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TERMS:--ONE DOLLAR A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
THE
PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY.
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING
THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS,” INSTITUTED 1787.
VOL. IV.--NO. II.
APRIL 1849.
PHILADELPHIA:
E. C. AND J. BIDDLE,
SOUTHWEST CORNER OF FIFTH AND MINOR STREETS.
CONTENTS OF NO. II.
ART. I.--HOUSES OF REFUGE, 49
II.--MORTALITY AND CRIME, 63
III.--STATE PENITENTIARIES, 70
NOTICES.
No. 1.--Institutions for the Insane, 79
2.--The precise present character of transportation explained,
with suggestions by Ignotus, 86
3.--Statistics of Truantry and of Juvenile Vagrancy in the City
of Boston, 88
4.--The London Christian Observer’s notice of Rev. Mr. Field’s
work on the Advantages of the Separate System of Imprisonment, 92
5.--Kentucky State Penitentiary, 93
6.--An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of
Convicts, one from the other, to Produce Disease and
Derangement, 94
7.--New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 95
8.--Shelter for Colored Orphans, 95
9.--Paupers and Prisoners in Cincinnati, 95
10.--Insane Asylum in North Carolina, 95
11.--Corrupt Police, 96
CONSTITUTION
OF THE
“_Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons_.”
When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded
on the precepts and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not
cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures: and when
we reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary
severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt, (the usual attendants of
prisons,) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to
that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the
aid of humanity, their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented;
the links which should bind the whole family of mankind together,
under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degrees
and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested, as may,
instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring
our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of
the truth and obligation of these principles, the subscribers have
associated themselves under the title of “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR
ALLEVIATING THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.”
For effecting these purposes, they have adopted the following
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE I.--The officers of the Society shall consist of a President,
two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, two Counsellors, and
an Acting Committee, all of whom, except the Acting Committee, shall be
chosen annually, by ballot, on the second Second-day, called Monday, in
the month called January.
(See 3d page of Cover.)
[Illustration: FRONT VIEW.
J. M^C ARTHUR JUN^R ARCH^T.]
[Illustration: PLAN]
APRIL, 1849.
VOL IV.--NO. II.
ART. I.--HOUSES OF REFUGE.
I. _Twenty-first Annual Report of the Managers of the Philadelphia
House of Refuge to the Legislature and to the Contributors
thereto._ 1849, pp. 32.
II. _Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for
the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents to the Legislature of the
State and the Corporation of the City of New York._ 1849, pp. 50.
We need, in some parts of the United States, a grade of penal
institutions between what are called Houses of Refuge, or of
Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents on the one hand, and the highest
and best class of penitentiaries on the other.
As they are at present, our institutions of this class are neither
schools nor prisons. They employ the inmates at labor and instruct
them, as far as practicable, in the elements of useful knowledge and
thus far they resemble the Industrial Schools of Europe. But they
are places of close confinement--they have regulations and a police,
not unlike those of a prison, and their inmates are sent thither as
_offenders_--though _juvenile_ offenders. The worst that can be said of
some of them is, that they are incorrigible truants--of others, that
they are past parental control, (and in this respect, perhaps, “more
sinned against than sinning;”) but some are adroit thieves and bold
burglars--some skilful forgers--some incendiaries, and some assaulters
with intent to kill. Their ages, too, range from eight to sixteen or
even eighteen, and their size and physical strength are equally various.
This is a motley group to bring into the relation of schoolmates
or fellow-apprentices, and their care-takers must possess rare
endowments, so to administer discipline, as to prevent much harm from
being done to some in connection with all the good they do to others.
For, that they have done immeasurable good, no one who has investigated
their operations and results, can for a moment doubt. They have fully
justified the high anticipations which were entertained concerning
them at an early period of their history. “No disciplinary institution
in our country,” said the Rev. Dr. Alexander of New Jersey, “promises
to effect more for society, than a House of Refuge for juvenile
delinquents. If it were ever lawful to rejoice in an event produced by
crime, it would be, that these unhappy youth are, by the commission of
a crime, snatched from the sink of pollution in which they have been
immersed, and put to regular business, and educated as well as most
children in the land.”[1]
Having fully sustained their claim to confidence, as a system of
reformatory means, we naturally desire to see them rendered as
effective as possible. And to this end we would have them adhere
punctiliously to the original design for which they were instituted.
