Graham Taylor [Resident Warden] .
 
 \!u MJkVfcY
 
 ' '
 
 Chicago Commons 
 
 A Social Center for 
 Civic Co -operation 
 
 Grand Avenue and Morga.n Street, 
 Chicago 
 
 December 1904
 
 . ^7731) 
 
 C K i eago Commons : 
 
 A Social Center for Civic Co-operation 
 
 By Gra.ha.rn Taylor, Resident Warden 
 
 America needs discovering over again. A new America is 
 coining to be. It is being made of all the old peoples, but in 
 combination so new that their life together is almost as unknown 
 and strange as the land was to the discoverers. Ships were not 
 more necessary to the explorers in finding the new world, than 
 centers of population were to the colonists in founding the new 
 
 nation. At the geographical centers of their original towns our 
 New England forefathers forged three links of association for 
 the common interest. Their ''center" church was like the flag- 
 staff of the commonwealth which kept floating high over the 
 heads of all, their ideals of life, individual and social. Closely 
 allied with it was the free school, the bulwark of the state and 
 the buckler to the citizen, in being a common possession to which 
 
 1 
 
 
 Lost 
 Centers.
 
 all had more equal right than to anything except the village 
 green. Under-girding both and representing the whole com- 
 munity was the Town Meeting, where freemen met on an 
 equality never realized before. 
 
 But our populations no sooner became diverse in race and 
 religion and subdivided in industrial occupations and interests, 
 
 From Sunny Italy to eight below zero. 
 
 A Common 
 Denomi- 
 nator. 
 
 than they began to lose these centers of association. The 
 churches continued to hold up the common ideals of religion 
 and generate the power for self-sacrificing service. But as they 
 themselves were divided more and more by the very intensity 
 of religious conviction, they became less and less able to rally 
 the whole community for united action. The towns fast and far 
 outgrew the political possibilities of the Town Meeting. But the 
 more effective party caucus, priimry and convention were sorry and 
 divisive substitutes for its social co-operation. The public school 
 remains not only all that it was planned to be, but with far more 
 possibilities of neighborhood helpfulness than was even dreamed 
 of until very recently. 
 
 Meanwhile in America as nowhere else in the world a com- 
 mon denominator is needed to solve the problem of our increas- 
 ingly cosmopolite 1 n population and complicated life. The lesson 
 of living and working together which our forefathers learned
 
 so well under their simple conditions, we must learn over again 
 in a complexity of life hitherto unequaled in any land or age. 
 To recover some sort of a center and bond of fellowship and co- 
 operation, under the changed conditions of life and labor in 
 all our cities, many of our smaller towns and even in country 
 places, has become more and more of a social, political and 
 moral, not to say human, necessity. For it is just those pop- 
 ulations which have lost or never had their centers of neigh- 
 borly and patriotic co-operation that have been the worst prey 
 of corrupt politics and the boss, of class distinction and the 
 demagogue, and of a sectarianism suicidal to religion. To restore 
 the spirit and bond of neighborship is the need of the hour. To 
 beget the consciousness of each other, a respect for each other's 
 characteristic differences, and enough of a give-and-take good 
 fellowship to live and work with each other has become as im- 
 perative as the instinct of self-preservation. 
 
 For a New 
 Neighbor- 
 ship. 
 
 The landscape where there arc 00,000 people to the square mile. 
 
 3
 
 This call out of the great deep of the common life was 
 answered out of the depth of some individual lives. A heart 
 hunger for a larger share of the race life, a greater part in real 
 things, a conscious identity with the common life sprang up 
 here and there among those who, for one reason or another, felt 
 more or less apart from human kind. So, more by an instinctive 
 impulse than by any concerted movement, groups of men and 
 women, at first only from the universities, but more and more 
 from other and equally adequate sources of supply, took up their 
 residence among and became a part of the residential population 
 in the industrial districts of the cities. 
 
 Thus social settlements arose almost spontaneously, just where 
 To Share the density of population and complexity of Hie most lacked and 
 The demanded the ideal, the initiative and the common ground which, 
 Common in part, at least, are supplied at these co-operative centers. 
 Lot. We, who are at Chicago Commons to share the common 
 lot, choose to live, for our own and others' sake, where 
 we seem to be most needed, rather than where the neigh- 
 borhood is supposed to offer the most of social privilege 
 or prestige. We are here to be all we can to the people 
 and to receive all they are to us as friends and neighbors. We 
 assume the full obligations and claim all the rights of citizenship 
 in a community with whose interests we identify ourselves, 
 whose conditions we share and for whose home happiness, 
 material welfare, political freedom and social privilege and 
 progress we try to do our part. When in order to be entrusted 
 with and legally hold the tenure of a building and its equipment 
 for neighborhood service, a few friends of the settlement and 
 its community were incorporated under the laws of Illinois into 
 the very informally organized Chicago Commons Association, its 
 purpose was formulated for the articles of incorporation thus : 
 "The object for which it is formed is to provide a center of 
 a higher civic and social life, to initiate and maintain religious, 
 educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and 
 improve conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." 
 
 But in the fellowship of its work Chicago Commons is as little 
 of an organization and as much of a personal relationship as 
 it can be made. It seeks to unify and help all other organi- 
 zations and people in the neighborhood that make for right- 
 eousness and brotherhood. It is not a church, but is a helper 
 of all the churches and is in active co-operation with the only 
 English speaking congregation among them. It is not a charity, 
 
 4
 
 but aids in the organization and mutual helpfulness of all charita- 
 ble agencies. It is not a school, but it is in tributary sympathy 
 and action with the public schools to which it will give up any 
 part of its work that they will take up. It is nonpartisan, but 
 has been a rallying point whence the balance of political power 
 has been effectively wielded in aldermanic and legislative elec- 
 tions for nearly a decade. It is not an exclusive social circle* 
 but aspires to be a center and source of the best social life and 
 
 Opening Day at the Playground. 
 
 the highest civic patriotism. It is not a "class conscious" group, 
 but refusing to be classified, strives to interpret classes to each 
 other and to mediate for a just industrial peace. 
 
 Long before there \vas any organization or any property or 
 
 5
 
 An Ex- 
 change of 
 Values. 
 
 If Fellow 
 
 Citizens be 
 
 Friends. 
 
 equipment to require it, the Chicago Commons household became 
 a center for the simple and natural interchange of personal 
 values. Representatives of most of the twenty or more nation- 
 alities constituting the very cosmopolitan population, for the 
 first time met on common ground, and found in each other so 
 much to interest, respect and attract, that a new bond of neigh- 
 borly relationship and co-operation was naturally formed. For 
 ten years this good fellowship has deepened and spread. Par- 
 ents were re-introduced both to their children and to each other, 
 and, from the natural "freemasonry" of their boys and girls, 
 became "hale fellows well met." A new neighborliness spon- 
 taneously sprang 
 'ip around the 
 common center, 
 which has always 
 had a family at 
 the heart of it. An 
 .unfailing succes- 
 sion of capable and 
 unpaid resident 
 and non-resident 
 workers has given 
 and received char- 
 acter values and 
 help to self help in 
 equal proportions 
 with the neighbors. 
 A still larger num- 
 ber of those, differing from each other in circumstances, in 
 views and in personal interests, were here interpreted to one an- 
 other. Employers and employees, suburban residents and tene- 
 ment dwellers, radicals and conservatives, partisans and sectari- 
 ans, exclusives and common folk came to be to each other by 
 turns nothing more nor less than men and women. And so 
 fellow citizens became friends. 
 
 Out of these personal affiliations there gradually arose a 
 series of social clubs with varying aims and methods. Their edu- 
 cational value has always been real and designed. But the 
 educational purpose and method have always been held secondary, 
 and even incidental, to their primary and most effective social 
 aim. While the Choral Club, for instance, has steadily raised 
 its standard of musical taste and achievement, it has grown up 
 
 Wash Day at Camp Commons.
 
 around the rare spirit of fraternity and service which character- 
 izes it. Its "Guild of Song for the Suffering" co-operating with 
 the work of the district visiting nurse, makes music a medium 
 of higher worth than the study of it for its own sake could ever 
 be. The programs of the Woman's Club have intellectually 
 developed every one of its many members who have participated 
 in them, but the glorious good fellowship of its membership, and 
 its enlistment of personal interest and help in an ever widening 
 range of neighborhood, civic and social co-operation has far 
 more developed the nature, broadened the life and increased the 
 practical efficiency of every woman. While the results of educa- 
 tional effort could not be more direct than those attained in the 
 manual training and in the domestic science departments, for 
 instance, yet the reflexive 
 influence of settlement 
 life and service is edu- 
 cationally as effective and 
 even wider reaching. Here 
 students of neighboring 
 universities and profes- 
 sional schools have found 
 such valuable first-hand 
 contact with life that 
 Chicago Commons has 
 come to be an inter- 
 academic center whose 
 advantages are so widely 
 sought that a waiting 
 list of applicants for 
 residence affords us a 
 wider range of choice. A 
 settlement fellowship has 
 been maintained here by 
 the students and profes- 
 sors of the University 
 of Michigan for the past 
 eight years. The Fellow 
 of the College Settle- 
 ments Association is now 
 in residence. Whole class- 
 es, with their instructors, 
 
 From 
 College to 
 Tenement. 
 
 Where parks arc needed.
 
 Educational 
 Initiative. 
 
 Before and 
 
 After 
 Politically. 
 
 are frequently in attendance upon regular or special occasions. In- 
 itiative was given by this settlement to the Institute of Social Sci- 
 ence arid Arts, the training school for philanthropic and social 
 service, which has recently been established in this city by the co- 
 operation of experts at the head of specialized agencies with the 
 University of Chicago. In addition to directing these departments 
 of instruction at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Theo- 
 logical Seminary and the settlement, the warden during the ten 
 years of his residence has so constantly responded to widely 
 scattered calls for popular teaching that an extension lectureship 
 has informally developed with more regularly recurring op- 
 portunities for brief courses at educational and other centers 
 throughout the country than can possibly be taken advantage of. 
 
 By a more direct medium of exchange than money, industrial 
 values have interchanged at Chicago Commons. Without fear 
 or favor men have expressed themselves, and have been inter- 
 preted to each other across the lines of industrial cleavage and 
 class antagonism. Extreme radicalism has well nigh disap- 
 peared through the safety valve of free speech. The "free-floor" 
 discussions, having fulfilled their function in establishing respect 
 for individual convictions and freedom of personal expression, 
 have been superseded by a club of neighborhood men, for social 
 fellowship in the study and practice of good citizenship. Such 
 has been the confidence inspired by the sometimes costly impar- 
 tiality of the settlement's independent attitude, that the services 
 of its warden are sought for the arbitration of industrial disputes. 
 
 The contrast between the politics of the ward and its repre- 
 sentatives in the City Council before and after the balance of 
 political power began to be wielded by its independent vote, em- 
 phasizes as nothing else can the value of such centers for pro- 
 moting and perpetuating good citizenship. For years this ward 
 regularly furnished its full quota to the "gang" majority in the 
 council chamber, which numbered fifty-eight over against an hon- 
 est minority of only ten. After eight years of struggle, in which 
 the Community Club became the live-wire of the Municipal Vot- 
 er's League, its aldermen have been among the ablest and most 
 aggressive constituents of an honest majority of fifty-five, easily 
 controlling the remnant of fifteen "gray wolves" still surviving 
 the killing-off of the pack. The judge presiding over the election 
 commissioners declares that in as many years of service he has 
 never known the voters of a district better to understand the
 
 election law and more fearlessly and independently to enforce it. 
 The citizens, thus emancipated, take more intelligent interest 
 in the departments of city administration and their work in the 
 ward, in the progress of the schools over whose public occasions 
 their aldermen now preside, and in the municipal policy with 
 reference to street railways and other questions of common 
 concern. 
 
