Willmar tribune., 1910-04-27

1T is the little children we must ItNXRXE
save" one OF the matrons said. 1--WE <V<
keep them from privation from cru. q
city, even from death-the little ba-
Dies nobody wants. We are Just trying tn give
tnem their chance We hope to preserve the
motners from greater sin, from the life of the
streets, from the doors Of prison, but It is the
babies that count We uast save our babies"
Inc law OF this country will not permit the
giving or selling of little children but it cannot
protect them from desertion The founding hos
pltals IN our big cities the states efforts to
pay tne part OF universal motherhood, to care
Tor the children who are thrown on her mercy
and who will help make her future
The room where the mothers relinquish their
oao1es IS called the saddest place in New York.
1nere Is nothing in the receiving room but the
little cradle, and no one in sight A matron is
always IN waiting near by. She never forces a
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 dec1de-but the choice is final. II the mother
wishes 1t, and 1t be arranged she is often
taken into the hospital with her baby and allowed
TO nurse 1t, by having charge Of another of the
uny 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 longer; she may never see or hear of it
again. The child belongs to the state No prayer
nor entreaty, no pleading of circumstance, will
a1terward avail. The child has entered world
that shall never know its origin. Somewhere
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 babys adoption in the Founding home
doctor next inspects 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 1t 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 indoor or an
outdoor baby.
There are 600 indoor babies being cared for
inside the New York City Founding home. 1t is
necessary to board the outside 1900 more.
Seven thousand four hundred and twenty-four little
foundlings have been looked after in the past two
years, and there relatively as many in Boston,
In Chicago, in Philadelphia-in every large city
in America.
In Europe there 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 70 away
without word.
In the homes Of love, of wealth and happiness
there are sounder, sweeter babies than the
deserted children of the founding homes The
babies far untroubled by their situation in
life and have not the institution look of older
children. What is the institution look? It trans
lates itself; the expression of cramped individ-
uality, of a longing for more personal express
sion; the look of too much routine of drilling of
the law without the 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. Nearly 500 babies year from
the New York Founding home are adopted by
private families in all parts of the country They
prove in their lives that it does not matter in
this world how born. lit is just the way
we're eddicated."
Nobody but baby lover would adopt one OF
our babies; older children may be taken by fami-
lies and made into drudges, but who would adopt
tiny child except for love?" of the sisters
at the hospital said.
There is a wonderfully wide choice in babies
for they are taken into the home without regard
to nationality to creed or color; there are pink
and white blond babes brown-haired, black-eyed
babies, girls with curls and boys with round
close-cropped heads.
The children kind of uniform. The
little girls have big bows of red and blue and
pink ribbon their hair the most fashionable
little person who lives round the corner on Fifth
avenue.
The clothes of several thousand children
an important consideration Think of what a
single baby's trousseau means at home. FOrtu-
nately home babies outgrow their clothes and
pass them on to other babies. There are all sizes
to be fitted at the Founding home. In the last