A GIANT NURSERY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2081, 7 November 1885, Page 4

A GIANT NURSERY.

"A Rambling Victorian," who contributes sketches in Russia to the Melbourne Aigus, gave the following interesting account of the Foundling Institution in Russia :—: — The first time you look out from any height over the struggling city your eye is caught by an enormous block of building, which, except the palace, is larger than any of the large buildings of Moscow. It stands on low giound on the Soljanka street, close to the river, where tliu Moskwa takes one nf those studiously giaceful curvi-s by winch it seems to try ami make up in length what it lacks in hieadth, and to divert your attention from the insignificance of its stream — now a roadway of thick ice powdered over with the la»t fall of snow. The building looks like a large wurehouae, but instead of being smeared over, as we might expect, iti one of those tints to which Muscovites are so p.utial, and which it would piu/.le even a fancy dealer who had been engaged in matching Berlin wools all his life to designate, it is painted i sensible, familiar white. The whole look of the structure proclaims that it was built for use and not for show. Its designer should not be styled its architect for it has no architecture ; rather he was a practical man who knows how to put together four walls with windows in them, a roof, and chimneys. In it you do not see any of those Saracenic arches, Grecian pillars, or Gothic windows (which, by the way, would be starting novelties to any of those respected respective nations) which make so many of the houses in Moscow a standing ]oke in brick and stucco. I have spoken of a warehouse, and the great white building may be called one, but the wares displayed in it arc human babies, An assortment of them of all ages, from one day to four weeks, is always kept in stock. It is the great Foundling Institution, the most interest ing and best managed establishment of the kind in Europe. The Foundling Institution was founded by Catheiine the Great, whom, not to differ from anyone else who has ever written on Russia, I must hasten to describe as the Semiramis of the North. This "rather fast" lady monaich Ims certainly provided an incongruously noble monument for herself in the " Foundling," as it is called. It shelters and cares for about 14,000 children annually, and from statistics it appears that it keeps in life about 7000 souls annually, who would otherwise be lost to the Russian empire. And be it remembered that a large proportion of these souls have male bodies attached to thdin, which is an important matter for a Government with compulsory military service. Strangers aie admitted to the Foundling on Sunday mornings at 11 o'clock. We enter the laige nurseiiea with some misgivings as to not having brought cot-ton-wool for our cars, for if all these throats, tiny as they are, did care to cry at once, they could execute a formidable symphony of baby cries. But all apprehensions on this score are soon set at rest. Jsy a merciful and considerate pro vision for the tympanum of the \ isitor, they arc only admitted to this infantile menagerie after feeding time. All the children aie enjoying their siesta, and are not yet arrived at the age of snoring. The .silence is only broken by the sliding of our feet over the clean, shining, waxed oak floor, or by one of the nurses, seated between two of the wooden cots, hummm« a song to herself. On eich cot is a ticket— giecn for boys and red for girls. We do not try and decipher the writing on the ticket, but it consists of a number, the name and age of the child, its date of admission, and— its weight when admitted. The nurses are mostly healthy-looking peasant women ; each of them nourishes two children. They are dressed cleanly and picturesquely ; they wear a hood of red or blown cloth, a loose jacket with very large, wide, bulging sleeves, and a red and white braided ukiit. For the sake or quietnesa they discard the lupti, or batk shoes of the peasant, ami their huge feet aie encased in shapeless, badly tanned leather slippers. A long detailed survey of the various infants reposing under spotlessly white bed linen and small canopies of white muslin curtains, would only be interesting to an expert. Accordingly, after speedily coming to a conclusion that one child is as like the other as their different cradles are, we leave the wards. As we pass quietly out between the rows of beds, every now and then we see a little pink hand which has found it* way outaide the white curtains. I say "pink," because I know that is the word expected in the circumstances. In reality, to male eyes at least, the colour of the thihlicn •was a reddish brown. Downstairs is tho room where the foundling* are icceived. They are not hae left in a pat eel at the door, or put in a trap-door in the wall, as in some other places. The mother, or whoever biing the child, walks with it openly in to tin- room. Hcrt are in attendance two of the mations of the institution, who enter the child on the register. The only question? asked are— First, the date of its birth ; and second, whether it I).is been baptised. No other inquiries whatever arc made, and in no case is the name of the father asked. After the cntiy has been made in the book the chi.'d is numbered, a ticket with this