to move into these houses cease to +struggle, and yield to the influences about them. The tenement-house laws +are violated openly. + +There are not less than six missions, with twice that number of churches, +in this one section; but so far as the environment of the poor is +concerned, they might as well not exist. The majority of the tax-payers, +those who command public respect and confidence, will not serve +authoritatively in the political unit in which are their homes, in which +their children must grow up. They will not take offices that would put it +in their power to change the environment of the homes of the poor by +securing the rights, enforcing the laws, that would protect all of the +homes from the evils of vice, ignorance and unsanitary conditions. But +these men when wealthy will support liberally institutions made necessary +by their civic indifference. + +No man in a pulpit in the section has ever made a study of it to arouse the +conscience and energies of the members of his church to their political +duties. Unfortunately the women, for the most part, are as ignorant of the +condition, and as indifferent. Because of the unsanitary conditions of the +houses occupied by the poor, the dirty streets, the restrictions of child +life, the lack of opportunity for moral development, the total dearth of +recreative opportunity for the boys and girls, the young men and women who +are wage-earners, the lack of educational facilities for the children who +must be educated, if at all, at the expense of the State, the section is a +prolific source of supply to the institutions the intelligent, sympathetic, +wealthy women of the section are so active in creating and sustaining. + +The indifference of the wealthy and responsible to the conditions +prevailing in parts of this section is so well known that officers at the +heads of the city department ignore complaints, or treat them as incidents +to be tolerated as part of the experiences of their official life. + +The penalty is being paid in the steady decline of real estate values, the +gradual spread of the undesirable part of the community, the exodus of the +wealthiest to the sections more remote from the tenements. + +The environment that has a degenerating influence on the people of limited +means in that section is not due primarily to the political corruption of +those using their positions to secure their own ends, but to the criminal +attitude of the men in the churches and intelligent men not in them, who +refuse to assume the political responsibilities that are their birthrights; +the criminal indifference of those who fail to know the necessities of +which the homes of the poor whom God gave into their charge stand in need. +This section of the city is typical, not peculiar. Every section of New +York gives evidence of the divorce between the churches and the political +control that makes the environment of the home and the churches. + +The city is what the good, active people of the city want it to be--no +better, no worse. The condition of the most uncared-for section gives the +church's answer to the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The mark of +Cain may not be visible, but every child who goes out of life because its +right to light, air, sunshine has not been protected is a charge against +the Church. Every boy and girl whose life record is shadowed, blackened +because their right to education, to training, to freedom to develop +physically, mentally, morally, spiritually was denied them through +political indifference, are the evidences of the failure of the churches to +live up to the light which Christ left to their keeping. His followers do +not march through the cities of the poor, an army. + +When Christ said, "The second is like unto it, love thy neighbor as +thyself," He did not not mean the ethical conception for which the Church +has stood, but the broad, Christ-like conception of brotherhood which would +protect "thy neighbor" from the evils of his own ignorance and weakness; +that would use one's best strength in his interest seven days in the week. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEAVEN IN A GREAT CITY*** + + +******* This file should be named 38205.txt or 38205.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/2/0/38205 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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