St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-20
PHHLANTHROPHsTs AT WORK.
after a Day of Partial Rest the Con-
ference is Continued.

ference is Continued.
The national conference of charities and
corrections met promptly at 9 o'clock at
the capitol yesterday morning, and was
opened with prayer by Bishop Ireland. AS
usual. at the morning session, but few were
II the hall at the time, but in a few min
ties the room was filled. After the min
ates of the last two sessions had been read
Dy Secretary Wright, the reports from
states was continued, T. II. Wines i'll the
chair, and Mrs. Jennie McCowen, NJ. d.,
corresponding secretary from Iowa.
read the annual report from that state,
being a summary of progress i'll buildings
and improvements of reformatory institu-
tons. She said that Iowa had fewer
women criminals in proportion to her fe-
male population than any other state in the
union. She summarized the recent amend
ment to the laws, raising the age of con-
sent from 10 to Is years being the most inn
oortant Mrs. j. K. Barney of Rhode Is
land submitted the report from her state,
which was brief and without manuscript.
DR.. Dana submitted the Minnesota report,
prepared by Nelson Williams, Minneapolis.
1t gave the number OF prisoners, including
insane and idiots, reported by the state as
2,035, the principal facts being contained
in Secretary Harris annual report. He
noted much improvement in poorl1ouSeS
and iails, but there was room for much
more At the request of E. [. Calvin of
the Chicago athen8um Mrs. Woods super
ntendent of the Erring Woman's home,
Chicago, was given few minutes to rem
Ter a report for that Institution. She gave
the plan of managing the Institution, which
made special effort in behalf of those
girls who fed from their homes in despair
and disgrace to possibly commit suicide.
All young women who became mothers in
the institution were encouraged to keep
their children, as the mothers love was
strong incentive to do right. Out of those
who came into the institution three out of
five were reformed and all were encouraged
to remain as long as they pleased. Mrs.
Woods said that there was not much diff
Guilty to reform fallen women if the attempt
were only made.
PREVENTIVE WORK.
Mrs. Virginia Il. Smith of Hartford,
Conn.,, was called upon in accordance with
the program, she being the chairman of
the committee on prevention work among
children. She opened with an account of
the establishment of the first free kinder
garten in her city, the work connected with
1t, which had resulted in law of the state,
enabling such schools to be established at
the public expense. She read paper OF
some length Oh the topic of her committee,
the text of which was that children were
the fundamental factors of the universe,
and extraordinary care should be taken in
their rearing, particularly those surrounded
by circumstances liable to lead them to
criminal or dissolute lives. She gave the
status of such work in the different states,
IT ,iaI, lal c4o
such children. More than one-half
of the twenty-five states report
ing make no provision for neglected chill
dren, except almshouses, and two-thirds of
the states of the Union were in the same
condition. The report was an enthusiastic
appeal that the proper care of poor and
neglected and outcaSt children be not in
cluded in the criminal classes in reform
schools, by which stigma was placed upon
their names, whereas some of the brightest
men OF the age came from this class of
children. Boarding out young children
often resulted in permanent adoption.
Temporary refugees were needed for chill
dren now detained in jails and station
houses. She recommended committees of
the conference to draft bills and urge their
passage by state legislatures, advancing the
age of consent from 10 to Is years.
Rev. Oscar c. McCulloch read paper
prepared by Mrs. Anne B. Richardson of
Lowell Mass, on the work of the Massa-
chusetts institutions with children of the
classes under discussion. He also read
paper on ''Children's Homes in Indiana"
prepared by Mrs Julia II. Goodhart of that
state. Miss Emily Huntington of New
York took the stand to answer questions on
her Kitchen Garden system. She said that
so many questions had been handed in for
her that she would have difficulty in answer
ing them all. She entered into the
details of the plan of teaching the
poor children who were gathered into
the kindergartens. The outfit for the sys-
TEN only costs So per child for class of
twenty-four children, and could be used
every day in the week for ten years. The
system is intended to be method of teach
ing large number at the same time how to
do kitchen work. The method of doing
the work is the occupation, each child hay
ing set of dishes, in teaching table-set-
ting, brooms, busters, etc., in teaching
sweeping, and so on to the end of the
chapter