The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 12, 1903, Page 8

THE SUNDAY CALL. B that helps—whom and how? clubs that help. those that help the mb, for instance. means unless ¥ hear it speak for it ps a lot the membe: giris’ faces eapacity for “And th ver that these giris he grind of office, monotonous ser- her r well, t be at the ning a shop, factory vice of one falr weather he pittance has to be r self-support, but to ng brother but mere spon r Cornwall is the good she has been ng. Never a Wednes- in the club- what we Porteous e girl since members are wit this world's goods she did a great deal of For the first two years she fur. cozy rooms for tBe girls over in wTth these as headquar- under promising head- way But the lo was not sltogether convenient the members found it remote a of them savs with a reminiscen It was such a spooky walk to the car I used to be afraid when 1 had to go ne, and I met some- body one night that I'm sure was a foot- pad—he had that expression.” So for the better convenience of everybody the club moved to Larkin street and has remained there ever since, within easy reach of sev- eral car lines For the girls come from here, there and everywhere, from Point Lobos ave- nue to the heart of town, from North Beach to the Mission. They come from all sorts of professions, too; cne 1is a bairdresser, another a milliner. another answers to your “Hello” every time you pall up @ certain private exchange. That is the one requirement if you want to enter this club—you must be a wage- earning girl. The age limit is drawn at %, so evidently the Porteous Club does not consider that girlhood may pass be- yond that crucial point The graceful, dignified girl who ex- plained that she was a hairdresser brought her sister along the other night &s a visitor “She wants to join the club,” sald a member, “but she can't. She doesn’t work,” and there was a deal of pride went with it. The Porteous girls work all day and when night comes they seek the little clubrooms for relaxation. There is both pleasure and profit in what they find there On Wednesday night comes the sewing class, which Mrs. Cornwall conducts. But what she teaches them is only a part of what they learn. They give each other all sorts of points. One girl is a profes- sional milliner and she showed the whole club how to make and trim its own hats. Every Easter hat that those girls wore was made by the wearer at mot more then & dollar’s cost and some of the crea- tions were enough to keep every neigh- Bor's eye off his or her prayer book There was a “sausage hat” of rose pink \gpaline that turned feminine hearts bitter with envy and it cost—listen, oh perpetra~ tor of Easter jokelets—it cost 8 cents! When sewing night comes the girls gather in the sitting room, where there are comfortable chairs to be drawn up around a big table. All sorts of pretty things are made by the deft fingers. There are Battenberg lace handkerchicts and collars that your Paclfic avenue heauty might ache to possess. Thers are useful things made, too} Just now bath towels are being wrought from the heavy salt sacks that the grooers don’t want. The ends are embroidered in gay red cross stitch and the towels are precious to a housekeeper's heart. “What I want the girls te realize above all s that they can have prettily ap- pointed homes for very little money,” says Mrs. Cornwall. “It's all nonsense to be discouraged just because you can't call in the swellest upholsterer in town and give him carte blanche. I know, be- cause I furnished a simple little country home myself once. Do you see that old bed?’ A plain old wooden bed stood in & oorner, its varnish entirely worn off, fts / posts full of nicks and dents. “I bought it of & junk man and some night I am solng to show the girls what can be done with it. We'll scrape it clean, then paint it red all over, and in the end decorate it ‘with some dainty sprays of marguerites, and you'll see a bed that would lull any- bedy to sweet slumber.” “What will you do with it after it's finished ?* *“Well, in such cases the girls usually draw lots for a thing that they've all worked on; but in this case I want to keep it at the club. You see there are times when a girl is detained down town by a pressure of work and she lives so far away that it's hard to get home; so it would be a boon to her to have a place where she could sleep near hier work. As it is, the girls often drop in here and get themselves a meal in any emergency. The gas-stove is always ready, you see.” Bure enough, in the other room is & . trim little gas-stove flanked by everything needful to a meal in the way of pots, pans and kettles. Across the room Is a shelf laden with shining china and glass. A long array of pretty blue and white cups shows that the club’s afternoons at bome are well attended. While the quarters are still small one corner of the kitchen has to play library and there is a good array of books and magazines. This, with a soft couch and & good drop light—can you think of any- thing more cozy and restful for an over- worked