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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1908)
2 THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND. APRIL 26, 190S, 1Q) ITT W A1MT A BT DKXTER MARSHALL. AMON'G the present-day Good Samar itans to the poor, the tinmen of three women ntand out strongly Mm Jane Ad la me, of Hull House, found er of the first social settlement tn Amer ica; Mrs. Maud Balllngton Booth, "little mother" to the released and shunned "prison bird," and MIbs Eva Booth, for years her father's mainstay In England and now the head or the Salvation Army ' In America. Each has a following that la comparable in numbers only to an army. Hun House, with it, scores of clubs and industrial branches. Is the cen tfj of the higher life to the worst crowd ed and most cosmopolitan section of Chicago. To the Volunteer of America and to the Salvation Army thousands of the outcasts of the very poor themselves turn yearly for a friendly word and a smile and lust the modicum of help that wlil put them once again on the road of respectability. Uood Samaritan work Is no child's play to this trio. Neither Is it a passing social whim, or merely employment to fill idle hours. It Is life work. Bach woman has dedicated herself to the talk of uplifting the poor or the great elites, and in this herculean effort each has gained not only a wonderful measure of success but na tional and International fame besides. Though each woman's line of work Is peculiar to herself in a measure, it is no ticeable that all three are possessed of the power to hypnotise the rich man into opening wide his pocketbook at charity's call as delivered by them. They are. per haps, the best all-around money-gift get ters among the Good Samaritans of to day. It would be interesting to know the sum total of the money they have taken from millionaires; the uguros would doubtless chow a fortune of Inre size. It also would be interesting to see a list of the moneyed men who from 1'ine to time have been separated from some of their wealth by the gentle Insistence of these three modern Graces of charity. Though her novels have given her the greatest publicity, Mrs, Humphrey Ward is known in England as one of its shin ing Good Samaritans. She has been a leading promoter of London playgrounds, and the success of this movement In be half of the child has been due In no smalt part to her efforts. She aiso is noted among charity workers as one of the founders of University Hall, a Lon don settlement established in harmony with the views set forth by Mis. Ward In her first great novel "Robert Msmere." Of course the venerable Florence Night ingale has been a Good Samaritan to the poor ever since she founded the Nightin gale Home for trained nurses with the JJhO,000 testimonial given her by a grate ful England for her work of mercy in the Crimean War. And through her hun dreds, nay, thousands, of women are Good Samaritans today in every quarter of the globe, made so not only by her training school, but by her example as well. Among the men Jacob. Rits. after Gen eral William Booth, probably is the best known Uood Samaritan, though Balling- ton Booth, general-ln-chlef of the Volun teers of America, aleo is an International figure. Edward T. Devine, charity expert and organizer, and general secretary of the Charity Organisation Society of New York City, came prominently before the Nation at the lime of the San Francisco earthquake, when he was selected by Secretary Taft to dispense Red Cross aid to the sulTcrers. Robert W. De Forest, h president of the Charity Organization Poclety, founder and first president of the first philanthropic pawnbrokery, chair man of the State Commission that brought about the famous tenement-house reform In New York City, and first Tenement-House Commissioner of the metro polis, has been a Good Samaritan on a I arte scale for the last SO years. He has had the satisfaction of seeing many of his ideas of charity work spread all over the country. Robert A. Woods, who oc cupies a position In Boston somewhat akin to that held by Miss Ad dams in rhlcago; Robert C. Ogden, of New York, retired merchant prince, whose specialty is the education of the Southern poor, and John H. Converse, locomotive builder of Philadelphia, who Is devoting a large part or his great wealth to the religious education of the poor, are among those whose fame as Good Samaritans is not sliKht. In Jewish circles the world over the be neficence of the Montefiores is traditional. For more than 80 years the members of this famous Knglish family, originally Ango-Italian. have been engaged prin cipally In ameliorating the condition of the Jewish poor wherever found. One of the monuments to Montefiore philan thropy in this country is the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids In New York city, one of the largest institutions of its kind in America. The original Good Samaritan Montefiore was S'r Moses Haylm, who lived to the