New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-12-07

movers Among those associated with Miss Potter
in the venture Jacob A Riis, who has made
special study of East Side conditions Thatcher NJ
Brown, Frank R. Cordley and Miss Sara Straus
Miss Lillian D. VALID of No. 265 Henry-st, who has
lived ten years in this part Of the city and
VINO said have first conceived the idea OF such
an enterprise is the president of the company
1t may be truthfully said that the scope and pur-
pose of both the Cannon-st and the Clinton-st
houses have not only the sanction, but also the
solicitude of Bishop Potter. whose wife and niece
directly interested in them The Bishops views
regarding the saloon and the best way to fight it
well summed up in the letter which he once
wrote TO the Editor Of The Western Christian
Advocate and which contained these words:
Of TO anS
will always be necessity. The saloon may be
thing better something wholesome, harmless, un-
defled and undehling, must take its place. and 50
do this and Prohibition has failed Dsnunciati9n
employed as the history of the Liverpool coffee
houses has shown.
Bishop Potter made this statement, not from
casual observation by looking at the inhabitants
OF the tenement districts through tie glass front
OF a hanson cab, but from close study and
tact For example in the heat Of the summer of
1896 the Bishop relinqushed his vacation period OF
rest and spent a month at the Stanton-st- mis-
sion, in the very heart of the Sums called.
visiting helping. talking and encouraging. All
that time he Stunned no contact nor withheld his
hand from any He visited the tailor shops
and sweat
the saloons and quietly calculated their allure
rnents and their capacity for evil. He sounded the
depths of that chasm which separates the East
Side from the West Side. the poor from the rich.
the ignorant from the educated, but found human
nature, bottom. the same
The house which IS being built by the Bishops
wife In Cannon-st. will be used for mems club,
1t will have the same relation to Cannon-st. that
the Metropolitan Club has to Fifth-ave. Its three
stories and basement will be fitted according TO
ifs de men
silent approval of its founder The building Is not
large having front of only twenty-five feet, with
a depth of about seventy feet but ii will be utilized
to a far greater extent than the ordinary club
house.
Mrs Potter, in all her work among the poor, has
always sought to prevent the appearance of char
itv Thus in the Settlement house which the new
mems clubhouse adjoins, the nominal charge of one
cent day is collected from the pupils of the kin
dergarten classes. There WILL therefore, be nomi-
nal fees for the members of the mems club, but so
small that they will not prevent the poorest from
ENJOYING its privileges. Here the workingman will
be able to find all the comforts of the saloon,
without any of its evils. On the main floor there
will be a large dining room. or cafe, where meals
will be served at cost. Mrs. Potter is understood
TO regard with disfavor the use or beer ana "lhe'
except with meals
The frant rooms OF the two upper floors and the
roof In summer will be used for recreation pur-
poses and furnished with card tables, ollaro
tables and other -'recreative appliances. In the
same way IL not luxuriously, as F1fth-ave
club house The surroundings will be wholesome
and moral and in contrast the ordinary corner
srog shop will be made TO appear squaiid and re-
pulsiye II the club is successful. MIS- Potter
intends to build others, as TO extend as f2r
as possible throughout the congested quarters OF
the poor the uplifting and refining inhu-
ences Mrs Potter has by no means forgotten the
women Thus in the Settlement House, next door
TO the prospective mems clubhouse, the women
come with their children and enjoy the cool air
of the shaded roof. hot summer days Here
there are cooking classes for the girls, and Dig
lecture room where both men and women may
gather to hear some speaker. or for merely social
,,,,noroS and .r,nsement To women will also be