isa-normaladvance-1909-00243

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE243We were there several different daj^s duringthe latter part of March, when the weather wasraw and cold, yet many of the little denizens ofTaylorville were running about half dressed,some with no stockings on, .others with almostnothing but rags. One little fellow wore nothing but a little thin dress and a pair of oldshoes. His legs were red with cold, yet he didnot seem to mind it but blurted out his notionsabout the top-spinning game which the otherswere playing. School seemed to be in session,but about as many were playing marbles, spinning tops and pitching horseshoes as couldhave been in school. We tried to get a snapshotof a group of the dirty little urchins by offeringto several of them a penny for each urchin theycould scare up, but several of the fond mammaswere evidently eves-dropping, for before wehad the group arranged two or three motherscame out and rushed their young folks into thehouse threatening dire things with the ■ shel-lelah if they allowed their pictures to betaken. And, either to show their contempt forus or, as is more likely, fearing that they andthe interiors of their houses might be the victims of the cruel camera, doors slammed rightand left as we passed.However, we did see the interiors of severalhouses. As we expected, the furnishings in manywere very poor, although in several cases theexternal appearance of the houses belied theinner comforts, if comfort can be had undersuch conditions. At one house we saw a womanand five children, whose ages ranged from infancy to six or seven, sitting in the doorwayin such filth as to cause disgust, and to cap theclimax, the woman was feeding the childrenonions from a basket. We recognized her asone of the pickers on the dump. Several similarsights attracted our attention and gave us ahint as to what their home life must be.As we passed along the streets, or alleys, forit is difficult to distinguish one from the other,as the houses may face in any direction and thethoroughfares are equally narrow, unkept andfilthy, the most noticeable thing about themwas that they seemed to be merely valleys between piles of rubbish. In one alley a littlegrocery store was situated where bred wasfo seal and pies could be had at two for fifteen cents. We photographed the store whichwas about six by twelve feet and had a ceilingjust high enough to stand under. Besides theglass bread case and the pie counter, all we sawin the store were two women clerks and a youngman with sore eyes. We quelled whateverpangs of hunger might have been aroused bythe sight of the pie counter and passed on toward the bridge.On the way home we met some of the residents of Taylorville returning from the city.The first was an old lady pushing a cart heapedwith bags of rags and paper. She was gray andbent but passed us contentedly puffing her pipe.Another little old woman was carrying abasket on her arm. She seemed half witted andwhen we saw what she had in her basket wecould hardly realize how she could be otherwisefor it was half full of chickens feet which sheobtained from the poultry house across theriver, no doubt.We had seen Taylorville at close hand andhad learned a little of the people. Not all, ofcourse, are poor people of the dump. Manyare ragpickers, small junk dealers and verypoor laborers. The model of the dump people,as we learned, was one John Durham, who, usthey said, had money in the bank. Theyclaimed he had made it by squeezing the dollar till the eagle screamed and, as an example,told us how, when he was bad sick he hadgone to the doctors instead of having the doctorcome to see him, thus saving calling expenses.Such is their simple, coarse, life. The dumppeople manifest in many ways the very rottenness in which they live. They are very vulgarand while they know how to behave, yet afterthe strangeness has worn off, they drop into ajargon of vulgar repartee at the expense ofeach other. All in all, they are a problem, theresult of social depravity and poverty, the lackof ambition and the manner in which the worldtreats them after they are once down.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34273
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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