BookRix

The Alexander Toland Neighbourhood House, Familiarly Known By All
Who Had Anything To Do With It As The Alexander, Was Small, As
Neighbourhood Houses Go, But Exceptionally Pretty And Complete,
And Financially So Well Backed By A Certain Group Of San
Francisco's Society Women As To Be Entirely Free From The Common
Trouble Of Its Kind. Miss Toland Had Built It, And Had Made It Her
Personal Business To Interest Some Of Her Friends In Its Success,
But She Now Found Herself Confronted By An Unexpected Problem: It
Seemed Impossible To Get An Experienced Woman As Resident Worker
With Whom Miss Toland Could Live In Peace. The Few Women Who Had
Been Qualified To Try The Position Had All Swiftly, Quietly, And
Firmly Resigned, With That Pained Reticence That Marks The Trained
Worker. Miss Toland Told Her Committees, With Good-Humoured
Tolerance, That Miss Smith Or Mrs. Brown Had Been A Splendid
Person, Perfectly Splendid, But Unable To Understand The Peculiar
Conditions That Made Social Work In San Francisco Utterly--And
Totally--Different From Social Work Elsewhere. Meanwhile, She Did
The Best She Could With Volunteer Workers, Daily Bewailing The
Fact That, Without The Trained Worker, Her Girls' Clubs And
Classes, Her Boys' And Mothers' Clubs, Had Been Difficult To
Start, And Maintained But A Languishing Existence. She Was A
Sanguine Woman, And Filled With Confidence In The Eventual Success
Of The Alexander, And With Energy To Push It Toward A Completely
Fruitful Existence, But She Herself Was Inexperienced, And Julia
Had Chanced Upon Her In A Thoroughly Discouraged Mood.