Welcome to the history tricks where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Hello, we are back with part two of the life of Jane Adams, known by history as the mother of social work.

In part one, we followed Jane through her upper-glass childhood and college, although it was her safety school, her father's safety school.

And over to England, where the radical philosophies of the Toimbe Hall settlement in London inspired her to open her own settlement in Chicago.

A giant mansion in the middle of one of the worst slums in the city.

In addition to hundreds of classes and meetings and clubs held in every room of the house, and also one by one other buildings,

there was really a deeply personal connection that Jane and her partner Ellen and all the other upper-class workers in the settlement were making with the poor residents of their neighborhood.

Jane helped deliver a baby, for example.

She sat holding hands at deathbeds. She was a nurse for the sick, a conduit of aid for, say, workers who'd been injured on the job, widows with no resources, abandoned wives, who were owed child support.

So you see the settlement itself was taking a long opening minds, providing a refuge, just being, you have to admit, very amazing.

But don't forget this neighborhood in general, or all, frankly, the poor neighborhoods in Chicago, just because Jane set up her program, doesn't mean Hallstead Street stops smelling like garbage.

It doesn't make the drinking water clean, it doesn't make the alcoholics stop beating their wives and children, it doesn't stop children from dying.

And seeing all of this, made Ellen just fall apart. She felt it all too deeply, like I would. Like you would, Susan, right? Like most people would. This is nothing against Ellen.

Ellen is just not a superhero, it's hard not to get personally involved, and to come to terms with the fact that whatever you personally do, no matter how hard you work, it can't possibly fix everything.

And I think it left her in a state of perpetual despair, but you know, under the surface, she wasn't like staggering around wearing all black all the time, you know, yeah, you know, I kept thinking about that because Jane seems to be handling the emotional aspects of this a whole lot better than Ellen did.

And I wondered if it was because Ellen had come from as wealthy a background as Jane did. So I wonder if Jane had kind of, I don't want to say this badly, but kind of an ignorant, elitist mindset that everything was going to be okay.

Does that make any sense at all? Well, I kept wondering how I could handle what she was seeing and I couldn't.

There are people though that have the quality like Jane did of being able to genuinely care for people in desperate situations without letting it get a hold of her.

I have a very recent experience, of course, I liken it to the nurses in the ICU who take care of patients and their families every day.

Multiple people, they're kind, they want the best for you. And also they have to insulate themselves for me, and your pain or else they can't help anyone.

People describe Jane Adams, Miss Adams, it always was as quote, impersonally thoughtful and kind with an indescribable magnetism could be that she had great training in not absorbing other people's feelings from her upbringing with her stepmother.

Oh, that's an interesting thing. See, you gave it a little more thought than I did, I guess. And also here's another factor she was known some say she was notorious.

...