THE MINISTRY OF FLOWERS.
THE LITTLE VAGABONDS OF CORLEAR'S HOOK.
If any of my readers should ever be inclined to investigate a very
miserable quarter of the city, let them go down to our "Corlear's Hook,"
so infamous twenty years ago for murders and terrible crimes, and then
wind about among the lanes and narrow streets of the district. Here they
will find every available inch of the ground made use of for residences,
so that each lot has that poisonous arrangement, a "double house,"
whereby the air is more effectually vitiated, and a greater number of
human beings are crowded together. From this massing-together of
families, and the drunken habits prevailing, it results very naturally
that the children prefer outdoor life to their wretched tenements, and,
in the milder months, boys and girls live a _dolce far niente_ life on
the docks and wood-piles, enjoying the sun and the swimming, and picking
up a livelihood by petty thieving and peddling.
Sometimes they all huddle together in some cellar, boys and girls, and
there sleep. In winter they creep back to the tenement-houses, or hire a
bed in the vile lodgings which are found in the Ward. They grow up,
naturally, the wildest little "Topseys" and "Gavroches" that can be
found. Ragged, impudent, sharp, able "to paddle their canoe" through all
the rapids of the great city--the most volatile and uncertain of
children; today in school, to-morrow miles away; many of them the most
skillful of petty thieves, and all growing up to prey on the city.
In the midst of this quarter we found an old Public School building--a
dilapidated old shell--which we hired and refitted. It had the especial
advantage of being open to air and light on four sides. We soon
transformed it into one of the most complete and attractive little
agencies of instruction and charity which ever arose in the dark places
of a crowded metropolis. We struck upon a superintendent--Mr. G.
Calder--who, with other good qualities, had the artistic gift--who, by a
few flowers, or leaves, or old engravings, could make any room look
pleasing. He exerted his talent in embellishing this building, and in
making a cheerful spot in the midst of a ward filled with rookeries and
broken-down tenements. In the bit of a back yard he created a beautiful
garden, with shrubbery and flowers, with vases and a cool shaded
seat--and these in a place of the size of a respectable closet. There a
poor child could stand and fancy herself, for a moment, far away in the
country, Thence, on a spring morning, drowning the prevalent smells of
bilge-water and sewers, ascended the sweet odors of hyacinth and
heliotrope, sweet-william and violet. Above, in the school-rooms and the
lodging-rooms, these sweet flowers were scattered about, taming and
refining, for the time, the rough little subjects who frequented them.
Soon a novel reward was proposed, and the best children in the School
were allowed to take a plant home with them, and, if they brought it
back improved in a few months, to receive others as a premium; so that
the School not merely distributed its light of morality and intelligence
in the dreary dens of the Ward, but was represented by cheerful and
fragrant flowers in the windows of poor men's homes.
In the School-room, too, was placed a little aquarium, which became an
increasing source of delight to the young vagabonds. Our diligent
superintendent was not content. He now built a green-house, and, though
no gardener, soon learned to care for and raise quantities of exquisite
flowers, which should brighten the building in the gloomy winter.
[Illustration: POOR CHILDREN AMONG FLOWERS (The Rivington Street
Lodging-House.)]
For the Industrial School we procured a teacher who taught as if life
and death depended on the issues of each lesson. She seemed to pour out
her life on "Enumeration," and gave an Object-lesson on an orange as if
all the future prospects of the children depended on it. Such a teacher
could not fail to interest the lively little vagrants of Rivington
Street.
Her sweet assistant was as effective in her own way; so it came that a
hundred and fifty of the young flibbertigibbets of the ward were soon
gathered and attempted to be brought under the discipline of an
Industrial School. But it was like schooling little Indians. A bright
day scattered them as a splash scatters a school of fish, and they
disappeared among the docks and boats of the neighborhood. No
intellectual attraction could compete with a "target company," and the
sound of the fire-bell drove all lessons out of their heads. Still,
patience and ingenuity and devotion accomplished here, as in all our
schools, their work--which, if not "perfect," has been satisfactory and
encouraging.
But this was only a part of our efforts. Besides the school of a hundred
and fifty children in the day from the neighborhood, might be found a
hundred boys gathered from boxes, and barges, and all conceivable
haunts, who came in for school and supper and bed.
Here, for some inscrutable reason, the considerable class of
"canawl-boys," or lads who work on the canal-boats of the interior, came
for harbor. Besides our Day and Night Schools, we opened here also a
Free Reading-room for boys and young men in the neighborhood, and we
held our usual Sunday-evening Meeting. In this meeting, fortunately for
its good effects, various gentlemen took part, with much experience in
practical life and of earnest characters. One, a young officer in the
army, whose service for his country fitted him for the service of
humanity; another, an enthusiastic and active young business man; and
still another--one of those men of calm judgment, profound earnestness
of character, and an almost princely generosity, who, in a foreign
country, would be at the head of affairs, but here throw their moral and
mental weight into enterprises of religion and philanthropy.
