Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-07-19

Inc llrSt lnStalment OF TINS years FRESH
air fund" children were gathered together
from New York and Brooklyn last Monday
and sent out into the country. There were
a great many of the children and they went
TO good many different points in seven
states, Vermont getting its share and Brat
tleboro being one Of the points included
The New York Tribune, which was the
originator as it is now the chief promoter
of this charity, had column of notes on
the outgoing party from which we take the
following
The physicians of the Tribune fresh air
fund are busy examining threats and bod
les and calling out unsuitable candidates ;
anxious mothers are getting up lunches and
packing together changes of linen the city
missionaries are bustling in and out of the
tenements, first seeing that their lists con
tain the required number of little ones, and
then hurrying their divisions away, each to
its respective train and the care. takers
and managers at the cars are putting the
children aboard and counting tickets.
One of the Vermont parties con
tains an interesting company of children
They are of German parentage, and the
mothers see to it that the children are kept
scrupulously neat and clean about home,
also that their attendance at Sunday school
is punctual. Their fathers work in the silk
mills at the upper end of the city, or are
day laborers and average possibly $l.25 a
day. Meat is luxury in these families
their daily diet being generally only plain
bread and coffee. Two of the little girls
in the party for Vernon, n. Y, come from
aa..fa l,vrl
dren, the oldest lG, and the mother is a
widow. The father died recently and left
them destitute. The mother sews and the
oldest girl works out These two who
leave today work at dressmaking, young as
they are, but are now out of employment,
since their shop always closes during july
August and the first part of September.
The mother pays SIP per month rent,
and thus has but pittance left from her
hard earnings with which to feed and
cothe the family. The father was a SOL
der in the late war, but the poor mother is
unable to get a pension since she cannot
procure the proper papers by reason of the
death OF the physician who attended her
husband Immediately after the war Three
children of this family went to Forestville,
n. Y, last week. thus relieving the mother
temporarily, at least. Their teacher SAYS
that they are very bright and stand high in
their classes. He also said that the mother
does her best to bring up her children prop
erly and wishes to see them far above the
plane they now occupy, but fate seems to
he against her
This same mission sends two children
who are of marked personal beauty, but
live in most wretched quarters The
family of SIX occupy two rooms in a rear
tenement. This tenement with seven
others, which hold twenty. three families
in all, opens into yard about 20 feet by 80
feet. This and the street constitute the on
ly playground for over 90 children Think
of it What does an open field or the lib
erty of whole farm mean to a child used
to such surroundings
They are a worthy lot, every one
of the hundreds that go, poverty being the
chief ground upon which they were select
ed They all live in the tenements many
families with eight or ten members huddled
together in two, or at the greatest four
small rooms. Rents are universally high
owing to the fact that many of the tene-
ment proprietors on the East side are for
eigners with little public spirit and less hu-
manlty. Wages are correspondingly low,
by virtue of the overcrowded condition of
the unskilled- labor market, and the natural
result follows that the parents of these lit
tie fellows going to the country today fail
IN their own ambitions lose every spark of
hope for their children, and eventually
eking out a wretched existence, content
themselves with the thought that the soon
er this life is over the better. The Tribune
fresh air fund, on the other hand gathers
these unhappy children together, carries
them nIt