Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-23
CHILD OF THE SLUMS
Little Tenement Folks and
Their Everyday Pleasures.
SIMPLE MEANS AT HAND
CONNOISSEURS IN THE ART OF
MAKING BEST OF THINGS.
Lightheartedness Is Their Chief
Characteristic-Joys of the
Ash Can.
SIMPLEM MEANS AT HAND

Written for The Evening Star by Guy T. Viskniskki
Maybe you're one of these numerous
persons who every time they hear these
hot days OF some youngster living in what
they know as the slums. exclaim, Poor
little thing! He never gets a chance to
have any childish fun
If that Is your view you are nightly
mistaken. The fact is, the little folk of
the tenements, despite the oppressive arti-
ficial handicaps all about them, extract
about as much healthy fun out of life as
the boys and girls of any clean. whole
some residential section. Often they get
more, for they are connoisseurs In the
art of making the best of things. They do
not quarrel with their surroundings. neither
do they lament the fate that keeps them
from owning velocipede, but they take
their pleasure as they find it, and enjoy
1t with all the abandon of whole-hearted
childhood. This is especially true in the
summer time when they can escape from
the four walls of their dingy homes into
the streets. filled though they are with all
manner of objectionable things.
The idea that the little people OF the
tenements are strangers to the gayer side
of childhood has doubtless arisen in some
such fashion as this: A group of men and
women start on stunning" tour They
behold the pushcarts filling the streets,
with shrewd bargainers around them. They
see men and women struggling along on
the walks with great bundles of clothing
on their backs. They view dirty little
stores here and dark Railways there. and
they breathe in the hot. close air. and they
say, My. the poor children even while
the objects of their sympathy are romping
before the SightSeers very eyes. But then
the visitors have started in to see the worst
side of the other half" and the worst
side of life never deals with light hearted
boys and girls.
Iight-heartedness Is indeed, one of the
chief characteristics of these children. II
you don't believe it. then spend day, or
half a day, or an hour for that matter,
watching a streetful of them; and It's ten
to one that you will go back to your own
haunts with a good deal lighter heart In
your bosom than when you started out. For
the light-heartedness of the little folk OF
the slums is truly infectious.
Fun Generally Close.
And how do they get their fun?
Well-hello, From the other end of the
street there comes the sound of drum and
cymbals laboriously making the languor-
Gus dancing music of the east. There Is
rush from doorway and sheltering stoop,
scurrying of small feet from curb and be-
fore ice cream stand; and when you follow
up TO see what's the matter several nun
dred small bodies, none too amply clad,
are surrounding a man who IS balancing
kitchen chair the end of his nose, the
while he thumpS tamDourlne, ana MS col
league. clad in pair of patched trousers
and an undershrt and wearing a battered
brass helmet. surmounted with n white
waterfall plume. beats drum held In one
hand with the other. and still bigger drum
upon his back with his foot by of q
mechanical contrivance. And the little peo-
pie shout and dance about them until sud
denly dozen more boys have secured
pieces of wood from somewhere and with
partial success are initiating the iuggler. to
the great delight of the rest and the won
derment of the girls. They are adept
mimics. these boys. and they spare not even
In a lordly fashion down the lane between
the rows of push carts to see what all the
rumpus is about anyway.
Rattley-bang! Boom boom-boom goes the
drum and stops. The chair falls from the
tuggler's nose, two dozen smaller probosces
are relieved of a similar strain, and their
bare-footed owners fall in behind the man
as he goes among the crowd hat In hand.
the youngsters holding out open palms ana
bowling and scrapiug over imaginary con-
tributons every bit as grandIloquently as
the juggler when some one drops cent
into his hat.
Even before the last copper has been in
weighed from the bystanders. hurdy-gurdy
pulls up into the gutter. the strains of MIR.
Dooley" fill the air, and instantly, as far
as the music carries girls fall into one an
others arms, and In and out the crowd
they dexterously go. past push carts and
wagons, baby carriages and garbage cans.
their gliding feet carrying them gracefully
hither and trither. the joy of the dance
filing their little hearts and causing them
TO laugh I'm pure delight.
When the Organ Plays.
The boys hardly ever engage in round
dancing when the hurdy-gurdy strikes up.
Instead. to the time of the music, they
stand on their heads toss sticks in the air
after the fashion of pompous drum majors.
and, IL they dance at ALL do sort of fing
all their own. that gives full fcense for
every sort OF boyish oddly and Is not ham,
pered by any set rule OF "one-two, one
two" time.
Somehow the stirring effects of the
hurdy-g urdy last long time after its
swarthy player has trudged with 1t around