The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-12-15

not a special source of comfort to per-
son OF spirit"
left the almshouse and sought out
George .. Osborne, who was Warden of
the institution from 1866 to 1876, and who
now fills the post of Warden in the City
Hospital on Baldwin avenue.
What become of the pauper children?"
the Warden said, repeating my inter-
rogatory as O sort of memory searcher.
well, l meet them all over and every
day of the week, right under my nose here
in Jersey City. Hear of them in the
penitentiary. Have heard of them as
applicants for further county charity; rs
railroad employees; as carpenters; master
! mechanics and mayors"
ONE WHO BECAME A MAYOR.
won't you cite an instance of q gradu-
ate of the college on Snake Hill as u
mayor, WardenYi l asked.
II will, " he replied; "and it is the state
ment of an experience in my career as
Warden in the almshouse which l would
! be glad to multiply il l could only wipe
the cobwebs that fifteen years absence
| from the institution have gathered about
| my recollection of the place. This par
! ticular case was in the years Of my War
| denship and not many years after l had
come to this city from my home in Eli
mira. My father was on a visit TO me,
and during his stay founding was
| brought in who had been picked up under
bush somewhere in the county The
| circumstances of his finding suggested a
name to father and he immediately
| dubbed the kicking, crying boy ALBERT
! Bush" He is so entered on the records
| of 9he institution and went by that name
| during all the time he was in the aims
! house.
! "Whea ne had reached an age when it
| was possible to indenture him he was
| given into the charge of q DOCTORS family
in the northern part of the State. Some
years after he drifted to the central part
! of the State of New York, and after n
residence of some years there was chosen
mayor of the town in which he had made
| his home. No, ] do not care to name tine
+, town." the Warden said when pressed
| him for the information, because it
| might be the means of identifying the
man and exposing him to humiliation.
II was on visit to my home in Elmira
| some years ago, and while away | met
| three of the boys who had been in the in
| stitution and who recognized and spoke
! to me. One was engaged in his trade as
carpenter in my native city. One was
| q journeyman in shop in Buffalo; and
| the third had charge in u machine shop in
Hornellsville. know one who is one of
the most trusted conductors in the en-
ploy of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hun
| dreds have gone out of my memory
altogether 1t would only require ref
| erence to the books at the almshouse to
|
| now useful members of society"
sEvENTY-FIyE PER CENT. GOOD.
"What percentage of them make a less
| favorable showingg' | asked.
81 should say about seventy-five per
| cent turn out good, The remaining
| twenty-five per cent become either Grim
| inals or objects of charity"
Thomas Byrnes, who was almost the
immediate successor of Mr.. Osborne as
warden at the almshouse, recollected
some of its inmates while he was warden,
and followed their careers in after life
One bright young man who was in the
institution at the period of his incumb-
ency, and who was an efficient assistant
While there of the county physician as a
drug clerk, is now drug clerk in prom
fnent store in Jersey City, and is also
studying to be a doctor with a near pros
pect of attaining the diploma of q medical
college.
A QUEER GUARDIAN.
Mr.. Byrnes told me OF the case of a girl
| who, like Estella in Dickens "Great Ex-
| pectations,' was adopted by queer old
woman back of the monestary in Ho-
boken. The godmother might, from his
! description of her, have been another MISS
Haverstraw. The girl grew up. The old
| lady dying left her fortune, which
| turned her head to the point of her refus-
| ing to recognize her two brothers, who
| had shared the county's charity with her.
| The boys were placed by the authorities
| in positions outside. One of them was
| lost sight of, and the other one went to
the dogs.
DEGRADING OPERATIONS.
| There is one thing that makes the task
of training the younger inmates of the
almshouse in way to make them useful
and moral members of society difficult.
| That is the influences they are beset by
as the result of being 0omiciied with the
adult female paupers, many of whom are
corrupting to minds that are, from a
| lack of power to discriminate, a prey to
| the vicious examples OF the mature in
mates Some provision should be made,
| it is the unanimous testimony of all who
have had any official dealings with the
almshouse, to separate the children en-
| tirely from the adults.