That Last Waif; or, Social QuarantineFletcher, Horace
History
That Last Waif; or, Social Quarantine
Fletcher, Horace
Child welfare
The work, as it originally shaped itself, was dropped by the author,
for the time being, as being built on sand, if presented without a
good theory of scientific feeding as one of the foundation principles,
and hence these intervening five years have been employed in getting
authority for the economic theory required.
These five years also have added _time-proof_ to the personal
experience of the author, and have added many confirmatory experiences
to his own. Continued pursuit of the subject has also developed
possibilities of endurance, efficiency, and happiness that were not
known to exist in former times, so that we begin to doubt if the
normal man or woman has been seen in the world since history has given
us a record.
During these five years of study of the question, left incomplete in
the present volume as first issued, only confirmatory evidence of the
hopes expressed herein has been deduced. The author has had abundant
opportunity to add experiences in England, Italy, and, in fact, all
over Europe, and in this country, that strengthen the faith and call
for action or guilt of infamous indifference. The work of Dr. Bernardo
in England has progressed steadily, and each annual showing is better
than the last, while the public demonstrations at Albert Hall, London,
are becoming more intrinsically interesting than any other exhibitions
or entertainments that are held in that great auditorium.
The Salvation Army work, too, has been closely inspected and followed,
and, while its aims are more curative than preventive, and give
promises in the future rather than in the immediate present, it cannot
but meet with highest approval for what it does in a practical way
among the degenerate. Quite recently General Booth has added a
Department of Hygiene to his staff outfit, and the whole tendency of
the work is improving and is already splendid. It is not yet broad
enough, however, and does not deal with the basic necessities of
complete nutrition reform applied to children.
The whole course of reform on charitable principles has been steadily
progressive, but the most conclusive and convincing demonstration of
possibilities, all the way from waif-saving to the last ultimate
refinement of physical and mental reform, has been given us by two of
the most modest and self-unconscious persons possible to imagine. To
Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Michigan, we owe more
than any of us can ever pay for a demonstration of humane
possibilities, which proves the full contentions of this book most
conclusively. Twenty-four of the most unfortunate of waifs, rescued
and endowed with all the opportunity of respectable manhood and
womanhood and good citizenship, is the record of this one little
married but childless couple; and after that who shall ever dare to
say that there should ever be any "Have-to-be-bad" persons to fill an
altogether unnecessary "ten-per-cent-of-submerged-stratum" of society?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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