The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-11
coLoRED NUNS OF NEW ORLEANS.
They Do Good Works i'm Quiet Way
and at a Disadvantage.
Chicago Post.

In the old French quarter of New Orleans
with its harrow streets, latticed windows
and Jealously guarded courts, where the fig
ard orange tree grow, is a square OF rather
miscellaneous architecture It's central
building. III Orleans street, is several hum
dred years old. 1t has a stately entrance,
with great pillars and old-fashioned ornate
ly carved doors. It was once the old creole
opera house and ballroom of the early days.
Now it is the home of the colored nuns.
The powdered and ringleted damsels with
hoop-diStended skirts who stepped daintlly
across that threshold TO scenes of gayety
in bygone years have given place to dark
robed figures whose white ruff1ed caps only
bring into stranger relief the bronze anu
ebony of their skins. The very names OF the
streets here are rich in history ana ro-
nance There are Orleans and Bourbon,
Charities and-him of the iron hand ana
gentle heart-Tonty. Shades OF the past are
jostlng one another, though IN Sentle,
shadelike way, at every street corner ana at
nothing do they seem to be more aston
ished than at the sight of the colored nuns nuns
Yet the order is not such very mouern
one after all, for it was founded In New
Orleans over half a century ago. It's mem
streets of the crescent city The speclal op7
ject of its institution was the educatlon anu
moral training of young colored girls ana
the care of orphans and aged inflrm people
of the race. 1t has had the cordial support
of such eminent churchmen as Archbishops
Blame, Odin, Perche, Leroy and Jansenns;
who successfully filed the archieplscopal
see of New Orleans 1t has also noVltlate
where young colored girls are trained Tor
the work of the order with the view OF eX 9
tending that work to every parish IN Loulsl-
ana, and, if possible, into every Southern
State. ,...,
''Our poor race" said the gentle little
mother superior to a recent visitor from the
North whom she was showing through the
house. has so much to contend against.
You have made us free, you Nortnerners,
but alas you cannot give us back the lost
centuries of slavehood We are down, down
in the social scale. People talk OF the I'M
morality of our people. Wen, maybe II is
I,,k hn ut
a past in which body and soul were at the
beck of the highest bidder?
But our future is Frightening, con-
tinued the little nun earnestly. Our race is
getting daily better educated, with hlgneT
hopes higher ideals. And we believe that
the surest way to elevate the race Is 70 eq to
woman and you uplift the family. Ana the
family is the unit of the race.
One of the most interesting parts or the
convent is the orphan asylum, where chill
dren ranging in age from the wee tots JUST
beginning to walk to girls of twelve ana
fourteen years are cared for. One or the
sisters in charge of the babies was an ex-
slave She was a real nanny" still.
But, reverend mother, you seem en- 10 S naHe
some white children here, said the NORM
ern visitor commenting on the fair white
skin of some of the children:
oh no." said the nun, smiling bit WtsI
all have colored blood in their veins. Maybe
they are only quadroons, Octoroons; some OF
them, indeed, have only one1tentn coIoreo a
than the nine-tenths white, and makes them
belong forever to the colored people
One is reminded of one of Cables stories,
the pathos and the tragedy thereof
In the orphan asylum 135 children are
sheltered who would otherwise be thrown
upon the state. These, as well as the sixty
poor old colored men and women ana many
of the children in the school, are dependent
upon the sisters for their daily bread. For-
merly the sisters obtained a fair revenue
by going through the streets of New Or
leans from door to door and into
business houses and railroad o office e.
quietly did they labor that few
outside the city were even aware OF the ex-
stence of the order the only colQ[eo sis ieI
fever which broke out in the South in Au-
gust caused that section to be hemmed in
by quarantine and the wheels OF comm cree
were stopped As pathetic letter Just re re-
ceived from of the sisters says, our
friends have always been among the poor
laboring classes. who seem to feel 'noSt TOT
us and since this class has suffered partlcu-
lary through lack of employment for three
months and their distress at present is al
most as great as ours, we cannot in con-
science apply to them for aid. Even II we
did it would not be forthcoming, as they
have not the means to give us now tne 1llt IS
sustain our little orphans and poor olo peo-
pie Ours is a colored order and 1t
is not all who can understand and feel Tor
u.s. especially in this section.
I'VE find ourselves on the verge OF winter
without food or clothing for our helpless
little ones Our schools will not afford us
any support this term; as our patrons are
among the poor. We Know not
the North, who have always been the
friends of our race. Were our dear arch
bishop living we know he himself would
appeal to the country in our behalf. y
We can only turn to you ourselves now
that he is dead and friends in this sec
ton are too seriously crippled by the par
alysis of business to help us for months to
come We will be glad to get anything,
whether in money, food or Clothes