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THE
DANGEROUS CLASSES OF NEW YORK,
AND
TWENTY YEARS' WORK AMONG THEM.
BY
CHARLES LORING BRACE,
AUTHOR OF
"HUNGARY IN 1851," "HOME LIFE IN GERMANY,"
"THE RACES OF THE OLD WORLD," ETC., ETC.
"Ameliorer l'homme par le terre et le terre par l'homme."--_Demetz._
NEW YORK.
WYNKOOP & HALLENBECK, PUBLISHERS,
113 FULTON STREET.
-----
1872.
[Illustration: LODGING-HOUSES FOR HOMELESS BOYS--AS THEY WERE. NO. 1.]
------------------------------------------------
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
CHARLES LORING BRACE,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
------------------------------------------------
WYNKOOP & HALLENBECK,
FINE BOOK PRINTERS.
DEDICATION.
-----
To the many co-laborers, men and women, who have not held their comfort
or even their lives dear unto themselves, but have striven, through many
years, to teach the ignorant, to raise up the depressed, to cheer the
despairing, to impart a higher life and a Christian hope to the outcast
and neglected youth of this city, and thus save society from their
excesses, this simple record of common labors, and this sketch of the
terrible evils sought to be cured, is respectfully dedicated.
INTRODUCTION.
-----
The great pioneer in the United States, in the labors of penal Reform
and the prevention of crime,--EDWARD LIVINGSTON,--said as long ago as
1833, in his famous "Introductory Report to the Code of Reform and
Prison Discipline": "As prevention in the diseases of the body is less
painful, less expensive, and more efficacious than the most skillful
cure, so in the moral maladies of society, to arrest the vicious before
the profligacy assumes the shape of crime; to take away from the poor
the cause or pretence of relieving themselves by fraud or theft; to
reform them by education and make their own industry contribute to their
support, although difficult and expensive, will be found more effectual
in the suppression of offences and more economical than the best
organized system of punishment."--(p. 322.)
My great object in the present work is to prove to society the practical
truth of Mr. Livingston's theoretical statement: that the cheapest and
most efficacious way of dealing with the "Dangerous Classes" of large
cities, is not to punish them, but to prevent their growth; to so throw
the influences of education and discipline and religion about the
abandoned and destitute youth of our large towns, to change their
material circumstances, and draw them under the influence of the moral
and fortunate classes, that they shall grow up as useful producers and
members of society, able and inclined to aid it in its progress.
In the view of this book, the class of a large city most dangerous to
its property, its morals and its political life, are the ignorant,
destitute, untrained, and abandoned youth: the outcast street-children
grown up to be voters, to be the implements of demagogues, the "feeders"
of the criminals, and the sources of domestic outbreaks and violations
of law.
The various chapters of this work contain a detailed account of the
constituents of this class in New York, and of the twenty years' labors
of the writer, and many men and women, to purify and elevate it; what
the principles were of the work, what its fruits, what its success.
So much interest at home and abroad has been manifested in these
extended charities, and so many inquiries are received continually about
them, that it seemed at length time to give a simple record of them, and
of the evils they have sought to cure.
If the narrative shall lead the citizens of other large towns to
inaugurate comprehensive and organized movements for the improvement of
their "Dangerous Classes," my object will be fully attained.
I have the hope, too, that these little stories of the lot of the poor
in cities, and the incidents related of their trials and temptations,
may bring the two ends of society nearer together in human sympathy.
The discussion of the Causes of Juvenile Crime contained in this work
must aid others who would found similar reformatory and preventive
movements, to base them on principles and motives which should reach
similar profound and threatening evils.
CHARLES LORING BRACE.
19 EAST 4TH STREET, NEW YORK.
June 1, 1872.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS.
-----
CHAPTER I.
CHRIST IN CHARITY AND REFORM, AND CONDITION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN BEFORE
CHRISTIANITY.
Exposure of Children in Rome--Comments by Latin Authors upon the
Practice--Terence--Seneca--Suetonius--Rebukes by Early Christian
Preachers--Quintilian--Tertullian--Lactantius--First "Children's Asylum"
under Trajan--Charity of the Antonines--Legislation of the Christian
Emperors--Influence of the Germanic Races--Legislation on the Exposure
of Children--First Children's Asylums in the Christian Era--Brother
Guy--Neglected Children the only Remains of Ancient "Dangerous
Classes"--Change Wrought by Christianity--Influence of Christianity in
Reform........................................................pp. 13-24
CHAPTER II.
THE PROLETAIRES OF NEW YORK.
Not so Numerous as in London, but more Dangerous--Dens of Crime and
Fever-nests--Advantage of Breaking them up--The Unrestrained Vices of
this Class--Their Ignorance and Brutality--Dependence on
Politicians--Gangs of Youthful Criminals--Similar Dangers here as in
Paris--The Riots of 1863--Numbers of the Vagrant Class--Composition of
this Dangerous Element........................................pp. 25-31
CHAPTER III.
CAUSES OF CRIME.
Preventible and Non-preventible--Ignorance--Numbers of Illiterates in
City Prisons and Reformatories--Orphanage--Statistics--Orphans in
Mettrai--Emigration--Effect in Producing Crime--Numbers of Prisoners of
Foreign Births--Figures--Hopeful Features--Fewer Paupers Immigrate--Want
of Trade--Selfishness of Unions--Aversion to Steady Industry..pp. 32-38
CHAPTER IV.
CAUSES OF CRIME--WEAKNESS OF MARRIAGE-TIE.
