The Yale expositor., 1910-04-22


save, save" one Of the matrons said I'VE W.
keep them from prvation. from cru
city. even from death--the little ba-
bies nobody wants. We just trying TO give
them their chance We hope to preserve the
mothers from greater SIM 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
pitals In our big cities are the states efforts to
play the 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
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. matron is
always In waiting near by She never forces a
mother to confession but. IL possible persuades
her to tell why she wishes to desert her child
and perhaps influences her not to give 1t up, but
to begin life over again. mother must under
stand that the choice is with her-the matron
may give the mother 10 or 15 minutes in which
TO decide-but the choice is final If the mother
wishes it, and II can be arranged she is often
taken into the hospital with her baby and allowed
to nurse 1t, 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 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
aiterward 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
A bath and clean clothes are the first signs of
the baby's adoption in the Founding home. A
doctor next iDspects the little person to see that
II 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 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 200 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 Philadelpha-in every large city
in America.
In Europe there 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 a bell and give 1t into the arms of the
attendant who opens the door-and go away
without a word.
In the homes OF love, of wealth and happiness
there are no sounder, sweeter babies than the
deserted children of the founding homes The
babies far untroubed 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 indvid-
uallty, of a longing for a 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 a home has been
found for them. Nearly 500 babies year from
the New York Founding home adopted by
private families in all parts of the country. They
prove in their lives that 1t does not matter in
this world how we born, sit is just the way
we're dedicated"
Nobody but a baby lover would adopt of
our babies; older children may be taken by fami-
lies and made into drudges, but who would adopt
a tiny child except for lover" one of the sisters
at the hospital said.
There is a wonderfully wide choice in babies.
for they taken into the home without regard
20 nationality, to creed color; there are pink
and white blond babies, brown-haired black-eyed
babies girls with curIs and boys with round.
elose-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 Fifth
avenue
The clothes Of several thousand children are
an important consideration Think of what a
single baby's trousseau means at home. Fortu-
natey, home babies outgrow their clothes and
pass them on to other babies There all sizes
10 be fitted at the Founding home In the last