diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33431.txt | 12504 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33431.zip | bin | 0 -> 270363 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 12520 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33431.txt b/33431.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af97681 --- /dev/null +++ b/33431.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12504 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dangerous Classes of New York, by +Charles Loring Brace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dangerous Classes of New York + And Twenty Years' Work Among Them + +Author: Charles Loring Brace + +Release Date: August 14, 2010 [EBook #33431] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DANGEROUS CLASSES OF NEW YORK *** + + + + +Produced by Gary Sandino, from scans by Google. + + + + + +Digitized by Google. + + THE + + DANGEROUS CLASSES OF NEW YORK, + + AND + + TWENTY YEARS' WORK AMONG THEM. + + BY + + CHARLES LORING BRACE, + + AUTHOR OF + + "HUNGARY IN 1851," "HOME LIFE IN GERMANY," + + "THE RACES OF THE OLD WORLD," ETC., ETC. + + + + "Ameliorer l'homme par le terre et le terre par l'homme."--_Demetz._ + + NEW YORK. + + WYNKOOP & HALLENBECK, PUBLISHERS, + + 113 FULTON STREET. + + ----- + + 1872. + + + +[Illustration: LODGING-HOUSES FOR HOMELESS BOYS--AS THEY WERE. NO. 1.] + + + + ------------------------------------------------ + + ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + + CHARLES LORING BRACE, + + in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + ------------------------------------------------ + +WYNKOOP & HALLENBECK, + +FINE BOOK PRINTERS. + + + + DEDICATION. + + ----- + +To the many co-laborers, men and women, who have not held their comfort +or even their lives dear unto themselves, but have striven, through many +years, to teach the ignorant, to raise up the depressed, to cheer the +despairing, to impart a higher life and a Christian hope to the outcast +and neglected youth of this city, and thus save society from their +excesses, this simple record of common labors, and this sketch of the +terrible evils sought to be cured, is respectfully dedicated. + + + + INTRODUCTION. + + ----- + +The great pioneer in the United States, in the labors of penal Reform +and the prevention of crime,--EDWARD LIVINGSTON,--said as long ago as +1833, in his famous "Introductory Report to the Code of Reform and +Prison Discipline": "As prevention in the diseases of the body is less +painful, less expensive, and more efficacious than the most skillful +cure, so in the moral maladies of society, to arrest the vicious before +the profligacy assumes the shape of crime; to take away from the poor +the cause or pretence of relieving themselves by fraud or theft; to +reform them by education and make their own industry contribute to their +support, although difficult and expensive, will be found more effectual +in the suppression of offences and more economical than the best +organized system of punishment."--(p. 322.) + +My great object in the present work is to prove to society the practical +truth of Mr. Livingston's theoretical statement: that the cheapest and +most efficacious way of dealing with the "Dangerous Classes" of large +cities, is not to punish them, but to prevent their growth; to so throw +the influences of education and discipline and religion about the +abandoned and destitute youth of our large towns, to change their +material circumstances, and draw them under the influence of the moral +and fortunate classes, that they shall grow up as useful producers and +members of society, able and inclined to aid it in its progress. + +In the view of this book, the class of a large city most dangerous to +its property, its morals and its political life, are the ignorant, +destitute, untrained, and abandoned youth: the outcast street-children +grown up to be voters, to be the implements of demagogues, the "feeders" +of the criminals, and the sources of domestic outbreaks and violations +of law. + +The various chapters of this work contain a detailed account of the +constituents of this class in New York, and of the twenty years' labors +of the writer, and many men and women, to purify and elevate it; what +the principles were of the work, what its fruits, what its success. + +So much interest at home and abroad has been manifested in these +extended charities, and so many inquiries are received continually about +them, that it seemed at length time to give a simple record of them, and +of the evils they have sought to cure. + +If the narrative shall lead the citizens of other large towns to +inaugurate comprehensive and organized movements for the improvement of +their "Dangerous Classes," my object will be fully attained. + +I have the hope, too, that these little stories of the lot of the poor +in cities, and the incidents related of their trials and temptations, +may bring the two ends of society nearer together in human sympathy. + +The discussion of the Causes of Juvenile Crime contained in this work +must aid others who would found similar reformatory and preventive +movements, to base them on principles and motives which should reach +similar profound and threatening evils. + + CHARLES LORING BRACE. + + 19 EAST 4TH STREET, NEW YORK. + +June 1, 1872. + + + + + CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS. + + ----- + + CHAPTER I. + +CHRIST IN CHARITY AND REFORM, AND CONDITION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN BEFORE + CHRISTIANITY. + +Exposure of Children in Rome--Comments by Latin Authors upon the +Practice--Terence--Seneca--Suetonius--Rebukes by Early Christian +Preachers--Quintilian--Tertullian--Lactantius--First "Children's Asylum" +under Trajan--Charity of the Antonines--Legislation of the Christian +Emperors--Influence of the Germanic Races--Legislation on the Exposure +of Children--First Children's Asylums in the Christian Era--Brother +Guy--Neglected Children the only Remains of Ancient "Dangerous +Classes"--Change Wrought by Christianity--Influence of Christianity in +Reform........................................................pp. 13-24 + + CHAPTER II. + + THE PROLETAIRES OF NEW YORK. + +Not so Numerous as in London, but more Dangerous--Dens of Crime and +Fever-nests--Advantage of Breaking them up--The Unrestrained Vices of +this Class--Their Ignorance and Brutality--Dependence on +Politicians--Gangs of Youthful Criminals--Similar Dangers here as in +Paris--The Riots of 1863--Numbers of the Vagrant Class--Composition of +this Dangerous Element........................................pp. 25-31 + + CHAPTER III. + + CAUSES OF CRIME. + +Preventible and Non-preventible--Ignorance--Numbers of Illiterates in +City Prisons and Reformatories--Orphanage--Statistics--Orphans in +Mettrai--Emigration--Effect in Producing Crime--Numbers of Prisoners of +Foreign Births--Figures--Hopeful Features--Fewer Paupers Immigrate--Want +of Trade--Selfishness of Unions--Aversion to Steady Industry..pp. 32-38 + + CHAPTER IV. + + CAUSES OF CRIME--WEAKNESS OF MARRIAGE-TIE. + +Reasons why Second Marriage is Productive of Crime among the Poor--Force +of Public Opinion in Preserving Marriage-bond--Weakening of it by +Emigration--Fruits of Free Love among the Poor--INHERITANCE--Power of +Transmitted Tendencies in Producing Crime--Hopeful Feature in New +York--Few Continued Families of Paupers and Criminals--Action of Natural +Selection in Favor of Virtue--Vicious Organizations Die Out--Explanation +of Extraordinary Improvement in Children under Reformatory +Influences--The Immediate Influences of Bad Parents Overcome by the +Transmitted Tendencies of Virtuous Ancestors, and by New +Circumstances--The Incessant Change of our People Favorable to +Virtue--Villages more Exposed to Criminal Families than +Cities--Causes................................................pp. 39-50 + + CHAPTER V. + + CAUSES OF CRIME--OVERCROWDING. + +Form of New York--Its Effect on Population--Bad Government Increases +Rents--Rate of Population to the Square Mile in the Eleventh Ward--In +the Tenth, Seventeenth, and other Wards--In London--Greater Overcrowding +in New York--Instance of Overcrowding in the First Ward--Effect on the +Criminal Habits of Girls--The Dens of Criminal Boys--Cellar +Population--Effect of Overcrowding on the Death-rate--Upon the Crime of +the City-Remedies--Better Means of Distributing Population--Improved +Communications with the Country--Cheap and Honest Government--Organized +Movement for Transferring Labor to the Country--Remedy in Sanitary +Legislation--Effect of British Lodging-house Acts--Cellar Population +of Liverpool--The Model Lodging-houses--Great Need of them in New +York..........................................................pp. 51-63 + + CHAPTER VI. + + CAUSES OF CRIME--INTEMPERANCE. + +The Power of Alcoholic Stimulus on the Laboring-man--Attraction of the +Liquor-shop--Terrible Effects of Drunkenness--Number of Criminals in +City Prisons Intemperate--Little Drunkenness among Children--Great +Effects of the Total Abstinence Reform--Good Influence of the Irish +Catholic Clergy--Necessity for other Remedies--Cultivation of Higher +Tastes--Influence of the Sydenham Palace Gardens in England--Effects of +Parks and Pictures--Open-Air Drinking not so Dangerous--Museums, Parks, +Gardens, and Reading-rooms, the beat Temperance Societies--Few Children +of the Industrial Schools become Drunkards--Comparative Good Effects of +Light Wines--Liquor Laws--Former Sunday Law a Happy +Medium--The Habits of the Germans should have been considered--Mistake +of the Reformers--Intemperance, next to War, the Greatest Evil of +Humanity--Other Remedies than Total Abstinence must be +employed......................................................pp. 64-73 + + CHAPTER VII. + + ORGANIZATION OF A REMEDY. + +Necessity of One Organization to Deal with Youthful Criminal +Classes--Error made of using too Technical Religious Methods--Error +of Following too much European Precedents--Asylums not so much Needed +in America--Pioneer Work among the Dangerous Classes Twenty Years +Ago--Captain Matsell's Report--Labors of the Writer in the Five +Points--Numbers of Homeless Children in the Streets--Sad Sight of +Child-Prisoners--"The Social Evil"--Mr. Pease's Labors--The Necessity +Felt of a General Organization--Novel Method of Reforming Young +"Roughs"--BOYS' MEETINGS--The Chaffing of Street-boys--Quick +Repartees--Kind of Oratory Necessary--The Lads Open for Earnest +Words--The Meetings only Pioneer Work--Succeeded by more Thorough +Influences--The Founders of the Different Meetings............pp. 74-83 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + A NEW ORGANIZATION. + +Foundation of the CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY--Touching Procession of +Homeless Children to the Office--The Feeling at its Foundation--Its +Objects--To Found Reading-rooms, Industrial Schools, Lodging-houses, and +Provide Homes for the Homeless--Dens of Misery and Crime--Thieves' +Lodging-houses--"Rotten Row"--"Poverty Lane"--Haunts of the Young +Wood-stealers--Hopes of the New Work--Workshops--Want of +Success--Causes--Necessity of General Education, rather than Industrial, +for Street-children...........................................pp. 84-96 + + CHAPTER IX. + + HOMELESS BOYS--THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE. + +Their Relation to the World, like that of the Indians to +Civilization--Life of the Street-boy--His Lightheartedness--His Moral +Code--His Religion--Few Addicted to Drinking--Their +Generosity--Policy-tickets--Choice of Night Resting-places--Necessity to +treat them as Independent Dealers--First Lodging-house for Newsboys In +the World--Mr. Tracy--Plans of the Boys for a Scrimmage--Their +Defeat--Remarks about their Beds--Origin of the Night-school--And the +Sunday Meeting--Surprise at the Golden Rule--Belief in Miracles--Pathos +of their songs--The Savings'-bank--Breaking up of Gambling and Money +Wasting--Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor--Their Fitness for the Work--Immense +Number of Lodgers--The Influence of the House--Payments by the +Lads--Description of Rooms--The New Building--Extracts from Journal +Statistics...................................................pp. 97-113 + + CHAPTER X. + + STREET-GIRLS--THEIR SUFFERING AND CRIME. + +Hard Lot of A Girl-vagrant--Sexual Vice--Dark Questions--Girls' Vices +More Degrading than the Boys'--Effect on her Habits and Character--Great +Difficulty of Reform--History of Prostitutes not Romantic--Their lives +the Fruit of Neglect in Early Childhood, and of Lazy Habits--Their Good +Qualities--Remedies for the Social Evil--Sad Incident of a Young Girl in +the Tombs...................................................pp. 114-122 + + CHAPTER XI. + + LEGAL TREATMENT OF PROSTITUTES. + +Should License be Allowed?--The Views of Physicians--Foolish Arguments +on the Other Side--Duties of a Physician Purely Medical--Objections to +License under the Moral Aspect--Bitter Misery of this Class of +Women--Effect of License to Encourage the Crime--The Recognition by +Law--Prostitution can be Checked--Condition of this Class in New York +Terrible--Necessity of Hospitals or Dispensaries for this Class in the +City--The Absurdity of the Berlin License Laws--Non-licensing a Terror +to Evil-doers--This Not a Proper Object for Legislators--Effect of +License in Paris--Superiority of New York to other Great Cities in this +Matter Partly Due to Non-licensing..........................pp. 123-131 + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE BEST PREVENTIVE OF VICE AMONG CHILDREN--INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. + +Public Schools not Reaching the Poorer Children--Numbers of Vagrant +Children Twenty Years Ago--Foundation of the Wilson School--The +Rookeries of the Fourth Ward--Dance-saloons--Crime of the Ward--Numbers +of Wild Children--Efforts to Form an Association among the Rich to +connect the Two Ends of Society--All Sects, and those of no Sect, +Invited--Foundation of Fourth-ward Industrial School--Description of the +Children--Influence of Volunteer Teachers--Their +Self-sacrifice--Description of some of the Ladies Engaged--Effects of +the Work on Crime in the Fourth Ward--Marked Improvement--Dr. Robert +Ray's Services--Remarkable Diminution of Vagrancy in the Ward--Instance +from our Journal--Average Expense of the School.............pp. 139-146 + + CHAPTER XIII. + + GERMAN RAG-PICKERS. + +Their Quarters on the Eastern Side--Number in the Eleventh +Ward--Formation of an Association for their Benefit--Its Moving +Spirit--Social Influences in the School--Its Effect on the +Rag-pickers--Aid from the German Merchants--A Devoted Teacher--Dutch +Hill and the Swill-gatherers--Description of the Squatters' +Village--Character of the People--Drunkenness--Faith of the +Children--Personal Efforts--Discouraging Features of the Work--Influence +of Roman Catholicism--Difficulties of a Protestant--Influence of the +Priests--Formation of an Association of Ladies on Murray +Hill--Foundation of East River Industrial School--Mrs. Hurley--Her +Devoted Labors for Seventeen Years--Attachment of Children to +Her--Reform among the Children--Influence of Volunteer +Teachers--Incidents among the Poor--A Heroic Girl--Happy Changes of +Fortune--Remarkable Success among Two Thousand Children--"Our +Failures"--The Beggar's Family..............................pp. 147-164 + + CHAPTER XIV. + + SCENES AMONG THE POOR. + +The Street-child--Effects of Drunkenness--A Mother Fleeing her +Daughter-The Dying Sewing-woman--Severe Labor--Christian Faith--Changes +of Fortune--Discouragement--The Iron-worker's Wife--A Little +Beggar--Religious Trouble--The Swill-gatherer's Child--Danger of Ruin--A +Reform--Present Condition of East River School..............pp. 165-173 + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE PROTESTANT POOR AND STREET-ROVERS. + +Formation of an Association of Ladies on the West Side--Hudson River +Industrial School--Perseverance of Volunteer Teachers--Protestant Poor +no Better than Catholic--"Muscular Orphans"--Wild Boys near East Thirty +fourth Street--Skillful Thieves--Efforts of the School--Transference to +Eleventh Street--Dock Pilferers--Success of our Efforts--Need of +Lodging-house in Thirty-fourth Street.......................pp. 174-180 + + CHAPTER XVI. + + NEW METHODS OF TEACHING. + +Generous Proposal of a Benevolent Lady--Her Labors among the Poor--Miss +Andrew's Teaching--Pestalozzi's System--Old Systems too Mechanical and +too much Memorizing--Effects in Loose Habits of Thinking--Inaccurate +Observation--Children Found Incompetent for Practical Life--Object +System begins with the Senses--First Learning of Colors and of +Numbers--Sounds Taught before Names of Letters--Dr. Leigh's System--Mr. +Caulkins's Views--Words to be Learned First, Letters Afterward--Spelling +to be Learned After Reading--Quotation from Mr. Caulkins's Work--New +Method of learning Geography--Geography Becomes a Natural +Science--Natural History Taught by Objects--Lessons in Morality and +Religion given in a Similar Manner--Weights, Measures, and Geometry thus +Taught--Definition Learned through Objects--Spelling and Grammar in like +Manner--Great Effort on part of the Teacher.................pp. 181-193 + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE LITTLE ITALIAN ORGAN-GRINDERS. + +Italian Quarter in Five Points--Cruelty of the Padroni--Rev. Dr. +Hawks--Signor Cerqua--Description of the Five Points' Italian +Settlement--Characteristics of Poor Italians--Foundation of Italian +School in 1855--Opposition of Bigoted Italians--Anathemas of the +Priest--Increase of the School--Mental Improvement--Moral +Progress--Gratitude of Poor Italians--Visits among the Rookeries of the +Five Points--Dens in Baxter Street--Feeling of Italian Children towards +their Teacher--Assistants by American-Italians--Co-operation of the +Italian Government--Generosity of Italian Children to other +Charities...................................................pp. 194-211 + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE "LAMBS" or COTTAGE PLACE. + +Mr. Macy's Efforts--A Free Reading-room--Earnest Nature of the +Work--Self-sacrifice of Lady Volunteers--Miss Macy's Treatment of +Colored Children during the Riots--Good Effects of the School in +Preventing Thieving and Begging--Cottage-place School--The Little +Beggars of the First Ward--Application to Trinity Church--Mr. Lord's +Valuable Assistance--Interesting Incident--Reform of a Street-sweeper in +the "Lord School"--A Ragged School on St John's Park--Fourteenth-ward +Industrial School--The Colored Poor--Other Industrial Schools--The +Shanty People near the Park--Interesting Night-school--Efforts to +prevent a New "Nineteenth street Gang"--No Children Admitted who can +attend Public Schools--Improvement In the Teaching--Superintendent of +Schools and Visitors........................................pp. 212-222 + + CHAPTER XIX. + + THE BEST REMEDY FOR JUVENILE PAUPERISM. + +Effects of Overcrowding--No Local Charities a Complete Remedy--Asylums +not Sufficient--Best Asylum, the "Farmer's Home"--Advantage in the +United States--Unlimited Demand for Labor--Best Remedy Emigration to the +West--Objections to the Plan--How they were Met--Incident of a +Waif--Humanity of our Countrywomen--Method of Placing Out the +Children--Difficulties of the Local Committees..............pp. 223-233 + + CHAPTER XX. + + PROVIDING COUNTRY HOMES--THE OPPOSITION TO THIS REMEDY--ITS EFFECTS. + +Hostility of Ignorant Roman Catholics--Objections of the +Poor--Opposition of the Asylum Interest--Arguments of the Asylum Plan +and for the Emigration Method--A Practical Test to Apply--Advantages of +the Discussion--Effort to Obtain Statistics--Figures of the Results in +the West--Testimony from Great Numbers of People--Wonderful +Improvement--Changes of Fortune--The Great Majority become Honest +Producers--Unlimited Demand from the West--No Indentures +Required--Virtues in both Plans--Opposition of Priests--Our Action +Unsectarian--Net Expenses for Each Emigrants--Amount of Returned Fares +Collected--All the Pauper Children of the City could be thus +Placed--Answer to Prof. Fawcett's Objection--Our Western Agents--Mr. +Tracy's Quaint Humor--Defective Children--No Accident has ever +Happened....................................................pp. 234-245 + + CHAPTER XXI. + + RESULTS AND FACTS OF EMIGRATION TO THE WEST. + +Our First Party of Little Emigrants--A Description of the Waifs--Hard +Journey in Emigrant Cars--Excitement of the Boys in the +Country--Reception in the Western Village--Their Sweet Songs--The +Runaway--The Placing-out of the Boys--The Lost Boy Returned--A Later +Party to the West--Eagerness to Obtain the Children--Sympathy for the +Boys--The Fortune of the Deaf-mute--A Hungry Child Placed in a Good +Home--From the Gutter to the College--Once a New-York Pauper, now a +Western Farmer..............................................pp. 246-270 + + CHAPTER XXII. + + A PRACTICAL PHILANTHROPIST AMONG THE YOUNG ROUGHS. + +A Description of the Office of the Children's Aid Society--Central +Figure--Mr. Macy--Labors with his "Lambs" in Cottage Place--Stormy +Meetings--His Influence over the Young Vagrants--The Growth of the +Mission--His Humor--The Effect of His Sermon on Stealing--Contest of +Wits--His Torments from the Girls--His Dread of Paupers--Efforts among +the German Children--His Diplomatic Tact in Office-work--His Letters to +the Children Stereotyped by the Thousand....................pp. 271-279 + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + RAISING MONEY FOR A CHARITY. + +Sensation to be Avoided--All Raffles and Pathetic Exhibitions +Declined--Our Experience with a Concert--Labors through the Pulpit and +the Press--Character of the Trustees who entered in the Work--Sources of +Income--Mr. Barnard's Bequest--Mr. Chauncy Rose's Great Benefaction--The +Income of a Single Year--Different Sources from which it is +Derived.....................................................pp. 280-285 + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + REFORM AMONG THE ROWDIES--FREE READING-ROOMS. + +They Require Peculiar Management to be Successful--The Eleventh-ward +Reading-room--Its Failure--A Reformed Pugilist--"Awful Gardner"-His +Career--The Death of His Son--His Reform--His Words to His Old +Associates--The Effect of Christianity--The Drunkard's Club in the +Fourth Ward--Mr. Beecher's Address--Gardner's Speech--His Influence over +the Rowdies--His Theory of Reform--Great Numbers Rescued from +Drunkenness--Failure of his Health--Genuineness of his Reform--Mr. +Macy's Reading-room--The First-ward Room--Mr. J. Couper Lord--Mr. +Hawley's Exertions--The Free Reading-room a Recognized Means of Moral +Improvement.................................................pp. 286-297 + + CHAPTER XXV. + + HOMELESS GIRLS. + +The President of the Society--Mr. William A. Booth--His Character and +Capacity--His Policy in Regard to the Lodging-houses--His Suggestion +about the Street-girls--The Histories of these Girls--Causes of their +Condition--Their Unstable Character--Their Condition Fifteen Years Ago +Hopeless--THE GIRLS' LODGING-HOUSE--Its Plan--Means of Filling +it--Miserable Girls who Applied for Admission--Great Difficulties +Encountered--Necessity of Confining it to the Young, and Those not +Vicious--Principal Frequenters, Young Girls between Fourteen and +Eighteen--The Matron--Her Characteristics--The House was not to be an +Asylum--Our Effort to put the Girls in Places--Struggles of Mr. and Mrs. +Trott--Incidents from the Journal--Cases of Reform--THE SEWING-MACHINE +SCHOOL--Its Great Success--TRAINING SCHOOL FOR SERVANTS--Results from +the Work of the Lodging-house...............................pp. 298-315 + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + THE NINETEENTH-STREET GANG OF RUFFIANS--"A MORAL DISINFECTANT." + +History of the Formation of the Nineteenth-street Gang--Our Efforts to +Reform it--Mr. Slater's Labors--Improvement of Vagabond Boys--Reform of +Petty Thieves--Good Fortune of a Homeless Lad--Warning, in 1854, from +the Danger of these Lads--Their Extraordinary Crimes--Murder of Mr. +Swanton--Murder of Mr. Rogers--Failure at that time of our Reformatory +Efforts--Renewed In 1865--Lodging-house Founded in Eighteenth +Street--The Superintendent--His Characteristics--The Assistance of a +Benevolent Gentleman--His Influence over the Boys--Mr. Gourley's +Economy--A Test of his Patience--The Ingratitude of Two Boys--Their +Improvement--The Reformatory Effects of the Lodging-house--Its Tabular +Statement...................................................pp. 316-329 + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + THE MINISTRY OF FLOWERS--THE LITTLE VAGABONDS OF CORLEAR'S HOOK. + +The Rookeries of the "Hook"--The "Gavroches" and "Topsies" of the +Quarter--Great Number of Homeless Children--A School-building turned +into a Lodging-house--The Superintendent--His Artistic +Faculty--Flowers--A Novel Reward for the Children--Distribution of +Flowers among the Poor--An Aquarium and Green-house--The Industrial +School--An Earnest Teacher--The Children Like Little Indians--The +Night-school and Free Reading-room--Sunday-evening Meetings--Assistance +by various Gentlemen--A Young Army Officer and others--The Effect of +these Meetings--The Purchase of the House--Begging Money for +Charities--A Disagreeable Duty--Liberality of New York Merchants--Labors +of Two of the Trustees--Gift of a Beautiful Conservatory to the +Lodging-house--The Attractions of the School-room--Mothers' +Meetings--Statistics of the Lodging-house--ELEVENTH-WARD +LODGING-HOUSE--The Little Copper-stealers--Difficulties of the +Superintendent in this House--Final Success--The Night-school, +Day-school, and Bank--Sunday-evening Meetings--Labors of One +Trustee--Our Hopes to Secure Better +Lodging-house--Statistics...................................pp. 330-338 + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + THE CHILD VAGRANT. + +Passion for Roving Among Children--A Rover Reformed--Sent to the West, +and Wanders over the Woods and Mountains--The Habits of Little +Street-Vagrants--Unaccountable Preference for Particular +Lodging-houses--Greatest Number in the Spring--Different Class of Boys +in each House--Mystery of what Becomes of a Great Number of +Them--Down-town Boys Sharper than the Up-town--Influence of Theatres +upon them--The Salvation of New York its Climate--A Corrective--A +License should be Required of each Street-trader--A License to be +Accompanied by a School Certificate--Such a Law could be +Executed--Success of similar Boston Laws--School-training Preventing +Vagrancy and Pauperism--Truant-schools not Needed--Compulsory +Education--Half-time Schools--Such a Law not Needed Formerly, Now +Required Everywhere--Statistics of Illiteracy--The Ignorant Form the +Dangerous Classes in this City--The Power of Prussia in the Compulsory +Law--An Approach to in the Legislation in the Different States on +Factory children............................................pp. 339-352 + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + FACTORY-CHILDREN AND THE NEW LAW PROPOSED. + +Experience in the Night-schools--Great Numbers of Young Children +Employed in Factories--Their Eagerness to Learn--Experience of +England--Statistics of Children Employed in Factories in New York--Facts +and Incidents--Mr. Mundella's Views of the Evils in this +Country--Massachusetts Legislation--Effects of the Law--Half-time +Schools--"Double Gangs"--Rhode Island Legislation--Connecticut +Legislation--Description of the Act--Defects of the Law--Hearty +Co-operation of the Manufacturers--The New York Law Proposed, Drawn up +by Mr. C. E. Whitehead, Secures Education for all Children Employed, and +Protects them from Dangers..................................pp. 353-365 + + CHAPTER XXX. + + ORGANIZATION OF CHARITIES. + +Enthusiasm of Humanity--Necessity of Machinery--Danger of +Routine--Importance of Interested Motives--Duties of +Trustees--Compensation--Charity should not be Too Much of a +Business--Importance of other Pursuits for an Agent of a Charity--Best +Constitution of a Board of Trustees--Importance of their Personal Share +in the Work--Rigid Inspection Necessary--Duties of the Executive +Officers....................................................pp. 366-376 + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + STATE AID TO CHARITIES. + +Discussion How Far the State should Aid in Charities--Dangers of State +Endowments--Weakness of Individual Charities--Danger of Machinery Taking +Place of Work--The Natural Family Better than the Asylum Machinery--The +Needless Multiplication of Charities--Bad Effects on the Poor and on the +Public--A Trade in Alms--Necessity of a Bureau--Should be Directed by +the State Board of Charities................................pp. 377-387 + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + HOW BEST TO GIVE ALMS--"TAKE, NOT GIVE." + +Reply of the missionary in East London--The Evil of +Alms-giving--Experience of the English--Everything given but +Education--Charity Expenses of London--Good Fortune of this +Country--Degrading Influence of Alms--Able-bodied Paupers in New +York--Transmitted Pauperism--Terrible Instance in an Alms-house in +Western New York--Outdoor Relief very Dangerous--Ought to be Limited in +this City--Private Alms Better--Abuse of Private Benefactions--Great +Number of Deserving Poor in the City--Policy of the Children's Aid +Society--They Desire to Prevent the Demand for Alms--Our Lodging-houses +Cultivate Independence--Boys Obliged to Pay--The "Howland +Fund"--Distribution of Gifts on Christmas--Objection to the "Bootblack +Brigade"--Our Industrial Schools Reformatories of Pauperism--Garments +given as Rewards for Good Conduct--Begging Discouraged--Parents Induced +to Save--Principle of this Society to give Education rather than +Alms........................................................pp. 388-397 + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + HOW SHALL CRIMINAL CHILDREN BE TREATED? + +The Child, above all, an Individual--Unsuited to be put in a large +Institution--Influence of a Number of Criminal Children on One +Another--Absence of the Most Powerful Forces of the Outside World--The +Work of a Reformatory not suited for After-life--Working the Ground the +Best--Garden-work very Useful for Criminal Young Girls--Mr. Pease's +Success--The True Plan--The "Family System"--Each Child does the Small +Work of the Cottage--Children near the Natural Condition--Only Defect +the Unprofitableness of the Labor--The Most Successful Reformatories of +Europe on the Family System.................................pp. 398-403 + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH FOUNDLINGS? + +The Need of Shelter for Illegitimate Children--Their Numbers in European +Cities--Estimated Number in New York--Number of Still-births--Relation +of Illegitimacy to Crime--Statistics in France--Foundling +Asylums--Terrible Mortality of London Foundling Hospital, also of St +Petersburg and Paris Hospitals--Former Great Mortality of +Infant-Hospital in New York--Recent Improvement--Mortality of the +Massachusetts Alms-house, and in Dorchester Infant-Asylum--Great +Difficulty in Raising a Child without a Nurse or its Mother--Best Course +is, "PLACING-OUT SYSTEM"--Great Success of "Bureau of Ste. +Apolline"--Mortality Greatly Reduced--Children Scattered over +France--The Outlay by the Government--The Moral Effects--This Bureau to +be Distinguished from Private Bureaus--The Boarding out in Hamburg, in +Berlin, in Dublin--The FAMILY PLAN--Tendency of all Civilized Countries +towards this Plan--All the Illegitimate Children in this City might be +Placed out in Country Homes--Duties of the Legislature in regard to +Illegitimacy--Objections to the French Turning-tables--Too Great Laxness +Injurious--The New York Law too Severe......................pp. 404-417 + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR STREET-CHILDREN. + +The Difficulties of Religious Teaching--Street-children not to be +Influenced like Sunday Schools--Rhetoric and Sentiment do not Touch +Them--True Oratory and the Dramatic Method always Reach them--They are +Peculiarly Open to Religion, but Exposed to Overwhelming +Temptations--Solemn Aspect of their Position to the Speaker--The +Problem--The Object to Implant Religious Love and Faith--Moral +Influences not Sufficient--"Bread-and-Butter Piety" Doubtful--Objection +to Prizes or Rewards--Religious Instruction not so desirable as +Religious Inspiration--The New Testament to be Preferred to the Old--The +Knowledge and Faith in Christ, Most of all Needed--What this Faith Has +Done, and What it Can Do--Mistakes of Sunday-school Oratory--Rhetorical +Pyrotechnics not Wanted--Allegory the Best Method--Our Best Speaker a +Sportsman--His Sympathies with Boys and with Nature--"BIBLE IN +SCHOOLS"--Religious Instruction in Public Schools Desirable, if all were +of the same Faith--Bible-reading used by the Priests Against the +Schools--Free Schools the Life-blood of the Nation--Protestants should +Never Allow Them to be Broken Up--Protestant Pluck--Are School Religious +Exercises of Much Use--Separation of Church and State--Experience of +England--Free Schools without Religion, rather than no Free +Schools.....................................................pp. 418-428 + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + DECREASE OF JUVENILE CRIME--COST OF PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT. + +Instance of the Three Brothers in the Newsboys' Lodging-house--The +Damage Inflicted by One on the Community--The Gain brought by the Labor +of the Others--Cost of Our Criminals last Year--Amount of Property +Taken--Expenses of Prevention--Average Cost of each Child in our +Industrial Schools--In our Lodging-houses--And when sent to the +West--Number Provided for in the Country--Crime Checked--Commitments of +Female Vagrants--Arrests of Female Vagrants--Commitments for +Thieving--For "Juvenile Delinquency"--Number of Girls under Fifteen +Years Old Imprisoned--Great Decrease of Crime among Girls--Crime Checked +among Boys--Commitment of Boys for Vagrancy--For Petit Larceny--Number +of Boys under Fifteen Years Old Imprisoned--Number between Fifteen and +Twenty--Arrests of Pickpockets--Of Petty Thieves--Of Girls under +Twenty--Estimate of Money Saved in One Year by Reduction of +Commitments.................................................pp. 429-439 + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + + THE CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE WORK. + +This Charity has always Encouraged Self-help--No Pauperism Stimulated +under it--The Laborer in this Field sees the Fruit--Harmony with Natural +Laws sought for constantly--Advantage Taken of Demand for Labor--The +Family Home sought for, rather than the Asylum--Lodging-houses not +Permitted to become Homes--Evening-schools--Savings'-bank, Religious +Meeting, and Day-school--All Stimulates Self-help--The Forces under the +Society the Strongest Forces of life--The Work Founded on Natural +Principles--Just Treatment of the Employes by the Trustees--This Charity +as well served as any Business-house--The Aim of the Executive Officer +with the Employes--Great Success of many of them--One Million of Dollars +passed through the Treasury, and not One Squandered--High Character of +the Board of Trustees--The Success much Dependent on them--Tabulation of +the Accounts--Long Services of the Treasurer, Mr. J. E. Williams--The +Sectarian Danger--Great Care to Avoid this--The Utmost Publicity a +Necessity--Need for State Aid--Sensation to be Avoided--Hopes that this +Charity will Scatter its Blessings for Generations to come..pp. 440-448 + + + + + + THE DANGEROUS CLASSES + + OF NEW YORK; + + AND TWENTY YEARS' WORK AMONG THEM. + + ---- + + CHAPTER I. + + CHRIST IN CHARITY AND REFORM. + + THE CONDITION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN BEFORE CHRISTIANITY. + +The central figure in the world's charity is CHRIST. An eloquent +rationalistic writer--Mr. Lecky--speaking of the Christian efforts in +early ages in behalf of exposed children and against infanticide, says: + +"Whatever mistakes may have been made, the entire movement I have traced +displays an anxiety not only for the life, but for the moral well-being, +of the castaways of society, such as the most humane nations of +antiquity had never reached. This minute and scrupulous care for human +life and human virtue in the humblest forms, in the slave, the +gladiator, the savage, or the infant, was indeed wholly foreign to the +genius of Paganism. It was produced by the Christian doctrine of the +inestimable value of each immortal soul. + +"It is the distinguishing and transcendent characteristic of every +society into which the spirit of Christianity has passed." + +Christ has indeed given a new value to the poorest and most despised +human being. + +When one thinks what was the fate before He lived, throughout the +civilized world, of for instance one large and pitiable class of human +beings--unfortunate children, destitute orphans, foundlings, the +deformed and sickly, and female children of the poor; how almost +universal, even under the highest pagan civilization--the Greek and +Roman--infanticide was; how Plato and Aristotle both approved of it; how +even more common was the dreadful exposure of children who were +physically imperfect or for any cause disagreeable to their parents, so +that crowds of these little unfortunates were to be seen exposed around +a column near the Velabrum at Rome--some being taken to be raised as +slaves, others as prostitutes, others carried off by beggars and maimed +for exhibition, or captured by witches to be murdered, and their bodies +used in their magical preparations; when one remembers for how many +centuries, even after the nominal introduction of Christianity, the sale +of free children was permitted by law, and then recalls how utterly the +spirit of the Founder of Christianity has exterminated these barbarous +practices from the civilized world; what vast and ingenious charities +exist in every Christian country for this unfortunate class; what time +and wealth and thought are bestowed to heal the diseases, purify the +morals, raise the character, and make happy the life of foundlings, +outcast girls and boys and orphans, we can easily understand that the +source of the charities of civilized nations has been especially in +Christ; and knowing how vital the moral care of unfortunate children is +to civilization itself the most skeptical among us may still put Him at +the head of even modern social reform. + + EXPOSURE OF CHILDREN. + +The "exposure of children" is spoken of casually and with indifference +by numerous Latin authors. The comedians include the custom in their +pictures of the daily Roman life, usually without even a passing +condemnation. Thus, in Terence's play (Heauton: Act iii., sc. v.), the +very character who uttered the apothegm which has become a proverb of +humanity for all ages--"I am a man, and nothing belonging to man is +alien to me"--is represented, on the eve of his departure on a long +journey, as urging his wife to destroy the infant soon to be born, if it +should prove to be a girl, rather than expose it. She, however, exposes +it, and it was taken, as was usual, and brought up as a prostitute. This +play turns in its plot, as is true of many popular comedies, on this +exposition of the abandoned child. + +It is frequently commented on by Roman dramatists, and subsequently by +the early Christian preachers, that, owing to this terrible custom, +brothers might marry sisters, or fathers share in the ruin of their +unknown daughters in houses of crime. + +Seneca, who certainly always writes with propriety and aims to be +governed by reason, in his treatise on Anger (De Ira: i., 15), comments +thus calmly on the practice: "Portentos foetus extingnimus; liberos +quoque si debiles, monstrosique editi sunt, mergimus. Non ira, sed +_ratio_ est, a sanis, inutilia secernere." (Monstrous offspring we +destroy; children too, if weak and unnaturally formed from birth, we +drown. It is not anger, but reason, thus to separate the useless from +the sound.) + +In another work (Controversi, lib. v., 33), he denounces the horrible +practice, common in Rome, of maiming these unfortunate children and then +offering them to the gaze of the compassionate. He describes the +miserable little creatures with shortened limbs, broken Joints, and +carved backs, exhibited by the villainous beggars who had gathered them +at the _Lactaria,_ and then deformed them: "Volo nosse," "I should like +to know" says the moralist, with a burst of human indignation, "illam +calamitatum humanarum officinam--illud infantum spoliarium!"--"that +workshop of human misfortunes--those shambles of infants!" + +On the day that Germanicus died, says Suetonius (in Calig., n. 5), +"Subversae Deam arae, partus conjugum expositi," parents exposed their +new-born babes. + +The early Christian preachers and writers were unceasing in their +denunciations of the practice. + +Quintilian (Decl. 306, vol vi., p. 236) draws a most moving picture of +the fate of these unhappy children left in the Forum: "Rarum est ut +expositi vivant! Yos ponite ante oculos puerum statim neglectum * * * +inter feras et volucres." + +"It is rare that the exposed survive!" he says. + +Tertullian, in an eloquent passage (Apol., c. 9), asks: "Quot vultis ex +his circumstantibus et in christianum sanguinem hiantibus * * * apud +conscientias pulsem, qui natos sibi liberos enecent?" + +"How many, do you suppose, of those standing about and panting for the +blood of Christians, if I should put it to them before their very +conscience, would deny that they killed their own children?" + +Lactantius, who was the tutor of the son of Constantine, in a book +dedicated to Constantine, protests: "It is impossible to grant that one +has the right to strangle one's new-born children"; and speaks of +exposition as exposing one's own blood--"ad servitutem vel ad +lupanar"--"for slavery or the brothel." "It is a crime as execrable to +expose a child as to kill him." + +So fearfully did the numbers increase, under the Roman Empire, of these +unfortunate children, that the spark of charity, which is never utterly +extinguished in the human breast, began to kindle. Pliny the Younger is +said to have appropriated a sum equivalent to $52,000 (see Epist., v., +7), to found an asylum for fathers unable to support their children. + + THE FIRST CHILDREN'S ASYLUM. + +Probably the first society or asylum in history for poor children was +the foundation established by the Emperor Trajan (about A. D. 110) for +destitute and abandoned children. The property thus established in +perpetuity, with real estate and money at interest (at five per cent.), +was equivalent in value to $920,000, and supported some five thousand +children of both sexes. Singularly enough, there seems to have been only +one illegitimate child to one hundred and fifty legitimate in these +institutions. + +The Antonines, as might be expected, did not neglect this charity; but +both Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius founded associations for +destitute girls. Alexander Severus established one also for poor +children. These form the only organized efforts made for this object, +during many centuries, by the most civilized and refined state of +antiquity. + +The number, however, of these wretched creatures, increased beyond all +cure from scattered exceptional efforts like these. Everywhere the poor +got rid of their children by exposure, or sold them as slaves. The rich, +if indifferent to their offspring, or unwilling to take the trouble of +rearing them, sent them out to the public square, where pimps, beggars, +witches, and slave-dealers gleaned their horrible harvest. At length, +under the influence of Christianity, legislation began to take +cognizance of the practice. + +The Emperor Constantine, the Emperor Valentian, Valens, and Gratian, +sixty years later, continued this humane legislation. + +They ordered, under strict penalties, that every one should nourish his +own children, and forbade exposition; declaring also that no one had the +right to reclaim the children he had abandoned; the motive to this law +being the desire to make it for the interest of those "taking up" +exposed children to keep them, even if necessary, as slaves, against any +outside claims. + +Unfortunately, at that period, slavery was held a less evil than the +ordinary fate to which the poor left their children. + +The punishment of death was also decreed against Infanticide. + +It is an interesting fact that a portion, and probably the whole, of our +ancestral tribes looked with the greatest horror on abortion and +infanticide. The laws of the Visigoths punished these offenses with +death or blindness. Their influence, of course, should always be +considered, as well as that of Christianity, in estimating the modern +position of woman and the outcast child, as compared with their status +under Greek and Roman civilization. + +At a later period (412 A. D.) the imperial legislation again endeavored +to prevent the reclaiming of exposed children from compassionate persons +who had taken them. "Were they right to say that those children belonged +to them when they had despised them even to the point of abandoning them +to death?" + +It was provided also, that in future no one should "take from the +ground" exposed children except in the presence of witnesses, and that +the archbishop should put his signature on the document of guardianship +which was prepared. (Cod. Theod., lib. 5, tit. 7, De Expositis.) + +Hitherto, exposed children had generally been taken and reared as +slaves; but in A. D. 529, Justinian decreed that not only the father +lost all legitimate authority over the child if he exposed it, but also +that the child itself preserved its liberty. + +This law applied only to the Eastern Empire; in the Western the slavery +of exposed children continued for centuries. (Lecky: Hist. of Europ. +Morals, vol. ii, p. 32.) The Christian churches throughout the early +centuries took especial care of orphans, in parish orphan nurseries, or +_orphanotrophioe._ + +The first asylums for deserted and foundling children which are recorded +in the Christian era are one in Treves in the sixth century, one at +Angiers in the seventh, and a more famous one in Milan, A. D. 787. + +Societies for the protection of children were also formed in Milan in +the middle of the twelfth century. + +At the end of that century a monk of Montpelier, Brother GUY, formed +what may be called the first "Children's Aid Society," for the +protection, shelter, and education of destitute children, a fraternity +which subsequently spread over Europe. + +One great cause of the final extreme corruption and extinction of +ancient pagan society was the existence of large classes of unfortunate +beings, whom no social moral movement of renovation ever reached--the +slaves, the gladiators, the barbarian strangers, and the outcast +children. + +To all these deep strata of misery and crime Christianity gradually +penetrated, and brought life and light, and finally an almost entire +metamorphosis. As criminal and unfortunate classes, they have--with the +exception only of the children--ceased to exist under modern +civilization. We have no longer at the basis of modern society the +dangers of a multitude of ignorant slaves, or of disaffected barbarous +foreigners, or of a profession of gladiators--brutal, brutalizing; but +we do still have masses of unfortunate youth, whose condition, though +immensely improved, and lightened by the influences of Christianity, is +still one of the most threatening and painful phenomena of modern +society in nearly all civilized countries. + +Still, unlike the experience of Paganism under the Roman Empire and +before it, rays of light, of intelligence, and of moral and spiritual +influence penetrate to the depths of these masses. The spirit of Christ +is slowly and irresistibly permeating even this lowest class of +miserable, unfortunate, or criminal beings; inspiring those who +perseveringly labor for them, drawing from wealth its dole and from +intelligence its service of love, educating the fortunate in the habit +of duty to the unfortunate, giving a dignity to the most degraded, and +offering hope to the despairing. + +CHRIST leads the Reform of the world, as well as its Charity. + +Those who have much to do with alms-giving and plans of human +improvement soon see how superficial and comparatively useless all +assistance or organization is, which does not touch habits of life and +the inner forces which form character. The poor helped each year become +poorer in force and independence. Education is a better preventive of +pauperism than charity. The best police and the most complete form of +government are nothing if the individual morality be not there. But +Christianity is the highest education of character. Give the poor that, +and only seldom will either alms or punishment be necessary. + +When one comes to know the peculiar overpowering temptations which beset +the class of unfortunate children and similar, classes; the inducements +to sharpness, deception, roguery, lying, fraud, coarseness, vice in many +forms, besides toward open offenses against the law; the few restraining +influences in social opinion, good example, or inherited self-control; +the forces without and the organization within impelling to crime, and +then sees how immensely powerful the belief in and love for a +supernatural and noble character and Friend is upon such wild natures; +how it inspires to nobleness, restrains low passions, changes bad +habits, and transforms base hearts; how the thoughts of this +supernatural Friend can accompany a child of the street, and make his +daily hard life an offering of loving service; how the unseen sympathy +can dry the orphan's tears, and throw a light of cheerfulness around the +wan, pale face of the little vagrant, and bring down something of the +splendor of heaven to the dark cellars and dreary dens of a great city: +whoever has had this experience--not once, but many times--will begin to +understand that Christ must lead Reform as well as Charity, and that +without Him the worst diseases of modern society can never be cured. + +[Illustration: THE FORTUNES OF A STREET WAIF. (First Stage.)] + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE PROLETAIRES OF NEW YORK. + +New York is a much younger city than its European rivals; and with +perhaps one-third the population of London, yet it presents varieties of +life among the "masses" quite as picturesque, and elements of population +even more dangerous. The throng of different nationalities in the +American city gives a peculiarly variegated air to the life beneath the +surface, and the enormous over-crowding in portions of the poor quarters +intensifies the evils, peculiar to large towns, to a degree seen only in +a few districts in such cities as London and Liverpool. + +The _mass_ of poverty and wretchedness is, of course, far greater in the +English capital. There are classes with inherited pauperism and crime +more deeply stamped in them, in London or Glasgow, than we ever behold +in New York; but certain small districts can be found in our metropolis +with the unhappy fame of containing more human beings packed to the +square yard, and stained with more acts of blood and riot, within a +given period, than is true of any other equal space of earth in the +civilized world. + +There are houses, well known to sanitary boards and the police, where +Fever has taken a perennial lease, and will obey no legal summons to +quit; where Cholera--if a single germ-seed of it float anywhere in +American atmosphere--at once ripens a black harvest; where Murder has +stained every floor of its gloomy stories, and Vice skulks or riots from +one year's end to the other. Such houses are never reformed. The only +hope for them is in the march of street improvements, which will utterly +sweep them away. + +It is often urged that the breaking-up of these "dens" and "fever-nests" +only scatters the pestilence and moral disease, but does not put an end +to them. + +The objection is more apparent than real. The abolishing of one of these +centres of crime and poverty is somewhat like withdrawing the virus from +one diseased limb and diffusing it through an otherwise healthy body. It +seems to lose its intensity. The diffusion weakens. Above all, it is +less likely to become hereditary. + +One of the remarkable and hopeful things about New York, to a close +observer of its "dangerous classes," is, as I shall show in a future +chapter, that they do not tend to become fixed and inherited, as in +European cities. + +But, though the crime and pauperism of New York are not so deeply +stamped in the blood of the population, they are even more dangerous. +The intensity of the American temperament is felt in every fibre of +these children of poverty and vice. Their crimes have the unrestrained +and sanguinary character of a race accustomed to overcome all obstacles. +They rifle a bank, where English thieves pick a pocket; they murder, +where European _proletaires_ cudgel or fight with fists; in a riot, they +begin what seems about to be the sacking of a city, where English +rioters would merely batter policemen, or smash lamps. The "dangerous +classes" of New York are mainly American-born, but the children of Irish +and German immigrants. They are as ignorant as London flash-men or +costermongers. They are far more brutal than the peasantry from whom +they descend, and they are much banded together, in associations, such +as "Dead Rabbit," "Plug-ugly," and various target companies. They are +our _enfants perdus,_ grown up to young manhood. The murder of an +unoffending old man, like Mr. Rogers, is nothing to them. They are ready +for any offense or crime, however degraded or bloody. New York has never +experienced the full effect of the nurture of these youthful ruffians as +she will one day. They showed their hand only slightly in the riots +during the war. At present, they are like the athletes and gladiators of +the Roman demagogues. They are the "roughs" who sustain the ward +politicians, and frighten honest voters. They can "repeat" to an +unlimited extent, and serve their employers. They live on _"panem et +circenses,"_ or City-Hall places and pot-houses, where they have full +credit. + +We shall speak more particularly of the causes of crime in future +chapters, but we may say in brief, that the young ruffians of New York +are the products of accident, ignorance, and vice. Among a million +people, such as compose the population of this city and its suburbs, +there will always be a great number of misfortunes; fathers die, and +leave their children unprovided for; parents drink, and abuse their +little ones, and they float away on the currents of the street; +step-mothers or step-fathers drive out, by neglect and ill-treatment, +their sons from home. Thousands are the children of poor foreigners, who +have permitted them to grow up without school, education, or religion. +All the neglect and bad education and evil example of a poor class tend +to form others, who, as they mature, swell the ranks of ruffians and +criminals. So, at length, a great multitude of ignorant, untrained, +passionate, irreligious boys and young men are formed, who become the +"dangerous class" of our city. They form the "Nineteenth-street Gangs," +the young burglars and murderers, the garroters and rioters, the thieves +and flash-men, the "repeaters" and ruffians, so well known to all who +know this metropolis. + + THE DANGERS. + +It has been common, since the recent terrible Communistic outbreak in +Paris, to assume that France alone is exposed to such horrors; but, in +the judgment of one who has been familiar with our "dangerous classes" +for twenty years, there are just the same explosive social elements +beneath the surface of New York as of Paris. + +There are thousands on thousands in New York who have no assignable +home, and "flit" from attic to attic, and cellar to cellar; there are +other thousands more or less connected with criminal enterprises; and +still other tens of thousands, poor, hard-pressed, and depending for +daily bread on the day's earnings, swarming in tenement-houses, who +behold the gilded rewards of toil all about them, but are never +permitted to touch them. + +All these great masses of destitute, miserable, and criminal persons +believe that for ages the rich have had all the good things of life, +while to them have been left the evil things. Capital to them is the +tyrant. + +Let but Law lift its hand from them for a season, or let the civilizing +influences of American life fail to reach them, and, if the opportunity +offered, we should see an explosion from this class which might leave +this city in ashes and blood. + +To those incredulous of this, we would recall the scenes in our streets +during the riots in 1863, when, for a short period, the guardians of +good order--the local militia--had been withdrawn for national purposes, +and when the ignorant masses were excited by dread of the draft. + +Who will ever forget the marvelous rapidity with which the better +streets were filled with a ruffianly and desperate multitude, such as in +ordinary times we seldom see--creatures who seemed to have crept from +their burrows and dens to join in the plunder of the city--how quickly +certain houses were marked out for sacking and ruin, and what wild and +brutal crimes were committed on the unoffending negroes? It will be +recalled, too, how much _women_ figured in these horrible scenes, as +they did in the Communistic outbreak in Paris. It was evident to all +careful observers then, that had another day of license been given the +crowd, the attack would have been directed at the apparent wealth of the +city--the banks, jewelers' shops, and rich private houses. + +No one doubted then, or during the Orange riot of 1871, the existence of +"dangerous classes" in New York. And yet the separate members of these +riotous and ruffianly masses are simply neglected and street-wandering +children who have come to early manhood. + +The true preventive of social catastrophes like these, are just such +Christian reformatory and educational movements as we are about to +describe. + +Of the number of the distinctly homeless and vagrant youth in New York, +it is difficult to speak with precision. We should be inclined to +estimate it, after long observation, as fluctuating each year between +20,000 and 30,000. [The homeless children who come each year under the +charitable efforts afterwards to be described amount to some 12,000.] +But to these, as they mature, must be added, in the composition of the +dangerous classes, all those who are professionally criminal, and who +have homes and lodging-places. And again to these, portions of that vast +and ignorant [It should be remembered that there are in this city over +60,000 persons above ten years of age who cannot write their names.] +multitude, who, in prosperous times, just keep their heads above water, +who are pressed down by poverty or misfortune, and who look with envy +and greed at the signs of wealth and luxury all around them, while they +themselves have nothing but hardship, penury, and unceasing drudgery. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE CAUSES OF CRIME. + +The great practical division of causes of crime may be made into +preventible and non-preventible. Among the preventible, or those which +can be in good part removed, may be placed ignorance, intemperance, +over-crowding of population, want of work, idleness, vagrancy, the +weakness of the marriage-tie, and bad legislation. + +Among those which cannot be entirely removed are inheritance, the +effects of emigration, orphanage, accident or misfortune, the strength +of the sexual and other passions, and a natural weakness of moral or +mental powers. + + IGNORANCE. + +There needs hardly a word to be said in this country on the intimate +connection between ignorance and crime. + +The precise statistical relation between them in the State of New York +would seem to be this: about thirty-one per cent. of the adult criminals +cannot read or write, while of the adult population at large about six +(6.08) per cent. are illiterate; or nearly one-third of the crime is +committed by six-hundredths of the population. In the city prisons for +1870, out of 49,423 criminals, 18,442 could not write and could barely +read, or more than thirty-three per cent. + +[Illustration: THE FORTUNES OF A STREET WAIF. (Second Stage.)] + +In the Reformatories of the country, according to the statement of Dr. +Bittinger before the National Congress on prison-discipline at +Cincinnati, out of the average number of the inmates for 1868, of 7,963 +twenty-seven per cent. were wholly illiterate. + +Very great criminality is, of course, possible with high education; but +in the immense majority of cases a very small degree of mental training +or intellectual tastes is a preventive of idleness and consequent crime +and of extreme poverty. The difference between knowing how to read and +not knowing will often be the line between utter poverty and a capacity +for various occupations. + +Among the inmates of the city prisons a large percentage are without a +trade, and no doubt this idle condition is largely due to their +ignorance and is one of the great stimulants to their criminal course. +Who can say how much the knowledge of Geography alone may stimulate a +child or a youth to emigrate, and thus leave his immediate temptations +and escape pressing poverty? + + ORPHANAGE. + +Out of 452 criminal children received into the House of Refuge in New +York during 1870, only 187 had both parents living, so that nearly sixty +per cent. had lost one or both of their parents, or were otherwise +separated from them. + +According to Dr. Bittinger, [Transactions of the National Congress, p. +279.] of the 7,963 inmates of the reformatories in the United States in +1870, fifty-five per cent. were orphans or half orphans. + +The following figures strikingly show the extent to which orphanage and +inheritance influence the moral condition of children. + +Mettrai, the celebrated French reformatory, has received since its +foundation 3,580 youthful inmates. Of these, there are 707 whose parents +are convicts; 308 whose parents live in concubinage; 534 "natural" +children; 221 foundlings; 504 children of a second marriage; and 1,542 +without either father or mother. [Une visite a Mettrai. Paris, 1868.] + +An intelligent French writer, M. de Marsangy, [Moralisation de l'enfance +coupable, p. 18.] in writing of the causes of juvenile crime in France, +says that "a fifth of those who have been the objects of judicial +pursuit are composed of orphans; the half have no father, a quarter no +mother, and as for those who have a family, nearly all are dragged by it +into evil." + + EMIGRATION. + +There is no question that the breaking of the ties with one's country +has a bad moral effect, especially on a laboring class. The Emigrant is +released from the social inspection and judgment to which he has been +subjected at home, and the tie of church and priesthood is weakened. If +a Roman Catholic, he is often a worse Catholic, without being a better +Protestant. If a Protestant, he often becomes indifferent. Moral ties +are loosened with the religious. The intervening process which occurs +here, between his abandoning the old state of things and fitting himself +to the new, is not favorable to morals or character. + +The consequence is, that an immense proportion of our ignorant and +criminal class are foreign-born; and of the dangerous classes here, a +very large part, though native-born, are of foreign parentage. Thus, out +of the whole number of foreigners in New York State, in 1860, 16.69 per +cent. could not read or write; while of the native-born only 1.83 per +cent. were illiterate. + +Of the 49,423 prisoners in our city prisons, in prison for one year +before January, 1870, 32,225 were of foreign birth, and, no doubt, a +large proportion of the remainder of foreign parentage. Of the +foreign-born, 21,887 were from Ireland; and yet at home the Irish are +one of the most law-abiding and virtuous of populations--the proportion +of criminals being smaller than in England or Scotland. + +In the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, according to Dr. Bittinger, +from one-fourth to one-third of the inmates are foreigners; in Auburn, +from a third to a half; in Clinton, one-half; in Sing Sing, between +one-half and six-sevenths. In the Albany Penitentiary, the aggregate +number of prisoners during the last twenty years was 18,390, of whom +10,770 were foreign-born. [Transact. of Nat. Cong., p. 282.] + +It is another marked instance of the demoralizing influence of +emigration, that so large a proportion of the female criminal class +should be Irish-born, though the Irish female laboring class are well +known to be at home one of the most virtuous in the world. + +A hopeful fact, however, begins to appear in regard to this matter; the +worst effects of emigration in this country seem over. The machinery for +protecting and forwarding the newly-arrived immigrants, so that they may +escape the dangers and temptations of the city, has been much improved. +Very few, comparatively, now remain in our sea-ports to swell the +current of poverty and crime. The majority find their way at once to the +country districts. The quality, too, of the immigration has improved. +More well-to-do farmers and peasantry, with small savings, arrive than +formerly, and the preponderance, as to nationality, is inclining to the +Germans. It comparatively seldom happens now that paupers or persons +absolutely without means, land in New York. + +As one of the great causes of crime, Emigration will undoubtedly have a +much feebler influence in the future in New York than it has had in the +past. + + WANT OF A TRADE. + +It is remarkable how often, in questioning the youthful convicts in our +prisons as to the causes of their downfall, they will reply that "if +they had had a trade, they would not have been there." They disliked +drudgery, they found places in offices and shops crowded; they would +have enjoyed the companionship and the inventiveness of a trade, but +they could not obtain one, and therefore they were led into stealing or +gambling, as a quick mode of earning a living. + +There is no doubt that a lad with a trade feels a peculiar independence +of the world, and is much less likely to take up dishonest means of +living than one depending on manual labor, or chance means of living. + +There is nearly always a demand for his work; the lad feels himself a +member of a craft and supported by the consciousness of this membership; +the means of the "Unions" often sustain him when out of employment; his +associates are more honest and respectable than those of boys depending +on chance-labor, and so he is preserved from falling into crime. + +Of course, if such a lad would walk forth to the nearest country +village, he would find plenty of healthy and remunerative employment in +the ground, as gardener or farmer. And to a country-lad, the farm offers +a better chance than a trade. But many city boys and young men will not +consent to leave the excitements of the city, so that the want of a +mechanical occupation does expose them to many temptations. + +The persons most responsible for this state of things are the members of +such "Unions" as refuse to employ boys, or to encourage the training of +apprentices. It is well-known that in many trades of New York, hardly +any young laborers or apprentices are being trained. The result of this +selfish policy will be to reduce the amount of skilled labor in this +city, and thus compel the importation of foreign labor, and to increase +juvenile crime and the burdens on the poor. + +Another cause of this increasing separation from trades among the young +is, no doubt, the increasing aversion of American children, whether poor +or rich, to learn anything thoroughly; the boys of the street, like +those of our merchants, preferring to make fortunes by lucky and sudden +"turns," rather than by patient and steady industry. + +Our hope in this matter is in the steady demand for juvenile labor in +the country districts, and the substantial rewards which await industry +there. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE CAUSES OF CRIME. + + WEAKNESS OF THE MARRIAGE-TIE. + +It is extraordinary, among the lowest classes, in how large a number of +cases a second marriage, or the breaking of marriage, is the immediate +cause of crime or vagrancy among the children. When questioning a +homeless boy or street-wandering girl as to the former home, it is +extremely common to hear "I couldn't get on with my step-mother," or "My +step-father treated me badly," or "My father left, and we just took care +of ourselves." These apparently exceptional events are so common in +these classes as to fairly constitute them an important cause of +juvenile crime. When one remembers the number of happy second marriages +within one's acquaintance, and how many children have never felt the +difference between their step-mother and their own mother, and what love +and patience and self-sacrifice are shown by parents to their +step-children, we may be surprised at the contrast in another class of +the community. But the virtues of the poor spring very much from their +affections and instincts; they have comparatively little self-control, +the high lessons of duty and consideration for others are seldom stamped +on them, and Religion does not much influence their more delicate +relations with those associated with them. They might shelter a strange +orphan for years with the greatest kindness; but the bearing and +forbearing with the faults of another person's child year after year, +merely from motives of duty or affection to its parent, belong to a +higher range of Christian virtues, to which they seldom attain. Their +own want of self-control and their tendency to jealousy, and little +understanding of true self-sacrifice, combine to weaken and embitter +these relations with step-children. The children themselves have plenty +of faults, and have doubtless been little governed, so that soon both +parties jar and rub against one another; and as neither have instincts +or affections to fall back upon, mere principle or sense of duty is not +enough to restrain them. What would be simply slights or jars in more +controlled persons, become collisions in this class. + +Bitter quarrels spring up between step-son and mother, or step-daughter +and father; the other parent sometimes sides with the child, sometimes +with the father; but the result is similar. The house becomes a kind of +pandemonium, and the girls rush desperately forth to the wild life of +the streets, or the boys gradually prefer the roaming existence of the +little city-Arab to such a quarrelsome home. Thus it happens that +step-children among the poor are so often criminals or outcasts. + +It needs a number of years among the lower working-classes to understand +what a force public opinion is in all classes in keeping the +marriage-bond sacred, and what sweeping misfortunes follow its +violation. Many of the Irish peasants who have landed here have married +from pure affection. Their marriage has been consecrated by the most +solemn ceremonies of their church. They come of a people peculiarly +faithful to the marriage-tie, and whose religion has especially guarded +female purity and the fidelity of husband and wife. At home, in their +native villages, they would have died sooner than break the bond or +leave their wives. The social atmosphere about them and the influence of +the priests make such an act almost impossible. And yet in this distant +country, away from their neighbors and their religious instructors; they +are continually making a practical test of "Free-Love" doctrines. As the +wife grows old or ugly--as children increase and weigh the parents +down--as the home becomes more noisy and less pleasant,--the man begins +to forget the vows made at the altar, and the blooming girl he then +took; and, perhaps meeting some prettier woman, or hearing of some +chance for work at a distance, he slips quietly away, and the deserted +wife, who seems to love him the more the more false he is, is left +alone. For a time she has faith in him and seeks him far and near; but +at length she abandons hope, and begins the heavy struggle of +maintaining her little family herself. The boys gradually get beyond her +control; they are kept in the street to earn something for their +support; they become wild and vagrant, and soon end with being +street-rovers, or petty thieves, or young criminals. The girls are +trained in begging or peddling, and, meeting with bold company, they +gradually learn the manners and morals of the streets, and after a while +abandon the wretched home, and break what was left of the poor mother's +hope and courage, by beginning a life of shame. + +This sad history is lived out every day in New York. If any theorists +desire to see what fruits "Free Love" or a weak marriage-bond can bear +among the lowest working-classes, they have only to trace the histories +of great numbers of the young thieves and outcasts and prostitutes in +this city. With the dangerous classes, "elective affinities" are most +honestly followed. The results are suffering, crime, want, and +degradation to those who are innocent. + + INHERITANCE. + +A most powerful and continual source of crime with the young is +inheritance--the transmitted tendencies and qualities of their parents, +or of several generations of ancestors. + +It is well-known to those familiar with the classes, that certain +appetites or habits, if indulged abnormally and excessively through two +or more generations, come to have an almost irresistible force, and, no +doubt, modify the brain so as to constitute almost an insane condition. +This is especially true of the appetite for liquor and of the sexual +passion and sometimes of the peculiar weakness, dependence, and laziness +which make confirmed paupers. + +The writer knows of an instance in an alms-house in Western New York, +where four generations of females were paupers and prostitutes. Almost +every reader who is familiar with village life will recall poor families +which have had dissolute or criminal members beyond the memory of the +oldest inhabitant, and who still continue to breed such characters. I +have known a child of nine or ten years, given up, apparently beyond +control, to licentious habits and desires, and who in all different +circumstances seemed to show the same tendencies; her mother had been of +similar character, and quite likely her grandmother. The "gemmules," or +latent tendencies, or forces, or cells of her immediate ancestors were +in her system, and working in her blood, producing irresistible effects +on her brain, nerves, and mental emotions, and finally, not being met +early enough by other moral, mental, and physical influences, they have +modified her organization, until her will is scarcely able to control +them and she gives herself up to them. All those who instruct or govern +"Houses of Refuge," or "Reform Schools," or Asylums for criminal +children and youths, will recall many such instances. + +They are much better known in the Old World than this; they are far more +common here in the country than in the city. + +My own experience during twenty years has been in this regard singularly +hopeful. I have watched great numbers of degraded families in New York, +and exceedingly few of them have transmitted new generations of paupers, +criminals, or vagrants. + +The causes of this encouraging state of things are not obscure. The +action of the great law of "Natural Selection," in regard to the human +race, is always towards temperance and virtue. That is, vice and extreme +indulgence weaken the physical powers and undermine the constitution; +they impair the faculties by which man struggles with adverse conditions +and gets beyond the reach of poverty and want. The vicious and sensual +and drunken die earlier, or they have fewer children, or their children +are carried off by diseases more frequently, or they themselves are +unable to resist or prevent poverty and suffering. As a consequence, in +the lowest class, the more self-controlled and virtuous tend constantly +to survive, and to prevail in "the struggle for existence," over the +vicious and ungoverned, and to transmit their progeny. The natural drift +among the poor is towards virtue. Probably no vicious organization with +very extreme and abnormal tendencies is transmitted beyond the fourth +generation; it ends in insanity or cretinism or the wildest crime. + +The result is then, with the worst-endowed families, that the "gemmules" +or latent forces of hundreds of virtuous, or at least, not vicious, +generations, lie hid in their constitutions. The immediate influences of +parents or grandparents are, of course, the strongest latent tendencies +to good, coming down from remote ancestors, be aroused and developed. + +Thus is explained the extraordinary improvement of the children of crime +and poverty in our Industrial Schools; and the reforms and happy change +is seen in the boys and girls of our dangerous classes when placed in +kind Western homes. The change of circumstances, the improved food, the +daily moral and mental influences, the effect of regular labor and +discipline, and, above all, the power of Religion, awaken these hidden +tendencies to good, both those coming from many generations of +comparative virtue and those inherent in the soul, while they control +and weaken and cause to be forgotten those diseased appetites or extreme +passions which these unfortunate creatures inherit directly, and +substitute a higher moral sense for the low moral instincts which they +obtained from their parents. So it happens, also, that American life, as +compared with European, and city life, as compared with country, +produces similar results. In the United States, a boundless hope +pervades all classes; it reaches down to the outcast and vagrant. There +is no fixity, as is so often the fact in Europe, from the sense of +despair. Every individual, at least till he is old, hopes and expects to +rise out of his condition. + +The daughter of the rag-picker or vagrant sees the children she knows, +continually dressing better or associating with more decent people; she +beholds them attending the public schools and improving in education and +manners; she comes in contact with the greatest force the poor +know--public opinion, which requires a certain decency and +respectability among themselves. She becomes ashamed of her squalid, +ragged, or drunken mother. She enters an Industrial School, or creeps +into a Ward School, or "goes out" as a servant. In every place, she +feels the profound forces of American life; the desire of equality, +ambition to rise, the sense of self-respect and the passion for +education. + +These new desires overcome the low appetites in her blood, and she +continually rises and improves. If Religion in any form reach her, she +attains a still greater height over the sensual and filthy ways of her +parents. She is in no danger of sexual degradation, or of any extreme +vice. The poison in her blood has found an antidote. When she marries, +it will inevitably be with a class above her own. This process goes on +continually throughout the country, and breaks up criminal inheritance. + +Moreover, the incessant change of our people, especially in cities, the +separation of children from parents, of brothers from sisters, and of +all from their former localities, destroy that continuity of influence +which bad parents and grandparents exert, and do away with those +neighborhoods of crime and pauperism where vice concentrates and +transmits itself with ever-increasing power. The fact that tenants must +forever be "moving" in New York, is a preventive of some of the worst +evils among the lower poor. The mill of American life, which grinds up +so many delicate and fragile things, has its uses, when it is turned on +the vicious fragments of the lower strata of society. + +Villages, which are more stable and conservative, and tend to keep +families together more and in the same neighborhoods, show more +instances of inherited and concentrated wickedness and idleness. In New +York the families are constantly broken up; some members improve, some +die out, but they do not transmit a progeny of crime. There is little +inherited criminality and pauperism. + + A QUESTION. + +Among these public influences on the young, it has been often a question +with some, whether the Public Schools did not educate the daughters of +the poor too much, and thus make them discontented with their condition, +and exposed to temptation. + +It is said that these working-girls, seeing such fine dresses about +them, and learning many useless accomplishments, have become indifferent +to steady hand-labor, and have sought in vice for the luxuries which +they have first learned to know in the public schools. My own +observation, however, leads me to doubt whether this occurs, unless as +an exceptional fact. The influence of discipline and regular instruction +is against the style of character which makes the prostitute. Where +there is a habit of work, there are seldom the laziness and +shiftlessness which especially cause or stimulate sexual vice. Some +working-girls do, no doubt, become discontented with their former +condition, and some rise to a much higher, while some fall; but this +happens everywhere in the United States, and is not to be traced +especially to the influence of our Free Schools. + +We have spoken of the greater tendency of large cities, as compared with +villages, in breaking up vicious families. There is another advantage of +cities in this matter. The especial virtue of a village community is the +self-respect and personal independence of its members. No benefits of +charity or benevolent assistance and dependence could ever outweigh +this. But this very virtue tends to keep a wicked or idle family in its +present condition. The neighbors are not in the habit of interfering +with it; no one advises or warns it. The children grow up as other +people's children do, in the way the parents prefer; there is no +machinery of charity to lift them out of the slime; and if any of their +wealthier neighbors, from motives of benevolence, visited the house, and +attempted to improve or educate the family, the effort would be resented +or misconstrued. The whole family become a kind of _pariahs_; they are +morally tabooed, and grow up in a vicious atmosphere of their own, and +really come out much worse than a similar family in the city. This +phenomenon is only a natural effect of the best virtues of the rural +community. + +In a large town, on the other hand, there exist machinery and +organization through which benevolent and religious persons can approach +such families, and their good intentions not be suspected or resented. +The poor people themselves are not so independent, and accept advice or +warning more readily; they are not so stamped in public repute with a +bad name; less is known of them, and the children, under new influences, +break off from the vicious career of their parents, and grow up as +honest and industrious persons. Moreover, the existence of so much +charitable organization in the cities brings the best talent and +character of the fortunate classes to bear directly on the unfortunate, +far more than is the fact in villages. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE CAUSES OF CRIME. + + OVERCROWDING. + +The source of juvenile crime and misery in New York, which is the most +formidable, and, at the same time, one of the most difficult to remove, +is the _overcrowding_ of our population. The form of the city-site is +such--the majority of the dwellings being crowded into a narrow island +between two water-fronts--that space near the business-portion of the +city becomes of great value. These districts are necessarily sought for +by the laboring and mechanic classes, as they are near the places of +employment. They are avoided by the wealthy on account of the population +which has already occupied so much of them. The result is, that the poor +must live in certain wards; and as space is costly, the landlords supply +them with (comparatively) cheap dwellings, by building very high and +large houses, in which great numbers of people rent only rooms, instead +of dwellings. + +Were New York a city radiating from a centre over an almost unlimited +space--as Philadelphia, for instance--the laborers or the mechanics +might take up their abode anywhere, and land would be comparatively +cheap, so that the highest blessing of the laboring class would be +attainable--of separate homes for each family. But, on this narrow +island, business is so peculiarly concentrated, and population is so +much forced to one exit--towards the north--and the poor have such a +singular objection to living beyond a ferry, that space will inevitably +continue very dear in New York, and the laboring classes will be +compelled to occupy it. + +To add to the unavoidable costliness of ground-room on this island, has +come in the effect of bad government. + +It is one of the most unpleasant experiences of the student of political +economy, that the axioms of his science can so seldom be understood by +the masses, though their interests be vitally affected by them. Thus, +every thoughtful man knows that each new "job" among city officials, +each act of plunder of public property by members of the municipal +government, every loss of income or mal-appropriation or extravagance in +the city's funds, must be paid for by taxation, and that taxation always +falls heaviest on labor. The laboring classes of the city rule it, and +through their especial leaders are the great public losses and +wastefulness occasioned. + +Yet they never know that they themselves continually pay for these in +increased rents. Every landlord charges his advanced taxation in rent, +and probably a profit on that. The tenant pays more for his room, the +grocer more for his shop, the butcher and tailor and shoemaker, and +every retailer have heavier expenses from the advance in rents, and each +and all charge it on their customers. The poor feel the final pressure. +The painful effect has been, that the expense for rent has arisen +enormously with the laboring classes of this city during the last five +years, while many of the other living expenses have nearly returned to +the standard before the war. + +The influence of high rents is to force more people into a given space, +in order to economize and divide expense. + +The latest trustworthy statistics on this important subject are from the +excellent Reports of the Metropolitan Board of Health for 1866. From +these, it appears that the Eleventh Ward of this city, with a population +of 58,953, has a rate of population of 196,510 to the square mile, or 16 +1/10 square yards to each person; the Tenth Ward, with 31,587 +population, has a rate of 185,512 to the square mile, or 17 1/10 square +yards to each; the Seventeenth Ward, with 79,563, has the rate of +153,006; the Fourteenth, with 23,382, has a rate of 155,880; the +Thirteenth, with 26,388, has 155,224; and so on with others, though in +less proportion. + +The worst districts in London do not at all equal this crowding of +population. Thus, East London shows the rate of 175,816 to the square +mile; the Strand, 141,556; St. Luke's, 151,104; Holborn, 148,705; and +St. Jame's, Westminster, 144,008. + +If particular districts of our city be taken, they present an even +greater massing of human beings than the above averages have shown. +Thus, according to the Report of the Council of Hygiene in 1865, the +tenant-house and cellar population of the Fourth Ward numbered 17,611 +packed in buildings over a space less than thirty acres, exclusive of +streets, which would make the fearful rate of 290,000 to the square +mile. + +In the Seventeenth Ward, the Board of Health reports that in 1868, 4,120 +houses contained 95,091 inhabitants, of whom 14,016 were children under +five years. In the same report, the number of tenement-houses for the +whole city is given at 18,582, with an estimate of one-half the whole +population dwelling in them--say 500,000. + +We quote an extract from a report of Mr. Dupuy, Visitor of the +Children's Aid Society of the First Ward, describing the condition of a +tenement-house: + +"What do you think of the moral atmosphere of the home I am about to +describe below? To such a home two of our boys return nightly. + +"In a dark cellar filled with smoke, there sleep, all in one room, with +no kind of partition dividing them, two men with their wives, a girl of +thirteen or fourteen, two men and a large boy of about seventeen years +of age, a mother with two more boys, one about ten years old, and one +large boy of fifteen; another woman with two boys, nine and eleven years +of age--in all, _fourteen persons._ + +"This room I have often visited, and the number enumerated probably +falls below, rather than above the average that sleep there." + +It need not be said that with overcrowding such as this, there is always +disease, and as naturally, crime. The privacy of a home is undoubtedly +one of the most favorable conditions to virtue, especially in a girl. + +If a female child be born and brought up in a room of one of these +tenement-houses, she loses very early the modesty which is the great +shield of purity. Personal delicacy becomes almost unknown to her. +Living, sleeping, and doing her work in the some apartment with men and +boys of various ages, it is well-nigh impossible for her to retain any +feminine reserve, and she passes almost unconsciously the line of purity +at a very early age. + +In these dens of crowded humanity, too, other and more unnatural crimes +are committed among those of the same blood and family. + +Here, too, congregate some of the worst of the destitute population of +the city--vagrants, beggars, nondescript thieves, broken-down drunken +vagabonds, who manage as yet to keep out of the station-houses, and the +lowest and most bungling of the "sharpers." Naturally, the boys growing +up in such places become, as by a law of nature, petty thieves, +pickpockets, street-rovers, beggars, and burglars. Their only salvation +is, that these dens become so filthy and haunted with vermin, that the +lads themselves leave them in disgust, preferring the barges on the +breezy docks, or the boxes on the side-walk, from which eventually they +are drawn into the neat and comfortable Boys' Lodging-houses, and there +find themselves imperceptibly changed into honest and decent boys. This +is the story of thousands every year. + +The cellar-population alone of this city is a source of incessant +disease and crime. + +And with the more respectable class of poor who occupy the better kind +of tenement-houses, the packing of human beings in those great +caravansaries is one of the worst evils of this city. It sows pestilence +and breeds every species of criminal habits. + +From the eighteen thousand tenement-houses comes seventy-three per cent. +[In 1865, the deaths in tenement-houses were 14,500 out of 19,813, the +total for the city. The death-rate has, however, been brought down by +sanitary improvements from 76 per cent., in 1866, to about 66 per cent, +in 1871, or a gain of 2,900 lives in these wretched houses.] of the +mortality of our population, and we have little doubt as much as ninety +per cent. of the offenses against property and person. + +Over-crowding is the one great misfortune of New York. Without it, we +should be the healthiest large city in the world, [Our annual death-rate +is now 28.79 per 1,000, while some of the clean wards show 15 per 1,000, +or about the rate of the Isle of Wight. The rate of London is about 34, +Liverpool has been as high as 40, but is more healthy now, owing to +sanitary improvements. Our Sixth Ward reaches 48, and "Gotham Court," in +Cherry Street, attains the horrible maximum of 195 per 1,000.] and a +great proportion of the crimes which disgrace our civilization would be +nipped in the bud. While this continues as it does now, there is no +possibility of a thorough sanitary, moral, and religious reform in our +worst wards. + +Few girls can grow up to maturity in such dens as exist in the First, +Sixth, Eleventh, and Seventeenth Wards and be virtuous; few boys can +have such places as homes and not be thieves and vagabonds. In such +places typhus and cholera will always be rife, and the death-rate will +reach its most terrible maximum. While the poorest population dwell in +these cellars and crowded attics, neither Sunday-schools, nor churches, +nor charities, can accomplish a thorough reform. + +What, then, is to be done to remedy this terrible evil? + +Experience has proved that our remedial agencies can, in individual +cases cure even the evils resulting from this unnatural condensing of +population. That is, we can point to thousands of lads and young girls +who were born and reared in such crowded dens of humanity, but who have +been transformed into virtuous, well-behaved, and industrious young men +and women, by the quiet daily influence of the charitable organization I +am about to describe. + +Still, these cases of reform are, in truth, exceptions. The natural and +legitimate influence of such massing of population is all in the +direction of immorality and degeneracy. Whatever would lessen that, +would at once, and by a necessary law, diminish crime and poverty and +disease. + + REMEDIES. + +The great remedies are to be looked for in broad, general provisions for +distributing population. Thus far, the means of communication between +business New York and the suburbs have been singularly defective. An +underground railway with cheap workman's trains, or elevated railways +with similar conveniences, connecting Westchester County and the lower +part of the city, or suburbs laid out in New Jersey or on Long Island +expressly for working people, with cheap connections with New York and +Brooklyn, would soon make a vast difference in the concentration of +population in our lower wards. It is true that English experience would +show that laboring-men, after a heavy day's work, cannot bear the jar of +railway traveling. There must be, however, many varieties of labor--such +as work in factories and the like--where a little movement in a +railroad-train at the close of a day would be a refreshment. + +Then, as the laboring class was concentrated in suburban districts, the +various occupations which attend them, such as grocers, shoemakers, +tailors, and others, would follow, and be established near them. Many +nationalities among our working class have an especial fondness for +gardens and bits of land about their houses. This would be an additional +attraction to such settlements; and with easy and cheap communications +we might soon have tens of thousands of our laborers and mechanics +settled in pleasant and healthy little suburban villages, each, perhaps +having his own small house and garden, and the children growing up under +far better influences, moral and physical, than they could possibly +enjoy in tenement-houses. There are many districts within half an hour +of New York, where such plots could be laid out with lots at $500 each, +which would pay a handsome profit to the owner, or where a cottage could +be let with advantage for the present rent of a tenement attic. + +Improved communications have already removed hundreds and thousands of +the middle class from the city to all the surrounding neighborhood, to +the immense benefit both of themselves and their families. Equal +conveniences suited to the wants of the laboring class will soon cause +multitudes of these to live in the suburban districts. The obstacle, +however, as in all efforts at improvement for the working people, is in +their own ignorance and timidity, and their love of the crowd and bustle +of a city. + +More remote even, than relief by improved communications, is a possible +check to high rents by a better government. A cheap and honest +government of the masses in New York would at once lower taxation and +bring down rents. The enormous prices demanded for one or two small +rooms in a tenement-house are a measure (in part) of the cost of our +city government. + +Another alleviation to our over crowding has often been proposed, but +never vigorously acted upon, as we are persuaded it might be, and that +is the making the link between the demand for labor in our country +districts and the supply in New York, closer. The success of the charity +which we are about describing in the transfer of destitute and homeless +children to homes in the West, and of the Commissioners of Emigration in +their "Labor Exchange," indicate what might be accomplished by a grand +organized movement for transferring our unemployed labor to the fields +of the West. It is true, this would not carry away our poorest class, +yet it would relieve the pressure of population here on space, and thus +give more room and occupation for all. + +But admitting that we cannot entirely prevent the enormous massing of +people, such as prevails in our Eleventh and Seventeenth Wards, we can +certainly control it by legislation. The recent Sanitary Acts of New +York attempt to hold in check the mode of building tenement-houses, +requiring certain means of ventilation and exit, forbidding the +filling-up of the entire space between the houses with dwellings, and +otherwise seeking to improve the condition of such tenement-houses. + +There only needs two steps farther in imitation of the British +Lodging-house Acts--one removing altogether the cellar-population, when +under certain unhealthy conditions; and the other limiting by law the +number who can occupy a given space in a tenement-room. The British Acts +assign 240 cubic feet as the lowest space admissible for each tenant or +lodger, and if the inspector finds less space than that occupied, he at +once enters a complaint, and the owner or landlord is obliged to reduce +the number of his occupants, under strict penalties. A provision of this +nature in our New York law would break up our worst dens, and scatter +their tenants or lodgers. The removal of the cellar-population from a +large proportion of their dwellings should also be made. Liverpool +removed 20,000 cellar-occupants in one year (1847), to the immense gain, +both moral and sanitary, of the city. New York needs the reform quite as +much. There would be no real hardship in such a measure, as the tenants +could find accommodations in other parts of the city or the suburbs; and +some would perhaps emigrate to the country. + +One often-proposed remedy for the ills of our tenement-house system--the +"Model Lodging-house"--has never been fairly tried here. The theory of +this agency of reform is, that if a tenement-house can be constructed on +the best sanitary principles, with good ventilation, with limited number +of tenants, no overcrowding, and certain important conveniences to the +lodgers, all under moral supervision (so that tenants of notoriously bad +character are excluded), and such a house can be shown to pay, say seven +per cent. net, this will become a "model" to the builders of +tenement-houses; some building after the same style, because public +opinion and their own conscience require it, others because competition +compels it. Thus, in time, the mode of structure and occupancy of all +the new tenement-houses would be changed. But to attain this desirable +end, the model houses must first pay a profit, and a fair one. So long +as they do not succeed in this, they are a failure, however benevolent +their object and comfortable their arrangements. In this point of view, +the "Waterloo Houses," in London, are a success, and do undoubtedly +influence the mode of building and management of private +tenement-houses; in this, also, the "Peabody Houses" are not a success, +and will have no permanent influence. + +The Model Houses in London for lodging single men have, as the writer +has witnessed, changed and elevated the whole class of similar private +lodging-houses. + +The experiment ought to be tried here, on a merely business basis, by +some of our wealthy men. The evil of crowded tenement-houses might be +immensely alleviated by such a remedy. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE CAUSES OF CRIME. + + INTEMPERANCE. + +The power of the appetite for alcoholic stimulus is something amazing. A +laboring-man feels it especially on account of the drag on his nervous +system of steady and monotonous labor, and because of the few mental +stimuli which he enjoys. He returns to his tenement-house after a hard +day's work, "dragged out" and craving excitement; his rooms are +disagreeable; perhaps his wife cross, or slatternly, and his children +noisy; he has an intense desire for something which can take him out of +all this, and cause his dull surroundings and his fatigue to be +forgotten. Alcohol does this; moreover, he can bear alcohol and tobacco, +to retard the waste of muscle, as the sedentary man cannot. In a few +steps, he can find jolly companions, a lighted and warmed room, a +newspaper, and, above all, a draught which, for the moment, can change +poverty to riches, and drive care and labor and the thought of all his +burdens and annoyances far away. + + [Illustration: THE FORTUNES OF A STREET WAIF. (Third Stage.)] + +The liquor-shop is his picture-gallery, club, reading-room, and social +_salon,_ at once. His glass is the magic transmuter of care to +cheerfulness, of penury to plenty, of a low, ignorant, worried life, to +an existence for the moment buoyant, contented, and hopeful. Alas that +the magician who thus, for the instant, transforms him with her rod, +soon returns him to his low estate, with ten thousand curses haunting +him! The one thus touched by the modern Circe is not even imbruted, for +the brutes have no such appetite; he becomes a demonized man; all the +treasures of life are trampled under his feet, and he is fit only to +dwell "among the tombs." But, while labor is what it is, and the +liquor-shop alone offers sociality and amusement to the poor, alcohol +will still possess this overwhelming attraction. The results in this +climate, and under the form of alcoholic stimulus offered here, are +terrible beyond all computation. The drunkards' homes are the darkest +spots even in the abyss of misery in every large city. Here the hearts +of young women are truly broken, and they seek their only consolation in +the same magic cup; here children are beaten, or maimed, or +half-starved, until they run away to join the great throng of homeless +street-rovers in our large towns, and grow up to infest society. From +these homes radiate misery, grief, and crime. They are the nests in +which the young fledgelings of misfortune and vice begin their flight. +Probably two-thirds of the crimes of every city (and a very large +portion of its poverty) come from the over-indulgence of this appetite. +As an appetite, we do not believe it can ever be eradicated from the +human race. + +If we look at criminal statistics for the effects of this appetite, we +will find that in the New York City prisons, during 1870, there were, +out of 49,423 criminals, 30,507 of confessedly intemperate habits, while +no doubt, with a large portion of the rest, indulgence in liquor was the +cause of their offenses. + +In the Albany Penitentiary there were, in 1869-70, 1,093 convicts, of +whom 893 admitted they were intemperate. Of this whole number only 563 +could read and write, and only 568 were natives of this country. + +Among the children of misfortune in our city, the homeless boys and +girls, and those compelled by poverty to attend the Industrial Schools +(which I shall hereafter describe), it would be safe to say that ninety +out of a hundred are the children of drunkards. + +As a direct cause of crime in children, drunkenness takes but a small +place. This is not an appetite of childhood. Very few boys or girls of +the poorest class are addicted to it till they become mature. + +The effort for Total Abstinence has been, indeed, an untold blessing to +the working class in this country and many parts of Europe. It may be +said, in many regions, to have broken the wand of the terrible +enchantress. It has introduced a new social habit in drinking. It has +connected abstinence with the ceremonial of religion and the pleasures +of social organizations. It has addressed the working-man--as, in fact, +he often is--as a child, and saved him from his own habits, by a sworn +abstinence. Thousands of men could never have freed themselves from this +most tyrannical appetite, except by absolute refusal to touch. In fact, +it may be said that no vice is ever abandoned by gradual steps. The only +hope for any one under the control of any wrong indulgence is in entire +and immediate abandonment. + +With those, too, who had not fallen under the sway of this appetite, +especially if of the working class, abstinence was the safest rule. + +The "Total Abstinence Reform" in this country, in Great Britain, and in +Sweden, was one of the happiest events that ever occurred in the history +of the working classes. Its blessings will descend through many +generations. But in its nature it could not last. It was a tremendous +reaction against the heavy and excessive drinking of fifty years since. +It was a kind of noble asceticism. Like all asceticism, it could not +continue as a permanent condition. Its power is now much spent. Wherever +it can be introduced now among the laboring classes, it should be; and +we believe one of the especial services of the Irish Catholic clergy, at +this day, to the world, is in supporting and encouraging this great +reform. + +All who study the lower classes are beginning, however, now to look for +other remedies of the evil of intemperance. + +It has become remarkably apparent, during the last few years, that one +of the best modes of driving out low tastes in the masses is to +introduce higher. It has been found that galleries and museums and parks +are the most formidable rivals of the liquor-shops. The experience near +the Sydenham Palace, in England, and other places of instructive and +pleasant resort for the laboring masses, is, that drinking-saloons do +not flourish in opposition. Wherever, in the evening, a laboring-man can +saunter in a pleasant park, or, in company with his wife and family, +look at interesting pictures, or sculpture, or objects of curiosity, he +has not such a craving for alcoholic stimulus. + +Even open-air drinking in a garden--as is so common on the Continent--is +never so excessive as in an artificial-lighted room. Where, too, a +working-man can, in a few steps, find a cheerfully-lighted reading-room, +with society or papers, or where a club is easily open to him without +drinking, it will also be found that he ceases to frequent the saloon, +and almost loses his taste for strong drink. + +Whatever elevates the taste of the laborer, or expands his mind, or +innocently amuses him, or passes his time pleasantly without indulgence, +or agreeably instructs, or provides him with virtuous associations, +tends at once to guard him from habits of intoxication. The Kensington +Museum and Sydenham Palace, of London; the Cooper Union, the Central +Park, and free Reading-rooms of New York, are all temperance-societies +of the best kind. The great effort now is to bring this class of +influences to bear on the habits of the laboring-people, and thus +diminish intemperance. + +It is a remarkable fact, in this connection, that, though ninety out of +the hundred of our children in the Industrial Schools are the children +of drunkards, not one of the thousands who have gone forth from them has +been known to have fallen into intemperate habits. Under the elevating +influences of the school, they imperceptibly grow out of the habits of +their mothers and fathers, and never acquire the appetite. + +Another matter, which is well worthy of the attention of reformers, is +the possibility of introducing into those countries where "heavy +drinking" prevails, the taste for light wines and the habit of open-air +drinking. The passion for alcohol is a real one. On a broad scale it +cannot be annihilated. Can we not satisfy it innocently? In this +country, for instance, light wines can be made to a vast extent, and +finally be sold very cheaply. If the taste for them were formed, would +it not expel the appetite for whisky and brandy, or at least, in the +coming generation, form a new habit? + +There is, it is true, a peculiar intensity in the American temperament +which makes the taking of concentrated stimulus natural to it. It will +need some time for men accustomed to work up their nervous system to a +white heat by repeated draughts of whisky or brandy to be content with +weak wines. Perhaps the present generation never will be. But the laws +of health and morality are so manifestly on the side of drinking light +wines as compared with drinking heavy liquors, that any effort at social +improvement in this direction would have a fair chance of success. Even +the slight change of habit involved in drinking leisurely at a table in +the open air with women and children--after the German fashion--would be +a great social reform over the hasty bar-drinking, while standing. The +worst intoxication of this city is with the Irish and American +bar-drinkers, not the German frequenters of gardens. + + LIQUOR LAWS. + +In regard to legislation, it seems to me that our New York License laws +of 1866 were, with a few improvements, a very "happy medium" in +law-making. The ground was tacitly taken, in that code, that it +subserved the general interests of morality to keep one day free from +riotous or public drinking, and allow the majority of the community to +spend it in rest and worship; and, inasmuch as that day was one of +especial temptation to the working-classes, they were to be treated to a +certain degree like minors, and liquor was to be refused to them on it. +Under this law, also, minors and apprentices, on weekdays, were +forbidden to be supplied with intoxicating drinks, and the liquor-shops +were closed at certain hours of the night. Very properly, also, these +sellers of intoxicating beverages, making enormous profits, and costing +the community immensely in the expenses of crime occasioned by their +trade, were heavily taxed, and paid to the city over a million dollars +annually in fees, licenses, and fines. The effects of the law were +admirable, in the diminution of cases of arrest and crime on the Sunday, +and the checking of the ravages of intoxication. + +But it was always apparent to the writer that, with the peculiar +constitution of the population of this city, it could not be sustained, +unless concessions were made to the prejudices and habits of certain +nationalities among our citizens. Our reformers, however, as a class, +are exceedingly adverse to concessions; they look at questions of habits +as absolute questions of right and wrong, and they will permit no +half-way or medium ground. But legislation is always a matter of +concession. We cannot make laws for human nature as it ought to be, but +as it is. If we do not get the absolutely best law passed, we must +content ourselves with the medium best. If our Temperance Reformers had +permitted a clause in the law, excepting the drinking in gardens, or of +lager-beer, from the restrictions of the License Law, we should not, +indeed, have had so good a state of things as we had for a few years, +under the old law, but we might have had it permanently. Now, we have +nearly lost all control over drinking, and the Sunday orgies and crimes +will apparently renew themselves without check or restraint. If a reform +in legislation claim too much, there is always a severe reaction +possible, when the final effects will be worse than the evils sought to +be corrected. + +The true plan of reform for this city would be to cause the License Law +of 1866 to be re-enacted with certain amendments. The "intoxicating +drinks" mentioned should be held not to include lager-beer or certain +light wines; and garden-drinking might be permitted, under strict police +surveillance. + +The Excise Board should be allowed very summary control, however, even +over the German gardens and lager-beer drinking-places, so that, if they +were perverted into places of disturbance and intoxication, the licenses +could be revoked. + +[Illustration: THE FORTUNES OF A STREET WAIF. (Fourth Stage.)] + +By separating absolutely the licenses for light drinks and those for +rum, whisky, and heavy ales, a vast deal of drunkenness might be +prevented, and yet the foreign habits not be too much interfered with, +and comparatively innocent pleasures permitted. In small towns and +villages, a reasonable compromise would seem to be to allow each +municipality to control the matter in the mode it preferred: some +communities in this way, forbidding all sale of intoxicating liquors, +and others permitting it, under conditions; but each being responsible +for the evils or benefits of the system it adopted. + +If a student of history were reviewing the gloomy list of the evils +which have most cursed mankind, which have wasted households, stained +the hand of man with his fellow's blood, sown quarrels and hatreds, +broken women's hearts, and ruined children in their earliest years, bred +poverty and crime, he would place next to the bloody name of War, the +black word--INTEMPERANCE. No wonder that the best minds of modern times +are considering most seriously the soundest means of checking it. If +abstinence were the natural and only means, the noble soul would still +say, in the words of Paul: "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to +drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." + +But abstinence is not thoroughly natural; it has no chance of a +universal acceptance; and experience shows that other and wider means +must be employed. We must trust to the imperceptible and widely-extended +influences of civilization, of higher tastes, and more refined +amusements on the masses. We must employ the powers of education, and, +above all, the boundless force of Religion, to elevate the race above +the tyranny of this tremendous appetite. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + ORGANIZATION OF A REMEDY. + +In New York, we believe almost alone among the great capitals of the +world, a profound and sustained effort for many years has been made to +cut off the sources and diminish the numbers of the dangerous classes; +and, as the records of crime show, with a marked effect. + +In most large cities, the first practical difficulty is the want of a +united organization to work upon the evils connected with this lowest +class. There are too many scattered efforts, aiming in a desultory +manner at this and that particular evil, resulting from the condition of +the children of the streets. There is no unity of plan and of work. +Every large city should form one Association or organization, whose sole +object should be to deal alone with the sufferings, wants, and crimes, +arising from a class of youth who are homeless, ignorant, or neglected. +The injuries to public morals and property from such a class are +important enough to call out the best thought and utmost energy and +inventiveness of charitable men and women to prevent them. Where an +association devotes itself thus to one great public evil, a thousand +remedies or ingenious devices of cure and prevention will be hit upon, +when, with a more miscellaneous field of work, the best methods would be +overlooked. So threatening is the danger in every populous town from the +children who are neglected, that the best talent ought to be engaged to +study their condition and devise their improvement, and the highest +character and most ample means should be offered to guarantee and make +permanent the movements devised for their elevation. + +The lack of all this in many European capitals is a reason that so +little, comparatively, has been done to meet these tremendous dangers. + +Then, again, in religious communities, such as the English and American, +there is too great a confidence in _technical religious_ means. + +We would not breathe a word against the absolute necessity of +Christianity in any scheme of thorough social reform. If the Christian +Church has one garland on its altars which time does not wither nor +skepticism destroy, which is fresh and beautiful each year, it is that +humble offering laid there through every age by the neglected little +ones of society, whom the most enlightened Stoicism despised and +Paganism cast out, but who have been blessed and saved by its +ministrations of love. No skeptical doubt or "rationalism" can ever +pluck from the Christian Church this, its purest crown. + +To attempt to prevent or cure the fearful moral diseases of our lowest +classes without Christianity, is like trying to carry through a sanitary +reform in a city without sunlight. + +But the mistake we refer to, is a too great use of, or confidence in, +the old technical methods--such as distributing tracts, and holding +prayer-meetings, and, scattering Bibles. The neglected and ruffian class +which we are considering are in no way affected directly by such +influences as these. New methods must be invented for them. + +Another obstacle, in American cities, to any comprehensive results of +reform or prevention among these classes, has been the too blind +following of European precedents. In Europe, the labor-market is fully +supplied. There is a steady pressure of population on subsistence. No +general method of prevention or charity can be attempted which +interferes with the rights of honest and self-supporting labor. The +victims of society, the unfortunate, the _enfants perdus,_ must be +retained, when aided at all, in public institutions. They cannot be +allowed to compete with outside industry. They are not wanted in the +general market of labor. They must be kept in _Asylums._ + +Now, Asylums are a bequest of monastic days. They breed a species of +character which is monastic-indolent, unused to struggle; subordinate +indeed, but with little independence and manly vigor. If the subjects of +the modern monastery be unfortunates--especially if they be already +somewhat tainted with vice and crime--the effect is a weakening of true +masculine vigor, an increase of the apparent virtues, and a hidden +growth of secret and contagious vices. Moreover, the life under the +machinery of an "Institution" does not prepare for the thousand petty +hand-labors of a poor man's cottage. But, greatest of all objections, +the asylum system is, of necessity, immensely expensive, and can reach +but a comparatively small number of subjects. + +These various obstacles and difficulties, which impede thorough work for +the elevation of our worst classes, can, however, be overcome. + + PIONEER WORK. + +Some twenty years ago, the then Chief of Police of New York, Captain +Matsell, put forth a report on the condition of the street-children of +the city, which aroused universal anxiety, and called forth much +compassion. The writer of this was then engaged (in 1852) outside of his +professional duties in rather desultory and despairing labors for the +reform of adult prisoners on Blackwell's Island and the squalid poor in +the Five Points district. It was a Sisyphus-like work, and soon +discouraged all engaged in it. We seemed in those infernal regions to +repeat the toil of the Danaides, and to be attempting to fill the leaky +vessel of society by efforts which left it as empty as before. What soon +struck all engaged in those labors was the immense number of boys and +girls floating and drifting about our streets, with hardly any arguable +home or occupation, who continually swelled the multitude of criminals, +prostitutes, and vagrants. + +Saddest of all sights was the thin child's face, so often seen behind +prison-bars, and the melancholy procession of little children who were +continually passing through that gloomy Egyptian portal, which seemed to +some of us then always inscribed with the scroll over the entrance of +the Inferno, "Here leave all hope behind!" + +It was evident soon, to all who thought upon the subject, that what New +York most of all needed was some grand, comprehensive effort to check +the growth of the "dangerous classes." + +The "Social Evil," of course, was pressed continually on the minds of +those engaged in these labors. Mr. Pease was then making a most heroic +effort to meet this in its worst form in the Five-Points region. No one +whom we have ever known was so qualified for this desperate work, or was +so successful in it. Still, it was but one man against a sea of crime. +The waves soon rolled over these enthusiastic and devoted labors, and +the waste of misfortune and guilt remained as desolate and hopeless as +before. It was clear that whatever was done there, must be done in the +source and origin of the evil--in prevention, not cure. + +The impression deepened both with those engaged in these benevolent +labors and with the community, that a general Organization should be +formed which should deal alone with the evils and dangers threatened +from the class of neglected youth then first coming plainly into public +view. Those who possessed property-interests in the city saw the immense +loss and damage which would occur from such an increasing community of +young thieves and criminals. The humane felt for the little waifs of +society who thus, through no fault of their own, were cast out on the +currents of a large city; and the religious recognized it as a solemn +duty to carry the good news of Christianity to these "heathen at home." +Everything seemed in readiness for some comprehensive and well-laid +scheme of benevolence and education for the street-children of New +York. + +A number of our citizens, with the present writer threw themselves into +a somewhat original method for benefiting the young "roughs" and +vagabond boys of the metropolis. This was known as the effort of the + + "BOYS' MEETINGS." + +The theory of these original assemblages was, that the "sympathy of an +audience" might be used to influence these wild and untutored young +Arabs when ordinary agencies were of no avail. The street-boys, as is +well-known, are exceedingly sharp and keen, and, being accustomed to +theatrical performances, are easily touched by real oratory, and by +dramatic instruction; but they are also restless, soon tired of long +exhortations, and somewhat given to _chaff._ + +The early days of those "Boys' Meetings" were stormy. Sometimes the +salutatory exercises from the street were showers of stones; sometimes a +general scrimmage occurred over the benches; again, the visitors or +missionaries were pelted, by some opposition-gang, or bitter enemies of +the lads who attended the meeting. The exercises, too, must be conducted +with much tact, or they broke up with a laugh or in a row. The platform +of the Boys' Meeting seemed to become a kind of chemical test of the +gaseous element in the brethren's brains. One pungent criticism we +remember--on a pious and somewhat sentimental Sunday-school brother, +who, in one of our meetings, had been putting forth vague and +declamatory religious exhortation--in the words "Gas! gas!" whispered +with infinite contempt from one hard-faced young disciple to another. +Unhappy, too, was the experience of any more daring missionary who +ventured to question these youthful inquirers. + +Thus--"In this parable, my dear boys, of the Pharisee and the publican, +what is meant by the 'publican?'" + +"Alderman, sir, wot keeps a pot-house!" "Dimocrat, sir!" "Black +Republican, sir!" + +Or--"My boys, what is the great end of man? When is he happiest? How +would _you_ feel happiest?" + +"When we'd plenty of hard cash, sir!" + +Or--"My _dear_ boys, when your father and your mother forsake you, _who_ +will take you up?" + +"The Purlice, sir (very seriously), the Purlice!" + +They sometimes took their own quiet revenge among themselves, in +imitating the Sunday-school addresses delivered to them. + +Still, ungoverned, prematurely sharp, and accustomed to all vileness, as +these lads were, words which came forth from the depths of a man's or +woman's heart would always touch some hidden chord in theirs. Pathos and +eloquence vibrated on their heartstrings as with any other audience. +Beneath all their rough habits and rude words was concealed the solemn +monitor, the _Daimon,_ which ever whispers to the lowest of human +creatures, that some things are wrong--are not to be done. + +Whenever the speaker could, for a moment only, open the hearts of the +little street-rovers to this voice, there was in the wild audience a +silence almost painful, and every one instinctively felt, with awe, a +mysterious Presence in the humble room, which blessed both those who +spake and those who heard. + +Whatever was bold, or practical, or heroic in sentiment, and especially +the dramatic in oratory, was most intently listened to by these children +of misfortune. + +The Boys' Meetings, however, were not, and could not, in the nature of +things, be a permanent success. They were the pioneer-work for more +profound labors for this class. They cleared the way, and showed the +character of the materials. Those engaged in them learned the fearful +nature of the evils they were struggling with, and how little any moral +influence on one day can do to combat them. These wild gatherings, like +meetings for street-preaching, do not seem suited to the habits of our +population; they are too much an occasion for frolic. They have given +way to, and been merged in, much more disciplined assemblages for +precisely the same class, which again are only one step in a long series +of moral efforts in their behalf, that are in operation each day of +every week and month, and extend through years. + +The first of these meetings was opened in 1848, under the charge of Mr. +A. D. F. Randolph by the members of a Presbyterian church, in a hall on +the corner of Christopher and Hudson Streets. This was followed by +another in a subsequent year in Wooster Street, commenced by the +indefatigable exertions of the wife of Rev. Dr. G. B. Cheever, and +sustained especially by Mr. B. J. Howland and W. C. Russell. + +The writer took more or less part in those, but was especially engaged +in founding one in Sixth Street, near Second Avenue; another in 118 +Avenue D, from which arose the "Wilson School" and the Avenue D Mission; +one in King Street, near Hudson, from which came the Cottage-Place +Mission; and another in Greenwich Street, near Vandam Street. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + A NEW ORGANIZATION. + +All those who were engaged in these efforts felt their inadequacy and we +resolved to meet at different private houses to discuss the formation of +some more comprehensive effort. At length, in 1853, we organized, and, +to the great surprise of the writer, his associates suggested that he +should take the position of executive officer of the new and untried +Association. He was at that time busied in literary and editorial +pursuits, but had expected soon to carry out the purpose of his especial +training, and to become a preacher. He never dreamed of making a +life-pursuit of it in the beginning, or during a number of years; but +"the call" of the neglected and outcast was too strong for him, finally, +to listen to any other, and the humble charity at length became a moral +and educational movement so profound and earnest as to repay the +life-endeavors of any man. He has never regretted having cast aside +whatever chance he may have had for the prizes and honors of life, for +the sake of the forgotten and the unfortunate, and, above all, for HIS +sake to whom we owe all. Indeed, he holds himself most fortunate in his +profession, for it may be said there is no occupation to which man can +devote himself, where he can have such unmingled happiness, as when he +is assuaging human misery and raising the ignorant and depressed to a +higher life. + + THE TRUSTEES. + +One of the most energetic members of this new body, in the beginning, +was a nephew of Dr. Channing--a Unitarian, Mr. Wm. C. Russell--a man of +singular earnestness of character, now Professor of History and +Vice-President in Cornell University. With him was associated a friend, +Mr. B. J. Howland, of peculiar compassion of nature, whose life almost +consisted of the happiness it shed on others-he also being a Unitarian. +Then, on the other side, theologically, was Judge John L. Mason, one of +the pillars of the Presbyterian Church, from an old and honored +Presbyterian family. His accurate legality of mind and solidity of +character were of immense advantage to the youthful Association, while, +under a formal exterior, he had a most merciful heart for all kinds of +human misery. He was our presiding officer for many years, and did most +faithful and thorough work for the charity. With him, representing the +Congregationalists, was a very careful and judicious man, engaged for +many years in Sunday-schools and similar movements, Mr. Wm. C. Gilman. +The Dutch Reformed were represented by an experienced friend of +education, Mr. M. T. Hewitt; and the Presbyterians again by one of such +gentleness and humanity, that all sects might have called him +Brother--Mr. W. L. King. To these was added one who has been a great +impelling force of this humane movement ever since-a man of large, +generous nature, and much impulse of temperament, with a high and +refined culture, who has done more to gain support for this charity with +the business community, where he is so influential, than any other one +man--Mr. J. E. Williams, also a Unitarian. Mr. W. had also been engaged +in similar charities in Boston. + +During the first year, we added to our board from the Methodists, Dr. J. +L. Phelps; from the Episcopalians, Mr. Archibald Russell (since +deceased), who has accomplished so much as the President of the Board of +the Five Points House of Industry; Mr. George Bird, and Mr. A. S. +Hewitt, who is now the managing head of that great educational +institution, the Cooper Union; from the Presbyterians, the celebrated +Mr. Cyrus W. Field; and from the "Come Outers," Mr. C. W. Elliott, the +genial author of the "New England History." Of all the first trustees, +the only ones in office in 1871 are J. E. Williams, B. J. Howland, M. T. +Hewitt, and C. L. Brace. + +On a subsequent year we elected a gentleman who especially represented a +religious body that has always profoundly sympathized with our +enterprise--Mr. Howard Potter, the son of the eminent Episcopal Bishop +of Pennsylvania, and nephew of the Bishop of New York. And yet, of all +the members of our Board, no one has been more entirely unsectarian than +this trustee; and certainly no one has thrown into our charity more +heart and a more unbiased judgment. Mr. Potter is still trustee. Through +him and Mr. B. J. Livingston, who was chosen a few years after, the +whole accounts of the Society were subsequently put in a clear shape, +and the duties of the trustees in supervision made distinct and +regular. + +It is an evidence of the simple desire for doing good which actuated +these gentlemen, and of the possibility of a "Christian Union" that, +though representing so many different sects, and ardently attached to +them, there never was in all the subsequent years the slightest +difference among them resulting from their divergent views on +speculative topics. Nearly all of them were engaged practically in +laboring among the dangerous classes. Mr. Howland and Mr. Russell had +struggled most earnestly for a considerable period to reform the morals +and elevate the character of the degraded population near "Rotten Row," +in Laurens street, and their "Boys' Meeting" had been one of the most +spirited efforts in this direction to be seen in the city. + +Several of the gentlemen I have mentioned have become distinguished in +their various professions, but it maybe doubted if they will look back +on any action of their public careers with more satisfaction than their +first earnest efforts to lay firmly the foundations of a broad structure +of charity, education, and reform. + +The organization was happily named + + "THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK." + +This association, which, from such small beginnings has grown to so +important dimensions, was thus formed in 1853, and was subsequently +incorporated in 1856, under the general Act of the State of New York in +relation to Charitable Associations. + +A small office on the corner of Amity Street was opened, with a single +lad in attendance, besides the present writer. + +The public, so profound was the sense of these threatening evils, +immediately came forward with its subscriptions--the first large gift +(fifty dollars) being from the wife of the principal property-holder in +the city, Mrs. William B. Astor. + +Most touching of all was the crowd of wandering little ones who +immediately found their way to the office. Ragged young girls who had +nowhere to lay their heads; children driven from drunkards' homes; +orphans who slept where they could find a box or a stairway; boys cast +out by step-mothers or step-fathers; newsboys, whose incessant answer to +our question, "Where do you live?" rung in our ears, _"Don't live +nowhere!"_ little bootblacks, young peddlers "canawl-boys," who seem to +drift into the city every winter, and live a vagabond life; pickpockets +and petty thieves trying to get honest work; child beggars and +flower-sellers growing up to enter courses of crime--all this motley +throng of infantile misery and childish guilt passed through our doors, +telling their simple stories of suffering, and loneliness, and +temptation, until our hearts became sick; and the present writer, +certainly, if he had not been able to stir up the fortunate classes to +aid in assuaging these fearful miseries, would have abandoned the post +in discouragement and disgust. + +The following letter, written at this time by the Secretary, is +appended, as showing the feeling of those founding the Society: + +"W. L. KING, Esq.: + +"MY DEAR SIR--We were very glad to get your first letter to Mr. Russell, +giving us your good wishes and your subscription. It was read aloud to +our committee, and we have several times expressed ourselves as very +much regretting your absence. I should have certainly written you, but I +did not know your address. I received yours from Macon yesterday, and +hasten to reply. + +"Everything goes on well. We have taken Judge Mason and Mr. J. E. +Williams (formerly of Boston) into the committee. I enclose a circular, +to which, according to the permission which you gave us, we have placed +your name. We have opened one room for a workshop in Wooster Street, +where we expect to have forty or fifty boys. The work is shoe-making. +The boys jump at the chance gladly. Some three 'Newsboys' Meetings' we +are just getting under way, though the churches move slowly. Our Meeting +in Avenue D is improving every Sunday, and is very full. Next Thursday +eve, I have made arrangements for a lecture on the Magic Lantern to the +boys of our Meeting. We gave out tickets on Sunday. The Girls' meeting +is large, and you know, perhaps, is now widened into an 'Industrial +School' ["The Wilson School."] for girls, which meets every day in our +Building in Avenue D. They have some fifty girls at work there--the +worst vagrant kind. Public attention is arousing everywhere to this +matter; and the first two or three days after our Appeal was published, +we had some $400 sent in, part in cash, without the trouble of +collecting. We shall begin collecting this week. I have been interrupted +here by a very intelligent little newsboy, who is here vagrant and +helpless--ran away from his step-father. One of the pressmen sent him to +me. We shall put him in our workshop. + +"I pray with you, dear sir, for God's blessing on our young enterprise. +It is a grand one; but without HIM I see how useless it will be. If we +succeed even faintly, I shall feel that we have not lived in vain. +Surely Christ will be with us in these feeble efforts for his poor +creatures. + "Very truly yours, + "CHARLES L. BRACE. +"NEW YORK, March 7, 1853. + +"P. S.--I forgot to tell you the name we have chosen--'Children's Aid +Society.' + +"Office, No. 683 Broadway, 2d floor, New York." + +The following is the first circular of + + THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY. + +"This society has taken its origin in the deeply settled feelings of our +citizens, that something must be done to meet the increasing crime and +poverty among the destitute children of New York. Its objects are to +help this class by opening Sunday Meetings and Industrial Schools, and, +gradually as means shall be furnished, by forming Lodging-houses and +Reading-rooms for children, and by employing paid agents whose sole +business shall be to care for them. + +"As Christian men, we cannot look upon this great multitude of unhappy, +deserted, and degraded boys and girls without feeling our responsibility +to God for them. We remember that they have the same capacities, the +same need of kind and good influences, and the same Immortality as the +little ones in our own homes. We bear in mind that One died for them, +even as for the children of the rich and happy. Thus far, alms-houses +and prisons have done little to affect the evil. But a small part of the +vagrant population can be shut up in our asylums, and judges and +magistrates are reluctant to convict children so young and ignorant that +they hardly seem able to distinguish good and evil. The class increases. +Immigration is pouring in its multitude of poor foreigners, who leave +these young outcasts everywhere abandoned in our midst. For the most +part, the boys grow up utterly by themselves. No one cares for them, and +they care for no one. Some live by begging, by petty pilfering, by bold +robbery; some earn an honest support by peddling matches, or apples, or +newspapers; others gather bones and rags in the street to sell. They +sleep on steps, in cellars, in old barns, and in markets, or they hire a +bed in filthy and low lodging-houses. They cannot read; they do not go +to school or attend a church. Many of them have never seen the Bible. +Every cunning faculty is intensely stimulated. They are shrewd and old +in vice, when other children are in leading-strings. Few influences +which are kind and good ever reach the vagrant boy. And, yet, among +themselves they show generous and honest traits. Kindness can always +touch them. + +"The girls, too often, grow up even more pitiable and deserted. Till of +late no one has ever cared for them. They are the crosswalk sweepers, +the little apple-peddlers, and candy-sellers of our city; or, by more +questionable means, they earn their scanty bread. They traverse the low, +vile streets alone, and live without mother or friends, or any share in +what we should call a home. They also know little of God or Christ, +except by name. They grow up passionate, ungoverned, with no love or +kindness ever to soften the heart. We all know their short wild +life--and the sad end. + +"These boys and girls, it should be remembered, will soon form the great +lower class of our city. They will influence elections; they may shape +the policy of the city; they will, assuredly, if unreclaimed, poison +society all around them. They will help to form the great multitude of +robbers, thieves, vagrants, and prostitutes who are now such a burden +upon the law-respecting community. + +"In one ward alone of the city, the Eleventh, there were, in 1863, out +of 12,000 children between the ages of five and sixteen, only 7,000 who +attended school, and only 2,500 who went to Sabbath School; leaving +5,000 without the common privileges of education, and about 9,000 +destitute of public religious influence. + +"In view of these evils we have formed an Association which shall devote +itself entirely to this class of vagrant children. We do not propose in +any way to conflict with existing asylums and institutions, but to +render them a hearty co-operation, and, at the same time, to fill a gap, +which, of necessity, they all have left. A large multitude of children +live in the city who cannot be placed in asylums, and yet who are +uncared-for and ignorant and vagrant. We propose to give to these work, +and to bring them under religious influence. As means shall come in, it +is designed to district the city, so that hereafter every Ward may have +its agent, who shall be a friend to the vagrant child. 'Boys' Sunday +Meetings' have already been formed, which we hope to see extended until +every quarter has its place of preaching to boys. With these we intend +to connect 'Industrial Schools,' where the great temptations to this +class arising from want of work may be removed, and where they can learn +an honest trade. Arrangements have been made with manufacturers, by +which, if we have the requisite funds to begin, five hundred boys in +different localities can be supplied with paying work. We hope, too, +especially to be the means of draining the city of these children, by +communicating with farmers, manufacturers, or families in the country, +who may have need of such for employment. When homeless boys are found +by our agents, we mean to get them homes in the families of respectable, +needy persons the city, and put them in the way of an honest living. We +design, in a word, to bring humane and kindly influences to bear on this +forsaken class--to preach in various modes the gospel of Christ to the +vagrant children of New York. + +"Numbers of our citizens have long felt the evils we would remedy, but +few have the leisure or the means to devote themselves personally to +this work with the thoroughness which it requires. This society, as we +propose, shall be a medium through which all can, in their measure, +practically help the poor children of the city. + +"We call upon all who recognize that these are the little ones of +Christ; all who believe that crime is best averted by sowing good +influences in childhood; all who are the friends of the helpless, to aid +us in our enterprise. We confidently hope this wide and practical +movement will have its full share of Christian liberality. And we +earnestly ask the contributions of those able to give, to help us in +carrying forward the work. + * * * * * * * + "March, 1858." + + DENS OF MISERY AND CRIME. + +In investigating closely the different parts of the city, with reference +to future movements for their benefit, I soon came to know certain +centres of crime and misery, until every lane and alley, with its filth +and wretchedness and vice, became familiar as the lanes of a country +homestead to its owner. There was the infamous German "Rag-pickers' +Den," in Pitt and Willett Streets--double rows of houses, flaunting with +dirty banners, and the yards heaped up with bones and refuse, where +cholera raged unchecked in its previous invasion. Here the wild life of +the children soon made them outcasts and thieves. + +Then came the murderous blocks in Cherry and Water Streets, where so +many dark crimes were continually committed, and where the little girls +who flitted about with baskets and wrapped in old shawls became familiar +with vice before they were out of childhood. + +There were the thieves' Lodging-houses' in the lower wards, where the +street-boys were trained by older pickpockets and burglars for their +nefarious callings; the low immigrant boarding-houses and vile cellars +of the First Ward, educating a youthful population for courses of guilt; +the notorious rogues' den in Laurens Street--"Rotten Row"--where, it was +said, no drove of animals could pass by and keep its numbers intact; +and, farther above, the community of young garroters and burglars around +Hamersley Street and Cottage Place. And, still more north, the dreadful +population of youthful ruffians and degraded men and women in "Poverty +Lane," near Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets and Ninth Avenue, which +subsequently ripened into the infamous "Nineteenth-street Gang." + +On the east side, again, was "Dutch Hill," near Forty-second Street, the +squatters' village, whence issued so many of the little peddlers of the +city, and the Eleventh Ward and "Corlear's Hook," where the +"copper-pickers," and young wood-stealers, and the thieves who beset the +ship-yards congregated; while below, in the Sixth Ward, was the Italian +quarter, where houses could be seen crowded with children, monkeys, +dogs, and all the appurtenances of the corps of organ-grinders, harpers, +and the little Italian street-sweepers, who then, ignorant and +untrained, wandered through our down-town streets and alleys. + +Near each one of these "fever nests," and centres of ignorance, crime, +and poverty, it was our hope and aim eventually to place some agency +which should be a moral and physical disinfectant--a seed of reform and +improvement amid the wilderness of vice and degradation. + +It seemed a too enthusiastic hope to be realized; and, at times, the +waves of misery and guilt through these dark places appeared too +overwhelming and irresistible for any one effort or association of +efforts to be able to stem or oppose them. + +How the somewhat ardent hope was realized, and the plan carried out, +will appear hereafter. + +The first special effort that we put forth was the providing of work for +these children, by opening + + WORKSHOPS. + +These experiments, of which we made many at different times, were not +successful. Our object was to render the shops self-supporting. But the +irregularity of the class attending them, the work spoiled, and the +necessity of competing with skilled labor and often with machinery, soon +put us behind. We had one workshop for pegging boots and shoes in +Wooster Street, where we soon got employment for numbers of street-boys; +but a machine was suddenly invented for pegging shoes, which drove us +out of the field. We tried then paper box and bag-making, carpentering, +and other branches; but it may be set down as an axiom, that +"Benevolence cannot compete with Selfishness in business." Philanthropy +will never cut down the expenses of production, as will individual +self-interest. + +Moreover, these artificial workshops excite the jealousy of the trades, +while they are not so necessary in this country as in Europe, because +the demand is so great here for children's labor. + +We soon discovered that if we could train the children of the streets to +habits of industry and self-control and neatness, and give them the +rudiments of moral and mental education, we need not trouble ourselves +about anything more. A child in any degree educated and disciplined can +easily make an honest living in this country. The only occasional +exception is with young girls depending on the needle for support, +inasmuch as the competition here is so severe. But for these we often +were enabled to provide instruction in skilled labor, which supported +them easily; and, if taught cleanliness and habits of order and +punctuality, they had no difficulty in securing places as upper +servants, or they soon married into a better class. + +[Illustration: LODGING-HOUSES FOR HOMELESS BOYS--AS THEY ARE. (The +Newsboys' House.) NO. 2.] + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + HOMELESS BOYS. + + THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE. + +The spectacle which earliest and most painfully arrested my attention in +this work, were the _houseless_ boys in various portions of the city. + +There seemed to be a very considerable class of lads in New York who +bore to the busy, wealthy world about them something of the same +relation which Indians bear to the civilized Western settlers. They had +no settled home, and lived on the outskirts of society, their hand +against every man's pocket, and every man looking on them as natural +enemies; their wits sharpened like those of a savage, and their +principles often no better. Christianity reared its temples over them, +and Civilization was carrying on its great work, while they--a happy +race of little heathens and barbarians--plundered, or frolicked, or led +their roving life, far beneath. Sometimes they seemed to me, like what +the police call them, "street-rats," who gnawed at the foundations of +society, and scampered away when light was brought near them. Their life +was, of course, a painfully hard one. To sleep in boxes, or under +stairways, or in hay-barges on the coldest winter-nights, for a mere +child, was hard enough; but often to have no food, to be kicked and +cuffed by the older ruffians, and shoved about by the police, standing +barefooted and in rags under doorways as the winter-storm raged, and to +know that in all the great city there was not a single door open with +welcome to the little rover--this was harder. + +Yet, with all this, a more light-hearted youngster than the street-boy +is not to be found. He is always ready to make fun of his own +sufferings, and to "chaff" others. His face is old from exposure and his +sharp "struggle for existence;" his clothes flutter in the breeze; and +his bare feet peep out from the broken boots. Yet he is merry as a +clown, and always ready for the smallest joke, and quick to take "a +point" or to return a repartee. His views of life are mainly derived +from the more mature opinions of "flash-men," engine-runners, +cock-fighters, pugilists, and pickpockets, whom he occasionally is +permitted to look upon with admiration at some select pot-house; while +his more ideal pictures of the world about him, and, his literary +education, come from the low theatres, to which he is passionately +attached. His morals are, of course, not of a high order, living, as he +does, in a fighting, swearing, stealing, and gambling set. Yet he has +his code; he will not get drunk; he pays his debts to other boys, and +thinks it dishonorable to sell papers on their beat, and, if they come +on his, he administers summary justice by "punching;" he is generous to +a fault, and will always divide his last sixpence with a poorer boy. +"Life is a strife" with him, and money its reward; and, as bankruptcy +means to the street-boy a night on the door-steps without supper, he is +sharp and reckless, if he can only earn or get enough to keep him above +water. His temptations are, to cheat, steal, and lie. His religion is +vague. One boy, who told me he "didn't live nowhere," who had never +heard of Christ, said he had heard of God, and the boys thought it "kind +o' lucky" to say over something to Him which one of them had learned, +when they were sleeping out in boxes. + +With all their other vices, it is remarkable how few of these smaller +street-boys ever take liquor. And their kindness to one another, when +all are in the utmost destitution, is a credit to human nature. [Only +recently, a poor hump-backed lad in the Newsboys' Lodging-house gave his +dollar, and collected nine more from the boys, for the family of the +children who were lost in New Jersey.] + +Their money is unfortunately apt to slip away, especially for gambling +and petty lotteries, called "policy-tickets." A tradition in the remote +past of some boy who drew a hundred dollars in these lotteries still +pervades the whole body, and they annually sink a considerable portion +of their hard-earned pennies in "policy-tickets." + +The choice of these lads of a night's resting-place is sometimes almost +as remarkable as was Gavroche's in "Les Miserables." Two little newsboys +slept one winter in the iron tube of the bridge at Harlem; two others +made their bed in a burned-out safe in Wall Street. Sometimes they +ensconced themselves in the cabin of a ferry-boat, and thus spent the +night. Old boilers, barges, steps, and, above all, steam-gratings, were +their favorite beds. + +In those days the writer would frequently see ten or a dozen of them, +piled together to keep one another warm, under the stairs of the +printing-offices. + +In planning the alleviation of these evils, it was necessary to keep in +view one object, not to weaken the best quality of this class--their +sturdy independence--and, at the same time, their prejudices and habits +were not too suddenly to be assailed. They had a peculiar dread of +Sunday Schools and religious exhortations--I think partly because of the +general creed of their older associates, but more for fear that these +exercises were a "pious dodge" for trapping them into the House of +Refuge or some place of detention. + +The first thing to be aimed at in the plan was, to treat the lads as +independent little dealers, and give them nothing without payment, but +at the same time to offer them much more for their money than they could +get anywhere else. Moral, educational, and religious influences were to +come in afterward. Securing them through their interests, we had a +permanent hold of them. + +Efforts were made by the writer among our influential citizens and in +various churches, public meetings were held, articles written, the press +interested, and at length sufficient money was pledged to make the +experiment. The board of the new Society gave its approval, and a loft +was secured in the old "Sun Buildings," and fitted up as a lodging-room, +and in March, 1854, the first Lodging-house for street-boys or newsboys +in this country was opened. + +An excellent superintendent was found in the person of a carpenter, Mr. +C. C. Tracy, who showed remarkable ingenuity and tact in the management +of these wild lads. These little subjects regarded the first +arrangements with some suspicion and much contempt. To find a good bed +offered them for six cents, with a bath thrown in, and a supper for four +cents, was a hard fact, which they could rest upon and understand; but +the motive was evidently "gaseous." There was "no money in it"--that was +clear. The Superintendent was probably "a street preacher," and this was +a trap to get them to Sunday Schools, and so prepare them for the House +of Refuge. Still, they might have a lark there, and it could be no worse +than "bumming," _i.e.,_ sleeping out. They laid their plans for a +general scrimmage in the school-room--first cutting off the gas, and +then a row in the bedroom. + +The Superintendent, however, in a bland and benevolent way, nipped their +plans in the bud. The gas-pipes were guarded; the rough ring-leaders +were politely dismissed to the lower door, where an officer looked after +their welfare; and, when the first boots began to fly from a little +fellow's bed, he found himself suddenly snaked out by a gentle but +muscular hand, and left in the cold to shiver over his folly. The others +began to feel that a mysterious authority was getting even with them, +and thought it better to nestle in their warm beds. + +Little sleeping, however, was there among them that night; but +ejaculations sounded out--such as, "I say, Jim, this is rayther better +'an bummin'--eh?" "My eyes! what soft beds these is!" "Tom! it's 'most +as good as a steam-gratin', and there ain't no M. P.'s to poke neither!" +"I'm glad I ain't a bummer to-night!" + +A good wash and a breakfast sent the lodgers forth in the morning, +happier and cleaner, if not better, than when they went in. This night's +success established its popularity with the newsboys. The "Fulton Lodge" +soon became a boys' hotel, and one loft was known among them as the +"Astor House." + +Quietly and judiciously did Mr. Tracy advance his lines among them. + +"Boys," said he, one morning, "there was a gentleman here this morning, +who wanted a boy in an office, at three dollars a week." + +"My eyes! Let _me_ go, sir!" And--_"Me,_ sir!" + +"But he wanted a boy who could write a good hand." + +Their countenances fell. + +"Well, now, suppose we have a night-school, and learn to write--what do +you say, boys?". + +"Agreed, sir." + +And so arose our evening-school. + +The Sunday Meeting, which is now an "institution," was entered upon in a +similarly discreet manner. The lads had been impressed by a public +funeral, and Mr. Tracy suggested their listening to a little reading +from the Bible. They consented, and were a good deal surprised at what +they heard. The "Golden Rule" struck them as an altogether impossible +kind of precept to obey, especially when one was "stuck and short," and +"had to live." The marvels of the Bible--the stories of miracles and the +like--always seemed to them natural and proper. That a Being of such a +character as Christ should control Nature and disease, was appropriate +to their minds. And it was a kind of comfort to these young vagabonds +that the Son of God was so often homeless, and that he belonged humanly +to the working classes. The petition for "daily bread" (which a +celebrated divine has declared "unsuited to modern conditions of +civilization") they always rolled out with a peculiar unction. I think +that the conception of a Superior Being, who knew just the sort of +privations and temptations that followed them, and who felt especially +for the poorer classes, who was always near them, and pleased at true +manhood in them, did keep afterward a considerable number of them from +lying and stealing and cheating and vile pleasures. + +Their singing was generally prepared for by taking off their coats and +rolling up their sleeves, and was entered into with a gusto. + +The voices seemed sometimes to come from a different part of their +natures from what we saw with the bodily eyes. There was, now and then, +a gentle and minor key, as if a glimpse of something purer and higher +passed through these rough lads. A favorite song was, "There's a Rest +for the Weary," though more untiring youngsters than these never frisked +over the earth; and "There's a light in the Window for Thee, Brother," +always pleased them, as if they imagined themselves wandering alone +through a great city at night, and at length a friendly light shone in +the window for them. + +Their especial vice of money-wasting the Superintendent broke up by +opening a Savings-bank, and allowing the boys to vote how long it should +be closed. The small daily deposits accumulated to such a degree that +the opening gave them a great surprise at the amounts which they +possessed, and they began to feel thus the "sense of property," and the +desire of accumulation, which economists tell us, is the base of all +civilization. A liberal interest was also soon allowed on deposits, +which stimulated the good habit. At present, from two hundred to three +hundred dollars will often be saved by the lads in a month. + +The same device, and constant instruction, broke up gambling, though I +think policy-tickets were never fairly undermined among them. + +The present Superintendent and Matron of the Newsboys' Lodging-house, +Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor (at Nos. 49 and 51 Park Place), are unsurpassed in +such institutions in their discipline, order, good management, and +excellent housekeeping. The floors, over which two hundred or two +hundred and fifty street-boys tread daily, are as clean as a +man-of-war's deck. The Sunday-evening meetings are as attentive and +orderly as a church, the week-evening school quiet and studious. All +that mass of wild young humanity is kept in perfect order, and brought +under a thousand good influences. + +The Superintendent has had a very good preliminary experience for this +work in the military service--having been in the British army in the +Crimea. The discipline which he maintains is excellent. He is a man, +too, of remarkable generosity of feeling, and a good "provider." One +always knows that his boys will have enough to eat, and that everything +will be managed liberally--and justly. It is truly remarkable during how +many years he controlled that great multitude of little vagabonds and +"roughs," and yet with scarcely ever even a complaint from any source +against him. For such success is needed the utmost kindness, and, at the +same time, the strictest justice. His wife has been almost like a mother +to the boys. + +In the course of a year the population of a town passes through the +Lodging-house--in 1869 and '70, _eight thousand eight hundred and +thirty-five_ different boys. Many are put in good homes; some find +places for themselves; others drift away--no one knows whither. They are +an army of orphans--regiments of children who have not a home or +friend--a multitude of little street-rovers who have no place where to +lay their heads. They are being educated in the streets rapidly to be +thieves and burglars and criminals. The Lodging-house is at once school, +church, intelligence-office, and hotel for them. Here they are shaped to +be honest and industrious citizens; here taught economy, good order, +cleanliness, and morality; here Religion brings its powerful influences +to bear upon them; and they are sent forth to begin courses of honest +livelihood. + +The Lodging-houses repay their expenses to the public ten times over +each year, in preventing the growth of thieves and criminals. They are +agencies of pure humanity and almost unmingled good. Their only possible +reproach could be, that some of their wild subjects are soon beyond +their reach, and have been too deeply tainted with the vices of +street-life to be touched even by kindness, education, or religion. The +number who are saved, however, are most encouragingly large. + +The Newsboys' Lodging-house is by no means, however, an entire burden on +the charity of the community. During 1870 the lads themselves paid +$3,349 toward its expense. + +The following is a brief description of the rooms during the past five +years: + +The first floor is divided into various compartments--a large +dining-room, where one hundred and fifty boys can sit down to a table; a +kitchen, laundry, storeroom, servants' room, and rooms for the family of +the superintendent The next story is partitioned into a school-room, +gymnasium, and bath and wash rooms, plentifully supplied with hot and +cold water. The hot water and the heat of the rooms are supplied by a +steam-boiler on the lower story. The two upper stories are filled with +neat iron bedsteads, having two beds each, arranged like ships' bunks +over each other; of these there are two hundred and sixty. Here are also +the water-vats, into which the many barrelsful used daily are pumped by +the engine. The rooms are high and dry, and the floors clean. + +It is a commentary on the housekeeping and accommodations that for +eighteen years no case of contagious disease has ever occurred among +these thousands of boys. + +The New York Newsboys' Lodging-house has been in existence eighteen +years. During these years it has lodged 91,326 different boys, restored +7,278 boys to friends, provided 5,126 with homes, furnished 576,485 +lodgings and 469,461 meals. The expense of all this has been $132,888. +Of this amount the boys have contributed $32,306. + +That the Lodging-house has had a vigorous growth, is shown by the +following table: + + TABULAR STATEMENT SINCE ORGANIZATION + +======================================================== + | | | | | + | | | | Return- | + YEAR | No. of | No. of | No. of | ed to | + | Boys. | Lodgings.| Meals. | friends.| + | | | | | + | | | | | +-------------------------------------------------------- +1854 to 1855..| 408 | 6,872 | ........ | ....... | +1855 to 1856..| 374 | 7,599 | ........ | ....... | +1856 to 1857..| 387 | 5,157 | ........ | ....... | +1857 to 1858..| 800 | 8,026 | 11,923 | ....... | +1858 to 1859..| 3,000 | 14,000 | 13,114 | ....... | +1859 to 1860..| 4,500 | 19,747 | 13,341 | 100 | +1860 to 1861..| 4,000 | 27,390 | 16,873 | 247 | +1861 to 1862..| 3,875 | 32,954 | 19,809 | ....... | +1862 to 1863..| 3,000 | 29,409 | 20,000 | 396 | +1863 to 1864..| 6,325 | 36,572 | 25,506 | 437 | +1864 to 1865..| 6,793 | 42,446 | 30,137 | 576 | +1865 to 1866..| 7,256 | 43,797 | 32,867 | 633 | +1866 to 1867..| 8,192 | 49,519 | 33,633 | 719 | +1867 to 1868..| 8,599 | 51,740 | 35,617 | 819 | +1868 to 1869..| 8,944 | 53,610 | 54,092 | 896 | +1869 9 months.| 7,383 | 39,077 | 33,207 | 642 | +1869 to 1870..| 8,655 | 55,565 | 56,128 | 713 | +1870 to 1871..| 8,835 | 53,005 | 53,214 | 1,100 | + |--------|----------|----------|---------| + Total..| 91,326 | 576,485 | 469,461 | 7,278 | + + OF NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE. + +============================================================= + | | | | + | | | No. of | + YEAR | Expenses. | Paid by | Boys |Am'nt saved + | | Boys. | using | by them. + | | | Bank. | + | | | | +------------------------------------------------------------- +1854 to 1855..| $1,199.76 | $397.56 | ...... | ......... +1855 to 1856..| 1,431.82 | 391.26 | 16 | $643.58 +1856 to 1857..| 1,762.56 | 262.56 | 116 | 270.70 +1857 to 1858..| 1,925.03 | 298.03 | ...... | ......... +1858 to 1859..| 2,199.34 | 807.15 | ...... | ......... +1859 to 1860..| 2,113.56 | 955.44 | 23 | 110.10 +1860 to 1861..| 3,420.57 | 1,036.98 | 230 | 1,259.77 +1861 to 1862..| 2,736.08 | 1,138.88 | 388 | 1,376.59 +1862 to 1863..| 3,402.82 | 1,102.33 | 347 | 1,315.10 +1863 to 1864..| 5,758.16 | 1,599.10 | 405 | 2,080.06 +1864 to 1865..| 7,159.95 | 1,944.22 | 499 | 2,565.92 +1865 to 1866..| 10,058.13 | 2,127.44 | 599 | 2,486.43 +1866 to 1867..| 10,847.79 | 2,718.79 | 542 | 2,121.76 +1867 to 1868..| 12,094.00 | 3,177.69 | 703 | 2,203.45 +1868 to 1869..| 23,333.45 | 3,644.49 | 796 | 2,057.76 +1869 9 months.| 13,445.24 | 3,180.35 | 659 | 1,688.22 +1869 to 1870..| 15,102.11 | 4,214.42 | 1,107 | 2,433.60 +1870 to 1871..| 14,898.03 | 3,349.77 | 1,065 | 2,588.31 + |------------|------------|--------|----------- + Total..|$132,888.40 | $32,306.96 | 7,495 |$25,141.35 + + + +Extracts from the journal of a visitor from the country: + + A VISIT TO THE NEWSBOYS. + +"It requires a peculiar person to manage and talk to these boys. +Bullet-headed, short-haired, bright-eyed, shirt-sleeved, go-ahead boys. +Boys who sell papers, black boots, run on errands, hold horses, pitch +pennies, sleep in barrels, and steal their bread. Boys who know at the +age of twelve more than the children of ordinary men would have learned +at twenty; boys who can cheat you out of your eye-teeth, and are as +smart as a steel-trap. They will stand no fooling; they are accustomed +to gammon, they live by it. No audience that ever we saw could compare +in attitudinizing with this. Heads generally up; eyes fall on the +speaker; mouths, almost without an exception, closed tightly; hands in +pockets; legs stretched out; no sleepers, all wide-awake, keenly alive +for a pun, a point, or a slangism. Winding up, Mr. Brace said: 'Well, +boys, I want my friends here to see that you have the material for +talkers amongst yourselves; whom do you choose for your orator?' + +"'Paddy, Paddy,' shouted one and all. 