The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-20
A LITTLE CHILD FOR THE ASKING TO KEEP OR OWN Agent For Big Society Now Here 10 Place Many in
 Homes, 2, ,OOO HOhFEL LESS BABIES ALL GOLORS; AGE AND SEX Absolute Secrecy Maintained
 As to Birth and
 Ownership.

e W .
 stopping at the stratneId for the re- mainder of the week is Robert A Lynch, a representative of the New York Bounding Hospital of New York city.
 This hospital was founded in 1863 by Archbishop Hughes for the pur- pose of caring for founding babies which would otherwise be thrown into the rivers. gutters and sewers of tine great city.
 To-day any poor, unfortunake wo- man who finds herself with an infant for which she is unable to provide. may bring the baby to the hoepitaI and place it in the cradle in the ves~ tibule and from that moment the child is cared for. No details o1 its birth are asked and 1t makes no difference whether the child be white or black.
 Among the large number of found 1ings at the hospital there are negro Jewish, Chinese Japanese and In fact children from every nationality in the world. jkf
 In thus taking all Idnds of chfldren there are from 1000 to 1,5oO lives saved every year in New York
 After the babies have been left at the hospital, they are placed to boaFd with selected families in New York and Brook1yn- When they reach che age of IS months they are brought
 
 into the care of the Sisters and train ed nurses who prepare them for adoption by teaching them to be kind, gentle and polite
 Any respectAbIs Catholic family who wishes to giye sa home to one of ing either to t9ie Nome 6ts t5 one of its representatives,. A description Of the child desired should be given.
 MT Lynch always takes the pre- caution to send the Sisters descrip- ton of the people who wish the child so that one may be selected which will give perfect satisfaction. The only stipulation which the hospital makes is t1aa& the woman who is 10 be the mother of the child he Cath olic.
 When 12 or 1 5 families in city have promised to each take a child, IWord is sent the Sisters of the hospital. When they have selected the children they notify the families, telling them to be at the depot on certain day letter sent There is a. number on the letter which corresponds to a number Fastened to the shoulder of the child and in this way there is no confusion in delivery of children.
 If through any cause the families are unable to keep the children after they have taken them, the hospital will receive the boys back at any time until they are 16s though the girls may be sent back at any time.
 At present there are 5000 children at the hospital whose ages range from one day to 8 years and for which homes must be found among worthy Catholic families or this country.
 Mir Lynch has been in this work more than 23 years in which time he has found homes for between 5000 and 5000 children throughout the United States. Many of these call- dren are now grown up and are them selves the fathers and mothers of splendid families.
 Some of the children he has placed in the homes of muIti-naflIlonafres Not long ago he placed two children of about three years of age in the home of a Missouri man who is worth $100, ,0O0, ,O00, and who has neither children nor relatives of his own. Ee would only take them on the promise that he immediately be permitted t0 adopt them legally These children will in time inherit his great fortune.
 Mr. Lynch says that experience hhG taught him that 1t is wrong for the foster parents to tell the child that they are not it's real mother or father. It doesn't matter quite so much to a boy, but to a girl, who is so much more sensitive, it seems a terrible thing and she thinks of herseM aN s1on- ly a waif without any real mother or father"
 Mir Lynch always advises the fau1i- lies not to inform the children of their unknown parentageibut to adopt them and thus become legally their parents if this course seems more advisable