Show akl afe cc an e r a r ata ep N a niche above a door way aay in a great house in new lork ork city a marble statue 0 of a litt woman holds a little child close to her breast beneath her through a swinging door that has not been locked in 40 years women pass in to the foundling ho hospital pital with their babies in their arms and come out with their am arn a empty A single white cradle in the entry of a bare reception room receives and rescues nearly 2 2000 babies a year two thousand men and women are the number of a village community here in the home of deserted children are the things which are eternal the tears the laughter and nd the joys it Is the little children we must save one of the matrons said we keep them from privation from cru eity elty even from death the little ba bies bles nobody wants we are just trying to give them their cnance we hope to preserve the mothers from greater sin on from the life of tl e streets from the doors of prison but it is the babies that count we must save our babies tl TI e law of this country will not permit the giving or selling of little children but it cannot protect them from desertion the foundling hos petals in our big cities are the state s efforts to play the pirt part of universal motherhood to care for the children who are thrown on her mercy and who will help make her future the room here where the mothers relinquish their babies is called the saddest place in new york there Is nothing in the receiving room but the little cradle and no one in sight sights A matron Is always in waiting near by she never forces a mother to confession but if possible persuades her to tell why she wishes to dedert her child and perhaps influences her not to give it up but to begin life over again A mother must under stand that the cloice choice is with her the matron may give the mother 10 or 15 minutes in which to decide but the tie choice Is final if the mother wishes it and it can be arranged she is often taken into the hospital with her baby and allowed to nurse it by having charge of another of the til th y children and helping with one older child there are now mother nurses g in the new york home and there have been as almany many as five or six hundred at other times the mother who cones corres con es into the hospital to work can often prove her fitness to have her baby back again but once she pits it U down in the he rescue and goes out the ever open door the baby belongs to her no longer she may never see or hear of it again the child belongs to the state no prayer nor entreaty no pleading of circumstance will afterward avail the child has entered a world that shall i ever know its origin somewhere a future waits for it but the baby Is to have no knowledge of its beginning outside its adoption in the foundling home A bath and clean clothes are the first signs of the baby a adoption in the foundling home A do t r next inspects the little person peron to see that it shall not carry a contagion to any of the thou sands of small brothers and sisters who are wait tig kg tor for it outside the walls of the reception ward T vo or three weeks beeks the baby may be detained in the reception quarters the smaller the baby the less danger of contagious diseases or as ganv flays days then it becomes either an indoor or an outdoor baby there thre are indoor babies being cared tor for inside the new york city foundling home it is necessary to board on the outside 1200 more seven thousand four hundred and twenty four little foundlings have baen looked after in th the past two vears ears and there ate relatively as many in boston in chicago in ph ladelphia in ei aery ery large city in america in h it oi e there are in an even greater i aber of to fo endling babies the european states take charge of the deserted waifs but the mother is only I 1 to bring her child to an entrance way ring a bell and nd give it into the arms of the ut Lt who opens the door and go away without a word ir the homes of love oe of wealth and happiness alere tt ere are no sounder sweeter babies than the deserted children cl ildren of the foundling homes home the babies are so tar far untroubled by their situation in life lite and haie have not the institution look of older ch eh idren what is the institution look it trans tates itself the expression of a cramped bality of a longing for a more personal espres blon the look of too much routine of drilling of the law without the spirit but the babies know of no difference between themselves and other chil children dien and many times afore they wake to the thought a home has been found for then nearly babies a year from ilc ile new york foundling home are adopted by private famil es in all parts of the country they prove in their lives that it does not matter in this world bow how we are born it is just the way may we re nobou but a baby lover would adopt one of our babies older children may be bb taken by daml lies and made into drudges b it who 0 wo o lid ild adopt a tiny child except for love one of the sisters ut at the hospital said there Is a wonderfully wide aide choice in babies for they are taken into the home without regard to nationality to creed or color so there are pink and white blond babies brown haired blackeyes black blac keyed eyed babies girls with curls and boys