BAPTISED IN THE STREET

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8182, 25 July 1912, Page 5

BAPTISED IN THE STREET

PRIEST AND DYING BABY,

It was fo nice out of doors one afternoon recently and l.i aby Lucy Monna was a little fretful while mother was cooking supper, so nine-year-old Mary Monna, who is pretty strong for her years and used to taking care of her two-months-old sister, volunteered to take her out for an airing. Carrying the baby in her arras Mary climbed down the stairs from her home at 23G, Cast Udth street, and into the sunlight of New York. At 265 East 146th street there is a big stable, where John Armstrong, a contractor, keeps his waggons. On the opposite side of the street is another, where the horses are kept. IVhen a team has been brought in the men unhitch tho horses and let them find their own way across the street to their stalls. At the moment that Mary Monna and her baby sister were passing, M illiam Stewart, one of the Armstrong drivers, was unhitching his big grey after the day's work. 'there was nobody to warn her, and the horse, glad to be rid of the itch of the harness, cantered toward the barn. Bight in his way was Mary, Monna and the baby she carried. They were knocked down, and trampled upon. Policeman Fushc saw it and ran up. So did others who were near. Some of them shouted. Mrs Michael Monna was called. “Mv Lucy hasn’t been baptised yet. Somebody get the priest, quick," she pleaded. One of the neighboring children ran to tho nearest church, that of Our Lady ot Pity, at 275 East 151st street. Father Anselm Lenzi was in, and it only took him a minute to realise what had happened. Ho cauglit up his baptismal, stole and ran back with tho messenger. Tho priest elbowed his way through the crowd just as an ambulance from Lincoln Hospital got there. •'‘firing some holy water," the priest ordered.

Someone brought a little bottle, such as Catholics keep in their homes, from

a near-by tenement. The ambulance started off euth Dr Mellon ami Policeman I'ushe etandin" on the rear with uncovered heads. The mother knelt and prowl while the priest baptised the A few minutes after the ambulance hau reached Lincoln Hospital Lucy diedMary is .still at the institution in a serious condition from cuts on the face and scalp, but with, a chance for recovery.