As a charitable investment, these homes would prove a wise economy, as they would permit the truly unfortunate to be properly cared for, which is impossible at present. They would throw a safeguard around the morals of homeless young women by giving them shelter with persons of their own sex, who could protect, sympathize with, and advise them. They would assist in detecting those who live by swindling their hardworking neighbors. Lastly and most important, they would separate the children of poverty from the abodes of crime.
[Note.—The foregoing article is the substance of a lecture delivered by Dr. Raborg before the Catholic Institute connected with the parish of S. Paul the Apostle in this city. Its suggestions [pg 212]are so apropos to the present season that we have deemed them worthy of reproduction in this permanent form. We desire also to state that the lecture had the effect of inducing several philanthropic ladies and gentlemen to visit the station-houses and make a personal examination themselves, the result of which was a rather extended article in Frank Leslie's Newspaper of March 2, 1872, embracing some passages from the lecture, and accompanied by a clever illustration.
The sectarian institutions for vagrant children having been alluded to, and certain former allusions to the same in this magazine having been misunderstood, we think it necessary to make a remark here in explanation. We must admit and praise the philanthropic motive which sustains these institutions. At the same time, we regard them as really nuisances of the worst kind, so far as Catholic children are concerned, on account of their proselytizing character. Moreover, in their actual working they violate the rights both of parents and children, and we have evidence that these poor children are actually sold at the West, both by private sale and by auction. The horrible abuses existing in some state institutions are partly known to the public, and we have the means of disclosing even worse things than those which have recently been exposed in the daily papers. We trust, therefore, that the eloquent appeal of the author of the article will produce its effect upon all our Catholic readers, and stimulate them to greater efforts in behalf of these poor children.—Ed. C. W.]
The House That Jack Built.
By The Author Of “The House Of Yorke.”
In Two Parts.
Part I.
It stood in one of the wildest spots in New England, surrounded by woods, a “frame house” in a region of log-houses, and, as such, in spite of defects, a touch beyond the most complete edifice that could be shaped of logs.
The defects were not few. The walls were slightly out of the perpendicular, there were strips of board instead of clapboards and shingles, the immense stone chimney in the centre gave the house the appearance of being an afterthought, and the two windows that looked down toward the road squinted.