This was not to inflict a penalty, but to interpose a shield--not to
bring suffering upon the guilty, but to supply instruction, wholesome
discipline and kind offices to the neglected and exposed. They may
easily be perverted by opening their doors to youth (“young in years,
but old in sinning”) who are thought to require some milder discipline
than the penitentiary affords, but whose offences are really as rank
and as indicative of deep-seated depravity as those of the oldest and
the worst.
In determining, in any given case, whether to admit or reject an
applicant, the managers of a House of Refuge would be governed, we
presume, chiefly by the _character_, though in some degree by the size
and physical strength of the individual, as a subject of mild, parental
discipline. The question, how far a residence in the institution will
be likely to bring about his radical reformation and the establishment
of good habits has the first place; and another, and scarcely less
important question would be, what influence will his admission have
on others? If he is perverse and stubborn, and at the same time
overgrown in size, so as require a disproportionate measure of care
and vigilance, (in which case other and more hopeful subjects must be,
to an equal extent, neglected,) his admission would seem inexpedient.
Provision exists, or should be made for such an one elsewhere. So,
also, if one is presented, deformed in body, deficient in mind, or
of sickly constitution, and not likely to succeed in acquiring the
knowledge of a trade, or unfitted to bear the proper discipline, he has
higher claims on some other form of public charity. A House of Refuge
is not meant for him, nor is it likely to benefit him.
An institution designed to keep boys and girls in due order and
subordination, ought to be able to dispense with some of the more
revolting appendages of a prison--such as unscaleable walls--narrow
stone cells--and massive bars and bolts. We admit that all these are
necessary the moment it receives a sturdy, hardened, hackneyed rogue
of eighteen, sixteen or even fourteen; but it is a pity to force upon
the whole establishment the gloomy appearance of a prison, rather
than reject half a dozen youth of extra age and size, whom parents or
friends naturally feel disposed to save from a felon’s doom.
The inquiry of chief interest, however, relates to _character_. What
has been his career up to this time? Who have been his associates? To
what species of crime has he been chiefly addicted? Has he, in the fury
of unbridled passion, attempted the life of another? of his parent, or
associate, or enemy? Has he deliberately forged another’s name? Has he
been familiar with scenes of outrage and tumult? Is he a frequenter
of the haunts of infamy? Has he good fellowship with a large circle
of like characters with himself? These questions, or any of them, if
answered affirmatively, would go far to turn the scale against his
admission. The acts we have supposed, indicate in the perpetrator
of them, a confirmed habit or propensity, which may, perhaps, be
corrected; but not by the ordinary discipline of a proper House of
Refuge. Nor should the attempt be made to employ it on so unpromising a
subject, at the risk of introducing more evil than we can possibly hope
to prevent. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive any good reason why a
burglar or incendiary at sixteen, should be called a “delinquent,” and
put to school, while the same grade of criminals at twenty, are called
convicts, and sent to the penitentiary. Age, by itself, is a very
unsafe criterion by which to determine the turpitude of crime or the
appropriateness of punishment.
We do not say that no cases of this class can occur, in which the
admission of the party to a House of Refuge, would be expedient;
but, as a general thing, we should be disposed to confine its benign
influence to those whose proclivity to a criminal career is but feebly
though decidedly developed; whose delinquencies exist rather in an
impatience or contempt of domestic restraints, than in deliberate
violations of public law. The discipline, as well as the construction
of Refuge-buildings and the usual means of safe custody, evidently
contemplate a very young class of boys and girls, say from eight to
twelve years of age, who may be incorrigible truants, disobedient to
parents, insubordinate to masters, petty thieves, street-strollers,
without a home or worse,--uneducated, unaccustomed to any kind of
restraint. Such youth come under the discipline of an establishment,
like our Houses of Refuge, with a prospect of great advantage.
Even those who have acquired fixed habits of lying, stealing, deceit
and violence, are, at this age, physically reducible to order
and industry. They are incapable of using dangerous weapons with
effect--they are not likely to combine for outbreaks, nor to plot
escapes. With wholesome food, and an hour or two’s recreation every
day, they can be made to conform to stringent regulations, without
great or long continued severity of discipline. Active employment in
some handicraft, daily schooling, and proper religious culture, soon
work a wonderful transformation in such a class of children, and if
they can only be continued long enough to make their new course of life
_habitual_, so that to be idle shall be as irksome to them as it once
was to work, and to speak the truth shall be as easy as it once was to
lie, the benefit of such an institution could not be overrated.
