The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-03-06
or BEAUTY
The Wonderful Effect Of AttractiYeness and
High Breeding Upon Young Criminals.
REBELLlOUS JUVENILE LAW BREAKERS
They Are Kccnly Susceptible to
Ennobling sympathy of Hovcly
Women-Thc Eiercest Tnmntcs OF
the House of Refuge Succumb 10
the Gentle influence Of Hcnuty.

New York. Mach 4. lS96.-If any one
doubts the beneficial Influence of high
bred, pretty women in the asylums for
juvenile la~w-breakers, and the impor-
tant part women are sure TO take In
measures of modern penal reform, LEI
them just make n trip to New York
K city's house of refuge for boys on Ran
e dall's Island. in the East river. Last
March the experiment was made OF put
ting women teachers in the institutions
Echool-rooms. where some seven hundred
md eighty youths under IS years OF
age are gathered for two hours every
day TO improve their very slight ac-
acquaintance with the three RS. This
wis the special refuge department from
which. after repeated experiments, men
had retreated. defeated by the violence,
Simpertinence and INSTRUMENTATION of
their charges. Amazing little confidence
was felt when Miss Frances Dean. with
her twenty feminine assistants, under
took the dangerous and difficult task.
MAKING A REFORM.
"There were not very pleasant tradi-
tions associated with the school-room."
Miss Dean admitted, when talking about
her work. Bread and water diet. the
lookup and corporal punishment had
been the means Of maintaining a sort
order. against which. however. the boys
We're accustomed to make violent de-
monstratlons. The women took old
however, with the conviction that chiv-
airy does exist in the hearts Of the
lowest born male creation, and that
kindness, especially with Young people,
must succeed where force often fails.
a first, Of course, we found discipline
almost impossible to maintain" contin-
ued the speaker. even for the two
hours In the afternoon and one hour in
the evening. when the boys are with
their bo~oks-children of respectable
parentage and gentler life have none
OF the fierce passions and unbrsdled
tempers of the street Arabs and young
law-breakers. who live on retaliation, cx-
element and their tremendous physical
energies. An orderly entrance TO the
school-room was IN impossibility at
first. We were obliged to sooth and rea-
you would trembling, half wild young
animals. Even now. when we have
taught them to file in silent. orderly and
promptly to their desks. the eacher at
the evening study hour must spend her
time talking to them, pacifying and
settling their flights from n fight In
the yard. or a squabble with an officer
that may have set them on fire."
REFUGE INMATES.
just at this momcn the , o'clock bell
rang and TO the tune of Nancy Lee,
the boys came marching in, caps off. in
Ssingi file. They wear n gray sailors
dress, fatcaps and sit graded like public
school children, under their several
teachers In as perfect order as the most
e1acting chool mistress could ask. Two
children, whose crimes, had they been of
ripper years, would have been exriated
by capital punishment moved along Out
city as the rest and were pointed out rs
exceptionally good scholars and In ten
minutes from the first bell tap, the les
sons were in full swing.
saving that there is an electric button
az hand communicating with an alarm
Dell and that uniformed officers fit here
and there along the hall and stairs nj.
ways within call, nothing indicates hat
repeis against the law are gathered to
gether. The sole representative of M
tnority IN each room, filled with pro,,ns
ioiStrom hfteen to thir,Y-fve bows .s a
sim young woman with ONLY a sticL
5Ior map pointing In her hand. Ry tacit
consent these women wear the simpIest
OF darK gowns, white linen at wrists and
throat and huge punches of keys dang.
5 n's nom olu RIBBONS al the right side.
FEMININE DISCIPLINE.
"Of the twenty teachers in ALL" ex-
Miss Dean. most OF them ara
wei trained in a modern method Of In
sstruction. but II is not enough for a
sSo. t, mere to understand int
site is that she has capacity to plea So anl]
,control her pupils. Disobedicnce. ba h
and any violence are the frs,