Boys and Girls' Aid Society.
By Editor
WE have received the Twelfth Annual Report of the Boys and Girls' Aid Society of San Francisco, Cal. It is a pamphlet of sixty-four pages. With mingled feelings of shame, indignation, and admiration, we have read it through,—shame that parents of human kind can drag their own offspring to such depths of shame and degradation; indignation at the unconscionable meanness that opposes the rescue of such unfortunates; and admiration at the chivalrous manliness and courage that resolutely invades the realm of iniquity, that boldly meets the mean opposition, and that bravely fights the battles of the unfortunate, that helps the helpless, and that rescues the perishing. By relating what the Society has done, we can perhaps best show its purpose. In four years the Society has saved from imprisonment, and a consequent association with the worst criminals, more than two thousand children. It has secured better influences about all these, and has materially improved the surroundings of as many more. It has placed in homes, other than those of their own parents and friends, more than five hundred, and now has under direct control about three hundred and fifty, and under indirect surveillance as many more. In brief, the method of the Society is indicated in the following lines:— "The Society rescues homeless, neglected, or abused children of California; receives juvenile offenders, who are in danger of being imprisoned; provides for such until suitable homes or employment and oversight are found for them, and continues a systematic attention to their condition and treatment. A free Employment Bureau for boys and girls is maintained; also a day and evening school; a department for industrial training of both sexes; classes in singing; reading-rooms and library." "A child in untoward circumstances is brought to the attention of the Society. The first step is to place such child back under the care of its own people, where the care and responsibility belong. If this cannot be done to the advantage of the child, the next step is to acquire an authority over the child that will enable the Society to place it elsewhere, by seeking the personal guardianship of such child." "It is our policy to always return a child to its own home, where we feel confident that its conditions have become fairly suitable or can be made at all worthy of the name, by any influences we can bring to bear, officially, personally, or in any way, and that with our oversight the child's interests will be comparatively safe." The Society is supported wholly by voluntary contributions, some excellent examples of which have been shown the past year,—Senator James G. Fair gave a piece of land which cost $11,500, and Mr. Charles Crocker has erected a building upon the land at a cost of $31,000; the estate of William Sharon gave $4,000; Mrs. Charles Crocker gave $1,500; Senator Fair $1,000. The Society also issues a quarterly entitled Child and State. Ex-Governor Geo. C. Perkins is President of the Society, and is supported by a Board of Trustees numbering seventeen noble men and women, and also, we rest assured, by the prayers, the best wishes, and the hearty support of all God-fearing people who know of the good work in which the Society is engaged. In the use of plain, vigorous, Anglo-Saxon, and by the downright honesty apparent on every page, the report is a model of its kind. We wish a copy could be placed in the hands of every adult person in the State of California. Mr. Edmond T. Dooley is the Superintendent. Address, corner Baker and Grove Streets, San Francisco, Cal.