FACTORY CHILDREN.
In our educational movements, we early opened Night-schools for the poor
children. During the winter of 1870-71, we had some eleven in operation,
reaching a most interesting class of children--those working hard from
eight to ten hours a day, and then coming with passionate eagerness for
schooling in the evening.
The experience gained in these schools still further developed the fact,
already known to us, of the great numbers of children of tender years in
New York employed in factories, shops, trades, and other regular
occupations. A child put at hard work in this way, is, as is well known,
stunted in growth or enfeebled in health. He fails also to get what is
considered as indispensable in this country for the safety of the State,
a common-school education. He grows up weak in body and ignorant or
untrained in mind. The parent or relative wants his wages, and insists
on his laboring in a factory when he ought to be in an infant-school.
The employer is in the habit of getting labor where he can find it, and
does not much consider whether he is allowing his little _employes_ the
time and leisure sufficient for preparing themselves for life. He
excuses himself, too, by the plea that the child would be half-starved
or thrown on the Poor-house but for this employment.
The universal experience is, that neither the benevolence of the
manufacturer nor the conscience of the parent will prevent the steady
employment of children of tender years in factory work, provided
sufficient wages be offered. Probably, if the employer were approached
by a reasonable person, and it was represented what a wrong he was doing
to so young a laborer, or the parent were warned of his responsibility
to educate a child he had brought into the world, they would both agree
to the reasonableness of the position, and attempt to reform their ways.
But the necessities of capital on the one side, and the wants of poverty
on the other, soon put the children again at the loom, the machine, and
the bench, and the result is--masses of little ones, bent and wan with
early trial, and growing up mere machines of labor. England has found
the evil terrible, and, during the past ten or fifteen years, has been
legislating incessantly against it; protecting helpless infancy from the
tyranny of capital and the greed of poverty, and securing a fair growth
of body and mind for the children of the laboring poor.
There is something extremely touching in these Night-schools, in the
eagerness of the needy boys and girls who have been toiling all day, to
pick up a morsel of knowledge or gain a practical mental accomplishment.
Their occupations are legion. The following are extracts from a recent
report of one of our visitors on this subject. At the Crosby-street
School, he says:--
"There were some hundred children; their occupations were as follows:
They put up insect-powder, drive wagons, tend oyster-saloons; are
tinsmiths, engravers, office-boys, in type-founderies, at screws, in
blacksmith-shops; make cigars, polish, work at packing tobacco, in
barber-shops, at paper-stands; are cashboys, light porters, make
artificial flowers, work at hair; are errand-boys, make ink, are in
Singer's sewing-machine factory, and printing-offices; some post bills,
some are paint-scrapers, some peddlers; they pack snuff, attend
poultry-stands at market, in shoe-stores and hat-stores, tend stands,
and help painters and carpenters.
"At the Fifth-ward School (No. 141 Hudson Street), were fifty boys and
girls. One of them, speaking of her occupation, said: 'I work at
feathers, cutting the feathers from cock's tails. It is a very busy time
now. They took in forty new hands today. I get three dollars and fifty
cents a week; next week I'll get more. I go to work at eight o'clock and
leave off at six. The feathers are cut from the stem, then steamed, and
curled, and packed. They are sent then to Paris, but more South and
West.' One boy said he worked at twisting twine; another drove a
'hoisting-horse,' another blacked boots, etc.
"At the Eleventh-ward School, foot of East Eleventh Street, there was an
interesting class of boys and girls under thirteen years of age. One boy
said he was employed during the day in making chains of beads, and says
that a number of the boys and girls present are in the same business.
Another said he worked at coloring maps. Another blows an organ for a
music-teacher.
"At the Lord School, No. 207 Greenwich Street, the occupations of the
girls were working in hair, striping tobacco, crochet, folding paper
collars, house-work, tending baby, putting up papers in drug-store, etc,
etc."
In making but a brief survey of the employment of children outside of
our schools, we discover that there are from one thousand five hundred
to two thousand children, under fifteen years of age, employed in a
single branch--the manufacture of paper collars--while of those between
fifteen and twenty years, the number reaches some eight thousand. In
tobacco-factories in New York, Brooklyn, and the neighborhood, our
agents found children _only four years of age_--sometimes half a dozen
in a single room. Others were eight years of age, and ranged from that
age up to fifteen years. Girls and boys of twelve to fourteen years earn
from four dollars to five dollars a week. One little girl they saw,
tending a machine, so small that she had to stand upon a box eighteen
inches high to enable her to reach her work. In one room they found
fifty children; some little girls, only eight years of age, earning
three dollars per week. In another, there were children of eight and old
women of sixty, working together. In the "unbinding cellar" they found
fifteen boys under fifteen years. Twine-factories, ink-factories,
feather, pocket-book, and artificial-flower manufacture, and hundreds of
other occupations, reveal the same state of things.
It will be remembered that when Mr. Mundella, the English member of
Parliament, who has accomplished so much in educational and other
reforms in Great Britain, was here, he stated in a public address that
the evils of children's overwork seemed as great here as in England. Our
investigations confirm this opinion. The evil is already vast in New
York, and must be checked. It can only be restrained by legislation.
What have other States done in the matter?
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATION.
The great manufacturing State of New England has long felt the evil from
children's overwork, but has only in recent years attempted to check it
by strict legislation. In 1866, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed
an act restraining "the employment of children of tender years in
manufacturing establishments," which was subsequently repealed and
replaced by a more complete and stringent law in 1867 (chapter 285). By
this act, no child under ten years of age is permitted to be employed in
any manufacturing or mechanical establishment in the State. And no child
between ten and fifteen years can be so employed, unless he has attended
some Day-school for at least three months of the year preceding, or a
"halftime school" during the six months. Nor shall the employment
continue, if this amount of education is not secured. The school also
must be approved by the School Committee of the town where the child
resides.
It is further provided, that no child under fifteen shall be so employed
more than sixty hours per week. The penalty for the violation of the act
is fifty dollars, both to employer and parent. The execution of the law
is made the duty of the State Constable.
The report of the Deputy State Comptroller, Gen. Oliver, shows certain
defects in the phraseology of the act, and various difficulties in its
execution, but no more than might naturally be expected in such
legislation. Thus, there is not sufficient power conferred on the
executive officer to enter manufacturing establishments, or to secure
satisfactory evidence of the law having been violated; and no sufficient
certificates or forms of registration of the age and school attendance
of factory children are provided for. The act, too, it is claimed, is
not sufficiently yielding, and therefore may bear severely in certain
cases on the poor.
