| Active members | $ 1 |
| Contributing members | 10 |
| Sustaining members | 50 |
Through this means the annual income of the Neighborhood House Association amounts to about $1,800, irrespective of the income derived from the fees, etc., mentioned above. Without any great strain on any one's purse, therefore, the house has been maintained by the association without a deficit.
A HOMELIKE CORNER
LOOKING INTO THE SCHOOL ROOM
Towards the equipment of the house gifts were received to the amount of $2,635.82. But besides these gifts of money, the village people themselves donated both labor and building materials and furniture and rugs. The summer kitchen, so far as labor was concerned, was the gift of the village carpenters. The infirmary was furnished principally by the women and the girls of the village who raised the money among themselves. The farmers of the neighborhood donated wood, potatoes, apples, etc., to the store closet. One man donated his weekly Sunday paper, another the vines for the porches. One New York physician, whose child had profited by the care of the visiting nurse, gave the sleeping porch, three or four of the other physicians who had summer cottages gave the surgical instruments for the operating room, the children of the village brought plants for the garden, one old lady knitted washcloths for the bath-room, the village house painter helped hang all the pictures and the bracket-lamps, and the village artist helped raise the money for the emergency closet by painting the scenery for the benefit play. There was really a chance for every one to give to that house, and with but few exceptions, every one did give, not only willingly and generously, but eagerly and joyfully.
And because each in his or her way had had a share in making that house a Neighborhood House, the valley people, natives and cottagers alike, promptly and without any self-consciousness turned heartily in and used the house. It had never occurred to most of us that the village had needed such a house, indeed the woman whose beautiful thought it was, had died a year before the Neighborhood House Association was so much as spoken of; but once it stood there, warm and glowing with its happy life that winter night of its opening, there was no question as to its usefulness all day long, summer and winter, in most of our minds.
During the past year the visiting nurse has been occupied in and out of the House over 2,600 hours and has treated fifty-four cases; the infirmary has had seven patients with 160 hospital days; from the emergency cupboard 300 loans have been made. The Women's Club has eighty-two members and has met weekly for lectures and socials. The Girls' Club with twenty-seven members has met once and sometimes twice weekly. The Glee Club has held many rehearsals and gave a concert in May. The sales from the exchange, open only in the summer, in two years have amounted to about $900.00. The Village Improvement Committee has held two farmers' institutes, has made progress in securing good side walks, has planned for improved roads and tree planting, and has arranged for a prize essay and oratorical contest by pupils of the public school. During the past year there were about 5400 visits to the house; the largest number of visits in one month was 1064 in December.
The question may well be asked, however: Who guides these clubs and classes, who arranges for these parties, who welcomes these guests, who sees to it that the house is clean and orderly, that the meals are properly served, that the patients are well looked after, that the stewardess is up to her work? Who is the hostess, and who, at the close of the house's festivities, speeds the parting guest? It would have to be a woman of tact and gentle blood, for the village people would not brook so much power lodged in any one who was less or even quite one of themselves. It would have to be a person who lived in the valley both winter and summer and who thus understood the conditions of both the summer and winter life. It would also require one who understood the care of an infirmary, as well as the care of the house, who could devise sick room diet, as well as substantial meals for transient guests. Fortunately for our Neighborhood House we found such a woman in our visiting nurse and after some experimenting on other lines, she was made the head of the house. She is a social worker when she is not required in the infirmary or for out-patients, and when these last demand all or more than all of one nurse's time, an emergency nurse is procured who works under the head of the house.