Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-09

| II mas DeSIl
thatseven-tenths of the convicted criminals
of the United States are persons who have
never learned a trade or followed any in
: dustrial pursuit. And very large pro-
portion of these criminals are under %
years of age. What a suggestive fact |
Does not public economy demand that
something be done to provide facilities for
teaching young men industrial pursuits :?
They cannot become mechanics without
the opportunities of learning a trade. Idle
ness is the devils workshop. Demolish
this workshop with the batteries of indus
| try. The prevention of crime is the duty
of society. Society has no right to punish
crime at one end, if it does nothing to pre-
vent 1t at the other end. Society's chief
concern should be to remove the causes
from which crime springs. We may be
very eloquent in pleading that punishment
may be quick, sharp and decisive; that the
galiows may have every victim that it
claims by law, and that eternal vigilance
may be kept on evil doors. But all this
Will not avail. Crime cannot be hindered
by punishment" 1t will always find some
shape and outlet unpunishable and I'M
closed. Crime can only be truly hindered
by letting no boy grow up to be criminal
| by taking away the will to commit sin
| not by the mere punishment of its COM
mission. Formation, not reformation,
should be the watchword. Crime, small
and great, can only be stayed by formation
education; not the education of the in
tellect merely, but the education of the
head, heart and hand, which is the educa-
ton of the whole man.
The Industrial School for Girls in New
| York City has most encouraging tale to
tell of practical results. Their children
range in age from babyhood to girlhood
of thirteen years. They have the day
nursery, the kindergarten, the school
room, with its steady incubation of moral
and religious principles and its cheerful
hum of mental and physical drill. Then
come the different avenues of domestic
| labor, such as the kitchen-garden, the
cooking school, the sewing school, the
housekeeper's school,, the nurses training
school, and all other domestic arts that
tend to make the girl useful and valuable
to society. Now, what are the results?
What positive, practical results have they
TO show? II is safely affirmed that 80 per
cent. of the children who have left the
Industrial School during the last five
years, after having finished the prescribed
course, are now self-supporting, industri-
Gus girls, well equipped with practical
knowledge Of domestic industries which
will go far toward making their own
future homes those of thrift and comfort.
Throw open the Kindergar ten and the
schools for industrial and art training to
every child, and with the heart pure, the
head clear, the hand skillful and ready,
we shall hear no more of the vexed ques-
ton of " hoodlumism." Our fair land
shall take its place in the very front ranks
! of nations distinguished for their industrial
achievements.
There must be more of genuine human
sympathy between the top and the bottom
Of society. The prosperous and the happy
must clasp hands and hearts with the toll
| ers and the strugglers. The living, loving
self is wanted. The heart must be the
missionary. The life must be the sermon.
All mankind must be brothers. The
| children must be taught these great prin-
ciples and aided in putting them in prac-
tice. They must be made to feel and to
know that it is what they put into life and
not what they get out of it, that measures
their worth to the world.
Just at this point Mrs. Cooper paid
very hearty tribute to the Girls High
School of San Francisco, which now sup
ports free kindergarten. She said if all
the well-to-do children of the county were
thus to reach out warm, glowing, helpful
hands to the less favored children, it would
work out great moral transformation in
few years. She also spoke of the San
Francisco School Board in a similar way.
In closing, Mrs. Cooper referred briefly
to the work of which she has charge.
And now, dear friends and co-workers, will
you permit me to say few words in re-
gard 10 our work among the little needy
children Of San Francisco? We are now
near our ninth mile-stone-eight years of
blessed work among the little ones. 1t
seems as if the angels that guard little
children had had the work in charge. 1t
seems as if he, who said 1t is not the
Will Of your Father who is in heaven that
one OF these little ones should perish" had
turned the hearts of the citizens of San
Francisco TO this work in marvellous ten
derness and generosity. Eight years ago,
with monthly pledge of only 81 80, but
with faith in God and goodness, nv Bible
class opened its first kindergarten in the
very heart OF the Barbary Coast-the
Five Points of San Francisco. We then
had but forty scholars. We have Just
opened our fifteenth class, with a total en-
rollment Of over LOO children, and the
total receipts of the present year were over
$4,000. Most of our children are but
three or your years old.
The hearts of MANY of our wealthy citi-
zens turn very tenderly and generously to
this work among the children. Mrs.
Leland Standardized bless her-has do
mated from first to last, $4,000 to our
work, and sustains 600 children in our
schools. Mrs. Charles Croker has always
given most generously, and Miss Crocker
suStains large class in the Silver-street
kindergarten. Mrs. George Hearst has
| also generously sustained kindergarten
in a needy portion of the city. Mrs.
Charles Lux has Just opened kinder
garten. Others have donated with lib
eral hand and worked untiringly. Bust
ness men feel the power and import Of the
| work. The Produce Exchange supports
class. As a business Investment, as
legacy to their own children, critical, OBJ
serving men donate to this work
Dear friends, said the speakerin closing,
do trust you will go forward and estab-
free kindergarten work in this beautiful
city. l am sure you will find it the most
satisfactory in results Of any work you
have ever done. The children must be
cared for; and if the civil authorities dc
| not attend TO the little neglected children
of the streets, then, surely, Christian phil
anthrophy should do it. Christianity,
! thank God, is coming to be more and
more practical in its aspect and work We
are coming to feel, more and more, that
religion which has everything for future
world, but nothing for this world, has
nothing for either; religion that neglects
this present life is mother who neglects
her infant with the expectation that man
hood will set everything right. A genuine
religion concerns itself much about the
little ones-the helpless little ones who
have been hurled prematurely against the
! life-wrecl,ing problems of existence. Per-
haps we shall find at last, in the day of
final disclosure, that the deepest and most
far-reaching influence we ever exerted,
was the influence that We exerted over the
little neglected children of the street.
| Perhaps we shall find it to be the very best
! work we ever accomplished. At all events,
dear friends, it is we'll to live well. And
he lives the longest who lives the best. He
is great who confers most Of blessing on
/ mankind.