Orphanage

“ Anonymous Orphanage, they might have collected as many thousands a year as they liked for their excellent charity, and no one would have worried them by asking how the orphans were looked after, nor would anyone have wanted to know how much was spent on the orphanage and how much on the founder and his family, and their houses and carriages and furniture and upkeep. The poor orphan has many uses in the world. One of them is to enable the swindler to found orphanages and make his living thereby. ”

“ One of the most prominent men acts as guardian of this populous city, and its name is the Orphanage. And it is called the Orphanage because of the Emperor's kindness to orphans and to men retired from service . ”

“ He who ‘setteth the solitary in families’ never yet failed in loving guardianship of trusting orphanage, and certainly you have no cause to upbraid fate, or impiously murmur against the decrees of your God. ”

“ I wanted to get through with the whole trip and hurry back to your nursery to see if you were all right. But I stopped long enough at the orphanage to ask about the poor baby. She'd been found in a filthy cellar where she'd been abandoned—that's all they knew. ”

“ In rooms where the master formerly taught young proficients how adroitly to pick pockets, and precocious lusts rioted in the most loathsome orgies, orphanage now practices the lessons of honorable industry, and rescued penitents bow in virtuous prayer. By hundreds the heirs of misfortune and involuntary victims of vice are gathered from the purlieus of our great eastern cities, in the bosom of judicious piety, and are instinctively borne to the far West as the asylum which affords a home for the protection and healthful exercise of each faculty and limb, be it young or old, feeble or strong. ”

“ It was sometimes a delicate problem to decide which of many pressing duties had the prior claim. Whether to try and feed the hungry (the kitchen range having sprung a leak) , to start to repair two hundred odd garments (the weekly mend) , or to resuscitate one of the babies (just rescued from the reservoir) . At such times I would wonder if I were somewhere near attaining to that state of experience when I should be able to appreciate your alluring phrase, "the fun of mothering an orphanage." ”

“ The Lord has graciously laid the claims of the Female Orphanage upon the hearts of our ladies. It is now under the special charge of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as a part of their work for women in India.
It is a beautiful sight to see the orphan girls on the Sabbath of God, in His house, so neat, and attentive, and devotional, and to hear them sing the praises of Him to whose mercy they owe so much, and then all bow down to worship in the true Biblical and
Oriental fashion. ”

“ An orphanage, an unsectarian institution, was founded in 1867 at Stockwell for the maintenance and education of destitute orphan boys and girls (it is now supported by voluntary contributions to the amount of 10,000l.) ”

“ Who enables common humanity to relieve itself by simply paying “wages,” and confiding the wretched to a painstaking, laborious, loving guardian? The streets would never have known Hospital Saturday, but for Hospital Sunday in the churches. The orphanage is wholly a Christian institution. And so is the lady nurse. The old-fashioned phrase has almost sunk into a party cry, but in a large and noble sense it will continue to be [34] true to nature as long as bereavement, pain or penitence requires a tender bosom and soothing touch, which speaks of Mother Church. ”

“ I always supposed that an orphanage was a place where they tried to make an orphan feel that it wasn’t such a great loss not to have a regular home, among your people as long as you could be lovingly cared for in big bunches by charitable people, who would act like a High School to you, and when you got a diploma from an orphans’ home you could go out into the world and hold up your head like a college graduate, but I can see from my experience at this alleged home that when we boys get out the police will 29have a tab on us, and we will be pinched like tramps. ”

“ In the nursery, the infant children have books and playthings to occupy and amuse them, and are the objects of tender maternal care. Several children are often admitted to the orphanage from one family, in order to avoid needless breaking of household ties by separation. The average term of residence is about ten years, though some orphans have been there for seventeen. ”

“ I have sometimes thought that an orphan asylum ought to be erected for the benefit of the worse than [Pg 10] orphaned children of some notoriously corrupt, even when not multi-divorced, heads of society. Such a protectory for the unorphaned, though not fatherless and motherless, might serve a more useful purpose than do such orphanages as, having captured a child, yield it up reluctantly even to the care of a normal home. ”

“ The other class of children dealt with in a permanent way are those who are picked up from the street, or who otherwise fall into the hands of the Army, often after being deserted by their parents. While Orphanages, as already stated, are not an important item in the Army's work, there are several in England and four in the United States. For the situation of an Orphanage, a country location is sought. For instance, one near New York City is located on a beautiful piece of property at Spring Valley. ”

“ Orphanages and training schools for orphan, deserted, or unprotected children; 22 establishments with 3,000 children.— (3) Institutions for the reform of fallen women or of those exposed to moral dangers; one at Muelhausen and two at Strasburg.— (4) The sheltering of unprotected or orphan children, one society at Colmar, three at Strasburg.— (5) The providing of holiday colonies for delicate children, and the fitting out of poor children on special occasions, such as First Communion; 17 societies.— (6) Homes for the care of the sick and infirm ”

“ Some have come out of orphanages well equipped for the highest work by character and attainments. As teachers, catechists, and native preachers, these occupy honourable and useful positions, and have been a great blessing to the Church and the world. In the course of our residence in India we have seen many of the missions in the North-West, but our acquaintance with them is too slight to enable us to mention the number given by orphanages to the higher class of native agents. We have known several who are worthy of all respect, confidence, and affection. ”

“ Thousands perished because they could not or would not realise that relief was within reach. Parents gave their last morsels to their children, and then lay down to die. Orphanages overflowed, and new ones had to be erected. ”

