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August, 1911.
MOTOGRAPHY
79
Watching Them Take the Moving Pictures.
Little Mothers of the Ghetto.
Saving Babies with Motion Pictures
By Harold T. Sloane
a
SUMMER BABIES" is the title of an educational film showing the work of the Chicago department of health in its campaign against infant mortality. The film, made by the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, undertakes to show the work of the fifty nurses employed by this department in the field ; at the baby tents, visiting from house to house, at the free milk and ice stations and the summer outings given the mothers and babies at the city parks and beaches. Through this work the health department has saved the lives of hundreds of babies each summer and the Essanay film shows how it is done.
Theopening scene in the film shows the health department nurses leaving the city hall for their various districts. There are more than fifty altogether and their territories cover all of the more congested sections of the city on the west and north sides. There are district stations at the Hull House, in the various small parks, one at Gault court and Hobbie street, in the Sicilian colony, and several others scattered about other parts of the city.
The following scene shows a visiting nurse, calling on an Italian family with a new born baby. Ignorant of how to properly care for her little one, the nurse instructs her, explaining why baby's milk should be kept pure and cool and kept in a clean place. Much difficulty is encountered by the nurses
in teaching the mothers to dress their babies properly during hot weather, especially with the Italians, who, for convenience in carrying their babies, wrap them in bambimos, or long woolen shawls, cramping their little legs together in such a position that they are unable to move them. This custom is a universal one in the old country and the nurses find it extremely hard to persuade the mothers that it is injurious to the nealth of the child. The nurses preach the gospel of cleanliness and are slowly, though surely, cleaning up the dreadful back yards and alleys, which swarm with disease-spreading flies.
In another scene is shown the fight of the nurses for proper food for babies. These mothers — mothers invariably of large families — inevitably endeavor to wean their babies before the proper time and the death rate of babies, due to improper feeding, is appalling. In many cases, as in the scene in the film, the mothers are found giving their babies beer and other alcoholic drinks. When a baby is ill the whisky bottle is brought and the little one doped until drunk and unconscious. It is common with mothers to give their babies "weiners" and carrots as pacifiers and other solid foods to keep them quiet. In this scene are shown a father and a mother holding her baby. A small 'boy brings in the usual "growler" of beer and after the father has had a drink he passes it to the children and then to the mother, who, after tak
Baby Tent in Congested Italian Quarter.
Baby lent on Roof of Day Nursery.