invested had reference to public justice, and involved the power to
appear for the defence of the interests of others, and to require the
coöperation of public officials, a law was indispensable, in order to
confer these powers. Such a law was passed August 21, 1875, whose
provisions covered not only the case of the New York society, but
determined the functions of all institutions of a similar nature. On
condition of complying with the prescribed formalities for acquiring a
corporate existence, the law granted to these institutions the right to
make complaints, in any jurisdiction, of violations of the statutes
regarding children; it set forth, formally, the duty of magistrates or
officers of police, to cooperate with the societies acting in the limits
of their several jurisdictions. The boundaries of the ground of
protection were thus defined, but there was still lacking the requisite
legislative authority. Experience showed that, besides the misdemeanors
of common law--attempts upon the morals, murder, assault and battery,
etc.--a multitude of offences against children remained unpunished. The
society, therefore, solicited and obtained from the Legislature, powers
which permitted it to repress acts of cruelty towards children that the
law failed to reach. The first of these measures was the law of 1876,
forbidding the employment of minors under sixteen years as dancers,
beggars, street peddlers, as gymnasts or contortionists, or in indecent
occupations prejudicial to their health or perilous to their life. Then
came the law of June 6, 1877, forbidding the admission of minors under
fourteen years into public places, liquor saloons, balls, concerts,
theatres, unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. With these
laws, which it caused to be interpreted in the courts in certain test
cases, the society arrived at the most satisfactory results. There were
no longer seen in New York those juvenile beggars whose miserable
appearance is made an instrument of gain by their worthless masters;
those vagrants who disguise their vagabondage under the pretext of
imaginary professions, collecting cigar stumps and rag picking; those
little girls who sell flowers at the doors of houses of bad repute,
often concealing under this ostensible occupation infamous transactions
with panders who keep them in their pay. A determined warfare was
declared against the Italian padroni, who thrive upon the toil of the
little unfortunates to whom they pretend to teach music, and whom they
utilize as peddlers and chimney-sweepers. The conviction of the too
notorious Ancarola was the signal for the suppression of these shameless
villains; the purchases of children ceased, and the cause of humanity
triumphed, thanks to the combined efforts of the society and of the
Italian consul, after long and earnest conferences. It is not only the
Italians, but the children of all nationalities, who have profited from
this powerful patronage: Hungarian, German, Chinese, Irish, French. One
of our compatriots, a girl of fourteen years, came one day to implore
its aid. Her father was a drunkard, who had reached the lowest round in
the ladder of degradation; her mother had no means of subsistence except
concubinage, nor her two sisters except prostitution. She begged that
they would save her from this life of shame. The society received her,
procured her a position, a good education. Learning that she was heiress
to a considerable property left by a grandfather, the society took
active steps in France to secure to her her rights. Unfortunately, the
agent who had possession of the estate became insolvent after having
squandered the property, and it was impossible to recover it. The
society continued to care for the young girl up to the day of her
marriage to a young man enjoying a regular salary of $1,200, and worthy
of her in all respects.
The strict watch kept upon the liquor saloons contributed equally to
improve the condition of children. Many were in the habit of being sent
by confirmed drunkards to buy the "liquid poison!" They thus promoted
this vice whose hardened subjects would prolong It even beyond the grave
by asking that "a bottle of whiskey may be put in their coffin." The
obedience of the children was rewarded by invitations to drink, which
initiated them in debauchery. It was among women abandoned to drink that
lived Eliza Clark, a child of eleven years, paying for the drinks with
the gains which she realized from dancing or singing; in return, the
women gave her brandy to drink and tobacco to smoke, so that when she
was found she resembled "a beast more than a human creature." They also
suppressed the playing of pool for drinks by minors, instituted by
saloon keepers to induce them to drink liquor, which was the reward of
those whom fortune favored in the game.
