Life, 1926-07-01 · page 28 of 40
Life — July 1, 1926 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a **fundraising appeal**, not a political cartoon. The publication solicits donations for Life's Fresh Air Fund—an established charitable program (operating 39 years by this date) providing summer camp vacations for poor children from New York City's Lower East Side tenements. The page contrasts two realities: 347 days of urban squalor versus 18 days of countryside rehabilitation at camps in Potterville, New Jersey (boys) and Branchville, Connecticut (girls). The appeal argues that brief charity is insufficient—sustained intervention builds "sterling little American citizens." The photograph shows the boys' camp facility. The accompanying donor list demonstrates middle-class support. The text's tone is earnest social reform, typical of Progressive Era charity work. The "$20 per child" figure emphasizes accessibility of giving. This represents early-20th-century American paternalism: privileged classes "uplifting" poor urban youth through nature and moral instruction, framed as patriotic citizenship-building.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
fee WE are not going to draw one of those never-failing pictures of New York's appalling slums, nor write of the sordid- ness and terror of life in the tenements, in order to touch your heart and induce you to help us. Oh, we could make you weep—if we wanted to. We know how to tell about those heartbreak strects. But we don’t want to. Instead, we simply wish to speak about the happiness of those little boys and girls of the noisome and swel- tering Lower East Side who are going to be your guests this summer at Lire’s Camps. You know about these Camps. The one at Pottersville, New Jersey, is for boy it is going to be better than ever this year with its additional sleeping quarters and its splendid staff of counsellors and attendants. And the Camp at Branchville, Connecticut. That one is for girls, and you should see how the lovely old place is being improved. This year the famous brook will have to look to its laurels—for the new concrete graded swimming pool, with the water flowing into it right from the hills, will be a dangerously attractive rival. You know what we're trying to do in both of these splendid places. How, in as many cases as possible, we aim to take the same children year after year, until we build up a group of sterling little American citizens who, later on, will look back with love and pride on Lire’s Camps, as on their alma mater. We want to do something constructive. Never again do we want to say, “Here you are, my child, two weeks in the country, then back to the tene- ments !”" We want to keep them long enough for the wonderful work of the counsellors and oth in charge of the Camps to take lasting effect. We want to keep in touch with them after they go home. As we told you before, we want to give cach of the children cighteen days. Eighteen days in the country, with good food, health- ful surroundings, high ideals, guided play, sympathetic Life Many Happy Returns—Please ! 100% AMERICANS IN THE MAKING AT LIFES CAMP FOR BOYS, POTTERSVILLE, N. J. treatment and real friendship, against three hundred and y-seven screaming, unguarded, uncared-for days j like an uneven battle. Still, we believe we can win out if you will help us. That means money. Moncy—and anything else that you think we could use at the Camps. Twenty dollars ($20), approximately, will pay for such a holiday for one child at either Camp, transporta- tion and all. If you can’t, just at this moment, send the whole sum, send us a part of it. Anything, from a few cents to thousands of dollars, We must win this fight for decency and happiness and good citizenship. We don’t ask you to give till it hurts. We simply beg you to give till it makes you happy. L. A. F. Lire's Fresh Air Fund Lire’s Farsi Atr Fuxp has been in operation for the past thirty-nine yeurs. In that time it has expended $322,822.71 and has given a Holiday in the country to 48,647 poor city children. Twenty dollars, approximately, pays for such a holiday for some poor child from the crowded, hot city. Won't you help? Contributions, which are acknowledged in Lire about three sects ofter their receipt, should be made payable to Live's Frasu Ate Fvsc and sent to $08 Madison Avenue, New k, Previously acknowledged ... Lena Bacon, Cambridge, Mass... thams, Emeryville, Calif. « A.W. S., Portland, Ore. Roger Deering, Chicago R. Graham Biglow, New York John T, McGovern, New York Edward M. Peters, Boston, Mass EH. Downes, New York \ Philip W. Libby, Quebec, Canada < A Sunday ce collection from the boys at Camp ee Be H.C. Honolulu, Hawaii. lawkins, El Paso, Tex. Mr. and Mrs. fh. H. Saunders, Laura V. Stoddard, Cambridge, Harry R Wellman, Hanover, No MW... Mrs. J. E. ain, C (Memory Me John Merritt G. J. Cy Jr, Philadelphia. . Edwin Gouid, New York . Mrs. J. Andreini, New York. (Continued on page 32) Paterson, No! comicbooks.com