Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/459

 A NEW IDEA IN SOCIAL FRATERNITY

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After graduation from the hospital, Miss Briggs worked for over a year as nurse under the Associated Charities, and lived at the college settlement in South Park. This life gave her an insight into the needs of the people of the district, and she felt that one of their greatest necessities was the influence of a home and inspiring friends.

With financial aid from some broad- minded men and women, she rented a house on Tehama street, No. 452^, and there made her home as artistic and dainty as any in the more favored districts of the city. In fact, there are many treas- ures in it that are envi- ously eyed by people of means and culture. In the living-room two of Keith's landscapes bring in the California sunshine, a sepia copy of Millet's "Shepherdess" gives an enno- bling calm to labor, prints of children show the joy of action, and a Madonna reveals the exalting influence of love. In the bookcase Tolstoi, Spencer, Henry George, Mill, Ruskin, and other serious thinkers rather predominate over writers of fiction, verse, and travel. On the piano, instrumental and vocal music await their turn to delight the listening ears of the neighbor- hood. Good magazines lie invitingly on the table and in the cozy corner. Old brasses gleam down from a shelf, and here and there flowers add the culminating touch of refinement.

The only other room on the first floor is the kitchen, and because many of her neighbors have their kitchen as the only general living-room, Miss Briggs has expended some thought on hers. It is an especially attractive room, with its light-tinted

HOUSE AT LEFT IS 452% TEHAMA STREET.