New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-30
LIE CHLLNREN,S HOLIDAY.

"Your beautiful charity" writes Judge
Noah Davis, referring to The TRIBUNES Fresh
Air Fund, " cools the inclement heats of sum-
merv This is only one among thousands of tok-
ems of the interest excited by very simple
and unpretentiOus method of helping the
little ones in the tenements of the metropolis.
In letters from generous contributors, III ex-
carnations of pleasure from those who have
brought their gifts to our cOunting-IOom in the
sweltering weather of the last week, IN hearty
expressions of approval from the press of
the country, in the open handed hospitality
which country families have extended to the
door city children, and in the eager
ness with which the parties Of children have
been watched in train, steamboat and stage,
we have a cumulative array of evidence OF the
widespread interest and sympathy which has
been aroused in town and country. The re-
freshing sense of GOODNESS, which Judge Davis
finds so grateful III this midsummer charity,
must be explained by subtle processes OF radl-
alton from hearts warmed through and through
by the thought of the poor children's vacation.
" And He took child and set him i'll the midst
of them" ScroOge thought he had heard
those words somewhere, when the Ghost con-
Quoted him to Bob Cratcht's house and
pointed to the mother and children seated
before the Pickering fire. During these mid
summer days the small Cratchits of New
York have been taken from hot pavements
and steaming alleys and set in the midst OF
| green fields and pastures new. They have
! found a place utterly unlike what they have
| known as home. They have had IA glad holl-
day after months of sorrow, suffering and pri-
| walton, and their experience has exerted reflex
| influence upon those who have contributed to
| their pleasure, and has opened wide range
| for Christian sympathy in what is prominently
city of the very rich and the very poor.
There has not been a column of HE TRIB-
UNE, we venture to say, which has been so
widely read during these midsummer weeks
as that devoted to the Fresh Air Fund. SYM
pathes have been stirred, hearts have been
softened, and more generous Iaith in human
nature has been inspired not only by the noble
list of subscriptions and the unaffected letters
which have accompanied them, but also by
the recitals of the travels, adventures and re-
turn of the little pilgrims Glimpses have
been afforded of a world with which very few
of our readers are famliar-the lowest stratum
of social life on Manhattan Island. Before
start is made here is a pale, slckly woman,
who has lost two of her three children during
the spring, sending her only darling into the
country and sobbing with tenderness indie
scribable as she kisses it goodbye on the wharf ;
and here, again, is a group OF three children
who with their sick mother have been turned out
of their lodging, but are now offered h, me for
two weeks while she is being cared for in a
hospital: and close behind them is little
orphan, who has never seen meadow or hill,
clasping her rag doll TO her breast and quoting
it with promises of good times among " the
trees, COWS and nanny goats" Further on In
the journey as The train passes through tunnel
voice is heard piping, :" Is 1t going to be
night any more to-day I" and "a fellow-tTav-
eller, whose hat has been lost out of the win
dow, proclaims the fate which awaits her from
her mothers chastising arm fortnight hence.
At the journeys end the children invariably
find what little Annie describes III her first
letter home as a very nice place where we all
@enioy ourselves very much-and we are all
"wel to-and We are all happy to-and we all
shave a very nice time" So say they all, even
the sickly little girl who never eats any break
fast at home because she has to sleep near the
stove where il is hot. Aud when the holiday
is ended, they return to the city, stronger ana
happier than they have ever been before III
their young lives, the girls with Jellles and
fruit for their mothers, the boys with
chipmunks and gray squirrels, ana nearly all
with new clothes which their kind entertain
ers have given them. In this way the children
have come and gone, and the public has In
tercsted itself il all the episodes OF their vaca-