The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-29
KIND WORDS FOR CHARITABLE IN.
 eTITUTION AT CONEY.
Roosevelt Tells of His yislt to the Sse Breese Home, Where Many Chfl- dren Are Being success-
 fully Treated.

Oyster Bay, July 2s.--President Roosevelt after spending two hours to- 1 day in an inspection of the Sea Breeze Home establishment on Coney Island.
 conducted by the New York Association for tho Improvement of the Condition ck | the Poor, returned to Sagamore. Hll1 ! this evening at 6 o'clock. Tonight the President dictated a statement concern ing the trip and his reasons for taking 1t. The statement follows;
 T went down today to see the hos pttai for children suffering from bone troubles. which is managed in conjunc- tion with the fresh air fund of the New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. The hos- pital Is at the Sea Breeze Home. Coney Island. About 2s0 children are taken each week to the Sea Breeze Home under the fresh air fund and over 5000 during the season.
 'The hospital has room for only forty five children and there arc moro than 4,000 cases of bone tuberculosis In the tenement house district of New York. Now, the trustees are trying to raise fund for hospital which shall hold 400 patients. The fresh air fund people are obliged to refuse ad- mission to 1000 or 5000 applicants an- nually.
 The sea air treatment of tubercu- losis has been found to be marvelously successful in France. Here also. 1t has proved so successful that at the Sea Breeze hospital they have not lost a single patient. All were benefited and most of them were cured.
 Now. about, three weeks ago Miss Laura Wilmington who has been private secretary to Dr. Lymann A. Abbott, and had taken a great interest In the fresh air fund. was dying of can- cer in St. Luke's Hospital. When she learned of the need for increased hos pital facilities for the children at Sea Breeze she wrote a letter setting forth the work and the needs in The Out- look. signing only her initials.
 A certain gentleman whom I know to be a large giver in charities. but who never allows his name to appear. saw this letter and asked Jacob Riis to go to Sea Breeze and to investigate and report to him on the facts. Mir. Rtis investigated and reported so strongly on the good being done and that the . need for additional facilities were so great that the man in question sub- scribed $10.000 for enlarging the hospi- tai and pledged himself to give $1,o00 annually for ten years for maintaining it. Another man also subscribed e5.000.
 Mfr Riis at once sent word to Miss wimmington telling her what her ar ticle had accomplished and 1t cheered her last three days. She died last Wednesday.
 Meanwhile. Mir. Riis had asked me to be sure to come down to his home and see for myself. went down to- day was immensely impressed by the work being done there. Senator Crane of Massachusetts went with me. feel that there can be few more beneficent works than that which is being accom- pIished with the fresh air fund and this seaside hospital for tenement children suffering from bone tuberculosis.
 "On tho way home the Sylph went up the Hudson and when we passed the battleship signaled them not to salute. but did want to see the formidapie souadron which I believe to be coliec- lively and individually as fine a fight ing fleet as the finest in the world"