- Re TENEMENT LIFE. MARD TO KEEP BABIES ALIVE. Stand the Heat. “Oh! hot; 1 meltin' all away.” A little boy about seven years old it's so guess I'm — been out of worh for a long time They used to live in the first floor of this house, close to Mrs. Bacon, Mrs. Bacon washes and hain’t got no Do you know where 1 can get he spoke and rested his burning head bows tried to steady themselves on his trembling knees, was damp with perspiration, and his hollow were streaked dirt. Thin, bony with coal dust, seemed to have given carry him along. like a fan on the stones of the walk, as if gathering up all ness they could from their surface. ‘‘Are you sick, little boy !"’ I asked. cheeks and his bare up trying to the cool- I just have carry the It isso hot in two, and it. doesn’t seem It awful in [ wish Summer would and no body wants me. nothing to do, and dry, have so 1 the rooms, We one to do much good. is come,” shifted the children and straightened her slender back to sup- port the burden better. “You talk well. never She Have you worked but now the lady is country and I have There are seven of “Oh, yes'm, into the to do. sun, and where is your hat?”’ I took him by the hand; and d further, sank in heap at my feet. “I can’t do it, missus; my queer like, and I feel as if I were a- meltin’ into butter or somethin’.”’ No sooner had I lifted him in my arms and carried him back of a higl he rose then than there million children about us, were a saloon-keeper to give you this ili a cent.” “What did you have for break- “Only tea and bread and butter.” ‘She down the street ch passed on two bareheaded her faded calico and their scrawny bare the ildren + i X LO RISE YODS flopped ys s Jineine Ciinging legs “The tenement poor summer in was my order Alt] oh the are regularly cleaned, since the poor ing the summer months, live prin- there is very lit- having been house districts; go th : streets ini, ou r ottt of doors, lifted her black and blue visage to me and said with a kind of hiss that sent the chills running all over me: “Say, miss, would it be very wicked if 1 wrapped it up in pretty red shawl and dropped it in the river over there?” Although my mouth at the n l wns in as 1 heart suggestion my fol out, and saw the water beyond so cool and fresh, I conld not but think and wonder, too, if it would be 80 very wrong. I hurried over to the west to the better districts, still all tene- ment houses, More of the people got to the Fresh-Air people and show the advantage, but the gide older girls while thinking about their bad luck. Groups of idlers seek the sidewalks | about These grow larger as the sun goes down, and the versation is generally on what did or did not do during the day. West H0th street is what tl § o'clock CON thie ¥ , 3 they call truck street stables for the horses line th sides of oys and gir frir 14 kerchief full of broker money and hurry me until we can g ) Who can get me some milk? I know wh fer you, missus,’ "Ten ce brought milk, which the boy guiped down so fast that he almost strangled. The ice was wrapped in the handkerchief and bound about his head. and with corner of another handkerch iped clean as the water from ithe melting ice re! ye 4 » cries, nts a cup of the jaf his face was trickled 3 on his forehe: “What do you think's the matter uv ne, missus,’* he finally asked, as he lay with his head resting on the tattered coat of Johnny the black. “What it?’ ealled a strong raw-boned woman, as she elbowed her way through the crowd of chil- dren. “This is my house, and what are you crowded around here for?’ Finnley is tooken sick, and leddy guy him some milk,”” vouch-| safed a wee tot, evidently the pride of some mother's heart, for his long | curls had been freshly combed, and | an attempt to wash his face was evi- | dent. i “Finnley, poor lad, what's happen- | ed you ?’’ said the woman, kneeling i and taking his hands tenderly in| hers. I told you to come here for a | bite when you got hungry, and I'll | warrant you've had nothing to eat to- | day. How is it, my boy ?"’ ‘Oh, Mrs. Bacon, I dreamed my mother came back and I had a lot to eat, and when I woke up I said, ‘maybe she'll be home to-day.” So I jes' waited, thinkin’ if she eame I ought not to ask you for a bite so much, You've boen mighty good to me. Mrs, Bacon, and’’ With a moan his head fell on one gide, and the motherly Mrs. Bacon picked up the boy in her strong arms and earried him up the ricketty stairs to her own room, ‘I'll take eare of him, lady,”’ she called back as she saw me standing on the sidewalk below. ‘I've been working every day and have niglected to keep an eye on him.’ She disap- peared and the children who had mah $0 noisy a short time before wandered away silently, none seeminy to feel like play ust then. “Whois Finnley ?’ nquired of a girl who was carrying two small children, one under each arm. “His mother lives on the top floor aow boot- is de! of the rear house. His father has and stale bread they refuse, seems so dreadful out not think you would children to coma out * | remarked med over hat she held in her withered arms. “It 1x better than the Louse We out of the city even to get on the fresh air boats, My daughter washes, and it takes every day us along. The children die up in the house. You don’ your house, to an old woman a hall sleeping babe cannot get CATTY - Some of us have but one window, and there is not a breath of air to be got. W¢ stay in the streets until the police- Do you wonder at the men who sit all night in the park? It much better than in thei homes. My son has not been able to sleep home for a week, ever since the hot weather began. We women folks must stay there but it is killing us, One baby died last week, but this one I hope to save by staying out with it all day. Iam the grandmother, and while the others are earning a fow cents here and there, I am walking the streets trying to save my baby by doing the very thing you would think would surely kill yours—keeping it out in the san all day.” The child looked bright and happy. but a babe a few doors below lay moaning in the arms of a woman whese scarred face showed trouble besides the great heat everybody else was suffering. is and taking its bony fingers in mine. “Of course it's ill; we are all ill Jimmie is upstairs now dead. He sold paper till he dropped down one morn- ing like a horse. I only hope he has gone where there is plenty to eat. Poor devil, he had nothing that I knew of for a week." ‘But the baby, surely you feed 17% “Tea; nothing but tea. We can’t afford milk, and tea is all it gets.’ “How do you happen to have toa?’’ “The missionary brings it, and Molly begs bread from door to door.” She looked into the face of the child as it lay on her lap, and run. ning her fingers softly around the eyes, as if measuring the dark circles Our babies said one id not have id he feared he was Two my never tO prog fat it had away. wo bean he of children are back OI] (Pom come He wined his face and hastened across the street, where he leaned up against a wagon for support. Children swarmed in the and carts like bees They skipped under the horses’ and Hitted about, helping to burn the rubbish shoe the horses, clear the shops and unhiteh and hiteh to the carts, Down further, between 20th and {ith streets, are tenement that hold in each a small city. older girls parade the walks with babies. have earriages and some only cheese-boxes on home- made wooden wheels, with a stick for a tongue and a soiled feather pillow for cushion. Litile mothers are thick wagons jeos hotises The Some Mothers come 6 o'clock and await the “We don't ever have much ahead. ”’ “* We are much harder up The NOW many than people give us credit for, winter was hard, and we do not need so much help. Our fumnily is in greater distress than it | has ever been before. We managed to | stand the cold by wrapping quilts | about us and keeping the children in- | side. New we can't get away from the sun, and the little ones are grow: ing thinner and thinner until they droop and die.” The young girl stopped talking and burst into tears. I had work until last month, and now I have nothing to do but walk the streets. 1 shall ston! anything 1 ean get my hands on that will help the children.’ * But you will be locked up if you do wrong.” “Maybe,” replied the girl sullenly. “Jf run a risk, but I will take my chances. I can’t see the children get whiter and whiter and stand by and not give them something, No, I shall to-morrow if the boys ** What do you do all day?” 1 ask- ed several people as they walked aim- lessly along the walk or pushed ill- naturedly everyone who happened to in contact with them. “1 wash,’’ said one, ‘when 1 can get it to do.’ ** 1 sew for the shop sirls who live in the next bloek.” *'l said another whose face was and her went far head. Her hair was une child in her CYEN 0 her combed, and int the arms eried loudly. What is the matter with it?” “1 don't know. it The landlord wants his want 5 something to born so. and we I can’t do auything on account of the baby. : I am blind niony ping wis rent eat, said an old man, who with y yelling « i118 cane it two yng for the beneht mass about sing here? money auch A QUEER FUEL. PEAT IS BURNED ALL OVER What a Peat Bon 1s and How Worked -Big Peat Bogs in This Country. Peculiar interest attaclies just now to facts newly gathered by the De partment of Btatq on ihe subject of peat. The utilization of that natural product in this country would great deal of money for poor pec who have to pay for conl whatever the Trust may ask. Peat used nearly throughout Europe, wherever it be obtained without expense transportation. In large and gities, as well as in rural districts, ig utilized for fuel; in fact, in many localities it is the only substance ployed for heating used also in factories ment for driving been abandoned, for fear forest and field. A peat bed is simply an accum tion of the remains of plan grew and decayed on the spot re d. When the gre ver of tl BONO B yp is everywhere | oan for 13 small i it purposes but locomotives ¢ Oi 3 iy valdy itsen Pio they are now foun and growing upper ls terial 59 to 66 per cent is removed, one finds pent with curt ¥ arisen goes tl makes up the p Its ro nd there was y every face I wonder ROPFFOW= fully to the sad as of nnley. Pocahontas, in Recorder. “ Renewa! of Masonry. Heult OP ration KIO ORR. ) recently in renewal of the masonry front on West Fifty-ninth New York. without d terior in any way, «ays the Philadel phia Record The bullding was a four-story residence with stone-trim- med front. having a front of 33 feet wide and NO feet high trance porch and a four story bay At the beginning