Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1902-11-14
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Disclosing where the obiidrsn's and
wifss Clothing Wore ALSO
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Difsrsnt Picture
One morning last winter while
waiting at a city railway station for
an incoming train, my attention was
attracted by a poorly clad man and
woman who made their appearance
upon the platform, each carrying a
baby.
AS the couple approached the
waiting room door. the child in the
man g arms slipped toward the floor
Inadvertently drawing its dress
above its waist and exposing its
naked body to a winter wind that
caused warmly clad men TO button
their coats more tightly around
their neclks.
The baby shivered as the wind
whistled across the platform, and
instinctively clutched at it's fathers
neck as if by holding tightly it
might escape the cold.
The appearance of the couple in
the waiting room created as much
notice as had been given them outside.
The woman wore no cloak, collar
nor gloves, and carried in her arms
a roll of shawl supposed to contain
an infant.
The man was as poorly clad as
was his wife and carried the child
which more than any of the others
stirred the pity of everyone in the
waiting room. Its dress was of the
thinnest red calico its bonnet was
soiled and full of holes stockings
covered its legs, but it wore no
shoes, neither were its shoulders
protected by any kind of a wrap,
nor its hands with mittens. Rims
of water stood around the child s
blue eyes-tears forced there by the
harsh wind. It held its hands stiff
ly, the blue baby fists clenched as
if TO shut out the cold.
From over their papers men gazed
at the child, then at the father and
mother and back to the child as il
trying to reason out problem
Mothers with children warmly
dressed looked with pity at the tiny
unfortunate, and hugged their own
habies closer to their hearts, and
it is probable that if collection had
been taken right then sufficient
amount would have been obtained
to have purchased the child an out
fit of comfortable clothing. But the
collection was not taken, and after
the first few sympathetic glances
the waiting passengers turned theii
attention to their own affairs.
From the conditions one naturally
seeks causes, and as l looked upor
the child l thought of the various
causes of poverty, and forgetting
the greatest of all poverty produo
ing agencies, 1 came to the confusion
that in this case the father himsel
must have been i'll. Some secre
lay hidden behind this exhibition o
dire want could think of non,
r more plausible. But was not t.
: remain long in the dark regarding
this secret. Passing IN front Of m
D on his way to the ticket Office tn
mans coat fell back, disclosing il
his hip pocket the secret itself i
the form of bottle-a commo
1 glass bottle half filed with ambe
liquid. The secret was out. Her
y in this bottle was the baby's cloak
Z its shoes, its bonnet, its undercloth
4 ing. Perhaps its food, its bed, eve
its home had likewise disappeare
in the bottle, and as l looked froI
i the bottle to the child the word
A ''personal liberty" sounded mocl
O ingly in my ears and l said, "Thi
s then, is an exhibition Of a man
!. personal liberty"
z. The discovery Of the secret som'
d way seemed to change the chill
d from one unfortunate individual
Et a type Of childhood-unprotecte'
% outraged, defrauded childhood, le
IS by the government that should d
u fend its little ones, to i've or die I
l. best they may. And the bottle
the deadly bottle seemed to repr
y sent this trafic that consumes eaC
Z. year a billion dollars taken fro
the helpless babies and innocei
10 women-ths bottle that is itself Il
70 prime secret Of the provety al
g. want that disgracea one,of the richie
st nations under the canopy Of heave
IN Into a nations great bottle a
ID being daily poured manhood al
Of womanhood, comfort, honor, hear
ia lives, souls and eternal destinis
The strength Of the moral COVER
ment itself is disappearing in &
bottle inasmucb as It makes {
I'd bottle legal, and so long as a natl
rs carries the secret Of its own shaE
y in its own pocket of legalized pl