The Century of the Child

Blizzards are famously conducive to conceiving babies, and during a huge snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast in mid-February 1899, a particular group of American women and a few men certainly had babies on the brain. But they were not at home feeling snug. The sturdiest among an anticipated audience of 200 or so were fighting their way to the third annual convention of the National Congress of Mothers in Washington D.C. En route to the capital for four days of speeches and discussion about the latest enlightened principles of child nurture, the women delegates and the experts who had signed up for the event found the traveling rough. "Nearly all trolley lines had abandoned their trips . . . and livery men refused to send carriages out," it was reported later in the proceedings of the Congress. "Hundreds of travelers were compelled to remain from 12 to 24 hours in ordinary passenger coaches without food or sleep."

The progressive-spirited teachers, mothers, reformers, doctors, and others who finally arrived in Washington, full of "strange and wonderful stories . . . of their adventures," encountered a virtual state of nature. The city was threatened by a coal famine because trains had not been running. Gas had given out, leaving many parts of the capital in darkness. "Food was also scarce, and the streets impassable," transformed into mere paths flanked by walls of snow 10 to 12 feet high.

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