The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-17

Some Had Never Been Bathed-Now They Delight in the Operation Busy
 Work at Vacation Schools-44s Chill drcn Washed and M nde Clean--42 Baths in Single Day--More Money Needed.
 "'S my turn next" was the greeting that fell upon our ears as we entered zunder playground, one sticky noon last August.
 We looked at the swings Two of them hung limp and idle; one hammock was empty, and the bean-bag board was at the service of any chance com- CT, so we turned back to Becky for in- formation.
 ''I'm goin' ter have a bath" she ex- plained excitedly. Teacher said might, took my name down, an I'm go- in in next. I never had no bath before, not an all-over, se'down-in-t the-tub kind. Woo-o-o -oo" She shivered in fearsome delight at the prospect. Then the door opened, two children came out, secured from stubby pigtail to stubby toe, and Becky vanished to take her turn.
 Zunder playground held, last summer, the one public bathtub in the city of New Haven. The tub had been given by Mrs. Henry English. The Vacation School and Playground committee out of their small funds had appropriated enough to hire woman for two days week to scrub the children. Two years before, the bare mention that tub was at the service of the children had suf- feed to cause the prompt evacuation of the playground. Last summer four hundred and forty-eight baths were given, one day alone showing record : of folty-two candidates for cleanli- ness, and there were certain indispu- table manifestations that some of the candidates at least had never befor seen the inside of a tub. -
 But, given the tub, if for $1750, one woman working two days a week can give four hundred and forty-eight baths, how many generous minded people will it take to make it possible for Grand avenue, as well as Oak street, to have three washing days week To paraphrase the favorite Tyr ic of the youngsters themselves: | She only lived acrost the way,
 She said, I won't go out ter play; I'd ruther stay home an be washed
 ter-day.'"
 The children delight in the baths Each washed child returns, bringing seven other unwashed children in her train.
 The ideal situation would be to pro- vide one bath a summer for each child of the tenement districts. From our individual viewpoint, that does not seem an unwarranted extrava- gance in the matter of soap-suds. But even if that should be beyond achievement, much may be done with @ tub in each of the two yards those of Zunder school and Wallace street, and with funds to pay for the con- stant service of one lusty woman to ply the soap and towels. How can these children care to be clean until they have been taught the comfort and the coclness of it?
 Tn his study of East London, Mr. Walter Besant dwells on the untrained senses of the child of the slums. Eyes that see only brick walls and muddy streets grow blind to the infinite var1- ety of country sights. The tenement child a.rophies until it is an impossi- bility for him to fit himself into the complex needs of active, practical life. If these children are to be prepared for d manhood worthy the name, they must be taken outside their bricks and their mud their eyes and their minds must be trained to broader and more varied sights and interests. The playground helps to do this, and the vacation school. The games and sto- ries and songs held. and the pictures the lessons and the very accent of the