USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > A history of the Catholic church in the dioceses of Pittsburg and Allegheny from its establishment to the present time > Part 43
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A brief sketch of this useful Order and the object to which it is devoted will no doubt be read with pleasure. It was at the little town of St. Servans, near St. Malo, in the north-west of France, that the foundation of the institute was laid. The parish priest of the town, the Abbé Le Pailleus, had long lamented the destitute condition of the aged poor, and had begged of God that He would raise up instruments for the amelioration of their condition. His prayers were heard, and God selected the pious priest himself for the good work. He felt interiorly moved first to select a poor girl of eighteen years, and later to associate with her another, an orphan of sixteen, to whom he gave a simple rule and whom he tried for two years before making known to them the work for which he was train- ing them. This done, he committed an old blind woman to their keeping, and soon a poor woman living in an attic received
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them into her humble home. Here the foundation of the Order was laid October 15th, 1840. From this lowly begin- ning it grew to its present proportions. At first the aged inmates were permitted to beg ; but the temptations to which they were sometimes exposed soon induced the Sisters to re- tain this humiliating occupation for themselves exclusively, and it has become one of their rules. In the beginning the house was called "The Good Women's Home," but at the end of four years the present familiar name was adopted. The Sisters follow the rules of St. Augustine, and add to the three customary vows that of hospitality. This requires them to give up their own beds if necessary, and to supply the aged with food before partaking of it themselves. It does not, however, mean, as some persons imagine, that the Sisters eat the fragments left from the old folks' table, but rather that if the supply of food is not sufficient for both, the Sisters and not the aged must fast. The "good Mother," as the superioress is called, told me with touching simplicity that Providence does not often demand this sacrifice at their hands. Think of that, you who discourse so eloquently of "philanthropy," "the cause of humanity," etc. Have you ever denied yourselves a meal or even a luxury for the sake of the poor? But here we have strangers coming among us to minister to our poor, who labor without any remuneration but their coarse clothes and coarser food, and who are at times actually in want of the sustenance upon which their laborious lives depend. Enthusiasm may sometimes carry away one or two in a nation, but here we have under our eyes a sustained effort, the extent of which is almost incredi- ble. It is only in the Catholic Church that true charity is found.
The institute was approved by the Sovereign Pontiff July 9th, 1854, and it numbers at present about three hundred houses in different parts of the world. The first house estab- lished in the United States was that at Brooklyn in 1868.
The only conditions required of those who seek admission into the "homes" of the Sisters is that they should be at least sixty years of age and be willing to enter and remain. The poorest is as welcome as he who is able to pay his way.
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To return to the Sisters among us. A suitable house was soon found on Washington Street, Allegheny, directly oppo- site the House of Industry of the Sisters of Mercy. It is a brick dwelling situated on a large lot 66 feet front by 300 feet deep, and which was purchased at a cost of $26,000. It was immediately fitted for their reception, and the Sisters moved into it with their charge Oct. 21st, 1872. Prior to that date two of the community had died. They had now eight aged persons in charge, but the number increased so rapidly that the new home was soon filled and additional accommodations were demanded. Strong in their trust in God, whom they were serving in the person of His poor, the Sisters in the summer of 1873 purchased the house and lot adjoining that which they occupied, at a cost of $28,000. The house is a brick dwelling, and the lot is 84 feet in front by 300 in depth. This house became the men's asylum, while the other was occupied by the women and the community. But it was not long before both houses were crowded, for the Sisters refuse no one so long as it is possible to receive him. As to food, they trust to Him who feeds the sparrows. There are at present ninety-one aged persons in the two houses, and little does the world know of the sacrifices demanded from the Sisters in providing and caring for this peculiar charge. Their sacrifices are heroic, and are a living proof of the truth of the religion that is capable of inspiring and sustaining them. But it is not in the home only that sacrifices are de- manded; in their rounds soliciting aid the Sisters frequently meet with trials, although as a rule our citizens receive them kindly and appreciate the benefit they are conferring on humanity.
Such of the inmates as are able to work are not entertained in idleness. The women assist at the house work or sew for themselves, and the men keep the buildings and grounds in order.
It is the intention of the Sisters to build a large asylum when they are out of debt, but that cannot be for many years to come.
Mass is celebrated daily in the chapel by one of the Bene- dictine fathers from St. Mary's Church, by whom the other
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spiritual necessities of the community and inmates are also ministered to. There are at present eleven Sisters in the community.
ST. PAUL'S R. C. ORPHAN ASYLUM, PITTSBURG.