with round close cropped heads the children wear no I 1 ind of uniform the little girls have as big bows bous of red and blue and pink ribbon on their hair as the most fashionable little person who lives round the corner on fifth avenue the clothes of several thousand children are an important consideration think of what a dinglo baby s trousseau means at home fortu cauly ly home babies outgrow their clothes and pas tl ti em ent on to other babies ther thera are all sizes be fitte I 1 at the foundling home if ir the last 5 11 A 9 I 1 X T 4 T f 0 A 70 rovy WWW A SOW OR R WY NAY az two ears new arks borks outdoor babies have received little garments and inside the poor mothers and bab es have been equally well ed how many buttons do aou ou suppose need to be sewed ona here is a charity no one can dis sevvin seang g for the babies S and nurses can only look after their health and happiness de deserted arted babies can count on friends it if other things in life have tailed failed them hundreds of rich society women in new lork who have seam stresses to sew for their own children work for the foundling babies sewing classes meet in eriv private ate I 1 their sole purpose dei devoted doted to the wants of the hospital hospitals s children twelve hundred little garments were the gift of a single class th babies have everyday clothes and dress up clothes when visitors come like the rest of the world the churche al 0 have sewing circles devoted to tho the trousseaus of the deserted babies money for materials for the r clothes comes from women who find this the simplest way of helping with such extensive wardrobes occasionally a shop m till ill sei set d something to help clothe a baby new york gives a quarter of a million dollars a year to look after her foundling bab es and forty thou thousand and more Is contributed the found ling ho hospital pital extends from one end of a long block to the tle other and besides its nursery buildings his has a q iara larantine ntine hospital and a hospital for oper allons and for the treatment or ordinary diseases the foundling hospital must not only care for the waifs deserted at its doors but also tor for the bab es sent sprit by the department of charities the society tor for prevention of cruelty to children and the courts there are three groups of babies from the few beeks of oil I 1 to aboe three or four bears ears and they lave have their rate quarters the runabouts irp ohp child en from IS IR months to two years old and the gro up babies as old as three or four tour ire the 1 inder girten children the recep tion room is the schoolroom a long room full of liny tiny desks and bibles the walls lined with pic s an aal forneri corner diled with sab niini fobs in it I 1 the middle of ane room is a in a goia cair who talks ind sings ings like the children the found ng bab es who are brought up in side the institution know nothing of the penis perils and joys of the street in connection with each of the nurseries there is a roof garden where the children take their air ind and exercise the found ling baby nas a bringing up that may give it a bettel chance for health than the home baby reared in affectionate ignorance doat rs burbes and matrons tudy its life from hour to hour the most vital principle in modern trio gut is the euort that is being made in every direction to start the child on the right way with all its wealth of bab es to care for the flip foundling ho pital does more for the baby s health than the average mother As each child Is received at the hospital its weight is regis hered together with the nite and number ot of the I 1 aby on a weight chart the weekly weighing of all babies is an established feature of the hos pital care physic ans regard the weighing of babilas babie as of i inmost import importance ane in t e proper care are of a baby s health the s ch ck baby is judged by its loss of weight the well baby by its increase e sick babies are weighed oftener sometimes ome orne times ev ery second day notes of the baby s illness are I 1 ept on the back of its eight card the infants science academy which Is now li IJ busted ii in new york city as a possible way to save tl V e babies from the ignorance of mothers wishes to establish tle tl e same tife method for tl e care of all little children that is applied ir the foundling home each eab mother is to be taught to keep a chart of her baby s condition not in any special class of society rich and poor alike ai d this chart is to be submitted weekly to a baby s academy to be inspected by boards of baby specialists foundling babies are always in charge of cia lists important books on children a diseases have come from the study of the unwelcome ba bies bles not only do the stu students cents and physicians on tl tie e of the hospital work with the children b it nearly all the city a prominent doctors have served the I 1 as consulting or attending physicians in special cases physicians come from the outside to study the mysterious causes the mysterious expressions of baby diseases which are borne in silence or expressed only in inar tic sounds the outdoor baby is the surplus baby not always because the foundling home has no room for it but because the baby often needs what the hospital cannot give little babies live on love I 1 don t mean this