“Toi que l’amour fit par un crime,
Et que l’amour défait par un crime à son tour,
Funeste ouvrage de l’amour,
De l’amour funeste victime.”
Some of the babies are already dying, and are put in here in order to
avoid the expense of a funeral; others are almost naked, while a few are
well supplied with linen and necessaries. These latter are the offspring
of the better classes, by whom a temporary concealment is desired. With
such the most affecting letters are left, praying the nurses to take
more than usual care of a child which will surely be one day reclaimed,
and a mark or ornament is usually fastened to the infant, in order that
it may be identified hereafter, if called for, and such were the precise
customs in antiquity. Every particular regarding every exposed babe is
registered in a book, which is a sad record of human crime and remorse.
Those children which are afterwards reclaimed, pay about sixpence for
every day during which the hospital has maintained them; but little
attention is paid to the appeals for particular care, or to the promise
of redemption, for Spaniards seldom trust each other. Unless some name
is sent with it, the child is baptized with one given by the matron, and
it usually is that of the saint of the day of its admission. The number
was very great, and increased with increasing poverty, while the funds
destined to support the charges decreased from the same cause. There is
a certain and great influx nine months after the Holy week and
Christmas, when the whole city, male and female, pass the night in
kneeling to relics and images, &c.; accordingly nine months afterwards,
in January and November, the daily numbers often exceed the usual
average by fifteen to twenty.
[Sidenote: FOUNDLING HOSPITAL AT SEVILLE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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