In a city like Pittsburg, which contains so great a laboring population depending principally on two or three branches of industry, there must necessarily be a large number of poor, for no species of manufactory continues for a long time with- out temporary cessations. Unfortunately for them there is also a delusion in the minds of many of those who work be- fore the iron and glass furnaces that makes them imagine that the use of stimulants is necessary to sustain them in the heat to which they are exposed. Agriculture, too, has be- come so unpopular that our manufacturing centres are crowded with a class of persons who labor under the delu- sion that because they receive regular cash payments they must necessarily do well. Yet nothing is better demonstrated than the fact that high wages and regular cash payments fos- ter extravagant habits and reduce many of those to ultimate poverty who receive them, unless they and especially their wives are well trained in the school of domestic economy. Unhappily this is not always the case. Many live up to their means, and if their income increases their outlay will keep pace with it. If there is a cessation of the weekly or monthly pay, they are in a little time reduced to the verge of want. Along with this is an unaccountable predilection for small houses with but one, or at most two, diminutive rooms but poorly provided with the means of ventilation, and of the use of even these scanty means the occupants appear to have no idea. An unwholesome atmosphere is generated which ener- vates the system and excites or increases an appetite for stimulants. Reform is necessarily difficult and slow, and as the greater part of these persons are Catholics, they leave, should death carry them off, a heavy burden on the Church to take care of their children. Half-orphans, or such as have been deprived of one of their parents, are often in equally destitute circumstances, and children both of whose parents
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are living are not unfrequently more to be pitied than orphans properly so called. They sometimes learn from a sad expe- rience that "a man's enemies are those of his own household." I have had ample opportunities for collecting information re- garding the condition of the destitute children in our cities. There are doubtless many poor children who have been re- duced to that state without any fault of theirs or their parents, but if there were no others it would not be difficult to dispose of these.
That an asylum should be of a reformatory as well as pro- tective character in a population like ours will be apparent to every one. But the successful imparting of such a character is one of the greatest difficulties to be met with in the man- agement of indigent and neglected children. Vices and evil habits are contracted at so early an age and are so thoroughly rooted and grounded in the child by neglect and by the bad example of those who should have been its guardians and guides in virtue as to become in a short time a second na- ture, and it will only be after long years of patient and pru- dent discipline that they will at length be eradicated. But instead of being eradicated they will often be found to be only slumbering, and will be easily roused into activity when circumstances are favorable to them. It is terrible to think of the part that parents sometimes play in misleading and ruining their own children. Another difficulty which those have to contend against who undertake the reformation of this class of children is that a large proportion of those who receive children out of the asylum ignore to a great extent the ob- ligation imposed on them of exercising care and vigilance over their moral and religious life. Under such circum- stances the child's training must be perfected in the asylum, or, if not, in many cases it will never be perfected. The ef- fect of past evil influence must be destroyed and the child must be armed against those of the future. For these reasons and for others of a less general character the proper manage- ment of the orphans and destitute children among us is a matter as difficult as it is necessary.
Recognizing the importance and necessity of caring for the small number of these children already depending upon
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Catholic charity, Rev. John O'Reilly, then pastor of St. Paul's Church, took measures looking towards the opening of an asylum in 1838. On the 6th of July of that year he organized "St. Paul's Orphan Society," with himself as presi- dent, Joseph Armstrong vice-president, John Andoe treas- urer, and Luke Taaffe secretary, and with a board of twelve managers selected from among the leading Catholic laymen of the city. To prevent confusion with a Protestant organiza- tion of the same name, the title was afterwards amended to that of "St. Paul's Roman Catholic Orphan Society." This society has existed to the present time, and according to the terms of the charter the board of managers must be selected from its members by an election held June 29th every year. But the society has long since dwindled into insignificance for want of being properly worked up.
A charter was obtained from the State Legislature April 3d, 1840, legally constituting St. Paul's R. C. Orphan Asylum, and authorizing it to receive, care for, and dispose of "any or- phan child or children, and such other children as may be deprived of one parent."
Father O'Reilly soon after purchased lots on the corner of Webster Avenue and Chatham Street, those upon which St. Mary's Convent of Mercy now stands, and having erected a building opened an orphan asylum, which he placed under the care of the Sisters of Charity. When these Sisters withdrew from the diocese, about the year 1845, the asylum passed into the hands of the Sisters of Mercy, who have since had charge of it. But the care of the larger boys soon began to present difficulties. A solution was sought, which was, as we shall see, by no means successful. A farm of 247 acres situated in the north-western part of Lawrence County, near the State line, had been bequeathed to the Diocese of Pittsburg by a Mr. W. Murrin, on the conditions that an orphan asylum should be built upon it, and that a resident chaplain should be stationed there. Thinking that it might be made a home for the larger orphan boys, who might aid in supporting them- selves by tilling the ground, a part of which was already cleared, a number of them were transferred to the farm and placed in charge of the Franciscan brothers about the year
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1849. A brick asylum sufficient for their accommodation was also built, and the result of the experiment was anxiously awaited. But the distance from the city, the inconveniences of travel-for none of the railroads leading west from the city were then built-the expense of purchasing stock, utensils, etc., and sending the n out, the impossibility of persons desir- ing to adopt boys going so far to make a selection, and a few other drawbacks, proved the project to be impracticable. But the use that was afterwards made of this circumstance as an argument against building the new asylum in the country was, to say the least of it, more ingenious than convincing. The children were withdrawn after a short time, and it was next proposed by some to open an ecclesiastical seminary on the farm. But that was not permitted by the terms of the be- quest. There is so little disinterested charity in the world that bequests are sometimes so hedged in with conditions next to impossible as to make them a burden on the hands of those who receive them. In order to make the most of it the Bishop sold the farm to the Diocese of Cleveland for $3000, about the year 1851, and it still remains under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of that diocese. (See St. James' Church, New Bed- ford.)
