New-York tribune., 1918-07-08
The Tribune Fresh Air Fund

A boy and baseball bat! A lad of
seven years and bat two-thirds his
height.
Yesterday the boy carried the bat
with him to the breakfast table. He
carried it about with him all morning
and to the dinner table at noon. Dur
ing the afternoon and at supper time
he refused to part with it for mo-
ment. He took it to bed with him.
You smile, but you should weep! The
boy never will be able to use the bat;
never be able to play ball. The bat
is merely the badge of his hope.
He's an infantile paralysis victim,
stricken during the epidemic of two
years ago. Last Friday he went to the
country for three weeks vacation as
the guest of The Tribune Fresh Air
Fund and took his bat with him. Since
slept with it in his arms, eaten his
meals with it between his legs and re-
fused steadily to do anything that
would necessitate its getting beyond
his reach.
27 Other Scourgc Victims
With him at the New Windsor Fresh
Air Home. the place of his entertain
ment, are twenty-seven other little vic
tins Of the scourge that swept New
York and left its brand upon thousands
of children just two years ago this
month.
Twenty-eight human tragedies!
T All of them in the first act of their
playing. Even in the field hospitals
l ,~l in, Eron IL WON Id
be hard to find things more tragic than
the SCARED lives Of these little blight
nipped men and women.
Among them is golden-haired, blue
eyed boy of about two and half years
as handsome lad as ever breathed.
The upper part of his body is plump
and straight and beautiful. But his
legs On one he wears a brace, with
out which it would not bear weight;
as to be almost useless. The lad can
barely hobble about. He falls and
picks himself up, falls and picks him
self up, falls and picks himself up with
infinite patience, trying to get around
and play. A tragedy? Pity him!
Girl Who Can't Smile
One of his playmates at the home is
another youngster of the same age. He
is not so handsome lad as the first
and his misfortune is greater. HIS
legs look very much like those of his
companion, but when he gets upon his
feet, as ne sometimes does, he cries
with pain and drops in heap to the
ground. He is obsessed with the idea
Of getting the brace off his leg, and
/ whenever ne is left to himself for ten
or fifteen minutes succeeds in undoing
all it's straps and lacings.
Think of little girl that can run
and shout and play, but cannot smile
That is the case Of one of the little
girls at New Windsor, tot of five or
six years. The plague left her legs and
arms untouched, nor did it mar the sur
face of her cheek, but in some diabolic
muscles of her face, so that when she
attempts to smile her mouth seems to
draw around until it is almost under
her ear The appearance of mlrth is
impossible for her.
Distorted Hands and Arms
The oldest child in the party is a
girl of thirteen, once as straight and
1.-THE as any of her age; now she wears
braces on both legs and is forced to
use cane when she hobbies about;
Then there is boy with distorted
hand, a girl with an arm dwarfed to
half its normal size, little fellow VINO
wears a brace tnat keeps one aIi!i
raised at right angles to his body all
the time. And these are the types
which all the others follow.
The luckiest youngster of The lot IS
a boy of ten. When the doctors pulled
him through his initial illness his feet
were found to have been twisted SO
that they pointed directly toward one
another. Now they point stright ahead
once more, but it has taken five sur
gical operations on each one to pro
duce this result. To-day the boys legs
look as though they might have been
the original inspiration of the "legs
like pipestems" simile.
10000 Others Need Air
| To give these twenty little unfort-
unates three weeks Of fresh air and
sunshine, in the hope that it will help
revivify their paralyzed muscles. The
Tribune Fund is spending more than
$500. Another group of boys and girls,
victims of the same scourge, is to be
granted the same boon when these re-
turn to the city.
This is a sample of what The Trib-
une Fund is doing-and an indication
of what it costs to do it. There are
10000 other children waiting for the
fund to send them to the country. Not
ell are as pitiful in their needs as the
infantile paralysis victims, but every
one of them needs O. country fortnight
of that there can be no doubt.
II you believe in doing the sort Of
thing described here. join the list of