The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-10-23
How New York City Cares for
Its Tenement Babies.
PIONEER CHILD-SAVISG SOCIETY
The Summer Just Ended Has Witnessed
One Of the Greatest Ensris Yet Made 70
Alleviate the Condition of the Poor Chill
dren Of the Great City-Ameriea,s OLDEST
Fresh-air Work-Bearing Upon Strikes
and Other social Inharmonies.


New York, Oct. 1s.-Few people have
any idea OF the enormous amount OF Ia
cor, Time, and money expended in New
York City in efforts % help SUM chill
dren. OF the Leo, 600 children Gin rough
estimated composing a part of Greater
New fork's population, fully 60 per cent.
live In tenement districts You have only
10 take Sunday stroll on Fifth, Park.
and Madison avenues, and then a Third
avenue cable ride TO the bridge, looking
down side streets as you go along, 10 be
persuaded that the proportion is even
greater.
For overwhelming conviction. get out
and make your way through some OF the
East Side highways and byways On the
fashionable thoroughfares. from the mid
die OF May to the 1st of October, children
are few and far between; and even at
other seasons the dainty little residents
are not in abundant evidence. On Hes
ter, James, Oak, Catherine, Clinton, and
the hundred-and-one narrow streets and
alleys that hOneycomb the congested
East Side. children in all sorts of dress
and undress throng sidewalks, door
steps, and the middle of the street; they
hang over your head, as IL were, "by their
eyebrows" from fre-escapes. So thick are
the children at your side and under your
feet that you have an uncomfortable
feeling that. however wary you may be,
you will tread on a child or knock one
over in making your way to the river
Take a cross-town car westward, board
some excursion boat that carries you up
the Hudson (of course, this test applies
to warm days and behold! for miles. the
waterfront is alive with small boys, the
majority of whom are as guiltless of
clothing as were our first parents prior
to fg-leaf drapery. Children are swim
ming. diving, clambering up out OF the
water on friendly docks, and here and
there groups of mothers sit gOssiping,
while babies crawl about at their own
sweet will, fully equal. it seems, to mind
ing their own business and keeping out
of the water,
Children Rarely sleep.
Now, avail yourself of the hospitality
which. say, the Gospel settlement, 81
Clinton street, may extend you and sleep
there over night-Or try to sleep. Next
morning you will be ready to testify to
your sorrow that children of the slums
stay awake and stay on the streets for
ever! YOU would not blame them for
living on the streets night and day il
you saw their homes" says Mother Bird
founder of the settlement $50 hot, close
overcrowded. and ill-smelling are they
Children sleep in their clothes, on the
floor, anywhere, in many of these wretch
| ed abodes. STILL you would be surprised
| to find what earnest efforts at neatnes:
are made in many homes. All the cook
| ing, Washing, ironing, and sleeping of &
| large family may go on in one or two
small rooms, but the house-mOther man
ages somehow to bring 4 little order GU
| of chaos In ninety-nine cases, however
the mother has no idea of housewifery
and no intelligence in the matter Of bring
| ing up children" In many tenements il
Little Syria" Little Italy," the Rus
sian and other foreign quarters. children
! are often the only dweliers who know
English, and so, as interpreters, and fire
auently in transaction Of business, the!
| stand between their elders and the public
| 1t is reassuring to know that so muci
is being done for this great multitude o
| chiId-citizens, native and foreign born
who must one day elect Presidents an'
make laws. Much needs to be done-i
only for the very safety of the republic
There are. at least, 800 different organized
charities for children in New York City
! These include day and night industrial
| schools, clubs for social, moral, and intel
lectual advancement, homes for friend
less and destitute children, hospitals
| gymnasiums, baths, Fairgrounds. employ
ment bureaus. and multitudinous forms o
social settlen ut work. Particularly in
| teresting is it to note at the close of tn
| summer just ended-one OF the hotties
New York has ever known. and during
which the marble slabs Of the morgue hell
more child bodies than ever before in all II
gloomy history-the extent and charaete
of fresh-air work, a phase of benevolenc
| which originated in New York, whicl
| spread from it 20 other large cities, anc
| which is taking on in the metropolis ahi
elsewhere newer, larger, and more effect
i've forms year by year. There are SOM
200 different fresh-air charities in New
York, and every one of the 800 or NOR
! charities for children previously me7
toned maintains some fresh-air home 0
its own, or secures FOR children under IL
care and observation a respite from sum
mer heat, through some one of the chic
organizations which make this phase o
work a speciality.
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