his friends that he was without funds, Dr. Brocklesby called to ask him
if a subscription in his behalf would offend him. He replied, "I have
not wasted the little wealth of which I was formerly possessed in
self-indulgence and vain expenses, and am not ashamed to confess that,
in this my old age, I am poor."
Mr. Gideon, his friend, obtained various sums from those interested. The
late Prince of Wales subscribed twenty guineas yearly.
Captain Coram, content with supplying his barest needs, turned his
thoughts to more benevolence. He desired to unite the Indians in North
America more closely to British interests, by establishing among them a
school for girls. He lived long enough to make some progress in this
work, but he was too old to be very active.
He died at his lodgings near Leicester Square, on Friday, March 29,
1751, at the age of eighty-four, his last request being that he might be
buried in the chapel of his Foundling Hospital. He was buried there
April 3, at the east end of the vault, in a lead coffin enclosed in
stone. His funeral was attended by a great concourse of people. The
choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, with many notables, were at the hospital
to receive the body, and pay it suitable honors. The shipmaster had won
renown, not by learning or wealth, but by disinterested benevolence.
Seventeen years of patient and persistent labor brought its reward.
In the southern arcade of the chapel one may read a long inscription to
the memory of
CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM,
WHOSE NAME WILL NEVER WANT A MONUMENT AS
LONG AS THIS HOSPITAL SHALL SUBSIST.
In front of the hospital is a fine statue of the founder by William
Calder Marshall, R.A.; and within, in the girls' dining-room, is Coram's
portrait by Hogarth.
After fifteen years from the time of opening the hospital, the
governors, their land having risen in value so that their income was
larger, and Parliament having given £10,000, determined that their
institution should be carried on in an unrestricted manner, as is the
case in Russia and some other countries on the Continent.
In Moscow the Foundling Hospital admits 13,000 children yearly. The
mother may reclaim her child at any time before it is ten years of age.
The state knows that the child has received a better start in life than
it could have done with the poor mother.
The Foundling Asylum at St. Petersburg, established by Catherine the
Great, is the largest and finest in the world. The buildings cover
twenty-eight acres, and the institution has an annual revenue from the
government and from private sources of nearly $5,000,000. Thirteen
thousand babies are sometimes brought in one year, who but for this
blessed charity would probably have been put out of the way. Twenty-five
thousand foundlings are constantly enrolled. In Russia infanticide is
said to be almost unknown.
Married people, if poor, may bring their child for one year. If not able
to provide for it at the end of that time, then it belongs to the state.
The boys become mechanics, or enter the army and navy; and the girls
become teachers, nurses, etc.
The Foundling Hospital in London determined to welcome all deserted or
destitute infants, and save as many as possible from sin and want. A
basket was hung outside the gate of the hospital, and one hundred and
seventeen infants were put in it the first day.
Abuses of this kind intention soon crept in. Parents too poor to care
for their children sent them from the country to London, and they died
often on the way thither. One man, who carried five infants in a basket,
got drunk on the journey, lay all night on a common, and three out of
the five babies were found dead in the morning. Often the carriers stole
all the clothing of the little ones, and they were thrown into the
basket naked. Within four years about fifteen thousand babies were
received, but only forty-four hundred lived to be sent out into homes.
The mothers hated to part with their infants, and would often follow
them for miles on foot. The poor mother would leave some token by which
her child could be identified. Sometimes it was a coin or a ribbon, or
possibly the daintiest cap the poverty of the mother would permit her to
make. Sometimes a verse of poetry was pinned on the dress:--
"If Fortune should her favors give,
That I in better plight might live,
I'd try to have my boy again,
And train him up the best of men."
"The court-room of the Foundling," says a writer in "Chambers's
Journal," "has probably witnessed as painful scenes as any chamber in
Great Britain; and again, when the children, at five years old, are
brought up to London, and separated from their foster-mothers, these
scenes are renewed."