 The Auditorium. 
 
 These wider aspects of the settlement work, although of most 
 interest to the general reader, do not even indicate the influence 
 of the house as a neighborhood center upon individual character, 
 home life, and the social relationships of the community. The 
 few pictures, to which limited space confines our description, can 
 only faintly suggest the ways in which personal ideals are lifted, 
 tastes are cultivated, pleasures are purified, labor is lightened, 
 friendships are deepened as they are formed about higher inter- 
 ests, and the religion of relationship to the divine and the human 
 is realized. 
 
 The intellectual, manual, recreative, civic, ethical and religious 
 work with the multitude of small groups, centering at and man- 
 aged by the house, indoors, on playground, in park, museum and 
 "Camp Commons," by no means measures its influence. For, 
 outside organizations using its facilities in their own or neigh- 
 
 9 
 
 Inside 
 and Out.
 
 Where all 
 Meet and 
 Mingle. 
 
 The 
 
 Neighbors' 
 Response. 
 
 borhood interests are as effective as anything attempted by the 
 residents. The gymnasium is at the daily disposal of the neigh- 
 boring Montefiore public school, whose building is pitifully in-- 
 adequate for the neediest children to be found in the city. 
 Alumni associations of three public schools regularly meet here, 
 as does the "Sisters" School Gub of St. Stephen's Roman 
 Catholic parish. The Armenian colony unites its diverse inter- 
 ests under our roof; the nationalists, the old Gregorian church 
 and the Protestant mission, meeting separately and sometimes 
 together. The alumni and other associations of Lutheran 
 churches, and also a Catholic temperance order are equally at 
 home on this common ground. Pleasure clubs, athletic associa- 
 tions, private musical and elocution classes share the hospitality 
 of the house. 
 
 The telephone exchange girls through a self-governing club 
 supply other settlement organizations with entertainment pro- 
 grams and assist in other features of the work. 
 
 Public school teachers and district nurses come to it for their 
 noon day rest. The Chicago Daily News free public lecture 
 course, for the adult constituency of the school district, is held 
 in our auditorium. All political parties hold their mass meet- 
 ings there. The Tabernacle Church has the use of the whole 
 new building reared on its old corner for its services, Sunday- 
 school, Children's church and weekly appointments, which are 
 independent of and distinct from settlement occasions. 
 
 The fire-light-story evening in the club room, the Saturday 
 night socials around the open-hearth of the neighborhood parlor, 
 and the "family resort" provided at the Pleasant Sunday After- 
 noons in the auditorium cheerily round out the equipment for 
 household pleasure and profit which is added to every home 
 by this neighborhood house. The response of the neighbors 
 to the advantage thus ottered is partly measured by the num- 
 bers using the house, and by the share they bear of the cost of 
 maintenance. The permanent settlement groups include 2,500 
 regular attendants. The weekly attendance in the Tabernacle 
 Church groups numbers over 800. The total number of those 
 thus regularly coming to the house is over 3,200. Some weeks 
 the outside groups and special occasions add from 500 to 1,000 
 more people using the building. 
 
 The financial co-operation of the neighborhood groups yields 
 about $1,800 per annum toward maintenance, to which all of 
 them contribute something. But some of them give liberally to 
 
 10
 
 the common cause in ways not registered upon settlement ac- 
 counts. 
 
 The values entering into individual lives and becoming a part 
 of community interests transcend those which are to be calculat- 
 ed by the use of the center whence they emanate. Facts and fig- 
 ures, groups and occasions, cannot tell the whole story. For the 
 larger and better part of it lies in the hidden history of human 
 hearts, and in those pervasive influences which go forth not only 
 directly, and through co-operation with the district nurse, the 
 charity bureau, the department of health, the building 1 and street 
 inspectors, the juvenile court and the police station house, the 
 aldermen of the ward, the public schools, the universities, the 
 labor unions, employer's associations and the churches, but also 
 by that more subtle uplift and unification of the common life 
 imparted by the mere existence and success of such an effort. 
 
 Estimated by the cost of the building and its equipment, 
 $72,000 (on which $9,175 remain to be paid), and the $10,650 re- 
 quired to maintain it and the work, the dividend declared, in the 
 gratuitous service of the resident and non-resident workers and 
 in the steadily rising personal, neighborhood, civic, and still 
 wider social values rates the investment among preferred public 
 securities. 
 
 For Value 
 Received. 
 
 11
 
 y CC O i/} Q re O* vO O 
 
 * I T 1 ^ I 1 r i 
 
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 f" S ; : '. : i : : i : ..-.... 
 < : E ::-:::::..::: : 
 
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 How SUPPORTED. 
 .... By Training School 
 N 
 ....Bypupils' tuition. $60 each per year 
 t $90 per Mo. Paid for children $30. Bal. shared by Matheon Club 
 Material, fuel, light & janitor paid by IDC. and gc. lesson fees 
 .. ..Cost of Material met by makers of Garments 
 .. ..Self -Supporting 
 .... Pays teacher and furnishes Material 
 .... Meets all expenses 
 .. ..Supported by exchange of work for garments 
 .. ..Weekly dues maintain Equipment , 
 . . .. Pupils purchase lumber 
 
 .. ..Class fees maintain Equipment. . 
 
 hfl 
 c 
 
 t 
 
 H 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 .. ..Cost $450, met in part by campers. Boys 145, Girls 130 
 ...Cost $350 for four Months. Average daily attendance 
 
 Milk paid for by purchases. Bottles per week 
 
 JlAlsUV LrK.Ul.'1'S Kh.UUJ.AKL.Y MKH.T1NU 
 AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCES ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS 
 TOTAL AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE .. 
 
 ~). . .Contributory . . . 
 .. ..Supported by Choral Club . 
 
 .. ..Self -Sup port ing 
 ....Contributory . 
 . . . .Self -Supporting 
 .... Contributory to Nursery 
 
 
 
 j ; : 
 Q ::.;:. '. . 
 
 ta ;:::: 5 '.^ 
 
 en 
 
 STERILIZED MILK 
 PERMANENT SETTLEMENT GROUPS... . 
 ATTENDANCES TABERNACLE CHURCH 
 
 
 KINDERGARTEN 
 PESTALOZZE-FROEBEL KINDER 
 TRAINING SCHOOL 
 MATHEON DAY NURSERY 
 f COOKING SCHOOL 
 DOMESTIC SEWING SCHOOL 
 AWT ATVTT\ J SHIRTWAIST Cl.UB... 
 EMBROIDERY CLASS.. . 
 SCIENCE HOUSEKEEPERS' CLUB 
 1 RUG CLUB 
 BOYS' CLUBS 
 MANUAL TRAINING., 
 r-rwi ' r^r TTDC 
 
 . 
 z 
 
 y 
 
 . Da 
 
 )*>< 
 
 1^-3 
 20 
 
 CULTURE ELOCUTION 
 CLASSES i DRAMATic 
 [ DANCING CLASSES 
 ( CHICAGO COM. CHORAL CLU 
 1 INTERMEDIATE CHORUS ... 
 MUSIC -j CHILDREN'S CHORUS . 
 | PRIVATE PUPILS 
 {MANDOLIN CLUBS 
 WOMEN'S CLUB .... 
 MEN'S COMMUNITY 
 YOUNG WOMEN'S PROGRI..S 
 ^^^ , MOTHERS' CLUB . . 
 [ ASSINIBOIAN CI.UB 
 PLEASANT SUNDAY AFTERNOOJ 
 CAMP COMMONS, ELGIN 
 PLAYGROUND (Six.e 90x120 feet) . 
 OUTINGS TO COUNTRY AND PARr
 
 Schedule of Appointments. 
 
 Daily : 
 
 Day Nursery 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. 
 
 Kindergarten 9 to 12 a. m. except Saturday. 
 
 Community Club Rooms for members every week day evening. 
 
 Monday : 
 
 2-4 Kindergarten Training School. 
 
 4:00 Gymnasium Class (boys 8-12 years). 
 
 4:00 Kindergarten Extension Club. 
 
 4:15 Girls' Club (girls 10-15 years). 
 
 4:00 Cooking Class (girls 9-12 years). 
 
 4:00 Manual Training (girls 10-14 years). 
 
 7:00 Cooking Class (girls 16-18 years). 
 
 7:00 Music. 
 
 7:30 Wild Rose Club (girls 10-14 years). 
 
 7:45 Boys' Club. 
 
 7:30 Shakespeare Club. 
 
 7:30 Gymnasium Class (young women). 
 
 7:30 Boys' Club. 
 
 7:30 Manual Training (young men). 
 
 8:00 Girls' Club. 
 
 8:00 Girls' Progressive Club. 
 
 Tuesday : 
 
 2:00 Woman's Club. 
 
 2-4 Kindergarten Training Class. 
 
 3:30 Cooking Class. 
 
 4:00 Manual Training (boys 10-12 years). 
 
 4:15 Italian Girls' Club. 
 
 4:15 Musical Club. 
 
 7:30 Nature Study Class. 
 
 7:30 Embroidery Class. 
 
 7:30 Men's Gymnasium Class. 
 
 7:30 Manual Training (working boys 14-16 years). 
 
 7:30 Cooking Class (Alumnae). 
 
 7:30 Boys' Club. 
 
 8 :00 Mothers' Kindergarten Club. 
 
 8:00 Parliamentary Law. 
 
 8:00 Mandolin Club. 
 
 13
 
 Wednesday : 
 
 9-12 Rug Club. 
 
 9-12 Old Clothes Sale. 
 
 2-4 Kindergarten Training Class. 
 
 2-4 Monroe Telephone Exchange Girls' Club. 
 
 3 :30 Advanced Cooking Class. 
 
 4:00 Children's Chorus. 
 
 4 :00 Girls' Gymnasium Class. 
 
 4:00 Boys' Club. 
 
 7 :30 Cooking Class. 
 
 7:30 Metal Work, Pottery, Clay Modeling, Basket weaving. 
 
 8:00 Choral Club. 
 
 7:30 Italian Boys' Club. 
 
 7 :30 Dressmaking Class. 
 Thursday : 
 
 2 :4 Kindergarten Training Class. 
 
 3 :30 Cooking Class. 
 
 4 :00 Boys' Club. 
 
 4:00 Manual Training (boys 10-14 years). 
 
 4:00 Junior Mandolin Club. 
 
 7:30 Boys' Club. 
 
 7:30 Cooking Class (young women). 
 
 7:30 Shirt Waist Class. 
 
 7 :30 Manual Training. 
 
 8 :00 Seventeenth Ward Community Club. 
 Friday : 
 
 2 :00 Washington School Mothers' Club. 
 
 3:30 Cooking Class. 
 
 4:00 Manual Training. 
 
 7:30 Gymnasium (working boys). 
 
 7:30' Violet Club. 
 
 7:30 Boys' Club. 
 
 7:30 Cooking Class (young women). 
 
 7:30 Dramatic Club. 
 
 8 :0() Choir. 
 
 8 :00 Literature Study Group. 
 
 8:00 Sketch Class. 
 
 Saturday : 
 
 9:30 Gymnasium (boys 9-12 years). 
 
 9 :30 Cooking Class. 
 
 9:30 Manual Training (boys). 
 
 14
 
 10:00 Sewing School. 
 
 2:00 Dancing School. 
 
 7:30 Basket Ball. 
 
 8 :00 Neighborhood Social. 
 
 8:00 Children's Social. 
 
 8 :00 Assiniboian Club. 
 
 8 :00 Dancing School. 
 Sunday : 
 
 4 :00 Pleasant Sunday Afternoon. 
 Penny Savings Bank : 
 
 Tuesday 7 :00 to 8 :00 P. M. 
 
