New-York tribune., 1908-07-01
TALK ON FRESH AIR WORK
DR.. Derins GiUes Final Instructions
to Forty-Sir assistants.


forty-six attended meeting yesterday IN the
Presbyterian Building to receive final instruc-
tons for the seasons work. These Included twenty
six young women and twenty young men, many OF
them from colleges. The others had attended hign
school and had received experience in The manage
of children in the tenement house sections OF
the city. DR.. Devins the manager of the fund.-
told them that there more uplifting work
and satisfactory than helping little
children He said
You have each from five. to, six times twenty,
be your duty TO impress. upon them the best there
struction. in which. among other things. the i'm
portance of obedience Is called to your attention.
to be seeessfn With Rs chafses e Yon must re-
member where the children come from. You must
do not l,aye to go down TO them In order to be
GIVE them ans bes saa there a n f9e's
!, The spirit of the Fresh Air work is one of help
give the children good time But it is, not to
if ea worer had of 1t ps
throughout their stay They would get better
men who Visited St Heiens They had once en BEEN
the time that if the Fresh Air Fund had not ac-
work
DIR. Devns then dwelt upon the method of treat
ing the incorr ble child, a vistant to a Fresh
AIR home and homesickness. He said that close
companionship with the little visitors would make
homesickness an almost unheard of thing and it
was really seldom that children were uncorsolabe.
1t might happen that children would cry the first
night away from home. he said, but they were far
more likely to weep the last day because 1t
the last day
Inc superfntendents of the several homes and
workers were called upon for remarks upon the
problems that had up in the of their
experiences. Mr.. Austin. of the Ashford Hill Home,
near Ardsley. said that the greatest difficulty was
to get the right children, the worthy Ones that
once in the home there were problems that could
not be solved easily. 1t easy to maintain dis
cipline, as the children so we'll entertained,
and it was also easy to enforce cleanliness. OF
two thousand children taken of last summer,
he said that only two suffered for any length of
time from homesickness
Others told of the necessity of obedience, and one
declared that st first it often seemed as If the
boys and girls lacked in gratitude. They seemed
to want and want, and then still to want atten-
ton and entertainment but this childhood
trait. 1t a desire for n change for frequent
changes. This feeling, the worker said, on
the surface only. Patience and patience, and still
more patience, could be called the sure remedy for
every problem that might arise in the of the
children.
Mention was made of the part that nature study
would play this in the entertainment of the
little visitors. This study will not be task. At
the Ashford Hill home a garden VIII be planted
and the children will be taught how to take care
of It. There will be talks, the walks, of ele-
mentary geology. astronomy and botany but all
in such way that it will be part of the vacation"
experience Of the children. One Of the workers
from Ashokan said that children gave almost as
much instruction they received. Getting close
to the child nature meant a rare wealth of pleas
ure and instruction
Then Dr. Devins said that all the workers should
arrange to have hour day absolutely free.
This would make 1t possible for them to devote
all the other waking hours to the and pro-
lection of their charges The children should
for a moment he said be without supervision. day
or night.
Considering how much good the outings were
doing for the children now. DR.. DeVins said that
he sometimes dreamed of the time when enough
money would be contributed to enable HIM to ar
range system of home influence for the children
that would greatly add to the benefits given.
The family idea, when each worker might have
little community all his or her own sitting at
mealtime at the head of the table, with service
which would teach the young in all ways the home
methods and thus enable them TO bring the inhu-
ence to bear in their own homes, in his mind.
he said.
The workers went with DIR. Devins to luncheon
and before this evening nearly all Will nave eohe
to the stations for the summer
There were more children for Utica yesterday
morning than at first expected, IS starting at $40
o'clock They were met by DIR. Bigelow in Utica
at $40 o'clock and taken to the homes proVldeu
for them. Those for Ardsley left here on the
Putnam Division at 4:30 o'clock at 155th street and
Ninth avenue. There were several workers with
them The Ashford Hill home all ready for
them when they arrived there for the two weeks
outing.