Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-11-02
The Stranger Child Within the Home.

The Stranger Child Within the Home.
That many hundreds of young, depend
ent children are every year placed in
alien homes by various charitable assoc
Citations is so much accepted as matter
of-fact by the public that little eoncern
seems to be felt for their fate and YET
the custom has been followed for SO
long that the aggregate number of these
poor orphans and abandoned waits is
tremendous. AT what age they shall be
placed after helpless babyhood is past
appears TO be left entirely to the discre-
ton of the individual asylum or society
to which the children are committed BY
the courts, often little ones of 3 or 4
years being shipped the width of the
continent to homes alien to them in ma
tionality and to modes of living quite
unusual. Few observers of the life OF
the bound-out girls and boys from 10
years up in the families to which they
have been committed lack instances
where their position and their duties
make their lot hard and cheerleSs. The
municipal, state and national records IN.
dictate Enthusiastically that the parent OF
either six who is properly equipped for
the important duty of fully training and
developing children is rare in any class,
and it is a safe prediction that even the
most conscientious people will rarely do
as well by a stranger child as they VIII
by their own. The tendency is to make
it more or less of a drudge, and in
stances have come TO the notice of asy-
lum authorities in winch delicate girls OF
Is have been compelled to do all the do
nestle work cooking, laundering, house
cleaning, ETC., of the household. In 9th
er cases girls even younger have been
kept virtual prisoners. without holidays,
for months the work not hard, perhaps,
but continuous and necessltatlng late
hours.
Anyone who can get letter of recon-:
mendation from pastor, or from an in
hUential member in the community, can
secure a child as helper; yet what does
any pastor, or visitor who has not lived
in the family, or in other ways closely
observed its treatment of dependents,
know of the mistress fitness for the
care of children, especially those of an
alien racer Men and weman who are
kind to their associates are frequently
most inconsiderate in their dealings
with the domestic class, and rare indeed
is the mistress who will take the trou-
Die to train the child of the gutter or
Of the Stun, in domestic science, line
upon line, which is the only way by
which these children, ignorant of the
niceties of the civilized home, can ever
be trained. The process is slow and
wearisome, and few consider it their
uuty TO thus develop the stranger chlld-
Rather do they expect her to show an in
telligence and proficiency far beyond her
years, upbraiding her without stint be-
cause she fails to perform properly the
tasks set for her Some asylums do not
send out dependent children before they
are 16 years of age, which is much
wiser than consigning them without
proper supervision. as is so frequently
the case, to the untried care of strange
families. But radical reforms as regards
many others are needed, and one Of the
most urgent is that the prospective mis-
tress should be plainly informed that
her duty to her charge is not
discharged when she sends her to
Sunday school and day schools. Eal-
phasis is usually put upon the obligation
the child is under to be taken into a
home, but it is time the dependent chiIds
cause was championed, and no more ur-
gent question clam2rs for the attention
of influential womea.-Vogue