If the discrimination we have suggested, should be faithfully
observed, we should find a very large class of youth who require penal
discipline of a severer type, and for whom no provision is now made
except in the penitentiary, which is quite as ill adapted to meet the
exigency at this point, as the Refuge is at the other. We should,
therefore, be disposed to take the most promising youthful inmates
of the penitentiary, and the least suitable or most unpromising
of the older inmates of some of the Houses of Refuge for juvenile
delinquents, and provide an institution for them, that shall combine
the severity of the former with the leniency of the latter. This idea
is substantially embraced in the Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight,
and is recognized to some extent in the new State Reform School at
Westborough, Massachusetts.
The origin and peculiarities of these institutions, involve the vast
and interesting subject of juvenile delinquency; its causes, effects
and preventives, upon an investigation of which we promise ourselves
some future opportunity to enter. As it is, our limits require us to
pass abruptly to a few general remarks upon the present condition of
our principal institutions designed for its correction.
From the twenty-first report of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, we
learn, that during the year 1848, one hundred and sixty-eight inmates
were received, (129 boys and 39 girls,) and 153 discharged, (116 boys,
and 37 girls,) of whom, 89 were by indentures. Of the commitments, 86
were by request of parents or near friends. The average age of both
sexes was a fraction over 14 years; but so far as the prospect of
reformation is concerned, a girl is as old at 14 as a boy is at 18.
There was only one death in the House during the year. Of the 65 boys
indentured, 30 went to farmers; and of the 24 girls all were indentured
to housewifery. The occupations of the inmates are, cane-chair seating,
(48,) umbrella furniture, (57,) and razor-strop making, (71.) The
income from the labor of boys during the year, was $5,598,88, and the
total expenditures of the establishment, were $13,987,39. The principal
of this institution has, at our request, furnished some valuable
suggestions respecting the methods of administration and discipline, in
establishments of this class, of which we gladly avail ourselves in the
present connection.
He ranks classification, among the most obvious, important and
difficult objects to be attained in such an institution. He admits that
education, moral, intellectual, and religious, is all important; but he
insists, that habits of industry and obedience, should be regarded as
among the first and most desirable fruits of it. The power of habit, he
thus forcibly describes:
“A boy, who has been unaccustomed to obey his parents, or respect his
superiors, and has been allowed to spend most of his time in idleness
before he is brought to the Refuge, if kept regularly at work, and
at the same time compelled to obey those who have the care of him,
will, in time, become so accustomed to labor, that he will even, in
some cases, prefer it to idleness, and obedience will also become
habitual. But this must be a work of time. He should be kept until he
is thoroughly weaned from his former indolent ways. I have known boys
who have remained three or four years in our institution and who have
run away from their masters soon after they were bound out, come back
to the city and resort to their old haunts and habits; but finding few
if any of their old associates, they have soon felt that their former
habits were not so pleasant, and having lost all relish for a vagabond
life, have voluntarily returned to the house and asked admission and
employment as a boon!”
He justly animadverts upon the unreasonableness of those who expect
“a House of Refuge will accomplish, in a few months, what respectable
and even religious parents find it difficult to do even in a series
of years.” They have their children from the first hour of their
existence, and through all that precious period of childhood, while
they are comparatively strangers to evil habits and associations, and
yet how often do they fail to secure their standing in good habits and
sound principles? How preposterous then, must be the expectation that
the House of Refuge will take them, when their moral and intellectual
nature is so completely perverted and corrupted, and thoroughly reform
them in a few months!
Touching the employment of boys in the institution, and after they
leave it, many difficulties are experienced. The modes of labor which
are adopted, are, of course, fitted to the age and physical ability
of such children, but are by no means calculated to prepare them
for that sort of life, which most of them expect to lead. To remove
them completely from the temptations and exposures of city life, is
considered very desirable; and hence, to place them with farmers in
the country, where the means of indulging vicious inclinations are
supposed to be few and far between, is always preferred to placing them
with mechanics, where they will be likely to find associates who will
be the subjects or agents of corruption. But to bind a boy to a farmer
till he is of age, is regarded by most parents as a very undesirable
disposition to make of him, and when a boy is thus bound, he generally
understands that his parents or friends will readily connive at his
escape. The general wish is, that they should be bound to trades, if
bound at all.
