St. Paul daily globe., 1893-08-16

/ Inc mon DSpOC I1cf sCenc OF
Operations, and Helpless or
FPiendless Females and Chill
dren Her Clients-Specimen
Cases the Depot Matron Is
Called on TO Handle.
Among the most necessary and at the
same time one of the charities with
which there is connected more than an
ordinary amount of work, both physical
and mental, is that which is being car
ried on by one brave little woman at
the union depot in this city.
Miss Mitchell, the matronly looking
! little body of whom we speak, is simply
mother in Israel to more women and
children during the year than anybody
VINO has not had the pleasure OF hearing
her talk about her work has any idea.
She is really employed by the Union
Depot company to look after and direct
any women or children who may be
brought into the union depot by con-
ductors to wait for train connections to
! see that they do not miss the train on
which they should go, and care for
them while they are obliged to be OH
the premises.
This. in brief, is what she is there
! for, but the work is such that there is
no limit to The amount OF help that she
can and does render to the people with
whom she comes in contact in this pecu-
liar way.
Old women are brought to her. who
/ scarcely know their right hand from
their LETT and who, even if they are
| given the minutest details as to which
train they are to take and at what time,
would get on to the wrong train were
they not taken out and placed in charge
i OF the conductor by this busy little lady.
| Then there are sometimes children who
are travelling from one side of the con-
tlnent to the other all alone and en-
tirely dependent upon the kindness of
such women as Miss Mitchell for the
care they receive on the way.
Protecting the Innocent.
Then, TOO, there Is the ignorant young
girl, who is more likely than either the
old woman or the child to be led into
trouble. She has, perhaps, made the
acquaintance of some man on
the train on which she ar
rived, and he knowing that
she has some hours TO wait over, has
offered to show her the city. The con-
ductor or some good person has. how
ever, discovered the way the wind
blows, and III minute has explained to
this little savior of her weaker sister
the condition OF affairs. She may have
occasion to exercise the greatest amount
OF tact to prevent what would anyhow
be unwise and might prove disastrous
experience for the girl.
BuyIng ticketS-fOr there are soma
people who find 1T hard to approach
even the vendor of scraps of cardboard
Checking trunks, for people who re-
gard the magic brass check as some
thing which it is entirely beyond their
power to dispose of-these and hun
dred other things are among the daily
duties OF our busy, energetic woman
Then you ought 10 have strolled into
the depot the other day and have seen
What saw poor woman, with twin ba-
bIes and little child besides, about three
years old, was. trying as only mother
can Try TO make them comfortable and
cool with the thermometer at 80 deg. in
The snade) and to keep them from fret
ting. The little mother" of the estab-
llshment soon came around, and 10
doubt She was hot and tired too, but she
took possession of one of those babies,
and with rocking chair she made her
III.
and II you could have seen her soothe
that fretting BABY and finally get it to
sleep, You might have wished that YOU
were a child again TO have some OF your
worries smoothed away by motherly
hands.
Helping the Helpless.
But this. although it is the work of a
strong woman. is not all that Miss Nit
chell considers it her duty to do. She
is at present doing, in addition to her
other work, what is practically the work
that the w. c. L. U. has laid out for it's
members in many of the large cities,
namely that of caring for and finding
home for the many girls who, having
been led astray, find their way to places
where they think the crowd is big
enough to hide them with their sin.
Many OF these unfOrtunates wander into
this big. depot, or sometimes one is
brought in by an official who has noticed
that the girl is i'll a delicate condition
and given over 90 Miss Mitchell to be
placed i'll some charitable institution.
The cases are very frequent where a
girl simply straYs into the city without
friend. and very often without any
money. The Woman's Christian home
and the city hospitals are the places of
refuge to which these girls are taken as
pens that the girl wishes to be inde-
pendent, and if her health is such that
she is able to work, she will Go so, and
then enter some institution or hospital
where for small sum she will be cared
for duriug her trouble. A case occurred
| only last week of an invalid lady in
town who was in need of somebody who
could wait upon her. and whom asked
If she would have such a girl arou nd
her. replied promptly that she would b
very glad to give the unfortun-
ate woman chance to earn
the money to help her through her mis-
fortune, particularly as the girl ap-
peared to be very desirous of doing
what she could during the four or five
months that would elapse before she
became mother. Suoh is only one of
the many good works that go on from
day to day in our midst-and one which
is being conducted by one little woman
alone, and unaided. What could be ac-
complished by united effort would GER
tainly be SO much better worth doing,
and would certainly bring forth double
and triple results.
Variety
Is the snice of life Ruv voursalf now