1874.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 745

Mr. Lancaster, Chairman of a Select Committee, submitted
the following

REPORT.

The Special Committee appointed to visit the several benev-
olent and charitable Institutions in the City of Baltimore,
have performed the duty assigned them, and respectfully
report:

HOUSE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

In obedience to their instructions, your Committee visited
the House of the Good Shepherd, under the charge of a com-
munity of ladies of that order. This is an Institution estab-
lished for the reclamation of that unfortunate class of females
who are addicted to vicious habits, and afford them an Asylum
where they are shielded from the temptations and scorn of
the world. The House was established in August, 1864, and
since that time it has received one hundred and eighty-three
voluntary applicants, and three hundred and seventy-two
who were placed there by parents or guardians; of the whole
number twenty-five died, forty were sent away, incorrigible,
two hundred and forty-four were returned to their families or
friends, anil one hundred and forty-seven remained at the
date of the visit of your Committee. The inmates are di-
vided into three classes, totally distinct and holding no com-
munication with each other. The first are the Penitents,
numbering ninety; the second, the Preservation Children,
forty-four; and third, the Magdalen Community, thirteen.
Your Committee made a thorough inspection of all the de-
partments, and found a most perfect system of management.
The rooms are large and well ventilated, and at no moment
of time are the inmates from under the immediate supervision
of one or more of the ladies who have the charge over them.
The inmates are taught habits of industry, and their morals
are carefully guarded. The treatment, as far as your Com-
mittee was able to judge, is kindly and gentle, and certainly
the Institution is doing incalcplable good in rescuing the fal-
len and raising them again to a life of virtue and self-de-
pendence. From all parts of the State applicants are re-
ceived, and the pious ladies in charge have no other resources
to rely upon for the maintainance of those who have been
committed to their care than the bounty of the State, the
charity of their iriends and patrons, and the proceeds of the in-
dustry of the inmates. During the ten years of the existence
of the House, its maintenance has amounted to $73,809.48, of
which the product of the work of the inmates was $56,730.83.
The ladies in charge devote their lives to this work of mercy
without reward or pecuniary remuneration, and they require
all who seek their protection and care to labor industriously
for their own support, thus constituting habits of industry