Charities for Children in San Francisco [pp. 78-101]

Charities for Children in San Francisco.
them from exacting economies. The
Protestant asylum especially has a beau tiful building, with large and well im proved grounds. The largest single
item in this asylum's income is the State
appropriation, and the interest on in vestments next; it requires very little
fromn dues, and is able to add all bequests
to the endowment fund. The Hebrew
asylum receives even more in interest
on investments, but not half as much
from the State, as the number of children is only about one hundred in the
one, and over two hundred in the other.
I am not able to give exact figures,
because I have not the latest reports.
We did not find it a simple matter to get
such reports; a request by mail rarely
brought one, and one sometimes found it
necessary to go half across the city and
ask in person for a report, or for information, at the address indicated by the directory as the proper one, only to learn
that some other officer, the other side of
thecity,was the one who"knows all about
it," or "has the reports." One naturally
turns to the secretary for such purposes,
but it often proves that many duties of
the secretary devolve upon the president
or some active member. Moreover, the
directory not infrequently gives the
names of last year's officers, or even
earlier ones, some of whom have gone
to their reward a year or two since; the
item has evidently been copied from
one year's directory to another, - not,
II should conjecture, by the neglect of
the directory canvassers, but because
they failed to get corrected data. Addresses are frequently wanting with the
names of the officers. even of the president and secretary; nor can these always be supplied by a reference to the
name list of the directory,- when, for
instance, the name is that of a woman
given with her own, not her husband's,
initials or Christian name. The difficulty of getting a complete file. of reports,
it may be seen, is considerable; and
though the alumna association secured
a nearly complete one last year, the ef fort has not been repeated to bring it to
date. There should, it would seem, be
such a file always on hand at the As sociated Charities; but there is not.
The small care required to send thither
a suitable number of copies each time a
new report is printed, would be a very
proper thing to expect from the secretary of every charity that issues one.
To return from this digression to the
asylums: the Protestant and Catholic
asylums carry schools and kindergartens
indoors for the children, thus making
their whole life that of the institution;
the Hebrew children attend the public
schools, but have extra teachers in the
evening. All three indenture a larger
or smaller number of their children to
learn trades or housework under very
carefully guarded conditions; a few are
adopted.
Besides these three leading asylums,
there is the Catholic "Infant Asylum,"
really a branch of the orphan asylum,
but for younger children; and the Episcopalians have within a few months
moved from San Mateo to San Francisco their "Maria Kip Orphanage." This
small orphanage, supported by the diocese through the regular collections indicated by Mr. Miel's letter in last
month's chapter, is in charge of one of
the sisters of Bishop Huntington's order of deaconesses, of whom I have al
ready spoken.
II.
Another class of institutions represent
a different method of dealing with the
problem of destitute childhood. These
are the several aid societies, under whatever name. The Ladies' Protection and
Relief Society is the pioneer of these,
dating almost as far back as the Protestant Orphan Asylum,- to I853. It played
a considerable part in the life of early
days in San Francisco, which it touched
at more points than the orphan asylum,
1890.]
79