Showing the Children When the Orphan Train's arrived at a new location, they were paraded on a stage to show potential parents what they looked like and what their talents were. The children were basically on display as if they were animals at a state fair vying for best in show. The children were asked to sing, dance, and recite poetry. They did anything to attract possible caretakers.
There were also posters and advertisements that were hung around towns advertising the children's coming arrival. The posters stated the rules that the caretakers would have to follow. The rules varied according to gender and age. The younger children were to be treated like the families own child. The older girls were expected to cook, clean and care for the other children. The older boys worked on the farm. |
They pulled us and pushed us and shoved us. And this old man-- I had never seen anything like anybody chewing tobacco. I knew nothing about it. This old man came up and his mouth was all stained brown and I thought, well, he'd been eating chocolate candy or something. Then he said, "Open your mouth." I looked at him and he said "I want to see about your teeth." I opened my mouth and he stuck his finger in my mouth and just-- and rubbed over my teeth. And his old dirty hands just-- I wanted to bite, but I didn't. I had the whole future ahead of me and I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't want to stay in the orphanage. I wasn't very comfortable up on that stage because I didn't know where I was going to go. And I was old enough to realize that there could be a lot of mistakes made. A farmer came up to me and he felt my muscles and he says, "Oh, you'd make a good hand on the farm." And I says, "Well, I'm not going to go home with you." I says, "You smell too bad. You haven't had a bath probably in a year." And he took me by the arm and was going to lead me off the stage and I bit him. And that didn't work, so I kicked him. And so then everybody in the audience thought I was an incorrigible. They didn't want me because I was out of control. I was crying there in the chair by myself and a school teacher came up there and she says, "I'd like to take you home with me and play with my boy for a week. And if nobody wants you then, why, then we'll have to send you back to New York." But this elderly couple in their sixties were contacted by this school teacher. And they had no children, never did have. They had a stillborn about thirty years previous. So he put me on his lap in this school teacher's home and got acquainted with me. And he said, "If you go home with me, I'll buy you a pony and a bicycle and a puppy." So I thought that was great so I went home with them and I finally got the best home of the whole bunch. But I always thought that biting and kicking did me a lot of good. Best day of my life! |