The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Jane Addams. New
York. The Macmillan Co., 1910.
“The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets” is the title of the inspiring little volume which the well known leader among social workers, Miss Jane Addams, has given to us this month. It is indeed a great gift, because it brings us knowledge of facts and conditions, not in the raw, but digested, thought out, balanced, and illumined by the mind and spirit of a great-hearted lover of humanity, whose experience not only in observing but in combating and ameliorating the ghastly horrors of our city slums, is unequalled. Miss Addams is an optimist in the sanest sense of the word, and she is a philosopher in the most human sense of that term.
Her first chapter is an interesting analysis of the motive powers of the young in their relation to the present complicated industrial and social conditions of the poor in our large cities. As she says, “One generation after another has depended upon its young to equip it with gaiety and enthusiasm, to persuade it that living is a pleasure, until men everywhere have anxiously provided channels through which this wine of life may flow and be preserved for their delight.” The classical, the Greek, the mediaeval city, all made such provisions, “only in the modern city have men concluded that it is no longer necessary for the municipality to provide for this insatiable desire for play.” And yet, as Miss Addams goes on to prove, the physical and industrial conditions in the modern city make such provision more necessary than ever before in the history of civilized man. “The stupid experiment of organizing work and failing to organize play has, of course, brought about a fine revenge.” Not only do the natural instincts of youth become malignant and distorted, but “an unscrupulous band of men and even women are engaged in making illicit profit out of unguarded youth. “Gin palaces,” dance halls, “places,” the innumerable vile shows, cocaine and opium dealing are some of the shocking results. Miss Addams cites many instances and tells many a story to point her moral and adorn her tale, and these are rendered more effective by the charm, simplicity, and humor of her style.
Following the first general analysis are chapters dealing successively with the primal emotions and instincts of the young, contrasting the sorrowful end to which they often lead with the possible results if the right outlets and influence are obtainable. The -sex impulse which should be the foundation of the home; the thirst for adventure, which ia the beginning of creative ambition in many instances; idealism and imagination; the rebellion against the monotony and dulness of specialized industrialism;?these are the chief topics. Miss Addams’ love of human nature, her power of seeing the lovable and beautiful in the seemingly sordid and degraded, and the hope for the future which she draws even from the pitiful records of the Juvenile Court, are truly inspiring, and it seems incredible that the community’s sense of responsibility should not be more fully awakened to the opportunity presented. Those instances where work is being done, such as the Children’s Theatre in New York, the opening of public schools as amusement places, and the playgrounds, are encouraging signs of the gradual enlightenment of public feeling and sentiment. The great need of such work is shown by a single Philadelphia experiment, where one of the settlements opened a dance hall and was so successful that in a short time two saloons were obliged to close from want of patronage. Miss Addams’ last chapter, “The Thirst for Righteousness,” is a most eloquent one. She lays stress on the aspirations toward good in the young of all classes. This tremendous force should and can uplift the race. She appeals to the spiritually minded of all religions, all professions, to help in the work, to create so strong and widespread a public demand for legitimate wholesome recreation for the young in our large cities, that even the cumbersome machinery of municipal government may be driven to grind out the necessary laws, ordinances, and appropriations. Miss Addams closes by putting the following alternatives before us,?”We may either smother the divine fire of youth, or we may feed it. We may either stand stupidly staring as it sinks into a murky fire of crime and flares into the intermittent blaze of folly or we may tend it into a lambent flame with power to make clean and bright our dingy city streets.” M. G. F.
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