call by telephone is received from the police-station, an officer of the
society responds immediately to this appeal.

As is most frequently the case, he finds a drunken woman in the street,
with three or four ragged children gathered about her, covered with
vermin, without fire or lodging, having been abandoned by the father.
The mother is detained at the station, but the children are taken to the
society, where they are washed, fed, and for the first time in their
lives, perhaps, put to sleep in a bed. On the following day, the
children are taken to court. If the parents or guardians are worthy,
they are returned to them; if not, the justice commits them to some
charitable institution. Some of these have a religious character, and
others a secular one; the American judge, in rendering his decision, is
influenced by interests of family, of nationality, of race, or of
religion of the child, as well as by the requirements of the law. Sick
children and nursing infants are sent to the hospital on Randall's
Island, the Ladies' Deborah Nursery, and the Child's Hospital. Each of
the charitable institutions receives a per capita allowance for children
during the time that they remain in their care.

The society does not abandon them, and if a complaint arises of improper
treatment, it causes legal proceedings to be instituted against those
who are responsible therefor.

A recent case of this kind was that of the "Old Gentlemen's Home."

It will be readily seen that the cases which come before the society
must be very numerous: during the nine years of its existence it has
investigated 13,077 complaints, involving 52,308 children, prosecuted
4,035 cases, convicted 3,637 offenders, rescued and placed in homes or