The police of the theatres performed their duty conscientiously, and the
statutes were obeyed. The necessity of being accompanied by an adult was
felt to be a strange restraint by these gamins eager for the theatre,
whose attractions led them to abandon school, work, and family, and to
procure the money for their admission by stealing it from their parents,
or at a pinch from strangers; and where they would mingle, between the
acts, with pick-pockets and low characters who encouraged them in the
ways of vice. And for a stronger reason, the child was more carefully
protected against the perils of the stage than against those of the
auditory. Juvenile performances were forbidden, and the youthful
performers were excluded successively from the Columbia Opera House or
Theatre des Folies, from the Italian Opera, from the Gem Theatre, from
Parker's American Theatre, and from the Juvenile Opera. Permissions for
individual performances were peremptorily refused even to parents who
were actors. Here the work of the society encountered serious obstacles,
and it is necessary to quote from Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry in order to
appreciate the motives by which the society was actuated in combating
with vigorous purpose the opposition which it met with: "The Press,
which is influenced to a considerable extent by the representations of
theatrical managers, often criticises severely any attempt to deprive
the public of what it is pleased to call its legitimate amusements, by
the suppression of such entertainments. And many pronounced patrons of
the dramatic art even maintain that such exhibitions are indispensable
to the proper development of a dramatic education, and that when the
necessities of the parents require it, charity should encourage the
children to procure this means of obtaining a livelihood. But let us
examine the other side of the question. When the curtain rises in the
theatre, a draught of warm air rushes from the audience on to the stage,
and often paralyzes for some moments the vocal chords of the actors.
When the curtain falls, the cold air comes down from the flies, and the
children, who have become over heated by their physical exertions,
shiver to the marrow before they are able to accustom themselves to this
sudden change of temperature. Every night these things are renewed.
During the day the children sleep as best they can. Their nervous system
is rapidly undermined; their digestion becomes impaired. It is rare that
one can point to instances of children arriving early at positions of
eminence in the dramatic art. It is true that there are a few who shine
as stars in the theatrical profession, and who entered upon their
dramatic career in early childhood; but these are rare exceptions."
It is not only on the stage that the morals of the children have been
protected; the keepers of low resorts have been prosecuted by the
society.
It has shut up the den of the too celebrated Owney Geoghegan, who long
defied the law and the police, encouraging the efforts of prostitutes to
debauch young girls. Women of notorious reputation, who enticed away the
children of respectable mechanics to sell them for money, have been
severely punished. In short, not content with bringing to justice these
outrageous offenders with a firmness which has made it the terror of
these oppressors of childhood, the society has been the instrument of
checking acts even of carelessness or imprudence. It no longer permits
the drunkard to keep his children in a cellar where the rats bite their
feet; or the mercenary father to allow his son to engage in a wager,
dangerous to his health, to make a hundred miles in twenty-four hours;
or a man to ride a bicycle bearing on his shoulders his five-year-old
daughter.
So great a work demanded accommodations of corresponding magnitude. In
1881, and at the price of $43,000, the society purchased a large
building situated at the corner of 23rd street and 4th avenue, one of
the most important thoroughfares of New York. Not far from the offices,
in the main part of the building, is found a collection of all the
instruments of cruelty seized in the legal proceedings,--rods of iron,
whips, firebars (_barres de poeles_), pokers, cudgels (_gourdins_), and
other instruments. These furnish convincing proofs of the sufferings of
the children,--for example those of Maggie Scully, when she said: "I do
all the work at my aunt's house, and if you do not believe that I have
been beaten, look at me, for my aunt has beaten me this morning with a
poker." Adjoining the offices are the rooms for the officers and the
archives of the institution, containing the papers in each case setting
forth the facts and the evidence. On the upper floor is a dormitory,
where the children are kept until final disposition is made of them,
that is to say, generally during one night. In fact, the work is going
on without interruption at all hours of the day and night. If at night a
call by telephone is received from the police-station, an officer of the
society responds immediately to this appeal.
As is most frequently the case, he finds a drunken woman in the street,
with three or four ragged children gathered about her, covered with
vermin, without fire or lodging, having been abandoned by the father.
The mother is detained at the station, but the children are taken to the
society, where they are washed, fed, and for the first time in their
lives, perhaps, put to sleep in a bed. On the following day, the
children are taken to court. If the parents or guardians are worthy,
they are returned to them; if not, the justice commits them to some
charitable institution. Some of these have a religious character, and
others a secular one; the American judge, in rendering his decision, is
influenced by interests of family, of nationality, of race, or of
religion of the child, as well as by the requirements of the law. Sick
children and nursing infants are sent to the hospital on Randall's
Island, the Ladies' Deborah Nursery, and the Child's Hospital. Each of
the charitable institutions receives a per capita allowance for children
during the time that they remain in their care.
