The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-09-03
BARIUM SPRINGS ORPHANAGE
One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Chill
dren Being Cared For-What this
Worthy Institution IS Doing for
1umanity-A Notable Gift-Some
Needs of the Home.

Here 81 orphan children between the
ages OF 6 and % years find a home,
splendid school advantages and
Christian training These children
are a very busy company of little
people all the year round. Beside
doing the regular graded school work
nine months III the year, they do all
the work incident to housekeeping
and home-making for SO large a
number. servants are kept. How
ever, during August they are off to
visit friends who pay their travelling
expenses. The outing does them
good. An effort is made to give the
stay-at-hOmes an enjoyable time
during this vacation period. They
are excused from all duties possible
and give the time to rest, recreation
and reading.
After being accustomed to family
of 127 children with their teachers it
must be admitted that it is dull and
lonely when only 10 boys and BIB
girls are left for. us to look after for a
month. No, there is no fear of these
orphan children not returning to
promptly and cheerfully take up the
work they laid down. They value
most highly the opportunities offered
at the Orphans Home and strive to
make the most of them and in so
doing are as happy and contented
and ambitious a set of children as
are to be found anywhere.
Work on the Howard cottage, the
gift of Judge Howard, of Tarboro, in
memory of his wife, has gone rapidly
forward The brick work is almost
completed. This house is being built
at a cost of "a, ZOO and will accom-
modate between % and 30 orphan
children with their teachers. This
building is ideal for the purpose for
which it is intended and a beautiful
monument to q good woman. Not
only the house itself, but the many
orphans who from year to year may
know this building as their only
home will compose the monument.
Lives uplifted, trained, instructed,
grown into noble, useful citizens will
be the real, the living monument.
Who could desire more enduring
monument!
A lolfS piazza is being added to the
South side of the Rumple Hall, which
is the central building. This porch is
the gift of the Pansy Club, of the
First Presbyterian church, Raleigh,
and will add very much to the com
fort OF the older orphan girls
The Alexander industrial building,
built by funds left by the late Mr.. S.
p Alexander, of Charlotte, and
named for him, has the brick walls
and slate roof completed. TO finish
and equip this building will require
$1,000. To-day this is the crying
need Of the Orphans Home. Nine
teen months ago our laundry was
burned, make-shift arrangements
were devised, until this industrial
building, in which the new laundry is
placed, could be erected. The or
phan girls do the washing and iron
ing for our 127 orphans, soon to be
$50 in number
This is now done without one
labor-saving piece of machinery and
| hardly a roof over their backs while
they are engaged in this arduous
task, which task is cheerfully and
uncompIainingly performed.
To see these little. unskilled hands
struggling at the wash tub with gar
| ments beyond their strength when
machinery would SO rapidly and
easily do the work is Il trial. How
quickly the machinery would be
bought if the house were finished.
how quickly the house would be fin
ished had we the money in hand for
that purpose. It's a sorry plight
even in summer and winter is fast
approaching. This is day of indus
! trial education. The industrial fea-
ture is made prominent in this Or
phans Home, but a building is abso-
lutely necessary to accomplish what
should be done. In this building will
be placed a printing office, laundry,
shoe shop, canning outfit and wood
works department and so forth. Here
the hands of our orphans will be
trained in skillful labor as their
minds are now trained in the excel
lent graded school of the institution
and their hearts in tie pure atmos-
| phere of the real home life that we
I strive to place around the orphan.
The aim is to make of our orphans
men and women strong in character,
| pure in life, who are ambitious to do
and be something, who will be help
full alike in Church and State. That
success is browning these efforts is
shown by the material turned out by
the Orphans Home, even in it's in
fancy-it is ID years old
That the approval of the Father OF
the fatherless rests upon the work is
shown by the blessings showered so
lavishly upon it. Although support
ed by voluntary gifts our orphans in
all these - years have never been
sent to bed hungry, and are well and
warmly clad. In this period only
three deaths have occurred, the
health record being remarkable. The
Lord, then, is the great stakeholder
in this man and woman manufacture
ing plant OF the Presbyterian church,
where the crude article, the helpless,
homeless, friendless, orphan children
are taken in and wrought into strong,
self-reliant, Christian youths and
maidens, whom age will develop into
useful citizens. OF course, here faulty
| work is done, the workers are very
human and prone to err, and the
| child will not in every instance re,