The San Francisco call., 1898-02-09
Actual Start of Rev. J. A. B. Wilson's Home for
 Girls.
He Describes the Ideal ReStinq Place for Independent
 Young Women.
The Good Work May Be Carried On by Any Four Benevolent
 People.

70 eStaDHSn nome for working women in San Francisco, similar to the one he so successfully conducted in New York some years ago. That San Francisco recognizes the need for such an institution Is evidenced by the fact that a recent article in The Call has awakened interest in Dr. Will sons scheme.
 "A gentleman who read of my inten- ton to start a home for women who must work and who are not receiving wages enough to pay their board in the ordinary boarding house. said Dr. Wilson yesterday, has made me most generous offer. He promises to give $10O toward furnishing such a home and s10 monthly to meet it's ex- penses.
 Now, If there are but four more like him in San Francisco the home may be established tomorrow.
 T have found the house which is ideally fitted for my plan. It is just four blocks from Market and Kearny streets. It has twelve rooms, large garden and a yard where chickens might be kept. And the rent Is only $25 a month All these homely details mean much for the success of this un- dertaking. And people are not aware or the great necessity for such place as l propose to establish. As I have said before, there are four places with in ten minutes walk of my office where dissolute women may be cared for without charge, but there is not, to my Knowledge, one place where re- spectacle women out of employment may be sent on the same conditions. Do you know that young girl from hospital, without employment, with out money and homeless, simulated approaching maternity in order to pro- cure shelter in home for the disso- Iute? Later, when taken i'll and car ried to the hospital, the physicians discovered the deception and found her to be absolutely chaste. I verified this story. In the winter of 1894 I was told that virtuous women had become in- toXicated that they might be admitted to shelters provided for the fallen, they Knowing of none for the pure
 Instances could be multiplied show Ing the importance of the movement in which San Franciscans are only just now showing proper Interest. There are thousands of girls thrown upon their own resources and making a noble fight to be good against both poverty and temptation, receiving but from $2 50 to $f per week; and, some of them, with others depending upon them for bread.
 
 up the fight, but that more do not The mightiest heroes and heroines are not the victors of battle, but these working girls who are fighting to be good against such fearful odds.
 Heres a case that I met when I started the cooperate in New York A young woman, a literary woman, had married. She had been very success ful with her work, but her husband be- came an invalid. She nursed him, had to give up all her engagements and when he died she was destitute and out of employment. Moreover, she couldn't pick up the threads of her profession which she had dropped In her trouble Finally she secured a place in pub fishing house, where she was employed to make translations in three lan- guages. She was a cultivated and a bright woman. They would have paid a man from $25 to $40 a week for such work They paid her s5. Now, where could she go to get board and lodging on S5 week and have little left with which to clothe herself, pay carfare. etc? She came to us and stayed with us year, till she got more remunera- tive employment, when her place in our home was filled by another"
 The best point about this sort of home for working girls which Dr. Wilson establishes is it's non-sectarian- ism. Imagine clean, comfortable, Kindly nome, where there's lack of red tape of offensive rules in short, of the bloodless, inhuman spirit that SO often mars charitable institutions.
 This home for girls Is not to be charity, though. It will be self-sup- porting after the home itself has been furnished and rent paid. After 1t has been fairly started it can provide a real home, including the little extras that belong to home life, by making a weekly charge of s2 50. And for young women who are temporarily un- employed there will be work about the home, so that proud self-respecting girls may have the pleasure of know ing that they are not objects of char ity.
 '"The mining man who has been the first to contribute toward the estab- lishment of so worthy an institution doesn't want his name made public The man or woman who will second his benevolent intentions could find no finer means of helping working women in the only really practical way to heip themselves.