The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-17

The House of Refuge-The Duty and
Responsibility OF the Board OF Nam
ayers.
The revolving stories Of cruelties practised
at the House of Refuge under the administra-
ton of Israel O. Jones, Pope Of Randalrs
Island and Grand Inquisitor, have taken deep
root of indignation in the public mind, and
the subject should not be dismissed until Jones
is, and thorough reform inaugurated. There
is nothing which SO excites contempt as n.y.
pocrisy and false pretence; there is nothing
against which more hearty anathemas can be
hurled by society than an institution which
blatantly processes to do good while in reality it
is a speciously conducted sham, with insid-
ious roots of evil. The smirks of thousand
Sleeks will not wash away single act of inhu-
mainly, but the world well knows how sue
cessfully they can cover it up under the
shadows Of their skyward-lifted eyebrows.
The pen of Rabelais, Swift or Dickens never
laid bare viler nest Of simpering, holy
worded, tiger-hearted cant than that whose
description rushed out before the world with
the blood Of the House Of Refuge keeper CAL
vert. We have previously laid stress on
the fact that but for this horrid
deed, to which bad boy was goaded,
the system of brutal fogging, fend-
ish thumb-hanging and more fendish
after-taunt might have gone on unheard of,
Heaven knows how long. Certainly Jones
would never have disclosed it. His underlinps
and helpers, Silas Brush, Gildersleeve and
Sprole, would doubtless have continued think
ing that thumb-hanging was not very painful
and that whipping boy in q dark closet pro-
duced no more smarting than was agreeable,
and to give boy ''mild' touch of club or
leer on whipped boy and ask him show he
liked his candy were exquisite and
justifable pleasures which nobody had
any right to interfere with. The mild
Methodist parson would have gone on
spreading his narcotizng dish OF ''lnsecta-
rian" religion beforea needless auditory with
unconscious complacency for years to come.
The annual reports would never tell it. things
always look SO very rosy and goody-goody in
their pages. Taken from the latest encyclical
letter of Pope Jones and his patrons, we COM
mend the following passage to those who have
listened to or read the evidence of barbarities
detailed in the trial last week before the City
Judge of that luckless scapegrace youth,
Justus Dunn-"The same benevolent spirit
which gave birth to the institution presideS
over all its arrangements and animates
those charged with its superior executive du-
ties. Its discipline is not an iron discipline;
it is emphatically house of refuge, and if,
among the large amount Of intractable mate
rial submitted to our training to be fashioned
into good citizens there arise sudden ebulli-
tons of passions long unused to control, or
obstinate resistance to wholesome restraint
and counsel, requiring unusual severity,
such cases are exceptional to the
rule, and their treatment committed
only to the immediate authority and judgment
of the Superintendent himself" That ''same
benevolent spirit must be Of curious grade
which countenances thumb-hanging and fog
ging, but we we'll know that Pope Jones never
intended that the State Legislature and city