The San Francisco call., 1910-08-07

the nome with these DaDy walls NOT
one of them" she said, "but is perfectly.
ideally happy If you give her one of the
babies to care for. I don't care how
forlorn or sick or even loathsome the
baby may be, or how exacting the care,
or what the work. Why, do you know,
they brought in a tiny, sick, abandoned
little baby late one night-a police off,
Ger found 1t and brought it here-and
we had no night matron then and l had
to get some sleep, SO after I washed
and fed 1t I gave 1t to this little girl.
i knew she would be good to 1t and be
glad. too. Well, do you know, she had
to be awake with It the whole night
long, yet when took 1t in the morning
: she said: "I don't know how can ever
thank you for being so good as to let
me have that lovely baby" Poor, dear
waff. It was perhaps an echo from her
own unmothered childhood that inspired
her tenderness, or perhaps her being at
the home can be traced to a passion
of motherhood. and that is something so
good and great and holy as to be
worthy the guardianship. not only OF
the Juvenile court, but OF tho whole
state, the whole world.
You know when you go into an es-
tablishment you feel almost instantly
what sort OF person IS at the head Of
1t; 1t doesn't take 10 minutes to catch
the dominant note; you sense the ami
mating spirit, and down at the juve-
nile detention home, in spite of all the
inconveniences and lack of proper ia
. cilities they have to contend against
and the fact that In the very nature Of
things 1t is place of trouble, there Is
over all the sweet home" note, and
the most helpful. common sense, all
pull together spirit prevails. The chill
dren who are on probation are coming
and going from the office constantly,
making report of themselves as Or
dered; the TRUSTEES" are In and out
attending to assigned duties. and court
day is quite an exciting one. I wish
some of you with the booster spirit
and money and influence to boost with
would go down there to the corner of
Tenth and Harrison-no, I wish you'd
all go. A few of you could catch hold
Of hands and make a ring-around-
rosy that would inc1ose the whole
premises. That would show you how
great Is the need for larger quarters.
The ground space might be adequate
II the present one story were built up
about six stories more. but they ought
to leave q fiat roof and provide for q
sky scraper X necessary. Then I'd
like to see another few join hands
around the adjacent vacant lots and
pre-empt them for those kiddies as a
playground
The lots are Uttered with debris from
the great disaster, but there is re-
strained energy at command there that
would make them a garden spot in just
about as long as 1t would take you to
think about it. and it seems to me
everybody would benefit, and the own
ers would surely make profit of the
property If they thought about 1t, or
knew the need. That home needs space.
The work is such a good work and It
has developed so fast it has entirely
outgrown its facilities. They need
workrooms. and playrooms and
living rooms. and just now every
one Of them is scheming and striving
and praying for gymnasium,
which they are very badly in need Of.
1t will afford a safe and sane outlet
for the superhuous energy Of some Of
the lads. and help in upbui1ding some
who are subnorma1 through ignorance,
or vice. or inheritance, or actual hun
ger. Do you know lot of stealing
comes about from just plain, ordinary
hunger? They have good sized school
room, but 1t has to be awfully over
worked-classroom, workroom, COM
mittee room, consultation room and as
sembly room (they have recreation
assembly three evenings each weeh)
were uses to which I saw 1t devoted
and now they will make 1t a gymna-
sium, too. when they get hold OF the
needed equipment. If there are any
OF Santa Claus deputies on vacation
around here that this should come to
the eye of, please take note.
In the clean, snowwhite dormitories
the narrow beds are set head and foot
touching, leaving narrow walkway
between. There are so many in the
room 1t is just question of siding
around to make room for matron.
nurse, house mother or somebody all
the time, and each child on detention
is there from week to six: just so
long as the case requires to find a suit
able home. 1t speaks volumes. / think,
for those in charge, that the children
have the home feeling for it, but with
more room 1t could be SO very, very
much easier for all of them, and,
though the staff Of workers is small,
the spirit Is infinite, and I'd guarantee
1t to animate 10 times the space. It
seemed to me they must all be making
use OF the remedy Hawthorne discov-
cred to us in his story of The New
Adam and Eve"-that flower that
grows In heaven"-the fragrance of 1t
pervades the place.
1t isn't in any sense a charitable
enterprise. 1 suppose there'd have to
be an enabling act passed before they
could accept even a great, airy and
commodious building If one were con-
structed for them by some great souled
\
idea and purpose from center to cir.
cumference, down there. is Justice; but
such building and provision for the
helpless would be no more nor less
than just plain, simple justice. I don't
know who the question is up to- but
I've observed in this world that once
the people become convinced thing Is
good and right and necessary it is the
same as done; the greatest trouble with
the majority of folks Is not that they
think wrong, but that they don't think.
and know in this case, once you saw
1t, the necessity would impress you as
it did me. I'll lobby through the en-
abiing act If somebody able and anx-
ious will attend to the building. Le-
land Stanford Is memorial.
So much for the Juvenile court. An
other skilled operator I visited is con-
nected with a department Of the secret
service. You'd never think this gentle
gentleman, with his violet eyes and
gracious ways and his laugh, big and
jolly. out of all proportion to his rather
meager physical makeup, takes most
intense interest in ferreting out crime
that is, you wouldn't until you happened
to notice the set of his mouth when he
is on a battling detail of a case. Then
his jaws come together like a steel