"The stratagems resorted to by women to identify their children," says
"Old and New London," "and to assure themselves of their well-being,
are often singularly touching. Sometimes notes are found pinned to the
infant's garments, beseeching the nurse to tell the mother her name and
residence, that the latter may visit the child during its stay in the
country. They will also attend the baptism in the chapel, in the hope of
hearing the name conferred upon the infant; for, if they succeed in
identifying the child during its stay at nurse, they can always preserve
its identification during its subsequent abode in the hospital, since
the children appear in chapel twice on Sunday, and dine in public on
that day, which gives opportunity of seeing them from time to time, and
preserving the recollection of their features."
So many children were brought to the hospital after all restrictions
were removed, in 1756, the death-roll was so large, and the expenses so
great, that after four years different methods were adopted. There are
now about five hundred children in the Foundling Hospital, who remain
till they are fifteen years old, when they are apprenticed till of age
at some kind of labor. None are received at the hospital except when a
vacancy occurs, as the size of the buildings and funds will not permit
more inmates. Usually about forty are received, one-sixth of those who
apply. There is a fund provided to help those in later life who prove
idiotic or blind, or unfitted to earn their support.
Sundays visitors in London go often to hear the trained voices of the
foundlings. The girls, in their white caps and white kerchiefs, sit on
one side of the organ, a gift from the great Handel, and the boys,
neatly dressed, on the other side. There is a juvenile band of
musicians among the boys; and so well do they play, that, on leaving the
institution, they often find positions in the bands of Her Majesty's
Household Troops or in the navy. Lieutenant-Colonel James C. Hyde
presented the boys with a set of brass instruments, and some valuable
drawings of native artists of India, for the adornment of their walls.
Some time ago I visited with much interest the New York Foundling
Hospital, on Sixty-eighth Street, six stories high, founded by and in
charge of the Sisters of Charity. During the year 1895 there were cared
for 3,109 infants and little children, and 516 needy and homeless
mothers. On one side of the Foundling Hospital is the Maternity
Hospital, and on the other side the Children's Hospital.
The cradle to receive the baby is placed within the vestibule, so that
the Sister, when the bell is rung, may talk kindly with the person
bringing it, and often persuades her to remain for some months and care
for her child. No information is sought as to names, family, etc. Other
infants are taken into the country to be nursed by foster-mothers, and
the institution does not lose its close oversight of the little ones.
When these infants are unclaimed, they are usually sent to homes in the
West to be adopted. Since the opening of the Foundling Hospital in 1869,
twenty-six years ago, 27,171 waifs have been received and cared for.
The "Nursery and Child's Hospital," Fifty-first Street and Lexington
Avenue, carries on a work similar to the Foundling Asylum, and, though
under Protestant control, is not a denominational enterprise.
In Cleveland, Ohio, one of the most interesting charities is the "Lida
Baldwin Infants' Rest," for which Mr. H. R. Hatch has given an admirable
building, at 1416 Cedar Avenue, costing $17,000 or $18,000. Babies, if
over two years old, are taken to the Protestant Orphan Asylum on St.
Clair Street. The "Rest" is named after the first wife of Mr. Hatch, an
enterprising and philanthropic merchant, who, among other gifts, has
just presented a handsome granite library building, costing nearly
$100,000, to Adelbert College of Western Reserve University.
When Reuben Runyan Springer died in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 10, 1884, at
the age of eighty-four years, he did not forget to give the Sisters of
Charity $20,000 for a foundling asylum. His family were originally from
Sweden. When a youth he was clerk on a steamboat from Cincinnati to New
Orleans, and soon acquired an interest in the boat, and began his
fortune. Later, he was partner in a grocery house. Mr. Springer gave to
the Little Sisters of the Poor $35,000, Good Samaritan Hospital $30,000,
St. Peter's Benevolent Society $50,000, besides many other gifts. To
music and art he gave $420,000. To his two faithful domestics and
friends, he gave $7,500 each, and to his coachman his horses, carriages,
harness, and $5,000. His various charities amounted to a million dollars
or more.
Most cities have, or ought to have, a foundling asylum, though often it
bears a different name. The Roman Catholics seem to be wiser in this
respect, and more careful to save infant life, than we of the Protestant
faith.
HENRY SHAW
AND HIS BOTANICAL GARDEN.
