Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-07-04
This Remarkable Institution was
Founded by the Great Catharine
III, in Moscow.
A Description of the Place as 1t Exists
To-day Under the Present
Gar.
Almost Thousand Infants Cared for
by Half as Many Wet
Nurses.

in the old capital, its regiment Of wet
nurses and many hundreds Of pulling in
iants make vivid impression on the
mind
in the FIRST room of the recovering de-
partment were about thirty raw young
peasant women just in from the country
They were candidates for the position of
wet nurse, waiting to be examined by the
doctor. They stood In q row like soldiers
and bowed respectfully and simultaneous
ly TO the matron and her visitors as we en-
tered Some looked very young rs appli
cants for such a position.
The next room was the receiving room
A female clerk sat at desk booking the
numbers sex and description OF the in
fants as they were brought in. Another
woman was Just putting a baby in the
brass scuttle of a pair of scales to weigh
it. II had been brought in by soldier,
who stated that his W fe was i'll and
couldn't take care of it, After weighing
the infant they tied numbered tag around
its neck and gave duplicate tag to the
soldier, The only question asked concern
ing infants are whether they we were
not born in wedlock.
From the receiving room the infant
brought in by the soldier was passed to the
bath room, where it received the ! nehts
Of warm water and soap. Here we q wet
nurses who had been passed by the ctor,
had taken the regulation bat re-
quIred Of all newcomers, and had
donned the dress Of the institution, the
conspicuous feature being caps of blue,
green OF red, says Thomas Stevens in the
New York World. After the bath the in
FAINT was assigned to one of the}e nurses,
who Immediately walked off with it to the
summer barracks.
Adjoining the bath room is the baptis-
NAL room, containing a priest, a gorgeous
icon and a font Here all infants who
have not been baptized outside are
Immediately converted into orthodox
Russians before being passed on to the
barracks
They received fifty, sixty, seventy and
sometimes as many as eighty infants
in day. Last year they admitted lS,479
infants.
The babies are kept in the hospital
about six weeks then sent out into the vii
lagos TO be nursed. There are at present
SAT infants on the premises, and 545 wet
nurse After being received and kept in
the hospital six weeks the babies are pro-
Uded with numbered tag and passport,
and passed on, as stated above, TO nurses
in distant villages. where they are nur-
tured at the expense of the institution till
they are four or five years OLD. At any time,
either before or after the expiration
of the term in the hospital, the
mother, or whoever brought the infant,
may reclaim it by means of the duplicate
tag.
BY the time they have seen five SUN
in the villages to which they have been
assigned The others are returned TO the
institution, where they are educated, boys
and girls together tin they reach the age
of nine or ten. They are then separated.
The boys are sent to the government felt
shar schools, where they are taught the art
of assisting army surgeons to saw off sol
diers legs and arms army hospital as.
sistants and the girls are fitted cut with
clothes and assisted into places as house
maids ana cooks. II the end OF their
hves-at all py. ~ their unmarried lives
the girls are considered wards Of the
government, au long as they can prove
good conduc ma, always return to
the hospital temporary when out of
situation.
We are conducted INTO the grounds
and the summer barracks Here were
broad, well-kept grounds laid of into
squares and shady avenues of big fine
elms The day was soft and bamy, an
ideal summer day, and the nurses and
their small charges were all outdoors
Strung along the avenues under the shade
Of the spreading elms were hundreds Of
little iron cribs, built light, so that a nurse
would be able to carry cradle, baby
and ALL in and out of the barracks
Each crib was broad enough to accom-
modate two infants, and in charge of each
crib was q nurse, foster mother to the oC-
Cupauts Most of the nurses as will be
understood by the figures given, were re-
CURED 30 nurse two bableS-au easy tax on
them, Judging from appearances
Each nurse carries passport and a
paper that goes with the crib and the in
fants that are given into her charge. These
precautions are necessary to prevent the
stream Of human atoc1s ever passing
through the hospital fr0u getting hope
lessly mixed and their individual identity
lost forever,
The nurses ara fed on black bread, cab
bage, soup, buakwheat and millet Cruel
and kwass They are also allowed small
indulgence in weak tea without which
amy Russian woman or man, would think
themselye. iil-used. Nurses to whom very
weakly infants are assigned are allowed
more nourishing food such as meat p1ta
toes. beer, etc
The most interesting Of the barrJck,
was that one devoted 20 weakly infants
and those who had qentured into the world
AHEAD Of their time This Is knowuas the
hospital Of warm barracks Even on this
summer day it was heated by artificial
means. Besides the row of cribs i. con- .
tanned several iucubators for the reception .
0f the aforesaid venturesome young
people
THE infants In This barricks were truly F..
Is. iful assortment 4 newborn babe is (
mot a beautiful object to gaze upon, and
there was something positive uncanuy. ut
least 70 q man, in the appearance Of these /
Tiny creatures, callow looking as Young
birds who have ventured into the big
world so young and Sc small as 10 sCarCe,y /
seem like human These mideets mostly {
swathed in linen oan3ages. Sc that moth +
ing was visible but the head They look I
ed like tightlY-roIie3 young uummias
he nurses picked them up with one hand