he organization that the actual handling of
this money helped to preserve self-respect and that they might not feel
themselves objects of charity. This principle has held through the years
and no woman or child is turned from the door as long as there is a
place to rest.

Hon. William B. McKinley of Champaign, Ill., gave as a memorial to Dr.
Stevenson the present home at 2412 Prairie avenue, which will
accommodate sixty women and about fifty children. The organization has
become one of the strongest in the city--a delegated body of eighty-two
members who represent women's organizations of Cook County. For the last
few years the work has grown and broadened, until almost every trouble
and sorrow that can come to women and children is brought to this door.

The woman who is on the downward path of years, when it is so hard to
find employment, her little money gone, often weakened both mentally and
physically from lack of nourishment and worry--she might be any one's
mother--if not able to work for her lodging, is supplied from the loan
fund. Often she can return the small amount and she does not feel that
she has received charity, but that the hand of a friend has grasped
hers, and her faith in humanity is restored. The young girl who is alone
and without money is safe from the cheap rooming houses of the city. The
mother with her little family, who has been left, by desertion or death,
without the father's protection comes to this home and remains until she
can gather up the thread of existence once more. Often she is saved from
placing her children in institutions or giving them for adoption. An
average of 105 women and children are cared for in the Lodging House
each day.

As time brought the need of better facilities for the care of the
children, the generous friend of the Institution, Wm. B. McKinley, gave
the building at 2408 Prairie avenue for Nursery purposes. Here the
children are cared for during the day, while the mother is seeking
employment, or otherwise adjusting her affairs.

A limited number of neighborhood children are also cared for. A trained
nurse and kindergartner are employed. Twenty-four hour feedings for
bottle babies are furnished so that the little ones diet may not be
disturbed. In this department 60 children are given daily care. The
mother has charge of her family at night. Every effort is made by this
organization to keep the mother and her children together. We believe
that separation sh