The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-02-18
Neglected Children .


company of children who may fairly
be ranked under the title neglected"
They are not over clean. Their clothing
is thin and rather promiscuous. Half
the time they are probably very cold,
and the other half hungry. Their faith
ers and mothers are poor, are unfortu-
nate, arc sometimes drunken; and some
of those little ones are familiar with
sights and sounds which would brighten
the delicate, high bred, beautiful girls
who find 1t a labor of love every week to
teach them to sew.
But my experience with these little
specimens of the tenement and the
street has been that, considering their
opportunities. they are very docile.
They blossom out under loving intlu-
ences as your hyacinth does when you
take the bulb from the cellar and set it in
the sunny south window. They repeat
Bible verses and hymns, and sing-why,
they sing as if they had never known y
trouble or care.
Several times the thought has come to
me, "Are these the only neglected chill
dren? Not very original thought, per
haps, but one we mothers would do we'll
to ponder oftener than we do. 1t is q
dreary day for the maternal heart when
1t takes up that desolate refrain: "Tbey
made me the keeper of the vineyard, bat
mine own vineyard have not kept"
A child, coming into the world by no
volition of its own, surely has right to
claim the care and protection OF Its faith
er and mother. They are not released
from this claim by any exterior circum-
stance. Whether they live in Rag Fair
or Fifth avenue, they are equally bound
to take the best care they can of their
own offspring. To do Rag Fair justice,
it is not half so anxious to shirk the
responsibility in the matter as Fifth ave.
nue. often is.
No matter how many subordinates
your purse can employ, you are yourself,
being parent, your child's first and best
guardian. But society, business and the
church make many demands upon your
time. Even so. Meet them if you can
but if you must choose which to give
your best to, and which to give your
second best, and which to let 60 by the
board, let home and children have the
freshness, the first of the day, and the
closest brooding of the heart.
have known family of dear little
children, clothed IN purple and fine linen
and faring, like the man in the parable,
sumptuously every day, who were almost
as badly off as Lazarus in the same
They were wholly under the care and in.
fluence of illiterate, vulgar and unprin.
cipled servants, their mother being toe
much engaged with company, friends
and benevolent enterprises to do more
than give them a kiss once or twice q
day, and sometimes when they vexed hel
scolding or q slap. The mother, q
brilliant and educated and most fascinat.
ing lady. By and by she is ashamed Of
her children, who are Doors, unpublished,
wonder? They were neglected, and moth.
times one are seven. You cannot make
it nine, to save your life.
Some mothers neglect their children
through the care they take OF their out
ward appearance. Come what will, they
many little aprons, so many pies and
luxury in the furnishing and adjoining Of
their homes. Somebody and something
must be put off and turned aside, and il
is very likely to be the little Kitty Of
Johnny, who is, after all, thu
UOC0S1OaA Va tAC P0AOAt0 =8AV0VOo
pride and anxiety! 1t is a terri
BILE thing, though, when you really
sit down and think about il that child
living, breathing, sentient and immortal
should ever be considered as merely +,
clothes-pole, or center-piece for vail
display! - :.
The class who upon the whole get the
least notice taken of them, and are often
est snubbed and hurt, are the boys. Tn
ordinary, commonplace ones Imean, VIII,
are especially brilliant in nothing, an,
who are at the awkward, Obtrusive az
when their feet and hands are big, an,
they seem to have talent for foreve
being in the way. Their very faces hav
lost the sweetness of babyho0d, and hav
not gained the meaning of manhood. Nc
body has much patience with them, an
the house is 30 much, stiller when the
are out of it that even mother does nc
ask where they are when they stink on
of sight, perhaps, after supper, God he'll
them! Many boy might be saved fror
q period of wild and reckless dissipation
II only there was somebody who coul'
see the better part of him, and car
enough for it to endure the rougher ou
side and help him along. There or
plenty Of neglected boys who wear goo
warm clothes and have shoes on thei
feet. lie there one that we know? If q
let US take compassion on him.-MGrgt
ret e. Sangotisa IN Chssstian Union.