The reports, however, from this officer, and from the Boston "Bureau of
Labor," show how much is already being accomplished in Massachusetts to
bring public attention to bear on the subject. Laws often act as
favorably by indirect means as by direct. They arouse conscience and
awaken consideration, even if they cannot be fully executed. As a class,
New England manufacturers are exceedingly intelligent and
public-spirited, and when their attention was called to this growing
evil by the law, they at once set about efforts to remedy it. Many of
them have established "half-time schools," which they require their
young _employes_ to attend; and they find their own interests advanced
by this, as they get a better class of laborers. Others arrange "double
gangs" of young workers, so that one-half may take the place of the
other in the mill, while the former are in school. Others have founded
"Night-schools." There is no question that the law, with all its
defects, has already served to lessen the evil.
RHODE ISLAND LEGISLATION.
The Rhode Island act (chapter 139) does not differ materially from that
of Massachusetts, except that twelve years is made the minimum age at
which a child can be employed in factories; and children, even during
the nine months of factory work every year, are not allowed to be
employed more than eleven hours per day. The penalty is made but twenty
dollars, which can be recovered before any Justice of the Peace, and
one-half is to go to the complainant and the other to the District or
Public School.
CONNECTICUT LEGISLATION.
In matters of educational reform Connecticut is always the leading State
of the Union. On this subject of children's overwork, and consequent
want of education, she has legislated since 1842.
The original act, however, was strengthened and, in part, repealed by
another law passed in July, 1869 (chapter 115), which is the most
stringent act on this subject in the American code. In all the other
legislation the law is made to apply solely to manufacturers and
mechanics; in this it includes all employment of children, the State
rightly concluding that it is as much against the public weal to have a
child grow up ignorant and overworked with a farmer as with a
manufacturer. The Connecticut act, too, leaves out the word "knowingly,"
with regard to the employer's action in working the child at too tender
years, or beyond the legal time. It throws on the employer the
responsibility of ascertaining whether the children employed have
attended school the required time, or whether they are too young for his
labor. Nor is it enough that the child should have been a member of a
school for three months; his name must appear on the register for sixty
days of actual attendance.
The age under which three months' school-time is required is fourteen.
The penalty for each offense is made one hundred dollars to the
Treasurer of the State. Four different classes of officers are
instructed and authorized to co-operate with the State in securing every
child under fourteen three months of education, and in protecting him
from overwork, namely, School-Visitors, the Board of Education, State
Attorneys, and Grand Jurors. The State Board of Education is "authorized
to take such action as may be deemed necessary to secure the enforcement
of this act, and may appoint an agent for that purpose."
The defects of the law seem to be that it provides for no minimum of age
in which a child may be employed in a factory, and does not limit the
number of hours of labor per week for children in manufacturing
establishments. Neither of these limitations is necessary in regard to
farm-labor.
The agent for executing the law in Connecticut, Mr. H. M. Cleaveland,
seems to have acted with great wisdom, and to have secured the hearty
co-operation of the manufacturers. "Three-fourths of the manufacturers
of the State," he says, "of almost everything, from a needle up to a
locomotive, were visited, and pledged themselves to a written
agreement," that they would employ no children under fourteen years of
age, except those with certificates from the local school-officers of
actual school attendance for at least three months.
This fact alone reflects the greatest credit on this intelligent class.
And we are not surprised that they are quoted as saying, "We do not dare
to permit the children within and around our mills to grow up without
some education. Better for us to pay the school expenses ourselves than
have the children in ignorance."
Many of the Connecticut manufacturers have already, at their own
expense, provided means of education for the children they are
employing; and large numbers have agreed to a division of the children
in their employ into alternate gangs--of whom one is in school while the
other is in the factory.
The following act was drawn up by Mr. C. E. Whitehead, counsel and
trustee of the Children's Aid Society, and presented to the New York
Legislature of 1872. It has not yet passed:--
AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF FACTORY CHILDREN.
SECTION 1.--No child under the age of ten years shall be employed for
hire in any manufactory or mechanical shop, or at any manufacturing work
within this State; and no child under the age of twelve years shall be
so employed unless such child can intelligibly read, under a penalty of
five dollars for every day during any part of which any such child shall
be so employed, to be paid by the employer. Any parent, guardian, or
other person authorizing such employment, or making a false return of
the age of a child, with a view to such employment, shall be liable to a
penalty of twenty dollars.
SEC. 2.--No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in
any manufactory, or in any mechanical or manufacturing shop, or at any
manufacturing work within the State, for more than sixty hours in one
week, or after four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, or on New-year's-day,
or on Christmas-day, or on the Fourth of July, or on the Twenty-second
of February, or on Thanksgiving-day, under a penalty of ten dollars for
each offense.
SEC. 3.--No child between the ages of ten and sixteen years shall be
employed in any manufactory or workshop, or at any manufacturing work
within this State, during more than nine months in any one year, unless
during such year he shall have attended school as in this section
hereinafter provided, nor shall such child be employed at all unless
such child shall have attended a public day-school during three full
months of the twelve months next preceding such employment, and shall
deliver to its employer a written certificate of such attendance, signed
by the teacher; the certificate to be kept by the employer as
hereinafter provided, under a penalty of fifty dollars. _Provided_ that
regular tuition of three hours per day in a private day-school or public
night-school, during a term of six months, shall be deemed equivalent to
three months' attendance at a public day-school, kept in accordance with
the customary hours of tuition. And provided that the child shall have
lived within the State during the preceding six months. And provided
that where there are more than one child between the ages of twelve and
sixteen years in one family, and the commissioners or overseers of the
poor shall certify in writing that the labor of such children is
essential to the maintenance of the family, such schooling may be
substituted during the first year of their employment by having the
children attend the public schools during alternate months of such
current year, until the full three months' schooling for each child
shall have been had, or by having the children attend continuously a
private day-school or public night-school three hours a day until the
full six months' schooling for each child shall have been had.
