New-York tribune., 1902-05-24
CRIPPLED CHILDREN'S PICNIC.
LITTLE ONES OF BRANCH b SCHOOL TAKE
PART IN GAMES.

There May party in the park yesterday
which made the onlooker feel more like tears than
smiles Thirty-nne little crippled children were the
guests. There were little legs and neCk' and heads
in iron braces. little backs in plaster jackets
children who paralyzed. children who could
not walk Some of them had never been TO the
park before. Some of them had never seen green
grass and waving trees before. Narrow as is the
life of the normal child the lower East Side.
that Of his little crippled brother sister is far
far more restricted
1t was Miss Gertrude Sims May party. Miss Sim
lives No. - East Ninety -fourth-st.. and her
mother is a director Of Branch b of the Guild for
Crippled Children. which has a school at No. So2
Madison-st. There are fifty children in the school
but it treatment day for some. and they had
go to the hospitals.
All these crippled children have been searched
out by women of the society their investigator
in the two years since the organization of the
branch. They were hidden In dark rooms. Some
OF them had never been downstairs the swarm
ing streets where the well children play by thou
sands. They lived helpless lonely lives, with no
chance for cure for Of them getting
any treatment Some Of the parents do not know
about the hospitals. and when they do il takes
twenty carfare. besides the time lost from
work each time the child is taken to the clinic.
Now all the children under treatment. the
nurse from the school taking them 10 the hospitals
the day ordered The result is very apparent
There is little Emil, who was almost completely
paralyzed. He has walked a step and up
10 last october he could not move his arms. Yes
terday he sat up the grass and ate his ice
cream with his left hand, while of his friends
held the dish. Then he played ball. and IT
almost enough to make cry to Emil play
ball. Such strange little sideways throw. which
the only he could make. The ball did not
go far s a kitten could bat Il. but Emil's face
was beaming with smiles at the fun.
Then there was a big girl Of sixteen who has n
paralNzed side She has never been 10 school in
her life. and nobody ever taught her anything
Sue realized her condition, and when she
heard that the cases Of other children had been
pronounced durable. she would cry. because she
knew she could never he cured. But now. BY
fastening her work to the table. she has found
that she sew. and that fills her with delight.
There is another girl of fourteen o so, who
came from Russia only nine months ago She is
terribly crippled but bright that she has learned
20 read and write English. and to sew beautifully
They are going to teach her at Branch r school
how to do all tho finest kinds OF embroidery. so
that she can always earn her living.
on June Is forty OF the children going to
Sloatsburg. in ROckand County \ trained nurse
and a kindergartncr are going with them. A nice
old farmhouse has been rented for the summer
and there these forty children will stay three
whole months vacation Of unprecedented length.
And to make this kindly charity the un-
usual II Is non-Sectarian. and all the little kosher
children VIII have a kosher, menu all summer.
Branch Il is looking for and COM
modious quarters. and when they found some
one who approves their work has guaranteed the
rent for three years.