It seems to be admitted that, as a general thing, city boys are not
likely to make good farmers, unless put to it very young, and by
degrees accustomed to hard work. “The routine of labor pursued in the
Refuge, does not seem fitted to prepare boys for that kind of life,
to which the greater part of them are destined. A boy here, works
from five to seven hours a day at very light work, in a room that is
warmed and made comfortable in winter, and sheltered from the wet and
heat of summer. He has from one to two hours for play every day, and
an abundance of playmates. After living in this way about one year,
(sometimes a little less, and sometimes more than a year,) he is bound
to a farmer, who makes him work, perhaps ten or twelve hours in a day,
and at labor which is much harder than any thing he has been accustomed
to before. He has, perhaps, repeatedly been told, while in the Refuge,
to behave well, and he should soon have a good place, and it has been
told in such a way, that to be with a farmer is, in his mind, to be
in a kind of paradise. But when he finds hard work, no time for play,
frequent exposure to heat and cold, few or no companions, it is not
strange that some are disappointed and disposed to abscond.”
In contrast with this mode of proceeding, our correspondent proposes
the following outline. “If it were possible,” he says, “I would keep
every boy at least three years, and I would have him understand, when
he comes into the Refuge, that he must not expect to be discharged
in less than three years, so that his mind should be at ease on that
point. I would have them employed at trades, that would be useful
to them after their discharge. In three years they would acquire so
much knowledge of a common trade, that their services would become
desirable to respectable mechanics. In three years, if properly
disciplined, their habits of industry, obedience, &c., would acquire
a degree of strength. They would become weaned from their old
associates and habits. In three years the older ones, (if too old for
apprentices,) would become sufficiently acquainted with their business
to earn their living. Their parents would not feel that their time was
lost. They would see, and the boys themselves would see, that they are
acquiring that sort of knowledge that will be useful to them in after
life. Many of our older boys think now, that their time is in a good
degree lost. They know, indeed, that the intellectual education they
acquire will be of service to them, but they feel, at the same time,
that they are not learning any thing that will secure them a livelihood
after their discharge.”
Among the obvious evils of a short continuance in the Refuge, (besides
the impracticability of forming new habits in the children,) are, (1.)
The state of constant restlessness in the alternation of hope and
disappointment, respecting a release. Parents are permitted to visit
their children once in two months, and in these visits the principal
subject of conversation is about their “getting out.” The children
are constantly urging their parents to have them released, and the
parents are equally constant in promising to do so. This excites much
uneasiness in the former, and neutralizes what would otherwise be the
useful discipline of the house; and, (2.) The institution is deprived
of the fruits of its good discipline as fast, nearly, as they appear.
“By constantly sending out the best, we lose their influence, which
might be of much service with the more vicious. If, in any community,
the best members were constantly leaving, and only bad members coming
in to supply their places, the condition of that community, with regard
to morals, would become very low, if not hopeless.”
These opinions, formed from an intimate acquaintance with the
practical working of the system, are entitled to weight. We do not
adopt nor reject them. We do not say that any material modification
of the present rules of admission, or of the form of discipline is
practicable. But, if the views we have ever held respecting the design
of a House of Refuge are just, viz., to rescue those whose childhood
lies all _open to evil examples and influences, and to put them under
treatment, which shall resemble, in its main features, that of a good
home_, then are we clear, that a more rigid discrimination in the
admission of inmates should be observed. The most hopeful subjects of
such domestic discipline, are those who have not past into that stage
of moral and intellectual stupor and impenetrability, on which ordinary
sympathies fall as water-drops upon a marble slab. Notwithstanding the
sad neglects and abuses they have suffered, there are still impulses
in their young natures, which can be worked upon by kind words and
approving smiles, and indeed, their present unhappy condition is owing,
in no small measure, to the absence of such influences from the place
which (for want of a better) they call their _home_. We have known
cases, not a few, in which the manifestation of a real interest in the
welfare of a child at a favorable moment, has been, in its effects,
like the gushing forth of a living spring from the smitten rock. And it
is in this view, that we most highly commend a recent measure in the
institution, whose report is now under review, viz., the employment of
an intelligent, judicious, capable female, to supervise with maternal
care and tenderness the moral and physical condition of the boys.
We all know with how many chords the human heart is strung, which
vibrate only to the soft breath of sympathy. A gentle accent--a
trifling act of kindness, or even a glance of pity, will awaken their
harmonies, and fill the heart of the rudest child with what may well
pass for rapture. There is a period, however, at which these better
feelings become comparatively incapable of excitement. They have either
lost their vitality by abuse or neglect, or they have been overborne
and swallowed up by the ebbless tide of vicious associations and
indulgencies. The voice of virtuous charmers is no longer heard, charm
they never so wisely.
But we cannot enlarge on this fruitful topic, suffice it to say that
some of the defects of the present system are remediable, as we have
already intimated, and others are inseparable from the very nature and
design of the institution, and can only be set over against the greater
good.
