THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES OF PERU
[Illustration: STREET SCENE ON THE FEAST DAY OF LA MERCED, LIMA.]
Charity and kindness of heart are qualities that radiate from moral
worth as truly as learning and refinement reflect intellectual
superiority, and the benevolent institutions of a country deserve to be
as great a source of pride as its schools and colleges. The
establishment of hospitals, asylums, and other charitable organizations
in Peru dates from the time of the Conquest; for, whatever may have been
the evils of colonial rule, they did not include negligence of the
duties of Christian charity. During the period of the viceroyalty,
asylums for the gratuitous care of the sick and destitute were founded
in Lima and other cities of Peru, the funds for their maintenance being
derived partly from donations, and partly from the rents of property set
aside to furnish a permanent and independent revenue for their use.
At the time of the Independence, Lima had many hospitals under the
management of religious brotherhoods. Belem and San Juan de Dios
received inmates at a fixed price of one dollar a day; and an English
traveller, who was a patient in the San Juan de Dios hospital a century
ago, has written a very favorable description of its cleanliness, good
ventilation, excellent diet, and the kind attention given to patients.
The hospital of San Andrés had accommodation for six hundred invalids
and capacity for twice that number, and was beautified by a magnificent
garden of rare botanical value. Santa Ana hospital, founded by an Indian
princess, the Caciqua Catalina Huanca, was consecrated to the needs of
her own people. Two hospitals, San Pedro de Alcantara and La Caridad,
were for women exclusively; and the sick and suffering among the negro
population were cared for in the hospital of San Bartolomé. By a law
passed in 1825, all the establishments organized by public charity, and
at that time in charge of the convents, were placed under the
administration of a _Junta de Beneficencia_, or Board of Benevolence,
which was later replaced by the Benevolent Societies, under whose
control are all the charitable institutions of the republic. There are
about fifty of these societies, each of which maintains and governs one
or more charitable establishments, the annual expenditure for this
purpose being two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. Lima
spends more than half of this amount in the support of its hospitals and
asylums. The revenues are derived from grants of the national government
and the departmental boards, from the rents of the societies’ various
properties, from the profits of the public lotteries,—established during
the viceroyalty, and, by the decree of the republic, devoted to
charitable purposes,—and from the income derived from cemeteries, which
are under the administration of the Benevolent Society. In Lima the
lotteries provide a large fund for the purposes of charity, the annual
income from this source amounting to from thirty thousand to forty
thousand pounds sterling.
The Lima Benevolent Society is composed of a hundred members, from whose
number a board of directors is elected annually, with authority to
appoint two inspectors for each establishment of importance; one
inspector is appointed for each minor organization and for the religious
brotherhoods, whose incomes are administered by the society, the surplus
of their rents, after deducting expenses, being applied to its purposes.
The president of the board of directors is the general manager of the
society, who bears the title of Director of Benevolence. The gentle
heart of the Limeña is quickly moved to pity by the sight of suffering
and distress, and generous contributions are made to many charitable
institutions not included among those of the society, though the latter
extends its benign protection over all the city, performing its noble
task with great efficiency, through the aid of the pious Sisters of
Charity, who form a devoted corps of nurses and guardians in its
hospitals, asylums, and poorhouses. In Callao, Arequipa, Puno, Trujillo,
and Cajamarca, as well as in the capital, the visitor to the
institutions of charity meets these sweet-faced gentle ministers of
mercy.
The most important hospital of Lima was constructed soon after the
glorious victory of Callao in 1866, when the Spaniards were driven from
the Pacific Coast, and it was named, in honor of that event, the
Hospital Dos de Mayo. The Director of Benevolence at that time was Don
Manuel Pardo, who planned the edifice in 1868 and presided at the
inauguration of the hospital during his presidency, in 1875. It is a
spacious and handsome building, and the wards of invalids are separated
from the various departments of hospital service by beautiful gardens. A
thousand patients can be accommodated in the institution, though the
daily average is about six hundred men. The principal hospital for
women, the Santa Ana, is the oldest in Peru, having been founded by the
first Archbishop of Lima, in 1549. A new edifice has recently been
constructed for the use of the hospital, having the latest modern
conveniences. The maternity ward occupies a separate site, and serves as
a practical school for obstetricians. The hospital of Santa Ana has a
children’s clinic, and a clinic of ophthalmology. The new building is
fitted up with twelve separate wards, having forty beds in each, and a
special section for children.
[Illustration: OFFICES OF THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, LIMA.]
The old hospital of San Bartolomé was converted into a military hospital
after the establishment of the republic; it affords accommodation for
three hundred patients, and its expenses are paid by the state, only the
administration of its affairs being in charge of the Benevolent Society.
There is a special ward in the military hospital for prisoners awaiting
trial. The only conditions required of an applicant for admission to the
hospitals of the Benevolent Society are that the illness shall be of a
common nature, and that the poverty of the applicant must be proved. The
question of nationality or religion is not considered. The society
maintains an asylum for incurable invalids, to which are sent those
cases declared chronic or incurable by the attending physicians.