Reasons why Second Marriage is Productive of Crime among the Poor--Force
of Public Opinion in Preserving Marriage-bond--Weakening of it by
Emigration--Fruits of Free Love among the Poor--INHERITANCE--Power of
Transmitted Tendencies in Producing Crime--Hopeful Feature in New
York--Few Continued Families of Paupers and Criminals--Action of Natural
Selection in Favor of Virtue--Vicious Organizations Die Out--Explanation
of Extraordinary Improvement in Children under Reformatory
Influences--The Immediate Influences of Bad Parents Overcome by the
Transmitted Tendencies of Virtuous Ancestors, and by New
Circumstances--The Incessant Change of our People Favorable to
Virtue--Villages more Exposed to Criminal Families than
Cities--Causes................................................pp. 39-50
CHAPTER V.
CAUSES OF CRIME--OVERCROWDING.
Form of New York--Its Effect on Population--Bad Government Increases
Rents--Rate of Population to the Square Mile in the Eleventh Ward--In
the Tenth, Seventeenth, and other Wards--In London--Greater Overcrowding
in New York--Instance of Overcrowding in the First Ward--Effect on the
Criminal Habits of Girls--The Dens of Criminal Boys--Cellar
Population--Effect of Overcrowding on the Death-rate--Upon the Crime of
the City-Remedies--Better Means of Distributing Population--Improved
Communications with the Country--Cheap and Honest Government--Organized
Movement for Transferring Labor to the Country--Remedy in Sanitary
Legislation--Effect of British Lodging-house Acts--Cellar Population
of Liverpool--The Model Lodging-houses--Great Need of them in New
York..........................................................pp. 51-63
CHAPTER VI.
CAUSES OF CRIME--INTEMPERANCE.
The Power of Alcoholic Stimulus on the Laboring-man--Attraction of the
Liquor-shop--Terrible Effects of Drunkenness--Number of Criminals in
City Prisons Intemperate--Little Drunkenness among Children--Great
Effects of the Total Abstinence Reform--Good Influence of the Irish
Catholic Clergy--Necessity for other Remedies--Cultivation of Higher
Tastes--Influence of the Sydenham Palace Gardens in England--Effects of
Parks and Pictures--Open-Air Drinking not so Dangerous--Museums, Parks,
Gardens, and Reading-rooms, the beat Temperance Societies--Few Children
of the Industrial Schools become Drunkards--Comparative Good Effects of
Light Wines--Liquor Laws--Former Sunday Law a Happy
Medium--The Habits of the Germans should have been considered--Mistake
of the Reformers--Intemperance, next to War, the Greatest Evil of
Humanity--Other Remedies than Total Abstinence must be
employed......................................................pp. 64-73
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF A REMEDY.
Necessity of One Organization to Deal with Youthful Criminal
Classes--Error made of using too Technical Religious Methods--Error
of Following too much European Precedents--Asylums not so much Needed
in America--Pioneer Work among the Dangerous Classes Twenty Years
Ago--Captain Matsell's Report--Labors of the Writer in the Five
Points--Numbers of Homeless Children in the Streets--Sad Sight of
Child-Prisoners--"The Social Evil"--Mr. Pease's Labors--The Necessity
Felt of a General Organization--Novel Method of Reforming Young
"Roughs"--BOYS' MEETINGS--The Chaffing of Street-boys--Quick
Repartees--Kind of Oratory Necessary--The Lads Open for Earnest
Words--The Meetings only Pioneer Work--Succeeded by more Thorough
Influences--The Founders of the Different Meetings............pp. 74-83
CHAPTER VIII.
A NEW ORGANIZATION.
Foundation of the CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY--Touching Procession of
Homeless Children to the Office--The Feeling at its Foundation--Its
Objects--To Found Reading-rooms, Industrial Schools, Lodging-houses, and
Provide Homes for the Homeless--Dens of Misery and Crime--Thieves'
Lodging-houses--"Rotten Row"--"Poverty Lane"--Haunts of the Young
Wood-stealers--Hopes of the New Work--Workshops--Want of
Success--Causes--Necessity of General Education, rather than Industrial,
for Street-children...........................................pp. 84-96
CHAPTER IX.
HOMELESS BOYS--THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING-HOUSE.
Their Relation to the World, like that of the Indians to
Civilization--Life of the Street-boy--His Lightheartedness--His Moral
Code--His Religion--Few Addicted to Drinking--Their
Generosity--Policy-tickets--Choice of Night Resting-places--Necessity to
treat them as Independent Dealers--First Lodging-house for Newsboys In
the World--Mr. Tracy--Plans of the Boys for a Scrimmage--Their
Defeat--Remarks about their Beds--Origin of the Night-school--And the
Sunday Meeting--Surprise at the Golden Rule--Belief in Miracles--Pathos
of their songs--The Savings'-bank--Breaking up of Gambling and Money
Wasting--Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor--Their Fitness for the Work--Immense
Number of Lodgers--The Influence of the House--Payments by the
Lads--Description of Rooms--The New Building--Extracts from Journal
Statistics...................................................pp. 97-113
CHAPTER X.
STREET-GIRLS--THEIR SUFFERING AND CRIME.
Hard Lot of A Girl-vagrant--Sexual Vice--Dark Questions--Girls' Vices
More Degrading than the Boys'--Effect on her Habits and Character--Great
Difficulty of Reform--History of Prostitutes not Romantic--Their lives
the Fruit of Neglect in Early Childhood, and of Lazy Habits--Their Good
Qualities--Remedies for the Social Evil--Sad Incident of a Young Girl in
the Tombs...................................................pp. 114-122
CHAPTER XI.
LEGAL TREATMENT OF PROSTITUTES.
