The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-02-01
An unique ASYLUM.
How Foundlings Are Provided For
in Peru.
The Noble and Self-Sacrifcing Work
of the Sisters of Charity In Peru
How Unfortunate Waits are Re-.
ceived and Cared for.

| Oh Ine SISTERS or Charity In Peru
| How Unfortunate Waits are Re-
ceived and Cared for.
| Especial Correspondence of SUNDAY UNION. /
AREQUIPA, Peru, 1890.
In the center of the old city, nearly OPP
posite the ruins of what was once the
woman's hospital, which was shaken
| down by the great earthquake of twenty
years ago is q very ancient-looking
structure, struggling over an entire square,
whose closed doors and small, heavily
barred windows give no hint of what may
| be going on within. Ny attention was
first attracted by its appearance of an
tiqulty, the utter silence that broods over
the Locality, and the numbers of black
! gowned priests and blue-gowned Sisters,
OF Charity who are constantly gliding in
ana out It's worm-eaten portal. One day,
having extended my walk TO the farther
side OF the enormous building where it
faces an unfrequented thoroughfare, OBJ
served something which aroused my
curiosity to the highest pitch-merely a
KIND OF wooden cage or turn-stile set in
| WV vans, soiio)cit ilfc IL circular DON WIN
TWO compartments, which CHANGED TO be
| slowly revolving as passed. What could
IL be-another mystery of the nonkery,''
or relIc OF lnquisition days? While |
| looked, the box slowly turned again and
presented its blank side to the street, so
ike The surrounding walls, that one
might pass p Thousand times and never
notice IT. But a little groove remained,
into which the fingers might be fitted,
and OF course the spirit OF Mother Eve
lmpelled me to try it. Pulled one way, it
refused to none: pulled the other, the
cage swung around with rheumatic
creak and turned its empty compartment
10 the view. journalistic enterprise de-
manded solution OF the riddle, and
forthwith became a walking inteTrcga-
| ton point until the bottom facts Were at
tanned.
The ancient edifice-which is now
nearly three hundred years old, and for
more than two centuries served us q con-
VenE Tor the nuns of Santa Catarina-is
one OF the several foundling institutions
which have long tiourished in Peru: and
| the swinging box, like those we read of
i'll France and Italy, is set every night
with its hollow side outward, for the re-
ception Of any infants that may be placed
| in it by unknown hands-a perpetuaIly
open door for the shelter of those unwei-
| come waits who are UNNECESSARILY worse
than orphaned, and whose acknowledge
ment brings ruin upon their erring pa
rents. The mother, or her emissary, steal
! ing along that deserted street in the dark
ness, has only to put the newborn eiti-
zen into the box, give it the slightest inn
| petuS, and around it turns, affording i'm
mediate protection to the tiny occupant.
while no eye inside the building can see
who placed it there. A Sister of Charity
is stationed on the inner side of the wall.
whose sole business it is to watch for new
arrivals at all hours of the night, to re-
ceive and care for them.
a newspaper column is not the place
| Tor discussing those social questions that
| have perpleXed the wisest heads and no.
! bleSt hearts ever since this sinful world
was young-those saddest problems that
seem to thwart the plans of the Almighty
and almost make one doubt His over
ruling care. | am only to relate what ex-
lists i'll Arequipa, as in many other parts
! OF South America, leaving my readers to
| approve or condemn, according to their
! individual convictions. Certainly Cath
| Ole Peru is in advance of most Protestant
| countries in having almost entirely Grad
| lcated the crime OF destroying infants be-
fore their birth, by rendering it possible
for unwedded mothers TO dispose of the
| proofs of their shame without COMMITTING
murder and possibly suicide. In COM
munities which are perhaps more civ
| lllzed the impression appears to prevail
| tiieto IL P1oN WcIc IudUc IOf the Hot
| sam and Jetsam thus cast up on the sea of
human wickedness, it would be an en-
| enlargement to vice-as if the young
women OF the land would flock to avail
themselves of the privilege!
In due time We obtained permission to
visit the unique asylum, which, like all
| other benevolent institutions of South
America, is conducted under the direct
auspices of the Church of Rome How
| ever Christians of diverse sects who are
| travelling the many routes to heaven NAV
differ on dogmas and doctrinal points, ali
not blinded by bigotry must yield the
| palm of unSelfish living and tireless prac-
tice of charity, the greatest of Christian
virtues, to the uncounted army of Catholic
| devotees, male and female. who have
| given their lives to the care of the sick.
the INDECENT, the helpless, and the So
called heather" No spot on the earth,s
surface is too bleak or forbiddinp. no
human beings too degraded, and no depth
of crime or misery too dark to be pene-
trated by the ministrations of learned
| monks and gentle Sisters of Charity-not
| merely by the easy method of sending
Bibles, tracts and the contributions of
other people, but by going to live among
the objects OF religious solicitude and de-
voting tollsome years to lettering their
| condition.
LED by the matron, we went first to in
| spect the mysterious hole in the wall.
Close to its inner opening stands the little
iron bedstead-with cross at the foot of
it and a picture of the Mother of Sorrows
at its head-where rests the good Sister
whose nightly business it was to watch
the revolving cradle and to take out new
corners. She informed me that the num-
Der of additions to the household by this
means averaged about three week. and
those SO far during the current wear
lelght months OF 1t were then gone) only
seventy-two had been received. She said
that the majority OF these children whose
birthdays nobody celebrates, evidently
belong to the poorest classes and arrive
naked or wrapped in rags, others are
dressed in the daintiest raiment that love
and wealth and the instinct of maternal
| tenderness can suggest; that with the lat
ter is usually found a generous sum of
money for the child's maintenance, and
not infrequently a tear-blotted letter be-
Seechlng especial care for the forsaken
baby and promising to pay well for its
future support. What suggestions of
tragedy are hereof human frailty and
divine compassionate the old perplexing
problem that came with the tempter into
Eden!
This box is an inexhaustible source of
revenue for the asylum, and nearly every
night it is secretly revolved by outside
hands presumably those who have unac-
knowledged children within), and purses
put IN labeled for the support of the in
tant received on such and such date.
NO questions are ever asked, and no eff
forts made to trace the parentage of the
waits. On certain days of the week the
institution is open to visitors. and the
children may be adopted by whoever de-
sires them; thus giving the unknown pa
rents an opportunity of secretly seeing
their caStawayS, and of eventually reposo
sesslng themselves of them without fear