The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-01
SEVEN COLLEGE GIRLS
WHO KEEP OPEN HOUSE AlEONG
THE SLUMS,


The College Settlement in Rivingtor
Street "A Unique Experiment in
Sociology.
(Copyri0ht)
NEW YORK, Dec. 1.-The big, old
fashioned house at 95 Rivington street, shell
ters the NEST interesting household in 81
New York city. Up and down its higt
stone steps and through its antique door
way, whence issued stately matrons rustline
in brocades in the days when fashion had
her temple on the now squalor-stricken east
side, pass morning and night seven slender
sweet-faced girls. To the one side of then
is cellar groggery, to the other a synagogue
now being converted to other uses. and
across the way and all about them are
| cheap shops and dismal, unclean lodging
houses where want joins hands with vice
anc hopelessness in a strange, uncanny
| dance Of suffering: but the seven fresh-faced
girls, in their dainty little gowns, with spot
less gloves and boots such as Rivington
street had utterly forgotten, and their ex-
quisitely simple bonnets half revealing and
half concealIng the bright abundance of
ripDliug hair look out from under level
brows on dirt, despair and drunkenness and
are not afraid.
| Within the house is an atmosphere of
warmth and light and color, such as should
pervade the coy home nest of any seven
| happy hearted young women. A round
| little maid. with short black hair and an
immaculate pinafore opens the door for
you. She used to go with toes out of her
boots and to be innocent of the bath tub,
but the seven girls have worked the change.
She will show you into roomy, high-ceiled
sitting room, with carved columns of the
old days, where the tinted walls, white and
gold hangings at the windows, rugs
on the stained floors, rows of book
shelves, and odd and artistic chairs,
some in oak aad some in BAN
boo, are all delightfully."- CHEEKY and COM
Portable; and you will be greeted by Miss
Jeanette Quincy Fine, the presiding
genius of the establishment THAT is, if it is
Friday, and you are a college woman, who
will explain to you that this is a college
| settlement, and that its girl inmates are
simply trying to be neighborly with the
| women and children of the tenement houses.
There are only two other such colonies in
the world of cultivated people living in the
slums; one is Toynbee Hall, which was
| founded by university men in the east end
of London. and the other is in Chicago, and
was started by wealthy woman this sum-
mer on hearing of the project of the seven
| college girls.
Miss Fine is a girl of great personal
beauty and with wonderful charm in her
earnest eyes. She comes from Smith Col
| lege, and has given up position in an ar
| lstocratic private school uptown to get
| acquainted with her Rivington street fel-
| low beings One of her sisters in the colony
is studying medicine in the school which
was founded by DIR. Elizabeth Blackwell
Another-her name is DIR. Caroline Hamil-
| mat har
physician and brought her skill to be
of use to this weary, toiling neighborhood
and another still owes allegiance TO
| college halls and is studying for her second
degree. These are the four who will remain
in the colony for year, for there are per-
| manents and transients among the young
settlers. The transients come for two
months at time, and the three who have
been there since the house was opened at
the beginning of October will be replaced
by other Vassar and Smith and Wellesley
| girls as soon as December comes in,
Between the transients and the perma-
| nents there are other differences than those
of duration of stay. The permanents at
tend to their owl business in the day time
that they not seem to pose as missionaries,
| but may be accepted on an everyday foot
| ing, just as any family of manual workers
moving into the district might be. They
give to Rivington street only their
| evenings. The transients, on the
other hand. being visitors and at
leisure, are on duty all day And the
| duty? Well. it's homework not infre-
quentlv, for it wouldn't do TO stand on ones
dignity, or good-by to the hopes of success
| of the colony. The seven girls have a
matron who superintends the cooking and
the little maid who minds the bell. What
| ever else needs doing they do with their
/ own fingers, these enthusiastic young
| women who beg to be allowed to leave
| homes of refinement and luxury, that they
may wait upon themselves surrounded by
ignorance and degradation. in the Tenth
| ward. Isn't it hare-brained idea?
| Each of the seven girls has her own room
and they divide the housekeeping expenses
among themselves. They attempt no re-
ligious work or tract distributing of any
description, and their puzzled neighbors.
| who first discovered that they were "some-
| how different" when little child, who de-
livered bundle, ran home with bullying
| eyes and feet winged by amazement to re-
| port to its mother, who housed six children
and two boarders in single room, that
they "hadn't single bed on the whole first
| floor" were first stupefied with astonish-
ment over such sinful waste of room, then
| set the new corners down as the house of
the Kings Daughters, then as Methodist
nuns, then as school ma'ams, and finally
| gave up the puzzle and waited for develop
| ments with surprised curiosity,
The first clue to the mystery discovered
| by the neig nborhood was a little gilt sign.
baths cents" The interest aroused was
languid. On election day one woman
came. 1t was a holiday she explained,
and only on holidays had Rivington street
women any time for bathing. She was
told she could come in the evening, and
| slowly the news trickled through the
| tenement house factories. One night last
| week there were five women who applied at
one time
Rivington street children made the next
discovery. If they played on the steps they
were not ordered away. On the contrary,
pretty girls opened the door and invited
them inside. Once in that fairylaud of q
parlor they had picture books to look at,
wonderful toys to play with, nice things to
eat, anG when they went home they were
asked to como again and bring some more
children next time.
| After the children came mother or two.
! These found out that the young housewives
wanted to be friends. You know how in a
| country village the women run back and
| forth and exchange recipes for curing
Group and making savory dishes and turn
| ing and refurbishing old clothes. Well, the
Rivington street people discovered that
these rosy checked strangers wanted to be
I on just those terms of neighborlv intimacy
with them; that they liked to make calls
| and be called on, and that, instead of SET