from an eastern city recently said, "Blankets, coal, food, clothing, amusements, medical attention-there is nothing we have not given, and the more we have given the less joy, energy, thrift and dignity we see among our people." And it is always so. Our object is not charity but to give the children an opportunity to work out their own destiny under the right conditions. In conclusion I wish to express my appreciation of your assistance and consideration. Respectfully submitted, ELIZABETH MCGREGOR. MR. HARPMAN'S REPORT. I began this period in the seventh district and have visited our children in the first, fourth, eighth, third, tenth and fifth, in the order named and am now again in the seventh district. I have spent considerable. time in the tenth or Duluth district the last year. The work in Duluth has been very pleasing because of the helpful interest shown by the probation and humane officers and the quality of the homes that have taken our children. One thing which impressed me very favorably when I began the work in Duluth and the thriving range towns was the age of the children these people had taken into their homes. A greater percentage of babies and very young children have been placed here than in any other district I have so far visited. It is the aim of most of these people to legally adopt these little ones. A larger percentage have already done so than in the other districts I have visited as was made evident by the greater number of certified copies of decrees of adoption I secured. One home of West Duluth was supplied a baby girl. The foster father found he could secure higher wages at his trade, that of carpenter, on the range, so he moved on a claim twenty miles from a small range town and built a comfortable home upon a hill overlooking one of our picturesue range rivers, a very pretty place, homelike and cheerful when one reached it. It required, however, two days of hard driving, riding in a lumber wagon over muddy or rough corduroy roads and part of the way no road at all, only a trail through timber. The road during part of the year is almost impassable. I was more than repaid for what difficulties I had experienced in reaching this home by the kindly greeting given me when they learned I was interested in their little girl. The mother explained how it had required two days of hard walking on her part through the forests and over muddy roads to reach the railroad at the time she went to Duluth to make the child legally their own. This home now has no school advantages and the neighborhood will furnish her but few playmates outside of the trees, the flowers, the river and the singing birds. But I left them feeling that their little charge would not be neglected for they plan to move to town where they will have school and church advantages as soon as they get a deed to their homestead. As this will be before the girl is of school age she will have missed but little for her early experience upon a claim. The large tax received from the mines adjacent to these range cities makes it possible for them to make public improvements that would be impossible for cities of no greater population in a purely agricultural district. This is noticeable in the larger and better equipped school buildings, better water and lighting systems, and other public improvements. In a rural district where it was difficult to find a suitable boarding place for their teacher they solved the problem by uniting two schools, building a two-room school on the ground floor and finished rooms upon the second floor for the teachers to live in during the school year. In another school there were not enough children in the high school grades to justify them in enlarging their building and hiring teachers so they are taking their children to school in a neighboring town. I rode back in their hack one cold morning and found it warm and comfortable. They seem to value these privileges more highly, at present at least, than in some sections where school and church organizations date back beyond the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. One thing our children, as a rule, can be thankful for is good health. There are of course exceptions to this rule. A little nine-year old girl I visited at her school impressed me as being very delicate and anaemic. I made some inquiry concerning her general health and attendance at school which resulted in the school physician's attention being called to her. When I visited her home I found her sleeping room had no ventilation. They promised to be guided by the school physician's instruction and to send her out in the country during the summer vacation. I later called again and was pleased to find that my suggestions had been acted upon. In another home that had taken a seven-year old boy, the foster father had lost his wife, one daughter and mother-in-law from typhoid fever last winter. Another daughter was convalescing very slowly from the same disease. This placed the care of the household upon one daughter who was about twenty years old. In speaking of the future the father told me that Willie had become one of the family, that he thought as much of him as he did of his two remaining daughters and that if it was in any way possible for him to keep his family together he could not send him back to the school to go out again to another home. Some of our children returned to their relatives are the means of re-establishing their natural homes. In this connection I recall the case of three little children who were sent to the school at the time of the death of their mother. The father, a good man, has remarried and established a home. The children have been returned to him. It was a pleasure to me to visit and to find them a united happy family. The motives which prompt people in taking children into their homes are many and varied. Some have no children and are lonely; others have only girls and wish a boy; some have boys and wish a girl; some wish help, while others have lost a child and wish one to take its place. I recently visited the home of one of our little boys who had been taken as a baby to fill the place of a baby boy which had just been lost. When he came to this home the people were in very moderate circumstances and their friends thought they were taking upon themselves an unnecessary burden. Since that time the home has not only been blessed by three little girls of their own, but they have also inherited property amounting to forty or fifty thousand dollars. It is the intention to legally adopt this boy. The foster father told me the boy came to him when they were in modest means, and would have had to share their hardships, and it is only right that he should share in their good fortune. To cite another case, I will only quote a portion of the applicant's letter to the school: "We are talking very seriously of taking a child. My own little ones are not little any more. The high chair stands in the attic and the little bed is put away. They might as well be used. Our nice yard would afford ample playground and our home and hearts need a little boy." They have their little boy. As a rule the happiest situations are those where younger children have been selected. I visited a family who had taken a brother and sister under school age and was much pleased in noting what they had to say in praise of them. I thought, as I listened to them, surely no one can say more in favor of their children than these people. It so happened there was a similar circumstance in another home in the same city. I visited the second home the same day and after hearing the children praised (in the children's absence) and after hearing them sing as they held each others hands and speak some little pieces they had been taught I came away feeling that these people had been made happy in doing a service to little children. We sometimes receive complaints of ill-treatment of some of our children. These complaints are investigated and the best interests of the child served. In one such case I was asked to look up I found the child, a boy of ten years, had been shamefully beaten. Before returning the boy to the school I brought an action against the foster parent who had beaten the boy, which resulted in a plea of guilty to cruel and inhuman treatment. The fine $20 and cost was none too large for such treatment. I have visited 704 of our children, 198 applicants for children, investigated 73 special cases, transferred to other homes or returned to the school 31, accompanied 25 to homes and secured 17 certified copies of decrees of adoption. I have traveled 23,310 miles by rail, 5,706 miles by team, besides walking many miles. My expenses including salary were $4,622.87, making an average cost per visit of $4.48. In conclusion permit me to express my appreciation of the help I have received from all those connected with the institution. Respectfully submitted, ALBERT J. HARPMAN. STATISTICAL TABLES. TABLE NO. 1. ABSTRACT OF FARM ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDING JULY 31, 1911. To inventory August 1, 1910 (including greenhouse). To charges from current fund, farm.. To charges from current fund, attendance. By produce furnished By inventory, August 1, 1911 (including greenhouse) Totals $9,546.65 2,746.87 2,088.55 ABSTRACT OF FARM ACCOUNT' FOR YEAR ENDING JULY 31, 1912. To inventory, August 1, 1911 (including greenhouse). $8,953.69 2,689.71 2,481.79 $8,207.82 10,105.90 4,188.53 DETAIL OF STATE AGENTS' ACCOUNTS FOR TWO YEARS. 10.70 68.04 6,227.32 $11,104.66 $21,503.12 1911-12. 1,491 $10,398.46 1910-11. 1911-12. 1,591 1,578 2,097 2,168 $10,398.46 $11,104.66 $5.12 $4.63 |
