Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-22
AS ONE WOMAN SEES II
Life Of a Settlement Worker 10 Per.
force an Artificial One. but
cIersyman's Family Achieves
Naturalness
BY SARAH LOWRIE

was one WnlCn ran contrary TO tnc cOnVeH-
tional ideal of a subject. or one that praised
or blamed in very partisan spirit, or one
that In advocating one person or cause CEN
sured or at least deprecated, another per-
son or cause.
A great preacher told me once that II
was dangerous to be epigrammatic even In
a good cause. because 1t made you quotable
by the casual listener. and hence liable to
be used dangerously. And. of course. we
have Oliver Wendell Holmes as an author.
ity that 1t is not well TO be as funny es
you can be in public utterance.
But unless one occasionally finds oneself
at least unconsciously dropping q stone into
the pond that causes splash one might be
talking into disconnected phone for all the
inspiration one gets from ones public. And
l confess that occasionally i all. not uncon-
scious OF my intention that what l have
written in this column will make splash.
For even IL the splash vets me to the skin
1t gives me sense of public.
NIOW It so happened that one day last
~ month I went to a conference at set
tlcment house in the town and, having
worked in settlements for nearly ten years
In my twcntics and gotten much that was
helpful from the experience as by product
to giving n little that was helpful. I found
myself in position as left the place and
walked slowly home through great lengths
of poor streets to review the whole sub
that evening l set down in this column
little summary Of that review. As I did II
there was ono sentence that 1 paused over.
almost struck out. and then let stay as
IT was. 1t concerned the manner of living
of settlements workers. and I called theirs
IAN artificial life I knew that that word
would touch more than one person n little
OH the raw and bring down on my head
an answering criticism. The reason that
I paused over it after writing 1t was because
I hat " ha
but / wanted to be sure that knew that
it was.
We'll. I've heard from that sentence:
And the other day the woman that ! think
in Philadelphia took me gravely to task for
that particular column and, more than any
other, that particular phrase.
She snid that in dropping the obligations
entailcd by socety-spclled with a big s.
and the expectations of ones family with
that were sheerly of worldly nature. and
by devoting oneself to life and work in a
poor neghborhood under conditions that one
shared with one S neighbors, one threw aside
with almost dramatic emphasis artih-
ciality and became effectively natural.
She quarreled very seriously with my
terming her life in her great and successful
settlement an artificial one.
I asked her If her life or the life Of her
associates. together or US n community. was
they were very happy family. But when ]
pressed her as to its naturalness she wavcred
n bit.
COME settlement workers marry, but I
- never knew any who had children who
could be included rs part of the settlement
life. The children thatsSwarm in the settle
ments all day and every day are other
persons children. Settlement workers sit
down together at a common table. but it is
not like family board. 1t is cross
| between home boarding housc-so called
and boarding school, The gOings and
comings and interruptions and interests in
| the settlement house are not duplicated in
the neighborng homes about it. 1t is con-
tinuously giving out help or inspiration
of one sort or another which it draws from
! sources other than those of the neighbor.
hood. Its furniture. its atmosphere. its
| very simple provisions for the necessities
! of life are not the sane provisions and
never could be of the other houses up and
down the street. To be a successful worker
| in n settlement one must forgo a home Of
ones own; generally one is unmarried, or
| If married one must live ones married life
| by snatches and ones single life as the
| general order of ones days.
| If one is Il man working in a settlement.
one is surrounded on all sides by single
| ladies of varying ages with only an occa-
| sona fellow man on the horizon. If one
| is a woman. one is generally a spinster or
widow. not very often young girl.
seldom a married won.an and more seldom
| still n mother. ] have never known n
real live boy who lived a home life in a
settlement SO to the extent that the so.
called families are composed for the most
part of persons incapable of creating a
family on account of the circumstances of
| their daily lives. to that extent IS the atmos-
phere an artificial one
You cannot duplicate that life in the
| homes about the settlement any more than
you can duplicate school or college life In
the homes Of the students.
AS A school the settlement has mission.
"A but not as home. The children and
the half grown girls and boys who come
gladly to its clubs, and the mothers and the
occasional fathers who patronize its enter
tainments, can get from 1t what any one gets
from a cheerful. good school; but they have
| 10 leave home to get it, and on returning
! TO their homes they cannot carry 1t as n
| model back with them, any more than any
| ordinary high school graduate who is about
to be married regards her principal or her
| school room as possible models for hcl
| coming life as bride.
There is kind Of family life. however,
| that may be lived model for all the
ncighboring families about, which may kcer
IT'S naturainess even while in another sense
il has artifcally changed its environment
And that is the family life of the clergy
!
the city's churches.
Those men, even in the poor streets. have
| little moro to live on tnan would be thu
average income of one Of their thrift,
narishioncrs. Their parsonages or rcctorie
or manscs are generally fitted to their In
comes and placed in ncighborhood tina
would be representative of the bulk Of thei
church members. Their education and tha
~ their wives may be superior to that o
most Of their neighbors. but that would no
| n bpi IN
Of view
Their children may be in the way Of
bettcr education than the children of thei
ncghbors. but that, too is not due to NOR
income. but TO a shift in the items on tn
family budget, so that more money is spen
; on education and less on porch furnishing
than their neighbors feel Is obligatory t
their position.
CLERGYMAN has to dress better Il