The report furnishes a very gratifying account of the progress which
has been made in the erection of a new Refuge for Colored Juvenile
Delinquents. A front view and ground plan of the structure accompanying
our present number and the following general description of the
arrangement of the various departments, may be interesting to our
readers.
The site embraces eleven acres of ground, and is intended to afford
ample room, (at some future time,) for a new Refuge for white children.
The lot lies in the form of a parallelogram, 400 feet by 210, and is
enclosed by a wall varying in height from 20½ to 30 feet.
“The arrangement of the buildings within the enclosure, which are
all of brick, with slate roofs, is made with reference to a total
separation of the boys and girls, and to the existence of three
separate classes of both male and female inmates: the first (or
best) and second classes each to have a play-ground and work-room,
and the members of one class not to be allowed to converse with
those of the other, on any occasion; the third class, consisting
of the most depraved inmates, to be kept, until in a condition to
warrant promotion to a higher class, in separate confinement, with
a suitable allowance of out of door exercise for the preservation
of health, said exercise to be taken in an enclosure specially
designed for this purpose, where no conversation between the
inmates shall be permitted.
“The numbers of these three classes which can be accommodated when
the buildings marked on the plan shall be erected, as ultimately
designed, are--
Boys. Girls.
1st Class 40 27
2d Class 56 45
3d Class 30 22
--- --
Total 126 94
“Dormitories for the first and second classes are at present provided
for--
Boys. Girls.
1st Class 30 14
2d Class 42 22
-- --
Total 72 36
“The erection of all of the other buildings specified in the plan,
was authorized, with reference to the accommodation of 250 inmates.
They consist of--
“1. A main building, three stories in height, containing offices
and chambers for the officers, school-rooms and infirmaries for
the male and female inmates, a dining and sitting-room for the
girls, &c.
“2. Two buildings projecting from the rear of the main building;
the one in the male department, two stories in height, and
containing the chapel and the boys’ dining-room; the other in the
female department, three stories in height, and appropriated for
the kitchen, the wash-room, store-rooms, &c.
“3. Two wings, each three stories in height; the one, in the female
department, containing the dormitories and bathing-rooms for the
girls; the other, in the male department, containing the boys’
dormitories.
“4. A building, two stories in height, near the southern wall
of the male department, the first and second stories of which
are designed for work-rooms, and the basement for a washing and
bathing-room for the boys.
“A corridor, 12 feet in width, extends the whole length of the main
building and wings, a distance of 243 feet.
“Many important points, in addition to the classification of the
inmates, claimed the attention of the Board, in the preparation of
the plan--_e. g._ security against the escape of the inmates, and
their constant supervision by an officer at all times of the day;
the proper ventilation and warming of all the apartments; provision
for out of door exercise for the inmates in all states of the
weather, &c. These, it is believed, have all been kept in view and
provided for, in the plan adopted.
“The wall of enclosure, excepting the gate-way and a portion of the
pointing, is completed; the work-shop is finished; and of all the
other buildings the walls are up, the roofs on, and a small part of
the flooring laid.”
Extracting flues, connecting with shafts leading to the external air,
have been inserted in all the dormitories and other rooms, to ensure a
good ventilation at all times; and suitable arrangements have also been
made for heating the different apartments. We trust the Managers have
succeeded in securing these two most important requisites to the health
(physical and moral) of their new institution. A full supply of good
water, fresh air and wholesome warmth, is what every institution of the
kind wants; and yet in one or more of them almost all are deficient.
The second document, at the head of the present article, shows a
prosperous state of the institution of which it treats. The whole
number of children and youth who have found refuge within its walls
is 4,397. Of these, 568 were under its care, at different periods,
during the year 1848. The number remaining January 1, 1849, was 355;
and 213 were disposed of during the year. The chief branches of labor
are, making and seating chair frames and manufacturing razor strops.
Among the improvements of the year is the introduction of a small steam
engine, to relieve the severity of some parts of the labor, which is
not unfrequently prejudicial to the immature strength of the inmates.
The disbursements of the year amounted to $22,896 10, and the receipts
$24,122 32. Of the latter sum, $7,198 77 is from the labor of the
inmates, $7,323 83 from the State, $4,600 from the city of New York,
and $4,026 50 from theatre and circus licenses. The chief items of
expense were food and provisions, $9,106 41; salaries, $4,875 89;
clothing, $2,297 90.
The importance of more perfect classification and separation,
especially among the female inmates, is urged. “Contact with the
older and more depraved of their sex, is, for obvious reasons, far
more destructive to young and comparatively innocent females than to
males.”[2]
In confirmation of the views we have presented in a former part of this
article, we cite the following passage from the report now before us.
