The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-17

or glands whom our seaside tent
camp might cure?
Twenty thousand babies and chill
dren and mothers who cannot see the
ocean but for our baY excursions, and
whose only fresh-air outings are in
the crowded streets?"
Even days excursion to the beach
"a favorite fresh-air charity-is a
great thing for the multitudes packed
so closely together in the slums, for
whom life holds so little variety or
pleasure. For the tired mothers and
the children whose only playground
is the street, what could be more de-
lightful than the day of freedom on
the sand, the fine. refreshing bath in
the sea, the generous luncheon served
around by kindly hosts, and the alb
sence of toll and responsibility?
But if mother and the children man
age to get week or a fortnight's holi-
day at the country or the seaside, at
one of the numerous homes" estab-
lished for fresh-air charity, then, in
deed, they are in luck. They arrive
pale, worn-out, weary, i'll nourshed
but they soon regain tone. and they
go back to their homes in fit shape to
endure the rest of the summer heat
and even the hardships of the coming
winter The bracing air, good food
and rest often cure them of ailments
which have puzzled the doctors at the
hospitals and disDensaries in town.
Any nurse at one of these homes
can tell you scores of stories about
the children-tender, pathetic, funny
and quaint
There was a small patient at a sea-
side home last summer who fell down
one day, nearly biting her tongue
through. She came sobbing to the
dispensary with a request to "tie a
rag around it, please, and put on some
vaseline."
Another little girl, whose wounded
finger had been healed, brought the
nurse a penny, saying:
Il haven't got any more, but l want
you to have this"
She was told that there was no pay
ment required, but she insisted:
81 want to give 1t to you. Please
take it, nurse, and let me feel good
inside"
Precious little rascals they are, too,
sometimes. The nurses and matrons
who have to manage them find that
their jobs are not sinecures.
Take, for example, one family of
terrible infants who achieved fame at
certain seaside home last summer.
Gertie was years old, Jennie and
Amy II, "goin' on H." They had Gre
ated so much trouble in their tene-
ment house that the landlord offered
their hard working, widowed mother a
half months rent to move, and l
| must admit" said one of the nurses,
there were times in the two weeks of
their stay when any amount of money
would have seemed to me we'll spent
which could have induced them to
find another roof"
Gertie was an amiable child but was
constantly worrying her guardians by
get ting into accidents. The ceiling fell
on her just before she came down to
the home, and she also fell out of a
second-story window, but, as her sis
ter said, "nothin' hurts her"
Jennie was a dreadful child" said
the kindergartener at the home. She
was round-shouldered, with an ugly
leer on her face made worse by pro-
truding teeth, two of which were
broken off, leaving sharp points, her
| weapons of defense. She bit any child
who crossed her, and bit until the blood
came. l seemed to- accomplish moth
ing with her; she appeared lawless to
the end.
Amy said to me, never bite, I
fight and fight she did until some
remedy other than punishment had to
be found. At last L gave her large
red satin bow. which she was to wear
pinned on her shoulder as long as she
was good and didn't cuss as Jennie
said. 1t came off twice only.
Amy herself, like her sister, had
lived through a series of accidents.
She said. First. 1 cut me chin falling
off table, then broke me collarbOne
falling off a chair, and broke both
legs falling downstairs. Me brother
chased me to throw a brick at me, and
1 fell and broke me TOOTH
but she had a generous soul, poor
little girl. When she left the home
she made me promise to visit her at
her tenement in the city during the
winter. She said she would save UP
her pennies to treat me in the ice
cream saloon on the corner Knowing
her mothers extreme poverty, I asked
her how she got her pennies. and she
told me she earned them by building
fires for Jewish ladies at three cents a
fire. She would cheerfully get UP
on cold and dark mornings and do
| this unpleasant work just for the sake
of getting 10 cents to buy ice cream
! for the woman who had been kind to
her. And she was only child of
! eleven"
Generosity and a readiness to help