New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-18
WHAT TO DO WITH THE BOYS.

An account of the Ohio RefOrmatOry School
for Boys has been placed before us. There
are some peculiar features in this institution,
which appear especially to deserve the atten-
ton of philanthropists and legislators. In the
first place, the School is entirely removed from
city air and influence, being built in quiet
country region, with an enyironage of 1910
acres for its sole use and sustcnance. Secondly,
mechanical and farm works of all kinds are
taught and the period of instruction is made
long enough to convey some real practical
knowledge of trade to the pupils, which is
seldom the case in Houses of Refuge or Cor
rectiOn. In the third place, and more important
than ALL is the fact that the pupils are divided into
nine separate families in different buildings,
each with its individual corps of teachers,
matrons, etc. BY this simple and inexpensive
arrangement it is rendered possible to classify
and keep distinct the different grades of boys,
so that the criminal and guiltless vagrant may
not come in contact. So far as we know, tins
is the only case in which such an effort Is
made. In the Houses of Refuge in Pennsylva-
MIA and the New-England States, and even in
our own, where the cost to the State is the
heaviest, the youthful murderer or thief works,
plays, sleeps, and eats side by side with the
child whose only fault so far has been want
of home. No system of training, however
perfect, no moral discipline, will cOunteract
this sure insidous poison that comes from
contact; and, if the truth must be told in
very few of the enormous buildings where
pauper children are masscd together is any
effort worthy the name made to counterfeit it.
Houses of Refuge as rule share in the
defects of monster asylums and reformatories
of every sort. They are costly, well built,
well ventilated, exquisitely clean structures, in
which you will be shown most probably man.
moth laundries, bakeries, and dOrmitories, con-
Quoted after the latest and best model. You
will see hundreds of children under strict dis
cipline, as regards cleanliness and silence, pot
tering for few months at some branch of
trade which teaches them nothing, listening
morning and night to Il mechanical prayer
from teachers to whom, too often, hardening
familiarity and routine have reduced school
and scholars, perishing infant souls and
the religion that is to save them,
to dull, lifeess mechanism. 1t is
quite true that few months of enforced
silence, decent clothes, and regularity in eat
ing and sleeping, may be wholesome discipline
for the worst of our young gutter ruiians, but
what is the cOntagion of their example upon
the comparatively innocent majority There
are noticeable exceptions to the management
of these Houses, among the most admirable
the New-York Juvenile Asylum, under the
care of DR.. Brooks, a man whose shrewd in
sight and practical skill in managing children
are moved, we believe, by pure and liberal
humanity. But even here, if we are not mis-
taken, the vicious and innocent are sub
United, en- mdSSc, to the same treatment.
Whether Houses of Refuge or Corres-
ton, as now managed, are a benefit
to the community for not IL already ser-
GUS question in the ncighboring States, where
the large majority, recruited from their pu-
pills for the penitentiaries, is matter of yearly
record. However helpful they may be to, an
incipient convict, we believe them to have
proved for some innocent children a legalized
gateway to he'll, ii vice on earth, and a
blind, hopeless passage into death beyond
deserve that name. II is time That we
were making an intelligent effort TO solve
the Droblcn what to do with tina ban-