The diocesan seminary in Birmingham had been closed, as we have seen, early in the summer of 1851, and it was not the intention of the Bishop to open it again in that place. He ac- cordingly donated the frame building that had been used as a seminary, with 200 feet square of ground upon which it stood, to the board of managers, and the male orphan asylum was opened there in the latter part of 1851. Soon after a brick building was erected to serve in part for the orphans and in part as a convent for the Sisters in charge of them. The number of orphans naturally increased with the growth of the Catholic population, and at the close of that year there were seventy female children at the asylum on Webster Avenue, and twenty-four boys at that in Birmingham.
The proper training of the large boys was a matter that still puzzled both the Bishop and the managers, and another solution was attempted that was destined to be productive of as little practical result as that at New Bedford had been. In
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February, 1861, a number of the larger boys were sent to the farm at Cameron Bottom, and placed under the care of the Franciscan brothers there. Here it was expected they should learn to work on a farm, and should in due time be indentured to the Catholic farmers in the surrounding country. For seven years there were from twenty to thirty boys with the brothers. But the experiment did not prove successful. Of those placed with the farmers in the vicinity, part have done well and part have not, while of those who left of their own choice the result is what might naturally be expected. I have said that one of the greatest difficulties to be met with in the management and disposal of orphans is to find persons to take them who will devote the proper care and attention to their religious training. But in justice to all it must be confessed that asylums, owing to defective management, are sometimes to be held accountable for a part in this unhappy state of affairs. But while the shortcomings of one may render the discharge of another's duty more arduous or difficult, it does not exculpate him for his own neglect.
The younger male orphans remained at the asylum in Birmingham. But the building besides being old was no longer capable of accommodating the number of children for whom the diocese was now forced to provide. It was also desirable to remove the female orpnans from the asylum on Webster Avenue; the house was now unsuited, and the Sisters wanted it to accommodate their growing community. It was therefore determined to build a new and magnificent institu- tion, which should be a monument to the charity and zeal of the Catholics of the diocese, and the energy and enterprise of the managers. The resolution was also adopted of bringing all the English orphans of the diocese into one building. After considerable debating on the relative eligibility of different localities it was finally settled to erect it on the spot it now occupies on Tannehill Street, a little more than half a mile from the Cathedral and not far from Trinity Church. A lot about 300 feet square, with a street laid out through it, which it was believed would never be opened, was purchased at a cost of $9636.10, and work was commenced. In due time the foundations were ready for the laying of the corner-stone.
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The ceremony was fixed for Sunday, June 10th, 1866, and pre- parations were made upon a grand scale. The Bishop, the clergy of the city and vicinity, and Catholic societies with banners and brass bands without number moved from the Cathedral to the grounds in the afternoon, and after ap- propriate discourses had been delivered by the Bishop and others the corner-stone was laid with the ceremonies pre- scribed by the ritual. The building progressed slowly owing to its vast proportions, but by the exertions of Father Hickey and the board of managers it was ready for occupation at the end of a year and a half. The Sisters and the orphan of both the male and the female departments took possession of it in the middle of December, 1867. The old boys' asylum was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis who had lately entered the diocese, and the girls' asylum to the Sisters of Mercy.
The lot upon which the new asylum stands is from ten to fifteen feet higher than the street it fronts on, and is support- ed by a massive stone wall of that height that runs the entire length. The building stands back about twenty feet, and is brick trimmed with cut stone. It is 200 feet in length by 40 in width, and has, besides the basement, three full stories and an attic finished with mansard roof. A wing 90 feet in length by 35 in width extends back from the centre, the lower story of which is used for the kitchen and refectory and the upper for the chapel. The asylum was estimated to cost the sum of $160,000. But the proportions of the building will strike the reader as not being the best that could have been adopted. And when it is added that a corridor nine feet wide runs the entire length of the building on each floor, including basement and attic, that no room can be more than fifteen feet wide, while some are from fifty to seventy-five feet long, and that no two rooms communicate with each other except by the corridor, the mistaken plan of the institution will be yet more apparent. The boys occupy one end of the building and the girls the other, and in all the corridors, the refec- tory, and the playgrounds, partitions separate the one depart- ment entirely from the other.
