Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-17
HEAT IN TENEMENTS.
Banched Faces Turn Peadinsly
Toward Gods Country.

The problem of the poor can never
be solved until it is fully understood.
The conditions amid which the tene
ment house dweller lives can be ap-
preciated only by those living in the
tenement houses. Schools for the
training of social workers have a large
purpose. and they fulfil that purpose
well. But the difference between
learning about the poor and living
among them is the difference between
studying a timetable and going down
the st. Lawrence, the difference be-
tween reading bill of fare and en-
ioying a hotel dinner
Take yesterday as an illustration.
What could man living in Tuxedo
or Seal Harbor. Lenox or Murray Bay.
know about the sitting, prostrating.
death dealing tenement homes OF
Manhattan or Brooklyn? He may not
be blamed for his lack of knowledge
concerning those who are obliged to
live or die in the terrible, blistering.
killing heat: he certainly cannot I'M
derstand what those were obliged to
undergo who could not reach noun
tain or sea or lake or river.
One is tempted to tell the truth, or
house conditions yesterday, but how
can he, for neither pen nor camera
is sufficient One cannot photograph
an cdor: he can scarcely describe the
weary. wilted frames which contain
the souls and intellects of little chill
dren One would scarcely dare to
take photographs OF many of the chill
dreu and some mothers as, grouped
i a h.. Nit y,
the scorching pavement a menace to
bare feet. they sat or stood around
dressed in rs little as keen sense of
| modesty would allow. For they are
modest, children and parents; an ex-
posture that might shock visitor
| from another city, or another part OF
New York excites no coarse jest from
these people of nature. who are Obliged
to live and eat and sleep and battle
and dress in less space the year
around than that occupied by the aV-
erage drawing room on the avenue,
now deserted by its owner, who has
| crossed the sea or fled to the coun-
| try TO escape the terrors of such
| day as yesterday.
The little girl may have on only
single garment, and that not
| tube" as they call it: and the little
boy may not be more fully dressed !,
and the thoughtless eherub seen IN
| Mott street, wearing only her birth
| dav suit-all of this one witnesses as
| he goes east and west of the BowerS
and Broadway in quest of local color
for a fresh air story, but never once
will he see manifestation of i'm
modesty on the part of the children,
who have not yet learned to be
| ashamed The nursing child on his
mothers breast is no more innocent
of shame than is the mother herself,
who is caring for her child as she
thinks a true mother should; and one
is no more immodest than the other,
for is it not written: "To the pure
all things are pure?"
The children out of school and into
the streetsl The man or woman who
can stroll through these streets un-
moved by the sight on day like yes.
terday needs to consult a physician or
an alienist One need not go into a
single home with its bedding on
chairs or on the floor. or see the chill
dren on the roofs or fire escapes. or
hear the means and involuntary cries
Of sick and weary children-if one
can witness the sights on streets and
stoops and in the small parks and
Fairgrounds and not feel sick at
heart. he needs to go to priest or
missionary, make a confession ana
seek pardon. for he needs kind OIL
help which is not taught in the medi-
cal schools.
For the fathers. and especially the
mothers, living in a tenement house,
such a one as ID. L. Moody. OF
Mortified. declared he would not Keep
his dogs in. much less ask the people
in them to come to Jesus" While
compelled by Christian civilization
to live in 'it-for the parents one feels
an intense sympathy, but not so great
a- For tho childran-thn ..biIdren * those