The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-08-14
REFORMATORY GIRLS.

is a quality in which the school Of
philanthropy is singularly lacking
but it gave Mrs. Martha p. Falcon
er head of the girls department Of
the Philadelphia house Of refuge, &
curtai ncall yesterday morning, re
lates the New York Tribune. Here
are some Of her salient sentences:
"Our institution is full of priv
leges instead OF punishments, and
every privilege can be had by work
ing for it,"
"To the shame of Pennsylvania
be 1t said, have many, many girls
who have never been inside a school
house in their lives. Many Of them
have worked in factories ever since
they were ten years old. st the 9TH
or end of the hopper, where child
labor is grinding the girls into the
reformatory."
II have 80 men in authority over
me, and twelve auxiliary women, and
! still live"
Ministers come there to speak
Sunday afternoons and talk to the
girls about their dear parents. They
haven't any dear parents II they
had they wouldn't be there"
"A nervous broken down elderly
woman is not the person to have the
charge of bright, smart vicious
girl, especially when you can get a
bright young college graduate with
a trained mind for the same pay"
Good friends of our institution
sometimes talk about girls being
lost or saved How ! 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. over that way Of looking
at them, and look at them as you
would at boys in 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 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, so that they need never go back
to their own homes. If 1t hadn't
been for those homes most of them
would never have got into the re-
formatory."
Mrs. Falconer is famous in circles
of charity and correction as the wom-
an who can take one or two hundred
girl prisoners out to church, lectures
or musicals, with no guardian but
herself and bring them all safely
back again to prison. Any one Of
Of them could walk off at any mo-
ment, but not one of them ever has.
The whole reason for this Mrs Fal-
coner could probably never explain
But part Of 1t is that every girl who
goes out In this way has previously
won 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. Fall
coner. She is homesick and unhap-
py; she hates me; she hates the place
and all the girls and all the teachers
and ] have a good deal Of sympathy |
with her. spend most of my time
with the new girls. Most Of them
come in in very bad physical condi-
ton. have the doctor examine a
girl first and prescribe If necessary.
Then the dentist goes over her teeth
and fixes them IL necessary. Then
Il there's anything left for her, /
AXE her in hand. First l try to build
1er up physically. see that she has
III the good, plain food she can eat;
hat her appetite is tempted If neces-
'ary, but with nothing stimulating.
70 tea or coffee-shte hates that;
,nly a little meat once a day. All the
milk, bread, cereals, fruit, vegetables
.ome In nervous shrdlu cmfwyptpi
Ind cocoa she wants The girls come
n nervous, excitable, over-stimulat-
ID, over-em0tional, sometimes al
most half insane. They want to be
oothed, Gained, rested, fed and
,uilt up; not stimulated. When ]
vent there II was a favorite punish
nent to send girl to bed without
my supper. / said to them, If you
lid that with me / can tell you you
have very angelic person
0 work with No girl is ever de-
rived of a meal.
"Often visitors will ask, right be-
ore the girls: What's that girl here
orr The teacher always says, I
Ion't know tell every girl when
he comes. No one here will ever
NOW what you are here for, unless
a