'Come out, Paddy. Why don't you +show yourself?' and so on. + +"Presently Paddy came forward, and stood upon a stool. He is a +youngster, not more than twelve, with a little round eye, a short nose, +a lithe form, and chuck-full of fun. + +[Illustration: THE NEWSBOY. (From a photograph.)] + +"'Bummers,' said he, 'snoozers, and citizens, I've come down here among +ye to talk to yer a little! Me and my friend Brace have come to see how +ye'r gittin' along, and to advise yer. You fellers what stands at the +shops with yer noses over the railin', smellin' ov the roast beef and +the hash--you fellers who's got no home--think of it how we are to +encourage ye. [Derisive laughter, "Ha-ha's," and various ironical kinds +of applause.] I say, bummers--for you're _all_ bummers (in a tone of +kind patronage)--_I was a bummer once_ [great laughter]--I hate to see +you spendin' your money on penny ice-creams and bad cigars. Why don't +you save your money? You feller without no boots, how would you like a +new pair, eh? [Laughter from all the boys but the one addressed.] Well, +I hope you may get 'em, but I rayther think you won't. I have hopes for +you all. I want you to grow up to be rich men--citizens, Government men, +lawyers, generals, and influence men. Well, boys, I'll tell you a story. +My dad was a hard 'un. One beautiful day he went on a spree, and he came +home and told me where's yer mother? and I axed him I didn't know, and +he clipt me over the head with an iron pot, and knocked me down, and me +mither drapped in on him, and at it they went. [Hi-hi's, and +demonstrative applause.] Ah! at it they went, and at it they kept--ye +should have seen 'em--and whilst they were fightin', I slipped, meself +out the back door, and away I went like a scart dog. [Oh, dry up! Bag +your head! Simmer down!] Well, boys, I wint on till I kim to the 'Home' +[great laughter among the boys], and they took me in [renewed laughter], +and did for me, without a cap to me head or shoes to me feet, and thin I +ran away, and here I am. Now boys [with mock solemnity], be good, mind +yer manners, copy me, and see what you'll become.' + +"At this point the boys raised such a storm of hifalutin applause, and +indulged in such characteristic demonstrations of delight, that it was +deemed best to stop the youthful Demosthenes, who jumped from his stool +with a bound that would have done credit to a monkey. + +"At this juncture huge pans of apples were brought in, and the boys were +soon engaged in munching the delightful fruit, after which the Matron +gave out a hymn, and all joined in singing it, during which we took our +leave." + + A NEWSBOY'S SPEECH. (FROM OUR JOURNAL.) + +"Some of these boys, in all their misfortunes, have a humorous eye for +their situation--as witness the following speech, delivered by one of +them at the Newsboys' Lodging-house, before the departure of a company +to the West. The report is a faithful one, made on the spot. The little +fellow mounted a chair, and thus held forth: + +"'Boys, gintlemen, chummies: Praps you'd like to hear summit about the +West, the great West, you know, where so many of our old friends are +settled down and growin' up to be great men, maybe the greatest men in +the great Republic. Boys, that's the place for growing Congressmen, and +Governors, and Presidents. Do you want to be newsboys always, and +shoeblacks, and timber-merchants in a small way by sellin' matches? If +ye do you'll stay in New York, but if you don't you'll go out West, and +begin to be farmers, for the beginning of a farmer, my boys, is the +making of a Congressman, and a President. Do you want to be rowdies, and +loafers, and shoulder-hitters? If ye do, why, ye can keep around these +diggins. Do you want to be gentlemen and independent citizens? You +do--then make tracks for the West, from the Children's Aid Society. If +you want to be snoozers, and rummeys, and policy-players, and Peter +Funks men, why you'll hang up your caps and stay round the groceries and +jine fire-engine and target companies, and go firin' at haystacks for +bad quarters; but if ye want to be the man who will make his mark in the +country, ye will get up steam, and go ahead, and there's lots on the +prairies a waitin' for yez. + +"'You haven't any idear of what ye may be yet, if you will only take a +bit of my advice. How do you know but, if you are honest, and good, and +industerous, you may get so much up in the ranks that you won't call a +gineral or a judge your boss. And you'll have servants ov all kinds to +tend you, to put you to bed when you are sleepy, and to spoon down your +vittles when you are gettin' your grub. Oh, boys! won't that be great! +Only think--to have a feller to open your mouth, and put great slices of +punkin pie and apple dumplings into it. You will be lifted on hossback +when you go for to take a ride on the prairies, and if you choose to go +in a wagon, or on a 'scursion, you will find that the hard times don't +touch you there; and the best of it will be that if 'tis good to-day, +'twill be better to-morrow. + +"But how will it be if you don't go, boys? Why, I'm afraid when you grow +too big to live in the Lodging-house any longer, you'll be like lost +sheep in the wilderness, as we heard of last Sunday night here, and +you'll maybe not find your way out any more. But you'll be found +somewhere else. The best of you will be something short of judges and +governors, and the feller as has the worst luck--and the worst behaver +in the groceries-will be very sure to go from them to the prisons. + +"I will now come from the stump. I am booked for the West in the next +company from the Lodging-house. I hear they have big school-houses and +colleges there, and that they have a place for me in the winter time; I +want to be somebody, and somebody don't live here, no how. You'll find +him on a farm in the West, and I hope you'll come to see him soon and +stop with him when you go, and let every one of yous be somebody, and be +loved and respected. I thank yous, boys, for your patient attention. I +can't say more at present, I hope I haven't said too much.'" + + THE BUILDING FUND. + +An effort was made in the Legislature, a few years since, to obtain a +building-fund for the Newsboys' Lodging-house. This was granted from the +Excise Fund of the city for the legitimate reason, that those who do +most to form drunkards should be compelled to aid in the expense and +care of the children of drunkards. Thirty thousand dollars were +appropriated from these taxes, provided a similar amount was raised by +private subscription. This sum was obtained by the kindness and energy +of the friends of the enterprise, and the whole amount ($60,000) was +invested in good securities. + +In 1872 it had accumulated to $80,000, and the purchase was made of the +"Shakespeare Hotel," on the corner of Duane and Chambers Streets, which +is now being fitted up and rebuilt as a permanent Lodging-house for +Homeless Boys. The building has streets on three sides, and, plenty of +air and light. Shops will be let underneath, so that the payments of the +boys and the rents received will nearly defray the annual expenses of +this charity, thus insuring its permanency. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + STREET GIRLS. + + THEIR SUFFERINGS AND CRIMES. + +A girl street-rover is to my mind the most painful figure in all the +unfortunate crowd of a large city. With a boy, "Arab of the streets," +one always has the consolation that, despite his ragged clothes and bed +in a box or hay-barge, he often has a rather good time of it, and enjoys +many of the delicious pleasures of a child's roving life, and that a +fortunate turn of events may at any time make an honest, industrious +fellow of him. At heart we cannot say that he is much corrupted; his +sins belong to his ignorance and his condition, and are often easily +corrected by a radical change of circumstances. The oaths, +tobacco-spitting, and slang, and even the fighting and stealing of a +street-boy, are not so bad as they look. Refined influences, the checks +of religion, and a fairer chance for existence without incessant +struggle, will often utterly eradicate these evil habits, and the rough, +thieving New York vagrant make an honest, hardworking Western pioneer. +It is true that sometimes the habit of vagrancy and idling may be too +deeply worked in him for his character to speedily reform; but, if of +tender years, a change of circumstances will nearly always bring a +change of character. + +With a girl-vagrant it is different. She feels homelessness and +friendlessness more; she has more of the feminine dependence on +affection; the street-trades, too, are harder for her, and the return at +night to some lonely cellar or tenement-room, crowded with dirty people +of all ages and sexes, is more dreary. She develops body and mind +earlier than the boy, and the habits of vagabondism stamped on her in +childhood are more difficult to wear off. + +Then the strange and mysterious subject of sexual vice comes in. It has +often seemed to me one of the most dark arrangements of this singular +world that a female child of the poor should be permitted to start on +its immortal career with almost every influence about it degrading, its +inherited tendencies overwhelming toward indulgence of passion, its +examples all of crime or lust, its lower nature awake long before its +higher, and then that it should be allowed to soil and degrade its soul +before the maturity of reason, and beyond all human possibility of +cleansing! + +For there is no reality in the sentimental assertion that the sexual +sins of the lad are as degrading as those of the girl. The instinct of +the female is more toward the preservation of purity, and therefore her +fall is deeper--an instinct grounded in the desire of preserving a +stock, or even the necessity of perpetuating our race. + +Still, were the indulgences of the two sexes of a similar character--as +in savage races--were they both following passion alone, the moral +effect would not perhaps be so different in the two cases. But the sin +of the girl soon becomes what the Bible calls "a sin against one's own +body," the most debasing of all sins. She soon learns to offer for sale +that which is in its nature beyond all price, and to feign the most +sacred affections, and barter with the most delicate instincts. She no +longer merely follows blindly and excessively an instinct; she perverts +a passion and sells herself. The only parallel case with the male sex +would be that in some Eastern communities which are rotting and falling +to pieces from their debasing and unnatural crimes. When we hear of such +disgusting offenses under any form of civilization, whether it be under +the Rome of the Empire, or the Turkey of to-day, we know that disaster, +ruin, and death, are near the State and the people. + +This crime, with the girl, seems to sap and rot the whole nature. She +loses self-respect, without which every human being soon sinks to the +lowest depths; she loses the habit of industry, and cannot be taught to +work. Having won her food at the table of Nature by unnatural means, +Nature seems to cast her out, and henceforth she cannot labor. Living in +a state of unnatural excitement, often worked up to a high pitch of +nervous tension by stimulants, becoming weak in body and mind, her +character loses fixedness of purpose and tenacity and true energy. The +diabolical women who support and plunder her, the vile society she +keeps, the literature she reads, the business she has chosen or fallen +into, serve continually more and more to degrade and defile her. If, in +a moment of remorse, she flee away and take honest work, her weakness +and bad habits follow her; she is inefficient, careless, unsteady, and +lazy; she craves the stimulus and hollow gayety of the wild life she has +led; her ill name dogs her; all the wicked have an instinct of her +former evil courses; the world and herself are against reform, and, +unless she chance to have a higher moral nature or stronger will than +most of her class, or unless Religion should touch even her polluted +soul, she soon falls back, and gives one more sad illustration of the +immense difficulty of a fallen woman rising again. + +The great majority of prostitutes, it must be remembered, have had no +romantic or sensational history, though they always affect this. They +usually relate, and perhaps even imagine, that they have been seduced +from the paths of virtue suddenly and by the wiles of some heartless +seducer. Often they describe themselves as belonging to some virtuous, +respectable, and even wealthy family. Their real history, however, is +much more commonplace and matter-of-fact. They have been poor women's +daughters, and did not want to work as their mothers did; or they have +grown up in a tenement-room, crowded with boys and men, and lost purity +before they knew what it was; or they have liked gay company, and have +had no good influences around them, and sought pleasure in criminal +indulgences; or they have been street-children, poor, neglected, and +ignorant, and thus naturally and inevitably have become depraved women. +Their sad life and debased character are the natural outgrowth of +poverty, ignorance, and laziness. The number among them who have "seen +better days," or have fallen from heights of virtue, is incredibly +small. They show what fruits neglect in childhood, and want of education +and of the habit of labor, and the absence of pure examples, will +inevitably bear. Yet in their low estate they always show some of the +divine qualities of their sex. The physicians in the Blackwell's Island +Hospital say that there are no nurses so tender and devoted to the sick +and dying as these girls. And the honesty of their dealings with the +washerwomen and shopkeepers, who trust them while in their vile houses, +has often been noted. + +The words of sympathy and religion always touch their hearts, though the +effect passes like the April cloud. On a broad scale, probably no remedy +that man could apply would ever cure this fatal disease of society. It +may, however, be diminished in its ravages, and prevented in a large +measure. The check to its devastations in a laboring or poor class will +be the facility of marriage, the opening of new channels of female work, +but, above all, the influences of education and Religion. + +An incident occurred daring our early labors, which is worth +preserving: + + EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL DURING 1854. + + THE TOMBS. + +"Mrs. Forster, the excellent Matron of the Female Department of the +prison, had told us of an interesting young German girl, committed for +vagrancy, who might just at this crisis be rescued. I entered these +soiled and gloomy Egyptian archways, so appropriate and so depressing, +that the sight of the low columns and lotus capitals is to me now +inevitably associated with the somber and miserable histories of the +place. + +"After a short waiting, the girl was brought in--a German girl, +apparently about fourteen, very thinly but neatly dressed, of slight +figure, and a face intelligent and old for her years, the eye passionate +and shrewd. I give details because the conversation which followed was +remarkable. + +"The poor feel, but they can seldom speak. The story she told, with a +wonderful eloquence, thrilled to all our hearts; it seemed to us, then, +like the first articulate voice from the great poor class of the city. + +"Her eye had a hard look at first, but softened when I spoke to her in +her own language. + +"'Have you been long here?' + +"'Only two days, sir.' + +"Why are you here?' + +"'I will tell you, sir. I was working out with a lady. I had to get up +early and go to bed late, and I never had rest. She worked me always; +and, finally, because I could not do everything, she beat me--she beat +me like a dog, and I ran away; I could not bear it.' + +"The manner of this was wonderfully passionate and eloquent. + +"'But I thought you were arrested for being near a place of bad +character,' said I. + +"'I am going to tell you, sir. The next day I and my father went to get +some clothes I left there, and the lady wouldn't give them up; and what +could we do? What can the poor do? My father is a poor old man, who +picks rags in the streets, and I have never picked rags yet. He said, "I +don't want you to be a rag-picker. You are not a child now--people will +look at you--you will come to harm." And I said, "No, father, I will +help you. We must do something now, I am out of place;" and so I went +out. I picked all day, and didn't make much, and I was cold and hungry. +Towards night, a gentleman met me--a very fine, well-dressed gentleman, +an American, and he said, "Will you go home with me!" and I said, "No." +He said, "I will give you twenty shillings," and I told him I would go. +And the next morning I was taken up outside by the officer.' + +"'Poor girl!' said some one, 'had you forgotten your mother? and what a +sin it was!' + +"'No, sir, I did remember her. She had no clothes, and I had no shoes; +and I have only this (she shivered in her thin dress), and winter is +coming on. I know what making money is, sir. I am only fourteen, but I +am old enough. I have had to take care of myself ever since I was ten +years old, and I have never had a cent given me. It may be a sin, sir +(and the tears rained down her cheeks, which she did not try to wipe +away). I do not ask you to forgive it. Men can't forgive, but God will +forgive. I know about men. + +"'The rich do such things and worse, and no one says anything against +them. But I, sir--_I am poor!_ (This she said with a tone which struck +the very heart-strings.) I have never had any one to take care of me. +Many is the day I have gone hungry from morning till night, because I +did not dare spend a cent or two, the only ones I had. Oh, I have wished +sometimes so to die! Why does not God kill me!' + +"She was choked by her sobs. We let her calm herself a moment, and then +told her our plan of finding her a good home, where she could make an +honest living. She was mistrustful. 'I will tell you, _mein Herren;_ I +know men, and I do not believe any one, I have been cheated so often. +There is no trust in any one. I am not a child. I have lived as long as +people twice as old.' + +"'But you do not wish to stay in prison?' + +"'O God, no! Oh, there is such a weight on my heart here. There is +nothing but bad to learn in prison. These dirty Irish girls! I would +kill myself if I had to stay here. Why was I ever born? I have such +_Kummerniss_ (woes) here (she pressed her hand on her heart)--I am +poor!' + +"We explained our plan more at length, and she became satisfied. We +wished her to be bound to stay some years. + +"'No,' said she, passionately, 'I cannot; I confess to you, gentlemen. I +should either run away or die, if I was bound.' + +"We talked with the matron. She had never known, she said, in her +experience, such a remarkable girl. The children there of nine or ten +years were often as old as young women, but this girl was an experienced +woman. The offense, however, she had no doubt was her first. + +"We obtained her release; and one of us, Mr. G., walked over to her +house or cabin, some three miles on the other side of Williamsburgh, in +order that she might see her parents before she went to her new home. + +"As she walked along, she looked up in Mr. G.'s face, and asked, +thoughtfully. Why we came there for her? He explained. She listened, and +after a little while, said, in broken English 'Don't you think better +for poor little girls to die than live?' He spoke kindly to her, and +said something about a good God. She shook her head, 'No, no good God. +Why am I so? It always was so. Why much suffer, if good God?' He told +her they would get her a supper, and in the morning she should start off +and find new friends. She became gradually almost +ungoverned--sobbed--would like to die, even threatened suicide in this +wild way. + +"Kindness and calm words at length made her more reasonable. After much +trouble, they reached the home or den of the poor rag-picker. The +parents were very grateful, and she was to start off the next morning to +a country home, where, perhaps finally, the parents will join her. + +"For myself, the evening shadow seemed more somber, and the cheerful +home-lights less cheerful, as I walked home, remembering such a +history. + +"Ye who are happy, whose lives have been under sunshine and gentle +influences around whom Affection, and Piety, and Love have watched, as +ye gather in cheerful circles these autumn evenings, think of these +bitter and friendless children of the poor, in the great city. But few +have such eloquent expressions as this poor girl, yet all inarticulately +feel. + +"There are sad histories beneath this gay world--lives over which is the +very shadow of death. God be thanked, there is a Heart which feels for +them all, where every pang and groan will find a sympathy, which will +one day right the wrong, and bring back the light over human life. + +"The day is short for us all; but for some it will be a pleasant +thought, when we come to lay down our heads at last, that we have eased +a few aching hearts, and brought peace and new hope to the dark lives of +those whom men had forgotten or cast out." + +[Illustration: THE STREET-GIRL'S END.] + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + LEGAL TREATMENT OF PROSTITUTES. + + SHOULD LICENSES BE ALLOWED? + +The question of the best mode of legally controlling the great evil of +prostitution, and confining its bad physical effects, is a very +difficult one. + +The merely philosophical inquirer, or even the physician, regarding +humanity "in the broad," comes naturally to the conclusion that this +offense is one of the inevitable evils which always have followed, and +always will follow, the track of civilization; that it is to be looked +upon, like small-pox or scarlet fever, as a disease of civilized man, +and is to be treated accordingly, by physical and scientific means, and +must be controlled, as it cannot be uprooted, by legislation. Or they +regard it as they do intoxication, as the effect of a misdirected +natural desire, which is everywhere thought to be a legitimate object +both of permission or recognition by government, as well as of check by +rigid laws. + +If medical men, their minds are almost exclusively directed toward the +frightful effects on society and upon the innocent, of the diseases +which attend this offense. They see that legislation would at once check +the ravages from these terrible maladies, and that a system of licenses +such as is practiced in the Continental cities would prevent them from +spreading through society and punishing those who had never sinned. As +scientific healers of human maladies, they feel that anything is a gain +which lessens human suffering, controls disease, and keeps up the +general health of the community. Their position, too, has been +strengthened by the foolish and superstitious arguments of their +opponents. It has been claimed that syphilitic disorders are a peculiar +and supernatural punishment for sin and wrong-doing; that by interfering +with their legitimate action on the guilty, we presume to diminish the +punishments inflicted by the Almighty; and, in so far as we cure or +restrain these diseases, we lessen one great sanction which nature and +Providence have placed before the infraction of the law of virtue. + +The medical man, however, replies very pertinently that he has nothing +to do with the Divine sanctions; that his business is to cure human +diseases and lessen human suffering wherever he find them; and that +gout, or rheumatism, or diphtheria, or scarlet fever, are as much +"punishments" as the diseases of this vice. If he refused to visit a +patient whenever he thought that his sins had brought upon him his +diseases, he would have very little occupation, and mankind would +receive very little alleviation from the medical art. Nor is he even +called upon to refuse to cure a patient who, he knows, will immediately +begin again his evil courses. The physician is not a judge or an +executioner. He has nothing to do but to cure and alleviate. Influenced +by this aspect of his duty, the medical man almost universally advocates +licenses to prostitutes, based on medical examination, and a strict +legal control of the participants in this offense. + +On the other hand, those of us who deal with the moral aspects of the +case, and who know the class that are ruined body and soul by this +criminal business, have a profound dread of anything which, to the +young, should appear to legalize or approve, or even recognize it. The +worst evil in prostitution is to the woman, and the worst element in +that is moral rather than physical. + +The man has the tremendous responsibility on his soul of doing his part +in helping to plunge a human being into the lowest depths of misery and +moral degradation. He has also all the moral responsibility which the +Divine law of purity places on each individual, and the farther burden +of possibly causing disease hereafter to the innocent and virtuous. + +But the woman who pursues this as a business has seldom any hope in this +world, either of mental or moral health. The class, as a class, are the +most desperate and unfortunate which reformatory agencies ever touch. +Now, any friend of the well-being of society, knowing the strength of +men's passions, and the utter misery and degradation of these victims of +them, will dread any public measure or legislation which will tend to +weaken the respect of young men for virtue, or to make this offense +looked upon as permissible, or which will add to the number of these +wretched women by diminishing the public and legal condemnation of their +debasing traffic. + +Among the large class of poor and ignorant girls in a large city who are +always just on the line between virtue and vice, who can say how many +more would be plunged into this abyss of misery by an apparent legal +approval or recognition of the offense through a system of license? +Among the thousand young men who are under incessant temptations in a +city like this, who can say how many are saved by the consciousness that +this offense is looked upon both by morality and law as an offense, and +is not even recognized as permissible and legal? A city license +constitutes a profession of prostitutes. The law and opinion recognize +them. The evil becomes more fixed by its public recognition. + +It is true that prostitution will always, in all probability, attend +civilization; but so will all other sins and offenses. It may be +possible, however, to diminish and control it. It is already immensely +checked in this country, as compared with continental countries, partly +through economical and partly through moral causes. It has been +diminished among the daughters of the lowest poor in this city by the +"Industrial Schools." Why should it be increased and established by +legal recognition? + +We admit that the present condition of the whole matter in New York is +terrible. The humanity and science which ought to minister to the +prostitute as freely as to any other class, are refused to her by the +public, unless she apply as a pauper. The consequence is, that the +fearful diseases which follow this offense, like avenging Furies, have +spread through not only this class of women, but have been communicated +to the virtuous and innocent, and are undermining the health of society. +This fact is notorious to physicians. + +Now we think a reasonable "middle course" might be pursued in this +matter; that, for instance, greater conveniences for medical attendance +and advice in the city (and not on Blackwell's Island) might be afforded +by our authorities to this class, both as a matter of humanity and as a +safeguard to the public health. If there was a hospital or a dispensary +for such cases within the city, it would avoid the disgrace and +publicity of each patient reporting herself to the court as a pauper, +and then being sent to the Island Hospital. Hundreds more would present +themselves for attendance and treatment than do now, and the public +health be proportionately improved. No moral sanction would thus be +given to this demoralizing and degrading business. The simple duties of +humanity would be performed. + +The advocates of the license system would still reply, however, that +such a hospital would not meet the evil; that Law only can separate the +sickly from the healthy, and thus guard society from the pestilence; and +the only law which could accomplish this would be a strict system of +license. The friend of public order, however, would urge that a wise +legislator cannot consider physical well-being alone: he must regard +also the moral tendencies of laws; and the influence of a license system +for prostitution is plainly toward recognizing this offense as legal or +permissible. It removes indirectly one of the safeguards of virtue. + +Perhaps the _reductio ad absurdum_ in the relation of the State with a +criminal class, and of the Church with the State, was never so absurdly +shown as in the Berlin license laws for prostitutes, twenty years since. +According to these, in their final result, no woman could be a +prostitute who had not partaken of the communion!--that is, the +_Schein,_ or license, was never given to this business any more than to +any other, except on evidence of the person's having been "confirmed," +or being a member of the State Church, that is, a citizen! This +classing, however, the trade of prostitution with peddling, or any other +business needing a license, did not in the least tend, so far as we have +ever heard, to elevate the women, or save them from moral and mental +degradation. On the contrary, the universal law of Providence that man +or woman must live by labor, and that any unnatural substitute for it +saps and weakens all power and vigor, applies to this class in +Continental cities as much as here. Without doubt, too, wherever the +Germanic races are, no degree of legalizing this traffic can utterly do +away with the public sentence of scorn against the female participants +in it; and the contempt of the virtuous naturally depresses the +vicious. + +The "public woman" has a far greater chance of recovery in France or +Italy than in Germany, England, or America. Still, the wise legislator, +though regretting the depression which this public sentiment causes to +the vicious classes, cannot but value it as a safeguard of virtue, and +will be very cautious how he weakens it by legislation. + +There is, no doubt, some force in the position that the non-licensing of +these houses is in some degree a terror to the community, and that the +cautious and prudent are kept from the offense through fear of possible +consequences in disease and infection. This, however, does not seem to +us an object which legislators can hold before them as compared with the +duties of humanity in curing and preventing disease and pestilence. They +have nothing to do with adding to the natural penalties of sin, or with +punishing sinners. They are concerned only with human law. But they have +the right, and, as it seems to us, the duty, so to legislate as not to +encourage so great an evil as this of prostitution. And licensing, it +seems to us, has that tendency. It certainly has had it in Paris, where +it has been tried to its full extent, and surely no one could claim the +population of that city as a model to any nation, whether in physical or +moral power. + +Bad as London is in this matter--not, however, so much through defect of +licensing as through want of a proper street-police--we do not believe +there is so wide-spread a degradation among poor women as in Berlin. + +New York, in our judgment, is superior to any great city in its smaller +prostitute class, and the virtue of its laboring poor. Something of +this, of course, is due to our superior economical conditions; something +to the immense energy and large means thrown into our preventive +agencies, but much also to the public opinion prevailing in all classes +in regard to this vice. Our wealthy classes, we believe, and certainly +our middle classes, have a higher sentiment in regard to the purity both +of man and woman than any similar classes in the civilized world. More +persons relatively marry, and marriages are happier. This is equally +true of the upper laboring classes. If it is not true of the lowest +poor, this results from two great local evils--Overcrowding, and the bad +influences of Emigration. Still, even with these, the poor of New York +compare favorably in virtue with those of Paris, Berlin, or Vienna. Now, +how large a part of the public opinion which thus preserves both ends of +society from vice may be due to the fact that we have not recognized the +greatest offense against purity by any permissive legislation? The +business is still regarded, in law, as outside of good morals and not +even to be tacitly allowed by license. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE BEST PREVENTIVE OF VICE AMONG CHILDREN. + + INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. + +As a simple, practical measure to save from vice the girls of the honest +poor, nothing has ever been equal to the Industrial School. + +Along with our effort for homeless boys, I early attempted to found a +comprehensive organization of Schools for the needy and ragged little +girls of the city. + +Though our Free Schools are open to all, experience has taught that vast +numbers of children are so ill-clothed and destitute that they are +ashamed to attend these excellent places of instruction; or their +mothers are obliged to employ them during parts of the day; or they are +begging, or engaged in street occupations, and will not attend, or, if +they do, attend very irregularly. Very many are playing about the docks +or idling in the streets. + +Twenty years ago, nothing seemed to check this evil. Captain Matsell, in +the celebrated report I have alluded to, estimated the number of vagrant +children as 10,000, and subsequently in later years, the estimate was as +high as 30,000. The commitments for vagrancy were enormous, reaching in +one year (1857), for females alone, 3,449; in 1859, 5,778; and in 1860, +5,880. In these we have not the exact number of children, but it was +certainly very large. + +What was needed to check crime and vagrancy among young girls was some +School of Industry and Morals, adapted for the class. + +Many were ashamed to go to the Public Schools; they were too irregular +for their rules. They needed some help in the way of food and clothing, +much direct moral instruction and training in industry; while their +mothers required to be stimulated by earnest appeals to their +consciences to induce them to school them at all. Agents must be sent +around to gather the children, and to persuade the parents to educate +their offspring. It was manifest that the Public Schools were not +adapted to meet all these wants, and indeed the mingling of any +eleemosynary features in our public educational establishments would +have been injudicious. As our infant Society had no funds, my effort was +to found something at first by outside help, with the hope subsequently +of obtaining a permanent support for the new enterprises, and bringing +them under the supervision of the parent Society. + +The agencies which we sought to found were the INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS, which +I shall now attempt to describe. + +Each one of these humble charities has a history of its own--a history +known only to the poor--of sacrifice, patience, and labor. + +Some of the most gifted women of New York, of high position and fortune, +as well as others of remarkable character and education, have poured +forth without stint their services of love in connection with these +ministrations of charity. + + THE WILSON SCHOOL. + +The School to which allusion has already been made on page 83, as +growing out of the Boys' Meeting in Sixth Street, and afterwards in +Avenue D, was the first of these Schools, and owes its origin especially +to a lady of great executive power, Mrs. Wilson, wife of the Rev. Dr. +Wilson. It has always been an exceedingly successful and efficient +School. It was formed in February, 1853, the writer assisting in its +organization, and was carried on outside of the Society whose history I +am sketching. + + THE ROOKERIES OF THE FOURTH WARD--A REMEDY. + +In visiting from lane to lane and house to house in our poorest +quarters, I soon came to know one district which seemed hopelessly given +over to vice and misery--the region radiating out from or near to +Franklin Square, especially such streets as Cherry, Water, Dover, +Roosevelt, and the neighboring lanes. Here were huge barracks--one said +to contain some 1,500 persons--underground cellars, crowded with people, +and old rickety houses always having "a double" on the rear lot, so as +more effectually to shut out light and air. Here were as many +liquor-shops as houses, and those worst dens of vice, the +"Dance-Saloons," where prostitution was in its most brazen form, and the +unfortunate sailors were continually robbed or murdered. Nowhere in the +city were so many murders committed, or was every species of crime so +rife. Never, however, in this villainous quarter, did I experience the +slightest annoyance in my visits, nor did any one of the ladies who +subsequently ransacked every den and hole where a child could shelter +itself. My own attention was early arrested by the number of wild ragged +little girls who were flitting about through these lanes; some with +basket and poker gathering rags, some apparently seeking chances of +stealing, and others doing errands for the dance-saloons and brothels, +or hanging about their doors. The police were constantly arresting them +as "vagrants," when the mothers would beg them off from the good-natured +Justices, and promise to train them better in future. They were +evidently fast training, however, for the most abandoned life. It seemed +me if I could only get the refinement, education, and Christian +enthusiasm of the better classes fairly to work here among these +children, these terrible evils might be corrected at least for the next +generation. + +I accordingly went about from house to house among ladies whom I had +known, and, representing the condition of the Ward, induced them to +attend a meeting of ladies to be held at the house of a prominent +physician, whose wife had kindly offered her rooms. + +For some months I had attempted to prepare the public mind for these +labors by incessant writing for the daily papers, by lectures and by +sermons in various pulpits. Experience soon showed that the most +effective mode of making real the condition of the poorest class, was by +relating incidents from real life which continually presented +themselves. + +The rich and fortunate had hardly conceived the histories of poverty, +suffering, and loneliness which were constantly passing around them. + +The hope and effort of the writer was to connect the two extremes of +society in sympathy, and carry the forces of one class down to lift up +the other. For this two things were necessary--one to show the duty +which Christ especially teaches of sacrifice to the poor for His sake, +and the value which He attaches to each human soul; and the other to +free the whole, as much as possible, from any sectarian or dogmatic +character. Nothing but "the enthusiasm of humanity" inspired by Christ +could lead the comfortable and the fastidious to such disagreeable +scenes and hard labors as would meet them here. It was necessary to feel +that many comforts most be foregone, and much leisure given up, for this +important work. Very unpleasant sights were to be met with, coarse +people to be encountered, and rude children managed; the stern facts of +filth, vice, and crime to be dealt with. + +It was not to be a mere holiday-work, or a sudden gush of sentiment; +but, to be of use, it must be patiently continued, week by week, and +month by month, and year by year, with some faint resemblance to that +patience and love which we believed a Higher One had exercised towards +us. But, with this inspiration, as carefully as possible, all dogmatic +limitation must be avoided. All sects were invited to take a share in +the work, and, as the efforts were necessarily directed to the most +palpable and terrible evils, the means used by all would be essentially +the same. Even those of no defined religious belief were gladly welcomed +if they were ready to do the offices of humanity. The fact that +ninety-nine hundredths of these poor people were Roman Catholics +compelled us also to confine ourselves to the most simple and +fundamental instructions, and to avoid, in any way, arousing religious +bigotry. + +In the meeting, gathered at the house of Dr. P., were prominent ladies +from all the leading sects. + +An address was delivered by the writer, and then a constitution +presented, of the simplest nature, and an association organized and +officers appointed by the ladies present. This was the foundation of +the + + "FOURTH WARD INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL." + +In the meanwhile, we went forth through the slums of the ward, and let +it be widely known that a School to teach work, and where food was given +daily, and clothes were bestowed to the well-behaved, was just forming. + +Our room was in the basement of a church in Roosevelt Street. Hither +gathered, on a morning in December, 1853, our ladies and a flock of the +most ill-clad and wildest little street-girls that could be collected +anywhere in New York. They flew over the benches, they swore and fought +with one another, they bandied vile language, and could hardly be tamed +down sufficiently to allow the school to be opened. + +Few had shoes, all were bonnetless, their dresses were torn, ragged, and +dirty; their hair tangled, and faces long unwashed; they had, many of +them, a singularly wild and intense expression of eye and feature, as of +half-tamed creatures, with passions aroused beyond their years. + +The dress and ornaments of the ladies seemed to excite their admiration +greatly. It was observed that they soon hid or softened their own worst +peculiarities. They evidently could not at first understand the motive +which led so many of a far higher and better class to come to help them. +The two regular and salaried teachers took the discipline in hand gently +and firmly. The ladies soon had their little classes, each gathered +quietly about the one instructing. As a general thing, the ladies took +upon themselves the industrial branches--sewing, knitting, crocheting, +and the like; this gave them also excellent opportunities for moral +instruction, and winning the sympathy of the children. + +As these ladies, many of them of remarkable character and culture, began +to show the fruits of a high civilization to these poor little +barbarians, the thought seemed to strike them--though hardly capable of +being expressed--that here was a goodness and piety they had never known +or conceived. This offspring of poverty and crime veiled their vices and +bad habits before these angels. They felt a new impulse--to be worthy of +their noble friends. The idea of unselfish Love dawned on their souls; +they softened and became respectful. So it continued; each day the wild +little beggars became more disciplined and controlled; they began to +like study and industry; they were more anxious to be clean and neatly +dressed; they checked their tongues, and, in some degree, their tempers; +they showed affection and gratitude to their teachers; their minds +awakened; most of all, their moral faculties. The truths of Religion or +of morals, especially when dramatized in stories and incidents, reached +them. + +And no words can adequately picture the amount of loving service and +patient sacrifice which was poured out by these ladies in this effort +among the poor of the Fourth Ward. They never spared themselves or their +means. Some came down every day to help in the school; some twice in the +week; they were there in all weathers, and never wearied. Three of the +number offered up their lives in these labors of humanity, and died in +harness. + +A most gifted intellectual family, the S----s, supplied some of our most +devoted workers; the wife, since deceased, of one of our leading +merchants and public men, himself a man much loved for his generosity, +occupied the place of one of the Directresses; the wife of a prominent +physician was our Treasurer. A young lady of fortune, since dead, Miss +G., took the hardest labors upon herself. The wife of a gentleman since +Governor and United States Senator, was in especial charge of the house, +and dreaded no labor of humanity, however disagreeable. Two others, +sisters, who represented one of our most honored historical families, +but whose characters needed no help of genealogy to make them esteemed +by all, threw themselves into the work with characteristic earnestness. +Another of that family, which has furnished the pioneer of all +reform-work among the youthful criminals, and in criminal law, and which +in the early days of our history so often led public affairs, visited +from house to house among the miserable poor of the ward, and twice +found herself face to face with small-pox in its most virulent form. + +The effects of this particular School upon the morals of the juvenile +population of the Fourth Ward were precisely what they have always been +in similar schools. These little girls, who might be said to be almost +the inmates of the brothels, and who grew up in an atmosphere of crime +and degradation, scarcely ever, when mature, joined the ranks of their +sisters and neighbors. Though living in the same houses with the gay +dance-saloons, they avoided them as they would pestilential places. +Trained to industry and familiar with the modest and refined appearance +of pure women in the schools, they had no desire for the society of +these bold girls, or to earn their living in this idle and shameful +manner. They felt the disgrace of the abandoned life around them, and +were soon above it. Though almost invariably the children of drunkards, +they did not inherit the appetites of their mothers, or if they did, +their new training substituted higher and stronger desires. They were +seldom known to have the habit of drinking as they grew up. Situations +were continually found for them in the country, or they secured places +for themselves as servants in respectable families; and, becoming each +day more used to better circumstances and more neatly dressed, they had +little desire to visit their own wretched homes and remain in their +families. Now and then there would be a fall from virtue among them, but +the cases were very few indeed. As they grew up they married young +mechanics or farmers, and were soon far above the class from which they +sprang. Such were the fruits in general of the patient, self-denying +labors of these ladies in the Fourth Ward School. + +One most self-sacrificing and heroic man, a physician, Dr. Robert Ray, +devoted his education and something of his fortune to these benevolent +efforts, and died while in the harness. Singularly enough, I never knew, +in twenty years' experience, an instance of one of these volunteer +teachers contracting any contagious disease in these labors, though +repeatedly they have entered tenement rooms where virulent typhoid or +small-pox cases were being tended. They made it a rule generally to +bathe and change their clothing after their work. + +For a more exact account of the results of the Fourth-Ward labors, it is +difficult to obtain precise statistics. But when we know from the Prison +Reports that soon after the opening of this school there were imprisoned +3,449 female vagrants of all ages, and that last year (1870), when the +little girls who then attended such schools would have matured, there +were only 671; or when we observe that the Prison in that neighborhood +inclosed 3,172 female vagrants in 1861 and only 339 in 1871, we may be +assured that the sacrifices made in that Ward have not been without +their natural fruit. + +Extracts from our Journal: + + A VISIT IN THE FOURTH WARD. + +"We Started out a wintry afternoon to see some of our scholars in the +Industrial School of the Fourth Ward. A number of ragged little girls, +disdaining to enter, were clustered about the door of the School. As +they caught a glimpse of some one coming out, the cry of 'Lie low! lie +low!' passed among them, and they were off, capering about in the +snow-storm like so many little witches. + +"We passed up Oak Street and Cherry. Here is the entrance, a narrow +doorway on the side. Wind through this dark passage and you are at the +door of a little back room; it is the home of a German rag-picker who +has a child in the school. A filthy, close room, with a dark bedroom; +there is one window, and a small stove, and two or three chairs. The +girl is neat and healthy-looking. 'I pick rags, sir,' says the mother, +'and I can't send her to Public School. I am away all day, and she would +have to be in the streets, and it's very hard to live this winter. It's +been a great help to send her to that school.' I told her we wanted none +who could go to Public School, but if it was so with her she might +continue to send. A miserable hole for a home, and yet the child looked +neatly. + +"Here, beyond, is an old house. We climb the shaking stairs, up to the +attic--a bare front room with one roof-window. The only furniture a bed +and stove and a broken chair. Very chill and bare, but the floor is well +swept. A little humpbacked child is reading away very busily by the +light of the scuttle window, and another is cleaning up the floor. The +mother is an Irish woman. 'Shure! an' its nivir none of the schools I +could sind 'em to. I had no clo'es or shoes for 'em and, it's the truth, +I am jist living, an' no more. Could ye help us? We told her we meant to +help her by helping her children, and asked about the little deformed +one. 'Och! she is sich a swate won! She always larned very quick since +her accidint, and I used to think, maybe she wont live, and God will +take her away--she was so steady and good. Yes, I am thankful to those +ladies for what they are teaching her. She never had no chance before. +God bless ye, gintlemen!' + +"We climbed again one of these rookeries. It is a back garret. A +dark-eyed, passionate-looking woman is sitting over the little stove, +and one of our little scholars is standing by--one of the prettiest and +brightest children in the school. One of those faces you see in the West +of Ireland, perhaps with some Spanish blood in them; a little oval face, +with soft brown complexion, quick, dark eyes and harsh, black hair. The +mother looked like a woman who had seen much of the worst of life. 'No, +sir, I never did send 'em to school. I know it, they ought to learn, but +I couldn't. I try to shame him sometimes--it's my husband, sir--but he +drinks, and then bates me. Look at that bruise!' and she pointed to her +cheek; 'and I tell him to see what's comin' to his children. There's +Peggy, goes sellin' fruit every night to those cellars in Water Street, +and they're _hells,_ sir. She's learnin' all sorts of bad words there, +and don't get back till eleven or twelve o'clock.' She spoke of a sister +of the little girl, about thirteen years old, and the picture of that +sweet, dark-eyed little thing, getting her education, unconsciously, +every night in those vile cellars of dancing prostitutes, came up to my +mind. I asked why she sent her there, and spoke of the dangers. 'I must, +sir; he makes nothing for me, and if it wasn't for this school, and the +help there, and her earning of a shilling or two shilling in them +places, I should starve. Oh, I wish they was out of this city! Yes, it's +the truth, I would rather have them dead than on the street, but I can't +help it.' I told her of some good families in the country, where we +could place the children. 'Would they git schoolin', sir?' 'Certainly, +that is the first condition. We always look especially to that.' The +little dark eyes sparkled, and she '_should_ like to take care of a baby +so!' The sister now came in, and we talked with her. 'Oh! no, she didn't +like to go to those places; but they only buy there at nights'--and she +seemed equally glad to get a place. So it was arranged that they were to +come up to the office next day, and then get a home in the country. The +little girl now wrapped her thin shawl about her head, and ran along +before us, through the storm, to some of the other children. The harder +it snowed, the more the little eyes sparkled and the prettier she +looked. + +"Another home of poverty--dark, damp, and chill. The mother an +Englishwoman; her child had gone to the school barefooted. This girl was +engaged in the same business--selling fruit at night in the brothels. 'I +know it, sir,' she said; 'she ought to have as good a chance as other +people's children. But I'm so poor! I haven't paid a month's rent, and I +was sick three weeks.' + +"'Yes, you're right. I know the city, sir; and I would rather have her +in her grave than brought down to those cellars. But what can I do, +sir?' + +"We arrange, again, to find a situation in the country, if she +wishes--and engage her, at least, to keep the child at school. + +"Our little sprite flies along again through the snow, and shows us +another home of one of our scholars--a prostitute's cellar. The elder +sister of the child is there, and meets us pleasantly, though with a +shame-faced look. 'Yes, she shall go to school every day, sir. We never +sent her before, nowheres; but she's learnin' very fast there now.' + +"We tell her the general objects of the school, and of the good, kind +home which can be found for her sister in the country. She seems glad +and her face, which must have been pretty once, lights up, perhaps, at +the thought for her sister, of what she shall never more have--a pure +home. Two or three sailors, sitting at their bottles, say, 'Yes, that's +it! git the little gal out of this! it ain't no place for her.' + +"They are all respectful, and seem to understand what we are doing. + +"The little guide has gone back, and we go now to another address--a +back cellar in Oak Street--damp, dark, so that one at mid-day could +hardly see to read; filthy, chilly, yet with six or eight people living +there. Every one has a cold; and the oldest daughter, a nice girl of +fourteen, is losing her eyes in the foul atmosphere. The old story: 'No +work, no friends, rent to pay, and nothing to do.' The parents squalid, +idle, intemperate, and shiftless. There they live, just picking up +enough to keep life warm in them; groaning, and begging, and seeking +work. There they live, breeding each day pestilence and disease, +scattering abroad over the city seeds of fearful sickness--raising a +brood of vagrants and harlots--retorting on society its neglect by +cursing the bodies and souls of thousands whom they never knew, and who +never saw them. + +"Yet it is cheering--it cheered me even in that squalid hole--that the +children are so much superior to their parents. It needs time for vice +and beggary and filth to degrade childhood. God has given every fresh +human soul something which rises above its surroundings, and which even +want and vice do not wear away. For the old poor, for the sensual who +have steeped themselves in crime, for the drunkard, the thief, the +prostitute who have run a long course, let those heroically work who +will. Yet, noble as is the effort, one's experience of human nature is +obliged to confess, the fruits will be very few. The old heart of man is +a hard thing to change. In any comprehensive view, the only hopeful +reform through society must begin with childhood, basing itself on a +change of circumstances and on religious influences." + +The average expense of a school of this nature, with one hundred +scholars and two salaried teachers, where a cheap meal is supplied, and +garments and shoes are earned by the scholars, we reckon usually at +$1,500, or at $15 per head annually for each scholar. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + THE GERMAN RAG-PICKERS. + +Our next great effort was among the Germans. On the eastern side of the +city is a vast population of German laborers, mechanics, and +shop-keepers. Among them, also, are numbers of exceedingly poor people, +who live by gathering rags and bones. + +I used at that time to explore these singular settlements, filled with +the poor peasantry of the "Fatherland," and being familiar with the +German _patois,_ I had many cheery conversations with these honest +people, who had drifted into places so different from their +mountain-homes. In fact, it used to convey to me a strange contrast, the +dirty yards piled with bones and flaunting with rags, and the air +smelling of carrion; while the accents reminded of the glaciers of the +Bavarian Alps or the fresh breezes and wild scenes of the Harz. The poor +people felt the contrast terribly, and their children most of all. + +From ignorance of the language and the necessity of working at their +street-trades, they did not attend our schools, and seldom entered a +church. They were growing up without either religion or education. Yet +they were a much more honest and hopeful class than the Irish. There +seemed always remaining in them something of the good old German +_Biederkeit,_ or solidity. One could depend on the children if they were +put in places of trust, and in school they seemed to grasp knowledge +with much more tenacity and vigor. The young girls, however, coming from +a similar low class were weaker in virtue than the Irish. + +The number of the Germans in the poor quarters may be somewhat measured +by the population of the Wards which they inhabited. The Eleventh Ward +at that time (1854) was reckoned to contain 50,000 inhabitants; at +present (1870) it contains 64,372, and the Sixteenth Ward, another +strong German district, has 99,375. + +The Association of ladies which we called together for labors among this +population happened to be composed mainly of Unitarians, a religious +body that has always felt a peculiar interest in the moral condition of +our German poor. The moving spirit in the association was a lady of such +singular grace and delicacy of character, that I hardly venture, even +after these many years, to make public her name. She occupied then one +of the foremost positions in New York society--a position accorded in +part to her name, honored for intellectual services to the Republic, +beyond almost any other in our history, but above all due to her own +singular sweetness and dignity of manner and a very highly cultivated +and strong intellect. Her power, whether with rich or poor, was her +wonderful consideration for others, and her quick sympathy. The highest +inspiration of Christian faith breathed through her life and animated +her in laboring with these children of poverty. The same inspiration +sustained her subsequently in a prolonged and terrible trial of months +under a fearful disease, and made her death a sun-set of glory to all +who knew her. Never did the faith in immortal union with God through +Christ attain a more absolute certainty in any human being. Her death, +even to many skeptics who were intimate with her, became a new and +astonishing argument for Immortality. + +She numbered among her friends many of the leading intellects of the +country, as well as those among the poor who depended on her advice, +sympathy, and aid. + +Into this labor of love among the Germans, Mrs. S. threw herself, in +company with a few friends, with profound earnestness. + +In view of the peculiar temptations of the young German girls, one of +our objects in this school was to offer a social as well as educational +resort in the evenings. We furnished the rooms pleasantly and +tastefully, and proposed to vary our school exercises by games or an +occasional dance and frolic. Mrs. S. and other ladies consented to be +often present, to instruct and talk with the girls. Our visitors and +myself at once gathered in a needy-looking assembly of the poor German +girls of the Eleventh Ward, not as ragged or wild as the Irish throng in +the Fourth Ward, but equally poor and quite as much exposed to +temptation. The School went on day by day in its ministrations of love +and its patient industry, and gradually produced the same effects as +have been experienced under all these Schools. The wild became tamer, +the wayward more docile. The child of the rag-picker soon began to like +in-door industry better than the vagrant business of the streets, and to +lose something of her boldness and correct her slovenliness. + +After laboring thus for some years with a board of ladies, a strong +effort was made to secure the assistance of the German merchants of the +city. + +In 1859, a subscription of about $1,000 was obtained from them, and the +School was enlarged and made still more attractive, so as to reach the +young working German girls in the evening. At this time a young lady of +high culture, from one of the prominent intellectual families of New +England, offered herself for this difficult task, and she was placed at +the head of the School. For two years she labored unceasingly for this +wild, uncontrolled class, being present every evening in the school, and +bringing all her education and earnestness of character to bear upon +them. They never forgot her, and she left an indelible impression on +these children, and aided in saving them from the temptations which have +ruined so many of their companions. + +Our German patrons gradually left us, and it was only in 1870 that their +assistance was secured again for a charity which was saving so many +thousand children of their countrymen. + +The School is now held at No. 272 Second Street, and contains some four +hundred children. + + "DUTCH HILL" AND THE SWILL-GATHERERS. + +On the eastern side of the city, in the neighborhood of Fortieth Street, +is a village of squatters, which enjoys the title of "Dutch Hill." The +inhabitants are not, however, "Dutch," but mainly poor Irish, who have +taken temporary possession of unused sites on a hill, and have erected +shanties which serve at once for pig-pens, hen-coops, bed-rooms, and +living-rooms. They enjoy the privilege of squatters in having no rent to +pay; but they are exposed to the penalty of being at any moment turned +out from their dens, and losing land and house at once. Usually they +remain while the quarrymen who are opening streets almost undermine +their shanties, and then if the buildings are not blown away, they pull +them down and pack them away like tents to another dwelling-place. + +The village is filled with snarling dogs, which aid in drawing the swill +or coal carts, for the children are mainly employed in collecting swill +and picking coals through the streets. + +The shanty family are never quite so poor as the tenement-house family; +as they have no rent to pay. But the filth and wretchedness in which +they sometimes live are beyond description. + +It happened that for many years (not wishing to scatter my efforts too +much), I made this quarter my special "parish" for visitations; and very +discouraging visits they were, many of them. The people had very little +regular occupation, many being widows who did occasional "chores" in +families; others lived on the sale of the coal their children gathered, +or on the pigs which shared their domicile; others kept fowls, and all +had vast flocks of goats, though where the profits from these latter +came I could never discover, as no one seemed to buy the milk, and I +never heard of their killing them. Money, however, in some way they did +procure, and one old red-faced swill-gatherer I knew well, whose bright +child we tried so long to save, who died finally, it was said, with a +large deposit in the Savings-Bank, which no one could claim; yet one +corner of her bed-chamber was filled with a heap of smelling bones, and +the pigs slept under her bed. + +Another old rag-picker I remember whose shanty was a sight to behold; +all the odds and ends of a great, city seemed piled up in it,--bones, +broken dishes, rags, bits of furniture, cinders, old tin, useless lamps, +decaying vegetables, ribbons, cloths, legless chairs, and carrion, all +mixed together, and heaped up nearly to the ceiling, leaving hardly room +for a bed on the floor where the woman and her two children slept. Yet +all these were marvels of health and vigor, far surpassing most children +I know in the comfortable classes. The woman was German, and after years +of effort could never be induced to do anything for the education of her +children, until finally I put the police on their track as vagrants, and +they were safely housed in the "Juvenile Asylum." + +Many a time have I come into their shanties on a snowy morning and found +the people asleep with the snow lying thick on their bed-clothes. One +poor creature was found thus one morning by the police, frozen stiff. +They all suffered, as might be expected, terribly from rheumatism. +Liquor, of course, "prevailed." Every woman drank hard, I suppose to +forget her misery; and dreadful quarrels raged among them. + +The few men there worked hard at stone-quarrying, but were often +disabled by disease and useless from drunkenness. Many of the women had +been abandoned by their husbands, as their families increased and became +burdensome, or as they themselves grew plain and bad-tempered. Some of +these poor creatures drank still more to heal their wounded affections. +The children, of course, were rapidly following the ways of their +parents. The life of a swill-gatherer, or coal-picker, or _chiffonnier_ +in the streets soon wears off a girl's modesty and prepares her for +worse occupation. + +Into this community of poor, ignorant, and drunken people I threw +myself, and resolved, with God's aid, to try to do something for them. +Here for years I visited from cabin to cabin, or hunted out every cellar +and attic of the neighboring tenement-houses; standing at death-beds and +sick-beds, seeking to administer consolation and advice, and, aided by +others, to render every species of assistance. + +In returning home from these rounds, amidst filth and poverty, I +remember that I was frequently so depressed and exhausted as to throw +myself flat upon the rug in front of the fire, scarcely able to move. +The discouraging feature in such visits as I was making, and which must +always exist in similar efforts, is that one has no point of religious +contact with these people. + +Among all the hundreds of families I knew and visited I never met but +two that were Protestants. To all words of spiritual warning or help +there came the chilling formalism of the ignorant Roman Catholic in +reply, implying that certain outward acts made the soul right with its +Creator. The very inner ideas of our spiritual life of free love towards +God, true repentance and trust in a Divine Redeemer, seemed wanting in +their minds. I never had the least ambition to be a proselytizer, and +never tried to convert them, and I certainly had no prejudice against +the Romanists; on the contrary, it has been my fortune in Europe to +enjoy the intercourse of some most spiritual-minded Catholics. But these +poor people seemed stamped with the spiritual lifelessness of Romanism. +At how many a lonely death-bed or sick-bed, where even the priest had +forgotten to come, have I longed and tried to say some comforting word +of religion to the dull ear, closing to all earthly sounds; but even if +heard and the sympathy gratefully felt, it made scarcely more religious +impression than would the chants of the Buddhists have done. One +sprinkle of holy water were worth a volume of such words. + +A Protestant has great difficulty in coming into connection with the +Romanist poor. I was often curious to know the exact influence of the +priests over these people. The lowest poor in New York are not, I think, +much cared for by the Romanist priesthood. One reason, without doubt, is +that their attention has thus far been mainly (and wisely) directed to +building handsome churches, and that they have not means to do much for +these persons. Another and more powerful reason is, probably, that the +old "enthusiasm of humanity" which animated a Guy, a Vincent de Paul, or +Xavier, has died out among them. + +I have known, however; individual cases in our city, where a priest has +exercised a marked influence in keeping his charge from intoxication. +There were also occasionally, in this very region, something like +"Revivals of Religion" among the people, stimulated by the priests, in +which many young girls joined religious societies, and did lead, to my +knowledge, for a time more pure and devout lives. + +When one thinks what a noble-minded and humane Priest might accomplish +among the lowest classes of New York, how many vices he could check, and +what virtues he might cherish, and what public blessings on the whole +community he might confer, by elevating this degraded population; and +then as one looks at the moral condition of the Roman Catholic poor, one +can only sigh, that that once powerful body has lost so much of the +inspiration of Christ which once filled it. + +The plan which I laid out in working in this quarter was in harmony with +all our previous efforts; it was especially to influence and improve the +children. + +It so happened that near "Dutch Hill" was another hill covered with +handsome houses and inhabited by wealthy people, "Murray Hill." The +ladies in this prosperous quarter were visited, and finally assembled in +a public meeting; and, with the same preliminaries as in the other +Schools, we at length organized in 1854. + + THE EAST RIVER INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. + +Early in the history of this School, we secured the services of a lady, +Miss Spratt, now Mrs. Hurley, who has been ever since the main-stay of +that most useful charity. + +For seventeen years this woman of refinement and education has spent her +days in this School of poor children, and her hours of leisure in those +wretched shanties--an angel of mercy and sympathy to every unfortunate +family for miles around. Whatever woman falls into misfortune, loses +husband or child, is driven from home by poverty, or forced from work by +depression of business, or meets with troubles of mind or body, at once +comes to her for sympathy and relief. She has become so used to scenes +of misery, that to her, she says, "the house of mourning" is more +natural than "the house of feasting." + +The present writer, for his own part, confesses that he could not +possibly have borne the harrowing and disagreeable scenes with which he +has been so long familiar, without making a strict rule never to think +or speak of the poor when he was away from his work, and immediately +absorbing himself in some entirely different subject. The spring of the +mind would have been broken. + +But Mrs. Hurley lived in and for the poor; her only relaxation was +hearing Mr. Beecher on Sunday; and yet, when she occasionally visited us +in the country, she devoured books--her great favorite being a +translation I had of Plato. + +The children, of course, became passionately attached to this missionary +of charity. During her labors, she was married to a physician, Dr. +Hurley, who subsequently was killed in the army during the War of the +Rebellion. While she was temporarily absent, and a strange teacher +employed, six of the wildest girls were expelled, so unmanageable were +they. When she came back, they returned and welcomed her eagerly, +behaving perfectly well; and it was discovered that so attached were +they to her, they had each carried fragments of her dress as mementos in +their bosom! + +The peculiar value of our common experience in this School was, that we +were enabled through so many years to follow carefully the results of +the School on a large class of very destitute little girls. We know +personally what was here accomplished. A very hopeful feature appeared +soon in the work. The children rose above the condition of their +parents; sometimes they improved, by their own increasing neatness and +good behavior, the habits and appearance of their fathers and mothers. +More often they became ashamed of their paternal piggeries and nasty +dens, and were glad to get away to more decent homes or new occupations. +One great means of influence here was, as in the other Schools, through +the regular assistance of volunteer teachers, the ladies of the +Association. + +It happened that there was among them more of a certain tenacity of +character, of the old Puritan faithfulness, than was manifested by some +of our co-laborers; having put their hands to the plow, they never +thought of turning back. They gave time and labor, and money freely, and +they continued at their posts year after year. + +The children felt their refining and elevating influence. We soon found +that the daughters of the drunkards did not follow their mothers' +footsteps, simply because they had acquired higher tastes. We hardly +ever knew of one who indulged in drinking; indeed, one old red-faced +tippler, Mrs. McK., who was the best chore-woman on the Hill when sober, +eventually was entirely reformed by her children. No child seemed to +fall back into the degradation of the parents. And recalling now the +rank foul soil from which so many sweet flowers seemed to spring, one +can only wonder and be grateful that efforts so imperfect bore such +harvest. + +I remember the F. family--such a cheery, healthy-looking family living +in a damp, dark basement, and almost always half-starved, wretchedly +poor, but very industrious! The youngest daughter passed through our +School, and is now becoming a teacher; another married a mechanic (these +girls never marry day-laborers). Still another proved herself a heroine. +We sent her as nursery-maid to a family, and as they were all sailing +down the Hudson in the _St. John,_ the boiler burst; amid the horrible +confusion and panic where so many perished, this girl had the courage to +rush through the steam and boiling water, and save the three children +entrusted to her charge. Of course, after this, she was no longer a +servant, but a "sister beloved" in the family. A gentleman of fortune, +attracted by her appearance and intelligence, ultimately married her. He +died, and she was left with a nice fortune. She bore her change of +fortune beautifully. + +The following is another similar incident from our Journal: + + A ROMANTIC INCIDENT IN AN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. + +"A few years ago I remember an old shanty on 'Dutch Hill,' where a +wretched-looking man lived with his pigs and goats, called K----. He was +considered a bad man even among his bad neighbors, and the story of him +was (I do not know how true), that he had committed murder, and had +escaped the law by some legal quibble. He was a swill-gatherer, and had +two little bright daughters to assist him at home. These came to our +Fortieth-street School. They improved very fast, and one used to attract +much attention from the ladies by her pretty face and intelligent +answers. Nellie finally left the school, and was sent by us to the West. +She improved much there, and, after some time spent in different +families, came back to the city, where she became an 'operator' on the +sewing-machine. While at this business and living in a respectable +boarding-house, she attracted the attention of a gentleman of some means +and position, much older than herself, who, at length, offered himself +to her in marriage. + +She declined, on the ground that she was so much inferior in position to +him, and that his family would object. He insisted, and declared that +'he wished to please himself, not his family,' and they were married. + +"He took his wife away to a foreign country, where his business lay, and +there she has been a number of years, gradually improving in manners, +taste, and education, living like a lady of fortune, with her maid and +carriage, and making herself, in every way, a most suitable wife for one +who had been so much above her. We had often heard of her good fortune. +But during our Christmas Festival at the East River School, she herself +came in to see it again and thank those who had been so kind to her. We +all knew her at once; and yet she was so changed--a pretty, +tasteful-looking young lady, with a graceful manner and a Spanish accent +now--all the old stamp of 'Dutch Hill' quite gone, even the brogue lost +and replaced by foreign intonations. She was perfectly simple and +unaffected, and thanked us all for our former kindness with the utmost +heartiness; and told her story very simply, and how anxious she still +was to improve her education, seemingly not ashamed of her poor origin. +It is a pleasant circumstance that she has taken out her beloved +teacher, Mrs. Hurley, a number of times to drive in her carriage." + +Several changes of fortune of this kind have made it quite a natural +question, when I visit Mrs. Hurley's School, "What about the +heiresses?" + +Another girl, I remember, in one of these shanties, who came to school +in an old petticoat, and barefooted, a most destitute-looking child. She +was subsequently employed in our own family. I doubt whether many girls +of the highest classes show a greater natural refinement; and she was as +clever in every part of household work as she was nice. She finally +married a hotel-keeper in San Francisco, and is doing well. + +Generally, the girls married mechanics and people above their rank of +life. Some became Protestants; those who married Catholics were never +bigoted. A number went to the West, and have done well there. + +Mrs. Hurley reckons over at least two thousand different girls who have +been in this school and under its influence, since she has been there +during the past eighteen years. The condition of all these we know +probably pretty well. We count _but five_ who have become drunkards, +prostitutes, or criminals! Such a wonderful result can be shown by +hardly any preventive efforts in the world. Yet, there were certain +cases which we used to call + + "OUR FAILURES." + +There was the D. family--they lived on the lucrative spoils of their +infant, who sold toilet-covers to compassionate ladies. This little +Julia was an imp of deceit and mischief She had, fortunately for her, a +worn, sad face, and a capacity and imagination for lying unequaled at +her years. With inarticulate sobs, and the tears coursing down her thin +cheeks, she told of her dying mother and her labors to get her bread; +or, again, she was an orphan supporting herself and her deformed little +brother; or her disabled father depended on her feeble efforts for his +slender support. The addresses she gave of her house were always wrong; +and so, year by year, she gathered in a plenteous harvest from the pity +of the ladies. + +At home, a little band of able-bodied, slatternly sisters were living +mainly on the money thus begged. They naturally became each day more +lazy and dissolute; and little Julia more bold and brazen-faced. We +tried to bribe the young beggar to go to school, we paid her rent, we +offered the sisters work, we remonstrated and threatened, we even set +the police on her track, but nothing could check or turn her; she eluded +the police as easily as she did the ladies. If she came to school, she +stayed but a day; all effort failed against the ingrained slovenliness +and vagrancy of the family; day by day they sank; one daughter was +seduced, and to their number was now added an illegitimate child. They +grew dirtier and more miserable; and here, years ago, we left them. No +doubt, Julia is still pursuing her profitable vocation from house to +house, and the girls are in yet lower depths. + + A STREET-CHILD. (FROM OUR JOURNAL.) + +"Some ten years ago, I made many efforts to save a little homeless girl, +who was floating about the quarter near East Thirty-second Street. Her +drunken mother had thrown her out of doors, and she used to sleep under +stairways or in deserted cellars, and was a most wretched, half-starved +little creature. I talked with her often, but could not induce her to go +to school, or to seek a home in the country. She grew up steadily +vagrant. At length we succeeded in getting her away to the family of an +excellent lady in Buffalo. There she speedily gave up her roving habits, +became neat and orderly under the influence of the lady, attended church +and Sabbath School, and altogether seemed quite a changed child. +Unfortunately, the lady was obliged to move to this city, and instead of +placing the little girl in another family in the country, she brought +her with her to New York, and, no longer having room for her in her +house, let her go to her old associates. In a few weeks, the nice, tidy +little girl began to look like the idle and vagrant young girls who were +her companions. She became slatternly in her habits, and instead of +seeking a place in some family, she joined a company of poor +working-girls, who earned their living by manufacturing children's +torpedoes. She lodged in the crowded tenement-houses, and gradually fell +into all their low associations. The next I knew of her, I heard that +she had been seduced under a promise of marriage, and that she was about +to be a mother. Again I knew of her, with her unfortunate little babe, +driven about from one low lodging-house to another, dependent upon +charity for support. Finally, the child was adopted by the parents of +her seducer, and she was left free again. Though in extreme destitution, +she would not take a situation away from the city. She resumed her work +at torpedoes, and lived about in the tenement-houses, a poor, +bedraggled-looking creature. Again, after some time, I heard of her as +having married a low fellow in that district. She had only been married +a few days when her husband abandoned her, and never returned to her. +She now hangs about the low lodging-houses between First and Second +Avenues, in East Thirty-first and Thirty-second Streets, a +forlorn-looking, slovenly woman, who will almost certainly end in the +lowest vice and penury." + +Thus far in the Journal. Our constant pursuit of this girl did tend, I +think, to keep her from utter ruin. + +She fell no lower; and subsequently connected herself with one of the +charitable institutions, where she is living a virtuous life. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + SCENES AMONG THE POOR. + + EFFECTS OF DRUNKENNESS. (FROM OUR JOURNAL.) + +"It sometimes seems in our Industrial Schools as if each wretched, +blear-eyed, half-starved, filthy little girl was a living monument of +the curses of Intemperance. The rags, the disease, the ignorance, the +sunny looks darkened, the old faces on young shoulders, are not +necessarily the pitiable effects of overwhelming circumstances. The +young creatures are not always cursed by poverty principally, but by the +ungoverned appetites, bad habits and vices of their parents. On 'Dutch +Hill' one can hardly enter a shanty where is a sober family. The women +all drink; the men work, and then carouse. The hard earnings go off in +alcohol. No savings are laid up for the winter. The children are ragged +and unprotected, and, but for the Industrial School, uneducated. It is +sometimes the saddest sight to see a neat little shanty grow day by day +more filthy; the furniture sold, the windows broken, the children +looking more thin and hungry, the parents falling out of honest +work--all the slow effects of ungoverned passion for liquor. + +"I entered, yesterday, a little hut on the 'Hill,' where a middle-aged +woman lived, whom I knew. She was sitting near the door, weeping +violently. I asked her the reason, and, after a little time, she told +me. Her eldest daughter, a girl of twenty, had just been in drunk, and +had struck her over the eye; and when her mother was looking at her +bruise in the glass, she had dashed her fist through the glass. + +'"There was no safety there, the mother said, when she came in. If they +were away she would burst open the doors and break the furniture, and +cut her sewing-work to pieces. 'She is a devil, sir, when she's in +liquor!' _Three times_ the mother had had her arrested and sent to +Blackwell's Island; 'but somehow, sir, she's always worse when she comes +out, and I niver heard her use bad words till she'd been there. + +"'Now, God knows where she lives--they say it's in a bad house; and it's +I who am afraid she's gittin' Tommy, her broder, into the same way, for +he doesn't come home now. O God! _I might as well be in hell!_' Nothing +can convey the tone of despair with which that was said. She told me how +the girl had been such a bright little one. 'She was so pretty, sir; and +maybe we flattered her, and made too much of her. And her father, he +thought she ought to learn the dressmakin' trade, but she felt somehow +above it, and she went to be a book-folder downtown. And one day we +missed her till late o' night; and thin the next night it was later, and +at last her father--bless his poor soul!--he said she shouldn't be out +so, and whipt her. And thin she niver came back for three nights, and we +thought, maybe, she's at her work, and has to stay late; and we niver +suspected how it was, when, suddenly, Mrs. Moore came and said as how +Maggy said she was at Mrs. Rooney's--the ould divil--and my husband +wouldn't belave it at all; but I wint and bust open the door wid a +stone, and found _her_--my own child--there wid a lot of men and women; +and I swore at 'em, and the M. P.'s they come and cleared 'em all out, +and there was the last of her. She's niver been an honest woman since, +when she's in liquor. It broke her father's heart. He died the next +Saturday; people said it was some sort of dysentry, but I know it was +this. God help me! And, now, sir (almost fiercely), can't you get me out +of this? All I want is, to sell my shanty, and wid my two little ones, +git away from _her._ I don't care how far!' + +"The mother fleeing her daughter. The pretty child becomes a drunken +outcast! So ends many a sad history in our city." + + THE DYING SEWING-WOMAN. + +"In East Thirty-fourth Street, in a tenement-house, a poor sewing-woman +has lived for the last two years. She had formerly been in very good +circumstances, and her husband, a respectable mechanic, earned a support +for her and her children, until at length he fell into intemperate +drinking. With the appetite for liquor on him, everything that he made +was spent, and he himself was gradually becoming worse and worse. The +poor wife was forced to the hardest work to keep her children and +herself alive. Last winter, in a moment of desperation, the husband put +his name down for a three-years' whaling voyage, and was taken off to +sea, leaving the woman with an old father and three children to care +for. Many a night, the old man says, has the poor creature walked up +from the lower part of the city (some three or four miles) with four +dozen shirts on her back, through snow and wet, and then, without fire +or food, in her wet clothes, has worked till the dawn of day for the +poor little ones dependent on her. He has seen _the blood_ come from her +mouth and nose after some of these efforts. Still more bitter than all +this, was the sense of desertion by her husband. But it was all in vain. +The children for whom she had slaved, and whom she loved more than her +own life, were attacked with scarlet fever, and two of them died in the +mother's arms. One only, a sweet little girl, was left. With them went +the spring of hope and courage which had sustained the hard-working +mother. Her father says she never shed a tear, but she lost heart; and, +though never doubting of the goodness of her Great Father, she had not +the spirit for the remaining work of life. Her exposures and hard labor +had brought on a cough, and finally a disease of the lungs. She was at +last unable to work, and could only lie upon her bed and depend on the +chance charities of strangers. + +"The teacher of our Fortieth-street School, who, in a way unseen and +unknown to the world, is a minister of mercy and goodness to all that +quarter of the city, first discovered her, and has managed, with a +little aid here and there, to lighten her dying hours. + +"I was called in the other day and held a long conversation with her. +She has no more fears or anxieties; she is not even troubled about her +little one. God will care for her. 