Seventeen Brought To Dubuque
Mr. Robert Curran, accompanied by Mrs. E. Higgins, the matron in charge, arrived
over the Milwaukee at 8:06 yesterday morning with a flock of orphans from the Catholic foundling asylum in New York. There
were seventeen of them who alighted from one of the coaches and marched in twos to the Page house. They were taken into the
dining room and seated at two tables. There were nine girls and eight boys in the lot. When they left New York Tuesday evening
at 6 o'clock on a special car, there were 40 of them. Some were left between Chicago and Dubuque, 10 at Bellevue and various
other small towns. They were neatly dressed, the girls in white hoods and neat, well made dresses, the boys in kilt suits
and sailor hats, and all of them appeared well fed and in good health. Their deportment showed they had been well taught.
Three and one-half years is the average of their ages.
These children came from an orphan asylum in New York City, founded by sister
Irene, twenty-two years ago, and which has, up to the present time, found homes for 23,000 children and has made provisions
for 8,000 mothers. There are at present 1,800 children at the home. Mrs. E. Higgins, the matron, who accompanied the children
on the train, has taken over 6,000 children to the west. Mr. Curran goes from here through Wisconsin to find homes for another
lot of fifty.
One little fellow, aged about four years, was given to his new foster parent,
a lady from Apple River, Ill., who was in waiting for him. The scene that followed was touching. The lady hugged and kissed
the little lad, and with tears in her eyes assured him that he now had a mother — a mother in every sense of the word
she will surely make him. A middle age couple from Centralia took away twins, a boy and a girl, both beautiful children, and
they would not part with them now for anything.
The agent says that this being a choice part of the country, orders are generally
filled to meet the request of those who adopt these little ones. Of those here now, three go to Dyersville, six to Farley,
two to Key West, one to St. Catherines, and the others to various other places.
-Daily Times (Iowa), June 9, 1893
