C. PREVENTION OF DELINQUENCY AND DEPENDENCY

An institution for boys needing "protection, assistance, and discipline," Boston, 1832

1. The Farm School, Thompson's Island

Charles Jackson et al., Report on the Establishment of a Farm School (Boston, 1832), pp. 3-8.

The Farm School, established in 1833, is still in existence and is now known as Thompson Island Academy.

. . . All who have considered the state of the poor among us are aware, that there is a considerable body of children in this city between the ages of seven and fourteen, who are growing up in idleness and hastening to crime; and for whose rescue no adequate or appropriate means are yet provided. These children are generally recognized and easily detected as truants from our public schools, and are such as we meet constantly in our streets and on our wharves, where they pass a large part of their time in stubborn vagrancy. Some of them are orphans, in whom little interest is felt by the poor and miserable connexions, on whom they hang as a heavy burthen. Some are the children of widows, whose time is so filled with labor to procure a mere subsistence, that their sons still more than their daughters are unavoidably neglected, and at seven, or even six years old, become unmanageable. Some, having lost their mothers, are left to the care of fathers, whose means and opportunities for domestic control are yet less effectual than those of widows. Some have intemperate or profligate parents, and suffer, of course, from the disorder and misery to which they were born. And some are children of the ignorant, inefficient and helpless, who seem, almost from nature, incapable of fulfilling discreetly the commonest duties of life. But all of them, from these and other causes, are daily and hourly exposed to the contagion of vice, and growing up in idle and ruinous habits, from which, perhaps a few may, by fortunate circumstances, be reclaimed before they arrive at manhood, while by far the greater part will be hurried to an early death, the victims of intemperance and want, or live on only to prey upon the community, fill our Almshouses and Prisons, and increase the burthens and crimes of the State.

But, for this whole class, there are now no means of safety and restoration provided. For while, on the one hand, the Boy's Asylum rarely receives any so old, and never any tainted with the faults which are already beginning to be developed in this unhappy class; – on the other hand, the House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders is closed against them, since none are received there, who have not been convicted of some offence before a Court of Justice. So that, singular as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that the very class most needing protection, assistance, and discipline, and who will best reward them; – the class, we mean, of the quite young, who in poverty and neglect are just beginning to yield to the temptations of guilt, – is precisely the class for which no provision is made among us, either by the institutions of the Commonwealth and the city, or by those of private benevolence.

For this class of children, then, who are growing up to become the natural enemies and great burthen of the community, it is proposed to provide the asylum their peculiar situation needs, and to prepare them, while there, for lives of industry and usefulness. That the expense of such an asylum would ultimately prove a great economy, none can doubt; since it would take an evil yet small and eradicate it, instead of waiting till it has grown formidable and perhaps unmanageable, and then attempt to alleviate, without hoping to cure it, by the costly apparatus of Alms-houses, Houses of Correction, and Prisons, which already press with such an unwelcome and portentous weight on the resources of society. The plan for doing this, which is suggested in the preceding resolution and was more fully developed in the discussion, by which it was originally accompanied, is very simple, and, as the committee think, in all respects, well suited to its purpose. It is proposed to form the school of such boys between the ages of seven and fourteen as their parents or legal guardians may surrender during the remainder of their minority, or the directors of the school may think fit to receive; – those who are younger than seven, being thought to require a more personal and tender care than could well be given in such an institution, besides being incompetent to the labor it requires; while those who are older than fourteen, might bring with them habits and opinions injurious to their associates, and demanding a more rigorous discipline than it would be desirable to introduce. – It is proposed to remove these boys from the city, and, therefore, from all their usual temptations, haunts and companions; and to place them on a Farm, where some of the more common mechanic trades may be practised; so that the labors, in which they will be daily instructed and engaged, either in gardening, agriculture or the useful arts will contribute to their health and support, and tend, at the same time, to form in them habits of industry and order, and prepare them to earn their own livelihood. It is proposed to fill up the time not needed for manual labor, rest and recreation, with instruction in the elementary knowledge usually communicated in our common schools, so as to fit them for the occupations, to which they will probably be afterwards called. And finally, when they shall be found to have gone through the discipline and education intended by this school, it is proposed to bind out at an age not younger than fourteen, those who may have been surrendered to the directors; generally indenting them to farmers, but sometimes to mechanics and others, under whom they may be qualified to enter with advantage on the labors of life as honest and useful men.

It is proposed, that the whole establishment, as far as its external government, the making of rules and orders for its management, and the appointment of its master and his assistants, are concerned, should be placed under a Board of Directors to be annually chosen by the shareholders; and that it should be situated so near the town as to enable the Directors easily to oversee it, and yet so far off as to discourage the visits of the connexions and former associates of its pupils. As far as its internal management and discipline are concerned, it is proposed to place it under a head master and such assistants as experience may show to be needful, who shall supply, as far as possible, that parental and domestic control, which the children committed to their care may before have failed to receive; and who shall endeavor to form and cultivate in them those religious and moral principles, and those habits of industry, order, and fidelity to duty, which shall fit them to become good and useful men and citizens.

It is believed, that such a school, while it would be a great benefit to the children educated in it, and to the community from which they would be taken, would, out of the labor of its own pupils, furnish a large part of the means for its own support. It is believed, that we can thus take those unfortunate children of our city, who are without the protection of efficient and faithful parents, and give them the best substitute for it; – that we can take those who are growing up in ignorance and all its evils, and give them instruction; – and, finally, that we can take those, who are now in the midst of temptation and vice, and destined soon to spread mischief around them; and prepare them for the duties and labors to which they will be called as men and as Christians. And if this can be done, – as we believe it can, – not only will the children themselves receive a: great benefit, but we shall directly promote the chief ends of society, by the prevention of evil, misery and crime, and by increasing the security of life and property.

CHARLES JACKSON, Chairman,

                        WILLIAM PRESCOTT                                                                                                        GEORGE BOND,

                        J. TUCKERMAN                                                                                                                  GEORGE TICKNOR,

                        P. T. JACKSON                                                                                                                    JAMES BOWDOIN,

                        JOHN TAPPAN                                                                                                                    W. C. WOODBRIDGE,

                        S. T. ARMSTRONG                                                                                                              E. M. P. WELLS.

                        MOSES GRANT

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne visits the Farm School, 1837

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the American Notebooks (Boston, 1884), II, 89-90

Monday, August 27th. – Went to Boston last Wednesday. . . – An excursion aboard a steamboat to Thompson's Island, to visit the Manual Labor School for boys. . . Examination and exhibition of the boys, little tanned agriculturists. After examination, a stroll around the island, examining the products, as wheat in sheaves on the stubble-field; oats, somewhat blighted and spoiled; great pumpkins elsewhere; pastures; mowing ground; – all cultivated by the boys. Their residence, a great brick building, painted green, and standing on the summit of a rising ground, exposed to the winds of the bay. Vessels flitting past; great ships, with intricacy of rigging and various sails; schooners, sloops, with their one or two broad sheets of canvas: going on different tacks, so that the spectator might think that there was a different wind for each vessel, or that they scudded across the sea spontaneously, whither their own wills led them. The farm boys remain insulated, looking at the passing show, within sight of the city, yet having nothing to do with it; beholding their fellow-creatures skimming by them in winged machines, and steamboats snorting and puffing through the waves. Methinks an island would be the most desirable of all landed property, for it seems like a little world by itself; and the water may answer instead of the atmosphere that surrounds planets. The boys swinging, two together, standing up, and almost causing the ropes and their bodies to stretch out horizontally. On our departure, they ranged themselves on the rails of the fence, and, being dressed in blue, looked not unlike a flock of pigeons

A child placement agency, Boston, 1849-1856

Unpublished records of the Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute, now Parents' and Children's Services of Children's Mission, Office of the Mission, Boston.

In 1849 Unitarian clergymen and superintendents and teachers of Sunday schools organized a mission for "destitute and morally exposed children" to be supported in part by contributions of children in the Unitarian Sunday schools of Boston. The mission maintained a temporary home from which children were passed on to jobs and foster homes. John E. Williams, first president of the mission, later moved to New York City and helped organize the New York Children's Aid Society. Joseph E. Barry, whose title was children's missionary, served the mission for fifty years. The following are extracts from Barry's abbreviated case records and an undated advertisement placed by the Children's Mission.

William B. 13 years, American. Mother a widow very poor. This lad is very active intelligent boy. Jonathan Brown & Son, Marblehead, Mass. has taken the lad to learn the shoe business. Both parties are well satisfied. I have seen him once since his going to Mass. he seems much attached to his new home. April 2, 1851.

Patrick B., 13 years. Parents very worthy – has a brother in state prison for robbery. Patrick has been idle around the streets for months, and his parents fear that he would get into trouble. Mr. George Emerson of South Hanson, has taken him to learn the shoe business. This boy was associated with a large number of very bad boys – some of them have been arrested for theft. Mr. Emerson says he is a smart boy to work with. June 1851.

Richard B., 15 years – has been absent from school several months, his mother represented him to be a very disobedient boy. I called at his home in Sullivan place and had some conversation with him. I called to see Mr. Brown, a printer and he took him into his employ November 28, 1851.

Blackwell E., 15 yrs. of age, American, residing in C Street. His parents were very poor – the father intemperate. They kept a small shop in one corner of the room. They had four children – a girl of 14, and one of 10 and a boy of 4 yrs. May – 14 yrs. of age, was reported to the Marshall as a very unruly girl. I got the children into my Sabbath School where they remained several months. I then saw that the children could not be benefited as long as they remained on C Street. I urged the parents to go to the country, assisted them to get to Wareham, Mass. where they now remain, 1849; They were [still] there Jan. 20, 1852.

