The New York herald., 1868-06-07
THE ISLANDS OF PENANCE.

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present Condition Of the Institufions-The
New Dietary Tables and Their Economy ~
Compared with the Old RegfmeD-The Luna"
,,c AsyIum, Workhouse, Penitentiary and
HospitaIs-A World within World
There are some queer institutions-some OF them
grand enough in their way, some OF them solemn
enough in their way, some Of them squaiid enough
IN their way-wlthin and around this gigantic me-
tropos OF commerce, this huge hive OF the bees OF
business In whose dictionary honey is spelled with
an initial .mr instead of initial 'h, I" as bees ord
nari,v smell it, or would spell It IL they made par
ticular study OF orthography, and whose combs OF
denosit as bees might express IT, are bank vaults
and burglar proof safes and other appurtenances for
safekeeping about which ordinary bees are not in
the habit OF troubling themselves in the least, who
make sort of hard scrabble OF making their way in
the world and sometimes fail OF making II, and
whose queen bee is vast shadowy something with
out particular form comelinessa hundred horned,
hrndred-eyed and hundred-footed abstraction which
nobod, sees and everybody feels, and which 10
termed with sort Of large generalization, business
It is this centpedal abstraction-the shadow simply
OF something actual and the creator to greater ex-
tent of the actual ltsel-which rules the hive, always
invisible and always present. being a sort OF god
unto the bees i'm this huge hive, who oftener obey its
preceps TO the letter than the precepts OF the some
what more lust God to whom they profess the utmost
obedience on all days OF the week, practising very
little of what they profess, for the simple reason that
In commercial hive the practice OF godness is not
particularly profitable. Six days in the week, there
fore to busness-the exact generalization Of Irvng's
almighty dolar-and one day in the week to al
mighty right and justice. These two principles.
the latter more frequently neglected than the
former, form the groundwork OF the ethics and
faiing to comply with which, any unfortunate human
bee is voted vagrant or lunatic or pauper or
anything else for which the vocabulary Of the differ
ent species of drones may happen to afrord name,
and is adudged ft inhabitant OF another hive
situated on island and closely guarded to prevent
his escape and rejoning OF the main hive
In this way and In other ways very quaint institu-
tons in the vicinity have been developed out of the
working CT the rules and regulations OF the great
commercial hive which forms their centre; and one OF
these the city Of drones and insubordinates situ
ated several islands OF the harbor when have been
(by some writer with taste for fitness Of phrase de-
sgnated as the islands of penance.
Accessibility a small steamer, forever in waiting
10 carry hher those who have been adjudged drones
insubordinates in the great hive whose messenger
and minister it is this city of embatted buildings and
grated windows-the latter having all the appear
ance OF eyes looking through green Cog
giles seaward-is the receptacle city Of the
moral excretons and criminal ofYals of the
great metropolis OF which it is suburb II is city
with seawan with every appliance to prevent the
escape Of any OF Its registered inhabitants, with
agricultural and manufacturing interests ofits own
aworld in miniature, with people whose ethics
though little aisordered, quite as tOerable as
the ethics Of very large class who have never been
marooned thither for alterations in their ethics
The inhabitants of this world in miniature are
mathematical in their habits-somewhat too mathe
mateal for that freedom which the people OF the
world about it arect and carry to an extremity
which proves occasionally disagreeabe. In fact
method-a people methodical by compulsion
eating at set times, and with set dishes
AT wat, and doing everything by prescrip-
tl0h 1ne quantity and quality and composition
OF their soup are all fixed by prescription they have
tea Of certain prescribed strength and in certain
and they have coffee in 1ne same manner and with
prescribed regulations; they eat drink work and
Sleep all according to prescription and without any
particular regard to their own Individual convent
$nce. They even dress according to prescription and
are scientifically regulated in their manners and
tinct from ana exhibiting itself vsbly in the shape
Of warden- keepers and other officers with titles
suggestive Of authority.
Dietary tables are here reduced to science with
an administration strictly mathematical and scien-
tine, managed with a view to the utmost economy
cost per day and per month Of feeding every inhabi
tant OF this miniature word wlih Its peculiar pre-
scrptonary organization for the year 1857 the table
stands as follows