The age-herald., 1900-01-17
Fund for the Alabama Industrial
Farm for WayWard Boys

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 MT. Gibson, the secretary of the Com mercial club, has taken up the work of collecting all subscriptions to the Com mercial club fund for the Alabama Boys Industrial school The work will be push ed until all subscriptions, amounting to 5000, have been paid This fund is one in which men. women and children should be interested. A guaranteed subscription of $s eco on the part of the Commercial club of Birmingham should be donated by the citizens of this city The site for the in- dustrial farm is between the city and its beau'.iful suburb, East Lake. It will be an Alabama institution, but its location In Jefferson county and It's close proximity to Birmingham behooves every philanthropic man an dwoman in the city to be interested in the erection of the buildings and in the maintenance of the farm. The business houses of Birmingham, Woodlawn and East Lake will naturally be benefited by the nearness of the farm. Unlike the min- ing corporations that operate private com missaries, the industrial farm for boys will contribute a large per cent. to the receipts of She business houses.
 As for the vast need of the industrial school for wayward boys in Alabama, a most earnest appeal was made by Mrs. Priscilla c. Goodwin in the last issue of Woman's Work, the official organ of the Alabama federation. Mrs Goodwin. in writing of Dorothea Dix, that wonderful philanthropist to whom Alabama owes her magnificent asylum at Tuscaloosa for the insane, says:
 "In 1891 when the Rev. s. J. Barrows, of Boston, was traveling through the south in the interest of prison reform, he asked Dr. Bryce this question: How is it when Ala bama is far behind in prison matters and in many other respects, you have here one of the finest asylums in the country. mode, in itself?'
 "sThe explanation answered Dr. Bryce, is that Dorothea Dix came down here about thirty years ago and succeeded in persuading the legislature to establish this institution
 Mrs Goodwin writes most interestingly of the career of Dorothea Dix, Of Gler visit to Alabama in 1S49, when she made ner ap- peal before the general assembly, and se- cured, with Iuhe aid of tine Alabama State Medical association, an appropriation of $10O 900, with a promise of S150,00O when the first amount was exhausted.
 Mrs. Goodwin brings cut most strongly the spirit that dominated Miss Dix, and which Is again abroad in Alabama in the work of saving wayward and fncorr.gi5le boys.
 Each year." adds Mrs. Goodwin, this state gives more than $100,O00 for the relief Of our mentally diseased. Shall we do nothing for our morally diseased? To the first the power of love may bring physical comfort and less density of mental dark ness, but in rare cases can it restore mem tai balance usefulness. To the latter the power of love can awaken the dormant good in every youthful heart, casting out an evil that menaces, and giving to our state useful and strong citizens. As has already been said, love is like sunshine Turn over the old, moss-grown stone and let the sunshine fall upon the spot where the worm and the snail lay concealed, and green things will soon spring up instead.
 Tn 1852, Miss Dix, alone, could move our legislature to a vast appropriation for a noly cause. Cannot our Fedora ton of a dnousand women take inspira ton from Mss Julia Tutwilers labors in this direction of prison reform, and with Mrs R. D. John- ston, Mrs. George B. Eager and other de- voted women leading the way, can we mt assail our law-makers with an imoortunate appeal that will take no denial?"