William B., 14 yrs. found him living in C Street with his mother and stepfather, who was very sick; visited them several times until they died. The mother and husband had been very intemperate. The mother kept a milliner shop on Wash Street. They were in good circumstances but a life of dissipation brought her into extreme poverty. They lived in one room in an attic in C Street. They kept two sons. William was a very bad boy, would stay out nights pilfer etc. Mr. Cox of Lynnfield has him – he is a good boy – 1850.

John B., 13 years, Irish. Dr. Bigelow sent him in the country, to a place. The name is forgotten. 1851.

Thomas B., American 13 yr. of age – a good boy; parents poor, sent him to Mr. Joseph Russell, West Needham, to work on shoes part of the time, and on the farm, June 20, 1851.

John C., 15 yrs. – orphan from Nova Scotia, has been in Boston for a few weeks. Mr. Poole of Milton has taken him to learn the Carriage Smith business July 8, 1850.

Phillip C., 13 yrs., American, to learn farming and shoemaking with Joseph Russell of West Needham. April 12, 1851.

Sarah R., 10 years of age – American, orphan – found in the street begging for work, her parents were both intemperate, a very bright girl – sent her to the home from which she has been adopted. May 1854.

A girl seven years – C – Mother a Prostitute living in Ann Street – has been in the house of correction several times – a woman acquainted with her says she has no affection for her offspring; the girl is very intelligent – took her to the home – she has been adopted into a very worthy family. May 1854.

Miss A.W., 15 – parents have ill-used her very much; father forbid her to come to his house. Mrs. Joyce, Boylston Square, has taken her into her family; she gives a good character of the girl.

David N., guilty of stealing; sent him a voyage to California and Calcutta. One year's voyage. (1854)

Henry S. 12 years of age – stopping with his uncle 8 Charter Street – this boy's mother died a few weeks ago and left four children with a very worthy father who is in feeble health to look after him. Rev. Jas. F. Clarke has known the family for years and recommends them very highly. Mr. Charles Hood of Dorchester has taken Henry to bring up – a very good home for him. (1854)

A rich farmer in Pittsfield, N.H. took a boy and girl from the poorhouse on Deer Island. I spent some time in urging him to take these children – the girl had been sentenced by the court. They will have a good home. June 25, 1854.

Ellen T. 12 years of age – father a very worthy man, who died a few weeks ago leaving seven children. The mother a very indifferent woman. The children were very unruly, and it is expedient that they should be separated. Mrs. Butts, Carter Farm, Chelsea has taken her until she is 18 years of age. September 2, 1854.

Charles D. 17 yrs. – from jail- bailed out by Rev. A. Bigelow – offense stealing. May & Co. Westbrookfield, Mass. has taken him to learn the printing business, Oct. 17, 1854. Doing finely in 1856.

George Austin Smith, age 11 years, American. Father separated from his wife. George is a very unruly boy. Played truant from school several times – after visiting the father several times I obtained his consent to have him go to Farm school. November 20, 1854.

George K. American, mother residing in Cambridgeport. George has been provided with a number of places, but his waywardness was such that he did not remain but a short time. He has been idling away his time for several months and it was feared he would get into bad company. After seeing

Mrs. K. several times she was finally induced to send him to sea. He sailed today in a ship Oceaniaca for South America. He called at the office to take his leave and I gave him some tracts and a testament. April 6, 1855.

Simon P. and Melinda M., age 7 years and 9 years – Father in the house of correction where he has spent several terms. The mother is one of the most depraved women I have ever visited – intemperate and licencious has frequently sent her children to purchase rum, and had intercourse with men in her own house. The eldest son 13 yrs. left his mother a few weeks ago in consequence of her treatment to him – has thrown an axe at him, sticks of wood, and cruelly beaten him. He came to us for protection; Mrs. Barry very gladly complied with his request. He was sent to a place in B. – His last word to Mrs. Barry were take my brother and sister from Mother. After calling on the mother more than twenty-five times I prevailed upon her to give me the children. The mother exchanged the rice that I gave her for rum. The children are in the home at Kneeland Street and appeared very happy. February 23, 1856.

George M. English, orphan – has been living with Mr. DeWitt, a blind man, who beat him most unmercifully. Called to see him but did not get much satisfaction. The lad has an only sister, a poor girl who has paid his board for four weeks. I clothed him up, and sent him to D. Chickerings in Dover. Farmer Mr. C. has brought up two boys of mine. February 7, 1856.

James M., 12 years of age -Father Mad, Mother residing at Bartlett Street. She has five children, very poor. This is a very promising boy good disposition. And will make useful young man. Mr. Elisha Hopkins of Orleans, – Mass. has taken him until he is 21 years' of age. This Same gentleman took a lad from me seven years ago who was an orphan and without any home. He was obliged to sleep out nights. He came up to me in the street and represented his condition saying that he had attended my Sunday school. He was a pitiful looking object. Mr. Hopkins said he never had occasion to speak a cross word to him. David C. was the boy's name. He has proved very studious and is a promising young man. Mr. Hopkins will do well by James. May 15, 1856.

James G. age 10 years. (Irish) orphan without any home, playing about the streets. An Irishwoman took him into her house in Madison Place who sent him to get coal in a Providence transportation yard. He stole some coal. I took him to my home fed and clothed him and sent him to Miss N. A. Drew, Newington, N.H. September 16, 1856.

Joseph M. aged 13 years. American orphan, parents died of intemperance. Mr. Willett, overseer of the poor sent this lad to my office. His nakedness was scarcely covered by his overcoat and he exhibited a very wretched appearance. Took him to my house and kept him ten days. Mr. Roland G. Paine of Marshfield, Mass. has taken him in; this is a bitter cold day. January 10, 1856.

William Wilcot wife and two children sent to Dover, Mass. Mr. Wilcot has been intemperate for years not truthful and a very lazy man. He has permanent work. It is a great blessing to remove such a family from our midst. I begged $2 from Mr. Berry, overseer of the poor, also a pair of stockings from wife.

Newspaper advertisement of Children's Mission, ca. 1855

Places wanted for orphan and destitute boys and girls. Is there any kind and good farmer or mechanic or any good man or woman who'll give a place to a deserving orphan or destitute boy, – one willing to work and anxious to find a position where he can be taught some trade by which he can earn a living and make, his way in the world?

The Children's Mission has now under its care boys from seven ,to fourteen years old wanting places, – good boys who can be recommended, all healthy and active; also one boy strong and well but lame, a good boy who must be taught some trade.

Also for adoption three nice healthy boys, one four and two seven years of age.

No better deed can be done by any man or woman than to give a home to one of these little ones, or a place to one of these boys where he can be assisted to grow up capable of taking care of himself and filling his proper position in the community.

Whoever reads this will please consider it a personal appeal to take an interest in one of these cases, and if not in a position to take one of the boys themselves, then to try and induce some neighbor or friend to do so.

Any friend who aids one of these destitute children will have the lifelong satisfaction of having helped to save a child, and of having done a great service to the community at large. Any person interested in the above, and willing to aid in any manner, is requested to call at the office of the Children's Mission, or to address by mail, William Crosby, Superintendent of the Children's Mission to the Children of the Destitute. No. 277 Tremont Street, Boston.

The probation movement in Boston, 1846-1865

1. John Augustus describes his efforts to keep children out of Boston's jails, 1846-1850

John Augustus, A Report of the Labors of John Augustus, for the Last Ten Years, in Aid of the Unfortunate (Boston, 1852), pp. 33-35, 95-96.

Augustus (1785-1859), a shoemaker by trade, often called the first probation officer, had no official position with the Boston courts. He began parole work with adults in 1841.

During the year 1846 I became bail to the amount of about $3000, in the Police Court, having bailed between sixty and seventy persons. That year I became surety for eleven boys, who were arrested for larceny; they were young, being from nine to thirteen years old. I also bailed ten other boys, from thirteen to sixteen years of age, and also nine girls, from fourteen to eighteen years old, who were arraigned for various offences, chiefly for larceny. By a decision of the Court upon my motion, the cases of these children were to be continued, but the question of the term of continuance caused considerable discussion. I always urged a protracted continuance, but Mr. Parker [District Attorney for Suffolk County] was extremely anxious to have the cases disposed of as early as possible. I wished ample time to test the promises of these youth to behave well in the future. Judge Cushing was disposed to allow such cases to stand continued from term to term, and if at the expiration of a certain period, a good report was given of their behavior during the time they had been on probation, their sentences were very light.

This year my labor was extremely arduous and every moment of my time was occupied. In addition to the calls upon my attention at court, and in procuring suitable places of employment for the females whom I bailed, a new avenue seemed to be opened; a great many females, young and old, whom I had not seen at court, called upon me to ask assistance in some form or other. Of this class I was called upon, and provided temporary homes for forty females during the year. The whole number of persons bailed in both courts was one hundred and forty-four.

The girls whom I bailed were with one exception, all discharged at the expiration of their term of probation, by the payment of a nominal fine; the girl who was not discharged, was sentenced to the House of Correction. The boys were all discharged in the same way.

In 1847, I bailed nineteen boys, from seven to fifteen years of age, and in bailing them it was understood, and agreed by the court, that their cases should be continued from term to term for several months, as a season of probation; thus each month at the calling of the docket, I would appear in court, make my report, and thus the cases would pass on for five or six months. At the expiration of this term, twelve of the boys were brought into court at one time, and the scene formed a striking and highly pleasing contrast with their appearance when first arraigned. The judge expressed much pleasure as well as surprise, at their appearance, and remarked, that the object of the law had been accomplished, and expressed his cordial approval of my plan to save and reform. Seven of the number were too poor to pay a fine, although the court fixed the amount at ten cents each, and of course I paid it for them; the parents of the other boys were able to pay the cost, and thus the penalty of the law was answered. The sequel thus far shows, that not one of this number has proved false to the promises of reform they made while on probation. This incident proved conclusively, that this class of boys could be saved from crime and punishment, by the plan which I had marked out, and this was admitted by the judges in both courts.

Great care was observed of course, to ascertain whether the prisoners were promising subjects for probation, and to this end it was necessary to take into consideration the previous character of the person, his age and the influences by which he would in future be likely to be surrounded, and although these points were not rigidly adhered to, still they were the circumstances which usually determined my action. In such cases of probation it was agreed on my part, that I would note their general conduct, see that they were sent to school or supplied with some honest employment, and that I should make an impartial report to the court, whenever they should desire it.

This course adopted by the court I hailed as one extremely favorable to the success of my efforts, and I soon found, that it spared me an immense amount of labor which I should otherwise have been compelled to perform; I was pleased too, to observe that the opposition on the part of the District Attorney was gradually and rapidly giving way. But the toil thus saved was required in another manner, for I had frequent occasion to provide indigent girls with suitable places, and often young females were brought to my house, sometimes late at night, who required a shelter, and frequently these cases were extremely urgent; although by no means situated in a manner suited to open an asylum of this kind, I accommodated them as well as my humble means would allow. That year I took seven young girls from houses of ill-fame; these girls were from ten to thirteen years of age, the most of whom had been placed there by applications at intelligence offices. For these children I was obliged to incur considerable expense, in providing them with a temporary home. Sometimes young girls were brought to my house by express-men and cabmen, who felt a kind interest in their welfare.

In August, 1850, as I was walking around in Leveret street jail, I found a small boy who was crying. I asked him why he was there, and he said he did not know. I inquired of the officers and they informed me that he was there on charge of committing a rape; at first, I paid no attention to the reply, thinking of course, that the statement was false, but I afterwards learned, that such was the fact. He was but seven years old. I proceeded directly to court, and informed his Honor, Judge Hoar, who was then presiding, of the fact. The judge immediately issued a capias and the child was brought into court. By advice, he pleaded not guilty. A jury was impanneled in the case, and though the presumption was that the judge's instruction to the jury would result in the boy's acquittal, just as the trial was about to proceed, I told the judge that I thought it a shame and a disgrace to all present to proceed with the case; his Honor asked what could be done; I replied, "let him be sent to his mother and placed in her lap"; I stated that I would bail him, and to this the court readily assented. I bailed him, then moved to have the indictment placed on file, which was done, and I carried the child to his home in Chelsea. This is the only case where I became bail when the indictment was laid on file on a plea of not guilty, except perhaps, when parties have died. The Grand Jury were not aware that the charge which they investigated was against so young a child. The girl upon whom the assault was alleged to have been committed was but ten years old.

I have bailed persons charged with all sorts of crimes bailable on the Statute book, but only now and then a case like the above. Some people will insist that I do more harm than good in bailing so many. They say it is of no use to complain of boys or girls, or women, for I manage to get them discharged; that all sorts of crimes, even rape and highway robbery, may be committed with impunity, and I will bail them. But this representation is false. I have indeed bailed a party charged with the crime of rape, and also in a case of highway robbery, and as I have related the former, I will briefly give the other.

Sometime during the year 1847, two boys were at play on the Tremont road, and finally got to quarreling; one seized the other's cap, and the other in return took six cents from the first; they then separated. Soon after, the first returned with the cap, and claimed the six cents, but the boy who had taken the money was not disposed to give it up, and a prosecution at the Police Court was the consequence of the refusal. The boy was arrested on a charge of committing highway robbery, and was confined in jail. His father applied to me to bail him, and I did so; afterwards the parents of the boys, by consent of the court, settled the matter satisfactorily to themselves; and here ended the great highway robbery case. One of the boys was nine, and the other ten years old. In former times a birch rod would have been law and gospel to them both.

2. Saving children from jail in Boston during the Civil War

Boston Children's Aid Society, First Report of the Executive Committee (Boston, 1865), pp. 5-8, 12-16.

A year has nearly passed since we first collected our family at Pine Farm; and we feel that some account of its condition is due to those who take an interest in it, and have contributed to its support.

Its purpose – as is well known to the subscribers – is to take from the streets, boys, from seven to twelve years of age, who are living in such exposed and neglected circumstances, as to be likely to fall into vicious habits, or those who have already taken the first step into crime; and, in place of the wild life they have been leading, to train them for a while, as in a family, with love and religious care; to place them, if possible, in better circumstances, and to maintain an oversight and influence upon them after they leave us.

These boys are brought to us, by Mr. Rufus R. Cook, usually from the Police Court, or the custody of the Truant Officers. Mr. Cook is Chaplain of Suffolk County Jail, and also agent of our Association. He is a most kind friend to the poor stray children whom he picks up, and his good influence is felt throughout our little household.

Some of our boys had fathers or protectors in the service of the Government. Many children will be left fatherless and uncared for, after the losses and destruction of the war; and to whom does the country owe so deep a debt as to these?

We hope, that, before costly and permanent asylums are built for them, it will be considered whether their welfare is not best secured in temporary institutions like. . . our Farm, from which they can be distributed in private families.

We add a short account of Mr. Cook's labors in connection with the society.

When the Association was first organized, Mr. Cook consented to act as its agent in behalf of boys confined in the jail. By his desire, and with Sheriff Clark's permission, some members of the Association visited the jail weekly, to distribute books from the library to the boys; to talk with them, and to gain their confidence, in the hope of helping them to a better course when they left the jail.

The assistance of a regular visitor was found necessary; and we engaged the services. . . of Miss Burnham. It has been a large part of Miss Burnham's work to inquire about the previous character and the homes of the boys who are brought up for trial. Mr. Cook is in daily attendance at the Police Court, and at the monthly sittings of the Superior Court. His opinion is usually consulted, and has great influence as to the disposition to be made of young offenders; and his judgment is much guided by the accounts furnished him by Miss Burnham. This, with the visiting in jail, which has of late fallen mainly upon her, and visiting the boys whom Mr. Cook has put on probation, or any children whom he wishes her to inquire about, comprise the duties which Miss Burnham performs, with much energy and excellent judgment.

Mr. Cook's labors have a much larger scope. He is, as has been said, in Court every day, and present at the trials of all children brought there. He studies their cases; and when he thinks that there is good hope of their amendment, without further punishment, he gives bail for them, or gets the judge to put them on probation. He has thus bailed many boys, saving them from the injurious effect of an imprisonment in jail.

It may not be generally understood, that there are two classes of boys in jail. One class consists of those children who have been tried and sentenced in the Police Court, and who, in consequence of non-payment of fines, are held in jail for various periods of time, from a few days to several months. Boys of the other class are charged with offences that must be tried in the Superior Court. They are detained in the jail from the time of their arrest till the next sitting of the Court. They are often very young, but eight or nine years old, and may have to wait some weeks for trial.

Mr. Cook's kindness embraces all of these boys, and not these alone, but every stray child that reaches his hand. Many friendless and destitute children are brought to him by the Police and Truant Officers, of whom he disposes in various ways. He has within a year sent fifty-seven such children to the Catholic Home, which has been lately opened at 19, High Street.

1. Public-private cooperation for the care of vagrant and neglected children

New York Juvenile Asylum, Eleventh Annual Report (New York, 1863), pp. 50-63.

The Juvenile Asylum was intended for beggars, truants, and waifs formerly – for want of more suitable institutions – sent to the almshouses or House of Refuge. The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (A.I.C.P.) was instrumental in organizing the Juvenile Asylum; the incorporators included persons active in the A.I.C.P. and the New York Prison Association. The charter, granted in June 1851, was amended in 1854, 1856, and 1857.

Sec. 1. Robert B. Minturn. . . [and 23 others] and their associates, are hereby constituted a body corporate, by the name of "New York Juvenile Asylum" . . .

Sec. 2 . . . The objects of this corporation are to receive and take charge of such children, between the ages of seven and fourteen years, as may be voluntarily entrusted to them by their parents or guardians, or committed to their care by competent authority, and provide for their support, and to afford them the means of moral, intellectual and industrial education.

Sec. 6. The corporation hereby created may, so soon as may be practicable, procure suitable building sites and lands, and erect and maintain thereon an asylum for such children as . . . may be entrusted or committed to the care and management of the said corporation.

Sec. 18. The said corporation shall have power, in its discretion, to bind out or indenture, as clerks or apprentices, to some profession, trade, or employment, the children entrusted or committed to its charge, and for a shorter or longer period, not exceeding, however, in the case of girls, the age of eighteen years; and, in that of boys, the age of twenty-one years.

Sec. 25. . . . The board of directors of the said corporation shall, on or before the fourth Monday of January, in each and every year, make a detailed report to the Legislature of the state and to the common council of the city of New York, of the whole number of children received into the asylum during the year, specifying their sex, place of nativity, age, residence, health at the time of admission, state of education, religious instruction, whether their parents are living or dead, temperate or intemperate, the time devoted to instruction, the nature and amount of punishment, the cases of disease, the number apprenticed or who shall have escaped, died, or, been restored to parents or guardians, or returned to the committing magistrate during the year, and also such information as they may have received of those who have been bound out or apprenticed, as well as the facts generally in relation to the performance of their duties, also their industrial occupations, with their results, the receipt and expenditures and financial condition of the corporation and its general operations, with their results.

Sec. 26. It shall be the duty of the Common Council of the city of New York, by committee or otherwise in its discretion, to visit and inspect the said New York Juvenile Asylum twice at least in each year.

