The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 31, 1901, Page 10

men and women and boys and girls end bables of South Park are going to be kept so busy pretty soon that SBatan will have to move out if, as is said, it is idle hands he is look- ing for. For the San Francisco Settlement Asso- eiation and Mrs. Phebe Hearst are grow- ing busier than ever, and the settlement «elubs are moving ! their new quarters, which Mre. Hearst has provided for them At the cost of $20,000 The settlement work has been going on n the south part of the city for a good smany years now, but it has nmow and agein hed e hard e to make a live of St. The workers worked, but that was Dot enough Money was the thing needed. of the clubs are working ings going, giving might have been t pettiement an ding the clubs together by constant effort. But all this was not enough. The meetings had to be held in any scattered rooms that could be had— remote houses. They the needs of the work- Y Was thing wanted. ved Mrs. Hearst, as she has g. She felt in her pocket, £20,000 bill, and—there you over stores or in & way of & pulled out = are It 4= all emooth sailing mow. The two putidings which she has thrown together snd fitted out completely have been epened now, and the clubs are getting set- tled in their new quarters. You will find these buildings at 86 South Park, right at the corner of a cross street, where des are left free for big windows and fresh air and sunshine. The hine are quite as chummy as anywhere else, if they The buil t you enter first, the one thet has 86 painted on its transom, is calléd the settlement house. Behind this is Shaw gymnasium, which name covers a multitude of good things. The two to- gether sllow ample room to house the clube, to house the workers and to furnish reading-rooms for busy people, who can spatch only a few minutes for a read and & chat and so cannot have it uniess it is to be found near at hana If you are going to be interested in set- flement work, here or anywhere else, you must bear in mind the one thing that out- siders are repeatedly forgetting and set- tlementers are repeatedly reminding them \, ; that is, that the work is not charita~ \ three s le. It is mot and it does not want to be called so. It is social and it is educative. The people whom it reaches are not in need; they are living upon the neat wages of a prosperous mechanic or storekeeper, and they don’t ask any odds of you or of me. They have clothes to wear and food to eat and a place to sleep, and very good they all of them are, and what the settle- ment does for them is not to help them in material ways. It teaches them, rather. It amuses them, besides. It offers good entertain- ment that young people and old find bet- ter in the long run than that offered by the corner grocery. The results are ob- vious and come of themselves. If you lead a horse to the water you can't make him drink perhaps, but the chances are good that he will drink of himself. If you will enter by the basement door »ou will get at the very start an idea of what a settlement is. You go into a long hall and there at the left the first door that you come upon opens into the men’s reading room. It is a long, sunny room, with plenty of windows on two sides. A reading desk runs the length of it; newspapers and the latest magazines are at hand. A comfort- able bench tempts somebody who has found on the shelves a book after his fancy. Pictures hang about; they are good pictures, too, not expensive ones, but photographs and coples of the best. They are @ relief to eves that have been accus- tomed to the glare of some gaudy printed actress with a cigarette brand for her title, At the right of the hall is a big room finished artistically in the same redwood that is found throughout most of the house. This is the headquarters of the Cosmopolis Club, the little band of boys and young men that Willlam Den- man !s taking charge of. They are inves- tigating practical politics together, Mr, Denman and the boys. The club is the old- est in the settlement, and its boys have had a chance to grow up and experiment for themselves with some of the theories that they have worked out. Farther down the long hall and you come to the sloyd room. It puts you in'a jolly mood just to enter it and glance at the silhouetted profiles of tae sloyd work- ers, They range in & border t the wall, side by side in the most m&‘ofl- able way, and they wear snub noses as & badge of brotherhood. At the benches that border the room work the young cabinet-makers with every appliance that is needed to keep them busy. They, too, have windows a-plenty, although most of the settlement clubs meet in the evening when school and work are over. The printing réom lacks nothing in its outfit and it turns out the boys’ own peri- odicals just to show what it can do. Drop lights are carefully arranged at each man’'s place. Yourg men come here and learn the trade at night after a day's work at something less profitable, but probably quite as hard. They are in this way given the chance that they might otherwise go through a lifetime looking TAR DEADWIEST EATH GULCH is the name given D by those living near it to a ravine in the northeastern corner of the Yellowstone National Park, in Wy- oming. Grewsome as is the name, it is exceedingly appropriate. It is a'V-shaped trench cut in the mountain side, and be- gins about 250 feet above