194 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



crime had diminished one-half in that city since 

 the coffee-houses and boys' schools were opened. 

 Standing: within a short distance of the Seven 

 Dials, in London, in the same year, I asked a 

 policeman whether crime had increased or de- 

 creased in his precinct in recent years. " In ten 

 years it has decreased fully one-half," was the 

 reply. "What has wrought the change .'' " "The 

 coffee-houses and the boys' clubs." In other 

 words, even in the slums of "the toy-shop of 

 Europe," and in the very heart of London's 

 wretchedness, a few wise, strong, patient, liberal 

 men and women have worked this change in the 

 criminal records by opening a few coffee-houses, 

 schools, and improved dwellings. 



Efforts in these directions should be multiplied. 

 Movements like the University Colony in East 

 London and the University Extension System of 

 Lectures should be started in all our cities, and 

 the scholarship and refinement of Harvard and 

 Yale and Princeton brought into helpful sympathy 

 with the Bowery and Water Street. 



Already we have our Andover House, our Hull 

 House, our Whittier House, our University and 

 College Settlements, our University Lectures, our 

 Fresh-air Funds, our Association of East Side 

 Workers. These are a beginning ; but they must 