It is rare that a poor boy comes to America from a foreign land, with
almost no money in his pocket, and leaves to his adopted town and State
a million four hundred thousand dollars to beautify a city, to elevate
its taste, and to help educate its people.
Henry Shaw of St. Louis, Mo., was born in Sheffield, England, July 24,
1800. He was the oldest of four children, having had a brother who died
in infancy and two sisters. His father, Joseph Shaw, was a manufacturer
of grates, fire-irons, etc., at Sheffield.
The boy obtained his early education at Thorne, a village not far from
his native town, and used to get his lessons in an arbor, half hidden by
vines, and surrounded by trees and flowers. From childhood he had a
passion for a garden, and worked with his two little sisters in planting
anemones and buttercups.
From the school at Thorne the lad was transferred to Mill Hill, about
twenty miles from London, to a "Dissenting" school, the father being a
Baptist. Here he studied for six years, Latin, French, and probably
other languages, as he knew in later life German, Italian, and Spanish.
He became especially fond of French literature, and in manhood read and
wrote French as easily and correctly as English. He was for a long time
regarded as the best mathematician in St. Louis.
In 1818, when Henry was eighteen, he and the rest of the family came to
Canada. The same year his father sent him to New Orleans to learn how to
raise cotton; but the climate did not please him, and he removed to a
small French trading-post, called St. Louis, May 3, 1819.
The youth had a little stock of cutlery with him, the capital for which
his uncle, Mr. James Hoole, had furnished. His nephew was always
grateful for this kind act. He rented a room on the second floor of a
building, and cooked, slept, ate, and sold his goods in this one room.
He went out very little in the evening, preferring to read books, and
sometimes played chess with a friend. It is thought that he rather
avoided meeting young ladies, as he perhaps naturally preferred to marry
an English girl, when able to support her; but when the fortune was
earned he was wedded to his gardens, his flowers, and his books, so that
he never married. The young man showed great energy in his hardware
business, was very economical, honest, and always punctual. He had
little patience with persons who were not prompt, and failed to keep an
engagement.
Though usually self-poised, possessing almost perfect control over a
naturally quick temper, a gentleman relates that he once saw him angry
because a man failed to keep an appointment; but Mr. Shaw regretted that
he had allowed himself to speak sharply, and asked the offending person
to dine with him. His head-gardener, Mr. James Gurney, from the Royal
Botanical Garden in Regent's Park, London, said many years ago of Mr.
Shaw, "In twenty-three years I never heard him speak a harsh or an
irritable word. No matter what went wrong,--and on such a place, and
with so many men, things will go wrong occasionally,--he was always
pleasant and cheerful, making the best of what could not be helped."
Mr. Shaw gave close attention to business in the growing town of St.
Louis, and in 1839, after he had been there twenty years, was astonished
to find that his annual profits were $25,000. He said, "this was more
money than any man in my circumstances ought to make in a single year;"
and he resolved to go out of business as soon as a good opportunity
presented itself. This occurred the following year, in 1840; and at
forty years of age, Mr. Shaw retired from business with a fortune of
$250,000, equivalent to a million, probably, at the present day.
After twenty years of constant labor he determined to take a little rest
and change. In September, 1840, he went to Europe, stopping in
Rochester, N.Y., where his parents and sisters then resided, and took
his younger sister with him.
He was absent two years, and coming home in 1842, soon arranged for
another term of travel abroad. He remained in Europe three years,
travelling in almost all places of interest, including Constantinople
and Egypt. He kept journals, and wrote letters to friends, showing
careful observation and wide reading. He made a third and last visit to
Europe in 1851, to attend the first World's Fair, held in London. During
this visit he conceived the plan of what eventually became his great
gift. While walking through the beautiful grounds of Chatsworth, the
magnificent home of the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Shaw said to himself,
"Why may not I have a garden too? I have enough land and money for
something of the same sort in a smaller way."
The old love for flowers and trees, as in boyhood, made the man in
middle life determine to plant not so much for himself as for posterity.
He had finished a home in the suburbs of St. Louis, Tower Grove, in
1849; and another was in process of building in the city on the corner
of Seventh and Locust Streets, when Mr. Shaw returned from Europe in
1851.
