Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-15
sSOUPY ISLAND SEASON
ON; CITY KIDS ARE HAPPY
River Boats "Lizzie" and John
ME" Again Carrying Exultant
= Childhood to Red Bank
JUST ESCAPES DRAFT
Little Green Paradise on Delaware AL
most Wasn't This Year, but
It's Open Today
By M'LISS

Some day there may be enough fresh
air and good things to eat for every child !;
but until that happy day. there is "soupy
Island"
"soupy Island"-Nou know it's that neat
little, sweet lttb green paradise down on
The Delaware which staid grown-up folks
IN their staid grown-up way insist on call
ing the "Sanitarum at Red Bank'-has
come into its own again. The forty-hrst
season is on and the Lizzie" and the
"Johnnie"-something more than mere
river boats to the kids-are once more
carrying their full cargo of exultant child
hood back and forth from the torrid torpid
city TO the cool, verdant country.
ISLAND ALMOST CoNsCRIPTED
But "Soupy Island" almost wasn't this
year The tragedy was very nearly brought
about by virtue of a letter written by a
high and mighty person called the com.
mandant at the navy yard to Edwin S
Dixon, vice president of the Sanitarium
Association. This letter wanted to know
oil about the acreage of the island" and
what facilities it might offer for a train
even more overcrowded than it is In
short, "Soupy Island" was in grave danger
of being Conscrpted.
But Mr.. Dixon wrote and explained how
"Soupy Island was in reality a training
station in fact, life-saving station. with
its hospitals and swimming pools and play
grounds, for the soldiers and sailors-to be
and so the commandant wrote back reassur-
ing him that unless the need for the land
became very very dire, indeed, "Soupy
Island" was exempted
As Tomboy Name commented sue
cinCtly, "Gawd knows what we kids
would-a done If they'd taken 'Soupy away
from us"
TOMBOY NAME IN NEW ROLE
on the opening day, which was yester-
day, TombOy Name, much to the disgust Of
the gang, of which Name is the acknowl-
edged leader, appeared in the new role of
little mother. She had a two-year-old
brother in tow, and every time 1t was
Names turn to be ut" she had to stop
and adjust for the dirty-faced youngster
what Colonel Henry Watterson has so
aptly termed the neutral garment"
Say, Name, STOW the brat in the ham
mick" one of the gang advised, when the
game was held up for the fifth time,
"WhatCha bring i'm fer?"
Name, long and stringy as a new colt.
whose pipe-stem legs have doubtless never
known the feel of a stocking stuck her
arms akimbo and delivered a broadside to
be remembered for all time.
lHlS mere hlui Sne observed, is my
brother and not yourn nobody's askin'
you to look after him. and if you don't like
what I'm a-doin' you can lump it,"
After all the old games had been played,
the new hammocks tried out the newly
sanded sliding boards sampled and the
swimming pool invaded-in short after ac-
quaintance with all the old familars had
been renewed and new acquaintances made,
Names gang, together with all the other
gangs which constituted the days cargo of
the John f. and Elizabeth Monroe Smith,
trooped over to the soup kitchen. Here,
audbly and eXultantly, they gulped down
as many bowls of the nourishing liquid as
their starved little tummies would hold.
And when a cracking lightning and
booming thunder storm came up and
washed the island an even brighter green
than it was before. it was all the tired
mothers could do to keep their kids from
swarming out again into the drenchng
rain, where the free-for-all merry-go-
rounds and swings beCkoned temptingly.
Every day at Soupy Island, even a rainy
day, is a good one, but the first daY of the
season is the best of all AS Name reiter-
ated as the days fun grew "rhank Gawd,
the guvment didn't git it."