'Once,' she said, 'I felt it so hard +to lose the children, but now I am glad they are gone! They will be much +better where they are than here. I have put everything away now,' she +added, with an expression of sublime faith and hope on a face whose worn +features the hectic flush made almost beautiful again. 'I trust all to +my Redeemer. Through him alone I hope. He will forgive me and receive +me.' She spoke of her many trials and sorrows--they were all over, and +she was glad she was soon to be at rest. + +"We asked about her food. She said she could not relish many things, and +she often thought if she could only get some of the good old plain +things she had in Ireland at her brother's farm she should feel so much +better. + +"I told her we would get her some good genuine oat-meal cake from an +Irish friend. Her face lighted up at once, and she seemed cheered by the +promise. + +"'Oh, sir! I have thought so much of my mother in this sickness, and +those happy, happy days. I was such a happy girl! How little she thought +I would come to this! We lived in the North, you know, and had +everything very comfortable, as all the Protestant Irish do. But it's +all gone, gone,' she said, dreamily, 'and I wouldn't have it back again, +for God is the best friend--He knows, + + "'Oh, how glad I am to die! + His rod and His staff they comfort me.' + +"The words were simple, but the whole was touching beyond description, +forcing tears whether one would or not. + +"We were glad to find that her clergyman, the Missionary of the Calvary +Church, had administered the sacraments to her that day. May she soon be +where the sting of poverty, the rubs and blows of hard circumstances, +the loneliness of desertion, the anxiety and care, and hopelessness, and +disappointment which have followed her unhappy path, shall cease +forever, and the unfortunate one shall enter on her new and blissful +life of peace and abiding love!" + + DISCOURAGEMENT. + +"I was lately visiting a poor woman, who had seen better circumstances, +the wife of a worker in an iron-foundry. The room was bare but clean, +and the woman was neatly dressed, though her face looked thin and worn, +and her eyes had an unusual expression of settled, sad discouragement. A +little girl of ten or eleven sat near her tending a baby, with the same +large sad blue eyes, as if the expression of the mother had come to +receive a permanent reflection in the child's face. Her husband had been +sick for several months, which put them all behind, though now he was +getting work enough. + +"'You know how it is, sir,' she said, 'with working people: if a man +falls out of work for a day, the family feels it for a week after. We +can hardly make the two ends meet when he's well, and the moment he is +sick it comes hard upon us. Many's the morning he's gone down to the +foundry without his breakfast, and I've had to send out the little Maggy +there, to the neighbors, for bits of bread, and then she's taken it down +to him.' + +"'She is a beggar, then?' + +"'Yes, sir, and sorrow of it. We never thought we could come to that. My +mother brought me up most dacently, and my husband, he's a very good +scholard, and could be a clark or anything, but we can't help it! We +must have bread. I would be willing to do anything, wash, scrub, or do +plain sewing; and I keep trying, but I never find anything. There seems +no help for us; and I sometimes feel clean gone and down-hearted: and +I'm troubled at other things, too." + +"'What other things?' + +"'At my sin, ye see.' + +"'What do you mean?' + +"'Well, sir, if I could only have peace of mind! But I work on from +Monday morn to Saturday night, and I never hear or see anything good; +and when Sunday comes, I can't go out; I haven't any bonnet for my head, +or any dress fit for a dacent church. I just walk the floor, and I don't +dare to think of ever meeting God." + +"'Are you a Catholic?' + +"'Yes, sir; I was brought up one, and so was my husband, but now it's +little we know, as they say, of mass, meeting, or church; we ain't +neither Catholics or Protestants; I might as well be a haythen. We +haven't any books, nor a prayer-book, or anything. I know it, sir, we +ought to pray," she continued, "but I kneel down sometimes, and I get up +and say to my husband, 'It's no use my praying, I am too much +distracted.' If I could only get some good to my soul, for I think of +dying often, and I see I should not be at all ready. _Life is a burden +to me._' I spoke of the hopes and consolations which can come to poor as +well as rich, and of her children. 'Yes, sir; no one can tell the +patience of the Lord. How much He has borne from me! Oh, if I could only +have peace of mind, and see those children getting on well, I should be +glad to die. That little girl cries every time we send her out to beg, +and she's learning nothing good. But I am afraid nothing will ever come +lucky to us; and oh, sir, if you could have seen how we started in +Ireland, and what a home my mother had; she was a very different woman +from what I am.' + +"We spoke of her attending the mission meeting in Fortieth Street, and +reading a Testament given by us. She seemed glad to do both. + +"'Oh, sir, if I could only feel that friendship with God you spoke of, I +shouldn't care; I could bear anything; but to work as we are doing, and +to have such trouble, and see the poor wee thing grow thinner and +poorer, and my man almost down broken, and then to get no nearer--no, we +keep getting farther from the Lord! Oh, if I was only ready to die! I +haven't nothing in this world.' + +"Let us hope that the peace-giving words of Christ, the love of the +Redeemer, may at length plant in that poor, weary discouraged soul the +seeds of hope and immortal faith, even as they have done in so many +thousands weary and heavy-laden!" + + THE SWILL-GATHERER'S CHILD. + +"Most of those familiar with the East River Industrial School will +remember a poor widow--a swill-gatherer--who lived in the notorious +village of shanties near Forty-second Street, known as 'Dutch Hill.' She +owned a small shanty, which had been put up on some rich man's lot as a +squatter's hut, and there, with her pigs and dogs and cat in the same +room, she made her home. From morning till evening she was trailing +about the streets, filling up her swill-cans, and at night she came back +to the little dirty den, and spent her evenings--we hardly know how. She +had one smart little girl who went to the Industrial School. As the +child came back day by day, improving in appearance, singing her sweet +songs, and with new ideas of how ladies looked and lived, the mother +began to grow ashamed of her nasty home. And I remember entering one +day, and finding, to my surprise, pigs and rubbish cleared out, the +walls well scrubbed, and an old carpet on the floor, and the mother +sitting in state on a chair! It was the quiet teachings of the school +coming forth in the houses of the poor. + +"After a while the little girl began to get higher ideas of what she +might become, and went out with another girl to a place in the West. She +did well there, and was contented, but her mother was continually +anxious and unhappy about her, and finally, after some years, forced her +to return to the city. She was now a very neat, active young girl, far +above her mother's condition, and the change back to the pig-shanty and +Dutch Hill was anything but pleasant. The old woman hid away her best +clothes to prevent her going back, and seemed determined to make her a +swill-gatherer like herself. Gradually, as might be expected, we began +to hear bad stories about our old scholar. The people of the +neighborhood said, she drank and quarreled with her mother, and that she +was frequenting houses where low company met. Another of the worst Dutch +Hill girls--the daughter of a drunkard--was constantly with her. Soon we +heard that the other young girl had been sent to Blackwell's Island, and +that this one must be saved now, or she would be utterly lost. I went up +at once to the old woman's shanty, though with but the feeblest hopes of +doing anything, yet with many unuttered prayers. For who that knows the +career before the street-girl of the city can help breathing out his +soul in agony of prayer for her, when the time of choice comes? + +"When I entered the shanty, the young girl was asleep on the bed, and +the mother sat on a box, crooning and weeping. + +"'Och, and why did I iver tak ye from that swate place--ye that was +makin' an honest woman of yoursel'! Ach, God bless your honor! can ye +help her? She's a'most gone. Can't ye do somethin'?' + +"'Well, how is she doing now?' + +"'Och (in a whisper), your honor, she brought three bad fellers last +night, and she brake my own door in, and I tould 'em-says I, I'm an +honest woman, and I never had ony sich in my kin--and she was +drunk--yes, yer honor, she, my own darlint, strak me, and wanted to turn +me out--and now there she's been sleepin' all the mornin'. Ach, why did +I tak her out of her place!' + +"Here the girl woke up, and sat up on the bed, covering her face in +shame. I said some few sober words to her, and then the mother threw +herself down on the floor, tears pouring down her cheeks. + +"'Ach, darlint! my own swate darlint! will ye not list to the gintleman? +Sure an' ye wouldn't bring disgrace to yer ould mither and yer family! +We've had six generations of honest people, and niver wan like this! +Ach, to think of comin' to your ind on the Island, and be on the town! +For the love of the blessed Vargin, _do_ give them all up, and say ye +won't taste a drop--do, darlint!' + +"The girl seemed obdurate; so I took up the sermon, and we both pleaded, +and pictured the shame and pain and wretched life and more wretched +death before her. There is no need of delicacy in such cases, and the +strongest old Bible Saxon words come home the deepest. At last, her +tears began to flow, and finally she gave her full assent to breaking +off from liquor and from her bad company (it should be remembered she +was only about sixteen); and she would show her repentance by going back +to the place where she was, if they would receive her. I hardly expected +she would do so; but in a day or two she was in the office, and started +for her old situation. Since that we have had a letter from her and her +mistress, and she seems to be getting on wonderfully well. May God +uphold her! + +"The following is a letter we have received from her since: + + "'B----, PENN., October 11. + +"'MY DEAR MOTHER--I have the pleasure of writing a few lines to you, to +let you know that I am well. I got safe back to my place; kind friends +took me back again; I have got into the country, where there is plenty +of everything to live on. Dear mother, I would like very much to hear +from you. I hope you are all well; please write soon. I want you to show +this letter to Miss Spratt. [Now Mrs. Hurley.] + Good-by, dear mother. + M. + +"'DEAR MISS SPRATT--As I was writing to my mother, I thought I would +like to write a few lines to you. Now that I am so far away, I feel a +grateful remembrance of your kindness, I am very sorry I did not have a +chance of going to see you before I left the city. Please tell Mr. Brace +I am much obliged to him for his kindness: tell him I got safe back to +Mr. M.'s, and have a very good home. Good-by, Miss Spratt'" + +The East River Industrial School (at No. 206 East Fortieth Street) +still continues its humble but profound labors of love. Mrs. Hurley is +still there, the "Mend of the poor" for miles around, carrying sympathy, +advice, and assistance to thousands of unbefriended creatures, and +teaching faithfully all day in the School. Two gentlemen have especially +aided her in providing food and clothing for her little ones; and the +lady-volunteers still give liberally of their means and time. May the +School long shine as a light in one of the dark places of the city. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE PROTESTANT POOR AND STREET-ROVERS. + +It is not often that our efforts carry us among Protestant poor, but it +happens that on the west side of the city, near Tenth Avenue and +Twenty-seventh Street, is a considerable district of English and Scotch +laboring people, who are mainly Protestants. + +A meeting of ladies was called in the western part of the city, in like +manner with the proceedings at the formation of the other Schools; and a +School was proposed. The wife of a prominent property-holder in the +neighborhood, a lady of great energy of character, Mrs. R. R., took a +leading part, and greatly aided the undertaking; other ladies joined, +and the result was the formation of the + + HUDSON RIVER INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, + +the fourth of our Schools founded in 1854. With all these Schools, in +the beginning, the ladies themselves raised all the funds for their +support, and, as I have related, devoted an incredible amount of time to +aiding in them, there being usually, however, two salaried teachers. + +The experience in the Edinburgh Ragged Schools, I was assured, when +there, was, that you cannot depend on volunteer help after the first +enthusiasm has passed by. This is not our experience. + +As one set of "volunteers" have withdrawn or leave the work, others +appear, and there are still in this and some of our other Industrial +Schools, most active and efficient voluntary helpers. Gradually, +however, the support and supervision of the Schools fell more and more +into the hands of the central authority--The Children's Aid Society. + +The obtaining a share in the Common School Fund enabled the Society to +do more for these useful charities and to found new ones. + +In the Hudson River School, it cannot be said that the Protestant poor +proved much better than the Catholic; in fact, it has often seemed to me +that when a Protestant is reduced to extreme poverty, and, above all, a +Yankee, he becomes the most wretched and useless of all paupers. The +work and its results were similar on the west side to those in the other +districts which I have already described. + + "MUSCULAR ORPHANS." + +Our attention had thus far been directed mainly to girls in these +Industrial School efforts. They seemed the class exposed to the most +terrible evils, and besides, through our other enterprises, we were +sheltering, teaching, and benefiting for life vast numbers of lads. + +We determined now to try the effect of industry and schooling on the +roving boys, and I chose a district where we had to make head against a +"sea of evils." This was in the quarter bordering on East Thirty-fourth +Street and Second Avenue. There seemed to be there a society of +irreclaimable little vagabonds. They hated School with an +inextinguishable hatred; they had a constitutional love for smashing +windows and pilfering apple-stands. They could dodge an "M. P." as a fox +dodges a hound; they disliked anything so civilized as a bed-chamber, +but preferred old boxes and empty barns, and when they were caught it +required a very wide-awake policeman, and such an Asylum-yard as hardly +exists in New York, to keep them. + +I have sometimes stopped, admiringly, to watch the skill and cunning +with which the little rascals, some not more than ten years old, would +diminish a load of wood left on the docks; the sticks were passed from +one to another, and the lad nearest the pile was apparently engaged +eagerly in playing marbles. If the woodman's attention was called to his +loss, they were off like a swarm of cockroaches. + +[Illustration: STREET ARABS.] + +We opened a School with all the accessories for reaching and pleasing +them; our teacher was a skillful mechanic, a young man of excellent +judgment and hearty sympathy with boys; he offered to teach them +carpentering and box-making and pay them wages. Common-school lessons +were given, also, and a good warm meal provided at noon. We had +festivals and magic-lantern exhibitions and lectures. We taught, and we +fed and clothed. In return, they smashed our windows; they entered the +premises at night and carried off everything they could find; they +howled before the door, and yelled "Protestant School!" We arrested one +or two for the burglary, as a warning, but the little flibbertigibbets +escaped from the police like rats, and we let them go with the fright +they had had. Some few of the worst we induced to go to the country, and +others we had arrested as vagrants, without appearing ourselves, until a +kind of dark suspicion spread among them against the writer that he had +the power of spiriting away bad boys to distant regions by some +mysterious means. Those that did go to the country proved of the kind +called by a Western paper "muscular orphans," for an unfortunate +employer undertaking to administer corporal punishment to two of them, +the little vagabonds turned and chastised him and then fled. + +The following case is noted in our Journal of these up-town boys: + + A HARD CASE REFORMED. + +"MR. BRACE--_Dear Sir:_ You request me to send you some reminiscences of +the early life of Michael S----n. My most vivid recollection of him is +his taking the broomstick to me once, as I was about to punish him for +some misdemeanor. Being the first and last of my pupils who ever +attempted anything of the kind, it stands out in bold relief in my +memory. I soon conquered the broomstick, but on the first opportunity he +ran out, thus ending his Industrial School career. + +"His most marked characteristic was a desire to travel, and he presented +himself with the freedom of the city at a very early age, going off for +weeks at a time, sleeping in entries and around engine-houses, and +disdaining bolts and bars when they were turned upon him. One of your +visitors calling to consult with his mother as to what could be done +with him, found him vigorously kicking the panels out of the door, she +having locked him in for safe-keeping till she came home from work. The +Captain of Police, tired of having him brought in so frequently, thought +one day of a punishment that he expected would effectually frighten him, +which was--to hang him. His mother consenting, he was solemnly hung up +by the feet to a post, till he promised reformation. This failing to +produce the desired effect, she placed him with "the Brothers," who put +him in a kind of prison, where he had to be chained by the leg to +prevent him from scaling the walls. Taking him from there, after some +months of pretty severe discipline, he very soon went back to his old +habits, when she had him sent to Randall's Island. Here he was +discovered in a plan to swim to the opposite shore (something of a feat +for a boy of twelve). Fearing he would attempt it and be drowned, she +took him away and put him in the Juvenile Asylum, where he remained +several months, and finally seemed so much tamed down that she ventured +on taking him out and sending him to a place which you procured for him +at Hastings. But, pretty soon, the ruling passion, strong as ever, took +possession of him, and he started on a tour through the surrounding +villages. + +"Being brought home again, he told his mother very deliberately, one +morning, that she need not expect him home any more; he was going to +live with a soldier's wife. Knowing that if he went he would be in a +very den of wickedness, she came to the resolution to give him to your +care, and let him be sent to the West. + +"It would require a volume to tell of all his freaks and wanderings; his +scaling of fences, and breaking out of impossible places. Towards the +last of his New York life he began to add other vices to his original +stock--such as drinking, smoking, and swearing; yet strange to say, he +disdained to lie, and was never known to steal; and his face would glow +with satisfaction when he could take charge of an infant. His mother +hears, with trembling hope, the good accounts of him from the West, +scarcely daring to believe that her wild and vagrant son will ever make +a steady, useful man. + "Truly yours, + "Mrs. E. S. Hurley." + +The young rovers gradually became softened and civilized under the +combined influences of warm dinners, carpentering, and good teaching; +but we found the difficulty to be that we did not have sufficient hold +over them out of school hours; we needed more appliances for such +habitual vagabonds. What was wanted was a Lodging-house and all its +influences, as well as School, for the former gives a greater control +than does a simple Industrial School. + +We accordingly transferred the whole enterprise to a still worse +quarter, where I had done my first work in visiting, and which I +thoroughly knew, the region on East River, at the foot of Eleventh +Street. Here was a numerous band of similar boys, who slept anywhere, +and lived by petty pilferings from the iron-works and wood-yards and by +street jobs. + +In this place we combined our carpenters' shop with Day-school, +Night-school, Reading-room, and Lodging-house, and exerted thus a +variety of influences over the "Arabs," which soon began to reform and +civilize them. Here we had no difficulties, and made a steady progress +as we had done everywhere else. + +At present, some gentle female teachers guide the Industrial School. We +have dropped the carpentering, as what the boys need is the habit of +industry and a primary school-training more than a trade; and we have +found that a refined woman can influence these rough little vagabonds +even more than a man. + +Subsequently, another school was founded in the quarter from which we +removed this, and is now held in East Thirty-fourth Street. + +One of the benefactions which we hope for in the future is the erection +of a suitable building for a Lodging-house, Reading-room, Day-school, +and Mission, in the miserable quarter on East River, near Thirty-fourth +Street. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + NEW METHODS OF TEACHING. + +A lady of high culture and position, who felt peculiarly the +responsibilities of the fortunate toward the unfortunate, conceived the +idea of doing something to elevate the condition of the destitute +classes in the quarter of the city between the East River and Avenue B. +She accordingly made the proposition to us of an Industrial School in +that neighborhood. + +We gladly accepted, and soon secured a room, and gathered a goodly +company of poor children, mostly Germans. Fortunately for our +enterprise, we chanced on a teacher of singular ability and earnestness +of purpose, a graduate of the best Normal School in the country, the +Oswego Training School, and thoroughly versed in the "Object +System"--Miss Jane Andrews. + +The founder of our school proved as earnest in carrying out, as she had +been generous in forming, her benevolent plan. + +She took part herself, several times each week, in teaching the +children, and was indefatigable in promoting their pleasures, as well as +aiding their instruction. For many years now, this kind friend of the +poor has supported this school and labored among its children. They all +know and love her, and her memory will not die among them. + +The great peculiarity of this school has now been adapted in the other +Industrial Schools, under the name of the "Object System of Teaching"--a +method which has proved so singularly successful with the children of +the poor, that I shall describe it somewhat at length. + + THE OBJECT SYSTEM. + +"I began with children," says Pestalozzi, "as nature does with savages, +first bringing an image before their eyes, and then seeking a word to +express the perception to which it gives rise." This statement of the +great reformer of education expresses the essential principle of the +Object System. The child's mind grasps first things rather than names; +it deals with objects before words; it takes a thing as a whole rather +than in parts. Its perceptive and observing faculties are those first +awakened, and should be the first used in education; reflection, +analysis, and comparison must come afterward. The vice of the former +systems of education has been, that words have so much taken in the +child's intellect the place of things, and its knowledge has become so +often a mere routine, or a mechanical memorizing of names. The scholar +was not taught to look beneath words, and to learn the precise thing +which the word symbolized. He was trained to repeat like a machine. He +did not observe closely, he had not been educated to apply his own +faculties, and therefore he could not think afterward. The old system +reversed the natural order. It began with what is the ripest fruit of +the mature intellect-definitions, or the learning of rules and +statements of principles, and went on later to observing facts and +applying principles. It analyzed in the beginning, and only later in the +course regarded things each as a whole. + +The consequence was, that children were months and years in taking the +first steps in education--such as learning to read--because they had +begun wrong. They had no accurate habits of observation, and, as a +natural result, soon fell into loose habits of thinking. What they knew +they knew vaguely. When their acquirements were tested they were found +valueless. The simplest principles of mathematics were almost unknown to +them, because they had learned the science by rote, and had never +exercised their minds on it. They could apply none of them. Algebra, +instead of being an implement, was of no more practical use to them than +Sanscrit would be. Geometry was as abstract as metaphysics. They had +never learned it by solid figures, or studied it intelligently. Grammar +was a memorized collection of dry abstract rules and examples. Natural +history was only a catalogue, and geography a dictionary learned by +heart. + +Our manufacturers, who had occasion in former years, to employ these +youths from our Public Schools, found them utterly incompetent for using +their faculties on practical subjects. Nor did they go forth with minds +expanded, and ready to receive the germs of knowledge which might be, as +it were, floating in the atmosphere. Their faculties had not been +aroused. + +The "Object System" attempts to lay down the principles which have been +tested in primary education, in the form of a Science; so that the +teacher not gifted with the genius of invention and the talent for +conveying knowledge shall be able to awaken and train the child's +intellect as if he were. + +Its first principle is to exercise the senses, but never during any long +period at once. The play of the children is so contrived as to employ +their sense of touch, of weight, and of harmony. Colors are placed, +before them, and they are trained in distinguishing the different +delicate shades--in the recognition of which children are singularly +deficient. Numbers are taught by objects, such as small beans or +marbles, and then when numerals are learned, regular tables of addition +and subtraction are written on the board by the teacher at the dictation +of the scholar. + +The great step in all education is the learning the use of that +wonderful vehicle and symbol of human thought, the printed word. + +Here the object system has made the greatest advance. The English +language has the unfortunate peculiarity of a great many sounds to each +vowel, and of an utter want of connection between the name and the sound +of the letter. No mature mind can easily appreciate the dark and +mysterious gulf which, to the infant's view, separates the learning the +letters and reading. The two seem to be utterly different acquirements. +The new methods escape the difficulty in part by not teaching the names, +but the sounds, of the letters first, and then leading the child to put +his sounds together in the form of a word, and next to print the word on +the black-board, the teacher calling on the scholar to find a similar +one in a card or book. By this ingenious device, the modern infant, +instead of being whipped into reading, is beguiled into it pleasantly +and imperceptibly, and makes his progress by a philosophical law. He +reads before he knows it. But here the obstacle arises that each vowel, +printed in the same type, has so many sounds. One ingenious teacher. Dr. +Leigh, obviates this by printing on his charts each vowel-sound in a +slightly different form, and giving the silent letters in hair-lines. +The objection here might be that the scholar learns a type different +from that in common use. Still, the deviation from the ordinary alphabet +is so slight as probably not to confuse any young mind, and the learner +can go on by a philosophical classification of sounds. Other teachers +indicate the different vowel-sounds by accents. + +One well-known writer on the "Object System," Mr. Caulkins, seems to +approve of what we are inclined to consider even more philosophical +still--the learning the word first, and the letters and spelling +afterward. + +Most children in cultivated families learn to read in this way. The word +is a symbol of thought--a thing in itself--first, perhaps, connected +with a picture of the object placed at its side, but afterward becoming +phonetic, representing arbitrarily any object by its sound. Then other +words are learned--not separately, but in association, as one learns a +foreign language. Farther on, the pupil analyzes, spells, considers each +letter, and notes each part of speech. + +An objection may occur here, that the habit of correct and careful +spelling will not be so well gained by this method as by the old. + +Mr. Caulkins's remarks on this topic in his Manual on "Object Lessons" +are so sensible that we quote them _in extenso:--_ + + THE A B C METHOD. + +This old, long, and tedious way consists in teaching, first, the name of +each of the twenty-six letters, then in combining these into unmeaning +syllables of 'two letters,' 'three letters,' and, finally, into words of +'two syllables' and 'three syllables.' Very little regard is had to the +meaning of the words. Indeed, it seems as if those who attempt to teach +reading by this method supposed that the chief object should be to make +their pupils fluent in oral spelling; and it ends in spelling, usually, +since children thus taught go on spelling out their words through all +the reading lessons, and seldom become intelligent readers. They give +their attention to the words, instead of the ideas intended to be +represented by them. When the child has succeeded in learning the names +of the twenty-six letters, he has gained no knowledge of their real use +as representatives of sounds, and, consequently, little ability in +determining how to pronounce a new word from naming its letters. +Besides, the names of the letters constantly mislead him when formed +into words. + +"He may have made the acquaintance of each of the twenty-six individual +letters, so as to recognize their faces and be able to call them by name +singly; but when these same letters change places with their fellows, as +they are grouped into different words, he is frequently unable to +address many of them in a proper manner, or to determine what duties +they perform in their different places. + +"Again, the words that are learned by naming over the letters which +compose them seldom represent any ideas to the young learner; indeed, +too many of the words learned by this method are only meaningless +monosyllables. The children begin to read without understanding what +they read, and thus is laid the foundation for the mechanical, +unintelligible reading which characterizes most of that heard in schools +where the A B C method is used. This plan is in violation of fundamental +laws of teaching; it attempts to compel the child to do two things at +the same time, and to do both in an unnatural manner, viz., to learn +reading and spelling simultaneously, and reading through spelling. +Reading has to deal with sounds and signs of thought. + +"Spelling rests on the habit of the eye, which is best acquired as the +result of reading. In attempting to teach reading through spelling, the +effort of the pupil in trying to find out the word by naming the letters +that compose it distracts the attention from the thought intended to be +represented by it; the mind becomes chiefly absorbed with spelling +instead of reading. When properly taught, reading furnishes natural +faculties for teaching spelling; but spelling does not furnish a +suitable means for teaching reading. Thus it will be seen that the usual +plans for teaching reading by the A B C method compel children to do +that for which their minds are not fitted, and thus cause a loss of +power by restraining them from attending to the thoughts represented by +the words, and to other things which would greatly promote their +development. The results are that a love for reading is not enkindled, +good readers are not produced. The few cases in which the results are +different owe both the love for reading and the ability in this art to +other causes. + +"The pupils learned to love reading, and became able to read well, in +spite of poor teaching during their first lessons. There is consolation +in believing that this method, which produced so many halting, stumbling +readers, is now abandoned by all good teachers of reading. May the +number of such teachers be greatly increased. + + * * * * * * + +"The 'word method' begins at once with teaching the words in a manner +similar to that by which children learn to distinguish one object from +another, and learn the names. It proposes to teach words as the signs of +things, acts, and qualities, etc. It does not propose to teach children +the alphabet, but to leave them to learn this after they have become +familiar with enough words to commence reading." + +The Object System teaches geography very ingeniously. The pupil begins +by getting into his mind the idea of a map. This is by no means so +simple an idea as might be supposed, as witness the impossibility almost +of making a savage understand it. The child is first told to point to +the different points of the compass; then he marks them down on a +blackboard; next he draws a plan of the room, and each scholar attempts +to locate an object on the plan, and is corrected by the school, if +wrong. Next comes a plan of the district or town; then a globe is shown, +and the idea of position on the globe given, and of the outlines of +different countries. Soon the pupil learns to draw maps on the board, +and to place rivers, bays, lakes, and oceans. The book-questions now to +be presented will not be on purely political geography or merely +arbitrary lists of names. The child is taken on imaginary journeys up +rivers, over mountains, by railroads, and must describe from the lesson +he has learned the different productions, the animals, the character of +the scenery, the vegetation, and the occupations of the people. Thus +geography becomes a kind of natural science, deeply interesting to the +pupil, and touching his imagination. Certain dry geographical names are +forever after associated in his mind with certain animals and plants and +a peculiar scenery. + +Natural history is also taught in this system, but not by the usual dry +method. The teacher brings in a potato, for instance, and carries the +pupil along by questions through all its growth and development. Or she +takes flowers, or leaves, or seeds, and stamps the most important +phenomena about them on the scholar's mind by an objective lesson. +Prints of animals are presented, and the teacher begins at the lowest +orders, and rises up in regular gradation, questioning the children as +to the uses and purposes of every feature and limb. They work out their +own natural philosophy. They observe, and then reason; and what they +learn is learned in philosophical order, and imprinted by their own +efforts on their memories. It is astonishing how much, in these simple +methods, may be learned in natural science by very young children; and +what nutritive but simple food may be supplied to their minds for all +future years. + +From lessons in science thus given, the teacher rises easily to lessons +of morality and religion. Nothing even in moral teaching impresses a +child's mind like pictures, stories, or parables, or some form of +"object-teaching." The modern charts and books are extremely ingenious +in giving religious lessons through the senses. + +The beginning of the higher mathematics may be taught children perfectly +well under this method. Straight lines and angles are drawn, or +constructed with little sticks, and named, and various figures thus +formed. With blocks, the different geometrical figures are constructed +and named--all being finished by the pupils themselves. On the +blackboard certain lines are given, and with them "inventive drawing" +goes on under the pupil's own suggestion. + +Weights and measures are learned by practical illustrations with real +objects, and are thus not easily forgotten. + +Definition is very agreeably taught by the teacher's producing some +object, say, an apple, and then making each scholar describe some +quality of it, in taste, color, form, or material, and then write this +word on the board. Very difficult adjectives, such as "opaque," or +"pungent," or "translucent," or "aromatic," may thus be learned, besides +all the simpler, and learned permanently. + +The old bugbear to children, spelling, is by no means so terrible under +these methods. The teacher writes two initial consonants, say, "th," and +each scholar makes a new word with them, and it is written on the board; +or a terminal consonant is given, or certain combinations of letters are +written down--say, _ough,_ in "though" and words of corresponding sound +must be written underneath, or the different sounds of each vowel must +be illustrated by the scholar, and the varying sounds of consonants, and +so on endlessly--spelling becoming a perfect amusement, and, at the same +time, training the pupil in many delicate shades of sound, and in +analyzing and remembering words. + +Grammar is conveyed, not by that farce in teaching, and that cross to +all children, grammatical rules, which are, in fact, the expressions of +the final fruit of knowledge, but the teacher writes incorrectly on the +blackboard, both in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and the children +must correct this; thus learning from the senses and usage, instead of +from abstract rules. Reading is given as nearly as possible in +conversational tones, and the old loud, mechanical sing-song is +forbidden. + +The principle most insisted on in all this system is, that the child +should teach himself as far as possible; that his faculties should do +the work, and not the teacher's; and the dull and slow pupil is +especially to be led on and encouraged. But, as might be supposed, the +teacher's task, under the object method, is no sinecure. She can no +longer slip along the groove of mechanical teaching. She must be +wide-awake, inventive, constantly on the _qui vive_ to stir up her +pupils' minds. The droning over lessons, and letting children repeat, +parrot-like, long lists of words, is not for her. She must be always +seeking out some new thing and making her pupils observe and think for +themselves. Her duty is a hard one. But this is the only true teaching; +and we trust that no Primary School in New York will be without a +well-trained "Object-teacher." + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE LITTLE ITALIAN ORGAN-GRINDERS. + +Among the various rounds I was in the habit of making in the poorest +quarters, was one through the Italian quarter of the "Five Points." +Here, in large tenement-houses, were packed hundreds of poor Italians, +mostly engaged in carrying through the city and country "the everlasting +hand-organ," or selling statuettes. In the same room I would find +monkeys, children, men and women, with organs and plaster-casts, all +huddled together; but the women contriving still, in the crowded rooms, +to roll their dirty macaroni, and all talking excitedly; a bedlam of +sounds, and a combination of odors from garlic, monkeys, and most dirty +human persons. They were, without exception, the dirtiest population I +had met with. The children I saw every day in the streets, following +organs, blackening boots, selling flowers, sweeping walks, or carrying +ponderous harps for old ruffians. So degraded was their type, and +probably so mingled in North Italy with ancient Celtic blood, that their +faces could hardly be distinguished from those of Irish poor +children--an occasional liquid dark eye only betraying their +nationality. + +I felt convinced that something could be done for them. Owing to their +ignorance of our language and their street-trades, they never attended +school, and seldom any religious service, and seemed growing up only for +these wretched occupations. Some of the little ones suffered severely +from being indentured by their parents in Italy to a "Bureau" in Paris, +which sent them out over the world with their _"padrone,"_ or master, +usually a villainous-looking individual with an enormous harp. The lad +would be frequently sent forth by his _padrone,_ late at night, to +excite the compassion of our citizens, and play the harp. I used to meet +these boys sometimes on winter-nights half-frozen and stiff with cold. + +The bright eyes among these children showed that there was mind in them; +and the true remedy for their low estate seemed to be our old one, a +School. + +Rev. Dr. Hawks, at this time, brought to my attention a very intelligent +Italian gentleman of education, a Protestant and patriot, who had taken +refuge here-Signor A. E. Cerqua. I will let him tell his own story of +the formation and success of the School: + + THE ITALIAN SCHOOL--THE FIVE POINTS SETTLEMENT. + +"Coming up Chatham Street and bending your course to the left, you turn +into Baxter Street, a dark, damp, muddy street, forming one of the Five +Points. On each side of the way are stores of old clothes and +heterogeneous articles, kept by Polish and German Jews. Numerous +'Unredeemed Goods for Sale,' in the shape of coats, vests, and other +unmentionable garments, are suspended on wooden stands in front of the +doorways. There are also junk-stores, rags, bones, and old metal depots, +and two Italian groceries, one opposite the other. Advancing farther, +you reach the centre of the Five Points, synonymous of whatever is +degraded and degrading, loathsome and criminal. Hero Park Street runs +parallel to Chatham Street and crosses Baxter Street at right angles, +thus forming four of the Five Points. The fifth point is formed by the +junction of Worth Street, leading from this common centre in a northerly +direction. This locality is very dimly lighted, and the few lamps +scattered around only add to the repulsive nature of the place. The +pestiferous exhalations of the filthy streets, and not less filthy +shanties, inhabited by the lowest and most disreputable characters, are +disgusting beyond any description. Scattered over this neighborhood, +densely settled by the most depraved classes of all nationalities, there +lived, and still live, some fifteen hundred of the poorest class of +Italians, who traditionally cling to that locality. They are generally +from the Ligurian coasts, which are over-populated. When the farms +require working, the inhabitants usually have something to do; but, at +some seasons, want of employment compels them to turn elsewhere. Men, +women, and lads went in ordinary times to the largest cities of Northern +Italy for temporary occupation, leaving behind their children to the +care of relatives or acquaintances, who, owing to their business, +inability, or carelessness, neglected in most cases to exercise over +them parental duties. When the hand-organ came into vogue, they found it +the easiest way to employ their unoccupied time. Seeing, afterward, that +they could realize more by the organ than by the shovel, they went +grinding all the year, and spread all over Italy at first, then over +Europe and America. Some of the children left were sent for, while +others were hired out to those who proposed a grinding-tour to America. +Those who arrived here first having done well, others followed, and the +tide of the organ-grinding emigration set in on a gradual rise. The +failure of the Revolutionary movements of 1848 and 1849 having +impoverished, to a greater or smaller extent, the several Italian +provinces, gave a great impetus to this emigration, and it was not long +before the Five Points were crowded to overflowing. Accustomed as they +were to agricultural pursuits and out of the reach of better social +influences, and totally ignorant of the language, they formed a separate +colony, associating only with those of their own country in the Five +Points. Had they displayed the vices or criminal inclinations which +prevail to a deplorable extent among the low classes of other +nationalities, they would soon have been brought to public notice and +taken care of by our benevolent and religious societies; but they cannot +be reproached with intoxication, prostitution, quarreling, stealing, +etc; and thus, escaping the unenviable notoriety of the criminal, they +fell into a privacy that deprived them of the advantages of American +benevolence; and there is no instance of any visitor having ever been +appointed to explore this fruitful field of operation. + + OPENING OF THE SCHOOL. + +"Early in December, 1855, the writer, with Mr. Brace, visited several +families. Our reception was not such as to promise success, although, +considering their distrustful and suspicious disposition, consequent +upon their isolated existence, they did not treat us disrespectfully. +Having thus prepared and informed them, on the evening of the tenth of +the same month we opened our School in a room kindly furnished by Rev. +Mr. Pease, on the north side of the Five Points' square. + +"On the first night of our operation we had an attendance of ten boys, +six girls, seven young men, four young women, two men, and one woman +(thirty in all), attracted, as may be evident by the age of the +attendants, more by the novelty of the undertaking than by any definite +purpose. Of that number, only two could read a little in Italian--not +one in English; hence I formed a single class of the whole in the +alphabet. + +"By more frequent visiting, the attendance was, after a little while, +nearly doubled; but toward spring it dwindled to such an insignificant +number, that it was deemed expedient to close the school. + +"Instead of being deterred by this discouraging feature, we determined +to examine the field more carefully, and endeavor to discover the +immediate cause of the unexpected check our hopes had experienced. +Proper exertions in visiting, and cautious and timely investigations, +soon brought out the fact that some absurd rumors had been circulated +among them to the effect that our purpose was to turn them away from +their own church, alleging, as conclusive evidence, that our school-room +was used for Sunday religious meetings. These mischievous insinuations +called for the utmost prudent activity on our part, for, although these +people are not fanatics in religion, they, at that time, still clung +with tenacity to the infallibility of their priest. I say at that time, +because the unnatural and unchristian attitude assumed since by their +spiritual guides toward Italy has forced even the uneducated class into +a certain use of comparative rational freedom, and, beyond the +spiritual, they will not follow their religious leaders. Meeting with +only partial success by persuasion, I then promised shoes and clothing +to pupils who would attend for three months consecutively; and having +thus prepared the way, and without ever failing to visit the most +unapproachable, it was deemed advisable to reopen the School in +November, 1856. The attendance increased by some thirty, with a minor +sprinkling of men and women. Shoes and clothes were distributed in +March, but the number soon after commenced diminishing, until June, +1857, when the School, as in the previous year, had to be closed for a +second time. Two great advantages had, however, been developed. Their +ready acceptance of shoes and clothes given and distributed in our room +was a powerful argument in my hands to answer their objection to the +room; and among the floating attendance I had noticed a score or so of +regular pupils upon whom I concentrated my best attention and every +possible encouragement, in the conviction that the result of my efforts +in that direction would prove efficacious to attract others. And, in +fact, when the improvement of these twenty attendants became known, it +was found comparatively easy to persuade others to school. + +"It had now become evident to me that, with adequate exertions and +inducements, the School could be established on a permanent and working +order; and on the following September we recommenced operations with +better promise. But a narrow-minded opposition partially marred our +success this year. An Italian priest, called Rebiccio, from the +confessional and from the pulpit, flung ferocious anathemas at all who +permitted their children to attend our School. He even went from house +to house to use his influence in the same direction. I sent a deputation +of my oldest scholars to remonstrate with him and correct his +misapprehensions by assuring him that we had no sectarian teachings. +These same boys I took with me in visiting a number of the most +superstitious families, and for the same purpose, but in both cases of +no avail; only, instead of justifying myself, I found that these boys +were equally suspected of complicity, some even assuming that they had +already been converted. I felt disheartened, not because I did not hope +to overcome all obstacles by patience, prudence, and perseverance, but +because I could scarcely realize the actual occurrence of such an +unflinching, unprincipled, and unjust persecution, or, what was still +worse, of such credulous stupidity as was shown by the very people we +intended to elevate. + +Prompted by these feelings, I then wrote a letter to that worthy priest, +inviting him to assist me in teaching, to take my place, to teach these +poor children himself--in short, to do what he pleased, provided they +were furnished with proper means to better their condition. The letter +was couched in the most unexceptionable terms, and closed by entreating +him to desist from his unjust attacks, and not to compel me to appeal to +the public through the dally press, the last resort in this free +country. Discouraged by the suspicious reception I met with from the +majority of these people, and by the fruitless result of my aforesaid +letter, I was then preparing a statement for the newspapers, when the +whole opposition scheme exploded. Under the false pretext that he was +going to hire a building to open a school for these children, in +connection with a church, which he proposed also to build for them, this +worthy priest had collected considerable money in the Five Points, when +all at once he disappeared, and it was only after months that he was +heard of in affluent circumstances in Italy. A natural and desirable +reaction then took place among our people, and since then the School has +been yearly in operation for eleven months, and with gradual prosperity. +In June, 1866, desiring to extend our work and absorb all children +exposed to the bad influences and examples of the streets that attended +no day-school, we added also successfully a day session, so that now, +with two hundred and twenty-eight (228) names on our books since October +1, 1867, we have a daily average of sixty-five (65), and one hundred and +eighty-six (186) for day and evening sessions respectively. By these +figures it will be seen that, while in other schools the proportion of +the average to the names entered is, at the best, seventy-five per +cent., nearly all our pupils on the roll-book attend regularly one of +the two, and several both sessions. The attendants vary from five to +twenty-two years of age, averaging about nine and a half. A little less +than one-half of the whole are females. + + MENTAL IMPROVEMENT. + +"Whoever has not associated with this class of Italians before our +School was opened cannot form an adequate idea of the result attained +both in moral and mental improvement. Out of the whole number entered +since the commencement of operations, say, in round numbers, eight +hundred and fifty (850), not over forty had a little and imperfect +knowledge of reading the Italian, and only about ten had a slight +acquaintance with the English. My first endeavors were directed to +induce them to attend day-schools, and during the first three years over +twenty became pupils of Public Schools. Later on, this number received +accessions, amounting at one time to about fifty. + +"Our course of study comprises the gradual series of English reading, +spelling, and writing adopted in most of the Public Schools; geography, +arithmetic, history, and grammar. The class in the last two branches +this year is very small, as the students thereof, being mostly adults, +cannot well attend regularly. + +"Some twelve years ago, and for a time after, there were only two among +them who had some knowledge of letters, and on them the whole colony had +to depend for writing and reading letters in Italian and interpreting in +English, on payment of charges varying from twenty-five to fifty cents. +On becoming acquainted with this fact, I resolved upon teaching also the +Italian to the most advanced in the English, which addition met with +general favor, for, a year after, the pupils who could and did +gratuitously perform the offices of the two literati increased to such +an extent that one was usually found within each family or a circle of +relatives. The time being limited, these studies are, of course, taught +alternately, and the progress therein is not as speedy as would be +desirable; but, everything considered, they show remarkable +intelligence, aptitude, and willingness to learn. I might quote from +reports of the principal press of this city on our last examination; +but, as the School is free and always open to visitors, I will content +myself with inviting our friends to look into the subject for +themselves. + +How gratifying when I enter the School to see the oldest of the +attendants, but a few years ago illiterate and totally ignorant of +everything around them, reading papers, and quoting, discriminating, and +discussing the topics of the day, and forming a more or less correct +idea of the state of things in the land of their adoption and in other +parts of the world! Gratifying, indeed, to see these children, but a few +years ago without any idea of patriotism, without any other principle to +guide their judgment and actions than the natural impulses of a degraded +selfishness, exchange intelligent views upon the moral standing and +tendency of the political parties in this and in their native country! +Many times I have been astonished at the extensive information and sound +opinions they display in commenting upon contemporaneous events. The + + MORAL IMPROVEMENT. + +which has been accomplished is still more extensive and sensible. At +first sight the visitor is enabled to draw a line between old and new +pupils by noticing the intelligent and clean appearance, quick +perception, and admirable behavior of the former, and the dull, +downcast, rough, and thoughtless countenances of the latter. It is +surprising that all these children were accustomed to wash their faces +only on Sundays, and it takes even now some time to induce them to do it +daily. Still, it is undeniable that, as a class, they possess an earnest +appreciation of good habits, only it is, to say so, an abstract idea as +yet with them, and needs development. + +"When the School opened, and for some time after, the attendance was +generally composed of organ-grinders and beggars, which vocations they +indifferently acknowledged to follow, whenever asked, by analogous +gestures. To redeem them from those ignoble vocations was, in my +opinion, of paramount importance, and to that end I devoted part of my +time in visiting their parents, to impress them with a sense of +self-respect and human dignity, and talk them into the apprenticing into +trades their offspring. As, however, these boys brought home from fifty +cents to a dollar per day, it was quite a difficult task to persuade +them to give up this source of income for comparatively nominal wages. +With guardians and relatives my efforts remained entirely fruitless. I +then concluded that if we could show them practically that trades in the +end would pay better, it would become easy to accomplish our purpose. I +concentrated, therefore, my exertions on three families, the most +approachable, and succeeded. One consented to place a boy of fourteen in +the Printing Department of the American Tract Society; another soon +followed in the same line: the third, a boy of thirteen, entered a +machine-shop. All three did very well, and at the end of two years they +were earning five and six dollars per week. Their success caused a moral +revolution, and had I been able to place all, not one would at this day +be blacking boots, which many do for want of better employment. It is a +fact that speaks very highly of these Italians, that in every instance, +whenever one has been employed, Italians are preferred. I have seen +certificates given by manufacturers to some of them, speaking +enthusiastically of their honesty, industry, and faithfulness. There are +also instances of extraordinary interest taken by employers in their +behalf, and in no case has any ever been discharged for any other reason +than for want of work. A large number of girls also find occupation in +artificial flowers and confectionery. All now look with scorn upon their +former vocations, and the term '_pianist_' is ironically applied to +newly, landed organ-grinders. Now it is a fact that can stand the +strictest scrutiny, that _all_ those who follow decent vocations or +attend day-schools, public or otherwise, either are or have been our +regular attendants for years and that _all grinders, beggars,_ and +_vagrants,_ in general, are not and have not, attended at all, or at +most a few weeks, attracted only by the hope of getting shoes or +clothes. + +"Without mentioning the many present pupils who are engaged in honorable +pursuits, I can readily name about fifty old attendants who have left +school, now employed in this or other States as printers, confectioners, +jewelers, shoemakers, machinists, carpenters, waiters, carvers, and +farm-hands. To these must be added two who keep and own a neat +confectionery and ice-cream saloon in Grand Street; a shoemaker in +business for himself; another, one of the first three above-mentioned, a +foreman in the very machine-shop in which he served as an apprentice; +one a patented machinist in a steam chocolate manufactory; and, lastly, +one who for the last three years has been foreman in a wholesale +confectionery. I omit to mention those who have gone back to Italy and +are doing well. As a rule, they all remember with gratitude their +friends, to whose efforts and liberality they acknowledge they owe their +present position. From every State in which they settle we receive now +and then encouraging news from some boy; and not long ago we heard, for +the second time, from a boy in Italy, who, after having mentioned that +he was studying Latin, etc., gives vent to his feelings by conveying his +most hearty thanks to all the teachers, mentioning them one by one--to +Mr. Brace, to Mr. Macy, and, not remembering the name of our good +friend, John C. Havemeyer, Esq., he adds, "also to that kind gentleman +who has an office at No. 175 Pearl Street." His letter is very touching, +and reveals noble feeling and mind. + +"Nor are parents less grateful and ready to acknowledge the good of +American benevolence. I was conversing one evening with a widow woman, +while her boy was writing to her father in Italy, and called her +attention to the advantage her son had derived from our School, adding +that I still remembered how indifferently she received at first my +advices. She felt a little mortified and replied: '_Caro Maestro_ (Dear +Teacher), having never received any good from anybody, but plenty of +harm, we could not believe that all at once we had become worthy of so +much kindness. We used to have hard treatment at the hand of everybody, +had no friends; even our countrymen in better circumstances despised us, +and, to tell you the truth, we had made up our mind that we would find +charity only in the other world.' + + VISITING. + +"I will not attempt to give an idea of the difficulty attending visiting +in the Five Points, nor can I dwell at length on the extensive suffering +and wretchedness that have fallen under my observation. Notwithstanding +my comparative familiarity with those places, I cannot dispense yet with +a guide and a light, and, in many instances, two of both. The rickety +shanties, with crumbling stairs and broken steps, undergo as many +changes in the interior as may be suggested by the wants of the +successive inmates. The rooms have been partitioned and sub-partitioned +a good number of times, and now and then I have found even part of the +hall, and the whole thereof on top floors, taken in by new partitions. +Small wooden rear buildings are mostly tenanted entirely by Italians, +but in large tenement-houses there is generally found a good Irish or +Jewish mingling. Visiting, in the latter case, is often attended by most +unpleasant occurrences, owing to intoxicated and troublesome persons +that are usually found in the stairs and halls. But to relate some of my +experience: + +"On Christmas-day (1866) a woman with five children--the oldest three +our pupils--coming from church, fell, breaking her arm and giving +premature birth to a sixth. Hearing of this sad case, I took a few yards +of red flannel and went to see her. I found the poor woman in the +deepest agony and almost frantic from suffering. Her husband kept a +fruit-stand in Nassau Street, but this accident, as she expressed it, +had entirely stupified him, and she suffered to a great extent, also, +morally, from the hopeless condition of her young family. The stove was +as warm (or cold) as every piece of furniture in the room, and the poor +patient and the two smallest children had to manage to keep warm by +lying on the same bed, with a pile of old clothes and carpets over them. +Presently, however, the three elder children came in, half-frozen and +barefooted, scarcely able to talk, and discharged near the store the +contents of their aprons and bags, the result of their coal-picking +tour. Leaving to their father the care of reviving the fire, they, as of +a common consent, started for a closet, and drawing out a good-sized tin +pan full of boiled corn-meal, commenced a furious onslaught thereon. The +outer room measured some twelve by fourteen feet, and had no beds, but +its floor afforded sleeping accommodations to the five children. The +inner room was scarcely large enough to admit a middle-sized bedstead +used by the parents. When I left, the young ones had taken their places +for the night, and the man, having made a good fire, proceeded to assort +a barrel of apples, and his wife said it was the fourth time '_that +stupid man had gone through the same process without having done +anything._' + +"Among guardians, especially, the custom was prevalent of fixing the +amount the boy or girl had to bring home in the evening. But not seldom +fathers were prompted by avarice to act still more cruelly against their +own offspring, and while the former punished the shortcomings of their +wards by furnishing them with meals of microscopic proportions, the +latter, on the presumption, I suppose, of paternal right, went so far as +to whip and even expel from home the son or sons who failed to come up +to their greedy expectations. At present, however, such cases are almost +unknown, owing to the sense of independence felt by the growing +generation and to our influence on the parents. But as late as three +years ago I had observed that a boy of twelve, who was very anxious to +learn, now and then was absent. One evening I called on him for +explanations, and he related that he was _'taxed'_ for eighty cents a +day, and every cent short of that amount was balanced by a proportionate +dose of cowhiding on his bare body. He entreated me most earnestly not +to say a word to his father on the subject, otherwise he would fare +still worse. Whenever, therefore, he failed to earn the eighty cents by +his boot-blacking vocation, he would not go home. This unnatural father +did not stop here; he did not care in the least how long his son would +remain out sleeping under market-stands and in newspaper rooms, but he +insisted on the boy paying over to him, when he would return, at the +rate of eighty cents per day for all the time of his absence, without +any allowance for food, etc. + +"The case was really heart-rending, especially as the boy was developing +fine moral and intellectual qualities, and had to be treated with +uncommon prudence. At first I told the boy to call on me for whatever he +was short, and he did so on two occasions; but somehow or other the +transaction was reported to the father, who, rather than desist from his +pretension, as any other man would certainly have done, increased the +_tax_ to one dollar, with the remark that _'it would make no difference +to the teacher, twenty cents, more or less.'_ The very same night this +happened, seeing the impossibility of curing this man in any other way, +I paid him a visit, which seemed to have surprised him to a great +extent. I spoke to him calmly but determinedly, as I never had occasion +to do before, but without eliciting any answer, and I left him with the +assurance that if he did not desist at once from the vile abuse of +parental authority I would have him arrested. After a few days he moved +to Laurens street, and in about six months from this occurrence +returned, with the whole family, to Italy. I never could learn anything +afterward concerning his interesting son. + +"The filth prevalent in some of their abodes is really appalling, and in +some cases incredible. In ---- Baxter Street there is a bedroom, nine by +twelve feet, occupied by four children and their parents. The door, +hindered by the bed behind it, opens scarcely enough to give admittance +to a person of ordinary size. At the foot of the bed there is, and was, +and will be as long as they stay therein, a red-hot stove, between which +and the window stands an old chest; opposite the stove a table. The +fetid air inside I would have thought to be beyond human endurance. The +woman, at my request, opened the window, remarking 'that she did not see +the use of burning coal inside, if the freezing air was to be permitted +to come in freely.' The children sleep on the floor; that is to say, one +nearly under the bed, another under the table, a third by the stove, and +the fourth is at liberty to roll over any of her sisters. I could not +help noticing an old greasy piece of print, of no distinguishable color, +hanging around the bed, and performing, as I learned with satisfaction, +the function of a curtain to keep out of view its occupants. + +"During the last ten years some fifteen of our girls, and nearly as many +boys, married--mostly, I ought to say, intermarried--and as the greater +portion of them have children, say from four to eight years of age, in +our school, I visit also occasionally among them, the new generation. +And how different in their habits of cleanliness! Floors, walls, +ceiling, windows, everything faultlessly clean, their persons neat, so +that their rooms are really an oasis in that desert called +tenement-houses; and the cordial civility they extend to me carries +still farther the comparison by making me realize in their apartments, +after a visiting tour at the Five Points, all the satisfaction the +traveler derives by the fertile spot after a fatiguing journey across +the burning sand. + +"I will omit many sad scenes witnessed at the death-bed of several of +our pupils, it being my aim to dwell only on such facts as may convey an +idea of the nature of the difficulties we had to overcome. But the +monotonous scenes of suffering under its various forms are, however, +succeeded now and then by others peculiarly exciting. + +"Often, of my own choice, but sometimes entreated by the pupils' +parents, I paid visits to billiard-rooms. Those are placed in the +back-room of groceries, of which there are three in that neighborhood, +and have, therefore, communication with the yard. Whenever I deemed it +necessary to go on such errands, I had to organize previously an +expedition of ten or twelve of our oldest scholars, who, in accordance +with my instructions, would at a signal prevent all means of egress from +windows and doors. I would then go in from the front, and a wild rush +for the rear would ensue; but, finding themselves surrounded, all the +boys I was looking for, had no other choice but to follow us to school, +escorted as deserters. Now, it is more than probable that ninety-nine +out of one hundred of billiard-keepers in New York would not allow such +proceedings against their interests, for our _descents_ did not +particularly improve their profits. Still, those Italian grocers not +only countenanced and aided my endeavors, but gave me also all the +information I previously demanded. Little by little, by repeated +expeditions and an occasional _peeping_ in these places before going to +school, I succeeded in nearly breaking up their vicious habits in this +respect, and it is only a rare occurrence that one of our boys on +Saturday nights will go in to _look_ on a game. In corroboration of +which success I may mention that early last winter (1867), one Saturday +evening, the police made a regular and truly formidable descent on these +billiard-saloons, arresting, among others, in all twenty-seven Italians, +I believe, of whom eleven were boys from seven to fifteen. Next evening +I had an application to interfere for their release, as it is usual for +me to do whenever circumstances warrant it, and in looking into the +subject carefully I found that of them only two--namely, the youngest +and the oldest--belonged to our school, and that both had gone to buy +groceries, and, while the grocer was weighing and wrapping the +provisions, they had walked to the door between the store and the saloon +to look in, and were under that circumstance arrested. Upon my +conviction that such was really the case, I applied for and obtained +their discharge. The other boys mostly belonged to families newly +arrived from Italy and directed for California, to which State these +people generally move if unable to make a living in New York. + +"Now I will only add that the Maestro (teacher) at the Five Points has +become an indispensable personage among them. He is assumed to be a +lawyer, medical doctor, theologian, astronomer, banker--everything as +well as a teacher. A boy is arrested for throwing stones in the street; +the Maestro is applied to and the boy is released. One has fifty dollars +to deposit; the Maestro is consulted as to the soundness of the +savings-banks--and so on. But, to better appreciate their feelings on +this subject, it must be known that these poor foreigners have for a +long while been victimized by the grossest impositions. I have heard of +as much as one thousand dollars lost by one family, through the sharp +practice of a man (an Italian) who, taking advantage of their ignorance +of the English, and of their confidence, deposited and drew in his name +the money which was intended as part payment for a farm they had bought +in Massachusetts, and gave them to understand that the bank had failed. +And this is one of the many cases they had related to me on the subject. +Nor less shameful imposition they suffered at the hands of the +"shysters" whenever some juvenile delinquent was arrested for trifles. +They had to pay from fifty to one hundred dollars, and, what was worse, +often without obtaining their release. In order to explain the process +by which poor people possess such cash amounts, I must say that in +extraordinary circumstances they help each other with the most +disinterested and prompt liberality. Some of those who go to California, +having borrowed the money here, remit it generally in drafts payable to +order of lenders, who, being unknown to the bank, are refused payment. +The Maestro then, of course, is applied to, and for the first two or +three cases I found it hard to make them understand that I did not do it +for money. They would insist on my receiving something for my trouble in +procuring payment by the drawees, and one, especially, on having paid a +draft of one hundred and sixty dollars gold, followed me for a block, +with a coin piece in his hand, insisting that I should take it. 'My dear +man, keep your money,' I would say; 'I am very glad to have been able to +render you this service.' 