Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-08-18

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When George W. Peck lex NJ c. mounted
the stand to speak for Douglas and squatter
sovereignty, i'll Eaton county, Mich, last
week. he found poster stuck up in full view
containing the Wilmot proviso resolutions of
the Michigan legislature of 1916 which he
had himself signed as speaker of the house,
that year. The sight rather disconnected him
and he doged the shaft.
The Winona Mimi Democrat deserves
premium on sharp practice, if any body does.
1t had the printing of the United States laws,
i'll consideration of which it supported Brock
inridge and Lane with well. affected zeal The
job being completed down came the Breckin-
ridge, and up went the Douglas flag, in the
twinkng of an eye.
The Rochester papers say the arrest of Mr..
Bissell at Chicago, on the charge of conspiracy
to burn the Rock Island railroad bridge, took
the people by surprise, as Mr.. Bssel was
reputable man. The Chicago Democrat pro-
nounces the charge "trumped up one that
on investigation will "share the fate of all the
other cases in our courts where private detec-
tives have been employed
The Reformation of the Juvenile Of
His ErceAency N. p. Banks SIR Il take
the liberty to write, touching a matter
about which every citizen should feel deeply
interested, to wit the disposition to be made
of the boys of the State Reform School.
When the commissioners ofth girls reform
school invited letters of advice upon the pro-
Ject wrote and printed a small pamphlet up
on the subject of reform schools, of which
send you copy. In that pamphlet the evils
necessarily attendant upon congregating
large number of youth are polluted out and
plan is suggested for avoiding them.
| earnestly commend to your attention the
considerations used to show that, in our at
tempt at reformation OF juvenile offenders, the
fundamental principle should be separation and
not congregation Of depraved youth.
Is not the manifest and admitted shortcom-
ing of most, not to say ALL state establishments
for the reformation Of juvenile offenders, attrib-
utable rather to the false principles which I'M
derlie them, than to the lack of zeal and ability
in their management? In organizing them do
we not strive to serve mammon more and God
less than we ought to do?
1t is not manifest principle that separation
and not congregation is the proper mode of treat.
ing and reforming depraved and vicious
youth?
If you or | had several children who had
fallen into vicious habits, and we were obliged
to send them from home, should we seek to
place them together in virtuous family where
they could have good moral training, or should
we not rather separate them and place them in
different families? If besides our children we
had several nephews who had alike become
depraved, would not the considerations against
keeping them together and in favor of separ
ating them, be still stronger?
In selecting family in which to place a
child for reformation, should we be satisfied
with one of which the heads of the adAlt men,
bers were by nature and by training vrtuous-
ly disposed, while the children were viciousy
disposed If the children in such family were
more numerous than the adults, should we be
willing to rely upon any vigilance, any wis.
dom, any good moral influence of the latter
to counterfeit the subtle and resstless social
influence exercised upon each other by the
former ? Surely not surely not We should
not put our children together in a family where
the children were disposed like ours, lest they
should act unfavorably upon each other, and
by the magnetism of like dispositions draw
out and intensity what was already too strong
We should not only separate them, but strive
to place each one in family where the many
children were virtuously disposed, well know
ing that our child would be more influenced
by the prevailing public spirit of the house
hold, than by any system OF discipline what
ever.
We should say, our dear children have not
been led TO their perverse conduct by any feel
ings that are in their nature and essence bad;
they do not differ from other children in kind,
that is, by being etfectually bad, while others
are effectually good but circumstances and
surroundings have called into play certain pro
pensities which are given for good, and which
become bad only by being intensified into RAM
pancy; while there have been no circum
stances and surroundings to call into play and
intensity the moral sentiment, so that they are
in allegiance.
We should strive to separate our children.
nd har in .I,r
open and established order and training but
also where the secret and subtle influence of
thought and feelings should all appeal to, and
draw into activity the dormant moral Sent-
ment, so that they might be exercised and in
tensited, and where nothing should appeal to
the active prOpenslties, SO that they might be
left in allegiance, and be weakened by mac
ton. We should feel sure that, unless the an
imal prOpensities had become so rampant by
long exercise that they acted spontaneously and
irreSiStabiy, and destroyed the moral balance,
and with it moral responsibility, we should
feel sure of our children's reformation. AT
any rate we should strive for this, at whatever
possible cost
Now the state is the richest and most pow
erful, if not the wisest parent in the land, and
why does she not pursue this course with her
perverse children Is it not because she
wants TO serve mammOn while serving God ?
Is it not because she strives to get reformation
at the wholesale price
1t is not best, it is not well nay it is not
even safe to congregate perverse hoys togetll-
er but it is cheaper-and she tries it.
She strives to break the vicious dispositions
her children but forgetting the fable of the
bundle of sticks, she gathers them together
and tries her strength in vain upon the whole
at once. She not only hits two birds with one
stone, but unfortunately she often kills most
of the flock.
The good results of the State Reform School
for Boys have been far less than was expected
by its friends and early advocates; far less
than should reasonably be expected from the
vast outlay of money by the state, aided by
the zeal and earnest efforts Of its trustees and
officers. The measure really deserves the
name of failure.
But shall the attempt to reform juvenile of
tenders by the state be abandoned? Surely
not. The failure should incline to renewed
effort. We should have a new institution, but
one which shall not in its very organization
violate the plain principles of reformation, as
the first did,
l believe that we may have a new institu.
ton as large and more effective than the for
mer one, but which will have no walls and be
in no sense prison; which will not require a
large body Of officers and attendants and vet
which in all probability will affect the reform
alton of much larger proportion of perverse
boys than the old one ever did, or ever could.
This institution may be described in few
words. The basis would be that great institu-
ton founded by God himself-that in which
every boy or girl ought to be reared, but
which can never be successfully initiated on a
large scate-the institution of the family.
There are two ways of eiFecging this--on
imitation of the French schools at Meth.ai
h.. III l.. 4
in imitation of families having one oyerseer,
and emplOYed at agriculIural lahnr hut mhnrn