THE BEST REMEDY FOR JUVENILE PAUPERISM.
"Ameliorer l'homme par le terre et la terre par l'homme." DEMETZ
Among the lowest poor of New York, as we stated in a previous chapter,
the influence of _overcrowding_ has been incredibly debasing. When we
find half a dozen families--as we frequently do--occupying one room, the
old and young, men and women, boys and girls of all ages sleeping near
each other, the result is inevitable. The older persons commit unnatural
crimes; the younger grow up with hardly a sense of personal dignity or
purity; the girls are corrupted even in childhood; and the boys become
naturally thieves, vagrants, and vicious characters. Such apartments are
at once "fever-nests" and seminaries of vice. The inmates are weakened
and diseased physically, and degraded spiritually. Where these houses
abound, as formerly in the Five Points, or now in the First Ward, or
near Corlear's Hook, or in the Seventeenth Ward near the Tenth Avenue,
there is gradually formed a hideous society of vice and pauperism. The
men are idle and drunken, the women lazy, quarrelsome, and given to
begging; the children see nothing but examples of drunkenness, lust, and
idleness, and they grow up inevitably as sharpers, beggars, thieves,
burglars, and prostitutes. Amid such communities of outcasts the
institutions of education and religion are comparatively powerless. What
is done for the children on one sacred day is wiped out by the influence
of the week, and even daily instruction has immense difficulty in
counteracting the lessons of home and parents.
For such children of the outcast poor, a more radical cure is needed
than the usual influences of school and church.
The same obstacle also appeared soon with the homeless lads and girls
who were taken into the Lodging-houses. Though without a home, they were
often not legally vagrant--that is, they had some ostensible occupation,
some street-trade--and no judge would commit them, unless a very
flagrant case of vagrancy was made out against them. They were unwilling
to be sent to Asylums, and, indeed, were so numerous that all the
Asylums of the State could not contain them. Moreover, their care and
charge in public institutions would have entailed expenses on the city
so heavy, that tax-payers would not have consented to the burden.
The workers, also, in this movement felt from the beginning that
"asylum-life" is not the best training to outcast children in preparing
them for practical life. In large buildings, where a multitude of
children are gathered together, the bad corrupt the good, and the good
are not educated in the virtues of real life. The machinery, too, which
is so necessary in such large institutions, unfits a poor boy or girl
for practical handwork.
The founders of the Children's Aid Society early saw that the best of
all Asylums for the outcast child, is the _farmer's home._
The United States have the enormous advantage over all other countries,
in the treatment of difficult questions of pauperism and reform, that
they possess a practically unlimited area of arable land. The demand for
labor on this land is beyond any present supply. Moreover, the
cultivators of the soil are in America our most solid and intelligent
class. From the nature of their circumstances, their laborers, or
"help," must be members of their families, and share in their social
tone. It is, accordingly, of the utmost importance to them to train up
children who shall aid in their work, and be associates of their own
children. A servant who is nothing but a servant, would be, with them,
disagreeable and inconvenient. They like to educate their own "help."
With their overflowing supply of food also, each new mouth in the
household brings no drain on their means. Children are a blessing, and
the mere feeding of a young boy or girl is not considered at all.
With this fortunate state of things, it was but a natural inference that
the important movement now inaugurating for the benefit of the
unfortunate children of New York should at once strike upon a plan of
EMIGRATION.
Simple and most effective as this ingenious scheme now seems--which has
accomplished more in relieving New York of youthful crime and misery
than all other charities together--at the outset it seemed as difficult
and perplexing as does the similar cure proposed now in Great Britain
for a more terrible condition of the children of the poor.
Among other objections, it was feared that the farmers would not want
the children for help; that, if they took them, the latter would be
liable to ill-treatment, or, if well treated, would corrupt the virtuous
children around them, and thus New York would be scattering seeds of
vice and corruption all over the land. Accidents might occur to the
unhappy little ones thus sent, bringing odium on the benevolent persons
who were dispatching them to the country. How were places to be found?
How were the demand and supply for children's labor to be connected? How
were the right employers to be selected? And, when the children were
placed, how were their interests to be watched over, and acts of
oppression or hard dealing prevented or punished? Were they to be
indentured, or not? If this was the right scheme, why had it not been
tried long ago in our cities or in England?
These and innumerable similar difficulties and objections were offered
to this projected plan of relieving the city of its youthful pauperism
and suffering. They all fell to the ground before the confident efforts
to carry out a well-laid scheme; and practical experience has justified
none of them.
To awaken the demand for these children, circulars were sent out through
the city weeklies and the rural papers to the country districts.
Hundreds of applications poured in at once from the farmers and
mechanics all through the Union. At first, we made the effort to meet
individual applications by sending just the kind of children wanted; but
this soon became impracticable.
Each applicant or employer always called for "a perfect child," without
any of the taints of earthly depravity. The girls must be pretty,
good-tempered, not given to purloining sweetmeats, and fond of making
fires at daylight, and with a constitutional love for Sunday Schools and
Bible-lessons. The boys must be well made, of good stock, never disposed
to steal apples or pelt cattle, using language of perfect propriety, and
delighting in family-worship and prayer-meetings more than in fishing or
skating parties. These demands, of course, were not always successfully
complied with. Moreover, to those who desired the children of "blue
eyes, fair hair, and blond complexion," we were sure to send the
dark-eyed and brunette; and the particular virtues wished for were very
often precisely those that the child was deficient in. It was evidently
altogether too much of a lottery for bereaved parents or benevolent
employers to receive children in that way.
Yet, even under this incomplete plan, there were many cases like the
following, which we extract from our Journal:--
A WAIF.
"In visiting, during May last, near the docks at the foot of
Twenty-third Street, I found a boy, about twelve years of age, sitting
on the wharf, very ragged and wretched-looking. I asked him where he
lived, and he made the answer one hears so often from these children--'I
don't live nowhere.' On further inquiry, it appeared that his parents
had died a few years before--that his aunt took him for a while, but,
being a drunken woman, had at length turned him away; and for some time
he had slept in a box in Twenty-second Street, and the _boys fed him,_
he occasionally making a sixpence with holding horses or doing an
errand. He had eaten nothing that day, though it was afternoon. I gave
him something to eat, and he promised to come up the next day to the
office.
"He came up, and we had a long talk together. He was naturally an
intelligent boy, of good temperament and organization; but in our
Christian city of New York he had never heard of Jesus Christ! His
mother, long ago, had taught him a prayer, and occasionally he said this
in the dark nights, lying on the boards. * * * Of schools or churches,
of course, he knew nothing. We sent him to a gentleman in Delaware, who
had wished to make the experiment of bringing up a vagrant boy of the
city. He thus writes at his arrival:--
"'The boy reached Wilmington in safety, where I found him a few hours
after he arrived. Poor boy! He bears about him, or, rather, _is,_ the
unmistakable evidence of the life he has led--covered with vermin,
almost a leper, ignorant in the extreme, and seeming wonder-struck
almost at the voice of kindness and sympathy, and bewildered with the
idea of possessing a wardrobe gotten for him.
"'So far as I can judge from so short an observation, I should think him
an amiable boy, grateful for kindness shown him, rather timid than
energetic, yet by no means deficient in intellectual capacity, and
altogether such a one as, by God's help, can be made something of. Such
as he is, or may turn out to be, I accept the trust conferred upon me,
not insensible of the responsibility I incur in thus becoming the
instructor and trainer of a being destined to an endless life, of which
that which he passes under my care, while but the beginning, may
determine all the rest.'
"In a letter six months later, he writes:--
"'It gives me much pleasure to be able to state that Johnny
S---continues to grow in favor with us all. Having been reclaimed from
his vagrant habits, which at first clung pretty close to him, he may now
be said to be a steady and industrious boy.
"'I have not had occasion, since he has been under my care, to reprove
him so often as once even, having found gentle and kindly admonition
quite sufficient to restrain him. He is affectionate in disposition,
very truthful, and remarkably free from the use of profane or rough
language. I find less occasion to look after him than is usual with
children of his age, in order to ascertain that the animals intrusted to
his care are well attended to, etc.
