The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-23
FOR CHICAGO WORKING GIRLS.
A CLUB THAT SOLVES THE PROB
LEM OF LIVING FOR THEM.
II Provides . Comfortable Home for Thirty
Women Earning Moderate ages 90
operative In Its Plan-B Began In q Flat
Now In Quarters OF Its Own

~ tt ~
Now In Quarters OF Its Own.
Chicago has a working-women's club
which liz for ahead Of anything Of the kind
In New York. In fact, there Is nothing OF
exactly the same dino in New York and IL
Is said hat there is no equally successful
example of cooperative housekeeping for
women elsewhere in the world.
The Jane Club is nine years old. but it is
only within the last three years that it has
settled down to uninterrupted prosperity
and has been pointed out as a model TO the
universe. 1t war always. to a certain
degree, successful. but there was expert
menting TO be- lone before certain vexed
problems. social and economic, could be
solved; and, until a generous and wealthy
woman came 10 the front and built a house
for the purpose, the Jane Gu could not,
for the money il could afford to spend on
rent. find ideal quarters.
The organization of the club is due, like
so many other good things, to Miss Jane
Adams Of Hull House. She understood
how difficult II was for a respectable girl,
earning moderate wages, to find a comfort
able and suitable home. that would be free
from the slightest suggestion of charity.
She suggested to a group of seven In
t~elligent girls, working at b~ookbinding,
cloakmaking and like trades, that they
should take a small fat together and see
whether their combined resources would
not furnish them a home more comfortable
than any they could obtain singly. To
make the experiment possible. Miss Adams
herself furnished the fiat and paid the
first months rent.
The girls liked the home and tried TO
make the venture pay, but found that to
put the thing on a paying basis the MEM
bership must be larger. IL was easy to
find the members, too easy; for additional
apartments were necessary, and tnally
the club found itself facing another prob
lem. 1t was too large. Its bulk made 1t
~unmanageable.
Much gray matter was expended upon
a study of the situation and, al last, the
leaders decided that thirty, no more. no
less, was the ideal lumber for home cooper
alton. Thirty girls would furnish enough
income 10 run the club. Thirty girls could
agree and live in harmony. A club OF
thirty girls, the Jane Club should be.
This decision was the cue for the fairy
godmother. she promptly made her en-
trance upon the scene. but she was a most
practical, businesslike, up-to-date ndivid
ual. No fooling with pumpkins and mice,
for her.
She was an old and stanch friend Of Hull
House, and had for years given a generous
sum annually 10 the Hull House day
nursery. She wanted 20 make "A per
manent gift TO the nursery, and saw in
the Jane Club an opportunity TO Kali two
birds with one stone.
She proposed building a four-story-and-a-
hall house near Hull House, a building
designed especially TO meet the needs Of
the Jane Club. This house she would give
TO Hull House, STIMULATING that il should be
rented at a rational rate to the Jane Club
and that TN. income derived from it should
be devoted to the day nursery.
The house was built and thirty girls took
possession. For SO n week each club mem
Der has a home much more attractive than
that Of the average city family called WELL
to-do.
There are thirty rooms in the house,
all except four being bedrooms. Eight
members occupy double rooms. The four
double rooms were provided for the ac-
commodation Of sisters or friends who
might prefer rooming together, but all the
other bedrooms are single, and each is the
castle of it's owner.
Every room is CHEEKY, well warmed.
well ventilated, well lighted, simply but
daintily furnished. The owner may eXer-
else her individual taste in the decoration
Of her room and Is required 10 assume
the care of that one room.
The four living rooms are all very big
and furnished in the best OF taste. The
floors ara Of hard wood, as are the floors
throughout the house, and there il a high
vainsc0tiug Of Georgia pine, above which
tho walls are finished in soft, rpstfll. plain
color, forming an excellent background for
an extraordinarily good collection Of piCt-
ures and casts.
The windows with the effective shapes,
the broad, picturesque window seats, the
high bricked chimneys with their broad
freplaces and the narrow colonial shelves.
the heavy square-panclled doors, the long
low shelves for pictures and b~ric-a-brac,
the piano. the artistic bookcases, the solid
comfortable Morris furniture, the wicker
l~ounging chairs, the piles Of gay cushions
all these details are such a. might belong
TO the home Of any woman Of refined taste,
provided she had enough money 10 build
a house TO suit her.
Tho dining room, spacious az an old-time
banquetting hall, il OF the most %attrac-
tive rooms in the house. The ceiling il
low N raftered, above the high pan
ellcd wainscoting runs a narrow shelf,
giving lodging to good bits old blue china,
faience and pottery.
The tables are hea w and polished 4
big freplaC" takes up much OF one side
wall. There IL a piano here. a. well az IN
the drawing room, andth" big room affords
an excellent place for social gatherings.
Back Of the dining room IL a kitchen 10
delight the heart Of any intelligent cook,
n kitchen fitted with all modern and labor
saving cuuycnicnCos A bicycle room X
in the basement and a locker Tor each girl,
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