The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-08-08
RefOrnafOry Girls.

OF philanthropy s1nguary lacking, but 1t gave Mrs
Martha P Faconer, head of the girls department of
the Philadelphia house of refuge curtain call yes
terday morning, relates the New York Tribune.
Here are some of her salient sentences:
"Our institution is full of privileges instead of
punshments, and every privilege be had by
working for it."
"To the shame of Pennsylvania, be it said, have
many, many girls who have been inside
schoolhouse in their lives. Many of them have
worked in factories ever since they ten years
old get the other end of the hopper, where child
labor is grinding the girls into the reformatory"
81 have thrty-two men in authority me, and
twelve auxiliary women and | still live
ministers come there to speak Sunday after
moons and talk to the girls about their dear par
ents' They haven't any dear parents If they
had they wouldn't be there"
"A nervous, broken down, elderly woman is not
the person to have charge of a bright smart vicious
girl, especially when you get bright young
college graduate with trained mind for the same
pay
Good friends of our institution sometimes talk
about girls being lost or saved How l hate
those two words! | never allow them to be used in
the building If you have any success with those
girls you have got to get that way of looking
at them, and look at them you would at boys in
a reformatory-that is, the result of heredity and
environment; young person who has gone wrong
and whom we are trying to show how to go right
We don't speak of a boy who has got into trouble
as being lost or saved"
1--WE are getting more and more of our girls
places when they leave us, that they need never
go back to their homes If it hadn't been for
those homes most of them would have got
into the reformatory"
Mrs. Falconer is famous in circles of charity and
correction the who take
two hundred girl prisoners out to church, lectures,
musicals, with guardian but herself and bring
them all safely back to prison again. Any of
them could walk off at any moment, but not one of
them ever has. The whole reason for this Mrs.
Falconer could probably never explain. But part
of it is that every girl who goes out in this way
has previously her superintendent trust and
confidence.
"The new girl is always homesick at first; not
for her home but for the life she has left" said
Mrs Faconer. "She is homesick and unhappy she
hates me- she hates the place and all the girls and
all the teachers and have good deal of sympathy
with her. | spend most of my time with the
girls. Most of them in in very bad physical
condition | have the doctor examine girl first
and prescribe if necessary Then the dentist goes
over her teeth, and fixes them if necessary. Then
if there's anything left of her. l take her in hand
First try to build her up physically see that she
has all the good, plain food she can eat; that her
appetite is tempted if necessary but with nothing
No tea coffee-she hates that only
little meat day All the milk bread cereals,
fruit, vegetables and cocoa she wants. The girls
come in nervous excitable, over-stimuated, over
emotional sometimes almost half insane They want
to be soothed, Gained, rested, fed and built up;
not stimulated. When l went there it was favorite
punishment to send girl to bed without any supper
said to them If you did that to me I can tell you
Vol WOuldn't have very angelic person work