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1. New England and New York, by F. B. Sanborn.
2. Pennsylvania and the South, by J. L. Milligan
3. The West and North-West, by A. G. Byers.

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1. Report on State Charities and Pauperism, by John W.

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1. Management of the Insane in the American States, by Pliny
Earle, M.D.

2. Insane Hospitals of Europe, by F. H. Wines

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3. The Medical and Moral Care of Female Patients, by M.
Abbie Cleaves, M.D., of Davenport, Ia.

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4. Hospitals or Asylums for the Insane, by Henry W. Lord

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enticing their boys from home, and we then made a rule to receive none but homeless boys. We have offered them every inducement to come to our home: we have a tolerably well-furnished dormitory, and a sitting-room; we charge them nothing for their lodging; they have the use of the bath-room, and the only charge we make is ten cents for their meals: yet we have very few boys. I think there is danger of our making pauperism and crime in this country too comfortable. Extravagance in buildings for these classes ought to be discountenanced.

The debate on Mr. Lord's Report here closed, and the Conference proceeded to its final business before adjournment. The usual votes of thanks were passed, and the Chairman and Secretaries were authorized to print the Proceedings in such form and number of copies as they might find expedient. They were also made a committee to call the Conference for 1879, and to make arrangements for the same. Finally at six P.M. on the 23d of May, the Fifth Annual Conference adjourned.

girls; but we became convinced, on investigation and earnest consultation with those in charge of similar institutions, that it was far better to take girls only; and we intend to teach them useful trades and employments, giving them especially a thorough training in all kinds of housework, and sufficient schooling for all practical purposes. I am convinced it is far better for women to be associated with men in the management of such institutions, as it should be a work of love; a work for which nature has eminently fitted women to engage in, I believe, most successfully. It has been demonstrated in the success of Mrs. Lynde, a most noble woman (President of the Milwaukee Industrial School for Girls, and the first woman in the United States to be appointed on a State Board of Charities), that in jails and other places where the more degraded and hardened portions of humanity are found, woman's influence for good is greater than that of man. And, gentlemen, is this strange when we remember that almost every man, woman, and child, no matter how degraded and forsaken, must have some time known a mother's love and sympathy?

DR. BYERS stated that in Ohio the matter was regulated by statute law. Each county may build an institution to maintain a children's home.

MRS. DALL had some fault to find with Mr. Lord's report. He put forth as the reason for saving the girls, that the boys would thereby be protected. She thought that the boys were not so often lost through the instrumentality of bad girls as young girls were ruined by men far above their age. It was not one cause, nor two, nor three causes only, that produces the great evil of prostitution. Where there was an abandoned woman there must also be an abandoned man. In examining the statistics she had found that a very prolific source of the evil was that the girls were not able to earn their bread by labor. These girls did not come alone from the lower and middle classes; but the daughters of the higher classes, when misfortune overtook them, and they were unable to earn a living, resorted to prostitution for a livelihood. She had, for instance, found a minister's daughter, who had been well educated, leading a life of shame. Women should be trained to earn their own bread in honest ways.

Rev. THOMAS LEE, superintendent of the Cincinnati Bethel, said that there was a home for street-boys in connection with the Union Bethel. At first we received all boys who came; but mothers of boys came down frequently, and charged us with

F

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES,

HELD AT CHICAGO, JUNE 10-12, 1879.

OPENING SESSION.

THE Sixth Annual Conference of Charities convened in the Ladies' Ordinary of the Grand Pacific Hotel at Chicago, Tuesday, June 10, 1879, and was called to order at ten A.M. by the President, Hon. G. S. Robinson of Illinois, President of the Board of State Charities for that State, who made the following address, opening the sessions:

Ladies and Gentlemen, - This is the sixth annual meeting of the Conference of Charities. Hitherto its sessions have been held in connection with the American Social Science Association; but to-day, for the first time, it assembles as a separate and independent organization. I regret that on this occasion we shall be deprived of the presence and counsel of several able and distinguished gentlemen of that Association, who have been accustomed to meet with us; but can assure you that, although absent in person, yet in feeling, in sympathy, and in hope for our success, they are with us. I feel confident, however, that those who are present have come here with a determination to do their whole duty in the great work not only engaging our attention, but the attention of thousands of other philanthropic men and women throughout the land, and that our deliberations will result in more active, united, efficient efforts to mitigate the sufferings of humanity. The work in which we are engaged, the subjects we have met to discuss, the plans to be carried out, and the results we hope to accomplish, should command the attention of every good citizen.

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