The society does not abandon them, and if a complaint arises of improper
treatment, it causes legal proceedings to be instituted against those
who are responsible therefor.
A recent case of this kind was that of the "Old Gentlemen's Home."
It will be readily seen that the cases which come before the society
must be very numerous: during the nine years of its existence it has
investigated 13,077 complaints, involving 52,308 children, prosecuted
4,035 cases, convicted 3,637 offenders, rescued and placed in homes or
institutions 7,555 children. In the last three years it has temporarily
sheltered and clothed 1,092 children and furnished them with 9,309
meals. These figures acquire a singular force when one reads in the
annual reports the curious history of these cases setting forth the
facts in detail. In 1882 the magistrates of the city issued 1,267
warrants. On the information furnished, 834 children were held in
custody, 1,040 released. The city of New York is compelled to pay for
the support of children thus committed to custody. A saving of $108,160
has therefore been realized to the benefit of the tax-payers of New
York. In 1883 they received 2,966 complaints; there were 1,176
prosecutions and 1,128 convictions; 2,008 children were placed in
institutions of charity. Of 2,341 children arrested 1,078 were held,
1,263 released.
The resources of the society are derived exclusively from the liberality
of the public. It receives no aid either from the State or city. On the
contrary, it pay taxes even on the water used in the care of the
children in its charge. The account of receipts and expenditures amounts
to about $17,000. Of the $43,000 which its building cost, $25,000 remain
on mortgage. The field in which the society employs its activity is
already large, and is rapidly extending. It endeavors to obtain from the
legislature laws which will defeat the aims of those too numerous
enterprises which, under color of charity, utilize young children, for
example, the baby farms and those establishments (called _hospitaliers_)
which have neither the means nor the facilities necessary to their
proper conduct. It requires that children shall not be employed in
manual labor before the age of fourteen years, and only after their
physical capability has been certified to by a physician. It insists on
the prohibition of all dangerous occupations. The former articles in
this Bulletin on the abuses which exist in the industrial employment of
children in New York show how justifiable is this action of the society.
"Thousands of children," says Mr. Gerry, "die of diseases contracted in
these injurious employments; in this respect our nation is far behind
Europe in its means of affording protection to children. In France,
severe laws have been in operation since 1841. England has promptly
followed this example, and like the English legislation, that of France
expressly forbids the employment of children in the manufacture of
dangerous substances, of a nature poisonous or explosive. You have only
to visit our hospitals to see the little creatures with hand or fingers
mutilated, from being employed at too early an age in the operation of
machinery. Our negligence makes manifest the wisdom of the French law,
whose lesson is so necessary with us." This needed progress will
without doubt be made, and the society will continue with increased zeal
its charitable work. It gives to the legislator the benefit of a
practical experience in the work, to the child its powerful advocacy in
the courts, to justice the impartiality of prudent investigations, to
public opinion the assurance of the proper conduct of charitable
institutions and an impulse in the direction of improvement. It is thus
that in this land of enterprise, whose customs are adverse to permitting
affairs even of the gravest importance, like the prosecution of crimes
or the direction of works of benevolence, to be concentrated in the
hands of public officials, the consequences of _self-government_ have
been happily corrected in points where they would otherwise become
extreme, in regard to children. The New York society is therefore well
described by its worthy president, Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry, as "the Hand
of Protection." And this hand is too charitable for us to forbear to
give it a cordial pressure across the vast expanse of the Atlantic.
* * * * *
THE MIDDLESEX CANAL.
BY LORIN L. DAME, A.M.
The curious traveller may still trace with little difficulty the line of
the old Middlesex canal, with here and there a break, from the basin at
Charlestown to its junction with the Merrimac at Middlesex village. Like
an accusing ghost, it never strays far from the Boston & Lowell
Railroad, to which it owes its untimely end.
