The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-04
2 UMMER charities are comparative

UMMER charities are comparative
IO " modern. There used TO be an
idea that when the cold winter
days were over the poor need be less a
matter of concern, because they then
required no fuel for warmth. no blan-
kets, fewer clothes for covering and no
shoes or stockings for their feet. Mod
ern philanthropy, which hopes for ap-
proximate as well as direct benefits, is
more thoughtful 1t knows that, while
the poor are in winter comparative
prisoners, summer releases them, and
at that season more than any other
| they are a greater menace to society
and likely TO become rooted in habits
| that will make them confirmed pau
pers.
In the great cities the tenements that
/ through the winter have housed the
poor and sick and criminal send forth
in summer their thousands to meet and
remeet in the streets, in the alleyways
and courtyards, where they loiter when
the weather is mild. One learns of the
others history, habits and manners
with a celebrity paralleled in no other
condition.
! In New York city, for instance, dur
| ing the winter months one may go
| through the tenement district time aft
er time without encountering anything
unusual in the appearance of the neigh
borhood, but go through the same dis
trict, say Cherry, Delaney, RivingtOn or
any of the cross streets thereabout, and
one Will see fire escapes crowded with
half clad children. halls and doorways
filled with lOungers and the streets
swarming with men and women and
children. The language used is often
such as is unfit for the ears Of children.
the streets are unsanitary and badly
kept in many districts, and the oppor-
tunities to learn evil are great.
1t is not alone the fear of the spread
of crime and vice, fostered SO much by
the outdoor life which the summer
months entail but the opportunities of
alternating the miseries of the season
that have doubtless served to influence
philanthropists to take up summer
charity work. Taken in contrast, &C
cordingly, with the work done a few
years ago, summer work among the
poor of the great cities is in great ad
vance of what it once was.
Possibly it was partially the vivid pen
pictures of that thoughtful observer of
pauper life in New York city, Mr.. Jacob
Riis, that drew attention 20 the work
to be done among children in that city.
Through his magazine sketches and
published works many reforms have
been brought about. Among these was
the planting of breathing spots in the
shape of small parks in those neighbor-
hoods in the lower part OF New York
city famous for their lawlessness. Null
1.
the haunts of thieves and thugs, have
been transformed into comparatively
attractive and law abiding districts
through the softening influence of fresh
air, sunshine, grass and trees.
There are recognized charitable funds
for the benefit of the children of New
York that do an immense amount of
good through their various channels |
The fresh air funds are many. One is
in charge of a great newspaper and
sends thousands Of children out of the
city for brief term during the sum-
mer. Another, under the auspices of
the Society For the Improvement of the
Poor, has summer home at Sea
Breeze. on Long Island, where last year
II ,496 persons were benefited. The Chill |
dren's Aid society also has a summer
home at Bath Beach and a health home
at Coney Island, where in the summer |
hosts of slum children learn for the first /
time the meaning of fresh air and plen- /
ty of food.
Only those who have looked into the /
matter have any idea of the sickness
and death that occur among the chill
dren of the poor during the warm
weather. Scarcely a household where I
there are children is in the 1,-ar,,
weather without its little sufferer As
the summer is a time when work is
scarce there is generally a lack of mon
ey, if not food, and many families can
not afford either medicine or physician.
It is, moreover, a regrettable fact that
many women Of the poorest class,
through ignorance often. do not recog-
niZe the fact that a child is seriously i'll