The Drake Difficulty [pp. 357-361]

1869.1 LITERA TURL SCIENCE AND ART 3,37
warrant a further extension of its charity. The number of illegitimate
children denied admission, in accordance with the rules of the institu tion, enlisted the sympathies of the foundress of the Nursery; but, not
being seconded by the other managers, she was unable to do any thing
for them. The city authorities, however, recognizing the necessity for
a foundling-hospital, appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars, and
gave the ground adjoining the Nursery for the requisite buildings.
But the structure was hardly completed when the war broke out, and
it was taken for a soldiers' home. At the close of the war, it was
restored to its original purpose. During these years, diligent inquiry
showed that the field of usefulness of the institution would be greatly
extended by opening a lying-in asylum. This was accordingly done
in the upper wards of the Foundling Hospital. The Nursery and
Child's Hospital, therefore, embraces four distinct charities: the Nur sery, the Hospital, the Foundlings' Home, and the Lying-in Asy lum.
The number cared for, from March 1, 1868, to March 1, 1869, was:
children, six hundred and seventy-four; adults, three hundred and
forty-eight. The number at present in the institution is: children,
two hundred and thirty-six; adults, one hundred and ten.
SAINT VINCENT'S HOSPITAL, No. 195 West Eleventh Street.-This
hospital is under the direction of the Sisters of Charity, and was in corporated in 1849. The care of the sick, abandoned poor is the
primary object of the institution. In 1856, the Sisters rented the
building where they now are, which was formerly a half-orphan
asylum. After altering and repairing the building, and adding a large
wing, it was opened for patients in 1857. There are many who sup pose that St. Vincent's is a self-sustaining institution-that its income
more than exceeds its expenditures. This is by no means the case;
St. Vincent's is at present in debt. Dr. Hughes, the resident physi cian and surgeon, in his report for last year, says: "At no epoch in
the history of St. Vincent's have their necessities had a greater claim
on public and private charity than at present. Besides the daily ex penses, which time multiplies into momentous figures, the Sisters have
purchased the ground on which the main building stands, also an ad joining lot on Twelfth Street. To meet the exigency, the means are
limited; but, with trust in the providence of God and the charity of
His people, the Sisters confidently look to the future for the discharge
of all their obligations."
Although a Roman Catholic institution, its doors are open to the
afflicted of every denomination, and patients are allowed to call in
any minister they choose.
The hospital contains one hundred and fifty beds, is admirably
regulated, thoroughly ventilated, and the very perfection of neatness.
It is, besides, provided with a number of elegant private rooms.
The Sisters receive no remuneration, nor do the hospital funds
contribute more than their daily sustenance.
The average number of patients treated yearly at St. Vincent's is
eight hundred and fifty-three, about one quarter of whom, last year,
were charity patients.
THIE ASYLUM FOR LYING-IN WOMEN, No0. 85 Jfarion Street.-This
institution is nearly half a century old. Its principal object is to furnish comfortable accommodations and skilful attendance to exemplary
women during confinement. Seventy-five children were born in the
asylum last year.
ASYLU. UMI FOR AGED INDIGENT FEMALES,.NO. 226 East Twentieth~
Street.-This institution dates its existence from the year 1813. Its
object is to provide a home for aged women "who have seen better
days," whose former social position and general cultivation and respectability naturally deter them from seeking an asylum in the common poor-house. In 1816, the association received from the Common
Council the sum of three hundred dollars, and, the year following,
two hundred and fifty dollars, which is, we believe, all the aid it has
ever received from the public treasury.
In 1833, the project of erecting a building suitable for an asylum
was proposed; but for good reasons the structure was not begun till
1837. The ground was given by Peter G. Stuyvesant, and John
Jacob Astor contributed five thousand dollars. In the fall of 1838,
the building was completed, and opened for the reception of inmates.
In 1 846, an infirmary was built on an adjoining lot, toward which Mr.
Astor gave three thousand dollars.
The asylum will accommodate about ninety persons. At present
it contains eighty beneficiaries.
