Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-28

confided her little one to the .Creche" and
went out regularly to her daily work.
1t was not long before the city authorities
and public-spirited citizens generally came
to realize the vast benefits accruing to the
community from the new Institution. SINH
lar houses were established all over Paris
and throughout France. and found erdent
imitators in all the countries of the world.
In this year of grace, therefore, the Creche
must be regarded as one of the most useful
and important forms of charity known in
civilized lands.
1t Tells Its Own Story.
The exhibit shown at the exposition. I'M
der the auspices of the ministry of the in
terror. tells the whole history and general
lesson of the Creche in most interesting
fashion. If you want to learn the entire
system you are not obliged to ask any one
for information. All you have to do is to
look around. You will find number of the
best organized Creches in the worl1 in min
iature models. They illustrate the proce-
dure from beginning to end. You see a
neat-looking building. sucl is 20 be found
in many Paris street. with It's name indi-
Gated by Il big plaque on the facade You
see woman of the people" approaching
carrying a baby in her arms. You see her
enter the vesiibule. hand the little sample
of humanity to white-bonneted sister, and
Young mother turn and hurry away from
the building to the employment that calls
her, while the sister, fOndlng the infant
lovingly in her arms, carries it to the dor
mitory. where it is placed in a crib num-
bered to correspond to the ticket given the
mother.
Further on you see the little ones at play
with toys and more of other things 10
amuse them than would ever fall to their
infant lot in the homes from which they
have been brought. Another scene shows
the children enjoying a repast of hot soup
or Cruel, and still another depicts tiny tot
in the lNtirlnary dpDa t,a
care Of a physician and the nurses and
watched over with as much solicituda as if
It were a kings heir instead of a poor
working womans baby.
You pursue your inspection of the object
lesson, and next behold the mother at the
end of her days work. returning for her
child finding the little one happy and
healthy. and starting home with the infant
clasped in her arms. picture of maternal
love, gentlenesS and happiness
A Comprehensive Exhibit.
These are some of the things, but not all,
illustrated by the Creche exhibit AS a
whole 1t is extremely interesting from the
varied phases it shows of universal infancy,
past and present 1t gives the visitor a peep
at babyhood in the remotest corners of the
civilized and barbaric world. 1t shows how
the future man is hanpered or helped by
the conditions that surround the first
months OF existence in different lands 1t
''ii' a Bdtiitt' StoI ol infant CtprlNdtlOnS
among the very poor OF various countries
and then lets the visitor draw his own de-
auctions of the benefits conferred on hu-
mainly by the Creche.
This comparison is accentuated by two
lifelike figures in the exhibit. They repre-
sent two mothers of the same humble So
cial scale. One refuses to let her half
starved infant leave her for an instant but
clutches the baby in her thin arms as she
stands shivering in a snow Storm begging
with an outstretched palm of passersby
The other figure represents the working
woman returning to her comfortable home
with her laughing-faced baby that has been
cared for at the Creche while she was at
work.
Satisfied of the advantages of this great
charity, the visitor makes inquiries and ac-
certains the simple conditions governing the
benef1ciaries of the Creche. The rules are
as follows:
No woman not obliged to work for her
living can put her child in the Creche. This