As a tribute to Women’s History Month, this story was provided by the Sherman Room of the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library and originally published by the Mansfield News on Dec. 25,1921 on Page 10 of the Social Section. Those interested in more history should check out the Sherman Room at the Mansfield/Richland Public Library or visit this link.
To have the “giving” spirit in your heart not just one day but all year round, to love serving others so well that you would give up a wonderful home with all its attendant pleasures and comforts, and to spend your time doing “the little things” that come up, a hundred fold daily, would be indeed to have the Christmas joy in your heart so much that the service you do every day would create an atmosphere of Christmassy feelings in everyone around you.
So lives Miss Margaret Fundom, who radiates “service” to such an extent that she is content to give of herself and her time to managing many of the details of a settlement house, for 365 days in the year and has been so doing for the past three years.
Two little urchins, with dirty faces, but with friendly interest shining through the dirt, were peeping through the glass as I went up the walk to Friendly House. In the rather bare room, which constitutes library, study, and living room all in one for the supervisors, a fat, sleeping baby was comfortably lying in a baby carriage, while Miss Fundom, who answered my knock, was, ostensibly, from the pens and pads, figuring up accounts. We sat down in front of the gas fire and had not talked for more than a couple of moments, until someone knocked loudly at the front door. Through the open doorway leading out into the hall, a little girl was heard to tell Miss Fundom that her “father had something the matter with his spine” but she “didn’t know what it was.”
“Was he hurt at the factory any way?” asked Miss Fundom. But the youngster didn’t know and it was up to the supervisor to call a doctor, arrange for any other things that might be needed and put it down in her memory for future references. No doubt, from Miss Fundom’s own hands went any necessities for making the sick man comfortable.
I was glad when Miss Fundom suggested that we make a tour of the rooms and was especially interested in the huge Christmas tree which had just been put up in the big gymnasium and which was waiting for eager hands to decorate. So big was the tree, which someone had kindly donated, that although the gym is high, the top had to be cut off to get it in. It looked like the very spirit of Christmas and one could imagine hundreds of foreign children, with clean faces and hands circling the tree watching the twinkling lights, during the entertainment this week.
Before reaching the gym we had come through the playroom and library, where the boys gather in the evenings for games. One could see that it was not half large enough for the space which boys usually demand when interested in lively games. Besides this was a small kitchen where the girls learn domestic science. Miss Fundom supervises all the girls’ classes, including, of course, these cooking classes.
When questioned as to what the girls like to cook Miss Fundom smilingly replied, “They like to cook American dishes. I wanted to teach them the everyday dishes that they would use at home, but one day when I mentioned making macaroni and tomatoes, one little Italian girl exclaimed, ‘Oh no, we get that three times a day at home.’ They think making American dishes is in line with their new Americanism, I guess. And they’re really much more demonstrative in their patriotism than Americans.”
Upstairs, in the room where the mothers hold their meetings two mothers were busily tying up Christmas boxes of candy. One woman was the mother of the sleeping baby downstairs and a pretty, bright looking two-and-a-half-year old girl who had been playing a game down in the recreation room, and also of a small boy, who wandered around familiarly. But even so, she was intensely enthusiastic and interested in the approaching Christmas treat and intended making dresses for herself and the little girl for the program.
Over in the manual training room we found toys half completed for the Christmas treat, and a dresser, with tiny drawers and mirror frame which some boy had made for his sister. The kindergarten room had its own tiny tree, all bauble trimmed, and a sand pile.
Back again in the front room Miss Fundom told me something more of her work.
“I was educated for this work in the Schauffler missionary school in Cleveland. My work includes supervising all the girls’ classes, as I said before, and disciplining any youngster at any time during the day. No matter what we are doing when a child does something that is wrong we stop right there and correct him. A great deal of my work takes me into the homes. I also teach classes in English. I speak German as well as English and French and Italian. Just now I have a class of Macedonian women. Of course I do not speak their language but one woman in the class can talk French so that I teach the others through her.
grocery
“The hardest thing we have to contend with [when] getting into the homes is the foreign idea that an American is trying to get something from them. One amusing incident happened not so very long ago. An Italian woman, who has a small store, refused to wait on me, but always sent her grandchild to open the door. But one day I decided that I would make her talk to me, so I just went in and sat down by the stove and began talking to the girls. As soon as she saw that I wasn’t trying to get anything from her she became friendly. She got her shawl and said, ‘Come on! Come on!’ Of course I didn’t know where she was going to take me but I followed her and she took me into the back room of another house where an Italian man, with both legs off was propped up in a chair. She wanted me to get some insurance for him. So I attended to that, sent him some flowers and warm things to eat and watched over him
after that.
“Our greatest need just now is more nurses. We should have a city nurse stationed here all the time. And several more city nurses, according to one of our physicians could be used in our work. It is often very hard to get a nurse. Those we have are rushed almost to death and sometimes I have to go in and act as one.
“Another thing we need is a room where we could take care of the babies of mothers who work during the day. And someone to look after them. Many times the older sisters will bring babies for us to care for and we do sometimes, but there is really no place to put them.
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Busy, you say? Yes but with any one who has the eternal Christmas spirit in her heart as Miss Fundom has, being busy is just another word for being happy.
