The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-12-10
fCommunicated.l
Orphans Of the Third District.

this is an Institution which, in my humble
opinion, has long been needed here, and as
it is calculated to do an immensely of good,
1 take upon myself to bring the subject
oncemore before your readers. Feeling on
interest in any work which has the good of
orphans in view, have visited the place,
and now. with your permission, I shall
give expression, to some long cherished
ideas of mine .apsn the subject. The OBJ
jects which the prudent and experienced
Fathers of the Holy Cross have in view in
opening this school are of sufficient import
ance to claim the attention of our fellow
citizens.
1t Is not enough to assemble q number of
children in an asylum and keep them there
at school till they are eleven or twelve
years of age and then hand them over to
the first applicant who makes fair promises
in their regard. In too many cases chill
dren are sought for from our asylums SIM
ply to supply the place of slaves. After
drudging around the houses OF their hard
taskmasters for few years they are left
without trade, and without education
other than that they bad received in the
vided, they are left to SHIFT for themselves,
as best they may, aud God only knows
how. So those children, who, for u while,
had found shelter and protection in the
asylum, are exposed to the danger of being
no better provided for in the end than if
IDcY E1u never CQteISu within tHSlE walls
There are, to be sure, exceptoas, and we
might mention more than one family
wherein those poor children have found Il
home, and even more, perhaps, than they
had lost when deprived Of father and
mother. All honor to those who perform
what they undertake to these otherwise
lost ones. But when all who thus nObly
do by these dear orphans what they should
do have been supplied with children, there
will be still many left to run about the
streets and be lost, unless some charitable
body of men undertake to provide them
with the means of making their own living
We have only to look around us to be con-
WINGED of this. See those ragged urchiBs
abandoned by all, or employed by some
. sordid individual in the neanest of drudg-
cry, their only recompense being q bit and
q sup, some miserable, ragged clothes to
cover them and a corner to sleep in. When
those unfortunates grow up to mau's es-
pests of society, without religion, without
decency, without honesty, without any
moral restraint
God only knows how they will drag out
their existence.
What is to be done in this case7 Give
up the task as one wherein too many OBJ
stacles are encountered Charity never
folds her -arms in presence of misery. She
goes to work to devise means for relieving
that misery. The Industrial School OF
Our Lady Of the Holy Ci,'ss is one of those
institutions which proposes to lend it's help
in the case, and to supply what the orphan
asylums have hitherto not been able to do.
notwithstanding their good will and ear
nest endeavors. Orphan children of from
twelve to fourteen years Of ago will there
find home and will be taught useful
trade, whilst receiving the advantages OF
an education which will fit its inmates, not
only to work at their trade, but also to
anti int Ian in ma liza hon lsBS
and elsewhere, if they are possessed of suf
ticient talent and if an opening should pre-
sent ITSELF The children have all nour and
4 half of schooling in the morning and two
hours at hight, and during the day are
taught to work at their several trades. All
kinds of trades are to be introduced by
degrees into the school, so that there will
be ample room to choose according to the
r. strength and capacity Of the children. Thus
its Inmates vii! ce prepared TO make then
way through the world, and whilst tbcil
physic AID Intellectual training receives
that attention which 1T merits, their moral
and reig. uus education will be watched
over with pateInal sulcitude.s Children
Qnder twelve are not admitted here, be-
cause they are well provided for in other
asylums.
But to carry on such q work the indi-
vidual efforts of the Fathers and of their
orphans vi i'll not suffice, especially in the
beginning. Workshops have had to be
erected and provided with tools, and in the
mtaptime food and clothing had to be pur-
chased go that at its very start tire lnstl.
tuion finds itself in debt and SURF rounded
with difficulties. How are those debts to
be pads Must an institution which
promises so many advantages to the poor
orphan be abandoned in it's infancyq No,
no, exclaim our charitable readers. We
have u little to spare, and, in giving that
litte to the orphans, in encouraging the
gool work undertaken amongst us, we will
be occurring u blessing upon ourselves and
up0l our own children.
We have been informed by The Fathers
of tie Holy Cross that they are authorized
by he Most Rev. Archbishop of New Or
Leafs to make u collection through the city
for he turtherance of this work, which hae
thecordial appreciation of His Grace. We
earnestly trust that this collection will be
amfy sufficient to place the Industrial
Schol on secure footing, and we recon-
meri our charitable citizens to lay aside
whit their means will permit aud theii
Chaity suggest, to bestow upon the mem-