as a sentiment I 1 mean it as a fact a tiny baby lives on the love that cuddles it that warms and feeds it to take it into the hospital without a mother means it may die if an outside nurse is found to cire care for it the baby often grows healthy strong and happy in her charge women who have lost their own babies or respectable women who desire to earn earn a small living by buring are the foster mothers of the b alisan wa V r aw AW 11 W kaj IV S toi tot adling babies who are brought UP outside the hospital they must be able to show a clear record 0 of health and character and obey the rules ot of the hospital tor for the care of the child once a bolth the outside nurse comes to the espital hs b spital pital with the child in her charge to be examined by a physician but in case of sudden illness she must make ap immediate report one hundred and forty thousand dollars a year goes toward paying tor for these outside nurses at a rate ot of 10 apiece nearly one halt half of the found ling babies income when the child Is three or four it must be returned to to the hospital one ot of the rules ot of the institution is that no child may be adopted by the woman who acted as its nurse italian wamen make the most successful saul moth era ers for the delicate babies one of the head bead ma arons explained there Is something in n their warm hearted temperaments in their natural sense of motherhood that helps the frail baby to thrive colored children are taken care of by colored women until they deac reach li the required age when the girls go to a home in baltimore and the boys to nebraska where they are educated to trades biety six babies babie boarded a car for new orleans a lev few weeks ago and started gaily off on a voyage of discovery they were on their way to find their mammas and papas the babies are taught through the years when they are kept in the found ling home that somewhere waiting for them in the world outside are mothers and fathers and some day they are to go to find them many years ago on a cold winter night a phy asician sent to the new york foundling for the burgest our gest baby who was healthy and promising he ile only wanted to borrow the baby for a few weeks A patient had given birth to a child and toe baby had died the mother was desperately ill and the news of the death of her baby would possibly cause tier death A fu baby boy two weeks old bad had that day been leap let at the file foundling home the baby was wrapped in blankets and taken away to one of the wealthiest homes in new I 1 ork for a month or more the sick mother nursed this baby think ing him her own when she was well enough the truth was told her but the borrowed baby was never returned in tie he weeks of her guttering suffering the tot ch of its little lips and the clasp of its hands had made it in truth her baby this year the boy graduated with honor from an eastern college as the oldest son of a aromi nent man a large sum of money tor for the foundling babies came as a gift from troman hn unknown friend two agents whose work it is to find mother mothers and fathers tor for the waiting babies are a part of the regular staff of tl e foundling round lIng home they work through other agents all over the country through churches and missions ani children a aid societies the appeal Is universal do you want a baby here is a lost baby looking for a mother and father you yon may have any kind you desire descriptions de and requirements may be written to the staff at the hospital and yo i may have juat just the baby you are looking for I 1 ou on may require the color of hair eyes or even specify the disposition usually the asylum has more than it can fill girls are asked for in about twice the ratio of boys blue eyed girls are the greatest in demand and a sweet disposition Is almost alwaes one of the specifications one woman wrote to the asylum from a town ditl in easy travel of new york we are plain deorle che he began the height of our ambition has been to have a house of our own now we I 1 ave it all furnished as we have wished yet we are not content our home Is so perfectly orderly that we I 1 ave decided that we need someone to male mal e it sweetly disorderly four or five times a year 40 or 50 babies start off in a little band in quest of homes the babies arp sent to any part of the country nure and attendants travel with mith the babies who are distributed to agents who wait to place I 1 them in homes ang a ng the way put the child is not to lose loce its connection with the foundling home antil the children are grown they are still looked after and their care aad and future g larded by tbt s p dision of the agents who make yearly visit visits to tl air homes and the matrons who keep in con slant stant communication with them through letters many times the adopted baby comes to mean to a family all that their own baby could have meant thousands of letters come back to the matron from tl e foster mothers and fathers of the babies after god dear sister an adopted mother w writes rites it is to you I 1 owe my darling child so sa I 1 will ask him to bless you forever dear sister I 1 feel it my duty to let you heal beat from us in regard to our little boy and girl my aly husband and I 1 often wonder can it it be I 1 possible that they are not our own children |