The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1880-02-19

A New YORK DOtneDOyS Hall.
Dotheboys Hall is the ideal of
wretchedness and ill-treatment. 1t is
generally supposed to have been To-
Gated in Yorkshire, and to have been
managed by Wackford Squeers, Esq.
For Yorkshire read New York. and
for Wackford Squeers read the Rev.
Edward Cowley, and you have Dothe-
boys Hall in all its glory.
There is an institution in this city
known as ''The Shepherds Fold"
though recent developments would
seem to indicate that "The VOLTS
Den" would have been a more appro-
pirate title. 1t was a benevolent O.
Institution in which orphan children
were supposed to be educated and car
ed for until old enough to earn liv-
ing, when they were provided with
situations. Their education was con-
Quoted on the ingenious principle of
Mr.. Squeers, who made his pupils
spell w-i-n-d-e-r and then go and clean
one-thus joining practical to theo-
retical knowledge. Birthstone NOR
ming" was a feature Of the Squeers
Academy" where every other morn
ing the boys had a liberal dose of sui
phur and treacle administered, but at
the New York institution birthstone
morning came every day. The motive
seems to have been precisely the same
in both cases, which was, as Mrs.
Squeers eXpressively said:
They have the birthstone and treacle-partly be-
they hadn't something other in the way Of
of troube and partly because it sPoils their appettes
does he@ and % ma ood a be Time and
that's fair enough, Pm sure.
The instruction given to the chill
dren was confined to such teaching as
one Of the girls scarcely in her teens
could give to the younger ones. Mr..
Cowley beat the children cruelty from
time to time, and kept them in state
of semi-starvation, half-clothed and
dirty. The "Fold'' received $1,000 a
year from the public treasury, most of
which was spent by the reverend Shep-
herd on himself and wife. Breakfast
for the children consisted of bread
and condensed milk, dinner Of bean
soup, and supper of mush and molas-
ses-upon which the pious Shepherd
never failed to ask a blessing after
which he went off to a sumptuous
meal in his own room. Morning and
evening prayers were celebrated with
unfailing regularity, and the children
had the comfort of knowing that if
food was scarce religion was plenty in
the Fold. Both boys and girls were
in the institution, and all slept on the
fourth floor, nominally in separate
rooms; but the separation of the sex
es was only nominal, boys Of fifteen
frequently spending the night in the
girls room. A more shocking case of
immortality and crime has rarely been
brought to light in this city.
It is to be hoped that this Shepherd
will be furnished less comfortable
lodgings for the future than he has
had for several years past; and this
hope seems likely to be realized, as he
is now in the Tombs waiting trial on
twenty-five separate indictments. He
might have gone on Indefinitely had
not one Of the children become seri-
ously i'll, and so alarmed him that the
child was sent to hospital. His
bruised, emaciated and filthy body at
tracted attention, and the manage
ment Of the Fold was at once investi-
gated. 1t is now said that the past
record of the man is a bad one; that
he has several times been ousted from
institutions of the kind for cruelty
and bad management. If this is true,
censure ought to fall somewhere for
his continuance in such work. lie his
unftness was known, why was his in
stitution permitted to go uninvestiga-
ted? And how many more cases of
this kind are there, of which the pub
lie knows nothing? At any rate, the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children has done real service in
bringing these facts to light, and they
will be sustained by public opinion in
any similar enterprise they may un-
dertake.