The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-11-17

pSomebody who was favorably
struck with the views of the Mont.
pelier Waterman on the "Reformatory
jumbo" as that sheet dubs onr state
reform school, writes letter to express
his approval, and expresses some views
of his own. We take the following
extract:
When it takes ten dollars worth of
culture to produce one dollars worth
of fruit we are farming at a disadvan-
tage and must fail sooner or later
Would not the same amount of money,
labor, love and sympathy that has been
bestowed on those poor children
through this school have done them
more good in their own homes, or in
providing homes tor them? For this
school as it is can never be home in
the true sense of the word to any child
sent there by the power of the law. 1t
was once my duty in All official capacity
TO visit this school, aud having had
much to do with children as parent
and teacher, felt deep interest in
these poor unfOrtunates. | watched
them closely at their work and at their
play, at their lessons and at their devo-
ton. saw them at their meals and in
their beds. l saw the places where
they lived and the dungeons where the
refractory ones were locked no and
punishoa. Aud hnviuK seen IL All and
Thought ef ~ fes wSyho ana months, nv
settled conviction is that there are many
things that are radically wrong about
it. The promiscuous herding together
of the good aud bad struck me as being
the greatest evil. Little boys, six,
seven and eight years old, who though
they might be roguish. thoughtless and
mischievous as boys are, had no more
idea of malicious crime than tame
cow has, were put to work, play, study,
pray and sleep with class of boys
from sixteen to twenty-one some of
them tainted with hereditary vices,
bred in the bone.
These views are very fine, very Just,
very true, and would do credit to a
soft heart, and soft head. 1t is per.
hsps fact that the same amount of
money, labor, love, and sympathy
would do the boys more good if en-
ployed on them at their homes than at
the reform school. But perhaps it has
escaped the penetration OF this writer
that generally the difficulty is that the
money, labor, love and sympathy are
looking at the homes of the inmates of
the reform school, and that this lack is
the cause of their being sent there.
When father is drunken reprobate
and the mother slatternly vixen, when
parents set an evil example themselves,
or wink at knavery and crime in their
offspring, 1t sounds beautifully to hear
how much better il would be If labor,
love and sympathy were expended on
the young rascals at their homes rather
than at place provided them by the
state as refuge from the evils of home.
II hoy lie growing up criminal, that
fact Is the best evidence that a reform
school is better place for him than
his home. Until this writer or some
OF his kin sets to work and manufac-
lures the labor, love and sympathy at
the homes of the boys, his good sense
must be considered on par with that
Of the kindhearted gentleman who adj
vised the starving woman to go home
and eat something, but failed TO give
her the wherewith 10 get something to
eat. So far as providing homes for the
boys is concerned, we believe II is the
law, and the policy OF the school, to
find suitable homes for boys who are
fit to place out. But suppose the homes