New-York tribune., 1908-08-21
FOUND REAL AMERICA
East Side Boys First Experience IN
the Far 4zcay' Country.

VIII you please have the little boy ready at 4
o'clock said the mission worker to the young
Hungarian mother in East sth street. "and bring
him to the church,"
Careful instructions had been given regarding the
clothing to be packed in the blue denim bag There
was little to be slowed away. but what there was
would be necessary for the two weeks vacation
in the far away country, where there were no
crowded streets. ovnrcrowded tenement houses,
filth.
Little David was not well. His fourteen years
had been spent in poverty. His parents had come
here from Hungary when he eight years old
and David had learned rapidly but did not grow
The country would do him good, thought his
mother. when the vacation subject vas broached-
There were other children, but none so frail as
David Four little figures were huddled nightly in
one bed in the room where another bed was used
by the parents One window gave all the light and
the air. and the light nearly obscured by
tall tenement house next door, and the air had to
come through narrow passage containing the de-
post of years of refuse
David ready for the journey the church
on time, and, clutching the hand of his mother,
left the tenement home. They crowded against
carts containing all sorts of vegetables and mer-
chandse He slipped banana skin, and was
saved from fall by the mothers hand. Then he
freed his hand, for did he not know the streets
and the way He passed friends who jeered him.
He lodged missiles. The beat down upon the
unciean street, and he wondered If the country
could be better than the quarters he remembered
well. He fingered before cart where soda
water was sold for penny glass, and his mother
had to push him along.
At the church there were other children David
had been there before, when the tall woman had
examined him as TO his cleanliness and health He
had been clean, and his mother was indignant
when ne told her Of what he had passed through.
AS IL she would let him become uncean! On the
train David was talkative. He sat in the same
seat with his teacher
Are the houses so big here?" he asked as
The train to the surface from the Grand
Central tunnel rs there many peoples? What
for do we not have the grass here, and what we
get the milk from. cows? Where does the sun
come UP in the country? From the Brooklyn? VIII
have to be very good and If don't be good will
some man hit me? My said L must not
talk there or will be hit, an it used to be country
where we lived an my mamma says fader was
whipped once, sometimes and she hit. too, and
friends said hits here But they does Big
Joe was hit by cop hard he went to sleep
When David arrived at The Tribune Fresh Air
Fund home he learned for the first time what real
freedom was. He could play with his fellows with
out fear of a patrolman. The ways of the attend
ants not the ways of those who had controlled
his acts in the city There supervision, but
untanted by form circumstance. He was one
with all In the big home, and the fetters OF re-
straint were loosed and David free from care,
and became consderate of others. for all the boys
seemed TO have lost the keen desire to annoy, TO
dominate, to deceive There was domination in
the home; there no competition, tinged with
malice and envy. One day David said thoughtfuliy:
Wen 1 get home I'll tell mamma I've found the
real America. But 1 wisht she an fader an all
would come up here an stay here all the time"
And the spirit that had enlightened David was
among all the children at the home and is IN all
the places where the girls and boys IN the big city
receive fresh air through the operations of The
Tribune Fresh Air Fund. And the wonder OF it is
that 1t costs only about So 10 give little
weeks vacation
There hundreds still to be away, and
they those who have been enfeebled by the
many weeks of sitting weather in the crowded
tenement house districts, and are greatly in need
of the refreshing outing. But the fund must grow
and grow right now, the lonEings of many
mothers that their children receive what their
neighbors children have received may all be vain.