New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-01-27
child MTRDEP

The horrible developments published the
other day respecting notorious boarding
"houser in this city, where mothers, mar
ried or unmarried, can be delivered of their
offspring in the strictest confidence, and re-
leved of all the bothers of maternity, awaken
serious reflection as to what ought to be done
for the repression of the terrible social EVIL OF
which such establishments are at once the out
growth and the promoters. The evil, we are
sorry TO believe, is OH the increase. The muir
der of children, either before or after birth, has
become so frightfully prevalent that physicians,
who have given careful and intelligent STUDY
TO the subject, have declared that were 1t not
for immigration the white population OF the
United States would actually fall off In
pOpulous quarter of certain large Western city
il is asserted, on medical authority, that not
4 single Anglo American child has been born
alive for the last three years. This IS ncredi-
bic; but making all due allowance for eXag
geration, it is plain enough that the murder oil
infants is common thing among American
women. The immigrants who come here are
not generally addicted to it-a fact which IS
evident from a comparison OF the average
number of children in families Of native and
of foreign origin respectively The testimony
adduced at the recent inquest in seventeenth
st. shows how the children who are not de-
stroved in the womb are got rid Of after birth.
"The dead child said one Of the witnesses,
WAS taken there by a woman about three
"wecks ago, and she agreed to pay $50 for Its
care until it could be adopted ont, or Shoutd
"die." 1t is hardly surprising that the little
thing should soon die Of want Of proper care
., Loo, know
very long on thirty dollars.
The Coroner's jury very properly eensurcd
the keeper of this Infamous establishment, ard
recommended that all such houses should be
broken up, "a they were the means of caus-
"ing great infantilc mortality and tended To in
"crcase immortality and crime bht Suppo9e
Won break them up; Will you put g stop 10 'no
immortality on which they thrive Experience
has proved that the illicit intercourse OF 'ho
,.. o,,,o4 lo .ansillv ciooI-ad hs' Liquidation.
Ii Won place difficulties in the way OF dlspos-
ING of illigitimate children, You do not pre-
vent lcgtimacy; You only foster murder
Give us wcll-conducted foGndng- hospitals,
and Won break up the trade of women like
Madame Parselle' forever. No civilized
country III the world is without such charlta-
bic foundations-eycept our own; and whatever
effect they may have upon prostitution, there
is no question that they greatly diminish child
murder and abortion. In Europe, the untortu-
mate woman who has fallen into sin can com
nit the fruit OF her lawlcss love to the care OF
the charitable. and while her fault is unknown
she has a good chance of reformation beside
which. the child may grow up useful mem
her of society; but here the mother has To
choose between indeliblc disgrace and the
abandonment or direct murder OF her OH
spring In vast majority of cases she
chooses the last named alternative You may
say that to relieve the mother of her burden Is
only an encouragement to sin. We doubt it,
I'm Stockholm prostitution is penal ofcnse
vet one-haT The children born in that city are
llcgitimatc. At any rate, murder is worse than
prostitution, and we see no way OF preventing
the wholesale slaughter Of infants which goes
on every day around us, except by the estab-
lshmcnt of asylums where the children which
would otherwise be sacrificed may be received
in secrecy, and c0nscientiOusly cared for.