The San Francisco call., 1909-08-22
The San Francisco Sunday

ish Orphan Asylum Magazine. IN which
DR.. wolfsnstein comments, IN sarcastic
vein. on those modern charity workers
who have been and are continually
carping at institutions"
At Mount 81. Joseph asylum. the To-
cal Catholic institution where a large
number OF children are being cared for
by the Sisters OF Charity, I discussed
the merits and the defects Of home
placing work.
The sisters have experienced great
difficulty in their efforts to find homes
so constituted as to bring bliss" into
the lives OF dependent children TT 10
comparatively easy, said sister supe-
rior, ito find homes. but it is extremely
diticult tos find good homes for de-
pendent children. The children taken
into families are usually wanted not
to spread cheer, but to be little drUdges.
Experience teaches that they are often
I'll treated, given little or no OppOrtu-
nifty for an education. and deprived OF
all facilities for gaining knowledge
OF the tenets OF morality We have
placed out children repeatedly. but
have almost invariably been Obliged 70
bring them back to institution life"
The parent or guardian who presents
a child at the Ladies Protective and
Relief society at Franklin and Geary
streets, where $50 children are being
cared for, is urged by Miss Wallbridge,
the matron to seek accommodations
in a private family. IT is significant,
however that the greater number OF
applicants insist that they do not care
to place their children with private
families
I'VE indicate the advantages of fam
ily life to the parent or the guardian"
says Miss Wallbridge. but many OF
them protest against the private home.
Judging merely from remarks made BY
persons seeking TO place their charges
IN institutions. one would conclude that
parents and guardians are greatly pref
udiced against the family system"
Other instances and other statements
might be adduced to indicate what
those well qualified TO speak think OF
the home placing system. Although
possessed OF certain well defined ad-
vantages, IL is not so all competent as
to denote the decay or make desirable
the abolition Of corporate institutions.
Cottage workers and home finders ars
working zealOusly, and with a measurs
OF success, but there are contingencies
with which, IN spite OF zeal and re-
sourcefulness, they can not cope II Is
here that the need and worth OF char
table institutions become manifest
Critics may cssademn and theorists may
devise vain things. but as long as there
the institution - likely to remain
valuable and Indispensable accommo-
dation. This being true, IL Is fmpor-
tant that the general public, whose
moral sympathy or apathy works 80
powerfully for or against the success
Of any undertaking. be correctly In
formed as TO the methods employed In,
and the results achieved by, corporats
institutions.
How to make public the exact value
OF charitable institutions has long been
a provoking question. Under prevail
ing conditions. those (and their name
Is legion) who thirst for knowledge
OF child caring work must go. to the
institution. or the institution must go
to them AS institutional workers are
loath to force themselves into the pub
lie eye, and as the average reader has
little time to give to a personal inves-
tigation, the desire for this knowledge
Is usually suffered to go unrequited. In
vieW OF these facts. II IS refreshing to
announces that The Sunday Call will un-
dertake the important work OF placing
the methods and achievements OF the
local child caring institutions before
the people OF this and neighboring
cities These methods and these
achievements will be embodied in SER
ries Of several articles. which will en-
brace the history Of every institution,
denominational and otherwise, in San
Francisco. The Calls labors will be
equally profitable to the proponents OF
both systems, and extremely interest
ing TO the general public.