“I tell you, Ruby, I am finding every day dozens of girls like her, who are only waiting for some one to say, ‘This is what you can do; here is your work; here is the place; and here are the ones who need you.’ I am beginning to learn that the putting of the right person in the right place is the main thing, after all. The best thing that my money can do is to make it possible for those who can give, to find those who need just what they can give.
“I shall find not only one charming story-teller, but a score, who will meet their circles of little street Arabs week after week and month after month, and if they are half as pretty and entertaining as the girl I know, you may rest assured those youngsters will count it a privilege to come.
“Not every one will be admitted; a clean face and hands and good behavior will be the prerequisite for retaining the ticket of membership to all the classes. Then in another room will be a class of young people listening to an emergency lecture, given by some bright, young medical student, who will arouse their interest by objective illustrations, such as the bandaging of sham wounds and the resuscitating of a person supposed to be drowned.
“In still another room, perhaps, some one will be reading the newspapers aloud to a score of men who are enjoying their pipes.
“All the rooms will be filled with men, women, and children, from nine o’clock in the morning until ten at night; one set coming as another goes; and each having one hour at least, in the day of rest, which shall open to him a little larger outlook on life, and shall give him something to look forward to through the six days of drudgery.
“Of course all this will require a system and a plan; but I shall have as few officials and as few restraints as possible. A neat, white-capped woman, with her badge of authority, will, I think, be quite as efficient as a big policeman; for any unseemly behavior will result in the immediate surrender of the numbered metal check which will serve as a card of entrance; and when admission is recognized as a privilege it will be coveted.
“No one will stay away because he is too shabby to come, and no one will be made to feel that he has no right or share in it all; but every week twenty-five thousand men, women, and children shall have one or two hours of peace and happiness offered them, just because,—think of it, Ruby,—just because I did not build the House Beautiful for myself.”
CHAPTER XVII.
“And whether we shall meet again I know not,
Therefore our everlasting farewell take.”