Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/466

This page needs to be proofread.

450

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Rising, the daughter of Professor Rising, of the University of California, but for some time it has been under the guidance of one of the neighbors. The lassies pay ten cents a month, and with this is bought material from which they fashion garments to fit themselves. Very proud is each girl as she takes home the

new skirt or waist in which every stitch has been set by herself. The stitches are remarkably good, too, for it is the purpose of the sewing teacher to overcome the tendency of the shiftless poor to make garments that will not long hold together.

Thursday evening the boys younger than twelve have their nature-study class, and play games and sing songs.

Friday evening is the jolliest time to be at Miss Briggs's. Then the boys over twelve and their friends come to their " at home." They became interested in animal life through the stories of Kipling and Ernest Seton-Thompson, and now they have a regular nature-study lecturer come to them each week to help them in their observations. The experiences they have brought to Miss Briggs with their snakes and other captives would make a first- class humorous book. And then their music ! This is a weekly treat for the women of the block. Miss Briggs plays the accom- paniments, and the boys' voices swell out surprisingly pure and clear in "Down among the Dead Men," "The Jolly Miller," " Gaily the Troubadour," and other old English songs. The mothers congregate on the opposite sidewalk and listen to every note until the piano stops and the boys come trooping out and

GIRLS' SEWING CLASS AT MISS BRIGGS'S.