The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1910-12-15
IN A
TENEMENT

..-.-.-.-.-.-.-......-.-.
on this afternoon. when the girl was
in the nidat Of hS~ lecture, woman
creDt into the room and fell In a chair,
half fainting The lesson continued.
the woman low and again raising her
Z pathetic face to the speaker, now bury
Ing II IN her emaciated hands and
giving way 10 long sighs Of exhaus-
ton.
The face was 80 white. so imploring.
that when the girl stopped TO weigh
another baby. she left It moment In
the machine 10 go 10 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 refec-
tive eyes upon me. That woman wor.
ries me, she said. Il must 60 to her.
She is so fraiI Perhaps her baby is
starving Perhaps the whole family
ia starving There is much suffering
this summer among the poor. VIII you
90 with mer
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 ad.
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 moles that you must put your
spyglasses on them, studying their
lives They have their pride. have
to be very careful Of the mothers, too
not 10 make them feel that | know
much more about bringing up ba.
bies than they do. or they will take
offense.7
We Knocked There was no answer
The door was slightly ajar. and the
girl, in her capacity Of teacher and
nurse, took the libe y Of pushing It
open, more and more, until at last 1t
fared wide and we stood on the thresh-
old, gazing In
For some reason known only to
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 TO
take the place Of ornaments, center
pieces, as II were, OF bits of bric-a.
brac, of vases or Of fancy pitchers full
Of paper fiowers--the flower which is
most popular on the East side. This
baby was no exception to the rule in
the matter Of placing. Directly In the
center OF the table he sat laughing.
Growing, trying to ram both chubby
fists into his mouth at once, glee in
his eyes and glow OF radiant and
beautiful healthfulness emanating from
his small personality.
What a beautiful baby" cried the
girl Beautiful! But the mother
Where is she7"
We were not long in finding her
stretched in the dead faint OF exhaus
tion and starvation on couch in a
corner Of the room, as nearly lifeless
as any woman can be and live.
The girl nurse knew what to do
with what restoratives to coax her
back to earth again. She had, more
over these restoratives in her reti-
cule
She brought all her trained skill to
bear upon the case, and It was not long
before the mother gasped. opened her
eyes. looked about her at the two Of
us bending over her, at her beautiful
growing baby on the table. and burst
into tears.
The girl in her masterful way went
out and laid In a bountiful supply OF !
eatables. brought them back, cooked a |
dainty meal for the mother and gave
the baby a little more milk though he
had alread more than was necessary.
Then we made up little purse be-
tween us, left it on the mantel for i'm
mediate needs and came away.
We walked for a period silently /
through the yell Of the vendors home
ward. the bridge Of sighs spanning the
streets back Of u.s. gray as the skeleton
OF bridge against the sunlit blue of
the sky
starved herself" commented then. |
sthat the baby might live Wouldn't 4
even drink a drop Of milk she had !
brought for him for fear he might suf
far saw the bottle on the mantel II