Evening star. [volume], April 19, 1908, Image 31

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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Jane /
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THE winter of 1804-'<>5, following the t
World's Fair, was a terrible one in
Chicago. The aftermath of disaster ,
put upon the city a bewildering problem.
.Chicago had to find bread for an army of
honest men who walked her streets; and
also had to club into subm>ssion dens of
thieves and hordes of tramps. W. T.
Stead came over to write his book, "If
Christ. Came to Chicago," took his place
in the bread line, and went about interviewing
gamblers, thieves, divekeepers, as
well as relief committeemen.
And one wintry night, warming his
hands before the hospitable fire in Hull
House, after he had waited all day in the
blizzard- with the rabble to get a job as
city laborer, thinking over the disconcerting
things he had seen.?the insolence
of the rich, the ignorance and miseries of
the poor,?Stead said to a friend, "There
b still one hope for the new social democracy.
and when I reflect on Jane Addams's
mission and contemplate the true meaning
of this work she has built up, I am
sure that if Christ ever comes to Chicago,
He will stop at Hull House."
It is now sixteen years since Jane Addams
began her Hull House social exper
Lately, I went over the whole work. I wis
see the little helper in her own parish. Yes;
defined accurately the spirit of the new demc
and I am only sorry that he did not put hi
mar>" in his book.
Jane Addams! How splendid has been h<
cess is long a matter of record. Her magr
achievement, Hull House, has set at rest
time any doubt that may have existed as
eminence of her nosition. and of her rank t
stage of life.
She knows the high, the middle class, and t
knows more of the rich than the rich do of
selves, more of the trench diggers than you'll
many large volumes. And through it all, as I s
this woman and her work, came the somethir
brings the vision and the dream. And if yoi
get that, you'll get nothing from Chicago an
House, as I found it. Difficult to understan
depends. At first, I learned that at this
nine thousand men, women, and children
Hull House, as the group of buildings is cal
take dancing lessons, to sew, to make h;
drink a cup of coffee, to paint pictures, to
and throw clay; but until I met Jane Addan
self, I didn't begin to catch the inspiration.
Beyond a shadow of doubt, she is endowe
the sacred flame of genius. One has only to s
to come under the spell of her personality, ir
to understand her success.
But the puzzling thine about it is tha
Addams does not stand out of the picture;
artists say, she stands in the picture. She
quiet way of gliding out of the center. F
thing, she handed me a fifty-page brown c
book and told me quietly, "This is Hull F
Day aft?r day I gathered documents abo
prose of Hull House, met Miss Addams several
and saw her many times doing her work. He
0
IS MY NEIC
iddams and Her Hull House
7 JOHN HUBERT GREUSEL
Drawing by Armand Both
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iment. netism, her influence, the way people believe in her, /"V*?E i
hed to her sincere desire to understand the lives around the
Stead her,?all these intangible influences soon satisfied me heart w
>cracy, that Hull House was not the chocolate covered book, special 1
s sum- Europe.
Hull House in a Nutshell decayed
if CI ir*- A T T D \T I? VI Vn 4- V* <v\<? rrV* rAiTA?>n 1 /1o i?r f Ua * i ? V* r\ 1 /-? />/-? r? rt fo ?*fV* ? ?
^ v ? A-rf x v-? , iiuuu^ii at v tiai ua \ a, 111c w nuic wui- a lai iuii
lificent plex experiment, Hull House came down little by and un\
for all little in my mind to four simple words: "Who is cabbage
to the my neighbor?" On the objective side, Hull House on her
?n the comprises a whole city block, a group of brick and mysterii
stone buildings expressing the character known as hiding \
he pit, the social settlement rather than the formal insti- It m;
them- tutional style,?all devoted to neighborliness (re- in Lon<
find in member that word), for the higher civic life, educa- should 1
itudied tional and philanthropic work, and the improve- sheltere
lg that ment of social conditions among Chicago's indus- the bitt
j can't trial workers,?and on the subjective side I found, to the a
d Hull after all, that Hull House was Jane Addams, and Whitecl
d? It so I alwavs take you back to her. If yo
season This impulse back of Hull House, this something mystery
go to that grips you and holds you, should it ever become you wil
led, to a daily* reminder, you would never dream of de- through
tts, to manding any privilege that all other men do not you pie
model share. You smile. You say, " It will never come, House,
as her- this social democracy; people are too selfish.", study h
Very well, as you will. But remember, "never" is cern he
d with a long, long, time, and men's ideas are slowly but her indi]
ee her, surely changing. A thousand and one influences and the
1 order in unexpected places are working to transform the social fe
old order. ness in 1
t Jane What is it that she wishes to say? Hull House She s
as the friends look back with amiable smiles at the mis- relation
has a conceptions of the public, at the beginning. What! so callet
or one a refined, traveled woman, with money enough to she reac
overed live elsewhere, deliberately choosing to go down on plans, a
louse." Halsted-st., among the rag pickers? And an art You ;
ut the gallery, did you say? The condition of the poor judge."
. times, preyed on her mind; a sympathy inherited perhaps bor?"
;r mag- from her father who was stirred by Mazzini's battle but perl
iHBOR"
Work
jB \
JsOfmLi Ap>
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for the Italian peasants, living over there
lilr#? hearts in tVi#? fiplH
Somewhere, she got hold of a subtle test
of brotherhood. In another form, the
Catholic Church has it; that the soul of a
Bishop, after all is said, is no more valuable
and no less valuable than the soul of a
thief. But she applied it socially.
Suppose, she asked,?she was supposing
the case,?that when a man grew rich, he
did not move away from his humble
friends, but actually remained where he
was and opened his house to his poor
neighbors? Wouldn't his fine home and
his wife's refinement and his own kind
heart be a useful object lesson?
But the trouble with all social machines
is that they lack- heart. Jane Addams
saw that, without heart, Hull House, or
any other house, was already as good as
dead and buried.
These ideas did not come overnight; but,
like the magic orange tree that Kellar
makes grow before your eyes, from the
naked seed. Years went by before Jane
Addams came to the point of departure.
When the Inspiration Came
summer when abroad, she wandered through
Whitechapel district of London; and her
as touched, her eyes shamed. She had no
nl r, (l>n n .-I 1 1 ' m m/?
liiuugxii ui wui ft., sue was iuiv iuuilug
That night, at a curbstone auction sale of
. vegetables, she saw a starving man bid in for
tig a stale cabbage; grab and devour it raw
vashed. That awful hand, clutching at the
, those snapping teeth, were photographed
brain; and at times to this day the hand
ously appears, at times, abruptly out of its
place in her brain and makes her shiver,
ikes you think something wrong, eh, that
ion, a city of a thousand churches, men
be starving to death? But what should a
d, educated young woman have to do with
er cry of London? Why not go on her way
rt galleries, aine at tne Dig noteis, ana let
iapel and its horrors fade quickly away?
u can answer that, you can unriddle the
'of Jane Addams's personality;and possibly
1 also be able to tell, by the time you get
, what love is. Gather all the documents
ase about the classes and lectures in Hull
and your work is by no means ended; but
er that night in Whitechapel, and you disr
whole subsequent history compressed into
gnation, her pity, and her social revolt. Then
re she first exhibits the firm foundation of
?ling on which she is to build all her usefulf"hi-i
life
ia\v like a flash that her own conduct in
to others was of more value than all the
i culture money could buy. For five years
1, thought, and traveled, made and tore up
nd finally returned to Chicago,
isk abruptly, ' Define her work, and let us
Well, suppose I ask, "Who is my neighYou
think you understand that, no doubt;
laps not in Miss Addains's special sense. Her