For five or six years he beautified the grounds of his country home, and
in 1857 commissioned Dr. Engelmann, then in Europe, to examine botanical
gardens and select proper books for a botanical library. Correspondence
was begun with Sir William J. Hooker, the distinguished director of the
famous Kew Gardens in London, our own beloved botanist, Professor Asa
Gray of Harvard College, and others. Dr. Engelmann urged Mr. Shaw to
purchase the large herbarium of the then recently deceased Professor
Bernhardi of Erfurt, Germany, which was done, Hooker writing, "The State
ought to feel that it owes you much for so much public spirit, and so
well directed."
March 14, 1859, Mr. Shaw secured from the State Legislature an Act
enabling him to convey to trustees seven hundred and sixty acres of
land, "in trust, upon a portion thereof to keep up, maintain, and
establish a botanic garden for the cultivation and propagation of
plants, flowers, fruit and forest trees, and for the dissemination of
the knowledge thereof among men, by having a collection thereof easily
accessible; and the remaining portion to be used for the purpose of
maintaining a perpetual fund for the support and maintenance of said
garden, its care and increase, and the museum, library, and instruction
connected therewith."
For the next twenty-five years Mr. Shaw gave his time and strength to
the development of his cherished garden and park. "He lived for them,"
says Mr. Thomas Dimmock, "and, as far as was practicable, _in_ them;
walking or driving every day, when weather and health allowed, and
permitting no work of importance to go on without more or less of his
personal inspection and direction. The late Dr. Asa Gray, than whom
there can be no higher authority, once said, 'This park and the
Botanical Garden are the finest institutions of the kind in the country;
in variety of foliage the park is unequalled.'"
Once when Mr. Shaw was escorting a lady through his gardens, she said,
"I cannot understand, sir, how you are able to remember all these
different and difficult names."--"Madam," he replied, with a courtly
bow, "did you ever know a mother who could forget the names of her
children? These plants and flowers are my children. How can I forget
them?"
So devoted was Mr. Shaw to his work, that he did not go out of St. Louis
for nearly twenty years, except for a drive to the neighboring village
of Kirkwood to dine with a friend.
Nine years after the garden had been established, in 1866, Mr. Shaw
began to create Tower Grove Park, of two hundred and seventy-six acres,
planting from year to year over twenty thousand trees, all raised in the
arboretum of the garden. Walks were gravelled, flower-beds laid out,
ornamental water provided, and artistic statues of heroic size, made by
Baron von Mueller of Munich, of Shakespeare, Humboldt, and Columbus. The
niece of Humboldt, who saw the statue of her uncle at Munich, wrote to
Mr. Shaw, saying that "Europe had done nothing comparable to it for the
great naturalist."
Mr. Shaw used to say, when setting out these trees, that he was
"planting them for posterity," as he did not expect to live to see them
reach maturity. They were, however, of good size when he died in his
ninetieth year, Sunday, Aug. 25, 1889.
"The death, peaceful and painless," says Mr. Dimmock, "occurred in his
favorite room on the second floor of the old homestead, by the window of
which he sat nearly every night for more than thirty years until the
morning hours, absorbed in the reading which had been the delight of his
life. This room was always plainly furnished, containing only a brass
bedstead, tables, chairs, and the few books he loved to have near him.
The windows looked out upon the old garden which was the first botanical
beginning at Tower Grove.
"On Saturday, Aug. 31, after such ceremonial as St. Louis never before
bestowed upon any deceased citizen, Henry Shaw was laid to rest in the
mausoleum long prepared in the midst of the garden he had created--not
for himself merely, but for the generations that shall come after him,
and who, enjoying it, will 'rise up and call him blessed.'"
Mr. Shaw was beloved by his workmen for his uniform kindness to them.
Once when a young boy who was visiting him, and walking with him in the
garden, passed a lame workman, and did not speak, although Mr. Shaw
said "Good-morning, Henry," the courteous old gentleman said, "Charles,
you did not speak to Henry. Go back and say 'Good-morning' to him." Mr.