'No, Maestro, no. Well, take _at least_ these +five dollars' (gold). That _at least_ struck me that he must have been +laboring under the impression that my services were worth considerably +more, and I addressed him in that sense. In answer, he explained that an +Italian, who has gone away from New York, charged him and others ten per +cent, for cashing drafts to order. + +"In conclusion, the Maestro is called upon for every emergency; +Questions undecided between two or more dissentient parties are referred +to my arbitration. Family quarrels are submitted to my adjustment. It is +no exaggeration to say that the good which could be effected by thus +visiting among this class is immense--in fact, far beyond the +expectation of those who might take as a basis of comparison the result +of visiting among the low classes of other nationalities. + + OUR FRIENDS. + +"As the work was done in a most quiet way, our patrons were at first +few, and for six years all Americans. After that period, the few +distinguished Italians in this city were applied to with favorable +result. But it was not until the end of 1868 that their co-operation +proved efficient, and relieved considerably the Children's Aid Society +of the pecuniary burden. Previous to that time, five or six of them, +headed by the Italian Consul-General, Signor Anfora, visited us, to look +into the working of the School, and, becoming satisfied that a great +good was being accomplished, later on, at the invitation of the Trustees +of the Society, organized themselves into a _Co-operative +Sub-Committee,_ consisting of Prof. V. Botta, President; E. P. Fabbri, +Treasurer; G. Albinola and V. Fabbricotti, Esqs., and Dr. G. Cecarini. + +The Treasurer, Signor Fabbri, with that kind and unassuming liberality +for which he is distinguished, to his annual subscription has added +fifty tons of coal to the most deserving, thus relieving their +sufferings to a great extent, and establishing a powerful inducement for +indifferent parents. The Committee also reported to the Italian +Government what was taking place for the advantage of its destitute and +ignorant subjects in this city, and obtained some subsidy and other +encouragement from that quarter. At the head of the Ministerial +Department for Foreign Affairs was, at that period. Cav. M. Cerruti, a +gentleman of learning and most enlightened views, who has done much in +Italy to popularize public instruction as the speediest and surest means +of promoting the prosperity of the nation. This gentleman having lately +been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary from his to this country, +visited, last October, our School, and met with the hearty reception he +deserves as one of our patrons. His visit elicited the following letter +from the distinguished Italian statesman to Rev. C. L. Brace, Secretary +of the Children's Aid Society:-- + + "'CLARENDON HOTEL, October 29, 1867. + +"'DEAR SIR--I beg leave to be allowed to express, in behalf of the +Italian Government and nation I have the honor to represent at +Washington, the most heartfelt thanks for the Christian and noble +undertaking unpretentiously assumed and most successfully prosecuted by +the Children's Aid Society for the improvement of the poor class of the +Italian population in your city. My visit to the Italian School under +your charge, on the 23d instant, was to me a source of high +gratification, and convinced me that, by your efficient and humane +exertions, hundreds of poor Italian children have been redeemed from +vagrancy and turned into industrious and useful members of the +community. The cleanliness, mental training, and admirable behavior of +the one hundred and fifty pupils assembled on that occasion, impressed +me with a deep sense of gratitude toward the friends of the Children's +Aid Society, and to you personally, for your unsparing efforts in +devising and forwarding such a useful institution. I can only hope that +your Society may ever prosper and continue its charitable work in the +vast field of its operations with that truly Christian and benevolent +spirit which distinguishes this glorious undertaking. + "'Believe me, dear sir, + "'Yours respectfully, + [Signed]"'MARCEL CERRUTI, + "'Minister Plenipotentiary from Italy at Washington.' + + GENERAL REMARKS. + +"For brevity's sake I had to omit mentioning incidents which speak very +highly of our pupils. Nor have I space to describe the many cases of +articles and money found by them and handed to me for investigation as +to the rightful owner; and their spontaneous liberality and hearty +contributions to the Garibaldi Fund in 1859, to the New York Sanitary +Fair in 1864, and to the relief of the orphans and wounded of the late +war of Italy and Prussia against Austria. Suffice it to say that our aim +is to render them useful, honest, industrious, and intelligent citizens. +In that direction we have been laboring, and with what success has been +seen." + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + THE "LAMBS" OF COTTAGE PLACE. + +Beyond a certain point, the history of these various schools becomes +monotonous. It is simply a history of kindness, of patience, of +struggles with ignorance, poverty, and intemperance; of lives poured out +for the good of those who can never make a return, of steady improvement +and the final elevation of great numbers of children and youth who are +under these permanent and profound influences. + +In no one of the many branches whose labors and results I am describing, +has probably so much vitality been expended, so much human earnestness +been offered with such patience, humility, and faith, as in the humble +Mission of "Cottage Place." + +It began with a "Boys' Meeting," under Mr. Macy, a practical +philanthropist, of whom I shall speak again. + +The quarter is a very notorious one, and contains numbers of idle and +vagrant boys and girls. The success of Mr. Macy with the meeting, and +the experience he gained there of a wild class of girls induced him and +his sisters to attempt in 1859 to found a School for girls; to this was +gradually added a "Free Reading-room," a library, and various temperance +and other associations. Ladies of position and wealth were attracted to +it, as well as others, from seeing the quiet and earnest nature of the +work done; there was no show or "blowing of trumpets," or any great +expense, but there were two or three men and women connected with it who +evidently thought night and day of the rough boys and miserable girls +that attended it; who felt no toil too great, if it could truly benefit +these unfortunate creatures. + +The lady-volunteers seemed to catch the same spirit of Christian +sacrifice and earnestness. One who has since become a missionary in a +distant heathen land, poured out here for these American heathen some of +the best years of her youth in the most enthusiastic and constant +labors. + +Others visited the homes of the poor, some taught in the classes, and +all labored with their own hands to arrange the festivals and dinners +which they provided so freely for the needy children. For twelve years +now those young ladies or their friends have wrought, unceasingly at +this labor of love. + +The great burden of the School, however, fell on Miss Macy, a woman of +long experience with this class, and a profound and intense spirit of +humanity. I never shall forget the scene (as reported to me) when, at +the opening of the School, after the July riots in 1863 against the +colored people, a deputation of hard-looking, heavy-drinking Irish +women, the mothers of some twenty or thirty of the children, waited on +her to demand the exclusion of some colored children. In the most +amiable and Quaker-like manner, but with the firmness of the old Puritan +stock from which she sprung, she assured them that, if every other +scholar left, so long as that school remained it should never be closed +to any child on account of color. They withdrew their children, but soon +after returned them. + +Like the other Schools, the Cottage Place gives a great deal of +assistance to the poor, but it does so in connection with education, and +therefore creates no pauperism. + +The same experience is passed through here as under the other Schools. +The children are nearly all the offspring of drunkards, but they do not +themselves drink as they grow up. The slovenly learn cleanliness, the +vagrant industry, the careless punctuality and order. Thieving was very +prevalent in the School when it was founded; now it is never known. All +have been beggars; but, as they improve under teaching, and when they +leave their homes, they never follow begging as a pursuit. Hardly a +graduate of the School, whether boy or girl, is known who has become a +thief, or beggar, or criminal, or prostitute. Such is the power of daily +kindness and training, of Christianity early applied. + +Outside of the School, great numbers of lads are brought under the +influence of the "Bands of Hope," the "Reading-room," and the lectures +and amusements offered them. + +The result of all this has been noticed by the neighboring manufacturers +in the moral improvement of the Ward. + + THE LITTLE BEGGARS OF THE FIRST WARD. + +One of the eye-sores which used to trouble me was the condition of the +city behind Trinity Church. Often and often have I walked through +Greenwich and Washington Streets, or the narrow lanes of the quarter, +watching the ragged, wild children flitting about; or have visited the +damp underground basements which every high tide flooded, crowded with +men, women, and children; or climbed to the old rookeries, packed to the +smallest attic with a wretched population, and have wished so that +something might be done for this miserable quarter, which is in a Ward +where more wealth is accumulated than in any other one place in +America. + +First I induced our Board to send a careful agent through the district, +to collect exact statistics. Then an application was made to the wealthy +Corporation of Trinity Church, to assist or to found some charitable +enterprise for this wretched population under the shadow of its spire. +For two years we continued these applications, but without avail. Then +it occurred to me that we should try the business-men who were daily +passing these scenes of misery and crime. + +Fortunately, I struck upon a young merchant of singular +conscientiousness of purpose, who had felt for a long time the sad evils +of the Ward. With him I addressed another gentleman of a well-known +elevation of character, and a certain manly persistency that led him +never to turn back when he had "put his hand to the plow." A few +personal friends joined them, and I soon saw that we were secure of the +future. Our leader had a great social influence, and he at once turned +it to aid his philanthropic scheme; he himself, gave freely, and called +upon his friends for money. The School was founded in 1860, and at once +gathered in a large number of the waifs of the First Ward, and has had a +like happy influence with our other Schools. + +Our treasurer and leader, Mr. J. Couper Lord--alas! too early taken from +us all--sustained it himself in good part during disastrous years. +Through his aid, also, a Free Reading-room was founded in the same +building, which has been more uniformly successful and useful than any +similar enterprise in the city. His devotion to the interests of these +poor people has left an enduring harvest of good through the whole +quarter. + +The following extract from our Journal will give a good idea of the +changes effected by this charity, now rightly called the "Lord +School":-- + + A STREET-SWEEPER IN THE LORD SCHOOL. + +"For a number of years, the writer of this remembers a little girl in +the First Ward School who was a kind of _bete noir_ of the school--Ann +Jane T----. Both of her parents were drunkards, and were half the time +on the Island under arrest; she herself was twice found drunk in the +School before she was thirteen years old; once she attacked the teacher +violently. She swept crossings for a living, and 'lived about,' often +sleeping in halls and stairways; for a year she occupied the same bed +and living-room with eight large boys and girls from the school, and +some thirteen grown people; the lower part of the house was a +dance-saloon and place of bad character. Annie seemed a hopeless case; +she swore and used the most vile language, and was evidently growing up +to be a most abandoned woman. The teacher of the Lord Industrial School, +Miss Blodgett, was a person of singular sweetness and dignity of +character, as well as remarkable personal beauty. She soon acquired a +great influence over the wild girl. Once little Annie was found waiting +with her broom in a bitter storm of sleet and hail on a corner, and the +teacher asked her why she was there? and why she did not go home? She +said she only wanted just to see the teacher--and the fact was she +hadn't any home--'for you know. Miss Blodgett, there is no one cares for +me in all New York but you!' This touched the teacher's heart. + +"At length the father died on Blackwell's Island, and the mother was in +prison, and Miss B. persuaded Annie to go away to a place she had found +for her in an excellent family in the West. When the mother came out she +was furious, and often made Miss B. tremble for fear she would insist on +having the child back; but she gradually saw her absence was for the +best. Now the mother is permanently in the Alms-house. + +"The following letter came recently about Annie, who has been in her +place some three years. The liberal and kind friends of the School will +feel that one such case will repay all their sacrifices. Yet there are +hundreds like them, though not so striking. + +"It should be observed that nearly all the scholars live a good deal as +Annie did, in crowded tenements, and more or less associated with +dance-saloons and places of bad character. Yet only one has ever gone +astray. Here is the letter: + + "'F----, ILL., Feb. 15, 1870. + +"'MY DEAR MISS FLAGG--Your favor of the 25th ult. was duly received. I +am very happy to be able to give you good accounts of Annie, about whom +you inquire. She has been with us constantly since she left you, and is +now our main dependence. We have sent her to school a considerable +portion of the time, and she is now in constant attendance there. Her +truthfulness and honesty are something quite remarkable. We do not think +she has eaten a piece of cake or an apple, without special permission, +since she has been with us. Nothing seems to give her more pleasure than +to be able to do something, especially for Mrs. W. or myself. We have +been inquired of about getting such girls, by other people--our friends. +Have you others whom you wish to place in situations which we could +assure you would be good? If so, please inform me as to the manner in +which you are accustomed to do it. Do you pay their fare to their new +home, and are there any other particulars about which parties would wish +to be informed? + Respectfully yours, + "'GEO. W. W.'" + +Since Mr. Lord's death, another treasurer, Mr. D. E. Hawley is bearing +the burden of the School, and, in company with a committee of prominent +businessmen of the First Ward, is making it a benefit not to be +measured, to all the poor people of the quarter. + + A TRULY "RAGGED SCHOOL." + +It is remarkable that the School which is most of a "Ragged School," of +all these, is in one of the former fashionable quarters of the city. The +quaint, pleasing old square called St John's Park is now occupied as a +freight depot, and the handsome residences bordering it have become +tenement-houses. Between the grand freight station and the river, +overlooked by the statue of the millionaire, are divers little lanes and +alleys, filled with a wretched population. + +Their children are gathered into this School. An up-hill work the +teachers have had of it thus far, owing to the extreme poverty and +misery of the parents, and the little aid received from the fortunate +classes. + + FOURTEENTH WARD SCHOOL. + +This is a large and useful charity, and is guided by two sisters of +great elevation of purpose and earnestness of character, who are known +as "Friends of the Poor" in all that quarter. + + THE COLORED SCHOOL. + +Here gather great numbers of destitute colored children of the city. +Some are rough boys and young men, who are admirably controlled by a +most gentle lady, who is Principal; her assistant was fittingly prepared +for the work by teaching among the freedmen. + +The colored people of the city seldom fall into such helpless poverty as +the foreign whites; still there is a good deal of destitution and +exposure to temptation among them. The children seem to learn as readily +as whites, though they are afflicted with a more sullen temper, and +require to be managed more delicately--praise and ridicule being +indispensable implements for the teacher. Their singing far surpasses +that of our other scholars. + +Among our other schools is a most useful one for a peculiarly wild +class, in the Rivington-street Lodging-house; one in West Fifty-third +and in West Fifty-second Streets, and a very large and well-conducted +one for the shanty population near the Park, called + + THE PARK SCHOOL. + +A very spirited teacher here manages numbers of wild boys and ungoverned +girls. The most interesting feature is a Night-school, where pupils +come, some from a mile distant, having labored in factories or +street-trades all day long--sometimes even giving up their suppers for +the sake of the lessons, with a hunger for knowledge which the children +of the favored classes know little of. Two other Schools shall conclude +our catalogue--one in the House of Industry (West Sixteenth Street), and +the other in the Eighteenth-street Lodging-house. Both Schools are +struggling with great obstacles and difficulties, as they are planted in +the quarter which has produced the notorious "Nineteenth-street Gang." +The teacher in the latter has already overcome most of them, and has +tamed as wild a set of little street-barbarians as ever plagued a +school-teacher. + +A rigid rule has been laid down and followed out in these Schools--that +is, not to admit or retain pupils who might be in the Public Schools. +Our object is to supplement these useful public institutions, and we are +continually sending the children forth, when they seem fit, to take +places in the Free Schools. Many, however, are always too poor, ragged +and necessarily irregular in attendance, to be adapted to the more +systematic and respectable places of instruction. As been already +mentioned, the plan has been steadily pursued from the beginning by the +writer, to make these as good Primary Schools as under the circumstances +they were capable of becoming. The grade of the teachers has been +constantly raised, and many of the graduates of our best training +academy for teachers in New York State--the Oswego Normal School--have +been secured at remunerative salaries. + +Within the last four years, also, a new officer has been appointed by +the Board of Trustees, to constantly examine the schools and teachers, +keep them at the highest grade possible, and visit the families of the +children. This place has been ably filled by an intelligent and educated +gentleman, Mr. John W. Skinner, with the best effects on our system of +instruction. + +Our plan of visitation among the families of the poor, whereby the +helping hand is held out to juvenile poverty and ignorance all the +while, has been effectually carried out by a very earnest worker, Mr. M. +Dupuy, in the lower wards, and by a young German-American of much +judgment and zeal, Mr. Holste, in the German quarter, and by quite a +number of female visitors. + +[Illustration: "PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE A BED?" (A sketch from life.) NO. +1.] + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + THE BEST REMEDY FOR JUVENILE PAUPERISM. + + "Ameliorer l'homme par le terre et la terre par l'homme." DEMETZ + +Among the lowest poor of New York, as we stated in a previous chapter, +the influence of _overcrowding_ has been incredibly debasing. When we +find half a dozen families--as we frequently do--occupying one room, the +old and young, men and women, boys and girls of all ages sleeping near +each other, the result is inevitable. The older persons commit unnatural +crimes; the younger grow up with hardly a sense of personal dignity or +purity; the girls are corrupted even in childhood; and the boys become +naturally thieves, vagrants, and vicious characters. Such apartments are +at once "fever-nests" and seminaries of vice. The inmates are weakened +and diseased physically, and degraded spiritually. Where these houses +abound, as formerly in the Five Points, or now in the First Ward, or +near Corlear's Hook, or in the Seventeenth Ward near the Tenth Avenue, +there is gradually formed a hideous society of vice and pauperism. The +men are idle and drunken, the women lazy, quarrelsome, and given to +begging; the children see nothing but examples of drunkenness, lust, and +idleness, and they grow up inevitably as sharpers, beggars, thieves, +burglars, and prostitutes. Amid such communities of outcasts the +institutions of education and religion are comparatively powerless. What +is done for the children on one sacred day is wiped out by the influence +of the week, and even daily instruction has immense difficulty in +counteracting the lessons of home and parents. + +For such children of the outcast poor, a more radical cure is needed +than the usual influences of school and church. + +The same obstacle also appeared soon with the homeless lads and girls +who were taken into the Lodging-houses. Though without a home, they were +often not legally vagrant--that is, they had some ostensible occupation, +some street-trade--and no judge would commit them, unless a very +flagrant case of vagrancy was made out against them. They were unwilling +to be sent to Asylums, and, indeed, were so numerous that all the +Asylums of the State could not contain them. Moreover, their care and +charge in public institutions would have entailed expenses on the city +so heavy, that tax-payers would not have consented to the burden. + +The workers, also, in this movement felt from the beginning that +"asylum-life" is not the best training to outcast children in preparing +them for practical life. In large buildings, where a multitude of +children are gathered together, the bad corrupt the good, and the good +are not educated in the virtues of real life. The machinery, too, which +is so necessary in such large institutions, unfits a poor boy or girl +for practical handwork. + +The founders of the Children's Aid Society early saw that the best of +all Asylums for the outcast child, is the _farmer's home._ + +The United States have the enormous advantage over all other countries, +in the treatment of difficult questions of pauperism and reform, that +they possess a practically unlimited area of arable land. The demand for +labor on this land is beyond any present supply. Moreover, the +cultivators of the soil are in America our most solid and intelligent +class. From the nature of their circumstances, their laborers, or +"help," must be members of their families, and share in their social +tone. It is, accordingly, of the utmost importance to them to train up +children who shall aid in their work, and be associates of their own +children. A servant who is nothing but a servant, would be, with them, +disagreeable and inconvenient. They like to educate their own "help." +With their overflowing supply of food also, each new mouth in the +household brings no drain on their means. Children are a blessing, and +the mere feeding of a young boy or girl is not considered at all. + +With this fortunate state of things, it was but a natural inference that +the important movement now inaugurating for the benefit of the +unfortunate children of New York should at once strike upon a plan of + + EMIGRATION. + +Simple and most effective as this ingenious scheme now seems--which has +accomplished more in relieving New York of youthful crime and misery +than all other charities together--at the outset it seemed as difficult +and perplexing as does the similar cure proposed now in Great Britain +for a more terrible condition of the children of the poor. + +Among other objections, it was feared that the farmers would not want +the children for help; that, if they took them, the latter would be +liable to ill-treatment, or, if well treated, would corrupt the virtuous +children around them, and thus New York would be scattering seeds of +vice and corruption all over the land. Accidents might occur to the +unhappy little ones thus sent, bringing odium on the benevolent persons +who were dispatching them to the country. How were places to be found? +How were the demand and supply for children's labor to be connected? How +were the right employers to be selected? And, when the children were +placed, how were their interests to be watched over, and acts of +oppression or hard dealing prevented or punished? Were they to be +indentured, or not? If this was the right scheme, why had it not been +tried long ago in our cities or in England? + +These and innumerable similar difficulties and objections were offered +to this projected plan of relieving the city of its youthful pauperism +and suffering. They all fell to the ground before the confident efforts +to carry out a well-laid scheme; and practical experience has justified +none of them. + +To awaken the demand for these children, circulars were sent out through +the city weeklies and the rural papers to the country districts. +Hundreds of applications poured in at once from the farmers and +mechanics all through the Union. At first, we made the effort to meet +individual applications by sending just the kind of children wanted; but +this soon became impracticable. + +Each applicant or employer always called for "a perfect child," without +any of the taints of earthly depravity. The girls must be pretty, +good-tempered, not given to purloining sweetmeats, and fond of making +fires at daylight, and with a constitutional love for Sunday Schools and +Bible-lessons. The boys must be well made, of good stock, never disposed +to steal apples or pelt cattle, using language of perfect propriety, and +delighting in family-worship and prayer-meetings more than in fishing or +skating parties. These demands, of course, were not always successfully +complied with. Moreover, to those who desired the children of "blue +eyes, fair hair, and blond complexion," we were sure to send the +dark-eyed and brunette; and the particular virtues wished for were very +often precisely those that the child was deficient in. It was evidently +altogether too much of a lottery for bereaved parents or benevolent +employers to receive children in that way. + +Yet, even under this incomplete plan, there were many cases like the +following, which we extract from our Journal:-- + + A WAIF. + +"In visiting, during May last, near the docks at the foot of +Twenty-third Street, I found a boy, about twelve years of age, sitting +on the wharf, very ragged and wretched-looking. I asked him where he +lived, and he made the answer one hears so often from these children--'I +don't live nowhere.' On further inquiry, it appeared that his parents +had died a few years before--that his aunt took him for a while, but, +being a drunken woman, had at length turned him away; and for some time +he had slept in a box in Twenty-second Street, and the _boys fed him,_ +he occasionally making a sixpence with holding horses or doing an +errand. He had eaten nothing that day, though it was afternoon. I gave +him something to eat, and he promised to come up the next day to the +office. + +"He came up, and we had a long talk together. He was naturally an +intelligent boy, of good temperament and organization; but in our +Christian city of New York he had never heard of Jesus Christ! His +mother, long ago, had taught him a prayer, and occasionally he said this +in the dark nights, lying on the boards. * * * Of schools or churches, +of course, he knew nothing. We sent him to a gentleman in Delaware, who +had wished to make the experiment of bringing up a vagrant boy of the +city. He thus writes at his arrival:-- + +"'The boy reached Wilmington in safety, where I found him a few hours +after he arrived. Poor boy! He bears about him, or, rather, _is,_ the +unmistakable evidence of the life he has led--covered with vermin, +almost a leper, ignorant in the extreme, and seeming wonder-struck +almost at the voice of kindness and sympathy, and bewildered with the +idea of possessing a wardrobe gotten for him. + +"'So far as I can judge from so short an observation, I should think him +an amiable boy, grateful for kindness shown him, rather timid than +energetic, yet by no means deficient in intellectual capacity, and +altogether such a one as, by God's help, can be made something of. Such +as he is, or may turn out to be, I accept the trust conferred upon me, +not insensible of the responsibility I incur in thus becoming the +instructor and trainer of a being destined to an endless life, of which +that which he passes under my care, while but the beginning, may +determine all the rest.' + +"In a letter six months later, he writes:-- + +"'It gives me much pleasure to be able to state that Johnny +S---continues to grow in favor with us all. Having been reclaimed from +his vagrant habits, which at first clung pretty close to him, he may now +be said to be a steady and industrious boy. + +"'I have not had occasion, since he has been under my care, to reprove +him so often as once even, having found gentle and kindly admonition +quite sufficient to restrain him. He is affectionate in disposition, +very truthful, and remarkably free from the use of profane or rough +language. I find less occasion to look after him than is usual with +children of his age, in order to ascertain that the animals intrusted to +his care are well attended to, etc. + +"' * * * Johnny is now a very good speller out of books, reads quite +fairly, and will make a superior penman--an apt scholar, and very fond +of his books. I have been his teacher thus far. He attends regularly a +Sabbath School, of which I have the superintendence, and the religious +services which follow,'" + +The effort to place the city-children of the street in country families +revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural +districts, which was truly delightful to see. People bore with these +children of poverty, sometimes, as they did not with their own. There +was--and not in one or two families alone--a sublime spirit of patience +exhibited toward these unfortunate little creatures, a bearing with +defects and inherited evils, a forgiving over and over again of sins and +wrongs, which showed how deep a hold the spirit of Christ had taken of +many of our countrywomen. + +To receive such a letter as this elevated one's respect for human +nature:-- + + "S----, OHIO, February 14, 1859. + +"I wish to add a few words to Carrie's letter, to inform you of her +welfare and progress. As she has said, it is now one year since she came +to us; and, in looking back upon the time, I feel that, considering her +mental deficiencies, she has made as much progress in learning as could +be expected. Her health, which was at first and for several months the +greatest source of anxiety to us, is so much improved that she is, +indeed, _well._ Her eyes are better; though rather weak, they do not +much interfere with her studies. She could neither sew nor knit when she +came here, and she can now do plain kinds of both, if it is prepared for +her. She could not tell all the alphabet, and could spell only three or +four words. She now reads quite fluently, though sometimes stopping at a +'hard word,' and is as good at spelling as many Yankee children of her +age. I hope she has learned some wholesome moral truths, and she has +received much religious instruction. Though really quite a conscientious +child when she came, she had a habit of telling lies to screen herself +from _blame,_ to which she is peculiarly sensitive; but I think she has +been cured of this for a long time, and I place perfect confidence in +her word and in her honesty. I succeeded in getting her fitted to enter +one of our intermediate schools by teaching her at home until the +beginning of the present winter. I am obliged, on account of her +exceeding dullness, to spend much time in teaching her out of school, in +order that she may be able to keep up with her classes. But I think this +has been a work worth doing, and I especially feel it to be so now, as I +am employed in this retrospect. + +"I am often asked by my friends, who think the child is little more than +half-witted, why I do not 'send her back, and get a brighter one.' My +answer is, that she is just the one who needs the care and kindness +which Providence has put it into my power to bestow. We love her dearly; +but, if I did not, I should not think of sending her back to such a +place as your great city. She is just one of those who could be imposed +upon and abused, and perhaps may never be able to take care of herself +wholly." + +Having found the defects of our first plan of emigration, we soon +inaugurated another, which has since been followed out successfully +during nearly twenty years of constant action. + +We formed little companies of emigrants, and, after thoroughly cleaning +and clothing them, put them under a competent agent, and, first +selecting a village where there was a call or opening for such a party, +we dispatched them to the place. + +The farming community having been duly notified, there was usually a +dense crowd of people at the station, awaiting the arrival of the +youthful travelers. The sight of the little company of the children of +misfortune always touched the hearts of a population naturally generous. +They were soon billeted around among the citizens, and the following day +a public meeting was called in the church or town-hall, and a committee +appointed of leading citizens. The agent then addressed the assembly, +stating the benevolent objects of the Society, and something of the +history of the children. The sight of their worn faces was a most +pathetic enforcement of his arguments. People who were childless came +forward to adopt children; others, who had not intended to take any into +their families, were induced to apply for them; and many who really +wanted the children's labor pressed forward to obtain it. + +In every American community, especially in a Western one, there are many +spare places at the table of life. There is no harassing "struggle for +existence." They have enough for themselves and the stranger too. Not, +perhaps, thinking of it before, yet, the orphan being placed in their +presence without friends or home, they gladly welcome and train him. The +committee decide on the applications. Sometimes there is almost a case +for Solomon before them. Two eager mothers without children claim some +little waif thus cast on the strand before them. Sometimes the family +which has taken in a fine lad for the night feels that it cannot do +without him, and yet the committee prefer a better home for him. And so +hours of discussion and selection pass. Those who are able, pay the +fares of the children, or otherwise make some gift to the Society until +at length the business of charity is finished, and a little band of +young wayfarers and homeless rovers in the world find themselves in +comfortable and kind homes, with all the boundless advantages and +opportunities of the Western farmer's life about them. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + PROVIDING COUNTRY HOMES. + + THE OPPOSITION TO THIS REMEDY--ITS EFFECTS. + +This most sound and practical of charities always met with an intense +opposition here from a certain class, for bigoted reasons. The poor were +early taught, even from the altar, that the whole scheme of emigration +was one of "proselytizing" and that every child thus taken forth was +made, a "Protestant." Stories were spread, too, that these unfortunate +children were re-named in the West, and that thus even brothers and +sisters might meet and perhaps marry! Others scattered the pleasant +information that the little ones "were sold as slaves," and that the +agents enriched themselves from the transaction. + +These were the obstacles and objections among the poor themselves. So +powerful were these, that it would often happen that a poor woman, +seeing her child becoming ruined on the streets, and soon plainly to +come forth as a criminal, would prefer this to a good home in the West; +and we would have the discouragement of beholding the lad a thief behind +prison-bars, when a journey to the country would have saved him. Most +distressing of all was, when a drunken mother or father followed a +half-starved boy, already scarred and sore with their brutality, and +snatched him from one of our parties of little emigrants, all joyful +with their new prospects, only to beat him and leave him on the +streets. + +With a small number of the better classes there was also a determined +opposition to this humane remedy. What may be called the +"Asylum-interest" set itself in stiff repugnance to our +emigration-scheme. They claimed--and I presume the most obstinate among +them still claim--that we were scattering poison over the country, and +that we benefited neither the farmers nor the children. They urged that +a restraint of a few years in an Asylum or House of Detention rendered +these children of poverty much more fit for practical life, and purified +them to be good members of society. + +We, on the other hand, took the ground that, as our children were not +criminals, but simply destitute and homeless boys and girls, usually +with some ostensible occupation, they could not easily, on any legal +grounds, be inclosed within Asylums; that, if they were, the expense of +their maintenance would be enormous, while the cost of a temporary care +of them in our Schools and Lodging-houses, and their transferrence to +the West, was only trifling--in the proportion of fifteen dollars to one +hundred and fifty dollars, reckoning the latter as a year's cost for a +child's support in an Asylum. Furthermore, we held and stoutly +maintained that an asylum-life is a bad preparation for practical life. +The child, most of all, needs individual care and sympathy. In an +Asylum, he is "Letter B, of Class 3," or "No. 2, of Cell 426," and that +is all that is known of him. As a poor boy, who most live in a small +house, he ought to learn to draw his own water, to split his wood, +kindle his fires, and light his candle; as an "institutional child," he +is lighted, warmed, and watered by machinery. He has a child's +imitation, a desire to please his superiors, and readiness to be +influenced by his companions. In a great caravansary he soon learns the +external virtues which secure him a good bed and meal--decorum and +apparent piety and discipline--while he practices the vices and +unnamable habits which masses of boys of any class nearly always teach +one another. His virtue seems to have an alms-house flavor; even his +vices do not present the frank character of a thorough street-boy; he is +found to lie easily, and to be very weak under temptation; somewhat +given to hypocrisy, and something of a sneak. And, what is very natural, +_the longer he is in the Asylum, the less likely he is to do well in +outside life._ I hope I do no injustice to the unfortunate graduates of +our Asylums; but that was and continues to be my strong impression of +the institutional effect on an ordinary street boy or girl. Of course +there are numerous exceptional cases among children--of criminality and +inherited habits, and perverse and low organization, and premature +cunning, lust, and temper, where a half-prison life may be the very best +thing for them; but the majority of criminals among children, I do not +believe, are much worse than the children of the same class outside, and +therefore need scarcely any different training. + +One test, which I used often to administer to myself, as to our +different systems, was to ask--and I request any Asylum advocate to do +the same--"If your son were suddenly, by the death of his parents and +relatives, to be thrown out on the streets, poor and homeless--as these +children are--where would you prefer him to be placed--in an Asylum, or +in a good farmer's home in the West?" + +"The plainest farmer's home rather than the best Asylum--a thousand +times!" was always my sincere answer. + +Our discussion waxed warm, and was useful to both sides. Our weak point +was that, if a single boy or girl in a village, from a large company we +had sent, turned out bad, there was a cry raised that "every New-York +poor child," thus sent out, became "a thief or a vagabond," and for a +time people believed it. + +Our antagonists seized hold of this, and we immediately dispatched +careful agents to collect statistics in the Central West, and, if +possible, disprove the charges. They, however, in the meantime, +indiscreetly published their statistics, and from these it appeared that +only too many of the Asylum graduates committed offenses, and that those +of the shortest terms did the best. The latter fact somewhat confused +their line of attack. + +The effort of tabulating, or making statistics, in regard to the +children dispatched by our society, soon appeared exceedingly difficult, +mainly because these youthful wanderers shared the national +characteristic of love-of-change, and, like our own servants here, they +often left one place for another, merely for fancy or variety. This was +especially true of the lads or girls over sixteen or seventeen. The +offer of better wages, or the attraction of a new employer, or the +desire of "moving," continually stirred up these latter to migrate to +another village, county, or State. + +In 1859 we made a comprehensive effort to collect some of these +statistics in regard to our children who had begun their new life in the +West. The following is an extract from our report at this time:-- + +"During the last spring, the Secretary made an extended journey through +the Western States, to see for himself the nature and results of this +work, carried on for the last five years through those States, under Mr. +Tracy's careful supervision. During that time we have scattered there +several thousands of poor boys and girls. In this journey he visited +personally, and heard directly of, many hundreds of these little +creatures, and appreciated, for the first time, to the full extent, the +spirit with which the West has opened its arms to them. The effort to +reform and improve these young outcasts has become a mission-work there. +Their labor, it is true, is needed. But many a time a bountiful and +Christian home is opened to the miserable little stranger, his habits +are patiently corrected, faults without number are borne with, time and +money are expended on him, solely and entirely from the highest +religious motive of a noble self-sacrifice for an unfortunate +fellow-creature. The peculiar warm-heartedness of the Western people, +and the equality of all classes, give them an especial adaptation to +this work, and account for their success. + +"'Wherever we went' (we quote from his account) 'we found the children +sitting at the same table with the families, going to the school with +the children, and every way treated as well as any other children. Some +whom we had seen once in the most extreme misery, we beheld sitting, +clothed and clean, at hospitable tables, calling the employer, father,' +loved by the happy circle, and apparently growing up with as good hopes +and prospects as any children in the country. Others who had been in the +city on the very line between virtue and vice, and who at any time might +have fallen into crime, we saw pursuing industrial occupations, and +gaining a good name for themselves in their village. The observations on +this journey alone would have rewarded years of labor for this class. +The results--so far as we could ascertain them--were remarkable, and, +unless we reflect on the wonderful influences possible from a Christian +home upon a child unused to kindness, they would almost seem +incredible. + +"'The estimate we formed from a considerable field of observation was, +that, out of those sent to the West under fifteen years, not more than +_two per cent._ turned out bad; and, even of those from fifteen to +eighteen, not more than _four per cent._' + +"The former estimate is nearly the same as one forwarded to us since by +an intelligent clergyman of Michigan (Rev. Mr. Gelston, of Albion), of +the result in his State. Of course, some of the older boys disappear +entirely; some few return to the city; but it may generally be assumed +that we hear of the worst cases--that is, of those who commit criminal +offenses, or who come under the law--and it is these whom we reckon as +the failures. One or two of such cases, out of hundreds in a given +district who are doing well, sometimes make a great noise, and give a +momentary impression that the work is not coming out well there; and +there are always a few weak-minded people who accept such rumors without +examination. Were the proportion of failures far greater than it is, the +work would still be of advantage to the West, and a rich blessing to the +city. + +"It is also remarkable, as years pass away, how few cases ever come to +the knowledge of the Society, of ill-treatment of these children. The +task of distributing them is carried on so publicly by Mr. Tracy, and in +connection with such responsible persons, that any case of positive +abuse would at once be known and corrected by the community itself. + +"'On this journey,' says the secretary, 'we heard of but one instance +even of neglect. We visited the lad, and discovered that he had not been +schooled as he should, and had sometimes been left alone at night in the +lonely log-house. Yet this had roused the feelings of the whole +country-side; we removed the boy, amid the tears and protestations of +the "father" and "mother," and put him in another place. As soon as we +had left the village, he ran right back to his old place!' + + * * * * * * * + +"We give our evidence below, consisting of letters from prominent +gentlemen, clergymen, bankers, farmers, judges, and lawyers, through the +West, where the main body of these poor children have been placed. We +think these letters, coming from some hundred different towns, and the +evidence on our books from the boys themselves, establish the remarkable +success of the work. Some of the writers speak of the children as +thriving 'as well as any other children;' and, in some cases, those who +have become disobedient and troublesome are said to have been so +principally through the fault of their employers; few instances, +comparatively, from this four or five thousand, are known to have +committed criminal offenses--in some States not more than four per cent. +This is true of Michigan; and in Ohio, we do not think, from all the +returns we can gather, that the proportion is even so large as that. The +agent of the American and Foreign Christian Union for Indiana, a +gentleman of the highest respectability, constantly traveling through +the State--a State where we have placed five hundred and fifty-seven +children--testifies that 'very few have gone back to New York,' and that +'he has heard of no one who has committed criminal offenses.' + +"The superintendent of the Chicago Reform School, one of the most +successful and experienced men in this country in juvenile reform, +states that his institution had never had but three of our children +committed by the Illinois State Courts, though we have sent to the State +two hundred and sixty-five, and such an institution is, of course, the +place where criminal children of this class would at once be committed. + +"A prominent gentleman residing in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the +neighborhood of which we have put out about one hundred and twenty, +writes: 'I think it is susceptible of proof that no equal number of +children raised here are superior to those you have placed out.' Two +prominent gentlemen from Pennsylvania, one of them a leading judge in +the State, write that they have not known an instance of one of our +children being imprisoned for a criminal offense, though we have sent +four hundred and sixty-nine to this State." + +These important results were obtained in 1859, with but four or five +thousand children settled in the West. We have now in various portions +of our country _between twenty and twenty-four thousand_ who have been +placed in homes or provided with work. + +The general results are similar. The boys and girls who were sent out +when under fourteen are often heard from, and succeed remarkably well. +In hundreds of instances, they cannot be distinguished from the young +men and women natives in the villages. Large numbers have farms of their +own, and are prospering reasonably well in the world. Some are in the +professions, some are mechanics or shopkeepers; the girls are generally +well married. Quite a number have sent donations to the Society, and +some have again in their turn brought up poor children. It was estimated +that more than a thousand were in the national army in the civil war. +With them the experiment of "Emigration" has been an unmingled blessing. +With the larger boys, as we stated before, exact results are more +difficult to attain, as they leave their places frequently. Some few +seem to drift into the Western cities, and take up street-trades again. +Very few, indeed, get back to New York. The great mass become honest +producers on the Western soil instead of burdens or pests here, and are +absorbed into that active, busy population; not probably becoming +saints-on-earth, but not certainly preying on the community, or living +idlers on the alms of the public. Many we know who have also led out +their whole family from the house of poverty here, and have made the +last years of an old father or mother easier and more comfortable. + +[Illustration: THE STREET BOY ON A FARM. (A year later.) NO. 2.] + +The immense, practically unlimited demand by Western communities for the +services of these children shows that the first-comers have at least +done moderately well, especially as every case of crime is bruited over +a wide country-side, and stamps the whole company sent with disgrace. +These cases we always hear of. The lives of poor children in these homes +seem like the annals of great States in this, that, when they make no +report and pass in silence, then we may be sure happiness and virtue are +the rule. When they make a noise, crime and misery prevail. Twenty +years' virtuous life in a street-boy makes no impression on the public. +A single offense is heard for hundreds of miles. A theft of one lad is +imputed to scores of others about him. + +The children are not indentured, but are free to leave, if ill-treated +or dissatisfied; and the farmers can dismiss them, if they find them +useless or otherwise unsuitable. + +This apparently loose arrangement has worked well, and put both sides on +their good behavior. We have seldom had any cases brought to our +attention of ill-treatment. The main complaint is, that the older lads +change places often. This is an unavoidable result of a prosperous +condition of the laboring classes. The employers, however, are +ingenious, and succeed often, by little presents of a calf, or pony, or +lamb, or a small piece of land, in giving the child a permanent interest +in the family and the farm. + +On the whole, if the warm discussion between the "Asylum-interest" and +the "Emigration-party" were ever renewed, probably both would agree (if +they were candid) that their opponents' plan had virtues which they did +not then see. There are some children so perverse, and inheriting such +bad tendencies, and so stamped with the traits of a vagabond life, that +a Reformatory is the best place for them. On the other hand, the +majority of orphan, deserted, and neglected boys and girls are far +better in a country home. The Asylum has its great dangers, and is very +expensive. The Emigration-plan must be conducted with careful judgment, +and applied, so far as is practicable, to children under, say, the age +of fourteen years. Both plans have defects, but, of the two, the latter +seems to us still to do the most good at the least cost. + +A great obstacle in our own particular experience was, as was stated +before, the superstitious opposition of the poor. This is undoubtedly +cultivated by the priests, who seem seldom gifted with the broad spirit +of humanity of their brethren in Europe. They apparently desire to keep +the miserable masses here under their personal influence. + +Our action, however, in regard to these waifs, has always been fair and +open. We know no sect or race. Both Catholic and Protestant homes were +offered freely to the children. No child's creed was interfered with. On +the committees themselves in the Western villages have frequently been +Roman Catholics. Notwithstanding this, the cry of "proselytizing" is +still kept up among the guides of the poor against this most humane +scheme, and continually checks our influence for good with the younger +children, and ultimately will probably diminish to a great degree the +useful results we might accomplish in this direction. + +The experience we have thus had for twenty years in transferring such +masses of poor children to rural districts is very instructive on the +general subject of "Emigration as a cure for Pauperism." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + RESULTS AND FACTS OF EMIGRATION TO THE WEST. + + OUR FIRST EMIGRANT PARTY. (FROM OUR JOURNAL.) + + ----- + BY A VISITOR. + ----- + +"On Wednesday evening, with emigrant [Since this first experience, we +have always sent our children by regular trains, in decent style.] +tickets to Detroit, we started on the _Isaac Newton_ for Albany. Nine of +our company, who missed the boat, were sent up by the morning cars, and +joined us in Albany, making forty-six boys and girls from New York, +bound westward, and, to them, homeward. They were between the ages of +seven and fifteen--most of them from ten to twelve. The majority of them +orphans, dressed in uniform--as bright, sharp, bold, racy a crowd of +little fellows as can be grown nowhere out of the streets of New York. +The other ten were from New York at large--no number or street in +particular. Two of these had slept in nearly all the station-houses in +the city. One, a keen-eyed American boy, was born in Chicago--an orphan +now, and abandoned in New York by an intemperate brother. Another, a +little German Jew, who had been entirely friendless for four years, and +had finally found his way into the Newsboys' Lodging-house. Dick and +Jack were brothers of Sarah, whom we sent to Connecticut. Their father +is intemperate; mother died at Bellevue Hospital three weeks since; and +an older brother has just been sentenced to Sing Sing Prison. Their +father, a very sensible man when sober, begged me to take the boys +along, 'for I am sure, sir, if left in New York, they will come to the +same bad end as their brother.' We took them to a shoe-shop. Little Jack +made awkward work in trying on a pair. 'He don't know them, sir; there's +not been a cover to his feet for three winters.' + +"Another of the ten, whom the boys call 'Liverpool,' defies description. +Mr. Gerry found him in the Fourth Ward, a few hours before we left. +Really only twelve years old, but in dress a seedy loafer of forty. His +boots, and coat, and pants would have held two such boys easily--filthy +and ragged to the last thread. Under Mr. Tracy's hands, at the +Lodging-house, 'Liverpool' was soon remodeled into a boy again; and when +he came on board the boat with his new suit, I did not know him. His +story interested us all, and was told with a quiet, sad reserve, that +made us believe him truthful. A friendless orphan in the streets of +Liverpool, he heard of America, and determined to come, and after long +search found a captain who shipped him as cabin-boy. Landed in New York, +'Liverpool' found his street condition somewhat bettered. Here he got +occasional odd jobs about the docks, found a pretty tight box to sleep +in, and now and then the sailors gave him a cast-off garment, which he +wrapped and tied about him, till he looked like a walking rag-bundle +when Mr. G. found him. + +"As we steamed off from the wharf, the boys gave three cheers for New +York, and three more for 'Michigan.' All seemed as careless at leaving +home forever, as if they were on a target excursion to Hoboken. + +"We had a steerage passage, and after the cracker-box and ginger-bread +had passed around, the boys sat down in the gang-way and began to sing. +Their full chorus attracted the attention of the passengers, who +gathered about, and soon the captain sent for us to come to the upper +saloon. There the boys sang and talked, each one telling his own story +separately, as he was taken aside, till ten o'clock, when Captain S. +gave them all berths in the cabin; meanwhile, a lady from Rochester had +selected a little boy for her sister, and Mr. B., a merchant from +Illinois, had made arrangements to take 'Liverpool' for his store. I +afterwards met Mr. B. in Buffalo, and he said he would not part with the +boy for any consideration; and I thought then that to take such a boy +from such a condition, and put him into such hands, was worth the whole +trip. + +"At Albany we found the emigrant train did not go out till noon, and it +became a question what to do with the children for the intervening six +hours. There was danger that Albany street-boys might entice them off, +or that some might be tired of the journey, and hide away, in order to +return. When they were gathered on the wharf, we told them that _we_ +were going to Michigan, and if any of them would like to go along, they +must be on hand for the cars. This was enough. They hardly ventured out +of sight. The Albany boys tried hard to coax some of them away; but ours +turned the tables upon them, told them of Michigan, and when we were +about ready to start, several of them came up bringing a stranger with +them. There was no mistaking the long, thick, matted hair, unwashed +face, the badger coat, and double pants flowing in the wind--a regular +'snoozer.' + +"'Here's a boy what wants to go to Michi_gan_, sir; can't you take him +with us?' + +"'But, do you know him? Can you recommend him as a suitable boy to +belong to our company!' No; they didn't know his name even. 'Only he's +as hard-up as any of us. He's no father or mother, and nobody to live +with, and he sleeps out o' nights.' The boy pleads for himself. He would +like to go and be a farmer--and to live in the country--will go anywhere +I send him--and do well if he can have the chance. + +"Our number is full--purse scant--it may be difficult to find him a +home. But there is no resisting the appeal of the boys, and the +importunate face of the young vagrant. Perhaps he will do well; at any +rate, we must try him. If left to float here a few months longer, his +end is certain. 'Do you think I can go, sir?' 'Yes, John, if you will +have your face washed and hair combed within half an hour.' Under a +brisk scrubbing, his face lights up several shades; but the twisted, +tangled hair, matted for years, will not yield to any amount of washing +and pulling--barbers' shears are the only remedy. + +"So a new volunteer is added to our regiment. Here is his enrollment:-- + +_"'John ----, American--Protestant--13 years--Orphan--Parents died in +R----, Maine--A "snoozer" for four years--Most of the time in New York, +with an occasional visit to Albany and Troy, "when times go +hard"--Intelligent--Black, sharp eye--Hopeful.'_ + +"As we marched, two deep, round the State House to the depot, John +received many a recognition from the 'outsiders,' among whom he seems to +be a general favorite, and they call out after him, 'Good-by, Smack,' +with a half-sad, half-sly nod, as if in doubt whether he was playing +some new game, or were really going to leave them and try an honest +life. + +"At the depot we worked our way through the Babel of at least one +thousand Germans, Irish, Italians, and Norwegians, with whom nothing +goes right; every one insists that he is in the wrong car--that his +baggage has received the wrong mark--that Chicago is in this direction, +and the cars are on the wrong track; in short, they are agreed upon +nothing except in the opinion that this is a 'bad counthry, and it's +good luck to the soul who sees the end on't.' The conductor, a +red-faced, middle-aged man, promises to give us a separate car; but, +while he whispers and negotiates with two Dutch girls, who are traveling +without a protector, the motley mass rush into the cars, and we are +finally pushed into one already full--some standing, a part sitting in +laps, and some On the floor under the benches--crowded to suffocation, +in a freight-car without windows--rough benches for seats, and no +back--no ventilation except through the sliding-doors, where the little +chaps are in constant danger of falling through. There were scenes that +afternoon and night which it would not do to reveal. Irishmen passed +around bad whisky and sang bawdy songs; Dutch men and women smoked and +sang, and grunted and cursed; babies squalled and nursed, and left no +baby duties undone. + +"Night came on, and we were told that 'passengers furnish; their own +lights!' For this we were unprepared, and so we tried to endure +darkness, which never before seemed half so thick as in that stifled +car, though it was relieved here and there for a few minutes by a +lighted pipe. One Dutchman in the corner kept up a constant fire; and +when we told him we were choking with smoke, he only answered with a +complacent grunt and a fresh supply of the weed. The fellow seemed to +puff when he was fairly asleep, and the curls were lifting beautifully +above the bowl, when smash against the car went the pipe in a dozen +pieces! No one knew the cause, except, perhaps, the boy behind me, who +had begged an apple a few minutes before. + +"At Utica we dropped our fellow-passengers from Germany, and, thus +partially relieved, spent the rest of the night in tolerable comfort. + +"In the morning, we were in the vicinity of Rochester, and you can +hardly imagine the delight of the children as they looked, many of them +for the first time, upon country scenery. Each one must see everything +we passed, find its name, and make his own comments. 'What's that, +mister?' 'A cornfield.' 'Oh, yes; them's what makes buckwheaters.' 'Look +at them cows (oxen plowing); my mother used to milk cows.' As we whirled +through orchards loaded with large, red apples, their enthusiasm rose to +the highest pitch. It was difficult to keep them within doors. Arms +stretched out, hats swinging, eyes swimming, mouths watering, and all +screaming--'Oh! oh! just look at 'em! Mister, be they any sich in +Michi_gan?_ Then I'm in for _that_ place--three cheers for Michi_gan!'_ +We had been riding in comparative quiet for nearly an hour, when all at +once the greatest excitement broke out. We were passing a cornfield +spread over with ripe yellow pumpkins. 'Oh! yonder! look! Just look at +'em!' and in an instant the same exclamation was echoed from forty-seven +mouths. 'Jist look at 'em! What a heap of _mushmillons!'_ 'Mister, do +they make mushmillons in Michi_gan?'_ 'Ah, fellers, _ain't_ that the +country tho'--won't we have nice things to eat?' 'Yes, and won't we +_sell_ some, too?' 'Hip! hip! boys; three cheers for Michi_gan!'_ + +"At Buffalo we received great kindness from Mr. Harrison, the +freight-agent and this was by no means his first service to the +Children's Aid Society. Several boys and girls whom we have sent West +have received the kindest attention at his hands. I am sure Mr. H.'s +fireside must be a happy spot. Also Mr. Noble, agent for the Mich. C. R. +R., gave me a letter of introduction, which was of great service on the +way. + +"We were in Buffalo nine hours, and the boys had the liberty of the +town, but were all on board the boat in season. We went down to our +place, the steerage cabin, and no one but an emigrant on a lake-boat can +understand the night we spent. The berths are covered with a coarse +mattress, used by a thousand different passengers, and never changed +till they are filled with stench and vermin. The emigrants spend the +night in washing, smoking, drinking, singing, sleep, and licentiousness. +It was the last night in the freight-car repeated, with the addition of +a touch of sea-sickness, and of the stamping, neighing, and bleating of +a hundred horses and sheep over our heads, and the effluvia of their +filth pouring through the open gangway. But we survived the night; _how_ +had better not be detailed. In the morning we got outside upon the +boxes, and enjoyed the beautiful day. The boys were in good spirits, +sung songs, told New York yarns, and made friends generally among the +passengers. Occasionally, some one more knowing than wise would attempt +to poke fun at them, whereupon the boys would 'pitch in,' and open such +a sluice of Bowery slang as made Mr. Would-be-funny beat a retreat in +double-quick time. No one attempted that game twice. During the day the +clerk discovered that three baskets of peaches were missing, all except +the baskets. None of the boys had been detected with the fruit, but I +afterwards found they had eaten it. + +"Landed in Detroit at ten o'clock, Saturday night, and took a +first-class passenger-car on Mich. C. R. R., and reached D----c, a +'smart little town,' in S. W. Michigan, three o'clock Sunday morning. +The depot-master, who seldom receives more than three passengers from a +train, was utterly confounded at the crowd of little ones poured out +upon the platform, and at first refused to let us stay till morning; +but, after a deal of explanation, he consented, with apparent misgiving, +and the boys spread themselves on the floor to sleep. At day-break they +began to inquire, 'Where be we?' and, finding that they were really in +Michigan, scattered in all directions, each one for himself, and in less +than five minutes there was not a boy in sight of the depot. When I had +negotiated for our stay at the American House (!) and had breakfast +nearly ready, they began to straggle back from every quarter, each boy +loaded down--caps, shoes, coat-sleeves, and shirts full of every green +thing they could lay hands upon--apples, ears of corn, peaches, pieces +of pumpkins, etc. 'Look at the Michi_gan_ filberts!' cried a little +fellow, running up, holding with both hands upon his shirt bosom, which +was bursting out with _acorns._ Little Mag (and she is one of the +prettiest, sweetest little things you ever set eyes upon), brought in a +'nosegay,' which she insisted upon sticking in my coat--a mullen-stock +and corn-leaf, twisted with grass! + +"Several of the boys had had a swim in the creek, though it was a pretty +cold morning. At the breakfast-table the question was discussed, how we +should spend the Sabbath. The boys evidently wanted to continue their +explorations; but when asked if it would not be best to go to church, +there were no hands down, and some proposed to go to Sunday School, and +'boys' meeting, too.' + +"The children had clean and happy faces, but no change of clothes, and +those they wore were badly soiled and torn by the emigrant passage. You +can imagine the appearance of our 'ragged regiment,' as we filed into +the Presbyterian church (which, by the way, was a school-house), and +appropriated our full share of the seats. The 'natives' could not be +satisfied with staring, as they came to the door and filled up the +vacant part of the house. The pastor was late, and we 'occupied the +time' in singing. Those sweet Sabbath School songs never sounded so +sweetly before. Their favorite hymn was, 'Come, ye sinners, poor and +needy,' and they rolled it out with a relish. It was a touching sight, +and pocket-handkerchiefs were used quite freely among the audience. + +"At the close of the sermon the people were informed of the object of +the Children's Aid Society. It met with the cordial approbation of all +present, and several promised to take children. I was announced to +preach in the afternoon; but, on returning to the tavern, I found that +my smallest boy had been missing since day-break, and that he was last +seen upon the high bridge over the creek, a little out of the village. +So we spent the afternoon in hunting, instead of going to church. (Not +an uncommon practice here, by the way.) + +"We dove in the creek and searched through the woods, but little George +(six years old) was not to be found; and when the boys came home to +supper there was a shade of sadness on their faces, and they spoke in +softer tones of the lost playmate. But the saddest was George's brother, +one year older. They were two orphans--all alone in the world. Peter +stood up at the table, but when he saw his brother's place at his side +vacant, he burst out in uncontrollable sobbing. After supper he seemed +to forget his loss, till he lay down on the floor at night, and there +was the vacant spot again, and his little heart flowed over with grief. +Just so again when he awoke in the morning, and at breakfast and +dinner. + +"Monday morning the boys held themselves in readiness to receive +applications from the farmers. They would watch at all directions, +scanning closely every wagon that came in sight, and deciding from the +appearance of the driver and the horses, more often from the latter, +whether they 'would go in for _that_ farmer.' + +"There seems to be a general dearth of boys, and still greater of girls, +in all this section, and before night I had applications for fifteen of +my children, the applicants bringing recommendations from their pastor +and the justice of peace. + +"There was a rivalry among the boys to see which first could get a home +in the country, and before Saturday they were all gone. Rev. Mr. O. took +several home with him; and nine of the smallest I accompanied to +Chicago, and sent to Mr. Townsend, Iowa City. Nearly all, the others +found homes in Cass County, and I had a dozen applications for more. A +few of the boys are bound to trades, but the most insisted upon being +farmers, and learning to drive horses. They are to receive a good +common-school education, and one hundred dollars when twenty-one. I have +great hopes for the majority of them. 'Mag' is _adopted_ by a wealthy +Christian farmer. 'Smack,' the privateer from Albany, has a good home in +a Quaker settlement. The two brothers, Dick and Jack, were taken by an +excellent man and his son, living on adjacent farms. The German boy from +the 'Lodging-house' lives with a physician in D----. + +"Several of the boys came in to see me, and tell their experience in +learning to farm. One of them was sure he knew how to milk, and being +furnished with a pail, was told to take his choice of the cows in the +yard. He sprang for a two-year-old steer, caught him by the horns, and +called for a 'line to make him fast.' None seemed discontented but one, +who ran away from a tinner, because he wanted to be a farmer. + +"But I must tell you of the lost boy. No tidings were heard of him up to +Monday noon, when the citizens rallied and scoured the woods for miles +around; but the search was fruitless, and Peter lay down that night +sobbing, and with his arms stretched out, just as he used to throw them +round his brother. + +"About ten o'clock a man knocked at the door, and cried out, 'Here is +the lost boy!' Peter heard him, and the two brothers met on the stairs, +and before we could ask where he had been, Peter had George in his place +by his side on the floor. They have gone to live together in Iowa. + +"On the whole, the first experiment of sending children West is a very +happy one, and I am sure there are places enough with good families in +Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, to give every poor boy and girl +in New York a permanent home. The only difficulty is to bring the +children _to_ the homes. + "E. P. Smith." + + ---- + + A LATER PARTY TO THE WEST. + + "'JANUARY, 1868. + +"'DEAR SIR--It will, perhaps, be interesting for you to know some facts +connected with the disposal of my party at the West. We numbered +thirty-two in all: two babies--one a fine little fellow one year old, +and the other twenty-one years old, but, nevertheless, the greatest babe +in the company. Just before I reached Chicago, I was surprised to find +that my party numbered only about twenty, instead of thirty-two. I went +into the forward car. You may imagine my surprise to find my large babe, +W---- D----, playing upon a concertina, and M---- H----, alias M---- +B----, footing it down as only a clog-dancer, and one well acquainted +with his business at that, could do, while eight or ten boys, and +perhaps as many brakes-men and baggage-men, stood looking on, evidently +greatly amused. It was plain to see that I was an unwelcome visitor. +Order was at once restored, and the boys went back and took their seats. +As we neared A----, a gentleman by the name of L---- came to me, and, +after making some inquiries, said: "I wish you would let me take that +boy," pointing to G---- A----, a little fellow about eight years old. +I told him we never allowed a child to go to a home from the train, as +we had a committee appointed in A----, to whom application must be made. +I promised, however, that I would keep the boy for him until Monday and +if he came, bringing satisfactory recommendations, he should have him. +He said if money was any inducement, he would give me twenty-five +dollars if I would let him have the boy. I said five thousand dollars +would not be an inducement without the recommendation. The little fellow +was really the most remarkable child I ever saw, so amiable and +intelligent, and yet so good-looking. When I reached A----, I had not +been out of the cars five minutes when a gentleman went to G----, and +placing his hand on his shoulder, said, "This is the little man I want." +I told him he had been engaged already. We passed through the crowd at +the depot, and finally reached the hotel. We had been there but a short +time when I had another application for G----. The first applicant came +up also, and asserted his claim; said that, if L---- did not come and +get the boy, he had the first right to him. L---- did not come, and I +had some difficulty to settle the matter between the two applicants. +Didn't know but I should have to resort to Solomon's plan, and divide +the boy, but determined to let him go to the best home. + +"'Matters went off very pleasantly the first day. I found _good_ homes +for some ten or twelve boys; but, in the evening, I missed the boys from +the hotel, and, in looking for them, was attracted to a saloon by the +dulcet tones of my babe's concertina, and entered. D---- was playing, +and two of the boys were delighting the audience with a comic Irish +song. All the rowdies and rum-drinkers in the town seemed to have turned +out to meet them. I stepped inside of the door, and, with arms folded, +stood looking very intently at them, without uttering a word. First the +music ceased, then the singing, and one by one the boys slunk out of the +room, until I was left alone with the rabble. It was rather amusing to +hear their exclamations of surprise. "Halloo! what's up?" "What's broke +loose now?" I went to the hotel, found the boys there, and a more humble +set I never saw. I gave them a lecture about a yard long, and professed +to feel very much hurt at the idea of finding a boy who came out with +me, in a rum-shop. I gave them to understand what I should expect of +them in future, and ended by having the door opened and extending an +invitation to leave to those boys who thought they could do better for +themselves than I should do for them. As no disposition to leave +manifested itself, I then put the question to vote whether they would +remain with me and do just as I wished, or go and look out for +themselves. Every hand went up, and some of the boys expressed +themselves very sorry for what they had done. W---- D---- left a day or +two after, taking the concertina with him, which I afterward learned +belonged to another boy. The most of my trouble seemed to take wing and +fly away with him. He was the scapegoat of the party. + +"'Illinois is a beautiful farming country. All the farmers seem to be +wealthy. The large boys, with two exceptions, were placed upon farms. +Quite a number of boys came back to the hotel to say good-by, and thank +me for bringing them out. I will note a few of the most interesting +cases: John Mahoney, age 16, with Mr. J---- T---- (farmer); came in town +Sunday to show me a fine mule his employer had given him. J---- C----, +age 14, went with Mrs. D----, who has a farm; came in, to tell me how +well pleased he is with his place; says he will work the farm as soon as +he is able, and get half the profits. D---- M----, age 17, went with +A---- H. B---- (farmer); came back to tell me his employer had given him +a pig, and a small plot of ground to work for himself. J---- S----, age +17, went with J---- B----; saw him after the boy had been with him three +or four days; he likes him very much, and has given him a Canadian pony, +with saddle and bridle. I might mention other cases, but I know the +above to be facts. + +"'The boys met with a great deal of sympathy. One old gentleman came in +just for the purpose of seeing a little boy who had lost an eye, and was +a brother to a boy his son had taken. When I told the little fellow that +the gentleman lived near the man who had taken his brother, he climbed +up on his knee, and putting his arms around his neck, said: "I want to +go home with you, and be your boy; I want to see my brother." The old +gentleman wept, and wiping the tears from his eyes, said: "This is more +than I can stand; I will take this boy home with me." He is a wealthy +farmer and a good man, and I am sure will love the little fellow very +much, for he is a very interesting child. + YOURS, + "'C. R. FRY'" + +"This letter is from a farmer--a deaf-mute--who has a destitute +deaf-mute lad placed with him:-- + + "'C---- H----, IND., March 5, 1860. + +"'MY DEAR SIR--I received your kind letter some days ago. It has given +me great pleasure to hear that you had arrived at your home. I got a +report from you. The first of the time when you left D----, he cried and +stamped on the floor by the door, but I took him to show him the horses; +I told him when he will be a big man I would give him a horse. Then he +quit crying, and he began to learn A, B, C, on that day when you left +here. Now D---- is doing very well, and plays the most of anything; he +likes to stay here very well; he can learn about dog and cat. I am +willing to take care of him over twenty-one years old, if he stays here +as long as he ever gets to be twenty-one years old; then I will give him +a horse, money, clothes, school, etc. Last Saturday, D---- rode on my +colt himself; the colt is very gentle; on advice, he got off the colt; +he petted the colt the most of time; he likes to play with the young +colt. He likes to stay with me, and he said he don't like to go back +where you are. He gathers chips and fetches wood in the stove, and is +willing to do all his work directly. I wonder that he bold boy and mock +some neighbors. + "'Yours truly, friend, + "'L. F. W. + +"'Write a letter to me immediately and let me know. He likes to go about +with me, but not when it is very cold; I send him to stay in the house, +out of the cold. When it is warm day, he likes to go about with me. +Sometimes he goes to town. He pets the colt every day; sometimes he +waters the colt and feed some corn himself.'" + + ---- + + THE HUNGRY BOY IN A HOME. + +"In our first Report there was an account of a little boy, whom our +visitor, Rev. Mr. Smith, found under a cart in the street, gnawing a +bone which he had picked up for his breakfast. He had a good-natured +little face, and a fine, dark eye. Mr. S. felt for him, and said, 'Where +do you live, my boy?' + +_'Don't live nowhere.'_ 'But, where do you stay?' He said a woman had +taken him in, in Thirteenth Street, and that he slept in one corner of +her room. His mother had left him, and 'lived all about, doin' washin'.' +Mr. Smith went around with him to the place, and found a poor, kind +woman, who had only a bare room and just enough to live, and yet had +sheltered and fed the wretched little creature. 'She was the poorest +creature in New York,' she said, 'but somehow everything that was poor +always came to her, and while God gave her anything, she meant to share +it with those who were poorer than she.' The boy was sent to +Pennsylvania, and the following is the letter from his mistress, or +rather friend, to the poor mother here. It speaks for itself. May God +bless the kind mother's heart, which has taken in thus the outcast +child! + + "'H----, PENN., Dec 8, 1855. + +"'Mr. Q----: I have but a moment to write this morning. You wish to know +how Johnny, as you call him, gets along. We do not know him by that +name. Having a William and a John before he came here, we have given him +the name of Frederick; he is generally called Freddy. He is well, and +has been, since I last wrote to you. He is a very healthy boy, not +having been sick a day since he came here. His feet trouble him at times +very much; they are so tender that he is obliged to wear stockings and +shoes all the year. We do not expect his feet will ever bear the cold, +as they were so badly frozen while on the way from the city here. But do +not imagine that he suffers much, for he does not. When his boots or +shoes are new, he complains a good deal; but after a little he gets +along without scarcely noticing it. To-day our winter's school +commences. Samuel, Freddy, and Emily will attend; and I hope Freddy will +be able to write to you when the school closes. He learns to write very +easy, and will, with little pains, make a good penman. He is an +excellent speller--scarcely ever spells a word wrong--but he is not a +good reader; but we think he will be, as we call him ambitious and +persevering, and he is unwilling to be behind boys of his age. Do you +ask if he is a good boy? I can assure you he has the name of a good boy +throughout the neighborhood; and wherever he is known, his kind, +obliging manners make him many friends. Again, do you inquire if he is +beloved At home? I will unhesitatingly say that we surely love him as +our own; and we have had visitors here for a number of days without once +thinking that he was not our own child. + +"'I wish you could see the children as they start for school this +morning. Fred, with his black plush cap, green tunic, black vest, gray +pants, striped mittens, and his new comforter, which he bought with his +own money. Samuel carries the dinner-pail this morning; it is filled +with bread and butter, apple pie, and gingerbread; and Fred has his +slate, reader, spelling-book, and Testament--and he has not forgotten to +go down to the cellar and fill his pockets with apples. + +"'I am not very well, and I make bad work of writing. I am afraid you +will not find out what I have written. + +"'Fred often speaks of you, and of his dear sister Jane. He wants you to +tell Mr. Brace how you get along, and get him to write to us all about +it. + "'With desire for your welfare, + "'I subscribe myself your friend, + "'Sally L----.'" + + THE PRISON-BOY. + +"The boy of whom this is written was taken from one of the City +Prisons:-- + + "'H----, Oct. 12, 1865. + +"'DEAR SIR--Yours, making inquiries about F. C, was duly received. His +health has been generally good and so far as his behavior is concerned, +it has been as good as could have been expected from the history he has +given us of himself, previous to his coming to live with us. We soon +learned that very little dependence could be placed on his truthfulness +or honesty; in fact, he was a fair specimen of New York juvenile +vagrancy. He has wanted a close supervision, and we have endeavored to +correct what was wrong, and to inculcate better things, and, we think, +with some success. He has learned to read and spell very well; besides +these, he has attended to writing and arithmetic, and has made some +improvement in them. The first winter that he came to live with us, we +did not think it best to send him to our Public School, but kept him +under our own personal instruction. The last winter he attended our +Public School five and a half months. He has been in our Sabbath School +from the time he first came, and has usually had his lessons well. He +has, from the first, been glad to attend all religious meetings, and we +think that his moral perception of things has much improved, and we can +but hope that, with proper attention, he may grow up to be a useful and +respectable man. He seemed quite satisfied with his home. + "'Yours, most respectfully, + "'C. S. B.'" + + "This, again, is about a poor friendless little girl, sent to a good +family in old Connecticut:-- + + "'N----, CT., Oct. 11, 1855. + "'MR. MACY: + +_"'Dear Sir_--With regard to Sarah, I would say that she is a very good +girl, and is also useful to us, and, I think, fitting herself to be +useful to herself at a future day. + +"'She has now been with us about two and a half years, and has become a +part of our family; and we should feel very sorry to part with her. She +attended school last winter at the N. Union High School, which affords +advantages equal to any school in the country. She made much improvement +in her studies, and at the end of the winter term a public examination +was held at the school, and Mr. B., the Principal, stated, in presence +of more than three hundred persons, that Sarah G. lived in my family, +and was taken by me from the "Children's Aid Society," of New York; and +stated, also, that when she commenced to go to school, she was unable to +read a word, and wished them to notice the improvement that had been +made in her case. The audience seemed to be surprised that she had been +able to accomplish so much in so short a time. + +"'She also attends Sabbath School very regularly, and gets her lessons +very perfectly, and appears to take great delight in doing so. I think +she has improved in many respects. She speaks, occasionally of the way +in which she used to live in New York, and of the manner in which she +was treated by her parents, when they were alive, and says she can never +be thankful enough to the kind friends, who, being connected with the +Children's Aid Society, sought her out, and provided her with a +comfortable home in the country, far removed from the temptations, and +vices, and miseries of a city like New York. I would say that she has +not been to school the past summer, and that she had made little +progress in penmanship during her attendance last winter, and that she +is not now able to write you herself, but I think will be able to do so +when you wish to hear from her again. + "'Respectfully yours, + "'WM. K. L.'" + + ---- + + FROM THE GUTTER TO THE COLLEGE. + + "YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN, OCT. 11, 1871. +"Rev. C. L. Brace, Secretary Children's Aid Society: + +_"Dear Sir_--I shall endeavor in this letter to give you a brief sketch +of my life, as it is your request that I should. + +"I cannot speak of my parents with any certainty at all. I recollect +having an aunt by the name of Julia B----. She had me in charge for some +time, and made known some things to me of which I have a faint +remembrance. She married a gentleman in Boston, and left me to shift for +myself in the streets of your city. I could not have been more than +seven or eight years of age at this time. She is greatly to be excused +for this act, since I was a very bad boy, having an abundance of +self-will. + +"At this period I became a vagrant, roaming over all parts of the city. +I would often pick up a meal at the markets or at the docks, where they +were unloading fruit. At a late hour in the night I would find a +resting-place in some box or hogshead, or in some dark hole under a +staircase. + +"The boys that I fell in company with would steal and swear, and of +course I contracted those habits too. I have a distinct recollection of +stealing up upon houses to tear the lead from around the chimneys, and +then take it privily away to some junk-shop, as they call it; with the +proceeds I would buy a ticket for the pit in the Chatham-street Theatre, +and something to eat with the remainder. This is the manner in which I +was drifting out in the stream of life, when some kind person from your +Society persuaded me to go to Randall's Island. I remained at this place +two years. Sometime in July, 1859, one of your agents came there and +asked how many boys who had no parents would love to have nice homes in +the West, where they could drive horses and oxen, and have as many +apples and melons as they should wish. I happened to be one of the many +who responded in the affirmative. + +"On the 4th of August twenty-one of us had homes procured for us at +N----, Ind. A lawyer from T----, who chanced to be engaged in court +matters, was at N---- at the time. He desired to take a boy home with +him, and I was the one assigned him. He owns a farm of two hundred acres +lying close to town. Care was taken that I should be occupied there and +not in town. I was always treated as one of the family. In sickness I +was ever cared for by prompt attention. In winter I was sent to the +Public School. The family room was a good school to me, for there I +found the daily papers and a fair library. + +"After a period of several years I taught a Public School in a little +log cabin about nine miles from T----. There I felt that every man ought +to be a good man, especially if he is to instruct little children. + +"Though I had my pupils read the Bible, yet I could not openly ask God's +blessing on the efforts of the day. Shortly after I united myself with +the Church. I always had attended Sabbath School at T----. Mr. G---- +placed me in one the first Sabbath. I never doubted the teachings of the +Scriptures. Soon my pastor presented the claims of the ministry. I +thought about it for some time, for my ambition was tending strongly +toward the legal profession. The more I reflected the more I felt how +good God had been to me all my life, and that if I had any ability for +laboring in His harvest, He was surely entitled to it. + +"I had accumulated some property on the farm in the shape of a horse, a +yoke of oxen, etc., amounting in all to some $800. These I turned into +cash, and left for a preparatory school. This course that I had entered +upon did not meet with Mr. G----'s hearty approbation. At the academy I +found kind instructors and sympathizing friends. I remained there three +years, relying greatly on my own efforts for support. After entering the +class of '74' last year, I was enabled to go through with it by the +kindness of a few citizens here. + +"I have now resumed my duties as a Sophomore, in faith in Him who has +ever been my best friend. If I can prepare myself for acting well my +part in life by going through the college curriculum, I shall be +satisfied. + +"I shall ever acknowledge with gratitude that the Children's Aid Society +has been the instrument of my elevation. + +"To be taken from the gutters of New York city and placed in a college +is almost a miracle. + +"I am not an exception either. Wm. F----, who was taken West during the +war, in a letter received from W---- College, dated Oct. 7, writes thus: +'I have heard that you were studying for the ministry, so am I. I have a +long time yet before I enter the field, but I am young and at the right +age to begin.' My prayer is that the Society may be amplified to greater +usefulness. + Yours very truly, + "JOHN G. B." + + ONCE A NEW YORK PAUPER, NOW A WESTERN FARMER + + C----, Mich., Oct. 26, 1871. + +"MR. J. MACY: + +_"Dear Sir_--I received your very kind and welcome letter a few days +since, and I assure you that I felt very much rejoiced to know that you +felt that same interest in hearing and knowing how your Western boys and +girls get along, as you have expressed in former times. + +"In your letter you spoke of the time you accompanied our company of +boys to the West as not seeming so long to you as it really was. For my +own part, if I could not look to the very many pleasant scenes that it +has been my privilege to enjoy while I have been in the West, I do not +think it would seem so long to me since we all marched two and two for +the boat up the Hudson River on our route for Michigan. There were some +among us who shed a few tears as we were leaving the city, as we all +expected, for the last time. But as we sped on and saw new sights, we +very willingly forgot the city with all its dusty atmosphere and +temptations and wickedness, for the country all around us was clothed in +its richest foliage; the birds were singing their sweetest songs, and +all nature seemed praising our Heavenly Father in high notes of joy. + +"In the midst of this enchantment we were introduced to the farmers in +the vicinity of A----, and then and there we many of us separated to go +home with those kind friends, and mould the character of our future +life. + +"For my own part, I was more than fortunate, for I secured a home with +_good_ man and every comfort of life I enjoyed. I had the benefit of +good schools until I was nearly of age, and when I became of age a +substantial present of eighty acres of good farming land, worth fifty +dollars per acre, was given me, and thus I commenced life. Once a New +York pauper, now a Western farmer. If these lines should chance to meet +the eyes of any boy or girl in your Society, I would say to them, don't +delay, but go to the West and there seek your home and fortune. You may +have some trials and temptations to overcome, but our lives seem happier +when we know that we have done our duties and have done the will of our +Heavenly Father, who has kindly cared for us all through our lives. + +"Last winter it was my privilege to be with you all through the +Christmas festivities, and it did my soul good to return and enjoy +Christmas with you after an absence of nearly fifteen years. I met you +there as I also did at the Newsboys' Lodging-house. Those were times of +rejoicing to me to see the wickedness we escaped by not staying at large +in your city. When I returned home I brought with me a girl of eleven +years of age, and intend to do as well by her as my circumstances will +allow. I have been married nearly three years, and by God's grace +assisting us we intend to meet you all on the other shore. I have +written you a very long letter, but I will now close. I shall be pleased +to hear from you again at any time when you feel at liberty to write. +Hoping to hear from you soon again, I remain truly your friend, + C. H. J----." + + EMIGRATION. + +With reference to the cost of this method of charity, we have usually +estimated the net expenses of the agent, his salary, the railroad fares, +food and clothing for the child, as averaging fifteen dollars per head +for each child sent. Whenever practicable, the agent collects from the +employers the railroad expenses, and otherwise obtains gifts from +benevolent persons; so that, frequently, our collections and "returned +fares" in this way have amounted to $6,000 or $8,000 per annum. These +gifts, however, are becoming less and less, and will probably eventually +cease altogether; the former feeling that he has done his fair share in +receiving and training the child. + +We are continually forced, also, towards the newer and more distant +States, where labor is more in demand, and the temper of the population +is more generous, so that the average expense of the aid thus given will +in the future be greater for each boy or girl relieved. + +The opposition, too, of the bigoted poor increases, undoubtedly under +the influence of some of the more prejudiced priests, who suppose that +the poor are thus removed from ecclesiastical influences. A class of +children, whom we used thus to benefit, are now sent to the Catholic +Protectory, or are retained in the City Alms-house on Randall's Island. + +Were our movement allowed its full scope, we could take the place of +every Orphan Asylum and Alms-house for pauper children in and around New +York, and thus save the public hundreds of thousands of dollars, and +immensely benefit the children. We could easily "locate" 5,000 children +per annum, from the ages of two years to fifteen, in good homes in the +West, at an average net cost of fifteen dollars per head. + +If Professor Fawcett's objection [See Fawcett on "Pauperism."] be urged, +that we are thus doing for the children of the Alms-house poor, what the +industrious and self-supporting poor cannot get done for their own +children, we answer that we are perfectly ready to do the same for the +outside hard-working poor; but their attachment to the city, their +ignorance or bigotry, and their affection for their children, will +always prevent them from making use of such a benefaction to any large +degree. The poor, living in their own homes, seldom wish to send out +their children in this way. We do "place out" a certain number of such +children; but the great majority of our little emigrants are the "waifs +and strays" of the streets in a large city. + + OUR AGENTS. + +The Charity I am describing has been singularly fortunate in its agents; +but in none more so than in those who performed its responsible work in +the West. + +Mr. E. P. Smith, who writes the interesting description above, of the +first expedition we sent to the West, has since become honorably +distinguished by labors among the freedmen as agent of the Christian +Commission. + +Our most successful agent, however, was Mr. C. C. Tracy, who had a +certain quaintness of conversation and anecdote, and a solid kindness +and benevolence, which won his way with the Western farmers, as well as +the little flocks he conducted to their new fold. + +One of his favorite apothegms became almost a proverb. + +"Won't the boy ran away?" was the frequent anxious inquiry from the +farmers. + +"Did ye ever see a cow run _away_ from a haystack?" was Mr. Tracy's, +rejoinder. "Treat him well, and he'll be sure to stay." + +And the bland and benevolent manner in which he would reply to an +irritated employer, who came back to report that the "New-York boy" had +knocked over the milk-pail, and pelted the best cow, and let the cattle +in the corn, and left the young turkeys in the rain, etc, etc, was +delightful to behold. + +"My dear friend, can you expect boys to be perfect at once? Didn't you +ever pelt the cattle when you were a boy?" + +Mr. T. testified before the Senate Committee in 1871, that he had +transplanted to the West some four or five thousand children, and, to +the best of his knowledge and belief, very few ever turned out bad. + +Whenever any of these children chanced to be defective in mind or body, +or, from any other cause, became chargeable on the rural authorities, we +made ourselves responsible for their support, during any reasonable time +after their settlement in the West. + +Our present agents, Mr. E. Trott and Mr. J. P. Brace, are exceedingly +able and judicious agents, so that we transported, in 1871, to the +country, some three thousand children, at an expense, including all +salaries and costs, of $31,638. + +We have also a resident Western agent, Mr. C. R. Fry, who looks after +the interests of those previously sent and prepares for future parties, +traveling from village to village. The duties of all these agents are +very severe and onerous. + +It is a matter of devout thankfulness that no accident has ever happened +to any one of the many parties of children we have sent out, or to the +agents. + +The following testimony was given by Mr. J. Macy, Assistant Secretary of +the Children's Aid Society, before the Senate Committee, in 1871:-- + +"Mr. J. Macy testified that he corresponds annually with from eight +thousand to ten thousand persons, and, on an average, receives about two +thousand letters from children and their employers. He has personal +knowledge of a great many boys growing up to be respectable citizens, +others having married well, others graduating in Western colleges. Out +of twenty-one thousand, not over twelve children have turned out +criminals, The percentage of boys returning to the city from the West is +too small to be computed, not more than six annually. From +correspondence and personal knowledge, he is thoroughly satisfied that +but very few turned out bad, and that the only way of saving large boys +from falling into criminal practices is to send them into good +country-homes. He regarded the system of sending families to the West as +one of the best features of the work of the Society. Not a family has +been sent West which has not improved by the removal. The Society had +never changed the name of a child, and Catholic children had often been +intrusted to Catholic families." * * * * * + +"Letter from a newsboy to the Superintendent of the Lodging-house:-- + + "M----, IND., Nov. 24, 1859. + +"'TO MY FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR.--So I take my pen in my hand to let you +know how I am, and how I am getting along; As far as I see, I am well +satisfied with my place; but I took a general look around, and, as far +as I see, all the boys left in M---- are doing well, especially myself, +and I think there is as much fun as in New York, for nuts and apples are +all free. I am much obliged to you, Mr. O'Connor, for the paper you sent +me. I received it last night; I read it last night--something about the +Newsboys' Lodging-house. + +"'All the newsboys of New York have a bad name; but we should show +ourselves, and show them, that we are no fools; that we can become as +respectable as any of their countrymen, for some of you poor boys can do +something for your country-for Franklin, Webster, Clay, were poor boys +once, and even Commodore V. C. Perry or Math. C. Perry. But even George +Law, and Vanderbilt, and Astor--some of the richest men of New York--and +Math. and V. C. Perry were nothing but printers, and in the navy on Lake +Erie. And look at Winfield Scott. So now, boys, stand up and let them +see you have got the real stuff in you. Come out here and make +respectable and honorable men, so they can say, there, that boy was once +a newsboy. + +"'Now, boys, you all know I have tried everything. I have been a newsboy +and when that got slack, you know I have smashed baggage. I have sold +nuts; I have peddled, I have worked on the rolling billows up the canal. +I was a boot-black; and you know when I sold papers I was at the top of +our profession. I had a good stand of my own, but I found that all would +not do. I could not get along, but I am now going ahead. I have a +first-rate home, ten dollars a month, and my board; and I tell you, +fellows, that is a great deal more than I could scrape up my best times +in New York. We are all on an equality, my boys, out here, so long as we +keep yourselves respectable. + +"'Mr. O'Connor, tell Fatty or F. John Pettibone, to send me a Christmas +number of _Frank Leslie's_ and _Harper's Weekly,_ a _Weekly News_ or +some other pictorials to read, especially the _Newsboys' Pictorial,_ if +it comes out. No old papers, or else none. If they would get some other +boys to get me some books. I want something to read. + +"I hope this letter will find you in good health, as it leaves me. Mr. +O'Connor, I expect an answer before two weeks--a letter and a paper. +Write to me all about the Lodging-house. With this I close my letter, +with much respect to all. + "'I remain your truly obedient friend, + "'J. K.'" + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + A PRACTICAL PHILANTHROPIST AMONG THE YOUNG "ROUGHS." + +A sketch of the long and successful efforts for the improvement of the +dangerous classes we have been describing would be imperfect without an +account of + + THE OFFICE OF THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY. + +This has become a kind of eddying-point, where the two streams of the +fortunate and the unfortunate classes seem to meet. Such a varying +procession of humanity as passes through these plain rooms, from one +year's end to the other, can nowhere else be seen. If photographs could +be taken of the human life revealed there, they would form a volume of +pictures of the various fortunes of large classes in a great city. On +one day, there will be several mothers with babes. They wish them +adopted, or taken by any one. They relate sad stories of desertion and +poverty; they are strangers or immigrants. When the request is declined, +they beseech, and say that the child must die, for they cannot support +both. It is but too plain that, they are illegitimate children; As they +depart, the horrible feeling presses on one, that the child will soon +follow the fate of so many thousands born out of wedlock. Again, a +pretty young woman comes to beg a home for the child of some friend, who +cannot support it. Her story need not be told; the child is hers, and is +the offspring of shame. Or some person from the higher classes enters, +to inquire for the traces of some boy, long disappeared--the child of +passion and sin. + +But the ordinary frequenters are the children of the street--the Arabs +and gypsies of our city. + +Here enters a little flower-seller, her shawl drawn over her head, +barefooted and ragged--she begs for a home and bread; here a newsboy, +wide-awake and impudent, but softened by his desire to "get West;" here +"a bummer," ragged, frouzy, with tangled hair and dirty face, who has +slept for years in boxes and privies; here a "canawl-boy," who cannot +steer his little craft in the city as well as he could his boat; or a +petty thief who wishes to reform his ways, or a bootblack who has +conceived the ambition of owning land, or a little "revolver" who hopes +to get quarters for nothing in a Lodging-house and "pitch pennies" in +the interval. Sometimes some yellow-haired German boy, stranded by +fortune in the city, will apply, with such honest blue eyes, that the +first employer that enters will carry him off; or a sharp, intelligent +Yankee lad, left adrift by sudden misfortune, comes in to do what he has +never done before--ask for assistance. Then an orphan-girl will appear, +floating on the waves of the city, having come here no one knows why, +and going no one can tell whither. + +Employers call to obtain "perfect children;" drunken mothers rush in to +bring back their children they have already consented should be sent far +from poverty and temptation; ladies enter to find the best object of +their charities, and the proper field for their benevolent labors; +liberal donors; "intelligent foreigners," inquiring into our +institutions, applicants for teachers' places, agents, and all the +miscellaneous crowd who support and visit agencies of charity. + + A PRACTICAL PHILANTHROPIST. + +The central figure in this office, disentangling all the complicated +threads in these various applications, and holding himself perfectly +cool and bland in this turmoil, is "a character"--Mr. J. Macy. + +He was employed first as a visitor for the Society; but, soon betraying +a kind of bottled-up "enthusiasm of humanity" under a very modest +exterior, he was put in his present position, where he has become a sort +of embodied Children's Aid Society in his own person. Most men take +their charities as adjuncts to life, or as duties enjoined by religion +or humanity. Mr. Macy lives in his. He is never so truly happy as when +he is sitting calmly amid a band of his "lambs," as he sardonically +calls the heavy-fisted, murderous-looking young vagabonds who frequent +the Cottage place Reading-room, and seeing them all happily engaged in +reading or quiet, amusements. Then the look of beatific satisfaction +that settles over his face, as, in the midst of a loving passage of his +religious address to them, he takes one of the obstreperous lambs by the +collar, and sets him down very hard on another bench--never for a moment +breaking the thread or sweet tone of his bland remarks--is a sight to +behold; you know that he is happier there than he would be in a palace. + +His labors with these youthful scapegraces around Cottage Place, during +the last fifteen years, would form one of the most instructive chapters +in the history of philanthropy. I have beheld him discoursing sweetly on +the truths of Christianity while a storm of missiles was coming through +the windows; in fact, during the early days of the meeting, the windows +were always barricaded with boards. The more violent the intruders were, +the more amiable, and at the same time, the more firm he became. + +In fact, he never seemed so well satisfied as when the roughest little +"bummers" of the ward entered his Boys' Meeting. The virtuous and +well-behaved children did not interest him half so much. By a patience +which is almost incredible, and a steady kindness of years, he finally +succeeded in subduing these wild young vagrants, frequently being among +them every night of the week, holding magic-lantern exhibitions, +temperance meetings, social gatherings, and the like, till he really +knew them and attracted their sympathies. His cheerfulness was high when +the meeting grew into an Industrial School, where the little girls, who +perplexed him so, could be trained by female hands, and his happiness +was at its acme when the liberality of one or two gentlemen enabled him +to open a Reading-room for "the lambs." The enterprise was always an +humble one in appearance; but such were the genuineness and spirit of +humanity in it--the product of his sisters as well as himself--that it +soon met with kind support from various ladies and gentlemen, and now is +one of those lights in dark places which must gladden any observer of +the misery and crime of this city. + +Mr. Macy's salvation in these exhausting and nerve-wearing efforts, and +divers others which I have not detailed, is his humor. I have seen him +take two lazy-looking young men, who had applied most piteously for +help, conduct them very politely to the door, and, pointing amiably to +the Third Avenue, say, "Now, my boys, just be kind enough to walk right +north up that avenue for one hundred miles into the, country, and you +will find plenty of work and food. Good-by! good-by!" The boys depart, +mystified. + +Or a dirty little fellow presents himself in the office. "Please, sir, I +am an orphant, and I want a home!" Mr. Macy eyes him carefully; his +knowledge of _"paidology"_ has had many years to ripen in; he sees, +perhaps, amid his rags, a neatly-sewed patch, or notes that his naked +feet are too white for a "bummer." He takes him to the inner office. "My +boy! Where do you live? Where's your father?" + +"Please, sir, I don't live nowhere, and I hain't got no father, and me +mither is dead!" Then follows a long and touching story of his +orphanage, the tears flowing down his cheeks. The bystanders are almost +melted themselves. Not so Mr. Macy. Grasping the boy by the shoulder, +"Where's your mother, I say?" "Oh, dear, I'm a poor orphant, and I +hain't got no mither!" "Where is your _mother_, I say? Where do you +live? I give you just three minutes to tell, and then, if you do not, I +shall hand you over to that officer!" The lad yields; his true story is +told, and a runaway restored to his family. + +In the midst of his highest discouragements at Cottage Place, Mr. Macy +frequently had some characteristic story of his "lambs" to refresh him +in his intervals of rest And some peculiar exhibition of mischief or +wickedness always seemed to act as a kind of tonic on him and restore +his spirits. + +I shall not forget the cheerfulness with which he related one day that, +after having preached with great unction the Sunday previous on +"stealing," he came back the next and discovered that a private room in +the building, which he only occasionally used, had been employed by the +boys for some time as a receptacle for stolen goods! + +On another occasion, he had held forth with peculiar "liberty" on the +sin of thieving, and, when he sat down almost exhausted, discovered, to +his dismay, that his hat had been stolen! But, knowing that mischief was +at the bottom, and that a crowd of young "roughs" were outside waiting +to see him go home bareheaded, he said nothing of his loss, but procured +a cap and quietly walked away. + +I think the contest of wits among them--they for mischief and +disturbance, and he to establish order and get control over them--gave a +peculiar zest to his religious labors, which he would not have had in +calmer scenes and more regular services. If they put pepper on the +stove, he endured it much longer than they could, and kept them until +they were half suffocated; and when they barricaded the door outside, he +protracted the devotional exercises or varied them with a "magic +lantern," to give time for forcing the door, and an orderly exit. [Mr. +Macy, on one occasion, on a bitter winter day, found the lock of the +room picked and the boys within. He accused some of the larger boys. +They denied, "No sir--no: it couldn't be us; because we was in the +liquor-shop on the corner; _we ain't got nowhere else to go to!"_] + +The girls, however, were his great torment, especially when they stoned +their spiritual guides; these, however, he eventually forwarded into the +Cottage place Industrial School, which sprang from the Meeting, and +there they were gradually civilized. + +For real suffering and honest effort at self-help, he had a boundless +sympathy; but the paupers and professional beggars were the terror of +his life. He dreaded nothing so much as a boy or girl falling into +habits of dependence. Where he was compelled to give assistance in +money, he has been known to set one boy to throw wood down and the other +to pile it up, before he would aid. + +His more stormy philanthropic labors have been succeeded by calmer +efforts among a delightful congregation of poor German children in +Second Street, who love and revere him. When he needs, however, a little +refreshment and intoning, he goes over to his Cottage-place +Reading-room, and sits with or instructs his "lambs!" + +His main work, however, is in the "office" of the Children's Aid +Society, which I have described above. Though a plain half-Quaker +himself, he has all the tact of a _diplomat,_ and manages the +complicated affairs of poverty and crime that come before him with a +wonderful skin, getting on as well with the lady as the street-vagrant, +and seldom ever making a blunder in the thousand delicate matters which +pass through his hands. When it is remembered that some seventeen +thousand street-children have passed through that office to homes in the +country, and that but one lawsuit has ever occurred about them (and that +through no mistake of the Society), while numbers of bitter enemies +watch every movement of this charity, it will be seen with what +consummate judgment these delicate matters have been managed. Besides +all this, he is the guide, philosopher, and friend of hundreds of these +young wayfarers in every part of the country, sustaining with them an +enormous correspondence; but, as sympathy, and advice, and religious +instruction on such a gigantic scale would soon weary out even his +vitality, he stereotypes his letters, and, by a sort of pious fraud, +says to each what is written for all. It is very interesting to come +across the quaint, affectionate words and characteristic expressions of +this devoted philanthropist addressed to "his boys," but put up in +packages of a thousand copies, and to think to how many little rovers +over the land they bring sympathy and encouragement. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + RAISING MONEY FOR A CHARITY. + +One of the trials of a young Charity is raising money. I was determined +to put this on as sound and rational a basis as possible. It seemed to +me, that, if the facts were well known in regard to the great suffering +and poverty among the children in New York, and the principles of our +operations were well understood, we could more safely depend on this +enlightened public opinion and sympathy than on any sudden "sensation" +or gush of feeling. + +Our Board fully concurred in these views, and we resolutely eschewed all +"raffles" and pathetic exhibitions of abandoned children, and +"pedestrian" or other exhibitions offered as for the benefit of +humanity, and never even enjoyed the perfectly legitimate benefit of a +"fair." Once, in a moment of enthusiasm I was led into arranging a +concert, for the benefit of a School; but that experience was enough. +Our effort at musical benevolence became a series of most inharmonious +squabbles. The leading soprano singer had a quarrel with the bass; the +instrumental split with the vocal performers; our best solo went off in +a huff, and, at last, by superhuman exertions, we reconciled the +discordant elements and got our concert fairly before the public, and +retired with a few hundred dollars. + +Whatever gave the public a sensation, always had a reaction. The solid +ground for us was evidently the most rational one. I accordingly made +the most incessant exertions to enlighten and stir up the public. In +this labor the most disagreeable part was presenting our "cause" to +individuals. I seldom solicited money directly, but sought rather to lay +the wants and methods before them. Yet, even here, some received it as +if it were some new move of charlatanry, or some new device for +extracting money from full purses. Evidently, to many minds, the fact of +a man of education devoting himself to such pursuits was in itself an +enigma or an eccentricity. Fortunately, I was able early to make use of +the pulpits of the city and country, and sometimes was accustomed to +spend every night in the week and the Sunday in delivering sermons and +addresses throughout the Eastern States. As a general thing, I did not +urge a collection, though occasionally having one, but chose rather to +convince the understanding, and leave the matter before the people for +consideration. No public duties of mine were ever more agreeable than +these; and the results proved afterwards most happy, in securing a large +rural "constituency," who steadily supported our movements in good times +and bad; so quietly devoted, and in earnest, that death did not diminish +their interest--some of our best bequests having come from the country. + +The next great implement was that profession which has done more for +this Charity than any other instrumentality. Having, fortunately, an +early connection with the press, I made it a point, from the beginning, +to keep our movements, and the evils we sought to cure, continually +before the public in the columns of the daily journals. Articles +describing the habits and trials of the poor; editorials urging the +community to work in these directions; essays discussing the science of +charity and reform; continual paragraphs about special charities, were +poured forth incessantly for years through the daily and weekly press of +New York, until the public became thoroughly, imbued with our ideas and +a sense of the evils which we sought to reform. To accomplish this, I +had to keep up a constant connection with the press, and was, in fact, +often daily editor, in addition to my other avocations. + +As a result of this incessant publicity, and of the work already done, a +very superior class of young men consented to serve in our Board of +Trustees; men who, in their high principles of duty, and in the +obligations which they feel are imposed by wealth and position, bid fair +hereafter to make the name of New York merchants respected as it never +was before throughout the country. With these as backers and +supervisors, we were enabled to approach the Legislature for aid, on the +ground that we were doing a humane work which lightened the taxes and +burdens of the whole community and was in the interest of all. Year +after year our application was rejected, but finally we succeeded, and +laid a solid and permanent basis thus for our future work. + + SOURCES OF INCOME. + +Our first important acquisition of property was a bequest from a +much-esteemed pupil of mine, J. B. Barnard, of New Haven, Conn., of +$15,000, in 1856. We determined to use this at once in the work. For +many years, finding the needs of the city so enormous, and believing +that our best capital was in the results of our efforts, and not in +funds, we spent every dollar we could obtain at once upon our labors of +charity. + +At length, in 1863, a very fortunate event occurred for us: a gentleman +had died in New York, named John Rose, who left a large property which +he willed should be appropriated to forming some charitable institution +for neglected children, and, under certain conditions, to the +Colonization Society. The will was so vaguely worded, that the brother, +Mr. Chauncey Rose, felt it necessary to attempt to break it. This, after +long litigation, he succeeded in doing, and the property--now swollen to +the amount of nearly a million dollars--reverted mainly to him. With a +rare conscience and generosity, he felt it his duty not to use any of +this large estate for himself, but to distribute it among various +charities in New York, relating to poor children, according to what +appeared to be the intention of his brother. To our Society he gave, at +different times, something like $200,000. Of this, we made $150,000 an +invested fund; and henceforth we sought gradually to increase our +permanent and assured income, so that the Association might continue its +benevolent work after the present managers had departed. + +And yet we were glad that a good proportion of our necessary expenses +should be met by current contributions, so that the Society might have +the vitality arising from constant contact with the public, as well as +the permanency from invested property. + +If we take a single year, 1870, as showing the sources of our income, we +shall find that out of nearly $200,000 received that year, including +$32,000 for the purchase of two Lodging-houses, and $7,000 raised by the +local committees of the Schools, $60,000 came by tax from the county, +$20,000 from the "Excise Fund" (now abolished), nearly $20,000 from the +Board of Education, being a _pro rata_ allotment on the average number +of pupils, and about $9,000 from the Comptroller of the State; making +about $109,000, or a little over one-half of our income, received from +the public authorities. Of the ninety-odd thousand received from private +sources, about eleven thousand came from our investments, leaving some +$80,000 as individual contributions during one year--a remarkable fact, +both as showing the generosity of the public and their confidence in the +work. + +This liberal outlay, both by the city and private individuals, has been +and is being constantly repaid, in the lessening of the expenses and +loss from crime and pauperism, and the increasing of the number of +honest and industrious producers. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + REFORM AMONG THE ROWDIES--FREE READING ROOMS. + +At first sight, it would seem very obvious that a place of mental +improvement and social resort, with agreeable surroundings, offered +gratuitously to the laboring-people, would be eagerly frequented. On its +face, the "FREE READING-ROOM" appears a most natural, feasible method of +applying the great lever of sociality (without temptations) to lifting +up the poorer classes. The working-man and the street-boy get here what +they so much desire, a pleasant place, warmed and lighted, for meeting +their companions, for talking, playing innocent games, or reading the +papers; they get it, too, for nothing. When we remember how these people +live, in what crowded and slatternly rooms, or damp cellars, or close +attics, some even having no home at all, and that their only social +resort is the grog-shop, we might suppose that they would jump at the +chance of a pleasant and Free Saloon and Reading-room. But this is by no +means the case. This instrument of improvement requires peculiar +management to be successful. Our own experience is instructive. + +The writer of this had had the Reading-room "on the brain" for many +years, when, at length, on talking over the subject with a gentleman in +the eastern part of the city--one whose name has since been a tower of +strength to this whole movement--he consented to further the enterprise, +and be the treasurer--an office in young charities, be it remembered, no +sinecure. + +We opened, accordingly, near the Novelty Iron Works, under the best +auspices, + + THE ELEVENTH WARD FREE READING-ROOM. + +The rooms were spacious and pleasant, furnished with a plenty of papers +and pamphlets, and, to add to the attractions and help pay expenses, the +superintendent was to sell coffee and simple refreshments. Our theory +was, that coffee would compete with liquor as a stimulus, and that the +profits of the sale would pay most of the running cost. We were right +among a crowded working population, and everything promised success. + +At first there were considerable numbers of laboring-men present every +day and evening; but, to our dismay, they began to fall off. We tried +another superintendent; still the working-man preferred his "dreary +rooms," or the ruinous liquor-shops, to our pleasant Reading-room. The +coffee did not suit him; the refreshments were not to his taste; he +would not read, because he thought he ought to call for something to eat +or drink if he did; and so at length he dropped off. Finally, the +attendance became so thin and the expenses were accumulating to such a +degree, that we closed the room, and our magnanimous treasurer footed +the bills. This failure discouraged us for some years, but the idea +seemed to me sound, and I was resolved to try it once more under better +circumstances. + +In looking about for some specially-adapted instrument for influencing +"the dangerous classes," I chanced, just after the remarkable religious +"Revival of 1858" on a singular character, + + A REFORMED PUGILIST. + +This was a reformed or converted prize-fighter, named Orville (and +nicknamed "Awful") Gardner. He was a broad-shouldered, burly individual, +with a tremendous neck, and an arm as thick as a moderate-sized man's +leg. His career had been notorious and infamous in the extreme, he +having been one of the roughs employed by politicians, and engaged in +rows and fights without number, figuring several times in the +prize-ring, and once having bitten off a man's nose! + +Yet the man must have been less brutal than his life would show. He was +a person evidently of volcanic emotions and great capacity of affection. +I was curious about his case, and watched it closely for some years, as +showing what is so often disputed in modern times--the reforming power +of Christianity on the most abandoned characters. + +The point through which his brutalized nature had been touched, had been +evidently his affection for an only child--a little boy. He described to +me once, in very simple, touching language, his affection and love for +this child; how he dressed him in the best, and did all he could for +him, but always keeping him away from all knowledge of his own +dissipation. One day he was off on some devilish errand among the +immigrants on Staten Island, when he saw a boat approaching quickly with +one of his "pals." The man rowed up near him, and stopped and looked at +him "very queer," and didn't say anything. + +"What the devil are you looking at me in that way for?" said Gardner. + +"Your boy is drownded!" replied the other. + +Gardner says he fell back in the boat, as if you'd hit him right +straight from the shoulder behind the ear, and did not know anything for +a long time. When he recovered, he kept himself drunk for three weeks, +and smashed a number of policemen, and was "put up," just so as to +forget the bright little fellow who had been the pride of his heart. + +This great loss, however, must have opened his nature to other +influences. When the deep religious sympathy pervaded the community, +there came over him suddenly one of those Revelations which, in some +form or other, visit most human beings at least once in their lives. +They are almost too deep and intricate to be described in these pages. +The human soul sees itself, for the first time, as reflected in the +mirror of divine purity. It has for the moment a conception of what +Christ is, and what Love means. Singularly enough, the thought and +sentiment which took possession of this ruffian and debauchee and +prize-fighter, and made him as one just cured of leprosy, was the +Platonic conception of Love, and that embodied in the ideal form of +Christianity. Under it he became as a little child; he abandoned his +vices, gave up his associates, and resolved to consecrate his life to +humanity and the service of Him to whom he owed so much. The spirit, +when I first met him, with which he used to encounter his old companions +must have been something like that of the early Christian converts. + +Thus, an old boon companion meets him in the street: "Why, Orful, what +the h--ll's this about your bein' converted?" + +And the other turns to him with such pent-up feeling bursting forth, +telling him of the new things that have come to him, that the "rough" is +quite melted, and begins a better course of life. + +Again, he is going down a narrow street, when he suddenly sees coming up +a bitter enemy. His old fire flames up, but he quenches it, walks to the +other, and, with the tears streaming down his cheeks, he takes him by +the hand and tells him "the old story" which is always new, and the two +ruffians forget their feuds and are friends. + +Could the old Greek philosopher have seen this imbruted athlete, so +mysteriously and suddenly fired with the ideal of Love till his past +crimes seemed melted in the heat of this great sentiment, and his rough +nature appeared transformed, he would have rejoiced in beholding at +length the living embodiment of an ideal theory for so many ages held +but as the dream of a poetic philosopher. + +Gardner was only a modern and striking instance of the natural and +eternal power of Christianity. + +We resolved to put him where he could reach the classes from which he +had come. With considerable exertion the necessary sums were raised to +open a "Coffee and Reading Boom" in the worst district of the city--the +Fourth Ward. Great numbers of papers and publications were furnished +gratuitously by that body who have always been so generous to this +enterprise--the conductors of the press of the city. A bar for coffee +and cheap refreshments was established, and Gardner was put at the head +of the whole as superintendent. + + THE DRUNKARDS' CLUB + +The opening is thus described in our Journal:-- + +We must confess, as one of the managers of that institution, we felt +particularly nervous about that opening meeting. + +"Messrs. Beecher and Cochrane and other eminent speakers had been +invited to speak, and the Mayor was to preside. It was certainly an act +of some self-denial to leave their countryseats or cool rooms, and spend +a hot summer evening in talking to Fourth-ward rowdies. To requite this +with any sort of 'accident' would have been very awkward. Where would we +of the committee have hid our heads if our friends the 'roughs' had +thought best to have a little bit of a shindy, and had knocked Brother +Beecher's hat in, and had tossed the Hon. John Cochrane out of the +window, or rolled the Mayor down-stairs? We confess all such possible +eventualities did present themselves, and we imagined the sturdy form of +our eminent clerical friend breasting the opposing waves of rowdies, and +showing himself as skillful in demolishing corporeal enemies as he is in +overthrowing spiritual. We were comforted in spirit, however, by +remembering that the saint at the head of our establishment-the renowned +Gardner--would now easily take a place in the church militant, and +perhaps not object to a new exercise of muscle in a good cause. + + * * * * * * * * + +"After other addresses, Gardner--'Awful Gardner'--was called for. He +came forward--and a great trial it must have been to have faced that +crowd, where there were hundreds who had once been with him in all kinds +of debaucheries and deviltries--men who had drunk and fought and gambled +and acted the rowdy with him--men very quick to detect any trace of +vanity or cant in him. He spoke very simply and humbly; said that he had +more solid peace and comfort in one month now than he had in years once; +spoke of his 'black life' his sins and disgrace, and then of his most +cordial desire to welcome all his old companions there. In the midst of +these remarks there seemed to come up before him suddenly a memory of +Him who had saved him, his eyes filled with tears, and, with a manly and +deep feeling that swept right through the wild audience, he made his +acknowledgment to 'Him who sticketh closer than a brother--even the Lord +Jesus Christ.' + +"No sermon could have been half so effective as these stammering +ungrammatical, but manly remarks." + +Our Reading-room under this guidance became soon a very popular resort; +in fact, it deserved the nickname one gentleman gave it, "The Drunkards' +Club." The marked, simple, and genuine reform in a man of such habits as +this pugilist, attracted numbers of that large class of young men who +are always trying to break from the tyranny of evil habits and vices. +The rooms used to be thronged with reformed or reforming young men. The +great difficulty with a man under vices is to make him believe that +change for him is possible. The sight of Gardner always demonstrated +this possibility. Those men who are sunk in such courses cannot get rid +of them gradually, and nothing can arouse them and break the iron rule +of habits but the most tremendous truths. + +"Awful Gardner" had but one theory of reform--absolute and immediate +change, in view of the love of Christ, and of a deserved and certain +damnation. + +The men to whom he spoke needed no soft words; they knew they were "in +hell" now; some of them could sometimes for a moment realize what such a +character as Christ was, and bow before it in unspeakable humility. No +one whom I have ever seen could so influence the "roughs" of this city. +He ought to have been kept as a missionary to the rowdies. I extract +from our Journal:-- + +"The moral success of the room has been all that we could have desired. +Hundreds of young men have come there continually to read or chat with +their friends--many of them even who had habitually frequented the +liquor-saloons, and many persons with literally no homes. The place, +too, has become a kind of central point for all those who have become +more or less addicted to excessive drinking, and who are desirous of +escaping from the habit. + +"There are days when the spectacle presented there is a most affecting +one; the room filled with young men, each of whom has a history of +sorrow or degradation--broken-down gentlemen, ruined merchants, +penniless clerks, homeless laboring-men and printers (for somehow this +most intelligent profession seems to contain a large number of cases who +have been ruined by drunkenness), and outcast men of no assignable +occupation. These have been attracted in part by the cheerfulness of the +room and the chances for reading, and in part by Gardner's influence, +who has labored indefatigably in behalf of these poor wretches. Under +the influences of the Room, incredible as it may seem, over _seven +hundred_ of these men have been started in sober courses and provided +with honest employments, and many of them have become hopefully +religious. It is believed that the whole quarter has been improved by +the opening of this agreeable and temperate place of resort." + +But, alas! even with a man so truly repentant and reformed, Nature does +not let him off so easily. He had to bear in his body the fruits of his +vices. His nervous system began to give way under the fearful strain +both of his sins and his reform. He found it necessary to leave this +post of work and retire to a quiet place in New Jersey, where he has +since passed a calm and virtuous life, working, I suppose, at his trade, +and, so far as I know, he has never been false to the great truths which +once inspired him. With his departure, however, we thought it best to +close the Reading-room, especially as we could not realize our hope of +making it self-supporting. So ended the second of our experiments at +"virtuous amusements." + +I now resolved to try the experiment, without any expectation of +sustaining the room with sales of refreshments. The working classes seem +to be utterly indifferent to such attractions. They probably cannot +compete a moment with those of the liquor-shops. With the aid of +friends, who are always ready in this city to liberally support rational +experiments of philanthropy, we have since then opened various Free +Reading-rooms in different quarters of the city. + +One of the most successful was carried on by Mr. Macy at Cottage Place, +for his "lambs." + +Here sufficient books and papers were supplied by friends, little +temperance and other societies were formed, the room was pleasant and +cozy, and, above all, Mr. Macy presided or infused into it his spirit. +The "lambs" were occasionally obstreperous and given to smashing +windows, but to this Mr. M. was sufficiently accustomed, and in time the +wild young barbarians began to feel the influences thrown around the +place, until now one may see of a winter evening eighty or a hundred +lads and young men quietly reading, or playing backgammon or checkers. +The room answers exactly its object as a place of innocent amusement and +improvement, competing with the liquor-saloons. The citizens of the +neighborhood have testified to its excellent moral influences on the +young men. + +A similar room was opened in the First Ward by the kind aid of the late +Mr. J. Couper Lord, and the good influences of the place have been much +increased by the exertions of Mr. D. E. Hawley and a committee of +gentlemen. + +There are other Reading-rooms connected with the Boys' Lodging-houses. +Most of them are doing an invaluable work; the First ward room +especially being a centre for cricket-clubs and various social reunions +of the laboring classes, and undoubtedly saving great numbers of young +men from the most dangerous temptations. Mr. Hawley has inaugurated here +also a very useful course of popular lectures to the laboring people. + +This Reading-room is crowded with young men every night, of the class +who should be reached, and who would otherwise spend their leisure hours +at the liquor-saloons. Many of them have spoken with much gratitude of +the benefit the place has been to them. + +The Reading-rooms connected with Boys' Lodging-houses, though sometimes +doing well, are not uniformly successful, perhaps from the fact that +workingmen do not like to be associated with homeless boys. + +Besides those connected with the Children's Aid Society, the City +Mission and various churches have founded others, so that now the Free +Reading-room is recognized as one of the means for improving the +"dangerous classes," as much as the Sunday School, Chapel, or Mission. + +The true theory of the formation of the Reading-room is undoubtedly the +inducing the laboring class to engage in the matter themselves, and then +to assist them in meeting the expenses. But the lowest poor and the +young men who frequent the grog-shops are so indifferent to mental +improvement, and so seldom associate themselves for any virtuous object, +that it is extremely difficult to induce them to combine for this. + +Moreover, as they rise in the social scale, they find organizations +ready to hand, like the "Cooper Union," where Reading-rooms and +Libraries are provided gratuitously. For the present, the Reading-room +may be looked upon, like the Public School, as a means of improvement +offered by society, in its own Interest, to all. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + HOMELESS GIRLS. + +It was a fortunate event for our charity which led, in 1861, a certain +New York merchant to accept the position of President of our Society. + +Mr. William A. Booth had the rare combination of qualities which form a +thorough presiding officer, and at the same time he was inspired by a +spirit of consecration to what he believed his Master's service, rarely +seen among men. His faculty of "rolling off" business, of keeping his +assembly or board on the points before them--for even business men have +sometimes the female tendency of rather wide-reaching discussions and +conversations--his wonderful clearness of comprehension, and a judicial +faculty which nearly always enabled him to balance with remarkable +fairness both sides of a question, made him beyond comparison the best +presiding officer for a business-board I have ever seen. With him, we +always had short and very full sessions, and reached our points rapidly +and efficiently. He had, too, the capacity, rare among men of organizing +brains, of accepting a rejection or rebuff to any proposition he may +have made (though this happened seldom) with perfect good humor. Perhaps +more than with his public services in our Board, I was struck with his +private career. Hour after hour in his little office, I have seen +different committees and officials of numerous societies, charities, and +financial associations come to him with their knotty points, and watched +with admiration as he disentangled each question, seeming always to +strike upon the course at once wise and just. A very small portion of +his busy time was then given to his own interests, though he had been +singularly successful in his private affairs. He seemed to me to carry +out wonderfully the Christian ideal in practical life in a busy city; +living day after day "for others," and to do the will of Him whom he +followed. + +In our first labors together, I feared that, owing to his stricter +school of Presbyterian theology, we might not agree in some of our aims +and plans; but the practical test of true benefit to these unfortunate +children soon brought our theoretic views to a harmony in religious +practice; and as we both held that the first and best of all truths to +an outcast boy is the belief and love of Christ as a friend and Saviour, +we agreed on the substantial matter. I came, year by year, greatly to +value his judgment and his clear insight as to the _via media._ + +Both with him and our Treasurer, Mr. Williams, the services of love +rendered so many years to this cause of humanity, could not, as mere +labor, have been purchased with very lucrative salaries. + +Mr. Booth's wise policy with the Society was to encourage whatever would +give it a more permanent foot-hold in the city, and, in this view, to +stimulate especially the founding of our Lodging-houses by means of +"funds," or by purchasing buildings. + +How this plan succeeded, I shall detail hereafter. + +At this present stage in our history, his attention was especially fixed +on the miserable condition of the young street-girls, and he suggested +to me what I had long been hoping for, the formation of a Lodging-house +for them, corresponding to that which had been so successful with the +newsboys. + +As a preparatory step, I consulted carefully the police. They were +sufficiently definite as to the evil, but not very hopeful as to the +cure. + + THE STREET-GIRLS. + +I can truly say that no class we have ever labored for seemed to combine +so many elements of human misfortune and to present so many discouraging +features as this. They form, indeed, a class by themselves. + +[Illustration: THE HOMELESS.] + +Their histories are as various as are the different lots of the +inhabitants of a populous town. Some have come from the country, from +kind and respectable homes, to seek work in the city; here they +gradually consume their scanty means, and are driven from one refuge to +another, till they stand on the street, with the gayly-lighted house of +vice and the gloomy police-station to choose between. Others have sought +amusement in the town, and have been finally induced to enter some house +of bad character as a boarding-house, and have been thus entrapped; and +finally, in despair, and cursed with disease, they break loose, and take +shelter even in the prison-cell, if necessary. Others still have +abandoned an ill-tempered step-mother or father, and rushed out on the +streets to find a refuge, or get employment anywhere. + +Drunkenness has darkened the childhood of some, and made home a hideous +place, till they have been glad to sleep in the crowded cellar or the +bare attic of some thronged "tenement," and then go forth to pick up a +living as they could in the great metropolis. Some are orphans, some +have parents whom they detest, some are children of misfortune, and +others of vice; some are foreigners, some native. They come from the +north and the south, the east and the west; all races and countries are +represented among them. They are not habitually vicious, or they would +not be on the streets. They are unlucky, unfortunate, getting a +situation only to lose it, and finding a home, to be soon driven from +it. Their habits are irregular, they do not like steady labor, they have +learned nothing well, they have no discipline, their clothes are +neglected, they have no appreciation of what neatness is, yet if they +earn a few shillings extra, they are sore to spend them on some foolish +gewgaw. Many of them are pretty and bright, with apparently fine +capacities, but inheriting an unusual quantity of the human tendencies +to evil. They are incessantly deceived and betrayed, and they as +constantly deceive others. Their cunning in concealing their indulgences +or vices surpasses all conception. Untruth seems often more familiar to +them than truth. Their worst quality is their superficiality. There is +no depth either to their virtues or vices. They sin, and immediately +repent with alacrity; they live virtuously for years, and a straw seems +suddenly to turn them. They weep at the presentation of the divine +character in Christ, and pray with fervency; and, the very next day, may +ruin their virtue or steal their neighbor's garment, or take to +drinking, or set a whole block in ferment with some biting scandal. They +seem to be children, but with woman's passion, and woman's jealousy and +scathing tongue. They trust a superior as a child; they neglect +themselves, and injure body and mind as a child might; they have a +child's generosity, and occasional freshness of impulse and desire of +purity; but their passions sweep over them with the force of maturity, +and their temper, and power of setting persons by the ears, and +backbiting, and occasional intensity of hate, belong to a later period +of life. Not unfrequently, when real danger or severe sickness arouses +them, they show the wonderful qualities of womanhood in a power of +sacrifice which utterly forgets self, and a love which shines brightly, +eyen through the shadow of death. + +But their combination of childishness and undisciplined maturity is an +extremely difficult one to manage practically, and exposes them to +endless sufferings and dangers. Their condition fifteen years ago seemed +a thoroughly hopeless one. + +There was then, if we mistake not, but a single refuge in the whole +city, where these unfortunate creatures could take shelter, and that was +Mr. Pease's Five Points Mission, which contained so many women who had +been long in vicious courses, as to make it unsuitable for those who +were just on the dividing line. + +Our plan for their relief took the shape of + + THE GIRLS' LODGING-HOUSE. + +It is no exaggeration to say that this instrument of charity and reform +has cost us more trouble than all our enterprises together. + +The simple purpose and plan of it was, like that of our other efforts, +to reform habits and character through material and moral appliances, +and subsequently through an entire change of circumstances, and at the +same time to relieve suffering and misfortune. + +We opened first a shelter, where any drifting, friendless girl could go +for a night's lodging. If she had means, she was to pay a trifling +sum--five or six cents; if not, she aided in the labor of the house, and +thus in part defrayed the expense of her board. Agents were sent out on +the docks and among the slums of the city to pick up the wayfarers; +notices were posted in the station-houses, and near the ferries and +railroads depots, and even advertisements put into the cheap papers. We +made a business of scattering the news of this charity wherever there +were forlorn girls seeking for home or protection, or street-wandering +young women who had no place to lay their heads. + +We hoped to reach down the hand of welcome to the darkest dens of the +city, and call back to virtue some poor, unbefriended creature, who was +trembling on the very line between purity and vice. Our charity seemed +to stand by the ferries, the docks, the police-stations, and prisons, +and open a door of kindness and virtue to these hard-driven, tired +wanderers on the ways of life. Our design was that no young girl, +suddenly cast out on the streets of a great city, should be without a +shelter and a place where good influences could surround her. We opened +a House for the houseless; an abode of Christian sympathy for the +utterly unbefriended and misguided; a place of work for the idle and +unthrifty. + +The plan seemed at once to reach its object: the doors opened on a +forlorn procession of unfortunates. Girls broke out of houses of vice, +where they had been entrapped, leaving every article of dress, except +what they wore, behind them; the police brought wretched young +wanderers, who had slept on the station-floors; the daughters of decent +country-people, who had come to the town for amusement or employment, +and, losing or wasting their means, had walked the streets all the night +long, applied for shelter; orphans selling flowers, or peddling about +the theatres; the children of drunkards; the unhappy daughters of +families where quarreling and abuse were the rule; girls who had run +away; girls who had been driven away; girls who sought a respite in +intervals of vice,--all this most unfortunate throng began to beset the +doors of the "Girls' Lodging-house." + +We had indeed reached the class intended, but now our difficulties only +began. + +It would not do to turn our Lodging-house into a Reformatory for +Magdalens, nor to make it into a convenient resting-place for those who +lived on the wages of lust. To keep a house for reforming young women of +bad character would only pervert those of good, and shut out the decent +and honest poor. We must draw a line; but where? We attempted to receive +only those of apparent honesty and virtue, and to exclude those who were +too mature; keeping, if possible, below the age of eighteen years. We +sought to shut out the professional "street-walkers." This at once +involved us in endless difficulties. Sweet young maidens, whom we +guilelessly admitted, and who gave most touching stories of early +bereavement and present loneliness, and whose voices arose in moving +hymns of penitence, and whose bright eyes filled with tears under the +Sunday exhortation, turned out perhaps the most skillful and +thorough-going deceivers, plying their bad trade in the day, and filling +the minds of their comrades with all sorts of wickedness in the evening. +We came to the conviction that these girls would deceive the very elect. +Then some "erring child of poverty," as the reporters called her, would +apply at a late hour at the door, after an unsuccessful evening, her +breath showing her habit, and be refused, and go to the station-house, +and in the morning a fearful narrative would appear in some paper, of +the shameful hypocrisy and cruel machinery of charitable institutions. + +Or, perhaps, she would be admitted, and cover the house with disgrace by +her conduct in the night. One wayfarer, thus received, scattered a +contagious disease, which emptied the whole house, and carried off the +housekeeper and several lodgers. Another, in the night dropped her +newly-born dead babe into the vault. + +The rule, too, of excluding all over eighteen years of age caused great +discontent with the poor, and with certain portions of the public. And +yet, as rigidly as humanity would allow, we must follow our plan of +benefiting children and youth. + +It soon turned out, however, that the young street-children who were +engaged in street-trades, had some relative to whom their labor was of +profit, so that they gradually drifted back to their cellars and attics, +and only occasionally took a night's lodging when out late near the +theatre. Those who were the greatest frequenters of the House proved to +be the young girls between fourteen and eighteen. + +And a more difficult class than these to manage, no philanthropic mortal +ever came in contact with. The most had a constitutional objection to +work; they had learned to do nothing well, and therefore got but little +wages anywhere; they were shockingly careless, both of their persons and +their clothing; and, worse than all, they showed a cunning and skill of +deceit and a capacity of scandal, and of setting the family by the ears +in petty quarrels and jealousies, which might have discouraged the most +sanguine reformer. + +The matron, Mrs. Trott, who had especially to struggle with these evils, +had received a fitting preparatory training: she had taught in the "Five +Points." She was a thorough disciplinarian; believed in work, and was +animated by the highest Christian earnestness. + +As years passed by, the only defect that appeared in her was, perhaps, +what was perfectly natural in such circumstances. The sins of the world, +and the calamities of the poor, began to weigh on her mind, until its +spring was fairly bent. Society seemed to her diseased with the sin +against purity. The outcast daughters of the poor had no chance in this +hard world. All the circumstances of life were against the friendless +girl. Often, after most self-denying, and, to other minds, successful +efforts to benefit these poor creatures, some enthusiastic spectator +would say, "How much good you are doing!" "Well," she would say, with a +sigh, "I sometimes hope so!" + +Once, I asked her if she could not write a cheerful report for our +trustees, giving some of the many encouraging facts she knew. + +To my dismay, when the document appeared, the first two pages were +devoted to a melancholy recollection of the horrible typhus which had +once desolated the household! I think, finally, her mind took almost a +sad pleasure in dwelling on the woes and miseries of humanity. Still, +even with this constitutional weight on her, she did her work for those +unfortunate girls faithfully and devotedly. + +The great danger and temptation of such establishments, as I have always +found, are in the desire of keeping the inmates, and showing to the +public your "reforms." My instruction always was, that the "Girls' +Lodging-house" was not to be a "Home." We did not want to make an asylum +of it. We hoped to begin the work of improvement with these young girls, +and then leave them to the natural agencies of society. To teach them to +work, to be clean, and to understand the virtues of order and +punctuality; to lay the foundations of a housekeeper or servant; to +bring the influences of discipline, of kindness, and religion to bear on +these wild and ungoverned creatures--these were to be the great objects +of the "Lodging-house;" then some good home or respectable family were +to do the rest. We were to keep lodgers a little while only, and then to +pass them along to situations or places of work. + +The struggles of Mr. and Mrs. Trott, the superintendent and matron, +against these discouraging evils in the condition and character of this +class, would make a history in itself! They set themselves to work upon +details, with an abounding patience, and with a humanity which was not +to be wearied. + +The first effort was to teach the girls something like a habit of +personal cleanliness; then, to enforce order and punctuality, of which +they knew nothing; next, to require early rising, and going to bed at a +reasonable hour. The lessons of housekeeping were begun at the +foundation, being tasks in scrubbing and cleaning; then, bed-making, and +finally plain cooking, sewing, and machine-work. Some of the inmates +went out for their daily labor in shops or factories; but the most had +to be employed in house-work, and thus paid for their support. They soon +carried on the work of a large establishment, and at the same time made +thousands of articles of clothing for the poor children elsewhere under +the charge of the Society. + +A great deal of stress, of course, was laid on religious and moral +instruction. The girls always "listened gladly," and were easily moved +by earnest and sympathetic teaching and oratory. + +Fortunately for the success of this Charity, one of our trustees, a man +filled with "the milk of human kindness," Mr. B. J. Howland, took part +in it, as if it were his main occupation in life. Twice in the week, he +was present with these poor girls for many years, teaching them the +principles of morality and religion, training them in singing, +contriving amusements and festivals for them, sympathizing in their +sorrows and troubles, until he became like a father and counselor to +these wild, heedless young creatures. + +When, at length, the good old man departs--_et serus in coelum +redeat!_--the tears of the friendless and forgotten will fall on his +grave, + + "And the blessings of the poor + Shall waft him to the other shore." + +Of the effects of the patient labors of years, we will quote a few +instances from Mrs. Trott's journal. She is writing, in the first +extract, of a journey at the West:-- + +"Several stations were pointed out, where our Lodging house girls are +located; and we envied them their quiet, rural homes, wishing that +others might follow their example. Maggie M., a bright American girl, +who left us last spring, was fresh in our memory, as we almost passed +her door. The friendless child bids fair to make an educated, +respectable woman. She writes of her advantages and privileges, and says +she intends to improve them, and make the very best use of her time. + +"Our old friend, Mary F., is still contented and happy; she shows no +inclination to return, and remains in the place procured for her two +years ago. She often expresses a great anxiety for several of the girls +whom she left here, and have turned out very bad. We were rather +doubtful of Mary's intentions when she left us, but have reason for +thankfulness that thus far she tries to do right, and leads a Christian +life. She was a girl well informed, of good common-sense, rather +attractive, and, we doubt not, is 'a brand plucked from the burning.' + +"Emma H., a very interesting, amiable young girl, who spent several +months at the Lodge, while waiting for a good opening, has just been to +visit as. She is living with Mrs. H., Judge B----'s daughter, on the +Hudson. They are mutually, pleased with each other; and Mrs. B. says +that 'Emma takes an adopted daughter's place, and nothing would tempt me +to part with her.' Emma was well dressed, and as comfortably situated as +one could wish. There is no reason why she should not educate herself, +and fill a higher position in the future. + +"S. A. was a cigar-girl when she came to the Lodging-house six years +ago. An orphan, friendless and homeless--we all knew her desire to +obtain an education, her willingness to make any sacrifice, and put up +with the humblest fare, that she might accomplish this end; and then her +earnest desire to do good, and her consistent Christian character, since +she united with the Church, and the real missionary she proved among the +girls, when death was in the house, leaving her school, and assisting +night and day among the sick. She is now completing her education, and +will soon graduate with honors. Her teacher speaks of her in the highest +terms. + +"There was another, J. L., a very pretty little girl, who was with us at +the same time, who was guilty of the most aggravating petty thefts. She +was so modest and pleasing in her demeanor, so sincere in her +attachments, that it was difficult to believe, until she acknowledged +her guilt, that she had picked the pockets of the very persons to whom +she had made showy presents. Vanity was her ruling motive--a desire to +appear smart and generous, and to show that she had rich friends, who +supplied her with money. She was expostulated with long and tenderly, +promised to reform, and has lately united with a church where she is an +active and zealous member. We have never heard a word respecting her +dishonesty since she left us, and she now occupies a responsible +position as forewoman in a Broadway store. + +"P. E. was also a Lodging-house girl, a year or more, at the same time. +She came to us in a very friendless, destitute condition. She was one of +the unfortunates with the usual story of shame and desertion--she had +just buried her child, and needed an asylum. We have every reason to +believe her repentance sincere, and that she made no false pretensions +to piety when her name was added to the list of professing Christians. +The church took an unusual interest in her, and have paid her school +expenses several years. She is now teaching. + +"Our next is Mary M. Here is a bit of romance. When she first entered +our home, she was reduced to the very lowest extremity of poverty and +wretchedness. She remained with us some time, and then went to a +situation in Connecticut, where she married a young Southern gentleman, +who fell desperately in love with her (because she cared for him when +ill), returned to New York, and, when she called upon us, was boarding +at the Fifth-avenue Hotel. This was noticed at the time in several +Eastern and New York papers. She showed her gratitude to us by calling +and making presents to members of the House--looking up an associate, +whom she found in a miserable garret clothing her, and returning her to +her friends. She greatly surprised us in the exhibition of the true +womanly traits which she always manifested. This is a true instance of +the saying that a resident of the Five Points today may be found in her +home in Fifth Avenue to-morrow. + +"Without going into details, we could also mention S. H., who has often +been in our reports as unmanageable; the two D---- girls, who came from +Miss Trail's school; the two M---- sisters, who had a fierce drunken +mother, that pawned their shoes for rum one cold winter's morn, before +they had arisen from their wretched bed; two R---- sisters, turned into +the streets by drunken parents, brought to our house by a kind-hearted +expressman, dripping with rain; and little May, received, cold and +hungry, one winter's day--all comfortably settled in country homes; most +of them married, and living out West--not forgetting Maggie, the Irish +girl who wrote us, soon after she went West, that her husband had his +little farm, pigs, cow, etc; requesting us to send them a little girl +for adoption. Her prospect here never would have been above a garret or +cellar. + +"We have L. M. in New York, married to a mechanic. Every few months she +brings a bundle of clothing for those who were once her companions. She +is very energetic and industrious, and highly respected. + +"M. E., another excellent Christian girl. She has been greatly tried in +trying to save a reckless sister from destruction; once she took her +West; then she returned with her when she found her sister's condition +made it necessary. Such sisterly affection is seldom manifested as this +girl has shown. She bought her clothing out of her own earnings, when +she had scarcely a change for herself; and, after the erring sister's +death, paid her child's board, working night and day to do so. + +"These cases are true in every particular, and none of recent date. +There are many more hopeful ones among our young girls, who have not +been away from us long, and of whom we hear excellent reports." + +One of the best features of this most practical "Institution" for poor +girls is a Sewing-machine School, where lessons are given gratuitously. +In three weeks, a girl who had previously depended wholly on her needle, +and could hardly earn her three dollars a week, will learn the use of +the machine, and earn from one dollar to two dollars per day. + +During one year this Sewing-machine School sent forth some one thousand +two hundred poor girls, who earned a good living through their +instruction there. The expense was trifling, as the machines were all +given or loaned by the manufacturers, and for the room, we employed the +parlor of the Lodging-house. + +During the winter of 1870-71, the trustees determined to try to secure a +permanent and convenient house for these girls. + +Two well-known gentlemen of our city headed the subscription with $1,000 +each; the trustees came forward liberally, and the two or three who have +done so much for this charity took on themselves the disagreeable task +of soliciting funds, so that in two months we had some $27,000 +subscribed, with which we both secured an excellent building in St. +Mark's Place, and adapted it for our purposes. Our effort is in this to +make the house more attractive and tasteful than such places usually +are; and various ladies have co-operated with us, to exert a more +profound and renovating influence on these girls. + + TRAINING-SCHOOL FOR SERVANTS. + +We have already engrafted on this Lodging-house a School to train +ordinary house-servants; to teach plain cooking, waiting, the care of +bedrooms, and good laundry-work. Nothing is more needed among this +class, or by the public generally, than such a "Training-school." + +Of the statistics of the Lodging-house, Mrs. Trott writes as follows:-- + +"Ten thousand two hundred and twenty-five lodgers. What an army would +the registered names make, since a forlorn, wretched child of thirteen +years, from the old Trinity station-house, headed the lists in 1861! + +"Among this number there are many cozily sitting by their own +hearth-stones; others are filling positions of usefulness and trust in +families and stores; some have been adopted in distant towns, where they +fill a daughter's place; and some have gone to return no more. A large +number we cannot trace. + +"During this period, three thousand one hundred and one have found +employment, and gone to situations, or returned to friends. + +"Fifteen thousand four hundred and twenty-nine garments have been cut +and made, and distributed among the poor, or used as outfits in sending +companies West." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + THE NINETEENTH STREET GANG OF RUFFIANS. + + A MORAL "DISINFECTANT." + +During the summer of 1865, I was present in London as a delegate to the +International Reformatory Convention, and had the opportunity, for the +second or third time, to investigate thoroughly the preventive and +reformatory institutions of Great Britain. + +On my return I found that the President of our Board, of whom I have +already spoken, had taken a lease of a building in a notorious quarter. + +His idea was that some of my observations in England might be utilized +here and tested in a preventive institution. The quarter was well known +to me. It had been the home and school of the murderous gang of boys and +young men known as + + "THE NINETEENTH STREET GANG." + +It happens that the beginnings and the process of growth of this society +of young criminals were thoroughly known by me at the time, and, as one +case of this kind illustrates hundreds going on now, I will describe it +in detail:-- + +Seventeen years ago, my attention had been called to the extraordinarily +degraded condition of the children in a district lying on the west side +of the city, between Seventeenth and Nineteenth Streets, and the Seventh +and Tenth Avenues. A certain block, called "Misery Row," in Tenth +Avenue, was the main seedbed of crime and poverty in the quarter, and +was also invariably a "fever-nest." Here the poor obtained wretched +rooms at a comparatively low rent; these they sub-let, and thus, in +little, crowded, close tenements, were herded men, women, and children +of all ages. The parents were invariably given to hard drinking, and the +children were sent out to beg or to steal. Besides them, other children, +who were orphans, or who had run away from drunkards' homes, or had been +working on the canal-boats that discharged on the docks near by, drifted +into the quarter, as if attracted by the atmosphere of crime and +laziness that prevailed in the neighborhood. These slept around the +breweries of the ward, or on the hay-barges, or in the old sheds of +Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. They were mere children, and kept +life together by all sorts of street-jobs--helping the brewery laborers, +blackening boots, sweeping sidewalks, "smashing baggages" (as they +called it), and the like. Herding together, they soon began to form an +unconscious society for vagrancy and idleness. Finding that work brought +but poor pay, they tried shorter roads to getting money by petty thefts, +in which they were very adroit. Even if they earned a considerable sum +by a lucky day's job, they quickly spent it in gambling, or for some +folly. + +The police soon knew them as "street-rats;" but, like the rats, they +were too quick and cunning to be often caught in their petty +plunderings, so they gnawed away at the foundations of society +undisturbed. As to the "popular education" of which we boast, and the +elevating and inspiring faith of Christianity which had reared its +temples all around them, they might almost as well have been the +children of the Makololos in Central Africa. They had never been in +school or church, and knew of God and Christ only in street-oaths, or as +something of which people far above them spoke sometimes. + +I determined to inaugurate here a regular series of the "moral +disinfectants," if I may so call them, for this "crime-nest," which act +almost as surely, though not as rapidly, as do the physical +disinfectants--the sulphate of iron, the chloride of lime, and the +various deodorizers of the Board of Health--in breaking up the +"fever-nests" of the city. + +These measures, though imitated in some respects from England, were +novel in their combination. + +The first step in the treatment is to appoint a kind-hearted agent or +"Visitor," who shall go around the infected quarter, and win the +confidence of, and otherwise befriend the homeless and needy children of +the neighborhood. Then we open an informal, simple, religious +meeting--the Boys' Meeting which I have described; next we add to it a +free Reading-room, then an Industrial School, afterwards a +Lodging-house; and, after months or years of the patient application of +these remedies, our final and most successful treatment is, as I have +often said, the forwarding of the more hopeful cases to farms in the +West. + +While seeking to apply these long-tried remedies to the wretched young +population in the Sixteenth Ward, I chanced on a most earnest Christian +man, a resident of the quarter, whose name I take the liberty of +mentioning--Mr. D. Slater, a manufacturer. + +He went around himself through the rookeries of the district, and +gathered the poor lads even in his own parlor; he fed and clothed them; +he advised and prayed with them. We opened together a religious meeting +for them. Nothing could exceed their wild and rowdy conduct in the first +gatherings. On one or two occasions some of the little ruffians +absolutely drew knives on our assistants, and had to be handed over to +the police. But our usual experience was repeated even there. Week by +week patient kindness and the truths of Christianity began to have their +effect on these wild little heathen of the street. We find, in our +Journal of 1856, the following entries (p. 11):-- + +"The other meeting has been opened in the hall, at the corner of +Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, by Mr. D. Slater. It had, in the +beginning, a rather stormy time, being frequented by the rowdy and +thieving boys of the quarter. Mr. S. has once or twice been obliged to +call in the help of the police, and to arrest the ringleaders. Now, +however, by his patient kindness and anxiety for the welfare of the +lads, he has gained a permanent influence. The police have remarked how +much less the streets, on a Sunday, have been infested, since he opened +the meeting, with vagabond boys. Several notorious street-boys have +abandoned their bad habits, and now go regularly to the Public Schools, +or are in steady business. The average attendance the first month was +88; it is now 162. The average evening attendance is 104. + +There is a family of four boys, all orphans, whom their friends could do +nothing with, and turned into the streets. They lived by petty stealing, +and slept in hay-lofts in winter, and on stoops or in coal-boxes in +summer. Since they came to the meeting they have all gone to work; they +attend Public School, and come regularly to evening meeting. They used +to be in rags and filth, but now are clean and well dressed. Their uncle +came to me and said the meeting had done them more good than all their +friends together."--(_Mr. Slater's Report._) + +"Yesterday, Mr. Slater brought a thin, sad boy to us--had found him in +the streets and heard his story, and then gave him a breakfast, and led +him up to our office. The lad seemed like one weary almost of living. +'Where are your father and mother, my boy?' 'Both dead, sir.' 'Where are +your other relatives or friends?' 'Hain't got no friends, sir; I've +lived by myself on the street.' 'Where did you stay?' 'I slept _in the +privy_ sometime, sir; and then in the stables in Sixteenth Street.' +'Poor fellow,' said some one, 'how did you get your living?' 'Begged +it--and then, them stable-men, they give me bread sometimes.' 'Have you +ever been to school, or Sunday School?' 'No, sir.' So the sad story went +on. Within two blocks of our richest houses, a desolate boy grows up, +not merely out of Christianity and out of education, but out of a common +human shelter, and of means of livelihood. + +"The vermin were creeping over him as he spoke. A few days before this, +Mr. S. had brought up three thorough-going street-boys--active, bold, +impudent, smart fellows--a great deal more wicked and much less +miserable than this poor fellow. Those three were sent to Ohio together, +and this last boy, after a thorough washing and cleansing, was to be +dispatched to Illinois. A later note adds: 'The lad was taken by an old +gentleman of property, who, being childless, has since adopted the boy +as his own, and will make him heir to a property.'" + +Several other lads were helped to an honest livelihood. A Visitor was +then appointed, who lived and worked in the quarter. But our moral +treatment for this nest of crime had only commenced. + +We appealed to the public for aid to establish the reforming agencies +which alone can cure these evils, and whose foundation depends mainly on +the liberality, in money, of our citizens. We warned them that these +children, if not instructed, would inevitably grow up as ruffians. We +said often that they would not be like the stupid foreign criminal +class, but that their crimes, when they came to maturity, would show the +recklessness, daring, and intensity of the American character. In our +very first report (for 1854) we said:-- + +"It should be remembered that there are no dangers to the value of +property, or to the permanency of our institutions, so great as those +from the existence of such a class of vagabond, ignorant, ungoverned +children. This 'dangerous class' has not begun to show itself, as it +will in eight or ten years, when these boys and girls are matured. Those +who were too negligent, or too selfish to notice them as children, will +be fully aware of them as men. They will vote--they will have the same +rights as we ourselves, though they have grown up ignorant of moral +principle, as any savage or Indian. They will poison society. They will +perhaps be embittered at the wealth and the luxuries they never share. +Then let society beware, when the outcast, vicious, reckless multitude +of New York boys, swarming now in every foul alley and low street, come +to know their power and _use it!