The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 18, 1900, Page 10

10 THE SUNDAY CALL. managers of the San Franelsco Nursery for Homeless Children are confronted by the demands of seventy-five, and ten to one they are doing it with less clucking then most of the mothers in town? Have you ever been out there or have you visited any other similar institution? If you haven't, you cannot imagine the responsibility; cannot conceive of the thousand and one calls that are made upon the matron; cannot realize what it means to be the head and front of such & home. The home is run like a machine from front door to back, and thers are many rules. The forms of discipline would do credit to West Point, but there is a spirit of good temper infused into them. The rooms are large, airy and sunny, WA &/ TLe kitchen 1s the most attractive room In the entire house. A great stove Is there, and immense pots and kettles all trying to see which one can cutshine the others, an . enough provisions to feed a regiment. Off the kitchen is a small room fitted up with & sink and bath. Here the oldest girls wash and wipe the dishes—granite ones, by the way. They set the table, too. These girls, although the biggest of the lot are so small that they have to stand on & box in order to reach the dishpan, and even then their little rubber aprons are liberally bespattered in their effort to stretch. But be it sald to their credit, the floor s absolutely dry. “Want to come and see me set the table?” asked a small mald, as she took &ll the dishes she could carry and started \ N \\\fg | for the dining-room. ®ne tottered under them and a visitor jumped to check what she thought was to be an avalanche of saucers, but with a dextrous lift of her apron she caught them and gave the visi- tor a scornful glance. 5 “Want to come?” she repeated. Of course, everybody did. “You see there are about seventy down heré, and so it takes a long, long time ‘o set all the tables,” she explained. In the dining-room were five long tables covered with white oilcloth. It didn’t take so long a time as she had ' warned, for she put only a plate, cup, knife, fork and spoon at each place. Bables don’t care for bread and butter plates, three sets of knives and forks and half a dozen glasses. They can be Jjust as happy for that matter if they don't have any at all. “Help me pull this bench up, please?” mv little friend sald briskly. Benches are better, you see, than chairs, as they.don't take up nearly so much room, and with a nurse at each end to keep the row from falling down like so many nine-pins, they answer the purpose beautifully. Upstairs the first room entered is the sick ward. It has four beds and any num- ber of playthings, but nary a chick nor child. That is why Dr. Manning puffs out his chest when you look in upon his do- malin. He is proud to bursting over Its emptiness. ‘“We don’t give them any ex- cuse for staying in this room,” he boasts, One reason for this, he will teli the strict enforcement of the rule: “All eatables must first pass through the hands of the matron.” Stale candy end old fruit are an enemy, and the ser- vices of the doctor are often required after them. 3 All the girls over 4 sleep in one largs . room. Here stand row after row of little white-enameled beds, with tiny counter- panes and pillow slips, all immaculately clean. At either end of the room sleeps a nurse, and if anything unusual happens, such as a youngster's falling out of bed or the appearance of a bogie man, these nurses are always near at hard. The tiny bables’ room comes next. It looks for all the world like a doll house. tIts chairs and benches are only six ‘Inches high; its cribs are lllliputlan. Each window has a wire screen firmly fastened #n, for no matter how small a youngster Nz A W REeEBELLICOCLUS ) PRISoNnER. may be the spirit mischief is always sure to be present In cf investigatton and his mind when nobody is watching. The roilicking boys have a 2 themselves. It was originaily It is fini Here the boys can have n low fights and see who ca asa ardwood, ous pil- ot beans ¢ up and that is, if they to the fellow noring when arance! gymnasium, down the sme th bra Woe 1 to be peacefu the nurse mak et caught. s a platform, and there 1 misdecd. until h least ready to s cold. There is but one noticeable difference in the girls’ and boys' apartments. The iron beds are the =ame, the curtains are.the same and even the clothesrac but the boys’ nstead of white The most popular place is the play yard. It is considerably over a half-block long, and its furnishings are trees and a blg sand pile in the middle, Dr counterpanes are green dren In overalls and glve them a sandpfle to slide down, a few trees to climb, and they are healthy. At least these children are, and there are so many of them that one ought to be able to make a pretty fair study of childhood right within the fences of the home. The children who are old enough go to the public school, and after school they have a good play, followed by household lessons. These are not whom the nursery is meant for. Little children—as the word nursery Iimplies—are sheitered. .Bables grow, however, and they may stay there until & good home is provided for them. To have children adopted and given good homes Is the reward that pleases the ma- tron most. Sunday Is the youngsters’ best day in the week. They congregate in the sitting- room and hear stories from the Bible, and then they all sing at the tops of their lit- tle voices. Some are in tune amd some are out; but nobody cares. If they get more pleasure than you who listen, it is because you are more fastidious than ‘warm-hearted, and you may go back to your old Wagner, where you belong. If the Sunday is pleasant the children take a walk. All through the week they look forward to the songs and the walk of Sunday, and when Monday morning comes again they begin to look forward to the next one. Many of these little people are far hap- pler than they would be in their own homes. Some of them have mothers who ‘work and cannot keep them at home, and This is only one little story. There are many, many more, and they are all sadl alike. It is to rewrite these little stories that the home exists. It takes money and a quantity of it to keep such an shment in smooth running order. much & month, the members of the board pay so much a year and charitable per- sons send clothes and provisions. Wells-Fargo Express Company will lver free any parcel weighing not over fifty pounds. Clothing that, as:w:n out- gives to it so de- SMALL BuUT WiIibLING S0 pay $ a month for a home, clothes and training. Some of them are left on the front steps. Sad little stories are always coming up. Last week a girl went out to the home to place her baby there. She had been mar- ried in secret, lived at home and kept on working in a box factory. Her family noticed that she was not as cheerful as was her wont, and after some persuasion she confided in her mother. Then her mother went to the man and asked why he didn't provide for his wife, He told her that he could do nothing at all; that he was married, had expected a divorce, but had failed to get it. When a policeman went to arrest him he had dis- appeared and had taken another woman FOUSE REEFERD grown by your own little folks will ff Somebody In the home. Trousers y your Johnnie has worn through, gowns that your Susie has torn, can be made use of. The matron of the home can turn to account anything in the way clothing. Try her and see. On the afternoon of November 24 the la dies Interested In the home are to give 3 kettledrum in the maple room of the Pal- ace Hotel. Then there will be a chance for everybody to lend a helping har the youngsters who came so near left out In this world’s scramble places. L] tor —_——— In France a woman may appear in mas- culine attire if she pay a license fee of $1¢ & year.