The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-27
THREE GROWING AMERICANS.
PENDING FOR THEMSELVES JUST
NOW; OLDEST, NINE.

n They DIDN'T Have to Eat, Or to Pay Rent I.
or II the six.Year.Oid Were Getting
Steady Wages. the Finances would Be
All Right. Even with Mother Worry III.
Mrs. Annie sternlicht was left widow
three years ago. She had three boys, the
Oldest o and the youngest 8 years Of age.
There was no insurance whom Louis. her
husband died. for they were poor imni-
grants Just over q little while. Mrs. Stern
hcht went to work for dyeing and clean
ing shop and managed to keep the family
alive somehow. They lived In two little
rooms Of the back tenement at IS LOWS
street. 1t Is not one Of the modern. bath
tubbed, sanitary plumbed tenements. this at
IS Lewis street In this neighborhood are
the very poor OF the Ghetto. Through the
hall Of an old and dilapidated house you
enter a courtyard strewn with the offerings
Of neighbors who have shot at the ashcan
from upstairs windows and missed. From
this opens an old dwelling which stood back
from the street in the time before Lewis
street became the Ghetto. Whore the chill
dren have knocked away the paint old
stucco work shows. The floors sag and
bend. On four sides rise the tenements.
The rooms in which Mrs. Sternlicht gathered
her children were once the servants quar-
tiers.
The time came when Louis, the eldest.
could begin selling papers to help out.
They were needing it by that time, because
Annie Sternlicht isn't all machine. There
came days when she couldn't 60 to work.
and then whole weeks when she lay abed,
with lizzie and little Able to take care Of
her, while Louis sold papers to support
them all.
Last Saturday night Annie came home
from work and began to clean up the house
after her boys. The next thing the neigh
bors knew Able was crying out at the door
OF the Daniels family that his mother was
asleep on the floor and wouldn't wake up.
The ambulance surgeons said that there
were a great many things the matter with
her, but the roots of them all were too
little to eat and too much work when she
| should not have been working. One thing
necessary was an immediate operation.
| They carried her OF to Bellevue. too sick
| to tell that there was only one loaf OF bread
| in the house and that there was q dis
| possess notice coming for two months
unpaid rent.
| The loaf Of bread and Ave cents which
Louis had made with his papers carried
them through to Sunday night. There
| are no evening papers on Sunday, and on
Monday Louis had no capital. 1t was on
| Monday, too, that Mrs. Daniels told Louis
how they we're likely to be put out: how
they'd have to 60 to court on Wednesday
II they wanted to keep their rooms until
their mother got out Of the hospital.
Got enough to eat?" asked Mrs. Daniels.
"Yahl" said Louis very quickly.
| "Su-ah?" asked Mrs. Daniels.
| Gtovn1ichta all n
nodded their three heads but they didn't
look Mrs. Daniels in the face when they
did it. She is the mother Of eight herself.
and knows children. So she sat by her
window and watched the little Sternliohts
lying huddled up to eaoh other IN the twl-
she heard a small wailing noise. The
| three little Sternlichts were crying. Mrs:
Daniels nodded to herself. gathered up all
that the family Of eight had left from sup;
left it on the table. She wandered into the
courtyard presently, and counseled the
three little Sternlichts to 60 to bed. Next
morning, when they had gone away, she
stole back. found neither crumb nor shred
on the table and smiled to herself.
1t was the same morning that Louis
found his way to Bellevue and asked for his
mother. The attendants would not let
him see her; she was too sick yet but they
told her that Louis was there.
Sl0 HAyb, IL you dI0 pa WI IIO
pillows" was the MESA &c that the attend
ant brought back. Louis went home,
gathered in two Of their four pillows, and
trudged down to the pawnbroker's. The
pawnbroker wouldn't do business with
child. It was not until Mrs. Daniels went
along to act as sponsor that he realized
the fortune Of rs cents and the Sternlicht
family ate.
Yesterday morning, Chief Clerk Shells
was reading of the regular bunch Of dis
possess notices at the Clinton street Munich.
pal Court.
.Ltwooh VS.. sternlicht," he read. and
paused for a defendant. Over his high
desk he could not see at first what made
the reporters and police and other loungers
inside the rail move up a.. and ds stand At at
white Tipped small boy, clad in an old
coat, a pair Of much too large breaches and
a woman 8 outworn undershirt which showed
a narrow and ill-nourished chest. In one
hand he held pillow. The small boy
Combination Of Yiddish and Bowery:
me mudder's in bed, and can't COME
what's the matter with your mother7'
asked the clerk.
@Dunno. She's in BELLEVUE. And they
git papers Louis said this all In a breath.
Il got a job for lizzie. packin' ice for
pedler,' went on Louis, talking like q
lawyer, land II Litwoch puts US on de
street he don't get no money. and II he
waits until we git the money well pay up.
Please don't put US on de street. Louis.
having delivered himself, came pretty
well let it go over until Monday. son.
said Shells:
thanks, said Louis.
There might have been a subscription
list started right there II Louis had given
them time. But he turned. fairly ran out
OF court, and joined two smaller boys, also
in bare legs and castofi undershirts, who
were waiting on the steps Of the court.
These three. holding hands. plodded down
Clinton street to pawn the pillow and
make start against the world.
Louis made u cents .n With tn ., his paper:
is cents which he realized on the pillow.
lizzie made 4 cents packing ice for the
appetite overcame him and he squandered
10 cents for lgns ,ti Able. the kid, isn't
quite snd N tbe smV Ssn. s
stenlicht family dined ggloriously and
.atb;,o tou,ard the rent h,It still thew