The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-06
NEW MEANING
 OF SOCIAL CENTER Neighborhood House Gives New Word to Neighborliness A UNIQUE ASSOCIATION Whatever the Matter In Hand, a Pros ecution or Party. It Is
 of Common Interest
 to All
A UNIQUE ASSOCIATION

From g letter to LaFollette's Magazine.
 We are always grateful to those who coin for us new words. demanded by new conditions in our modern life, and we ought to be even more grateful to those who teach us new and larger and better meanings for old words. l took long trip recently for the purpose of seeing one of the settlements of Chi cago, and when the trip was over I felt that the best which 1t had brought to me was a new conception of the word neghborliness.
 Neighborhood house had its beginning about 1S years ago when Mrs. Harriet Van Der vaart thought to give the girls of her Sunday school class a chance to be really useful She hired a small dwell- 1 ing house and with the help of the girls started kindergarten. Then came clubs and classes and parties and with these the need of more room.
 I From the beginning Mrs. Van Der Vaart has had the assistance of Miss Anna Nicholes and her sister, Miss Grace Nicholes, women to whom fortune has given the choice between lives of ease and lives of labor, and who have chosen the latter suppose that those of us who have never been offered this choice 1 can hardly appreciate what it means and how easy it would be just to settle down and live on ones income. But there is another side. of course, and those who have never had the temptation to lapse l into idleness have never known the satis- | faction of looking back to work that has been done without pressure of ne- | cessity. Such work ought to have 8 larger reward than the other kind l hope it does have.
 1 When it became evident that there must be a new building, those who were most l interested wanted to have it erected through the cooperation of the people of the neighborhood. They had. as a model, Stanton Colts ideal for neighbor- hood guilds, which he had partly real ized in New York city. They called to- gether their friends in the district with the result that a Neighborhood House association was formed and a building committee appointed
 Unique Committee
 1 This committee was somewhat unique. l IL included a carpenter, a bricklayer a plumber and a representative of almost every building trade. When the con- struction began, therefore, there were experts to criticise every step of the prog ress. The stock was sold partly in the l neighborhood and partly to outsiders, but it was provided that each stock holder should have one vote in the man | agement of the house, and only one, no matter how many shares he took
 The building, as 1t now stands. is in two parts. The part on May street con-
 tains living rooms for the residents and
 a beautiful large parlor for small parties and committee meetings. The part on
 Sixty-seventh street. which at the back adjons the other section, contains a large auditorium with dressing rooms and a stage. It is a safe place for the young people of the neighborhood to dance and make merry. If it served no other pur- 1 pose it would be worth what it cost. 1 I would not if could give a list of all the activities of the Neighborhood House lists make dry reading, even at the best But here are a few facts that came to me as l looked about and listened. Miss Ncholes has a class in English for girls who have just gone to work. The pur- pose is to give them a command of lan- l gliage that will increase their efficiency. Many of the exercises are, l suppose, like those given in any class of this l kind, but one is unusual Each week the members of the class select, with l the assistance of their teacher, few words previously unused by them and whose meaning they have only dimly understood. These they try to intro- duce correctly into their conversation during the following week. They are not long words. but words which help l them to express themselves clearly.
 Lesson in English
 A discriminating use of adjectives is the chief object of this exercise. l | thought as Miss Nicholes told me about
 it, that most college girls would profit by similar exercise. If the grand of their vocabularies could be supple inenled by a few other adjectives they would not be obliged to describe their 1 favorite professor and their favorite ice cream sodas in the same terms. 1 On the wall of the auditorium I saw i a large map of the district, which inter ested me much. It had been prepared 1 by the Juvenile Protective league and l showed every saloon and dance hall in the neighborhood, as well as every church, school, park, playground and library--the shoals and the oases and the high places of that particular bit l of organized society.
 l On the Monday following my visit, Miss Nicholes was going into court for the purpose of getting two young girls l out of the custody or their mother, who had been proved to be the keeper of a house of bad repute. Mrs. Van Der Vaart is secretary of the Consum- CTS league and is interested in follow ing up cases of violation of the state factory laws.
 I But whatever the matter In hand may be, whether a party, or prosecution, or an excursion, 1t is of common in terest to all the neighborhood. You do fp1 faU things many others having things done for them. You find all working and play ing together.