Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-10-16

Still. hole in the pockets very bad thing,
ana, am sure, q real cause OF disaster;
but Daby Is we'll so you must never tell;
Perhaps he got well all the faster.
--Independent,
'scursion, in Which a Motley Crowd
Participated in Jolly style.
The thermometer had stood among
the nineties all day, and the sun had
gone down in q red ball of fire. The
seventy children that lived in the tene-
ment house swarmed on the pavement
and in the little court in the rear, and
the mothers held their sick babies on
pillows in the windows, that if chance
breeze from the river came wandering
up the street it might rest on their
pallid faces.
Selma and her six brothers and SIS
tiers lived with their father and mother
IN three rear rooms on the top floor.
There all the sitting odors from below
rose, and all day long the tarry roof
above soaked IN the suns rays. AL
though the little back room in which
the children slept steamed like an
oven, Selma had coaxed them to come
TO bed.
"It's early to bed and early to rise"
she sang, as she learned it at the indus.
trial school, and the children tumbled
IN, feeling that in some way they would
wake in the morning with penny in
each hand. Poor little things, they
tried so hard to sleep, and Selma to
amuse them with songs and stories she
learned at school! But even she, the
stout-hearted, motherly little sister,
grew faint and sick with the fierce
heat.
The sound of the children's voices
from the street made the little one,
restless, and while Selma tried ia
reconcile their misery and discomfort
with the virtue of going to bed at 8
o'clock, John had shyly slipped out
Now he came dancing in, his torn slip
dripping with water "Ts feelin' dood;
is feelin' dood."
"Oh, it's water, Selma" said Janev,
with awe. John, where did you get
water?"
Il climbed the sink and let her 90, l
did,"
Janey and Teddy both ran, and be-
fore Selma could catch them they had
climbed up into the iron sink in the
Ildll dllt uTolcueI ln6nlSelNeS.
The janitor's wife saw them, and
chased them with broom, for water is
the greatest luxury of q tenement
house.
"A-wastin' it on their little hldes!"
she exclaimed.
The Guild agent for District 10 had
telegram that evening, "The Sun
beam can't go. Collect lot, unclassi-
fed, for tomorrow"
"There's seventy at Ole Birthstone,
and fifty-tive at Tom Dickey's," he
said, counting up on his fingers. "Ill
go to Old Birthstone first"
As Selma, escaping from the clutch
OF the janitor's angry wife, ran crying
down the stairs, the agent came into
the hall.
"What are you crying for, sis?"
"The childer got into the sink to get
cool, and wasted the water on EN-"
"Tell them tomorrow they can have
the ocean for bath-tub."
Selma ran to the court, picking her
way among the PROSTATE children.
Teddy, Janey, we're going on Guilds
scursion tomorrow"
John sprang up in his clinging wet
slip. "Pm a-doin' a-swimmln'!" his
desires increasing with his prospects.
There was not an italian or Bo-
hemian on the ground but had heard of
the Guild. What it was they did not
know, but it was liable to appear when
least expected, and could command at
least one day of brightness and pleas
IRE for every child, however poor and
distressed day in which sandwiches
never failed, and cups of milk were un-
numbered.
Oh, the joy of It'll The great barge
spread her flags. The italian, Poe, Be-
hemian. German, and Irish boy, for the
time sailed under his own banner. The
Gttle tug sDorted and tore through the
water. In her wake came the -.
1t was like going to sea in great two
storied portco. The mothers watched
the purple fade out of the babies faces,
famed by the fresh breeze. The chill
dren screamed with delight, and ran
from side to side. Among them all
who so happy as Teddy, Janey, and
John? Teddy, with string tied to q
stick, fshed with zeal. Pm a-doin'
a-swimmin'," said John, and laid him
self on the deck, and swan as well and
fast as any boy can do out of the water.
Selma, is that Ireland?" asked
Janey. Daddy said it was over tho
water, and green as green"-pointing
to Staten Island.
Oh, it was world of great steamers,
ships with sails all spread, yachts with
spotless sails, and spiteful, noisy little
tugs darting to and fro. Living their
little lives within dozen blocks of the
water, they now iorrneyed into I'M
tnown countries over unknown seas.
10 them the great hotels of Coney Is
Ind and Sandy Hook Lighthouse were
Ilore than the castles of the Rhiae and
The wonders of Switzerland to the read
trs of juvenile history. The chill
liren ran to see the great Coney Island
Elephant, but Selma looked away out
10 sea. She had seen the sky with
clouds floating above her between the
straight rows of bricks, but for the first
lime looking over painless water,
tway, away until the skies came down
10 meet it, she realized something of
ihe greatness aud majesty OF the world
In which she lived.
The sea was quiet. Still the water
tank had been carefully kept shut dur
Ing the sail, and however thirsty the
little mouths might be, no drop OF
water was allowed to disturb the Sc
renity of Iitt1a stomachs unuaed tn life