National Republican., 1883-07-24
swRLTERING BABIES.
How Poor Mothers and Puny Babies Man
age 10 Get Fresh Air Ina the Great city.


How Poor Mothers and Puny Babies Man
age 10 Get Fresh Air Ina the Great city.
PhiLddciphtd Times.
At Phiadelphia's very doors, nearer, in
deed, than Ridgway park, is summer resort
which has been strangely overlooked by the
watering place correspondent; all the moro
strangely overlooked from the fact that a
great part of its frequenters are residents of
courts and alleys. 1t is the docks. The place
has its advantages. There arc no gamblers.
There is nothing for them to win. No huck-
sters, for there is no one to buy. But all along
the cross-streets last night at sunset, from
Christian up to and beyond Pine, might be seen
women, bareheaded most of them, flocling
eastward to the river and it's air, aud most of
the women carried babies Th ere was not
healthy looking baby in the lot, They were
the shattered remnants of the infantry to
whom this has been indeed q battle summer.
1t was we'll, perhaps, that the little things
could not know the meaning of tho white
ribbons that decorate so many doors along
Queen and Catherine, cambridge and Car
penter and the numbered streets which cross
them on the cast side. Still the white rib
bons do not tell all the story Many of the
dead babies parents cannot buy white rib
bons Babies deaths are more statistics, blue
book stuff that no one reads.
On the Christian street wharf seemed to be
tho elite of river front society. Most of the
twoscore who sat with feebly sprawling in
fants in their laps were dressed with a neat
ness and care which showed them to be not
wholly unconscious of the fitness of things
social nor devoid of the feminine regard for
Appearances. Two young mothers were evil
dent examples of the rare survival girl
friendship after marriage. They were of the
same height and age apparently. They were
pln nli 10 in gtr
which made pleasant spot of color on the
somber wharf. Their hair was dressed alike,
and to complete tho duality they were
equipped with babies who were as nearly
twins as babies born Of different mothers
could be. Their age, weight and longth if
added and divided by two, would have repre-
sented TO n week, pound, and inch the age,
weight and lepgth of each.
If the stitches on their long clothes could
have been counted they wculd doubtless havo
agreed in number to a stitch, and exactly the
same infantic dsarth of nose and plethora of
mouth was observable under n couple of caps,
which had precisely the same number of frills.
But the curse Of the heat lent an equal pallor
to the faces of both, and some thought may
have crossed the young mothers minds from
the look of their anxious faces of q grim COM
pletion of tho careful similarity in a couple
of little white collins with the same number
of nails.
-
coucourse. Besides u rckety baby carriage,
which had been wheeled upon an equally
cffcte canal boat, sat II stout Irishwoman.
Within the vehicle lay Il one-year-older,
soothed by tho rolling motion which one
motherly hand impaired The other was oc-
cupied in directing the efforts of younger
sprout to imbbe It's natural sustenance and
in keeping third--the senior of the three
from involving, by its gyrations, the entire
family party in its numerous downialls on the
deck. How many of the other dozen chill
dren who gamboled about the ancient craft
were the offspring of the woman remains
mystery Almond street wharf was clear
of babies and women. Tho urchin has
pos sessed it for his own. The bath
was closed, but through the dusk which be-
gan to gather was seen the frequent CLEAN of
small white bodies that sought the cool of
the Delaware, and now and then II thud-
which was doubtless "sickenng" to the
stomach that made it--announced diver
who had missed his tip and committed what
the diver himself would doubtless call u
"bellywhacker." A woman sat on the South
street string-piece and looked at the lights
which began to glimmcr in the rigging of
the ships down the river. In her lap puny
specimen of babyhood sprawled and shook his
| fist at the home of happier infants on Point
Airy. 1--WE raised six children in six sum-
| mers," said his mother and the doctors said
| they'd all die, but none of them did, and
! guess this will be strong lad yet. to work
| for his mother when she's old" y.f ats1.
:" Do you bring him down every night?"
"Yes, when | can get through the work,
'cept on washing days and Saturday nights,
when I'm late cleanin up ,J,tt
g should think you'd like to stay here all
night" ns-. IT
"All night-like them tramps? Honest
people sleep in beds,' was the response.
1t was a queer, warped, honest philosophy
that would raise children through six scorch-
ing summers in the vague hope for their sup
port in age and that preferred the steaming
purlieus of Alaska street to the cool breeze OF
the wharves, for fear of being taken for
Cramps" To the north of the Cam
den ferries different class pervaded tho
docks The hoodlum was out IN full
force, with his usual threats of mayhem and
murder One woman was seen pouring her
tale Of some family incorrgible into the SYM
pathetic ear of policeman. "We'll have to
have him bound over or else send him to the
workhouse," she was heard to say.
At Noble street wharf lay one of the shuttle
shaped British freighters, the Ealiny, but the
bishop of that Thackerayan see was evidently
not on board, for from the deck came the
notes of a quiet unchurchly chorus, which in
liquorsh, North Country voices the crew were
singing. There were no babies in the crowd
on that deck. Amid the throng flicSered
couple of white dresses. Their owners were
not so innocent as the babes on the lower
docks.