Cache Creek. Apparently it forms a natural shelter for the beasts of the forest, as food, water and ehelter are there, but entrance to the guich means death to any animal, for the poisonous vapors that rise out of the ravine are more deadly than the bullets of the huntsmen, . Various expeditions under the direction of the United States Geological Survey have reported as to the characteristics of Death Guich, the last being by Harvey ‘W. Weed. He said that he had tested the THE SUNDAY CALL. for—the chance to become skilled work- men. The playroom. for little boys stretches &cross the rear of this floor and gives the emall fry of the neighborhood a chance to be happy In a good environment on ralny days. It likewise solves a very large problem for some mothers. The first floor of the bulldings is artistic enough to make you want to live there, It is finished In redwood, more orna- mental, by the way, than some people realize who estimate beauty by a scale of dollars and cents. On one side of the hall are the two large rooms devoted to the Mothers’ Club. Mrs. Kincald has been bringing together these busy mothers and giving them new things to think about. There was a time when they didn’t know the nice distinction be- tween a back yard and a garbage barrel, but they begin to see. Bookcases furnish them entertalnmeat for some of the moments which “they can find to spare and If the baby should offer strenuous objections to a parting he can be brought along. The mothers have not a monopoly on this room; there is place in it for the girls, too, and books for them as well, Here they can read and discuss doll ailments. They are quite as likely to discuss real measies and whooping cough, for they turn Into big sisters very soon after they leave off their own baby clothes, and they often cqme to a club meeting with a baby in their arms, On this floor the entire of the rear build- ing is given to the gymnasium. This is a gymnasium and a good deal more. It has SEOT hollows in the gulch for carbonic actd gas without proving its presence. The atmosphere in the guich, however, was oppressive. There was a strong smell of sulphur, and he suffered from a choking sensation, although a strong wind pre-’ vailed at the time. At the bottom of the gulch were the carcasses of many ani- mals, sume of which had met death but a short time before. These carcasses were of bear, elk, hares, squirrels, etc. Mr. Weed examined the body of a grizzly, which evidently had dled but a day before, as its tracks were quite dis- tinct and perfectly fresh. There was some blood under the nose. Nothing more. Later on Charles E. George and a Mr. Everett of Boston visited the gulch and made an extended examination. They de- clare the gulch is a death trap, which, IN not only the apparatus for exercise, but it has a stage and a gallery, so It is ready for all the plays and concerts and lectures that may occur and it offers them good accommodations. o The stage is the triumph of those boys who fitted it up. They made their owa scenes and wings,and Mrs. Kreling helped them out by having a green and treesy while different in many ways from the famous Death Vailey of Java, is as cer- tain in its effect. At one end the gulch is comparatively open and the wind sweeps through, but at the other, where it forms a ravine, the gases accumulate and as- phyxiate all animals that come within the walls of rock. When Mr. George and Mr. Everett entered the gulch the gaseous fumes were So oppressive that they had dificulty in breathing, yet they entered at the end where the gulch is practically open. They lit a wax taper and found that when placed more than forty inches from the ground it was extinguished. This proved the existence of carbon dioxide gas. The bed of the gulch and ravine was littered with the bones and skins of ani- mals long since dead. They found twenty-three carcasses of bears, one big cinnamon having his nose between his paws, just as if he had fallen asleep. At sttt de it sfefefdefo e o HUMAN HAIR ROPES FOR THE CLIFF SCRLERS. bride can give to her flance is a horse hair, or better still, a human hair rope. That is if they live on the lonely fsland of St. Kilda. The rock scalers there consider themselves rich if thelr prospective brides are able to furnish to them a rope of this nature. The ropes vary in length, a really good one of forty or fifty feet being especially prized. According to & woman traveler, who has spent much time in St. Kilda, the usual rope is & stout hempen cord wrapped round and round with sheep's wool; over this & lining of horsehair; finally branda of human hair. To manufacture such & rope is the work of years, but the 8t. Kil- dean girl saves her hair-combings re- liglously, also drying and bleaching the fibers of rough grasses that grow on the wind-swept lsland. These fibers strepgth- pERHAPS the most useful gift a en the cable, while the elasticity of the hair prevents chafing against the rude cliffs during the rock scaler’s descent. A curiosity collector wished to buy a fine specimen of hair rope, but the $109 offered was refused calmly by the profes- slonal egg-gatherer. The cord in question was veneered with auburn hair—the thirty years' collection from heads of parents. aunts, cousins and acquaintances. This may not seem remarkable to thoss who know little about St. Kilda, but when It s sald that the population is about 200 and that a good walker could circle the island in two hours, a different notion must be “entertained. 