"' * * * Johnny is now a very good speller out of books, reads quite
fairly, and will make a superior penman--an apt scholar, and very fond
of his books. I have been his teacher thus far. He attends regularly a
Sabbath School, of which I have the superintendence, and the religious
services which follow,'"
The effort to place the city-children of the street in country families
revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural
districts, which was truly delightful to see. People bore with these
children of poverty, sometimes, as they did not with their own. There
was--and not in one or two families alone--a sublime spirit of patience
exhibited toward these unfortunate little creatures, a bearing with
defects and inherited evils, a forgiving over and over again of sins and
wrongs, which showed how deep a hold the spirit of Christ had taken of
many of our countrywomen.
To receive such a letter as this elevated one's respect for human
nature:--
"S----, OHIO, February 14, 1859.
"I wish to add a few words to Carrie's letter, to inform you of her
welfare and progress. As she has said, it is now one year since she came
to us; and, in looking back upon the time, I feel that, considering her
mental deficiencies, she has made as much progress in learning as could
be expected. Her health, which was at first and for several months the
greatest source of anxiety to us, is so much improved that she is,
indeed, _well._ Her eyes are better; though rather weak, they do not
much interfere with her studies. She could neither sew nor knit when she
came here, and she can now do plain kinds of both, if it is prepared for
her. She could not tell all the alphabet, and could spell only three or
four words. She now reads quite fluently, though sometimes stopping at a
'hard word,' and is as good at spelling as many Yankee children of her
age. I hope she has learned some wholesome moral truths, and she has
received much religious instruction. Though really quite a conscientious
child when she came, she had a habit of telling lies to screen herself
from _blame,_ to which she is peculiarly sensitive; but I think she has
been cured of this for a long time, and I place perfect confidence in
her word and in her honesty. I succeeded in getting her fitted to enter
one of our intermediate schools by teaching her at home until the
beginning of the present winter. I am obliged, on account of her
exceeding dullness, to spend much time in teaching her out of school, in
order that she may be able to keep up with her classes. But I think this
has been a work worth doing, and I especially feel it to be so now, as I
am employed in this retrospect.
"I am often asked by my friends, who think the child is little more than
half-witted, why I do not 'send her back, and get a brighter one.' My
answer is, that she is just the one who needs the care and kindness
which Providence has put it into my power to bestow. We love her dearly;
but, if I did not, I should not think of sending her back to such a
place as your great city. She is just one of those who could be imposed
upon and abused, and perhaps may never be able to take care of herself
wholly."
Having found the defects of our first plan of emigration, we soon
inaugurated another, which has since been followed out successfully
during nearly twenty years of constant action.
We formed little companies of emigrants, and, after thoroughly cleaning
and clothing them, put them under a competent agent, and, first
selecting a village where there was a call or opening for such a party,
we dispatched them to the place.
The farming community having been duly notified, there was usually a
dense crowd of people at the station, awaiting the arrival of the
youthful travelers. The sight of the little company of the children of
misfortune always touched the hearts of a population naturally generous.
They were soon billeted around among the citizens, and the following day
a public meeting was called in the church or town-hall, and a committee
appointed of leading citizens. The agent then addressed the assembly,
stating the benevolent objects of the Society, and something of the
history of the children. The sight of their worn faces was a most
pathetic enforcement of his arguments. People who were childless came
forward to adopt children; others, who had not intended to take any into
their families, were induced to apply for them; and many who really
wanted the children's labor pressed forward to obtain it.
In every American community, especially in a Western one, there are many
spare places at the table of life. There is no harassing "struggle for
existence." They have enough for themselves and the stranger too. Not,
perhaps, thinking of it before, yet, the orphan being placed in their
presence without friends or home, they gladly welcome and train him. The
committee decide on the applications. Sometimes there is almost a case
for Solomon before them. Two eager mothers without children claim some
little waif thus cast on the strand before them. Sometimes the family
which has taken in a fine lad for the night feels that it cannot do
without him, and yet the committee prefer a better home for him. And so
hours of discussion and selection pass. Those who are able, pay the
fares of the children, or otherwise make some gift to the Society until
at length the business of charity is finished, and a little band of
young wayfarers and homeless rovers in the world find themselves in
comfortable and kind homes, with all the boundless advantages and
opportunities of the Western farmer's life about them.