Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-04-26
COMMUNICATED.


The Orphans Claim.
When the warrior Walpole demanded Of
King Alfred the estates of Holderness, "
ing In Yorkshire, near the Humber, his only
opponent was the little orphan heir. To a
scornful question how he could serve the
King, he said: "IWo,dd pray to God in heaven."
Alfred the Great promptly gave him his
rights, saying, "The orphans claim is above
all other. for his Father is God who reigns
In heaven"
Rev. DR.. Palmer says: GAS the water gush-
es from the heart Of the granite, so from
blessing on the young" The children of
the dead are the wards of the world. There
have been thousands Of efforts to discharge
this holy duty, and It is to be regretted that
our constitutional lsziness so tempts US
to put of on others the duty that is so
plain to as. A gentleman once plainly
said, 81 wish to hire you to see to the
hospital. 1t is a work / want TO get rid Of"
But will God let us hire a minister to do our
praying; a missionary to do our Christianity;
a matron and a hive, in which we can club
our charity? The Macon Orphan Home, of
the Wesleyan faith, is strictly guarded from
being an asylum. 1t is only a place Of rest,
until the little waif can find new parents,
and out of one hundred and fifty boys and
girls in four years, there are seldom more
than thirty on hand. Some home, often
adoption, is always waiting, and
the experience of the New York
Children's Aid Society, in handling more
children, by many thousands, than all the
other charities combined, is, that the little
child, sent to win it's own way to hearts, is
the true success found at last. They have
agents, as do the Georgia Methodists, to
watch each case, and not one In a thousand
has to be moved from Ill treatment. The
packed asylum, where, as Charles Dickens
says, "children exchange measles and
bad habits like goods In the old
time fair,n may be a necessity to
Europe, but would not be even to London,
If Gods people did not wish to hire some
one to do by wholesale what each should
do alone. In the Macon Asylum there is a
written, legal bond, that the child shall in
no case be treated as a servant, but shall be
a member of the family. On these terms,
and never giving up their right to revoke
the trust, they find no difficulty in placing
children as fast as they come. The recent
visit of the manager here was a success,
and Rev. Mr.. Payne was not only helped by
Methodists, but other Christians gladly
gave. One Presbyterian gives a half or
whole cask of rice every year, from
gone, l saw a fifty dollar note, sent by a
gentleman who had missed the chance
to give. In Augusta Mr.. w. E. Derry re-
solved to try the scriptural plan, rye are
saved by Hope" He saw how hard 1t was
for a child to be good and faithful through
dreary years, cheered by no hope nor prom
ise. But he let them know that he would try
4 I'll --@I L1-.- e. H. L~-A IN a.
1t vas hard on him, for he loved his chill
dren, and it was a grest help In his hard la.
Dor, to keep the most helpful and obedient.
But like King Alfred, he saw that the or
phan had the first claim, and gave his best to
those able to love and educate them.
And sill over Georgia, he can
hear from those who pray for their noble
and unselfsh friend. 1t is true that the
temptation is great, to make servants of
these who are so trained to be clean, dill
gent and obedient. We who are, we hope,
to be Gods CANCELS" and administering SER
vants' to His ''heirs of salvation, !" aud who
do not expect either cooks, stable boys or
chamber maids in glory land, do so lOte to
haze them here. We could not keep the ne
gro. The free negro Is dirty and impudent,
and to graduate high class servants is just
splendid.
There is only one objection to It, they are
Wftst 4AOJ Law OAI0 SIdAll0 bnAL dDUGdl
from parents watching them from heaven,
they have the mute eloqUence of graves,
the sad protests of silent tears, and the
threat of Almighty God behind them, that
our children shall be treated as we treat
His. 1t were better to a have milestone
about the neck and be cast into the depths
Of the sea, than to even offend one of the
little ones that believe IN Him; we are told
by his Son. He adopts the poor, and says:
aye did IT. npfn meD and fha
awful words-''These shall 90 away into
everlasting torment" refer to no
sin but neglect. Edgar Allan Poe was an
adopted boy. and how do We know that the
power to write the Raven or The Bells of the
future, lies not in some child now classed
as a pauper. Augusta Evans Wilson Is now
at work in Mobile upon tableaux from
Lallah Rookh, for the Protestant Asylum,
that suggested BbIdh and all her fame.
What were the history of Israil, If P~haraoh's
daughter had said; "He must not get ideas
above his station In life" or, "He is onIy
fit to be q servant" when she looked on
infant Moses, the founding Of the Nile?
Who can say what God has fixed as the
~"station In life'' of any white child? Little
Watts and the tea kettle; Peter Cooper, the
mechanic millionaire; Cornelius Vanderbilt. !
who mourned all his life that he had no
education, and who used to pull a battery
boat for hire; Alexander H. Stephens. who
went to college on foot, and wears later
the whole estate of the LADY who had
forgotten she gave him supper and bed.
Mrs. Parks; John Gibson, the SCULPTOR;
Benjamin West, the great pain
ter; every American President save
one, poets, statesmen, authors, dt- |
vines, benefactors of the world.
from Baron Chief Justice Penterdon, who
was q barber to Napoleon the First. VIII
was a nobody, and then a First Lieutenant of
artillery; these arise and protest that God
alone knows what Is stthe station In ufe,, of
3 poor child. This writer has been of some
use, at least to himself, because Rev. DIR.
Samuel K. Talmage thought a poor lad
might be ft for a college education, and
Senator Joseph Il. Brown thought a gold
mine worker might be a lawyer. l have
preached for Chaplain Smith to the eight
hundred boys and girls of the New York
House of Refuge. This is the eff
fort Of civilization to reform bad
children, who used to go to the peniten-
tiary. Every child is a thief, q street beg
gar or worse. Each is committed by a mag
istrate for actual crime. When the other
poor children sail by the island on the pic
mic excursions of the st. Johns Guild, they
cannot go. They have only three fes-
rivals a year where Ice cream and cakes
come in-Fourth Of July, Thanksgiving and
They cannot go to the church
OF their choice, but to the big, beautiful
chapel built for them, and hear the most in
teresting preacher to children in New York.
They cannot select their own guardian or
home, save by special intercessiou OF
but must stay until sixteen years
old. They are not allowed to learn
music or languages, but are limited
to the common school course, such as negro
children In the South now take. Our young