Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-06-18
BY Helen Astor.
(NIrs Vincent Astor.)

TIN IEN years ago Miss Mary
Morton, daughter Of Vice.presi
dent Levi P. Morton. established
Holiday Farm, at RhinecliiIe- on.,he- Hud-
son, IN New York. The home grew out
OF need which Miss Morton recognized
that child who had been i'll might
stlll ne victim Of the illness If dis
charged too soon from hospital
A child that had been i'll may have be.
come reasonably we'll, but yet be weak
TOO weak TO withstand the onslaughts
|that conditions of crowded tenement life
make upon the physical constitution,
patent should never be discharged from
Ia hospital until completely recovered
and provided with n fund OF resistance
against the environment that menaccs
health.
But this desideratum cannot ha
reached by overcrowded city institutions
Those who arc no longer acute!y i'll must
give way to those who are SUFFERING
more than themselves. Those who in
favorable conditions will recover must
give way 10 those who must have care or
ole. Therefore those in the lesser state
OF need must make way for the greater
1t is upon this proposition that HOLIDAY
Farm, Home for Conva descent Children
was built
sLaSt year Mr. Vincent Aston desiring
10 erect memorial for his father.
Colonel John Jacob Aston who was lost
IN the Titanic diSaster, conceived the
idea OF building a new home for the in.
sutution and OF enlarging its scope. The
100000.
Holiday Farm is eighty.fve miles from
New York. Far enough TO escane tha
noises, the tainted air and the feyerish
momentum OF city life, yet within three
Aours from the home OF the patient by
t!dlh' or less, II, as sometimes happens.
Inc automobile OF one Of The owners of
country homes near Rhinebeck is offered
Tor the return OF the little one.
The weak point Of convalescent homes.
as OF hospitals, is that the patients must
TOO soon give place 10 others. The dis.
tnguishing characteristic OF Holiday
Farm-what makes it unique-!s that
the lltt!e ones who have been ill remain
until they are well. no matter how long
mat Is. II they are quite well after a
fortnight, very well. II their recovery
requires two months, three. four. six.
they remain unmolested until the cure is
beyond question and they possess fund
or reserve vitality
BOYS are admitted from the ares of
tour TO nine. Girls from tour TO fifteen
When the girls have recovered their
health an effort is made to find 2 home
Tor them In the neigh borhood which has
given them health on the domestic staff
or many homes within radius OF twenty
miles from Rhlnebects are young women
whose names are on the registration
books OF Holiday Farm
But if the children must return -
their homes. those who are actively IN.
terested in the Home for Convslescents
have arranged that they shall do So win
memories OF simple, pleasant and beaI,h.
ful living. The terraced lawns slona ~
a brook which runs through the fam
The grounds are shaded pv ian ni;
trees. Twelve swings, gliding snt,nas
and sand box, an out.of.do0r glass.i,,,
closed playhouse beneath tree whose
branches sweep the ground are there ior
their amusement. For the play snir;, ;s
encouraged for the building OF hnaI,h
The old house which originally sheItaraa
the institution provided for twenty rit,In
invalids. The larger new one, ere1,ad ~,
the site Of the old, has a capacitv -;
fifty.
Most conyalescent hones close in Or.
tober. Holiday Farm Is ALWAYS onsn
Pale little children learn there the dn.
lights of coasting and sleighing.