The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-02
WOMAN'S CLUBMEETS
Miss Gaines, the resident,
Defines the Aim of the
New Society.
MISS BRADFORD A GUEST
The Work Of Whittier House Out
lined-Mr. Hewit's Summary
Of False Charity.

O8NJ
ing not devoted entirely to business, was
held at Hasbrouck Institute, in Room 4 of
the Girls Department, upstairs, yesterday
afternoon. 1t was four o'clock before the
meeting was called to order, the President,
Miss Celie Gaines, in the Chair. Mrs. Emma
J. Newbury, Recording Secretary, read the
minutes of the previous meeting, which were
approved. The President appointed Mrs.
George Case Chairman of the Membership
Committee, and Mrs. Florence Clerihew
Chairman of an Executive Committee Of
five.
Miss Gaines then defined the aim of the
club in a speech thai for conciseness and pith
deserves high praise. The object, as stated
in the constitution, intellectual and social
culture" might, she said, mean a great deal
or nothing at all; might be full Of suggestion
or lose itself in a mist of generallties. In
her opinion the way in which the club could
best inform itself as to the progress of women
in the work of the world was to invite to its
meetings women who had made themselves
specialists along their lines-women who had
devoted their time and their efforts
towards some particular develop
ment in woman's work. In outlin-
ing their work before the club, these
women would bring the member the best
and most reliable accounts OF womans work
in the world, far more accurately and more
com~prehensively than could be done by any
one in a paper simply written for the occa-
I.sion. There were many other matters in
which the club could interest itself; reforms
in the condition of some classes of working
women, which some clubs investigate, and
such duties as would in time develop as the
club grew in power. 1t was not organized
as a society for the study of any stated in
| %aI1oa+,,o1 c11hinot h1t thArn pniDhf hA formed
within its limits ana in some sense auxiliary
to it, classes for special study along such
lines as the organizers might desire.
MISS B~RADFeRD's TALK.
The plan of inviting members who had
made q life work OF some especial department
of activity, was ~inaugurated in a thoroughly
satisfactory manner by the Introduction to
the club of Miss Cornelia Bradford of Upper
Montclair. who, as the readers of ZEE JER-
sEY CITY NEWS have been told, has
begun in this city a Social Settlement"
known as "The Whittier House." 1t was
the privilege of the club to receive from Miss
Bradford an explanation of the methods and
aims of social settlements in general. a
mmar of the work done in the world, and
a practical illustration drawn from the
progress of her own workin Jersey City.
Miss Bradford said In reference to the
work of social settlements, that it had been
made possible some twelve years ago, through
a number OF English university students OF
whom Andrew Toynbee was chief. Toynbee
believed that love brings forth love, char
acter forms character, and THAT the only way
to really elevate the condition of the very
poor was to live the life among them, and
from actual personal experience WIN the
knowledge of how to aid them, from personal
friendship make it possible to DO good.
Toynbee died in his early youth. but not
until he had formulated his political econ
omy, not until the plan Of his practical at
- = -14s- II +tA -~n1A rOh1n
had become established. 1t was in his mem
ory that Toynbee Hall was erected, which to
this day carries on a work, if not wholly as
he planned it, yet along right lines. Then
there is the Peoples Palace that had its in
ception in the brain Of Walter Basaat, as he
outlines it in All Sorts and Conditions OF
Men" This, too, has departed in some de-
gree from the plan of its originator, becom-
ing more of an institution than he intended.
Then there are the settlements at Bethual
Green, and among the doc&ers in Canning
Town, and the work of DR.. and Mrs. Barnett
of st. Jude's. all in London. The basal prin-
ciple of all these is that these should be resi-
dent workers. of whom the leader is called,
not the President, but simply the Head
Worker" With the details of these settle
ments, and, indeed, of all of which she
spoke, Miss Bradford has intimate personal
acquaintance.
THIS %CoUNTRY's SETTLEMENTS.
In this country we have a long chain of
s'colIege settlements" in which the residents
are college men and women:-Andover
House in Boston, where many Andover stu
dents spend an additional year in practical
work On social problems, just as medical
students put in an extra year or so in clint
cal work; the Rivington and Delaney
street settlements in New York, the Kings
ley House in Pittsburg, and most important
and most advanced of all, Hull House in
Chicago. In describing the work of this
house. where she was for some time a resi-
dent, Miss Bradford called especial attention
to the "Jane Club" named from Miss
Adams. it's founder. 1t is a sort of co-opera-
tive house. where a number of working
girls pay ST a week board toward a common
fund, which is used to pay the house ex-
penses. In no sense a charitable institution,
it is simply an effort on the part of Miss
Adams to bring the girls together so that
their combined money might procure for
them the advantages of a real home.
IN JERsE CITY.
Why Miss Bradford decided to come to
Jersey City, she finds it difficult to say. She
had Just received two offers to go where the
work was we'll established, with a good
salary, but s'some way, here I am, where the
work was not established, without a salary"
As she said this, in the simplest way, without
a trace of self-praise. the audience broke into
hearty applause. She knew no one here, save
Rev. DR.. and Mrs. Scudder, and these only
as dQualuLduCeS. LIZ ASI AuSu COulcl6uCo
with DIR. Scudder, she stipulated that her
work should be undenominational, that is,
that a Methodist in need should be helped
Just as soon as a Baptist or a Catholic or an
| E~piscopalian, and that it should be I'M
Christian, SO far as that means opposition to
| Jews. As she left DR.. Scudder's study, a
Roman Catholic gentleman, who had oyer
heard her closing remarks, offered her a
house for the work, with his hearty sympathy,
and the only reason why she could not ac-
cept it, was that it incurred expenses which
she felt herself unable to meet.
lMR. HEwIT's BRIGHT SPEECH.
Her first interview with Poormaster Hewitt
| was characteristic. He began by asking her
three questions fare you giving away
| moneyfs to which she replied thai she had
none to give and would not if she had Then
said he, care you tying nice little punches of
| flowers in nice little bows of ribbon, taking
them to the prisons and giving them to muir
d~erers?' mo-" said she, 81 have no senti-
ment to waste .'Once more,u said he,
Are you petting bums?' mo, 1 don't
want anything to do with that class of So
| ciety,n she replied, upon which Mr.. Hewitt
welcomed her to Jersey City and promised
| her his aid, which has been to her of invalu-
able assistance.
Miss Bradford then told how her work
began with q series of mothers teas, and
went on with a kindergarten, a sewing class,
and what she calls Pleasant Sunday After
noons,' = where the men come and bring their
families to spend the afternoon one weekly
rest day in a pleasant, sociable way. They
| discuss social questions, and there is no dis
tinctly religious side.
The nlan of Miss RradfOrd'S work has he-