Connecticut western news., 1873-06-06
NObOdy's Child,

A little more than & century and
 half ago 8 benevolent English sea-cap- tain, Thomas Coram, who had retired from active service upon moderate fortune, was. greatly distressed in his daily walks about London at the sight of infants left exposed in the public streets. Having come to the conclusion that the desertion and destruction of children was attributable to the want of proper means for preventing the dis grace and succoring the necessities of their parents, he set heartily to work to provide refuge to which wretched mothers might carry their offspring, and themselves be enabled to return to 8 virtuous and honestlife. In this benev- olent and praiseworthy undertaking the honest captain met with unexpected and disheartening opposition. Society, in its terrible determination to discounte- nance immortality, shrank from doing anything to alleviate the misery of the outcast mother of an illegitimate child i; nor was the law more merciful. It was considered so necessary to uphold the sanctity of marriage that society and the law alike refused to do anything to save the innocent offspring of sin from falling a prey to the misery, wretched- ness, and immortality of their parents. Nearly twenty years elapsed before the good old sea-captain had obtained sub scriptions sufficient for founding hos pital, when wing of the building now known as the "Foundling Hospital was erected in London.
 It was announced thatat eight o'clock on certain evening twenty children, all for whom there were then accommo- dations, would be received that the persons bringing them should come in at the outer door and ring bell at the inner door, and not go away until notice was given of reception that no ques- tions whatever should be asked of any person bringing child and that to each child should be affixed some dis tinguishing mark or token, that it might be afterward known if necessary. These tokens, many of which are still pre- served, mostly consisted of small silver coins, crosses, lockets, empty purses, doggerel verses pinned to the infants clothes, and notices supposed to be ap- propriate to the forlorn condition of the poor little waif.
 The number of applicants increased so rapidly after the opening of the in- stitution that painful scenes were soon presented at the doors, where sometimes a hundred women might be seen strug- 1 gling and fighting for precedence. A plan was then devised for receiving the children by ballot, but this did not rem 1 edy the evil, all kinds of fraud being practiced to place the little things in the hospital. e... ..q.... ............ ....
 Fifteen years after the opening of the institution notice was given that ex- posed and abandoned young children from all parts of the country would be admitted, money for their support being guaranteed by Parliament. The first day on which this was announced bas- ket was hung outside the hospital gates, and 117 children were deposited as claimants of government support.
 It was soon found that parents with large families resorted to this easy means of reducing their anxieties and expenses. The conveyance of helpless children from remote country districts and their consignment, dead or alive to the hospital, became distinct brancl of the carriers trade, work-houses were emptied of pauper infants, newly borr children were taken from mothers, whc required parish relief, and within foul months 5000 infants were deposited in the hospital basket. The provisions for dealing with such continual claims were insufficient, and the precautions for preserving life were but partially understood. Of these 15, 900 foundling' only 4, 400 lived to be apprenticed. The refuge became not hospital, but { charnel-house..
 We have not the space to follow ou tie subsequent history of the institu tion founded by the exertions of goot Captain Coram, or to trace the largl development of his philanthropic idle, in England and our own country. Ex tensive as that development has been every one who has investigated tn, matter knows but too well how made quate are all our provisions to checl and mitigate the evils growing cut O the abandonment of children. Patheti, scenes are still of daily-we might sa, l. almost hourly-occurrence in the grea cities of Christian England'and Anerics