Harlem

The first of next month will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the growth of one of the oldest charities in New York City. The new colored home and hospital at Wales avenue, One Hundred and Forty-first street, Concord avenue and One Hundred and Forty-second street, will be opened at that time, and the work will at once begin actively in the new quarters. The buildings which are now on the verge of completion, will be fully and carefully equipped in every particular. The property upon which the new buildings are situated consists of thirty-eight lots and occupies an entire block. The main building is a handsome brick and stone structure, four stories high, with four wings. The hospital will be on the top floor and will have all the necessary appointments, including sterilizing room, operating room, etherizing room, etc. Each ward in the hospital has connected with it a retiring room for nurses, a small diet kitchen, wash room, bath room and toilet room. The administration department will be on the ground floor. The institution will accommodate about 300 persons. The old building at First avenue and Sixty fifth street, which has been the home of the charity for many years, proved inadequate to its needs, and the change of site with the consequent enlargement will greatly increase the charity's opportunities for well doing.

If the expectations of the Century Wheelmen are realized, the seating capacity of Berkeley Oval, Morris Heights, will be none too large for those who will attend their cycling gymkhana, carnival and concert on Saturday afternoon and evening, September 3. Among the guests of the club on that occasion will be the local, state and national officers of the League of American Wheelmen; the officers of every cycling organization in Greater New York and outlying towns and the League Cycling Club of Philadelphia, which will come in a body.

Miss Mary McElroy, the secretary of the Harlem Young Women's Christian Association, was to have returned last Friday from London, where she has been attending the international convention of Young Women's Christian Associations. Instead of Miss McElroy, however, a letter was received from her, saying that she had decided to remain some days longer in London to study association work there. Contrasting the English and American systems of work, Miss McElroy says: "The English methods excel along the lines of spiritual labors and in the boarding department, but the American methods are far in advance in educational and general work. I have profited by what I have seen and when I return I shall introduce into our own religious meetings some of the methods of our English cousins and shall try to further extend the efficiency of our dormitory system and lunch room."

At the meeting last night in the Twenty-third street branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, representatives of half a dozen associations in Brooklyn and Manhattan boroughs met to arrange for a basket ball league, but the Harlem branch sent no delegation and thereby hangs a tale. Dr. Smith, the physical director of the Harlem branch, has decided that Harlem can do without a basket ball team and accomplish much better work. He argues that whenever a basket ball team is formed the five men who compose the team is formed the five men who compose the team monopolize the gymnasium floor to the exclusion of the other members of the association. it is predicted that the firm stand taken in the matter by the Harlem branch will immediately lead to the abolition of the game by the Young Men's Christian Associations throughout Greater New York. At last night's meeting, Fifty-seventh street branch, Manhattan, was not represented and as this is the largest and newest association in the city, it looks as if the views taken by Dr. Smith were being at once indorsed.