Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-09
MARTHA DEPENDS
ON CHEST SUCCESS
Failure of Effort Means No
Blouse for ChiIdren's Hos
pitaI Inmate.

or course, there are lots Of good
reasons why the Community Chest
must not fail, but certainly none Is
more important than Martha's new
blouse.
Now, let It be plainly understood at
the outset. Martha is not the sort OF
girl who is given to complaining, least
of all over blouse-or rather the lack
of one.
Not that Martha couldn't find several
things to get peevish about If she
wanted to begin looking for trouble.
And she wouldn't have to look very far,
either. She has whole world of trou-
BILE all to herself.
Martha doesn't like to recall the day
too wildly. She prefers to forget bad
dreams, and no nightmare could be
worse than memories of the day when
she was playing mud pies out in Seat
Pleasant and sandbank caved in,
breaking her back and making her an
invalid for life.
That's all back in the unpleasant
past, and Martha is living in the CHEEKY
present, as she passes the hours and
days and months and years away in her
small wheel chair out at ChildrenS
Hospital.
FOrgets Own Handicap.
Martha forgets all about her own
handicapS when she looks about her
and sees the sufferings of other young
Sters in her ward. After all, she is
only paralyZed from the waist down.
She can sit in her chair and study her
lessons in the morning and read books
in the afternoon and look out the win
dow and everything, which is a whole
lot better, she figures, than being in a
plaster cast or unable to eat or too sick
| to look for the sunshine behind the
| clouds.
Besides Martha. being the veteran
| of the ward in point of confinement,
! feels a certain obligation to help up
| hold the morale. There Is that pretty,
yellow-haired little girl over by the win
| dow to consider for example. Ruby Is
| only years old. She has had a
folks have in so. And there is little
Luther, with the broken leg and the
| pert disposition. Martha can wheel
her chair around from crib to crib and
share some of her smiles when Ruby
gets homesick or Luther grows restless
or any Of the others need somebody
to buck them up.
But to get back to that blouse.
Martha Likes BIouses.
You see. Martha can't wear dresses
Will SklEbS UIl GlIcIH any HlUTS, Out Bile
can wear nice blouses, which she tucks
beneath the blanket over her chair.
Martha likes blouseS. Unfortunately.
her folks are no more able to buy her
clothing than they are able to pay her
hospital expenses, or to support her
brothers and sisters, now in home. So
she has gone on wearing the same old
colorleSs blouse furnished her by the
hospital people.
Recently Martha happened to men
ton, quite casually, that her blouse
was getting rather threadbare in
places Miss Florence Abbott of the
nursing staff agreed that this was so,
but suggested there might not be any
funds available just now with which
to purchase new one.
ooh, yes. there will" Martha spoke
up, quite confidently. IT just read in
the paper here where the Community
Chest is going to give this hospital
lot of money"
Miss Abbott couldn't answer that very
we'll, so right on the spot she made
Martha a solemn promise. When the
Community Chest money was received.