He was a benevolent enough crank, but no friend of preaching. Being
a crank, he condemned preachers with one fell swoop:--
"The parsons!" he said; "my 'evings, what hare they? In hall me
life hi've known only two that were fit to be in the pulpit."
Returning to my own country, I found the conviction deepening
wherever the slum had got a grip, that it was the problem not only
of government but of humanity. In Chicago they are setting limits
to it with parks and playgrounds and the home restored. In Cincinnati,
in Cleveland, in Boston, they are bestirring themselves. Indeed,
in Boston they have torn down more foul tenements than did we in
the metropolis, and with less surrender to the slum landlord. In New
York a citizens' movement paved the way for the last Tenement-House
Commission, which has just finished its great work, and the movement
is warrant that the fruits of that work will not be lost. Listen
to the arraignment of the tenement by that Commission, appointed
by the State:--
"All the conditions which surround childhood, youth, and womanhood
in New York's crowded tenement quarters make for unrighteousness.
Pages:
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437