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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Still, the idea of an orphan asylum, 

 managed by a society of ladies, is a 

 very taking one. It will make room 

 for a lady president, two or three 

 lady vice-presidents, a lady secre- 

 tary, a managing committee of la- 

 dies, and, of course, lady visitors. So 

 the asylum is ushered into existence. 

 Though modest in its beginnings, it is 

 still bevond the real wants of the local- 

 ity. The few known orphans are gath- 

 ered in ; and then the ladies, hungry 

 for objects of benevolence, look round 

 for more ; rather than have empty 

 rooms and a half-employed matron, 

 they " rope in," on one pretext or an- 

 other, children who are not orphans at 

 all. Then they challenge public atten- 

 tion by annual reports and annual col- 

 lections. Of course, every man in the 

 community who wants to be credited 

 with even a fragment of a soul must 

 subscribe to the orphan asylum. It 

 would be as much as one's social ex- 

 istence was worth to so much as hint 

 a doubt as to whether an institution 

 with a name so redolent of charity 

 was really performing a useful office in 

 the community. So the funds come 

 in freely. The ladies, finding how 

 prompt is the response to their benevo- 

 lent appeals, conceive large and dar- 

 ing schemes. They are going to have 

 a building now that will be a credit to 

 the town, and that will not only rob 

 orphanage of half its terrors, but widely 

 advertise the willingness of the com- 

 munity to shoulder everybody's private 

 burdens in the matter of children need- 

 ing protection through the loss of par- 

 ents. So a ridiculously large building 

 goes up, to the infinite pride and satis- 

 faction of the lady managers, and the 

 silent wonderment of the meditative 

 citizen with a gift for arithmetic and 

 averages, but perhaps no experience as 

 to how the orphan business like other 

 businesses can be " boomed." 



Now, the hard, bottom fact is, that 

 fuss and vanity enter very largely into 

 many of these schemes of so-called 



charity. They reek with sentimental- 

 ity ; and therefore it is no wonder that 

 those who work them content them- 

 selves with reports at once jejune and 

 nauseating jejune in facts, nauseat- 

 ing in phraseology. The best possible 

 way to check these flabby imitations of 

 real charity would be to summon them 

 somewhat peremptorily to give such 

 facts as might furnish material for a 

 really scientific study of their opera- 

 tions. They could not in decency re- 

 fuse the demand, if made by a certain 

 number of their respectable supporters ; 

 and yet we are convinced that, to com- 

 ply with the demand in anything like 

 an honest and thorough fashion, would 

 be to show that their work was, in part 

 at least, hollow and even hurtful. We 

 believe that a vast amount of harm is 

 being done, not only by thoughtless 

 private charity, but by ill-organized, 

 ill-directed, and over-ambitious corpo- 

 rate charity. However, let scientific 

 thinkers, men who have taken to heart 

 all that is implied in the great truth 

 that two and two make four, settle 

 right down to work on the reports of 

 some of these pretentious concerns ; 

 and, where they find information lack- 

 ing that ought to be given, quietly 

 ask for it. The world would be none 

 the worse for the puncturing of a few 

 of the bubbles blown by vanity and 

 floated by sentimentality ; and the way 

 to puncture them is to bring the " sci- 

 entific method " to bear on their very 

 unscientific operations. 



"We are glad to see that the views 

 expressed in these columns a year ago, 

 in regard to the inexpediency of giving 

 Federal aid to education in the South 

 or anywhere else, are gaining ground 

 among the most intelligent representa- 

 tives of public opinion. The "Boston 

 Herald," one of the most progressive 

 papers in the country, which at one 

 time favored the scheme, now opposes 

 it. There is altogether too strong a 

 disposition in certain quarters to bring 

 the Federal Government into play for 



