Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-19
Family Lives on the Excess Col
lected to Buy Flowers For
Dead Child
AFRAID OF THE PoTrERs' FIELD
A PitifuI Case That Calls for Help
First and Critical Examination After
Tho House Where Death Came
With Birth, and the Funeral With
Christening Amid Hunger, Cold, sor-
row and Hopelessness.

The Times Republican has told to
the horror of it's readers part of the
story of family to which death in a
terrible form, birth that under the cir
cumstances might by many BE looked
upon as an affliction came in the midst
of dire poverty and trouble. multiplied
by the mothers invalidism and the
fathers crippled condition.
This family lives in decent little
house, kept as clean as soap and water
can make It, The mother Is Wife
a cripple with one leg. The children.
as seen In the home, are quiet well
behaved, and willing to help their
mother. 1t was pathetic to see the fash
ion in which the Oldest girl hung about
the little baby and devoured it with
her eyes. The baby was the center of
all affection in that house lacking any
covering for the floors. without any
adornment except the few cheap chro-
mos on the walls. and without food
enough for the day.
How have you lived since the baby
was born and during the death and
burial OF the little boy?" asked the
T.-R man.
There was $3.50 cents left from the
collection taken up by the neighbors to
buy flowers for our little boys funeral"
she replied, and the ladies gave me
that Another lady sent me a dollar. We
have been getting along with that. We
are helped some by the county. Some
one says there is chance for a job
at the packing house for my husband,
impossible for him to walk the dis
lance between hero and the packing
house"
And this is true. 1t is a long distance
for a man with one sound leg to walk.
Seems to me-" she said, and the
hopeless look in her eyes was heart
breaking, to see as she spoke-"seems
to me it's awful hard on poor folks. l
don't know what / would have done II
my husband had not managed to find
help enough to get our little boy buried
In the cemetery. They wanted to take
him out to the poor farm and bury him
there" Here her voice shook in hys-
terical tone as she said, 20, they say
the burying ground out there Is right
next to the hog lot" Is 1t? The reporter
did not know, but he is going some day
to find out
This case is pitiful. They are not bad
people On the contrary. No doubt
some criticism OF their methods an1
ways could be properly brought against
them. That is true Of most Of us. But
a sick wife, a new born baby, a little
child dead from burns received while
the mother lay in childbed, no foodsno
money, no work are things that van
quish critical inspection tantil immedi-
ate necessity is relieved What areSwe
going to do about this in the week
when we celebrate the Christ child born
in a manger, and the madonna who
bore him.
Cemetery Remote From Hog Lot,
AS far as the T.-R. is able to judge
from an understanding as to the lay
of the county farm grounds, the Inn
preston gained by this woman con-
corning the close proximity Of the
burying ground to the hog lot, Is not
correct. The county cemetery is To-
Gated to the west Of the house, while
the hog lot, which lies south and west.
of the barn, is fully forty rods distant.