green old age of 101. dying In July. 1SS5. Just si years of his long life he devoted exclusively to philanthropy, giving away millions In that time and vastly improving the conditions of tens of thousands of his kindred, especially In the Orient, whither he made numerous trips that he might personally dispense philanthropy. On these journeys he was received almost like a fellow-ruler by the potentates of the East, so great was their respect for the English Uood Samaritan and his works. At home he was created a baronet by Queen Victoria, and because he was one of the leaders in the move ment which resulted In the removal of civil disabilities of Jews In England ho was one of the first Jews to be elected to office in that "right little, tight little island." English charities founded or aided by his money are numbered by the score. The principal Good Samaritan of the family today is Claude U. Montefiore. Since attaining his majority in 1ST9 ha has devoted his entire time to philan thropic and educational matters, his educational work being In furtherance ef the betterment of the Jew. This Montefiore has added to his inherited wealth by marriage into the famous banking family of Goldsmld. Sir Moses, born wealthy, married a relative of the Rothschilds, and before he had retired from business In 18C4 had added millions to a fortune secured by inheritance and alliance, lesser Montefiores also have married wealth, and thus through them millions of money accumulated by not a few of the leading Jewish banking families of Kurope are being distributed among the poor of the Jewish world by the present ' day representatives of a family whose record In philanthropic service stands unique in modern times for length and continuity, being handed down, as It is, from one generation to another along with the patrimony. There have been all sorts of estimates of the amount of money devoted to Good Samaritan work by the Montefiores and thetr connections, some of the guesses rising to 1160,000,000, or a third more than the late Baron de Hirsch gave away during the course of his lifetime. Rut no one other than the Montefiores themselves could give an Intelligent esti mate of the sum total of the family do nations to charity, so careful have they been to keep the details of their alms giving from the public. The First Lady of Chicago. Since 1SSD. when she opened the first social settlement house in'America, Miss Jane Addnms has been one of the world's famous Good Samaritans. Hull House and the numerous industrial, so cial, economlo and political institutions that it mothers form a remarkable monument to the energy of a quiet, me- THE JLXl. WHAT c?AWE AD DAMS-, nSAIVAOTON AR.MY LEADERS, AND OTHER.. AMERICANS ARE DOING TO UPLIFT THE WORluD W AND OTHER. AMERICANS ARE 8 - mi4 - J -rtiiiir" '- :::' -- . l;XBMaaTiV'.y'MrMa TiiiSr.SiTff ini TTnSmXmiW i ' i'" n lfrTrffMTWigsts diam-aixed. earnest woman with gray eyes who began her grown-up life handi capped by illness of long standing. In deed, the entire social settlement move ment as carried on in this country, may be said to be a monument to Miss Ad dams' initiative, for it was only after she had made a success of Hull House did kindred wsxk spread here; and it Is the implied, if not the expressed, aim of the average American social settle ment worker to emulate Miss Ad dams and her work so far as possible. . Besides being the country's premier in social settlement efforts. Miss Addams probably is Us leading exponent of the Tolstoyan doctrine that "the rich should get off the backs of the poor." Miss Addams never has had any trouble securing needed funds from the richest men of America. Nor has she ever made a public appeal for finan cial support; she does not believe In such solicitation. Whenever she feels the need of money for any of her various enterprises, she makes personal calls on men and women who, she is led to be lieve, will give; arid it Is seldom that she comes away empty handed. Chicago especially can boast of many wealthy persons who have as much as told Miss Addams that their check books are ready to serve her at her call. It is upon persons who know what Hull House has done and is doing for the wonderful cosmopolitan population around it that Miss Addams depends for financial comfort. But before she had works to back her words. Miss Addams herself supplied the money with which to start Hull Bouse and keep it going during the critical pe riod of its infancy. Subsequently she de voted her entire patrimony to Hull House, depending on her lectures and writings for her own personal income. This was one result ofMhe pilgrimage that she made to Tolstoy's home In 1&. I am told that one of the most Interest ing incidents connected with this visit has received only slight attention In this country. It occurred after Miss Ad i dams had touchlngly told the Russian, philosopher of the great poverty of the sadly crowded people among whom she lived and worked. When she had finished