Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-21
CARING FOR WAITS.
WORK OF THE BOYS AND GIRLS
AID SOCIETY.
An Interesting Statement and APP
peal by the Superintendent
of the Institution.

James c. Kemp, Superintendent of the
Girls and Boys Aid Society, San Francisco,
makes the following statement to and
which is published in the Child and State,
with the Endorsement of that journal:
The Boys and Girls Aid Society needs
the help of every friend of humanity in
the State of California. 1t wants every
minister within the boundaries of this
great commonwealth to preach at least one
sermon each year upon the subject of all
subjects and the theme of all themes, the
saving of the children, as outlined in its
work and purpose; to assist in educating
the people up to the grand idea Of family
homes versus institutions, and to urge
upon their congregations the vital neces-
sity of doing all they can toward procuring
homes for the poor, abandoned, abused,
fatherless, motherless, and often worse than
orphan children of both sexes, whose ag-
gregate reaches far into the thousands; to
devote portion of their time and money
towards saving those who are just COM
mencing to ascend the eastern side of the
mountains, as well as in aid of such as,
having made failure of life, are fast near
ing the base of the western slope that bor-
ders upon and enters the ocean Of eternity.
Never before have the servants of Him
who said, "Suffer little children to come
unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of
Heaven" had so glorious, so priceless an
opportunity.
The great God who made us all is rear
ing an empire upon the Pacific Coast To
many He has been most considerate, and a
very large number of our people are the
poSsessors of a far larger average of wealth
than those of any other portion of Amer
lea; yet, while it is so true and so pleasant
to write about, there is still another side,
so black, so terrible, that the heart sickens
in its contemplation, and in tones that,
were it possible, would cause tears of blood
to flow from the eyes of the angels, cry
out, "Oh God, can such things be, can so
much misery exist side by side with untold
afiuence in this golden, sunny California,
with its wealth of precious metals, corn
and wine, its vineyards, orange groves,
orchards and matchless climate ?" And
yet, nowhere in America, north, south, east
or west, are the children, as whole, SO
unfortunate as here.
Men and women came originally, singly,
to seek their fortunes, leaving behind all
their relatives, and to this day, in great
measure, the rule holds good. Then,
again, married people who come hither
leave their friends behind, some in the
East, many in Europe, and the result has
been that when sickness or death entered
the circle there were no relatives on either
side tc take this child or that, to give this
boy or that girl home, and thus help out
the remaining parent in his or her strug-
gle to bring up the children. Then, too,
the presence of so many Chinese in Cali
fornia, SO completely filling every avenue
of employment usually open to boys and
girls, deprives them of the opportunity of
work
What boy or girl of IA years needs,
after fathers or mothers care, is employ
ment in some useful occupation. Idleness
begets decentralization, and that soon leads
to crime and utter ruin.
The Boys and Girls Aid Society real
izes all this; it knows that the family
home is the first form of society established
by the Creator, the unit of our civiliza-
tion.
One man married sacredly to one
woman, and their children constitute the
family-an aggregate of these the town, a
series of towns the county, number of coun-
ties the State, union of many States the
nation; the work of all depending on the
purity of the family home, Gods own
handiwork. To such homes, and only
such, it consigns its wards.
Do not these simple outlines furnish
food for earnest thought? What nobler
theme could any minister of God choose !?
1t asks the Superintendent of each Sab
bath-school to present the features and OBJ
jects of this great work to the scholars, and
to ask of them small contribution once a
year in aid of its poor, unfortunate chill
dren and, finally, it earnestly desires the
unqualified, hearty cooperation ,f the
teachers of the public schools, ever there
throughout the State.
Let the purpose of the Boys and Girls
Aid Society Of the State of California be
the theme of an occasional composition,
and let each child have an opportunity
to contribute something once a year, if it
be only nickel, towards its maintenance.
Our Special Agent, Ulysses Stedman,
whose heart and soul are in his work, will
visit as many schools as possible, and in a
few weli-chosen remarks present this great
subject to the scholars and right here we
ask for him a hearty, whole-souled recep-
lion, and when he shall have gone, will
tot the teachers kindly enlarge upon the
few remarks he will have made, and thus
plant in the minds and hearts of their pu-
pills the SEED that shall spring up and
grow, and finally give us hundreds of
frIn,aIc tho .,,I Al
future?
Reader, can you. do you, fully realize
how grand work this is, and how great
the opportunity presented to you to do
real, true, pure, practical good in this your
day and generation?
We were not placed in this world to live
for ourselves. Some of us have talents.
others have not. Some are gifted with
faculties that lead directly on to fortune.
Our fathers fought, bled and died that we
might enjoy the privileges OF civil and re-
ligious liberty; sacrificed life, comfort,
home and family for us; and should we
live contemptibly and niggardly for our
selves? Viewing the subject in this light.
which is certainly the true one where is
the man or woman who should not esteem
it high, heaven-born privilege to be able
TO give little of their substance towards
this, the charity of all charities? For,
when we save the children, we save all,
and when we lose them, all is lost.
This society lives upon absolute charity.
1t is doing grand child-saving work and
doing it gratuitously, 1t goes out into
the byways highways and slums, in search
of class of children that seem to have
been ignored heretofore, and left without
a friend on earth.
Our Sabbath schools are doing noble
work. So too, our various charitable in
stitutions and asylums, but this society
goes far below any of these, and grapples
with class that in many instances never
saw the inside of church, Sabbath school
or even public school; children that come
to it in rags and tatters, filth and yermin,
and frequently worn, wasted and pallid
with disease.
This, readers, is real, practical work; it
is pre-eminently Christian work; it is
Gods work it is the noblest work. foul,
dirty and disagreeable though it surely is,
that ever fell to the lot of mortal hands
to do.
Will you not study into it, help it along
by every means in your power, thus
doing a deed that the Recording Angel
will place to your everlasting credit, that
will cause YOU to feel yourself better man