Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14
Bits Of Human Nature That Crop Out
/. During the Big Parade.
BUSY TIMES FOR THE MANY MOTHERS

1
attire, with houses decked with flags and
bunting, with every stoop and window and
balcony occupied by more excited people,
and lastly with the genial summers sun
shining exultantly over all.
In this picture you have rude outline Of
what was seen in the City Of Homes and
| Churches on the occasion of the annual Sun
day school parade. This parade is called
| the 'sMay walk" though it sometimes
occurs about the first of June. To Brooklyn
belongs the exclusive honor of this tre-
| mendous exhibition of her Protestant Sun
day school children, and under that head all
| denominational shades of creed come to-
gether once year. In the ranks are the
rigid disciples Of Calvinism who may be-
| heVe in infant damnation, and side by side
are the followers of Universalism, who may
believe all are to be saved at the Great Day
Of Judgment.
Differences of Doctrine Forgotten.
Headed and fanked by ministers and
superintendent and teachers the sub-divi-
sions bear aloft the banners of their indi-
vidual faith-but all unite in this celebra-
tion of the children's day and for the mo-
ment cease to wrangle over the niceties Of
doctrine. The event is always looked for
ward to in the City of Churches and leaves
lasting impression of pride and pleasure
in all who participate in it, or form part
of the quarter of million or so lockers on.
The parade is divided up to suit the con-
yeniences of the great city-65, 900 in one
division, %, 900 in another and 10, 900 in an
other. The actual attendance in line is a
round 100, 900, though the stragglers will run
somewhere between 25, 900 and 80, 900 more
These children range from 4-year-old tots,
led proudly along by brothers and sisters.
to young ladies and Bible class BOYS of 81
A few are yonnger-a few are older. The
great mass range from to 15 years of age.
A more beautiful sight than they present
in May-day costume, under their Sunday
school banners, on these occasions cannot
be seen on top of Mother Earth The love
Of little children is one of the deepest, sub
stantial and all-pervading of the human in
stincts. 1t exists independently of race,
color, nationality, patriotism, religion, civ
ilization. This instinct alone would be
enough to stamp the ''May walk" in Brook
lyn with the seal of public interest and ap-
provaL
PhiIosophica1ly Interesting.
But as it embraces some features of re-
ligious ceremony and at the same time ex-
hibits the underlying strength of the
churches present and the root of the
churches yet to come, this celebration ap-
peals both to the strongest human instincts
and the reflective imagination of the philos-
opher. No reasonable human being could
look on these $1,000 happy, childish faces
and come away without feeling that the
world is better world to live in. The
proud mothers and fathers who line the
route of the parade to catch glimpse of
their own Individual offspring in the ranks.
lend by their eager faces, their smiles and
waving handkerchiefs q still brighter glow
of coloring to this impression.
And the children themselvesi What
world of love and tender patience and
parental anxiety they represent. It is the
looming out" day for Brooklyn school
children, and in this respect may be COM
pared with Easter Sunday in the life of the
society woman. Whatever new outfit of
clothes the child is to have for the summer
Sundays is prepared and worn first at the
May walk. 1t is in this newest and best
that the Sunday school scholar of Brooklyn
joins the great procession.
Costs Mothers Lots of Worry.
You mothers who read this know what it
takes to get one child in readiness for such
an event; and how much greater is the tax
upon your efforts and purses when there are
two or three, or half dozen, running from |
that uneasy T4-year-old to your miss of 10. |
You alone can imagine the work of perhaps |
30, 600 mothers for this annual exhibition. |
In Brooklyn the church governs the social |
With her schools and her churches and her
homes Brooklyn finds no parallel anywhere
in the United States. You must thoroughly
understand this to comprehend the full sig
nifcance of the May walk.
The school system of Brooklyn is consid-
cred the finest in America Its mark is in
the intelligent faces, the bright eyes, the
frequent round shoulders and fiat chests of
these children.
Dear, dearl What pity we can't have
education without deformity, religion with
put bigotryl The thing which most appeals
20 the observant eye on such an occasion is
stances in this Brooklyn crowd. There are
ew sharp contrasts There are exquisitely
lressed children and simply and cheaply
dressed children in the parks; there are ele-
rant ladies on the brown-stone stoops. But
he grand whole is
That Overwhelming Middle Glass,
IS we term them This is quite as con-
picuous among the little ones as among
he dense crowds that line the streets.
There are the SONS and daughters of million
Tres shoulder to shoulder in Christian fell
owship with the children of grocers and
butchers and bakers and barbers-the church
,eing for the nonce the great leveler. But |
-ou will never see except in this same CITY
# Brooklyn the same great proportion of
lain wen-to-do folks-the same compare
i've absence of apparent extremes.
There are negroes and Cinnamon in the |
inc of march, carrying the same banners of
he church, and this fact draws general at
ention. The blacks, little and big, wear
'ood clothes, but the Mongolian sticks to
is flowing garments and pigtaiL The
eathen Chinee may occasionally be con-
ert to our religion, but he doesn't accept =
ur combination Of trousers and waistcoats
be May walk is the number of pretty girls
q the parade. Brooklyn is famous for her
retty girls, though many of them work in ;
lew York. In the first place, there is
lamp of village innocence in the faces of
hese young girls and young ladies which !
istinguish them from the Broadway article
characteristics of Brooklyn Girls. !
This is emphasized by simplicity and
oberness of attire There is no chic about
ne Brooklyn girls lack of 'style" of !,
Weet and innocent and modest as any ]
uaker maid. From childhood she has I
cen member of the Sunday school and at
le first blush of maturity is taken into the 9
1urch. This gives rather serious tinge to
er character and educates in her an ab-
orrence of the loud and vulgar. To one ac- Q
lstomed to the soubrcttes and ingenues of Q
pper Broadway, the stately artificiality of '
fifth avenue, and the coarse, soddeu vul- q
arity of the East Side, the demure shyness .
Id maidenly innocense of the Brooklyn