Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement life in New York CityRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
General
Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement life in New York City
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Poor -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Tenement houses -- Fiction
That music! When I went over to the island it fell upon my ears in little
drops of sweet melody, as soon as I came in sight of the nurses' quarters.
I listened, but couldn't make out the tune. The drops seemed mixed. When I
opened the door upon one of the nurses, Dr. Dixon, and the hospital
matron, each grinding his or her music for all there was in it, and
looking perfectly happy withal, I understood why.
They were all playing different tunes at the same time, the nurse "When
the Robins Nest Again," Dr. Dixon "Nancy Lee," and the visitor "Sweet
Violets." A little child stood by in open-mouthed admiration, that became
ecstasy when I joined in with "The Babies on our Block." It was all for
the little one's benefit, and she thought it beautiful without a doubt.
The storekeeper, knowing that music hath charms to soothe the breast of
even a typhus-fever patient, had thrown in a dozen as his own gift. Thus
one good deed brings on another, and a good deal more than fifty dollars'
worth of happiness will be ground out on the island before there is an end
of the music.
There is one little girl in the measles ward already who will eat only
when her nurse sits by grinding out "Nancy Lee." She cannot be made to
swallow one mouthful on any other condition. No other nurse and no other
tune but "Nancy Lee" will do--neither the "Star-Spangled Banner" nor "The
Babies on our Block." Whether it is Nancy all by her melodious self, or
the beautiful picture of her in a sailor's suit on the lid of the box, or
the two and the nurse and the dinner together, that serve to soothe her,
is a question of some concern to the island, since Nancy and the nurse
have shown signs of giving out together.
Three of the six sheep that were bought for the ridiculously low price of
eighty-nine cents apiece, the lambs being thrown in as make-weight, were
grazing on the mixed-measles lawn over on the east shore of the island,
with a fairy in evening dress eying them rather disdainfully in the grasp
of tearful Annie Cullum. Annie is a foundling from the asylum temporarily
sojourning here. The measles and the scarlet fever were the only things
that ever took kindly to her in her little life. They tackled her both at
once, and poor Annie, after a six or eight weeks' tussle with them, has
just about enough spunk left to cry when anybody looks at her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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