The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-29
LOST CHILDREN.
From the New York Tribune

From the New York VrlDune.l
The search tor the stolen loss Gn' rS
paralleled perhaps in the records OF Poncs W..
and II ID no exaggeratien to say has been ~atcheo
by the whole country. Little CharAs nGHs a aoI
como to be household WORD IN every Anu
q II he pr6yed that he is dead, 1t Will seem as
though he had died out OF many home wnere ne y.
ha. BECOME real and beloved. The interest," IN
the child has been deep aud unlversai s1nce me
day he was stolen. Money has been !leeiy Or
rescne the press have urged the matter unceas-
,ngly: the police have worked without nagglng
ssTmons have been preached to heighten the ex-
element: there is not a woman, perhaps, Win
baby on her breast who mas not ieit also t .ne
she might be the one who could ind him ana
give him back to his mother. ,
Now all this agitation and tumult is right. God
forbid we should say d word to lessen the pnblic
interest in Charley Ross. But is there no other
lost child in the country? Is this the only little
fair-hared, innocent fellow who is being dragged
down to DEATH or worse, into vice ana total rum
OF body and soul? Charley Ross, 1t he be oead,
is but one child taken from his mother; or H. az
is most improbable, he be irretrievab!y 1851 In
the haunts Of misery and crime, will be but one
man in the future who might have been hePlui
citizen, degraded INTO criminal. For TINS one
we point to thousands in this city ana brooA'ya
alone, going down to the fatal road, openly, An9
totally unhindered. The number OF warrants ana
neglected children in the city of New York when
the last census was taken, was twenty-lour Pe1
cent Of the whole number. /,
By these we mean the utterly impoverished
class who swarm in idleness about the alleys ana
tenement houses or attempt to earn miserable
living bv work in factories at an age when cnild
with fair chance for it's life would be IN Its
mothers arms, or kept close by her SIDE. over
three thousand children, from Jour to eight years
DID, were found in different manuiactories 1 Tta
time of labor has been legally reduced Dut the
moor babies are at work still, with the thin
dwarfed bodies, oyergrown heads and yellow
skins which make them appear mere m8n'msre
of childhood.
Next to these are the hordes Of children who
literally live upon the streets. making some oc-
casional pretense OF work or beggary, to sustain
life, but usually turning to stealing - tneir
natural vocation. Why should they NOT steai
died in rags and fed with rum through their
mothers milk They have always been cold and
hungry. They see warrlth, food and comfort
about them at every turn; why should they not
has taught them to be honest, sober or decent
The churches are open, but how many OK these
filthy, hungry children or their parents do you
find in the back pews on Sunday! we exclude
from this army OF lost children the 4OOO inmates
of the Houses Of Refuge and other reforma tory
institutions as some effort, however Ineffective,
is made for their help. -,
There remains the fact that one-fourth OF the
children in New York alone are as absolutely
given over to poverty, to the temptation Of every
whose recovery the whole country is moved. A
child is something which in theory comes pure
from Gods hand, to be cared for tenderly by US,
and trained into healthy, honest, cheerful! man
hood In fact one-fOurth OF the children IN New
York city are in rags, in hunger. and absolutely
unable to learn how to earn an honest living, or
to gain one rational idea OF the God who made
them. We do right to pity Charley Ross, taken
from his comfortable home and loving father, but
these other souls who have lost their way, BE-
long by right to an honest intelligent, virtuous
life. and their father is God. Have we no outcry,
no money, no pity TOR them.
Outslde of New York, in every village and city
and State, these growing armies OF little ones ex-
tend, forsaken apparently by God and man. In
Philadelphia, where twenty thousand dollars
we're (justly and generously raised promptly to
save one child there are IL 800 vagrant children
utterly neglected, no effort being made there, as
here by industrial schools to rescue them to the
State ana humanity. The industrial schools are
children They originated in Aberdeen, Scot
| land. and are now in use throughout Great Brit.
ain and on the continent. They are simply
schools, started usually privately, one OF two
Hutcasts, and teaching them to read and work te
be clean, and if possible to serve God and be o.
use to their fellOw-men. In England, the system
is legalized instruction is given in various trades
| to both sexes, percentage is paid by the STATE
to assist in clothing, and, if necessary, feedine
the pupils; and they are placed in good situation
when their period of tuition is over. There ar
several OF these schools now in this city, but no
| enough to reach 1.-THE of the children. Their,
is many an idle woman, too, with means and cul
ture and religious purpose, whose heart is wruns
with pity to-day for Charley Ross, whom she cal
not help. We only point out to her these thou
sands Of other lost little ones, to whom she cal
| give mora than home or life, and commend then
to her thoughts on Christmas Day.