The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-23
Conservation Of Child Life.
H.--Pseuentins Cruelty to Children
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

I GI L. NuIMUhN One of the most telling efforts IT
 behalf of the children of this coun' try is that put forth by the New York
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
 to Children. Thirty-five years ago this
 society came into existence to meet the
 needs of children sorely oppressed
 and since then the benevolent idea it
 represents has grown and gathered strength until not only every large city
 in this country, but In other civilized countries. has inaugurated a like
 movement
 The New York society is housed In a great eight-story, stone building on riders. the roof Nplay-grounds and the nursery are always filled with child rem for whom the society has become temporary guardian until they can be placed in homes, if dependents, in in- stitutions or hospitals. if defectises. in reformatories or In charge of proba- tion officers, if Ielinquents. CIeanli- ness. sunshine and order radiate through the building and gentle. but firm attendants give belated comfort and mothering to the company of waifs that form the floating population of this big rescue home.
 | In one of the reception rooms of the building nangs the picture of the | little girl from whose sorrow and suf- fering the great society was born. In fact there are three pictures. One shows the miserable. ragged, scared. bleeding little waif as she looked when she came to the society as its first ward. Another picture shows her sturdy. well.kept. well-clothed and content. and the third shows her a matron grown. with the happiness of motherhood written on her face. On the wall between the first two pictures ! hangs a pair of big, rusty scissors. The rust on the scissors was made by blood, for this was the implement used l to torture the little orphan child by l the woman who had her in charge back in the dark days of the nation when none had thought of protecting chili- | ren.
 The little girl was named Mary El- len and this Is the story of her life | and of the Society for the Prevention | of Cruelty to Children: One summer. | thfrty-ffve years ago. a woman lay dy ing Of tuberculosis In a dingy New York tenement Charitable people went to see what could be done for her. Her request for help was not for herself, but for a child whose cries she could hear continually from the hCAl iooiH SHd Bdlu tuaI the CnlIQ was daily beaten by an inhuman step | mother. was always kept locked in the room, and that its pitiful plead fngs rang in her ears so that she could not die in peace. The charity work CTS took up the case. They went from official to official. from charitable organization to charitable organiza- tion. from influential citizen to in- fluentiaI citizen, and always the same answer was given We can do noth- ing unless the child Is brought to us legally, and proof offered that an of- fense has been committed"
 There existed at the time Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. To this the charity work CTS turned with the case of little Mary Ellen. and in this big enlightened na- tion the first legal protection given an abused child was under the laws that perfected dumb animals. Awakened public sentiment called for the investigation of other children's cases, and from Mary Ellen's long months of torture with clubs and scis- sors, came the rescue work that has saved thousands of little ones from sickness, death and lives of crime. From her need and that of hundreds of other children was born the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first in all the world, leader of the hundred or more like organizations that are now offering protection to helpless little ones.
 Where Mary Ellen could have no protection under the law until guilt of her persecutor had been proved and successive legal steps taken, the act of the New York Legislature that in- corporatej this society in 1875 delegat- ed certain protecting powers to 1t and to like organizations in the words: Any society SO incorporated may pre- fer a complaint before any court or magistrate having Jurisdiction for the violation Of any law relating to or affecting children, and may aid in bringing the facts before such court or magistrate in any proceeding taken" The law also provides that all officers of the law be required to aid the society in Its good work.
 How we'll this law is being enforced may be seen from an afternoon spent in the building. From room to room, from group to group. the favored visi- tor may pass and inquire concerning the flotsam and jetsam of child life that the waves of improved legislation have cast temporarily on the hands of the ever-ready society. This child and that may be under arrest for the viola tion of some law. A quarter of cen tury ago they had been herded with criminals while awaiting the slow pro- cesses of justice that would reach their case. In that brief interval they had been we'll grounded in crime. and even If released. would be more ready for sin than before, They are now kept here, free from contaminating in fluences until the case Is tried or until they are sent to some reformatory. If the case Is not one for probation. In the matter of minor offences, the children are paroled on Saturday even ing In the care of parents or guardians. who make oath before a police officer. sent over for the purpose. that the of- lenders will be brought into the juve- nile court at a specified day and hour.
 Witnesses in some important trial are found in the big building, await ing their call to the court It is wiser to keep them here that they may not be pfejuliced or hectored into giving false testimony. This forlorn little group represents a broken home: they are transient guests in the build ing while the society is making pro- vision for their keep in some institu- tion. In the bath rooms new corners in the hands of competent employees are getting a taste of the cleanliness that the slums had never offered them In all their pathetic little lives. In the hospital. on beds as white as snow and ministered to by white capped nurses. are those whose childish com- plaiht. or sufferings from physical violence have made them patients for