At Medford, the Woburn sewer runs along one portion of its bed, the Spot
pond water-pipes another. The tow-path, at one point, marks the course
of the defunct Mystic Valley Railroad; at others, it has been
metamorphosed into sections of the highway; at others, it survives as a
cow-path or woodland lane; at Wilmington, the stone sides of a lock have
become the lateral walls of a dwelling-house cellar.
Judging the canal by the pecuniary recompense it brought its projectors,
it must be admitted a dismal failure; yet its inception was none the
less a comprehensive, far-reaching scheme, which seemed to assure a
future of ample profits and great public usefulness. Inconsiderable as
this work may appear compared with the modern achievements of
engineering, it was, for the times, a gigantic undertaking, beset with
difficulties scarcely conceivable to-day. Boston was a small town of
about twenty thousand inhabitants; Medford, Woburn, and Chelmsford were
insignificant villages; and Lowell was as yet unborn, while the valley
of the Merrimac, northward into New Hampshire, supported a sparse
agricultural population. But the outlook was encouraging. It was a
period of rapid growth and marked improvements. The subject of closer
communication with the interior early became a vital question.
Turnpikes, controlled by corporations, were the principal avenues over
which country produce, lumber, firewood, and building-stone found their
way to the little metropolis. The cost of entertainment at the various
country inns, the frequent tolls, and the inevitable wear and tear of
teaming, enhanced very materially the price of all these articles. The
Middlesex canal was the first step towards the solution of the problem
of cheap transportation. The plan originated with the Hon. James
Sullivan, who was for six years a judge of the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts, attorney-general from 1790 to 1807, and governor in 1807
and 1808, dying while holding the latter office.
A brief glance at the map of the New England States will bring out in
bold relief the full significance of Sullivan's scheme. It will be seen
that the Merrimac river, after pursuing a southerly course as far as
Middlesex village, turns abruptly to the north-east. A canal from
Charlestown mill-pond to this bend of the river, a distance of 27-1/4
miles, would open a continuous water-route of eighty miles to Concord,
N.H. From this point, taking advantage of Lake Sunapee, a canal could
easily be run in a north-westerly direction to the Connecticut at
Windsor, Vt.; and thence, making use of intermediate streams,
communication could be opened with the St. Lawrence. The speculative
mind of Sullivan dwelt upon the pregnant results that must follow the
connection of Boston with New Hampshire and possibly Vermont and Canada.
He consulted his friend, Col. Baldwin, sheriff of Middlesex, who had a
natural taste for engineering, and they came to the conclusion that the
plan was feasible. Should the undertaking succeed between Concord and
Boston, the gradual increase in population and traffic would in time
warrant the completion of the programme. Even should communication never
be established beyond Concord, the commercial advantages of opening to
the market the undeveloped resources of upper New Hampshire would be a
sufficient justification. Accordingly, James Sullivan, Loammi Baldwin,
Jonathan Porter, Samuel Swan, and five members of the Hall family at
Medford, petitioned the General Court for an act of incorporation. A
charter was granted, bearing date of June 22, 1793, "incorporating James
Sullivan, Esq., and others, by the name of the Proprietors of the
Middlesex Canal," and on the same day was signed by His Excellency John
Hancock, Governor of the Commonwealth. By this charter the proprietors
were authorized to lay such assessments from time to time as might be
required for the construction of the canal.
At their first meeting the proprietors intrusted the management of the
corporation to a board of thirteen members, who were to choose a
president and vice-presidents from their own number, the entire board
subject to annual election. Boston capitalists subscribed freely, and
Russell, Gore, Barrell, Craigie, and Brooks appear among the earliest
directors. This board organized on the 11th of October by the choice of
James Sullivan as president, and Col. Baldwin and John Brooks
(afterwards Gov. Brooks) as vice-presidents. The first step was to make
the necessary surveys between the Charlestown basin and the Merrimac at
Chelmsford; but the science of engineering was in its infancy, and it
was difficult to find a competent person to undertake the task. At
length Samuel Thompson, of Woburn, was engaged to make a preliminary
survey; but the directors, not wholly satisfied with his report,
afterwards secured the services of Samuel Weston, an eminent English
engineer, then employed in Pennsylvania on the Potomac canals. His
report, made Aug. 2, 1794, was favorable; and it is interesting to
compare his figures with those of Mr. Thompson. As calculated by
Thompson, the ascent from Medford bridge to the Concord river, at
Billerica, was found to be 68-1/2 ft.; the actual difference in level,
as found by Weston, was 104 ft. By Thompson's survey there was a further
ascent of 16-1/2 ft. to the Merrimac; when, in fact, the water at
Billerica bridge is almost 25 ft. above the Merrimac at Chelmsford.
