Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-22

genious superintendent for the purpose
of efecting the cure.
Supt. Ryan of the western or George
town station has been employed there for
1orty-!iVe years, and, like Mr.. Holden of
the Capitol Hill plant, cannot remember a
single case of whooping cough brought to
his notice at the station which the fumes
failed to cure.
To designate the whOoping cough pa
tentS at the gas works as sufferers is
likely, in the case of the Juveniles at all
events, to create a distinctly false impress
sion. veritable holiday is enjoyed by
most OF the youngsters who resort or who
are. perhaps, al first carried more or less
against their will. to these strange pre-
clncts in pursuit of health. To be sure, a
single patient without paymates, is very
apt tc feel solitary, but upon the appear
ance on the scene of a comrade in mis-
fortune a.coalition is soon formed and the
youngsters usually manage to have d
thoroughly good time together.
A case in point happened not long ago
at the Georgetown works. child about
six years of age was brought by his
father to the works. The youngster had
decidedly bad case OF whoopng cough.
Although his parents strongly intimated
to him that he would benefit at the gas
works. he no sooner caught sight of the
outside of the dingy structures, the ON
inous-looking, huge tank. the machinery
and the litter of waste material. than he
set up n lusty and prolonged boo hoo -
which. with intervals Of coughing. made
his advent a peculiarly noisy one.
Whether or not this younGster conceived
that he was about to be put through some
dreadful and heroic process in the treat
ment of his malady it is impossible to
say. Certain it is that his father had to
exert both cOaXng and force to induce
him to enter upon the scene Of the cure.
* X
81, % h.
and the consequent escape Of the fumes
a spectacle possibly appealing to his Juve-
nile mind as possessing something of an
Internal or diabolical characteristics de-
meanor was indicative Of an imperfecty
suppressed terror. Unfortunately for this
yOungster, he was the only patient at the
works. and during the first several days
of his attendance, although his fear wore
gradually away, he manifested consider
able loneliness. 1t SO CHANGED. however,
that in the course of few days another
boy with the whoCping cough was
brought to the station, and this youngster
proved to be a school-fellow of the there
tofcre solitary patient. The two boys
soon found in the initially omInous- look
ing gas works an ideal playhouse.
The complicated machinery and the
various processes involved in the manu-
facture of the gas, though not technically
comprehended, were watched with fas-
palled, various juvenile sports and recrea-
tons beguied the hours Perhaps the
picturesque possibilities of a gas WORKS
We're never more thoroughly appreciated
than by these youngsters the feeding
of the huge furnaces that. upon the
opening of their roaring mouths, cast a
livid light upon the half-doZen stalwart
workmen as they hurriedly ran the big
load of coal into the flames. After a
while too. care had to be exercised to
keep the boys from going too near to
the purifier box, when it was opened, in
order to watch the beautifully tinted
bubbles rising upon the surface of the
line.
Then appeared upon the scene little
girl. and the two boys Immediately pro-
ceeded though with some preliminary
bashfulness, perhaps to show her the
wonders of the place. \ crude elevator.
used for hosting the purifier material
from the ground to the floor upon which
the boxes or tanks are placed, was put
into requistion by the boys for purposes
of recreation, and each took turns in car
ryirg the girl up and down. This vo!un-
teer elevator work seemed to afford the
youngsters an immense amount of graft
fication and perhaps it furnished a good
form of exercise, for the mechanism In
volved considerable pulling upon rope and
ch2n both to set and keep the machine
going and to stop 1t again.