 Thursday 4 :00 to 5 :00 P. M. 
 
 Saturday 9:00 to 10:00 A. M. 
 
 TABERNACLE APPOINTMENTS: 
 Sunday : 
 
 10:00 Bible School. 
 11:00 Morning Service. 
 
 7:00 Children's Church. 
 
 8 :00 Evening Service. 
 Wednesday : 
 
 7:15 Children's Church. 
 7 :15 Intermediate Christian Endeavor. 
 8 :00 Endeavor Prayer Meeting. 
 9:00 Teachers' Class. 
 Thursday : 
 
 2:00 Ladies' Aid Society. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF WORK BY RESIDENTS IN CHARGE. 
 
 Italians are the most numerous of all in our cosmopolitan kin- ,_. 
 dergarten. But among the eighty children there are many nation- 
 alities represented. The Italians understand and speak very lit- 2 artcn * 
 tie English when they come to us in September. Before the year 
 is over, however, they do so quite readily. 
 
 The ages are from 2% to 6 years. We take them at this early 
 age because we feel that the sooner they come under the kinder- 
 garten influence the better for their development. So there are, in 
 fact, two kindergartens, one for the littlest folks and the other 
 for the older children. 
 
 The spacious and well-equipped kindergarten rooms make it 
 possible to emphasize all sides of the work. The kitchen is a 
 most attractive place when the children are working in it. They 
 wash and iron their luncheon napkins and doll's clothes, and 
 make jelly out of the rosy apples for the Thanksgiving party. 
 
 The pictures in the kindergarten rooms, the stories, songs, 
 games and work; the excursions to parks, the market or the 
 blacksmith; visits to the cow, the chickens and pigeons; these 
 
 15
 
 and the many other happy experiences that come to the child 
 through the kindergarten place him in a new and wonderful 
 world. And the lives of these children are made happier 
 and richer by the kindergarten festivals planned during the 
 year, such as birthday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas and May- 
 day celebrations. The mothers and other members of the family 
 are often invited on these occasions and all rejoice together. 
 
 Every Tuesday night the mothers gather at their meeting. 
 Three of these each month are devoted to English speaking 
 women and one to the Italians. At the meetings of the English 
 
 The Kindergarten gets its first look at the milk supply. 
 
 speaking mothers, many helpful subjects are discussed. Part of 
 the evening is given over to games, songs and stories, and it is 
 a veritable grown-up kindergarten. Difficult it is to tell whether 
 the mothers or the children enjoy it most. Some of the mothers 
 have been coming six and seven years, though their children have 
 long since left the kindergarten. 
 
 The Pestolozzi-Froebel Kindergarten Training School was 
 T *?*_.! Q started soon after the kindergarten and is now in its eighth 
 year. The training school grew out of two needs. First, no 
 training school could supply us with enough help to carry on 
 the large kindergarten which then numbered a hundred chil- 
 dren. Second, we felt the need of having helpers trained in the 
 industrial and domestic lines, in addition to the regular kinder- 
 
 16 
 
 Training 
 School.
 
 garten course, as those lines of work are the distinctive features 
 of the settlement kindergarten. Aside from making the kinder- 
 garten work more complete and thorough, the training school 
 has been able to help the settlement in a substantial way by 
 furnishing the funds to support the kindergarten. There are 
 now sixty graduates of the school, many of whom are engaged 
 in settlement kindergartens throughout the country. 
 
 In addition to this training the young women have the ad- 
 vantage of settlement experience and have its great object lesson 
 before them constantly. They also take an active part in clubs, 
 classes and mother's meetings. All of these contacts and ex- 
 periences broaden them and make them more useful in their 
 profession and their work in the world. 
 
 Inquiries for conditions of admission, or for teachers available 
 
 Distance permits of only an occasional visit to the parks. 
 
 17
 
 Matheon 
 
 Day 
 Nursery. 
 
 for kindergarten work, may be addressed to Mrs. Bertha Hofer 
 Hegner, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 
 
 The day nursery now under the joint care of the settlement 
 and of The Matheon Club, was started in 1897 by the young 
 women of this organization in rooms adjoining the old Com- 
 mons building. It was for several years entirely supported by 
 them, but when they no longer felt able to carry the responsibility 
 and expense alone, the settlement shared both with them. For 
 the last two years the nursery has been less expensively provided 
 
 Children of Working Mothers. 
 
 for in the children's floor of the new building, though at no lit- 
 tle inconvenience to other parts of the work to which this space 
 was originally assigned. It provides for the children of mothers 
 who are obliged to work for the support of their families and 
 who willingly pay ten cents a day for each child to secure the 
 care and safe keeping of the nursery. The total enrollment is 
 36 and the daily attendance averages about 20. The ages range 
 from a few months to six or seven years. The older children 
 
 18
 
 attend the kindergarten or the neighboring public school in the 
 morning. 
 
 The marked success of the Matheon Club's energetic efforts to 
 earn support for the nursery by their bazaar held for its benefit 
 is cheering evidence of their hearty co-operation and of the con- 
 tinued success of the beautiful enterprise which they initiated 
 and have in largest part sustained all these seven years. 
 
 The "gang" principle rules in citizenship training at Chicago 
 Commons. If the power of the gang in our city politics is 
 generally recognized as evil, its influence in boys' club work at 
 the settlement is seen to be as unquestionably exercised for 
 good. In other words, clubs organized on the "group" instead 
 of the "mass" plan afford the most valuable opportunities for 
 real, vital and thoroughly wholesome personal relations be- 
 tween a club leader and every boy in the group, and between 
 each boy and every other. The natural instinct of the boy of a 
 certain age to get together with other boys in a gang is recog- 
 nized and utilized. We aim to take advantage of that trait and 
 make it the basis of club formation. 
 
 One hundred and seventy boys regularly attend these group 
 clubs. Had we the room, and the club leaders, as many more 
 boys twice over would get the longed for chance "to belong." 
 But the club space has been filled completely and that without 
 the slightest advertising, boys being continually turned away. 
 
 Gang instinct runs strongest in boys of from 12 to 16 years of 
 age. The size of the groups varies therefore from 8 up to as 
 many as 45, the latter composed of the younger boys who have 
 not become associated in gangs. To feel that they are doing 
 their share toward the maintenance of the house, each club 
 contributes regularly in monthly dues, the sum from each boy 
 being about five cents. 
 
 Two rooms in the basement, well lighted, decorated and 
 equipped, are used exclusively for boys' clubs. This makes pos- 
 sible two clubs each evening. Fellows of from 12 to 18 years 
 of age compose these ten clubs, while the boys under 12 meet 
 after school hours in the afternoon. 
 
 Training for citizenship may be said to be the underlying 
 purpose in the clubs. This is accomplished in various ways ; 
 games afford amusement and teach "fair play" ; the business 
 meeting adds interest and teaches the way to conduct meet- 
 ings ; talks on civic affairs and business concerns by men from 
 outside the club enlarge the boys' visions; visits to art galleries 
 
 19 
 
 Boys' 
 Clubs. 
 
 Training 
 
 for 
 Citizenship*
 
 and other places of interest stimulate the ambition ; and parties 
 given to "lady friends" or parents develop the boys' social quali- 
 ties. But most important of all, and in its effect largely de- 
 pendent on the personality and devotion of the leader, is the 
 friendship between the boy and club leader. It gives an oppor- 
 tunity for hand to hand dealing and heart to heart living, the 
 value and influence of which are simply incalculable. 
 
 ~. * , Some two hundred girls are enrolled in the various Girls' 
 
 f~ , Clubs and so steady is the increase that membership in some of 
 
 them has had to be limited until more outside assistance can 
 be obtained. The afternoon clubs are for the younger children 
 and as soon as school is out, scores of little Italians storm the 
 door ready to burst into tfie club room. The larger clubs are 
 divided into small groups under a leader. The first hour is spent 
 in hand-work and lively discussions arise between the practical 
 little girl who wants to make a petticoat and the child whose 
 beauty loving eyes are dazzled by pink, green and red ocean- 
 wave pillow tops. Then after the work period comes a jolly 
 half hour of play. 
 
 While the immediate object of these hand-work clubs is the 
 making of some article of use or beauty for the home, the ulti- 
 mate aim is far more important and the club itself is but the 
 point of contact for the attainment of this less obvious end. To 
 the child comes the discipline of hand and brain in the execution 
 of something she wishes to do ; from her play she learns the 
 lesson of fairness, of living and playing peacefully with others 
 and if it be true that a "little leaven leavens the whole lump" 
 this bright period in the week may leaven the lump of the 
 child's existence. The club, too, becomes the channel be- 
 tween the chilcl and the settlement so that the ideals of the 
 latter find their level in the former. The evening clubs are 
 for the larger girls who are mostly employed during the day. 
 One of these clubs is the Alumni, composed of graduates of 
 the nearby Montefiore grammar school, and something very 
 elementary along the lines of nature study has been introduced. 
 The members of this club have found by the aid of the micro- 
 scope that they really do not "know beans." While it is impos- 
 sible to pursue the study of botany scientifically, the attempt is 
 made to encourage a love of Nature in these city bred children. 
 As spring and summer approach picnics and excursions to 
 the woods will supplant the winters schedule of study. 
 
 20
 
 Vesper hour at Camp Commons. 
 
 Another group of girls are engaged in the making of paper 
 dolls to order and as these are unique in their line the girls are 
 receiving much encouragement. One night a month comes the 
 "fire-light" evening when the girls gather about a cheery log 
 fire and listen While some traveler tells about girl life in other 
 countries. 
 
 Jail cells shared by tots of twelve with drunken "rounders" ; 
 court rooms in which the playfully mischievous boy took his 
 turn with the most disreputable of hags and lowest criminals ; 
 the children huddled together by the police in the same patrol 
 wagon with hardened and vicious characters such were the 
 
 21 
 
 The 
 
 Probation 
 Officer.
 
 conditions that trained up criminals, and outraged citizens who 
 knew the situation, before the Juvenile Court came in. A court 
 by themselves, a judge who understands their real needs, and 
 a kindly, intelligent system of dealing with their cases, whether 
 they are sent to John Worthy School or placed In charge of a 
 probation officer, give the delinquents a chance and a hope now- 
 adays, and places responsibility where it sometimes belongs, on 
 the heads of delinquent parents. 
 
 The personal relation of the probation officer to the individual 
 boy or girl is the vital part of the whole arrangement. It is 
 to be regretted that every probation officer does not have a 
 settlement from which he can work. And on the other hand 
 the settlement is enabled through an officer of the Juvenile Court 
 to reach certain homes that otherwise would be impossible of 
 access. 
 
 Continually, weary and distracted mothers are appealing to 
 the settlement for advice in caring for their children. The 
 Probation Officer is able to advise in such cases. He "knows 
 the ropes" not only to the Juvenile Court, but at the Bureau 
 of Charities, the Relief and Aid Society, the Children's Home 
 and Aid Society, and similar agencies. He is able to settle many 
 cases out of court by virtue of the power invested in him. 
 
 But the settlement is invaluable to the Probation Officer be- 
 cause fundamental in the parole system is the "report in per- 
 Settlement's SQn ,, A child Brought into the court and paroled, the parents 
 P cn oc " then visited for the purpose of enquiring about the child such 
 a procedure is of little value to the child. That child must be 
 made to feel its responsibility by reporting at stated intervals 
 to his officer, and made to feel its responsibility by the visits 
 of the officer. Through the visits of the officer, the home also 
 must be made to feel its duty. 
 
 The settlement, better than any other institution, offers an 
 opportunity for the child to report. When the. boy enters the 
 settlement door he is not "spotted" as a "court boy." This would 
 not be the case were he reporting at a private home. There is 
 something for the boy to do in a settlement. He joins a club, 
 the gymnasium, or a manual training class. His "reporting" 
 becomes voluntary instead of obligatory. His environment is 
 changed, and so his life. The Probation Officer from the set- 
 tlement center knows the boy's home, school, church and street 
 life, and works in co-operation with all these agencies. 
 
 22
 
 About 100 children are now under the care of the Probation 
 Officer in residence at Chicago Commons. 
 
 Manual training has a wider significance in development of 
 both skill and character than is usually apparent to the super- 
 ficial observer. To bring out and apply to its fullest extent 
 latent capacity for skill in workmanship is important and may 
 well be considered a primal object of the work. But to overlook 
 the opportunities for moral development would be to lose sight 
 of what may easily be made the most valuable and far reaching 
 result of all. What can better show the youngster of slipshod 
 and even dishonest inclinations, who is perhaps under parole 
 from the Juvenile Court, the inherent value of trueness than 
 
 Manual 
 Training. 
 
 In tJte Manual Training Shop. 
 
 the difference between a thorough, honest and accurately meas- 
 ured piece of work and one that is the reverse of all these. The 
 sled that Mike is making will either be strong, durable, true 
 running and the admiration of the rest of "de gang," or else 
 it will be a ramshackle affair soon to break down, and of which 
 he will be ashamed. He very soon sees with convincing force 
 that if he lies with his tools he cheats himself. Faithful, honest 
 workmanship is given an immeasurably enhanced value in Mike's 
 
 23
 
 sight. He learns in his own terms the lesson that what is worth 
 doing at all is worth doing well. 
 
 As a matter of fact a considerable number of the parole boys 
 from the Juvenile Court, who report to the probation officer at 
 the settlement, are enrolled in the manual training classes. They 
 are kept off the street and out of mischief, and are taught to do 
 something with their Hands that perhaps will have no small 
 part to play in helping them to earn their livelihood. But in 
 addition, as pointed out, scarcely another interest at the house 
 can do so much to strengthen and develop their character. 
 
 Hand Made As soon as some proficiency is shown in the rudimentary 
 Gifts. work, 'the boy or girl, as the case may be, is permitted to exer- 
 cise some choice over what he or she shall make. Interest is 
 thus greatly stimulated. With the approach of cold weather 
 sleds have become popular. One lad who started early in the 
 fall and was industrious completed a fine well made sled some 
 time before the first snow fell. He was asked to leave it as a 
 model for the other boys to imitate. Although this was con- 
 siderable of an appeal to his pride in his achievement, he was 
 very fearful that the snow might catch him unawares. Sure 
 enough, the very first little flurry brought him around one fine 
 morning before anyone had yet arisen, with a demand for his 
 own, so imperatively made that no alacrity could satisfy his 
 overmastering impatience. 
 
 Christmas presents have also been made in large numbers, 
 and many a mother or father will receive a piece of handcraft 
 of which both parent and child will feel proud. One mother 
 very unexpectedly came around to see what her son was making 
 and found him at work on a knife and fork box. He felt much 
 grieved at the untimely discovery until he persuaded himself 
 that "she never would know ff he painted it black." 
 
 Beside sleds and knife and fork boxes, the list of articles 
 made includes cutting boards, pen-holders, mail boxes, waste 
 paper baskets, stools, shoe blacking boxes, tabourets, tables, 
 bookcases and chairs. The"expense of wood is paid by the 
 boys and girls- except in the case of the smaller ones who are 
 making smaller articles. 
 
 The number in the classes is now 63 boys and 12 girls, and 
 the ages run from 7 to 23 years. Italian, Irish, German, Nor- 
 wegian and Swedish are tne nationalities represented. Monday 
 afternosn is set apart for school girls, and Monday night for 
 
 24
 
 older boys, while on Thursday evening there is a class of young 
 women. The boys' classes come at variolis other times through 
 the week. 
 
 As much of "recreation" and as little of "work" in physical Gymnasium. 
 culture as possible that is the theory underlying all our gym- 
 nasium organization and instruction. Class periods are divided 
 into three parts, fifteen minutes for calisthenics, thirty for ap- 
 partus drill and forty-five for games. Emphasis is placed on the 
 development of self control, a sense of fair play and the gen- 
 erous sort of rivalry. Each class has about thirty members and 
 meets once a week. Of men and 
 boys there are now about 150 en- 
 rolled. Saturday nights are giv- 
 en up to basket-ball games with 
 outside teams from other settle- 
 ments, or from high schools. 
 
 The gymnasium is well equipped 
 except that there is a lack of 
 space for lockers, a condition that 
 makes it inconvenient to care for 
 clothing. Two shower baths are 
 at the disposal of the members 
 of the classes and they are very 
 freely used. In addition to pro- 
 viding himself with suitable gym- 
 nasium clothing, each member 
 
 junior Basket Ball Team. 
 pays regular dues. These amount 
 
 to twenty-five cents a month for evening classes and ten cents 
 for the boys' day classes. 
 
 The girls' gymnasium classes include a variety of ages from 
 children as young as seven years up to young women, yet the 
 same general aim underlies the work of all. In each one, quick 
 response, accuracy and thoroughness are looked for. One of the 
 fundamental values of gymnastic work is, of course, the fact 
 that it trains the mind as well as the body, cultivates character as 
 well as muscle. The above-mentioned requirements of prompt- 
 
 25 
 
 Girls' 
 " Gym.'*
 
 ness, accuracy and thoroughness affect the pupil in this two-fold 
 way. 
 
 In the younger class the apparatus work is of such a nature 
 that it will enable them to work off their high spirits and reckless- 
 ness beneficially, and give them the exercises that their active bodies 
 demand. The use of simple graded drills cultivates memory and 
 concentration, and by a building-up process brings gradually into 
 play all parts of the body. In games, "fair play" is continually 
 emphasized. 
 
 In the older class, the need to be met is a slightly different 
 one. Here the purpose is to supply the lack of exercise, caused 
 by more or less confining work, and to build up the general 
 health to resist the effects of that confinement. Accuracy and 
 quickness are more to be desired here than heaviness of work. 
 Special attention is paid to the breathing exercises. Basket ball 
 supplies, besides the fun, the element of team-play, obedience to 
 rules, and a sportsmanlike attitude. 
 
 About 25 are enrolled in the younger class of girls from 7 to 
 14 years old, and 18 in that for the older ones of from 15 to 23 
 years of age. 
 
 Not until one begins to save money himself for some definite 
 p purpose, does he learn the value of money. This is the experi- 
 
 , , ence of many of the children depositors in the branch of the Chi- 
 
 R , cago Penny Savings Bank at Chicago Commons. One small 
 
 girl, in starting an account with one penny, said with a woe- 
 begone expression, "My, I spent lots of money yesterday." On 
 being asked the amount she replied very seriously, "Two cents." 
 The two cents meant much more to her now that she had begun 
 to save, than it did when she spent it. Much of the money that 
 comes in in small amounts from the hundred or more depositors 
 is part of their own hard-earned money, and is eventually spent 
 for clothing or food or provisions for the family. About $65 
 has been taken in this fall in amounts which average not much 
 more than fifteen cents, and which are very frequently a few pen- 
 nies. 
 
 Besides showing the children the value of money and helping 
 them to save, the bank teaches them carefulness. For if they 
 lose the little books in which the stamp equivalents of their money 
 are placed, they forfeit all the money which they have accumu- 
 lated. For the assistant, the bank forms a natural introduction 
 to a family at a most vital point-: the money problem ; and she 
 
 26
 
 may easily help needy families toward the way to solve it. When 
 a child has to take out the fifteen cents she has saved, in order 
 that the family may have meat for dinner, one may surmise that 
 there is trouble somewhere, and the case is investigated. 
 
 A constant effort is being made to interest the older boys and 
 girls and gradually to encourage them in starting regular bank 
 accounts where interest will be paid. 
 
 To find 10,000 or 12,000 children without any place to play 
 except the street is enough to make anyone with a heart look ", 
 
 around to see what can be done. There was no play space around 
 either of the two public schools. A vacant lot is a rarity in our 
 crowded part of the city. So we got a good neighbor across the 
 street from Chicago Commons to clear a corner for us, 90 feet 
 
 The Playground. 
 
 27
 
 , gjMnBifB'B m - [t ^.| 
 
 .A 
 
 First viezv of Lake Michigan.- 
 
 Camp 
 
 Commons. 
 
 by 120. This we rented and fit- 
 ted up with simple apparatus. 
 And like the atmosphere the 
 boys and girls rushed in, as 
 they seem to do into every 
 other place about here not pre- 
 viously occupied. 
 
 The divorce of child life 
 from nature, its flowers, fields, 
 trees and green grass, streams, 
 spaces and even the lake is 
 pathetic enough, to make the 
 twelve hundred outings to parks, 
 suburbs, and country homes 
 memorable to our little neigh- 
 bor boys and girls and many 
 of their parents. 
 Camp Commons pitched its tents last summer for the seventh 
 
 season just north of Elgin, Illinois, on the west bank of the Fox 
 
 River. In some respects 
 
 this was the best vear 
 
 in the history of the 
 
 camp. 
 
 The value of the work 
 can never be estimated. 
 It is the cream of all 
 opportunities for a sweet- 
 er and purer life. The 
 testimony of the 110 boys 
 and the 90 girls, each 
 of whom with a group 
 of 40 spent two weeks, 
 and of the 75 members 
 of the Chicago Com- 
 mons Choral Club who 
 spent four days at camp, 
 is unanimous in declaring this to be one of the best times in 
 their lives. They look forward to another summer when they 
 expect even happier and brighter days. 
 
 28 
 
 Dish washing at camp.
 
 "It's swell," say the boys ; and the girls are already asking, "Can 
 I go next year?" The Choral Club, which rendered "The Rose 
 Maiden" in the First Congregational Church in Elgin for the 
 camp benefit, is planning for next year's entertainment. They 
 have been promised a crowded house when they appear. From 
 
 Camp Commons. 
 
 members of the club came such expressions as : "One of the 
 best times I have ever had." "There is no place like camp." 
 "Before breakfast I ate three eggs and drank a quart of milk." 
 
 Camp Commons stands first of all for getting the best in 
 nature. We live in the open and sleep in tents. Our evenings 
 are spent around the camp fire, telling stories, singing, and "doin' 
 stunts." The food is simple, abundant and wholesome, without 
 frills, and is served in the simplest manner. Much time is spent 
 in walks through fields and woods, gathering wild flowers, hear- 
 ing the bird songs and studying nature in all her beauty as it is 
 displayed in the valley of the Fox. 
 
 Baseball with no "copper" to interfere occupies much of the 
 boy's time, while swimming is enjoyed equally by both boys and 
 girls. For once, at least, some of Chicago's children are clean. 
 
 29 
 
 Back 
 to Nature.
 
 The days are made even more enjoyable by hay rides, band con- 
 certs in Elgin's beautiful park, lawn parties, and "feeds" at the 
 hospitality of Elgin people. 
 
 The camp is largely supported by the Elgin friends, but each 
 boy and girl who is able pays one dollar. The Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee & St. Paul railroad has been more than courteous in its 
 relations to us, and much good service is freely rendered by 
 young men and women in assisting in the camp management. 
 All are eagerly awaiting the time when once more they may burst 
 forth in the yell : 
 
 Boom-gig-boom ; boom-gig-boom ; 
 
 Boom-dig-a-rig-gig ; boom-boom-boom. 
 
 He-hi-ho. He-hi-ho. 
 
 Camp Commons Chicago. 
 
