The San Francisco call., 1904-12-27
LIVE LECTURE
TO Be GIVEN
Jacob Riis, the American
Sayonarola, to Talk for
Benefit of Delinquent Tykes
INTERESTS CLUBWOMEN
Address Will Be Under the
Auspices Of the Civic Sec
tion of California Club
BY Laura Bride Powers.


AS an element in the betterment of
civic conditions in San Francisco. the
California Clubs a trump!
1t works along educational, social
science and civic lines and these de-
partments of activity are pigeon-holed
off into a half-hundred sections, run
ming from harmony to hospitals.
Now, the civic section of the club was
the fond progenitor of the juvenile
court, agitating it's worth and assisting
vitally in the passage of laws making
1t possibility.
But the question of financing it was
left largely in the air-and purposely-
that there would be no valid reason for
the bills defeat.
For two years the California Club,
with other humane individuals and or
ganizations, has been contributing
tax for the salaries of the probationary
officers. That this great work should
have to depend upon philanthropy is
lamentable, but at this time such is
the case until the Board of Supervisors
make suitable provision for it's main
tenance in May-which every right
thinking man and woman in all the city
should rise up and demand. Then will
the board gladly comply, since it is
made UP of men who recognize the
value to the government of the intelli-
gent guidance of delinquent children.
That funds shall be available for the
good work, the civic section of the
California Club has induced Jacob Riis,
the deliverer of children in New York
slums, to talk upon his chosen work.
The lecture will be given at the AL
hambra, Monday evening, January 9,
and the distinguished visitor will tell
about Tony" a real waif of the Cot
ham streets, and will demonstrate his
] talk with stereopticon views of Tonys
hard lot.
This man Riis is a wonder! He has
/ been a moral derrick for the poor in the
4 tenements of his city, demonstrating
how a stout heart and strong mind,
! bent on a human errand, can change
conditions that a century of false living
had wrought.
The following terse recital Of the So
] cial revolution brought about by this
erstwhile reporter is an epitome of his
/ labors:
Z
rear tenemcnts, and thus relieved the hideous
/ darkness and density of life among the poor.
! 1t was the reporter with his nagging that
/ wiped out Mulberry Bend, the worst tenement
| block in the city. and had the space turned
| into a park. Riis spoke the word that melted
! Commissioner Roosevelt to abolish police sta
tion lodging houses Riis fought for and Sc
cured a truant school, where boys who play
! hooky are disciplined-they used to be impris-
oned with Juvenile criminals Riis did the work
I that won small parks for bad spots in the
city; he lsbored years for enough schools;
! he drove bakeshops with their fatal fires out
/ of tenement easements he demanded light
/ for dark tenement Railways, got 1t. and thus
/ opened one hiding-place, of vice. crime and
/ filth. He worked for the abolition of child
/ labor, and when a law enacted, COM
PEELED its enforcement Fairgrounds for
schools and the opening of schoolrooms to
/ boys and girls clubs were of his work And
! he raised the cry for flowers for the healthy
! as well as ehe sick poor.
/ Now, such a man is worth seeing.
/ Likewise is he worth hearing, If for no
more than to demonstrate the power
1 for good that lies in one heart, one
head and one pair of hands.
And don't forget, in hearing this
American Savonarola, that the proceeds
] of the lecture planned by the Califor-
MIA Clubs civic section will be devoted
to the very things that Jacob Riis has
done elsewhere, and that must be done
/ in San Francisco, unhampered by a
paucity of pennies.
| Remember the date, January 9, and
! the place, the Alhambra Theater.
You're going?