The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-02-22
NNE cannot peruse the columns
. of the newspapers for single

ANL CduuOG pSTu50 buo COluuuS
" of the newspapers for single
week without seeing one or more ac-
counts of some man or woman hav-
ing dropped to the pavements, either
in fit, or fainting from starvation or
illness; perhaps even overcome with
intoxication. The item will doubt
lessly state that an ambulance was
rung in from the nearest hospital,
where the patient was taken and
treated by the physicians or surgeons
in charge, and at last accounts he
was progressing 50 and SO.
In the same journal for the same
week, recording the happenings in
the same vicinity, one may read that
roustabout boy of ten or twelve
years of age, playing at hide-and-
seek with a dozen or so of his little
companions, finds three emonths old
baby in some cellar. The baby is in
a dying condition from starvation
and exposure. Now what is done in
the case of this baby? In the case
Of the man or woman found in a
fainting condition it is possible that
this condition might be brought on
by the fault of the sufferer, yet an
ambulance is called and he or she is
brought to the nearest hospital, where
medical attention is received, and
the helpless infant who could not
possibly be suffering from its own
sins, when picked up, is carried to a
police station house, from thence to
police headquarters, where, if found
after certain hour, it has to remain
over night. The next morning it is
brought to the Office of the Superin-
tendent of Outdoor Poor, from thence
to some charity hospital. If the
child shows that it will die, the hos
pital authorities will not take it if
they can avoid doing SO. The found
ling asylums also have the power of
discrimination to certain extent,
and all of these institutions wish to
keep the death rate as low as posi-
BILE. So baby is not admitted to the
founding asylum for this, or that, or
the other perfectly good reason. 1t
must go some place. And in every
city there is "dernier resort" for the
poor little creature. In New York
City that place is the Infants Hos
pital on Randall's Island, where after
all this long circumlocution baby is
at last sent by boat. Knowing that
the same conditions that exist in New
York City, exist in great many other
large cities of the United States, Ran
dall's Island will be used as a basis
upon which to make general plea
over all our country for these help
less little ones.
Thus helpless infants, abandoned
by their unnatural parents, often
times sick and dying, ranging from
one day old, and that require atten-
ton and feeding every few hours
after all this handling and exposure
to different temperatures, imagine
their condition when at last they
reach Randall's Island.
When they are finally within the
shelter of the Infants Hospital at
RandalI's Island, all that medical
skill and nursing can do is exerted to
save their lives. But most frequent
ly their condition is such that nc
power on earth can save them.
What a slaughter of the innocents
What condition of affairs to exist
at the close of the nineteenth century
in civilized Christian country!
When at last it reaches Randall's
Island, it has got to a place where
there is no possibility of the little
thing being sent on any further
Here it may enter and die. A great
deal has been said of the enormous
death rate among these poor shifted
about babies. The enormous death
rate does exist. To the personal
knowledge of the writer it exists in
Boston, it exists in Montreal, and in
many other places. And it will con
tinue to exist until the conditions that
bring it about are changed.
If the philanthropic ladies who are
doubtlessly sincere in their express
sions of profound regret at the enor,
nous death rate would make their
appeal to the proper functionaries,
and force upon their notice the in
humanity of the present regulations
with reference to these foundlings,
would make theirs an ambulance
case, the death rate in the Infants
Hospitals which they now deplore
would be materially lessened. The
proper and only permanent cure for
any diseased condition of affairs is to
remove the cause.
The following statement of the