St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-03


been in as tlouriShing condition as 1t
is at the present time, and yet there is
so much room for improvement. 1t is
located in the basement of the relief F,
society building, on East Ninth street,
and oecunieS three small rooms. 10
these rooms come every day, rain or
shine, some twenty mothers with their
little ones. OF all ages, from one to eight
years. Here they leave them all day
while they earn Scanty wages by doing
a days work wherever they can find it.
Most of these poor mothers are alone IN
the world. either widowed by death or
cruel deSertiOn.
Kept for Five Cents.
The charge for keeping the children
Is only nominal. If there is but one
child to leave, the mother pays five cents
a dav, if she can afford to do so. Where
there are two or three little ones to
leave from the sane family, and where
the mother has frequently to pay car
fare bringing them 10 the nursery, the
charge is lowered TO SUIT the case. The
little ones are nOuriShed during the day
without extra charge, and thus it will
be seen at a glance that the small Zee
charged the mother does not begin to
raw for the actual service rendered her,
for there is the salary of a matrOn,
nurse girl and kitchen girl yet TO pay.
The five-eent fee will barely pay the
milk bill. And yet this noble work has
gone OH steadily since 1888, although 1t
has nearly fallen through once or twice
from lack of help.
When the nursery was first opened
there was 4 board of managers, consist
ing of fifteen women, who attempted to
raise the necessary funds for the run
ming expenses, by obtaining individual
subscriptions amounting to $500 each.
This has thrown the whole burden of
work in which every humane man and
woman in St. Paul should be interested
in, upon the shoulders of a few. If the
public could only realize what help
small donations are in an Institution of
this character, where crackers, milk,
bread and butter, toilet and laundry
soap are in constant demand, from morn
ing till night, they would certainly help
out Oftener. What one could give easily,
smother could not; but by each giving
"Vhat She COuId,''
The whole necessity would be quickly
met. without hardship to any one.
Again, while the management is not
supposed to clothe the little ones en-
trusted to its care, yet the poverty of
the mother often makes it necessary for
her 10 bring her child out in Indictment
weather, poorly provided with warm or
suitable clothing for the various sea
sons. If the good mothers of ST. Paul
will only remember these things when
she comes to rid OUT the closets for the
mr.
mother will go home feeling rich in the
gifts of worn little garments Tor her
child, that are no longer of any earthly
use to the more fortunate little ones
for whom they were made. There are
etten three or four small babies there.
who need frequent changes, and where
the mother cannot provide all that the
child really needs, there must be
great deal of washing and ironing done
TO keep the little one sweet and present
able. Ii seems to me that there is a
good field here for cast-off garments,
that perhaps many housewife scarcely
knows how to get rid of.
Don't All Speak at Once.
Last summer the back yard of this
home was Sodded, so that the little folks
could play their games out of doors,
when the rooms were so crowded that
there was scarcely space enough to turn
around in when they were all driven in
by rainStorm. but now that the relief
society is preparing to remodel its
building this summer, there will be no
good place for them to play. One friend
of the nursery has suggested that as
there are humber of small tenement
houses In the neighbOrhOOd that have
fairly good yards attached, it will be a
Kindly for como OyyDor who iS amniV
able to to give one of these houses to
the nursery to use until the repairs are
finished. If the children are shut up in
three small rooms through the hot
months, they will be sure to suffer in
health, for there are as many as 600
children cared for in the months when
work is most plentiful for the mothers.
In 1891 there were 1910 children
taken care Of Oh $500. The management
would be grateful for picture books or
toys of any description with which to
amuse the children. The
Nursery Is NOn-Sectarian,
and the child of the Catholic or the
Protestant is received alike. Neither is
it respecter of color lines, and the
child of dark skin is as tenderly cared
for as the whitest baby in the nursery.
The officers are at present: PrtSi-
dent, Mrs. G. B. TnurstOn; first vice
president, Mrs. A. E. Clark second vice
president, Mrs. E. w. W.nter: secre-
tary, Mrs. o. l.. Taylor: treasurer, Mrs.
DR.. Willard; board of managers. Mrs.
Jackson, Mrs. SanbOrn, Mrs. White.
Mrs. DIR. Baker, Mrs. Gilman, Mrs.
Woodward. Mrs. Sternberg and Mrs.
Stickney. The next annual meeting
will be held in about two week. The
Day Nursery does not in any way re-
semble the Babies Home. for ifs mis-
sion is to help mothers to support their
own offspring, while the latter takes
the child entirely off its mothers hands
fQr adOOtiOD whore desired