The herald., 1895-12-22

Miss Gould had been in the habit of enter
tanning few children each year at Lynd-
hurst. the palatial structure which Jay
1ouid built some fourteen years ago. But
Lyndhurst was too grand for the children.
Its splendors overpowered them; the liv-
cried servants, the paintings, statuary and
tapestries and soft rugs on the polished
floors made their own poverty too glaring.
Miss Gould had the fine sense to appre-
ciate this, and she knew that to give them
real enjoyment and unstinted pleasure a
house other than Lyndhurst must be sup
Piled. A smaller reason also demanded a
change OF domicile. Some of the more
reckless spirits among the gamins, un-
daunted by the grandeur, spent their time
guying the butler and the dignified house
servants.
"Get on to his joblots," one would say,
when one of the liveried members of the
household would pass by.
"Ain't his whiskers pretty?"
Hes got his face washed, too"
Then they were inclined to make embar-
assing remarks about the statuary and to
criticize everything with the unbridled
freedom of the slums.
At Woody Crest everything is costly, but
plain. The big conservatory has been
changed into large playroom and the
per floors have been turned into large
dormitories holding twenty-five little brass
beds. The beds are covered with fine linen
and the softest of coverlids and blankets,
which evoke wonder and delight among
the weary little bodies which crawl under
them at night time.
Miss Gould has already completed her
arrangements for the Christmas day do
ings. Her guests also have been selected.
There will be twenty of them, and it is
safe to say score of dirtier or more needy
urchins never rode on railroad train out
Of New York. Twelve of her guests come
from the Five Points mission and six come
from the Sheltering Arms society. Two
will be selected from the batch of applica-
tons made to her by the superintendent
OF various city missions, and they will
probably be the two most forlorn and
needy youngsters in town. Miss Gould is
particular in only one respect in selecting
her guests, and that ia to get the dirtiest,
the thinnest and weakest and the most
helpless possible.
The twenty youngsters are taken out in
one squad. when they are landed at the
Tarrytown station. There the children
have their first meeting with elegance.
Three carriages, each drawn by team of
fine, housekeeping hackneys and driven
by liveried coachman, are at the station,
and the children are bundled into them by
Miss Gould, who is always al hand to take
personal care of her charges. Fur robes
are wrapped about them and Miss Gould
goes 10 each carriage to see that all are
we'll cared for.
All this attention is too much for the
children, and even the most boisterous
among them are stilled by it. None of
them knows who the little brown-eyed wo-
man with the dark hair is. but they do know
that she is unaccountahly kind. Not much
is said on the way to Woody Crest, couple
of miles from the station. The hackneys
make it in short time, and soon the chill
dren are timidly walking into the great
hall, where big wood fire is blazing mer-
rily.
couple of trained women with long ex-
perience in handling mission children take
them in charge, and each is given q warm
bath. 1t their clothes are terribly bad new
ones, heavy and warm, are supplied, and
few ever leave Woody Crest without some
substantial addition to his tattered ward
robe.
After the bath dinner is in order, and
such dinner! One big table, with beauti-
full flowers in the center, glistening silver
and sparkling glass and china, heavy white
linen and napkin at each plate and serv-
ants to wait on them. Some of these
gamins may have heard of kings and
queens and princes and princesses. A few
of them may have had mothers who had
once told them the delightful tales of fairy
land, and the vision of comfort and plenty
may bring back forgotten memories of
happy home, dsmembered by the hand of
death.
Whatever the thoughts of the waits may
be on the first entry, they are soon lost.
Interest in the food becomes the great
thing and they eat with phenomenal fervor
and endurance. After dinner most of them
are ready for sleep.
The days are full of fun. There are
many horses and all kinds of farm ami
mails on the place and the children have
free use of them. When there is snow on
the ground and ice on the ponds there are
toboggans for some and skates for others.