The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-25


that the children do not regard THEN
guardians as disclplinarians or task
masters. The toddIers cling to the
skirts of the women in charge. ispine
their wants with the full assurance that
they will be granted. They play, dur
ing play hours, in or out of doors, with
the few poor toys that the home is able
to give them. They are healthy look
ing children, well nourished and clean
ly clad, and the sight of their little
groups, happy with so little, emphasizes
the good that the Salvation Army is
doing here in Honolulu.
During the past few months four
| girls have been married out of the
home. Last month homes for four chill
dren were found, and the little ones
adopted by people who will look after
/ them. Recently a white man, who is
in business in Honolulu, went to the
home for wife. stating to the matron
in charge that he had little time to
spare from business to attend to social
/ affairs where he might meet eligible
young women, and came to the home in
the hope that there might be there some
girl willing to marry him. He realized.
he said, that any girl willing to stay
in the home was a girl who wanted to
do right, and that was the kind of a
wife he wanted, irrespective of her
origin. Unfortunately no girls of a
manageable age were. at the home at
the time.
There are two little Spanish children
being cared for there just now, Tony
and Julia Praeter. Their parents
We're among the immigrants recently
arrived from Spain, who had gone 20
one of the Oahu plantations. The
mother died a short time after arriv-
ing, leaving the two children, the boy
under five years old and the girl a
baby of only a few days over a year
old The father could not pay anyone
to look after the children and was ig-
norant of where to apply for help.
Every morning he went off to work.
after washing and attending to the
children, leaving food for them on a
chair. All day, every day, for nine
months, the five-year-old boy looked
after his baby sister, until friends told
the father of the home The little girl,
who was brought in in an emaciated
condition, is now the pet of the home
a bright, brown-eyed, fat, little tod
dler; whose only Spanish word is
aqua"
Elizabeth, little Porto Rican girl,
with soft curly hair and winning
smile, spent two years of the seven she
has lived, wandering about Honolulu
with an old woman, foster grand
mother, who had taken her away from
her real grandmother to protect her
from the beating she received, some of
the marks of which yet remain on her
soft baby body The foster granny re-
fused to give the baby up at the COM
mand of her relatives, and the two, the
aged woman and the baby, were put out.
on the streets. For twenty months they
lived on the pickings from garbage
barrels and the little that could be
begged. At nights they slept under
buildings and in parks, ever watchful
of the police. Then the old woman
gave up the fight to keep the baby and
brought it tearfullv to the home.
"The Heavenly Twins two kinky-
haired little Porto Rican Africans, grin
broadly at visitors. They are eight
years old, and have been two years at
the home. Their father brought them
there after his wife had run away from
him, and in the two years he has been
once to see them. The twins are among
the happiest of all the children, the
only cloud on their horizon coming
when they quarrel between themselves
and one calls the other "nigger.
For the keep of none of these chill
dren does the home receive cent from
the relatives. The older ones help in
the work. while the women living there
work in the laundry. in the sewing
room and about the house and kitchen.
From all sources the income of the
home is 5000 a month assured and $50
which has to he raised to make ends
meet by hard rustling on the part of
Staff Captain McAbee. the matron, who
is assisted by Adjutant Long and En-
sign Stevenson. The rent paid is $50
a month, leaving less than So month
to feed, clothe and house each of the
inmates. The three paid officials of the
home are the matron and her assistants,
and they receive as salary an average
of three dollars and a half a week
apiece To a representative of the Ad-
vertiser. Matron McAbee apologized
for the largeness o. this amount. stating
in explanation that they had recently
had their salaries increased from two
dollars week, because eve found
that we really could not live on two
dollars only
This home deserves public support.
The matron has hopes that the Oahu
Board of Supervisors will agree to paw
the rent for the buildings. which will
do away with all the worry every
month of where the extra fifty dollars
is to come from over the two hundred
dollars guaranteed by charitable ones.
The children need toys. and those among
the fortunate little ones of Honolulu
would be doing a kindly act to spare
for the unfortunate children some from
their plenty. The home needs furni-
ture. 1t was opened eight years ago,
and much Of the bedding. furnishings
and dishes are worn out or gone.
A little indeed is asked for. and in
Honolulu that little ought to he forth
coming without any second appeal
There is no organized charity about the
home. II is as wide open. IS free from
conditions, as heartily given as posi-
bic. Every needy child has a claim
upon it; every woman or girl in trouble
and in need of shelter is welcomed
under its roof. Put the rood II can do