New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-05
Many Children Owe First
Glimpse of Fields to
Village Preacher.
SERMON A SUNBEAM
TO DARK TENEMENTS
Movement Started in 1877 Has
Spread to All Parts of
the World.

Forty years ago, on the first Sunday
In June, n Presbyterian minister
preached from his pulpit in an OBJ
seure little Pennsylvania village a SER
mon heard round the world. In its eff
fects it was one of the greatest SER
mons of modern times.
1t was n sermon about children
specifically the little children of the
! New York tenements.
This village preacher, but recently
come to a new parish, Lad served his
apprenticeship as a city missionary in
one of New York's congested tenement
districts. There he had seen poverty
at its worst, and grown-ups and chill
dren faltering under its terrible priva-
| tions.
But he saw that, while much Of the
poverty was deserved, those who suf-
fered most under its scourge were they
who were in no way responsible for
I their condition-the little children.
These little sufferers he had seen
trying to play. crowded by hundreds in
the short space of city block, con-
stantly brushed aside by the tide of
traffic. The same little ones he had
seen starving on crusts, whitening in
| poisoned atmosphere, paling and dying
in the gloom of tenements into which
no golden sunbeams ever penetrated
Sermon Bears Fruit.
In his new parish he Found people
whose harvests gave them food in plen-
: ty and to spare. He saw them living
in homes of comfort. He found about
him miles upon miles Of far-stretching,
sun-bathed fields and forests, where
multitudes of children might find play
space, but whose lights and shadows
were rarely disturbed by childish feet.
! So he preached his sermon. OF, il
and its immediate effects he wrote TO
friend the same day:
sherman. Penn, June 8, 1877.
"My Dear Mrs. L.: The ball is set in
motion. | took for my text this morn
ing, 1nasmuch as We have done it unto
enc of the least of these, We have done
! it unto me, and made the practical
bearing of my words the bringing out
| into our homes some of the waits and
outcasts from the city. One man
stopped on his way home to say that
/ he would take four. In another house
/ there is call for a mother and a baby,
! and so on through the town. The en-
/ thusiasm and response of my people
| have delighted me.
WILLARD PARSONS"
This was the beginning of the great
/ Fresh Air movement This was the be-
ginning Of the Tribune Fresh Air Fund,
which through all the years that have
elapsed since the preaching of the ser
mon has fathered the movement which
! Willard Parsons started.
Movement Started in 1877.
The sound Of the sermon did not
reach round the world the first year,
but it did reach to New York. 1t took
some time to interest people there in
the project and get them TO give the
money to pay the railroad fares of the
children to their country hosts, but II
was done; and within a few weeks the
young minister took back TO Sherman
/ with him the worlds first Fresh Air
party. Here is his own description
of IL:
"There were nine in all. They we're
very poor, and enfeebled by want and
disease in consumption, crippled, suf
fcring from the effects of whoopng
cough, thin and pinched for want of
! sufficient and suitable food. One, eight
years old, was well, and went as nurse
to his little brother of five, who was
Just out of the hospital. with spinal
troubles and growing deformity"
When this party of pitiful youngsters
was returned to the city another some
what larger was taken TO Sherman, and
after that still another. In all, sixty
tots got a glimpse Of fairyland that
year as Fresh Airs"
If you had watched the railroad ter
minals in New York last summer you
would have seen something which
would have helped you TO judge TO what
the little movement started in 1877 had
grown in 1915. You might have seen,
for example. on a certain morning
about the middle of July, three hun
dred boys and girls 60 shouting and
laughing sheir way through the station
Of the Lackawanna Railroad TO board
train for Binghamton, n. Y, there TO
be Fresh Airs for two weeks.
Riddles Eager for Outing.
Near midnight Of July II, or at the
same hour of the following night, you
might have seen 200 lads and lassies,
more or less pale and anemic, more or
less ragged and forlorn, 60 Gathering
and chattering through the Grand Cen
trial Terminal to board trains for JEFF
ferson and Lewis counties, y. Y, there
TO be the guests of farmers and village
people who had opened hospitable
homes TO them.
Or you might, somewhat later in the
summer, have watched crowd CT $50
children set out via the Lehigh Val
ley Road for West Pittston, Penn; or
a crowd Of nearly the same size board
an Ontario & Western train for Wal
ton and Delhi, y. Y; or, for that mat
ter. any one of three crowds Of 100
girls each setting out for Deposit,
Y. Y. by way of the Erie Railroad.
In short, if you had been able TO get
TO each Fresh Air point of departure
/ during the months of July and August
YOU would have been able TO count
| 9.727 boys and girls boarding trains
/ and boats for the Fresh Air land which
the Tribune Fund had been able 20
oper wide for them.
Echoes Around World.
Heard round the world, this ser
mon? In thirty-nine years il has set
a-scamper 324,566 pairs of tenement
trained feet and sent their owners roll
/ licking up hill and down dale, over
stream and through woodland glade in
New York and the five states that Dor