The Washington times., 1901-09-01

Consequently the landlord or ianitor is
sorely put about. When one enters the
door of the apartment house generally in
| the more luxurious of them the first ques-
tion asked by tfe suave agent Is: Have
| lease to families with children
Perhaps there is placard on the door
to save the proprietor trouble announcing
| mo children or dogs taken. or II the
children are lodged, Children and dogs
not allowed in the halls The buildings
can be filled easily with childless couples,
they say, and tenants who have no chill
dren of their own do not want 10 ne an
noyed by those of other people, besides,
children are destructive to furniture, car
pets, and walls. In some of the poorer
tenements, copying the fashion of the bet
erable oilcloth only on the floor, one reads:
Children not allowed to play in this
hall" Indeed, in many home there Is
a sign, invisible, but none the less prohibi-
tory: Children not wanted
Children, like the lepers of old, must
keep aloof from everyone except their
own family and In many cases these md
them burdensome. 1t is an awful charge
to bring against modern civilization that
it is not making proper provision for the
coming generation. Once, in simpler
state OF society, children were precious
possession, prayed and longed fora sa-
cred trust, a God-given wellspring of
joy and hope in the home. bu. now nul-
sance, an affliction and to be avoided II
possible, and If not to be merely toier-
ated.
The hotels reject them, SO do the board
ing houses and renting agents. and the
rents demanded for detached entire
house, taken in conjunction with the in
creasing difficulty of securing servants
and the very high wages they command.
seem to condemn the poor little ish-
maelites whether their parents desire
it or not to joyIess future in the pent-
up apartment or lodgings
The economic objections to large fam
flies have prevailed SO universally In the
countrJ; of France and the provinces that
now the Government is wrestling with the
problem of steadily diminishing ratio
of births and deaths.
The children of the rich are too often
given over to the care and companion
ship, first of nurses and then OF gov
ernesses, as their ages may indicate Is
1t possible or even reasonable 10 expect
that these will look after the building up
of the characters of the children or the
culture of their moral nature as parent
would? The hereditary tendencies OF
child can only be known and appreciated
BY the parents Certainly the governess
must work experimentally and in the
dark. as well as without enlightening
love to guide her. L once asked an in
subordinate very small girl, who was
alone and crying Historically on her
fathers stairway after she had got into
an alteration with her governess: ny
are you not a good little girl?' She
sobbed out, II cannot be good because
she does not love me-" This is a speci-
men of good many OF the complaints
children make without knowing the
origin of their troubles. They do not
associate with their mothers in an inti-
mate way.
l have been astonished when driving
through the parks of our large cities to
see so few children in the splendid equip
ages which roll by in endless succession.
Very often there Is a dog, sometimes of
considerable size, on the seat with the
mistress but very rarely a child. 4 do
not know whether it is questionable to
take children or whether it is considered
better for their health to walk;
1 heard a bright. devoted girl one day
say to her mother after being unavoidably
separa ted for many years from her: IF
my Judgment had not approved of you
after seeing so little of you in my child
hood / could not have loved you and been
your friend as 1 am now. for all sense of
your motherhood had died out OF my
heart"
perience in London and other crowded
cities of the Old World, came TO the con-
clusion that children would thrive best
isolated from their parents and collected
together in rural hamlets, where they
should be attended by nurses not of their
own blood-a kind of cooperative incu-
bative nursery
He thought the improvement of the
coming race would be wonderful in n gem
era tion, but he was wrong. for child
must be nourished by personal love as
we'll as by food; so his efforts failed. rs
all mere theories 40. II is easy " CoH-
denim remedial plans as impractical, but,
alas, to formulate a practical one is much
more difficult There is a certain virtue
in having attempted, If in vain. to solve
the problem. .
The pressure of congregated millions, II
they all must live in the city. crowded
into limited space. is bringing about an
unnatural state of feeling in the hearts
of the overburdened. hopeless poor
Every daily paper has among its adver-
tisements: "A fine boy for adoption; re-
entire. "A pretty baby glrl,
perfectly healthy, for adoption" and so
on through the dreary items. 1t is not
a supposable case that these mothers de
sire to part from their little ones, but the
conditions of their lives are too tragic to
admit of their adding another mouth TO
those which cry for food.