“This is the proper place to allude to a practice of which we have
already complained more than once--that of sending to the Refuge,
from mistaken ideas of humanity, subjects so far advanced in years
and in crime as to give but faint hopes of their own reformation,
while by example and influence they are calculated to do infinite
harm to others. Those who have travelled long and far on the
downward road of vice, are most unfit companions for such as have
been arrested at the outset of their guilty career. It is to guide
and to reclaim the latter, that houses of refuge are established;
the reformation of the former must be attempted in other places
and by other means. To this practice of sending to the refuge
hardened offenders, whose proper place is a State prison, the
managers ascribe the frequency of attempts to escape. Many sent to
us as boys, are men in size and strength, impatient of restraint,
reckless of consequences, hardened, daring and ingenious in all
mischief. While such subjects are sent us, to corrupt, to organize,
and to lead the younger and more orderly, attempts at escape will
continue to be made, and in spite of all the vigilance of the
officers, will occasionally be successful.
“The rapid increase of crime in our city, and the constantly
augmenting numbers of vicious and vagrant youth, is a subject of
serious contemplation. It would be serious enough, if it only kept
pace with the astonishing increase of our population, but it even
outstrips it. There is no way of getting at complete statistics in
this matter, but all the details that can be obtained confirm this
view. Thus there were committed to prison in the city, including
those sent before trial, and after sentence, and excluding summary
convictions,
in 1835, 2387 persons,
in 1844, 9153 persons.
During this time the population increased from 270,089 to 312,710
(in 1845) or about 35.1 per cent., while the increase in crime
was 354.6 per cent. The average number of inmates in the Tombs
was, in 1846, 174; in 1848, 216, an increase of 21.2 per cent.
in two years, or over three times the growth of the city, which
of late was about 6.90 per cent. for two years. This startling
disproportion, is more or less true of all large cities. It is a
law of our social state, that growing prosperity shall find its
drawback in the parallel increase of misery; and that crowded
communities, as they offer the most liberal rewards to good conduct
and enterprise, so shall contain likewise the most seeds of evil,
the strongest temptations to vice, the largest amount of misery.
And besides our own neglected and depraved population, the tide of
emigration, now setting in stronger and stronger every year, while
it enriches our country, leaves much of its refuse in our city.
Pauper families, and even felons, are not unfrequently sent over
to us, as a cheap way of disposing of them, by the selfishness or
mistaken humanity of those whose duty it is to provide for them at
home, thus swelling the number of houseless, friendless and lawless
youth, drifting loose upon society, to become utterly ship-wrecked,
unless the active hand of benevolence is stretched out to save
them.”
Of those children received in 1848, 209 were boys, (192 white and 17
colored,) and 55 were girls, (45 white and 10 colored.) 140 of the
whole number were from the Police and Sessions of the city, and of the
white children only THIRTY-NINE were of American parentage. 127 were
of Irish birth! Of 141 boys discharged, 53 were indentured to farmers,
14 to shoemakers, and 19 sent to sea; and of 47 girls discharged,
33 were indentured to housewifery. The average age of the inmates
received during 1848, was thirteen and two and a half twelfths years.
Seventy-seven were over fifteen when received.
_New House of Refuge at Rochester._--Our readers are perhaps aware,
that an institution similar to the present House of Refuge in New York,
is about to be established in Rochester for the accommodation of the
Western counties of the State. A friend has kindly furnished us with
the following description of the buildings, &c. Mr. Wood, the present
superintendent of the New York House of Refuge, is expected to take
charge of the new establishment, and the discipline will probably be
substantially the same. An appropriation is expected at the present
session of the legislature, that will enable inmates to be received
this spring. No provision is yet made for females.
“At present,” says our correspondent, “they have only erected a main or
centre building and one wing. The whole length of this building is 234
feet. Main building 86 by 60 feet. Wing 148 by 32 feet, terminated by a
building 37 feet square. The basement of stone, 10 feet in the clear,
walls above of brick. The basement in the main building is intended for
the culinary department; that in the wing for wash-rooms, bathing-room
and workshops. The first and second floors of the main building are
divided into four rooms, with suitable closets, and three halls, with
staircases. The main hall in the centre is 15 feet wide; side halls to
communicate with the wings 12 feet wide. The rooms on the first floor
of the main building are intended for superintendent, matron, &c. The
rooms on second story for hospitals and sleeping-rooms for the officers
of the institution. The upper or third story of main building is
intended for a chapel, 60 by 60 feet, the entrance to which is from the
side hall.
