Life in Our Soldiers' Orphans' Home.
No one but a member of a home like this can know enough of the every-day life to fully understand the spirit in which the children take their confinement; for confinement it is in the end. Owing to a peculiar training received here, the average child knows more about the history of our country than any other class of children in the United States. We have good times among ourselves, and originate many plays and jokes. We have a band of sixteen pieces, a debating club, and several minor clubs. On going to school each boy salutes "Old Glory" as he passes it. To show that the boys are poetical (?), for instance, when cold slaw is being passed at the table, the first boy says, "Slaw"; if the next boy doesn't want any, he says, "Naw."
At present all thoughts are centred on Christmas. Ask a boy the day before Christmas or Thanksgiving what he intends to do next day; he will say, "Eat turkey, of course." We are always glad to get a letter, and to be certain of having one in the mail we get our relatives to mark the envelope, so we can tell it before the mail is distributed.
One of the Board of Trustees, who lives in Canton, O., recently visited William McKinley, and told him he was coming to the home next day. Then the President-elect of the United States, with tears coming to his eyes, said, "Give my love to every child there. God bless them!" When the board member told the children this in our chapel, every patriotic son of America raised his handkerchief and shook it, after the manner of the Chautauqua salute, and in his heart said, "Long live our next President!" The boys and girls over fourteen years of age learn a trade, devoting one-half of each day to it. But in every case a half-day pupil has better lessons than a whole-day one. Many children leave here in June next, and have no place to go. If any persons could put these in the way of employment they will find them faithful and true in every sense of the word.
Joseph L. Gill, Cottage 18.
Xenia, O.