Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1919-10-02
Chance To Do Home
Mission Work.
Special Appeal Made TO Help
Virginia Waits.

Eight hundred boy waits of the
mountains of Virginia, denied adj
mission to the only possible home
left them, have appealed for shelter,
food and education to the leaders OF
the Episcopal Nation-W Wide Campaign
at headquarters in New York.
Their appeal is voiced by the in
stitution that turned them away,
the Industrial School and Farm for
Homeless Boys at Covington, Va.
And the Episcopal churchmen who
make up the executive committee of
the campaign are preparing emcrg' ncy
measures whereby, with the aid OF
the campaign, their appeal may be
answered.
Accompanying the appeal is re-
port that tells the story of the closing
of the last door against the little out
casts. For the last year, it says,
they have been coming down the
mountain roads from remote villages
and lumber camps, into Virginia
towns and cities, and even to the
gates Of the school itself.
They are the products of the de
linquent home and the delinquent
parents. Many of them have both
parents still living, but they are none
the less orphans, for their parents
have failed to give them a home or
parental care.
Those little rugged figures who
came to the gates, saw stretching ON
the other side 500 acres of fields and
brooks and trees, hemmed in by the
hills. They saw the little group Of
buildings that was home, school and
church for eighty boys who had not
been MED. They saw those boys,
plump and ruddy, well-clothed and
happy, whistling and shouting as
they went about their tasks.
They wanted to he among those
boys. They asked to be allowed to
enter the school. They made their
plea in person or through men and
women who wanted to help them.
But the answer was always the same.
There was no room, no place to give
them shelter. They were turned back
into the streets, into the mountains,
to find what help they could, to live
as best they knew how.
But the eighty boys on the other
side of the gate are being given an
opportunity to become independent
citizens of the future. They are
learning to be farmers. They are
studying trades. Among them are
little cripples. The boys who work
on the farm and in the shops not
only learn, and earn a part of their
own maintenance; they help to pay
for the maintenance of their crippled
companions.
The gate may be opened to some
of the 500 who were turned away, if
the town, city or county into which
they wandered is willing to help open
it. For the plan of the school is to
permit any community to erect
cottage or share in the erection of
one, and, having done SO, they are
entitled to choose a certain number
of boys to send to the school because
they have made room.
Buildings are now being completed
to enlarge the capacity of the school
to $50. Plans are being made to
double that capacity. From many
Virginia cities has come an expression
of desire to share in the work of the
farm. Among them are Richmond,
Norfolk, Petersburg, Lynchburg, Gov
ington, Roanoke, Farmville and Will
liamsburg.
But when those cottages are built,
the boys who pass the gate will be
those who happen to be chosen by
the communities. Many of the 800
sent away in the last year may be
passed over. Many others may not
be found. That is why DR.. Y. Rein
hold Rogers, general superintendent
of the school and farm, has made his
appeal to the heads of the Nation
Wide Campaign of the Episcopal
Church. He believes there should
be permanent endowment for just
alich emergency nasea and the of her