 The cooking school, while easily the most popular branch of 
 or .s ic ^g ( j omest j c sc i ence work, is by no means all of it. Other house- 
 tencc. an c a j rs an( j Duties come in for their full share of attention. 
 
 The proper care of the bed-room and of the dining-room and 
 table, sweeping, dusting, general business of the housekeeper, 
 sewing, and even rug weaving all of these interest varying num- 
 bers of girls and young women. 
 
 No less than two hundred are enrolled in the 13 cooking classes 
 which meet during the week. Those for the children come in 
 the afternoon; two classes of girls are doing second-year work; 
 and the evenings are largely given over to the girls who are busy 
 through the day. School teachers from one of the neighboring 
 public schools have formed another interesting class, and a nor- 
 mal class is composed of girls who were members of the gradu- 
 atinf class of 1904. One of the most interesting of all is a 
 Housekeepers' Club, made up of mothers from the neighborhood. 
 The space exclusively devoted to the work is mainly taken up 
 with the kitchen facilities, including the tables, well stocked with 
 utensils, at each of which there is room for four girls to work. 
 The remaining space contains dining table and fixtures, and in 
 one corner a loom for hand weaving, while a small adjoining 
 room serves as bedchamber. 
 
 Many things to help along in the work of the school or make 
 it more attractive have been presented by the girls themselves. 
 One in last "year's class gave a set of dishes, another made a very 
 pretty plate rack of burnt wood her own handwork and filled 
 
 30
 
 A corner of the Cooking School. 
 
 it with plates, still another wove a rug as a gift to the school, 
 while the class of 1904 presented a clock. 
 
 As a very pleasant practical application of the instruction and 
 class-room experience in table setting and serving, each class 
 prepares and serves a dinner once a month, sometimes to them- 
 selves and sometimes to their parents, while not infrequently 
 they invite some of the residents of the house or a few outside 
 guests who have been especially kind to this branch of the work. 
 
 Each week, as the classes meet, a "housekeeper" is appointed 
 whose duty it is to take general supervision of the rooms. Hers 
 is also the work of taking care of the bedroom, sweeping, dusting 
 and airing it, and making the bed. 
 
 The Rug Shop has turned out a large number of hand-woven 
 rugs, which have met with a ready sale. The work is all done 
 by women of the neighborhood and the two looms are kept busy 
 much of the time. Besides making rugs to fill orders, they make 
 many a dull spot in their own homes bright with their deft hand 
 work. 
 
 The sewing class has an enrollment of 220 children and 20 
 
 81 
 
 "Proof of 
 
 the 
 Podding."
 
 teachers, and Saturday morning is the time of meeting. After 
 sewing for an hour and a half the children march to the gymna- 
 sium, where all are put through good drills and breathing exer- 
 cises. 
 
 The members of the dressmaking class, numbering eleven, 
 have achieved great success in mastering the details of the "Jy 
 system," which they are studying this year, and will soon be 
 able to cut and fit all their own as well as their family's gar- 
 ments. Several girls will be enabled through the training received 
 in this class to give up the less profitable and arduous work they 
 are now engaged in for the more agreeable occupation of dress- 
 making. At the completion of this course, one of the members 
 of this class will conduct a shirt waist class. In one of the 
 advance sewing classes of the sewing school, eight little children 
 are making for themselves* Buster Brown suits. 
 
 Educational 
 Work. 
 
 Giving up 
 to the 
 School. 
 
 Community progress is frequently marked just as surely by the 
 lines of work the settlement abandons as by the newer lines it is 
 constantly initiating. In nothing is this more clearly seen than 
 in the change that the decade has made in the educational classes 
 and work. Just as fast as all the people in their corporate munici- 
 pal capacity make provision for the steadily advancing and higher 
 needs of neighborhood life, the settlement is glad to give way, 
 and hails each opportunity to join in co-operative effort for the 
 success of the people's own enterprises. It has been said that the 
 dominate thought in America today is for larger and larger 
 expression of true democracy. We are beginning to realize that 
 something accomplished by all the people together, even if it is 
 not so efficiently done as a few could do it for the rest, is never- 
 theless very much better worth while. The priceless value to 
 citizenshio and the community life gained from this increased 
 exercise of the people's prerogative lies in its educational worth 
 to democracy. 
 
 Chicago Commons, believes in this. Chicago Commons ear- 
 nestly hopes that the settlements may lead in making answer to 
 those who rail at the incapacity of the people's management In 
 no better way can this be done than by co-operating with fellow 
 citizens in a spirit of democracy to realize our best hopes for the 
 success of democratic institutions, in which we all profess to be- 
 lieve, despite the manifest timidity and lack of faith which a 
 portion of the community always shows when we come to the 
 point of concrete application. 
 
 32
 
 To this end the educational classes and courses at Chicago 
 Commons have been materially modified and sometimes discon- 
 tinued, as the neighboring public schools fill the same needs. It 
 is an inspiring sight to visit the Washington School of an even- 
 ing and find 700 pupils in the night school, a very large propor- 
 tion of whom are grown-up men. One of the early announce- 
 ments of the settlement contains a list of evening classes in 
 grammar, arithmetic, algebra, spelling and writing, bookkeeping, 
 United States History, French and German. The list of appoint- 
 ments for 1904-1905 has scarcely any of these. They are pro- 
 vided at the Washington School. To be found there, also, are 
 facilities for many sorts of industrial training printing presses, 
 looms, potters' wheels, cooking ovens and carpenter benches for 
 the use of both regular grade and night pupils. These are lines 
 of work, however, in which the combined opportunities open at 
 the settlement and the neighboring schools are still very inade- 
 quate to meet the popular demand. 
 
 In addition to the Chicago Commons classes in the various 
 departments of music, manual training, domestic science and oth- 
 ers which may properly be termed educational even in the 
 restricted sense, there are a Shakespeare Club, a class in par- 
 liamentary law, one in general literature, and more or less limited 
 work in pottery, clay modeling, basket weaving and metal. 
 
 An instance of the helpful co-operation with the nearby schools Helping the 
 is the private instruction given to "backward pupils." These Backward. 
 constitute one of the most serious of educational problems in the 
 public school class rooms. Some of the residents at the settle- 
 ment are devoting no little time to individual work with some of 
 these children in reading, spelling and arithmetic. The causes 
 of slowness in development are numerous, but among them is 
 the fact that great numbers of Italian children who are in attend- 
 ance at one of the local schools, hear nothing but the Italian lan- 
 guage spoken in their homes. In teaching them to read, the resi- 
 dents who have taken upon themselves the task, find that it is 
 exceedingly difficult to be sure that the children actually under- 
 stand the meaning of the words they use. Their power of imita- 
 tion is so great, their facial expressions are so intelligent, and 
 they grasp an idea so quickly that many times the teacher fancies 
 the child is progressing much more rapidly than she really is. 
 The other day a little Italian girl was reading about the branches 
 on the trees, and the twigs on the branches, when "teacher" asked 
 her if she knew what twigs were. O yes, yes, she knew, and her 
 
 33
 
 eyes sparkled so and her white teeth gleamed out in such an 
 amazingly brilliant smile, while such an intelligence shone all 
 over her face, that the teacher was filled with curiosity to know 
 why "twigs" should bring out such a display of emotion. So 
 she said, "Well, what are twigs?" "Please, teacher," came the 
 answer, "they are two little babies." 
 
 Eloc tion Poems of intrinsic worth by some standard author, which at 
 the same time appeal to the imagination and stimulate it, are 
 used in the elocution work with the younger children. Selections 
 from Longfellow prove quite as interesting to the child mind as 
 some of the thrilling and melodramatic street tales and ballads 
 of the hour. In addition to recitation the children are given 
 some physical culture and simple voice and breathing exercises, 
 stress being laid upon the necessity of remembering these points 
 in daily speech and bearing. Children's plays and simple drills, 
 which have been presented from time to time, afford the best of 
 good times and enlist the children's enthusiasm in discipline, 
 thought and attention to voice and carriage. 
 
 With the older pupils, individual lessons replace class work. 
 Much reading of good literature is done and taste is cultivated 
 by the successive choice of poetry and prose that leads to a real 
 appreciation of the best. Pupils in elocution now number nineteen. 
 
 One organized dramatic club has been in existence for some 
 rama ics. t ; mej ^^ considerable dramatic interest has shown itself in clubs 
 not specifically devoted to the presentation of plays. Among 
 these, the seasonal performance by a club of young girls of an 
 adaptation from "The Birds' Christmas Carol" is noteworthy. 
 An older group presents a Nativity Play, translated from the 
 Celtic by Lady Gregory. In the work of the Dramatic Club 
 light comedy has prevailed. 
 
 _.. . . The value of music as a club objective and as a means of 
 
 affording a natural point of contact with people, is more and 
 more realized in the settlement. The growth along these lines 
 has been marked and at present there are over 300 persons study- 
 ing music in some form or other. The parent organization is 
 the Choral Club which is almost as old as the settlement itself 
 and now numbers 75 young men and women. Passing through 
 many vicissitudes it now stands as an exemplary self-supporting 
 club with high musical and social ideals and a splendid spirit 
 of co-operation with the settlement. Musically its standard has 
 
 84
 
 been raised from light opera to oratorio, and its work has 
 proved so successful that within the past two seasons several 
 concerts have been given in and outside of Chicago. 
 
 An exceedingly interesting and significant fact in connection 
 with this club is that they devote all of their funds to the ex- 
 tension of some line of settlement or philanthropic work. Last 
 year they contributed $200 to the settlement treasury. This year 
 they celebrated Christmas by presenting a set of furniture for the 
 settlement neighborhood parlor. A solid mahogany, grandfather 
 
 Choral 
 Club. 
 
 The Men of the Choral Club. 
 
 clock standing seven feet high has also been given to the house. 
 It was constructed from original designs and all but the clock 
 mechanism is the actual handwork of the young men members 
 of the club. 
 
 Supported by the Choral Club and next in importance is the 
 Children's Chorus which numbers 125 school children. The 
 
 35
 
 quieting and subduing effect of music is well illustrated in the 
 transformation of this rollicking and irrepressible mass of young- 
 sters into an orderly self-contained group. The beautiful qual- 
 ity of tone developed in these children is truly remarkable. 
 
 Another organization doing gratifying work is the Mandolin 
 Club, which, although but recently started, already has a mem- 
 bership of twenty-five, a large majority of whom are Italian 
 young men and women. 
 
 Perhaps the most unique feature of the musical department 
 is the Children's Mandolin Club, composed almost entirely of 
 Scandinavian boys and girls. They occasionally appear on pro- 
 grams, wearing their old country costumes and singing old 
 country songs. 
 
 In addition to all these activities there are given weekly over 
 sixty private lessons in piano, mandolin, violin and guitar. 
 Progress in this work is shown in a series of recitals which 
 occur frequently during the year. The social spirit among 
 the private pupils is encouraged by a weekly gathering at which 
 musical games are played and the history of music is taught 
 in story form. 
 
 The The Apollo Musical club is happily conscious not only of its 
 
 "Messiah" at artistic but its social function. Its artistic effects in the great 
 Chicago Auditorium downtown are not more noteworthy than the social 
 Commons, results of its gratuitous work for these four seasons at the 
 Chicago Commons auditorium in the 17th ward. Before it 
 was built they rendered their first recital of "The Messiah" for 
 the settlement in a neighborhood dance hall, with all the in- 
 congruous accompaniments of the beer saloon to which the hall 
 is tributary. It was only about half-full. When the oratorio 
 was next given in the new auditorium of Chicago Commons 
 the neighbors immediately showed their appreciation by taking 
 every seat at 25 cents each. Since then the pressure for ad- 
 mission has been so great that the occasion has been advertised 
 and tickets sold only in the neighborhood. 
 
