The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-01
ng a unique thing-Dleasure. They think

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Rivington street is busy just now with
preparations for Christmas. There are
people Ia the tenements to whom Santa
Claus VIII bring gifts next month to whom
be never brought any before. Five clubs
meet with the seven college girls. each club
Two evenings weekly, and all of them are
getting ready for Kris Kringle. There are
tae wee tots Of girls from 6 to 10 years old /.
httle tnlngs who play games and march"
and work on perforated cardboard and
Knlt PRETTY lamp mats tor their mothers
over spoois. Then there are the girls from
~ to IL years old These play games and
learn gymnastic exercises, and sing one
evening, and the other evening they are
taught to crochet and to make paper
flowers and to do simple fancy work of
various descriptions. The next club
takes In the girls from - to IA, the
cash girls club, they call this one some
times, and one little cash girl comes from
away up at One Hundred and Thirty-third
street To attend. The cash girls sing and
learn calisthenics and make Christmas
aprons. Sometimes the college girls tell
them stories, and at every club meeting
there IS something new. There is another
club Tor girls between IA and 10, and the
Christmas aprons which it is turning out
are dainty drawn work concoctions. The
college seven provide the apron material,
and see that it shall not cost above 25 cents
for each apron. This money the club mem
bers pay back in installments. bringing in
from to 6 cents OF an evening. "We're
becoming capitalists, says Miss Fine, ''in
pennies"
There is in addition a young ladies' club,
and this gives one evening in the week to
practical health and hygiene talks from Dr.
Hamilton. The other evening is spent in
learning sewing and embroidery, and
even painting. "We put that in" say the
wise and canny seven, "to catch some of
the frivolous ones who wouldn't step inside
our doors for anything usefulm
And has it worked!d
1T works to CHARM
There are cookery evenings also, and the
seven say that to help the tenement women
to proper meals is problem of more COM
plexlty than anybody realizes. They can't
buy provisions, if they had the money, in
any but the smallest quantities, because
often they have only the tiniest cupboards
set i'll the wall close to the stove, where but
tor melts and lard turns into the most I'M
savory of fluids. They can't make soups or
stews, which are CHEAP and nourishing, be-
cause they are gone all day in the factories,
and the question resolves itself really into
teaching them to broll instead of fry.
One great institution is library dav. The
seven had made the nucleus of good cir
literature. 1t is made up of young peoples
books mostly, for the population of the
districts is foreign and the older people
CAN'T read in the English language.
There are to be dressmaking clubs and
millinery clubs, and clubs simply to have
good times, but the marvel of all who open
the door is the establishment itself, quite
apart from any auxiliary features. Such a
big and marvelousy clean kitchen. Such a
0tk o0A Sc H.
front basement, where they are learning to
bring their bodily woes Such royal open
fires as light up the great parlors. All the
furnishings have cost few dollars, not to de-
ter visitors by their gorgeousness, but not
another such house could be found in the
whole Tenth ward. All its mates have
been pulled down and replaced by cramped,
crowded tenements, but this one remained
in the hands of the old family which built
it originally, and is almost as much of an
anomaly in the quarter as are the seven
themselves.
And what win become of this unique ex-
pertinent of young unmarried girlsa. Riv-
ington street is the center of as densely pop
ulated O district as any in the city. 1t is
not the very poorest quarter, for most of
the children whom one sees wear Shoes
Yet there is much squalor, much sordid
wretchedness, much dirt and much disor-
der. The Tenth ward police make more
arrests than are made in any other precinct
of the metropolis. Yet the seven are not
afraid of insult, drunken assault or conta-
gious disease. They say that the streets are
perfectly safe up to 1880 O'Clock,
though they might not care to be
out between 1 and o'clock. They do not
look upon themselves at all in the light of
heroines or martyrs. but, on the contrary,
declare themselves thoroughly comfortable
and happy in their hard working, jolly girl
community with all the other college girls
eager for a chance to share. Once a week
they set aside an afternoon when their up-
town friends may find them at home, and
then it appears that they have accom-
plished at least one object Of their endeavor.
the setting up of refined, cultivated home
not to be gazed on from afar, but of which
the slum people may themselves form part
and parcel.
So much for the bridging of the social
gulf by seven charming girls.
ELIZA PUTNAM HEAToN,