Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-25

barren and dirty. The alley was perfectly
quiet, not a child to be seen. Mrs Rosetti
has so far progressed since her encounter
with the law as to have whitewashed her
fence inside. But as We approached Pur-
dy's court 1 would have been glad of an
excuse to back out The alley leading
ir to the court was deep with mud, and
in the court water pipes were being laid, so
that great banks of nasty, Shiny clay were
piled in front of the houses. Here chill
dren SWarmed-nEmerouS and lively as an
army of ants. Directly the first one espied
Mrs. Saffod they came running toward us
from every direction, catching hold of our
skirts, including me in a joyous welcome
from which l inwardly shrank. In one
door appeared q woman holding a sick
baby in her arms-a baby that would be
the youngest only a few days longer
a Dismal Sick Room.
Other women poxed their heads from
their doors, but we were seized upon by
one who could scarcely move for the chill
dren under her feet, and began telling Mrs.
Saffold that the doctor had been there To
this Mrs. Saffold replied that she was glad,
and told me that she has seen one of the
physicians to the poor wait in this alley
While collection was taken up to raise
him dollar before he would lift finger to
relieve child writhing on the ground at
his feet in a fit.
Genita led into her house, at least
dozen children swarming I'm after us-girls
with but one or two exceptions. If there
is nothing to eat and no money but enough
to buy a bunch of bananas for the days
trade in an Italians house in the morning,
he leaves the woman and female children
TO StarVe or steal, while he takes. his sons
with him, feeding them from the stock he
buys, or of the proceeds of his first sale.
Genita's husband was upstairs sick with
| pneumonia, and to him we went. l can no
| more give you an idea of the appearance
| of this home than could give you a real
| istic sense of dung hill In the bed room
| h.,. l,,y ..Ir.
| a cradle. When Genita, Mrs. Sanold,
| and myself were added, we had to turn
| in unison or we stuck fast. Yet Mrs.
Saffold told me she had been in that room
| attending the festivities following a chris
| tening when 1T held ninety-six men and
| women, all dancing.
The man in bed did not look sick TO me-
| though he had drawn three prescriptions
| from the city physician. His rent was un-
| paid, but Genita said they had a good
| boss" If he came and she told him she
had only 81 or 81, he says: "All right; give
me that. Oh, yes; he is good Sometime
the boss come, and If there is not all the
money he say Get OUT and he throw the
| things into the street.
For a hoyel such as this Genita pays IS
| a month.
| In Close Quarters.
| When we returned down stairs, among
the horde of children filling the two rooms
below, drawn close to the crazy stove in
| which fire was burning, was a young
| woman, holding a sick baby. The baby had
been hit on the head by its father, and it
was moaning and rolling its eyes and twist
ing its head with a peculiar movement. On
| the young mothers face-she is only nine
| teen-waS a stamp of added wretchedneSS
| which Genita's worried face had outgrown.
| The girl vas young enough to count happi-
ness her DUE and miserable she felt her.
| self. robbed of her own belonging. She was
resentful, sullen, hated charity for the
| measure IL was of the injustice done her.
In the adjoining house, three-year-o
Angelina had been left in charge of fif-
| teen-mon -old baby-her baby, she called
it, as she came hugging it over the bridge
formed by narrow plank thrown across
| the deep ditch dug for the water pipes.
| Tony, the unregenerate siX-year-old, had
| backslided, and, though she appeared to be
| perfectly sober, she swore at Mrs. Saffold
with all the might of her few years. In
this house, on two of the three beds lliling
the front room down stairs, macarom was
| spread to dry. Here, in the four small
| rooms comprising the whole house lodge
| nineteen grown persons, three children and
| a monkey-sX men in the front room down.
stairs, eight men in the front room upstairs,
| the man, his wife, female lodger and the
| three children and the monkey In the rear
room; in the kitchen two men on a cot.
| Fer lodging and the privilege or the
stove, these Italians pay So month. Each
man makes his own macaroni, spreading
it, as / had seen it, on his bed to dry.
A Youthful Missionary.
In another house a beautiful little girl
| opened the door, admitting into a room
In which her gentle influence had created
some resemblance to home. When Mrs
| Saffold first knew this child, she was a
blood-thrsty small reprobate who, in a
| rage, would fly at the enemy, catch hold
| with her teeth, and not let go until she
had a piece of the enemys flesh.
Last summer this child went one day to
Mrs. Saffold, saying: There are some new
,,asN tl,A ln,y lA
bad as they can be, and I've been think
ing, teacher you look so tired and white
| L might help you by having a little school
myself and teach them all to thread a
| needle and comb their heads before they
come up to bother you.
| So this seyen-year-old missionary opened
her school under the steps of her alley
home, and took the four strangers through
| a preparatory course of civilization.
| Three or four men were standing about
| as we went from house to house, that diff
fcred one from another only as the sights
and smells of one barn yard differs from
those in the next Colored men working
laying the water pipes, mingled with
Italians. and NANCY ours were chasing
and yelping about US.
At night when the men, busy about town
durinl the day, return whisky, freely is
bought and sold, and while we have not
certainly as in New York, anything in
Washington of the nature of police pro-
lection of crime. 1t is remarkable how far
from human ken-all but Mrs. Saffold and
the prying gaze of woman reporter-the
horrors and crimes of Purdys court are.
Burden Too Great.
The day following my visit there 1 sat
with the children while they sewed, sang,
prayed and played in Mrs. Saffold's home
the pinched, pitful home that for want of
support has dwindled from q small house
to this single basement room.
Every face was clean. bright radiant
with intelligence and hope. Individually
surveyed, it is apparent that these girls
have been advanced beyond their parents
state through several cycles of evolution
by the unaided efforts of one loving, faith
full, but, oh. such heart-broken, little
woman.
Nor did these children go without a
Christmas today, though there was no
place to put it in their home. Mrs. Saffold
has herself provided them with a dinner
in her basement, and last night they hung
their stockings in n line along her wall
not to find them empty of all token OF
Santa Claus this morning.
But / could not rejoice i'll their happiness
reading the price of it written on the face
of the solitary life that assures it. l have
asked myself, and l ask you, is 1t right, is
1T human that one pair of woman's hands
and the tiny hands of little girl, who last
, Thursday was taken sick with pneumonia
should have SO much to do?