Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-08-06
"The Chrlstainest Piece OF Work.


II was beautiful thought-all the fairer
that it sprang up amid the dry, desert places
OF trade-to carry the summer into squalid
courts and sitting tenement houses. The
free excursions for poor children, TO the
lasting credit Of journalism are known aud
praised in many poor home, where even
the penny paper does not Co. Your read
ers know all about them, their ain, and
their scope; but just now, when again the
good work begins, leaf from last summers =
memoranda may not be without its lesson.
The Philadelphia excursions last year, TO
the great surprise Of some Of the managers,
were characterized by solemnity, almost, on
the part Of those poor mothers who ac-
campanied their children. For the first
time, perhaps, in their hard.working mar
ried lives, they were free from response
bility and care. They saw their children
playing merrily, in charge Of enterprising
and energetic leaders of games. Their
sick baby had surgical aid, and good food
from the diet.kitchen, and was laid quietly
to sleep under a shady tree, They had
time aud space to take their pleasure, too /;
yet they sat, thoughtful, aud talked to each
other in low whispers. Indeed. some Of
them were crying.
The large.hearted President Of the la
dies committee, mother herself iu every
fiber Of her soul, was distressed that these
care-worn mothers should seem to take
their holiday so seriously; and, going up to
two women who sat apart, she asked them
what it was they were talking Of so gravely.
al was jus; a sayin' to this ere woman, I"
answered one, " that this is the Christianest
piece Of work ever seed"
And they took it reverently, sermon
of the new gospel, new to them in its prac-
tical application; though the hills of Galilee
heard it eighteen hundred years ago. Sur.
prise was 10 every heart, at all this bounty,
all this thoughtful care; the beautiful sail
up the river; the music, the grass and the
feast Of good things with which themselves
and children were well fed. Surprise, al.
most too great for thanks, that the erich
people" should seek them out 10 their
sitting homes, should give them all this
free!
But these children are surely not the
poorest of the poor" was remarked, time
and again, as the little procession took up
its line of march through the beautiful
East Park. Indeed, they were from the
dirtiest and most reeking alleys of the fur.
nace-heated city. But their mothers had
sat up all night, some of them, washing and
pressing and patching; or maybe had beg.
ged or borrowed bit Of faded ribbon to
make their children look like the others !"
II was wonderful the spirit Of cleanliness,
the wholesome pride in neat and decent ap-
parel, that was developed by those excur-
sion tickets coming into a neighborhood
where all was dirt and noisomeness before.
But what sermons were preached on those
days to the workers and managers of the
excursions! From the little boy, who call.
ed out from the car.window, returning, to
his father, "Oh, paPpy, ,oe had meat !" to
the crippled girl who had never seen the
country, and had only dreamed of green
trees, the texts were startling and their
range was wide.
To give away blankets and coal in win
ter; to visit the sick, and clothe the naked,
and feed the hungry, is the beautiful prose
of Christian work. But to dispense
to wandering little children and their
weary mothers, the sweets Of sunshine
and new-mowu hay; to carry them where
the birds sing, and the leaves rustic,
and the river shines for them, is the
very poetry of Christianity, CArHtian
Union.