The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1861-02-06

were.
1t was there shown that the young man con.
6rmed in habits of crime, that the poor boy be-
cause of his poverty the insane, the hali.witted,
the orphan because of his orphanage, were out
of place in Reformatory Institution; that these
schools were established to meet the wants of an
other class, a class either in the way Of wrong
doing. taking the initiatory steps in crime. poss-
essed Of an acknowledged proclivity to evil, or
those who have not ventured very far in a course |
OF vice and crime, whose years are tender, upon |
whom impressions may be made for COED, whose |
age does not indicate confirmed habits Of crime |
to save aud redeem these classes these schools |
were called into being.
But back of this question lies the great plob-
lem proposed for solution TO government the
fact how these children were brought 10 that
state of fitness which renders it necessary to
send them 10 the Reiormatory. Why were they
criminals Why this proclivity to evil, TO vice,
TO crime? IT. the solution Of this problem, in
the answer of these questions. society has deep
and vital interest.
1t will be the object of this article 10 explain
some of the causes which have existed in the pre-.
vious history of these unfortunate youths
whereby society, partly for her own protection
and partly for the good Of those unfortunate
children, has been compelled TO place them in the
Reformatory.
| As to the causes OF juvenile delinquency gener.
ally, We might sum them all up in the single caues
of detect;re homes. The homes of these chill
| H. e
and crime are at once dried up. The fountain
from whence the evil is supplied is the home
Purify the home and the streams will be puri.
fed
The sentiment expressed in the following quo
tation will be unhesitatingly subscribed 10 by
all the laborers in this department of philan
thropy, expressed by Mrs. CORVALLIS, of Eng
land, in a work entitled " Philosophy of Rag.
ged Schools" Five years experience" saws
she, sin Ragged and Industrial Schools, has
most fully convinced me tina, the human family
is one, and that the difference of character which
exists is the effect of circumstances. At least
600 children have passed through our Ragged
Schools since their commencement / have
watched and questioned many of them and have
invariably found that the cause of their distress
and misery NAV be traced to their parents, more
especially their mothers" A visit to their
homes viii silence all objections. remove all
doubts, convince the most sceptcal, as TO the or
igin of the difficulty.
In a large number of the homes from whence
the delinquent comes, Intemperance, with its
blightng curse, has blasted the hopes of the
family. IL sometimes occurs in the history Of
these families. that both the father and mother
are victims of the fell destroyer. For children to
be cursed with drunken father, it is enough to
dampen every youthful aspiration TO rise in the
worli-yet as terrible as the calamity is to have
a drunken father, yet children have been known
courageously to rise superior to difficulty SO in
surmountable. Children have in a few cases been
known to make their way onward and upward
in the world, even though compelled to struggle
with the waves of adversely, contending with
fearful odds. hndered and crippled in their pas
> sageway by drunken father. But what direfu
calamity could equal the ruin and wretchedness
by both drunken father and drunken mother
: yet tins curse is entailed upon many child, and
on this account the meshes of the law has caugh,
them as violatOrs of the rights of society, and
either the gloomy walls of the prison, the hu
= Mane provisions Of the reformatory provides foI
them home.
Again, another disruptive element to the
homes of these children may be found in the
change which is introduced into these homes by
second marriages. Many the cases where
a mother or father has died, and the surviving
parent has entered into the marriage relation for
the second time, and thus the step-father or step
mother has so far changed the nature OF the
home Of the child, by discipline unkindness
that the charm of home is extinguished and al
tho.s endearing cords which have heretofore
bound the child to the one loving spot have been
torn asunder, and from benceforth the chile
becomes a wanderer, exposed to the snares ant
temptations of the vicious and criminal until these
bad associations have accomplished their work Of
ruin in these young hearts, which under otbe,
circumstances might have been ornaments to so
ciety.
Again, orphanage is found to be another cause
Of juvenile delinquency-criminals made from
orphans. by falling in with hard masters. How
few are the persons to be found even among the
protested disciples of Christ who seem to be i'm
bued with the spirit requisite to enter into the
feelings OF the orphan and give them the sym
pathy which their soul requires. The orphan
will not so much complain of coarse fare, as he
will of want Of sympathy. In this state of or.
pnanage, Of loneliness, deprived of sympathy,
destitute of home, compelled to wander here
and there for their livelihood, forced out upon
the troubled waters of life but to become the
easy dupes of vice and the prey of the destroyer
of virtue and honesty.
Again, many of these children have known
of 10 instruction from their very infancy except
that which pertains to life Of criminality.-
Their fathers were criminals before them. Many
of these unfortunate children have fathers, moth
ers, or brothers in prison, for the gravest crimes
known upon the criminal docket.
Their training from earlies: infancy has been
in the direction of criminality. These children
have drank in their pernicous instruction AS the
OK drinketh in the water, and thus what could
society expect of this class but that they would
swell the list of the vicious and the criminal.
Again, the want Of employment has reduced
these children to the condition they occupy in