Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-03-17

' voN
1t IS only n cradle, TO be sure. A cradle
made OF stout brown wicker and prettily
draped with white muslin and blue rib
bous. II such a nest for a wee one as
can be foundi in hundreds of homes in the
broad land, vet it differs from them all.
For eighteen long years this simple cradle
as 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 II, 600 women.
Women with bleeding hearts and tortured
souls, mothers who came to lay in il and
SO renounce their first born. 1t has been
drenched 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.
If you want To see this cradle 90 to the
Founding asylum on SiXty-eighth street
and Third avenue. The building il a
very fine one OF cheerful red brick, with
stone facingS, II over the main entrance
is the significant figure Of st. Vincent de
Paul, the great apostle Of charity, holding
tenderly in his arms u little abandoned
one.
In the asylum there are about 700 chill
aren, with their nurses and nurse mothers,
leaving 600 or |, 100 still to be provided
for. Thc latter are given out to be wet
nursed by women who have lost their
own children and are glad 10 add to their
husbands earnings by taking n Child
from the sisters. These women, the
wives Of respectable workingnen, are
selected with care and have to be well in
dorsed. They are paid SO IA month and
are under the surveillance not only Of n
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
nursea by colorcJ mothers, and when
they leave the asylum are sent 10 a colored
order Of sisters in Baltimore to be trained
in useful occupations. There is some
thing pathetic in the fact that no one, not
even Of their w race, wants TO adopt a
child Of negro blood.
The children carry no badge of charity
about them, Il they are dressed with
every regard 10 neatncss and comfort. 1t
takes, by the way, twenty-five machines
and rs many workers within the asylum
walls 60 turn out the 100, 900 articles Of
clothing used every year. Once n month
there each child il carefully inspected and
reported on az the asylum, u physician be-
ing in Attendance TO prescribe, if neces-
sary, ard the medicine promptly made up
IN the dispCnSary. The magnitude Of the
wet nursing industry for this institution
can be imagined from the fact that it costs
the asylum Sl20, 900 annually.
1t must not be presumed for n moment
that this vast and constantly recruited
army of abandoned children comes en-
tiYely from the poorer classes. Every
stratum in society furnishes its quota, and
among the mothers who have denied their
offspring are wOmen whose toilets at balls
are described in fashion papers ana whose
namCs are synonyms for the social viz
tues.
There IA not n street or an avenue in
fashionable New York that is not repre-
scented in the asylum wards filed with
prattling little ones, 1t needs no prac-
ticed eye 10 recognize in the small ear,
the well shaped hand and foot and the
clearly cnt features the chSd Of gentle
birth, just rs the child Of the laborer and
the raw enrigrant bears the stamp Of its
heritage, in broad back, heavy build,
cuarsciy cut features and large eXtremi-
ties.
Walter Bcsant, in his "Childrcn of
Gideon" wishes us TO believe that, if
given the same advantages and surround
ingS, it would, when they reached ma
turity, be impossible 20 distinguish be-
tween the child OF the washcrwOman and
the child OF the gentlcwoman. In brief.
that education anH the re1inementS OF
wealth would stauY ont heredity. If the
physical advantage rere equal TO begin
with this might b. true ultimately, but
before education begins, say IN the case Of
q child Of 3 years, there is no danger Of a
womau's eye confOurding the two, though
the surroundings be identical.
The evidence of birth Is to be found in
q child's natural manner its instructive
daintineSS, its natural boOrishness. The
love of the beautiful and clean in the one,
the Indifference of the other 10 N but its
animal wants. One child Will come Of its
own accord and ask 10 have its hands
washed from an instructive dislike TO dirt;
the other will shrink from water and soap,
and a taste for cleanliness has to be drilled
into him. The sociolOgist can find plenty
to study in the nurseries of the asylum.
The little ones are brought mp under the
impression that they are at school, and
that some day their papas and mammas
will write for them to come home. In con-
sequence of this the deserted children
never know for q moment that they have
been discarded 10y their own, but look for
ward with happy confidence to going
home.
Every few months a band Of forty or
fifty children is sent west, where COM
petent agents have found places for them
never where there arc small children in
the family, nor unless the people are able
and willing to give them a good education.
AS n rule the secret Of their origin is well
kept. This is a reminder that in New
York society there are buds" whose
debut is promised this winter, but who
unfolded their first leaves in the big
asylum which they may today drive past
with indilference.-Mrs. Robert r.. Porter
In New York Press.