Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-03-16
nhln Reform School for Girls.

Ohio Reform School for Girls.
This institution, established in 1869,
is located at White Sulphur Springs,
in Delaware county, and is yet in its
infancy. The editor of the Toledo
Commercial, who is one of the Direc-
tors of this institution says:
No little embarrassment is felt by
the management of the State Reform
and Industrial School for Girls, owing
to the mistaken notions and general
lack of information in regard to its
design. From these come not only
Indifference but many prejudices
which threaten seriously to effect the
usefulness of the enterprise. These
causes are not confined to section or
class, but seem to exist in all localities
and among all people. Intelligent
business and professional men, Pro-
bate Judges, Legislators, State officials
and editors, even with noble excep-
tions.) need enlightening. This evil
is felt specially at the very time when,
for its fullest success, il needs directly
the opposite experience. In its very
infancy. without opportunity for the
demonstration of its ability to meet
the ends of its establishment, whereby
it might be placed on a footing with
the older charitable institutions of the
State, it has just and special claims
upon the liberality of the people, lest,
being dwaTfed in infancy, it may take
long years to reach a healthy growth
and development.
One serious obstacle in the way of
the speedy success of this school, and
having its origin, too. among its pro-
fessed friends, may be thus presented:
at is an experiment" Now, Judi
cious men, men of forethought, have
learned by observation, if not by ex-
perience, TO invest cautiously in tex
periments," and this prudence has its
influence here. Underlying this-and
no doubt giving il much of its force
is the question, "Can this class of
girls be reformed?" Here, with many,
is the great difficulty often expressed,
but Oftener felt. In reference TO this
point, it may be stated that those who
have taken pains to inform them
selves, are well aware that many
females whose recovery was far more
hopeless than any anticipated inmates
of this institution, have been restored,
and are now being restored to virtue,
friends and usefulness. This is no
longer an experiment Very low,
indeed, must be the estimated value
and efficiency of moral and religious
instruction, of regular, industrious
habits, and the influence of the Chris
tian family as reformatory agencies;
and to what untold depths of depravi-
" must these young girls, many of
them mere children, have fallen, in
the eyes of such judges!
But TO return: What is the "exper-
iment:" The location? Appurtenan-
ces? Those having it in charge? One
or all of these may be. They are only
incidentals, they are not the institu-
ton or the principles on which it is
founded. Ihey are no longer an EEK
pertinent" For fourteen years they
have been thoroughly and fairly test
ed in sister State, and pronounced
success, after this protracted trial. Are
wayward girls in Massachusetts less
wayward, more easily reformed, or
have they more skillful and earnest
workers and better appliances than in
Ohio? We unhesitatingly answer, no.
Human nature develops the same
trait in both, and the law of cause and
effect is the same.
But why go abroad for demonstra-
ton that these principles are based in
truth. and will work out glorious re-
suits in the reformation of the young?
Who has visited the Reform School
for BOys-whatever may have been
his previous conYictiOns-ifh he did not
GO With-his-AySs- -al.aaAs37 -Is@ss -,s-.,--s.oosl
thoroughly convinced that, after Eek
perimenting" for nearly twelve years
with more than one thousand BOYS,
the results prove, beyond a peradven-
ture, it is an experiment" no longer,
but a fact, fixed and patent to all ?
But these are boyS-girls are far more
difficult to refOrm.n This notion, by
its direct and reflex influences COM
bined, does more than anything else
to prove itself true. Call a boy a
thief, and Others, believing your state
ment, will treat him as one; and very
likely, in the end, he may become
one; and if one already, it will con-
firm him in his evil course. But adj
init, for sake of argument, that this
reformation is a more difficult work
than that of boys, shall they therefore
be abandoned, and given over to GER
tain ruin? Shall they not only be
damned to swift destruction them
selves, but draw others in their pol
luting wake, and these, in turn, 9TH
ers; and the stream thus go on
widening and deepening to the end of
time? If the work be difficult, so is
it of necessity imperative. That it is
practicable, experience has shown;
that il is a solemn duty, the public
good, humanity and Christianity all
earnestly insist, and urge us forward
in its performance.
Another notion prevalent, that
needs to be ventilated, is the one that
this institution is designed for q recep-
tacle for those so far gone in sin that
every effort for their recovery has
failed and, as last resort, they are
sent there, if not for reformation, at
least for confinement. That OCCASION
ally one of this class may find her way
there is quite probable; but such are
not to form the character of the insti-
tuition, any one at all familiar with its
design or with the character of its
present inmates, needs not to be told.
The school was designed as a reforma-
tory, and those who are proper sub
jects are such as can be reached by the
influences there exercis-
ed; others would not only be in the
way of those more promising, but
would prove a positive hindrance, by
their example and other influences
For such the institution was never de-
signed as an asylum. As long as there
is to be found any reasonable ground
of hope for reforming an applicant,
she should, most assuredly, have the
benefit of it; but when that has been
swept away, why retain a moral ulcer
to eat out what is. left of hope or prom
Use in others? There are, at least there I!
should be, suitable asylums for such
frail Ones-for their own and the COM
mon good-where they can be re-
if not reformed.
The greatest hope of success, is with
the youngest of the three classes eligi- /
BILE for admission; for, as years adj !
waywaTdness also progresses |
and becomes incOrrigibility, and in /
corrigibility sin and almost hopeless /.
ruin.
One thing needs to be kept in mind /
in this connection, and that is. that /
'the day of small things is not to be 4
despised." OF all the many institu- /
tiOns, whose success and usefulness ,
attest both the benevOlence and the /
of the people of Ohio, not one .
reached its present degree of success, +!
avaapt fbrOuUb fha sapna aorIx- sfruu