Life — July 3, 1890 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

390 [Aaa 14a LG deat lat q fr Fri nl us sata sl THE GOLDEN STREAK, A TALE OF CITY DISTRESS. JO'UN, George, Henry, Frank, Makolm, Nellie, Fred, Percy, Edward, Fannie and Kate, were the children of a poor man who had five thousand dollars income, and lived in a flat in the City of New York, ‘They suffered much, but tried to be patient. All day long the boys thought that when they grew up they would be coal-miners so that they could get a little sunlight. The flat was quite dark in all the rooms but one. This looked out upon a narrow court, through which came the blessed sunshine for fully half an hour each noon. So high were the buildings and so narrow the court that this was all, ‘This half hour was known as the Transit of the Chasm. Similar effects of light and shade may be observed at the bot- tom of deep caitons in the Rocky Mountains. ‘The nurse was a French nurse, and she would only take three chil- dren out at once, because she was only paid sixteen dollars a month, and had not French enough to go round, having been born in Stratford, Conn. Her accent was good, but there was not much of it. So that, as papa had to hurry down to the club to get his mail, which he did not care to have come to the flat, and mamma had her practicing and deco- rative art to look after, several of the smaller children had to be left to their own discretion in the flat, awaiting their turns to go out with the nurse, unless she was too tired. Meanwhile there was the half hour's draw lots to see who should sit in the streak, They had heard some one say that sunlight was good for children and wanted to try a little of it. It was a curious sight to see two of them—for that is all the room would hold—sitting there and taking their golden bath. Papa did not believe in the single standard, but went in for silver, too, and frequently gave the moon a chance. But, except on holidays, he was seldom as curious a sight as the children were, sitting in the streak room awaiting the Transit of the Chasm. Why did these otherwise excellent people live in a flat? Its chief attraction was its stately entrance, which looked as though it had been sired by the Equitable building and dammed by the Hotel Dam. It was a beautiful portal and corridor, Whenever Fred. and Harry, and Malcolm, and Nellie, and perhaps others, looked pale, the nurse used to say, ** It is a pity the children look ill, but the entrance is beautiful.” Nellie, the oktest daughter, had some lilies and roses in pots. But she took them down to her grandmother's to rear because they would not grow in a flat with reflected light, inspite of the en- trance. Flowers have no mind and cannot appreciate the great law of compensation. To them the gate of a garden matters not so much as its access to the orb of day. And so these unfortunate people continued to live in a flat, with latches on the doors because there was not room for door-knobs, when they might have had a whole house in East New York, or dwelt ina villa in the town with the imaginative name of New Lots. eek CoS comicbooks.com