The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-16


 condition. We talked with the man and woman, and of course they ex- plained things away, but not at all to | our satisfaction. The man was a grea., ] gaunt mountaineer type, rough and | uncouth, while the woman a little wiz ! ened, dried-up, creature with the hard l est sort, of face, and yet, when the end l of the story is reached, you'll see that | .n spite of all that she really had some l QuaInt affection for Little Sallie.'"
 We mentioned to the man and wom- | an what we had come for Mir. Bar l row said, and of course, they resented | our visit; they insisted that the child | was theirs. but of course we didn't be- | lieve them. Finally we took a step | forward and that step took us across 1 the county line-from Talladega into | Clay county and there we instituted l proceedings of investigation, which | proved exactly what had been told us. | that the child did not belong to the l man and woman with whom she was l living and being so badly treated. Pa pers were made out, and she was trans. ferred to us, and when this was done | the poor woman finally broke down l and confessed that Little Sallie was | Tot her child, and then it was that she | showed some slight sign of affection | at parting with the little girl, in spite | of the way she had treated her. But that is only the beginning of | the story" MT. Barrow said. "We brought Little Sallie' and placed her in one of the homes which are at our dis posal for such purposes, and as the little girl began to mend and grow and reach a normal natural state, we got word from way out in Arkansas that this little girls mother was looking for her. and then the truth came out; she l had been stolen some time ago and had been brought here, and the story have , just related to you was her fate" | If the Alabama Children's Aid So- ciety never did anything else but just | that, 1t would feel that it had accom- | plished great work" MT. Barrow said. "To find that poor little mistreated child and restore her to her parents that is sufficient gain surely. but this is only one of many instances which l might relate" "The placing of children in proper homes and seeing that they are prop erly cared for, the follow-up' work after homes have been secured for the 1 children-all this is the mission of the society and very worthy, beautiful mission it is to be sure.' Just one other incident would like | to mention" MT. Barrow said, "and l that Is of two dear little children-not | far from here-whose mother was dy- | ing with pellagra in a county poor house. The doctor had been to see the mother for the last time and as he shook his head-told the faithful care taker it's no use hoping, she can't live She prayed that her two lovely little | ones be cared for by some Christian l man and woman who would give them | love and opportunity. Her minister l wrote us: we went. When the children had been bathed and dressed by the good women whereabouts, they told their mama, all convulsed between tears and smiles, good-by. In town. | somebody gave our seven-y -year-old boy | a sto-bought tie and his baby sister of 5 pink silk hair ribbon, her very first
 The probate judge-juvenile judge committed them to our care, to be placed in a beautiful home"
 Fourteen months have passed. A
 whole year ago today since they were transplanted into permanent home of 1 love and opportunity. We have watched and worked in the growing and adjust msnt period Today it is a perfect placement. And how natural thing it is-the mother prayed for it, the min | ister approved--the great-hearted | women prepared the blessed children; | the community acting as a court made 1 it legal, and God has smiled His bless ] ing on their new home where the new l father and mother have been led into a | more active Christian life by the sim- pie faith of their son and daughter
 
 'The advent of the Alabama Chill drens Aid Society into child welfare work in the appealing field of Alabama | was most auspicious,' MT. Barrow said, l flor the paramount need for a state wide organization, receiving and car l ing for the dependent and neglected children of our state; cooperating with the established institutions, and strengthening the arm of our county workers, had long been the gospel of the social ministers among us. The Alabama Sociological Congress was meeting in Birmingham in May, 1917 (the imperative need of a home and aid society was the highest consideration of it's children's division) all the organ nations and children's workers in the state united in launching the Alabama Children's Aid Society as an nterde- n nominational statewide, representa- tive association of the good people of Alabama interested in her child well fare and that is how we got our start" ITO interest the entire state is our main object, just at present." said Mir. Barrow, "and we are more than satis- fled with the success we are meeting with In this particular. In every in- stance where the Alabama Children's Aid Society has minstered to little child, we have assumed the charge as a sacred treasure placed within our keeping and that we had not only social accountability to the state, but divine responsibility. Our workers have proceeded. in each matter. in the spirit of ministering to the need of little child. and never are our children referred to as cases. These figures can only represent to you the mechanical material side of spiritual service we have tried to render.''