River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-10-11
One of the Most Remarkable Places in
New York.

are lew pAdCCo IN luC WIZ
where in the course of one brief day 50
much of the neither side of humanity, 50
much of the grand and pathetic, the gro
tesque and CHASTITY, may be seen as un-
der the high open porch of the building
at the foot of Twenty-sixth street, East
river, belonging to the department of
Charities and Correction. Through the
wide portal of this unpretending struc-
ture pass daily to the city's institutions
on the islands in the river quite host of
wrecked and disordered lives-abandoned
drunkards, dissolute women, thieves,
tramps, vagabonds and paupers, raving
maniacs, hopeless epileptics and count
less number of other members OF the
dark and gloomy fraternity of crime and
wretchedness. Through the same por-
tails, and jostling the Others, pass all sorts
of people as visitors to the island. Some
are decent, poorly clad women, with
baskets or bundles on their arms in which
they are taking to a relative in the prison,
workhouse, hospital or asylum some
necessary article of clothing or luxury of
food. Others more showily dressed, and
evidently of less respectable type, are
bound on the same errand to some of
luCil lulidlC Yum litAiAOASs nun
there are ladies dressed with all the re-
finement of Fifth avenue, whose purpose
is evidently one of mercy and benev0-
lence. There are the Sisters of Charity
and female missionaries of various de-
nominations. There are Catholic and
Protestant clergymen and large parties
OF people who have come from abroad
and are DESTROYS of seeing the famous in
stitutions of which New York is so proud.
These parties are of every degree of con-
sequence and no consequence. One may
be composed of distinguished foreigners
chaperoned by Commissioner Tom Bren-
nan; another, of city politicians and
their friends; another, of troop of mill
tia soldiers on visit to the city; another,
of gang of medical students, headed by
a professor who is about to hold clinic
in one of the hospitals or asylums;
another, bevy of female pupils from
some seminary in the country, and so OIL
in endless variety.
The average number of visitors
throughout the year is 800 a day. The
average number of prisoners sent up
from the various police courts is $50.
There are three steamboats, employed be-
tween the pier and the islands-the
Bellevue, Captain Bird; the Minnahan-
mock, Captain Steele, and the Fidelity,
Captain Sykes. The pier and its APP
pr0aches are under command of Cap
willis. The business transacted on the
pier is brisk and constant. Everything
furnished to the institution is brought
down here, and force of men, nearly all
good conduct prisoners from Blackwelfs
Island, is kept constantly employed
hauling and rolling on board the various
supplies of one kind or another, or drag
ging ashore empty boxes and barrels. In
the morning, when the supplies of meat
in great red sides are brought down for
shipment, along with a hundred other
kinds of provisions, the scene is a lively
one. 1t is in the morning, too, that the
prisoners from the police courts are driven
up in tidy, lemon colored vans, drawn
each by two horses. The little steamers
hug the dock closely and appear to be al
most a portion of it. There is a constant
passing and repassing on board in peni-
Tertiary uniform, some wheeling trucks
laden with boxes Divine and dainties for
the sick, others carrying on their shout
ders huge loads of beef or mutton, or
bundles of clothing, etc. Finally, when
the little steamer bound for Blackwell's
Island is loaded down forward and is
nearly ready to start, the rooms where
the males and females are temporarily con-
fined are opened, and molly brigade OF
bummers, slipshod and shivering, some
with symptoms of mania-a-potu come
shutting over the rough wooden planking
and go on board.
Among these are always seen few men
of respectable dress and appearance, and
from the way they hang their heads it is
evident they feel the situation keenly.
Most of the bummers, however, are a hard
ened looking set who have long been
strangers to shame, and they take the oc
casion as coolly as if they had been to the
manner born. Coming from the cold cells
of the station houses, and not yet emanci-
pated from the effects of recent debauch,
the misery of these poor wretches, more
especially in the winter, as they leave on
their voyage for the bleak and cherries
workhouse on the island is desolate. On
the steamers they huddle together near
the boiler, and if there are among them
many who have been accustomed to the
experience of Blackwell's Island they
manage 10 UtCOlHC NutlC tlCAll III VI
their wretchedness; but those who are GO
ing there for the first time prefer to com
mune with their OWE sad thoughts. All
classes Of petty offenders are sent to the
Island, the sneak thief being conspicu-
Gus element in the lot. The women act
differently from the men. The latter go
aboard without word, but the former
fill the air with Wild laughter and in
decent language the moment they get out
upon the pier. They are placed in diff
ferent part of the boat from the men, and
those who are old offenders among them
treat the trip as lightly as if bound for
Coney Island or Rockaway.
To sit on the bench underneath the
high archway, and watch the crowds as
they come and 90, gives curious and
| abundant food for study. A policeman
stands in the middle of the passageway to
keep order, and an official of the Depart
ment of Charities and Correction stands
| near him. close TO a narrow wooden walk.
\ along which visitors pass one BIZ one, and
/ show him their tickets, or. having none,
paw thirty cents apiece and get admitted.
/ what a varied crowd this is that presses
/ forward through the entrancel Here is
a woman. bent with the weight of years
and clothed in faded and threadbare
black. who wants TO see 2 loved but err
ring daughter before she dies. The light
of gladness has long since left her eye,
but with the maternal instinct strong up
on her, albeit hope and JOY are fled, she
will once more, and perhaps for the last
time, embrace her who. perhaps, was the
pride and solace of her heart, though now
degraded to prison cell. Here are two
frail young girls. between the ages of
eleven and thirteen, in Cheap black calico
4 r. 81