Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-01-25

a. gorgeous, new, pink wall paper was
the background for a table, one
shaky chair and a sewing machine
nothing else, except a dirty, uphol-
stored sofa, spread over with a cheap,
red quilt which was half thrown back,
just as the father of the family had
left 1t in the morning.
The spectres of drink and sickness
stalked through this home" The
man spent his money in the neighbour
ing saloons, and could never be de-
pended upon to furnish regularly the
nine dollars demanded for the priyi-
lege of dwelling for month in the
pinched, desolate, repellant quarters.
The woman, like many of her sisters
of the tenements, had been slowly
crushed by the struggle to exist il
the face of this added difficulty. So
only the sheltering arms of the asy-
lum were left for the children.
In the asylum's motley company at
Dobbs Ferry there is picturesque
little Italian, Romilia, who lately
abandoned his home and mother.
Though Romilio is fluent in certain
branches of English, his mother-a
tiny woman whose bright eyes are the
one lively feature of an expressionless
face-can still speak no language but
that of her peasant home. She
wanted to hear about her boy,
though, and his new life in the chill
dren's village, so she called in as in
terpreter a neighbor, another tiny
daughter of Italy on whom the i'm
press of the East Side had been deeply
fixed.
The two women, with their broods
of little Giovannis and Francescas
clinging about their skirts, stood talk
ing with the visitor in the only spot in
the kitchen not cluttered with dilapi-
dated furniture, unwashed kettles,
pans and dishes, refuse rags AMI
papers, or dirt, pure and simple. And
in the riot of disheveled uncleanliness,
the children were the most disheveled
and uncleanly objects. When the
visitor asked what POINTS father was
doing for a living, the group of matted
heads chorused, Father drunk
which gratuitous bit of information
was rewarded with a specially i'm.
perative call for silence and particu-
larly pointed menace of fsticuff.
Mild curiosity, a dull, perverted sense
of mportance-these seemed to be
the only feelings excited by Romi's
-. he aiorlf hn
smirched, neglected youngsters evil
IDENTITY had all the inducements in the
world to follow him as fast as their
wobbly legs would carry them when
their opportunity arrived.
From homes such as these the tran
sition to the street is as easy as to be
scarcely perceptible. In some cases
the lad is actually driven out, and in
many he has no apparent reluctance
about going. The parents OF one lit
tie fellow now in the asylum, prefer
ring whiskey to work, began by send
ing him out to beg for the food they
were unwilling to earn. Begging for
money followed naturally. Then
Jimmy, realizing that he was the real
support of the household, began &c
stay away when he felt like it. spend
ing the proceeds of his industry for
himself. When the home broke up
entirely, as 1t eventually did, of
course. the household goods that had
represented the comforts Of life for
three persons were sold at public
auction for sixty-nine cents. and the
boy was reluctantly compelled to
learn how to earn an honest living in
the industrial shops OF the juvenile
asylum.
There is no greater contrast be-