The asylums maintained by the Benevolent Society of Lima accomplish
great good among a class that is generally neglected. The Orphan Asylum
has two branches, one of which is for the care and protection of
foundlings, and the other for the education of orphan children of tender
age. The first is located in a large building, which has a revolving
cradle so arranged that, as soon as the infant is placed in it, a
mechanism carries the cradle inside, the little one’s identity being
completely lost as it passes from a world that offered no welcome to the
shelter of a home that receives it as a sacred charge. About two hundred
children live in the foundlings’ home, which is provided with nurses,
doctors, and the usual service of a well-regulated household. The second
branch of the Orphan Asylum gives practical instruction suitable for
children who are to earn their living later. The boys are taught some
trade, the workshops of the institution including those for the
instruction of shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, and printers; the girls,
as soon as old enough to learn, are sent to Santa Teresa to be
instructed in sewing, embroidering, millinery, and other handiwork. Near
the hospital of Santa Teresa is located the Asylum of Santa Rosa,
supported out of the funds of the Benevolent Society, supplemented by
the amounts received from the sale of embroideries, fine sewing,
artificial flowers, and other articles made by the inmates. In the
asylum of San Andrés, which in 1879 replaced the hospital of that name,
both boarding and day pupils are included in the benefits of charity,
the former numbering about a hundred children, and the latter three
times as many, of both sexes, between three and eight years of age.
Instruction is given in household work and in other practical subjects,
the children, at the same time, learning to read and write. A _crèche_
has been established where infants may be left during the day in charge
of a corps of nurses, while the mothers are at work.
The Instituto Sevilla is one of the most important charities in Lima. It
is named in honor of a philanthropic Peruvian, Don José Sevilla, who
bequeathed a large sum to the Benevolent Society for the purpose of
maintaining an asylum in which the inmates should learn occupations
suited to their sex. A hundred girls are educated in this school free of
charge, the period of apprenticeship lasting five years. In addition to
those already referred to, the Society directs a number of branches,
under various names, dedicated to the needs of the destitute. The
“Little Sisters of the Poor,” the “Infants’ Shelter,” the “_Olla_
(stewpan) of the Poor,” the “Ruiz Davila,” and others, not only provide
comfort and protection, but give teaching of a practical kind. For the
encouragement of economy and foresight, the society has established a
savings bank, with a section for mortgages, in which deposits earn four
per cent per annum interest. The Lazaretto is under the management of
the Benevolent Society, though in times of epidemic, the municipality
contributes half of the sum required for expenses. The care of the
insane is one of the charges of the Benevolent Society, and in order to
provide better accommodation for this class of unfortunates, a national
asylum is being built near Lima, which will receive applicants from all
parts of the republic. The asylum now has about four hundred inmates,
under the direction of the inspector appointed by the Benevolent Society
for this institution.
[Illustration: HOSPITAL DOS DE MAYO, LIMA.]
Among the important services performed by the society is that of
directing the burial of the dead. The public cemetery of Lima, which
covers an area of twenty acres, dates from the government of the Viceroy
Abascal, who first abolished the custom of interring the dead in the
church vaults. The present system of burial, known as the _Columbarium
Romano_, which consists of walls in which niches are built one above the
other, is familiar to all travellers in Latin countries. It was
necessary to overcome great prejudice in the beginning, a cemetery not
being looked upon as consecrated ground; but the interment there of the
Archbishop of Lima in 1808 sufficed to inaugurate the new system
successfully. The original construction of the Pantheon cost a hundred
thousand dollars. It is one of the most notable in South America for its
space and for the number and fine architecture of its mausoleums. The
entrance faces an open circle, or _plazoleta_, in which stands a marble
column crowned by a statue representing the Resurrection. On one side of
the Pantheon is the Civil burial ground for Protestants, and on the
other side is that reserved as a last resting place for the unbeliever.
In addition to the hospitals, asylums, and other institutions governed
by the Benevolent Societies in all the principal cities and towns, there
are numerous special charities supported by the departmental and
municipal authorities of the different centres, or maintained by church
societies and private philanthropy. The needs of the unfortunate receive
increasing attention as the public administration extends its vigilance
throughout the republic, and to the institutions already existing new
ones are constantly being added. The government recently granted
subsidies to the Benevolent Societies of Moquegua, Ayacucho, Huánuco,
Huancavelica, Huancayo, Caráz, Aplao, and Yungay. The hospitals of Tarma
and Moquegua have been enlarged and improved, and in the Amazon port of
Iquitos a new hospital is being constructed according to modern ideas
and plans. In the increasing progress and development of Peru, its
benevolent charities have received greater attention than ever, the
moral sentiment of the nation demanding that these institutions share in
the general blessing of prosperity.
[Illustration: MILITARY HOSPITAL, LIMA.]
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL, AREQUIPA.]