Shaw employed many Bohemians, because he said, "They do not seem to be
very popular with us, and I think I ought to help them all I can."
Mr. Shaw was always simple in his tastes and economical in his habits.
He drove his one-horse barouche till his friends, owing to his
infirmities from increasing age, prevailed upon him to have a carriage
and a driver.
Four years before the death of Mr. Shaw he endowed a School of Botany as
a department of Washington University, giving improved real estate
yielding over $5,000 annually. He desired "to promote education and
investigation in that science, and in its application to horticulture,
arboriculture, medicine, and the arts, and for the exemplification of
the Divine wisdom and goodness as manifested throughout the vegetable
kingdom."
Dr. Asa Gray had been deeply interested in this movement, and twice
visited St. Louis to consult with Mr. Shaw. By the recommendation of Dr.
Gray, Mr. William Trelease, Professor of Botany in Wisconsin University
at Madison, a graduate of Cornell University, and associated for some
time with Professor Gray in various labors, was made Englemann Professor
in the Henry Shaw School of Botany.
Professor Trelease was also made director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden, and has proved his fitness for the position by his high rank in
scholarship, his contributions to literature, and his devotion to the
work which Mr. Shaw felt satisfaction in committing to his care. His
courtesy as well as ability have won him many friends. Mr. Shaw left by
will various legacies to relatives and institutions, his property,
invested largely in land, having become worth over a million dollars. He
gave to hospitals, several orphan asylums, Old Ladies' Home, Girls'
Industrial Home, Young Men's Christian Association, etc., but by far the
larger part to his beloved garden. He wished it to be open every day of
the week to the public, except on Sundays and holidays, the first Sunday
in June and the first Sunday in September being exceptions to the rule.
When the garden was opened the first Sunday of June, 1895, there were
20,159 visitors, and in September, though showery, 15,500.
Mr. Shaw bequeathed $1,000 annually for a banquet to the trustees of the
garden, and literary and scientific men whom they choose to invite, thus
to spread abroad the knowledge of the useful work the garden and schools
of botany are doing; also $400 for a banquet to the gardeners of the
institution, with the florists, nurserymen, and market-gardeners of St.
Louis and vicinity. Each year $500 is to be used in premiums at
flower-shows, and $200 for an annual sermon "on the wisdom and goodness
of God as shown in the growth of flowers, fruits, and other products of
the vegetable kingdom."
The Missouri Botanical Garden, Shaw's Garden as it is more commonly
called, covering about forty-five acres, is situated on Tower Grove
Avenue, about three miles southwest of the New Union Station. The former
city residence of Mr. Shaw has been removed to the garden, in which are
the herbarium and library, with 12,000 volumes. The herbarium contains
the large collection of the late Dr. George Engelmann, about 100,000
specimens of pressed plants; and the general collection contains even
more than this number of specimens from all parts of the world. The
palms, the cacti, the tree-ferns, the fig-trees, etc., are of much
interest. There is an observatory in the centre of the garden; and south
of this, in a grove of shingle-oaks and sassafras-trees, is the
mausoleum of Henry Shaw, containing a life-like reclining marble statue
of the founder of the garden, with a full-blown rose in his hand.
During the past year several ponds have been made in the garden for the
Victoria Regia, or Amazon water-lily, and other lilies. On the approach
of winter, over a thousand plants are taken from the ground, potted, and
distributed to charitable institutions and poor homes in the city.
Much practical good has resulted from the great gift of Henry Shaw.
According to his will, there are six scholarships provided for garden
pupils. Three hundred dollars a year are given to each, with tuition
free, and lodging in a comfortable house adjacent to the garden. So many
persons have applied for instruction, that as many are received as can
be taught conveniently, each paying $25 yearly tuition fee.
The culture of flowers, small fruits, orchards, house-plants, etc., is
taught; also landscape-gardening, drainage, surveying, and kindred
subjects. "It is safe to predict," says the Hon. Wm. T. Harris,
Commissioner of Education, "that the future will see a large
representation of specialists resorting to St. Louis to pursue the
studies necessary for the promotion of agricultural industry."