SEC. 4--Every manufacturer, owner of mills, agent, overseer, contractor,
or other person, who shall employ operatives under sixteen years of age,
or on whose promises such operatives shall be employed, shall cause to
be kept on the premises a register, which shall contain, in consecutive
columns: (1st), the date when each operative commenced his or her
engagement; (2d), the name and surname of the operative; (3d), his or
her place of nativity; (4th), his or her residence by street and number;
(5th), his or her age; (6th), the name of his or her father, if living;
if not, that of the mother, if living; (7th), the number of his or her
school certificate, or the reason of its absence; and (8th), the date of
his or her leaving the factory. Such register shall be kept open to the
inspection of all public authorities, and extracts therefrom shall be
furnished on the requisition of the Inspector, the School Commissioners,
or other public authority. Any violation of this section shall subject
the offender to a penalty of one hundred dollars.
SEC. 5.--Every such employer mentioned in the last section shall keep a
register, in which shall be entered the certificates of schooling
produced by children in his employ; such certificate shall be signed by
the teacher, and shall be dated, and shall certify the dates between
which such scholar has attended school, and shall mention any absences
made therefrom during such term, and such certificates shall be numbered
in consecutive order, and such register shall also be kept open to
inspection of all public authorities, as provided in the last section;
and all violations of this section shall subject the offender to a
penalty of one hundred dollars.
SEC. 6.--Any teacher or other person giving a false certificate, for the
purpose of being used under the provisions of this act, shall be liable
to a penalty of one hundred dollars, and be deemed guilty of
misdemeanor.
SEC. 7.--The parent or guardian of every child released from work under
the provisions of this act shall cause the said child to attend school
when so released, for three months, in accordance with the provisions of
section three of this act, under a penalty of five dollars for each week
of non-attendance.
SEC. 8.--All public officers and persons charged with the enforcement of
this law can, at all working-hours, enter upon any factory premises, and
any person refusing them admittance or hindering them shall be liable to
a penalty of one hundred dollars.
SEC. 9.--Every room in any factory in which operatives are employed
shall be thoroughly painted or whitewashed or cleaned at least once a
year, and shall be kept as well ventilated, lighted, and cleaned as the
character of the business will permit, under a penalty of ten dollars
for each week of neglect.
SEC. 10.--All trap-doors or elevators, and all shafting, belting,
wheels, and machinery running by steam, water, or other motive power, in
rooms or places in a factory in which operatives are employed, or
through which they have to pass, shall be protected by iron screens, or
by suitable partitions during all the time when such doors are open, and
while such machinery is in motion, under a penalty of fifty dollars, to
be paid by the owner of such machinery, or the employer of such
operatives, for each day during which the same shall be so unprotected.
SEC. 11.--This act shall be printed and kept hung in a conspicuous place
in every factory, by the owner, agent, overseer, or person occupying
such factory, under a penalty of ten dollars for each day's neglect.
SEC 12.--All suits for penalties under this act shall be brought within
ninety days after commission of the offense, and may be brought by the
Inspector of Factory Children, by the District-Attorney of the county,
by the School Commissioners, by the Trustees of Public Schools, or the
Commissioners of Charities, before any Justice of the Peace, or in any
Justice's Court, or any Court of Record; and one-half of all penalties
recovered shall be paid to the school fund of the county, and one-half
to the informer.
SEC. 13.--The Governor of this State shall hereafter appoint a State
officer, to be known as the Inspector of Factory Children, to hold
office for four years, unless sooner removed for neglect of duty, who
shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars a year and traveling
expenses, not exceeding one thousand dollars, whose duty it shall be to
examine the different factories in this State, and to aid in the
enforcement of this law, and to report annually to the Legislature the
number, the ages, character of occupation, and educational privileges of
children engaged in manufacturing labor in the different counties of the
State, with suggestions as to the Improvement of their condition.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE ORGANIZATION OF CHARITIES.
The power of every charity and effort at moral reform is in the spirit
of the man directing or founding it. If he enter it mechanically, as he
would take a trade or profession, simply because it falls in his way, or
because of its salary or position, he cannot possibly succeed in it.
There are some things which the laws of trade do not touch. There are
services of love which seek no pecuniary reward, and whose virtue, when
first entered upon, is that the soul is poured out in them without
reference to money-return.
In the initiation of all great and good causes there is a time of pure
enthusiasm, when life and thought and labor are given freely, and hardly
a care enters the mind as to the prizes of honor or wealth which are
struggled for so keenly in the world. No reformer or friend of humanity,
worthy of the name, has not some time in his life felt this high
enthusiasm. If it has been his duty to struggle with such an evil as
Slavery, the wrongs of the slave have been burned into his soul until he
has felt them more even than if they were his own, and no reward of
riches or fame that life could offer him would be half so sweet as the
consciousness that he had broken these fetters of injustice.
If he has been inspired by Christ with a love of humanity, there have
been times when the evils that afflict it clouded his daily happiness;
when the thought of the tears shed that no one could wipe away; of the
nameless wrongs suffered; of the ignorance which imbruted the young, and
the sins that stained the conscience; of the loneliness, privation, and
pain of vast masses of human beings; of the necessary degradation of
great multitudes;--when the picture of all these, and other wounds and
woes of mankind, rose like a dark cloud between him and the light, and
even the face of God was obscured.
At such times it has seemed sweeter to bring smiles back to sad faces,
and to raise up the neglected and forgotten, than to win the highest
prize of earth; and the thought of HIM who hath ennobled man, and whose
life was especially given for the poor and outcast, made all labors and
sacrifices seem as nothing compared with the Joy of following in His
footsteps.
At such rare moments the ordinary prizes of life are forgotten or not
valued. The man is inspired with "the enthusiasm of humanity." He maps
out a city with his plans and aspirations for the removal of the various
evils which he sees. His life flows out for those who can never reward
him, and who hardly know of his labors.
But, in process of time, the first fervor of this ardent enthusiasm must
cool away. The worker himself is forced to think of his own interests
and those of his family. His plan, whatever it may be,--for removing the
evils which have pained him, demands practical means,--men, money, and
"machinery." Hence arises the great subject of _"Organization."_ The
strong under-running current which carries his enterprise along is still
the old faith or enthusiasm; but the question of means demands new
thought and the exercise of different faculties.
There are many radical difficulties, in organizing practical charities,
which are exceedingly hard to overcome.
Charities, to be permanent and efficient, must be organized with as much
exactness and order as business associations, and carry with them
something of the same energy and motives of action. But the tendency, as
is well known from European experience, of all old charities, is to
sluggishness, want of enterprise, and careless business arrangement, as
well as to mechanical routine in the treatment of their subjects. The
reason of this is to be found in the somewhat exceptional abnormal
position--economically considered--of the worker in fields of
benevolence. All laborers in the intellectual and moral field are
exposed to the dangers of routine. But in education, for instance, and
the offices of the Church, there is a constant and healthy competition
going on, and certain prizes are held out to the successful worker,
which tend continually to arouse his faculties, and lead him to invent
new methods of attaining his ends. The relative want of this among the
Catholic clergy may be the cause of their lack of intellectual activity,
as compared with the Protestant.