3 Occaslonally an incident will happen to the best rope. Fancy yourself dangling in midair, the rope held by two or three men on the top of a cliff, far out of sight. Thugdering waters below and thousands. of sea birds wheeling in frightened con- fusion above, about and all around you. Then, when a sharp corner of the cliff in- terrupts, there is the sickening cutting of the slender string, for slender it seems under existing circumstances. . If the climber is agile he will swing toward a ledge, where, companion of the gulllemots and razor-bills, he must wait until & second rope 1s lowered for his de- liverance. If no.ledge is approachable, the angry foam hides him forever. No wonder the rock scaler values his hair rope. A charitable woman saved a trunkful of hair to send to the climbers of the Hebrides, but, unfortunately, the house caught fire, and her three yeary collection was destroyed. _An advertisement appeared in an Irish paper some time ago offering §150 for a genuine Bt. Kildean balr rope, scene painted thereon. It will probadly become a Forest of Arden some day, al- though Julius Caesar is the first play booked. A club of boys is now driliing on it every day and they are taking evenings off to make their own bunting costumes. Four constant workers, with Dr. Doro- thea Moore at their head. live at the set- tlement, and they are well provided for :n the new scheme of things. They have a bright sitting room in the front of the house, and behind it is their dining room and then the kitchen. This !s small, but so complete that house- keepers tear, themselves away with diffi- culty. It has a model gas range, such as a one as those upstairs In the cooking club’s rooms. These clubs need a great deal of room and it has been amply provided. With their model ranges, sinks, closets and tables they ought to be able to turn out anything from frogs a la poulette to sound wheat bread, which is, after all, the final test of the cook. Sewing rooms are also upstairs. Com- fortable rooms for the workers and the Janitor are on the second and third floors, There is no better wav to give an idea of the spirit of the whole work than to clip a page or two from one of the boyy own periodicals, Issued before the new buildings were readv. Notes of the Clubs by Roland Nielsen The day 1s set for the Christmas enter- tainment and December 28 will be the day for all the boys for a good time to come. Talk about singing, just hear the Hale Club and you will be convinced it is one of the finest of the clubs and next to the Aldine Club. . Tommy Dowling hurt himself badly last Thursday on the acting bar; he slid down the pole and a nafl tore him serfously. The small boys of all the clubs ought to be very careful on the bar. In the type setting department 1t is quite Interesting to watch the workers setting the type. This Is one of the larg- est classes of the club and when all ars st work, it looks just like & printing es- tablishment, for the boys work with, such zeal and vigor that you would think thelr Christmas entertainment, but it is hard to find out what any club is going to do. All the boys‘are keeping very quiet about it. Bach club wants to beat the other and it will be seen Christmas who is the best. A QUIET AOUR. INTHE HLENS READING RooM_4 ) INTHE JL0YD RoOM It will surely be away abead of Christmas entertainment we have yet. The Mothers’ Clud is going to entertalnment for the benefit of gade, and the way It is talked about it will be something great. All of the mothers are trying to make it & success and it will be If all the boys try to sell tickets. The brigade, I know, will never forget thefr kind efforts in giving them & helping hand. The promised tug-of-war between the Loyal Club and Ploneer Club did not come off as expected. The Loyal Clud did not show up and I think it will lose the honor of being next to the Hale Club if they are not careful. Wil Gleason thinks it is as hard to beat as the Hale Club, but it will not be hard If it does not keep its appointments. I guess they were afraid of the Young Ploneer Club, for the name alone will show what smart boys they are. After this entertainment the boys came on different evenings and the clubs were found to be small, so there was room for more members. After a while our teachers were changed and Miss Crane was put In Mr. Ver Mehr's place. She taught us basket-making. After all the teachers were changed, the different clubs were taught chair-caning, hammock-making, wood cutting, drawing and basket-mak- ing. I was put under Mr. Harrold dotng chair-caning. This was a flne class and we enjoyed our time thers very much. Mr. Harrold used to take all of the boys of his evening on a picnle once In a whils and his picnics were something fine., Wa went once to Mill Valley and the boys had such a good time that they declared that he was the best man In the club for taking us off in thé country. How the club grew from that time on! More ocou- pations wers added and among them was tile-work, Iron-work, leather-stamping and rope mat-making. All these indus- tries are interesting and do the boys an immense amount of good. Then, Sunday evening was put aside for all the boys of the clubs to come and read or take out books. All this helped to make the clubh popular and as a consequence the mem~ 4] sive the iz § g g g ¢ i i