SETTLEMENTS, SOCIAL. 



proved too great a temptation to young boys and 

 girls, unless they could have dancing at the settle- 

 ment. Good music is provided, for which the 

 dancers pay a small sum. Apart from the example 

 set by the residents of the settlement, the neighbor- 

 hood is benefited through the active means of 

 classes and clubs. The former have teachers regu- 

 larly fitted for the work, whose salary is paid by 

 the society. There is a kindergarten for the very 

 young children who are crowded out of public 

 ischools or kindergartens, and whose education is 

 doubly important from the fact that it is mainly 

 through these little ones that their elders are 

 reached. There are districts in our largest cities 

 filled with unamalgamated foreigners, whose lan- 

 guage and religion insulate them, and it is a socio- 

 logical fact that these people are only to be lifted 

 from their state of semibarbarism through the 

 children. In the kindergarten the children learn 

 cleanliness, morality, and the English language ; 

 therefore the settlement regards the .kindergarten 

 as one of its most important departments. (Masses 

 in music and dancing rank next in the average of 

 attendance. The music includes choral practice 

 and sight reading, which has proved a great attrac- 

 tion. Instruction in some cases is given on small 

 musical instruments, such as the mandolin or the 

 guitar; and musical literature is studied by those 

 whose interests lie that way. The settlement, 

 whose work is carried on under university auspices, 

 feels that much evil is. prevented by the dancing 

 -classes. Low dancing halls are found in every 

 poor neighborhood, and their influence is most per- 

 nicious. It is also recognized that the young, espe- 

 cially those whose lives are sordid and oppressed, 

 need the gaye'ty of social commingling. Therefore 

 the settlement endeavors to supply this gayety, at 

 the same time eliminating from it the objectionable 

 features. The gatherings and classes are attended 

 by both young men and young women, as well as 

 by children, at suitable hours. 



Classes in city history are formed for boys and 

 men, the object of which is to inculcate the princi- 

 ples of self-government and cultivate an interest in 

 -civics, to the end that intelligent voters may be 

 made. The politics of Europe are so different 

 from ours, and the political education of the lower 

 -classes so meager, it is deemed a good work to instil 

 into the minds of voters the principles of govern- 

 ment on which our nation rests. 



Classes of women and girls are taught sewing, of 

 which the lowest strata of society are lamentably ig- 

 norant. When clothing is bought for the family it 

 is purchased ready-made of the sidewalk vender ; 

 and when the women sew in sweatshops or facto- 

 ries the work is so specialized that each worker has 

 only a portion of each garment to do. and thus 

 never learns how to construct an entire garment 

 .alone, unless the sewing class gives the instruction. 

 Another class for women and girls is the cooking 

 class, which has its special teacher and descends into 

 the kitchen for lessons, unless it is furnished with 

 a room supplied with gas stoves and other appur- 

 tenances. It is a discouraging fact to the settle- 

 ment worker that the attendance is small in these 

 two departments of women's labor cooking and 

 sewing. Other classes give instruction in drawing, 

 German, kitchen gardening, first aid to the injured, 

 and in gymnasium, work the latter having by 

 far the highest attendance of any except musical, 

 dancing, political history, or kindergarten classes. 



Even more important than the classes in settle- 

 ment work are the innumerable clubs, the basis of 

 which is always social. These are largely managed 

 by the members themselves, and the hand of the 

 settlement worker only guides invisibly. When 

 the doors of a newly established settlement house 



are thrown open to the neighborhood, an unruly 

 and curious crowd swarms in the rooms; some com- 

 ing to make disturbance, others in search of a free 

 treat, and still others from the instincts of gregari- 

 ousness. To interest and to co-ordinate this mass 

 of raw material it is divided according to its tastes, 

 sex, or age ; and thus are formed the numerous 

 clubs, which bind the members to the house, k .-[> 

 them from low resorts or the demoralizing influ- 

 ence of the streets, and gradually raise their stand- 

 ards of education and morality. In the boys' club 

 the election of officers is a time of conflict, and all 

 business meetings are attended with some heat; but 

 order is always preserved, and the boys learn the 

 valuable lesson of self-control. Besides this, they 

 learn how to conduct a public meeting with parlia- 

 mentary rules, a necessary accomplishment in a 

 country where politics bring the humble into prom- 

 inence. Boys' clubs run to two varieties those 

 which have to do with education, such as the vari- 

 ous literary, civic, and musical clubs, and those 

 which favor athletics, both indoors and out. Girls' 

 clubs meet mainly for the social pleasure of gather- 

 ing amid pleasant surroundings to practice the 

 more purely feminine arts. Clubs for women are 

 formed and are found to be a great help and pleas- 

 ure to the mothers of children interested in the set- 

 tlement. Men's clubs are devoted mainly to the 

 study of politics, civics, and sociology. It is a sig- 

 nificant fact that the saloon hotels of the neighbor- 

 hood offer free accommodations to all clubs, hoping 

 thus to lure this large number of persons to patron- 

 ize them ; but so much confidence is felt in the set- 

 tlement that its beneficiaries will not be drawn 

 away from its protection. 



Under the head of clubs fall two important settle- 

 ment institutions. These are the library and the 

 penny provident bank. From the library of the 

 University Settlement of New York as many as 46,- 

 500 books a year are drawn. Reports show a large 

 demand for history, especially United States his- 

 tory, and this is particularly desired by the children 

 of foreigners. It is easy to see that patriotism for 

 the adopted country is augmented by the literature 

 which the settlement library furnishes. The chil- 

 dren of crowded city districts receive but little 

 moral and mental stimulus at home, and so must 

 find it in books, and in them also learn ideals of 

 civic morality. The experiment has been tried of 

 sending books to boys who are in city prisons, and, 

 contrary to expectations, the books have been 

 neither destroyed nor mutilated, but some of them 

 returned accompanied with notes of gratitude. The 

 penny provident bank is conducted on the principles 

 governing this institution everywhere, and is liber- 

 ally patronized. As many as 1,500 depositors, half 

 of whom deposit twice a week, are on the books of 

 some of these institutions. The pawnshop has also 

 been found a satisfactory adjunct to settlement 

 philanthropy. 



Work outside the settlement house is courage- 

 ously undertaken by the workers, both resident and 

 visiting. Primarily this consists of becoming 

 acquainted, in a way of friendly equality, with as 

 many families of the neighborhood as possible. 

 Their confidence once won, their distresses and 

 wrongs become known, and these the worker seeks 

 to alleviate. Possibly he has to educate the people 

 insanitary laws, to change their resistance of t la- 

 Board of llealth into co-operation with that body. 

 That this is an important detail in civics may be 

 known from the experiences in the East Side of 

 New York during the time when the separation of 

 garbage, ashes, and paper was made imperative 

 under Col. Waring's orders. Police force was ne- 

 cessary to secure this separation, for the tenants of 

 the East Side had not sufficient intelligence to keep 



