o be thought of as a
charitable agency. It is a home established among the less-favored
part of the population by educated, refined, sympathetic people who
want to be neighborly and to bring courage and cheer and helpfulness
to the struggling masses. The original residents of Hull House in
Chicago believed that class alienation could be overcome best by the
establishment of intimate social relationships, and they were willing
to sacrifice their natural social advantages for the larger good.

Settlements are not exclusively of the city, but the stress of life is
sternest in the cities, and most of the experiments have been made
there. They are oases in the desert of the buildings and pavements of
brick, with their grime and monotony, and if the people of the desert
will camp for an hour and drink of the spring, those who have planted
the oasis will be well pleased. To attract them the settlement workers
have organized clubs and classes for united study and activity in
matters that naturally interest the people of the neighborhood; they
have music and dancing and amateur theatricals, and often they supply
domestic or industrial training in a small way for the young people
who frequent the settlement. The residents aim to give the people what
they want; they do not impose anything upon them. They try to satisfy
economic and social wants. They try to stimulate the people of the
neighborhood to desire the best things that they can get. They
co-operate with the police and other departments of the city
government, with the library, and with the school. They assist in
procuring work for those who want it; they encourage the people to be
thrifty and temperate; they help them to get baths and gymnastic
facilities, playgrounds, and social centres. They frequently carry on
investigations that are of great value and assist charitable agencies
in their inquiries and beneficence. They call frequently upon the
people in their homes and encourage them to ask for counsel and help
if they are in trouble.

The settlement idea grew out of a growing interest in the common
people. It was stimulated by Maurice's establishment at London of a
working man's college, with recent Cambridge graduates as teachers,
and by university extension work in Cambridge; it was suggested
further by the location of Edward Denison in the East End of London in
1867. In 1885 Canon Barnett, of St. Jude's Church, London, founded
Toynbee Hall under Oxford auspices.