The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-04-30

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city, even from death-the little ba-
b1es nobody wants. We are just trying to give
them their chance. We hope to preserve the
mothers from greater sin, from the life of the
streets, from the doors of prison. but it is the
babies that count We must save our babies"
The law of this country will not permit the
giving or selling of little children but it cannot
protect them from desertion. The founding hos
pitfalls in our big cities the states efforts to
play the part of universal motherhood to care
for the children who are thrown on her mercy
and who will help make her future
The room where the mothers relinquish their
babies is called the saddest place in New York
There is nothing in the receiving room but the
little cradle and no one in sight. A matron is
always in waiting by. She never forces
mother to confession, but if possible persuades
her to tell why she wishes to desert her child
and perhaps influences her not to give it up but
to begin life over again. A mother must under
stand that the choice is with her-the matron
may give the mother 10 or Is minutes in which
to decide-but the choice is final II the mother
wishes it, and it be arranged she is often
taken into the hospital with her baby and allowed
to nurse it, by having charge of another of the
tiny children and helping with one older child
There are now 300 mother nurses working in the
New York home, and there have been as many as
five or six hundred at other times The mother
who comes into the hospital to work can often
prove her fitness to have her baby back again
But once she puts It down in the rescue cradle
and goes out the ever open door the baby belongs
TO her no longes11 see or hear Of 1t
again. The child belongs to the state No prayer
nor entreaty, no pleading of circumstance. win
afterward avail The child has entered world
that shall never know its origin. Somewhere a
future waits for it, but the baby is to have no
knowledge of its beginning outside its adoption
in the Founding home.
bath and clean clothes are the first signs of
the baby's adoption in the Founding home
doctor next Dspects the little person to see that
1t shall not carry contagion to any of the thou
sands of small brothers and sisters who are wait
ing for outside the walls of the reception ward
Two or three weeks the baby may be detained in
the reception quarters-the smaller the baby the
less danger of contagious diseases-or as many
days, Then it becomes either an indoor or an
outdoor baby.
There are coo indoor babies being cared for
inside the New York City Founding home 1t is
necessary to board on the outside 1000 more.
Seven thousand four hundred and twentyfour little
foundlings have been looked after in the past two
years, and there are relatively as many in Boston
in Chicago. in Philadelphia-in every large city
in America
In Europe there are an even greater number
of founding babies. The European states take
charge Of the deserted waits, but the mother is
only permitted to bring her child to an entrance
way, ring bell and give it into the arms of the
attendant who opens the door-and go away
without word.
In the homes Of love, of wealth and happiness
there sounder, sweeter babies than the
deserted children of the founding homes. The
babies are so far untToubled by their situation in
life and have not the institution look of older
children. What is the institution look? 1t trans
lates ITSELF the expression of cramped individ
uality, of a longing foF0a more personal express
sion; the lOSA of too M ch routine, of drilling Of
the law without tie spirit
But the babies know of no difference between
themselves and oTher children, and many times
before they wake to the thought home has been
found for them l!eaSly 500 babies year from
The New York Founding home are adopted by
private families in all parts of tne country They
p~e7s in their lives that it does not matter in
this world how We are born, sit is just the way
we're dedicated"
Nobody but baby icver would adopt one of
our babies; older children may be taken by fami-
lies and made into drudges, but who would adopt
a tiny child except for love?" one of the sisters
1t the hospital said.
There is a wonderfully wide choice in babies.
Tor they are taken into the home without regard
20 nationality. to creed color; so there are pink
and white blond babies, brown-haired bIack-eyed
babies, girls with curls and boys with round.
,Iose-cropped heads
The children wear no kind of uniform The
title girls have as big bows OF red and blue and
link ribbon on their hair as the most fashionable
title person who lives round the corner on Fifth
avenue
The clothes of several thousand children are
IN important consideration. Think of what a
single baby's trousseau means at home. Fortu-
lately, home babies outgrow their clothes and
,ass them on to other babies. There are all sizes
o be fitted at the Founding home. In the last