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HOME AND FLOWERS 



woman's benefit. But she devotes her chap- 

 ters to landscapes, to buildings and street 

 scenes, to pictures that tell a story, to por- 

 traits, to animals, to studies of life and char- 

 acter, to illustrations of life and fancy, to 

 pictures with religious themes, to the pages 

 of a magazine, the journey from artist to 

 reader, with a special chapter on pictures 

 in a school room by Stella Skinner. Fifty- 

 three fine photographic reproductions chosen 

 from the best European and American art 

 treasures are used to illustrate these sub- 

 jects, which are handled so sympathetically, 

 yet so sensibly and fearlessly, that one's 

 confidence is quickly won. There is not a 

 false note in the book from start to finish, 

 and the literary value is of so inspiring a 

 quality that one's feet are set upon the 

 mountain top from which we descend linger- 

 ingly. 



"Oh, they who win the fight, who reach the 

 goal, 



Steadfast are they, with strength that 

 cannot quail, 

 And theirs a mighty power of heart and 

 soul 



To have been brave if God had bid them 

 fail." 



— Charles Hanson Towner. 



Settlement "Work in the Kentucky Mountains 



The wide range of that phase of better- 

 ment work known as the "settlement" is 

 indicated by a comparison of what Miss 

 Jane Addams is doing at Hull House, Chi- 

 cago, with the results achieved by a few 

 loyal women of Kentucky among the "poor 

 whites" in the mountains of that state. 

 Three years ago the Kentucky Federation 

 of Women's Clubs received an appeal from 

 the mountains for "a woman, a gentle, 

 womanly woman, to assist in the conduct 

 of meetings of wives, mothers, housekeep- 

 ers, young women and little girls; to give 

 lessons in cooking and home-making, as well 

 as in culture and morals." Such an appeal 

 could not be resisted, and, during the past 

 three summers, a few self-sacrificing women 

 have lived in tents in the most remote 

 mountain counties, giving the assistance 

 required. Miss Catherine Pettit has been 

 the leader. Her story is a fascinating one. 

 She declares that the mountaineers received 

 her with unusual cordiality. They told 

 her, "We 'low that you'uns as know how 

 has come to show us'uns as don't know how. 

 . . . We never had no chance to Tarn 

 nothin'; now we are so glad that the chil- 

 dren have a chance." Boys and girls walked 

 five and six miles daily to join the classes 



in cooking, sewing, kitchen-gardening and 

 singing. A man of thirty-five came to learn 

 to patch and mend that he might teach his 

 invalid wife. One man brought two boys, 

 saying, "Just please I'arn 'em some man- 

 ners," and a woman rode fifteen miles on 

 a mule with a girl behind, because she 

 "liked clean livin' and party fixin's," and 

 "wanted to I'arn." To the first sewing class 

 came a sixteen-year-old lame mother with 

 a nine-months-old child in her arms. This 

 baby had to be cared for while the mother 

 learned to sew, and when it became known 

 that "Them quare wimmin folks would keer 

 for babies," a primitive nursery was begun. 



The work among the young people was 

 sadly needed. Children of four would swear, 

 chew and smoke. A little fellow of six came 

 with a bottle of "moonshine" whisky in his 

 pocket and asked "Whar' is her what shows 

 us how to do better?" The kindergarten 

 songs and exercises and a little handicraft 

 work soon showed these youngsters better 

 ways of filling in their time, and as soon as 

 the Sunday-school had been established a 

 wonderful improvement was noted. A good 

 deal was done in the homes themselves to 

 make them more cheerful and less unin- 

 spiring. Scholarships were offered to girls 

 and boys. How much these were prized 

 may be noted from the fact that one ten- 

 year-old girl, who had never been away from 

 home and who had never seen a town, 

 started off bravely behind her brother on 

 a mule to ride sixty miles to school, her 

 entire wardrobe being the one little gray 

 dress which she wore. Miss Pettit and her 

 associate, Miss Stone, have succeeded in 

 enlisting the sympathies of wealth in the 

 East, so that, in addition to funds already 

 raised in Kentucky, enough money has been 

 obtained to secure land for a permanent 

 industrial school at Hindman, Knott county. 



Home and Flowers hopes before long to 

 be able to present a detailed account of this 

 excellent work in the Kentucky mountains. 



"Don't believe the world owes you a liv- 

 ing. The world owes you nothing. It was 

 here first." — Burdette. 



A Vigorous Campaign for Street Sign Reform 



The new street sign ordinance prepared 

 by the Merchants' Association of San Fran- 

 cisco, and recently adopted by the city 

 council, has just appeared in pamphlet form. 

 This ordinance relates to signs projecting 

 over the sidewalks, and includes "signs, 

 transparencies, advertisements, bulletin- 

 boards and clocks upon or projecting over 



