Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-05-12
CONSERVATIVES ON FERRY BOAT
The Bellevue tuberculosis Day Camp
on the Old Southfield.

The Bellevue tuberculosis Day Camp
on the Old SouthfieId.
New York Sun.-The latest addi-
ton of special classes maintained by
the board of education is the school
camp, formerly the ferry-boat South
field of the Staten Island line. Here
on an open deck swept by the breez-
es of the East river 35 consumptive
children are learning the three RS
while the fresh air and good food
treatment is getting in it's work.
The stern of the boat where once
musicians enlivened the half-hour
trip across the bay has been turned
into a district school. Desks which
have seen service in a bygone pub
lie school are fastened to the deck
Blackboards are supported on the
wide seat which skirts the cabin,
while an occasional cupboard moored
fast to a beam holds supplies.
There is a paucity of wall space
for artistic decoration in the school,
and only a print of Lincoln pasted
to a cabin window feeds the picture
loving souls of the little patients.
From until $3.50 shifts of pa
tients take the seats in the ferry
boat school and continue their stud
les from where they left them in
the graded schools. The pupils range
in age from six to Is, and if the
day were long enough there would
be kindergarten class, for there
are several under-age children on
the boat, and the baby, child of
four, clamors to go to school with
her big sister.
School hours are short in the
school, for the main object of the
young pupils is to get back their
health. The older children work two
hours day and the younger class
es spend only an hour al their
books.
The children, wrapped UP in blank
cts and sweaters, with hot soap
stones at their feet, work on the
deck in all kinds of weather. If the
day is very cold they have frequent
recesses to warm their feet at the
| big stove in the cabin, and often an
extra pair of gloves is necessary to
keep their fingers warm.
| The master, teacher who after
10 years in the public schools has
| fallen a victim to the white plague,
says that he has never had more
leager pupils than these patients
whose recitations are interrupted by
fits of coughing and whose tempera-
ture is often so high that they must
exchange a hospital bed for their
desks in the ferry school.
| You see," he said, "the worst
feature about being sick to most OF
the children is that they have to
give up school, and when they find
out that they can keep up with their
lessons here they are delighted
They hate to think that when they
get we'll all their friends will have
got ahead of them"
| One of the older girls, who hopes
/ to be able to graduate with her class
lis working hard to improve so that
1.-THE doctor will let her take in the
extra work she needs in grammar
and arithmetic.
II have gained II pounds al
ready she announces proudly. 1and
my cough is much better. The doc
tor says that just as soon as the
warm days come if / don't run E
Temperature I can work a little while
every afternoon. Then / can catch
Iup with Alice and Sadie. They are
my best friends. and we always sale
we were going to graduate together
ana GO 70 h11cinnSc nnllaoe -