The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1874-10-10
FouNoLIMes.
How Italy Takes Care Of Deserted
Waits.

TVOUUEIH0Os
How Italy Takes Care Of Deserted
Waifs.
In an inner court of this vast build
ing-says Lady Amberly in contribu-
ton to MacmiHan's Magazine about
the hospital Of San Spirito in Rome
we find the largest founding hospital
OF Rome now open to our inspection,
and we do not remember having looked
on anything more unpleasant and
saddening. Here we have nothing
short of the good intentions Of
one age becoming the curse
of another. Through a well-barrcd
door we were admitted, after much par
lcying, by brisk little nun, into a
great quadrangle.
From sunny gallery that surrounds
this inner court We entered number Of
large, airy rooms, all too sadly alike in
their mournful and forlorn aspect. The
material appearance was good enough;
most perfect cleanliness visible every.
where. The many little cots so scru-
pulously clean, with their white sheets
and white dimity curtains, each con-
tanned three poor abandoned infants,
who, swaddled so tightly that no limb
could move, looked more like wooden
dolls, with india rubber necks and
faces, than like the stretching, Growing,
soft little bundles English mothers are
accustomed to fondle. A tidy, healthy
looking woman is attached to each cot
as wet nurse.
Though the cleanliness was great to
the outer eye, we could not say in
what state the little limbs and bodies
were kept cramped in this bundle, which
is opened but three times a day. The
only convenience of this unhealthy
mode of clothing seemed to be that one
woman could manage three of them at
once, or rather, we should say, hold
three, for we defy the strongest-armed
and strongest woman to manage
even two restless infants when crying
with pain. The superintendent of the
whole is in the hands Of Sisters of MGR.
cy, kind and conscientious, no doubt,
but unknowing in the pangs and joys
Of a mothers heart. They are assist:
ell by a young doctor, who is here study
ing infant mortality on a large scale,
that he may gain experience whereby
to keep in health precious infants Of
the more fortunate Of the great city.
These little ones pass the first year Of
their life here. At a year old, those
who have had vitality enough to SUI
vivc are put out to nurse among the
peasants in the country. From two to
nine day is the number that seek ad.
mission. The first duty performed is
to baptize these poor little outcasts;
and, as VIC entered, we met eight strong
| nurses, each returning from the church
with her tiny burden Of swaddled hu.
manity, now duly admitted as mem.
Der OF the great brotherhood of love
and equality. And surely one must be-
lievc in their creed to be able to sec the
compensation in store for the sufterings
these little ones have to endure.
Under the existing system there
seems nothing to prevent mother de-
| posting her infant, and then hiring her.
self as wet nurse, trusting to turn OF
fortunes wheel to give her her own to
suckle, though she must follow it pretty
quickly if she wish to find it again
among the hundred or so of mewing
and puking atoms. Let us hope there
may be sometimes some bright oasis OF
real love in this desert Of suffering. We
have no word Of approval for this kind
of attempt to remedy artificially the
evil consequences of the heedlessncss
that brings children into this world OF
suffering, under circumstances that
cruelty forbid mothers love and care
which can alone bear successfully with
all the difficulties of dawning life, and
detect rapidly every change and indica.
ton Of approaching illness.
It is no wonder, then, that, in the ab.
sence of this never firing and quick
sighted love, fifty per cent. die unde,
three months old, as the doctor care
lessly remarked as we gazed into a lit.
tie cot where an infant had already
passed beyond crying, while another
still uttered the cry Of pain that tells a
mothers heart it is yet struggling 70,
life. Other cots exhibited every varie
ty of sickly and starved babyhood
Poor little wien faces, open mouths
and moaning cries, made one intensely
melancholy>for the suffering still to bt
endured before death kindly put an enc
to their agonies. And why should
they not die? Why, indeed? NJ
one needs them; anG
their abandonment proves that
those who should most have loved them
will not miss them. Looking from the
window, the streets TEEN with young
life; and why should any one wish al
addition to that mass of pain anc
wretchedness Better, indeed, to die
but for the thousands it would surely
have been better still had they never
been born.