In the management of charities there is a prevailing impression that
what may be called "interested motives" should be entirely excluded. The
worker, having entered the work under the enthusiasm of humanity, should
continue buoyed up by that enthusiasm. His salary may be seldom changed.
It will be ordinarily beneath that which is earned by corresponding
ability outside. No rewards of rank or fame are held out to him. He is
expected to find his pay in his labor.
Now there are certain individuals so filled with compassion for human
sufferings, or so inspired by Religion, or who so much value the
offering of respect returned by mankind for their sacrifices, that they
do not need the impulse of ordinary motives to make their work as
energetic and inventive and faithful as any labor under the motives of
competition and gain.
But the great majority of the instruments and agents of a charity are
not of this kind. They must have something of the common inducements of
mankind held out before them. If these be withdrawn, they become
gradually sluggish, uninventive, inexact, and lacking in the necessary
enterprise and ardor.
The agents of the old endowed charities of England are said often to
become as lazy and mechanical as monks in monasteries.
To remedy such evils, the trustees of all charities should hold out a
regular scale of salaries, which different agents could attain to if
they were successful. The principle, too, which should govern the
amounts paid to each agent, should be well considered. Of course, the
governing law for all salaries are the demand and supply for such
services. But an agent for a charity, even as a missionary, sometimes
puts himself voluntarily outside of such a law. He throws himself into a
great moral and religious cause, and consumes his best powers in it, and
unfits himself (it may be) for other employments. His own field may be
too narrow to occasion much demand for his peculiar experience and
talent from other sources. There comes then a certain moral obligation
on the managers of the charity, not to take him at the cheapest rate for
which they can secure his services, but to proportion his payment
somewhat to what he would have been worth in other fields, and thus to
hold out to him some of the inducements of ordinary life. The salary
should be large enough to allow the agent and his family to live
somewhat as those of corresponding ability and education do, and still
to save something for old age or a time of need. Some benevolent
associations have obtained this by a very wise arrangement--that of an
"annuity insurance" of the life of their agents, which secured them a
certain income at a given age.
With the consciousness thus of an appreciation of their labors, and a
payment somewhat in proportion to their value, and a permanent
connection with their humane enterprise, the ordinary _employes_ and
officials come to have somewhat of the interest in it which men take in
selfish pursuits, and will exercise the inventiveness, economy, and
energy that are shown in business enterprises.
Every one knows how almost impossible it is for a charity to conduct,
for instance, a branch of manufacture with profit. The explanation is
that the lower motives are not applied to it. Selfishness is more alert
and economical than benevolence.
On the other side, however, it will not be best to let a charity become
too much of a business. There must always be a certain generosity and
compassion, a degree of freedom in management, which are not allowed in
business undertakings. The agents must have heart as well as head. The
moisture of compassion must not be dried up by too much discipline.
Organization must not swallow up the soul. Routine may be carried so far
as to make the aiding of misery the mere dry working of a machine.
The thought must ever be kept in mind that each human being, however
low, who is assisted, is a "power of endless life," with capacities and
possibilities which cannot be measured or limited. And that one whose
nature CHRIST has shared and for whom He lived and died, cannot be
despised or treated as an animal or a machine.
If the directors of a benevolent institution or enterprise can arouse
these great motives in their agents,--spiritual enthusiasm with a
reasonable gratification of the love of honor and a hope of fair
compensation,--they will undoubtedly create a body of workers capable of
producing a profound impression on the evils they seek to remove.
It is always a misfortune for an agent of a charity if he be too
constantly with the objects of his benevolent labors. He either becomes
too much accustomed to their misfortunes, and falls into a spirit of
routine with them; or, if of tender sympathies, the spring of his mind
is bent by such a constant burden of misery, and he loses the best
qualities for his work--elasticity and hope. Every efficient worker in
the field of benevolence should have time and place for solitude, and
for other pursuits or amusements.
DUTIES OF TRUSTEES.
A board of trustees for an important charity should represent, so far as
is practicable, the different classes and professions of society. There
is danger in a board being too wealthy or distinguished, as well as too
humble. First of all, men are needed who have a deep moral interest in
the work, and who will take a practical part in it. Then they must be
men of such high character and integrity that the community will feel no
anxiety at committing to them--"trust funds." As few "figure-heads"
should be taken in as possible--that is, persons of eminent names, for
the mere purpose of making an impression on the public. Men of wealth
are needed for a thousand emergencies; men of moderate means, also, who
can appreciate practical difficulties peculiar to this class; men of
brains, to guide and suggest, and of action, to impel. There should be
lawyers in such a board, for many cases of legal difficulty which arise;
and, if possible, physicians, as charities have so much to do with
sanitary questions. Two classes only had better not be admitted: men of
very large wealth, as they seldom contribute more than persons of
moderate property, and discourage others by their presence in the board;
and clergymen with parishes, the objection to the latter being that they
have no time for such labors, and give a sectarian air to the charity.
It is exceedingly desirable that the trustees or managers of our
benevolent institutions should take a more active and personal part in
their management. The peculiar experience which a successful business
career gives--the power both of handling details and managing large
interests; the capacity of organization; the energy and the careful
judgment and knowledge of men which such a life develops,--are the
qualities most needed in managing moral and benevolent "causes."
A trustee of a charity will often see considerations which the workers
in it do not behold, and will be able frequently to judge of its
operations from a more comprehensive point of view. The great duty of
trustees, of course, should be to rigidly inspect all accounts and to be
responsible for the pecuniary integrity of the enterprise. The
carrying-out of the especial plan of the association and all the details
should be left with one executive officer. If there is too great
interference in details by the board of management, much confusion
ensues, and often personal jealousies and bickerings. Many of our boards
of charities have almost been broken up by internal petty cabals and
quarrels. The agents of benevolent institutions, especially if not
mingling much with the world, are liable to small jealousies and
rivalries.
The executive officer must throw the energy of a business into his labor
of benevolence. He must be allowed a large control over subordinates,
and all the machinery of the organization should pass through his hands.