Should License be Allowed?--The Views of Physicians--Foolish Arguments
on the Other Side--Duties of a Physician Purely Medical--Objections to
License under the Moral Aspect--Bitter Misery of this Class of
Women--Effect of License to Encourage the Crime--The Recognition by
Law--Prostitution can be Checked--Condition of this Class in New York
Terrible--Necessity of Hospitals or Dispensaries for this Class in the
City--The Absurdity of the Berlin License Laws--Non-licensing a Terror
to Evil-doers--This Not a Proper Object for Legislators--Effect of
License in Paris--Superiority of New York to other Great Cities in this
Matter Partly Due to Non-licensing..........................pp. 123-131
CHAPTER XII.
THE BEST PREVENTIVE OF VICE AMONG CHILDREN--INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
Public Schools not Reaching the Poorer Children--Numbers of Vagrant
Children Twenty Years Ago--Foundation of the Wilson School--The
Rookeries of the Fourth Ward--Dance-saloons--Crime of the Ward--Numbers
of Wild Children--Efforts to Form an Association among the Rich to
connect the Two Ends of Society--All Sects, and those of no Sect,
Invited--Foundation of Fourth-ward Industrial School--Description of the
Children--Influence of Volunteer Teachers--Their
Self-sacrifice--Description of some of the Ladies Engaged--Effects of
the Work on Crime in the Fourth Ward--Marked Improvement--Dr. Robert
Ray's Services--Remarkable Diminution of Vagrancy in the Ward--Instance
from our Journal--Average Expense of the School.............pp. 139-146
CHAPTER XIII.
GERMAN RAG-PICKERS.
Their Quarters on the Eastern Side--Number in the Eleventh
Ward--Formation of an Association for their Benefit--Its Moving
Spirit--Social Influences in the School--Its Effect on the
Rag-pickers--Aid from the German Merchants--A Devoted Teacher--Dutch
Hill and the Swill-gatherers--Description of the Squatters'
Village--Character of the People--Drunkenness--Faith of the
Children--Personal Efforts--Discouraging Features of the Work--Influence
of Roman Catholicism--Difficulties of a Protestant--Influence of the
Priests--Formation of an Association of Ladies on Murray
Hill--Foundation of East River Industrial School--Mrs. Hurley--Her
Devoted Labors for Seventeen Years--Attachment of Children to
Her--Reform among the Children--Influence of Volunteer
Teachers--Incidents among the Poor--A Heroic Girl--Happy Changes of
Fortune--Remarkable Success among Two Thousand Children--"Our
Failures"--The Beggar's Family..............................pp. 147-164
CHAPTER XIV.
SCENES AMONG THE POOR.
The Street-child--Effects of Drunkenness--A Mother Fleeing her
Daughter-The Dying Sewing-woman--Severe Labor--Christian Faith--Changes
of Fortune--Discouragement--The Iron-worker's Wife--A Little
Beggar--Religious Trouble--The Swill-gatherer's Child--Danger of Ruin--A
Reform--Present Condition of East River School..............pp. 165-173
CHAPTER XV.
THE PROTESTANT POOR AND STREET-ROVERS.
Formation of an Association of Ladies on the West Side--Hudson River
Industrial School--Perseverance of Volunteer Teachers--Protestant Poor
no Better than Catholic--"Muscular Orphans"--Wild Boys near East Thirty
fourth Street--Skillful Thieves--Efforts of the School--Transference to
Eleventh Street--Dock Pilferers--Success of our Efforts--Need of
Lodging-house in Thirty-fourth Street.......................pp. 174-180
CHAPTER XVI.
NEW METHODS OF TEACHING.
Generous Proposal of a Benevolent Lady--Her Labors among the Poor--Miss
Andrew's Teaching--Pestalozzi's System--Old Systems too Mechanical and
too much Memorizing--Effects in Loose Habits of Thinking--Inaccurate
Observation--Children Found Incompetent for Practical Life--Object
System begins with the Senses--First Learning of Colors and of
Numbers--Sounds Taught before Names of Letters--Dr. Leigh's System--Mr.
Caulkins's Views--Words to be Learned First, Letters Afterward--Spelling
to be Learned After Reading--Quotation from Mr. Caulkins's Work--New
Method of learning Geography--Geography Becomes a Natural
Science--Natural History Taught by Objects--Lessons in Morality and
Religion given in a Similar Manner--Weights, Measures, and Geometry thus
Taught--Definition Learned through Objects--Spelling and Grammar in like
Manner--Great Effort on part of the Teacher.................pp. 181-193
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LITTLE ITALIAN ORGAN-GRINDERS.
Italian Quarter in Five Points--Cruelty of the Padroni--Rev. Dr.
Hawks--Signor Cerqua--Description of the Five Points' Italian
Settlement--Characteristics of Poor Italians--Foundation of Italian
School in 1855--Opposition of Bigoted Italians--Anathemas of the
Priest--Increase of the School--Mental Improvement--Moral
Progress--Gratitude of Poor Italians--Visits among the Rookeries of the
Five Points--Dens in Baxter Street--Feeling of Italian Children towards
their Teacher--Assistants by American-Italians--Co-operation of the
Italian Government--Generosity of Italian Children to other
Charities...................................................pp. 194-211
CHAPTER XVII.
THE "LAMBS" or COTTAGE PLACE.
Mr. Macy's Efforts--A Free Reading-room--Earnest Nature of the
Work--Self-sacrifice of Lady Volunteers--Miss Macy's Treatment of
Colored Children during the Riots--Good Effects of the School in
Preventing Thieving and Begging--Cottage-place School--The Little
Beggars of the First Ward--Application to Trinity Church--Mr. Lord's
Valuable Assistance--Interesting Incident--Reform of a Street-sweeper in
the "Lord School"--A Ragged School on St John's Park--Fourteenth-ward
Industrial School--The Colored Poor--Other Industrial Schools--The
Shanty People near the Park--Interesting Night-school--Efforts to
prevent a New "Nineteenth street Gang"--No Children Admitted who can
attend Public Schools--Improvement In the Teaching--Superintendent of
Schools and Visitors........................................pp. 212-222
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BEST REMEDY FOR JUVENILE PAUPERISM.
