The San Francisco call., 1898-01-09
Delightfully."- Novel Insti- tution Projected by
 Dr. Wilson.
No Rules, No Board, No Man ager, No Preliminary
 Tests.
Simply Place Where the Young Working Women May Rest
 Happily.

The Rev John Wilson, pastor of the Howard Street Church, believes in an ounce of prevention.
 "The work I advocate Is not so pie turesque, 1t is not nearly so easy to interest others in as reclaim ing the vicious. It's odd. yet it's true, and I suppose it's human na- ture, but for ten good women who will work to reform an erring sister there is only one who feels 1t her duty to pre- vent that sisters becoming wayward.
 My wish Is to found here cooper ative home like that founded in New York. Within thirty minutes travel from my church there were at least ten institutions where absolute women would be received and cared for. There was not one place where respectable, virtuous girl, temporarily out of work or working for very low wages, could find accommodation"
 There does seem something novel about plan for the comfortable hous ing of girls who have not that claim upon society which is covert threat. The only revenge that lies within a working girls power upon an indiffer- ent, well-fed world is to become a charge upon it. But to do that she must deteriorate morally. pr. Wilson says: Good women are not interested in needy women unless the latter are naughty"
 There is another point about pr. Will sons plan which has been successfully | operated in New York for four years, that is delightfully."- novel
 Here is an institution absolutely with out rules, without a board, without a meddlesome manager, with no barri cade of preliminary tests and qualifi- cations, with no strangling red tape re- | Quirements to discourage those who would enter and to stifle those who are already members.
 Are you a decent woman? Then come in. Your creed may be whatever best | satisfies you. The disposition of your time is your own affair. The people, male or female, who visit you shall be no more restricted than in visiting you at your own home. In fact, you shall be treated as though you were human, | though poor. The cost of this to you will be g per week, and you will have the privilege of using laundry and sew | ing room.
 Everybody has an ideal" said Dr.. ! Wilson. Mine is to establish the sort | of atmosphere there is among the l l would have no rules, no constitution and bylaws. I would have a treasur- CT, though, so that should not handle the funds and run any risk of black mail and that sort of thing
 There are in San Francisco, as there are in New York, many girls who work from morning till night for 8 a week. Where can those who are without rela- 1 tives find homes in this city? And | when a girl is homeless, when she l doesn't earn enough to house and feed her. leaving out clothing, what slight, a fearfully slight barrier there is be- tween her and depravityi
 "A woman, a working woman gave me the first $50 received in New York to start home there. We got base ment, but 1t was steam heated, and we put in twelve beds, curtained or screen ed into something like privacy. Then ! there was a large sitting-room This was the beginning. Now the co-opera- tive home occupies flat with quarters for eighteen boarders. Each girl was expected to keep her own room in or der, and when girls who could not af- ford to pay the homes prices were ad- mitted, they were given work to do that would pay for their board.
 People have asked me if I found the girls grateful.
 'I have simply answered that they didn't owe me or any one else grati- tude. It's purely @ business arrange ment, tempered with just little mer- cy and humanity. But Mrs. Wilson and Lit is she who is the real head in this undertaking-have found innumer- able cases for whose sake we were grateful that there was such a place in the world.
 There Is need for such a place in San Francisco. People do not realize how many women are working here who earn barely enough to keep them They should have a home, a good home which they can pay for, and which will no more be a charity than the educa- ton of our sons at Yale or Harvard is though it costs four times as much to maintain those institutions as is paid In for tuition.
 with $500 a home could be provid- ed for young working women, which fl each fifteen members paid g a week would be self-supporting. If rent and furniture were provided such a home could be started immediately. Ii should be located near town, so that girls might be spared carfare and loss of time.
 Think how little this is in compari son with the sums expended for the re- clamatfon of the weak and wicked And think how much the number o. these might be diminished were one tenth, yes, one one-hundredth, given fo the benefit of those who are strong an( [ virtuous enough to resist temptation 'This scheme Is perfectly practical It has been done. It could be done, ant ,, it should be done"