Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-06-11

We, in common with the whole popu-
lation of Delaware, have been waiting
anxiously, patiently and perseveringly
to hear officially, through the columns
Of the periodical issued by the state de.
partment, from our distinguished fell
low.citizen, Consul Horace Greeley
Knowles, now Of Bordeaux, France.
At last the suspense is ended; the hour
of fruition has come. Consul Knowles
has made report. 1t is printed in the
April number of the United States Con-
sular Reports. The subject which he
has chosen is The Founding Asylums
Of France They have one Of these
institutions at Bordeaux, overlooking
the fertile banks of the Garonne," a low,
somber, three-storied building Of Munich
gray granite, across whose portico
few tall poplar trees throw
their shadows, and in whose wall the
curious-looking, double, reversible arm
chair, the "well-known tour or wheel,
intended for the reception Of abandoned
infants" still attracts the languld alton
ton of the passer-by. But the institu-
ton has outlived its mission the chair
has fallen into disuse and no longer re-
wolves; the stiffness within is almost
audible; the Sound of ones footsteps
echo and re-echo along the vacant halls
and dormitories, until, seeking out quiet
hooks In the dark distance, they lie
down to repose and whisper silence. "
"The wheel is thing of the past; but
that circumstance does not prevent
mothers from leaving their babes on
the doorstep, ringing the bell and
disappearing unnoticed into the
night" for a few Sisters Of Charity
still move noiselessly" through these
vacant halls and dornlitories. Consul
Knowles tells the story OF the wheels
their origin, revolution and stoppage j;
what they cost the government, and
other matters connected with the
wheels and the "children OF the State"
which their revolution brought into
these asylums. He tells the story ten
derby, pathetcally. But it is in his per-
grafton that Consul Knowles guides his
Pegasus into lofty flight; when, sinking
the official in the poet over whose kind
ling Imagination the shadow Of the past
floats and envelops the promise Of the
future, he writes;
Soon the gloomy old asylum on the Quai
de Palandate at Bordeaux will be no more.
A score of laborers will be at work at its
demolition, making way for a more neces-
| sary adjunct to liberal education, social
economy and scientific advancement
railway station. Where once the wailing
cries Of many a little wait walked theslum-
| Der of the silent night; where once a long
| drawn respiration, gasp, and the absence
| of mothers care ended life inst begun.
| the piercing shrieks and groans of steam
| whistles, the mournful and incessant roll
| ing of iron wheels, the dismal clanking of
| brakes and couplings will leave but a
memory of what has gone before,
| But what memory Ii all that imagi-
| nation has pictured, all that fancy has
| created, all that delirium has raved or
| nightmare painted in the brain of man; if
all that romance has conceived, visions
/ conjured, or reveries awakened; if all the
| grief, distress and heartache-if these and
every other human passion that sways
! thought and iIIcites action were to unroll
/ themselves before the mind, the volume
that contained them all would be but a
| paragraph, murmur. to the silent echoes
now fastening to destruction within these
| four sOmber, grim walls.