The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-16

the ground floor is the kitchen, with it's necessary pantries and buffers closet, the laundry and heat room The former kitch- en will be combined with the dining room to make a more commodious one, and the floors of these first floor rooms are or ee- ment as is the adjacent court, that IS the coolest spot on the grounds in the summer time and the scene of many sum- mer fetes for the children.
 The wing is at present ready for the installation of the heating plant, with some plumbing yet to be done, but the rooms are beginning to assume their fin- ished appearance, and as the exterior IS practically finished, the building looks complete when viewed from the yard
 Is Substantial Structure
 This, is the addition that has been manned for substantial, permanent structure. bearing out the lines and ma terial texture of the main building under the direction of the Mercy Home board or managers who are Mrs. C. B. spencer, Mrs. w. B. Dickerson, Mrs. A. N. Baliard' Mrs. w. l.. Murdoch, Mrs. l. D. Steele, Mrs. A. T. London, Mrs. W. s. Brown Mrs. w. II. Jeffres, Mrs. James Welsel' Mrs. G. H. Estes, Mrs. w. H. Stockham, Mrs. William Redd, Mrs. John White' Mrs. T. A. Hamilton, Mrs. Edwin Wilson, Mrs. J. w. McClain and Mrs. T. s. Mor- ton
 The sting of the higher cost Of l1Vlng has been felt at the Mercy Home with it's increase of family, which averaged G5 in the earlier years, and now hardly a. day ends without 90 or. more little folks there. While the price Of food values has gone skyward, the cost per capita for the support of the children IS cheaper at the Mercy Home than the ma iority of the charitable institutions of the state. The house staff is composed or Mrs. Margaret Ramsey, Miss Florence Turner, resident kindergartener and six helpers, including the housekeeper and those in charge of the different dorml- tories. The kindergarten, which usually has about 20 active boys and girls, not yet years of age, playing object lessons and singing nature songs during the morning hours, is one of the most im- portant of the home advantages, as it J ducted in the home. The older children attend the public schools and several of them are in the higher grammar grades and High school, laying the foundation for useful careers in the professions or business world that will reflect credit and the pleasure of charitable deed upon those who have furnished the Neans and opportunity for the children of parents who are indifferent to their welfare and ultimate fate or cannot provide these things for them.
 How Home Is Supported
 Private monthly subscriptions, endow- ment legacies and the money secured by the creche, the auxiliary of the Mercy Home association, have maintained the home, and the only official public appeal is published at Thanksgiving by the pres, ident Mrs. c. B. Spencer But the new building will cost more than the treasury can perhaps meet, and the Thanksgiving aid this year will be of special signih- cance' ,and is hoped to be greater than ever before to enable an easier erasure of the financial obligations incurred for the building addition that was very es- sential with the growth of the home fam fly. The city like strides of Birmingham evidenced in the number of children com ing into and going from the, home. The influx of more people into the city does