Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-31
s.. nIarr.s ornhaa A.rluu,.


To the Editor Of the Union and American:
In the UNION AND AMERICAN Of the
9th of July, in the report of our County
Court proceedings, Squire Meachsm is re-
ported 10 have said that t appeared St.
Mary's Orphan Asylum was "run by the
county"-that ''seyenty or eighty children, "
at forty dollars each, "cost $4,000 per an
num-" l suppose either the reporter
or the printer made a mistake, as IS chill
dren at $40 each, would amount to only
5000.
In your paper of the 10th July, also in
the report of the proceedings of the County
Court, the following appears:
MRS. ScoFel stated why the report show
ing hat there were only seventeen inmates
lin the Protestant Orphan Asylum "She
showed that while there were, by report,
over seventy inmates Of the St. Mary
(Catholic) Orphan Asylum, the small
number in the Protestant Asylum was due
to the fact that the children were being
constantly supplied with homes, being re-
ceived and put out to acle persons, which
fact diminished the number to seventeen
only"
Only two ideas can be drawn from this
statement--the first, that the report did not
correspond with the facts; and the second,
that when children are received in St.
Mary's Orphan Asylum, they Gre kept there
to swell the number for the reports.
The report alluded TO having been writ
ten by myself, it is proper that 1 should re-
ply, and would have done so earlier had it
not been for pressing personal affairs. Now
for few facts:
1t is q rule practiced at St. Mary's Asy-
lum, as soon as children are admitted to
prepare them tor the active business of life,
so that as soon as they are old enough to
earn an honest living they may be enabled
to do so, in one capacity or another. Hence
it is that very few girls remain after arriv-
ing at the age Of eleven o. twelve years,
and very few boys over nine or ten. 1t fire.
quently occurs that children do not remain
i'll the institution two months, and some
times not month, before an eligible home
offers.
Indeed, for rery smart girls, between 10
and IL years old, good homes can always be
procure but, unfortunately for the chill
dren, and perhaps for the public, orphan
children are not dlt1Gys smart and good
looking. Sometimes the privations they
have undergone before they became Or
phans, or before being admitted into the
asylum, have made them idiotic, consump-
tive, scrofulOus, etc; and for such there is
but one home on leaving the asylum
heaven.
l have been at some trouble TO CLEAN from
the register of the asylum some facts which
may be Of interest to your readers, and es-
pecialy to the magistrates of Davidson
county.
Since st. Mary's Orphan Asylum was
first opened, in the spring Of 1854, there
have been received within its walls four
hundred and twenty-five children (425),
in addition to perhaps sixty others admitted
temporarily, and whose names do not ap-
pear on the register. OF this number, Is
died in the Asylum, viz; 8 in 1865, 2 in 1866,
2 in 1867, 2 in 1865, in 1869, 2 in 1870, 8
in 1871, and one in the first half of the pre-
sent year. Homes were secured for three
hundred and thirty three (333) namely, Is in
1864, lSin 1865, 81 10 1866, So in 1867, 81 in
1865, As in 1869, 80 in 1870, 80 in 1871,
and 26 in the first half of the present year
Cup to the 9th of June), 1872, and there
were in the asylum at the date specified
"a chiidren--Sl girls and Us boys.
Permit me further to state that the regis
ter of the asylum is at,cGys upon the table,
and open to the inspection of any member
of tue County Court, to whose several
committees visiting the asylum l confident
ly refer the public for further information.
your obedient servant,
Z. z. JONES,
Sec'ty. st. Mary's Orphan Association.
NASHVILLE, July 80, 1872.