The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-04-09
Orphan Asylum Capitalists.

Orphan Asylum Capitalists.
There are probably few Catholics, if
any, in this city, who have not heard of
the famous speech delivered last Monday
evening, by Mr.. Walton, in the City Coun-
Gil, on the subject of the quarterly appropri-
ations to charitable institutions, Mr.. alton,
one of the city administrators, asked to
enter his protest against the passage of the
ordinance, and, in the course of his obser
vations, is reported to have said:
That number of the institutions to which
these appropriations were made, invested,
through their directors, the very money re.
ceived quarterly in the city seven-thirties, and
drew the interest with as much gusto and
promptness any other capitalists.
Now the whole list of institutions en-
braced in the ordinance consists of orphan
asylums, except the house of the Good
Shepherd. We therefore, on the best au-
thority, that of the City Treasurer, have
these asylums presented in the new role of
capitalists, that is, as humbugs and impos-
tiers. Rich establishments, probably, well
endowed, having revenues at least suf-
ficient to the wants of their few inmates
present themselves at the door of Mr..
Walton's treasury, and with the hypocriti-
cal cant of professional beggary make a
poor mouth and solicit charity under false
pretences.
"They draw their interest with as much
gusto and promptness as any other capital
ists." What visions of fat monks and
~. 81,
mind stored with good puritanical history,
as one reads this suggestive announcement.
All, the ley sluggards, the useless drones,
who take the world so easily and have no.
thing to do but come every quarter and
cram their plethoric purses still fuller with
Mr.. Walton's unwilling greenbacks!
We must insist upon it that Mr.. Walton
should show up these people. That right
here, in the open day of the Nineteenth
Century, we should relapse into the scan
dals of the " dark ages Z" without notice or
provocation, is not to be borne. Especially
it is to be reprobated that Protestant es-
Establishments should 80 degenerate after all
their horror at the wicked doings which
transpired before the light of Luther's day.
We regret, too, that Mr.. Walton found it
necessary to be so pointed in his illusions
to them that it should be impossible to mis-
understand his meaning. He is SO we'll
| aware, together with all other men in this
city who have particle of sense, that the
Catholic asylums are deeply involved in
debt and frequently have no idea one week
before hand where they will get the next
weeks bread, that it is impossible for him
| to have made allusion to them.
No doubt some of these houses may have
creditors who will not press them harshly,
and who advise them to hold their City
bonds rather than dispose of them at a
ruinous discount. If such creditors are
willing to wait, it is but fair and it is Ger
tainly honorable in the asylums, as it would
be in an individual, to take advantage Of
this kindness and keep their bonds in the
hopes of better market. In such case il
would not be unduly presumptuous on theiI
part to apply for the interest, provided they
did not do 80 with "gusto." Any "prompt.
ness" could not be complained of by &
reasonable man who knows the state of the
city treasury az we'll as Mr.. Walton does
We doubt not, therefore, that some of the
Catholic asylums have occasionally present
ed those little coupons to Mr.. Walton, bu
he could not, by any possibility, have beer
referring to them under the head of Capital
lists, when he knows that they were hoidinj
their bonds merely through the charity o
creditors.
We cannot coincide with the administra
! tor of finance when he thinks it right t.
establish and support public almshous
while he would not give a cent to privat