A NEW IDEA IN SOCIAL FRATERNITY 453
On her block the improvement is noticeable. While the street was scheduled by the Merchants' Exchange to be swept once a week, sometimes over a month elapsed without it being touched. Miss Briggs interviewed the right people until the street-sweeping department was forced to live up to its agree- ments. Now she has the office telephone her just what evening the street is to be swept for the department has not yet reached the perfection of regularity and she warns all the neighbors in time to sweep their sidewalks before the machine appears. The front windows have boxes and pots of geraniums and begonias, "because they look so nice in Miss Briggs's window." Seldom now is a woman caught gossiping at her door with bare arms and hair unkempt. Whereas four years ago the children dropped out of school shortly after the term commenced, because it was too much trouble for the mothers to get them ready, now it is considered a social offense to have a child absent unless ill.
One might question : Is her house, with its cultured refine- ment, just as helpful to them as one whose art was at the stage they could introduce into their own homes ? The answer, it seems to me, should be in the affirmative ; because her home is sincerely part of herself, just as her work is. She has the same treasures around her on Tehama street that she would have in a home on California street. She lives on Tehama street because her life-work lies in that district. No attempt is made in her home to reduce her style of service to one that the neighbors could reach. She lives sincerely, as she is accustomed to, and lets the spirit of her life have its effect.
The support of this home is by subscriptions from some of the best thinkers in San Francisco and vicinity, from people who are satisfied to have their money work good without receiving printed reports. Miss Fanny Doyle, of Menlo Park, is secretary and treasurer, and by her untiring zeal makes the work possible. It may be remarked here that this young woman, coming into the work at first merely to furnish the finances, has assisted so much with the practical nursing that now she is as able to cope with most cases as is a graduate from a hospital. As the scope has increased, the need of more funds has become apparent.
