HOMES AND ORPHAN ASYLUMS.
By A. S. Hobart
There is a great contrast between the children of a home and those of an asylum. Both have food, and clothing, and discipline, and school instruction. In these matters probably few homes are better than, and the majority of homes are inferior to, the asylum. The general health and personal appearance of the inmates of these public charities needs no defense when compared with those of the children of homes. But for little children learning to think and talk and observe, how far the asylum comes from reaching the advantages of the home! In the latter, father and mother spend hours, daily, in talking to the child. They call attention to every part of the house, and to all the furniture, and teach him the names, and drill him in the pronunciation of them. They seek to encourage the child in expressing his thoughts accurately. By many loving ways they lead out his plastic and elastic mind into maturity. Moral truths are inculcated long before the child knows what is being done. Where there are other and older children, they come in for personal care, consideration for the rights of others, respect for age, and experience a share in the work. There is not a phase of life, and scarcely a great idea of religion, but is taught in the home, in some way, before the child is fifteen.—A. S. Hobart, D. D.