The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1900-02-02
DARK SIDE OF LIFE.
Strange Hospital Incident Which
Furnishes Food for Thought.
Leroy Mason, Reared by an Old Col
cred Servant, After Mammy's
Death Becomes His Real Moth.
er's "AdOpted Son."
Especial Washington letter.

Especial washington Letter.
Very many strange things hap
zen in large cities, and the tell
ing of them all would fill vast
libraries with stories of real life, and
''of the making of books there would
be no end"
The founding asylums are interest
Ing places to those who are inclined
to reflection and contemplation, be-
cause therein we see the beginnings
of the lives of men and women who
are to take their places in the affairs
CT the immediate future. No matter
how well the waits may be reared,
they never know the real meaning Of
the word "home." They see other
children with fathers and mothers,
but they must live in ignorance of
their own ancestry. That one thought
alone incites the mind to pity and
compassion.
Men forget their children and de-
sert their wives in the mad race of
life. Women cling to their offspring
as long as they can hold them to their
breasts. They also cling to their hus-
bands ''for better or for worse" even
after they have found them to be
much worse than they could have an
ticipated. Therefore it is that we
have such deep sympathy for both
mother and child when they are de-
serted. But no human being can
fully realize the condition of a little
one bereft of both father and mother.
Not long ago there came to one Of
the hospitals of this city a negro
woman of middle age, bearing in her
arms a white child only a few weeks
old, begging shelter for the child and
for herself because she was sick and
threatened with malarial fever. The
negro woman was given a cot in the
free ward and the white. child was
taken in charge by one of the nurses.
The woman soon became delirious
and was seriously i'll with typhoid
fever. Two months passed away be-
lore she was able to leave the hos
pital. She said that the baby had
been given to her to care for, but she
would not tell the name of it's par
ents.
When she was able to leave the hos
p;tal she asked permission to 60 to
her rooms to get new clothing for the
white baby, saying that she would
return within an hour. She was per-
mitted to go. Two weeks have passed
away and she has not returned. The
little waif was finally turned over to
the care of sisters of charity in charge
of an orphan asylum. It will grow
to manhood and never know who
were it's father and mother.
Of course the child will never know
the true meaning of the word "home,' ~
and what the future portends for it
nobody can dare to foretell.
The average reader will say that
there are thousands of such cases,
end that is true. This incident is
narrated simply to point moral and
adorn tale. Those who sin forget
the effects of their wrong-doing.
They forget that there is time CON-
ing when everything will be laid bare
before the awful tribunal of con-
science, when 1.-The rich and the poor
shall be gathered together, for the
Lord is the Maker of us ALL"
The little baby referred to may
have life of goodness or the reverse.
It's parents cannot tell. But this lit
tie one has had manv Dredecessors