Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-01-09
HISTORY or A CRADLE.
A VISIT TO THE FOUNDING AsYi UM
OF NEW YORK CITY.
Nurses and Nur,c .sothers-rhe Coio-rS
Hahic---where the Little Ones Hail
fro,o--ippsr-nt Effects Of 4ercdity.
Sending Children S,ut West


nahic--wher- tho Little Ones Hail
rron-ippsr-nt Effects Of Rercdi,s.
| Sending Children Out West
! Ii is only cradle, 10 he sur. y cradle
made Of stout brown wicker aud prettily
draped with white muslin a id blue rib
bons- just such n nest for wee one as
can be found in hundreds .f homes in the
broad land, Vet it differs from them all.
For eighteen long years this simple cradle
Las been the ark by which thousands
upon thousands OF innocent little lives
have been saved from the flood of misery
and sin that sweeps over this great city.
Over this cradle have bent 1900 women.
Women with bleeding hearts and tortured
souls, mothers who came To lay in it and
SO renounce their first born. Ii has been
,lrenched with the tears OF the wretched
and rocked with the agonized last en-
brace that marks the parting Of flesh and
blood from its own.
Ii you want to see this cradle GO to the
Founding asylum ON Sixty eighth street
and Third avenue The building is a
very fine one of cheerful red brick, with
stone facings, and over the main entrance
Is the significant figure Of st. Vincent de
Paul, the great apostle OF charity, holding
ienderiy in his arms little abandoned
one.
In the asylum there are about 100 chill
dren, with their nurses and nurse mothers,
leaving ZOO or 100 still to Ike provided
for The latter are given out to lie wet
nurScd by women who have lost their
own children and are glad to add to their
husbands earnings by taking q child
from the sisters. These women, the
wives of respectable vorkingmen, are
selected w. IA care and have to be well in
dorscd. They are paid $40 month and
are under he surveillance not only Of .
detective but Of n PARISH visitor, who may
call at any moment
The colored babies, who look like big
rubber dolls, with bright bead eyes, are
nursed by culored mothers, and when
they leave the asy iuin are sent to u colorel
order of sisters in Baltimore to lie trained
in useful occupations. There Is some
thing pathetic in the fact that no one, not |
even Of their own race, wants to adopt q |
child of negro blood.
The children carry mo badge OF charity !
a'Siit them and they are dressed with |
every regard to Eeasness and comfort. 1t |
takes, by the way, twenty FIVE machines |
and as many workers within the asylum |
walls TO turn ont the 100000 articles Of |
clothing used every year. Once a month |
there each child is carefully inspected and |
on ut the asylum, Il physician be-
ing il attendance to prescribe, il neces-
s1ry, and the medicine promptly made mp
in the dispensary. The magnitude Of the
wet nursing industry for this institution
can be imagined fcom the fact that it costs
the asylum Sf20, 900 annually.
7 10. fnr
that this vast and constantly recruited
army of abandoned children comes en-
tirely from the poorer classes Every
in society furnishes its quota and
among the mothers who have denied their
offspring are women whose toilets at balls
ure described in fashion papers and whose
plmcs are synonyms for the social vir-
tues.
There is not a street or an avenue in
New York that Is not repre-
sented in the asylum wards filed with
prattling little ones. 1t needs no prac
ticed eye to recognize in the small ear,
the well shaped hand and foot and the
clearly cut features the eh2d OF gentle
birth, just as the child of the Iaborer and
the raw emigrant bears the stamp OF its
heritage, in broad back, heavy build,
cut features and large extremi-
lies.
Walter Besant, IN his s'Children Of
wishes us TO believe that, il
given the same advantages and surround
ngs. it wouid, when they reached ma
,urity, be impossible TO distinguish BE-
tween the child of the washerwOman and
he child of the gentlewoman. In brief,
hat education and the refinements OF
wealth would stamp out heredity. II the
physical advantages were equal to begin
with this might be true ultimately, but
before education begins, say In the case Of
, child of years, there Is no danger Of .
eye confounding the two, though
he surroundings be identical.
The evidence Of birth is to be found in
|, caad's natural manner, its instructive
iaintiness, its natural bOorishness. The
owe of the beautiful and clean in the one,
he indifference Of the other to any but its
,nimal wants. One child will come Of its
,wn accord and ask to have its hands
yashed from an instructive dislike to dirt;
he other will shrink from water and soap,
mi 4 taste for cleanliness has tn be drilled
ITO him. The soci"logist can find plenty
% study in the nurseries Of the asylum.
The little ones are brought up under the
that they are at school, and
hat some day their papas and mammas
will write for them to come home. In con-
sequence OF this the deserted children
ievcr know for moment that they have
been discarded by their own, but look for
sard with happy confidence to going
ione.
Every few months n band of forty CT
ifty children is sent west, where COM
,etent agents have found places for them
-nsver where there are small children in
he family, I.or unless the people are able
md willing to give them good education.
As rule the secret Of their origin is well
Kept. This is reminder that in New
York society there are ''buds" whose
iebut is promised this winter, but who
their first leaves in the big
lsylum which they may today drive past
With Indifference Robert p. Porter
L