Daily Republican., 1884-11-22

Now that New Castle County has
one Of the BEST almsbouses In any
county within radius Of one hundred
miles, outside the cities OF Baltimore
md Philadelphia, and 1T an immense
expense TO the Taxpayers of the coun-
u, IL should be used for more pur-
poses than those of merely making a
home for paupers and insane. The
buildings, it seems ~ US, are large
enough TO at least convert some por-
tion OF them into home for incorrigible
children, where they can be brought
under the restraint If those who have
some proper regard for moral instruc-
tiou and training. New Castle County
needs such . place wosse than any
other county In the State, simply be-
cAase OF the great number Of boys and
girls Of Wilmington, who, bereft of
proper parental control and training,
become not only outcasts, but the pests
Of society at an early age. A large
number Of the arrests made by the po-
lice Of the city are mere children, many
Of them for drunkenness, and many
more of them wouid be arrested II
there were any other suitable place Of
reform to send them to beside the
county Jail. Some Of very tender
years who have been sent to that insti-
sation, have been punished by the pill.
3ory and lash, and when they left the
Jail they were worse criminals than
when they entered. The Jail Ia the
last place in the world to which child
shonld be sent If there were any expec-
tations Of its reforming. What these
youths Of tender years want is moral
training. Many of them are entire
strangers to anyihiug but brutality,
neglect aud unkind words. Those
whose duty IL 10 to train them as they
should 60 were never trained in that
path themselves, aad have not the
hrst conception OF the moral duties that
devolve upon them. Many of these
boys and girls who roam our tieets
begging pennies, for e just one loaf of
bread, and pilfering where they have q
chance, are entire strangers TO kindness
NJ home. Their parents spend what
little money they do get for the whisky
that still more brutalizes and besots
them. Society should shudder at the
Thought of what is to become of the
CnkiulOh VI ShCl 1nGI COutl
be reclaimed were. there any institution
TO which they could be sent, where
they would be brought under moral in
duences. They are not devoid of feel
ing the contrary they are suscepti-
BILE of kindness. A kind, sympathetic
word often shades the face with Joy,
though groveling in the depths of degra-
dalton.
These children should be saved from
the life they are leading. If taken in
time many of them could be trained To
become good citizeIs This cannot be
done while they remain under the in
nuence of drunken, unteeling parents
and under the evil influences of the
street and gas ligh; associates they
meet with. They cannot be reformed
by sending them - Jail for petty
larceny.
There they associate with the wors,
of criminals, and we have known boys
of fourteen years OF age TO have all the
manhood left in them taken out o.
them by the pillory and lash. II they
even had a spark Of manhood in them
or a lingering ambition to be a bette
citizen in the future, all such thought
are crushed when they find they ar
looked upon and treated as a pauper
They need special course of training
and they need trainers who have soul
in them not dwarfed into pigmies b,
contracted partisanship. They nee,
the genial Influences of good men an,
women, capable OF giving moral in
stru ,tipa, aud from whose hearts lea
kind words in response to sufferin
and mi .stice. New Castle Co unty hs
or ought to have room enough in he
new county buildings for pla 20 sue
~ we have recommended.
If there is not room there, TOOL
shonld be made by the erection ,
another building. At any rate a hou'
of correction and reform is badly neea
ed, and our State Legislature whic
will soon meet, could be engaged in L
more laudable work than devising
law which will provide for the reel
nation of the abandoned children
the State, or children who, thong
having homes called homes, al
parents called parents are still wor
than abandoned.
How Cleveland was Elected.
a + l.,lx ont =