New-York tribune., 1912-08-14
OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS
Hundred and Fifty Children
Fresh Air Fund Guests.
YOUNGSTERS ALL SMILES
All from Crowded Tenement
Houses, SO Change Will Be
q Big One.

yesterday was hard day Tor the chill
dren who had 10 spend IL on the streets
Of the tenement districts. There were
thousands of them that sweltered and
broiled in the hot and noisome side streets
and alleys of the lower East Side and
other crowded quarters.
Fortunately, there were $50 who escaped
-150 who made up three Tribune Fresh Air
parties to Pittsfeld, Mass; Gloversville.
n. Y, and group of Vermont and New
Hampshire villages in the neighborhood
of Northfeld, VI. To-day, In tho Berk-
shlres and i'm the heart of the Green
Mountains, they will be able to forget
for a time that there is such a thing as
q tenement smell or a scorching pave
ment. Among the hundred and a half
there were some for whom the change
will be big one.
There was, for example, John -, a lad
OF eight. whose last name unnecessary
here) indicates that his parents, at least
originally. came from sunny Italy. He
lives in the East 10Cs. John has three
brothers and four sisters, making with
his mother and the father a family
OF ten. This whole family liRes in three
small rooms. The father Is a bartender.
and one of the older sisters works in
candy factory.
With the same party went Christian
not he made famous by John Bunyan,
though with a somewhat bigger burden
on his shoulders no doubt, If the truth
were appreciated. Christian. a lad of
eight, can count twelve brothers and one
sister. His father keeps a little cellar
grocery in First avenue. His mother
boasts no occupation. saying she has
enough to do at home to keep her busy.
The sixteen live IN four rooms.
A somewhat older boy was Fred.
German of twelve years. There are ten
in his family, six boys. two girls. the
mother and father. The last named had
walked down from East Slst street with
the boy was going TO away to help with
his bag so that a carfare might be saved.
The father Is out OF work and is finding
IT difficult to pay the rent Of even the
four rooms which the family is now
managing to exist in.
Then there was a Bohemian named
Rudolph, one OF family of six children
left without either father or mother. In
! some way these six manage. to keep a
! little home of three rooms in East 7ith
| street Two of the older ones work. The
| younger ones, including Rudolph, are
| taken care OF during the day by one OF
the Industrial schools Of the American
| Female Guardian Society.
Sandy" was lad whose last name
! belied his first as far as nationality was
concerned Tie claimed, moreover TO be
! Italian. To him belonged the distinction
| OF being a member OF the smallest family
represented among the 80 boys and girls
/ who went forth to their conquest of the
country yesterday. He had only one broth
er and no sisters. His distinction carried
with II the other distinction that his
family occupied two rooms, the smallest
number recorded for this party Of chill
dren. There were. however, two others
! TO share that latter distinction with San
! dy," each OF them claiming a two-room
| home.
The list might be carried on, but the
details would be monotonously alike.
Large families and small homes-if the
word may be properly applied. out of
| all the 100 children on the days list, the
| families Of seventy-nine lived In three
rooms, while those of siXty-five managed
! four roms.
There wasn't boy or girl in the crowd
who wasn't all aglow with smiles. When
It is considered what they came from and
what they were going to- is 1t any won
! der?