The effects of these Meetings were exemplified by many striking changes
of character, and instances of resistance to temptation among the lads,
which greatly encouraged us.
The building seemed so admirably adapted to our work, that, emboldened
by our success with the Eighteenth-street House, we determined to try to
purchase it. Two of our Trustees took the matter in hand. One had
already, in the most generous manner, given one-third of the amount
required for the purchase of that building; but now he offered what was
still more--his personal efforts towards raising the amount needed here,
$18,000.
No such disagreeable and self-denying work is ever done, as begging
money. The feeling that you are boring others, and getting from their
personal regard, what ought to be given solely for public motives, and
the certainty that others will apply to you as you apply to them, and
expect a subscription as a personal return, are all great "crosses." The
cold rebuff, too; the suspicious negative, as if you were engaged in
rather doubtful business, are other unpleasant accompaniments of this
business. And yet it ought to be regarded simply and solely as an
unpleasant public duty. Money must be given, or refused, merely from
public considerations. The giving to one charity should never leave an
obligation that your petitioner must give to another. These few
gentlemen in the city, of means and position, who do this unpleasant
work, deserve the gratitude of the community.
No other city in the world, we believe, makes such liberal gifts from
its means, as does New York towards all kinds of charitable and
religious objects. There is a certain band of wealthy men who give in a
proportion almost never known in the history of benefactions. We know
one gentleman of large income who habitually, as we understand from good
authority, bestows, in every kind of charitable and religious donations,
$300,000 a year! As a general rule, however, the very rich in New York
give very little. Our own charity has been mainly supported by the gifts
of the middle and poorer classes.
In this particular case, the trustee of whom we have spoken threw that
enormous energy which has already made him, though a young man, one of
the foremost business men of the city, into this labor. With him was
associated a refined gentleman, who could reach many with invested
wealth. Under this combination we soon raised the required sum, and all
had the profound satisfaction of seeing a temporary "Home for Homeless
Boys" placed in one of the worst quarters of the city, to scatter its
benefactions for future years, when we are all gone.
During the past year, a still more beautiful feature has been added to
this Lodging-house. We had occasion to put up in the rear a little
building for bathrooms. It occurred to some gentlemen who are always
devising pleasant things for these poor children, that a green-house
upon this, opening into the school-room, would be a very agreeable
feature, and that our superintendent's love for flowers could thus be
used in the most practical way for giving pleasure to great numbers of
poor children. A pretty conservatory, accordingly, was erected on the
top of the bath-room, opening into the audience-room, so that the little
street-waifs, as they looked up from their desks, had a vista of flowers
before them. Hither, also, were invited the mothers of the children in
the Day-school to occasional parties or exhibitions; and here the plants
were shown which had been intrusted to them.
The room is one of the most attractive schoolrooms in the city, and I
have no doubt its beautiful flowers are one cause of the great numbers
of poor children which flock to it, while the influence of its earnest
teachers, and of the whole instrumentality, has been to improve the
character of the neighboring quarter.
FOUR YEARS' WORK AT THE RIVINGTON-STREET LODGING-HOUSE.
(1868, 1869, 1870, 1871)
Number of different boys provided for....... 2,659
Number of lodgings furnished................ 80,344
Number of meals furnished................... 78,756
Number of boys sent West.................... 161
Number of boys provided with employment..... 105
Number of boys restored to friends.......... 126
Number of boys patronizing the savings-bank. 310
Amount saved by the boys....................$ 2,873.00
Total expenses.............................. 26,018.10
Amount paid by the boys..................... 8,614.63
THE LITTLE COPPER-STEALERS.
THE ELEVENTH-WARD LODGING-HOUSE.
The history of this useful charity would be only a repetition of that of
the others. It is placed among the haunts which are a favorite of the
little dock-thieves, and iron and copper-stealers, and of all the ragged
crowd who live by peddling wood near the East River wharves. It has had
a checkered career. One superintendent was "cleaned out" twice on
successive nights, and had his till robbed almost under his nose.
Another was almost hustled out of the dormitory by the youthful
vagabonds; but order has at length been gained; considerable numbers of
the _gamins_ have been tamed into honest farmers, and others are
pursuing regular occupations.
The Night-school is busily attended; the Day-school is a model of
industry; the "Bank" is used, and the Sunday-evening Meeting is one of
the most interesting and impressive which we have.
Its recent success and improvement are due to the personal interest and
exertions of one of our trustees, who has thrown into this labor of
charity a characteristic energy, as well as the earnestness of a
profound religious nature.
We have in this building, also, a great variety of charitable work
crowded; but we hope, through the liberality which has founded our other
Lodging-houses, to secure a more suitable building, which shall be a
permanent blessing to that quarter.
STATISTICS FROM ORIGIN TO 1872.
Number of lodgings.......................... 67,198
Number of meals............................. 65,757
Sent West................................... 278
Restored to friends......................... 138
Number of different boys.................... 3,036
Amount paid by boys.........................$6,522.22