Effects of Overcrowding--No Local Charities a Complete Remedy--Asylums
not Sufficient--Best Asylum, the "Farmer's Home"--Advantage in the
United States--Unlimited Demand for Labor--Best Remedy Emigration to the
West--Objections to the Plan--How they were Met--Incident of a
Waif--Humanity of our Countrywomen--Method of Placing Out the
Children--Difficulties of the Local Committees..............pp. 223-233
CHAPTER XX.
PROVIDING COUNTRY HOMES--THE OPPOSITION TO THIS REMEDY--ITS EFFECTS.
Hostility of Ignorant Roman Catholics--Objections of the
Poor--Opposition of the Asylum Interest--Arguments of the Asylum Plan
and for the Emigration Method--A Practical Test to Apply--Advantages of
the Discussion--Effort to Obtain Statistics--Figures of the Results in
the West--Testimony from Great Numbers of People--Wonderful
Improvement--Changes of Fortune--The Great Majority become Honest
Producers--Unlimited Demand from the West--No Indentures
Required--Virtues in both Plans--Opposition of Priests--Our Action
Unsectarian--Net Expenses for Each Emigrants--Amount of Returned Fares
Collected--All the Pauper Children of the City could be thus
Placed--Answer to Prof. Fawcett's Objection--Our Western Agents--Mr.
Tracy's Quaint Humor--Defective Children--No Accident has ever
Happened....................................................pp. 234-245
CHAPTER XXI.
RESULTS AND FACTS OF EMIGRATION TO THE WEST.
Our First Party of Little Emigrants--A Description of the Waifs--Hard
Journey in Emigrant Cars--Excitement of the Boys in the
Country--Reception in the Western Village--Their Sweet Songs--The
Runaway--The Placing-out of the Boys--The Lost Boy Returned--A Later
Party to the West--Eagerness to Obtain the Children--Sympathy for the
Boys--The Fortune of the Deaf-mute--A Hungry Child Placed in a Good
Home--From the Gutter to the College--Once a New-York Pauper, now a
Western Farmer..............................................pp. 246-270
CHAPTER XXII.
A PRACTICAL PHILANTHROPIST AMONG THE YOUNG ROUGHS.
A Description of the Office of the Children's Aid Society--Central
Figure--Mr. Macy--Labors with his "Lambs" in Cottage Place--Stormy
Meetings--His Influence over the Young Vagrants--The Growth of the
Mission--His Humor--The Effect of His Sermon on Stealing--Contest of
Wits--His Torments from the Girls--His Dread of Paupers--Efforts among
the German Children--His Diplomatic Tact in Office-work--His Letters to
the Children Stereotyped by the Thousand....................pp. 271-279
CHAPTER XXIII.
RAISING MONEY FOR A CHARITY.
Sensation to be Avoided--All Raffles and Pathetic Exhibitions
Declined--Our Experience with a Concert--Labors through the Pulpit and
the Press--Character of the Trustees who entered in the Work--Sources of
Income--Mr. Barnard's Bequest--Mr. Chauncy Rose's Great Benefaction--The
Income of a Single Year--Different Sources from which it is
Derived.....................................................pp. 280-285
CHAPTER XXIV.
REFORM AMONG THE ROWDIES--FREE READING-ROOMS.
They Require Peculiar Management to be Successful--The Eleventh-ward
Reading-room--Its Failure--A Reformed Pugilist--"Awful Gardner"-His
Career--The Death of His Son--His Reform--His Words to His Old
Associates--The Effect of Christianity--The Drunkard's Club in the
Fourth Ward--Mr. Beecher's Address--Gardner's Speech--His Influence over
the Rowdies--His Theory of Reform--Great Numbers Rescued from
Drunkenness--Failure of his Health--Genuineness of his Reform--Mr.
Macy's Reading-room--The First-ward Room--Mr. J. Couper Lord--Mr.
Hawley's Exertions--The Free Reading-room a Recognized Means of Moral
Improvement.................................................pp. 286-297
CHAPTER XXV.
HOMELESS GIRLS.
The President of the Society--Mr. William A. Booth--His Character and
Capacity--His Policy in Regard to the Lodging-houses--His Suggestion
about the Street-girls--The Histories of these Girls--Causes of their
Condition--Their Unstable Character--Their Condition Fifteen Years Ago
Hopeless--THE GIRLS' LODGING-HOUSE--Its Plan--Means of Filling
it--Miserable Girls who Applied for Admission--Great Difficulties
Encountered--Necessity of Confining it to the Young, and Those not
Vicious--Principal Frequenters, Young Girls between Fourteen and
Eighteen--The Matron--Her Characteristics--The House was not to be an
Asylum--Our Effort to put the Girls in Places--Struggles of Mr. and Mrs.
Trott--Incidents from the Journal--Cases of Reform--THE SEWING-MACHINE
SCHOOL--Its Great Success--TRAINING SCHOOL FOR SERVANTS--Results from
the Work of the Lodging-house...............................pp. 298-315
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NINETEENTH-STREET GANG OF RUFFIANS--"A MORAL DISINFECTANT."
History of the Formation of the Nineteenth-street Gang--Our Efforts to
Reform it--Mr. Slater's Labors--Improvement of Vagabond Boys--Reform of
Petty Thieves--Good Fortune of a Homeless Lad--Warning, in 1854, from
the Danger of these Lads--Their Extraordinary Crimes--Murder of Mr.
Swanton--Murder of Mr. Rogers--Failure at that time of our Reformatory
Efforts--Renewed In 1865--Lodging-house Founded in Eighteenth
Street--The Superintendent--His Characteristics--The Assistance of a
Benevolent Gentleman--His Influence over the Boys--Mr. Gourley's
Economy--A Test of his Patience--The Ingratitude of Two Boys--Their
Improvement--The Reformatory Effects of the Lodging-house--Its Tabular
Statement...................................................pp. 316-329
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MINISTRY OF FLOWERS--THE LITTLE VAGABONDS OF CORLEAR'S HOOK.
The Rookeries of the "Hook"--The "Gavroches" and "Topsies" of the
Quarter--Great Number of Homeless Children--A School-building turned
into a Lodging-house--The Superintendent--His Artistic
Faculty--Flowers--A Novel Reward for the Children--Distribution of
Flowers among the Poor--An Aquarium and Green-house--The Industrial
School--An Earnest Teacher--The Children Like Little Indians--The
Night-school and Free Reading-room--Sunday-evening Meetings--Assistance
by various Gentlemen--A Young Army Officer and others--The Effect of
these Meetings--The Purchase of the House--Begging Money for
Charities--A Disagreeable Duty--Liberality of New York Merchants--Labors
of Two of the Trustees--Gift of a Beautiful Conservatory to the
Lodging-house--The Attractions of the School-room--Mothers'
Meetings--Statistics of the Lodging-house--ELEVENTH-WARD
LODGING-HOUSE--The Little Copper-stealers--Difficulties of the
Superintendent in this House--Final Success--The Night-school,
Day-school, and Bank--Sunday-evening Meetings--Labors of One
Trustee--Our Hopes to Secure Better
Lodging-house--Statistics...................................pp. 330-338
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CHILD VAGRANT.
Passion for Roving Among Children--A Rover Reformed--Sent to the West,
and Wanders over the Woods and Mountains--The Habits of Little
Street-Vagrants--Unaccountable Preference for Particular
Lodging-houses--Greatest Number in the Spring--Different Class of Boys
in each House--Mystery of what Becomes of a Great Number of
Them--Down-town Boys Sharper than the Up-town--Influence of Theatres
upon them--The Salvation of New York its Climate--A Corrective--A
License should be Required of each Street-trader--A License to be
Accompanied by a School Certificate--Such a Law could be
Executed--Success of similar Boston Laws--School-training Preventing
Vagrancy and Pauperism--Truant-schools not Needed--Compulsory
Education--Half-time Schools--Such a Law not Needed Formerly, Now
Required Everywhere--Statistics of Illiteracy--The Ignorant Form the
Dangerous Classes in this City--The Power of Prussia in the Compulsory
Law--An Approach to in the Legislation in the Different States on
Factory children............................................pp. 339-352
CHAPTER XXIX.
FACTORY-CHILDREN AND THE NEW LAW PROPOSED.
Experience in the Night-schools--Great Numbers of Young Children
Employed in Factories--Their Eagerness to Learn--Experience of
England--Statistics of Children Employed in Factories in New York--Facts
and Incidents--Mr. Mundella's Views of the Evils in this
Country--Massachusetts Legislation--Effects of the Law--Half-time
Schools--"Double Gangs"--Rhode Island Legislation--Connecticut
Legislation--Description of the Act--Defects of the Law--Hearty
Co-operation of the Manufacturers--The New York Law Proposed, Drawn up
by Mr. C. E. Whitehead, Secures Education for all Children Employed, and
Protects them from Dangers..................................pp. 353-365
CHAPTER XXX.
ORGANIZATION OF CHARITIES.
Enthusiasm of Humanity--Necessity of Machinery--Danger of
Routine--Importance of Interested Motives--Duties of
Trustees--Compensation--Charity should not be Too Much of a
Business--Importance of other Pursuits for an Agent of a Charity--Best
Constitution of a Board of Trustees--Importance of their Personal Share
in the Work--Rigid Inspection Necessary--Duties of the Executive
Officers....................................................pp. 366-376
CHAPTER XXXI.
STATE AID TO CHARITIES.
Discussion How Far the State should Aid in Charities--Dangers of State
Endowments--Weakness of Individual Charities--Danger of Machinery Taking
Place of Work--The Natural Family Better than the Asylum Machinery--The
Needless Multiplication of Charities--Bad Effects on the Poor and on the
Public--A Trade in Alms--Necessity of a Bureau--Should be Directed by
the State Board of Charities................................pp. 377-387
CHAPTER XXXII.
HOW BEST TO GIVE ALMS--"TAKE, NOT GIVE."
Reply of the missionary in East London--The Evil of
Alms-giving--Experience of the English--Everything given but
Education--Charity Expenses of London--Good Fortune of this
Country--Degrading Influence of Alms--Able-bodied Paupers in New
York--Transmitted Pauperism--Terrible Instance in an Alms-house in
Western New York--Outdoor Relief very Dangerous--Ought to be Limited in
this City--Private Alms Better--Abuse of Private Benefactions--Great
Number of Deserving Poor in the City--Policy of the Children's Aid
Society--They Desire to Prevent the Demand for Alms--Our Lodging-houses
Cultivate Independence--Boys Obliged to Pay--The "Howland
Fund"--Distribution of Gifts on Christmas--Objection to the "Bootblack
Brigade"--Our Industrial Schools Reformatories of Pauperism--Garments
given as Rewards for Good Conduct--Begging Discouraged--Parents Induced
to Save--Principle of this Society to give Education rather than
Alms........................................................pp. 388-397
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HOW SHALL CRIMINAL CHILDREN BE TREATED?
The Child, above all, an Individual--Unsuited to be put in a large
Institution--Influence of a Number of Criminal Children on One
Another--Absence of the Most Powerful Forces of the Outside World--The
Work of a Reformatory not suited for After-life--Working the Ground the
Best--Garden-work very Useful for Criminal Young Girls--Mr. Pease's
Success--The True Plan--The "Family System"--Each Child does the Small
Work of the Cottage--Children near the Natural Condition--Only Defect
the Unprofitableness of the Labor--The Most Successful Reformatories of
Europe on the Family System.................................pp. 398-403
CHAPTER XXXIV.
WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH FOUNDLINGS?
The Need of Shelter for Illegitimate Children--Their Numbers in European
Cities--Estimated Number in New York--Number of Still-births--Relation
of Illegitimacy to Crime--Statistics in France--Foundling
Asylums--Terrible Mortality of London Foundling Hospital, also of St
Petersburg and Paris Hospitals--Former Great Mortality of
Infant-Hospital in New York--Recent Improvement--Mortality of the
Massachusetts Alms-house, and in Dorchester Infant-Asylum--Great
Difficulty in Raising a Child without a Nurse or its Mother--Best Course
is, "PLACING-OUT SYSTEM"--Great Success of "Bureau of Ste.
Apolline"--Mortality Greatly Reduced--Children Scattered over
France--The Outlay by the Government--The Moral Effects--This Bureau to
be Distinguished from Private Bureaus--The Boarding out in Hamburg, in
Berlin, in Dublin--The FAMILY PLAN--Tendency of all Civilized Countries
towards this Plan--All the Illegitimate Children in this City might be
Placed out in Country Homes--Duties of the Legislature in regard to
Illegitimacy--Objections to the French Turning-tables--Too Great Laxness
Injurious--The New York Law too Severe......................pp. 404-417
CHAPTER XXXV.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR STREET-CHILDREN.
The Difficulties of Religious Teaching--Street-children not to be
Influenced like Sunday Schools--Rhetoric and Sentiment do not Touch
Them--True Oratory and the Dramatic Method always Reach them--They are
Peculiarly Open to Religion, but Exposed to Overwhelming
Temptations--Solemn Aspect of their Position to the Speaker--The
Problem--The Object to Implant Religious Love and Faith--Moral
Influences not Sufficient--"Bread-and-Butter Piety" Doubtful--Objection
to Prizes or Rewards--Religious Instruction not so desirable as
Religious Inspiration--The New Testament to be Preferred to the Old--The
Knowledge and Faith in Christ, Most of all Needed--What this Faith Has
Done, and What it Can Do--Mistakes of Sunday-school Oratory--Rhetorical
Pyrotechnics not Wanted--Allegory the Best Method--Our Best Speaker a
Sportsman--His Sympathies with Boys and with Nature--"BIBLE IN
SCHOOLS"--Religious Instruction in Public Schools Desirable, if all were
of the same Faith--Bible-reading used by the Priests Against the
Schools--Free Schools the Life-blood of the Nation--Protestants should
Never Allow Them to be Broken Up--Protestant Pluck--Are School Religious
Exercises of Much Use--Separation of Church and State--Experience of
England--Free Schools without Religion, rather than no Free
Schools.....................................................pp. 418-428
CHAPTER XXXVI.
DECREASE OF JUVENILE CRIME--COST OF PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT.
Instance of the Three Brothers in the Newsboys' Lodging-house--The
Damage Inflicted by One on the Community--The Gain brought by the Labor
of the Others--Cost of Our Criminals last Year--Amount of Property
Taken--Expenses of Prevention--Average Cost of each Child in our
Industrial Schools--In our Lodging-houses--And when sent to the
West--Number Provided for in the Country--Crime Checked--Commitments of
Female Vagrants--Arrests of Female Vagrants--Commitments for
Thieving--For "Juvenile Delinquency"--Number of Girls under Fifteen
Years Old Imprisoned--Great Decrease of Crime among Girls--Crime Checked
among Boys--Commitment of Boys for Vagrancy--For Petit Larceny--Number
of Boys under Fifteen Years Old Imprisoned--Number between Fifteen and
Twenty--Arrests of Pickpockets--Of Petty Thieves--Of Girls under
Twenty--Estimate of Money Saved in One Year by Reduction of
Commitments.................................................pp. 429-439
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE WORK.
This Charity has always Encouraged Self-help--No Pauperism Stimulated
under it--The Laborer in this Field sees the Fruit--Harmony with Natural
Laws sought for constantly--Advantage Taken of Demand for Labor--The
Family Home sought for, rather than the Asylum--Lodging-houses not
Permitted to become Homes--Evening-schools--Savings'-bank, Religious
Meeting, and Day-school--All Stimulates Self-help--The Forces under the
Society the Strongest Forces of life--The Work Founded on Natural
Principles--Just Treatment of the Employes by the Trustees--This Charity
as well served as any Business-house--The Aim of the Executive Officer
with the Employes--Great Success of many of them--One Million of Dollars
passed through the Treasury, and not One Squandered--High Character of
the Board of Trustees--The Success much Dependent on them--Tabulation of
the Accounts--Long Services of the Treasurer, Mr. J. E. Williams--The
Sectarian Danger--Great Care to Avoid this--The Utmost Publicity a
Necessity--Need for State Aid--Sensation to be Avoided--Hopes that this
Charity will Scatter its Blessings for Generations to come..pp. 440-448
THE DANGEROUS CLASSES
OF NEW YORK;
AND TWENTY YEARS' WORK AMONG THEM.
----
CHAPTER I.
CHRIST IN CHARITY AND REFORM.
THE CONDITION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN BEFORE CHRISTIANITY.
The central figure in the world's charity is CHRIST. An eloquent
rationalistic writer--Mr. Lecky--speaking of the Christian efforts in
early ages in behalf of exposed children and against infanticide, says:
"Whatever mistakes may have been made, the entire movement I have traced
displays an anxiety not only for the life, but for the moral well-being,
of the castaways of society, such as the most humane nations of
antiquity had never reached. This minute and scrupulous care for human
life and human virtue in the humblest forms, in the slave, the
gladiator, the savage, or the infant, was indeed wholly foreign to the
genius of Paganism. It was produced by the Christian doctrine of the
inestimable value of each immortal soul.
"It is the distinguishing and transcendent characteristic of every
society into which the spirit of Christianity has passed."
Christ has indeed given a new value to the poorest and most despised
human being.
When one thinks what was the fate before He lived, throughout the
civilized world, of for instance one large and pitiable class of human
beings--unfortunate children, destitute orphans, foundlings, the
deformed and sickly, and female children of the poor; how almost
universal, even under the highest pagan civilization--the Greek and
Roman--infanticide was; how Plato and Aristotle both approved of it; how
even more common was the dreadful exposure of children who were
physically imperfect or for any cause disagreeable to their parents, so
that crowds of these little unfortunates were to be seen exposed around
a column near the Velabrum at Rome--some being taken to be raised as
slaves, others as prostitutes, others carried off by beggars and maimed
for exhibition, or captured by witches to be murdered, and their bodies
used in their magical preparations; when one remembers for how many
centuries, even after the nominal introduction of Christianity, the sale
of free children was permitted by law, and then recalls how utterly the
spirit of the Founder of Christianity has exterminated these barbarous
practices from the civilized world; what vast and ingenious charities
exist in every Christian country for this unfortunate class; what time
and wealth and thought are bestowed to heal the diseases, purify the
morals, raise the character, and make happy the life of foundlings,
outcast girls and boys and orphans, we can easily understand that the
source of the charities of civilized nations has been especially in
Christ; and knowing how vital the moral care of unfortunate children is
to civilization itself the most skeptical among us may still put Him at
the head of even modern social reform.
EXPOSURE OF CHILDREN.
The "exposure of children" is spoken of casually and with indifference
by numerous Latin authors. The comedians include the custom in their
pictures of the daily Roman life, usually without even a passing
condemnation. Thus, in Terence's play (Heauton: Act iii., sc. v.), the
very character who uttered the apothegm which has become a proverb of
humanity for all ages--"I am a man, and nothing belonging to man is
alien to me"--is represented, on the eve of his departure on a long
journey, as urging his wife to destroy the infant soon to be born, if it
should prove to be a girl, rather than expose it. She, however, exposes
it, and it was taken, as was usual, and brought up as a prostitute. This
play turns in its plot, as is true of many popular comedies, on this
exposition of the abandoned child.
It is frequently commented on by Roman dramatists, and subsequently by
the early Christian preachers, that, owing to this terrible custom,
brothers might marry sisters, or fathers share in the ruin of their
unknown daughters in houses of crime.
Seneca, who certainly always writes with propriety and aims to be
governed by reason, in his treatise on Anger (De Ira: i., 15), comments
thus calmly on the practice: "Portentos foetus extingnimus; liberos
quoque si debiles, monstrosique editi sunt, mergimus. Non ira, sed
_ratio_ est, a sanis, inutilia secernere." (Monstrous offspring we
destroy; children too, if weak and unnaturally formed from birth, we
drown. It is not anger, but reason, thus to separate the useless from
the sound.)
In another work (Controversi, lib. v., 33), he denounces the horrible
practice, common in Rome, of maiming these unfortunate children and then
offering them to the gaze of the compassionate. He describes the
miserable little creatures with shortened limbs, broken Joints, and
carved backs, exhibited by the villainous beggars who had gathered them
at the _Lactaria,_ and then deformed them: "Volo nosse," "I should like
to know" says the moralist, with a burst of human indignation, "illam
calamitatum humanarum officinam--illud infantum spoliarium!"--"that
workshop of human misfortunes--those shambles of infants!"
On the day that Germanicus died, says Suetonius (in Calig., n. 5),
"Subversae Deam arae, partus conjugum expositi," parents exposed their
new-born babes.
The early Christian preachers and writers were unceasing in their
denunciations of the practice.
Quintilian (Decl. 306, vol vi., p. 236) draws a most moving picture of
the fate of these unhappy children left in the Forum: "Rarum est ut
expositi vivant! Yos ponite ante oculos puerum statim neglectum * * *
inter feras et volucres."
"It is rare that the exposed survive!" he says.
Tertullian, in an eloquent passage (Apol., c. 9), asks: "Quot vultis ex
his circumstantibus et in christianum sanguinem hiantibus * * * apud
conscientias pulsem, qui natos sibi liberos enecent?"
"How many, do you suppose, of those standing about and panting for the
blood of Christians, if I should put it to them before their very
conscience, would deny that they killed their own children?"
Lactantius, who was the tutor of the son of Constantine, in a book
dedicated to Constantine, protests: "It is impossible to grant that one
has the right to strangle one's new-born children"; and speaks of
exposition as exposing one's own blood--"ad servitutem vel ad
lupanar"--"for slavery or the brothel." "It is a crime as execrable to
expose a child as to kill him."
So fearfully did the numbers increase, under the Roman Empire, of these
unfortunate children, that the spark of charity, which is never utterly
extinguished in the human breast, began to kindle. Pliny the Younger is
said to have appropriated a sum equivalent to $52,000 (see Epist., v.,
7), to found an asylum for fathers unable to support their children.
THE FIRST CHILDREN'S ASYLUM.
Probably the first society or asylum in history for poor children was
the foundation established by the Emperor Trajan (about A. D. 110) for
destitute and abandoned children. The property thus established in
perpetuity, with real estate and money at interest (at five per cent.),
was equivalent in value to $920,000, and supported some five thousand
children of both sexes. Singularly enough, there seems to have been only
one illegitimate child to one hundred and fifty legitimate in these
institutions.
