The more Miss Addams found out about what goes on in big cities, the
harder she worked. She remembered what her father said about every one
in this world deserving an equal chance, and she tried to help factory
workers, mill hands, girls and boys who had done wrong, ignorant mothers
who did not know how to keep house and take care of their children, men
who were out of work, and the blind and crippled.
Miss Addams's work set other people to thinking, and to-day there is
hardly a large city but has built a handsome house down in the slums
which offers help and comfort to the poor. But Hull House is the leading
settlement house in the United States.
Jane Addams still dresses simply. She does not care to have the best
clothes in the neighborhood, or jewels, or luxuries for herself. She
does not believe in talking a great deal about what she intends to do
later on. She has found that the world needs busy workers more than
ready talkers. She is a busy, good woman who has done noble work in
America. She is still getting up very early in the morning, and I fancy
that when she is asked why she rests so little, she gives the same
polite answer that her father heard: "Because I have so much to do!"
LUTHER BURBANK
A few years ago every one who went to California tried to see Luther
Burbank, for the newspapers and magazines were filled with stories of
the wonderful things he was doing. Plenty of men make houses,
automobiles, ships to go on the water, and ships that sail through the
air, clothing, and toys, but this man makes new fruits and flowers. It
is not an easy thing to do, and Mr. Burbank has found that he needs all
his strength and time for his work. So now, at his small farm at Santa
Rosa and at his big farm at Sebastopol, strangers find a sign like this:
+-----------------------------+
| ALL VISITORS ARE LIMITED |
| TO FIVE MINUTES EACH UNLESS |
| BY SPECIAL APPOINTMENT |
+-----------------------------+
And during the six busiest months of the year, from April to October,
other signs tell that it will cost ten dollars to stay one hour. These
signs are not put up because Mr. Burbank is cross or rude, but because
these strange new plants have to be watched as carefully as tiny babies.
He can't leave them for visitors.
Luther Burbank was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts. When he was a baby
in his cradle, his mother and sisters found that nothing made him dimple
and crow with
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