The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-09-06
Five Points House Of fIndus'ry.

To the Editor Of the Echo and Advertiser
Reader, III our last you saw the House
of Industry originated in July, 1850,
with some forty women sewing in Mr.
Pease' Chapel, at the Five Points. This
benevolent effort in their behalf, howev-
er, did not yet meet the necessities of
their case TO work under Mr.. pcase
surveillance by day, aud return at night
to brothels and dens Of drunk enncss,
tended but little to either their spiritual,
moral, or physical advancement. They
must have u home, and that home at the
Five Points. TO IL better ncighborhool
their present condition would render
them at once nuisance, and unwilling
to remove Here, again, the lonely
missionary felt the fearful weight of his
individual responsibility. He had no
human helper, save generous and de-
voted wife he had no resources of his
own, but what was barely sufficient for
decent subsistence be had no numcr-
GUS, wealthy, aud influential friends on
whom to rely; even the very individuals
under whose patronage he had hitherto
labored, now utterly declined to counte-
nance his present (and as they viewed
them, precipitous) design. Indeed, the
responsibility of that which he now de-
termined to do, would have been formid-
lablc, and the danger extreme, in any
circumstances; in his they were orcr-
uhelming.
Mr.. and Mrs. Pease bad now resolved
to remove even into the most wretched
portion of the terrible Five Points, and
make their o,om duelling an asylum fer
the outcasts. We may here, perhaps,
be pardoned tho DEPRESSION in sayiug
that uuquestionably very CcW Individuals
have ever lived but what would have
shrunk from such an enterprise as a
species of downright madness Not so,
however, with these devoted mission
aries. With an unbesitating and self
sacrificing con,ecration to their appoint
ed mission, superior to our praise, they
now determined to enter the confines of
this east sea of destruction, f. ON whence
we trust they will, under God, one day
come forth with an army of redeemed
outcasts, the trophies Of their dauntless
perseverance, and Christ-like benevo-
,euce Not a tenement, however, could
be had for money. All were appropria-
ted, and to..the toulest purposes. The
only mean of making Il breach in these
Notifications of vice, wc.s to enforce the
law against them as nuisanccs. Two
Police Justices and the District At..Gr-
ncy, were found ready to cooperate
with MIR. Pease, efficiently, in this duty;
and Polio, man volunteered his services
in the undertaking.
In August an opening was made on
Little Water Street, and the building
adjoining the Chapel was empted of its
loathsome tenants, and hired by Mr..
Pease at $3.50. AS soon as the house
could be sufficiently cleansed, Mr. and
Mrs. Pease removed thither, and on the
first day took into their house, and con-
stitutcd them family, the whole num-
Der of their abandoned prOteges One
dollar and twenty five cents per week
was deducted from the earnings Of each
adult, to meet the expenses of board,
the remainder being paid over to them
weekly.
About the first of September follow
ing, Mr. Pease felt the necessity of a
day school for the Five Points children,
within their own forbiding ncighborhood,
tout of which it was useless to invite
them for such purposc,) aud immedi-
ately set about the enterprise of estab-
l;.L:. -. Donat;ons in books and