The Unseen Conflict at the House of the Good Shepherd

The House of the Good Shepherd, at Ninth and Terrace streets, is one of the noblest institutions of the city. As is pretty generally known the home conducts an orphanage, in which are over fifty children at present, and a reformatory for wayward girls, of whom there are thirty-seven in the reformatory class. The home is non-sectarian and endeavors to render its inmates self-supporting by teaching them some handicraft. An episode related by the mother superior gives a good idea with what the institution must contend from without and within. She told how a child 13 years of age was seen to hesitate at the gate when she came that close to the home with her mother. It took some urging on the part of the parent to persuade her daughter to enter. She finally consented to pass the threshold. When leaving home the girl's mother had told her she would take her to Seattle where she could get her a position, inasmuch as she would not behave herself at home. They lived in one of the small towns adjacent to the city. It was a subterfuge on the part of the anxious parent to get the child into a house of correction. While hesitating at the gate the child said: 'I don't believe this is a private house where I am to get work; it looks like some other kind of a place.' She shrunk back as though something contrary to her wishes would happen if she allowed herself to be taken inside. The mother of the wayward child had signed a document agreeing to permit her to remain in the institution until she was of age. When she went home and told the stepfather he wrote a letter to the mother superior saying that he would never consent to such a thing, but would allow her to stay for a year. The mother superior did not answer him. A week later both he and the mother of the girl came to the home. They either wanted the agreement or the girl. The mother superior refused either at first, trying to tell them that she would be lost if allowed her liberty. The stepfather wanted to know why the girl must stay until of age. The superioress told him that the child had gone astray and could not possibly be reclaimed in a year. She would have to be confirmed in habits of virtue before she would again be morally fit to mingle in the world. He could not see it in that light, and must take the child—take her, as the mother superior said, back to her haunts of immorality, knowing that she must fall again. Seeing that such a course would not avail, the superioress turned to other tactics in the child's behalf. She finally said: 'Well, take her; take her with you, and mind, do not come again with her, for I will not receive you.' They did not expect this, and it rather shocked them. They then changed their tune, and prayed to have her kept until she was of age.