, 1889-12-19

piano has sounded out gay music that
must have made the gloomy old walls
| prick up their ears with surprise. No
men2 Why, of course the girls brought
their bcaux and the married women, II
they were able, their husbands. Never
In all its history has Rivington street
had a merricr autumn, and the college
girls find 1t the most delightful picnic
| they have had since leaving school.
Doing good2 They don't know, but
they are broadening their own lives by
seeing different side OF existence, and
into other and very monotonous and
wretched lives they are Introducing q
unique thing-pleasure. They think it
pays.
PREPARING FOR eli RtsTMAs.
Rivington street is busy just now with
preparations for Christmas. There are
people In the tencments to whom Santa
Claus will bring gifts next month to
whom he 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 the wee tots CT
girls from 8 TO 10 years old, little things,
who play games and ''march" and work
on perforated cardboard and knit pretty
lamp mats for their mothers over spools.
Then there are the girls from 10 to IL
years old. These play games and learn
gymnastic exercises and sing one even
ing, and the other evening thcy arc
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
Ii, the cash girls club, they call this one
sometimes, 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 for girls be-
tween Ia and l6, and the Christmas
aprons which IL Is turning out are dainty
drawn work concoctions. Tho college
seven provide the apron material ana
see that IL shall not cost above 25 cents
for each apron. This money the club
| members pay back in installmonts,
ing. Were becoming capitalists" says
/ Miss Fine, sin pennies"
There is in addition 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. eve
put that In, " say the wise and canny
seven, ITO catch some of the frivolous
ones who wouldn't step inside our doors
for anything useiul."
"And has 1t workedP'
ut works to a charm"
There are cookery evenings also, and
the seven say that to help the tenement
women to proper meals is a problem of
more compleXity 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 In the wall
close to the stove, where butter melts
and lard turns into the most unsayory
of fluids. They can't make soups or
stews, which are cheap and nourishing,
because they are gone all day in the fac
tories, and the question resolves itself
really into teaching them to broil in
stead OF fry.
CLUBS FOR DREssMAKING.
One great institution is library day +.
The seven have the nucleus of a good
circulating library to take the place OF
flash literature. 1t is made up of young
peoples books mostly for the popua-
ton of the district is foreign, and the
older people capt read in the English
language.
There arc 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 big and marvclously clean
kitchen. Such u cheery spot is DIR.
Hamilton's office in the front basement,
=.
bodily woes. Such royal open
fires as light up the great par.
lors. All the furnishings have
cost few dollars, not to deter visitors
by their gorgeousness, but not another
such house could he found in the whole
Tenth ward All its mates have been
pulled down and replaced by Cramped,
crowded tenements, but this one re-
maincd 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 will come of this unique ex-
pertinent of young unmarried girls
Rivington street Is the center of us
densely populated district as any in
the city. II is not the very poorest
quarter, for most of the children whom
one secs wear shoes Yet there is much
squalor, much sordid wretchcdness,
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 as
sault or contagious disease. They say
that the streets are perfectly safe UP "
1890 at night, though they might not
care to be out between ! and 3. They
do not look upon themselves ut all in the
light OF hcroines 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 q chance
to share. once a week they set aside an
afternoon when their uptown friends
may find them at home and then it ap-
pears that they have accomplished a I
least one object of their endeavor, the
setting up of u refined, cultivated home
not TO be ga2ed on from atar, 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.
A Mcxicnn's Idea OF Amc ricans.