Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-18

/
| can ways they persist in their belief that
| the country is only for sick children. 1t is
1 pitifui, is 1t not? Nevertheless, they are
| jolly little kids, anu always seem to have
| good time.
II told little girl in my class once that
1 had always lived in the country when I
| was child.
| 'Und did you be there all the day? Nhe
| asked eagerly.
| Yes, all the day for several years.
| She heaved sigh and looked at me
with her big, sympathetic eyes.
| Say, teacher, scuse; but that must
| tremendous sickness gone to be. Und what
| for a sickness it was, please?'
| Il had murderer in my class. He was
| a boy of six. He killed the baby. 1t sounds
| too terrible to be true but it is.
| He came to me at school one day and
said he must say goodbye, because he had
| to go over theIwater.' That is the way they
| speak of Blackwelrs Island
| Il asked him what was the matter.
| Mine mudder she leave me to mind
| the baby he said, 'und de gang they
] comes past and hollers l should come down
| when there would be fight. Und the baby
| he was full of crying, and when l leave him
| he should cry yet worser und de lady<next
| door she will come in und den II makes
| trouble nit mine old woman SO soon she
| comes home So l gives the gang a holler
und says they should wait a little, but they
| says they couldn't ford to wait SO makes
! quick to shut up the baby, but 1t makes 70
| holler worser Und there's nothing to do
| exception his head on the floor to hit until
| he leaves his noise.
| THE poor little youngster went out and
! had his fight" Miss Kelly continued. Then
| he came home and sat with the dead baby
| on his knees, waiting for his mother He
knew it was dead, but he didn't realize what
| that meant. He was quite surprised when
his mother make to cry most orful
Astounding Affection.
This boy was an exception, however.
Great love of the babies is the rule When
| a party is given there are always eager pc
| titions to be allowed to bring little brother
or little sister, and not infrequently mine
| little nephew or mine little niece In such
| large families 1t is a common thing for
boy or girl of eight to be an uncle or aunt.
They shower the greatest love and kindness
on the little ones
1.-THE school Fairgrounds in the crowded
Yiddish quarter are usually on the roof. l
have often seen q girl of ten tofling up the
stairs to play, with four younger children in
her charge-the baby in her arms and the
others Juggling at her skirts
Another teacher who knows great deal
about little Americans in the making is
Miss Elizabeth S. Harris, the principal of a
public school in the heart of New York's
YiddiSh quarter.
be-" she said. II will tell you in the words
one of them told me:
IND when l grows up L wears to mine
self big stiff, und l goes by mine office und
moneys
This was how a black-eyed, eager. in
tense little son of the Ghetto expressed the
prevailing ambition of the Amerikane kim
der'-the AmericaniZed sons of the foreign
Jews who swarm in the Yiddish quarters of
New York, Chicago and other cities. Wheth-
er they hail from Russia or Roumania or
Galicia or Poland their desire is the same
big stiff, which means high collar.
Quick to Learn.
1T is a constant surprise, even to per-
sons who like myself, have spent years
in the work, to see how quickly the chill
dren of the foreign immigrants learn
English and pick up American ways and
American ideas. Before you could reason
ably. expect them to know the language
they not only have it at their finger ends.
but they know all about the life of the
city, and they have made up their minds
what they want to be when they grow
up. If it is not lawyer 1t is a doctor
a dentist-never. by any chance rabbi
The youngsters know too well that there
is no money in that. The rabbis of their
acquaintance are poorer than Goldsmith's
parson. subsisting on a few stray dollars
for teaching 'chaider' or for certifying
that meat is really Kosher The little
Russian Jew is not long in an American
public school before he looks forward to
better job than that.
The other day woman brought a lit
tie boy of eight to be enrolled in the
school. She told me in German that she
had been less than three months in the
country. 1 started to speak to her in the
same language, but the youngster inter-
rupted. can speak English he said,
and he chartered away at a great rate. He
had never been to school, but ne had
picked up the Language on the streets in
a little over two months, In a few weeks
he was talking about being lawyer, just
like the rest.
1T is an ambition often realized. will
tell a true story TO illustrate
these boys, whose parents wheel push
carts or work in sweat shops, may rise
in the world. hold meeting in my
school once a week for the mothers of
the children. They were addressed once
by graduate of Columbia who spoke to
| them in Yiddish on hygiene, or some such
subject. He was well-dressed, cultured
young fellow-a rising professional man.
/ knew he had come from the Ghetto, but
/ was certainly surprised when. he
stood by the door, shaking hands with
the women as they went out, one of them
bent forward and kissed him.
I" He is my son., she said lin Yiddish,
turning to me.
Her Rich Reward.
she was an addressed ignorant wom-
an Like all the rest, she wore a shawl
instead of a hat. She couldn't speak En-
glish, and she had come straight from
her pushcart to the meeting; but she was
his mother, none the less She had saved
and stinted and almost starved herself to
send the boy to the public school. the
high school, and finally the university;
but now she had a rich reward for all her
sacrifices. How the other women at the
meeting envied herl
"At another meeting young fellow of
about nineteen from a high school played
very finely on the ptanoforte. He pleased
even the critical Ytddish audience, which
knows good music when Ii hears 1t. At
the end of the meeting one of the shawled
women embraced him, She was hig sis
ter. She worked In a cheap clothing fac
tory, and he was soon going to college.
"fhe children determine at an early
age to be thoroughly American" Miss
Harris continued. Even though every
body at home speaks Yiddish, they will
nareiet In TALKING Enofiah rYi,ah u the