The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-26

tie Is known among the general public
of Honolulu, and which is vet doing an
amount of practical good quite out OF
proportion to the limited means at its
disposal, is the Salvation Army home
located near the corner of King street
and Pawaa lane. 1lere homeless chill
dren are taken in and tenderly cared
for, irrespective of origin, color, race
or sex, age or history. Here also can be
found a home fos girls who have fallen
but who have seen where their erring
would certainly take them if continued
and who 2ave expressed a desire to re-
gain the world of honesty and honor.
This institution has no endowment
fund; it receives no assistance from the
public purse; it has no high salaried
specialists on its payroll, and it pub
fishes no elaborate reports of its work
yet in one year, that of 1907, eighty
eight unfOrtunates, from babies in arms
to deserted wives, were cared for in
the home.
At the present time there are twenty
children being cared for by the three
worthy women in charge of the insti-
tuition, while ten older girls and women
find shelter there. The youngest child
of the score was born on Thursday last.
her mother being an inmate of the in
stitution and her father in Jail One
other child is a tiny infant. over whose
head years will have to pass before she
can know that her birth was a shame
ful one, her brief life's history one
that the gentle matron of the home. ac-
eustomed as she is to the stories and
sights of the under world and the
shames and miseries of cities. hesitates
to tell. The eldest member of the home
family is Chinese wife, deserted with
her two children by her husband and
being east off by her relatives has only
charity to look for to save her from
life of degradation. Her husband at
tempted, before he sailed for China, to
sell her to another Chinaman for $500.
Each one of the twenty children in
the home has his or her story. and few
of them are anything but sad The
little ones themsel 1es are merry. how
ever, forgetting what misery has been
theirs in the loving kindness that now
surrounds them. 1t is most noticeable
that the children do not regard their
guardians as diseIplinarians or task
masters. The toddlers cling to the
skirts of the women in charge. lisping
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
" 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 |
iren were found, and the little ones
adopted by people who will look after |
hem. Recently white man, who is
n business in Honolulu, went to the |
home for wife. stating to the matron |
n charge that he had little time to |
pare from business to attend to social |
affairs where he might meet eligible !
young women, and came to the home in /
he hope that there might be there some |
yirl willing to marry him. He realized. |
he said, that any girl willing to stay
n the home was girl who wanted to
10 right, and that was the kind of a /
wife he wanted, irrespective of her
'rigin- Unfortunately no girls of
manageable age were at the home at
he time.
There are two little Spanish children
being cared for there just now, Tony
Ind Julia Praeter Their parents
we're among the immigrants recently
arrived from Spain, who had gone 20