New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-01-19
o.r pub,fc CHARITIES, NO. 8.

are supported by the city. In may respects, this
:. the mos, interesting of all our Public Charities
So dense mass of nfantile Humanity has rarely
in this country been collected into single estao-
lishuent embracing but three or four buildings
| Here too the packing system is carried 10 per
nicious excess. The children sleep at least one
hundred in roora, two in bed, (heads opposite,
| feet in,erningled) and some hundreds of them
learn in common school-room. They nave two
large rooms for exercise and play, and are taught,
| in addition to the common branches, Singing, IL
which their proficiency is marked. Dancing, also,
as q method of exercise, is also taught them, and
in ,hi, they soon prove adopts In their cranPed,
| crowded condition, tending directly to inertia
and sloth this is doubtless highly salu,sry UnhaP-
py eli their exercises not 30 Judiciously chosen
They are taught to declaim in strained, unnatural
voice and 20 recite chapters in the Bible, verse by
worse TWO hundred infants screaming them out in
loud unin,elligible manner, which show an utter
Ignorance of and want Of reverence for the Sacred
Record (This examining the Bible down the
throats of infants, without regard to their capacity
TO understand it or its fitness for the purpose
whsIeto it is applied, has become disease OF our
Popular Education. Unless some discrimination
and judgement be employed in its use, Children
will learn to regard ii as hornbook, and to escape
| from it with the ferule and grammar. When read
in school, appropriate passages should De selected,
explanations made of obsolete customs, peculiar
idiems, obscure passages, &c. and every means
taken TO impress the children with the fact that
!,
breeds contempt or differentiation is as deplora-
BILE as ignorance.
The Monitors for the Infant School are chosen
of course from among the children; and the Teach
ers of the more advanced are such. whit the excep-
ton, we believe, Of the two three principal
Some of them, who would acquit themselves with
credit in any District School, have grown up from
infancy here, and hardly know any world but the
little one of The Farms We believe the general
proficiency of the pupils is not remarkable either
way.
The great defect of this establishment, after its
nsulhciency or crowded condition-no, before that
lis the want of Employment for its inmates
Here are eight hundred girls and boys, some of
whom have been here FIVE, ten and fifteen years,
yet have acquired little or nothing but schooling.
In summer, there is little-a very ittle-work on
the farm in winter nothing at all TO do. Now we
need not repeat all we have said on this subject;
and it all applies here with ten-fold force The
aged, enfeebled Pauper ought to have work to do
regularly; how much more the Child! What MUIR
der to hive him here for years, cut of from all oP-
portunity to learn how bread is earned and COM
forts supplied! What cruelty to thrust him out on
the world at any age ignorant of the useful arts
as an infant Clearly, every child supported here
at least every one FIVE years of age and older
ought to have some duty TO discharge every secu-
lar day. Each should be early ,aughtto feel pride
in being usefu-an eagerness to acquire skill and
dextcrity--a shame in eating the bread of idleness
There should here be workshops, machinery, man.
ufacturing and every truthful used to excite
the curiosity and the CIRCULATION of the children
They should be taught solicit instruction. and TO
look forward with hope to the day when they shall
be able TO earn their bread independently, and to
afford aid to their poor relatives. Honors and re-
wards should be accorded to the most skillfu, In
genious, industrious and, while very moderate
amount of labor should be required of every one,
this should be required regularly each day In this
way-lcttng their labor go for nothins-they would
be so qualified as to secure good places and good
trades at an early age, and be fitted for lives OF
usefulness. just so in spirit with the Females,
though their pursuits would Of course be different.
But each one should be fitted for life of useful
ness before she had passed her fourteenth year.
This cannot be done by the three or four persons
now employed there, and with the bleak tract al
| lowed them. There must be instructors in arts
and trades with workshops, implements, &c
| There are some evils connected with The
| Farms which are difficult of eradication One of
these is the constant changing of its inmates, and
the vicious tendencies which many of thevI bring
there. Then the new corners are constantly bring
ing in disease especially Opthalnia, that .courge
of vicious poverty and lack of cleanliness. Many
are brought in young in years yet grey in depra-
witty. Now the corners ought manifesty to
be kept apart until their characters should be
tally noted, and any lurking tendency TO con,a-
gous disease developed. After this. they should
be classified, according their several characters,
ages and dispositions This Is morally impossible
at present. Must it ever remain so7
70 The Speech of WILLIS HALL in the Assem-
bly,, in review of Gov. Bouck's Message is widely
spoken of as mastery effort Even the Argus
treats it with respectful Difference. We shall hope
to make room for extracts frum it, at least.
And here let Us do justice to Speaker Davis.
Hastily reading over lise of his Committees, we
were surprised to find Mr.. Halls name only on the
| Cnmrpitiee on Two- Thirds Bis and took note