I read an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press today about the many orphans who were sent from bad situations in the East (most from New York, I think) to the Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest.  'Orphan train' riders share common bondAccording to the story there were some 150,000 of these abandoned/neglected kids who were sent on trains from the latter half of the 19th Century until 1929.  Families would be waiting for the kids and would take them in, apparently without adopting them legally.  The article focuses on reunions of orphan survivors and their descendants who still meet regularly.  It appears that there are only a handful of these orphans who are still alive.  It's an interesting glimpse into attempts at fixing a social problem in our nation's history.  While such a thing might be despised in today's age, it must have helped many tens of thousands have better lives with more opportunity than they would have had growing up in slums.