Life — August 13, 1925 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

LIFE - How Is Your Heart— Concerning LiFE's Fresh Air Camps for Poor Children? URING these summer days, on D awninged verandas, overlook- ing some cool, green valley, your heart is very well indeed, we hope. But, just for an instant, think of the city—especially the city of dreadful tenements, of atrocious slums, of har- ried men and women, and wilting, un- happy children! How does your heart act then? Hearts are queer things! Most everybody has one. They work every-which-way. Now, children’s hearts, for example! Have you ever held a frightened child in your arms, and felt its heart beating like a bird's? What wouldn't you have given to make it quiet and happy? Think of the little imprisoned, fright- ened children of the tenements. If you thought money would help them, you would give that, wouldn't you? Hundreds and hundreds of you have given already. You have only to go (and we urge you to visit them if possible) to Lire’s Fresh Air Camps—Boys’ Camp at Pottersville, New Jersey, and Girls’ Camp at Branchville, Connecticut—to see what is being accomplished for the heart of childhood, as well as for its body. To these Camps have come the youngsters whose pitiful baby souls have ached for the green world that stretches like a fair legend somewhere far beyond their walled-in homes. And in these Camps they have found, besides the land of their heart's desire, strange things — guidance, the meaning of play, the reward of hon- esty and effort. A boy at Pot- tersville who makes the crack record in his Tribe, or “bunch,” is made Captain. He wears a black s ilk kerchief around his neck, like a midget high- wayman, and earns in most cases an extra vacation at the Camp. As a special reward he is pressed into service to break in the Rookies when the next ragged urchins arrive. Hundreds of little girls and boys INFORMAL MODELS THE MAKIN’S LITTLE BUBBLES FROM NEW YORK’S GREAT MELTING POT STIRRED TO A COMMON LOVE OF AMERICA BY “COLORS,” THE MOST THRILLING MOMENT OF THE DAY, “WHAT THE WELL DRESSED MAN WILL WEAR” SPORTS AT THE POTTERSVILLE CAMP. have been at the Camps thus far this summer. Others are waiting in the heat and hideousness of what they call their homes for their turn. Will you help give them two weeks in the country? One hundred boys were brought back to town the other day, brown and happy, and the counsellor who de- livered them to their parents found, on “weigh- ing them out,” that he was _ bringing two hundred and thirty-eight pounds more of boy back to the city than he took to the Camp. Pig A gain of over two pounds per boy. Not much, per- haps you will say, considering all the fresh milk, fresh air, fresh vegetables, and so on. But wait! Think of what they had romped off, “hiked” off, dived and “swum” off! Why, they must have each gained ten pounds to have had any of it stick. If you do manage to visit either of the Camps, we hope you will strike an “entertainment hour.” Genius abounds. Many undiscovered Irving Berlins and Beatrice Lillies are delighting their own private audiences, and, one night, there was a_ thrilling “elimination Charleston contest”—music by the In- dians’ own Harmonica Orchestra. Entertainment, however, isn’t all one- sided. One day last week the Elks’ Band of Morristown, New Jersey, traveled out to Pottersville and gave a wonderful concert. It was a gala event. And we hope the members of the Band will somehow realize the joy they brought, and the grateful spirit they left behind. Now, a little plea for canteens! When the young Indians go off on long marches they have a human but very disconcerting way of growing thirs Untested water is dangerous. The can- teen is safer—and much more ro- (Continued on page 30) FOR MORNING comicbooks.com