 Around this central musical event of the year and the district 
 a higher musical taste and greater musical privileges have all 
 the while been growing up. In the high art of living and work- 
 ing together music must play an even greater part not only as 
 an object lesson of diversity in unity but as a medium through 
 which hearts and lives, however different, may blend. 
 
 36
 
 Cordial co-operation has always existed between the 
 settlement and other agencies for betterment with which it 
 comes in contact. Particularly intimate and mutually helpful 
 have been the relations with the nurse from the Visiting Nurses' 
 Association who is assigned to this district. She makes the house 
 a headquarters and starting point for her work and finds that in 
 many cases her welcome to the abode of sickness is made more 
 pleasant. After going up two flights of stairs, through a dark 
 hallway and up another flight to the rear, a knock at the door 
 
 Visiting 
 Nurse. 
 
 Camp Commons Swimming Pool. 
 
 is likely to bring an anxious mother whose face brightens up as 
 she greets the hoped-for visitor with, "You are the nurse from 
 the Commons. Come right in." Husband out of work and baby 
 very ill had meant worry and sleepless nights. One could see 
 the traces in her face. To an almost despairing enquiry the 
 answer would be given that with proper care the little one would 
 pull through all right, for frequently it is the encouraging word 
 that is needed most of all. Then the next few days are filled 
 with a renewed energy, self-sacrifice and wisdom, for the mother 
 realizes that unless she unceasingly does her part the efforts of the 
 doctor and visiting nurse will be of little avail. 
 
 "Sanitation, like charity, begins at home," once said Chicago's 
 health commissioner. The visiting nurse is the most effective of 
 
 87
 
 all influences in bringing this truth to bear and making it really 
 count. She shows the people what they themselves can do. 
 
 Few things do so much to entrench the settlement and all it 
 stands for in the homes of the neighbors as the devoted service of 
 the visiting nurse. 
 
 By the kindness of Miss Rene Stern, president of the Library 
 The Association, about 200 books have been circulated during the 
 Traveling summer among the children frequenting the public playground, 
 Library- a non-resident worker acting as librarian. 
 
 At the end of the summer these books were placed in little 
 bookcases containing about 50 books each and placed in the homes 
 of responsible people who were made custodians of the library, 
 each home forming a circulating center among the friends of that 
 particular family. 
 
 A Member's ^ waman who had given much thought and study to social 
 Story conditions once said, "I know of no existence outside prison walls 
 of the which may so fittingly be described by the adjective 'colorless' 
 Woman's as t na{: of the wives and mothers in a crowded city center." Chi- 
 Club. cago Commons had celebrated its first anniversary before work 
 for wives and mothers was successfully inaugurated. The neigh- 
 borhood was cosmopolitan, the women burdened with home cares, 
 there was a diversity of religious faiths and there was that wide 
 chasm which divides the interests of the cultured and college- 
 bred woman from those of her sister who literally was trained 
 in nothing but the use of the implements of household industry. 
 In the face of such obstacles to unity and harmony of action, 
 a meeting of the neighborhood women was called, and on Decem- 
 ber 5, 1895, thirteen met in the parlor of the old Commons, to 
 consider the organization of a club. 
 
 Ten nationalities were represented by the charter members. 
 There were Catholics, Liberals and three denominations of Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 The work began in a most informal way. The very conditions 
 which would naturally divide the interest of the group were 
 seized upon to contribute to sisterhood. Scotch songs and Scotch 
 "scones" emphasized a member's own recollections of Scotland. 
 A talk on the Land of the Midnight Sun, given by several Nor- 
 wegian women, created an interest in that country, and samples 
 
 38
 
 of the sewing done by one in her girlhood school days gave an 
 idea of educational methods. Personal reminiscences of Germany 
 made the Fatherland a reality to all. A talk on Iceland by the 
 sister from that little isle was illustrated by pictures she had her- 
 self secured. The customs of the Isle of Man were told by one 
 who had spent her girlhood there, and the little woman from 
 Paris gave glimpses of life in France. Stories of the homeland, 
 real experiences, served to bring the members together in a sis- 
 terhood which has developed beautifully with the growth of the 
 club. 
 
 The stories one member telis of her experience when first 
 called to preside are most amusing. She says she knew abso- 
 lutely nothing of motions or of parliamentary phraseology and 
 usage. But she per- 
 severed, bravely re- 
 peating aloud in a 
 tremulous voice what 
 the secretary w h i s- 
 pered in her ear. 
 From the first the 
 members, though tim- 
 id, took an active part 
 in the discussion of 
 practical questions, 
 such as "How To 
 Please Our Neigh- 
 bors." "What Books 
 and Periodicals Shall 
 We Read?" and 
 "What Can We 
 
 Personal 
 
 Power in 
 
 Natural 
 
 Traits. 
 
 Chicago Commons Woman's Club. 
 
 Women Do To Im- 
 prove the Ward ?" 
 From the first, one social meeting has been held each month. Be- 
 sides there were frequent opportunities to hear men and women 
 of wide reputation. 
 
 The Club outgrew room after room in the old building and it 
 now often uses to their full capacity the four beautiful rooms in 
 the new building. The Club has done much toward furnishing 
 these rooms. 
 
 Interest is taken in philanthropy. Among the objects to which 
 contributions have been made are the playground, the Chicago 
 
 39
 
 vacation schools and the day nursery. Thus have the members 
 been made more thoughtful of others' needs. 
 
 Chicago Commons, too, is happily reminded of its birthday 
 each year by some substantial gift to the House. 
 
 The Study Class was wonderfully helpful. Women whose 
 hair was white when they entered have learned to prepare and 
 read essays. One member says she has learned "that a college 
 education is not necessary to prepare a paper." 
 
 There is a Musical Chorus. A calling committee looks after 
 the sick and absent sisters. The club has a library of its own 
 which takes the place of the traveling library formerly used. 
 
 The women say they have been helped by this sisterhood to 
 become better wives, mothers and home-makers. Some say that 
 
 Rooms of the Chicago Commons Woman's Club. 
 
 but for the Club they would not know there was anything but toil 
 The Stranger and troub | e _ They i ook at jjf e with different eyes; they have 
 
 en ' learned things they had never even thought of till they came 
 together in the Club. One writes, "Some of us had left homes 
 in small country villages where we knew everybody knew us. 
 We came to this large city and found ourselves shut up in our 
 homes as if they were jails. We were afraid to speak to our 
 neighbors and our neighbors were afraid of us." But these 
 friendly associations in the club brighten homes and give a new 
 hope to life. 
 
 40
 
 That womanliness is motherliness is as true, as it is unusual Young 
 for young women to think it. The Progressive Club is both Women's 
 proving it to their own satisfaction and winning the attestation Progressive 
 of others for the principle exemplified by them. To have sought Club. 
 some of the best mothers as associate members allied them with 
 the real traits in others which they aspired to in their own char- 
 acter. They did more still to make this spirit their own by tak- 
 ing an interest in other people's children and doing something 
 real for them. The day nursery being in lack of funds they set 
 to work to help save it for the mothers of its little children, and 
 they did it in their own way. They made 400 glasses of jelly, 
 which proves to be $100 "to the good" of the nursery. Two 
 dozen dolls were dressed for the children to play with while their 
 mothers worked for their living. With still more of the mother 
 instinct they made up the night garments which the associate 
 members cut out of the outing flannel provided by the club's 
 treasury, and now the district visiting nurse is taking them to the 
 homes of sick children for their comfort and betterment. The 
 devoted leadership, personal friendship, helpful counsel and ideals 
 of art and letters for which the club is indebted to its non- 
 resident leader, have been an inspiration in the lives of all of 
 them. 
 
 The response of men to the settlement initiative was prompt 
 and at first larger than that of the women. But while they ral- 
 lied in larger or smaller groups for weekly "free-floor" discussion Community 
 of economic and industrial issues and for occasional social gath- Club. 
 erings, the movement to organize awaited their possession by a. 
 definite purpose. This did not come for a year or two until our 
 ward shared Chicago's awakening to her better self. Then, 
 weary of the brigandage by which the two local party organiza- 
 tions in collusion exploited the people of the ward, a few brave 
 and independent men, both republicans and democrats, united to 
 form the Seventeenth Ward Civic Federation. They respectfully 
 preferred two just demands upon the party management for hon- 
 est clerks and judges of election, and aldermanic candidates for 
 whom citizens could vote without loss of self-respect. The 
 insolent contempt with which these friendly advances were met 
 and ignored forced independent action. A candidate running on 
 an independent city ticket eight years ago was endorsed and 
 elected but counted out by the two party bosses, one of whom 
 was seated in his place. The fraud was contested in the courts 
 and after two exciting trials two judges of election were sent to 
 
 41 
 
 Men's 
 J7th Ward
 
 "So it state prison for three years for taking eighty votes from the dem- 
 Seems." ocratic column in the tally sheet and giving them to the repub- 
 lican candidate in order to count out the independent. The even- 
 ing he took his seat in the City Council the unseated boss re- 
 marked to the writer that he was "down and out." To the 
 rejoinder that he never was "up and in" he naively replied as he 
 cordially shook hands, "So it seems." The next year the inde- 
 pendent voters of the ward, led by the Community Club, which 
 had become the successor of the Civic Federation, seized and 
 wielded the balance of power after this fashion. A republican, 
 for whose nomination and election the club took a decisive stand, 
 was elected in a democratic ward by nearly 1,400 majority, and 
 served with such ability that he was overwhelmingly elected to 
 the office of city attorney, which he now holds. The next year, 
 the republicans renominated their holdover alderman of the bad 
 old type against vigorous protest. So the independents turned 
 to the democrats, forced the nomination of a reputable and able 
 man and elected him by 1,800 majority. The following year, the 
 democrats "reverted to type," and again a better republican was 
 elected. Last spring the democratic alderman had served the 
 ward and city so well in the Council and on some of its most 
 important committees, that he was re-elected for a second term 
 without opposition. 
 
 The following letter explains the non-partisan attitude of this 
 independent club : 
 
 To the Delegates of Our Republican Ward Convention : By 
 
 Non-partisan unanimous resolution of the Community Club, the secretary is 
 
 Tribute to instructed to send you a testimonial of your recent action (or 
 
 Party. rather non-action) in respect to the aldermanic issue. While 
 
 not pretending to know all the considerations which have moved 
 
 you in this respect, we are satisfied that not the least among them 
 
 was the recognition of the public's interest in the matter, and of 
 
 the propriety of returning a faithful servant in office to that 
 
 office. It augurs, we believe, for better times and a better and 
 
 higher spirit in parties. We believe your party is entitled to a 
 
 high credit mark for your attitude at this time. 
 
 And so the ward stands, thus far, at least, redeemed politi- 
 cally from being a menace to its people and the city, and the 
 
 42
 
 Vi 
 
 Q, 
 
 43
 
 presiding judge of the election commissioners publicly declared, 
 "Through the nine years during which I have been at the head of 
 the election machinery, I have found no more intelligent, practical 
 and fearless execution of the election law than has been 'achieved 
 in this ward chiefly by the leadership of this club." 
 
 Neighbor- 
 hood 
 Loyalty. 
 
 Between campaigns the club maintains its headquarters at Chi- 
 cago Commons, open every evening for social, recreative and 
 educational purposes. Both older and younger men resort to 
 its comfortably furnished and well-equipped rooms, some of 
 them regularly and many more of them occasionally to spend 
 their leisure time. At its weekly meetings the members discuss 
 with the head of some city department or other expert such sub- 
 jects as the election law and how to enforce it, the regulation of 
 apprenticeship, the prevention and settlement of strikes and lock- 
 outs, direct primaries, the new city charter, the street railway 
 policy of the city and home trading. On the latter subject the 
 club issued bulletins to both the buyers and sellers of the ward. 
 In urging the buyer to encourage the shop-keeper to make his 
 stock more complete by trading with him, the heart-to-heart 
 argument concluded with these words, "If we want to get back 
 to old neighborship relations, (which our fathers and mothers 
 had in the earlier day, but which we have almost entirely lost) 
 one of the first steps to be taken is to trade in our home ward." 
 
