The Portland daily press., 1896-05-14
TEMPORARY HOME.
Animal Meeting Yesterday and Election of
Officers.

The annual meeting of the Temporary
Home was held at the home in Deering
yesterday afternoon. The managers re-.
port was presented and accepted as fol-
lows:
One cold afternoon last December just
at dusk our matron. Mrs. Taft, was
startled to see little face peering in at
the nursery window. She opened it and
discovered small boy, about five years
old, who had left the Home nearly year
! before.
He had been placed with kind people,
but he was delicate child, the big boys
he played with were rough; he missed
Mrs. Taft's tender care and was always
asking to go back. This day he had TAX
en- the matter into his own hands, and
here he WAS. How the tired little feet
ever carried him safe over the long road,
| Ind why he did not lose his way is n
mystery; but guided by his loving in
stinct he managed to get to fMrs. Taft's
house." as he always called the Home
| Just as the darkness was shutting down.
| He was allowed to stay for a little visit,
and it was touching to see him trying to
make himself agreeable and useful by be-
| ing very good, and amusing the smaller
| children.
| Little Willie is not an exception, the
Home has been happy haven for all the
| 254 waits who have drifted there. I
should like to tell you of the sickly babies
who, grown strong and we'll, have
| been sent by us into good homes, of the
rirl tho hnr 5orland of
who have been saved in time; but
| must pass on to sadder phase of our
work.
Against the background of history,
too prominent to escape the observation
from which it shrinks, stands figure,
mute, mournful. indescribably sad. It
is girl, holding in her arms the blessing
and burden OF motherhood, but in whose
face one finds no traces of maternal joy
and pride. There is scarcely great writ
er of fiction who has not somewhere in-
PRODUCED this figure in the shifting pan
Drama OF romance, appealing for pity to
world which never fails to compassion
ate imaginary woes"
But alas for the real woes! 'sThat
Christian woman who, deaf to all en-
treaty, turns her maid into the streets
because about to become mother, may
fancy she is upholding the dignity of vir-
tue; but she Is alsO opening to her sister
woman the gates of hell. She has created
that despair which pushes its victims in
to chasm, wherein thousands of her sis
ters annually fall"
The beginning Of the Home was the
necessity of finding some place to shelter
girl, who was on the point of taking
her life, because there seemed no room for
her in the woIld-no room in world
which processes to follow the teachings
of One who said, "neither do l condemn
thee" She was rescued and from that
time has led virtuous life. The most
intelligent part of the community realize
the need of an institution, open day and
night to any woman or child in distress;
but even now conscientious people ask:
edo you really think the Home does any
good? Is it worth while trying to help
such girls?' If instead of vague vision
Of sin they would go to the Home and see
the peaceful and happy family life going
kitchen, laundry and nursery, or sitting
in the upper hall sewing with the ma
tron, in the sunny atmosphere of a real
home; if then they would try to realize
that these children in short dresses with
their hair braided down their backs, bad
besn taken from surroundings where they
had been the vict ms Of unspeakabIe hor-
rors that many Ct these young girls, Civ
ing such tender care to their little ba-
bies, came here sullen and rebellious
turned off by their families, and hating
the coming child; would the question be
asked again If the Home is worth while?
if the girls are worth saving? There
are daily family prayers at the Home,
and the girls go regularly to church and
Sunday school. Miss Dow has been read
ing aloud to them once week in the
evening, md we are starting small Ii
brary for them to read to themselves.
The managers, in turn, take charge of
the Home for week at a time, and be-
come pei sonally acquainted with every
inmate, not receiving them with that
easy acquiesoence which society extends
to fallen men, but encouraging them to
meet bravely the responsibilities OF moth
erhood, so that, in time, tho stain of dis
honor may fade away, and their trans
gressiops, through duty well performed,
End expiation.
Two hundred and sixty five women and
girls have been received since the organi-
zation of the Home in 1888. Twenty -one
of the women remained but brief time
and we have lost trace of them. Forty
four of them have gone back to the life
from which we tried to rescue them. Six
teen have died, and one hundred and
eighty-four are now leading good and
useful lives, many of them in happy
homes of their own.
Our special work is for those who are
sometimes the Marshal says to us, "Here
is woman arrested for drunkenness or
for vagrancy. Sho led respectable life
until she fell in with bad company. She
is easily influenced for good or evil. The
Judge says the jail is no place for her,
but she will have to go there unless you
take her in -
What can we do2 If we let her go to
jail she will come out more degraded
than when she went in. If We receive
her at the Home, what will be the effect
of bringing her in contact with the more
innocent inmates?
These difficult questions the Home,
with it's limited resources, should not be
left to decide; we earnestly ask that the
State will supplement our work by es-
tablishing Reformarory, to which wom-
en- can be sentenced for a period sufficient
for the good influences to have time TO
take effect. instead of to 80 days in the
common Jail.
People who live sheltered lives may
have to step out of their environment to
realize that many young men and wo,n-
en-, even many boys and girls, are daily
making shipwreclss Of their lives This
evil springs from no temporary cause, it
is the misuse Of affections which are
deeply rooted in human nature itself,
op6 human poturo io q cop cta MT; factor f;O