The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-01-03
HISTORY OF A CRADLE.
A VISIT TO THE FOUNDING ASYLUM
OF NEW YORK CITY.
Nurses and Nurse Mothcrs-The Coiored
Babies-where tho Little Ones Hall
from-Apparent Effects OF Heredity.
Sending Children Out West.

II il only a cradle, to be sure. A cradle
| made of stout brown wicker and prettily
| draped with white muslin and blue RID
| bons. Just such a nest for a wee one ~
| can be found in hundreds of homes in the
broad land, vet 1t differs from them all.
| For eighteen long years this simple cradle
tas been the ark by which thousands
upon thousands Of innocent little lives
| have been saved from the food Of misery
| and sin that sweeps over this great city.
Over this cradle have bent 700 women.
Women with bleeding hearts n tortured
souls, mothers who came To lay in 1t and
| so %renounce their first born. 1t has been
drenched with the tears of the wretched
| and rocked with the agonized last em
| brace that marks the parting Of flesh and
blood from it, own
II YOU want to see this cradle 90 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
teuderly in his arms a little abandoned
one.
In the asylum there are about ,OO chill
dren, with their nurses and nurse mothers,
leaving /, 900 or |, 100 still To be provided
for. The latter are given out to be wet
nursed by women who have lost their
W children and are glad 10 add 10 their
husbands earnings by taking a child
from the sisters. These women, the
wive. OF respectable w~orkingmen, are
selected with care and have 10 he well in
dorsed. They are paid $40 a month and
are under the surveillance not only Ut a
detective but of a parish visitor, who may
call at II moment.
The colored babies, who look like big
rubber dolls, with bright bead eyes, are
nursed by colored mothers, and when
they leave the asylum are sent tOa colored
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, vents 10 adopt a
child Of negro blood
The children carry ~ badge of charity
ab0at them, and they are dressed with
every regaul 10 neutness and comfort. IL
takes, by the way twenty I've machines
and as many workers within the asylum
walls 10 turn Out the lcp 900 articles VI
clothing used every year. once a month
there each child is carefully Inspected and
reported on At the asylum, a physician be
ins ia attendance 10 prescribe II neces-
sar,. and he medicine promptly made up
In the d%.-Donsary. The magnitude ~ the
wet nursing industry for this institution
can be imagined from the fact that 1t costs
the asylum Sl20, 900 annually.
II must moi be presumed for a moment
that this vast ami constantly recruited
army OF abandoned children comes en-
tirely from the poorer classes. Every
siratnm ia society furnishes it, quota, and
anon the mothers who have denied their
offspring are Women whose toilets at balls
are described in fashion papers and whose
names are SYNONYMS for the social yir
tues.
There j. not II street or au avenue 10
| fashionable New York that IS not repre-
scnted ia the asylum waTds filled with
prattling lttle ones. IL needs no prac-
ticcd eye To- recognize ia the SINAI ear,
the well shaped hand and foot and the
clearly cut features the ch2d OF gentle
birth. lust rs the child OF the laborer and
the raw emigrant bears the stamp OF its
heritage. ia broad back, heavy build,
'Eff Fr
c~9arseiy cut features and large eytremi
ties.
Walter Besant, in his Children OF
Gideon wishes us 10 believe that, II
| given the same advantages and surround
| ings. it would, when they reached ma
tnritv. be Impossible 10 distinguish be-
| tween the child OF the washerwoman and
the child OF the gentlewoman. In brief,
| that education and the retinements OF
| wealth would stamp out heredity. III the
physical advantages were equal 10 begin
with this might be true ultimately, but
before education begins, say 10 the case OF
| n child Of 3 years, there il no danger OF e
woman's eye c~onfouuding the two, though
! the surroundings be identical.
The evidence Of birth is to be found in
n child's natural manner, its instructive
| daintiness, its natural boorishness. The
love OF the beautiful aud clean in the one,
the indifference Of the other 10 any 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 10 be drilled
into him. The sociologist can find plenty
TO study in the nurseries OF the asylum.
The little ones are brought up under the
impression that they are ut 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 Tor n moment that they have
| been discarded by 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
petcnt agents have found places for them
never where there are small children In
the family, nor unless the people are able
and willing to give them a good education.
As a 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 indifference Mrs. Robert +. Porter
In New York Press.
TURNS Museum.
The Museum Of Antiquities" has