The Washington herald., 1913-10-12

have been mentioned is its underwear.
This must be of warm. snug fitting wcol.
All of the other articles are useless with
out this. Perhaps the best idea yet
suggested along the line of cold weather
comfort for the child is that OF fitting
him with an Eskimo suit OF wool with
the usual arctic hood.
The soapstones and hot water cans
which are placed in felt-lined boxes for
keeping the feet warm are old acquain-
tances 10 most of us, but the sitting out
bag is somewhat of a stranger 10 those
who have had no experience with sani-
tariums, yet IL comes in very handy in
these schools on cold days. The general
plan of this bag is a heavy wOolen blan-
ket. doubled and covered with canvas
and made to conform TO the shape OF
a steamer chair
There is, however. a special bag now
in euse made especially for oPen-air
schools. 1t is cheaper and better suited
to their use. 1t consists of a long flannel
blanket, doubled in two with an insert
of layers Of cotton batting and news
papers. which are sewed in the shape
of a bag and made to fit the special
chairs now used. which enable the child
to recline further than the steamer
chairs did and are. consequently, some
what different from them.
The greatest difficulty with the insti-
tuition of an open-air school in most COM
munities seems TO be that of expense. This
is a great problem, but where there's
a will there's a way. Some communities,
even little townships that do not look
as though they would support a grocery
store. have found that when they set
to the task of building a school house
or of securing something for this purpose,
it was not so hard after all. They have
bought old barns and torn out all or a
part of the southern side, and after clean
ing the old place up a bit and putting
a strong floor in it and maybe few
large windows that could be drawn up
against the ceiling they have conformed
the school to the latest fashion. Charity
workers and mothers have supplied the
clothing and new fixtures, while from
sociables and benefit affairs enough
money has been secured to furnish the
children with their wholesome meals.
Cities Can Accomplish Much.
If villages can manage in this way,
surely with little concerted action large
cities whose populations run into the hun
dreds Of thousands of individuals, can
by some means or other get sufficient
capital together to erect at least one IL
not more open-air schools and in a great
many of the larger cities this has been
done. These are the places where such
y
congested heart of what might be called
small nations, where tenement-bred chill
dren swarm the dirty streets and alleys
and live in a constant state of physical
and often moral pollution.
To free these little urchins from their
lives in the darkened cutters and to let
a little sunshine and fresh air into their
existence before they come to maturity,
with the fixed idea that the whole
world is dirty and dirt and meanness is
the purpose of our existence, is a philan-
thropic duty that ought to appeal to
every human heart that has been
spared from such a life. In some big
cities children grow to manhood so
wrapped up in poverty and disease OF
one sort or another that they do not
believe in such a thing as happiness, and
consequently they have a bitter feeling
against mankind in general and get the
idea that the world owes them some
thing This is what swells our criminal
records.
An antidote must be found somewhere
for these conditions, and that is what
the open-air school is acting as. II
proposes to take children out of these
morbid surroundings and give them a
little chance for real life, and it is re-
markable how II is succeeding.
BatfIcshIps ms schools.
To offset the great difficulty of ex-
pense the Fourth International Congress
on School Hygiene, which adjourned
only last month, adopted q resolution TO