The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-12-21
AS 1T LOOKS TO WOMEN.
A Home Where Many Girls Have
Learned Lies Meaning.
IT is THEIR ONLY FUGE'
A Charming New York Institution which
Is Not So (" Institutional" That Human
Emotions Are Unperceived and Dis
regarded-A Real Home.


bout the wide, red brick, four story house
at 23 East Eleventh street. but the inscrp-
tion on the silver doorplate proclaims it
DO be the "Free Home for Destitute Young
Girls" A young girl" would seem TO
mean being of happiness and mirth, an
object 10 be cherished and protected be-
cause Of her innocent youth; pretty, low
able creature surrounded by all the COM
fort and gladness that loving hearts can
provide.
But there is also another type Of girl
hood-a picture all shadows and sadness
the young girl who is friendless and desti-
tute, but who, happily has.not yet fallen
a victim to the tinseed temptations that
so thickly beset the paths OF poor girls in
a big city. IL is for such that the Free
Home for Destitute Young Girls" Is in"
tended.
"This home is for respectable girls only,
and not Cor those who have fallen" said
Miss Storer, the superintendent, as l sat
In the comfortable parlor of the home the
other afternoon. where do they come
fromY" They come TO US from other insti-
tutons sometimes, and through visiting
missionaries. Often they are brought by
clergymen, who have found them growing
up like wild weeds in idleness and exposed
evil Influences goOntllulcS, IlOItONtl,
girl will come here alone voluntarily"
"And II a girl does come here alone and
OF her own free will and ask admission"
said /. would you take her in without in
quiry as TO her respectabilityp
Certainly we would" replied the ma
tron. "Time enough TO inquire into her
character after she has been given a shell
ter"
WHERE THE GIRLS LIVE.
II was hardly necessary for me 20 have
asked that question, for there is an indie
Enable something about Miss Storer that
assures one of sympathy and charity. She
IL a young, sweet faced woman, with a
world OF tenderness in her eyes and in her
voice. The little silver Maltese cross she
wears at her throat shows her to be one of
the "Kings Daughters.
She kindly took me through the house
at my request and showed me the rooms
where the girls slept Six or seven iron
bedsteads with white coverlids are placed
In each sleeping chamber of the wide. old
fashioned house. To be sure there are no
bright pictures or pretty girlish trifles ar
ranged about the rooms to make them at
tractive. but the neat little beds must be
welcome indeed to the really destitute
girls. The large front room above the
puTlOT IN useu hS u RtHtThl slbJiuR TOom Dy
the girls, where they can study or sew
every afternoon.
When | looked in the other day there
were about ten young girls busily engaged,
some with their books and others in sew
ing. They seemed delightfully."- like big
happy family. ut is one of the rules OF
the institution that no girl shall leave US
without knowing how To read and WRITE"
said the superintendent. "And so a por-
ton of each day is devoted to their in
struction in the simple branches of educa-
ton. They are also taught sewing by hand
aud on the machine, besides being trained
In all kinds OF household duties, so IA To be
able TO take the positions that are obtained
for them in Christian families, where they
will find good homes"
HOW THE GIRLS ARE TREATED.
Applicants are received at the home be
tween the ages of twelve and twenty-five,
and all who want to become inmates must
pledge themselves to obey the rules, to re-
main at least a month, and TO accept such
situations on leaving as the superintendent
may approve.
The girls while in the home rise at
o'clock in the morning, and 20 to bed at
o'clock. Every morning they meet in the
parlor for devotional services, and after
breakfast are kept busy with domestic du-
ties. In the afternoons they study, sew or
are allowed TO go out for walk; never,
however, being permitted to go upon the
streets unless accompanied by some one
who is connected with the home.
do the girls ever become dissatisfied
and wish to 20 awayr / asked the super
intendent
Sometimes, but not very often" she an
10 -.
young girl should become restless under
the restraint she must feel here, If she has
been allowed her own free will before she
came here, but for the most part we are
able to control them, and they learn to ap-
preciate the advantages Of the home.
AN INTERESTING EXAMPLE.
"Quite interesting" continued Miss
Storer, lis the case OF one of my girls OF
whom, by the way, expect great things
one of these days. She was but fourteen
years old when she came here. Her father
was dead, and her mother dying of con-
sumption in the hospital Her future babe
fair TO be that OF any one of the thousands
of waits who drift into the paths of sin in
this city every year. She had been placed
in the Five Points House of Industry, but
she shrank from the companions she met
there. She was handsome, ambitious and
determined.
when she came under my care | saw
that il was n question either of interesting
her in the development OF an uncommonly
bright mind or leaving her untutored but
vivid imagination full sway TO carry her
into ways of idleness and sin. allowed
that girl to spend almost all of her time in
the study room, and happily was able at
last 10 get a home In the family of "A school
teacher, where she was looked upon less as
a servant than as a companion.
'She has developed literary tastes OF no
mean order, and, as said before. expect
great things OF her yet"-Sophie Searle In