number on it is hiing round its mck, and * receipt for the child (also maiked with this number) h given to the person who lias brought it. After this— just like a piece of left hggagethe baby will be given up at any tune afterwaids, if so desired, to the person producing this leeeipt, and only on producing the receipt. Sometimes children are claimed in this way after they have been many years in fharge of the institution. If its admitted parents reclaim a child they must give a donation of 3.1 roubles to tho hospital befoie they can take it away. Many a poor mother has worked hard and stiiven long to get together this (for hoi) considerable sum (about £8) in order to get her numbered child back a»ain to her home. In most cases tlie mother herself brings Jitr fluid, ami it it easy to believe that the four walls of this leceivingroom, bare, except for a grim picture of the iion Emperor Nicholas, look down on niai.y a bitter parting and painful scene. The numberof children received dailyaveia^'is 40. It is said that more than half are illegitimate. From the absence of inqmiy by the officials of the institution on this point it is difhcnlt to ascertain whether tins in the fact, but in all likeli hood the proportion is larger. In veiy many cases the children arrive unbaptised. The rite of baptism is immediately performed, and of course implies the finding of a name for the child. To find names for many thous amis of children a year would suiely tax the most inventive ingenuity, and, accoidingly, the Foundling has a short and easy method of getting out of the difficulty. Kach child gets for its Chiistian name that of the saint of the day on which it is admitted, for its surname the Christian naire. (with theaddi tion of the syllable " off ') of the ofhciating piicst who baptises it. Thus, a child icctived on St. Andrew's day, baptised by a piiest whose Christian name was Ivan, would be called Andrei Ivanoff. Soon after baptism the children go through the more secular ordeal of vnccinatio'ti When they have been four weeks in the institution they are sent off with their nuises to the country Sometimes they go to the nurse's own village, where they Kiovv up among aciowd of other little Maifs in similar tiicumstances. In Russia you find villages whose population consists solely of nurses, a semi-savage Kindergrtten. If the children are not taken to the nurses' houses they are drafted into some of the luminous -nuuriatti or rountry houses which the institution po-sesses, where, as a mle, they get on pietty well. But of those sent to be nursed out in the villages, the number who die in infancy is very large. Their parse* are peasant iromeo^ who arc

under no supervision ; their iilcis as to infant liygiene arc of the crudest ; their own Mn-iJin o> Snvfi'i (little M.iry or Alexander) survived their diet ot iw»/i'f well enough, and if this child does not it is not then fault The vi*/,n (if leaders care to be initiated into such m>steries) is the Rnssian peasant's substitute for the fei ding bottle It consists of boiled milk, with coin or bread, tied <i[> in <i 1 >«i tj — <i suit of milk poultice, in fact The bag is made of porous linen, and put to the mouth of the child, who Micks in tho milky liquid which 00/ os tluough. The disadvantage of this mitt i fci \ c couttiv me i* tint the chances are about even whethir it nourishes or chokes the child. It very often dots the lutt'T, and the woman, who has Item absent for some hours woiking in the Held*, or busy in tlie jnrd distilling cabbage ••oup (the btaff of life of the Russian peasant r> ), comes bick to the Isba to find tli.it all that remains foi her to do foi her little charge is cv send for the pope to hive it decently buiied. She must then bebtir heiself to get another nurseling from the Foundling. The reward for its maintenance w ill enable hei at least always to buy salt to reason the soup, and will help her husband, if she has one, to pay his obrok (icdemption tax on his land). The dreaded winter climate also kills very many of the sickly children. Those who dj pass safely through the dangers of baby-tood and hah) hood often lead a inoie comfoi table liie than they would in their patents' houses. They are boarded out and paid for by the Government, and scut to the communal school, if there is one. At 10 yean of age many of the boys aie sent from the country back to Moscow : then, at the expense of the institution, they are apptntieed to trades or arc found places in business houses ; t i • is done for hundreds y< a ly. The others become agricultur.il libouiers or servants in the country. The girls are married .is soon as possible to the most eligible peasant lads in the village who will take them, and to make their possible charms moie persuasive on his heart the institution always gives each a dowry of (»() loubles. which goes to provide her tnn>><.mii. One ot my drivers in Moscow, a strong, fine-looking, broidshouldered, bi own-eyed, and brownhaired young ft How, had, I was told, married a girl in the above circumstances. We asked him about the dowry. Me answered at once aivl volubly, as he would to any other imaginable question an employer might put to him. lie had got some dowry, but we could not lind whethei it was (H) rou bit's or not, for unfortunately our I'tiss broke down under the numeials This h a very excusable mistake, a? any