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Idiots And Institutions For Their Training
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60 | J.C., a girl of 15 years of age, has been under Dr. Wilbur's care a little more than four years. When received, she was mischievous and vicious, very nervous, and could not speak distinctly. She could not be left alone with other children, from a propensity to injure them. She knew some of her letters, but could not be taught to read or write by any ordinary methods. | |
61 | She now reads well, writes a handsome hand, is remarkably proficient in Geography and Grammar, and has made good progress in addition and subtraction. She sews very neatly, and is very capable as an assistant in household matters. Her nervousness is no longer troublesome, her waywardness has entirely disappeared. In respect to moral training, she seems more advanced than most of the other pupils. She manifests a remarkable familiarity with Bible History, and with the events in the life of our Saviour. When requested to repeat the Lord's Prayer, she did so with a reverence, an impressive-ness, and an evident understanding of its petitions, which exhibited in a very favorable light, her intelligence and thoughtfulness; and as I listened to this once vicious and wayward idiot, thus uttering, in our Saviour's own words, her petitions to the throne of heavenly grace, I was more deeply impressed than ever before, with the adaptation of that sublime prayer to every human want." | |
62 | Such are the results attained in the very short period since these schools have been established. That all idiots will not make as great improvement as some of these, is undoubtedly true; but all of suit-able age and health will improve, and that sufficiently to satisfy the most exacting. | |
63 | Nor does the history of the past condition of this hapless class afford us any ground for hope that they can be materially elevated from their present condition, by any other means. Nearly, or quite, one-half of the whole number are tenants of our alms houses or houses of correction. Full one-half of the remainder are children of parents who are steeped to the lips in poverty; for these, whether in the alms house or out of it, there can be no improvement, except by removal from their present associations. Fed with improper or innutritious food, often allowed the use of intoxicating drinks, generally idle, often made the sport of thoughtless children and adults, without shame or sense of decency, filthy and degraded, they are pests in com-munity, often exerting a depraving influence over the young, which no subsequent instruction can remove. 'Nor are the imbecile children of the wealthy generally benefited by their parents' wealth, if allowed to remain at home. The sluggish, inactive temperament, and glutton-ous appetite, which are the greatest obstacles to success in their treat-ment at Asylums, are pampered and indulged at home, -- and it often occurs that the worst pupils, in an Institution for Idiots, are the chil-dren of the rich. In the present condition of society we see no alter-native. These helpless and degraded fellow creatures are on our hands, and we must provide for their instruction and improvement; if we can remove, in part, the blighting, withering results of violated physical laws, let us do so; for they are the victims, not the offenders. | |
64 | There is, indeed, a great work for the philanthropist and moral reformer to accomplish, to remove the causes of idiocy, insanity, pauperism, and crime. God has granted to our day and generation, a clearer insight into the sources whence spring these gigantic evils, than to our fathers, and he has imposed upon us a corresponding obli-gation to use our best endeavors for their removal. Every arrival from Europe brings hither a host of the lower classes of European Society, often ignorant, degraded, and vicious. These, if suffered to congregate in our large cities, taint the whole community, as with a moral pestilence. They must be scattered over the vast prairies of the west, where profitable labor is possible, where their influence will not be felt, and where, with the prospects of a life of comfort before them, they may become good citizens. | |
65 | The evils of intemperance must be stayed; we care not whether it be accomplished by a prohibitory law or by any other effective means; but the middle and higher classes owe it to themselves as well as to the suffering poor, to stop the swelling tide of human woe which this vice daily produces; to accomplish this it is not sufficient to close the dram shops, -- the use of alchoholic -sic- drinks must be abandoned at the tables of the rich, as well as in the hovels of the poor. | |
66 | A great reform is also needed in the homes of the poor. Model lodging houses and tenements must be erected, not in low, dank, miasmatic localities, but in healthy situations, where light and venti-lation, frequent bathing, economy in warmth and cooking, and the privacy of home can be attained; the renting of cellars as tenements and the occupation of tenant houses, such as our public prints have recently exposed, must be prohibited under the severest penalties. Measures must also be adopted for the instruction of the masses, not only in those physiological laws which appertain to their health and well being, but in those branches of intellectual culture which will improve their social condition, and those questions of morals and religion which concern their eternal welfare. |