The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-08-02
"Auntie'' Lucy Porter, the Protector Of Help
less Offspring of Sin.

less O1tSNrlnS OF Sin.
From the Cincinnati Commercial
Sometimes children are born on the
levee-children Of poor outcast women,
to whom maternity is rather u curse
than 4 blessing. 1t seems somewhat
odd, indeed, that children should be
born amid such scenes OF reckless
shame and reeking sin, but many a lit
tie one has first opened its great black
ewes to the light in some one Of those
gloomy and dilapidated levee buildings,
from whose windows the dark women
wave gaily-hued handkerchiefs to de-
parting vessels. Brown, vigorous,
bright.eyed, pretty waits these infants
oftentimes are; Unscathed by the sin
of their birth, and exhibiting even in
earliest babylood the quaintest cum
ming and funniest merriment magma
bic. But the little ones are seldom
long nursed by their own mothers; and
the cry of q child is seldom heard along
the Rows in the night stiffness. So,
in view of the fact that these babies
mostly inherit very vigorous consti,u-
lions. one naturally inquiries with a
Mortified expression: What becomes
of them
Well there is Il door and heart ev-
Ell open for tlem--;l little door that is
very old and ugly and weak, and Il
great heart that is also very old-in-
deed, much older, but still brave, and
warm, and true. And this open door
and open heart may be found in the
centre Of the negro quarter called
BucktoWn.
II curiosity should ever prompt yon
to visit the corner of Sixth and Gull
vert streets, ask some one Of the tall,
dark turbaned women who haunt the
doors of Kinks underground dance
house, to tell you where ':Aunty Por-
teri lives. Then you will be directed
to the rear of Kirk building, where
the ground is yellow and soft, and the
noisesome air black with flies; and
where you will see Il wretched little
hamlet of sooty frame cott?ges whose
grimy plank walls afford Il strange con-
trast to the snowy freight of over
burdened clothes-lines extending in
every direction. Amltie Porter lives
these inky-colored frames-the best
of fondling hospitals nevertheless, for
the children of the levee. And auntie
herself may generally be seen there,
seated by the door, probably smoking
her old-fashioned briar-root pipe.
4Auntie is very old she has seen her
eighty-second year. But she is still
strong and hearty, though age has
dimmed her eyes and taught her hands
to tremble Il little, when she is filling
that old black pipe. Her dark-brown
face is cast in the most strongly
marked African mold; her lips are
very large and long; her nostrils very
fiat; her cheek-bones very high her
broad face is weirdly wrinkled. It
would be a very ugly face but for the
relief of the kindliest of 1notherly
smiles, and the incessant twinkle Of
good-humored fun in her half-blind
eyes. That smile and look have won
the love of motherlcss little ones more
numerous, perhaps, than even tho
years of A,1ntie Porter. \ great white
turban and a. huge Iusty-colored
wrapper lend Aolntie quite q pictu-
rescue appearance. Her little house
is uingy and dark, and sWarms with
iiies: her furniture is SO old that one
wonders why the chairs and tables do
rot fall to pieces ; and the floor of the
rickctv building squeals and groans
under her feet. But she is very con-
tented and happy. and complains of
nothing, even when the rains beat
through The roof or q northeaster
sllrieks through the cracks q the
sl!'ldslering doors and windows.
From time to time some levee girl
brings hex baby to Auntie Porter and
:ibandois it forever. to return to the
delirious revelry of the Row, with it's
drunken passion and wild music and
weird debarch. Generally size prom
jses to pay twenty-five or fifty cents IL
week tor the baby's board, and
almost always forgets to keep the
promise. But Auntie cares little for
that. Il becomes 'tached to the little
ollcs,'' she says, '';lnd kent give >em
mp" She has successfully ''raiscd'' no
less than nineteen Of these mOtkerless
babes, besides having n,used Il great
numhcr who died early, despite the
.cuderest care. Some Of her found
iinSS have grown up to manhood and
WGmanhood some are doing we'll in
other cities: some are running on the
river: some have gone back to the
wilu life amid which they were born.
One fine tawny lad still visits his old
iuStcr-nothcr, when the boats come
~ from New Orleans, and this one al
ways brings her half of his wages.
E1l'tic used once to be able to sup.
!H!rt Der little ones we'll, when she was
:.>:'::1:cer and stronger, and could work
?.a:t! for them, but now she is getting
;>,, old 10 work. She chiefly manages to
Xxx, only by boarding some poor negro
;:jnTSllDrClnpn end once III q while
c;ru this resource fails her. tor her
iNn!rAcls are men who rove from city
10 city. ard know by heart I'll the