He must especially represent the work, both to the board and to the
world. If his hands be tied too much, he will soon become a mere
routine-agent, and any one of original power would leave the position.
Again, in his dealings with the heads of the various departments or
branches of the work, he must seek to make each agent feel responsible,
and to a degree independent, so that his labor may become a life-work,
and his reputation and hope of means may depend on his energy and
success. If on all proper occasions he seeks to do full justice to his
subordinates, giving them their due credit and promoting their
interests, and strives to impart to them his own enthusiasm, he will
avoid all jealousies and will find that the charity is as faithfully
served as any business house.
The success in "organization" is mainly due to success in selecting your
men. Some persons have a faculty for this office; others always fail in
it.
Then, having the proper agents, great consideration is due towards them.
Some employers treat their subordinates as if they had hardly a human
feeling. Respect and courtesy always make those who serve you more
efficient. Too much stress, too, can hardly be laid on frank and
unsuspicious dealing with _employes._ Suspicion renders its objects more
ignoble. A man who manages many agents must show much confidence; yet,
of course, be strict and rigid in calling them to account. It will be
better for him also not to be too familiar with them.
CHAPTER XXXI.
STATE AID FOR CHARITIES.
An important question often comes up in regard to our charitable
associations: "How shall they best be supported?"--by endowment from the
State or by private and annual assistance? There is clearly a right that
all charities of a general nature should expect some help from the
public Legislature. The State is the source of the charters of all
corporations. One of the main duties of a Legislature is to care for the
interests of the poor and criminal. The English system, dating as far
back as Henry VIII, has been to leave the charge of the poor and all
educational institutions, as much as possible, to counties or local
bodies or individuals. It has been, so far as the charge of the poor is
concerned, imitated here. But in neither country has it worked, well;
and the last relic of it will probably soon be removed in this State, by
placing the defective persons--the blind and dumb, and insane and idiot,
and the orphans--in the several counties in State institutions. The
charge of criminals and reformatory institutions are also largely placed
under State control and supervision.
The object of a State Legislature in all these matters is _bonum
publicum_--the public weal. If they think that a private charity is
accomplishing a public work of great value, which is not and perhaps
cannot be accomplished by purely public institutions, they apparently
have the same right to tax the whole community, or a local community,
for its benefit, that they have now to tax it for the support of
schools, or Almshouses, or Prisons, or Houses of Refuge. In such a case
it need not be a matter of question with the Legislature whether the
charity is "sectarian" or not; whether it teaches Roman Catholicism, or
Protestantism, or the Jewish faith, or no faith. The only question with
the governing power is, "Does it do a work of public value not done by
public institutions?" If it does; if for instance, it is a
Roman-Catholic Reformatory, or a Protestant House of Refuge, or
Children's Aid Society, the Legislature, knowing that all public and
private organizations together cannot fully remedy the tremendous evils
arising from a class of neglected and homeless children, is perfectly
right in granting aid to such institutions without reference to their
"sectarian" character. It reserves to itself the right of inspection,
secured in this State by our admirable Board of Inspectors of State
Charities; and it can at any time repeal the charters of, or refuse the
appropriations to, these private associations. But thus far, its uniform
practice has been to aid, to a limited degree, private charities of this
nature.
This should by no means be considered a ground for demanding similar
assistance for "sectarian schools." Education is secured now by public
taxation for all; and all can take advantage of it. There is no popular
necessity for Church Schools, and the public good is not promoted by
them as it is by secular schools. Where there are children too poor to
attend the Public Schools, these can be aided by private charitable
associations; and of these, only those should be assisted by the State
which have no sectarian character.
Charities which are entirely supported by State and permanent endowment
are liable, as the experience of England shows, to run into a condition
of routine and lifelessness. The old endowments of Great Britain are
nests of abuses, and many of them are now being swept away. A State
charity has the advantage of greater solidity and more thorough and
expensive machinery, and often more careful organization. But, as
compared with our private charities, the public institutions of
beneficence are dull and lifeless. They have not the individual
enthusiasm working through them, with its ardor and power. They are more
like machines.
On the other hand, charities supported entirely by individuals will
always have but a small scope. The amount of what may be called the
"charity fund" of the community is comparatively limited. In years of
disaster or war, or where other interests absorb the public, it will
dwindle down to a very small sum. It is distributed, too, somewhat
capriciously. Sometimes a "sensation" calls it forth bountifully, while
more real demands are neglected. An important benevolent association,
depending solely on its voluntary contributions from individuals, will
always be weak and incomplete in its machinery. The best course for the
permanency and efficiency of a charity seems to be, to make it depend in
part on the State, that it may have a solid foundation of support, and
be under official supervision, and in part on private aid, so that it
may feel the enthusiasm and activity and responsibility of individual
effort. The "Houses of Refuge" combine public and private assistance in
a manner which has proved very beneficial. Their means come from the
State, while their governing bodies are private, and independent of
politics. The New York "Juvenile Asylum" enjoys both public and private
contributions, but has a private board. On the other hand, the
"Commissioners of Charities and Correction" are supported entirely by
taxation, and, until they had the services of a Board carefully
selected, were peculiarly inefficient. Many private benevolent
associations in the city could be mentioned which have no solid
foundation of public support and are under no public supervision, and,
in consequence, are weak and slipshod in all their enterprises. The true
policy of the Legislature is to encourage and supplement private
activity in charities by moderate public aid, and to organize a strict
supervision. The great danger for all charities is in machinery or
"plant" taking more importance in the eyes of its organizers than the
work itself.
The condition of the buildings, the neat and orderly appearance of the
objects of the charity, and the perfection of the means of
housekeeping, become the great objects of the officials or managers,
and are what most strike the eyes of the public. But all these are in
reality nothing compared with the improvement in character and mind of
the persons aided, and this is generally best effected by simple rooms,
simple machinery, and constantly getting rid of the subjects of the
charity. If they are children, the natural family is a thousand times
better charity than all our machinery.
The more an Institution or Asylum can show of those drilled and
machine-like children, the less real work is it doing.
Following "natural laws" makes sad work of a charity-show in an Asylum;
but it leaves fruit over the land, in renovated characters and useful
lives.
THE MULTIPLICATION OF CHARITIES.
