The Children's Playground 218 Library Day at the College Settlement 224 A Street on the East Side 236 A Cooking Class of Mothers and Children 244 A Meeting of Neighbours 250 The Reading-Room at the Settlement 254 After School at the College Settlement 258 The Morning Airing of an East Side Heiress 264 A Bit of Old Greenwich 274 A Little Father 280 A Corner in Old Greenwich 286 Taking their Turn in the Yard at the Settlement 294 CHAPTER I. AT THE BOTTOM. One of the first, and, up to the present time, one of the most interesting experiments made in New York for the better housing of the poor, was made in the early eighties by a score or less of philanthropic capitalists. These gentlemen organized a stock company to hold and manage tenement-house property, limiting their dividends to three per cent. on the capital; the surplus dividends, if any, over this amount, to be used in improving the property, and securing such conditions and opportunities for the tenants as would stimulate pride and independence. The formation of this company followed one of the periodic agitations of the tenement-house problems customary in New York. In 1878 a conference was called by the State Charities' Aid Association to consider the condition of the tenement houses in this city. Mr. Alfred T. White, of Brooklyn, had at this time proved that model tenements, conducted on strictly business principles, paid as investments, and stated at this conference that his model houses made a return of seven one-half per cent. As a result of this conference a committee was appointed who reported that they did not find it desirable to recommend the building of model tenements in New York at this time. Mr. White for many years stood alone as the man of wealth with the courage of his convictions, that there were wage-earners compelled to live under tenement-house conditions who would pay for and respect the best housing that capital would offer them, within their rent-paying capacity. The tenement-house agitation continued.