actory comes at lunch time with several
friends and talks to us with an amazing _camaraderie_. He is kindly,
humourous and tactful. One or two missionaries speak after him, but
their conversation is too abstract for us. We want something dramatic,
imaginative, to hold our attention, or something wholly natural. Tell us
about the bees, the beavers or the toilers of the sea. The longing for
flowers has often come to me as I work, and a rose seems of all things
the most desirable. In my present condition I do not hark back to
civilized wants, but repeatedly my mind travels toward the country
places I have seen in the fields and forests. If I had a holiday I would
spend it seeing not what man but what God has made. These are the things
to be remembered in addressing or trying to amuse or instruct girls who
are no more prepared than I felt myself to be for any preconceived ideal
of art or ethics. The omnipresence of dirt and ugliness, of machines and
"stock," leave the mind in a state of lassitude which should be roused
by something natural. As an initial remedy for the ills I voluntarily
assumed I would propose amusement. Of all the people who spoke to us
that Saturday, we liked best the one who made us laugh. It was a relief
to hear something funny. In working as an outsider in a factory girls'
club I had always held that nothing was so important as to give the poor
something beautiful to look at and think about--a photograph or copy of
some _chef d'oeuvre_, an _objet d'art_, lessons in literature and art
which would uplift their souls from the dreariness of their
surroundings. Three weeks as a factory girl had changed my beliefs. If
the young society women who sacrifice one evening every week to talk to
the poor in the slums about Shakespeare and Italian art would instead
offer diversion first--a play, a farce, a humourous recitation--they
would make much more rapid progress in winning the confidence of those
whom they want to help. The working woman who has had a good laugh is
more ready to tell what she needs and feels and fears than the woman who
has been forced to listen silently to an abstract lesson. In society
when we wish to make friends with people we begin by entertaining them.
It should be the same way with the poor. Next to amusement as a means
of giving temporary relief and bringing about relations which will be
helpful to all, I put instruction, in the form of narrative, about the
people of other countries, ou