“ In this general dependent condition of a large part of these people, there is the ever-present and acute distress of poor or abandoned children, for which there have been established many Orphanages and schools. All managers of these Orphanages are appealed to by indolent or destitute parents to give free schooling, including board and clothing, to their children. The truly orphaned, or the abandoned, children are always touching our sympathies, and appealing irresistibly to us for aid. ”

“ But while the initial and most palpable suffering and destitution may be said to have been provisionally checked, and while preliminary steps are being discussed with a view to establishing orphanages and asylums for the fatherless and factories in which to give the widows employment, we feel that the real pinch is yet to come. ”

“ I have been again much in prayer yesterday and today about the Orphan-House, and am more and more convinced that it is of God. May He in mercy guide me! The three chief reasons for establishing an Orphan-House are:—1. That God may be glorified, should He be pleased to furnish me with the means, in its being seen that it is not a vain thing to trust in Him; and that thus the faith of His children may be strengthened. 2. The spiritual welfare of fatherless and motherless children. ”

“ The provision made in this city for male and female orphans is not only a subject of admiration and praise to the good of every class, but I have no doubt the departed spirits of their ancestors and parents look down with satisfaction and joy upon the benevolent founders of those asylums, that are now the living monuments of Christ's spirit on earth; and can we doubt that He who is the orphan's Father, delights in these institutions and in the kind and fostering care now extended unto them? ”

“ Little if any less is the debt due to her from that invaluable charity, the Orphan Asylum. It speaks its own praise, and that praise is hers. Scores of orphans redeemed from filth, from ignorance, from wretchedness, from crime — clothed, fed, instructed — trained in cleanliness to habits of industry — early imbued with the knowledge and fear of God — gradually preparing for respectability, usefulness, and happiness, is a spectacle for angels. ”

“ We doubt not your benevolence, we know that the orphan can never plead to you in vain, we believe that your hearts will ever be enlarged in proportion to the urgency of the claims of the Institution. Its necessities must of course increase with our rapidly increasing population, and be assured it can well and judiciously [26] employ all the bounty you will bestow upon it. Should it be possible for any one here present to feel cold and indifferent to the claims of this Institution, I would say, realize the pitiable condition of an orphan infant. ”

“ Then, long after you are dead, the money you have saved and left for the poor weesies (orphans) will build a house for them. It will furnish food and beds and pay for nurses that will care for them, and good women who will be like mothers. Other folks, seeing what you have done, will build orphan houses. Then we shall have a Wees House (orphan asylum) in every town. No child, without a father or mother, in all Holland, will have to cry for milk or bread. Don't let your penny mould.'
"The third brother, named Spill-penny, woke up on the same morning, with a headache. ”

“ It is, as its name signifies, an institution with a benevolent purpose, an orphan asylum and foundling hospital in one. The State here charitably considers that infants who are abandoned by their parents are as much orphaned as they can become by the interposition of death,—nay, more. The death of parents oftenest leaves a child with some friend or relative; but the foundling is cut off from all human relationship,—he belongs only to the hand that takes him up, where he has been left to die. ”

“ There are more applications made for the admission of orphans, especially of late, than we are at all able to meet, though we fill the houses as much as the health of the children and of the laborers will possibly admit. 2. If I did take another house for orphans, it would be most desirable it should be in the same street where the other three are, as thus the labor is less, and in times of great need we are near together for prayer, the distribution of the money, etc. ”

“ The Orphan-house is a brick building, three stories high, erected by voluntary contributions, and in it, one hundred and thirty-six children of both sexes are supported. I was surprized at the exceeding cleanliness pervading the whole establishment. The children sleep upon the floor, and the girls and sick only are allowed mattresses; the boys have a woollen coverlet, in which they wrap themselves. I was informed that this was done from fear of vermin. A very nourishing diet, and a truly maternal care, preserve the children healthy. ”

“ It is difficult to think what life would have been, or even how it could have been, if children had been pushed upon the earth from some mysterious void and had been nurtured without the providential agency of fathers and mothers. So much do we realize the importance of the home that where it is impossible to maintain one, owing to the death, or inability, or worthlessness of parents, we still make provision for an institution that shall provide as many domestic features as can be won for the orphaned. This we call an Orphans’ Home. ”

“ The asylum under their charge and guidance, situated near the Catholic Cemetery, on the outskirts of the city, is the most complete institution of its kind in the State. A large number of orphans are educated, clothed and fed here the year in and out, finding compensation only in the good they have done and the anticipation of a bright reward hereafter, from Him ‘Who tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb,’ and under whose ‘All-seeing Eye’ every act of charity and faith is always recorded. Their labors in behalf of the sick are ever attended with the most cheering results. ”

“ Raise not a building that has not a strong foundation; if thou dost, beware.
Discourse concerning Kindness to Orphans
Protect him whose father is dead; remove the dust from his raiment, and injure him not. Thou knowest not how hard is his condition; no foliage is there on a rootless tree. Give not a kiss to a child of thine own in the sight of a helpless orphan. If the latter weep, who will assuage his grief? If he be angered, who will bear his burden? See that he weeps not, for the throne of God trembles at the orphan’s lament. ”

“ Your charity, blessed by the grace of God, has dried up many a fountain of tears and saved a great number of souls. In the many homes which we have established through your charity, thousands of orphans have found a shelter. Drawn forth from their uncared-for state, rescued from the danger of losing their faith and their virtue, they have, by means of a good education, by application to study, or by apprenticeship to a trade, become good Christians and useful members of society. ”