_ + +Again, in 1857, we said:-- + +"Why should the 'street-rat,' as the police call him--the boy whose home +in sweet childhood was a box or a deserted cellar; whose food was crumbs +begged or bread stolen; whose influences of education were kicks and +cuffs, curses, neglect, destitution and cold; who never had a friend, +who never heard of duty either to society or God--why should he feel +himself under any of the restraints of civilization or of Christianity? +Why should he be anything but a garroter and thief?" + + * * * * * * * * + +"Is not this crop of thieves and burglars, of shoulder-hitters and +short-boys, of prostitutes and vagrants, of garroters and murderers, the +very fruit to be expected from this seed, so long being sown? What else +was to be looked for? Society hurried on selfishly for its wealth, and +left this vast class in its misery and temptation. Now these children +arise and wrest back, with bloody and criminal hands, what the world +were too careless or too selfish to give. The worldliness of the rich, +the indifference of all classes to the poor, will always be avenged. +Society must act on the highest principles, or its punishment +incessantly comes within itself. The neglect of the poor, and tempted, +and criminal, is fearfully repaid." (Pp. 5, 6.) + +But the words fell on inattentive ears. + +We found ourselves unable to continue our reforming agencies in the +Sixteenth Ward; no means were supplied; our Visitor was dismissed, the +meeting closed; Mr. Slater moved away, heavily out of pocket with his +humane efforts, and much discouraged with the indifference of the +Christian community to these tremendous evils; and the +"Nineteenth-street Gang" grew up undisturbed in its evil courses, taking +new lessons in villainy and crime, and graduating in the manner the +community has felt the past few years. Both the police and the public +have noted the extraordinary recklessness and ferocity of their crimes. +One, a mere lad, named Rogers, committed a murder, a few years ago, on a +respectable gentleman, Mr. Swanton, accompanied by his wife, in the open +street, on the west side of the city. He was subsequently executed. Some +have been notorious thieves and burglars. + +Another murdered an unoffending old man, Mr. Rogers, in open day, before +his own door, and near the main thoroughfare of the city. The whole +community was deeply thrilled by this horrible murder, and, though three +of the "Gang" were arrested, the offender was never discovered. +Subsequently, one of the suspected young men was murdered by one of his +own "pals." + +The amount of property they have destroyed would have paid the expense +of an Industrial School, Reading-room, Lodging-house and our other +agencies for them, ten times over. + +Now and then we have rescued two or three brothers of them, and have +seen them become honest and industrious farmers in the West, while one +of the same family, remaining here, would soon be heard of in Sing Sing +or the city prisons. + +The history of the growth of the "Nineteenth-street Gang" is only one +example of the histories of scores of similar bands of ruffians now in +process of formation in the low quarters of the city. + +Our preventive agency was now placed, through the especial assistance of +one of our trustees, in a better building, in Eighteenth Street. Here we +had all our moral "disinfectants" under one roof, in the best possible +efficiency. + +The person to be appointed Superintendent, whom I had accidentally +encountered, was a "canny Scotchman," and proved singularly adapted to +the work. I feared at first that he was "too pious" for his place; as +experience shows that a little leaven of carnal habits, and the jolly +good nature which Religion ought only to increase, but which, when +misapplied, it does sometimes somewhat contract, is useful in +influencing these young heathen of the street. Perhaps they are so far +down in the moral scale, that too strict a standard, when first applied +to them, tends to repel or discourage them. + +I particularly dreaded our friend's devotional exercises. But time and +experience soon wore off the Scotch Presbyterian starch, and showed that +the "root of the matter" was in him. The first quality needed in such a +position is patience--a spirit which is never discouraged by ingratitude +or wearied out by ill conduct. This our apparently somewhat +sternly-righteous superintendent could attempt to show. + +Then, next, the guide of such lads must be just--inflexibly just--and +exact in the smallest particulars; for, of all things which a street-boy +feels, is first any neglect of obligations. + +This virtue was easy to the superintendent. He had, too, in him a deep +well of kindness for the forlorn and unfortunate, which the lads soon +appreciated. To my great satisfaction, at this time a gentleman threw +himself into the movement, who possessed those qualities which always +command success, and especially the peculiarities with which boys +instinctively sympathize. + +He was gifted with a certain vitality of temperament and rich power of +enjoyment of everything human, which the rough lads felt immediately. He +evidently liked horses and dogs; a drive four-in-hand, and a gallop "to +hounds," were plainly things not opposed to his taste. He appreciated a +good dinner (as the boys happily discovered), and had no moral scruples +at a cigar, or an occasional glass of wine. + +All this physical energy and richness of temperament seemed to accompany +him in his religions and philanthropical life. He was indefatigable in +his efforts for the good of the lads; he conducted their religious +meeting every Sunday evening; he advised and guided, he offered prizes, +gave festivals and dinners, supplied reasonable wants, and corresponded +with them. And, at length, to crown his efforts, he proposed to a few +friends to purchase the house, and make it a home for the homeless boys +forever. + +This benevolent measure was carried through with the same energy with +which he manages his business, and the street-boys of the west side of +New York will long feel the fruits of it. + +For our own and the public benefit, our worthy superintendent had, among +his other qualities, what was of immense importance for his work--the +true Scotch economy. + +No manufacturer ever managed his factory, no hotel-keeper ever carried +on his establishment with such an eye for every penny of useless +expenditure, as faithful manager of trust-funds looked after every item +of cost in this School, and Lodging-house. Thus, for instance, during +the month of May last, he lodged eighty boys every night, and fed them +with two meals, at a cost to each lodger of five cents for a meal and +five cents for lodging, at the same time feeding and lodging some +gratuitously. The boys were kept clean, had enough to eat, and were +brought under all the good moral and mental influences of the House; +and, at the end of the month, the institution had not only cost nothing +to the public, but Mr. Gourley absolutely turned over eleven dollars and +sixty-five cents to the Society. That is, his rent being paid, he had +managed to keep his boys, pay the wages and food of three servants, a +night-watchman, and errand-boy, and the salaries and table expenses of +the superintendent, matron, and their family of four children. If this +is not "economical charity," it would be difficult to find it. + +On one occasion the patience of our worthy superintendent was put to a +severe test. + +For two years he fed and lodged two youthful "vessels of wrath." They +were taught in the Night-school, they were preached to, and prayed with +in the Sunday meeting, they were generously feasted in the Thanksgiving +and Christmas festivals. At last, as the crowning work of benevolence, +he clothed and cleaned them, and took them with him to find them a home +in the Far West. + +Here, when they had reached the land of independence, they began to +develop "the natural man" in a most unpleasant form. + +They would not go to the places selected; their language was so bad +that the farmers would not take them; finally, after their refusing to +take places where they were wanted, and making themselves generally +disagreeable, Mr. Gourley had to inform the lads that they must shift +for themselves! Hereupon they turned upon their benefactor with the +vilest language. Subsequently they met him in the streets of the Western +town, and were about to show themselves--what a Western paper +calls--"muscular orphans," by a vigorous assault on their benevolent +protector; but finding, from the bearing of our excellent brother, that +he had something of the old Covenanter's muscle in him, and could show +himself, if necessary, a worthy member of the old Scotch "Church +militant," they wisely avoided the combat. + +Mr. Gourley returned home down-hearted, his high Calvinistic views of +the original condition of the human heart not being weakened by his +experience. We all felt somewhat discouraged; but, as if to show us that +human nature is never to be despaired of, Mr. Gourley afterwards +received the following _amende_ from the two ingrates:-- + + HOPEFUL NEWS FROM HARD CASES. + + "P----, Mich., June 6, 1870. "Mr. J. GOURLEY: + +"_Dear Sir_--Knowing that you are one of those who can forget and +forgive, I take the liberty of writing these few lines to you, hoping +that I will not offend you by so doing. W---- and I both wish to return +our thanks to the Society for giving us the aid they have. We are now +both in a fair way of making men of ourselves. We are happy to think +that we are free from the evil temptations that the poor boys of New +York are exposed to. We are respected by all who know us here. Boys of +New York little know of the pleasure there is to be found in a home in +the 'Far West.' We expect to stay here for two years yet, and then make +a short visit to New York. We would like to visit the 'Old Hotel,' if +you have no objection. We would like to have you write and let us know +how the boys are getting along, and if little Skid and Dutchy are still +in the hotel. I would advise all boys who have no home to go West, and +they will be sure to find one. W---- is foreman on the largest farm in +the town, and has hired for three years at one hundred dollars per year, +and found in everything. I am working in a saw-mill this summer. I +worked on a farm the first winter and summer. Last winter I worked in +the lumber-wood, and this summer I will try the mill. I get twenty +dollars a month, and have since I left you at the depot. We both went to +work the next day. I wish you would be so kind as to answer this, and +oblige your obedient servants, + "B. T. + "M. W." + + TABULAR STATEMENT SINCE ORGANIZATION. + + No. of No. of No. of No. Pro- + YEAR. Boys. Lodgings. Meals. vided for. Expenses. Receipts. + +1866 to 1867....... 847 15,389 48,511 272 $6,205.48 $3,053.40 +1867 to 1868....... 952 23,933 39,401 159 5,141.08 4,065.25 +1868 to 1868....... 890 22,921 25,345 127 7,983.58 3,068.53 +1869, 9 months..... 563 15,506 15,429 37 3,832.04 1,995.21 +1869 to 1870....... 919 25,516 27,932 86 4,766.55 3,510.84 +1870 to 1871....... 750 28,302 30,693 69 4,224.51 3,586.67 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Totals....... 4,921 131,467 187,311 751 $32,093.24 $19,279.90 + +The Eighteenth-street Lodging-house has been gradually and surely +preventing the growth of a fresh "gang" of youthful ruffians; and has +already saved great numbers of neglected boys. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + THE MINISTRY OF FLOWERS. + + THE LITTLE VAGABONDS OF CORLEAR'S HOOK. + +If any of my readers should ever be inclined to investigate a very +miserable quarter of the city, let them go down to our "Corlear's Hook," +so infamous twenty years ago for murders and terrible crimes, and then +wind about among the lanes and narrow streets of the district. Here they +will find every available inch of the ground made use of for residences, +so that each lot has that poisonous arrangement, a "double house," +whereby the air is more effectually vitiated, and a greater number of +human beings are crowded together. From this massing-together of +families, and the drunken habits prevailing, it results very naturally +that the children prefer outdoor life to their wretched tenements, and, +in the milder months, boys and girls live a _dolce far niente_ life on +the docks and wood-piles, enjoying the sun and the swimming, and picking +up a livelihood by petty thieving and peddling. + +Sometimes they all huddle together in some cellar, boys and girls, and +there sleep. In winter they creep back to the tenement-houses, or hire a +bed in the vile lodgings which are found in the Ward. They grow up, +naturally, the wildest little "Topseys" and "Gavroches" that can be +found. Ragged, impudent, sharp, able "to paddle their canoe" through all +the rapids of the great city--the most volatile and uncertain of +children; today in school, to-morrow miles away; many of them the most +skillful of petty thieves, and all growing up to prey on the city. + +In the midst of this quarter we found an old Public School building--a +dilapidated old shell--which we hired and refitted. It had the especial +advantage of being open to air and light on four sides. We soon +transformed it into one of the most complete and attractive little +agencies of instruction and charity which ever arose in the dark places +of a crowded metropolis. We struck upon a superintendent--Mr. G. +Calder--who, with other good qualities, had the artistic gift--who, by a +few flowers, or leaves, or old engravings, could make any room look +pleasing. He exerted his talent in embellishing this building, and in +making a cheerful spot in the midst of a ward filled with rookeries and +broken-down tenements. In the bit of a back yard he created a beautiful +garden, with shrubbery and flowers, with vases and a cool shaded +seat--and these in a place of the size of a respectable closet. There a +poor child could stand and fancy herself, for a moment, far away in the +country, Thence, on a spring morning, drowning the prevalent smells of +bilge-water and sewers, ascended the sweet odors of hyacinth and +heliotrope, sweet-william and violet. Above, in the school-rooms and the +lodging-rooms, these sweet flowers were scattered about, taming and +refining, for the time, the rough little subjects who frequented them. +Soon a novel reward was proposed, and the best children in the School +were allowed to take a plant home with them, and, if they brought it +back improved in a few months, to receive others as a premium; so that +the School not merely distributed its light of morality and intelligence +in the dreary dens of the Ward, but was represented by cheerful and +fragrant flowers in the windows of poor men's homes. + +In the School-room, too, was placed a little aquarium, which became an +increasing source of delight to the young vagabonds. Our diligent +superintendent was not content. He now built a green-house, and, though +no gardener, soon learned to care for and raise quantities of exquisite +flowers, which should brighten the building in the gloomy winter. + +[Illustration: POOR CHILDREN AMONG FLOWERS (The Rivington Street +Lodging-House.)] + +For the Industrial School we procured a teacher who taught as if life +and death depended on the issues of each lesson. She seemed to pour out +her life on "Enumeration," and gave an Object-lesson on an orange as if +all the future prospects of the children depended on it. Such a teacher +could not fail to interest the lively little vagrants of Rivington +Street. + +Her sweet assistant was as effective in her own way; so it came that a +hundred and fifty of the young flibbertigibbets of the ward were soon +gathered and attempted to be brought under the discipline of an +Industrial School. But it was like schooling little Indians. A bright +day scattered them as a splash scatters a school of fish, and they +disappeared among the docks and boats of the neighborhood. No +intellectual attraction could compete with a "target company," and the +sound of the fire-bell drove all lessons out of their heads. Still, +patience and ingenuity and devotion accomplished here, as in all our +schools, their work--which, if not "perfect," has been satisfactory and +encouraging. + +But this was only a part of our efforts. Besides the school of a hundred +and fifty children in the day from the neighborhood, might be found a +hundred boys gathered from boxes, and barges, and all conceivable +haunts, who came in for school and supper and bed. + +Here, for some inscrutable reason, the considerable class of +"canawl-boys," or lads who work on the canal-boats of the interior, came +for harbor. Besides our Day and Night Schools, we opened here also a +Free Reading-room for boys and young men in the neighborhood, and we +held our usual Sunday-evening Meeting. In this meeting, fortunately for +its good effects, various gentlemen took part, with much experience in +practical life and of earnest characters. One, a young officer in the +army, whose service for his country fitted him for the service of +humanity; another, an enthusiastic and active young business man; and +still another--one of those men of calm judgment, profound earnestness +of character, and an almost princely generosity, who, in a foreign +country, would be at the head of affairs, but here throw their moral and +mental weight into enterprises of religion and philanthropy. + +The effects of these Meetings were exemplified by many striking changes +of character, and instances of resistance to temptation among the lads, +which greatly encouraged us. + +The building seemed so admirably adapted to our work, that, emboldened +by our success with the Eighteenth-street House, we determined to try to +purchase it. Two of our Trustees took the matter in hand. One had +already, in the most generous manner, given one-third of the amount +required for the purchase of that building; but now he offered what was +still more--his personal efforts towards raising the amount needed here, +$18,000. + +No such disagreeable and self-denying work is ever done, as begging +money. The feeling that you are boring others, and getting from their +personal regard, what ought to be given solely for public motives, and +the certainty that others will apply to you as you apply to them, and +expect a subscription as a personal return, are all great "crosses." The +cold rebuff, too; the suspicious negative, as if you were engaged in +rather doubtful business, are other unpleasant accompaniments of this +business. And yet it ought to be regarded simply and solely as an +unpleasant public duty. Money must be given, or refused, merely from +public considerations. The giving to one charity should never leave an +obligation that your petitioner must give to another. These few +gentlemen in the city, of means and position, who do this unpleasant +work, deserve the gratitude of the community. + +No other city in the world, we believe, makes such liberal gifts from +its means, as does New York towards all kinds of charitable and +religious objects. There is a certain band of wealthy men who give in a +proportion almost never known in the history of benefactions. We know +one gentleman of large income who habitually, as we understand from good +authority, bestows, in every kind of charitable and religious donations, +$300,000 a year! As a general rule, however, the very rich in New York +give very little. Our own charity has been mainly supported by the gifts +of the middle and poorer classes. + +In this particular case, the trustee of whom we have spoken threw that +enormous energy which has already made him, though a young man, one of +the foremost business men of the city, into this labor. With him was +associated a refined gentleman, who could reach many with invested +wealth. Under this combination we soon raised the required sum, and all +had the profound satisfaction of seeing a temporary "Home for Homeless +Boys" placed in one of the worst quarters of the city, to scatter its +benefactions for future years, when we are all gone. + +During the past year, a still more beautiful feature has been added to +this Lodging-house. We had occasion to put up in the rear a little +building for bathrooms. It occurred to some gentlemen who are always +devising pleasant things for these poor children, that a green-house +upon this, opening into the school-room, would be a very agreeable +feature, and that our superintendent's love for flowers could thus be +used in the most practical way for giving pleasure to great numbers of +poor children. A pretty conservatory, accordingly, was erected on the +top of the bath-room, opening into the audience-room, so that the little +street-waifs, as they looked up from their desks, had a vista of flowers +before them. Hither, also, were invited the mothers of the children in +the Day-school to occasional parties or exhibitions; and here the plants +were shown which had been intrusted to them. + +The room is one of the most attractive schoolrooms in the city, and I +have no doubt its beautiful flowers are one cause of the great numbers +of poor children which flock to it, while the influence of its earnest +teachers, and of the whole instrumentality, has been to improve the +character of the neighboring quarter. + + FOUR YEARS' WORK AT THE RIVINGTON-STREET LODGING-HOUSE. + (1868, 1869, 1870, 1871) + +Number of different boys provided for....... 2,659 +Number of lodgings furnished................ 80,344 +Number of meals furnished................... 78,756 +Number of boys sent West.................... 161 +Number of boys provided with employment..... 105 +Number of boys restored to friends.......... 126 +Number of boys patronizing the savings-bank. 310 +Amount saved by the boys....................$ 2,873.00 +Total expenses.............................. 26,018.10 +Amount paid by the boys..................... 8,614.63 + + THE LITTLE COPPER-STEALERS. + + THE ELEVENTH-WARD LODGING-HOUSE. + +The history of this useful charity would be only a repetition of that of +the others. It is placed among the haunts which are a favorite of the +little dock-thieves, and iron and copper-stealers, and of all the ragged +crowd who live by peddling wood near the East River wharves. It has had +a checkered career. One superintendent was "cleaned out" twice on +successive nights, and had his till robbed almost under his nose. +Another was almost hustled out of the dormitory by the youthful +vagabonds; but order has at length been gained; considerable numbers of +the _gamins_ have been tamed into honest farmers, and others are +pursuing regular occupations. + +The Night-school is busily attended; the Day-school is a model of +industry; the "Bank" is used, and the Sunday-evening Meeting is one of +the most interesting and impressive which we have. + +Its recent success and improvement are due to the personal interest and +exertions of one of our trustees, who has thrown into this labor of +charity a characteristic energy, as well as the earnestness of a +profound religious nature. + +We have in this building, also, a great variety of charitable work +crowded; but we hope, through the liberality which has founded our other +Lodging-houses, to secure a more suitable building, which shall be a +permanent blessing to that quarter. + + STATISTICS FROM ORIGIN TO 1872. + +Number of lodgings.......................... 67,198 +Number of meals............................. 65,757 +Sent West................................... 278 +Restored to friends......................... 138 +Number of different boys.................... 3,036 +Amount paid by boys.........................$6,522.22 + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + THE CHILD-VAGRANT. + +There is without doubt in the blood of most children--as an inheritance, +perhaps, from some remote barbarian ancestor--a passion for roving. +There are few of us who cannot recall the delicious pleasure of +wandering at free will in childhood, far from schools, houses, and the +tasks laid upon us, and leading in the fields or woods a semi-savage +existence. In fact, to some of us, now in manhood, there is scarcely a +greater pleasure of the senses than to gratify "the savage in one's +blood," and lead a wild life in the woods. The boys among the poor feel +this passion often almost irresistibly. Nothing will keep them in school +or at home. Having perhaps kind parents, and not a peculiarly +disagreeable home, they will yet rove off night and day, enjoying the +idle, lazzaroni life on the docks, living in the summer almost in the +water, and curling down at night, as the animals do, in any corner they +can find--hungry and ragged, but light-hearted, and enjoying immensely +their vagabond life. Probably as a sensation, not one that the street +lad will ever have in after-life will equal the delicious feeling of +carelessness and independence with which he lies on his back in the +spring sunlight on a pile of dock lumber, and watches the moving life on +the river, and munches his crust of bread. It frequently happens that no +restraint or punishment can check this Indian-like propensity. + + A ROVER REFORMED. + +We recall one fine little fellow who was honest, and truthful, and +kind-hearted, but who, when the roving passion in the blood came up, +left everything and spent his days and nights on the wharves, and +rambling about the streets. His mother, a widow, knew only too well what +this habit was bringing him to, for, unfortunately, the life of a young +barbarian in New York has little poetry in it The youthful vagrant soon +becomes idle and unfit to work; he is hungry, and cannot win his food +from the waters and the woods, like his savage prototype; therefore, he +must steal. He makes the acquaintance of the petty thieves, pickpockets, +and young sharpers of the city. He learns to lie and swear; to pick +pockets, rifle street-stands, and break open shop-windows or doors; so +that this barbarian habit is the universal stepping-stone to children's +crimes. In this case, the worthy woman locked the boy up in her room, +and sent down word to us that her son would like a place in the country, +if the employer would come up and take him. We dispatched an excellent +gentleman to her from the interior, who desired a "model boy;" but, when +he arrived, he found, to his dismay, the lad kicking through the panels +of the door, and declaring he would die sooner than go. The boy then +disappeared for a few days, when his mother discovered him ragged and +half-starved about the docks, and brought him home and whipped him +severely. The next morning he was off again, and was gone a week, until +the police brought him back in a wretched condition. The mother now +tried the "Christian Brothers," who had a fence ten feet high about +their premises, and kept the lad, it was said, part of the time chained. +But the fence was mere sport to the little vagrant, and he was soon off. +She then tried the "Half-Orphan Asylum," but this succeeded no better. +Then the "Juvenile Asylum" was applied to, and the lad was admitted; but +here he spent but a short probation, and was soon beyond their reach. +The mother, now in desperation, resolved to send him to the Far West, +under the charge of the Children's Aid Society. Knowing his habits, she +led him down by the collar to the office, sat by him there, and +accompanied him to the railroad depot with the party of children. He was +placed on a farm in Northern Michigan, where, fortunately, there was +considerable game in the neighborhood. To the surprise of us all, he did +not at once run away, being perhaps attracted by the shooting he could +indulge in, when not at work. + +At length a chance was offered him of being a trapper, and he began his +rovings in good earnest. From the Northern Peninsula of Michigan to the +Rocky Mountains, he wandered over the woods and wilds for years, making +a very good living by his sales of skins, and saving considerable money. +All accounts showed him to be a very honest, decent, industrious lad--a +city vagrant about to be a thief transformed into a country vagrant +making an honest living. + +Our books give hundreds of similar stories, where a free country-life +and the amusements and sports of the farmers, when work is slack, have +gratified healthfully the vagrant appetite. The mere riding a horse, or +owning a calf or a lamb, or trapping an animal in winter, seems to have +an astonishing effect in cooling the fire in the blood in the city +rover, and making him contented. + +The social habits of the army of little street-vagrants who rove through +our city have something unaccountable and mysterious in them. We have, +as I have described, in various parts of the city little "Stations," as +it were, in their weary journey of life, where we ostensibly try to +refresh them, but where we really hope to break up their service in the +army of vagrancy, and make honest lads of them. These "Lodging-houses" +are contrived, after much experience, so ingeniously that they +inevitably attract in the young vagabonds, and drain the quarter where +they are placed of this class. We give the boys, in point of fact, more +for their money than they can get anywhere else, and the whole house is +made attractive and comfortable for them. But the reasons of their +coming to a given place seem unaccountable. + +Thus there will be a "Lodge" in some out-of-the-way quarter, with no +special attractions, which for years will drag along with a +comparatively small number of lodgers, when suddenly, without any change +being made, there will come a rush of street-rovers to it, and scores +will have to be sent away, and the house be crowded for months after. +Perhaps these denizens of boxes and hay-barges have their own fashions, +like their elders, and a "Boys' Hotel" becomes popular, and has a run of +custom like the larger houses of entertainment. The numbers too, at +different seasons, vary singularly. Thus, in the coldest nights of +winter, when few boys could venture to sleep out, and one would suppose +there would be a rush to these warmed and comfortable "Lodges," the +attendance in some houses falls off. And in all, the best months are the +spring and autumn rather than the winter or summer. Sometimes a single +night of the week will show a remarkable increase of lodgers, though for +what reason no one can divine. + +The lodgers in the different houses are singularly different. Those in +the parent Lodging-house--the Newsboys'--seem more of the true _gamin_ +order: sharp, ready, light-hearted, quick to understand and quick to +act, generous and impulsive, and with an air of being well used "to +steer their own canoe" through whatever rapids and whirlpools. These +lads seem to include more, also, of that chance medley of little +wanderers who drift into the city from the country, and other large +towns--boys floating on the current, no one knows whence or whither. +They are, as a rule, younger than in the other "Lodges," and many of +them are induced to take places on farms, or with mechanics in the +country. + +One of the mysterious things about this Boys' Hotel is, what becomes of +the large numbers that enter it? In the course of the twelve months +there passes through its hospitable doors a procession of more than +_eight thousand_ different youthful rovers of the streets--boys without +homes or friends; yet, on any one night, there is not an average of more +than two hundred. Each separate boy accordingly averages but nine days +in his stay. We can trace during the year the course of, perhaps, a +thousand of these young vagrants, for most of whom we provide ourselves. +What becomes of the other seven thousand? Many, no doubt, find +occupation in the city or country; some in the pleasant seasons take +their pleasure and business at the watering-places and other large +towns; some return to relatives or friends; many are arrested and +imprisoned, and the rest of the ragged throng drift away, no one knows +whither. + +The up-town Lodging-houses seem often to gather in a more permanent +class of lodgers; they become frequently genuine boarding-houses for +children. The lads seem to be, too, a more destitute and perhaps lower +class than "the down-town boys." Possibly by a process of "Natural +Selection," only the sharpest and brightest lads get through the intense +"struggle for existence" which belongs to the most crowded portions of +the city, while the duller are driven to the up-town wards. We throw out +the hypothesis for some future investigator. + +The great amusement of this multitude of street vagabonds is the cheap +theatre. Like most boys, they have a passion for the drama. But to them +the pictures of kings and queens, the processions of courtiers and +soldiers on the stage, and the wealthy gentlemen aiding and rescuing +distressed peasant-girls, are the only glimpses they ever get of the +great world of history and society above them, and they are naturally +entranced by them. Many a lad will pass a night in a box, and spend his +last sixpence, rather than lose this show. Unfortunately, these low +theatres seem the rendezvous for all disreputable characters; and here +the "bummers" make the acquaintance of the higher class whom they so +much admire, of "flashmen," thieves, pickpockets, and rogues. + +We have taken the pains at different times to see some of the pieces +represented in these places, and have never witnessed anything improper +or immoral. On the contrary, the popular plays were always of a heroic +and moral cast. "Uncle Tom," when it was played in the Bowery, +undoubtedly had a good moral and political effect, in the years before +the war, on these ragamuffins. + +The salvation of New York, as regards this army of young vagabonds, is, +without doubt, its climate. There can be no permanent class of lazzaroni +under our winters. The cold compels work. The snow drives "the +street-rats," as the police call them, from their holes. Then the +homeless boys seek employment and a shelter. And when they are once +brought under the series of moral and physical instrumentalities +contrived for their benefit, they cease soon to be vagrants, and join +the great class of workers and honest producers. + + A CORRECTIVE. + +One of the best practical methods of correcting vagrancy among city boys +would be the adoption, by every large town, of an "ordinance" similar to +that passed by the Common Council of Boston. + +By this Act, every child who pursues any kind of street-trade for an +occupation--such as news-vending, peddling, blackening of boots, and the +like--is obliged to procure a license, which must be renewed every three +months. If he is found at any time without this license, he is liable to +summary arrest as a vagrant. To procure the license, each child must +show a certificate that he has been, or is, attending some school, +whether public, or industrial, or parish, during three hours each day. + +The great advantage of a law of this nature, is, that it can be +executed. Any ordinary legislation against youthful vagrants--such as +arresting any child found in the streets during school-hours, or without +occupation--is sure to become ineffectual through the humanity and +good-nature of officials and judges. Moreover, every young rover of the +streets can easily trump up some occupation, which he professes to +follow. + +Thus, now, as is well known, most of the begging children in New York +are apparently engaged in selling "black-headed pins," or some other +cheap trifle. + +They can almost always pretend some occupation--if it be only sweeping +sidewalks--which enables them to elude the law. Nor can we reasonably +expect a judge to sentence a child for vagrancy, when it claims to be +supporting a destitute parent by earnings in a street-trade, though the +occupation may be a semi-vagrant one, and may lead inevitably to +idleness and crime. Nor does the action of a truant-officer prevent the +necessity of such a law, because this official only acts on the truant +class of children, not on those who attend no school whatever. By an +ordinance like this of Boston, every child can be forced to at least +three hours' schooling each day; and, as any school is permitted, no +sectarian or bigoted feeling is aroused by this injunction. + +The police would be more ready to arrest, and the Judges to sentence, +the violators of so simple and rational a law. The wanderers of the +street would then be brought under legal supervision, which would not be +too harsh or severe. Education may not, in all cases, prevent crime; yet +we well know that, on a broad scale, it has a wonderful effect in +checking it. + +The steady labor, punctuality, and order of a good school, the high tone +in many of our Free Schools, the self-respect cultivated, the emulation +aroused, the love of industry thus planted, are just the influences to +break up a vagabond, roving, and dependent habit of mind and life. The +School, with the Lodging-house, is the best preventive institution for +vagrancy. + +The Massachusetts system of "Truant-schools"--that is, Schools to which +truant officers could send children habitually truant--does not seem so +applicable to New York. The number of "truants" in the city is not very +large; they are in exceedingly remote quarters, and it would be very +difficult to collect them in any single School. + +Our "Industrial Schools" seem to take their place very efficiently. The +present truant-officers of the city are active and judicious, and return +many children to the Schools. + + COMPULSORY EDUCATION. + +The best general law on this subject, both for country and city, would +undoubtedly be, a law for compulsory education, allowing "Half-time +Schools" to children requiring to be employed a part of the day. + +There is no doubt that the time has arrived for the introduction of such +laws throughout the country. During the first years of the national +existence, and especially in New England and the States peopled from +that region, there was so strong an impression among the common people, +of the immense importance of a system of free instruction for all, that +no laws or regulations were necessary to enforce it. Our ancestors were +only too eager to secure mental training for themselves, and +opportunities of education for their children. The public property in +lands was, in many States, early set aside for purposes of school and +college education; and the poorest farmers and laboring people often +succeeded in obtaining for their families and descendants the best +intellectual training which the country could then bestow. + +But all this, in New England and other portions of the country, has +greatly changed. Owing to foreign immigration and to unequal +distribution of wealth, large numbers of people have grown up without +the rudiments even of common-school education. Thus, according to the +report of 1871, of the National Commissioners of Education, there are in +the New England States 195,963 persons over ten years of age who cannot +write, and, therefore, are classed as "illiterates." In New York State +the number reaches the astounding height of 241,152, of whom 10,639 are +of the colored race. In Pennsylvania the number is 222,356; in Ohio, +173,172, and throughout the Union the population of the illiterates sums +up the fearful amount of 5,660,074 In New York State the number of +illiterate minors between ten and twenty-one years amounts to 42,405. In +this city there are 62,238 persons over ten who cannot write, of whom +53,791 are of foreign birth. Of minors between ten and twenty-one, there +are here 8,017 illiterates. + +Now, it must be manifest to the dullest mind, that a republic like ours, +resting on universal suffrage, is in the utmost danger from such a mass +of ignorance at its foundation. That nearly six persons (5.7) in every +one hundred in the Northern States should be uneducated, and thirty out +of the hundred in the Southern, is certainly an alarming fact. From this +dense ignorant multitude of human beings proceed most of the crimes of +the community; these are the tools of unprincipled politicians; these +form "the dangerous classes" of the city. So strongly has this danger +been felt, especially from the ignorant masses of the Southern States, +both black and white, that Congress has organized a National Bureau of +Education, and, for the first time in our history, is taking upon itself +to a limited degree, the care of education in the States. The law making +appropriations of public lands for purposes of education, in proportion +to the illiteracy of each State, will undoubtedly at some period be +passed, and then encouragement will be given by the Federal Government +to universal popular education. As long as five millions of our people +cannot write, there is no wisdom in arguing against interference of the +General Government in so vital a matter. + +During the past two years all intelligent Americans have been struck by +the excellent discipline and immense well-directed energy shown by the +Prussian nation--plainly the results of the universal and enforced +education of the people. The leading Power of Europe evidently bases its +strength on the law of Compulsory Education. Very earnest attention has +been given in this country to the subject. Several States are +approaching the adoption of such a law. California is reported to favor +it, as well as Illinois. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut +have began compulsory education by their legislation on factory +children, compelling parents to educate their children a certain number +of hours each day. Even Great Britain is drawing near it by her late +School acts, and must eventually pass such laws. In our own State, +where, of all the free States, the greatest illiteracy exists, there has +been much backwardness in this matter. But, under the new movements for +reform, our citizens must see where the root of all their troubles lies. +The demagogues of this city would never have won their amazing power but +for those sixty thousand persons who never read or write. It is this +class and their associates who made these politicians what they were. + +We need, in the interests of public order, of liberty, of property, for +the sake of our own safety and the endurance of free institutions here, +a strict and careful law, which shall compel every minor to learn to +read and write, under severe penalties in case of disobedience. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + FACTORY CHILDREN. + +In our educational movements, we early opened Night-schools for the poor +children. During the winter of 1870-71, we had some eleven in operation, +reaching a most interesting class of children--those working hard from +eight to ten hours a day, and then coming with passionate eagerness for +schooling in the evening. + +The experience gained in these schools still further developed the fact, +already known to us, of the great numbers of children of tender years in +New York employed in factories, shops, trades, and other regular +occupations. A child put at hard work in this way, is, as is well known, +stunted in growth or enfeebled in health. He fails also to get what is +considered as indispensable in this country for the safety of the State, +a common-school education. He grows up weak in body and ignorant or +untrained in mind. The parent or relative wants his wages, and insists +on his laboring in a factory when he ought to be in an infant-school. +The employer is in the habit of getting labor where he can find it, and +does not much consider whether he is allowing his little _employes_ the +time and leisure sufficient for preparing themselves for life. He +excuses himself, too, by the plea that the child would be half-starved +or thrown on the Poor-house but for this employment. + +The universal experience is, that neither the benevolence of the +manufacturer nor the conscience of the parent will prevent the steady +employment of children of tender years in factory work, provided +sufficient wages be offered. Probably, if the employer were approached +by a reasonable person, and it was represented what a wrong he was doing +to so young a laborer, or the parent were warned of his responsibility +to educate a child he had brought into the world, they would both agree +to the reasonableness of the position, and attempt to reform their ways. +But the necessities of capital on the one side, and the wants of poverty +on the other, soon put the children again at the loom, the machine, and +the bench, and the result is--masses of little ones, bent and wan with +early trial, and growing up mere machines of labor. England has found +the evil terrible, and, during the past ten or fifteen years, has been +legislating incessantly against it; protecting helpless infancy from the +tyranny of capital and the greed of poverty, and securing a fair growth +of body and mind for the children of the laboring poor. + +There is something extremely touching in these Night-schools, in the +eagerness of the needy boys and girls who have been toiling all day, to +pick up a morsel of knowledge or gain a practical mental accomplishment. +Their occupations are legion. The following are extracts from a recent +report of one of our visitors on this subject. At the Crosby-street +School, he says:-- + +"There were some hundred children; their occupations were as follows: +They put up insect-powder, drive wagons, tend oyster-saloons; are +tinsmiths, engravers, office-boys, in type-founderies, at screws, in +blacksmith-shops; make cigars, polish, work at packing tobacco, in +barber-shops, at paper-stands; are cashboys, light porters, make +artificial flowers, work at hair; are errand-boys, make ink, are in +Singer's sewing-machine factory, and printing-offices; some post bills, +some are paint-scrapers, some peddlers; they pack snuff, attend +poultry-stands at market, in shoe-stores and hat-stores, tend stands, +and help painters and carpenters. + +"At the Fifth-ward School (No. 141 Hudson Street), were fifty boys and +girls. One of them, speaking of her occupation, said: 'I work at +feathers, cutting the feathers from cock's tails. It is a very busy time +now. They took in forty new hands today. I get three dollars and fifty +cents a week; next week I'll get more. I go to work at eight o'clock and +leave off at six. The feathers are cut from the stem, then steamed, and +curled, and packed. They are sent then to Paris, but more South and +West.' One boy said he worked at twisting twine; another drove a +'hoisting-horse,' another blacked boots, etc. + +"At the Eleventh-ward School, foot of East Eleventh Street, there was an +interesting class of boys and girls under thirteen years of age. One boy +said he was employed during the day in making chains of beads, and says +that a number of the boys and girls present are in the same business. +Another said he worked at coloring maps. Another blows an organ for a +music-teacher. + +"At the Lord School, No. 207 Greenwich Street, the occupations of the +girls were working in hair, striping tobacco, crochet, folding paper +collars, house-work, tending baby, putting up papers in drug-store, etc, +etc." + +In making but a brief survey of the employment of children outside of +our schools, we discover that there are from one thousand five hundred +to two thousand children, under fifteen years of age, employed in a +single branch--the manufacture of paper collars--while of those between +fifteen and twenty years, the number reaches some eight thousand. In +tobacco-factories in New York, Brooklyn, and the neighborhood, our +agents found children _only four years of age_--sometimes half a dozen +in a single room. Others were eight years of age, and ranged from that +age up to fifteen years. Girls and boys of twelve to fourteen years earn +from four dollars to five dollars a week. One little girl they saw, +tending a machine, so small that she had to stand upon a box eighteen +inches high to enable her to reach her work. In one room they found +fifty children; some little girls, only eight years of age, earning +three dollars per week. In another, there were children of eight and old +women of sixty, working together. In the "unbinding cellar" they found +fifteen boys under fifteen years. Twine-factories, ink-factories, +feather, pocket-book, and artificial-flower manufacture, and hundreds of +other occupations, reveal the same state of things. + +It will be remembered that when Mr. Mundella, the English member of +Parliament, who has accomplished so much in educational and other +reforms in Great Britain, was here, he stated in a public address that +the evils of children's overwork seemed as great here as in England. Our +investigations confirm this opinion. The evil is already vast in New +York, and must be checked. It can only be restrained by legislation. +What have other States done in the matter? + + MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATION. + +The great manufacturing State of New England has long felt the evil from +children's overwork, but has only in recent years attempted to check it +by strict legislation. In 1866, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed +an act restraining "the employment of children of tender years in +manufacturing establishments," which was subsequently repealed and +replaced by a more complete and stringent law in 1867 (chapter 285). By +this act, no child under ten years of age is permitted to be employed in +any manufacturing or mechanical establishment in the State. And no child +between ten and fifteen years can be so employed, unless he has attended +some Day-school for at least three months of the year preceding, or a +"halftime school" during the six months. Nor shall the employment +continue, if this amount of education is not secured. The school also +must be approved by the School Committee of the town where the child +resides. + +It is further provided, that no child under fifteen shall be so employed +more than sixty hours per week. The penalty for the violation of the act +is fifty dollars, both to employer and parent. The execution of the law +is made the duty of the State Constable. + +The report of the Deputy State Comptroller, Gen. Oliver, shows certain +defects in the phraseology of the act, and various difficulties in its +execution, but no more than might naturally be expected in such +legislation. Thus, there is not sufficient power conferred on the +executive officer to enter manufacturing establishments, or to secure +satisfactory evidence of the law having been violated; and no sufficient +certificates or forms of registration of the age and school attendance +of factory children are provided for. The act, too, it is claimed, is +not sufficiently yielding, and therefore may bear severely in certain +cases on the poor. + +The reports, however, from this officer, and from the Boston "Bureau of +Labor," show how much is already being accomplished in Massachusetts to +bring public attention to bear on the subject. Laws often act as +favorably by indirect means as by direct. They arouse conscience and +awaken consideration, even if they cannot be fully executed. As a class, +New England manufacturers are exceedingly intelligent and +public-spirited, and when their attention was called to this growing +evil by the law, they at once set about efforts to remedy it. Many of +them have established "half-time schools," which they require their +young _employes_ to attend; and they find their own interests advanced +by this, as they get a better class of laborers. Others arrange "double +gangs" of young workers, so that one-half may take the place of the +other in the mill, while the former are in school. Others have founded +"Night-schools." There is no question that the law, with all its +defects, has already served to lessen the evil. + + RHODE ISLAND LEGISLATION. + +The Rhode Island act (chapter 139) does not differ materially from that +of Massachusetts, except that twelve years is made the minimum age at +which a child can be employed in factories; and children, even during +the nine months of factory work every year, are not allowed to be +employed more than eleven hours per day. The penalty is made but twenty +dollars, which can be recovered before any Justice of the Peace, and +one-half is to go to the complainant and the other to the District or +Public School. + + CONNECTICUT LEGISLATION. + +In matters of educational reform Connecticut is always the leading State +of the Union. On this subject of children's overwork, and consequent +want of education, she has legislated since 1842. + +The original act, however, was strengthened and, in part, repealed by +another law passed in July, 1869 (chapter 115), which is the most +stringent act on this subject in the American code. In all the other +legislation the law is made to apply solely to manufacturers and +mechanics; in this it includes all employment of children, the State +rightly concluding that it is as much against the public weal to have a +child grow up ignorant and overworked with a farmer as with a +manufacturer. The Connecticut act, too, leaves out the word "knowingly," +with regard to the employer's action in working the child at too tender +years, or beyond the legal time. It throws on the employer the +responsibility of ascertaining whether the children employed have +attended school the required time, or whether they are too young for his +labor. Nor is it enough that the child should have been a member of a +school for three months; his name must appear on the register for sixty +days of actual attendance. + +The age under which three months' school-time is required is fourteen. +The penalty for each offense is made one hundred dollars to the +Treasurer of the State. Four different classes of officers are +instructed and authorized to co-operate with the State in securing every +child under fourteen three months of education, and in protecting him +from overwork, namely, School-Visitors, the Board of Education, State +Attorneys, and Grand Jurors. The State Board of Education is "authorized +to take such action as may be deemed necessary to secure the enforcement +of this act, and may appoint an agent for that purpose." + +The defects of the law seem to be that it provides for no minimum of age +in which a child may be employed in a factory, and does not limit the +number of hours of labor per week for children in manufacturing +establishments. Neither of these limitations is necessary in regard to +farm-labor. + +The agent for executing the law in Connecticut, Mr. H. M. Cleaveland, +seems to have acted with great wisdom, and to have secured the hearty +co-operation of the manufacturers. "Three-fourths of the manufacturers +of the State," he says, "of almost everything, from a needle up to a +locomotive, were visited, and pledged themselves to a written +agreement," that they would employ no children under fourteen years of +age, except those with certificates from the local school-officers of +actual school attendance for at least three months. + +This fact alone reflects the greatest credit on this intelligent class. +And we are not surprised that they are quoted as saying, "We do not dare +to permit the children within and around our mills to grow up without +some education. Better for us to pay the school expenses ourselves than +have the children in ignorance." + +Many of the Connecticut manufacturers have already, at their own +expense, provided means of education for the children they are +employing; and large numbers have agreed to a division of the children +in their employ into alternate gangs--of whom one is in school while the +other is in the factory. + +The following act was drawn up by Mr. C. E. Whitehead, counsel and +trustee of the Children's Aid Society, and presented to the New York +Legislature of 1872. It has not yet passed:-- + + AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF FACTORY CHILDREN. + +SECTION 1.--No child under the age of ten years shall be employed for +hire in any manufactory or mechanical shop, or at any manufacturing work +within this State; and no child under the age of twelve years shall be +so employed unless such child can intelligibly read, under a penalty of +five dollars for every day during any part of which any such child shall +be so employed, to be paid by the employer. Any parent, guardian, or +other person authorizing such employment, or making a false return of +the age of a child, with a view to such employment, shall be liable to a +penalty of twenty dollars. + +SEC. 2.--No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in +any manufactory, or in any mechanical or manufacturing shop, or at any +manufacturing work within the State, for more than sixty hours in one +week, or after four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, or on New-year's-day, +or on Christmas-day, or on the Fourth of July, or on the Twenty-second +of February, or on Thanksgiving-day, under a penalty of ten dollars for +each offense. + +SEC. 3.--No child between the ages of ten and sixteen years shall be +employed in any manufactory or workshop, or at any manufacturing work +within this State, during more than nine months in any one year, unless +during such year he shall have attended school as in this section +hereinafter provided, nor shall such child be employed at all unless +such child shall have attended a public day-school during three full +months of the twelve months next preceding such employment, and shall +deliver to its employer a written certificate of such attendance, signed +by the teacher; the certificate to be kept by the employer as +hereinafter provided, under a penalty of fifty dollars. _Provided_ that +regular tuition of three hours per day in a private day-school or public +night-school, during a term of six months, shall be deemed equivalent to +three months' attendance at a public day-school, kept in accordance with +the customary hours of tuition. And provided that the child shall have +lived within the State during the preceding six months. And provided +that where there are more than one child between the ages of twelve and +sixteen years in one family, and the commissioners or overseers of the +poor shall certify in writing that the labor of such children is +essential to the maintenance of the family, such schooling may be +substituted during the first year of their employment by having the +children attend the public schools during alternate months of such +current year, until the full three months' schooling for each child +shall have been had, or by having the children attend continuously a +private day-school or public night-school three hours a day until the +full six months' schooling for each child shall have been had. + +SEC. 4--Every manufacturer, owner of mills, agent, overseer, contractor, +or other person, who shall employ operatives under sixteen years of age, +or on whose promises such operatives shall be employed, shall cause to +be kept on the premises a register, which shall contain, in consecutive +columns: (1st), the date when each operative commenced his or her +engagement; (2d), the name and surname of the operative; (3d), his or +her place of nativity; (4th), his or her residence by street and number; +(5th), his or her age; (6th), the name of his or her father, if living; +if not, that of the mother, if living; (7th), the number of his or her +school certificate, or the reason of its absence; and (8th), the date of +his or her leaving the factory. Such register shall be kept open to the +inspection of all public authorities, and extracts therefrom shall be +furnished on the requisition of the Inspector, the School Commissioners, +or other public authority. Any violation of this section shall subject +the offender to a penalty of one hundred dollars. + +SEC. 5.--Every such employer mentioned in the last section shall keep a +register, in which shall be entered the certificates of schooling +produced by children in his employ; such certificate shall be signed by +the teacher, and shall be dated, and shall certify the dates between +which such scholar has attended school, and shall mention any absences +made therefrom during such term, and such certificates shall be numbered +in consecutive order, and such register shall also be kept open to +inspection of all public authorities, as provided in the last section; +and all violations of this section shall subject the offender to a +penalty of one hundred dollars. + +SEC. 6.--Any teacher or other person giving a false certificate, for the +purpose of being used under the provisions of this act, shall be liable +to a penalty of one hundred dollars, and be deemed guilty of +misdemeanor. + +SEC. 7.--The parent or guardian of every child released from work under +the provisions of this act shall cause the said child to attend school +when so released, for three months, in accordance with the provisions of +section three of this act, under a penalty of five dollars for each week +of non-attendance. + +SEC. 8.--All public officers and persons charged with the enforcement of +this law can, at all working-hours, enter upon any factory premises, and +any person refusing them admittance or hindering them shall be liable to +a penalty of one hundred dollars. + +SEC. 9.--Every room in any factory in which operatives are employed +shall be thoroughly painted or whitewashed or cleaned at least once a +year, and shall be kept as well ventilated, lighted, and cleaned as the +character of the business will permit, under a penalty of ten dollars +for each week of neglect. + +SEC. 10.--All trap-doors or elevators, and all shafting, belting, +wheels, and machinery running by steam, water, or other motive power, in +rooms or places in a factory in which operatives are employed, or +through which they have to pass, shall be protected by iron screens, or +by suitable partitions during all the time when such doors are open, and +while such machinery is in motion, under a penalty of fifty dollars, to +be paid by the owner of such machinery, or the employer of such +operatives, for each day during which the same shall be so unprotected. + +SEC. 11.--This act shall be printed and kept hung in a conspicuous place +in every factory, by the owner, agent, overseer, or person occupying +such factory, under a penalty of ten dollars for each day's neglect. + +SEC 12.--All suits for penalties under this act shall be brought within +ninety days after commission of the offense, and may be brought by the +Inspector of Factory Children, by the District-Attorney of the county, +by the School Commissioners, by the Trustees of Public Schools, or the +Commissioners of Charities, before any Justice of the Peace, or in any +Justice's Court, or any Court of Record; and one-half of all penalties +recovered shall be paid to the school fund of the county, and one-half +to the informer. + +SEC. 13.--The Governor of this State shall hereafter appoint a State +officer, to be known as the Inspector of Factory Children, to hold +office for four years, unless sooner removed for neglect of duty, who +shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars a year and traveling +expenses, not exceeding one thousand dollars, whose duty it shall be to +examine the different factories in this State, and to aid in the +enforcement of this law, and to report annually to the Legislature the +number, the ages, character of occupation, and educational privileges of +children engaged in manufacturing labor in the different counties of the +State, with suggestions as to the Improvement of their condition. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + THE ORGANIZATION OF CHARITIES. + +The power of every charity and effort at moral reform is in the spirit +of the man directing or founding it. If he enter it mechanically, as he +would take a trade or profession, simply because it falls in his way, or +because of its salary or position, he cannot possibly succeed in it. +There are some things which the laws of trade do not touch. There are +services of love which seek no pecuniary reward, and whose virtue, when +first entered upon, is that the soul is poured out in them without +reference to money-return. + +In the initiation of all great and good causes there is a time of pure +enthusiasm, when life and thought and labor are given freely, and hardly +a care enters the mind as to the prizes of honor or wealth which are +struggled for so keenly in the world. No reformer or friend of humanity, +worthy of the name, has not some time in his life felt this high +enthusiasm. If it has been his duty to struggle with such an evil as +Slavery, the wrongs of the slave have been burned into his soul until he +has felt them more even than if they were his own, and no reward of +riches or fame that life could offer him would be half so sweet as the +consciousness that he had broken these fetters of injustice. + +If he has been inspired by Christ with a love of humanity, there have +been times when the evils that afflict it clouded his daily happiness; +when the thought of the tears shed that no one could wipe away; of the +nameless wrongs suffered; of the ignorance which imbruted the young, and +the sins that stained the conscience; of the loneliness, privation, and +pain of vast masses of human beings; of the necessary degradation of +great multitudes;--when the picture of all these, and other wounds and +woes of mankind, rose like a dark cloud between him and the light, and +even the face of God was obscured. + +At such times it has seemed sweeter to bring smiles back to sad faces, +and to raise up the neglected and forgotten, than to win the highest +prize of earth; and the thought of HIM who hath ennobled man, and whose +life was especially given for the poor and outcast, made all labors and +sacrifices seem as nothing compared with the Joy of following in His +footsteps. + +At such rare moments the ordinary prizes of life are forgotten or not +valued. The man is inspired with "the enthusiasm of humanity." He maps +out a city with his plans and aspirations for the removal of the various +evils which he sees. His life flows out for those who can never reward +him, and who hardly know of his labors. + +But, in process of time, the first fervor of this ardent enthusiasm must +cool away. The worker himself is forced to think of his own interests +and those of his family. His plan, whatever it may be,--for removing the +evils which have pained him, demands practical means,--men, money, and +"machinery." Hence arises the great subject of _"Organization."_ The +strong under-running current which carries his enterprise along is still +the old faith or enthusiasm; but the question of means demands new +thought and the exercise of different faculties. + +There are many radical difficulties, in organizing practical charities, +which are exceedingly hard to overcome. + +Charities, to be permanent and efficient, must be organized with as much +exactness and order as business associations, and carry with them +something of the same energy and motives of action. But the tendency, as +is well known from European experience, of all old charities, is to +sluggishness, want of enterprise, and careless business arrangement, as +well as to mechanical routine in the treatment of their subjects. The +reason of this is to be found in the somewhat exceptional abnormal +position--economically considered--of the worker in fields of +benevolence. All laborers in the intellectual and moral field are +exposed to the dangers of routine. But in education, for instance, and +the offices of the Church, there is a constant and healthy competition +going on, and certain prizes are held out to the successful worker, +which tend continually to arouse his faculties, and lead him to invent +new methods of attaining his ends. The relative want of this among the +Catholic clergy may be the cause of their lack of intellectual activity, +as compared with the Protestant. + +In the management of charities there is a prevailing impression that +what may be called "interested motives" should be entirely excluded. The +worker, having entered the work under the enthusiasm of humanity, should +continue buoyed up by that enthusiasm. His salary may be seldom changed. +It will be ordinarily beneath that which is earned by corresponding +ability outside. No rewards of rank or fame are held out to him. He is +expected to find his pay in his labor. + +Now there are certain individuals so filled with compassion for human +sufferings, or so inspired by Religion, or who so much value the +offering of respect returned by mankind for their sacrifices, that they +do not need the impulse of ordinary motives to make their work as +energetic and inventive and faithful as any labor under the motives of +competition and gain. + +But the great majority of the instruments and agents of a charity are +not of this kind. They must have something of the common inducements of +mankind held out before them. If these be withdrawn, they become +gradually sluggish, uninventive, inexact, and lacking in the necessary +enterprise and ardor. + +The agents of the old endowed charities of England are said often to +become as lazy and mechanical as monks in monasteries. + +To remedy such evils, the trustees of all charities should hold out a +regular scale of salaries, which different agents could attain to if +they were successful. The principle, too, which should govern the +amounts paid to each agent, should be well considered. Of course, the +governing law for all salaries are the demand and supply for such +services. But an agent for a charity, even as a missionary, sometimes +puts himself voluntarily outside of such a law. He throws himself into a +great moral and religious cause, and consumes his best powers in it, and +unfits himself (it may be) for other employments. His own field may be +too narrow to occasion much demand for his peculiar experience and +talent from other sources. There comes then a certain moral obligation +on the managers of the charity, not to take him at the cheapest rate for +which they can secure his services, but to proportion his payment +somewhat to what he would have been worth in other fields, and thus to +hold out to him some of the inducements of ordinary life. The salary +should be large enough to allow the agent and his family to live +somewhat as those of corresponding ability and education do, and still +to save something for old age or a time of need. Some benevolent +associations have obtained this by a very wise arrangement--that of an +"annuity insurance" of the life of their agents, which secured them a +certain income at a given age. + +With the consciousness thus of an appreciation of their labors, and a +payment somewhat in proportion to their value, and a permanent +connection with their humane enterprise, the ordinary _employes_ and +officials come to have somewhat of the interest in it which men take in +selfish pursuits, and will exercise the inventiveness, economy, and +energy that are shown in business enterprises. + +Every one knows how almost impossible it is for a charity to conduct, +for instance, a branch of manufacture with profit. The explanation is +that the lower motives are not applied to it. Selfishness is more alert +and economical than benevolence. + +On the other side, however, it will not be best to let a charity become +too much of a business. There must always be a certain generosity and +compassion, a degree of freedom in management, which are not allowed in +business undertakings. The agents must have heart as well as head. The +moisture of compassion must not be dried up by too much discipline. + +Organization must not swallow up the soul. Routine may be carried so far +as to make the aiding of misery the mere dry working of a machine. + +The thought must ever be kept in mind that each human being, however +low, who is assisted, is a "power of endless life," with capacities and +possibilities which cannot be measured or limited. And that one whose +nature CHRIST has shared and for whom He lived and died, cannot be +despised or treated as an animal or a machine. + +If the directors of a benevolent institution or enterprise can arouse +these great motives in their agents,--spiritual enthusiasm with a +reasonable gratification of the love of honor and a hope of fair +compensation,--they will undoubtedly create a body of workers capable of +producing a profound impression on the evils they seek to remove. + +It is always a misfortune for an agent of a charity if he be too +constantly with the objects of his benevolent labors. He either becomes +too much accustomed to their misfortunes, and falls into a spirit of +routine with them; or, if of tender sympathies, the spring of his mind +is bent by such a constant burden of misery, and he loses the best +qualities for his work--elasticity and hope. Every efficient worker in +the field of benevolence should have time and place for solitude, and +for other pursuits or amusements. + + DUTIES OF TRUSTEES. + +A board of trustees for an important charity should represent, so far as +is practicable, the different classes and professions of society. There +is danger in a board being too wealthy or distinguished, as well as too +humble. First of all, men are needed who have a deep moral interest in +the work, and who will take a practical part in it. Then they must be +men of such high character and integrity that the community will feel no +anxiety at committing to them--"trust funds." As few "figure-heads" +should be taken in as possible--that is, persons of eminent names, for +the mere purpose of making an impression on the public. Men of wealth +are needed for a thousand emergencies; men of moderate means, also, who +can appreciate practical difficulties peculiar to this class; men of +brains, to guide and suggest, and of action, to impel. There should be +lawyers in such a board, for many cases of legal difficulty which arise; +and, if possible, physicians, as charities have so much to do with +sanitary questions. Two classes only had better not be admitted: men of +very large wealth, as they seldom contribute more than persons of +moderate property, and discourage others by their presence in the board; +and clergymen with parishes, the objection to the latter being that they +have no time for such labors, and give a sectarian air to the charity. + +It is exceedingly desirable that the trustees or managers of our +benevolent institutions should take a more active and personal part in +their management. The peculiar experience which a successful business +career gives--the power both of handling details and managing large +interests; the capacity of organization; the energy and the careful +judgment and knowledge of men which such a life develops,--are the +qualities most needed in managing moral and benevolent "causes." + +A trustee of a charity will often see considerations which the workers +in it do not behold, and will be able frequently to judge of its +operations from a more comprehensive point of view. The great duty of +trustees, of course, should be to rigidly inspect all accounts and to be +responsible for the pecuniary integrity of the enterprise. The +carrying-out of the especial plan of the association and all the details +should be left with one executive officer. If there is too great +interference in details by the board of management, much confusion +ensues, and often personal jealousies and bickerings. Many of our boards +of charities have almost been broken up by internal petty cabals and +quarrels. The agents of benevolent institutions, especially if not +mingling much with the world, are liable to small jealousies and +rivalries. + +The executive officer must throw the energy of a business into his labor +of benevolence. He must be allowed a large control over subordinates, +and all the machinery of the organization should pass through his hands. +He must especially represent the work, both to the board and to the +world. If his hands be tied too much, he will soon become a mere +routine-agent, and any one of original power would leave the position. +Again, in his dealings with the heads of the various departments or +branches of the work, he must seek to make each agent feel responsible, +and to a degree independent, so that his labor may become a life-work, +and his reputation and hope of means may depend on his energy and +success. If on all proper occasions he seeks to do full justice to his +subordinates, giving them their due credit and promoting their +interests, and strives to impart to them his own enthusiasm, he will +avoid all jealousies and will find that the charity is as faithfully +served as any business house. + +The success in "organization" is mainly due to success in selecting your +men. Some persons have a faculty for this office; others always fail in +it. + +Then, having the proper agents, great consideration is due towards them. +Some employers treat their subordinates as if they had hardly a human +feeling. Respect and courtesy always make those who serve you more +efficient. Too much stress, too, can hardly be laid on frank and +unsuspicious dealing with _employes._ Suspicion renders its objects more +ignoble. A man who manages many agents must show much confidence; yet, +of course, be strict and rigid in calling them to account. It will be +better for him also not to be too familiar with them. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + STATE AID FOR CHARITIES. + +An important question often comes up in regard to our charitable +associations: "How shall they best be supported?"