The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-18
ITALIANS OF NEW HAVEN. WORK AMONG THEM
Home Missions Associati on Hears the Subject
 Discussed.

meeting of the New Haven Home mis- sions association held at the First NJ. E. church yesterday afternoon. The principal speaker was pr. Julia Teele of the Lowell house, and following her Miss Hettie Griggs and Miss Louise Schwartz, deaconesses, who are engaged in settlement work, and Mr. Amedia, the pastor of the Italian Methodist church, spoke.
 Dr. Teele spoke of the seven years existence of the Lowell house settle- ment. and the fact that the work had been installed in it's fine new quarters this last week. Here, she said, the work will have wider scope and larger opportunities.
 In year and half pr. Teele has been living in an Italian tenement with Italian neighbors. Her increasing med ical work has brought about a corre- Isponding decrease in social work and she is not enabled to give as much time to this important branch as she wishes she might. Tn the last month she has had ninety-hve different cases to attend among which were represented all kinds of diseases. In the visits to attend the sick Dr. Teele is able to learn a great many things about the actual conditions of the lives of the Italian people which she would otherwise re- main in ignorance of.
 Dr. Teele yesterday afternoon spoke strongly in favor of a public move- ment toward organizing company for the purpose of building sanitary houses for the Italians. There is not decent tenement. she said. in the whole neighborhood where she lives.
 A better milk supply for the tene- ment district is another of the crying needs. It is impossible to get good milk for the children. Something has been done lately through the investi- gations of last summer, and there is at present hope for better conditions. At present the milkmen pour the milk from cans into open pails
 The conditions of the back wards of the tenement districts are menace to the individuals and the city. Every con ceivable thing is heaped up in the back yard. dnd the rotting matter fills the air with germs
 There are a few cases. of lack of food among the Italians of the city, but there are many cases where there is a lack of good food. The staple articles of food, macaroni and beans, are healthful. but the meat and some of tho other articles are not what they ought to be-
 The ventilation conditions in the ten ement districts are improving. The people there are beginning to open their windows and let in the aig. The houses are becoming cleaner and the residents are ceasing to give wine and beer to the children.
 The mothers club for the Italian women, formed few years ago, is very successful and accomplishes a great deal of good, The mothers are very much Interested, and the influence which may come from such an organi- zation, can be well understood from the fact that in the past year one-third of the babies born in New Haven last year were Italians.
 Several speakers have addressed the women in their native tongue, includ- ing Prof. Mackenzie of Yale, whose subject was "Garibaldi" The dues of the club are seven cents month. to provide for keeping the meeting place clean and furnishing the lunch which is served after each session. The mothers are given coffee and cake and the babies. whom they have to bring with them, are given cake and milk
 A similar club for young married women is soon to be formed. The girls marry when they are seventeen and do not care to attend the meetings of the older women, all of which are conduct ed in Italian
 D.. Teele closed her address by say- ing that as the future of the city de- i pended so largely on the Italian citizens the Americans should exhaust every means in their power to exercise good Influence over them.
 Miss Griggs, who was the next speaker, said that of all nationalities who are coming to our shores. the largest number are Italians. In New York city alone there are i50.00O 1tal- ians The crime among this nationality is not so great as it seems. Miss Griggs said that MT. Ballington Booth had told her that through her investigations of the prisons she found that the Italians committed crimes through lack of Knowledge of the law. also that they did not know the police were supposed to protect them and so took the law into their own hands. The Italians said Miss Griggs, are splendid workmen and will soon be employers and nox em- ployes.
 The non enforcement of the Sunday closing law in this city. keeps the boys away from Sunday school The boys are forced to attend shop for their fa- thers and mothers.
 Rev. MT. Amedio spoke of the difficult ties under which the Protestant work is being carried on here and asked for support. He spoke of the need of edu- cation for the children and deDlored the fact that they attended the paroch- ial schools instead of the public schools.
 Miss Schwartz read several letters and postals she had received from former Sunday school pupils among the Italians, and spoke of the interest they take in the work