The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-23
BY ANNIE KE.lpRIcK WALKER.

I After breakfast is over there is always a l short service in the little chapel Mrs 1 Ramsay, who has been the matron at the | Mercy Home for ten years, leads in the l service.
 Then the Mercy Home children pray A peculia'ity of this service is that the matron makes little talk on practical lines The children know that every
 morning they will hear something that they need to know, that there will be a word of encouragement and they have learned in one little talk more than they knew in all their lives.
 By o'clock the older children troop off
 to school. By ? o'clock they troop back,
 a hot dinner is served them, and then
 they scamper off 10 the Mercy Home
 play ground, which adjoins the Home.
 They play until 4, when the study period
 tegins.
 After supper is the chidren's hour.
 They gather about Mamma Ramsay"
 and she tells them stories Ten or twelve
 years of this has made her a fine story
 teller. She could talk to the children for
 hours and they would then beg her to talk
 all night The stories she tells would fill
 columns in the newspapers. Her recent
 visit 10 the Louisiana Purchase exposi-
 ton has been the most interesting event to the children. They will listen in won derment 10 all the marvellous things Mamma Ramsay saw and some of the souvenirs she brought home have been mentioned with great pride by the Mercy
 Home children to those who know noth- ing of the great exposition. The children have seen it's wonders through Mamma Ramsay's eyes.
 When the stories end, or when a story has to be continued until the next night, Mamma Ramsay and the children pray together. They have no prayer books. be- cause Mamma Ramsay wants them to pray for the things they think they are in need of, and to thank God for the blessings they most realize. In this way the lesson of prayer has come to mean a great deal 10 them
 They have days on which they pray for certain things. In this way the Mercy Home children have entire week of prayer.
 Thursday Is the day when they pray for all the children in the world.
 Just before the children are put to he'd after they have had a warm bath in the big white tubs, they kneel for a moment at the side of their little cots. Then the day ends at the Mercy Home.
 How do the children find their way into the Mercy Home" Mrs Ramsay was repeating a question Then her face took on that radiant look whenever she speaks of children.
 "They just come to us," she said ''Llt- tie ones whole families of them. Some times they have been deserted by their parents. These are the most pitiful cases Then there are dozens of children whose parents are dying of tuberculosis, and other contagious diseases. We take these children, in many cases the parents make them over legally to the Home. Many a poor wretched mother has died happy in the thought that her child would be taken care of In the Home.
 There Is a child here now whose fa- ther died only a few days ago of tuber- culosis. The mother has been dead some l time. Me brought the child himself and | he was barely able to stagger up the | steps, He was just poor, pitiful wreck, and he knew he had only short time to live. Ills one thought was for his child, and he begged us to take her In he Home.
 "There is an admission committee, you tnow to whom every case Is referred, but did not tell him about 1t. It was too ,itiful case to even suggest anything hat might convey an obstacle to his mind in getting the child in the Home, md he was so relieved when she was re- ,eived Just before he died he made the ,hild over legally to the Home He did not want any one to have her, and he told ne that he could die contented knowing hat his baby was In the Mercy Home.
 "This Is one of hundred Instances where children are received under such sad circumstances. Some of the most pathetic cases are where children have ,een treated brutally until they have very little of the chid-lilke spirit left in hem. They are literally afraid Of peo- ole There was a little girl received at he Home not long ago who had really forgotten how to smile She had known 1nly cruel blows and unldndness. She had the eyes of a hunted animal She was a fraid even to speak. When l would say, Good morning. she was as cold and un- yielding as marble. The expression in her eyes was frightful. She was child,