The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-12-10
IN A
TENEMENT


On this afternoon, when the girl was
In the midst of her lecture, a woman
crept into the room and fell in a chair,
half fainting. The lesson continued,
the woman now and again raising her
pathetic face to the speaker, now bury
Ing it in her emaciated hands aud
giving way to long signs of exhaas-
ton.
The face was SO white, SO implortng,
that when the girl stopped to weigh
another baby, she left 1t moment in
the machine to go to her and ask her
address. It was well she did SO, for as
she continued her lecture, the woman.
grown too weak to listen further,
arose, crept TO the door, grasped the
bottle of milk the attendant there gave
her, and staggered out
The girl weighed few more ba-
bies, finished her lecture, dismissed
the mothers. and turned large rehec-
i've eyes upon me- That woman wor-
ries me" she said. Il must go to her.
She is so frail Perhaps her baby Is
starving. Perhaps the whole family
Is starving. There Is much suffering
this summer among the poor. Win you
go with me?"
assented and we started out
The sun blazed on the shrek of the
street. The girl took the slip of pa
per from her pocket and read the adj
dress.
Its near the river" she comment
ed, "a long way and she began to
walk very straight ahead. looking
neither to the right nor to the left of
her.
1T is necessary down here" she ex-
planned.
You must pretend not to notice
these people, for you will offend them,
They are not animals, they say, nor
ants or mo1es that you must put your
Eyeglasses on them, studying their
lives. They have their pride. have
to be very careful of the mothers, too
not to make them feel that | know
much more about bringing up ba
bies than they do, or they will take
offense."
We knocked. There was no answer
The door was slightly ajar, and the
girl, in her capacity of teacher ana
nurse, took the liberty of pushing il
open, more and more, until at last il
Jared wide and we stood on the thresh
old, gazing in.
For some reason known only tt
themselves, the mothers Of East side
babies keep them generally IN the mid
die of the center table in the center
of the living room. They seem tt
take the place of ornaments, center
pieces, as it were, of bits of bric-a
brac, of vases, or Of fancy pitchers full
of paper fleWers-the flower which /:
most popular on the East side. Thi:
/ baby was no exception to the rule II
J! the matter of placing. Directly in ths
center of the table he sat, laughing
growing, trying to ram both chubby
| fists into his mouth at once, glee II
his eyes and a glow Of radiant ane
beautiful heaIthfulness emanating from
his small personality.
What a beautiful baby!" cried thu
girl. Beautiful! But the mother
Where is she?"
We were not long in finding her
stretched in the dead faint of exhdus
ton and starvation on couch in
corner of the room, as nearly lifeles:
as any woman can be and live.
The girl nurse knew what to dc
with what restoratives to coax he
back to earth again. She had, more
over, these restoratives in her reti
cule.
She brought all her trained skill t.
bear upon the case, and 1t was not lonl
before the mother gasped, opened he
i eyes, looked about her at the two o
US bending over her, at her beautiful
Growing baby on the table, and burs
into tears.
The girl in her masterful way wen
out and laid in bountifui supply o
eatables, brought them back, cooked
dainty meal for the mother and CAV,
the baby little more milk though b,
] had alread more than was necessary
/ Inen we maue w q AAleAS pu1 % -
/ tween us, left it on the mantel for In
mediate needs and came away.
We walked for a period silentl.
through the yell OF the vendors home
ward, the bridge of signs spanning tn
streets back of US, gray as the skeleton
Of a bridge against the sunlit blue 9
the sky.
Starved herself" commented then
that the baby might live. Wouldn'
even drink a drop of milk she ha
brought for him for fear he might sui
Tier. I saw the bottle on the mantel.
was half full