The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-14

Many children devoted two pages or
more to description OF the bed rooms
and kitchens in the tidy and untidy
home. Here is an account given by a
ten-year-old girl in the fourth grade;
Then in a corner opposite that it
showed how dirty people Keep their
houses. The bedroom had dirty old
clothes on the bed which was half made.
The kitchen was all dirty and dusty. and
there was a can of tomatoes emptied out
in sthe dishpan with wet dripping greasy
rags right above them and dripping into
them. And the table cloth was all dirty
sour saurkraut and cabbage mixed to-
gether and cooked an hour or two too
long. The coffee was the strongest I
have ever seen in my life, and I don't
believe shall ever see any more as
strong as that as long as live, and there
was not any milk for 1t, and the pickles
were mouldy enough to kill any child, and
the sausage was terrible"
The same child went on to describe the
clean and dirty dairy.
The clean and dirty markets held a
peculiar fascination for the children. and
there are vivid accounts of the cat that
was walking over the meat and lick
ing the meat" and the COWS head with
a disease that made it all lumpy, lying
in the corner with the blood dripping
out" As Helen remarks:
I'm the good store the storekeeper was
dressed in white. the food all looked
clean and in nice glass case. In the
bad store the cat was on the counter
and the celery and lettuce was all dried
up and the rest is too disgusting to
tell about"
All the children saw the moving picture
show, which they take care to tell us
was a free show. The film dealing with
the care of the teeth that telling the
story of boys camp, one vaguely des-
cribed as 'he knocked his wife. down
and he knocked his children down, and
they all fought" and the clean milk
film received the most attention.
The library proved a great attrac-
tion to the children. Near the library
was a booth showing the guns, cards.
jimmies, daggers, etc, taken away from
small boys in the children's court. There
was also lurid collection of dime novels
from the same source.
This booth and the explainers in charge
the explainers seem to have done eff
fective work in the Rochester exhibit
impressed the boys very seriously. Moses
states the case:
when child reads novel he gets
interested in them and likes to buy more
OF them. After boy reads great deal
of these novels he gets so that he thinks
he is the things that he is reading about.
And soon after that he starts to MUIR
der"
Tabulation was made showing the dis
tribution Of references among the four
main types Of exhibit material-entertain
ments. models, motion exhibits and photo
graphs, maps, diagrams, charts. etc
Most of the children who attended the
exhibit have ondy vague memory OF
the photographs which lined the walls
and every reference OF this kind is capped
by three references too the programme
numbers. Models and Vsnotion exhibits
receive practically the same amount OF
grades were more impressed by the en-
tertasnments than the higher, and the
higher were more impressed by the photo
graphs than the lower. The per cents
for all the children run: entertainment So
models 2S. motion exhibits 26 and photo
graphs. maps. ETC., IL.
The children speak frankly in their
letters, often telling more about them
selves than they realize. There is some
thing pathetic in the following glimpse
of home-life which Maurice affords u.s.
THE coed food and bad are almost
what take. but don't drink coffee