The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-27
FOUNDLTNG HOSpJTALs.

as Philadelphia should be destitute of found
ling hospitals This omission or neglect is
constantly causing not only indescribable dis
tress, but an immense number Of fearful
crimes. The trials of infanticide or abortion
cases consume large portion of the time of
our courts, and scarcely has one charge been
disposed of before others follow in
its train. Meanwhile there are
good reasons TO believe that for every case
brought prominently before the public,
there are dozens which never become noto-
rious; and it would scarcely be an extravagant
calculation to assume that there is at least
one baby-murder per day in Philadelphia.
We may he told that in extreme cases of
poverty and destitution the Almshouse is
open, but the statistics of that establishment
show that only an infintesmal fraction of its
infants survive the perilous stages Of baby
hood. There is, therefore, really no public
institution to which destitute infants
who are practically motherless can be safely
and conveniently intrusted in Philadelphia
The life and well-being of young humanity
are dependent solely upon moLherly
care or the attention of immediate
relatives, and when these helps fail
sands of cases, either through the poverty,
the ignorance, or the disgrace of the mother
the temptation to commit the fearful crime
of murder becomes in many cases overpower-
ing We read of baby murder in China, of
the massacre of infants in India, of the right
exercised by the heads of ancient families to
destroy feeble offspring but we are too apt
to close our eyes to the fact that here, in the
midst of one of the most highly civilized and
Christianized communities on the face of the
globe, similar horrors are of daily occurrence,
and that there is powerful tendency to go
from bad to worse in the matters referred to,
instead of advancing from bad to better
The existence of the evils under dis
cussion is as palpable as their enormity
and little by little public sentiment
is becoming so debauched that baby
life is losing much of its wonted sacredness.
Despite the requirements of the law, the COM
munity is not disposed to sanction the exc
cution of woman who is convicted of the
murder of her newborn child; and the gene
raj acquiescence in the pardon of Hester
Vaughan affords a good criterion of current
publiJ sentiment. A feeling of pity for
pervades many humane hearts; and the chief
matter of regret is that this feeling is not
carried one step farther, SO that a tender
regard may be practically manifested
for destitute young infants as we'll as for dis
tressed mothers, and that the awful tempta-
tions to child-murder which now abound may
be eliminated from our social system. The
effectiveness of well-conducted founding
hospitals in diminishing the crime of infanti-
eide has been fully demonstrated in nearly
all the civilized capitals of the world; and If
the objection is urged that they tend to en-
courage immortality, it should be sufficient to
reply that they avert the most fearful forms
of crime, and in checking child murder richly
atone for any real or imaginary evil influence
attributed to them.
Whatever else may happen, child murder
should be stopped in our midst, and ex-
perience has proved that it cannot be stopped
by the existing preventive and furnishing
agencies; while the example of other large
communities demonstrates that foundling
hospitals go far to supply a complete remedy.
DR.. Franklin said that nothing was so useless
and so help ess as a newborn infant and yet
it contains the developed germ of all human
goodness, all human gentleness, all posi-
bilities of human achievement. We have
gone on trusting its guardianship and nour-
ishment solely to motherly instinct and pater-
nal affection; but the fact grows hourly more
palpsble that in many cases these motives
furnish but weak and insufficient safeguard,
and that complete dependence upon them
results in long succession of infanticides.
Charitable organizations or the State
cheerfully extend assistance to
nearly every form of afflicted
or suffering humanity. The poor, the Grip
pied, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the sick,
the insane, can all be we'll cared for, but
there is no safe refuge for children whose
mothers wish 10 shift their burden upon
stronger shoulders, and there is no conve-
nient means provided for the innumerable
cases in which the mother desires, for
obvious reasons, to confde her child
to public keeping The Almshouse, as a
last resort, is open, but it does not serve in
an efficient manner any of the desired ends.
There is pressing need that a foundling
hospital should be speedily established in
this city, where all infants would be re-
ceived, no questions he asked, and first-rate
care extended to every inmate; and it is vain
to expect that infanticide will grow less fre-
! quent before such an institution is in success
! ful operation,
THE INCOME TAX.
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