3. Girls from the streets and houses of infamy.
4. Maternity cases, many of whom are more sinned against than sinning.
5. What is called the “floating” class—patients discharged from hospitals before strong enough to work; the weak in body and mind; incompetent, idle girls, who, not vicious, would, however, if allowed, sink to the abandoned class.
The Sheltering Home was incorporated on the 29th of September, 1898, the incorporators being Mrs. Sarah Hibbard, Mrs. Enoch Frost, Mrs. John Murray Smith, Mrs. Ebenezer E. Shelton, Mrs. Matthew Hamilton Gault, Mrs. Robert Ward Shepherd, Mrs. George B. Burland, Mrs. James Day, Mrs. Joseph Savage, John Dillon, Herbert B. Ames, Seth P. Leet, Walter Drake, Samuel Finley, Hugh McLennan, Albert A. Ayer, Charles Alexander and George Hague.
GIRL DELINQUENTS
The work for girl delinquents was taken up by the Good Shepherd Nuns in 1870.
The Community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd in Montreal is an offshoot of the original body founded in Caen, Normandy, in 1641, by Jean Eudes, founder of the Eudistes Fathers. June 11, 1844, marks the arrival of the four first sisters in Montreal from Angers, Mesdames Marie Fisson, Eliza Chaffaux, Alice Ward and Andrews. Their first home was on Brock Street in the Quebec suburbs. On July 25th they took possession of a fine stone convent of four stories built on ground given by Madame D. B. Viger. Their work was: (1) receive women penitents, (2) Magdalens from the first class, who, however, may never join the order itself, and (3) the education of young girls. The work of the Magdalens began in 1864 and that of the preservation of the “penitents” began in 1847.
The work of the reformation of young Catholic girl delinquents was inaugurated on May 3, 1870, with twenty subjects. These now are sent by the court or placed by their parents under a useful training in industrial works. In 1893 the industrial school was transferred to Laval des Rapids, near Montreal. In addition to the above work these Sisters have the direction of the female jail on Fullum Street.
THE GIRLS’ COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL