The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-08-14
from OUR OWN coKKEsPoxDKSr.I

New YORK, june /, 1860.
June is the American May. In this climate,
as Lowell tells US in his new volume of poetry,
Under the Willows
.Nrv IS a piou. fraud Of the almanac,
chastity parody % real spring
shaped of and breathed with eastern wind :;
but June brings warm days in profusion; and
New York is already packing its carpet-bag and
voinr out Of town for the summer. The religious
conventions have closed the Old and the New
school Presbytcrians, after n ten days convoca-
ton. have agreed to unite their forces for the
future: in spite Of their protest, the ceremony
Of decorating the soldiers graves with flowers
took place last Sunday anniversaries are ap-
pointed for June and all who have earned their
boIilnvs are turning their faces toward the coun-
try or toward Europe.
Let us too make an excursion to-day. 1t shall
be TO n spot rs green and bowery as any New
Yorker can find within twenty miles Of the arid
City Hall Park. Let go to Randall's leland,
in the East River, and the Children's
Nurseries.
In this city no less than $1,000 children are
growing up in idleaess. They have no occupation
hut to beg, and learn no trade but stealing.
IIorles OF them sent out every morning by
their parents to pilfer along the piers and bulk
heads of the city,-to snatch up, unobserved,
few Grains of Coffee n handful of cotton, pound
or two Of scraps OF iron. Their progress from
petty larceny to burglary 10 regular as the adj
vancement of the school-boy from class to class.
At the age of fifteen the girls prostitutes and
the boys professional thieves. Their lives are
made short by hardship and disease,-the only
Efficient checks upon the still more rapid multi
plcntion OF this degraded class.
A certain proportion, however, of these chill
dren are rescued Mt an early age from their
vicious surroundings. The Children's Nurseries
on RandaII's Island receive, and educate at the
expense of the city, homeless or abandoned chill
dren who may be picked up in the streets oi
these no less than seven eight hundred receive
m home upon the island, brought thither before
,. they have entered upon criminal practices, yet
inheriting from their parents constitutional
aptitude for vice There almost as many
stray children as stray cats in the streets Of New
York. These waits are gathered up by the
police, brought to the island, washed, dressed
neatly, housed in spacious buildings, provided
with simple food, and cared for by energetic ma
irons. They have the advantage OF forming a
child-community, undisturbed by and undi=turb-
ing the old folks, as in the case of the ordinary
stantIy at variance These infants have, also, the
advantage Of training by matrons who make
training a speciality. What benefit might re-
suit to society were the care of children taken
away from indolcnt, unsympathetic, and careless
parents, and delegated to those who have an
affinity with childhood.
These children taught in schools provided
by the Board of Educatiou- At a suitable age,
IL not reclaimed by their parents, they are sent
westward and placed with respectable farmers,
vino adopt them into their families; or they are
indentured to learn such trades rs they may
choose.
Careful inquiry is made by visitors dispatched
10 the West as to the character and circumstances
OF the persons who apply to adopt these children.
Their ability to educate and maintain them COM
fDrtably the healthfulness OF their houses, etc.,
are aseertaincd before the children sent away.
Visitors are occasionally sent to the West to look
after the welfare of the adopted children
Sometimes the actual parents appear and claim
the children whom they have deserted. The in
sttution rceenty sent agents to Monticello, Indi-
ana, and to Lansing, Michigan, to reclaim several
children that had been adopted by residents OF
those places. The new parents heard the claim
OF the old ones with indignation, and refused to
give up the children. They had adopted them,
they argued, with the perfect understanding that
they were to remain until they came OF age To
demand their return to their unnatural parents
when they had become domcsticated and useful
IN their new homes, n sort OF % extraditiou
net that was grossly unjust the adaptive par
ents would resist it to tho extens of the law
Seeing that they had the best Of the argu-
ment," naively wrote the disappointed agents,
We left them, informing them that we should
renew the claim the following day. But by
'nat time We found ourselves with less encour-
aging prospect than before; for the new parents
''a consulted lawyer meanwhile, who advised
'ueia not to give up the children Finding that
Mere demand was futile, and having no legal
"a'@' IN which to appear before n magistrate,
W. were Obliged to forego any further efforts. -
-"e children themselves showed good taste in the
master. They "eried, and ciung to their new
parents, and said that they did not want to 60
"ex To New York." 1t would indeed have
eea crime to send them back to the degraded
''N,.iiies from which they had been rescued.
easa OF children brought to Randall's Isl
pretty rough one,-composed of n refuse
humanity, the result Of pickines among the
Au 'an-trata Of the city, yet they make q
pretty sight in school hours and MT meal times
ek ke .ows OF rOguish faces, arranged like the
! e -ko-'s ranks In MrRuLo's pictures; though it
A.. - 20 see much of the spiritual character in
nr1v. preston % OF these young scamps. They i'm
onrr e.eA',y' however, during their island So
poor.., :. 'ney have need to do /; for they are the
are .s,.-p, p,S'mens of charity children. There
s.r... - - private charitable societies which
yagr,n. stronger and sounder specimens o
''''an'Od, being allowed a certain sun