The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-28

rents; unlimited hours of professional service and skill by our physicians and nurses have flooded the lives of these children, like sunlight.
 What a record and what a wonderful thing to have had part in all that glorious work; to have been cog in the wheels which have been turning and turning, and converting misery and squalor, sickness and suffering into joy and sunshine, happiness and pleasure!
 Isn't it splendid to have all the Chris tian people of our great state of Alabama working together2" asked MT. Barrow, of ours, for the one greatest asset-litue children? And how happy every one of us feels when some almost hopeless case has been happily solved, some unspeak- able obstacle overcorne."
 Many specially handicapped children have come, asking us to help them.'' said MT. Barrow One appealing girl about II, paralyzed partially in her little body an albino-and with complication of de- fective eyes. She is not attractive to look upon, but her little spirit radiates beauty of character. We help her in the State School for the Blind during the school year, and in the summer we board her in one of our sympathetic other mother homes. This year the womens or ganizations of two churches-one in Bessemer and one in Birmingham-have furnished the money for her board in our home. That's more cooperation.
 So interested is Mir. Barrow in the great work of the Alabama Children's Aid So ciety that he wants everybody who doesn't already know about it to learn, and in introducing me to the three cap able women visitors whose influence and gentle Christian forbearance with 10 oh h a I1oal cn mn 1rh n the successful operation of the society, Mir. Barrow has put me in touch with the different angles of the work through Miss Sara Axford. visitor of investiga- tiop;" Mrs. Jesse w. Jones, visitor of temporary supervision and Miss Ida Gelders, visitor of supervision"
 These three earnest, loyal women have been the guiding stars of many little helpless and unhappy child, into whose hands they have fallen and their work has been phenomenally successful in this
 difficult field.
 Miss Axford, who is the visitor Of investigation" belongs to one of the old est and most influential families in Sel-
 ma. and the fact that she has lived in luxury and aristocratic surroundings all
 Of her life, makes it even more remark
 able that she would leave all of this to
 become worker in the cause she IS now devoted to.
 q went to Boucher College" Miss Ak
 ford said, and there I studied welfare work. and then I became affiliated with the New York Charities Aid Association where I became convinced that such work is not only an important work, but an essential to the child life of our country. ..Especially does my work take me into the fields of the unmarried mother and her child: this is .pitiful situation which confronts us often. and it is problem how to take care of such cases; how to make a place and home for the mother and the child.
 Calls of all descriptions come to us from all over the stat9,' Miss Axford continued, and when l came from my home town, Selma, l brought four little children with me whose mother had died and something had to be done for them. That's where my work of investigation comes in. We don't jump into things and try to place child in some home until
 we have thoroughly investigated the case
 whether the child is a dependent, or whether there is somtbody who can give
 the child an even chance with the rest of
 us. If the child proves dependent upon us we at once search for good home for the child and see that every atten- ticn is given it"
 Mrs Jessie w. Jones, who is the wis itor of temporary supervision" which means taking care of the child fin the I interim of investigation and placing it iri l a home,' is a resident of Birmingham, where she has lived all of her fire. | Mrs. Jones became interested in the i Alabama Children's Aid Society," work ] thr ough the little church of which she IS
 member, and her work among the chil-
 dren of her church.
 1 vision" Mrs Jones said, "the little call 1 dren are given the. tenderest care; their little bodies are examined. teeth, eyes and general examination given. You l cannot. imagine the children who come ] to us who are terribly diseased. and who
 require a period of long treatment For Isnstance, not long ago we had a dear nt- tie mistreated and neglected boy conmit- 1 ted to us. who had hairlip and cierl l palate. This required long weeks in the l hospital, three separate operations and months in boarding home. before ne was ready for placement. The result l, of this ugly deformity IS now only siish' i scar. and his new mother and daddy {, wouldn't take the whole wide world fol him.
 We are continually having sweet, in !, nocent children sent to us with venerea l diseases, mostly congenital. This is serious problem. requiring isolation ane weeks of theatment before they are ready | for bomes the kind of home that is every tchildS right
 1 I've must preserve these little lives ane 1 make them fit to carry on.
 ' The temporary supervision of thu children Mrs. Jones continued, ''befor, they go to permanent home, is made happy for them by being cared for 1T our various mothers homes.
 There are VI half dozen of these homes the cottage mothers, who have charge o i them being sweet. amiable. lovabit II. alxrac u-i chtlApAS 1 of their own. others who love childrer hut have none. For instance, the home or the North Highlands has as it's 'cottass ] mother Mrs. B. A. Cooper who giyes
 the chiIlren the most wonderful atten-
 tinn. takes them out for rides in automo-
 piles. looks after their health and th'
 same is done at the Wcodla~n homa
 Another home is between here and Besse.