A GREAT NEW YORK CHARITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 38, 15 January 1886, Page 23

A GREAT NEW YORK CHARITY.

Onb of the most remarkable institutions of New York City is the Founding Asylum situate l at Sixty-eighth street and Third avenue. The charity was started in 1869 by Sister Irene, of the Koman Catholic Church, and grew out of a desire to remedy the rapidly increasing crime of infanticide. The enterprise was simple in its beginnings, but rapidly grew under the favourable public and private attention which it attracted. A huudred thousand dollars was voted by the l-egislature, conditioned upon the raising of a like sum by private means, which wag quickly accomplisbei. The city then conv«>yei to the managers the spacious lot upon wnich the Asylum buildings now stand, under a lease for ninety-vine years at an annual rental of on<j dollar. The original funds of the institution were mostly lost by the failure of the bank in which they were deposited, but liberal hands supulied the loss, and the great work want on until, at the present time, seventeen hundred children, from the age of one day to six years, are maintained in the Asylum. Its running expenses last year amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. While at first secrecy in the depositing of infants was permittted, the rules now reqiire them to be presented in person — though no c necessarily by the mother— and that two or three formal questions be answered ; but these do nor refer to thejidentity of the parties in the least. Since the New York Foundling Asylum was established nearly sixteen thousand little waifs, who, otherwise, would have been thrown into the waters of the treat city, have been provided with good homes, which agents of the institution are constantly on the look out for all over the country. The children are not kept in the Asylum beyond their sixth year. During the earliest months of babyhood many are boarded out under the oversight of the Sisteis. As soon as able to toddle about they are returned to the main institution as " run arounds," where they undergo a varied kindergarten education. Mr. John O'Brien, the w.-11-ktjown banker of Wall street, was the original Treasurer of the Asylum, and still occupies that positiou. Its financial success is owicg in a high degree to his management. Sister Irene is still at the helm, and her heart may well swell with satisfaction if not with honest pride as she contemplates this great human beneficence. Bach child as ii is brought in is given a number and a name. Late disclosures prove that one of the inmates, a black-eyed little boy, i% a veritable Bpanish noble. Why he should have found his way to a foundling asylum we are unable to say. The late Cardinal McOloskey took deep interest in the institution, and was a frequent visitor to the wards. There is no other foundling asylum in America. Infanticide is now practically unknown in New York.