girl? ““We want more room and we'll have it some day,” Mrs. Cornwall says. “Several dressmakers have offered to teach the girls to make their own garments—but we are too crowded here to lay them out and cut them. Even the attempt at shirt waist making was difficult. Just now the girls are economizing like thrifty house- wives, for they are paying for the piano.” They are buying it themselves, these enterprising young workers, and It is the life of the club. Mrs. Ross has worked faithfully giving the girls vocal lessons and some of the talent developed is worth while listening to. On cooking night the place is full of savory odors that would make any epi- cure’s mouth water. You see thess girls are preparing themselves to be good homemakers in every sense of the word, whether married or single. They carry home to mothers and fatherg and brothers and sisters all sorts 190 3w A\ AR of happy culinary ideas now., and per haps some lucky man will profit by these same ideas later on Strawberry night comes once a year, and then the fragrance of preserving ascends from the little gas stove and floats out fain t the building wh. One happy night in June the girls all roll up their sleeves, don their aprons and put up strawberr han anybody ever tasted. They clous recipe f their own—so delic alas, that onlv one member who home a jar of- it was able to report on how it “kept.” The girls take a tremendous prida In their clubroom. They never leave if, no matter how late, without every dish be- ing clean and put in piace, all the ta, rags and scraps brushed up, all the fur ture in place. Thelr curtains must be spotless and thelr furniture dustless to come up to their standard. Physical culture classes are open to them and there nothing more refresh ing after long bho of standing behind a counter or sitting at a telepnone than a little bracing exercise on the rings or with dumbbells and clubs. Think of all these privileges to be had for the fee of twer e cents a month. What other club offers so much for so lit- tle? What it lacks In wo wealth it makes up In other ways. Girls give a helping band to one another. The spirit of friendliness prevalls. One girl whos mother has died and who is left alone and sad says: “I th t there wasn't any- thing to live for at first. But now I've Joined the club and I can hardly wait for the meeting times to come.” The club s entirely independent now, looking bravely after its own interests. But it has many friends of greater pros- perity than its own and these have heiped cheer the little rooms with pretty and useful gifts. Rugs, chairs, tables, cur- tains, lamps, china, books, palms, glasses, a clock, & sewing machine, tea—all these and more appear on the long list of gifta. The world has been good to the Porteous Club, for the world is always inclined to copy after Providence and help those that help themselves. The club {s governed by officers chosen from and elected by the club members. Miss Louise Bemmerer is the president and she swings the gavel with a parlia- mentary precision that would put te shame the officers of some larger clubs Vice president, secretary and treasurer are all drawn from the ranks of the girl members and each looks after her du- ties with the greatest punctiliousness. A business meeting takes place once & month and then the girls put on thelir most seriously businessilke faces. But during the sewing and the cooking and the hat trimming the faces are anything ‘but serious and the tongues go as fast as the fingers. Although self-improvement be the aim it is not to be supposed that the girls do nothing but learn to take themselves se- riously. They have thelr soctal pleas- ures as well. Mrs. Porteous recently in- vited as many of them as possible te spend a happy day with hef at her coun- try home. A trip up Mount Tamalpais is another pleasure which a friend has give en them. Then they play hostess thems selves and entertain like society womenm of experience. On Saturdays and Sun- days they always keep open house for their friends. Twelve memberS of the California Club look back to the pleasant memory of a dinner given them by the girls, who cooked and _erved every dish themselves. Every now and then a dance comes off, and then the plano and the feet fly. The corridors of the buflding make the best kind of a dance hall ang it would be hard to say which are the happler—the girls or their lucky guests. e — preserves better have a Bird fanclers are predicting a vogue for the peacock. They say that people who can afford it have been lately buying hun- dreds of them for their country places. Ornament is one consideration, but there is another thing that recommends the brilifant creature in a more practical way. Some one discovered not rong ago that there is no watch dog equal to the pea~ cock as a guardian against thieves and marauding tramps. Perched on the roof of an arbor or outbuilding of the estate, & peacock will announce In shrill, discord- ant notes thlt‘e.n be heard a mile way the presence of suspiclous looking strane gers within the grounds,