Not so many years ago a little girl, living in a small Illinois town,
had a strange dream. She was quite a little girl; just old enough to
be in the second grade at school, nevertheless she always remembered
that dream. She says, "I dreamed that every one in the world was dead
excepting myself, and that upon me rested the responsibility of making
a wagon wheel. The village street remained as usual, the village
blacksmith shop was 'all there,' even a glowing fire upon the forge,
and the anvil in its customary place near the door, but no human being
was within sight. They had all gone around the edge of the hill to the
village cemetery, and I alone remained in the deserted world. I stood
in the blacksmith shop pondering on how to begin, and never once knew
how, although I fully realized that the affairs of the world could not
be resumed until at least one wheel should be made and something
started."
The little girl dreamed this dream more than once, but she never made
the wagon wheel. However, when she was a grown woman she founded and
built up something that has become a great force for good in the
largest city of her native state.
Perhaps you are wondering what she did. She went to live in one of the
poorest and most wretched parts of Chicago. There she furnished her
house exactly as she would if it had been in some beautiful street.
She called her home a Settlement, and invited her neighbors to come in
daily for comfort and cheer.
[Illustration: JANE ADDAMS
Founder of Hull House, Chicago]
In her description of the street in which she lived she says,
"Halsted Street is thirty-two miles long, and one of the great
thoroughfares of Chicago. Polk street crosses it midway between the
stock yards to the south and the ship building yards to the north. For
the six miles between these two industries the street is lined with
shops of butchers and grocers, with dingy and gorgeous saloons, and
places for the sale of ready-made clothing. Once this was the suburbs,
but the city has grown steadily and this site has corners on three or
four foreign colonies."
It was in the year 1899 that Jane Addams, for that is the name of the
little girl who dreamed she was to make a wagon wheel and help start
something in the world, began living in Halsted Street, and named her
home Hull House after the first owner.
In those early days people asked her over and over why she had come to
live in Halsted Street when she could afford to live among richer
people.
One old man used to shake his head and say it was the strangest thing
he had ever known. However, there came a time when he thought it was
most natural for the settlement to be there to feed the hungry, care
for the sick, give pleasure to the young and comfort to the aged.
From the very first Miss Addams and her helpers made their neighbors
understand that they were ready to do even the humblest services. They
took care of children and nursed the sick. They even washed the dishes
and cleaned the house for some of the poor foreign women who had to
work all night scrubbing big office buildings.
Besides helping in true neighborly fashion, they brought many joys to
the people about them. Some of these were quite by chance, as once
when an old Italian woman cried with pleasure over a bunch of red
roses that she saw at a reception Miss Addams gave. She was surprised,
she said, that they had been "brought so fresh all the way from
Italy." No one could make her believe they had been grown in Chicago.
She had lived there six years and never seen any, but in Italy they
bloomed everywhere all summer.
Now the sad thing about this story was that during all the six years
of her stay in Chicago she had lived within ten blocks of a flower
store, and one car fare would have been enough to take her to one of
Chicago's beautiful public parks. No one had ever told her about them,
and so all she knew of the city was the dirty street in which she
lived.
Miss Addams learned that most of the foreigners were as helpless as
this woman in finding anything to bring them pleasure. So Hull House
became a place where hundreds of persons went. Some joined classes
and studied, but at first it was for social purposes that the
Settlement was used the most.
The people lived in tiny, crowded rooms and the only place they had to
gather in celebration of weddings and birthdays, and meet each other
was the saloon halls. These halls could be rented for a very small sum
with the understanding that the company would spend much money at the
saloon bar. Because of this custom many a party that started out quiet
and orderly ended with great disorder. So you can see that every one
would be glad to have Hull House where they could go and enjoy
themselves comfortably with their friends.
A day at Hull House is most interesting. In the morning come many
little children to the Kindergarten. They are followed by older
children who come to afternoon classes, while in the evening every
room is filled with grown persons who meet in some form of study, club
or social life.
But if you should go there now you would find instead of one building,
with which Miss Addams began, thirteen buildings and forty persons
living there to help to teach anyone who may come to Hull House.
There are classes in foreign languages, and one may study in the night
classes almost any subject that is taught in a high school. Besides
these classes there are concerts and plays. Hull House has a theater
of its own, and the boys and girls of the neighborhood act out their
favorite dramas there. One story that has been told frequently shows
the kind of plays the boys and girls make. Almost every one thinks
this play was given in the Hull House Theater but Miss Addams writes:
I have told the story you have reference to several times. It is
about a settlement boys' club, not at Hull House, who were asked
to write a play on the origin of the American flag. They were told
the climax must come in the third act, etc., but were given no
outline.
The play was as follows: The first act was at "the darkest hour of
the American Revolution." A sentry walking up and down in front of
the camp, says to a soldier: "Aint it fierce? We aint got no flag
for this here Revolution." And the soldier replies: "Yes, aint it
fierce?" That is the end of the first act. Second act: The same
soldier appears before George Washington and says: "Aint it
fierce? We aint got no flag for this here Revolution." And George
Washington replies: "Yes, aint it fierce?" and that is the end of
the second act. Third Act: George Washington went to call on Betsy
Ross, who lived on Arch Street in Philadelphia, and said:
"Mistress Ross, aint it fierce? We aint got no flag for this here
Revolution," and Betsy Ross replied: "Yes, aint it fierce? Hold
the baby and I will make one."
I sometimes tell this with a little more elaboration but I have
given you what the boys actually wrote. Of course, it has always
been detailed in the line of a funny story and cannot be taken too
seriously.
Very sincerely yours,
JANE ADDAMS
Is it not wonderful what Miss Addams has done for the people who had
no comfort or care? Perhaps she has but kept a promise she made to her
father when she was only seven years of age.
They were driving through the poor, mean streets of her native town of
Cedarville, Illinois. She had never seen this particular part of the
town before, and asked her father many times why persons lived in
such dreadful places. He tried to tell her what it meant to be very
poor. She listened eagerly and then exclaimed, "When I grow up, I am
going to live in a great, big house right among horrid little houses
like these."
In her "big house" on Halsted Street many lives have been brightened
and thousands have found the help that started them upon useful
careers.
Jane Addams is one of the noblest women our country has had, and she
has been honored by Chicago and the entire United States for her life
of service.
A member of the English Parliament called her "the only saint America
has produced," while an enthusiastic Chicago man, when asked to name
the greatest living man in America, answered, "Jane Addams."
When in Chicago, try to go out to Hull House and visit for an
afternoon or evening. There are so many kinds of activities going on
all the time you can see what you like best, whether it be gymnastics,
acting, music, pottery, carpentery, or any of the literary or
industrial pursuits.
Later on you will want to read the book Miss Addams has written of her
experience called, "Twenty Years of Hull House."
* * * * *
"_The union of hearts, the union of hands, and the flag of our Union
forever._"
--G. P. MORRIS.
[Illustration: JOHN MITCHELL
President of the United Mine Workers]