Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-02
SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
PRACTICAL WORK OF THE BOYS
AND GIRLS AID SOCIETY.
A Glimpse at the Inmates-The
Mrs. Stanford Free Kin
dergarten-Etc.
SAY FRANc1sco. July 50. 1881

the society CONTINUES over dismissed cases
Children who have been inmates of the
Aid, while their parents were i'll or il
prison. return to their former homes wheI
their parents claim them, but are constantly
visited by officer David W. Boyd, detailed
for the use of the Aid Society. These visits
are mainly to wake up parents to sense
of their duties, and to show them that the
society always looks out for the children
it has once sheltered, and will claim then
again if it finds them neglected or abused
In a recent report /, 24S such visits are re
corded. A good point in the management
of the Aid is that it acts promptly; there is
very little red tape about its doings where
a child's suffering is in question. Some
times a would-be hospital patient mus
wait till the Board has met and deliberateC
upon his case, but the doors of the Aid are
literally and metaphorically always open
to the little waits for whose good it exists
Mr. Dooley, the Superintendent, declares
that he has more to contend with from
weakness Of character, narrowness and
inefficiency in parents than from real bru-
tality or crime.
RESCUED FROM THE MAGDALEN.
An instance was the case of Martha, a
bright, restless, talkatiye, noisy girl of 10,
clean in her dress, and in her speech hon
est and straightforward. 1t would have
been difficult to believe that she had been
gathered in on her way to the Magdalen
Asylum, as so many even younger girls at
the Aid unfortunately are. Improved that
l. L, l. e L
was this: Her mother died when she was
about Y or Is years Of age, and her father
married a second wife This good lady
was jealous of Martha and of the influence
she might have over her father The
father saw that he was in diSfav0r with his
wife when he treated Martha kindly, so he
dared not display his affection for her
Soon new babies came, and poor Martha
found herself very much out in the cold.
She got reckless and bad-tempered, and be-
gan to behave in way as TO justify her
stepmother's dislike and her fathers harsh
neSs-the young human animal becomes
such an unpleasant little brute III the alb.
sence of love. Not at all perceiving the
why and wherefore of Martha's degeneracy.
her father came, in all honest pain and
grief; to commit his fractions daughter to
the Boys and Girls Aid as utterly unman-
ageable. They had become too wise
through experience to place implicit belief
in a parents diagnosis of hard case, and
soon discovered that Martha only needed
kind treatment to be trusted, and be led,
and not driven, to make her cheerful,
tractable girl One day, after ne had made
sure of her disposition, the Superintendent
sent her on an errand at some distance.
She performed it, going and return
ing by the street cars. At about
s o'clock in the evening, there was much
ringing of the street deor-bell at the Aid,
and great commotion. Martha's father.
stepmother and two small children had
come to ask where Martha was She was
upstairs, the Matron said. Was she quite
sure? Quite. Because they had seen Mar
tina that afternoon on a street car and they
thought she had q broke loose" Mr.. Doc
ley is not little proud that he can trust so
many of his boys and girls on errands
about the city-so many, indeed, that a
Judge of one of the Courts from which sew
eral of the Aid inmates have been taken
You lose a great many BOYS
don't you? | see boys that | have Just
committed running all about the city"
ANOTHER INTERESTING EXAMPLE
Of course there is such thing as being
too lenient, and lenient in the wrong in
stance but there seems to be not much
danger of that in the experiences of these
young candidates for a higher life One
rather cruel judgment on little fellow
read and heard the story of The boy,
cursed with drunken, profigate mother,
and a father whose misfortune it was to
have tried to commit suicide and failed was
brought to the Aid by policeman He
was found home with a lady whose hus-
H., i
found the burden of disciplining the boy
entirely resting upon her if severe discip-
line had been necessary But it was not.
The boy had sweet disposition, and was,
as she called him, . a lump of love" She
broke up housekeeping and left the boy
with a neighbor, who also became much |
attached to him. 1t became necessary to
place him in a third home in the country,
from which he has returned with this I'M
document;
We, the undersigned residents of -. con-
slider Johnny - a very rude. bad boy. We
know him 10 be of a bad disposition, very un-
worthy of the good will which most boys are |
deserving of. Signed by Deputy Sheriff and
.hree leading citizens.
81 don't care what you put in, Mr.. |
Dooley won't believe il, said poor johnny |
;toutly when this summing up was in |
course of preparation. And Mr.. Doolev |
lid not believe it. The child is a good |
,hild with a good record, and these Mr. !
BUNDLES of Boone county have failed to |
understand him, and brought their quad |
'uple strength to bear to give little boy |
en- years old bad character. 1t is
NOT ALL BosE-CoLoRED,
However, by any means There are bows |
who feel bitterly disappointed that they |
we're rescued from going to San Quentin |
They wish to 90 there because it's tough !
hey feel that they would then have had a |
,areer as a criminal, or as if they had been |
graduated and received diploma |
alked to little rogue out at the Aid who
lad wrecked train, burned barn, robbed |
woman OF her purse at the point of a PTS
oil, and had Just been brought from a run
way excursion from the Aid 10 Berkeley.
lie had been gone three or four DAYS he
lad not the smallest sense of shame, and he
vas just twelve years old 1t is not safe To
ct him play among the other children, for
le is inbued with the dime novel idea that
great crime is romantic and a full
lodged criminal a hero, and he incites his
mates to revolt. He is small most of the
oys of his class are, and he has little
mile and soft, ready assent to all the kind
xhOrtahon and pleading of one of the
aides who felt deeply interested in the
Ultimate rescue of the boy and lively sor-
ow for his solitary confinement, while she
its necessity perfectly. The
Iture of such boys when they come within
he sphere of the Aids activities is seri-
US problem. The intention was to send
II this one on a ship, in order to subject
inn to strict discipline and to separate him
ntirely from old associations.
BETTER ACCOMMODATIONS NEEDED.
1t is really pitiful that the accommoda-
ons of the Aid itself should be so linn
ed Forty boys are sometimes herded in
900 cubic feet A British soldier is al
lwed 500 feet, and here each boy has but
uarter as much The device is resorted
} of causing strong draught to sweep
ontinually through the crowded sleeping
pom. 1t gives few boys cold, but it
ives the mass from being poisoned. A
md for new building is to be started at
nee and box for contributions to the
oys' and Girls Aid is to be put up at the
oils at the November elections 1t is
aimed that the inmates are better fed