 To the shop-keepers, the club addressed such inquiries as 
 these: "Do von keep your store clean? your goods fresh? etc. 
 Do you recognize that you cannot expect the community to be 
 interested in your welfare if you are not interested in its wel- 
 fare and progress? Do you say it will hurt your business? It 
 pays to be a fearless man and a real citizen all the time, whether 
 it costs you something or not. Until the shop-keepers of our 
 ward have lived these few and necessary rules of life and busi- 
 ness they need not expect that home trading will return to them." 
 
 Larger quarters for the use of men should be provided by the 
 erection of the annex on the adjoining lot secured for the pur- 
 pose, the original design of which made ampler provision not 
 only for this club, but for other national, trade and social groups 
 of men for their sakes as well as in the interests of the whole 
 city. They should have such headquarters and places of resort 
 for which they clamor, free from the deteriorating influences of 
 the liquor traffic interests upon which they are wholly dependent 
 for any place of meeting. 
 
 44
 
 The hearty fellowship and co-operation of Chicago Commons The Old 
 with all the churches of the neighborhood, Catholic, Gregorian Tabernacle, 
 and several denominations of Protestant have already been referred 
 to. But the relations of the settlement with the Tabernacle Church 
 have been so intimate, though independent, that it deserves 
 special mention -among all the other religious and social organiza- 
 tions not organically connected with Chicago Commons that share 
 the shelter and privileges of the house. In consideration of the 
 fact that the new building was erected on the site occupied by 
 the old church since 1866 it still holds its services at the old 
 corner where its people have assembled for nearly forty years. 
 Its membership, though much depleted by the removal of the 
 Scandinavian and Scotch families who formerly used to be its 
 constituents now numbers 169. Its best work and hope is with 
 the children, and young people, 300 of whom are in its Sunday 
 School, 200 more in its "Children's Church," 75 in its Endeavor 
 Societies, from all of which through its confirmation classes, 
 between 30 and 40 grow up into church membership every year. 
 
 Some of the residents are members of the Tabernacle, most of 
 them serve as teachers and helpers, and in return for the ground 
 site practically the whole building is placed at its disposal every 
 Sunday morning and evening and parts of it at specified times 
 during the week. A contribution of $600 a year is made from the 
 settlement treasury toward the church's share of maintenance, 
 in lieu of their exclusive occupancy of "the old corner." The 
 church strictly preserves its independent and self-governing or- 
 ganization, and therefore prefers its separate publications for its 
 own distribution. Its regular appointments however are appended 
 to the schedule of settlement occasions. 
 
 All religious services are left to be conducted by the Taber- 
 nacle and the other church groups which share with it the build- 
 ing and active co-operation of the settlement. The church occa- 
 sions regularly held in the house are noted in the schedule. 
 
 The only settlement occasion on Sunday is the entirely unsec- 
 tarian and recreative Pleasant Sunday Afternoon from four to 
 five o'clock. It is exactly what its inviting title describes it to 
 be. Stopping short of divisive points, and carrying the whole 
 crowd as far as they will go together, the family life of the 
 community is both unified and uplifted by this delightful hour 
 
 45 
 
 Pleasant 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Afternoon.
 
 of song, pictures and story. Through the unfailing generosity 
 of numberless friends, musical, literary and artistic programs 
 continue to be furnished not only without charge but at the 
 expense of some of the best talent in Chicago. The grateful 
 appreciation of all classes of our neighBors is attested by an 
 attendance which has grown to test the capacity of our audi- 
 torium's four hundred seats. To make space for the adults 
 thus to enjoy their only leisure afternoon, only their own chil- 
 dren, or those who come with them are admitted. 
 
 A big brawny workman who has seen much of the rough side 
 of life, said as he passed out one afternoon, "This lets up on a 
 fellow !" The restful pleasure and satisfaction which tired 
 mothers and overborne fathers take in coming with their whole 
 family circle to this only occasion they know of which has 
 something for everyone of them amply compensates for all it 
 costs everyone who contributes to its varied and inspiring pro- 
 grams. 
 
 One of 
 
 the Few 
 
 Places for 
 
 the Whole 
 
 Family. 
 
 Neighbor- 
 hood Parlor. 
 
 The social settlement is the only agency, except the church, 
 which avowedly aims to promote the interests of the whole 
 family, by providing some privilege for each one of its mem- 
 bers. Where else can the whole group go together and find such 
 provision for its social needs as the settlement makes for the 
 babe in the day nursery, the child in the kindergarten, the boy 
 and the girl in the club, the youth and the maiden in the gymna- 
 sium and social circles, the motherly home-maker in mothers' 
 meetings, cooking class or Woman's Club, the fatherly bread- 
 winner in citizenship circle or economic discussion? But not 
 content with these special provisions for separate members of 
 the family circle, definite endeavor is made to minister to the 
 whole family group. The neighborhood visiting of the settle- 
 ment household follows the club members home, welcomes the 
 strangers moving into the neighborhood, renders the amenities 
 of neighborship in times of sorrow and of joy, in the crises of 
 birth and death, marriage and bereavement, accident and im- 
 poverishment. 
 
 Neighborhood socials, with invitations issued on the inclusive 
 principle, gather entire family groups together in the neighbor- 
 hood parlor, the hospitality of which is offered the neighbors 
 for their wedding and oth'er festivities. 
 
 46
 
 Saturday night in the neighborhood parlor is one of the most 
 striking occasions of the week. The fire blazing 1 in the open 
 hearth, the light, the music and the merry crowd of neighbors 
 make a most picturesque scene and one which is perhaps more 
 characteristic of our cosmopolitan neighborhood than any other 
 regular neighborhood gathering of the week. There are the _ 
 steady comers, who, knowing the hospitality of the house, come , I 8 ^^. 
 week in and week out without invitation, and also those who are 
 specially invited by the committee of residents who have the 
 evening in charge. Thus the parents of all club members are our 
 guests sometime during the year as well as our neighbors who 
 are not otherwise represented in the house. A new feature in 
 the entertainment of the people is the enlistment of interest 
 among the older organizations such as the Choral Club, House- 
 keeper's Club and Woman's Club. These clubs gladly co-oper- 
 ate in making the occasion a merry one. 
 
 The children who flock here in numbers are sent down to 
 the boy's club rooms where games and stories entertain them 
 and the mothers are freed from the oversight of mischievous 
 Tony or Theresa for a few hours. The babies are stowed away 
 in convenient niches, sofas and window seats, and amidst the 
 hubbub of telephone bells, peals of laughter and' passing of 
 people to and fro, they sleep profoundly until it is time to bundle 
 them up for home. 
 
 If our guests are mostly Irish, Irish jigs, songs and paper 
 shamrock souvenirs warm the heart of our O'Conner and O'Brien 
 friends. Mrs. Sullivan is called upon to clog and soon the whole Inter= 
 irrepressible crowd is clapping to the rhythm of her feet, until national 
 red in the face she stops amidst a burst of applause. One old Amenities. 
 Irishman sat with tears streaming down his cheeks, while some 
 one was singing "Erin-go-bragh," and no one who saw him thus 
 overcome would have guessed that this big fellow was a pugilist 
 of local fame in his better days. When our guests are Italian, 
 pictures of Italian scenery and Madonna pictures are thrown 
 upon the screen and although macaroni is not served for re- 
 freshments, an effort is made to appeal to them with Italian 
 material. The furniture has suffered somewhat in playing "Go- 
 ing to Jerusalem," for already two chairs have been broken to 
 pieces by the sudden descent of a portly woman. Intense ex- 
 citement animates our guests when the contest narrows down 
 to a lively Scandinavian maiden and a rosy-cheeked Italian. It 
 
 47
 
 is a funny sight to see some hard-working woman drop the 
 burden of a week for a season to puff away at a feather to see 
 if she can keep hers up longer than her red-faced, panting con- 
 testant. If anyone has not thawed out by the time the games 
 are over, a cup of coffee hastens the process, and when "Home 
 Sweet Home" is played, the understood signal that the party 
 is over, everyone is in the best of spirits and the hard, driving 
 week has, at least, a happy end. 
 
 " At one of the Woman's Club celebrations of Chicago Commons 
 
 Neighborly birthday the member presenting their gift to the house did so 
 Appreciation. ^^ t i iese wor( }s, "I have looked forward with so much eager- 
 ness to this meeting that I am almost at a loss for words to 
 express the pleasure I now feel at the sight of so many friends 
 on this eventful occasion. I am sure our presence here is the 
 best token of our love for the Commons and its inmates. 
 
 "Two years ago, when some of us paid our first visit to the 
 Commons, we had not the slightest conception of what it would 
 become to us. Some of us had left homes in small country vil- 
 lages, where we knew every one, and every one knew us. We 
 came to this large city, and found ourselves shut up in our 
 homes, as if they were jails. We were afraid to speak with our 
 neighbors, and our neighbors were afraid of us. When the 
 Chicago Commons opened its doors, and invited us to visit there, 
 we hardly knew what it meant. But we called, and to our sur- 
 prise found ourselves among friends friends that were inter- 
 ested in us and in our daily lives. Its doors were opened to us 
 at any and all times, with a sympathizing friend always ready to 
 listen to us, encourage, and help us amidst the trials and dis- 
 couragements that come to all of us some time or other. Very 
 soon we began to wonder how we ever managed to exist with- 
 out the Commons. Now, through its instrumentality we do 
 know and speak with our neighbors as our Woman's Club can 
 testify. And I know that I but voice the thought of my sisters 
 in the various clubs when I say how much we appreciate the 
 privilege of coming together here once a week, and how much 
 we enjoy our meetings, both business and social. I am sure 
 every one of you will join with me in asking God to bless the 
 Commons and its workers, and give them long life and pros- 
 perity." 
 
 After presenting the lemonade bowl and cups, as the birthday 
 
 48
 
 gift of the clubs to the house, she added, "We hope you will not "With You 
 think us selfish in choosing the gift we have. It is true, we hope and 
 to partake many times of its contents ; but always with you, with Many." 
 and with many others yet to join us." 
 
 No better expression of the aim and spirit of the Settlement 
 movement has come to us than in these sincere words of our 
 good friend and neighbor, from whose pencil and crumpled sheet 
 of paper we have copied them. The motive of our whole move- 
 ment lies in those last few words, "with you and with many." 
 
 The interior life of the settlement furnishes not the least of , . , , 
 its problems. Indeed, what the settlement has to contribute to H 
 the neighborhood or community life, or whether it has any con- 
 tribution to make at all, is very largely determined by the way 
 in which it solves the problems of its own life. For its in- 
 fluence upon the people outside its walls can be no deeper or 
 more real than the relationship of the people living under its 
 own roof. 
 
 These problems begin with the relation between the authori- 
 tative or contributory constituency and the household of resident 
 workers. Liberty for spontaneous development and activity is 
 the charm of settlement service, if It be not the secret of its 
 power. Any exercise of authority or surveillance beyond what 
 is absolutely essential to the corporate life and co-operative 
 work of the household, robs it of its distinctive spirit and 
 strength. Non-resident control of the residents' household life 
 and neighborhood work, is, to say the least, more often a disas- 
 trous failure than a conspicuous success. Those with whom the 
 ultimate responsibility rests can fulfil it in no better way than 
 to trust the head worker and residents as long as the work can 
 be satisfactorily committed to their care, or to supersede them 
 with others to whom the free control of the house and its work 
 may be entrusted. This family freedom and household inde- 
 pendence has created the home atmosphere at Chicago Commons 
 and has generated any power for good which has been exerted 
 here over the lives of us residents or our neighbors. 
 