Sec. 27. To provide the pecuniary means for the establishment and support of the said New York Juvenile Asylum, whenever it shall be proved to the board of supervisors of the city and county of New York, by the affidavit or affirmation of the president and secretary of the said asylum, that fifty thousand dollars in money or approved securities, have, by voluntary subscription or otherwise, been raised for the purposes of such asylum, and deposited to the credit of that corporation in one of the incorporated banks of the city of New York, or of the banks formed under the general banking law, the said board of supervisors may, in their discretion, raise and collect a like amount of fifty thousand dollars by tax upon the real and personal property of the said city and county, to be so levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as the contingent charges and expenses of the said city and county are levied and collected. Such moneys so raised by this corporation, and the said board of supervisors, to be together expended by said corporation in procuring the necessary buildings, sites and lands, in erecting and furnishing the necessary buildings, and in defraying the current expenses of the said asylum, until its permanent buildings shall be completed. [la]

Sec. 28. . . . In each and every year thereafter, the said board of supervisors shall, in the same manner, levy and collect by tax, and pay over to the said New York Juvenile Asylum, for the uses and purposes thereof, a sum not exceeding seventy-five dollars per annum, [1b] and proportionally for any fraction of a year, for each child which, by virtue and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, shall be entrusted or committed to the said asylum from the city and county of New York, and shall be supported and instructed therein; but the sum to be collected and paid by the said board of supervisors for each child so received, supported and taught, in said asylum, shall, in no case, exceed the lowest cost of support and government of a child of the same age in any of the public institutions at present under the care of the ten governors of the alms-house and prison department of the said city; the moneys so to be received from the said board of supervisors, together with all other moneys raised by the said New York Juvenile Asylum, to be applied to the payment of the current expenses, and for the perfect establishment and general support of the said asylum.

Sec. 29. . . . Whenever any child, properly chargeable upon the fund placed by law at the disposal of the commissioners of emigration, shall, agreeably to the provisions of this act, be received, supported and instructed in the said New York Juvenile Asylum, the said corporation shall be entitled to receive therefore, from that fund, sixty dollars per annum, and proportionally for any fraction of a year, for every such child so received, supported and instructed in said asylum, but in no case shall the sum so received exceed the lowest expense to the city and county of New York, of a child of the same age in any of the public institutions under the charge of the ten governors of the alms-house and prison departments of the said city and county.

Sec. 30. The schools established and maintained by the New York Juvenile Asylum, shall participate in the distribution of the common school fund, in the same manner and degree as the common schools of the city and county of New York.

1a. The legislature authorized additional grants of $20,000 in 1856 and 1858 on condition that the corporation raise a like amount through voluntary contributions.

1b. The figure was originally set at forty dollars per annum.

2. The rules of the house, 1853

New York Juvenile Asylum, First Annual Report (New York, 1853), pp. 19-22.

The Asylum commenced operations in January 1853. Its object, according to a later (1856) report was "not the establishment of a Juvenile Prison, or the subjection of unruly children to a merely punitive discipline; but. . . to found an Asylum, where the friendless child might find friends, the wayward child might be taught the great lesson of self-government, and all coming to it might be placed under kindly home influences, and be provided for well acting their part in the great drama of life."

1. All pupils when received shall be placed, as soon thereafter as the Superintendent shall direct, in the Probationary grade, and afterwards divided according to character and conduct, into four grades. The most exemplary being placed in the first grade; those who are less worthy, in the second; those who stand stil1lower, in the third; and the least tractable, in the fourth. Any pupil who may be proved guilty of profaneness, lying, stealing, attempting to escape from the Asylum, or any other grossly bad conduct may be expelled from the grades, for a longer or shorter period, according to the aggravation of the offence. Pupils under expulsion shall not be allowed any play or conversation, their food shall be bread and water, and when not at work or in school, they shall be confined in solitude. Pupils in the fourth grade shall be deprived of play and conversation. Those in the third grade may play and converse with each other, but not with the pupils in the other grades. Pupils in the second and first grades may converse and play together, and have the privilege of using the books in the library. From these two grades pupils may be selected as monitors, and for other places of confidence and honor. Pupils in the first grade may be distinguished by an appropriate badge, and be indulged with other privileges at the discretion of the Superintendent, under the general direction of the Board.

2. The punishment allowed in the Institution shall consist chiefly in bad marks, loss of grade, deprivation of play, and confinement in solitude. A regular account shall be opened with each pupil, in which he shall be charged with bad marks that he may have incurred for his faults, and credited with good marks that may be awarded him for meritorious conduct. The bad marks shall be settled for by good marks, or the infliction of such punishment as their number may require; and the good marks may be rewarded at the discretion of the Superintendent.

3. When a child is received into the Asylum, he shall, if necessary, be thoroughly washed, and decently clothed. If thought expedient, he may be kept apart from the other pupils, for a longer or shorter time, according to his age and habits of life. When a pupil is dismissed from the Asylum, with the approbation of the Board, he shall be furnished with a suit of decent and comfortable clothing, a Bible, and such good advice as he may be thought to stand most in need of. . . .

5. The work of the boys may consist of gardening, tailoring, shoe-making, the plaiting of straw and palm leaf, the manufacture of brass nails, and such other kinds of labor as may be approved by the Board of Directors. The girls shall be employed in cooking, washing, ironing, scouring, sewing, knitting, and such other kinds of work as may be suitable to their sex, and directed by the Board.

6. No play or conversation shall be allowed among the children, while engaged at their work, on parade, at meals, or after they have retired to their sleeping rooms.

7. The food of the children may consist of beef, mutton, fish, bread, rice, potatoes, hasty-pudding, milk, milk-porridge, and cocoa; subject to such additions and alterations as the Board may from time to time direct. On Christmas, New- Year's, and Thanks-giving days, and on the Fourth of July, the children may be allowed food of a better kind than usual, and be exempt for their ordinary occupations.

8. The children shall be required to wash their faces and hands, and have their heads combed, at least once a day. As often as once a week they shall wash their necks and feet, and change their shirts and socks; and, whenever the season will permit, they shall have the benefit of bathing. Personal cleanliness shall be rewarded, and the want of it punished, at the discretion of the Superintendent.

9. Every part of the house shall be swept daily, except on the Sabbath, and the floors scoured once a week, or oftener, if required. The beds and bed-clothing shall be kept clean, and nothing offensive shall be allowed to remain in any part of the house or yards.

10. No communication whatever shall be allowed between the boys and girls, nor shall they ever be permitted to pass into the apartments or yards of each other, unless directed to do so by an officer.

11. Permission may be obtained by citizens to visit the Asylum on Fridays only, between three and six o'clock in the afternoon, in summer; and from two to four o'clock, in winter. This rule shall be varied only for the accommodation of strangers temporarily in the city. And in all cases, a permit from one of the Directors shall be required for admission.

The last Thursday in January, April, July, and October, from one o'clock until five o'clock in the afternoon, shall be especially appropriated to the visits of the parents and friends of the children, under such restrictions as may be prescribed by the Superintendent. No conversation respecting the discipline of the Institution shall be allowed in the presence of the children, and no visitor shall be allowed to speak to a child without permission of an officer.

12. No boy not sent by public authority, shall be admitted into the Asylum, unless by the consent of two Directors; and unless the parent or guardian, if any there be, shall have surrendered him to the Institution, and shall also have entered into an obligation to receive him back, if after a trial of three months, the Directors shall choose to return him, and also not to interfere in the management of the child and not to visit him without the consent of a Director, nor ask or receive any compensation for his services, nor induce or attempt to induce any child to leave the Asylum, or the family, or station in which the Directors may place him. No pupil shall be retained in the Asylum who, from his character or other cause, is likely to interfere with the improvement of the pupils, or otherwise injuriously affect them.

13. When any parent or guardian shall desire to place a boy in the Asylum, and pay in whole or in part for his maintenance and education, the Board of Directors may in their discretion admit him on such terms and conditions as they shall think proper.

14. No relative or acquaintance of any pupil shall interfere in the management of the pupil, or be permitted to visit him except in presence of the Superintendent, unless by special permission of the Visiting Committee.

3. Indenture practices, 1860

New York Juvenile Asylum, Ninth Annual Report (New York, 1861), pp. 39-46.

The policy of the Juvenile Asylum was to keep children in the institution for a substantial period – six months to five years – before placing them in farm homes in the West.

New York, December 31, 1860. To the Chairman of the Indenturing Committee of the New York Juvenile Asylum:

During the last eighteen months, I have occupied the position of Indenturing Agent in your Institution, and have accompanied, in that capacity, eight companies of children to the West. The whole number of children was 290, of whom 210 were boys. One hundred and thirteen children have been provided with homes, mostly among the farmers of Champaign Co., Illinois, and the remaining 177 have been settled in Washington Co. and vicinity, about one hundred miles south of the first-named locality, in the same State.

The course generally pursued to provide homes for the children is as follows: A locality is visited, a Local Agent appointed, and notices posted in public places inviting farmers to make application for children, from three to six months previous to the time the company is ready to leave New York. These applications are received by the Local Agent, who, from time to time, advises us as to the progress of the list, and when a sufficient number of applications are received, a company is sent, varying in number from 25 to 45 children. On our arrival, a list is placed in my hands, and the merits of the applicants are thoroughly canvassed. To those who appear worthy, the children are intrusted for two to three days on trial, the object being to give the farmer a chance to judge more fully as to the disposition and character of the child, and also to let the child see the family, as well as the surroundings of the farm. It also gives an opportunity for further investigation as to the character of the applicant, should it be deemed necessary. On the day appointed, the farmer returns with the child, and if both' are well pleased with each other, and the farmer is well recommended, the child is indentured. In all cases the children are consulted as to their preferences, and often show considerable shrewdness in the selection of their future homes.

The placing of several successive companies in neighboring counties has a number of advantages, prominent among which are the perpetuation of the friendships among the children formed under good influences at the Asylum and developed in their new homes, the opportunities afforded for finding homes for brothers or sisters of children sent out in previous companies, who, by this means, can be settled in the same neighborhood, and the facilities which it affords for frequently hearing from and visiting them in their new homes. In this way, our children in the State of Illinois can be looked after and visited in one-third of the time that would be required to visit an equal number in the State of New York, where they would be more scattered. Often, while settling a company, visits are received from boys of former companies living from ten to twenty miles distant, whose employers readily grant them a holiday on the occasion. They generally come into town on horseback, and seem very much to enjoy their visit among their old friends. The little girls, also, are often brought in by their kind foster-parents. Nearly all the children are improved in health and personal appearance.

About two hundred of the children have been visited personally in their homes. This, though a work of great difficulty in a country where there are few guide-boards, and bad roads most of the year, has been an exceedingly interesting one. They are always glad to see me, and lead me over the farm, talking of wheat, corn, horses, and cattle with the air of old farmers. Sometimes the boys point out to me with pride their own horses, presented as a reward for good conduct by their foster-parents. One boy, of the company of February 1860, has two horses acquired in this way. Many of the little girls have received presents of lambs and calves, of which they seem equally proud.

                            Report of . . . Children Indentured in Illinois, in February, 1860.

No.      Condition when Admitted                                             Condition, August, 1860.

 1          Was arrested for theft; in the                                         Has an excellent home on a farm; is

Asylum three years.                                                      doing very well, and is much liked by his employer.

2          Was arrested for sleeping out; was                                No better boy in the county; is peaceable

in the Asylum nearly two years; his                                and quiet; his new foster-parents regard

mother dead.                                                                him with much affection, and speak of

him with great interest. They are wealthy peo­ple.

3          Small boy; his mother dead, and his                               Have not heard from this boy recently,

father intemperate; he was arrested                               but as there is no complaint to our.

for pilfering; in the Asylum two years.                            Agent, he is undoubtedly doing well.

4          Was surrendered by his father as a bad                         Very good boy; is obedient. Saw him at

boy; was in the Asylum six months.                               his home. He has a fine place with a good

                                                                                    farmer on a large farm; he likes the West very

                                                                                    much, and means to remain and make a man.

5          Parents both dead; got into the company                       Lives with a farmer who is very much

of bad boys, and his brother could not                           pleased with him; boy has learned to

manage him; he brought him to the                                 ride; does not study as diligently as his

Asylum as a bad boy; remained in the                            employer would like, but is more fond of

Asylum three and a half years.                                       out-door work; he is not required to work

                                                                                     in the hot weather, but his employer is anxious

                                                                                     to have him frequent his library and improve his

                                                                                       mind. He is quite wealthy, and has no children

                                                                                       of his own.

16        Parents both dead; had no home; gave                          Heard from a neighbor that he is still in

himself up; his habits were good; was in                         his place. He is well and doing well.

Asylum six months.

17        Brought in by his mother as a bad boy;                          Met his employer, who says that he is all

his father is dead.                                                          right; he made no complaint. A neighbor told

                                                                                    me that the boy has a strong temper.

18        Parents both dead; his father was of                              Visited him at his home in August. His

in­temperate habits; was placed in the                           employer says that there is not one boy

Asylum by his aunt, who could not care                         in fifty who would please them so much.

for him; remained thirty-three months.                           He has two horses of his own.

 At the time his name was proposed for the West,

 one of the Asylum Officers ex­pressed a doubt as

to whether his behavior had been sufficiently good

to enable him to recommend him. The boy hearing

of this, resolved to try doubly hard; and that he has

 so far succeeded, is manifest in the report.

19        Father intemperate; no home for the boy.                      Saw employer. Very smart boy, but is

not truthful; this is the only complaint. Boy is nine

 years of age.

20        Father dead, and mother unable to sup­port                    Saw employer, Boy doing pretty well; is

him; intellect dull; in Asylum five years.                            slow to learn; generally well behaved.

 21        Orphan; had no home; in Asylum two years.                  Has an excellent home with a farmer, an

  unusually good place; he is in the vicin­ity

 of several other Asylum boys. Hisem­ployer

 is pleased with him.

 22        Orphan boy; had no home; was in Asy­lum                  Too much indulged; .has been dishonest

seven months.                                                               and disobedient; he is still in his place, and

                                                                                   his employer promised to forgive him and

                                                                                   educate him, if he will reform. Saw him several times.

                                                                                    Advised a more rigid disci­pline in the future.

23        Parents both in the Tombs for intemper­ance;                 Saw his employer. Boy is very much

boy had no one to care for him; re­mained in                  liked, and he made no complaint; he

the Asylum one year.                                                     ap­pears to have quite an affection for the

 boy, who is only eight years of age.

24        Father intemperate, and mother dead; boy                     Quite a young farmer. Heard of him

had no home; was in the Asylum four years.                  several times. He is still in his place, and

doing finely. The neighbors consider him a good boy.

 Employer says he is "all right."

1. Objectives of the Children's Aid Society, 1853

Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York, pp.90-93.

After a period of service as a missionary in the Five Points District of New York City, Brace (1826-1890) helped organize the Children's Aid Society. He was the institution's general secretary from the time of its founding until his death.

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.

. . . 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 1852, 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 in 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, 1853.

2. Brace urges placing out rather than institutional care for destitute and vagrant children, 1859

Proceedings of the Second Convention of Managers and Superintendents of Houses of Refuge and Schools of Reform (New York, 1860), pp. 46-49.

The Children's Aid Society and the Juvenile Asylum each relied on "placing out" as the best method of dealing with destitute and vagrant children. The Children's Aid Society advocated moving the children west as rapidly as possible; the Juvenile Asylum, as noted above, believed that a period of training and taming in the institution must precede placement.

Mr. President: As one of the Committee who drew up the first topic under discussion – viz.: The distinction which should be observed between vagrancy and destitution, on the one hand, and crime, on the other – I would say, we had in view that there was everywhere a narrow line of distinction between these two sides. We felt that, with every poor boy and girl in a city like this, there is a certain line, beyond which if he proceeds, he is a criminal, and on this side of which he is peculiarly susceptible of reformatory and preventive influences. I suppose that this Convention, in considering that topic, will feel that our different institutions represented here are really concerned with different sides of this question. The House of Refuge is more especially concerned with the children who have passed that line; while the preventive societies are more interested in those who have not reached that vague shadowy line of distinction. Therefore, the great question with us who represent the preventive institutions is, What are the principles of treatment of children who have not become criminal – who have not come under the legal authority? I hope, on this occasion, to present a few facts which may have been overlooked by parties interested in this subject, and which, it seems to me, are often disregarded. I think, sir, that if we act with force upon the question of juvenile vagrancy, poverty, and crime, we must, in the first place, act in coincidence with the great laws of God. It will not do, even with the most complete theoretic system of reform, to go against what are natural principles – natural laws. . . We must consider that the Creator has established, for instance, the family institution. He has arranged it so that every human being is influenced more for good in the family than by any other influence in social life; and, therefore, no organization which deals with the young can hope to produce the best effect without using that institution in some form or other. . . In addition to considering these laws of God, we must also, in a country like this, consider the particular influences of our situation. America is very different from England or the Old World, in the influences it can bring to bear upon the poor. The whole question of reform here is a different one from what it is in the Old Country. I fear that our institutions are often copied too closely from the plans in use in the Old World. You know that in England, when a boy is brought into a public institution, and is trained there and reformed, the question is, what to do with him. They do not know where to put him, every branch of labor is so crowded. In this country we have an immense advantage, though it is not an advantage of which we should be too proud – that of having plenty of room. We have room enough for a vast population, and, in addition, we have an unlimited demand for labor all through this country. There is everywhere a demand for labor, juvenile and adult. In any grand system of reform which would act upon the juvenile poor, we must consider that peculiarity of this country.

In addition to these characteristics of our country, throughout the Eastern and Western portions of the United States, there can be discerned a peculiarly deep religious principle, the old Puritan principle of New England, that every Christian family is bound to deny itself in some respects for the sake of doing good to others. We can, in this country, appeal to this principle more than in any other country in the world. Therefore, that must be considered in any plan for the improvement and reform of the juvenile population.

Our object is, to relieve and aid destitute children of New York. Our plan is based upon the principles I have mentioned. We feel that if we cannot influence these children to the best purpose, we must get them into the best families. There is a line beyond which we do not attempt to influence them. It is a line that cannot always be recognized by legislation; but by practical experience and humane men, it may, to a certain degree, be discerned; and on this side of that vague line we attempt to take the children and place them where their labor is in demand, and under the influences that we can find in the West. We believe that in doing that, we act in harmony with the great divine principle of the family system, and in the next with the peculiarly fortunate characteristics of this country – the great demand for labor from our rural district. If there is a good family in the West, that is willing to take in a poor boy from the city, to give him social and Christian instruction, why, in God's name, should they not do it? What if the boy is bad, they know his character and his associations. If they are willing, from Christian and business motives (because his labor is useful), to take that child in and train him, why should they not be permitted to do so? If enough families can be found to serve as reformatory institutions, is it not the best and most practical and economical method of reforming these children to put them under the charge of such families? This plan has been used with great effect in Europe. I had the pleasure of witnessing it in Norway, Sweden, and parts of Germany. It was done under legal power. Government is often injurious in such operations; we merely want it to support them to a certain extent. The voluntary power is the best – leaving to the boy and the employer whether he will remain – and the peculiar influences we can get to bear upon him seem the best of all influences. We hope that this system will spread through the various parts of this country. We are rejoiced to hear, from Ohio and Massachusetts, that operations on a similar principle are being carried on in both those States, with great success; and I do believe that many gentlemen here might find it for the interest of their respective communities to introduce operations of this nature into their cities and communities for a class which is not treated by the houses of refuge, that is, for the class who have not passed the criminal line. One great argument and reason for this is, the peculiar economy of this system. An organization like the Children's Aid Society can send six, seven, or eight children over the country (of whom a large proportion do well), at an expense of from $10 to $11. But take any other large institution, like the Juvenile Asylum, or the Home of the Friendless, and you will find that the proportion which their expenses bear to each individual child will range from $80 to $100: and it may be that the advantage is not materially greater than in the other case. That is, supposing them to treat children who have not passed the line I have mentioned.

3. Placing children in the West, 1857

"The Children's Exodus," The Five Points Monthly (June 1857), pp. 66-67.

Brace's society sent its first band of child emigrants to the West in 1855. By two years later the organization had found homes for approximately six hundred city children. C. C. Tracy was the emigration agent of the Children's Aid Society.

The latest expedition which has reported its result. . . was taken out by Mr. TRACY, accompanied by Rev. J. P. ROOT of the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society, on the last day of March. There were about sixty of them, mostly boys from nine to thirteen years of age.

All the way was wonderful and glorious – such glorious riding, by water and rail, so many wonderful sights, and above all, such a wonderful succession of meals, three every day, wonderful to them and wonderful to all beholders! At Albany they went up to the State-house and lionized the Legislature: at Niagara they honored the Falls with pure, spontaneous, unbounded admiration; such homage as few tourists are able to pay. So we believe, at least; for in no human beings have we ever witnessed so keen a susceptibility to beauty in Nature, as in her lost and forgotten children.

As they enter Canada, we begin already to realize the welcome of the new world to the sturdy little emigrants. Dense forests now skirt the track, to the awe of the company, and rude pioneer dwellings are scattered between the remote villages. One of the boys, a humorous and grotesque looking fellow, with a coat reaching downward nearly to his heels, and a surplus half foot of trowsers turned upward to meet it, seemed rather taken with this wild scenery, and observed that "he'd like to get off, some place or other, and take lodgins in one o' them log-cabins." Hardly sooner said than done! An old Canadian settler just then passed along, and after a scrutiny of the line of faces, fixed upon Joe as the lad for him. Poor Joe was flattered by the hardy old man's preference, and at the next station, a new but thriving village, with the consent of Mr. TRACY he slipped off and followed his new friend home with much careless satisfaction. In a few hours more, the rest of the company stopped in the center of Michigan, at Battle Creek, where the best citizens of the place kindly welcomed them, and- in the course of a week they were all dispersed among the comfortable farmers of that fertile region. We were touched by the simple reply of a kindhearted old Dutchman, familiarly known there as "Uncle John," who on taking with him an interesting little boy named Willie – – -, was entreated by Mr. TRACY to be a father to the young stranger. "Yes," replied Uncle John: "de Lord has been good to me, and I will be good to de boy."

Mr. TRACY had not only to dispose of his fresh lot, but to look after the last, and to fullfil some engagements relating to them. Among others, on his last trip, a good couple by the name of M – – – childless themselves, had come in some distance from the country, desirous to confer and perhaps to realize in turn, some benefit, by taking in a street-boy to their comfortable home. Unfortunately, as they were rather late, the lot was already closely culled, and presented a somewhat dismal remainder for their choice. Among the "leavings" was a poor fellow from the sheds and lanes of Brooklyn, who was a picture of conscious misery. Moody and downcast, he glowered upon everybody and every thing, past, present and future, with the same sullen discontent. He didn't want to stay out here: – did he want to go back to Brooklyn? – no, that suited him still less. In short, he didn't know what he did want. But Mr. TRACY knew; and as poor John was really the only one left who would do at all for Mr. and Mrs. M – – – , he led or rather pulled him up to them, and recommended a fair trial of what kindness and a good home would do for that boy: giving as his opinion that it would not unpleasantly disappoint them. They stared at the unhappy young loafer in dismay. He reciprocated the compliment with rueful and dissatisfied glances. Mr. TRACY plead his cause, and promised that if he did not suit, he himself would come, at his next trip, within a month or two, and remove him to some other place. Persuasion finally prevailed, and the good folks consented, much against their minds, and quite as much against John's mind, to take him home, and away they went, all hands disgusted with their luck; though for John that was no more than an habitual frame of mind.

For some time, John and his luck never seemed to improve. Nothing suited him. His work always seemed to be the very thing he would rather not do; his food, whatever it was, might have been something else; and his clothes whether new or old, were invariably susceptible of criticism. Kindness, he had not yet learned to understand, especially when not very distinctly labelled as such. John had not yet found his element. At length he ran away, and came down to the village. Here a friend of the good work, who had readily agreed to Mr. TRACY'S request that he would keep a little lookout for the boys, found him, and at once inquired what he was about. Getting no very satisfactory account, he took John into his back office, and set so plainly before him the blessings of his situation and the ingratitude of his conduct, that it made him ashamed of himself. "Now," said he, "do you go home to Mrs. M – – – , and tell her you are sorry, and have come back to try and do better; and if I ever catch you running away again, I'll take you into this back room, and I'll" – – - completing the sentence with certain energetic gestures which left John in no doubt of the nature or the sincerity of his intentions. He went back, with his faculties somewhat quickened, and told his errand faithfully. Mrs. M – – - was unexpectedly pleased and encouraged, and that encouraged John. He went to work, tried to please, and the first he knew, he was pleased himself. To cut the story short, in a little time there was not a happier or better boy than John in the town. When Mr. TRACY arrived out this time, there were Mrs. M – – - and her favorite on hand to greet the new company: the latter so transformed in face and garb and bearing as to be quite beyond recognition. No words could express for the good lady her satisfaction with her involuntary choice. John was equally pleased. "Did he wish to change his place?" "O, no, Mr. TRACY! I'll never leave there, as long as they'll let me stay."

The Protectory was founded by Catholic laymen in 1863 and administered by the Christian Brothers. By 1884 this institution held thirteen hundred children.

1. "An impulse of true charity"

Levi Silliman Ives, "The Protection of Destitute Catholic Children," in New York Catholic Protectory, First Annual Report, 1864 (New York, 1864), pp. 71-72,74, 80-81.

Levi Silliman Ives (1797-1867), Episcopalian bishop of North Carolina, was converted to Catholicism during a visit to Rome in 1852. Upon his return to the United States he joined the faculty of St. John's College, Fordham, New York, and became a leading spokesman for Catholic philanthropy. He was the first president of the Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children of the City of New York – the corporation that managed the Protectory.

For the last ten years I have been a close observer of what has passed among the rising generation in this great metropolis, and I cannot suppress the humiliating conviction that even pagan Rome, in the corrupt age of Augustus, never witnessed a more rapid and frightful declension in morals, never witnessed, among certain classes of the young, a more utter disregard of honor, of truth and purity, and even the commonest decencies of life.

Extraordinary as this statement may seem, it is, nevertheless, a statement of fact; and I think it not difficult to define the cause. Some persons refer it to the rapid influx of foreign population; but I trace it to the spirit of infidelity, of insubordination to Almighty God, that is cherished among us. I admit that to a certain degree, and in a certain sense, this foreign immigration may have contributed to increased immorality, because it has furnished a considerable portion of the material out of which such immorality has been produced. But the active principle or busy agent in the work is quite another thing, and attributable to quite another cause.

You will say, perhaps, that, under the promptings of charity, much has been done to check this evil. I reply that, in addition, much, under the name of charity, has been done to foster and increase this evil. Efforts well meant, efforts flowing from a desire to do good, often actually do harm – sometimes from ignorance, sometimes from false zeal, sometimes from false principles. An impulse of true charity may sometimes be perverted or misdirected by some other predominating impulse. A work may commence with a view to a most useful and desirable end, which, in its progress, may be made to subserve a very different one. Let us illustrate: A number of destitute families land upon our shores, seeking protection and subsistence in our city. They are strangers, and know little of the hardships and difficulties to be encountered in their new situation. Their extravagant expectations are not realized. Where they had been assured of ready employment, high wages, and encouraging sympathy, they experience only cold looks, hard labor, and scanty remuneration. Sickness overtakes them, debt turns them out of doors; or intemperance, perhaps, brings upon them its deadly swarm of miseries. Their small earnings are consumed. Their children cry for bread, and are turned as beggars into the streets. They rehearse from door to door their piteous tale. Frequent repulse hardens them, drives them to exaggeration, to falsehood, to theft, sometimes to the most wretched haunts of vice, to save them from starvation. Public sympathy is excited. Measures are adopted to rescue these unfortunates from their deplorable condition. Here, then, may be the promptings of charity – the enlistment of the heart in a good and praiseworthy enterprise. But, suppose these children differ from their benefactors in religion. Here a temptation arises to wean them from the faith of their parents. The temptation prevails. Steps are taken, in effecting this purpose, to place a bar between these children and their parents; to sever the precious tie which binds them to the parental heart and the parental influence. Concealment is first resorted to, a veil of secrecy is drawn over the proceedings, parental inquiries are baffled, the yearnings of the mother are stilled by tales of wonderful advantages to her children, and promises of their speedy restoration to her arms. Yet all this while they are undergoing a secret process by which, it is hoped, that every trace of their early faith and filial attachment will be rooted out; and, finally, that their transportation to that indefinite region, "the far West," with changed names and lost parentage, will effectually destroy every association which might revive in their hearts a love for the religion of which they had been robbed, – the

religion of their parents. Here, then, a new principle has been at work. What charity commenced, fanaticism has grossly perverted; or what we had supposed charity, turns out to be only sectarian zeal. We had looked for a great benefit, and behold a great wrong, a foul injustice, has been practised.

