The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1911-01-05
IN "A
TENEMENT

4
On this afternoon, when the girl was
In the midst Of her lecture, woman
crept into the room and fell In chair,
hall fainting. The lesson continued,
the woman now and again raising her
pathetic face to the speaker, now bury
Ing 1t In her emaciated hands and
giving way to long sighs of exhaus-
ton.
| The face was so white, so imploring,
that when the girl stopped to weigh
another baby, she left 1t moment In
the machine to go to her and ask her
address. 1t 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 redec-
live 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. Will 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 ad-
/ dress.
TITS near the river" she comment
led, "a long way" and she began to
walk very straight ahead, looking
neither to the right nor to the left Of
her.
"It 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 to make them feel that l 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 and
nurse, took the liberty of pushing 1t
open, more and more, until at last 1t
! Jared wide and we stood on the thresh-
old, gazing in.
j 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 it were, of bits of bric-a-
brac, of vases, or of fancy pitchers full
Of paper flowers-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 a glow Of radiant and
beautiful healthfulness emanating from
his small personality.
What a beautiful baby!" cried the
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 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 1t 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 bountiful supply OF
eatables, brought them back. cooked a
| dainty meal for the mother and gave
the baby 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 signs spanning the
streets back of us, gray as the skeleton
of bridge against the sunlit blue OF
| the sky.
starved herself" commented then.
that the baby might live. Wouldn't
even drink drop of milk she had
brought for him for fear he might suf-
Ter. | saw the bottle on the mantel. It
was half full