The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-29
The FIGHT For LEE

Annie learned much of the terrific
, struggle of the foreign poor in this
Land of the Free, from the Rothbergs'
"reminiscences, the Rafetzkys' suffer
ings during the strike, and the eternal
battles fought by other of her neigh
bors for mere life and sustenance.
She came to know children who
had never owned toy in their lives
Men of twenty and more who had
never possessed a new suit of clothes
who bought every poor rag and boot
they owned from a musty cellar where
the best was third or fourth hand,
She saw seven-year-old boys selling
papers in the streets. hiding their
pennies in their shoe to keep the
cop from findin' EN-" In the house
next door lived a woman who stood
at the corner of a certain street till
2 o'clock in the morning tending her
newsstand, through the bittereSt days
Of winter, through the burning days
of summer, through sickness, through
many terms of approaching mother
hood
lot behind her fiat burying something
very small wrapped in paper. Care
fully he marked the spot with a dis
Carded rusty kettle. When the child
saw Annie watching him he leaped
protectingly toward his treasure. But
she caught and questioned him. The
poor little devil, it seemed, had found
in the street a dime. Fearing rob-
berry If he carried so prOdigiOuS a sum
about upon his person, he thought to
hide it where he could come back and
look at it each day till he could decide
its disposition. Annie assured him it
would be safe-that she would watch
the spot from her window. The little
lad believed her, and went upon his
way feeling a capitalist.
She heard a small girl say to an
other one day:
"Ooooh; they got loads and loads
of money. Whaddyer think? They
got whole cake of white stuff in the
kitchen to scrub the dirt off pans
with! They buy it-just special for
that. They don't use ashes. You
just rub it on a rag-like and wipe the
pans-and they get clean"
There was increduity on the other
child's face at the tale of this prodi-
gal spending. Annie could see she
was searching her mind for some story
of equal impresIveness.
There's a girl in our house" she
narrated with an expression that said,
You won't believe this. but it's true"
that gets a white roll with butter on
1t every single day when she comes
home from school! She dassent eat it
on the street, e'cause they'd all want
bites She goes under the stairs in
the hallway. l seen herr
Annie mulled it all over in her
mind, trying to understand why there
was such poverty, wondering if she
Bernie would ever get out Of it, or
whether they would go on, getting
poorer and more helpless and hope
less each year, until they viewed life
soddenly or sullenly like most Of those
around her.
If Bernie had been asked just when
things first began to be utterly de
pressing at home he would have been
at a loss to say. The sliding down
was very gradual. There had been
an evening when he noticed things
seemed different-not tidy. Armies
work-dress was shabby and soiled,
Carelessly turned in at the neck for
GOODNESS. She looked nerve strained
and weary. Damp wisps of hair droop-
ed about her face. The children were
noisy or fretful, according to each
ones degree of health. The supper
table appeared carelessly laid, the
meal unappetizing and scant.
Had this been before the fourth
baby's advent, wondered Bernie. Or
afterward, during that trying time
when Annie could not recover her
strength, and the work, the bills and
the general anxiety piled up till it
seemed each day brought something
new to worry about? Or had it been
still later, during the little poor baby S
sickness. when Annie did not sleep