New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-30
! ST. HELEN'S HOME OPEN.
THE BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE BERK-
SHIRES WHERE JOHN E. PARSONS
ENTERTAINs CITY CHILDREN.

st. Helen's Home has opened for the summer
1t may be that there Is some untutored Individual
who will not derive much information from this
statement. Let the luckless go through the
tenement districts Of New-York City and ask every
child he meets what ST. Helens Home is. If he is
not enlightened before he has gone half a block
then there are great many little children in this
city who have lost their memories. For St Helen's
Home is the Of the country place in the
Berkshires where John E. Parsons annually gives
two weeks of fresh air TO five hundred or more Of
NETWORKS tenement children and there are thou
sands Of these little people scattered around this
town who know full we'll what St. Helen's Home is
There is little village under the shadows Of
Stockbridge Mountain near Lenox Mass called
CurtisvtIe. It contains white steepIed church. a
few farm houses a crossroads. brook, and all the
rest is woods and fields and lake AT the cross
roads stands a large old fashioned, many pillared
house. which the village inn. Near by Is
another house little smaller, and between the
two brook spashes out from under bridge
and widens further down into miniature pond
This to the casual observer Is ST. Heen's Home
He who cares 10 examine further will cross the
wide piazza and walk inside the big house There
he will find great, airy dining and q sitting
room. and in the second story he will find pro
fusion Of neat white cots and beds. Every one
Of these is near a window, and so many windows
there that not breeze blows by that does
not go through these Sleeping quarters from one
end to the other. That IS the simple story OF the
house. for IL IS meant eat, sleep and be cool
and comfortable in, and that IS all
The hundred city children who. with fort
nightly changes, are at all times the guests OF St
Helens Homo in the summer spend most OF thsir
waking moments out of doors. They dud plenty
of outdoor fun TO amuse them. There ars the
brook and pond, with the -owboat on the latter
and baths IN the cleanest and purest Of water fur
n!shed by both. There fslds and orchards and
woods swings and hammOcks. Il baseball field for
the boys, and short walk through The woods
brings one to the lake. where the weekly picnic is
held.
This IS the sort of place that John E. Parsons
has provided for his little guests from the city, and
every year he enuertaius five hundred OF them
They can hardly be called up to snuff when they
arrive there but two weeks of good food, pure air
and all day romping through the fields of q cool
country of hills never fail TO send back the hot
tenement houses Of the city carload OF first els
rosy checked children Fifty children went 20 this
place Thursday. FOrty-ssven more went yes-er-
day, and from until the summers end St
Helen's Home will never be without its little ten
ants. And TO John E Parsons belongs the praise
for such great deed Of charity for the pleasures
OF this home all his gift to the poor chill
dren OF this city. The Tribune Fresh AIR Find
sends the children to the home and the air OF The
Berkshires does the rest.
In addition TO the forty-seven children sent to
Curtisvile. The Tribune Fresh Air Fund ssnt a
party Of fifty children to Happy Land" Mrs
Iyle's fresh-air home at T.nafy. y. J. and a
marty Of one hundred children to the home at Ash
ford Hill. n. Y.