One of the greatest evils connected with charities in a large city is
the unreasonable tendency to multiply them. A benevolent individual
meets with a peculiar case of distress or poverty, his feelings are
touched, and he at once conceives the idea of an "Institution" for this
class of human evils. He soon finds others whom he can interest in his
philanthropic object, and they go blindly on collecting their funds, and
perhaps erecting or purchasing their buildings. When the house is
finally prepared, the organization perfected, and the cases of distress
relieved, the founders discover, perhaps to their dismay, that there are
similar or corresponding Institutions for just this class of
unfortunates, which have been carrying on their quiet labors of
benevolence for years, and doing much good. The new Institution, if
wise, would now prefer to turn over its assets and machinery to the old;
but, ten to one, the new workers have an especial pride in their
bantling, and cannot bear to abandon it, or they see what they consider
defects in the management of the old, and, not knowing all the
difficulties of the work, they hope to do better; or their _employes_
have a personal interest in keeping up the new organization, and
persuade them that it is needed by the people.
The result, in nineteen cases out of twenty, is that the two agencies of
charity are continued where but one is needed. Double the amount of
money is used for agents and machinery which is wanted, and, to a
certain degree, the charity funds of the community are wasted.
But this is not the worst effect The poor objects of this organization
soon discover that they have a double source from which to draw their
supplies. They become pauperized, and their faculties are employed in
deriving a support from both societies.
By and by, one organization falls behind in its charity labors, and now,
in place of waiting to carefully assist the poor, it tempts the poor to
come to it. If it be a peculiar kind of school, not much needed in the
quarter, it bribes the poor children by presents to abandon the rival
school and fill its own seats; if an Asylum, it seeks far and near for
those even not legitimately its subjects. There arises a sort of
competition of charity. This kind of rivalry is exceedingly bad both for
the poor and the public. There are evils enough in the community which
all our machinery and wealth cannot cure, and thus to increase or
stimulate misfortunes in order to relieve, is the height of absurdity.
One effect often is, that the public become disgusted with all organized
charity, and at last fancy that societies of benefaction do as much evil
as good.
This city is full of multiplied charities, which are constantly
encroaching on each other's field; and yet there are masses of evil and
calamity here which they scarcely touch. The number of poor people who
enjoy a comfortable living, derived from a long study and experience of
these various agencies of benevolence, would be incredible to any one
not familiar with the facts. They pass from one to the other; knowing
exactly their conditions of assistance and meeting their requirements,
and live thus by a sort of science of alms. The industry and ingenuity
they employ in this pauper trade are truly remarkable. Probably not one
citizen in a thousand could so well recite the long list of charitable
societies and agencies in New York, as one of these busy dependents on
charity. Nor do these industrious paupers confine themselves to secular
and general societies. They have their churches and missions, on whose
skirts they hang; and beyond them a large and influential circle of lady
patronesses who support and protect them. We venture to say there are
very few ladies of position in New York who do not have a numerous
_clientele_ of needy women or unfortunate men that depend on them year
after year, and always follow them up and discover their residence,
however much they may change it. These people have almost lost their
energy of character, and all power of industry (except in pursuing the
different charities and patronesses), through this long and
indiscriminate assistance. They are paupers, not in Poor-houses, and
dependents on alms, living at home. They are often worse off than if
they had never been helped.
This trade of alms and dependence on charities ought to be checked. It
demoralizes the poor, and weakens public confidence in wise and good
charities. It tends to keep the rich from all benefactions, and makes
many doubt whether charity ever really benefits.
There are various modes in which this evil might be remedied. In the
first place, no individual should subscribe to a new charity until he
has satisfied his mind in some way that it is needed, and that he is not
helping to do twice the same good thing.
There ought to be also in such a city as ours a sort of "Board" or
"Bureau of Charities," where a person could get information about all
now existing, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or secular, and
where the agents of these could ascertain if they were helping the same
objects twice.
Lists of names and addresses of those assisted could be kept here for
examination, and frequent comparisons could be made by the agents of
these societies or by individuals interested. One society, formed for a
distinct object, and finding a case needing quite a distinct mode of
relief or assistance, could here at once ascertain where to transfer the
case, or what the conditions of help were in another association. Here,
individuals having difficult, perplexing, or doubtful cases of charity
on hand would ascertain what they should do with them, and whether they
were merely supporting a person now dependent on an association from
such an office. Cases of poverty and misfortune might be visited and
examined by experts, in charity, and the truth ascertained, where
ordinary individuals, inquiring, would be certain to be deceived. Here,
too, the honest and deserving poor could learn where they should apply
for relief.
Such a "Bureau" would be of immense benefit to the city. It would aid in
keeping the poor from pauperism; it would put honest poverty in the way
of proper assistance; simplify and direct charities, and enable the
"charity fund" of the city to be used directly for the evils needing
treatment.
Both the public and benevolent associations would be benefited by it,
and much useless expenditure and labor saved. Under it, each charitable
association could labor in its own field, and encroach on no other, and
the public confidence in the wise use of charity funds be strengthened.
In such a city as ours it would probably be hardly possible to follow
the Boston plan, and put all the offices of the great charities in one
building, yet there could easily be one office of information, or a
"Bureau of Charities," which might be sustained by general
contributions. Perhaps the State "Board of Charities" would father and
direct it, if private means supported it.
In one respect, it would be of immense advantage to have this task
undertaken by the State Board, as they have the right to inspect
charitable institutions, and their duty is to expose "bogus charities."
Of the latter there are only too many in this city. Numerous lazy
individuals make lucrative livelihoods by gathering funds for charities
which only exist on paper. These swindlers could be best exposed and
prosecuted by a "State Board."
CHAPTER XXXII.
HOW BEST TO GIVE ALMS?
"TAKE, NOT GIVE."
We were much struck by a reply, recently, of a City Missionary in East
London, who was asked what he gave to the poor.
"Give!" he said, "we never give now; we take!" He explained that the
remedy of alms, for the terrible evils of that portion of London, had
been tried _ad nauseam_, and that they were all convinced of its little
permanent good, and their great object was, at present, to induce the
poor to save; and for this, they were constantly urgent to get money
from these people, when they had a little. They "took, not gave!"
So convinced is the writer, by twenty years' experience among the poor,
that alms are mainly a bane, that the mere distribution of gifts by the
great charity in which he is engaged seldom affords him much
gratification. The long list of benefactions which the Reports record,
would be exceedingly unsatisfactory, if they were not parts and branches
of a great preventive and educational movement.
The majority of people are most moved by hearing that so many thousand
pairs of shoes, so many articles of clothing, or so many loaves of bread
are given to the needy and suffering by some benevolent agency.
