The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-29

| day; she must be respectable and honest;
| the child must not be under Is months,
| not over years; the child must have no
| conta gious disease, and must either be
| vaccinated before entering or while in the
| institute; the mother must bring and take
away the child herself, and must visit
| the Creche twice a day to suckle the in
| FAINT until IL Is weaned; the child must
| be clean end neatly dressed; and the par
| ent must pay a small daily sum for its
care.
That is all. II those conditions are COM
| Piled with any working mother, for only
| a mite. can provide her infant with care
and maintenance that PSYCHOLOGISTS de-
! clare has already worked wonders toward
! the physical and moral improvement of
| the race since Creches have been in ex-
istence.
A Comprehensive Exhibit.
How different it must have been with
the poor before Firmin Marbeau devised
this great charity! That is a thought
that comes to every one who visits the
exhibit The answer 10 the conjecture is
right there before ones eyes. II is
significant. pathetic picture. You are car
ried vividly back to the olden times by
Suggesting representing some phases OF
poverty three or four centuries ago. Right
before you stands the facade of a twelfth
century church. II is the nighttime. and
tie big doors of the church shut Be
side the closed doors. on the steps of the
church, Is a stone crib. and in the crib
is a sleeping baby. The infant had been
carried there in the shadow of the dark
ness by some unhappy mother. who, real
izing herself too poor to care for it, had
kissed tho child a final good-by. then
placed II in the founding cradle to be
cared for by charity, to be brought up
by the parish and to be a stranger to
her ever after.
You fill out the other pitiful details for
yourself, beginning with the heartbroken
mother hurrying back TO her desolate
home But since your ina gination can
not supply all details the history of
other phase of the foundhng's life is out
lined in an adjoining tebleau, which rep
resents the interior OF a hospital Of those
days, showing how the poor of all ages
were treated in the same comfortlesS
ward. In one big bed you see three wo-
men; one suffering from no illness be-
yond poverty and old age; another. a
middle-aged woman, with impending
death from consumption written indelibly
on her emaciated face; and the third,
scarcely more than a girl, lying in the
same bed under treatment for a brok-
en- arm. Nearby Is another big bed, and
in It are half dozen foundlngs, all hud-
died together, breathing the air of the
unhealthy room, and to be still further
crowded the next day, when another
abandoned waif is found in the stone
crib on the steps of the old church
Thus is was with Quasimodo, whose
sorrowful story Victor Hugo told so
touchingly in the "Hunchback of No
tire Dame"
The clever Frenchwornan who was
authorized by the ministry OF the in
terror to arrange the historical expo
sition Of the development OF charitable
enterprises in France says that fiction has
no way exaggerated the deplorable con-
ditions that used 10 exist throughout
Europe in the matter Of the homes of the
poor, and the scant care provided for
foundlings. She knows that the poor are
vastly happier these days and that hu-
mainly in general has benefited, thanks
to the organization of the Creche.
And" she adds, "the good that has
been done by this French institution of
charity is not by any means confined to
France, for you find the Creches to-day
in every part OF the world; and st is a
matter of record that one of the most
complete and model Creches In the world
is to be found IN Buffalo. New York
Valerian Gribay