Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/471

350 nationalities comprising the city's immigrant population at both the North and South Ends, enabling her to acquire valuable ex- perience. The sums so collected by her at each visit varietl from five to twenty-five cents, the Associated Charities becoming trustees therefor until the amount became large enough to bank, when the owner was duly notihed and atlvised what bank to place it in. In this period she also performed the arduous duty of visitor for tlie AsvSociated Charities, investigating ami reporting cases of extreme poverty coming umler her notice. Nor was this all: at one time she simultaneously served in no less than eight different cajjacities of importance.

Her hrst experience in the real estate busi- ness was in assisting the agent of the tenement house ])ro])erty of the Boston Co-operative Building Company, located in different parts of the city. To this she devoted every iSatur- day, visiting every tenement, and seeing that a code of rules made by the proprietors was observed.

In 1899 she gave up her engagement with the As.sociated Charities to take charge of a number of tenement houses on Lan.sdowne Street for J. F. F. Brewster, a Boston real estate dealer. A year later she had charge of a number of apartment hou.ses in the Mount Bowdoin district in Dorchester, rented by the month. Later she obtained charge of the Ellis Memorial Building in South Boston, owned by the Improved Dwelling Association, containing fifty-six tenements. She resigned her agency for the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid As.sociation in May, 1901.

Besides the estates already named, she now has charge of property on Rochester and Eustis Streets, Edgerly Place, and other localities. She has been remarkably success- ful in handling the properties entrusted to her. She gives them her pensonal super- vision, and orders all repairs when necessary, never taking a conmiission for such services except from the proprietors. Of her own volition she follows the example of the Bos-' ton Co-operative Building Company, obliging all tenants to observe a number of printed rules displayed on sundry parts of the estates subject to them (this in relation to tenement or apartment property). Her tactful enforce- ment of the rules has made a profitable in- vestment of all the tenement property in her hands, while at the same time the mutual regard for each other's rights required of the tenants by Ww. rules has made healthier and hapi)ier homes for all. She collects rents from about five hundred families, and, although her rules are strict, they are obeyed. One of her tenants says: —

"Mrs. Mitchell lias pretty strict rules, but she is kind and helpful to us in many ways. She means what she says. It is one of her rules that all tenants must. pay in advance, but if we have been sick, and are out of money, she lets our rent run until we are able to pay it."

Another says: " Mrs. Mitchell has done a won- derful lot of good arovmd here. She is always bright and cheerful when she comes to see us. She always says something encouraging."

About four years ago three blocks of tene- ments on Lansdowne Street, Roxbury, were ' placed under her management. She saw there was urgent neetl of a kindergarten in the vicinity. Her appeal to the city having been refused, she succeeded in getting the Kindergarten Training School to furnish teachers. She then had her office arranged for a school-room, reserving only one corner for her desk, where she attends to business thrice a week. Every day, from nine o'clock till one, twenty small children attend this school, with two training-school girls for teachers. In the same school there are weekly classes for girls in reading and sewing and a gymnasium for boys. • By special effort a branch of the Public Library was established in the school-room, so that the whole neighbor- hood has free access to good reading. In regard to the statement that many of the ])oor do not appreciate a bath-tub, but use it as a receptacle for various articles, she says: "None of my tenants neglect their bath-tubs. In the first place, I would not allow it; and, in the second, the tenants show a desire for cleanliness when encouraged in it."

The sanitary condition of her houses is unusually good, as she makes every effort to promote the cleanliness and good health