That was a sad day for the civilization of this country when a false philanthropy attempted, for its own selfish ends, to lower in the eyes of children the standard of duty to their parents, or the sacredness of parental authority – as it was a fatal blow, aimed at the very foundations of the social structure. Teach children to put a low estimate upon the parental claim to their obedience, and you give them the most effective lesson of insubordination to all rule and all government. Take away from them proper reverence for those who are the instruments of their being, and who nourish their infancy, and whom Almighty God has made their first and essential spiritual guides, and you take from them a vital principle, a controlling power, which can never be restored. You deprive them, in the very beginning of their race, of that subordinating spirit which will be found so needful in every step of their progress through life.

. . . We have here been speaking of children who are supposed to remain for years in the institution; and hence of that class who are either wholly destitute of proper protection, or have become reprobate from want of discipline . . . The idea of sending them out into life after a few months' training, and expecting that they will be contented and grow up to be good members of society, is, as a general thing, perfectly preposterous. Their condition, as well as their very natures, forbids the possibility. With all the influence of good parental guidance and strong social ties, it is no easy task in this age to keep children in the right way: what, then, must the prospect be, when children are deprived of these and sent into a strange land, and made subject to the will of strangers? What moral and mental fitness have they to meet the requirements of a hard and untried life in our new settlements of the West? In such settlements where society is only in progress of formation, and every social, every moral bond is more or less relaxed, does it not follow, almost as an axiom, that children of the character we are considering, – children roving in their dispositions, lawless in their habits, will, as a general rule, find no restraint adequate to their condition, and hence must, in a little time, sink into a moral state even worse than that in which they were found in our streets?

But what in itself seems so inevitable, is abundantly confirmed by sad experience. Some years previous to the establishment of our Reformatory, I had been in the practice of securing good homes in the country for untrained and destitute Catholic children; and although I succeeded in finding places for many, I can call to mind only a single instance where the child either did not abscond or prove utterly ungovernable and worthless. Our experience has been substantially the same since the commencement of our work in the institution. We have apprenticed a considerable number of orphans to good Catholic masters, selected with great care, and we are pained to say that a majority of these orphans have proved to be wholly unmanageable. Besides, in many instances where after a few months' discipline and good behavior, children had been discharged, they have in a short time been returned to us from the courts, and for the same causes which led to the first commitment. Now, from these facts, it seems to me quite manifest that the system which is flooding our Western country with undisciplined, vicious children, is much to be deprecated – is simply a system to rid ourselves of them while we make them a pest to our neighbors; and that, by the laws of society, these neighbors would do perfectly right in returning them upon our hands.

2. The Catholic argument for public funds

New York Catholic Protectory, Second Annual Report, 1865 (New York, 1865), pp. 61-63.

It is admitted by all that the largest and most afflicted portion of poor children in this city is of Catholic parentage. Now it ought, in this free country, where the liberty of conscience in matters of religion is justly the boast, to be equally manifest that the only institution, except in the case of orphans, which makes a suitable and equitable provision for training these Catholic children, is "The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children in the City of New York." All other institutions organized for the protection of destitute children are Protestant, having Protestant directors, Protestant superintendents, Protestant teachers, Protestant worship, and Protestant instruction and training. Under such circumstances, can it be thought surprising or unreasonable that poor Catholic parents should have a settled aversion to these Protestant institutions as the Christian home of their children – where these children are to receive instructions hostile to the faith which is given them in holy baptism, and which their parents solemnly bound themselves to inculcate? Suppose the Legislature had taken under its care some large Catholic institution, or some institution under Catholic direction, and had, by virtue of the promise that no particular religion should be taught, required that poor Protestants should allow their children to be trained there, and that rich Protestants should quietly consent to be heavily taxed to keep up the establishment, would it be considered unreasonable for Protestants to object, and ask relief of the Legislature to enable them to establish and to support an institution of their own? And suppose, when they asked for an appropriation of money or land, that Catholics in the Legislature should reply – "We have no objection to your having an institution, but you must support it yourselves. You must continue to pay your taxes to keep up our liberal institution, but we cannot allow you to have any portion of the State or city money, because you might have your children trained by us!" In plainer words, "We want both your money and your children; but, if you will persist in holding on to your children, we must at least have your money: keep your children, but pay your taxes to us." This is the exact logic of the argument – the unmistakable English of the objection to our appeal. Let Protestants take the place of Catholics before your honorable body; and would they be able to suppress a feeling of righteous indignation at such an objection?

Take another view. Suppose you grant an appropriation adequate to the wants of the Catholic institution, do you increase the expenses of the city or State? The managers maintain that you would lessen them. Take the data furnished in this report. By an examination of the record, it will be seen that the managers have supported and trained on an average about 450 children during the year. Suppose these children had been sent, for example, to the "Juvenile Asylum:" what would have been the expense to the State? $40,500, according to the per capita allowance of $90, which that institution receives. Now, what has it cost the Catholic institution of the managers? $38,176, including rents and furnishing houses. Now, how much of this sum have the city and State contributed? $17,000! What, then, have the city and State gained in the reduction of taxes by the corporate existence of "The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children"? Just $23,500! Catholics, then, instead of having received any real benefit from the State, have actually kept in its treasury the $23,500 which would have gone to the Juvenile Asylum, had the Catholic children been sent there, instead of being sent to the Catholic House of Protection.

3. State financial aid for the Protectory

"An Act for the relief of The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic

Children in the City of New York," ch. 647 1866, Laws of the State of New York (New York, 1866), pp. 27-28.

1. "The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children in the City of New York" shall be entitled to receive the sum of fifty thousand dollars, [2a] provided a like amount. is contributed by private contribution, towards the erection of the buildings necessary for the purpose of its corporation, and also yearly the sum of fifty dollars per capita on average of persons annually maintained in its institution; and the board of supervisors of the county of New York are hereby authorized and directed to levy the said sum of fifty thousand dollars and the said annual amounts yearly, and the Comptroller of the City of New York to draw his warrant for the said several amounts to the said society. The average number of persons thus maintained shall be ascertained by the examination and testimony, under oath, of the president or secretary of said society.

2. The said society may locate its buildings within any part of the Metropolitan Police District of this State, provided always that it shall keep and maintain a House of Reception in the City of New York; and any lands within said district which such society may heretofore have purchased, shall be vested in and belong to said society, in the same manner and with the same effect, to all intents and purposes, as though the same had been purchased by and conveyed to said society after the passage of this act.

3. The real and personal estate belonging to and used for the charitable purposes of said association shall be exempt from taxation.

2a. The society received the full amount.

Recommendations for preventing delinquency and reforming juvenile delinquents, 1867

Wines and Dwight, Report on the Prisons, pp. 62-67.

Having given in this section a bird's eye view of the prison systems of the United States and Canada, and having stated the opinion that they are all, to a greater or less extent, deficient in their principles and methods, it may be proper, at 'this' point, briefly to sketch the system which, after the best thought we have been able to give to the subject, appears to us most wisely adapted to the ends of a just and true prison discipline.

As a preparatory step, we would have a law enacted, by which the education of all the children of the state should be made compulsory. Every child should be compelled, within a certain range of years, to attend regularly some school, either public or private; or, if parents desire a more select education for their offspring, they should be required to show that they are receiving, during the legal age, adequate instruction at home. No half-way measures, no patchwork legislation will meet the necessities of the case. It is far better to force education upon the people than to force them into prisons to expiate crimes, of which neglect or ignorance has been the occasion. Deep and broad foundations of moral and religious, no less than of intellectual character must be laid in our common schools, despite the obstacles that bigotry and sectarian jealousy may throw in the way; and the children of the state must be there, even by compulsion, if need be, to be so trained.

This essential preliminary aid being thus secured, the first in our series of establishments, looking to the repression of crime, should be institutions of a preventive character. Here, indeed, to our view, is the real field of promise. The problem is to stay the current of crime, to turn it back upon itself, and to dry up its fountain-heads. In studying this question, the mind turns instinctively to childhood as the true field of effort for the accomplishment of the desired end.

Two classes of institutions, it appears to us, are needed and are sufficient at this stage of the work – public nurseries and industrial schools.

Public nurseries for children of two or three to five or six years old, of pauper parents, and perhaps of some others, are the first link, the earliest agency in the prevention of crime in youth and manhood. The importance of this class of institution will appear evident when it is considered that the first impressions made upon the mind, whether good or evil, are the most lasting and the most difficult to eradicate. All experience shows that such impressions received in early childhood, and the habits formed at that tender age, usually exercise a controlling influence throughout the period of youth. Accordingly, it is from the class of children who receive their impressions and form their habits in the streets, from the age of four to ten years, that our reformatories, jails, houses of correction and state prisons are mainly peopled. Is it possible, then, to exaggerate the importance to society of institutions such as those here proposed? Ought not systematic and energetic measures to be directed by legislators, as well as philanthropists, to this department of prevention? Can any system of legislation which aims at the suppression and extinction of crime overlook so potent an agency to that end as the one here recommended, and yet lay claim to the attributes of sagacity and humanity? Here the serpent may be crushed in the egg, the hydra strangled in the birth, the harvest of evil nipped in its first sprouting. A fact bearing on this subject, at once instructive and encouraging, is mentioned in a Government Report on Prisons in France. It is worth repeating here. A vast number of abandoned children in that country are received, almost from birth, into foundling asylums, where they are cared for and educated, till they are of a suitable age to put out; yet the number of children reared in these asylums, who have subsequently found their way into prison, is quite significant – a striking proof of the almost omnipotent power of early (the very earliest) moral, religious, intellectual and industrial training, as a security against the commission of crime.

