New-York tribune., 1917-07-30
Father Is a Longshoreman
and His Wages Are
Pitifully Small.
Never Saw the Country
Tribune Readers Asked to
Give Hungry Brood a
Real Outing

LOHBsHOIelldH - HIteen mOIHtEltbs
children-low wages-high cost of liv-
ing: the elements of pitiful story. II
you can spare Sc or any multiple of
SIX up to fifteen times that sum, read
the story. Otherwise, don't; it will
only pull your heartstrings to no avail.
The Tribune Fresh Air Fund has
been asked to give vacations-with
food!-to Marie and some of her
brothers and sisters, but the Tribune
Fresh Air Fund is only name if it
! have not the public's money.
Girl Had "Beanitis"
Here is the story in full as told by
the nurse who cared for Marie when
she was sick:
"Marie came to us suffering from
what the doctor feared was appendi-
citis. She had a temperature OF lO3
degrees and was suffering great pain.
"Questioning as 10 what she had
been doing during the few days pre-
ceding her coming developed the fact
that she had been at = picnic given by
a settlement, at which the children had
been given beans for dinner-'Baked
beans, home-bakei beans. and very
good!' as Marie put it.
"She had eaten three helpings, each
one-to Judge from her own description
"a meal in itself. When / asked why
che had been so greedy, she replied
simply:
"T was hungry
"She says she gets enough to eat at
home. Maybe she does, but the wasted
form that l bathed with alcohol to re-
ouce her temperature belied her words
Marie Is Undernourished
an a family of fifteen children she
il next to the oldest. (This is her own
account Of the family circle.) She is
fourteen years of age and looks about
ten. She is undeveloped and under
pourished.
"Her mother is dead-died when the
tsbv was three months old. 1t is seven
months now. Her father is long
shoreman and his mother tries to take
care Of the fifteen children: q,
"Tmagine having to feed, clothe and
house seventeen people on iongsore-
mans wages in these days OF l2-cent
milk and 15-cent bread! Do you won
der that Marie ate three plates Of beans
while she had q chance? IL she could
have had them, she would probably have
eaten six and been glad to get them!
"She did not have appendicitis
only beanitis,' the doctor said. In three
days she was all right, and went back
to her sixteen relatives.
Never Had a Real Meal
"This girl has never been in the
country, nor has any one Of her broth
ers and sisters. Beyond that, they
have probably never had good, square
meal in ali their lives-eXcept Marie
on the beans. How could they have
had?
"If some of these children could be
sent to the country-I wouldn't ask it
for all of them; just the older ones
it would be a godsend not only to the
ones that did go, but to the smaller
ones at home. For two weeks they
would have that much more to eat and
so much more room to sleep in.
"And the father and the grand
mother! If only out Of pity for them,
let some Of the children go"
What need be added to the plea OF
the nurse-except this: Why should only
"some" of the children get country
fortnight? Why should not all Of them
go, and the grandmother, for the sec
ond time doing her "bit" as family
raiser, too?
Who wants to pay the expense OF the
undertaking, or any part of it
CONTRIBUTIONS TO TIE TRIBUNE FRESH