Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/48

 JANE ADDAMS 29 her to action. Hopes for the future were well, hut without some definite purpose and effort to fulfil these hopes, they were hut an opiate to her conscience. Just what turned her mind in the direction of settlement work is difficult to say. Perhaps her childish thought of liv- ing in a big house among ^^ horrid, little houses'' had never left her. Without a doubt the misery and suffering of the. poor, which she had been morbidly seeking for the past few years, had impressed her with the real need of these people. Be that as it may, she had for some time been revolving in her mind the plan of a settlement house. In the present crisis Miss Addams resolved to make her escape from the in- sensibiUty into which she was sinking, and with many misgiv- ings she broached the subject to her fellow-traveler and for- mer schoolmate. Miss Starr. To her surprised delight Miss Starr entered heartily into the plan and the scheme rapidly assumed tangibility. Miss Starr continued her European journey and Miss Addams re- turned to London to visit Toynbee Hall and the People 's Pal- ace that she might gather suggestions from these forerunners in the settiement movement. January, 1889, found Miss Ad- dams and Miss Starr in Chicago looking for a site for their experiment. From this time on Miss Addams 's life is so closely bound up with the progress of Hull House that it is almost impos- sible to separate her acts from those of the other residents of Hull House. That her influence has been responsible for many steps in which she has taken no active part is certain ; that she has been the prime mover in Hull House activity is no less certain. But it must never be forgotten that there were others — many others — who devoted their energies to the success of this movement, and no one is more ready than Miss Addams to give them due credit. If other names are here omitted or neglected it is not because their part is for- gotten but because only a single thread is being followed through the mazes of a life which touched untold others. After a long search a house, built in 1856 by Mr. Hull, one of the early settlers of Chicago, was rented. It had been used