 The adjustment of the residents to each other and their work 
 must be a natural growth from within. If at all promoted from 
 without it must be by an art which ingeniously conceals the 
 art. Time and patience, with self and others, are required to 
 find and fit one's self into one's own niche. While the process 
 
 49
 
 may be ameliorated by the amenities of courtesy and sympathy, 
 it can rarely be hastened, and may never be safely averted nor 
 avoided. 
 
 To grow together in the home life of the settlement, the con- 
 Sacrament <]itions of fellowship must exist. One of these is that the num- 
 ber of new residents must not be disproportionate to the more 
 Daily Meal. p ermanen (; group. Upon the permanency and strength of the 
 nucleus who remain at the center for years depends both the 
 efficacy of the neighborhood work and the homelikeness of the 
 household life. An atmosphere of fellowship and ideality must 
 exert its pressure unconsciously upon all, if the tone of inner 
 relationship and the standard of outer service is to be main- 
 tained. This cannot be made, it must simply be. To be, it must 
 find self expression, and some medium of interchange. It may 
 not even thus be foisted upon any, but it must be fostered in all. 
 
 This household fellowship the having and sharing something 
 in common requires social occasions for its expression and 
 growth. There are two such. One is the sacrament of the 
 daily meal. At least once each day, generally at the evening 
 meal, the whole household gathers in the joyous sanctity of 
 friendliest fellowship. The privileges of guestship are extended 
 by the whole group or by individual residents to friends in or 
 beyond the neighborhood, to non-resident workers, and to those 
 who come to render occasional service. There is no better way 
 than this of deepening interest in the settlement, of forming 
 real personal attachments and of exemplifying social democ- 
 racy. 
 
 T7 The other occasion in which the fellowship of the settlement 
 
 Vesper riour. 
 
 household finds fitting expression, is the vesper hour. 
 
 Our household group of from twenty to twenty-five residents, 
 associates and guests, always representing varied religious pre- 
 dilections, differing antecedents and outlook upon life, one-third 
 of them being in residence several years, and two-thirds from 
 nine months to a year or so, has always felt the necessity of some 
 common point of contact where we could all exert and yield to 
 the uplift of our common purpose. The half hour immediately 
 after the evening meal proves to be the only time when we can 
 all be together. So we naturally linger in the resident's parlor 
 before going to our evening classes or clubs or other work. 
 
 50
 
 Neighbors, non-resident workers, members of every club occa- 
 sionally drop in. Someone plays a few moments on piano or 
 violin. A hymn or song is sung. Another, usually the warden, 
 though often one of the residents, sometimes a guest, reads or 
 says something briefly that lifts us up and welds us together. 
 Variety and interest are gained by devoting one or two occasions 
 each week to some specific purpose. One evening there may be 
 musical vespers. On another we may exchange items of inter- 
 est from the most socially significant news of the week, or 
 from current literature and new books, or from the best things 
 gleaned at some gathering which we have been privileged to 
 share. Still another such opportunity has proven to be not 
 too brief for reading a specially important volume through, a 
 few pages at a time. A simple prayer is usually said or sung. 
 Once more we sing what is spontaneously suggested by one or 
 another. The informal interview merges or shades off into con- 
 versation, and one by one we slip away or are called out to our 
 appointments, carrying with us into our work and life the 
 vesper glow and inspiration. 
 
 Applicants for residence whose references are satisfactory are 
 informally admitted to the settlement household as associates Settj emei n 
 by the warden with the tacit consent of the residents whose Kesidence * 
 vote subsequently determines the permanency of their relation- 
 ship. Guests are received for brief periods. But those desir- 
 ing to enter residence are expected to apply for not less than 
 one year, excepting the incumbents of university fellowships, 
 and others who may be accepted for definite periods and work. 
 
 The residents are left as free for individual initiative and 
 independent work as is consistent with the corporate life of the 
 household and its co-operative effort. A residents' meeting for 
 fellowship in the life of the house and efficiency in the work 
 of the neighborhood is held each week. To an executive com- 
 mittee of five members elected by the residents in the spring 
 and fall, together with the warden, is committed the general 
 oversight of the settlement. A house committee of three mem- 
 bers is chosen to administer household interests. A residents' 
 club, independently provides for and manages the expenditures 
 for the settlement table. The cost of living at present is five 
 dollars a week for each person. 
 
 51
 
 There have been 125 persons residing at the settlement for 
 periods varying from ten years to one summer, of whom the 
 following are at present in residence : 
 
 RESIDENTS. 
 
 p y . Louise L. Bock, Isabella T. Bond, Charles L. Burt, Henry R 
 
 , Burt, Florence A. Fensham, Mary G. Field, Edgar B. Gordon, 
 
 Mrs. Edna S. Gordon, Mabel A. Hawkins, Mary W. Price, 
 Graham Taylor, Mrs. Leah D. Taylor, Helen D. Taylor, Gra- 
 ham Romeyn Taylor, Lea D. Taylor, Katharine Taylor. 
 
 Residents. 
 
 ASSOCIATES. 
 
 Rudolph Stoess, Harry Mock, Theodore Nordhaus, Charles 
 T. Hallinan, Kathryn Rockey, Enid George. 
 
 COLLEGE SETTLEMENT FELLOWS. 
 
 Clara S. More, College Settlements Association ; Anne Huber, 
 University of Michigan. 
 
 IN CHARGE OF DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Musical, Mr. Gordon ; Domestic Science, Miss Bond ; Boys' 
 Clubs, Camp and Probation Officer, Mr. Burt; Girls' Clubs, 
 Miss Field; Manual Training, Mr. Nordhaus; Gymnasium, Mr. 
 Chas. Burt; Kindergarten, Miss Bock; Training School, Mrs. 
 Bertha Hofer Hegner. 
 
 52
 
 Budget for 1905. 
 
 As this pamphlet is necessarily published before the close of 
 the fiscal year, to furnish the basis of the appeal for next year's 
 support, it cannot include the treasurer's report, which is sub- 
 mitted to the trustees and donors in January. 
 
 A deficiency of $2,021.35 was carried over from last year, due 
 in large prut to the decrease in income during the six months' 
 absence of the warden, despite the forethought to anticipate and 
 prevent this contingency. 
 
 This arrearage was partially offset by the increase of over $600 
 in the neighborhood co-operation which, through club and class 
 fees and special gifts of equipment, approximates $1,900. 
 
 The receipts of the last quarter of the year give fair promise 
 of closing the current expense account without deficit. 
 
 The estimates of expenses for 1905 are based upon the average 
 annual expenditures incurred in the work at the new building, 
 from which they vary slightly. 
 
 MAINTENANCE OF BUILDING. 
 
 Average for : Gas for light and cooking, $1,145 ; 
 coal, $794 ; electrical service, $227 ; repair and per- 
 manent equipment, $900; janitor, engineer and ele- 
 vator service ; $1,589 ; fire insurance, $200 ; tele- 
 phone, $129 ; interest on building debt, $550. 
 
 Estimate of total $ 5,500 00 
 
 MATERIAL EQUIPMENT AND SERVICE. 
 Average for : Cooking school, $300 ; day nursery, 
 $900 ; classes, clubs and occasional groups, $655. 
 Estimate of total 1,900 00 
 
 OUTING ACCOUNT. 
 
 Average for : Rent, equipment and director of play- 
 ground, $350; camp, $375; vacation kindergarten, 
 Estimate of total 800 00 
 
 OFFICE EXPENSES. 
 
 Average for stationery, postage and printing 400 00 
 
 SALARIES. 
 
 Average for seven heads of departments 4,250 00 
 
 Estimated total expense for 1905 $12,850 00 
 
 Matheon Club subscription to day nursery... $ 400 
 Estimated cash receipts from clubs and classes. 1,800 2,200 00 
 
 Balance to be provided by subscription $10,650 00 
 
 53
 
 Balance due Dec. 1, 1904, on building and adjoining lot valued 
 with equipment at $72,000 : 
 
 Balance Due Note of hand $ 2,000 00 
 
 on Building. Street paving assessment 682 45 
 
 Note of hand 5,000 00 
 
 Balance due to secure adjoining lot 1,500 00 
 
 $ 9,182 45 
 Subscriptions conditioned on paym't of whole am't 1,200 00 
 
 Balance to be raised $ 7,9S2 45 
 
 GRAHAM TAYLOR, 
 
 Treasurer. 
 
 I give and bequeath to the Trustees of the Chicago Commons 
 Form of 
 Beouest Association, Incorporated, the sum of $ to be devoted 
 
 to the purposes of the Association as stated in the articles of its 
 incorporation. 
 
 Some New 
 Needs. 
 
 Two fan motors for ventilating auditorium. 
 
 Printing press for settlement announcements. 
 
 An electrical stcreopticon. 
 
 Pipe organ for auditorium. 
 
 Flagstaff and flags ; American, Norwegian, German, Polish. 
 
 Italian and Irish. 
 
 Neighborhood clock in front of building. 
 Camp ground and cottage. 
 Completion of building by erection of annex for men's club 
 
 house. 
 
 54
 
 "Trustees of the Chicago Commons Association, Incorporated" Legal 
 is the legal title of the body of eleven persons in whom is vested Incorporation 
 the right to receive and hold in trust the property of the set- 
 tlement and who are held legally responsible for the conduct 
 of its work in accordance with the purpose for which it was 
 incorporated under the general statute of Illinois providing for 
 corporations "not for profit." In the articles of incorporation 
 the purpose of the association is thus stated: "The object for 
 which it is formed is to provide a center for a higher civic 
 atul social life, to initiate and maintain religious, educational 
 and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve 
 conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." 
 
 Members of the Board of Trustees are elected annually in 
 groups to serve for three years. Those now i:i service are: 
 
 David Fales, Joseph Henry George, Jane Addams and Susan 
 and Susan M. Wood. (1907) 
 
 Frank H. McCulloch, Mrs. Otto H. Matz, Edward L. Ryer- 
 son, and Graham Taylor. (1906) 
 
 Edwin Burritt Smith, Alexander B. Scully, and Frederick 
 F. Peabody. (1903) 
 
 President and Treasurer, Graham Taylor. 
 
 Assistant Treasurer, Susan M. Wood. 
 
 Secretary, Frank H. McCulloch. 
 
 Board of 
 Trustees.
 
 The Commons 
 
 A MONTHLY MAGAZINE 
 GRAHAM TAYLOR. Editor 
 
 For 
 
 INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE 
 EFFICIENT PHILANTHROPY 
 EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM and the 
 PEOPLE'S CONTROL OF PUBLIC 
 UTILITIES 
 
 A SOCIAL SETTLEMENT PERIODICAL for nine years, 
 THK COMMONS still looks at life and labor from the social settle- 
 ment point of view. Its broadened scope and enlarged form 
 enables THE COMMONS to devote more space and larger attention 
 than ever to social settlement interests. Every page contains in- 
 formation that is invaluable to social settlement workers and all 
 who are earnestly studying social conditions and forces. But 
 especial attention is called to a notable series of articles, 
 
 A FEATURE FOR 1905 
 " Types of Settlements in Print and Pictures " 
 
 Aims, methods, practical workings, and distinctive phases of 
 settlement work, in this country and abroad, will be discussed by 
 head residents and others, and accompanied by numerous illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 Send Postal To-day for Sample Copy 
 
 The Commons 
 
 180 Gr<\r\d Avenue Chicago, 111. 
 
 ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
 
 5G