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

Cli:rities for Chlzildren in Stan Francisco.
siasm and liberality. Afterward, with
some help from the legislature, a Home
was purchased - not the present one,
which was built in'62-'63, on a lot pre sented by Horace Hawes.
As the times changed and other insti tutions arose, the work of protection
to women was gradually dropped, and
not more than four or five annually are
taken into the Home for temporary shel ter. The number of children there varies
little from two hundred at any one time.
The Home does not purpose to keep
them any longer than is necessary to
find private homes for them, or restore
them to their own families after some
temporary emergency has passed by.
The orphan asylums, on the contrary,
undertake to provide for orphans, "a
home, sustenance, and education, dur ing the period of their dependence."
The length of time children usually stay
in the Home can be figured from the fact
that the total number sheltered in the
year is from seventy-five to one hundred
per cent greater than the number pres ent at any given time,- if I may judge
from the reports of three consecutive
years. While there they are taught in
a school of four classes, including a kin dergarten.
The Protection and Relief society is
not a wealthy one. Its income from in vestments is not large, nor its list of sub scriptions and memberships long. It
shares in the State distribution, but as
this is only for orphans, half orphans, and
"abandoned children," the Home has
a good many there, for longer or shorter
periods, for whom no State money is re ceived. Children are not legally classed
as "abandoned " till they have been for
a year wholly dependent, and not far
from half of the children in the Home
are in this first year of abandonment.
The society works, therefore, under a
good deal of financial difficulty. It re ceives, however, as do.the regular orphan
asylums, and all such homes, a good deal
from parents who cannot pay the entire
VOL. XV. 6.
cost of their children's board, but can
pay something toward it. Mr. Flood's
Christmas $ IOOo has made an appreciable
addition to its income. It was able,
during last year, to repair and refurnish
its building pretty thoroughly; but it
has no great outlay in buildings, and no
grounds to speak of.
The Ladies' Protection and Relief
Society provides for classes of children
that the orphan asylums cannot take.
But it does not take babies under two
years old, nor boys over ten. For the
older boys, there is plenty of provision
in the Youths' Directory and the Boys'
and Girls' Aid Society. The Youths'
Directory, which I have already mentioned as one of the several lay Catholic
charities, is intended especially to provide a temporary home and employment
for all those homeless and neglected
boys that do not properly come under
the care of the orphan asylums, nor receive the State appropriation. It is
modeled on a large charity of the sort
in New York, and that again on a European one; there are sixty-two houses in
all of the order, in different cities.
Here the street Arab or the lad out
of work can find a temporary home,
and assistance in finding a permanent
one. Here children not orphans, but removed by law from the hands of abusive
or depraved parents, may be placed.
Here destitute children may be gathered
in, until it can be ascertained whether
they are orphans or not. In I887 one
hundred and twelve children, from four
to fourteen years old, were helped; most
of these came from bad parents, a number from parents crippled by misfortune,
others were picked up in the streets,
and still others came from the city prison. About fifty were turned over to the
orphan asylums, and those who seem to
have been taken as a temporary help to
destitute parents returned to their own
homes; for most of the rest, homes were
found in Catholic families. The institution is under the care of Father Crow
1890.]
81