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mother threw up her hands in horror. | dead before we got there. We got | Mary Hallman. Shivering and sob"Quick, quick, you must go back off the elevated at Adams street, an' bing, a shabby shawl drawn close and get your baby," she cried. "Bring I ran ahead and showed Lizzie where around her shoulders, the young it home, child. What can you be I left the baby in a box. But it was mother was marched into the central thinking of? You arenot there. Then a man stepped up police station late last night to tell an' showed his star and said I was her life tragedy to ears long deafened arrested." to all the notes of sins and sorrow with which the wilderness of the city rings night and day.

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But Emma had fainted. As soon as she was revived and had taken nourishment she was sent back with her young sister, Lizzie, to recover her baby.

"It was so slow goin' back," wept the prisoner at the thought. "I was so glad that I could bring the baby home, but I was afraid it would be

Such is the story of
Schmidt's wanderings in the

ness.

Emma wilder

Mary Hallman was arrested at her brother's house, 2735 Bonfield avenue, where she had been given shelter Like it in its sorrow and indiffer- after finding every door in the wilderence to a human being's sufferings ness city closed against her and her is this story that other Marguerite, helpless baby.

CHILD-HELPING LEGISLATION

At the 18th Cook County Child Saving Conference, held on the 5th inst., a committee was appointed, with Justice T. D. Hurley as chairman, to prepare and present two bills for laws relating to the better care of children to the next session of the Illinois Legislature. One provides for state supervision of children placed in homes and the other requires persons placing children in homes either to obtain an order from the court or a written permit from the parent.

The committee, it is understood, will take up two bills embracing those objects, which were introduced in the last legislative session, but did not reach a vote. One of these bills bore the following title: "To Provide for the Visitation of Children Placed in Family Homes," and required:

(1) That a quarterly report be made to the State Board of Charities in regard to all children placed in homes, whether placed by an institution, court or individual.

(2) Full record of all such children shall be kept by the Secretary of the State Board of Charities and it shall be unlawful for any person to disclose the name or address of any such child or of any family in which a child may be placed.

(3) Visitors shall be appointed to inspect the homes in which children are placed. After a child shall have been legally adopted it shall not be subject to state visitation.

(4) In case a visitor finds a home an unsuitable place for a child, a report shall be made through the Secretary of the State Board to the institution or individual that placed the child, and if no satisfactory action is taken within fifteen days then the child shall be removed by the authority of the State Board at the expense of said institution or individual. The Secretary may, at his discretion, allow the child to be visited by an agent of the association or institution that placed it in a home, and may accept the report of such agent provided that such association or

institution shall have been approved by the State Board of Public Charities.

(5) The violation of any section of this act is made a misdemeanor.

(6) The appropriation asked is $6,000 annually for the first two years of the new law's operation.

The second of these bills provides that when the guardianship of a child is transferred from one person or society to another there must be either a court order or a written permit from the parent, properly executed and safeguarded.

The rationale for such a bill may easily be seen from a few actual cases which we print:

Recently a woman insisted that a certain society place her child. On refusal, she became abusive and forthwith read the riot act. Investigation proved that the woman was an epileptic and not a resident of this state. She threatened to abandon her child. Thereupon the case was brought into court and the woman given the option of a fine of $500.00, the penalty for such abandonment, or prompt return to her mother's house in Wisconsin. This child might have become a ward of the state of Illinois and an expense for its whole life.

A certain physician offered the same society a round sum to take the child of a well-to-do patient, and being refused, simply I went elsewhere. It is needless to say that such an offer, provided the child be normal, would not go begging" very long even if it was not "greenbacked" very heavily.

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This bill aims to check the business of the baby farm" and the disreputable midwife or physician; to make it more difficult for a parent to evade the responsibility of caring for a child and to diminish the number of wards, public charges and criminals that come from neglected and unwanted children.

JOHN E. LIND.

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The Illinois Children's Home and air Society has been caring for homeless and neglected children in Illinois for the past twenty-one years. A large part of its work is done in Southern Illinois. About ten years ago the Seminary building at Old Du Quoin was purchased as a receiving home for the wards of the society at a cost of $2,500. The property was held by a corporation known as the Southern Illinois Protective Association but it was used exclusively for the wards of the Children's Home and Aid Society.