Col. Baldwin, who superintended the construction of the canal, removed
the first turf, Sept. 10, 1794. The progress was slow and attended with
many embarrassments. The purchase of land from more than one hundred
proprietors demanded skilful diplomacy. Most of the lands used for the
canal were acquired by voluntary sale, and conveyed in fee-simple to the
corporation. Sixteen lots were taken under authority of the Court of
Sessions; while for thirteen neither deed nor record could be found when
the corporation came to an end. Some of the land was never paid for, as
the owner refused to accept the sum awarded. The compensation ranged
from about $150 an acre in Medford to $25 in Billerica. The numerous
conveyances are all in Sullivan's handwriting.
Labor was not easily procured, probably from the scarcity of laborers,
as the wages paid, $10 a month and board, were presumably as much as
could be earned in manual labor elsewhere. "An order was sent to England
for a levelling instrument made by S. & W. Jones, of London, and this
was the only instrument used for engineering purposes after the first
survey by Weston." Two routes were considered; the rejected route was
forty years later selected for the Lowell Railroad. The canal, 30 ft.
wide, 4 ft. deep, with 20 locks, 7 aqueducts, and crossed by 50 bridges,
was, in 1802, sufficiently completed for the admission of water, and the
following year was opened to public navigation from the Merrimac to the
Charles. Its cost, about $500,000, of which one-third was for land
damages, was but little more than the estimate. Commencing at
Charlestown mill-pond, it passed through Medford, crossing the Mystic by
a wooden aqueduct of 100 ft., to Horn pond in Woburn. Traversing Woburn
and Wilmington it crossed the Shawshine by an aqueduct of 137 ft., and
struck the Concord, from which it receives its water, at Billerica
Mills. Entering the Concord by a stone guard-lock, it crossed, with a
floating tow-path, and passed out on the northern side through another
stone guard-lock; thence it descended 27 ft., in a course of 5-1/4
miles, through Chelmsford to the Merrimac, making its entire length
27-1/4 m.
The proprietors made Charlestown bridge the eastern terminus for their
boats, but ultimately communication was opened with the markets and
wharves upon the harbor, through Mill Creek, over a section of which
Blackstone street now extends.
As the enterprise had the confidence of the business community, money
for prosecuting the work had been procured with comparative ease. The
stock was divided into 800 shares, and among the original stockholders
appear the names of Ebenezer and Dudley Hall, Oliver Wendall, John Adams
of Quincy, Peter C. Brooks of Medford, and Andrew Craigie of Cambridge.
The stock had steadily advanced from $25 a share in the autumn of 1794
to $473 in 1803, the year the canal was opened, touching $500 in 1804.
Then a decline set in, a few dollars at a time, till 1816, when its
market value was $300 with few takers, although the canal was in
successful operation, and, in 1814, the obstructions in the Merrimac had
been surmounted, so that canal boats, locking into the river at
Chelmsford, had been poled up stream as far as Concord.
Firewood and lumber always formed a very considerable item in the
business of the canal. The navy-yard at Charlestown and the shipyards on
the Mystic form any years relied upon the canal for the greater part of
the timber used in shipbuilding; and work was sometimes seriously
retarded by low water in the Merrimac, which interfered with
transportation. The supply of oak and pine about Lake Winnipiseogee, and
along the Merrimac and its tributaries, was thought to be practically
inexhaustible. In the opinion of Daniel Webster, the value of this
timber had been increased $5,000,000 by the canal. Granite from
Tyngsborough, and agricultural products from a great extent of fertile
country, found their way along this channel to Boston; while the return
boats supplied taverns and country stores with their annual stock of
goods. The receipts from tolls, rents, etc. were steadily increasing,
amounting,
in 1812 to $12,600,
" 1813 " 16,800,
" 1814 " 25,700,
" 1815 " 29,200,
" 1816 " 32,600,