he reached out a brawny hand and touched the silk sleeve of bis visitor's fashionable dress. "And what is this for?" he .queried. "My people like to see me well dressed," Miss Addams replied, in effect. "You should not like to be dressed dif ferently from them," came back. Tolstoy, whose fondness for wearing the Russian peasant costume is well known. "But." answered Miss AcMama, "I work among Irish, Italians, Greeks, Ar menians and many other nationalities. I could not dress In all their different cos tumes." Tolstoi smiled. "All the more reason why you should choose some cheap and simple dress that any of them could adopt, and not cut yourself off by your drees from those you wish to serve."' It Is perhapa needless to add that Mtes Addams, up to date, has not adopted the Tolstolan Idea of dress. But her visit to Tolstoi did cause her to put some of his teachings Into practice at Hull House, and after her return from Yasnaya Foliana she only was kept from doing manual labor in the Hull House bakery by the administrative demands on her time. In her principal written work. "Democracy and Social Bthics," published several years after her talk with Tolstoi, Mias Addams clearly shows her adherence to much of his philosophy of life appertain ing to the relations that should exist be tween rich and poor. The demands on Miss Addam's " time crowd in upon ber with a monotonous rapidity that would drive the averago per son, man or woman. Into a state of in tense irritability, to say the least. But she remains unruffled through It all, and so does an enormous day's work. Be sides giving personal administration to every branch of Hull House work, se curing additional funds when needed, and constantly writing and lecturing on set tlement work and other civic movements, she gives personal attention to the wel fare of the thousands of people who come to Hull House to be taught the better way of living. As a result she is called hither and yon over her district by people who want her advice on all sorts of matters. Perhaps It is a mother troubled about the best food or medicine for her baby, drooping from the effects of Summer heat. Perhaps she has been summoned by a truckman to confirm or dispute the word of a veterinarian that the old horse should he killed. Or it may be that a son has been acting in wayward fashion of late and the worried old-world mother wants Miss Addams to speak with the boy and get him to mend his ways. To one and all such requests Miss Addams gives serious attention, and largely because she enters sympathetically into even the trivial af fairs of the people about her she has been so successful in her work. Miss Addams is easily the first woman of Chicago, as well as the country's first settlement worker. Through her insist ence Chicago established its public baths system. She was one of a committee of five that organized a Chicago civic feder ation, whicli greatly lessened the evils of gambling and improved the condition of the streets. She was on the arbitration committee of the famous Pullman strike. No movement looking toward a better Chicago waits in vain for her support and her approval of a civic movement Is pretty apt to insure its ultimate success. The honor which her alma mater con ferred upon Miss Addams several years ago la unique, la the history of education in this country and abroad. The trustees of Rockford College, where she graduated in 1S81. turned over to her the entire col lege plant for the use and benefit of Hull House during the Summer months. Here such poor girls as aspire to secure an education are instructed by a staff, each member of which has to pay a weekly fee for the privilege of teaching and living at the college during this time. It was while she was still a student at Rockford that Miss Addams definitely de cided to devote her life to the poor. She, however, at that time did not dream of a Hull House, or similar work, and the year following her graduation . she went to Philadelphia to prepare herself for a med ical career among the poor. By becoming a physician she felt that she could do her work as one of the poor and not as one above them. She had been at her professional studies only a year when her old Illness reas serted Itself, and for her health's sake she went abroad in company with Miss Ellen Gates Starr, co-founder of Hull House. Carrying with her across the ocean her interest in the poor of the great cities, she very naturally heard of Toynbee Hall. London's first settlement house, then Just founded, and visited it. Then and there she was fired with the ambition which ultimately led to the es tablishment of Hull House. For a woman Miss Addams is rather brief of speech, though she is in no sense taciturn or short. But, though seldom Impulsive in speech. In action she is fre quently ao. One day she noticed that one her callers, a typical slums woman. was leaving Hull House protected against bitter weather by only a thin and worn covering. Immediately