The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-04-10
The Ohio Girls Industrial
school.

benefcent work in behalf of her way
ward and criminal youth. Wise anc
humane legislation has provided 6
good home, and not gloomy prison
in which to reform and educate juve
nile offenders. The State Reform
Farm School for Boys, near Lancas
ter, has four hundred inmates, and
the Girls Industrial Home, near Del
aware, has family of one hundred
and fifty girls between the ages of ten
and sixteen. The latter Institution
the writer has recently visited, and
carefully noted its system of discipline,
management ana Instruction. 1t is
beautifully situated on a farm of over
one hundred acres on the Scioto, for
merly known as the White Sulphur
Springs. The elocation is well chosen,
its health-giving springs afford abund-
ance of water, its groves of native
forests are magnificent, and its isola-
ton affords many advantages. The
buildings, in material and style of
construction, are not what such an
Institution needs; yet, by remodeling
and repairing, under the iudicieus su-
pervision of DR.. Nichols, the efficient
superintendent its present necessities
are well met.
The Home is conducted on the
"Ohio" OF ':Family" plan, originated
by our State, and, as in the Reform
School for Boys, it is here decided
success. This system provides q
home and not prison, and its in-
mates are held, not to suffer punish
ment, but to be educated in the fear
of God, with sound moral principles
and correct habits, SO that when dis
charged at maturity-or earlier, if
they are worthy and good place is
offered-they will leave the Institu-
ton with the ability and the will to
earn an honest living honoring the
Common wealth that saved them
We found them divided into house
holds of twenty-five each, in charge
of experienced Christian women.
These are their guides and teachers,
and blessed are those early wanderers
in sin that enjoy their influence and
Each "section" is dis
tinct family, with its kitchen, laundry,
dining hall, bedrooms and parlor
These are neatly furnished, and each
girl has the opportunity of. learning
to perform domestic duties thoroughly.
A love of domestic labor is thus &C
quired, the'lforpetion of which is it.
self reformatory, and a preparation
for the duties of life. A girl thus
trained, head, heart and hand, will
have selfrespect and self-reliance; she
will be busy bee, and not an idle
drone in society. With many of the
inmates, ignorant and vicious when
received, the struggle for better life
is long and severe But with the
discipline of love and frmness,
and the encouragement they receive,
all are greatly benefited, and most of
them give creditable evidence of a
genuine reformation in character and
conduct
The Sabbath is observed as in re-
ligious families, day of rest, worship
and instruction. At the family altar
we met the united household, min
Cling cheerful devotion in simple wor-
shi-. The Sabbath-school was emf
nently biblical and attractive to these
young hearts. A review of the les
son, and their prompt answers to the
questions asked, showed ready ac-
quaintance with the teaching of the
Holy Scriptures. At the public serv-
ice in the chapel, as the writer preach
ed the gospel of the Son of God, his
juvenile hearers, by their attention and
showed that they were ap-
preeiative and susceptible of religious
And who is it that the State has
thus gathered into such safe home,
and provided for their rescue? Many
Of them are the offspring of illegiti-
macy, and never knew the hallowed
power of parental affection Others
n tender childhood were helpless or
Dhans, with none to lead them in the
right way. Others, worse than or
ohans, abandoned by their drunken
were early numbered as out
,asts. Some, alas! recreant to the
influence of home and parents, broke
over the barriers of virtue, and early
rushed into the way of ruin.
Here is a bright girl of fourteen,
,wo years an inmate, and developing
LII the elements of true womanhood.
She was born in poor-house, aban-
loned of her mother. She remained
IN inmate of the poor-house till she
was indentured in home where her
for toll was the measure of
,he value of her body and soul An
other tells me that all she remember
I'd of her home was that her drunken
.ather took the life Of her mother, and
5he children, five In number, were
scattered. A timid but intelligent
girl of fifteen, once low in the mire of
yin, now rescued and preparing for a
Useful life, inquired if I visited the
Ohio Penitentiary. I replied that I
expected to do SO soon. She request
ID me to find her father and brother,
,onvicts there, and to tell them that
'he was Christian, adding, with a
sweet, tremulous voice: "Please tell
hem to seek Jesus. He will save