“The first story of the wing is divided into two rooms for school and
dining rooms, each 70 by 30 feet. In second story of wing are the
dormitories for the inmates, two tiers in height, and 86 in number,
arranged next the outside wall. Hall 15 feet wide in the centre. Each
dormitory is 7½ feet wide and 7½ feet high, and is furnished with a
narrow window reaching from floor to ceiling. Dormitory doors are of
cast-iron open work for summer ventilation, allowing the air to pass
directly across the building; in addition, each dormitory is supplied
with fresh air, descending from the cornice by iron pipes, and passing
through the iron doors. This building is surrounded by a stone wall,
to two feet at the top, 23 feet from the foundation, and 20 feet above
ground. The wall is 500 feet long and 400 feet wide, embracing about
4½ acres of land, and cost $12,000. The building, as above described,
cost $26,000. The whole is a most perfect piece of workmanship in
every respect, built in the very best manner, and is considered a most
complete model for such a purpose.
“Attached are 40 acres of land, which it is intended the inmates shall
cultivate, thus affording them a healthy employment, and, at the same
time, furnishing a supply of vegetables, &c., to the institution. The
buildings are situated about a mile from the centre of business, in a
fine dry sandy soil.”
We had prepared a sketch of the proceedings at the opening of the State
Reform School in Massachusetts, and of the discipline, &c., prescribed
there, together with a view and ground plan of the buildings, but our
limits are so contracted as to forbid its appearance in the present
number.
ART. II.--MORTALITY AND CRIME.
It is not generally known, although the fact has been sufficiently
demonstrated by different vital statisticians, that great annual
mortality is accompanied by a proportionate increase of births, so
that the population is kept at its usual average even if it does not
increase. One effect of this mortality and increase of births is the
disproportion between the numbers of the young, the improvident, and
the thoughtless, and the older, more prudent and considerate. Mr.
Slaney, in his report on Birmingham and other towns, made to the
commissioners for inquiry into the state of large towns and populous
districts, after referring to Mr. Chadwick’s exposure of the popular
fallacy, that the sufferings caused by disease, especially among the
poor, restrained the increase of population, says: “I have constantly
observed, wherever the mortality was high in close, narrow, neglected
courts and alleys, there the children swarmed, as if to fill up the
places; and it has been demonstrated again and again, that a high
mortality in an increasing country, only leads to a great increase of
births.” After this preliminary notice, the reader will be able to
understand the force of the following remarks on the connection between
mortality, (including, of course, its physical and moral causes,) and
crime.
Mr. Slaney contrasts the two classes or kinds of inhabitants of the
same city, in the one of which the annual mortality is but two, and in
the other four per cent. “We shall find the rate of mortality one great
criterion of comfort, therefore, of contentment, of good conduct, of
moral habits, of intelligence, docility, usefulness and value.”
“In the one case we shall find a population having little to
complain of, ready to attend to advice, having had time to learn
and to think, having experience from lengthened life, and being
valuable subjects, docile and industrious, possessing their chief
safe-guard against tumults or disorders, ‘the hope of improving
their condition.’ In the other will be found a body, consisting
in a great measure of the young, who cannot repay their support;
a large proportion of the rest will be inexperienced, untaught,
untried, having had no time to learn or to think. All will be
more or less reckless, and hard in mind and conduct; they have
been formed by the cautious course of circumstances around them;
poison to the mind, to the body, has been the course of their only
education. Their maxim will be the heathen maxim of old, ‘Eat and
drink, to-morrow we die;’ forced by their necessities to labor,
experience and wisdom will be wanting; they will not husband their
wages, but seek for excitement in intemperance, or low sensual
indulgences; their consumption of spirits will be ten times that
of the happier class. The gratification of their animal passions
will be their chief object; illicit connections will be formed;
early ill assorted marriages will take place without any chance
of provision for offspring; there will arise multitudes of sickly
and neglected children, pressing into the place of those early
victims just departed, and to be cut off by the same melancholy
process; and thus the scene revolves. This class will eagerly join
in mobs or disturbances, partly for the sake of excitement, and
because they have _not_ that security for good conduct--the hope of
improving their condition.”
Dr. Lyon Playfair, one of the commissioners, in his report on the large
town in Lancashire, remarks: “The tendency to crime is increased by
the comparatively few old and experienced men left to counteract the
haste and inexperience of youth. In the recent mobs in Lancashire, the
great majority of the rioters were found to consist of persons just
emerging from boyhood; the absence of elderly persons among them was a
matter of common remark. Mr. Combe has observed, that the comparative
paucity of aged and cautious persons is the cause of the inconsiderate
and turbulent movements in America. The obstacles in the spread of
education are, also, connected with these causes.”
Dr. Playfair said previously, “The facts exhibited in the preceding
sections, will, I apprehend, convincingly show, that a crowded and
unhealthy district, with all its inevitable accompaniments of low
morals and low intelligence--where the condition of human beings is
scarcely above that of animals--where appetite and instinct occupy
the place of the higher feelings--where the lowest means of support
encourage the most improvident and early marriages,--is not the place
where we shall find a diminishing or even stationary population. For
the early unions there, are followed by early offspring; and although
more than half that offspring may be swept away by disease during
early infancy, yet nearly a third of it will grow up, in spite of all
the surrounding evils, to follow in the steps of their parents, and
in their turn to continue a race ignorant, miserable and immoral as
themselves.” In a note, Dr. Playfair makes the following estimate. “If
we suppose a district of 50,000 inhabitants, with births as 1 in 22,
and deaths as 1 in 33--a ratio not actually as unfavorable as that of
Holme--a little calculation will show that, by the end of twelve years,
the population will have swollen it to nearly 60,000!”
_Sameness of the Causes of Crime and of Disease._--Dr. Lyon Playfair,
in the report already referred to, says expressly: “All the experience
acquired during this inquiry, points out that one immediate effect of
the operation of morbific causes, even when not present in sufficient
intensity to produce direct disease, is to create an appetite for
vicious indulgences. It is too common a mistake to transpose the effect
for the cause, and to ascribe the disease to the indulgence of those
passions, which, in the first place, were created by the low sanatory
state of the district.”
To the same purport are the pointed conclusions of Mr. Slaney. He had
just been describing the low class of dwellings of the poor and the
wretched, and the self-interest of small capitalists to prefer the
erection of these to ones of a better description. He goes on to say:
“I have endeavored to describe some of the evils arising from the
want of proper sanatory regulations in many of these crowded and
neglected places. They may be summed up as follows:
“1st. Shortening the duration of the lives of the community.
“2nd. Disease, suffering and inability to work on the part of many
who survive--the cause of great cost to the country.
“3d. Crimes, theft, and the loss of property, which the police
constantly point out as arising from these neglected classes.
“4th. Riots, disturbances and drunkenness, which may generally be
traced to the same class of persons, often to the same place.
“5th. Great injury to the education of the poor, which is
constantly neutralized in its good effects by the neglect and
evils they see around them. The same observation applies to the
inestimable advantages of religion and of attendance on religious
worship.
“6th. Great discontent in some, and sluggish apathy in others,
producing recklessness of conduct, indifference, and want of
attachment to the institutions of our country.
“7th. The loss in the humbler classes of the cheapest, best and
most enduring pleasures, viz., those arising from the kindly
influence of the domestic relations between husbands and wives,
parents and children, brothers and sisters--this pure source
of happiness derived from mutual kindness, attachment and good
offices--is, amid the hardening and disgusting scenes described,
almost destroyed.
“Amid such scenes, the children become hardened, careless of
cleanliness, unused to order, and all the benefits derived from the
best education which may be given, is destroyed by the constant
evil examples they see around their homes. This is especially the
case with the female sex, who, if early tainted by the disgusting
scenes existing in the places described, and by the want of all
decency and self-respect there exhibited, become at a future
day, the nursing mothers of vice and wretchedness, instead of
inculcating the household virtues.”
The sameness of the causes of diseases and of crime, are clearly
indicated by the Rev. Mr. Clay in his report in the borough of Preston,
as where he says:--
“A map of the town has been made, shaded in those districts which
are ill ventilated, drained and cleaned; the increased depth of
tint indicating a proportionate degree of dirtiness, &c. The
number of deaths in the respective streets is also given, every
blue spot representing a death from fever or epidemic disease, and
the red spots showing the frequency of death from other disorders.
The residences of persons charged with offences during the last
year are also indicated, and the whole tends to show, that dirt,
disease and crime are concurrent.”
_Overcrowding and Defective Ventilation._--Dr. Southwood Smith, in his
evidence before the commissioners for “_Inquiring into the state of
large towns and populous districts_,” adduces the following painful,
but yet instructive observations. We reproduce them here, not merely
as a warning against a remote, or even a threatened evil, but with
the hope of stimulating our fellow-citizens to the adoption of such
measures as shall eradicate similar nuisances too near their own doors.