The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-28

TOUT OF such scneme as Is suggested
weald be as foreign and opposite to hi
character, as l knew il, as anything pos
sibly could be-"
| Next to its churches Brooklyn is most
noted for the large number Of its char.
liable institutions. The other evening
1T was my privilege to attend the ami,
versary meeting OF one of the most valu.
able of them, the Industrial School Asso-
citation and Home for the Destitute.
This institution not only comprises an
asylum but some seven OF more day
schools scattered through the city, where
the children of working mothers are
cared for while the mothers are washing,
scrubbing or performing other tasks to
make living. In the Asylum or
"Home," as it is termed, parents when
able are compelled to defray in part the
expenses incident to the support and ed
ucation of their offspring, SO that the
charity given is not of the demoralizing
kind of which complaint is 50 frequently
made. Within year kitchen garden
has been made feature of the society's
work, and what kitchen garden is /
can best Illustrate by giving you an idea
OF some of the exercises l witnessed at
the meeting referred to.
A lady seated at piano played a
march. and moment later the patter
OF little feet was heard on the staircase
leading to the hall, and there entered a
band of rosy-cheeked boys and girls, who
filed to benches at one end of the room,
and taking seats sang pretty hymn.
Their at signal, thirty girls ranging in
years from to r. and wearing black
and red checked woolen dresses, white
aprons and white caps, marched in
single file to the center of the room and
joining hands in circle began moving
around, singing. One girl, however,
stood outside the ring, and at a signal
from a call bell in her hand the others
came to standstill.
The exercise was answering the front
door bell, and the girl with the bell per-
sonating fine lady addressed the Girl
nearest her, asking whether the lady of
the house was in. Girl No. 2 made sat,
isfactory reply, and then, taking the bell,
changed places with No. l, whereupon
the children again moved around sing
ing until the bell struck second Time,
when another caller was received. All
was to teach the children how to wait on
the front door. Then the teacher cate
chised the children as to dusting and
sweeping and the care of the implements
employed in such tasks. The children
answered in concert, and though the an
swers had been committed to memory
they had evidently been so deeply i'm
pressed upon the little ones minds as to
be never efaced.
Then armed with toy brooms they ex-
ecuted military maneuvers, singing
Here we come from Yankee lana;
here we come q working band," to the
, .ttue Of "Hail Columbia" Then the
circle was reformed, four girls standing
in the center sweeping. The next exer-
else was washing lesson, the girls tell.
ing how to laundry clothes, and then
practically demonstrating the same by
means of toy wash-tubs, wash-boards and
dolls clothes, which they placed upon two
large tables, which at signal they con-
structed out of four wooden horses and
two great boards lying on the floor. The
spectators laughed heartily as at sig
nal the rosy-cheeked little maidens
tucked up their dresses.
| New clothes-lines were rugged on the
tables by an ingenious device, and the
children hung up the clothes to dry,
singing the while like flock of wrens.
Then they put away the things and
scrubbed the tables, the last exercise
being q practical demonstration with
jumping ropes, of putting up and taking
down a clothes-line. Then at a signal
each girl skipped out of the room with
her rope, and in a minute the children
had disappeared. Such charity as this
institution gives is of the practical kind.
Let me give you two extracts from the
annual report read at the meeting.
eve crave forbearance while we here
offer one or two instances to show the
effect of moral training upon the plastic
minds of the children. The matron and
teachers at the Home appeal to the
honor and sense of right in the child
before Ghey resort to corporal punish
ment. 1t is pleasant to find that there
are boys and girls among this class Of
children who respond quickly to these
i. noble sentiments, and are as keenly alive
to such influences as to the craven fear
/. of punishment. Some mischief was
perpetrated by some Of the older boys
! Of which the matron could not discover
the author. She supposed that timidity
had driven the author into prolonged
course of mendacity, but when the lad
, and one, too, from most wretched fam.
lily, returned from an errand on which
{ he had been sent and heard Of the in
quiries made during his absence. he at
once rose before the assembled school,
and, exculpating his companions, con.
fessed himself guilty. 1t is needless to
say that his truthfulness did not subject
him to punishment
| "At another time two lads were repri
manded, but before passing sentence OF
: punishment the matron was unexpect
edly called away. They were led to in.