The Old Du Quoin property proved to be unsuited to the purpose; the building was old and dilapidated; the property was so far from the railroads that it was very difficult for people to visit the Home and much time and expense was consumed in conveying passengers and freight back and forth.

About three years ago the society decided to remove the Home to the city of Du Quoin. A hotel property was rented fronting upon the Illinois Central railroad, where the Home was maintained for two years. This location was very undesirable on account of its close proximity to the railroad and the society finally decided to close the Home temporarily until a suitable building could be erected. Citizens of Du Quoin negotiated with the Weaver Coal Company for the sale of the old Du Quoin property which included forty acres of coal land, for the sum of $3,500. It was understood that the coal company would donate a building site in the city of Du Quoin. Unfortunately this negotiation finally fell through and the building has been delayed waiting for an opportunity to dispose

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the plans, will contain laundry, play rooms, furnace room, etc.

These plans have been submitted to experts who have pronounced them admirable for the designed purpose. On the first floor will be the matron's office and bed room, a sewing room, school room, dining room and kitchen. The house will be so arranged as to allow free circulation of air from front to rear and from side to side. On the second floor will be a dormitory for ten boys and another for eight girls with smaller rooms for two boys and two girls with separate class rooms and bath rooms for both sexes.

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The financial support of the Children's Home and Aid Society is derived chiefly from donations. Its income for the year 1903 was $41,465, of which $36,430 came from donations, $3,470 from counties (outside of Cook county) for care of dependent children, and $1,490 from parents and friends for care of children. It will be seen that 88 per cent of the society's income came from donations.

The income of this society is very small in proportion to the work to be done. This society comes next in importance and magnitude of its work to the New York Children's Aid Society, which has an income of $400, ooo a year, while Dr. Bernardo's great London society has an income of $800,000 per year. Both in New York and in London the orphan asylums and other institutions for children do a much larger amount of work than in Chicago, so that the demand for the work of child-saving societies is much larger relatively in Chicago than in those cities. The Children's Home and Aid Society covers the entire state of Illinois, while the work of the New York and London societies is confined mainly to the cities.

True politeness is "real kindness expressed."-Carey.

When a man's fight begins within himself,

A man's worth something.

-Browning.

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CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY OF MINNESOTA - RECEIVING HOME, St. Anthony Park, St. Paul, Minn., Commonwealth Ave.

Rev. R. N. Adams, President

Rev. E. P. Savage, Superintendent

During the year 232 children have been cared for at the home. Of this number 127 have been placed in homes; 57 have been returned to relatives; 32 have received temporary care; 38 were in the home at the close of the year. Since the society was founded in 1889, 2064 children have been cared for by the society and at present there are over 1,000 children placed in homes that are under the direct supervision of the organization.

The value of the home with the grounds is estimated at $39,500; the furnishings, $4,400; while another permanent investment is a $20,000 endowment at 4 per cent.

The treasurer's report showed that $17,252 had been received during the year, and the total disbursements were $16,904. This includes the sum of $1,309 invested in a house near the main building to be used as a detention ward. In this way when contagious diseases are discovered in the home the patient can immediately be isolated and prevent the home from a general quarantine. The sum of $14,083 was spent in the care of children and $1,239 was spent in furnishings and in improvements.

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CALL AND CONSULT

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Through Sleepers to Galveston, Texas

VIA THE WABASH

The Wabash Road has inaugurated a line of first-class Pullman sleepers between Chicago and Galveston, leaving Chicago daily at 11:03 a m. and arriving at Galveston the second morning at 7:30-a convenient leaving and arriv ing time.

The route is Wabash to St. Louis, Iron Mountain to Texarkana, T. & P. to Longview and thence I. & G. N. R. R. For sleeping car reservations, folders, etc., apply to your nearest ticket. agent, or to

F. A. PALMER, A. G. P. A., CHICAGO

New Through Sleepers to Los Angeles

VIA THE WABASH

The Wabash has inaugurated a line of standard Pullman sleepers between Chicago and Los Angeles, Cal., leaving Chicago daily at 9:17 p.m. The car runs via the Wabash to St. Louis, Iron Mountain to Texarkana, T. & P. to El Paso, and thence Southern Pacific, arriving in Los Angeles at 12:25 noon.

For sleeping car reservations, folders, etc., apply to your nearest ticket agent, or to

F. A. PALMER, A. G. P. A., CHICAGO

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