The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-09-10
lew YORK HAS
TOY SHOP FOR
ITS AGED MEN
Unique Institution is Supported
by Charitable Persons of
the Great City.

NEW YORK, Sept. 9.-The Old
Mems workshop, conducted by the
New York association for improving
he condition Of the poor, is giving
respectable, elderly men chance TO
emain self-supporting and an oppor-
unity to pass the evenings Of their
ives in something else beside idle
md eventless days. Another purpose
4 the workshop is to provide light
work. for men temporarily handicap
bed by sickness until they can so back
o a mans full-fedged job. The work
ing capacity Of none Of these men is
reat and their tasks must be com
aratiyely easy.
AS result. the workshop schedule
.alls for six hours day and the min
mum wage paid Is about sixty cents
day. The average attendance Mt
he shop is about seventy. running as
high as 100 in the winter and drop
bing to forty in the summer. as many
e the men are able to secure some
lind Of light out-of-door work dur
ng the latter period. The associa-
ion makes an effort to get them such,
ising the shop only as last resort
when nothing else can DO found for
hem.
Making Toys for Cripples.
At the present time the shop Is es-
becially busy turning out toys which
ire being sent into all Of the hos
bitals and the homes where children
ire suffering from infantile paralysis.
they are also being sent TO children
who, while free from the disease. have
been quarantined in their homes be-
cause of the removal OF some menu
Der of the family to a hospital.
The toys represent all kinds Of AMI
mails and ono of the features Of the
hop is the large Noah's ark, con-
aiming eighteen animals, all mount
ID and ready to be set up in march,
ng line. other special articles being
made this summer are children's
wagons, wheelbarrows and screenes
and shovels to be used at the beaches.
|The shop is about half sustaining, tho
balance necessary to keep II running
being paid by the New York associa-
lion.
Some Interesting Workers.
Some very interesting stories are
connected with the workers. For in
stance. Peter j.. 6i, has no living
relatives. Before beginning work in
The toy shop he had no home and no
regular place 10 sleep. He was in
Tags when he first presented himself
FOR work. With what he could use
put of his first days pay he bought
collar, and four days later neck
de. BY the most frugal living he has,
put Of his little income, provided him
self fairly well with clothes and now
has comfortable room with the jan
tor of tenement.
Norman d. is SO years OF age. His
wife is much older than he and con-
|frmed invalid. For some years. until
two years ago, his son OF 80 cared for
him and his wife. This son suddenly
died leaving them entirely destitute,
and Mr. d., unable to find regular
work at his age, had TO care for him
self and his wife rs best he could on
the trifling amounts received from an
occasional days work.
Thomas L., aged 80, lost leg twen-
|ty years ago and for eighteen years
worked on a canal boat with n very
poor substitute for an artificial leg.
Idis eyesight failed and he could no
longer work with safety. Last fall
he was sitting in Battery park ono
day, with nothing to do and no pros
pect of anything to do, when some
one told him of the toy shop. He be-
gan work the next morning and has
been in the shop since. and. although
without previous experience. he is one
of the best painters in the shop. He
has no family or friends who can help
him.
Raymond ~, rs years of age, is a
printer by trade. He had little diff
guilty in caring for himself until age
disqualified him for competition with
younger men. Frequent illnesses had
eaten up his savings and he faced a
problem to exist. His wife was dead
and his daughter was wholly unable
to help him. The shop has proven a
blessing to him. as it has to many
others.