one may see who looks into a Russian grammar. If you want to say 84 in Russ you have to neive tongue and jav\s to launch out on the following, " Vo3seiiidjessyattsehetuiiye.'" The nurses in the Foundling are paid about three roubles (l()s) a month. There is always a l.uge supply of them to be had, for the pay is liberal, considering tint they are well frd, housed, and cared for in the institution. In very many cases a mother deposits her o*wi child, iv order that she may not only get it to nurse, but be paid for doing so. It is no c ntravention of the rules for a mother to do this. The other uardd of the Foundling are veiy interesting to medical men. There are all sot ts of patent contiivancus for saving and strengthening infant life. There is one waid for iufaats prematurely bom, aii'l tho most recent appliances known to medical science aie used to aid these weaklings to st niggle foi existence. I was told there are patent shaped baths for cashing the children, and there certainly aie specially -made pillow cushions for dressing them on, bo that the kneed of the nurses w ill not stick into them and hint them. The stat! o( doctors, diesseis, and servants is \ery large. This great institution has the pi eat wa.it of all institutions- -funds — provided for it in a singular way. In Russia each pack of playing cards rcquiies a stamp All the money lecened by the Government for these stamps goes to the Foundling Hospital. Besides this the institution hab a monoply of the manufacture of playing cat ds. To »ay nothing of the ordinal y games of hazard, the llussiaus are aUo a be/ique-playing people. A Russian club man does not like yon to dislike be/iquc. One of the reasons given for partiality to the game is the great fondness of the Empress for be/ique ; her Majesty plays at it for hours together. All the rest of society has to, or rather does follow, and pietend it has a taste for the game. People may yawn over it, but they are nobly fulfilling a social duty ; for in Russia, as elsewhere, fashion demands that, even if you are to be boied, you must bore yourself by a faßluonable method. In Russia, of all places in the woild, it would be an unheaid-of thing not to have a brand n( w pack of cards each time you sit down to play. This fashionable fastidiousness is all to the advantage of the card manufactory of the Foundling. The habit of plajing games of ha/aid at cards may often empty the pockets of Ru.s-.ians who indulge in it, but indirectly it tills the coffers of one of the best institution in their land. The yearly amount received by the Foundling from Government is about £200,000. This is not tlv place, nor do I intend, to di»cuf.s the effect winch this institution has on public morality. I will only direct attention to these undoubted facts-— l. The ctime of infanticide is very rare, almost unheard of in the cit) of Mot cow, or in the Government district of Moscow. 2. The eHect of the institution on the children is of the happiest nature ; they are always considered as desirable employes or servants. Granting that the birth of three-quarters of them has been one of shame, that is the very fiet which has pnt many of them in the way of leading a life of honour and ituhutiy. Without this institution thotmnds of these children, instead of having the chance of obliterating the brand of their biith (on which Mibject, how ev< r, Muscovite opinion is not prudishly .sensitive), would most likely, and almost of necessity, fall victims to childimudcr cither by actual violence or intentional neglect, or else, without parents to look after them, they would sink to that state of wretched helplessness which is easier to fall to in Russia than iv any other European conntry. The wing of the building opposite to the foundling part contains a large maternity hospital, which contains 2000 beds in secret wards, many of them reserved for cases of extreme poverty only. In another wing j3j 3 the Nicholas Institution, a most beneficent establishment. It is open to oiphau daughters of poor noblemen or employes of the down. The girls are well educated m it free of cost, and get a gift to enable them to purchase an outfit when they leave it. Then they enjoy a Governnent salary for six yeats, in leturn for i\hieh they teach for that period in loveimncnt schools in the country. This ii o\ ides thcin with an excellent recomnendation for posts as governesses in private families, wheie they are genei ally ibcrally paid, and treated with a conideration unknown to the poor English [overne&s.

Tiivt was a noble little boy, who, previous to a railway smash up sat on the fence for two hoius in the fiee/ing cold, watching the bioken rail, in older that he n.ight carry the news to Jhis father, who was editor of the local paper. "Inn- taken dcr store, mine dear," said Jacobs to hi.s wife "d.it otlioic by del coiner: und already 1 got mine goods piled in und instiled as hefy as I can. Ah, effryding is ho handy ; der is efen a match factory by der nex-t door." lllK f.RKViKsi ISii^siv.— A iimpK., pure lnrniUy, rtmpdj,lhit<imse\crv time, and prewnti diM'.u,e by keopinc the blood pure stomach n ffiiUr, kidncjs and li\cr attivr, f s th<-jrrrati-st blowing ever conferred upon man. lion Hitters is thatremech, and the American Co the grvnuiuc manufacturer's, are brinj; blessed by thousands who have been cured by it. Try it.