New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-18
STATE CHARITYES AID ASSOCIA TON


sagacity of their purpose, promises TO be-
come a valuable agent for good. The OBJ
jects of this society are I. To promote active
public interest in the State Institutions Of
Public Charities, with a view to the
physical, mental, and moral improve
ment of the pauper inmates. 2. To
make the present pauper system moro
efficient, and to bring about such reforms in
it as may be in accordance with tho most
enlightened views OF Christianity, Science.
and Philanthropy. To show how wide is
the field for work, the Association states tho
number of persons remaining in the New
York charitable institutions at the close Of
the year 1870 to have been nearly 81 1000, OF
whom 277 were children, 485 blind, $50 deaf
mutes 4,429 insane, TIA idiots, and
3,1s1 juvenile offenders. The whole number
relieved during the year in these in
situations and in city and county aims
houses amounted to 1eO,932 and to furnish
this relief about 100000 of the public money
was expended. Here surely We have, as Christ
promised, the poor, not only among us but
massed and ready for our help. If the work
of philosophic or Christian men and women Is.
first of all, to lift humanity to higher levels,
it is natural to suppose they would have
them by the assembling of these legons of
tho "stepchildren of Nature" manned in body
and soul, waiting to be cured The State is, after
all, but a cold machine to whom to give the
place of nursing mother. In most of these
institutions, the care of the inmates devoives
necessarily upon limited number of salaried
employees, who, however trustworthy and
efficient they may be, completely fulfill tho
terms of their contract If they manage tho
pecuniary outlay with economy, and supervise
the physical health of the paupers. In too
many cases they are neither trustworthy nor
efficient, and even this is not done. Chill
dren and adults the insane, idiOtic,
vicious, and diseased are herded together
with the healthy and innocent in the
aims and poor-houses until these places have be-
come mere forcing beds of crime and decay Tor
both body and soul. 1t would be asking too
much to demand from the superintendent OF
these hospitals or asylums the help, instruc-
ton, and tender care for the inmates which IL
owed to them by the whole civilized and
Christian community
So far the civilized and Christian community
has had very little to do with them, but has
remained quite passive in the knowledge that
hordes of Gods helpless creatures were gath
cred outside her boundaries, as the deaf and
lame and blind Of old at the gate of Bethesda
waiting for some man to take them down to
the water of life Our pleasure is the greater
therefore, when we find the present power
full movement for their help originating
among men and women whose birth, culture,
and high Christian character place them fore
most in social rank. Their purpose is to es-
tablish an office in this city, and to form
nucleus here for an association which shall
extend over the State, establishing Local
Visiting Committees carefully selected from
among the most enlightened and benevolent
members of each community. by this means
every aims, or poor-house, hospital, asylum.
or other State institution will be brought
under close and direct renOvating and
Christian influence, and the personal
interest and sympathy of the community
among which it is situated awak-
ened in behalf of its inmates; ultimately, it is
hoped more thorough reforms may be in
augurated the children removed 10 good
"homes, instead of growing up like their
"parents and grand parents, e class of heredi-
"tary paupers /; the sick more tendery cared for
"the blind, mute, insane, and idiots transferred
to appropriate asylums and cleanliness, good
"order, and proper sanitary condition pro-
"moted in these Institutions Donations or
annual subscriptions for this Association may
be sent to the Treasurer, Mr.. John Crosby
Brown, No. 80 Wall-st., n. Y.
We wish this most noble and wise charity
an earnest GOd-speed. We trust, too, that its
success may be so prompt and vigorous that
it can afford to extend its limits of super
vision so as to include not only the charitable
but penal institutions of the State. The jails
and, in some respects, the penitentiaries OF
New-York are still disgrace to Christianity
and civilization, notwithstanding the earnest
labors among them for years of the Prison
Association. They need precisely that help
which education and religion, as it is now
proposed to apply them, can give. The object
of the penitentiaries at Auburn and Sing
Sing is avowedly TO make the institutions self
supporting, and not the reform of the con-
victs, most of whom Especially the younger),
as was testified on oath by keepers, physi-
clans and chaplains, go out worse than they
come in. The country iails, with but very
few exceptions, are badly built, unventilated,
resembling kennels for beasts in fact, moro
than the reformatory homes which society
offers to her erring children. Men and women
in most of them are allowed to herd together
indiscriminately homeless children, and tho
innocent awaiting trial, are shut up with the
irreclaimably vicious in absolute idleness,
in dark, filthy cells, permeated with tho
foulest odOrs and to which the air only pene-
trates through grating in the door. Here
says the Superintendent, DR.. Wines, with
60 no work to do, or books to read, nothing 20