New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-29


skipping.
The five hundred!
Up from the East Side, up from the
West Side.
Down from Harlem, down from the
Bronx
Across the river from Brooklyn.
ThH five hundred!
Shouting, whistling. singing, smiling
Into Grand Central.
Count EN- up, check 'em off.
st. Mary's Free Hospital, 80. Right
hudson Guild. Al. Check.
Brooklyn Children's Aid, 90. All
here.
Right.
De Witt Memorial Church. %. Check
Masters School Day Nursery, a
This one 10, that one 20, the other II
Up to 500.
All Fresh Airs"
All bound for WATERFOWL, N. Y, for
fortnight vacations.
Lead 'em through the train gate.
Load EN- in the cars.
"All aboard"
Swing the lantern.
?, ON they go. the biggest Tribune
Fresh Air party of this summer. for
an all,,night ride up to their vacation
grounds along the st. Lawrence.
Wish EN- Luck and JOY
Wish EN- luck! Wish 'em joy and
health! They need your good wishes,
for they spend their days and nights
when they are at home in the worst
tenements in the poorest sections of
New York. Hope for them that when
they come back in two weeks they may
be happier, healthier and filled with
heart thrilling memories.
But 1T wasn't all as easy as this
SOUNDS to get those 500 lads and las
sizes and get them started on their wav.
The first definite information the
Tribune Fund had on the party came
on last Tuesday, when list Of invita-
tons for 304 children was received.
Added to the parties already in process
OF formation this made things look
like busy three days for the Fund
staff.
Work was started and for twenty
four hours the telephone wire searched
the city for the sort of children the
Watertown hosts wanted "girl with
light hair and blue eyes" for this one,
ouoic VINO was mere laSE year.
for that one, girl twelve to fourteen
years, one with neither father nor
mother, who might be adopted" for an
other; "two children, brother and sister
preferred" for still another, and so on.
But in twentyfour hours they were
all found and the Fund settled back in
its official chair with sigh of salts
faction.
The sigh was shattered amidships by
letter inclosing list of one hun
dred additional invitations-an the
work had to be done all over again
And it took the best part of day to
find and tag the hundred. But it was
done, and again a sigh of satisfaction
gathered itself together ready for
heaving. 1t never reached the sur
face, however. being submerged ut
terly by a telegram adding still an
other fifty invitations.
First Examined Physically
The youngsters called for by it were
only half found when its mate winged
it's way in, demanding yet another fifty
vacation seekers from Watertown
'throughou Thursday and on into the
night. The five hundred were all To-
Gated somewhere in three boroughs.
That was only the beginning. Boys
and girls can't be sent out to private
homes for vacations, no matter how
poor they may be, without first being
given physical examinations to deter
mine that they are not carriers of
contagious disease. So examination
times and places had to be fixed and
the children notified of them.
All day yesterday they were trooping
to the examinations from in the
morning until 9 at night. And where
the selected youngsters failed to pass
the wheels had to be set in motion
again to find duplicates who would fill
their shoes.
As the examinations at different
points were completed, the Office tele-
phones began to grow hot again as the
workers began to register the addresses
of the children passed, so that the
Fund might check them against it's
index of contagious disease quaran-
tines, for no child is sent to the coun-
try who comes from house in which
case Of contagious disease is known
to exist.
The end of all the preliminary work
cams finally, however, and there was a
lapse Of three hours before it was
time to go to the train and see the
boys and girls come trooping into the
station. They came, they were checked
and they departed. There was nothing
left to be done but send the telegram
informing the Watertown folks that