No one is admitted who is under sixty years of age, and all who
are received are required to pay fifty dollars, and to come provided
with a good bedstead, bed, bedding, and furniture for a room.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
THE DRAKE DIFFICULTY.
W HEN a person has sufficient conscience to be hindered in devo tion to art by duties, we may look for a perfecting of character,
but probably not for that of geniuis. Power must not be irritated by
avoidable outside attacks-it has enough to do to control what it finds
within; nor must its sovereignty be questioned. I am led to these
conclusions as I recall the experience of Mr. Drake, our organist, whose
musical root came to such glorious flowering in his daughter. If anyv
of our church people are alive to this day, they may be surprised that
I should claim a very high place for "poor Mr. Drake," and I shall not
attempt to prove his right to such place, here or elsewhere. It is per fectly clear to my own mind that only his conscience stood in the way,
hindering his occupying the highest place and fame. And my nephew
agrees with me.
Perhaps you know lmy nephew, Julius Stanley? then you will be
disposed to place a higher value on my judgment, aS it is well under stood that, when he claims musical geniuts as the possession of any man
or woman, the opposite opinion, held by rival critics, is entitled to very
little respect or value. Rarely does he make use of that dangerous
word, genius.
Mr. Drake had not a jubilant temperament, nor even a steadily
hopeful one-exceeding little buoyancy. He dwelt among the minors.
The music required of him, when the church was in her sorrowful pen itential moods, came from his fingers with a heart-breaking pathos; lie
brought pomp and pride to their kniees, at least for a moment, by a chlord.
Still, he was splendidly equal to Christmas, and to Easter also, though
his art on those occasions becamue more perceptible, partaking of the
character of those other ornaments, sometimes brought in to heighten
ecclesiastical effects, the blazonry of tablets, frescoes, embroidery of
altar-cloths, etc.
When it was rumored that he would marry Miss Liscombe, who oc casionally came to our church to hear the music-she had been his pu pil-nobody believed it. Fortunate it would have proved for all con cerned, had the marriage been as imipossible as it was supposed to be.
It was altogether an infatuation, as what ordinarily passes under the
name of love, no doubt is, in the main. But the infatuation lasted too
long, and carried the victims too far. Miss Liscombe walked into our
church one Sunday morning with the organist, who, having opened a
pew door for her, returned to the organ-loft. It was of course felt
throughout the congregation that this act was an amnnouncement of inten tions, or of fact. Either they were married or they were going to be.
They were already married. They had been married that morning in
the vestry-room by our minister, with the sexton for witness. I don't
know whether Miss Liscombe had been as easily won as one of Spielhagen's heroines, but I think it more than likely, for Mr. Drake had all
his life been absorbed by his musical studies and his work, and, unsuggested, the idea of asking this young lady to share his humble tortunes,
could hardly in the nature of things have occurred to him.
For six months the organist had lived in the little house next mine,
and the willow-tree in the corner of my yard overshadowed his cottage.
Persons who had occasion to consult the music-master as likely as not
rang my door-bell, and stood in my entry inquiring, the cottages were
so much alike in their exterior. My uncle, who built them, had taken
care to make the places delightfully attractive by planting floweringshrubs and vines, and erecting trellises for the same, and what he particularly required of his tenants was, that grass and shrubbery should
be kept in the most flourishing condition. The houses stood at the
end of the street, and had only been completed within the year-and
Mr. Drake and I were the first occupants. But the yards and gardens
were not new. An old mansion had occupied the building-site, and
this had been removed by my uncle, who, I have not a doubt, were he
living at this day, would heartily indorse the tearing down of the New
York Hospital, St. Paul's Church, Yale College, and every other old
building in this young land. No champion he for a thing that was
merely venerable. He illustrated in his own career the veracity of his
principles, dying at fifty, before he had a gray hair, or a too-perceptible wrinkle. Geology always found a steady opponent in him-he
1869.]
LIrTERA TURE, SCIEYC-E, AZVD AlRT.
357