The evening world., 1891-07-18
pOOr Children Fenced OF Gods Green
Grass by Church People
FouI-Smelling Tenements and Am
ity's Sweet Lawn.
Piteous Appeals for Admission Dis.
regarded by Pastor and Sexton.
They call it the "Terrace," and the irony

They call 1t the Terrace" and the irony
is pitiful
The old frame barrack that was rambling
and ratty during the rebellion is in West
Fifty.fourth street, and has for support the
rear end of the Eighth avenue street-car
stable.
Admirable care is taken OF the horses,
their stalls being well ventilated and thor
oughly cleaned, and as their numbers are
large the outpouring Of animal smell and
the odoriferous masses of refuse and bedding
is not only constant but at times over
power!ng
The stable has perfect system OF ven
tilation, and as the Terrace leans against 1t
for actual support there is no time Of day
or night when the atmosphere is not pol
lutcd. 1t makes no difference how the wind
blows. the stable is there and the ammoni-
acel fumes are certain to invade every
room in the Terrace.
Now the tenants are all colored people,
and while the happiest perhaps, in the whole
length of the street, they are nevertheless
miseraby poor.
Every room has family in it. and in
nearly every family there are little children
who lie out on the terrace or balcony
proper and sing, sleep or play, as the
humor suits them.
These long balconies overlook the beauti-
full lawn that surrounds Amity Baptist
Church, little old weather-beaten struc-
ture, gray as the meeting dress of a Quaker
ess and as tidy. But for the cool green
turf, spangled with dandelion and pearly
with clover, no one would ever give Amity
Baptist Church second glance.
A closely spiked wicket fence incloses
the lawn. Six days in the week the little
gate is securely locked, and as the faithful
old sexton never sleeps and stays away from
the basement door twenty minutes at q
stretch, there is absolutely no chance for
the children in the Terrace ITO steal in
and pick four o'clocks."
Old mammies with their heads tied up in
red and yellow bandannRs have been known
to hobble down from the Terrace with a
baby in arms and kneeling down by the
church fence run pair Of thin, little black
legs in between the pickets and let " the
blessed child kick about in the soft warm
grass, while Roscoe Conkling Cleveland
Jones or some other victim of greatness
lrept watch on the sidewalk for the anstere
sexton.
hundred times this month this sort of
trespa5sing by age and infancy has oc-
CURED, for the Terrace is very much
crowded, very comfortless and often In
sufferabe from heat and the sitting air
from the stables.
And Amity church-yard is such sweet
spot
All day long it lies there smiling in the
sunshine. The birds come and kiss the
hawthorn and clover blossoms. They build
their nesIs and rear their little families in
the shrubs and saplinRs, and make the very
air ring with their merry songs.
White and yellow butterflies make rocking
chairs of the trumpet plants, and early in
the morning every blade of grass and every
sprig of clover wears diamond necklace.
AT least, that is what the children say, and
they have been eye. witnesses from the Ter
race balcony all Spring.
About twenty little ones held a consulta-
tion the other afternoon on the " chopping-
block" and decided to do something to
"gIt into that thare yawd just TO- a. spell
eve'y day"
One boy advised the removal of the gate
another thought it might be good plan to
'kech de sexon" and tie him up, and a
wee fellow in ten-inch trousers had a match
In his hand and was ready to burn down
Amity on the spot, and then there wouldn't
be any church, and the yard would be open
to the Terrace children.
Augustus Caesar Scott, aged fourteen,
had gone to school and knew that these
suggestions were not feasible. Augustus
had for the last two years been the main
support of an aged and rheumatic grand
mother, and his responsibilities had brought