The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-19
Why the Public
Should Care for the NNaifs..
BY MRS. A.. L. sTLLHEIMER.-=


be well born, that is, to come into the
world with physical constitution which
gives it a reasonable prospect of health
and strength to be born free from de-
grading moral faint, of a good father as
well as a good mother, the right to have
happy home even though humble one.
and the right to be educated and made
capable of earning q living and doing some
useful work in the world.
Get people to feel thus with reference to
childhood in general and while it will
cause marriage to be more soiemnly re-
garded and less hastily entered into, while
1t will cause parents to hold closer their
own darlings and try to live more worthily
of their trust 1t will soften the hearts of
all towards the motherless and fatherless
waits to whom the public must give the
benefits of home and take in large meas
ure the place of the lost parents.
This home is besides, q race enterprise,
and while every unfortunate has claim
upon our sympathies and our help to those
bound to us by the ties of blood and of
common prescription we owe a special
duty. Are we not told that he who pro-
vides not for his own household is worse
than an infidel? Surely the cases are
analogous. To face the situation square,
ly, let us ask who can be expected to care
for Afro-American orphan children, if not
Afro-American men and women? 1t may
be urged that we are not able to do So
that we are a poor people. The question
is not now how much we can do but
whether we are doing all that we can do
Generous friends are ready to assist, but
we must not expect of others the bulk
of this work. For the sake of our own
development, for the sake of our own
character, we must learn the lesson of
self-relianee. The individual or the race
that never assumes burden must remain
forever a weakling.
We are on trial before the world Other
races are watching to see what civilization
means to the negro. Is ii to mean merely
q little book lore, little refining of the
tastes for the few, little outside polish,
a little added ability for f-gratification,
for rounding and smoothing and rendering
easy and beautiful the individual life, or is
1t to mean a deepening of the spiritual
nature, disposition to help the needy, a
habit of thought for others, and a work.
ing together for the common good?
Such are the changes of fate that we
know not how many who labor in behalf
of this institution are making provision for
the future of their own offspring or for
the offspring of those dear to them? This
brings the subject still nearer home, and
sentiments ola broad humanitarianism of
reverence for child-life, of race pride, and
of personal interest, all combine to answer
the question why should this people rise
in it's might and unite tossupport the or
phanage?
In seeking to promote the cause among
the masses it will not be sufficient to tell
why they should give the institution sup
port, we must also suggest how they may
do this. The people are often ready, will
ing, even anxious to do, the thing they
ought and yet hold back and do nothing
because they fail to see clearly how they
may compass what is required Then, If
those appear who are able to infuse life