Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-08-03

one must have more than human
spirit OF self-sacrifice. But when No.
% is reached. with its sunny, curtainel
windows full of blooming plants, one
begins to feel that perhaps. after all.
life on the other side of such a bright
exterior may hold forth Inducements
even TO the philistine: and once within
the cheerful parlor with its books ana
pictures. where Il Sweet-faced. sweet
voiced young resident welcomes you,
on's first fancies take wing. and in their
stead comes a conviction that TO live
among such restful. pure and elevat-
ing influences might be more conducive
TO happiness than life amid tic ttr-
MOL and temptations Of the world of
fashion
At recent visit to the le+tleIacnt
the present head worker, Miss Fannie
w. Mclean, a graduate of California
university, graciously did the honors of
the abode and explained the daily
work Of the young women, college-bred
or otherwise, who come into the Slums
from their homes and spend weeks or
months putting social equality into
practice with benefit and pleasure to
themselves and to their humble friends.
Surrounded on every side by poverty.
misery, and even crime, these enthusi-
astic workers make for themselves Il
home, to and from which they are safe
to come and go unmolested at any
hour of the day or night: and all be-
cause they have shown by their daily
living that the keynote of their creed
and endeayOrS is pure and unSelfisIl
love. and they have found that simple,
healthful living is possible in the midst
Of poor conditions; that existence di-
vested Of certain conventional unreal
ties is richer and more worth while:
that genuine Christian neighborlinesS
is no chimerical vision, but the happy
prophecy Of a reconciled world. A
faithful worker says:
I'VE have always been perfectly
frank with our neighbors. | have new
er tried SO earnestly to- set forth the
eist of the settlement movement, to
make clear it's reciprocity. as I have
to them. At first we were often asked
why we came to live there when we
could afford TO live somewhere else
remember one man who used to shH Ike
his head and say it was the strongest
thing he had met in his experience,
but who was finally convinced that
it was not strange but natural. There
was another who was quite sure. that
the 'prayer-meeting snap would come
in somewhere, that it was only QlleS-
tom OF Time T trust that now it
seems natural to all of us that the set
Element should be there. If it is ma
tllraI to feed the hrlngry and care for
the sick. it is certainly natural to give
pleasure to- the young and TO minister
to the deep-seated craving for social
intercourse all nlen feel Whoever does
it is rewarded by something which, if
not gratitude, is at Least spontaneous
and VITAL
The Settlement house at 95 Rivington
street is large and comfortable The
parlor, airy, and spotIessly clean, with
polished hardwood fiesF and painted
walls, opens through d wide doorway
into the dining room, which in turn
opens on the gardeni proudly designat-
ed as the largest in tine 10Th ward. y
aTd here the children hold high carni-
val every Saturday naorning yard
day playing at games OF swinging
IL the big swings, of STRONG rope sus-
peLued at either. end of the inclOs-
u" Both rooms are thanked by low
bookcases filed with the literature
that forms the free circulating library
On the top of one of these eases, in
sight, but not conspicuous, rested the
Bible and book of prayers by Rev.
Lyman Abbott; a vase Of freslaIy-c cut
flowers brigh tened the manteI-shelf,
Willie the center table WAS piled with
books and magazines. Upstairs are
the sitting roem of the residents and
their sleepingeEoOms, all as fresh and
coZy, if not SO llXurGeus, as their
own apartments at home.
In additions to this house. tine one
opposite at No. o., was secured last
fall because CT the grO,Mth of the Set
tlemntS work 1t is called the Wood
stock kindergarten, and is used as
kindergarten and gymnasium A class
OF 0O uttle children IS Cduglt there
in accordance with the ErOebe1 system,
by Miss Grace Darling, a graduate of
Vassar' college.
Throughout the WoTk and i'm all rela-
tons with their associates, the resi-
dents. take their Saand for equality;
equality not only between themselves
and their neighbOrs, but between neigh
ip,I n
all are looked upon as friends alike,
the poorest and the most well-to-do,
the recent immigrant and the New
Yorker of many genera tons, the Jew
and the Gentle
THE EVER USEFUL SCREEN.