Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-12-26
WONDERS OF MOODY CREST
vi
Twenty Of the Dirtiest Gamins
Will bes Entertained.


enough to make one little soul happy for a
Christmas dav. 1t takes SO very little to
spring the sunshine into sad little faces that
i gives one great, big heartache to think
that in one goodly country there are ever
any empty stockings an Christmas morn
ing.
In the shimmering, glimmering world of
society these thoughts seldom enter. Christ
mas to them means some unusual burst of
splendor, some unique entertainment which
will make their friends open their eyes with
delight and appreciation, and perhaps with
jealousy because the gods have not sufficient.
~ endowed them with riches to do likewise.
But there are some in this guided world
of gold and jewels and hordes of millions
whose ambitions trend differently, brave wo-
men who would rather salute the poor than
receive the courtly graces of the rich.
One of these is Miss Helen Gould, the eld-
est daughter of the late fnancier,
Miss Gould is in every way an ideal Lady
Bountiful She is not afraid to delve into
the blacklist quarters of the city and rescue
some little weakling from its wretchedness
and give it taste of happiness and plenty.
With rare intervals she works all the year
among the waits of the city, but at Christ
number Of neglected tots their first glimps
of Santa Clause.
WOODY CRtsT.
Three years ago Miss Gould purchased a
fine old country place about mile north of
Ta-ryto'vn called Woody Crest. The rooms
are large, the ceilings high, the windows and
porches big and comfortable and the grounds
inviting. The place is really the country
home of the starved and homeless child Of
the metropolis, and few millionaire have a
finer one. 1t was purchased and fitted up
expressly for these children. They are the
owners of it and do as they please.
q Previous to the purchase of Woody Crest
Miss Gould had been in the htbit of enter
taining few children each year at Lynd
hurst, the palatial structure which Jay Gould
built some fourteen years ago. But Lynd
hurst was too grand for the children. Its
splendors overpowered them; the liveried
servants, the paintings, statuary and tapes
tiles and soft rugs on the polished floors
made their own poverty too glaring.
Miss Gould had the fine sense to appre-
etate this, and she knew that to give them
resi- 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 reck-
less spirits among the gamins, undaunted by
the grandeur, spent their time guying the
butler and the digni6ed house servants.
s'Get on to his joblots." one would say,
when one of the liveried members of the
household would pass by.
saint his whiskcrs pretty?"
.sHe's got his face washed, too"
Then they were inclined to make en-
to criticize everything with the unbridled
freedom If the slums.
A GREAT PLAYHOUSE.
At Woody Crest everything is costly, but
plain. The conservatory has been changed
into large playroom and the sun streams
into it all day long. The upper floors have
beer turned into little dormitories holding
twenty FIVE little brass beds. The beds are
covered with fine linen and the softest Of
coverlids and bankers, which evoke won
der and delight among the weary little bod
les which crawl under them at night time.
Miss Gould has already completed her ar
rangements for the Christmas dcings. Her
guests also have been selected. There will
be twenty of them and it is safe to say a
score of dirtier or more needy urchlns never
rode on railroad train out OF New York.
Twelve of her guests come from the rive
Points Mission and six come from the Shell
tering Arms Society. Two will be selected
from ahe batch Of applications made to her
~ the suprientendents 81 various city mis-
sions, and they will probably be the two
most forlorn and needy youngsters in town.
Miss Gould is particular in only one respect
. in selsctine her guests and that is to get the
dirtiest, the thinnest and weakest and most
helpless possible.
HOW THEY TRAVEL.
The twenty youngsters are taken out in
one. squsd, at the Tanytown station.
eTharA ne children have their first meeting
With eieesnce. Three carriages, each drawn
bv team Of fine, high-stepping hackneys
ana driven ~ aliveTied coachman, are At
the ssat,on, and the children are bundled
into them by Miss Gould. who Is always II
hand to take personal care Of her charges.
Fur robes are wrapped about them and miss
Gould goes 70 each carriage to see that Ill
Ire wen cared Tor.
An this attention Is too muth Tor the
chijdrvp. and even the most oo'ste1ous