Part of the aura surrounding Babe Ruth arose from his modest origins. Though the legend that he was an orphan is untrue, Ruth did have a difficult childhood. Both his parents, George Herman Ruth, Sr, and Kate Shamberger Ruth, came from working-class, ethnic (German) families. Ruth, Sr. owned and operated a saloon in a
tough neighbourhood on the Baltimore waterfront Living in rooms above the saloon, the Ruths had eight children, but only George, Jr., the firstbom, and a younger
sister survived to adulthood. Since neither his busy father nor his sickly mother had much time for the youngster, George roamed the streets, engaged in petty
thievery, chewed tobacco, sometimes got drunk, repeatedly skipped school, and had several run-ins with the law. In 1902 his parents sent him to the St. Mary's
Industrial School for Boys, a Baltimore asylum for incorrigibles and orphans run by the Xaverian Brothers order of the Roman Catholic Church. For the next 10 years
Ruth was in and out of St. Mary's. When his mother died from tuberculosis in 1912, he became a permanent ward of the school
This excerpt would most likely inspire a story about
O the birth of Babe Ruth's sister
Ruth's life with the Xaverian Brothers of the Roman Catholic Church
Ruth's saloon on the Baltimore waterfront
the daily activities of a young Ruth