The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1904-05-01
Waits of Great City Be-
neyolence SnatcheS
From Degradation.
Happy InnocentS at the
Washington Hospital
for FoundlingS.
Board of Children's
Guardians indicates
It's Establishment.

n
from the consequences Of sin. not
their own; to open the door of
hope to the unfortunate; to replace
filth with cleanliness and vicious sur
roundings wit Ia an atmosphere that ele-
Yates and ennobles: TO make environ
ment triumph over heredity-this is the
mission to which private benevolence
and public spirit direct themselves not
ably in Washington. To make good men
and women of the foundlings-the waits
and strays of a great city-this is the
task
1t is a noble ambition and patriotic
work. for. even from the sordid view
point Of mere dollars and cents. one in
clpient criminal transformed will repre-
sent a saving TO the community much
larger in amount than all that has been
expended for him, and for the other
ninety and nine. who. perhaps. have
continued in the evil ways destiny
marked out for them. Truth is, how
ever. that a percentage vastly larger
grow up to be good citizens. of value
10 their country and themselves. The
failures are in the minority.
In Washington three agencies work
together to this goodly end-the Wash
ington Hospital for FoundIings. ST.
AIMS Orphan Asylum. and the Board
Of children's Guardians. the last or
ganized BY act of Congress and sup
ported by public funds The good they
accomplish is incaleulable. for without
their sturdy and unremitting effects the
unfortunates born each day in the Dis
tFict would be left TO the care OF care
less and Indifferent relatives or TO the
casual and sporadic charity of individ-
usls. AS things are no infant is so far
away that one of these agencies will
not reach down sheltering arms and
claim the little and helpless one for its
own.
Hospital for Foundlings.
The Hospital for Foundlings occupies
handsome and comfortable building at
lis Fifteenth Street northwest, the
building itself surrounded by extensive
lawns. where the children play and
prattle in unrestrained glee Miss E.
=. Flynn IS in charge as matron and
superintendent. and she has under her
an earnest and devoted STAFF of nurses
and attendants.
No one witnessing the gambols of
this band OF happy innocents would
connect them for a moment with any
thought OF misery or misfortune. They
are bright and handsome and jolly, as
gay crowd of boys and girls as would
be encountered anywhere in a long
journey. Laughter is their portion and
privilege. and they avail themselves of
IL with gleeful abandon. Visitors TO the
institution they are apt to regard as
partaking largely of the nature of an
elaborate joke-as entertainers provid-
ed especially for their benefit and il
would be a much-hardened heart that
would fail TO fall in with this view of
the situation.
Nor does any special awe of Miss
Flynn and the other attendants seem TO
possess them. They are obedient. GER
'tainiy. well-mannered little ladies and
gentlemen, but fear has been banished
from their lives; they know neither the
word nor its meaning.
Yet think from what an abyss they
have been snatched and brought to this
haven OF rest and peace They come
from every step and grade in the SOC
tai scale; the high and the low. the rich
and the poor, contribute TO swell their
ranks. Many Of them bear in features,
build and bearing the marks Of the ac-
cumulated refinement of many genera
tons; others are just as obviously OF
parentage less cultured Some were
brought to the institution by persons
uncertain as 70 their ancestry. or ar
any rate unwilling TO reveal il; others
were left on the doorstep at night, with
-.
arrival and plead for their admittance.
some were but few hours or a few
days old. while still others have passed
their first year before they are COM
united to the hospital.
Shrouded in Mystery.
A rare mystery. some OF these cases.
for the writer of fiction to sack to nm
ravel. Should he attempt It ne would
probably find an old saw verified and
the plain facts OF numberless histories
20 be stranger than anything his i'm
agination can bring forth. Shame has
fits place in them. and tragedy. and the
faint OF unsullied names; perhaps II one
could look behind the curtain it would
be 10 see a mothers heart. weeping in
secret for the child she cannot claim
All, yes. rare mystery for the writer
OF fiction.
The institution has been in existence
md constant operation more than sev-
enteen years. and during that time not
one OF the hundreds of boys and girls
who have passed through its doors have
failed 10 find happy and comfortable
home, with adopted parents whose
hearts cried out for a child. The little
cnes have gone TO every part of the
country, many of them into homes of
wealth and refinement, where they haY-
everything that love can conceive and
money buy. Others have gone into hum
bier homes. but always where they are
locked after tenderly and carefully
Detailed facts OF these adoptions are
kept careful secret by the officials
OF the institution. The adopted fathers
and mothers are Jealous Of their secret,
anO would not have II known whence
the children sprang: IN many cases, per-
haps, the child does not know himself
but that he is Of the flesh and blood Of
the loved ones he calls father" and
mother" In some cases he is: q
wrong has been righted. and the child