The Antonines, as might be expected, did not neglect this charity; but
both Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius founded associations for
destitute girls. Alexander Severus established one also for poor
children. These form the only organized efforts made for this object,
during many centuries, by the most civilized and refined state of
antiquity.
The number, however, of these wretched creatures, increased beyond all
cure from scattered exceptional efforts like these. Everywhere the poor
got rid of their children by exposure, or sold them as slaves. The rich,
if indifferent to their offspring, or unwilling to take the trouble of
rearing them, sent them out to the public square, where pimps, beggars,
witches, and slave-dealers gleaned their horrible harvest. At length,
under the influence of Christianity, legislation began to take
cognizance of the practice.
The Emperor Constantine, the Emperor Valentian, Valens, and Gratian,
sixty years later, continued this humane legislation.
They ordered, under strict penalties, that every one should nourish his
own children, and forbade exposition; declaring also that no one had the
right to reclaim the children he had abandoned; the motive to this law
being the desire to make it for the interest of those "taking up"
exposed children to keep them, even if necessary, as slaves, against any
outside claims.
Unfortunately, at that period, slavery was held a less evil than the
ordinary fate to which the poor left their children.
The punishment of death was also decreed against Infanticide.
It is an interesting fact that a portion, and probably the whole, of our
ancestral tribes looked with the greatest horror on abortion and
infanticide. The laws of the Visigoths punished these offenses with
death or blindness. Their influence, of course, should always be
considered, as well as that of Christianity, in estimating the modern
position of woman and the outcast child, as compared with their status
under Greek and Roman civilization.
At a later period (412 A. D.) the imperial legislation again endeavored
to prevent the reclaiming of exposed children from compassionate persons
who had taken them. "Were they right to say that those children belonged
to them when they had despised them even to the point of abandoning them
to death?"
It was provided also, that in future no one should "take from the
ground" exposed children except in the presence of witnesses, and that
the archbishop should put his signature on the document of guardianship
which was prepared. (Cod. Theod., lib. 5, tit. 7, De Expositis.)
Hitherto, exposed children had generally been taken and reared as
slaves; but in A. D. 529, Justinian decreed that not only the father
lost all legitimate authority over the child if he exposed it, but also
that the child itself preserved its liberty.
This law applied only to the Eastern Empire; in the Western the slavery
of exposed children continued for centuries. (Lecky: Hist. of Europ.
Morals, vol. ii, p. 32.) The Christian churches throughout the early
centuries took especial care of orphans, in parish orphan nurseries, or
_orphanotrophioe._
The first asylums for deserted and foundling children which are recorded
in the Christian era are one in Treves in the sixth century, one at
Angiers in the seventh, and a more famous one in Milan, A. D. 787.
Societies for the protection of children were also formed in Milan in
the middle of the twelfth century.
At the end of that century a monk of Montpelier, Brother GUY, formed
what may be called the first "Children's Aid Society," for the
protection, shelter, and education of destitute children, a fraternity
which subsequently spread over Europe.
One great cause of the final extreme corruption and extinction of
ancient pagan society was the existence of large classes of unfortunate
beings, whom no social moral movement of renovation ever reached--the
slaves, the gladiators, the barbarian strangers, and the outcast
children.
To all these deep strata of misery and crime Christianity gradually
penetrated, and brought life and light, and finally an almost entire
metamorphosis. As criminal and unfortunate classes, they have--with the
exception only of the children--ceased to exist under modern
civilization. We have no longer at the basis of modern society the
dangers of a multitude of ignorant slaves, or of disaffected barbarous
foreigners, or of a profession of gladiators--brutal, brutalizing; but
we do still have masses of unfortunate youth, whose condition, though
immensely improved, and lightened by the influences of Christianity, is
still one of the most threatening and painful phenomena of modern
society in nearly all civilized countries.
Still, unlike the experience of Paganism under the Roman Empire and
before it, rays of light, of intelligence, and of moral and spiritual
influence penetrate to the depths of these masses. The spirit of Christ
is slowly and irresistibly permeating even this lowest class of
miserable, unfortunate, or criminal beings; inspiring those who
perseveringly labor for them, drawing from wealth its dole and from
intelligence its service of love, educating the fortunate in the habit
of duty to the unfortunate, giving a dignity to the most degraded, and
offering hope to the despairing.
CHRIST leads the Reform of the world, as well as its Charity.
Those who have much to do with alms-giving and plans of human
improvement soon see how superficial and comparatively useless all
assistance or organization is, which does not touch habits of life and
the inner forces which form character. The poor helped each year become
poorer in force and independence. Education is a better preventive of
pauperism than charity. The best police and the most complete form of
government are nothing if the individual morality be not there. But
Christianity is the highest education of character. Give the poor that,
and only seldom will either alms or punishment be necessary.
When one comes to know the peculiar overpowering temptations which beset
the class of unfortunate children and similar, classes; the inducements
to sharpness, deception, roguery, lying, fraud, coarseness, vice in many
forms, besides toward open offenses against the law; the few restraining
influences in social opinion, good example, or inherited self-control;
the forces without and the organization within impelling to crime, and
then sees how immensely powerful the belief in and love for a
supernatural and noble character and Friend is upon such wild natures;
how it inspires to nobleness, restrains low passions, changes bad
habits, and transforms base hearts; how the thoughts of this
supernatural Friend can accompany a child of the street, and make his
daily hard life an offering of loving service; how the unseen sympathy
can dry the orphan's tears, and throw a light of cheerfulness around the
wan, pale face of the little vagrant, and bring down something of the
splendor of heaven to the dark cellars and dreary dens of a great city:
whoever has had this experience--not once, but many times--will begin to
understand that Christ must lead Reform as well as Charity, and that
without Him the worst diseases of modern society can never be cured.
[Illustration: THE FORTUNES OF A STREET WAIF. (First Stage.)]