The experienced friend of the poor will only grieve at such alms, unless
they are accompanied with some influences to lead the recipients to take
care of themselves. The worst evil in the world is not poverty or
hunger, but the want of manhood or character which alms-giving directly
occasions.
The English have tried alms until the kingdom seems a vast Poor-house,
and the problem of Pauperism has assumed a gigantic and almost insoluble
form. The nation have given everything but Education, and the result is
a vast multitude of wretched persons in whom pauperism is planted like a
disease of the blood--who cannot be anything but dependents and idlers.
In London alone, twenty-five million dollars per annum are expended in
organized charities; yet, till the year 1871, no general system of
popular education had been formed.
This country has been more fortunate and wiser. We had room and work
enough, we provided education before alms, and, especially among our
native-born population, have checked pauperism, as it never was checked
before in any civilized community.
No one can imagine, who has not been familiar with the lowest classes,
how entirely degraded a character may become, where there is an
uncertain dependence on public and organized alms. The faculties of the
individual are mainly bent on securing support by other means than
industry. Cunning, deception, flattery, and waiting for chances, become
the means of livelihood. Self-respect is lost, and with it go the best
qualities of the soul. True manhood and true womanhood are eaten away.
The habit of labor, and the hope and courage of a self-supporting human
being, and the prudence which guards against future evils, are almost
destroyed. The man becomes a dawdler and waiter on chances, and is
addicted to the lowest vices; his children grow up worse than he, and
make sharpness or crime a substitute for beggary. The woman is sometimes
stripped of the best feelings of her sex by this dependence. Not once or
twice only have we known such a woman steal the clothes from her
half-starved babe, as she was delivering it over to strangers to care
for. There are able-bodied men of this kind in New York who, every
winter, as regularly as the snow falls, commit some petty offense, that
they may be supported at public expense.
When this disease of pauperism is fairly mingled in the blood of
children, their condition is almost hopeless. They will not work, or go
to school, or try to learn anything useful; their faculties are all bent
to the tricks of a roving, begging life; the self-respect of their sex,
if girls, is lost in childhood; they are slatternly, lazy, and
dissolute. If they grow up and marry, they marry men of their own kind,
and breed paupers and prostitutes.
We know of an instance like this in an Alms-house in Western New York. A
mother, in decent circumstances, with an infant, was driven into it by
stress of poverty. Her child grew up a pauper, and both became
accustomed to a life of dependence. The child--a girl--went forth when
she was old enough to work, and soon returned with an illegitimate babe.
She then remained with her child. This child--also a girl--grew up in
like manner, and, occasionally, when old enough, also went forth to
labor, but returned finally, with _her_ illegitimate child, and at
length became a common pauper and prostitute, so that, when the State
Commissioner of Charity, Dr. Hoyt, visited, in his official tour, this
Poor-house, he found _four generations_ of paupers and prostitutes in
one family, in this place!
The regular _habitues_ of Alms-houses are bad enough; but it has
sometimes seemed to me that the outside dependents on an irregular
public charity are worse. They are usually better off than the inmates
of Poor-houses, and, therefore, must deceive more to secure aid; the
process of obtaining it continually degrades them, and they are tempted
to leave regular industry for this unworthy means of support.
"Outdoor relief" is responsible for much of the abuses of the English
pauper administration.
We are convinced that it ought to be, if not abandoned, at least much
circumscribed by our own Commissioners of Charities.
Still, private alms, though more indiscriminately bestowed, and often on
entirely unworthy objects, do not, in our judgment, leave the same evil
effect as public. There is less degradation with the former, and more of
human sympathy, on both sides. The influence of the giver's character
may sometimes elevate the debased nature of an unworthy dependent on
charity. The personal connection of a poor creature and a fine lady, is
not so bad as that of a pauper to the State.
Still, private alms in our large cities are abused to an almost
unlimited extent. Persons who have but little that they can afford to
give, discover, after long experience, that the majority of their
benefactions have been indiscreetly bestowed.
When one thinks of the thousands of cases in a city like New York, of
unmitigated misfortune; of widows with large families, suddenly left
sick and helpless on the world; of lonely and despairing women
struggling against a sea of evils; of strong men disabled by accident or
sickness; of young children abandoned or drifting uncared-for on the
streets, and how many of these are never wisely assisted, it seems a
real calamity that any person should bestow charity carelessly or on
unworthy objects.
The individual himself ought to seek out the subjects whom he desires to
relieve, and ascertain their character and habits, and help in such a
way as not to impair their self-respect or weaken their independence.
The managers of the Charity I have been describing have especially
sought to avoid the evils of alms-giving. While many thousands of
dollars' worth is given each year in various forms of benefaction, not a
penny is bestowed which does not bear in its influence on character. We
do not desire so much to give alms as to prevent the demand for alms. In
every branch of our work we seek to destroy the growth of pauperism.
Nothing in appearance is so touching to the feelings of the humane as a
ragged and homeless boy. The first impulse is to clothe and shelter him
free of cost. But experience soon shows that if you put a comfortable
coat on the first idle and ragged lad who applies, you will have fifty
half-clad lads, many of whom possess hidden away a comfortable outfit,
leaving their business next day, "to get jackets for nothing."
You soon discover, too, that the houseless boy is not so utterly
helpless as he looks. He has a thousand means of supporting himself
honestly in the streets, if he will. Perhaps all that he needs is a
small loan to start his street-trade with, or a shelter for a few
nights, for which he can give his "promise to pay," or some counsel and
instruction, or a few weeks' schooling.
Our Lodging-house-keepers soon learn that the best humanity towards the
boys is "to take, not give." Each lad pays for his lodging, and then
feels independent; if he is too poor to do this, he is taken in "on
trust," and pays his bill when business is successful. He is not clothed
at once, unless under some peculiar and unfortunate circumstances, but
is induced to save some pennies every day until he have enough to buy
his own clothing. If he has not enough to start a street-trade with, the
superintendent loans him a small sum to begin business.
The following is the experience in this matter of Mr. O'Connor, the
superintendent of the Newsboys' Lodging-house:--
"The Howland Fund, noticed in previous reports as having been
established by B. J. Howland, Esq., one of our Trustees, continues to be
the means of doing good. We have loaned from it during the nine months
one hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty cents, on which the
borrowers have realized three hundred and seven dollars and thirty-nine
cents. They have thus made the handsome profit of two hundred and fifty
per cent. on the amount borrowed. It has in many cases been returned in
a few hours. We have loaned it in sums of five cents and upward; we have
had but few defaulters. Of the seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents
due last year, six dollars and fifty cents has been returned, leaving at
this time standing out eleven dollars and five cents."
