The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-11-11
REFORMING GIRLS.
How the State School Near
Trenton is Organized
and Run.
NOT. LIKE A PRISON
The Inmates Have Pleasant Rooms
and Many Enjoyments-
Strict Discipline.

Probably few people, comparatively
speaking. have any acquaintance with a
State Institution located just outside of
the limits of the City of Trenton, adj
joining Caewalader Park, where girls
who may have been led into the commits
sim of crime Other Thar murder or MAN.
slalelitir. are cared for and .rai:el AID
o:ueatcl ami taught to become useful
men. hers OF society. The inslir tt!.i.. Re.
ferred to is the State Industrial school
for Girls, which was created by an act
of the Legislature, approved April 4, 1871.
which provided that an Industrial
School be established for the reformation
of girls between the ages of seven and
sixteen, as may be committed t, it by
due process of law. The act declares
that n girl between the ages desig-
mated who g habituglly dis) ,eri: III
eorrigible or vagrant, is a fit subject
fer t'is school. 1t IS The in.ebt "f the
law establishing the school hat all such
girls, shall be sentenced to its custody
and not to the County Jail or State Fri
son. Provision is made that the jus~ces
OF the Supreme Court or the presiding
judge of any criminal court hall have
POWER, upon a careful hearing of cases
brought before them, if in their judgment
the girl is a fit subject for the school, to
commit her to it's care until she arrives
at the age of twenty-one.
The government of the school is vested
in a board of trustees, which is strictly
non partisan, three of the board being
Democrats and the remaining three Re-
publicans ard six lady managers.
The trustees are: Rev. George c.. Mad
dock, president; Lewis Parker secretary
and treasurer; E. Rezeau Cook, man
aging trustee; Edward H. Stokes, Aaron
Carter. Jr., and Patrick j. Fitzgibhon.
The board Of lady managers consists of
p p9Tu ma Mrs ? joseph hssa5p"lxS K Bee Hescher, MS.
Isaac Weatherby, Mrs. f. Rezeau Cook,
Mrs. Rebecca 4. Colson.
HOW IT rs MANAGED.
The duties Of the trustees and lady
managers require them to see that the
girls un,lcr their charge are instructed
bi ranches of useful knowledge as may BE-
adapted to their age ana capacity; also,
in some regular course Of labor either
mechanical, manufacturing or hortieul-
tural, or a combination of these. and es-
pecially in such domestic and household
labor and duties as h be best suited
capacity; and in such arts, trades ana
employment as may seem to the trustees
best adapted to preserve their health and
secure their reformation, amendment ana
future benefit. ).
They also have power to bind out all
girls committed to their charge for q
term or time, until they shall have ar
rived at the age of ~twenty-one, as .ap-
prentices; such binding 70 be by lnden5
tpre, signed BY one Of the trustees rus $ fes,s a and
s~crupulous regard shall be had TO the
moral and religious character Of those
to whom it is proposed to bind them.
by the State. the. amount Appropriated
being $50 per capita per year, and this
amount, together with what IS receiDed
500 a year, is the revenue on which the
school is supported.
Having thus. generally outlined the pun
school itself, which is well worthy the
anthropiealElyy i ll9lsb;av dav IN octobsr
lust past, Mr.. E.. R. Cook, who is man
aging trustee of the school, invited the
pay the school a visit. The invitation
was gladly accepted, and soon we were
bowling along behind Mr.. Cooks fine
brought US to the door of the institution,
where we were greeted by the matron,
Mrs. Mary A. McFadden
A FINE INSTITUTION.
Though annual reports of the school
had reached the writer periodically. yet
they gave but a dim and hazy idea of the
of about seventy-nine acres in Ewing
township, on the line of the trenton
Branch of the Bound Brook Railroad;
About sixty acres are tlllaole lahd ana
the remainder woodland.
The school building proper IS a large
brick structure, three stories in helght,
ton for $50 girls. The building has been
| added to twice since it was first estap-
lished in its present locaticn; me nrsL
| school was in a small building near
Riyerview cemetery, and the accommo-
dation there being inadequate, the pres
ent location was secured -,
rp1.. J-k--+ olIi+fnn wac naY1nIpfP6 tine
nresent year and affords ac-connmodations
for about GO girls, together with a large
sshool room and library. n annex IS
| planned by Mr.. r. n. Csok, and is ALMOST
perfect in its arrangemsnts ana details,
w. A; Poland being tne arcn 1ns m Iop ms
never visited the school would pc sur
| prised at the extent and completeness Of
the buildings. As you enter me main
| furnished parlor. where. visitors are re-
| ceived, and opening out OF that is the
Mn,Fadden. This is where all the bust
ness transactions of the school take
| place. After placing your name on the
visitors register you are eseoaIao 10 Oa .ae
ment. neatly but plainly furnished. where
the meetings of the board are held.
emit school rooms, sewing rooms, etc.
There are at present 1l9 girls IN the
family, and they are divided into classes;
whose WORK Routes DCtWSCh tiS. 1NtfoS
room and various departments OF work.
One class is in the chool room IN the
~orenoon n the others are. at work IN
tse laundry or kitchen, or bakery, and
in the afternoon those who have been
otherwise employed in the morning have
their turn in the school room. The girls
are taught and aim in all depart
ments of housekeeping, SO that when the
time comes for them to leave the instftu-
tim they will be fitted to earn their own
1iSing as servants and housekeepers.
They are also taught sewing, dressmak-
ing and kindred arts.
IN THE SCHOOLROOM.sa
In the school rooms. Of which there
are two grades, tile branches taught in
dude those of a common English educa-
tion, such as reading, writing. arithme-
tic, geography. history and grammar.
A half hour is devoted three times a
week To -penmanship, and once a week
to physiology.
The girls are also taught to work in
and about the garden and on the farm,
such things as they can do.
In the rear of the school is the flower
garden, where each girl has a long
flower bed which the object Of her es-
pecial care, M the writer was told
that the great majority of them take
an absorbing interest in their flowers,
and put In all their spare moments in
attending to them in the season for
flowers. a play ground has been ar
RANGED, which The girls greatly enjoy
in their hours of recreation. A play