New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-09-17
4 SNMNEh,S WORK.

4 SUMMERS WORK.
The work which The tribune undertook to
do for contributors to the Fresh Air Fund is
nearly finished for this summer. What will
probably be the last party for the season is to
start out tomorrow; and as soon as MIR. Par
sons is relieved from the pressing duties con-
nected with bringing these and others back,
we hope to lay before our generous readers
and contributors a detailed statement OF
the disposition of every penny of the money
they have sent us. Meantime 1t would be
needless to point out to our generous readers
the good accomplished by them to the poor
children who have been given a glimpse OF Gods
beautiful world of Nature, 80 different from the
world which they know of swarmng tenement
houses and sitting alleys, and who have come
back with stronger bodies and happier and, we
hope, purer hearts. This is IA result OF the work
apparent to all. But there arc other conse-
duences not so evident, which are just as real
and lasting.
The work whose claims have been directly
carried by THE TRIBUNE every morning, not to
men alone but to families in the retirement OF
their own happy homes, has reused them to an
active charity, which was to many OF the Slyers
a new, untasted pleasure. The careless good
humOred American is always ready to give,
but is apt to forget to DO it. In this case the
great majority of the donors who gave the
great unwontcd happiness to these poor little
ones were women or children like themselves.
The child who saved its pennies or worked to
hold its little fair in order to bring some sick
boy or girl ont Of the slums of New York to
the beach or farm which was so full of won
l.. L.. -.
perhaps, than the poor baby to whom it gave
1t learned lesson OF brotherly love which no
amount of parental teaching or perfunctOry
Sunday school contributions to the missionary
box could impart. The newsboy or b0Otback
is live creature to a boy but the pagan at
Zanzibar is Il ghost, and rs a rule the ghost OF
wearisome bore.
Another wholesome effect is that produced
upon the country people who sheltered the
children. The modern custom of wholesale
emigration of tOwnspeOplc 10 the country has
hitherto brought the rural population in con-
tact only with the wealth, the refinement, the
fashion and follies of the cities Now they see
something Of the dark strata underneath. Is it
desirable that they should see it'll Certainly,
if the different classes of men in thls country
tom which brings them into closer relations is of
use, especially if those relations are at the ont
set warm and glowing with the kindliest and
highest feelings.
In every country all political and moral
dangers arise just in proportion to the width
of the gap between the poor and the rich,
the ignorant and the educated, the vicious
and the good In England this gap is bridged
over by individuals in the parish work of
the Established Church TO a much larger
extent than Americans can comprehend.
The poor IN every parish, whether in villages,
on a great estate, or in the purlieas CT London,
are Systematically visited and relieved by
the women of the upper classes rs part of
their church work. The daughter Of the
county magnate has her school on the estate
to oversee, her flannels to give ont her sick
people for whom she is responsible il Is rs
much II matter OF course in her daily life
as her family duties or social engagements.
The very existence of castles and the
inhexiblc barriers between them renders
this care and interest possible from the upper
to the lower classes. There is no such
organized system Of intercourse here in any
church. The organized Associations for
the Suppression of Mendlcancy are very
different in their tendency and effect. Their
avowcd aim is to Withdraw charitable
work from the individual and substitute the
official machinery of a society. The effect
is to harden the sympathies of the individual
and to reduce all intercourse between the
class that needs and the class that gives to "A
rigorous business transaction done by agents.
The work of the Fresh Air Fund is n
social experiment which suits our social
system. 1t brings three classes of our
people at once into direct sympathetic
communion the poor of the cities, those
who contribute to send them away, and the
hospitable folk who receive them. Out of