When large supplies of shoes and clothing are given, it is usually at
Christmas, as an expression of the good-will of the season, or from some
particular friend of the boys as an indication of his regard, and thus
carries less of the ill effects of alms with the gift.
The very air of these Lodging-houses is that of independence, and no
paupers ever graduate from them. We even discourage the street-trades as
a permanent business, and have, therefore, never formed a "Boot-black
Brigade," as has been done in London, on the ground that such
occupations are uncertain and vagrant in habit, and lead to no settled
business.
Our end and aim with every street-rover, is to get him to a farm, and
put him on the land. For this reason we lavish our gifts on the lads who
choose the country for their work. We feed and shelter them
gratuitously, if necessary. We clothe them from top to toe; and the
gifts bring no harm with them. These poor lads have sometimes repaid
these gifts tenfold in later life, in money to the Society. And the
community have been repaid a hundredfold, by the change of a city
vagabond to an honest and industrious farmer.
Our Industrial Schools might almost be called "Reformatories of
Pauperism." Nine-tenths of the children are beggars when they enter, but
they go forth self-respecting and self-supporting young girls.
Food, indeed, is given every day to those most in need; but, being
connected thus with a School, it produces none of the ill effects of
alms. The subject of clothes-giving to these children is, however, a
very difficult one. The best plan is found to be to give the garments as
rewards for good conduct, punctuality, and industry, the amount being
graded by careful "marks"; yet the humane teacher will frequently
discover an unfortunate child without shoes in the winter snow, or
scantily clad, who has not yet attained the proper number of marks, and
she will very privately perhaps relieve the want: knowing, as the
teacher does, every poor family whose children attend the School, she is
not often deceived, and her gifts are worthily bestowed.
The daily influence of the School-training in industry and intelligence
discourages the habit of begging. The child soon becomes ashamed of it,
and when she finally leaves school, she has a pride in supporting
herself.
Gifts of garments, shoes, and the like, to induce children to attend,
are not found wise; though now and then a family will be discovered so
absolutely naked and destitute, that some proper clothing is a necessary
condition to their even entering the School.
Some of the teachers very wisely induce the parents to deposit their
little savings with them, and perhaps pay them interest to encourage
saving. Others, by the aid of friends, have bought coal at wholesale
prices, and retailed it without profit, to the parents of the children.
The principle throughout all the operations of the Children's Aid
Society, is only to give assistance where it bears directly on
character, to discourage pauperism, to cherish independence, to place
the poorest of the city, the homeless children, as we have so often
said, not in Alms-houses or Asylums, but on farms, where they support
themselves and add to the wealth of the nation; to "take, rather than
give;" or to give education and work rather than alms; to place all
their thousands of little subjects under such influences and such
training that they will never need either private or public charity.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HOW SHALL CRIMINAL CHILDREN BE TREATED?
REFORMATORIES.
A child, whether good or bad, is, above all things, an individual
requiring individual treatment and care. Let any of our readers, having
a little fellow given to mischief, who had at length broken his
neighbor's windows, or with a propensity to stealing, or with a quick
temper which continually brings him into unpleasant scrapes, imagine him
suddenly put into an "Institution" for reform, henceforth designated as
"D" of "Class 43," or as "No. 193," roused up to prayers in the morning
with eight hundred others, put to bed at the stroke of the bell, knowing
nothing of his teacher or pastor, except as one of a class of a hundred,
his own little wants, weaknesses, foibles and temptations utterly
unfamiliar to any one, his only friends certain lads who had been in the
place longer, and, perhaps, had known much more of criminal life than he
himself, treated thus altogether as a little machine, or as one of a
regiment.
What could he expect in the way of reform in such a case? He might,
indeed, hope that the lad would feel the penalty and disgrace of being
thus imprisoned, and that the strict discipline would control careless
habits, but he would soon see that the chance of a reform of character
was extremely slight.
There was evidently no personal influence on the child. Whatever bad
habits or traits he had, were likely to be uneradicated. The strongest
agencies upon him were those of his companions; and what boys, even of
the moral classes, teach one another when they are together in masses,
need not be told. Were he to be there a length of time, the most
powerful forces that mould and form boys in the world outside, would be
absent.
The affection of family, the confidence of respected friends, the hope
of making a name, and the desire of money and position--these impulses
must be banished from the Asylum or Reformatory. The lad's only hope is
to escape certain penalties, or win certain marks, and get out of the
place. Now and then, indeed, a chaplain of rare spiritual gifts may
succeed in wielding a personal influence, in such an Institution, over
individual children; but this must, of necessity, be unfrequent, on
account of the great numbers under his charge.
If the subject of a Reformatory be a poor boy or girl, the kind of work
usually chosen is not the one best suited to a child of this class, or
which he will be apt to take up afterwards. It is generally some plain
and easy trade-work, like shoe-pegging, or chair-bottoming, or
pocket-book manufacture. The lad is kept for years at this drudgery, and
when he leaves the place, has no capital laid up of a skilled trade. He
finds such employments crowded, and he seldom enters them again.
Moreover, if he has been a vagrant (as in nine cases out of ten is
probable), or a little sharper and thief of the city, or a boy unwilling
to labor, and unfitted for steady industry, these years at a table in a
factory do not necessarily give him a taste for work; they often only
disgust him.
Were such lads, on the other hand, put in gardens, or at farm-work, they
would find much more pleasure in it. The watching the growth of plants,
the occasional chance for fruit-gathering, the "spurts" of work peculiar
to farming, the open air and sunshine, and dealing with flowers and
grains, with cattle, horses, and fowls, are all attractive to children,
and especially to children of this class. Moreover, when they have
learned the business, they are sure in this country, of the best
occupation which a laboring man can have; and when they graduate, they
can easily find places on farms, where they will get good wages, and be
less exposed to temptations than if engaged in city trades. There seems
to me something, too, in labor in the soil, which is more medicinal to
"minds diseased" than work in shops. The nameless physical and mental
maladies which take possession of these children of vice and poverty are
more easily cured and driven off in outdoor than indoor labor.
I am disposed to think this is peculiarly true of young girls who have
begun criminal courses. They have been accustomed to such excitement and
stir, that the steady toil of a kitchen and household seldom reforms
them.