A FLORENTINE FOUNDLING. (Pilot.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2504, 19 March 1902, Page 66

A FLORENTINE FOUNDLING. (Pilot.)

Under the shadow of the- chinch of the Santa Annunziata stands a great -white stone building. Its massive iron door always stands open. Each clay brings a new inhabitant to dwell under its far-extending roof — for this is the famous Ospedale de' Innocenti. More than 500 years has it received, and sheltered, tho<-e poor atoms of humanity that passion bi ings into a woild -nhere there is no home nor love for them. Fiom within these great -white walls uses, day and night, horn tiny throats a cease'ess wail witne^ing agani'-t man's injustice befoie the God of justice in Heaven !

Ihiough the iron door to the left of the inner courtyard is the chapel. Over the high altai hangs a beautiful picture of the Acloiation oiNllie Magi. AVhen one's eyes become accustomed to its brilliant and dazzling colours, one perceives, kneeling among the kings and their attendant*, two baby figures, with clasped hands uplifted t? the (iod-baby or His mother's knee. These babes in their luminous white garments have ciucl sword-cuts upon thenlittle bodies; wounds winch diop blood on the gorgeous appaiel and golden gifts of the rich men. Surely tho«.e innocents of long ago, whom wicked men in \,un search and hatred of the Holy Child -ent maned and bleeding fiom eaith. have won meny

for many innocents of later days? For did not. the Spirit of God inspire, through love of them and of the Holy Babe, those other ri-Ja men of the Ihiiteenth century to give their gold to build this great home for all the homeless babes entering so hnr^hlv into life here below?

Fioni tl*» chapel with its lovely picture I pn^td into ibe hospital, there to behold ■iih.'t will ever remain one of my most pathetic memories. Through many white -tone 100 ms furnished with tiny cribs I was led by one of the nuns, who take^ charge of the<-e motherless mite-;. Every cub had its piteous occupant, and for all *h\y>. '/tiii?s J ii« swat-faced sister had a tendei touch o v a loving smile to bestow. There is a verse, whie 1 . says "that the ik-o\ite hath many more children than she winch hatb a husband."' Here was a living example of its truth ! We came ;.t length to the crib-Mcle of % baby a month or two wider than the rest, old enough to talk in smiles. It was very ill. the siste: sud. but it lay there smiling mo>t conit nredly. Poor babe' what had it to smiie at? No dainty muslin basinette decked \. ith blight ribbons! Xo jingling-belled tov^ beloved of babyhood! No mother's voice ro croon soft lullabies, no mother's wins to press it closely to a loving heart ' (.'illy i little iron crib in a big bare room. Ui the mil of which was tied a, black wood rr-aiy, with us hanging crucifix.

The ihter, ab if to exphun what to her may have seemed a little act of sacrilege, muimu''ecl, apologetically, "Oh. le pauvre babe si nnldde ' Je ne lvi ai donne cela que po'ir Je distmire un pen " ! A crucifix as ii toy for a little child ! Was, it not a pathetic «-ight ! Only the emblem of man's '•hame and in that rose-leaf baby hand A hand in its sweet softness intended by jK loving Creator to clasp only lift-< joys and sunbeams. And man had nothing to put into it but a crucitix ! Still the baby lay and smiled. Who knows but what, this new-born victim jf sin felt, a«. that dying Victim long yeais ago felt, through the pain and darkness, some consoling rays of the "Gloi}- that shall be revealed "if