--by endowment from the +State or by private and annual assistance? There is clearly a right that +all charities of a general nature should expect some help from the +public Legislature. The State is the source of the charters of all +corporations. One of the main duties of a Legislature is to care for the +interests of the poor and criminal. The English system, dating as far +back as Henry VIII, has been to leave the charge of the poor and all +educational institutions, as much as possible, to counties or local +bodies or individuals. It has been, so far as the charge of the poor is +concerned, imitated here. But in neither country has it worked, well; +and the last relic of it will probably soon be removed in this State, by +placing the defective persons--the blind and dumb, and insane and idiot, +and the orphans--in the several counties in State institutions. The +charge of criminals and reformatory institutions are also largely placed +under State control and supervision. + +The object of a State Legislature in all these matters is _bonum +publicum_--the public weal. If they think that a private charity is +accomplishing a public work of great value, which is not and perhaps +cannot be accomplished by purely public institutions, they apparently +have the same right to tax the whole community, or a local community, +for its benefit, that they have now to tax it for the support of +schools, or Almshouses, or Prisons, or Houses of Refuge. In such a case +it need not be a matter of question with the Legislature whether the +charity is "sectarian" or not; whether it teaches Roman Catholicism, or +Protestantism, or the Jewish faith, or no faith. The only question with +the governing power is, "Does it do a work of public value not done by +public institutions?" If it does; if for instance, it is a +Roman-Catholic Reformatory, or a Protestant House of Refuge, or +Children's Aid Society, the Legislature, knowing that all public and +private organizations together cannot fully remedy the tremendous evils +arising from a class of neglected and homeless children, is perfectly +right in granting aid to such institutions without reference to their +"sectarian" character. It reserves to itself the right of inspection, +secured in this State by our admirable Board of Inspectors of State +Charities; and it can at any time repeal the charters of, or refuse the +appropriations to, these private associations. But thus far, its uniform +practice has been to aid, to a limited degree, private charities of this +nature. + +This should by no means be considered a ground for demanding similar +assistance for "sectarian schools." Education is secured now by public +taxation for all; and all can take advantage of it. There is no popular +necessity for Church Schools, and the public good is not promoted by +them as it is by secular schools. Where there are children too poor to +attend the Public Schools, these can be aided by private charitable +associations; and of these, only those should be assisted by the State +which have no sectarian character. + +Charities which are entirely supported by State and permanent endowment +are liable, as the experience of England shows, to run into a condition +of routine and lifelessness. The old endowments of Great Britain are +nests of abuses, and many of them are now being swept away. A State +charity has the advantage of greater solidity and more thorough and +expensive machinery, and often more careful organization. But, as +compared with our private charities, the public institutions of +beneficence are dull and lifeless. They have not the individual +enthusiasm working through them, with its ardor and power. They are more +like machines. + +On the other hand, charities supported entirely by individuals will +always have but a small scope. The amount of what may be called the +"charity fund" of the community is comparatively limited. In years of +disaster or war, or where other interests absorb the public, it will +dwindle down to a very small sum. It is distributed, too, somewhat +capriciously. Sometimes a "sensation" calls it forth bountifully, while +more real demands are neglected. An important benevolent association, +depending solely on its voluntary contributions from individuals, will +always be weak and incomplete in its machinery. The best course for the +permanency and efficiency of a charity seems to be, to make it depend in +part on the State, that it may have a solid foundation of support, and +be under official supervision, and in part on private aid, so that it +may feel the enthusiasm and activity and responsibility of individual +effort. The "Houses of Refuge" combine public and private assistance in +a manner which has proved very beneficial. Their means come from the +State, while their governing bodies are private, and independent of +politics. The New York "Juvenile Asylum" enjoys both public and private +contributions, but has a private board. On the other hand, the +"Commissioners of Charities and Correction" are supported entirely by +taxation, and, until they had the services of a Board carefully +selected, were peculiarly inefficient. Many private benevolent +associations in the city could be mentioned which have no solid +foundation of public support and are under no public supervision, and, +in consequence, are weak and slipshod in all their enterprises. The true +policy of the Legislature is to encourage and supplement private +activity in charities by moderate public aid, and to organize a strict +supervision. The great danger for all charities is in machinery or +"plant" taking more importance in the eyes of its organizers than the +work itself. + +The condition of the buildings, the neat and orderly appearance of the +objects of the charity, and the perfection of the means of +housekeeping, become the great objects of the officials or managers, +and are what most strike the eyes of the public. But all these are in +reality nothing compared with the improvement in character and mind of +the persons aided, and this is generally best effected by simple rooms, +simple machinery, and constantly getting rid of the subjects of the +charity. If they are children, the natural family is a thousand times +better charity than all our machinery. + +The more an Institution or Asylum can show of those drilled and +machine-like children, the less real work is it doing. + +Following "natural laws" makes sad work of a charity-show in an Asylum; +but it leaves fruit over the land, in renovated characters and useful +lives. + + THE MULTIPLICATION OF CHARITIES. + +One of the greatest evils connected with charities in a large city is +the unreasonable tendency to multiply them. A benevolent individual +meets with a peculiar case of distress or poverty, his feelings are +touched, and he at once conceives the idea of an "Institution" for this +class of human evils. He soon finds others whom he can interest in his +philanthropic object, and they go blindly on collecting their funds, and +perhaps erecting or purchasing their buildings. When the house is +finally prepared, the organization perfected, and the cases of distress +relieved, the founders discover, perhaps to their dismay, that there are +similar or corresponding Institutions for just this class of +unfortunates, which have been carrying on their quiet labors of +benevolence for years, and doing much good. The new Institution, if +wise, would now prefer to turn over its assets and machinery to the old; +but, ten to one, the new workers have an especial pride in their +bantling, and cannot bear to abandon it, or they see what they consider +defects in the management of the old, and, not knowing all the +difficulties of the work, they hope to do better; or their _employes_ +have a personal interest in keeping up the new organization, and +persuade them that it is needed by the people. + +The result, in nineteen cases out of twenty, is that the two agencies of +charity are continued where but one is needed. Double the amount of +money is used for agents and machinery which is wanted, and, to a +certain degree, the charity funds of the community are wasted. + +But this is not the worst effect The poor objects of this organization +soon discover that they have a double source from which to draw their +supplies. They become pauperized, and their faculties are employed in +deriving a support from both societies. + +By and by, one organization falls behind in its charity labors, and now, +in place of waiting to carefully assist the poor, it tempts the poor to +come to it. If it be a peculiar kind of school, not much needed in the +quarter, it bribes the poor children by presents to abandon the rival +school and fill its own seats; if an Asylum, it seeks far and near for +those even not legitimately its subjects. There arises a sort of +competition of charity. This kind of rivalry is exceedingly bad both for +the poor and the public. There are evils enough in the community which +all our machinery and wealth cannot cure, and thus to increase or +stimulate misfortunes in order to relieve, is the height of absurdity. +One effect often is, that the public become disgusted with all organized +charity, and at last fancy that societies of benefaction do as much evil +as good. + +This city is full of multiplied charities, which are constantly +encroaching on each other's field; and yet there are masses of evil and +calamity here which they scarcely touch. The number of poor people who +enjoy a comfortable living, derived from a long study and experience of +these various agencies of benevolence, would be incredible to any one +not familiar with the facts. They pass from one to the other; knowing +exactly their conditions of assistance and meeting their requirements, +and live thus by a sort of science of alms. The industry and ingenuity +they employ in this pauper trade are truly remarkable. Probably not one +citizen in a thousand could so well recite the long list of charitable +societies and agencies in New York, as one of these busy dependents on +charity. Nor do these industrious paupers confine themselves to secular +and general societies. They have their churches and missions, on whose +skirts they hang; and beyond them a large and influential circle of lady +patronesses who support and protect them. We venture to say there are +very few ladies of position in New York who do not have a numerous +_clientele_ of needy women or unfortunate men that depend on them year +after year, and always follow them up and discover their residence, +however much they may change it. These people have almost lost their +energy of character, and all power of industry (except in pursuing the +different charities and patronesses), through this long and +indiscriminate assistance. They are paupers, not in Poor-houses, and +dependents on alms, living at home. They are often worse off than if +they had never been helped. + +This trade of alms and dependence on charities ought to be checked. It +demoralizes the poor, and weakens public confidence in wise and good +charities. It tends to keep the rich from all benefactions, and makes +many doubt whether charity ever really benefits. + +There are various modes in which this evil might be remedied. In the +first place, no individual should subscribe to a new charity until he +has satisfied his mind in some way that it is needed, and that he is not +helping to do twice the same good thing. + +There ought to be also in such a city as ours a sort of "Board" or +"Bureau of Charities," where a person could get information about all +now existing, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or secular, and +where the agents of these could ascertain if they were helping the same +objects twice. + +Lists of names and addresses of those assisted could be kept here for +examination, and frequent comparisons could be made by the agents of +these societies or by individuals interested. One society, formed for a +distinct object, and finding a case needing quite a distinct mode of +relief or assistance, could here at once ascertain where to transfer the +case, or what the conditions of help were in another association. Here, +individuals having difficult, perplexing, or doubtful cases of charity +on hand would ascertain what they should do with them, and whether they +were merely supporting a person now dependent on an association from +such an office. Cases of poverty and misfortune might be visited and +examined by experts, in charity, and the truth ascertained, where +ordinary individuals, inquiring, would be certain to be deceived. Here, +too, the honest and deserving poor could learn where they should apply +for relief. + +Such a "Bureau" would be of immense benefit to the city. It would aid in +keeping the poor from pauperism; it would put honest poverty in the way +of proper assistance; simplify and direct charities, and enable the +"charity fund" of the city to be used directly for the evils needing +treatment. + +Both the public and benevolent associations would be benefited by it, +and much useless expenditure and labor saved. Under it, each charitable +association could labor in its own field, and encroach on no other, and +the public confidence in the wise use of charity funds be strengthened. + +In such a city as ours it would probably be hardly possible to follow +the Boston plan, and put all the offices of the great charities in one +building, yet there could easily be one office of information, or a +"Bureau of Charities," which might be sustained by general +contributions. Perhaps the State "Board of Charities" would father and +direct it, if private means supported it. + +In one respect, it would be of immense advantage to have this task +undertaken by the State Board, as they have the right to inspect +charitable institutions, and their duty is to expose "bogus charities." +Of the latter there are only too many in this city. Numerous lazy +individuals make lucrative livelihoods by gathering funds for charities +which only exist on paper. These swindlers could be best exposed and +prosecuted by a "State Board." + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + HOW BEST TO GIVE ALMS? + + "TAKE, NOT GIVE." + +We were much struck by a reply, recently, of a City Missionary in East +London, who was asked what he gave to the poor. + +"Give!" he said, "we never give now; we take!" He explained that the +remedy of alms, for the terrible evils of that portion of London, had +been tried _ad nauseam_, and that they were all convinced of its little +permanent good, and their great object was, at present, to induce the +poor to save; and for this, they were constantly urgent to get money +from these people, when they had a little. They "took, not gave!" + +So convinced is the writer, by twenty years' experience among the poor, +that alms are mainly a bane, that the mere distribution of gifts by the +great charity in which he is engaged seldom affords him much +gratification. The long list of benefactions which the Reports record, +would be exceedingly unsatisfactory, if they were not parts and branches +of a great preventive and educational movement. + +The majority of people are most moved by hearing that so many thousand +pairs of shoes, so many articles of clothing, or so many loaves of bread +are given to the needy and suffering by some benevolent agency. + +The experienced friend of the poor will only grieve at such alms, unless +they are accompanied with some influences to lead the recipients to take +care of themselves. The worst evil in the world is not poverty or +hunger, but the want of manhood or character which alms-giving directly +occasions. + +The English have tried alms until the kingdom seems a vast Poor-house, +and the problem of Pauperism has assumed a gigantic and almost insoluble +form. The nation have given everything but Education, and the result is +a vast multitude of wretched persons in whom pauperism is planted like a +disease of the blood--who cannot be anything but dependents and idlers. + +In London alone, twenty-five million dollars per annum are expended in +organized charities; yet, till the year 1871, no general system of +popular education had been formed. + +This country has been more fortunate and wiser. We had room and work +enough, we provided education before alms, and, especially among our +native-born population, have checked pauperism, as it never was checked +before in any civilized community. + +No one can imagine, who has not been familiar with the lowest classes, +how entirely degraded a character may become, where there is an +uncertain dependence on public and organized alms. The faculties of the +individual are mainly bent on securing support by other means than +industry. Cunning, deception, flattery, and waiting for chances, become +the means of livelihood. Self-respect is lost, and with it go the best +qualities of the soul. True manhood and true womanhood are eaten away. +The habit of labor, and the hope and courage of a self-supporting human +being, and the prudence which guards against future evils, are almost +destroyed. The man becomes a dawdler and waiter on chances, and is +addicted to the lowest vices; his children grow up worse than he, and +make sharpness or crime a substitute for beggary. The woman is sometimes +stripped of the best feelings of her sex by this dependence. Not once or +twice only have we known such a woman steal the clothes from her +half-starved babe, as she was delivering it over to strangers to care +for. There are able-bodied men of this kind in New York who, every +winter, as regularly as the snow falls, commit some petty offense, that +they may be supported at public expense. + +When this disease of pauperism is fairly mingled in the blood of +children, their condition is almost hopeless. They will not work, or go +to school, or try to learn anything useful; their faculties are all bent +to the tricks of a roving, begging life; the self-respect of their sex, +if girls, is lost in childhood; they are slatternly, lazy, and +dissolute. If they grow up and marry, they marry men of their own kind, +and breed paupers and prostitutes. + +We know of an instance like this in an Alms-house in Western New York. A +mother, in decent circumstances, with an infant, was driven into it by +stress of poverty. Her child grew up a pauper, and both became +accustomed to a life of dependence. The child--a girl--went forth when +she was old enough to work, and soon returned with an illegitimate babe. +She then remained with her child. This child--also a girl--grew up in +like manner, and, occasionally, when old enough, also went forth to +labor, but returned finally, with _her_ illegitimate child, and at +length became a common pauper and prostitute, so that, when the State +Commissioner of Charity, Dr. Hoyt, visited, in his official tour, this +Poor-house, he found _four generations_ of paupers and prostitutes in +one family, in this place! + +The regular _habitues_ of Alms-houses are bad enough; but it has +sometimes seemed to me that the outside dependents on an irregular +public charity are worse. They are usually better off than the inmates +of Poor-houses, and, therefore, must deceive more to secure aid; the +process of obtaining it continually degrades them, and they are tempted +to leave regular industry for this unworthy means of support. + +"Outdoor relief" is responsible for much of the abuses of the English +pauper administration. + +We are convinced that it ought to be, if not abandoned, at least much +circumscribed by our own Commissioners of Charities. + +Still, private alms, though more indiscriminately bestowed, and often on +entirely unworthy objects, do not, in our judgment, leave the same evil +effect as public. There is less degradation with the former, and more of +human sympathy, on both sides. The influence of the giver's character +may sometimes elevate the debased nature of an unworthy dependent on +charity. The personal connection of a poor creature and a fine lady, is +not so bad as that of a pauper to the State. + +Still, private alms in our large cities are abused to an almost +unlimited extent. Persons who have but little that they can afford to +give, discover, after long experience, that the majority of their +benefactions have been indiscreetly bestowed. + +When one thinks of the thousands of cases in a city like New York, of +unmitigated misfortune; of widows with large families, suddenly left +sick and helpless on the world; of lonely and despairing women +struggling against a sea of evils; of strong men disabled by accident or +sickness; of young children abandoned or drifting uncared-for on the +streets, and how many of these are never wisely assisted, it seems a +real calamity that any person should bestow charity carelessly or on +unworthy objects. + +The individual himself ought to seek out the subjects whom he desires to +relieve, and ascertain their character and habits, and help in such a +way as not to impair their self-respect or weaken their independence. + +The managers of the Charity I have been describing have especially +sought to avoid the evils of alms-giving. While many thousands of +dollars' worth is given each year in various forms of benefaction, not a +penny is bestowed which does not bear in its influence on character. We +do not desire so much to give alms as to prevent the demand for alms. In +every branch of our work we seek to destroy the growth of pauperism. + +Nothing in appearance is so touching to the feelings of the humane as a +ragged and homeless boy. The first impulse is to clothe and shelter him +free of cost. But experience soon shows that if you put a comfortable +coat on the first idle and ragged lad who applies, you will have fifty +half-clad lads, many of whom possess hidden away a comfortable outfit, +leaving their business next day, "to get jackets for nothing." + +You soon discover, too, that the houseless boy is not so utterly +helpless as he looks. He has a thousand means of supporting himself +honestly in the streets, if he will. Perhaps all that he needs is a +small loan to start his street-trade with, or a shelter for a few +nights, for which he can give his "promise to pay," or some counsel and +instruction, or a few weeks' schooling. + +Our Lodging-house-keepers soon learn that the best humanity towards the +boys is "to take, not give." Each lad pays for his lodging, and then +feels independent; if he is too poor to do this, he is taken in "on +trust," and pays his bill when business is successful. He is not clothed +at once, unless under some peculiar and unfortunate circumstances, but +is induced to save some pennies every day until he have enough to buy +his own clothing. If he has not enough to start a street-trade with, the +superintendent loans him a small sum to begin business. + +The following is the experience in this matter of Mr. O'Connor, the +superintendent of the Newsboys' Lodging-house:-- + +"The Howland Fund, noticed in previous reports as having been +established by B. J. Howland, Esq., one of our Trustees, continues to be +the means of doing good. We have loaned from it during the nine months +one hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty cents, on which the +borrowers have realized three hundred and seven dollars and thirty-nine +cents. They have thus made the handsome profit of two hundred and fifty +per cent. on the amount borrowed. It has in many cases been returned in +a few hours. We have loaned it in sums of five cents and upward; we have +had but few defaulters. Of the seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents +due last year, six dollars and fifty cents has been returned, leaving at +this time standing out eleven dollars and five cents." + +When large supplies of shoes and clothing are given, it is usually at +Christmas, as an expression of the good-will of the season, or from some +particular friend of the boys as an indication of his regard, and thus +carries less of the ill effects of alms with the gift. + +The very air of these Lodging-houses is that of independence, and no +paupers ever graduate from them. We even discourage the street-trades as +a permanent business, and have, therefore, never formed a "Boot-black +Brigade," as has been done in London, on the ground that such +occupations are uncertain and vagrant in habit, and lead to no settled +business. + +Our end and aim with every street-rover, is to get him to a farm, and +put him on the land. For this reason we lavish our gifts on the lads who +choose the country for their work. We feed and shelter them +gratuitously, if necessary. We clothe them from top to toe; and the +gifts bring no harm with them. These poor lads have sometimes repaid +these gifts tenfold in later life, in money to the Society. And the +community have been repaid a hundredfold, by the change of a city +vagabond to an honest and industrious farmer. + +Our Industrial Schools might almost be called "Reformatories of +Pauperism." Nine-tenths of the children are beggars when they enter, but +they go forth self-respecting and self-supporting young girls. + +Food, indeed, is given every day to those most in need; but, being +connected thus with a School, it produces none of the ill effects of +alms. The subject of clothes-giving to these children is, however, a +very difficult one. The best plan is found to be to give the garments as +rewards for good conduct, punctuality, and industry, the amount being +graded by careful "marks"; yet the humane teacher will frequently +discover an unfortunate child without shoes in the winter snow, or +scantily clad, who has not yet attained the proper number of marks, and +she will very privately perhaps relieve the want: knowing, as the +teacher does, every poor family whose children attend the School, she is +not often deceived, and her gifts are worthily bestowed. + +The daily influence of the School-training in industry and intelligence +discourages the habit of begging. The child soon becomes ashamed of it, +and when she finally leaves school, she has a pride in supporting +herself. + +Gifts of garments, shoes, and the like, to induce children to attend, +are not found wise; though now and then a family will be discovered so +absolutely naked and destitute, that some proper clothing is a necessary +condition to their even entering the School. + +Some of the teachers very wisely induce the parents to deposit their +little savings with them, and perhaps pay them interest to encourage +saving. Others, by the aid of friends, have bought coal at wholesale +prices, and retailed it without profit, to the parents of the children. + +The principle throughout all the operations of the Children's Aid +Society, is only to give assistance where it bears directly on +character, to discourage pauperism, to cherish independence, to place +the poorest of the city, the homeless children, as we have so often +said, not in Alms-houses or Asylums, but on farms, where they support +themselves and add to the wealth of the nation; to "take, rather than +give;" or to give education and work rather than alms; to place all +their thousands of little subjects under such influences and such +training that they will never need either private or public charity. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + HOW SHALL CRIMINAL CHILDREN BE TREATED? + + REFORMATORIES. + +A child, whether good or bad, is, above all things, an individual +requiring individual treatment and care. Let any of our readers, having +a little fellow given to mischief, who had at length broken his +neighbor's windows, or with a propensity to stealing, or with a quick +temper which continually brings him into unpleasant scrapes, imagine him +suddenly put into an "Institution" for reform, henceforth designated as +"D" of "Class 43," or as "No. 193," roused up to prayers in the morning +with eight hundred others, put to bed at the stroke of the bell, knowing +nothing of his teacher or pastor, except as one of a class of a hundred, +his own little wants, weaknesses, foibles and temptations utterly +unfamiliar to any one, his only friends certain lads who had been in the +place longer, and, perhaps, had known much more of criminal life than he +himself, treated thus altogether as a little machine, or as one of a +regiment. + +What could he expect in the way of reform in such a case? He might, +indeed, hope that the lad would feel the penalty and disgrace of being +thus imprisoned, and that the strict discipline would control careless +habits, but he would soon see that the chance of a reform of character +was extremely slight. + +There was evidently no personal influence on the child. Whatever bad +habits or traits he had, were likely to be uneradicated. The strongest +agencies upon him were those of his companions; and what boys, even of +the moral classes, teach one another when they are together in masses, +need not be told. Were he to be there a length of time, the most +powerful forces that mould and form boys in the world outside, would be +absent. + +The affection of family, the confidence of respected friends, the hope +of making a name, and the desire of money and position--these impulses +must be banished from the Asylum or Reformatory. The lad's only hope is +to escape certain penalties, or win certain marks, and get out of the +place. Now and then, indeed, a chaplain of rare spiritual gifts may +succeed in wielding a personal influence, in such an Institution, over +individual children; but this must, of necessity, be unfrequent, on +account of the great numbers under his charge. + +If the subject of a Reformatory be a poor boy or girl, the kind of work +usually chosen is not the one best suited to a child of this class, or +which he will be apt to take up afterwards. It is generally some plain +and easy trade-work, like shoe-pegging, or chair-bottoming, or +pocket-book manufacture. The lad is kept for years at this drudgery, and +when he leaves the place, has no capital laid up of a skilled trade. He +finds such employments crowded, and he seldom enters them again. +Moreover, if he has been a vagrant (as in nine cases out of ten is +probable), or a little sharper and thief of the city, or a boy unwilling +to labor, and unfitted for steady industry, these years at a table in a +factory do not necessarily give him a taste for work; they often only +disgust him. + +Were such lads, on the other hand, put in gardens, or at farm-work, they +would find much more pleasure in it. The watching the growth of plants, +the occasional chance for fruit-gathering, the "spurts" of work peculiar +to farming, the open air and sunshine, and dealing with flowers and +grains, with cattle, horses, and fowls, are all attractive to children, +and especially to children of this class. Moreover, when they have +learned the business, they are sure in this country, of the best +occupation which a laboring man can have; and when they graduate, they +can easily find places on farms, where they will get good wages, and be +less exposed to temptations than if engaged in city trades. There seems +to me something, too, in labor in the soil, which is more medicinal to +"minds diseased" than work in shops. The nameless physical and mental +maladies which take possession of these children of vice and poverty are +more easily cured and driven off in outdoor than indoor labor. + +I am disposed to think this is peculiarly true of young girls who have +begun criminal courses. They have been accustomed to such excitement and +stir, that the steady toil of a kitchen and household seldom reforms +them. + +The remarkable success of Mr. Pease for a few years in his labors for +abandoned women in the Five Points, was due mainly to the incessant stir +and activity he infused into his "House of Industry," which called off +the minds of these poor creatures from their sins and temptations. But, +better than this, would be the idea, so often broached, of a "School in +gardening" for young girls, in which they could be taught in the open +air, and learn the florist's and gardener's art. This busy and pleasant +labor, increasingly profitable every year, would often drive out the +evil spirit, and fit the workers, for paying professions after they left +the School. + +The true plan for a Reformatory School, as has so often been said, is +the Family System; that is, breaking the Asylum up into small houses, +with little "groups" of children in each, under their own immediate +"director" or teacher, who knows every individual, and adapts his +government to the wants of each. + +The children cook meals, and do house-labor, and eat in these small +family groups. Each child, whether boy or girl, learns in this way +something of housekeeping, and the mode of caring for the wants of a +small family. He has to draw his water, split his wood, kindle his +fires, light his lamps, and take care of the Cottage, as he will, by and +by, have to do in his own little "shanty" or "cottage." Around the +Cottage should be a small garden, which each "family" would take a pride +in cultivating; and beyond, the larger farm, which they all might work +together. + +In a Reformatory, after such a plan as this, the children are as near +the natural condition as they ever can be in a public institution. The +results, if men of humanity and wisdom be in charge, will justify the +increased trouble and labor. The expense can hardly be greater, as +buildings and outfit will cost so much less than with the large +establishments. The only defect would, perhaps, be that the labor of the +inmates would not bring in so much pecuniary return, as in the present +Houses of Refuge; but the improved effects on the children would more +than counterbalance to the community the smaller income of the Asylum. +Nor is it certain that farm and garden labor would be less profitable to +the Institution. + +If we are correctly informed, the only Alms-house which supports itself +in the country is one near New Haven, that relies entirely on the growth +and sale of garden products. Under the Farm and Family School for +children, legally committed, we should have, undoubtedly, a far larger +proportion of thorough reforms and successes, than under the congregated +and industrial Asylums. + +The most successful Reformatories of Europe are of this kind. The "Rauhe +Haus," at Hamburg, and Mr. Sydney Turner's Farm School at Tower Hill, +England, show a greater proportion of reformed cases than any +congregated Reformatories that we are familiar with. The Mettrai colony +records ninety per cent, as reformed, which is an astonishingly large +proportion. This success is probably much due to the _esprit du corps_ +which has become a tradition in the school, and the extent to which the +love of distinction and honorable emulation--most powerful motives on +the French mind--have been cultivated in the pupils. + +We do not deny great services and successes to the existing congregated +Reformatories of this country. But their success has been in spite of +their system. From the new Family Reformatories, opened in different +States, we hope for even better results. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH FOUNDLINGS? + +Some of our citizens are now seeking to open in New York a Foundling +Asylum to be conducted under Protestant influences. A Roman Catholic +Hospital for Foundlings was recently established, and is now receiving +aid from the city treasury. In view of these humane efforts, attended, +as they must be, by vast expense, it becomes necessary to inquire what +is the best system of management attained by experience in other +countries. Of the need of some peculiar shelter or shelters for +illegitimate children in this city there can be no question. Those who +have to do with the poorer classes are shocked and pained by the +constant instances presented to them, of infants neglected or abandoned +by their mothers, or of unmarried mothers with infants in such need and +desperation, that infanticide is often the easiest escape. Something +evidently should be done for both mothers and children. + + THE NUMBERS. + +Of the numbers of illegitimate children in New York, it is difficult to +speak with any precision. In European countries, we know almost exactly +the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births. In Sardinia, it is +2.09 per cent.; in Sweden, 6.56; in England, 6.72; in France, 7.01; in +Denmark, 9.35; in Austria, 11.38; in Bavaria, 20.59. Among cities, it is +between 3 and 4 per cent, in English cities; in Genoa, 8; in Berlin, +14.9; in St. Petersburg, 18.8; in Vienna, 46. The general average of +illegitimate to legitimate children in Europe is 12.8 per cent. + +Supposing that the average in New York is the same as in Amsterdam or +London, say four per cent, there were in the five years, from 1860 to +1865, out of the 144,724 children born (living or dead) in the city of +New York, 5,788 illegitimate, or an average each year of 1,157 children +born out of wedlock. More than a thousand illegitimate children are +thus, in all probability, thrown upon this community every year. + +Though this is a mere estimate, there is a strong presumptive evidence +of its not being exaggerated, from the enormous proportion, in New York, +of stillbirths, which reached in one year (1868) the sum of 2,195, or +more than seven per cent of the whole number of births. Now, it is +well-known that the women who are mothers of illegitimate children are +much more likely to be badly attended or neglected in their confinement +than mothers in wedlock, and thus to suffer under this misfortune. + +As to the relation of illegitimacy to crime, there are some striking +statistics from France. Out of 5,758 persons confined in the bagnios in +France, there were, according to Dr. Parry, in 1853, 391 illegitimate. +Of the 18,205 inmates of the State Prisons in France during the same +time, 880 were illegitimate, and 361 foundlings. "One out of every 1,300 +Frenchmen," says the same authority, "becomes the subject of legal +punishment, while one out of 158 foundlings finds his way to the State +Prisons." In the celebrated Farm-school of Mettrai, according to recent +reports, out of 3,580 young convicts since its foundation, 534 were +illegitimate and 221 foundlings, or more than twenty per cent. + +There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that a large number of children +born out of wedlock, and therefore exposed to great hardship, +temptation, and misery, are cast out every year on this community. A +very large proportion of these unfortunate little ones die, or, with +their mothers, are dragged down to great depths of wretchedness and +crime. + +What can be done for them? The first impulse is, naturally, to gather +them into an Asylum. But what is the experience of Asylums? + + ASYLUMS. + +The London Foundling Hospital, one of the most famous of these +institutions, was founded in 1740. During the first twenty years of its +existence, out of the 14,034 children received in it, only 4,400 lived +be apprenticed, a mortality of more than seventy per cent The celebrated +St. Petersburg Hospital for Foundlings contained, between the years 1772 +and 1789, 7,709 children, of whom 6,606 died. Between the years 1783 and +1797, seventy-six per cent died. We have not, unfortunately, its later +statistics. The Foundling Hospital of Paris, another well-known +institution of this class, was founded by Vincent de Paul in 1638. In +the twenty years ending in 1859, out of 48,525 infants admitted, 27,119 +died during the first year, or fifty-six per cent. In 1841, a change was +made in the administration of this Hospital, of which we shall speak +later. + +In this city there is, under the enlightened management of the +Commissioners' of Charities and Correction, an Infant Hospital on +Randall's Island, where large numbers of illegitimate and abandoned +children are cared for. In former years, under careless management of +this institution, the mortality of these helpless infants has reached +ninety to ninety-five per cent.; but in recent years, under the new +management, this has been greatly reduced. In 1867, out of the 928 +"nurse's children" or children without their mothers, who were received, +642 died, or about seventy per cent In 1868, 76.77 per cent of these +unfortunates died, and in 1869, 70.32 per cent; while in the same +hospital, of the children admitted with their mothers, only 20.44 per +cent died during that year--a death-rate less than that of the city at +large, which is about twenty-six per cent; while in Massachusetts, for +children under one year, it is about thirteen per cent. + +It will be observed that the mortality of foundlings and orphans in this +institution was reduced in 1869 from 76.79 per cent. to 70.32. Again, in +1870, a still greater reduction was made to 58.99. This most encouraging +result was brought about by the erection of an Infants' Hospital by the +Commissioners, the employment of a skillful physician, and, above all, +by engaging paid nurses instead of pauper women, to take care of the +children. In Massachusetts the experience is equally instructive. "In +the State Almshouse," says the able Secretary of the Board of Charities, +Mr. F. B. Sanborn, "the mortality of these infants previous to 1857, +reached the large proportion of 80 out of every 100." + +In the Tewksbury Alms-house the mortality in 1860 among the foundlings +was forty-seven out of fifty-four, or eighty-seven per cent. + +In 1867, the most enlightened experts in charities in Massachusetts took +up the subject of founding an Infant-Asylum, and resolved to institute +one which should be free from the abuses of the old system. In this new +Asylum only those children should be received whose cases had been +carefully investigated, and no more than thirty foundlings were ever to +be collected under one roof, so that as much individual care might be +exercised as is practicable. Yet even under this wise plan the mortality +during the first six months at the Dorchester Asylum reached nearly +fifty per cent, out of only thirty-six children; though this mortality +was a great gain over that of the State Alms-houses. + +The truth seems to be that each infant needs one nurse or care-taker, +and that if you place these delicate young creatures in large companies +together in any public building, an immense proportion are sure to die. +When one remembers the difficulty of carrying any child in this climate +through the first and second summers, and how a slight change in the +milk, or neglect of covering, will bring on that scourge of our city, +cholera infantum, and how incessant the watchfulness of our mothers is +to bring up a healthy child, we can understand why from one-half to +two-thirds of the foundlings, many of them fatally weakened when brought +to the Asylums, die in our public institutions. Where the mothers are +allowed to take care of their own children in the Asylums, as many +survive as in the outside world. But to support one mother for each +infant is an immense expense; so that two children are commonly put +under the care of the mother. The neglect, however, of the strange child +soon becomes apparent even to the casual visitor; and these poor +foundlings are often fairly starved or abused to death by the mother +forced to nurse them. The treatment of these poor helpless infants by +brutal women in our public institutions is one of the saddest chapters +in the history of human wickedness. + +What, then, is to be done for these unfortunate foundlings? No Asylum +can afford to board and employ one wet-nurse for each infant. How can +the children be saved at a moderate expense? The feasible and +practicable course for this object is the + + "PLACING-OUT SYSTEM." + +This plan has been in operation in France for centuries, and is now +carried out under a public department called _"Les services des Enfants +Assistes"_ recently under the direction of M. Husson, and known +generally as the Bureau Ste. Apolline. This bureau deals with the whole +class of abandoned and outcast and destitute infants. Instead of keeping +these children in an Asylum, this office at once dispatches them to +nurses already selected in the country. + +The whole matter is thoroughly organized; there are agents to forward +the nurses and children, inspectors to select nurses and look after the +infants and take charge of the disbursements, and medical officers to +investigate the condition of both children and nurses, and to visit them +monthly, and give medical attendance. The nurse is obliged to bring a +certificate of good character from the Commune, and of her being in +proper condition to take care of a foster-child. She is not permitted to +take charge of an infant unless her own is nine months old, and has been +weaned. The nurse is bound to send her foster-child, as she grows up, to +school, and to some place of religious instruction. The bureau has thus +relieved a great number of children during ten years, from 1855 to 1864, +the total number amounting to 21,944. + +That it has been wonderfully successful is shown by the mortality, which +is now only about thirty per cent., or nearly the same with the general +death-rate among young children in New York. Under this new poor-law +administration for destitute and abandoned children, the famous Hospital +for Foundlings has been changed into a mere depot for children sent to +places and nurses in the country, with the most happy results in point +of mortality. Thus, in 1838, the hospital admitted 5,322 children, and +lost 1,211; in 1868, of 5,603 admitted, only 442 died, or about eight +per cent. Of 21,147 sent to the country, the deaths were only 1,783, or +less than ten per cent Of 6,009 admitted in 1869, 4,260 were abandoned +children, and the deaths from the above number were 495. + +The French administration does not cease with paying the board of these +foundlings in their country homes; it looks carefully after their +clothing, their education, their religious instruction, and even their +habits of economy. The outlay by the Government for these various +objects is considerable. In 1869, the traveling expenses of these little +waifs reached the sum of 170,107 francs. The payments to the peasants to +induce them to educate the foundlings amounted to 85,458 francs for the +same year; the savings of the children, put in official savings-boxes, +amounted to 394,076 francs, while 15,936 francs were given out as +prizes. + +The moral effects have been encouraging. In 1869, out of the 9,000 +_eleves_ from thirteen to twenty-eight years, only thirty-two had +appeared before Courts of Justice for trifling offenses; thirty-two had +shown symptoms of insubordination, and nearly the same number had been +imprisoned. + +It should be remembered that this bureau has charge of the whole class +of juvenile paupers, or Almshouse children, in Paris, as well as +foundlings, whom it treats by placing out in country homes. In 1869, it +thus provided for and protected 25,486 children, of whom 16,845 were +from one day to twelve years, and 9,001 from twelve to twenty-one years. +For this purpose, it employed two principal inspectors, twenty-five +sub-inspectors, and two hundred and seventy-eight physicians. + +The expense of this bureau has been wonderfully slight, only averaging +two dollars and sixty cents per annum for each child. In an Asylum the +average annual expenditure for each child could not have been less than +one hundred and fifty dollars. This Bureau Ste. Apolline must be +carefully distinguished from the private bureaus in Paris for assisting +foundlings, under which the most shocking abuses have occurred, the +death-rate reaching among their subjects 70.87, and even ninety per +cent. + +The "boarding-out" system has been a part of the Alms-house system of +Hamburg for years, and has proved eminently successful and economical. +In Berlin, more than half the pauper children, and all the foundlings, +are thus dealt with. In Dublin, both Protestant and Catholic +associations have pursued this plan with destitute orphans and +foundlings, with marked success. The Protestant Society had, in 1866, +453 orphans under its charge, and had placed out, or returned to +friends, 1,256; its provincial branches had 2,208 under their care, and +had placed out 5,374. All the orphans placed out by the Society are +apprenticed. Great care is used in inspecting the homes in which +children are put, and in selecting employers. The whole Association is +well organized. The annual cost of the children, dividing the whole +expense by the number of children placed and cared for, is only from +fifty dollars to fifty-five dollars per head. The Roman Catholic +Association, St. Brigid's, is even more economical in its work, as the +labor is mainly performed by the members of the sisterhoods. Within +seven years five hundred children were taken in charge, of whom two +hundred had been adopted or placed out. The children thus provided for +in country families are constantly visited by the conductors of the +orphanage and by the parish priest. The expense of the whole enterprise +is very slight. + +Similar experiments are being made in England with pauper children, and, +despite Prof. Fawcett's somewhat impractical objections, they have been +found to be successful and far more economical than the old system. + + THE FAMILY PLAN. + +The Massachusetts Board of State Charities, one of the ablest Boards +that have ever treated these questions, well observes in its report for +1868: "The tendency in all civilized countries is toward the family +system, through (1st) the Foundling Hospital and (2d) the Asylum or Home +System; and the mortality among infants of this class is reduced from +ninety or ninety-five per cent, under the old no-system, from forty to +sixty per cent. in well-managed Foundling Hospitals, from thirty to +fifty per cent. in good Asylums, and from twenty to thirty-five per +cent. in good single families, the last being scarcely above the normal +death-rate of all infants." + +The "placing-out" system, is of coarse, liable to shocking abuse, as the +experience of private offices for the care of foundlings in Paris, and +recently in London, painfully shows. It mast be carried on with the +utmost publicity, and under careful responsibility. But under a +respectable and faithful board of trustees, with careful organization +and inspection, there is no reason why the one thousand illegitimate +children born every year in New York city should not be placed in good +country families, under the best of care and with the prospect of +saving, at least, seven hundred out of the thousand, instead of losing +that proportion; and all this under an expense of about one-tenth that +of an Asylum. Why will our benevolent ladies and gentlemen keep up the +old monastic ideas of the necessity of herding these unfortunate +children in one building? Here there are thousands of homes awaiting the +foundlings, without money and without price, where the child would have +the best advantages the country could afford; or if it be too weak or +sick to be moved, or the managers fear the experiment of placing-out, +let some responsible nurse be selected in the country near by, and the +foundling boarded at their expense. The experience of the Children's Aid +Society is, that no children are so eagerly and kindly received in +country families as infants who are orphans. Let us not found in New +York that most doubtful institution--a Foundling Asylum--but use the +advantages we have in the ten thousand natural asylums of the country. + +In regard to the question, how far the affording facilities for the care +of illegitimate children increases the temptation to vicious indulgence, +we believe, as in most similar matters, the true course for the +legislator lies between extremes. His first duty is, of course, one of +humanity, to preserve life. Whenever helpless or abandoned children are +found, the duty of the State is to take care of them, though this care +may, in certain cases, offer an inducement to crime. The danger to the +child, if neglected, is certain; that to the community, of inducing +other mothers to abandon their offering, is remote and uncertain. On the +other hand, the State is under no obligation to offer inducements to +parents to neglect their illegitimate children; it is rather bound to +throw all possible responsibility on those who have brought them into +the world. + +The extreme French plan of presenting "turning-tables" to those who +wished to abandon their children, was found to increase the crime, and +the number of such unfortunates. It has been given up even in Paris +itself. The Russian Foundling Asylum in St. Petersburg found it +necessary to make its conditions more strict than they were in the +beginning as laxness tended to encourage sexual vice. The universal +experience is, that if a mother can be compelled to care for her infant, +during a month or two, she will then never murder or abandon it. But, if +she is relieved of the charge very early, she feels little affection or +remorse, and often plunges into indulgence again without restraint. By +requiring conditions and letting some little time pass before the mother +gives the child up, she is kept in a better moral condition, and made to +feel more the responsibility of her position, and is thus withheld from +future vice. + +On the other hand, the extreme position taken substantially by the New +York legislators, whereby no mother could get rid of an illegitimate +child, except by publicly entering the Alms-house, or by infanticide, +undoubtedly stimulated the crimes of foeticide and child-murder. No +doubt the new Catholic and Protestant Foundling Asylums contemplated in +New York will steer between these two extremes, will connect the mother +with the child as long as possible, and require all reasonable +conditions before admitting the infant, and, at the same time, not drive +a seduced or unfortunate woman with her babe out to take her chances in +the streets. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR STREET-CHILDREN. + +The subject of applying Religion as a lever to raise up the class of +neglected children whom we have been describing, is a difficult one, but +vital to the Science of Reform. The objects of those engaged in laboring +for this class are to raise them above temptation, to make them of more +value to themselves, and to Society, and, if possible, to elevate them +to the highest range of life, where the whole character is governed by +Religion. + +The children themselves are in a peculiar position. They have many of +the traits of children, and yet are struggling in an independent and +hard life, like men. They are not to be influenced as a Sunday-school +audience would be, nor as an audience of adults. Their minds are acute, +sharp, and practical; mere sentiment and the amiable platitudes of +Sunday-school oratory are not for them. Rhetoric sets them asleep. +Bombast goes by the name of "gas" among them. Sentimental and +affectionate appeals only excite their contempt. The "hard fact" pleases +them. They know when the speaker stands on good bottom. If he has +reached "hard pan," his audience is always with him. + +No audience is so quick to respond to a sudden turn or a joke. Their +faculties are far more awake than those of a company of children of the +fortunate classes. And yet they are like children in many respects. +Nothing interests them so much as the dramatic: the truth given by +parable and illustration. Their education in the low theatres has +probably cultivated this taste. The genuine and strong feeling of the +heart always touches them. I have seen the quick tears drop over the +dirty cheeks at the simple tone only of some warm-hearted man who had +addressed them with a deep feeling of their loneliness and desolation. +And yet they would have "chaffed" him in five minutes after, if they had +had the opportunity. They seem to have children's receptivity; they are +not by nature skeptical. They unconsciously believe in supernatural +powers, or in one eternal Power. Their conscience can be reached; the +imagination is, to a certain degree, lively; they are peculiarly open to +Religion. And yet their "moral" position is a most perplexing one. The +speaker in one of our Boys' Lodging-houses, who addresses them, knows +that this may be the last and only time, for years, that many of the +wild audience will listen to religious truth. To-morrow a considerable +portion will be scattered, no one knows where. To-morrow, perhaps +to-night, temptation will come in like a flood. In a few hours, it may +be, the street-boy will stand where he must decide whether he will be a +thief or an honest lad; a rogue or an industrious worker; the companion +of burglars and murderers, or the friend of the virtuous. Temptations to +lying, to deceit, to theft, robbery, lust, and murder will soon hunt him +like a pack of wolves. His child's nature is each day under the strain +of a man's temptations. Poverty, hunger, and friendlessness add to his +exposed condition, while, in all probability, he inherits a tendency to +indulgence or crime. + +The problem is to guard such a human being, so exposed, against powerful +temptations; to raise him above them; to melt his bad habits and +inherited faults in some new and grand emotion; to create within him a +force which is stronger than, and utterly opposed to, the selfish greed +for money, or the attractions of criminal indulgence, or the rush of +passion, or the fire of anger. The object is to implant in his breast +such a power as Plato dreamed of--the Love of some perfect Friend, whose +character by sympathy shall purify his, whose feeling is believed to go +with the fortunes of the one forgotten by all others, and who has the +power of cleansing from wrong and saving from sin. + +The experience of twenty years' labor shows us that what are called +"moral influences" are not sufficient to solve this problem, or meet +this want among the children of the street. It is, of course, well at +times to present the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice; to show +that honesty brings rewards, and falsehood pains, and to sketch the +course of the moral poor whom fortune has rewarded. But these +considerations are not sufficiently strong to hold back the most +pressing temptations. Moreover, we have often had grave doubts whether +"the bread-and-butter piety" was not too much recommended in all +religious meetings to children. The child is too continually reminded +that righteousness brings reward in this world, though the Master calls +us to "take a yoke," and "bear a cross." The essence of the religious +impulse is that it is unselfish, an inspiration from above, not below, a +quickening of the nobler emotions and higher aspirations. Wherever gain +or worldly motive comes in, there spirituality flees away. We have, +accordingly, always opposed, in our religious meetings, the employment +of prizes or rewards, as is so common in Sunday Schools, to strengthen +the religious influence. Experience, as well as reason, has shown us +that all such motives mingled with religion simply weaken its power. + +Considering the peculiar position of these children, we have never set +the value on what is usually described as "Religious Instruction" which +many do. Of course, there are certain foundation truths which should be +taught to these audiences. But such subjects as the Jewish History and +God's Providence therein, and many matters contained in the Old +Testament, are not so immediately important for them as the facts and +principles of Christianity. And yet there are passages in the Old +Testament which seem peculiarly designed for the young. There are +stories--such as those of Joseph and Moses and Samuel--which, if all +others should forget, children alone would not let die. It does not seem +instruction that these children need, so much as inspiration. A +street-boy might be perfectly familiar with the history of the Fall of +Man and the flood; he might repeat the Commandments, and know by heart +the Apostles' Creed, and yet not have one spark in his breast of the +divine fire which is to save him from vice and ruin. + +What the child of the streets, above all, needs to uphold him in his sea +of troubles and temptations, is the knowledge and faith in Christ as his +Friend and Saviour. + +CHRIST can be presented and made real to these children as a perfect +Being, the Son of God, who feels with all their misfortunes, who has +known their temptations, who is their Friend, and only demands noble +hearts and love from them, who lived and died for them when on earth, +that they might love God and be saved from sin. + +It is the old Faith, which has thrown the glory of Heaven over millions +of death-beds, and sustained uncounted numbers of weak and hard-pressed +men, true to honor, virtue, and goodness, amid all temptations and +misfortunes. It has comforted and ennobled the slave under his master's +tyranny. If simply presented, and with faith in God, it can redeem the +outcast youth of the streets from all his vices and evil habits, keep +him pure amid filth, honest among thieves, generous among those greedy +for money, kind among the hard and selfish, and enable him to overcome +anger, lust, the habit of lying or profanity, and to live a simple, +humble, God-fearing, and loving life, merely because he believes that +this Unseen Friend demands all this in his children and followers. When +this Faith and this Love are implanted in the child's mind, and he is +inspired by them, then his course is clear, and sure to be happy and +good. + +One mistake of Sunday-school oratory is frequently made in addressing +these lads, and that is, a too great use of sensational illustrations, +which do not aid to impress the truth desired. Attention will be +secured, but no good end is gained. Where the wants of the audience are +so real and terrible as they are here, and so little time is given for +influencing them, it is of the utmost importance that every word should +tell. There should be no rhetorical pyrotechnics at these meetings. +Above all modes, however, the dramatic is the best means of conveying +truth to their minds. The parable, the illustration, the allegory or +story, real or fictitious, most quickly strike their mind, and leave the +most permanent impression. + +One of the best religious speakers that ever address our boys is a +lawyer, who has been a famous sportsman, and has in his constitution a +fellow-feeling for their vagrant tastes. I often fancy, when he is +speaking to them, that he would not object at all to being a boy again +himself, roving the streets, "turning in" on a hay-barge, and drifting +over the country at "his own sweet will." But this very sympathy gives +him a peculiar power over them; he understands their habits and +temptations, and, while other gentlemen often shoot over their heads, +his words always take a powerful hold of them. Then, though a man +particularly averse to sentiment in ordinary life, his speeches to the +boys seem to reveal a deep and poetic feelings for nature, and a solemn +consciousness of God, which impresses children deeply. His sportsmanly +habits have led him to closely observe the habits of birds and animals, +and the appearances of the sky and sea, and these come in as natural +illustrations, possessing a remarkable interest for these wild little +vagrants, who by nature belong to the "sporting" class. + +A man must have a boy's tastes to reach boys. + + BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. + +In treating of this subject of religious education for the youth of the +dangerous classes, the question naturally arises, how far there should +be religious expression or education in our Public Schools. If it were a +_tabula rasa_ here, and we were opening a system of National Schools, +and all were of one general faith, there could be no question that every +one interested in the general welfare, would desire religious +instruction in our Public Schools, as a means of strengthening morality, +if for no other purpose. As it is, however, we have at the basis of +society an immense mass of very ignorant, and, therefore, bigoted +people, who suspect and hate every expression even of our form of +Christianity, and regard it as a teaching of heresy and a shibboleth of +oppression. Their shrewd and cunning leaders, knowing the danger to +priestcraft from Free Schools, use this hostility and the pretense of +our religious services to separate these classes from the Public +Schools. The priests and demagogues do not, of course, care anything +about the simple prayer and the reading of a few verses of Scripture, +which are now our sole religious school exercises. But these furnish +them with a good pretext for acting on the masses, and give them ground, +among certain liberal or indifferent Protestants, for seeking a separate +State support for the Catholic Schools. + +Were Bible-reading and the Lord's Prayer discontinued in the Schools, we +do not doubt that the priests and the popular leaders would still oppose +the Free Schools just as bitterly; but they would not have as good an +apparent ground, and any pretext of opposition would be taken away. The +system of Free Schools is the life-blood of the nation. If it be +corrupted with priestcraft, or destroyed by our dissensions, our +vitality as a republican people is gone. The whole country would realize +then the worst fruits of a popular government without intelligence. +Demagogism and corruption, founded on ignorance, would wield an absolute +tyranny, with none of the graces of monarchy, and none of the advantages +of democracy. Jarring sects would each have their own schools, and the +priests would enjoy an unlimited control over all the ignorant Catholics +of the country. + +Under no circumstance should the Protestants of the nation allow the +Free Schools to be broken up. They are the foundation of the Republic, +and the bulwark of Protestantism and civilization. They undermine the +power of the priests, which rests on ignorance, while they leave +untouched whatever spiritual force the Roman Catholic Church may truly +have and deserve to have. The Protestants should sacrifice everything +reasonable and not vital, to retain these blessed agencies of +enlightenment. + +We respect the sort of pluck of the Protestants, which looks upon the +giving-up of Bible-reading in the Schools as being "false to the flag." +But, in looking at the matter soberly, and without pugnacity, does +spiritual religion lose anything by giving up these exercises? We think +not. They are now of the coldest and most formal kind, and but little +listened to. We doubt if they ever affect strongly a single mind. The +religious education of each child is imparted in Sabbath Schools, in +Churches, or Mission Schools, and its own home. + +The Free School under our system does not need any influence from the +Church. The American trusts to the separate sects to take care of the +religious interests of the children. We separate utterly Church and +State. There may be evils from this; but they are less than the danger +of destroying our system of popular education by the contests of rival +sects. We know how long every effort to secure popular education for +England has been wrecked on this rock of Sectarianism. + +We behold the fearful harvest of evils which she is reaping from the +ignorance of the masses, especially induced by the oppositions of sects, +who preferred no education for the people to education without their own +dogmas. + +We desire to avoid these calamities, and we can best do this by making +every reasonable concession to ignorance and prejudice. + +Give us the Free Schools without Religion, rather than no Free Schools +at all! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + DECREASE OF JUVENILE CRIME IN NEW YORK. + + THE COST OF PUNISHMENT AND PREVENTION. + +Very few people have any just appreciation of the comparative cost of +punishment and prevention in the treatment of crime. The writer recalls +one out of many thousand instances in his experience, which strikingly +illustrates the contrast + + THE BROTHERS. + +A number of years ago, three boys (brothers), the oldest perhaps +seventeen, applied at the Newsboys' Lodging-house of this city for +shelter. It was soon suspected that the eldest was a thief, employing +the younger as assistants in his nefarious business. The younger lads +finally confessed the fact, and the older brother left them to be taken +care of in the Lodging-house. After a sufficient period of training, the +two brothers were sent to a farmer in Illinois. They were faithful and +hard-working, and soon began to earn money. When the war broke out they +enlisted, and served with credit. At the close they passed through New +York, and visited the superintendent while returning to their village, +having already purchased a farm with their wages and bounty-money. They +are now well-to-do, respectable farmers. + +This "prevention" for the two lads cost just thirty dollars, for their +expenses in the Lodging-house were mainly paid by themselves. + +The older brother went through a career of thieving and burglary. We +have not an accurate catalogue of his various offenses, but he +undoubtedly made away with property--wasted or destroyed it--to the +amount of two thousand dollars. [We recall three lads who, in one night, +broke into a house in Bond Street, and destroyed or made away with +property to the value of one thousand three hundred dollars.] He was +finally arrested and tried for burglary. It would be safe to estimate +the expenses of the trial and arrest at one hundred dollars. He was +sentenced to five years in Sing Sing. Allowing the expenses of +maintenance there to be what they are on Blackwell's Island, that is, +about twelve dollars and fifty cents per month, he cost the State while +there some seven hundred and fifty dollars, not reckoning the interest +on capital and buildings; so that we have here, in one instance, the +very low estimate of two thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars as the +expense to the community of one street-boy unreclaimed. Had the +Lodging-house taken hold of him five years earlier, he could have been +saved at a cost of fifteen dollars. + +His brothers have added to the wealth of the community and defended the +life of the nation, and are still honest producers. He has already cost +the State at least two thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, besides +much immorality and bad example, and he has only begun a career of +damage and loss to the city. + + PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT COMPARED. + +Our criminals last year cost this city, in the City Prisons and +Penitentiaries, about one hundred and one thousand dollars for +maintenance alone. Our police cost apparently over six hundred thousand +dollars. + +The amount of property lost or taken by thieves, burglars, and others +last year, in New York city, and which came under the knowledge of the +police, was one million five hundred and twenty-one thousand nine +hundred and forty dollars; but how many sums are never brought to their +notice! + +The expenses of the arrest and trial of two criminals, Real and Van +Echten, are stated, on good authority, to have been sixteen thousand +dollars for the first, and twenty thousand dollars for the second. + +If the expenses of a great "preventive" institution--such as the +Children's Aid Society--be examined, it will be found that the two +thousand and odd homeless children, boys and girls, placed in country +homes, cost the public only some fifteen dollars a head; the three +thousand and odd destitute little girls educated and partly fed and +clothed in the "Industrial Schools," only cost some fifteen dollars for +each child each year; and the street lads and girls sheltered and +instructed in the "Lodging-houses," to the number of some twelve +thousand different subjects, or an average of, say, four hundred each +night, have been an expense of only some fifty dollars per head through +the year to the public. It may, perhaps, be urged in reply to this by +the doubting, that all this may be true. "We admit the cheapness of +prevention, but we do not see the diminution of crime. If you can show +us that fewer young thieves, or vagabonds, or prostitutes, are breeding, +we shall admit that your children's charities are doing something, and +that the cost of prevention is the most paying outlay in the +administration of New York city." + +To this we might answer that New York is an exceptional city--a sink +into which pour the crime and poverty of all countries, and that all we +could expect to accomplish would be what is attempted in European +cities--to keep the increase of juvenile crime down equal with the +increase of population; that the laws of crime are shown in European +cities to be constant, and that we must expect just about so many petty +thieves each year, so many pickpockets, so many burglars, so many female +vagrants or prostitutes, to so many thousand inhabitants. + +We might urge that it is the duty of every friend of humanity to do his +little part to alleviate the evils of the world, whether he sees a +general diminution of human ills or not. + +But, fortunately, we are not obliged to render these excuses. + +New York is the only large city in the world where there has been a +comprehensive organization to deal with the sources of crime among +children; an organization which, though not reaching the whole of the +destitute and homeless youth, and those most exposed to temptation, +still includes a vast multitude every year of the _enfants perdus_ of +this metropolis. + +This Association, during nearly twenty years, has removed to country +homes and employment about twenty-five thousand persons, the greater +part of whom have been poor and homeless children; it has founded, and +still supports, five Lodging-houses for homeless and street-wandering +boys and girls, five free Reading-rooms for boys and young men, and +twenty Industrial Schools for children too poor, ragged, and +undisciplined for the Public Schools. We have always been confident that +time would show, even in the statistics of crime in our 19 prisons and +police courts, the fruits of these very extended and earnest labors. It +required several years to properly found and organize the Children's Aid +Society, and then it must be some ten years-when the children acted upon +in all its various branches have come to young manhood and +womanhood--before the true effects are to be seen. We would not, +however, exclude, as causes of whatever results may be traced, all +similar movements in behalf of the youthful criminal classes. We may +then fairly look, in the present and the past few years, for the effects +on crime and pauperism of these widely-extended charities in behalf of +children. + + CRIME CHECKED. + +The most important field of the Children's Aid Society has been among +the destitute and street-wandering and tempted little girls, its labors +embracing many thousands annually of this unfortunate class. Has crime +increased with them? The great offense of this class, either as children +or as young women, comes under the heading of "Vagrancy"-this including +their arrest and punishment, either as street-walkers, or prostitutes, +or homeless persons. In this there is, during the past thirteen years, a +most remarkable decrease--a diminution of crime probably unexampled in +any criminal records through the world. The rate in the commitments to +the city prisons, as appears in the reports of the Board of Charities +and Correction, runs thus:-- + +Of female vagrants, there were in + +1857..........3,449 +1859..........5,778 +1860..........5,880 +1861..........3,172 +1862..........2,243 +1863..........1,756 +1864..........1,342 +1869............785 +1870............671 +1871............548. + +We have omitted some of the years on account of want of space; they do +not, however, change the steady rate of decrease in this offense. + +Thus, in eleven years, the imprisonments of female vagrants have fallen +off from 5,880 to 548. This, surely, is a good show; and yet in that +period our population increased about thirteen and a half per cent, so +that, according to the usual law, the commitments should have been this +year over 4,700. [The population of New York increased from 814,224, in +1860, to 915,520, in 1870, or only about twelve and a half per cent. The +increase in the previous decade was about fifty per cent. There can be +no doubt that the falling-off is entirely in the middle classes, who +have removed to the neighboring rural districts. The classes from which +most of the criminals come have undoubtedly increased, as before, at +least fifty per cent. + +I have retained for ten years, however, the ratio of the census, twelve +and a half per cent.] + +If we turn now to the reports of the Commissioners of Police, the +returns are almost equally encouraging, though the classification of +arrests does not exactly correspond with that of imprisonments; that is, +a person may be arrested for vagrancy, and sentenced for some other +offense, and _vice versa._ + +The reports of arrests of female vagrants ran thus:-- + +1861....................2,161 +1862....................2,008 +1863....................1,728 +1867....................1,591 +1869....................1,078 +1870......................701 +1871......................914 + +We have not, unfortunately, statistics of arrests farther back than +1861. + +Another crime of young girls is thieving or petty larceny. The rate of +commitments runs thus for females:-- + +1859......................944 +1860......................890 +1861......................880 +1863....................1,133 +1864....................1,131 +1865......................877 +1869......................989 +1870......................746 +1871......................572 + +The increase of this crime daring the war, in the years 1863 and 1864, +is very marked; but in twelve years it has fallen from 944 to 572, +though, according to the increase of the population, it would have been +naturally 1,076. + +Another heading on the prison records is "Juvenile delinquency," which +may include any form of youthful offense not embraced in the other +terms. Under this, in 1860, were two hundred and forty (240) females; in +1870, fifty-nine (59). + +The classification of commitments of those under fifteen years only runs +back a few years. The number of little girls imprisoned the past few +years is as follows:-- + +1863......................408 +1864......................295 +1865......................275 +1868......................239 +1870......................218 +1871......................212 + + CRIMES CHECKED AMONG THE BOYS + +The imprisonment, of males, for offenses which boys are likely to +commit, though not so encouraging as with the girls, shows that juvenile +crime is fairly under control in this city. Thus, "Vagrancy" must +include many of the crimes of boys; under this head we find the +following commitments of males:-- + +1859..........2,829 +1860..........2,708 +1862..........1,203 +1864..........1,147 +1865..........1,350 +1870..........1,140 +1871............984 + +In twelve years a reduction from 2,829 to 994, when the natural increase +should have been up to 3,225. + +Petty larceny is a boy's crime; the record stands thus for males:-- + +1857..........2,450 +1859..........2,626 +1860..........2,575 +1865..........2,347 +1869..........2,338 +1870..........2,168 +1871..........1,978 + +A decrease in fourteen years of 502, when the natural increase should +have brought the number to 2,861. + +Of boys under fifteen imprisoned, the record stands thus since the new +classification:-- + +1864..........1,965 +1865..........1,934 +1869..........1,873 +1870..........1,625 +1871..........1,017 + +Of males between fifteen and twenty, in our city prisons, the following +is the record:-- + +1857..........2,592 +1859..........2,636 +1860..........2,207 +1861..........2,408 +1868..........2,927 +1870..........2,876 +1871..........2,936 + +It often happens that youthful criminals are arrested who are not +imprisoned. The reports of the Board of Police will give us other +indications that, even here, juvenile crime has at length been +diminished in its sources. + + ARRESTS. + +The arrests of pickpockets run thus since 1861, the limit of returns +accessible:-- + +1861............466 +1862............300 +1865............275 +1867............345 +1868............348 +1869............303 +1870............274 +1871............313 + +In ten years a reduction of 153 in the arrests of pickpockets. + +In petty larceny the returns stand thus in brief:-- + +1862..........4,107 +1865..........5,240 +1867..........5,269 +1870..........4,909 +1871..........3,912 + +A decrease in nine years of 195. + +Arrests of girls alone, under twenty:-- + +1863..........3,132 +1867..........2,588 +1870..........1,993 +1871..........1,820 + +It must be plain from this, that crime among young girls is decidedly +checked, and among boys is prevented from increasing with population. + +If our readers will refer back to these dry but cheering tables of +statistics, they will see what a vast sum of human misery saved is a +reduction, in the imprisonment of female vagrants, of more than five +thousand in 1871, as compared with 1869. How much homelessness and +desperation spared! how much crime and wretchedness diminished are +expressed in those simple figures! And, if we may reckon an average of +punishment of two months' detention to each of those girls and women, we +have one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars saved in one year to +the public by preventive agencies in this class of offenders alone. + +The same considerations, both of economy and humanity, apply to each of +the results that appear in these tables of crime and punishment. + +No outlay of money for public purposes which any city or its inhabitants +can make, repays itself half so well as its expenses for charities which +prevent crime among children. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + + THE CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE WORK. + +In reviewing these long-continued efforts for the prevention of crime +and the elevation of the neglected youth of this metropolis, it may aid +others engaged in similar enterprises to note in summary the principles +on which they have been carried out, and which account for their marked +success. + +In the first place, as has been so often said, though pre-eminently a +Charity, this Association has always sought to encourage the principle +of Self-help in its beneficiaries, and has aimed much more at promoting +this than merely relieving suffering. All its branches, its Industrial +Schools, Lodging-houses, and Emigration, aim to make the children of the +poor better able to take care of themselves; to give them such a +training that they shall be ashamed of begging, and of idle, dependent +habits, and to place them where their associates are self-respecting and +industrious. No institution of this Society can be considered as a +shelter for the dependent and idle. All its objects of charity work, or +are trained to work. The consequence is that this effort brings after it +none of the bad fruits of mere alms-giving. The poor do not become +poorer or less self-reliant under it; on the contrary, they are +continually rising out of their condition and making their own way in +the world. The laborer in this field does not feel, as in so many other +philanthropic causes, doubtful, after many years of labor, whether he +has not done as much injury as good. He sees constantly the wonderful +effect of these efforts, and he knows that, at the worst, they can only +fail of the best fruit, but certainly cannot have a bad result. + +From the commencement our aim has been to put these charitable +enterprises in harmony with natural and economic laws, assured that any +other plan of philanthropy must eventually fail. In this view we have +taken advantage of the immense demand for labor through our rural +districts, which alone gives a new aspect to all economical problems in +this country. Through this demand we have been enabled to accomplish our +best results, with remarkable economy. We have been saved the vast +expense of Asylums, and have put our destitute children in the child's +natural place--with a family. Our Lodging-houses also have avoided the +danger attending such places of shelter, of becoming homes for vagrant +boys and girls. They have continually passed their little subjects along +to the country, or to places of work, often forcing them to leave the +house. In requiring the small payments for lodging and meals, they put +the beneficiaries in an independent position, and check the habits and +spirit of pauperism. The Evening School, the Savings-bank, and the +Religious Meeting are continually acting on these children to raise them +from the vagrant class. The Industrial Schools, in like manner, are +seminaries of industry and teachers of order and self-help. + +All the agencies of the Society act in harmony with natural laws, and +touch the deepest springs of life and character. The forces underlying +them are the strongest forces of society--Religion, Education, +Self-respect, and love of Industry; these are constantly working upon +the thousands of poor children under our charge. Thus founded on simple +and natural principles, the Society has succeeded, because very earnest +men and women have labored in it, and because its organization has been +remarkably complete. + +The _employes_ have entered into its labors principally from love of its +objects, and then have been retained by a just and liberal treatment on +the part of the Trustees, and by each being made responsible for his +department, and gaining in the community something of the honor which +attends successful work. + +A strict system of accountability has been maintained, step by step, +from the lowest to the highest executive officer. Of many engaged in the +labors of this Association, it can be truly said, that no business or +commercial house was ever more faithfully and earnestly served, than +this charity has been by them. Indeed, some of them have poured forth +for it more vitality and energy than they would ever have done for their +personal interests. They have toiled day and night, week-days and +Sundays, and have been best rewarded by the fruit they have beheld. The +aim of the writer, as executive officer, has been to select just the +right man for his place, and to make him feel that that is his +profession and life-calling. Amid many hundreds thus selected, during +twenty years, he can recall but two or three mistaken choices, while +many have become almost identified with their labors and position, and +have accomplished good not to be measured. His principle has been to +show the utmost respect and confidence, but to hold to the strictest +accountability. Not a single _employe_, so far as he is aware, in all +this time, during his service, has ever wronged the Society or betrayed +his trust. One million of dollars has passed through the hands of the +officers of this Association during this period, and it has been +publicly testified [See testimony before the Committee on Charities of +the Senate of New York, 1871.] by the Treasurer, Mr. J. E. Williams, +President of the Metropolitan Bank, that not a dollar, to his knowledge, +has ever been misappropriated or squandered. + +A most important element of the success of this Charity have been, of +course, the character and influence of its Board of Trustees. + +It is difficult to speak of these gentlemen without seeming to use the +language of compliment; but, in making known to other cities the +peculiar organization which has been so successful in this, it must +always be remembered what the character of trustees should be, who bear +upon their shoulders so important a trust. These men are known through +the city and indeed in distant parts of the country, as showing in their +lives a profound and conscientious conviction of the responsibility +which wealth and ability are under to the community. They are the best +representatives of a class who are destined to give a new character to +our city--men of broad and liberal views on matters of practical +religion, full of humanity, sensible and judicious, educated to +appreciate culture and art, as well as business, with the true +gentleman's sense of self-respect and respect for others, a profound and +earnest spirit of piety, and that old Puritan perseverance which causes +them not "to turn their hand from the plow," however disagreeable the +task before them may be. Such men, when once morally imbued with the +needs of a cause, could make it succeed against any odds. + +Two or three men of their position, wealth, and ability, who should take +the moral interests of any class of our population on their hands, and +be in earnest in the thing, could not fail to accomplish great results. +When they began to appear in our Board, I felt that, under any sort of +judicious management, it was morally certain we should perfect a wide +and permanent organization, and secure most encouraging results. + +A great service, which has been accomplished by these gentlemen, has +been in tabulating our accounts, and putting them under a most thorough +system of examination and checking, and in allotting our various +branches to each trustee for inspection. Many of the trustees, also, +have their religious meetings at the Lodging-houses, which they +individually lead and take charge of during the winter. They are thus +brought in direct contact with the necessities of the poor children. + +To no one, however, is the public so much indebted as to our treasurer, +Mr. J. E. Williams. + +For nearly twenty years this charity has been the dearest object of his +public efforts, the field of his humanity and religion. During all this +time he has managed gratuitously the financial affairs of the Society; +begged money when we were straitened, and borrowed it when temporarily +embarrassed; never for a moment doubting that, if the work were +faithfully done, the public would support it. At the end of this period +(1872), having spent over a million of dollars, and requiring now some +one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars per annum for our various +branches, we find ourselves without a dollar of debt. + + THE SECTARIAN DANGER. + +One rock, which the manager of such a movement must always steer clear +of, is the sectarian difficulty. He must ignore sects, and rest his +enterprise on the broadest and simplest principles of morality and +religion. The animating force must be the religious, especially the +"enthusiasm of humanity" shown in the love for Christ, and for all who +bear His image. But dogmatic teachings, and disputations, and sectarian +ambitions, are to be carefully eschewed and avoided in such efforts of +humanity. The public must learn gradually to associate the movement, not +with any particular sect or church, but with the feeling of humanity and +religion--the very spirit of Christ Himself. + +An essential thing, and often very disagreeable, to the earnest worker +in it, is to give the utmost publicity to all its operations. The reason +of this is, that such a charity depends for support and friends, not on +an organized private association, but on the whole public. They need to +know all its doings; this is often the only way of reminding them of +their duty in this field. Moreover, the moneys spent are public trusts, +and all that relates to their uses should be publicly known. + +Gradually, by publicity, the general community come to have something of +the same moral interest in the enterprise, that the special attendants +of a church have in its welfare; and it becomes a truly public interest. +To attain this, the press should be the great agency, as well as the +pulpit, wherever practicable. Annual reports, designed for all classes, +wherein there are figures for the statistical, facts for the doubting, +incidents for the young, and principles stated for the thoughtful, +should be scattered far and wide. + +As the organization grows, State-aid should be secured for a portion of +its expenses, that a more permanent character may be given it, and it +may not be suddenly too much crippled by a business depression or +disaster. + +Of the modes in which money should be raised, I have already spoken. In +all these matters, the general rule of wisdom is to avoid "sensation," +and to trust to the settled and reasonable conviction of the public, +rather than to temporary feeling or excitement. + +Founded on such principles, and guided by men of this character and +ability, and by those of similar purposes who shall come after them, +there seems no good reason why this extended Charity should not scatter +its blessings for generations to come throughout this ever-increasing +metropolis. + +To those now serving in it, no thought can be sweeter, when their +"change of guard" comes, than that the humble organization of humanity +and Christian kindness, which, amid many labors and sacrifices, they +aided to found, will spread good-will and intelligence and relief and +religious light to the children of the unfortunate and the needy, long +years after even their names are forgotten; and for monument or record +of their work, they cannot ask for more enduring than young lives +redeemed from crime and misery, and young hearts purified and ennobled +by CHRIST, and many orphans' tears wiped away, and wounds of the lonely +and despairing "little ones" of the world healed through +instrumentalities which they assisted to plant, and which shall continue +when they are long gone. + + END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dangerous Classes of New York, by +Charles Loring Brace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DANGEROUS CLASSES OF NEW YORK *** + +***** This file should be named 33431.txt or 33431.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/4/3/33431/ + +Produced by Gary Sandino, from scans by Google. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/33431.zip b/33431.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2465c84 --- /dev/null +++ b/33431.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a85d9c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #33431 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33431) |