St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-01-09
Letter from New York.

Letter from New York.
CooPERsTowN, N. Y, Jan. 3, 1880.
FEMALE CRIMINALS.
In this great state the barbarOus old
custom of incarcerating girls and wO-
men who have been convicted of any
crime or misdemeanor, in the state pris-
on orin some county Jail, still continues.
But an effort is now being made, led by
Miss Susan Fenimore Cooper-daugh-
ter of James Fenimore Cooper, the eel
ebrated novelist-to have this custom
changed, and refOrmatories for women
established in the state, to take the
place of jails aud prisons for the pun
ishment of all minor offences committed
by the sex.
MISS COOPER.
Miss Cooper is a genuine philanthro-
pist of the most Christian sort. A few
years since she succeeded in establish
ing an Hospital in CoooperstOwn where
the unfortunate were cared for, and the
friendless sick had proper treatment at
very low expense. While it existed il
was IL home of refuge and home OF
comfort to many sad soul. But Miss
Cooper was anxious to expend her en-
ergies in doing something that would
more directly touch the moral as well
as the physical welfare of those she aid
ed, and influence the future as we'll as
bless the present. So she gave up the
Hospital and established an
ORPHAN ASYLUM.
This has been two or three times en-
larged, the faith of others in her efforts
has increased, and it is now full of hap
py children who hardly know that they
are orphans, so complete and motherly
is the care which they receive. Each
one is furnished with the opportunity
to obtain good common school educa-
ton, and those who give good promise
can pursue their studies until qualified
to be teachers in district schools. At
the age of fifteen years homes are found
for them in good families, where they
can earn their own support, and so
these waits by dozens are launched into
the duties and the cares of life.
THE NEW YORK PAUPER SYSTEM.
But while engaged in these labOrs,
Miss COOper's sympathies have taken
wider range. At first she visited the
County Poor House of Otsego county,
and was surprised to find there, crowd
ed together, the insane, the idiotic, the
virtuOus and unfortunate poor, the ring
boned, spawned and wind-broken vii
lain, together with innocent young
children who looked up with great
wondering eyes at the strange thought
that in the great wide world they, too,
had friend. At first Miss Cooper was
refused admission with her Sunday
school appliances, but after besieging
the doors for years they were constrain-
ed to let her in.
WHAT SHE FOUND THERE.
On becoming more acquainted with
the workings of this northumberland
others in the state are not unlike it
she found that among other beauties of
the system, seven generations of illegit-
innate children had been born and rear
ed in this retreat of poverty and misery
and vice. Of course heart like hers
was moved with Indignation as with
pity, and she resolved that the children
must be rescued from their friends-the
politicians every once in three
years move heaven and earth to secure
the right man to make job out of pro-
viding for the poor, as well for the
keeping of the county's books and
moneys and furnishing the state. Most
of the waits that were in this wretched
place are now washed up and in the
Orphanage. But what Miss Cooper
found here led her sympaties to take
still wider range, which has resulted il
the effort alluded to in the first part o.
this letter, but the details of which
must reserve for another letter, now
that L have filled up so much of my
brief space in writing of preliminary
matters. p.
Our New York Letter.