Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-05

saving INV
work resembling the beautiful charity
known in Boston and Philadelphia as 'the
country week" is carried on in New York as
an enterprise of the Evening Post, under the
name of the Fresh Air Fund " the relief be-
ing restricted mostly to sickly children, who
are enabled to spend fortnight in some
kindly farmers family. The work of the
Fresh Air Fund" for the season is not yet
ended; but tho Post of August 20 reports that
up to date about Sc, 200 had been contributed,
and that 2,OGl persons had been sent to the
country during the summer, of whom $50
were boys and ,O3O girls, nearly all under
twelve; while a small number were broken
down shop-girl and mothers of sickly infants.
For fifty of the benefciaries, mostly adults,
board has been paid but the children were
entertained without charge by 800 families in
10 towns
Except that one infant died of chronic dis
case, the most diligentinquiryf fails to discover
single child sent to the country by the Fresh
Air Fund who has not returned manifostly
improved in health, while in many cases
the physicians who have observed the cases
positively declare that young lives have been
saved, frail bodies have been made strong,
and constitutions which were rapidly giving
way have been made robust" Not single
mishap has been reported, either in travelling
or during the children's stay in the country.
The immediate benefit to the children, though
an important item, makes but part Of the
glorious record spirit of goodwill has
been awakened which must go far to sweeten
the whole life of those who have had any
part in such an uuselfish work 4 part Of the
money has come from other children and the
members of one Sunday school class in Brook
Ign have procured the addresses of several Of
the children sent out, in order to visit and
care for them during the winter. A very
lively interest has been excited in the minds
of the country people who opened their
homes to the little ones, and the suggestion Of
helpfulness has reached the minds and hearts
of many thousands more. The Post is sure
that there will never be any lack of means to
carry out any such sensible and practical
scheme when the matter is properly brought
forward equally sure that there will be no
difficulty in finding plenty of needy children.
But ''the success of your undertaking (the
Post says will depend largely upon your
ability to secure Mr.. Parsons and this is
serious difficulty. The Willard Parsonses in
the world are not many, but there ought to be
a few such men to be found in every city
They must be men of great patience, indom-
table perseverance, unconquerable cheerful
ness, and sincere devotion to the work they
must have skill in getting on with men and
women they must know how to win the
confidence of children, and how to manage
children in droves they have need of all the
more robust Christian graces with good
physical constitution and a touch of humor
superadded,'
Awriter in the last number of Sunday After
noon gives some interesting facts and OBJ
servations in regard to this simple and excel
lent " fresh air" scheme:
" 1t was found through the endeavors of an
active young clergyman that mauy farmers
were willing to receive children from the city
for two or three weeks gratuitously and the
Evening Post established the Fresh Air Fund
previously mentioned, to defray the few nee
essary expenses. The necessary expenses
were very few. The parson gave his services
and some money the railway companies re-
duced their fares the physicians concerned
never thought of fee, and the Evening Post
as treasurer cheerfully used all the influence,
which selfish objects crave in vain, to secure
abundant patronage. The clergyman, whose
name by the way, is Willard Parsons, visited
various regions in New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, making seven-minute speeches
before Sunday -schools. churches and other re-
ligious gatherings A few OF the listeners
We're quite willing to receive pretty little
girls, or nice boys, but many Others said
they would be glad to take waits of any sort,
and some actually expressed a preference for
IA bad lot 1t may be well to say here that
the plan would have failed if the coadjutors
had been fastidious. Children who have been
born and bred in the most abject poverty,
who have been surrounded by vice and ignor-
ance all their little lives, are never nice. They
are unwashed, vulgar, profane and menda-
cious in most instances; when they are not
vicious they are diseased, and often they are
both vicious and diseased. pretty orphan
well-bred, intelligent and nicely dressed, would
be an acquisition in many households, but it
was not such the Fresh Air Fund had in its
scope 1t proposed to benefit only the very
poorest-the sickly, the unclean and the tat
tered-and the sacrifice made by those who
were willing to help It was in their practical
commiseration with the most unattractive sub
jects. If gratitude is a scarce flower, howev-
er, it blossoms in all sorts of soil, and strange
to say, while many of the good people who
agreed to receive the waits from the city feared
that their own children would be contamina-
ted, and that they were exposing themselves
to theft and disappointment their guests be-
haved in an almost exemplary manner; an
incredibly small number of lies were told a
few petty thefts committed, and one lady
complained that the children sent to her were
not half bad enough. The sin that was in
them was nearly altogether a matter of Gus
tom and association, and the quiet life of the
country, the pure influences of the household,
proved to be n specific for 1t, while the fields
and woods We're tonic for their feeble con-
situations. If there is one thing more COM
mendable than another in the plan it is that
there is no sort of 'nstitutionalism' about it.
The whole life of the child is changed, and he
learns for the first time what sort of place q
real home is -