Miss Addams seized her own fur-lined cape and threw It over the shoulders of the dazed woman. Like most of the present-day good Samaritans. Miss Addams became person ally acquainted with poverty only through study of it. She was reared in comfort, not to say affluence; her family was in fluential In Its neighborhood, and her father was for many years a members of the Illinois Legislature. The American Booths. Like Miss Addams, Mrs. Balllngton Booth was well born her father was a Churoh of England clergyman and she too, inherited nice little Income, But in her case it is tied up in such a way that she cannot devote the principal to her charitable work. Otherwise her inherit ance would have gone long since to build a Hope Hall, In all probability. Just aa hull House resulted from a visit of inspection made by its founder, so Mrs. Balllngton Booth's prison work is the re sult of her first visit to and speech de livered In a state's prison. This was in California. During the course of her address she was struck with pity at the apparent hopeless situ ation of the men before her. This thought pursued her all through her talk, and so when she had finished her set speech she was moved to ask all those to eome for. ward who would like to lead better lives had they a chance to do so. Two hundred men, among them some of the prison's most hardened cases, stepped forward. From this Incident Mrs. Booth became deeply Interested In convicts generally and it was not long after this that she was paying regular visits to Sing Sing and talking to and pleading with the Inmates. Nor was It very long before the convicts there began to call her "little mother," the designation by which she Is known to thousands of wrongdoers who have been helped by her while in prison and when Just out of It In one of the famous Hope Halls which she has established tor the especial benefit of the released convict. Thia prison work Is distinctive of the Volunteers of America, whose other lines of work are similar to those of the Salva tion Army. Mrs. Booth has personal charge of the prison work, and she her self sees that It is financed from the pocketbooks of the rich. Mrs. Booth and her husband were the first commanders of the Salvation Army In this country, being sent here In VX by General Booth, seven years after the first army lassies had come to this coun try in the steerage. These seven enthusi asts held ths first army meeting In America In Castle Garden Immediately following their landing, and for a good, many years thereafter they and their ad herents were subjected to a mountain oC ridicule and insults. The trouble between General Booth and the Balllngton Booths Is too well known to bo more than re ferred to here. Suffice It to say that as head of the Volunteers the son of the General has grown steadily In national importance since l&fti, the year he founded his own army. Miss Eva Booth, present bead of the Salvation Army In this country, unmis takably shows many of the remarkable facial lines of her father. Like him she Is gifted with file power to move men and women mightily with her speeeh. Though rather frail physically, she has his In domitable spirit; like him she commands intense loyalty among the rank and fljs of the army, and again like him she is a master of administrative detail. Her whole life this side of her early childhood has been spent in active army service. As a mere child she worked in the worst slums of London and in the coal fields. Though she dally was sub jected to insult and often threatened with physical violence, she never once shrank from what she conceived to be her duty. In one locality, where the slums people were particularly nasty and the police were Insolently negligent In protecting the lassies. Miss Booth announced to the crowd that she would be her own police man. At first they guffawed at the idea of a slip of a girl protecting herself and those about her, but her "nerve" appealed to them, and when she was transferred from this particular station she left be hind her an appreciate degree of order. Miss Booth was a schoolgirl when she first sold the War Cry on London's Btreets. Her first open-air speech was de livered from a chair, so small was she at the time. Step by step she has worked up the Salvation Army ladder, until today she holds the second most important dl visional post In the organization. Good Samaritan From tho Slums. Among all the Good Samaritans here mentioned Jacob Rlls has the distinction of having actually lived the life of the slums, not from choice but or necessity. He has told better than any one else could of his coming to America and the) heartbreaking experiences that befell him before he could find himself in the land of new hope. And when he did find him self he had ever with him the desire some day to annihilate the conditions which had oppressed him and were en slaving their tens of thousands in New York City. Because of this ambition he has con- (Coacluded on Face U.)