The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-27
MRS. MATTHEwSS MISSION.
a COLoRED WoMAN's WORK AMONG
HER IN THIS CITY.

Negroes Attracted Here from the south.
Mrs. Victoria Earle Matthews is working as a
missionary among negroes in the tenomcnts on
the upper cast side Of town. Mrs. Matthews is
n Georgian by birth, but has lived most Of her
life In New York. The death Of a favorlte son
two years ago turned her thoughts to serious
things, and she resolved to devote her life to
mission work among tho lowly and unlettcred
of her own people.
II am n friend Of Booker 7. Washington"
sho said to a Sun reporter, "and what / saw OF
his work in Alabama when l visited that State
gave me the idea of working among the negroes
on the abandoned plantations in tho South. /
travelled through three States and talked with
the people and lectured at their churches. In
one township where they seemed to like me very
well they offered to build a cabin for me IL I
would come there to live. The following year
l had about decided to return there and try to
show them what a model cabin homo might be
when some friends here in New York persuade
ed me 10 do differently.
If you have got time and energy to spare
they said. don't go down to Alabama to work.
There's plenty for You to do right here at homo.
The tenement house people up there by Nine
tieth and Tooth streets on the east side are
gifted and given over. as the Southern negroes
say, and IL will take all you can do TO get
them in the way Of right thinking
81 came uptown to see for myself, and after
n visit or two l concluded that, ignorant and
poverty stricken as the Southern negroes were,
their lives in the cabin were innocent and right.
eous compared with the enement house OK
istenco as lived among these in this big city. /
gave up the idea OF going South to work and
started In here. 1t is about eighteen months
since | made my first attempt at holding a meet
ing. Tho other day, when Mr.. Washington
was in New York, he came up TO these mission
rooms and nfterward went about a little in the
ncighborhood.
MY friend, l wouldn't change fields with
you was his comment to me when he was 20.
ing, and he looked really depressed, saying that
he did not dream such conditions existed"
The neighborhood where Mrs. Matthews has
elected to work is not nice or attractive in any
sense. There is that in tho atmosphere of what
ever house you enter that suggests bad venti-
lation and bad sanitation and other things that
people had rather not think about at all. There
is an unsavory alley nearby known familiar.y
In police annals rs "the hole in the wall" and
said TO be u rival Of the more famous Hcll's
Kitchen over on the other side OF to wn Many
Of the most abandoned characters in the locality
are wont 10 gather there, but even to them Mrs.
Matthews has managed to speak more than once.
end she hopes that the good seed did not fall
on stony ground. What is rather a new dcpar-
twrc with women workers, this one addresses
herself personally and pcrsistently to the men
of the ncighDorhood. She talks To the middle
aged men and she talks to tho young men and
the lads about such social matters and behavior
ms apply particularly 20 their lives. The mon
are famous for their idlencss, and when they do
work they spend their earnings irnproviicntly.
The missionary has discovered that tho women of
the household submit to all sorts Of harsh treat
inent, and that the young girls are exposed TO
insult and DEGRADATION. She lectures the men
on these evils and pictures how desirable il is
to bring abont n different state of things.
AT Iirst the men would not come 10 my even.
men on the same subjects, and | suppose
talked SO in earnest that the women repeated
came out of curiosity. Now they come rcgu-
larry. and when | leave off the Tuesday evening
are missed and asking me TO start them again.
Onc.thing | charge the young men particularly
girls whom they nee, respectfully and not ieer
ut them and make fun OF them and speak TO
then, the NV whether ha@ , they d kn9W IL then srao or hot, not; ,I ! tel
also. and try TO shame them. il possible. for
their bad behavior. Inc social AMI moral con
from the very bottom" she added seriously.
Nobody would conceive OF row sunkc,! IN
degradation they are here in u Christian city
Upon being asked il there We're not churches
in the nelghhorhood she REPLIED:
members. They hold a sunday service and u
weekly prayer meeting. sparsely attended, but
pendent rather she went on. They are not
inclined to beg. but they are distrcss.ngly poor.
! have visited the poor and degraded OF every
race represented in New York, and ] have not
seen greater hcathenism anywhere than among
these neglected coloroi people. The greater
number of the negroes whom the Italians and
French crowded out Of Mncdougal, Thompson
ana sullivan streets came up to the upper east
side. ard now to make matters worse negroes
from the plantations NJ the south are being
their evil lives. The negroes on lower Seventh
avenue are another and distinct cloment from
nue. and love to dance and trolic and sing, but
they. are not wicked. They DO not have the
brawls there that these people are guilty OF.
You look at a woman in the seventh avenue
though she had something TO live for. The wo-
men here. even very young girls. either look
OPPRESSED - Sf SdnS and d 9Ms nSSGt io, or else ,n s%l. .nas and I'd
my mothers, meetings and the Bible and sing;
ing classes / have on Sundsy tells how bare and
expect s success $hO1 The > principal inc ppoI,a 1%u; IT. is ,s at tho
in their notions Of morality. II they can just
be made 70 20 to work and have some respect
all day, that will be u big, point gained"
Mrs. Matthews spoke q the i'll repute that
house servants simply because OF their in.
efficiency, and one main object that she hopes
i i fan 6 teaching ns"f Them TO eco COOK
and do household work so thoroughly that they
will be IN demand g. the in,ellIeenSo offices. in,
thNou VI ''tAib IN hl'' -" .a"pt ~ |
avoided altogether. 1t Is the nucleus OF Il small.
plain industrial home for colOrcd girls that encg.
Ey and enthusiasm have established in her tlay
fiat In Sinety seventh street. The mission now |
is known as The White Rose" For months
ana months Mrs. Matthews worked alone or
with only such temporary aid as she could en-
list, borrowing n room here and there among
the neighbOrs to hold u meeting in. and getting
more or less irregular footing in the district
according rs she nursed the sick or comfortod
the grief stricken. or otherwise made herself
known. One day the owner of n tenement
building to whom she had become personally
known told her that she might huvl tho room
on the ground floor for her classes rent free.
Thus assisted. she ventured. to 80 to the City
Missionary Society and ask for a contribution,
chairs, benches. heat, or light.
II never had asked the white people for any:
thing up to that time she said, because l
know that tho people OF our race are commonly
accounted unstable and not to be depended on
all In for a thing one minute and all done with
IL the next. ] waited to have something definite
TO show for my.work. and. when | got the guar.
antce of the rooms l stated my case, Ever since
thnI day the MOlnan's branch Of the CITY Mis-. |