The industrial school, whether called by that name or some other – truant, ragged, or whatever it may be – is the next link, the second agency in the preventive part of the system. The children of parents who neglect their offspring, either because they are vicious or indifferent to their welfare – children who roam the streets and prowl about docks and wharves, and are almost sure in the end to take up crime as a trade – should be gathered into institutions of this class, where they would receive that mental, moral and industrial training which their own homes would never afford them, and from which they would at length be sent out to good situations in the country, or elsewhere, where they would grow into virtuous and useful citizens, adding to, instead of preying upon, the productive industry of the country. A few schools of this sort have been established with the best results; but nothing has been done by them in rescuing vagrant children and youth of both sexes from vice and crime, at all commensurate with the good that might be effected in this direction through their agency. These schools should be open to the voluntary resort of neglected children, whose parents, regardless of their future character and condition, leave them to do for themselves, battling with their hard lot as best they may be able.

The discipline in these industrial schools should be strictly of the family character. All the arrangements should be such as to cultivate industrious habits, and prepare their inmates for the stations they are afterwards to fill. The kitchen, the wash-tub, the sewing and knitting room, the work shop, the farm, and, above all, the school room, together with such recreation as may be suitable to their years, should occupy the time of those who find their home there; and this home should be, though tidy and attractive, yet of the plainest character, partaking as nearly as may be of the nature of the domestic departments of families in moderate circumstances. Criminal and vicious habits should be the only bar to reception here; and children, tainted with such practices, should in no case be permitted to come in contact with the destitute but yet unfallen street children, for whom alone the industrial school is designed. Should any such, by mistake, ever be admitted, when discovered, they should be at once transferred to institutions, whose distinctive character is reformatory rather than preventive.

It is confidently believed that if these two classes of institutions – public nurseries and industrial schools – were sufficiently multiplied and placed under judicious control and management, and proper care taken to keep them free from those who have reached the point of crime, thousands of young victims of parental indifference or vice would be kept from idle and vicious habits, and from the ruin they bring in their train; the most prolific fountain of crime would be cut off; and the numbers confined in reformatories and prisons would be materially diminished, perhaps brought down almost to zero.

We have spoken of the need of judicious management in these institutions. Probably a union of private and public effort would best secure the requisite wisdom and efficiency; but, in any case, liberal pecuniary aid must be supplied by municipal and legislative grants.

Is the expense of such institutions made a point of objection? Let it be considered – for

of this we are fully persuaded – that a judicious and effective system of prevention in behalf of this class of juveniles would be an arrangement the most economical to the public, as well as the most merciful to themselves which could be made. To save them – and the plan we propose would no doubt be the salvation of almost the entire class – would be to cut off one of the most copious sources of adult crime, and of course to dry up an incessant and tremendous drain upon the wealth of the state, through their depredations, when arrived at manhood, on the property of the citizens.

Vagrant, neglected, and "dangerous" children, 1821-1865

1. Josiah Quincy on the poor, idle, and vicious children of Boston, 1821

Boston, Report of the Committee on the Subject of Pauperism and a House of Industry in the Town of Boston (Boston, 1821), pp. 8-9.

Quincy was chairman of the committee.

. . . Those who are poor, and in infancy or childhood. . . have a right to require from society a distinct attention and more scrupulous and precise supervision. Their career of existence is but just commenced. They may be rendered blessings, or scourges to society. Their course may be happy or miserable, honourable or disgraceful, according to the specific nature of the provision, made for their support and education. It follows that the charitable establishments of every wise and virtuous community ought to be such as to enable it to effect these interesting objects, in the most perfect and satisfactory manner.

The present condition of the Boston Alms House, precludes all possibility of extending that free air, exercise, and healthful labour, and of attaining that separation from the contamination of vicious language and example, which is requisite and due to this class. Intimately connected with this topic is that of providing for those idle and vicious children, of both sexes and different ages, which often under the command, and always with the permission of thoughtless and abandoned parents, are found begging in our streets, or haunting our wharves, market places, sometimes under the pretence of employment, at others for the purpose of watching occasions to pilfer small articles, and thus beginning a system of petty stealing; which terminates often in the gaol; often in the penitentiary; and not seldom, at the gallows.

Power enough already exists, in the hands of the constituted authorities, and if it do not, might easily be obtained, to rid ourselves of this nuisance, and to place these unfortunate children under either a system of discipline, or of restraint; or of useful labour. At present, however, this is absolutely impracticable. There is no place, suitable for their reception. The present Alms House is insufficient for its present tenants; more it is impossible to accommodate. A work house, or house of industry, is, therefore, absolutely essential, previously to taking any steps for the improvement of this unhappy, and abandoned class, of children. On this point, your committee do not apprehend that any thing more forcible can be added, to make the essential nature of such an establishment as that, which they recommend, apparent and unquestionable.

2. Child beggars, Baltimore, 1821

Niles' Weekly Register, Dec. 15, 1821, p. 256.

Several of our cities suffer exceedingly from the impositions of little boys and girls, who lie, and cheat and steal to an alarming extent – generally assuming the character of great distress, to excite sympathy or excuse a vagabond life. It appears as if there was a gang of them at Philadelphia, and there are some of the same class in Baltimore. The best way to correct this abuse, is to pay no attention to the applicants, or else to propose to go home with the little storytellers, and witness the misery about which they are so eloquent. On manifesting a resolution to do this, the little wretches uniformly run away, or otherwise avoid an investigation. There is, no doubt, a great deal of real distress, and all should be prompt to relieve it – but it must be an extreme case indeed, that can justify a parent in giving his or her child a patent to become a vagabond or strumpet; as ninety-nine hundredths of the children thus turned out upon the public eventually arrive at.

3. Characteristics of street boys, 1839 John H. B. Latrobe, Address on the Subject of a Manual Labour School (Baltimore, 1840), pp. 5-7.

Latrobe (1803-1891), son of the architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was legal counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and advocate of the colonization of free Negroes in Africa.

I appear before you this evening as the advocate of a manual labour school for indigent boys, which it is proposed to establish in the vicinity of Baltimore.

The manual labour school. . . may be defined to be an institution for the education of those boys, belonging to the city, whose extraordinary exposure to moral evil requires peculiar provision to be made for forming their character, and promoting and securing the happiness of their lives; which is proposed to be effected by separating them from vicious associations, placing them under the care of proper instructors, and employing them in labour, as their strength and years permit, not only for the purpose of teaching them to obtain their future livelihood, but also as a means of making them contribute to their own present support.

The class of boys for whom the manual labour school is intended is a numerous one, and forms a distinct portion of the population of all large communities. It has its peculiar and strongly marked characteristics, the most prominent of which is recklessness. It ranks among its members the half-grown, half-fed, half-clothed, hard-worked children of the very indigent, as well as the apparently purposeless idlers, who seek in winter the most sheltered spots, to bask where the sun shines warmest, and who lounge through the long days of summer about the suburbs, where the trees spread the coolest shadows. It is a class which has its oracles and its leaders, who want not for energy or talent, and who exhibit their first promise of future power for good or evil, in directing and controlling with despotic authority the pranks and mischief of their boyish associates. Accustomed, as this class is from infancy, to all the shifts of poverty, made useful as soon as they can walk, their intellects become sharpened to a degree unnatural to their years, and they learn to comprehend the business and the feelings of men, before they have passed the first periods of childhood. Unfortunately too, the knowledge thus acquired is imbibed in a foul and unwholesome moral atmosphere, and it is with the vices, not the virtues of more advanced years, that the class of children, of which I am speaking, become thus prematurely familiar. The master spirits of this class, whose will sways the less resolute and gives its laws to the young community, are easily distinguished. If you watch them you will seldom find them engaged in games of mere amusement. Tops and marbles they sometimes patronize when the play is not, in boyish dialect, "for fun," but "for good"; because the winnings may be disposed of for the money, whose value and whose uses they are already well acquainted with; but hoops and kites, hide-and-seek, and bandy, they generally eschew, for these require exertion, and they are profitless. Their favourite amusements are pitch-and-toss, and the penny sweat-cloth, and the low gambling which is to be found in the precincts of the racecourse, and in the yards of tippling-houses. They aim much at what they esteem a knowing carriage; and we have often seen a fine, bright-eyed, intelligent little fellow belonging to this class, with his cap set jauntily on one side of his head, his arms akimbo, his hands in his pockets, his feet apart, and, with a cigar in his mouth, bandying oaths and obscene jests with full-grown men, as though their equal in years and vice. If a quarrel takes place among their young associates, they form the ring, they place the chip on the shoulder, they encourage the timid combatant, and act as arbiters of the battle. If there is a tumult of any kind in the street, they swarm like bees around the spot, coming from we know not where, as though some bond of union existed among them, which vibrated throughout the Ishmaelite fraternity to all sounds of violence and misrule. If a fire takes place, there is always one or more of them certain to be in the vicinity; and their wild and elfish shrieks are echoed by the whole tribe throughout the streets until the entire city is alarmed. They seize the ropes of the engines, they crowd around the flames, they dare danger with the boldness of older spirits, and when the fire is extinguished they are to be seen prowling among the blackened ruins, turning over the smouldering fragments of beams and rafters and seeking among them for the spoils that the conflagration may have spared. They jostle and fight, too, for their plunder, like the foul birds whose feasts are made of the leavings of decay and death. And when the demon spirit of the mob is roused, these boys form the nucleus upon which gather all the malignant elements of incendiary violence; theirs is the loudes