Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-10-24
The Burlington Home for DestIIute
Children,

The annual report of the secretary of this
institution, just published, states that the
year has been one of substantial prosperity
to the Hone" Thirty children were ad-
mitted during the year and ~ we're sent out
the applications for children far exceeding
the ability of the Home to supply. Thirteen
children have been in the infant department
during the year-several of these being chill
dren of mothers dependent upon their own
labor for support, aud who place their chill
dren in the Home rs boarders, where they
have the care they cannot give themsel
We copy from the report the remarks made
upon the duty OF towns toward pauper aud
unfortunate children throSn upon them for
support Rnese remarks are dictated by a
long experience, aud we commend them to
careful consideration
The condition OF some of the children
sent to the Home prompts us to make ali APP
peal to all good citizens throughout the state,
and especially to town officers, in behalf of
the unfortunate children who become in
mates of our alms houses. These children
who are thrown upon the towns, from what
ever cause, whether by orphanage, or the
poverty or vice Of their parents, are, in the
present arrangement OF our poor houses
necessarily thrown in contact with the very
worst element OF our population. They
learn every form of evil and if they remain
long in such an atmosphere it is inevitable
that they should grow up criminals Aud
what right has the state to expect anything
else If she places her children in a school
of crime can she expect that virtue will be
the outcome? We know that some of the in.
mates of poer houses are brought there by
misfortune and honest poverty, and we know,
too, that in the majority Of cases, their own
vices are the sole cause, and becoming town
charges does not reform them. Can those
persons be proper associates for young chill
dren ? Aud these children in too many in
stances may have inherited evil tendencies,
and are only too easy to learn from their ell
ders. We ask in all csndor, is it wise to sub
ject children, for whom the towns must pro.
vide, TO such influences? ? On the contrary,
would it not be wiser to remove them with
out delay to the purer atmosphere OF fos-
ter mother, where they would at least be
taught no evil, but be nourished and trained
in the path of reotitude. | appeal to all in.
teigent, right-minded citizens and ask, is it
not more patriotic and more Christian TO give
these children a chance to grow up good and
respectable citizens, able to bear their own
share of the worlds work, rather than add
10 its burdens The "Home" has offered,
aud does still offer to take these children,
when under ten years of age from the towns,
for $lO0 $40 or $50 according to the age,
or to be more explicit, for an infant one year
old and under $780, for one l year old and
two S75, and for one three years old and over,
$50. We have sometimes been repulsed with
the charge of being exorbtant, but let me
ask any candid, thoughtful parent, how long
it takes to spend 800 in the care of an in
FAINT? And which will be the cheaper in the
long run, to pay these sums aud be relieved
of further responsibility, or keep the children
on the town, until they are old enough to
work, and then send them out to practice the
vices they have learned, aud afterwsrd bear
the burden of furnishing them 2"