The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-09-25
Fresh Air
Funds.
BY Lula johnson.
Copyrighted, 1905, by Associated
Literary Press,

The sun, a great ball OF red against q
coppery sky, had long since ceased to
shine down upon the narrow street and
hung laEily upon the line of the west
ern sky as though reluctant to leave q
battlefield where he had been mighty
victor. The pavements and even the
buildings gave out their scorching heat
like a bake oven from which the fires
have been newly drawn.
Here and there some one watered the
street with a hose or turned the stream
upon the tiny grass plots In front OF
the houses, but the heat quickly dried
up the food, and the humidity served
only to add to the general discomfort.
1t was a long street of old fashioned
high stoop houses. once the home OF
fashion. Latterly society had been
driven out by the resistless march Of
the city's progress, and the district
was given over to the boarding house
mistresses until such time as the needs
OF the growing city should require the
space for factories.
Still retaining somewhat Of its old
fashioned dignity, the street was be-
coming shabby genteel. Here and
there brownstone front had been re-
placed by a brick tenement masquerad
ing as fiathouse, and here and there
the squalor Of the poor became appar
ent. Already the street marked the ex-
treme edge Of the residential district"
as the boarding house mistress loved
to term II, and its chief recommenda-
ton was the fact that the boarders
could reach their places of employment
by walking and so save the tedious
ears and the 60 cents car fare that rep
resented an important item in their
weekly expenditure.
The boarders thronged the high
stoops. gasping in the hot air, not dar-
ing TO seek their rooms until the heat
should abate little. At Mrs. Marcy's
Dudley Thearle shared the top step
with Maude Ryerson. Ever since he
had come to Marcy's. two weeks be-
fore, he had sought place beside
Maude until the other boarders had
come to regard the top step as the
joint property Of the two.
Presently they would make jests on
the oddly assorted pair and Thearle's
love affair would share. with the
weakness of the coffee and the
strength Of the butter, the humorous
attention of the other boarders. The
coffee was not weak and the butter
rather better than the average, but
tradition is mighty and has deereed
that these jokes shall endure while
boarding houses exist. Generally, too,
there Is some mismated pair, lost in
their own happiness, to offer third
butt of ridicule.
And surely never was there such
an oddly assorted pair. Thearle still
wore the sunburn and ruddy coIoring
which proclaimed him a product of
Held and farm. The fortnight which
had passed since he had taken a posi-
ton offered him by one of last sum-
mer's boarders at the farm had not
faded the flush Of health, nor had the
city's burdens bent the strong shoul-
ders.
Miss Ryerson was commercial
nun, welded to the work which took
her youth and beauty and gave naught
in return save the pittance which per-
mitted a mere existence with none of
the pleasures that are the heritage Of
Youth. She was only twenty-one, but
she looked thirty, for since her six
teenth birthday she had been working.
Part of that time she had been the
support of younger sister. and the
story of priyations endured for her
sisters sake was written large on
the colorless skin and in the weary
eyes and bent carriage.
Yet to Thearle she seemed beauti-
ful, for she represented knowledge
knowledge of ways and manners that
were strange and new to him-and be
worshiped dumbly If not from afar.
Her greatest charm he found In the
fact that she did not laugh at his
b!unders, as the others did. She seem
ed to him some Lady Gracious, wo-
man vastly different from all others, a
woman most greatly to be desired.
AS they sat there in silence, unwiH-
ing to make even the exertion that
conversation demanded, there came
the shouts Of children, the complaining
grind of heavy motor cars, and pres
entity there rolled past line of deliv-
cry trucks loaded with children as
cargo.
ITS the city fresh air fund" ex-
planned the girl in answer to Thearle's
glance. "The real fund sends
tie children to the country. This is an
idea of the Evening Spark. The parks
are too far for the little feet to walk,
and car fare is not for the children of
the tenements. The merchants lend
their trucks In the evenings, and the
children are taken out to the park to
run on the grass and get a breath Of
fresh air. 1t is wonderful charity"
Il wish some one would start fresh
air fund for people like me-" mused
Thearle. II don't mean just that sort,
OF course, but ! sit here on the steps
hacausa +hera seans ~ ho nofh;no, oIeo