The Washington bee., 1888-07-28
NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

i'll were asked to name one
product of vice and crime, which
soonest would touch the hearts of
all good people, l would say, "a
neglected child.n There is some
thing in the helplessness Of child
rem which appeals to every human
heart. In childhood there is some
thing angelic which every soul
grieves to see soiled and bedevilled
by association with vice and crime,
or Graded, sucked, and bred up
among scenes of guilt, intemper-
ance, and profigacy. Christians
and brethren, Jews, Turks, infidels.
and heretics feel alike the spell and
pathos of childhood. Nature and
Religion recognize the sadness of
child suffering.
In the poorer sections of all our
great cities, neglected children are
plenteously bred. They are orphans,
bastards, or deserted children, or
the offspring of depraved and in
temperate parents. Poverty, prof.
ligacy, intemperance, and the pro-
miscuous herding together of both
sexes in the vile localities of the
cities are responsible for them.
Thew are forever coming on. They
are propagated so profusely that
a Nautilus preaching civilization
might regard it fortunate that the
places of infant nurture are also the
haunts of the deadliest infantile
diseases. They subsist on charity,
hg pickings and stealings, and on
the refuse Of markets and restau
rants. They find shelter as best
they may.
In New York (and / believe in
other of our large cities) there is a
society organized for the prevent
ion of cruelty to children. Great
is the good work which they have
done, Most marvellous is the
misery which they have exposed.
To read their reports without shud-
dering at the immensity of the
cruelty to which children are sub
jected, is impossible; but It is yet
more sad to see some of these neg
lected children themselves, just
when they are rescued, with faces
stamped already with the devil
marks of vice and crime that it is
scarcely possible to believe that it
was Of such as they, that Christ
said. "Take heed that We dispise
not one of these little ones; for l
say unto you that in Heaven their
angels do not always behold the
face of my Father which is in Heav.
en-
Apart from all religious and SEN
timental aspects there is another
view which must be taken. Neg.
lected children are to be feared,
not because of their childish at
tempts at evil, but rather because
the child, being father to the man,
has a potentiality for vast amount
! of mischief, when the seeds of his
early training bear fruit in the ma.
turity of manhood. While foreign
nations have dealt with neglected
children as if they were merely so
many stray animals, we must re-
gard them in the higher aspect of
embryo citizens and law makers
who will become possessed of powers
which jails cannot control and DO
lice courts cannot cope with.
The foreign theory is that child,
rem are the property of their
parents, to be utilized as the latter
see fit-to be exhibited to make
money, even though their educa-
tion be neglected, their morals i'm
pared, and life shortened. The
American theOryis that it is rather
the duty of the parents to support
the child than for the children to
support their parents. 1t insists
that the child should be taught to
read and write and be fitted by
education to become respectable
American citizen; that no child
should toll in the factory, nor beg
upon the street; that no occupa-
tion which stunts the body or con-
teammates the character should be
followed. The two theories have
been recently illustrated by the
case of Joseph Holman, the musi-
cal prOdigy.-NoRTH AMERICAN Re-
VIEW.