746 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 12,

and self-respect, where only vice and profligacy prevailed.
So great is the pressure of applicants that au additional build-
ing is already needed, to give place to all who seek the shel-
ter and protection which the Institution affords.

Your Committee were strongly impressed with the great
benefits which the House of the Good Shepherd must inevit-
ably work out, and they know of no Institution which ap-
peals more strongly and more justly to the fostering care of
the State. The Children of Preservation are those who are
rescued from the control of vicious parent's, that their young
minds may be trained in the paths of virtue and industry be-
fore being subjected to the temptations and snares which beset
the young. Your Committee cannot too highly commend
this Institution to the serious attention of the General As-
sembly, as in every respect worthy of support and encourage-
ment in the good work which it is doing.

ST. VINCENT'S INFANT ASYLUM

Your Committee visited St. Vincent's Infant Asylum,
under the direction of the Sisters of Charity, and were highly
pleased with the working of the Institution. As its name
indicates, it is an Asylum for infants ranging in age from
birth up to six years. Here they found one hundred and
seven children, of whom, about thirty are under six months
of age, and require constant care and attention. These chil
dreu are little waifs who have been abandoned by their par-
ents after having been born in shame, and children who have
been left without a kind hand to lead them up into a life of
usefulness. This Institution has been in existence for a num-
ber of years, and has constantly preserved from death those
children who were abandoned. Of course great labor is requi-
site in the care of so many infants, and the Sisters are
obliged to employ nurses to take care of the little ones. This
Institution cannot be productive, and is entirely dependent
upon charity for its support. The children, at least those of
them who are old enough, appeared as happy as the more
favored children of wealth and luxury, and fatherless and
motherless, as they are, their condition makes a strong ap-
peal to the benevolent, and especially to their common mother,
the State. These now destitute children will become citizens
of the State, and as He, who spoke as never man spake, suf-
fered little children to come unto Him, the State should care-
fully guard the lives of the helpless children, that in after
years they may reflect credit upon her. None more than
children challenge our sympathies, and none more than chil-
dren demand that protection and care which the State can
afford.

ST. FRANCIS ORPHAN ASYLUM.

St. Francis Orphan Asylum, under the charge of the Ob-
late Sisters of Providence, a Colored Institution, was also