Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-05-26
4aisfellarre0ns.
The Presh.AiF Rund.

Close by the river, at the foot OF dis
NAL street, stands big shed, in which
eighteen families eat and sleep. 1t is
quarter of New York where decent people
are seldom seen. On every side there
are shanties and rookeries. and the air 10
heavy with sickening smells from
slsughter-houses. Dirt is everywhere
foul ooze of garbage and standing water
in the gutter; solid layers of dust in dark
entries which are never scratched By
broom; heaps of unclean straw serving
for pillow and bed in the closets whis b
are known as bedrooms; and thick coat
ings OF Crime, ancient and modern, on the
hands and faces of the children swarming
about the door-ways, as well as in the
shreds, tatters. and patches with which
they are scantily clothed. The midsummer
sun heats up the piles Of refuse until they
steam with foul yapors. which are canght
up by the windows; and when the doors
leading into the halls are opened for
draught Of fresh air. there Is sitting
sense Of closeness and dampness, which
makes the babies sneeze and the mothers
cough The long wooden building. with
its three floors and rickety staircases, is
so unsteady and lettering that one WI .
! WdbCucS IL III Tic uOOuliIlC uCot "a q ou
day fairly holds his breath, expecting To
hear sudden crash and to see its ragged
roof and dingy walls fall to pieces, dis
appearing in cloud of dust.
/ That ugly shed is known as - The Bar
racks" Rubbish heap though it be, it
contains within its patched and Shiny shell
eighteen homes, with as many as sixty
children. On each OF its three floors there
I - household hac
more than two rooms, one of them be-
ing barely larger than a closet, and as
dark as night even in the daytime. In
those two rooms the cooking and washing
( for the family are done, and at night the
father. mother, and sometimes as many as
| six or eight children, have to sleep close
I together, like sardines in box. The
Barracks " is but one of the hundreds of
tenement houses where the children of the
/ poor live all the year round.
The children in these tenement houses
always look older than they really are.
/ The childhood which accords with their
years, if not with their faces, can not be
! permanently restored 70 them, tor poverty
is their birthright, and every season
brings with it privatiOns and misery. Bat
If they can be helped to be children for
two weeks in the year. the memories of
their holiday and the renewed health which
/ it gives to them will make them younger
as well as healthier and happier. If. when
the scorchlng midsummer sun falls with
white glare upon the roofs and fiimsy
walls of their tenement homes, the chill
dren can be taken out of the narrow closets
where they sleep, and the steaming gut
tiers where they swarm like big black flies
and set down in the center of the children's
playground, which is the country, new
glow will be kindled in their cheeks, and
they will be the children they were meant
to be-not little old men and little old
women.
| Now, this is the work of what is called
1.-The Tribune Fresh-Air Fund" People
who are rich or have moderate means fur
nish the money for the children's travelling
expenses, sending it to The Tribune"
newspaper. Last summer there were
more than 800 generous persons, many
of them children themselves, who gave
money for this purpose. the contributions
amounting to S2l 800 81. With this sum,
5599 OF the poor children of New York
were taken into the country, given a holt
day of two weeks, and carried back to
their tenement homes. While their trav-
cling expenses were paid by the contrib
utors to the fund. the children were the
. invited guests Of farmers and other hos
p,able people living in the country. During
the spring 75 public meetings were held in
as many villages in New York, Connecticut.
New Jersey, Massachusetts,, Vermont,
and other States, and arrangements were
made with committees and clergymen in
as many other localities; and when the
| kind-hearted entertainers in the country
were ready to receive them, the children
were sent out from the city in large COM
I panies. and distributed among the villages.
The manager of the Fresh-Air Fund is
Willard Parsons, bachelor clergyman,
who has adopted the poor children Of New
York for his own. Hale and hearty. with
ruddy face and an eve twinkling with
good humor. he has heart brimful of
kindness for neglected children, and the
energy of twenty men. He it was who
devised this simple and effective plan of
entertaining in the country the poorest of
Door children living in New York and
Brooklyn. The experiment was tried six
years ago, when he had country parish
in Pennsylvania, and now he is making
this the business of his life. The first
year. sixty children were taken into the
country. Last year, 5000 children had an
outing in green fields and pastures new.
1t is a charity as popular as it is beautiful,
for every heart is touched by the SORROWS
of neglected childhood.-l. N. FORD, IN