of work all windows and doors and the sidewalk were covered bw 22-inch plank, and a very stiff scaffold was full width and height 3 was omplished ti of house at reel sturbing thein window. the built along the f of the front, This scaffold was gtories high and made with five groups of posts conne ected by dia- The posts were made of two pieces of 8x8 inch timbers, breaking joints and firmly bolted to- sether. while the horizontal working platforms were provided with guards both sides. Hanging platforms were also swung along the side of the building The weight of the iron roof. chimneys, cornices and cons nected parts was removed from the front wall and shores were set up to carry the wall above the second story sills. These shores were numbered, wedged and constantly watched: The old masonry was then taken out and new brick and stone built in. Ther the shores wers carried one story higher and the operation was repeated while the carvers and stone cutters were at work below. This was continued for forty-six days, when the new front was entirely in place, the work having been done without entering the house, except at one side of the fourths story, where one old window was replaced by two new ones. The cost wax about $42,000 and the work was done in such great haste that there was no time for the preparation of preliminary plans or estimates, j i eleven gonal braces, on each year destr Ty 4 must sis we the of peat. intermed composition stage, col the pen roots iH yee ry ed pent #8 OO expose It is a contrivance resembin after which it broken up so is put ine oven and thence conveyed 2 jasues in the for a preas, whenee it of smooth. shiny. dark-brown bricks One machine of six-horse power can the yt Artificial drying is m for the peat production. Peat from 60 ner § to © per cent of of nitro- of oxygen : [00 contains {0 to of! earbon and 1 to six per cent. reapect to heating power, In 60 pounds of hard coal. In Europe peat is algy turned to account asa fertilizer and as a building material, being employed as a filler for vacant spaces, separating layers for water. fee houses, &c. By means of a process recently patented, it has been made to do serviee in tanneries. The waste particles of peat, known ‘peat dust,” have been utilized extensively of late ngs a material for ftting up odorless vaults. In the United States peat bogs of chormons extent are found. Experts are of the opinion that the article conld be profitably produced in this country, especially in localities where distance from the coal mines makes coal excessively dear. Nevertheless, attempts already made in this direc. tion have not met with success. In works ns to dey and press peat fer market, but it could not be turned out in this form for less than 56 a ton. At any- thing like equal prices, compete with coal, possessing less heating power, being very ashy, and having a peculiar odor. Fite made from it 1s not iasting. Peat is dug for burning to a considerable extent on the Island of Nantucket. Far- mers in the United States use it to some extent as a fertilizer, A peat bog represents the earliest stage of conl formation on a small seale. The material of the coal that j&« nsed by man to«day was chiefly | contributed by mosses. But these mosses wore of gigantic sire. Though resembling in kind the low “club” mosses of the present, they were for. est trees. Their fossil trunks have been foand measuring from 100 to 3 - ip a large § tion that Washing —— art THE LOST MINE. Story from the Wilds of Alaska. of 1876 search of it again, The eral num sot forth In a small schoone ith the miner for their the many in the o in tack- ing against head winds, and the winding course that necessarily had with a the guide, as § became The crew began to doubt his and giving up all hope of finding the south of the creek that lead to the goa), insisted upon a return. The guide persisted that he would surely find the place and insisted also that the search be continued, when the party became angry and threatened to hang him to the mast. The search was then abandoned. A short time after their return to Sitka the miner, or hero of the ** jost rocker.” as it was now termed. was taken sick and died, but to his at- tendant during his illness, Mike Powers, one of the pioneers of this camp, he confided the secret of how to find the rocker by the lake. The rich find in Silver Bow basin back of Juneau occurred soon after his death, and Powers was one who joined inthe stampede. Being a good prospector, und lucky, he secured valuable claims which demanded his attention, and in guide, through 5 ' na changes made irse taken schooner, wore . 0 De ost, story. ry a the ** lost rocker,” and after a time the basin: and thus died the only living white person who, unless by accident, could find the lost lake, the rocker, and the bleached bones of the unfortunate miner who fell beside it. To this day prospecting parties every spring go in search of it. Big rewards have been offered to Indians te reveal the locality, but, through fear of being implicated in the mur. der or otherwise, they remain silent. {Juneau (Alaskn) Mining Record. AS A light AUAPSWAION brid at Niagara Is im § moved in 1804 was built and re A rien Laplander sometimes keepy 4d many us (00 reindeer in his ser
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers