Читать книгу More Than Miracles - Ben Volman - Страница 17

Deserted Mother and Three Children Make Pitiful Picture—Feet Blistered by Trudging

If the city pavements could speak they could tell sad tales. Sometimes these tales do find a sympathetic and helpful audience, and this is one of them. It comes from Rev. Morris Zeidman, superintendent of the Scott Institute.

“We had a family consisting of a deserted mother and her three children come in,” Rev. Zeidman told. “They had been evicted from their home and all day long had been tramping the streets looking in vain for a new one (they had only the assurance of a night’s lodging).

“We had just locked the doors and were preparing to leave when they came, and we just couldn’t send them away hungry. We opened the kitchen, prepared soft boiled eggs for the children, got ready meat and fried potatoes for the mother, and there was plenty of bread and butter and fresh fruit for them all.

“The poor children were very tired—the youngest was only two and the eldest five. The mother washed them all and then took off her shoes to rest her own tired feet, all blistered. Her stockings, we noticed, were in holes. Well, we were able to fix the family up comfortably, give the mother some milk to take to the night’s lodging and some food.

“We see many men in need here but occasionally one comes whose case especially touches us. For instance, we had one man, a respectable, neatly dressed fellow, an elderly bachelor, who has worked all his life and says he can still do a good day’s work at his trade…He had nothing to eat for two days. Then he came here and asked for a meal, for which he wanted to work.

“The poor fellow cried. It just broke our hearts,” Mr. Zeidman finished. “There was timely help for him, of course.”

March 26, 1938