But however successfully a girls' asylum may be conduct- ed in a city, it is not the place for a boys' asylum, unless
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some branch of useful industry be connected with it. As it is, the boys, even the largest, have no work, except such as properly falls to the lot of girls, and there is nothing to in- spire and foster that spirit of Christian manliness and self- reliance without which life can be neither successfully nor honorably passed by the poor. Besides, if boys, especially the larger ones, are to be trained to a really useful career, it must be under the guidance of persons of their own sex. Sisters may teach the branches that usually enter into the ordinary school course-and there are few teachers better than our Sisters-but beyond this is the formation of charac- ter, and that is in a great measure out of their reach. It is much to be regretted that the two departments of the asylum should ever have been united, but it is more to be regretted that the boys' asylum should have been located in the city. So long as it is there it must necessarily be a failure, so far as the larger boys are concerned, unless some branch of industry be connected with it, and this seems im- possible, at least at the present time. Had a small farm been purchased in some country place near the city, and the male asylum or industrial school been built upon it, the larger boys might have been properly prepared for the place they should hereafter fill in the world. And this could have been done under proper management with far less expense than has been incurred in the present asylum. Some of those who had the matter in hand were in favor of this, but the majority was against them, and objected that former attempts at a country asylum had not met with success. But while New Bedford and Cameron Bottom were at least sixty miles from the city, and it would require two days of exposure, fatigue, and expense to reach them, a place might have been secured without difficulty within less than an hour's ride of the city. It is now almost universally admitted by persons of experi- ence that the country is the proper place to train boys ; but wherever they are trained they must be taught to work. The action of many of the Bishops of this country confirms this view, and the success their experiments have met with proves the correctness of their theories, if anything so self- evident stood in need of confirmation. All the ends of a boy's
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asylum may be attained as well in the country as in the city, and some of them can be attained nowhere else but in the country. The religious and secular school training, being acquired in the institution, are independent of place. The health is built up more successfully in the country air. Boys have more ample opportunities of learning agriculture on a farm than on a small court paved with brick. Boys trained in a city asylum are of but little use to farmers, and hence it is that few farmers take them, and of those who do, but few are satisfied. Of what use is a boy to a farmer if he never saw a stalk of corn or a potato grow? But this is not the most important point. To teach children how to work is re- garded by some persons as the leading duty of a protectory ; but it is not. Why is it that a farmer's or a tradesman's son begins to work at a proper age, and sometimes before it, and does not complain ? It is not, as some imagine, because he knows how, for the fact is he has yet to be taught, and his teaching is, after all, a small matter; but it is because the scenes in which he grew up were of such a character as to impress the great truth on his mind that labor is man's nor- mal condition in this life. He knows that, as a matter of course, he must work when he is old enough. But train him in a city asylum in which there is no branch of useful in- dustry, and where his only work will be to sweep and scrub the floors and take care of the children younger than himself -girls' work-and you have taught him, on the one hand, to be ashamed of the only work he ever did, and on the other to take as little even of that as possible. Let the system of training be such as to impress on the mind of a boy from in- fancy that he is born to work, and he will readily learn to work. It was my good fortune to be born of very poor parents, and to be obliged to begin work when but seven years of age; and this was continued on a farm or in public works, with the exception of three or four months of school- ing during a part of the winter, for fourteen years. Even the summer vacations during my course in the seminary were given to hard labor. Hence, having labored from so early a period in life, and having been thrown among laborers as one of themselves, I had ample opportunities of learning what
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contributes to success and what does not. And I am con- vinced that the one point to which all should be directed is that of impressing upon the boy's mind, by the circumstances that surround him, that he is born to work. A system which aims at this will not fail to employ him usefully as soon as he arrives at the proper age.
Now, it is precisely in this that our new asylum is hope- lessly defective. Boys' protectories have been made success- ful in other places, and near cities much smaller than ours, which had not a tithe of the industries of Pittsburg ; yet ours, built at a time when Pittsburg was in the zenith of its pros- perity, is deficient in the most essential point, because a mis- taken idea of grandeur and not a sense of practical utility influenced those who controlled the destinies of the new in- stitution. There is not an asylum or protectory in the United States capable of accommodating the same number that has cost so much and is so deeply in debt; yet, as was said, the city that is unparalleled on earth for the extent of its manu- factories, as compared with the population, was then in its most flourishing condition.
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