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which do not imply criminality or stupidity. Among them are

those who, in spite of untoward circumstances, keep up some sort

of an intellectual life; those who are "great for books," as their

neighbors say. To such the Settlement may be a genuine refuge.

In the very first weeks of our residence Miss Starr started a reading

party in George Eliot's "Romola," which was attended by a group of

young women who followed the wonderful tale with unflagging interest. The weekly reading was held in our little upstairs dining-room,

and two members of the club came to dinner each week, not only that

they might be received as guests, but that they might help us wash the

dishes afterwards and so make the table ready for the stacks of Florentine photographs.

Our "first resident," as she gayly designated herself, was a charming

old lady who gave five consecutive readings from Hawthorne to a most

appreciative audience, interspersing the magic tales most delightfully

with recollections of the elusive and fascinating author. Years before

she had lived at Brook Farm as a pupil of the Ripleys, and she came to *us for ten days because she wished to live once more in an atmosphere

where "idealism ran high." We thus early found the type of class which

through all the years has remained most popular —a combination of a

social atmosphere with serious study.

Volunteers to the new undertaking came quickly; a charming young

girl conducted a kindergarten in the drawing-room, coming regularly

every morning from her home in a distant part of the North Side of the

city. Although a tablet to her memory has stood upon a mantel shelf in

Hull-House for five years, we still associate her most vividly with the

play of little children, first in her kindergarten and then in her own

nursery, which furnished a veritable illustration of Victor Hugo's definition of heaven, —"a place where parents are always young and children always little." Her daily presence for the first two years made it

quite impossible for us to become too solemn and self-conscious in our

strenuous routine, for her mirth and buoyancy were irresistible and her

eager desire to share the life of the neighborhood never failed, although it was often put to a severe test. One day at luncheon she gayly

recited her futile attempt to impress temperance principles upon the

mind of an Italian mother, to whom she had returned a small daughter

of five sent to the kindergarten "in quite a horrid state of intoxication"