_The Settlement._ Some one says, “I have often heard about settlements,
but what do they do?” The Church of All Nations carries on a church and
settlement work on the lower East Side of New York. If you were to pay
it a visit during a week day this is what you might see. By 8.30 o’clock
in the morning there would be a patter of little feet and a babel of
children’s voices and we would know the Italian boys and girls were
coming for the daily kindergarten. At nine o’clock the office bell begins
to ring; just sit in the office and listen to the people who call. One
says, “I need to go to the hospital”; another, “I want to get a friend
out of prison”; a big able man says, “I want work”; some are in need of
clothes or food, or a lawyer, or are discouraged and have come to talk
over their troubles. These last keep coming during the morning office
hour and, in fact, all day and into the night.
[Illustration: Italian Kindergarten (Penn.)]
In the afternoon there is a mother’s meeting for Italians, or Hebrews, or
some other nationality, with an address of a religious nature or a brief
talk on some topic that helps make the mothers better able to care for
their children. American boys and girls may think all mothers know how to
take care of children, because their mothers took such good care of them.
It would surprise them to know that in the fall some of the immigrant
mothers sew a suit of clothes on their child and expect that suit to
stay on through the winter—it is not to come off at night, either. Many
Italian mothers wrap up their little babies until they look like a mummy
that you may have seen in a museum. The baby can move its hands but not
its feet; it can also move its big black eyes, and laugh or cry. We know
better than these mothers, so we try to teach them wiser ways of caring
for their children.
At three o’clock there may be sessions of the sewing-school, or game
room, or gymnasium classes for the younger boys who are not allowed
to come at night. In the evening there are club meetings under chosen
leaders, bowling contests, basket ball games, and night school for
Italians, Chinese, Hebrews or Russians. In other parts of the building
may be illustrated lectures or motion pictures. So you see a Settlement
has a very busy and varied sort of day’s work, and is a good neighbor to
the immigrant.
_Other Good Neighbors._ In addition to the good neighbors mentioned,
many other forces assist in the Americanizing of the foreigner. America
itself, the streets, the stores, the factories, the public institutions,
the work at which he is employed and the conditions under which he toils,
all have a marked effect upon the stranger. Those who have studied the
matter say that the Jew is developing a better physical type than at
home, while the Italian, used to open air peasant life, is running down
in stature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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