The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-07-27
Charges Against the Girls Home.

Charges Against the Girls Home.
Some of the sensational papers yester-
day afternoon and this morning print a
weird story of Cruelty" in the State Re-
form School for Girls. It is based on the
statement Of Kate Barlow, al inmate,
who is now in bad health, and who has
been sent to the Trenton City Hospital
for Treatment.
On Kate Barlow's own statement, she
was disobedlent. The officers of the
schoo say she was refractory, even to
the point of striking one Of them. Her
punishment, as she describes it, was not
cruel nor even severe, except that she al
leges that during confinement in her room
in warm weather she was deprived OF
fresh air. This assertion is positively de-
MED. Her case is quite plainly that of
an ill-disposed girl, committed for mis-
conduct and not repentant. who has taken
advantage of a sickness, following short
~ after punishment, to excite sympathy
for herself and get square with those
VINO disciplined her. Her story is not
worthy of one moments serious atten-
ton.
Some of the very yellow papers, how
ever, including the Evening Journal of
this city, proceeded to make still fur
Their charges against the Home, the main
one being tina corporal punishment is
inflicted there and that men are some
times employed to aid in it in a manner
offensive to ~propriety.
We will divide this charge into two
parts, first the fact itself, and second the
charge about the presence of men, and
to dispose of the second first, as being the
more limited one, we may say that we do
not believe one word of it. We have not
the slightest doubt that it is a yellow
fake, born in the morbid brain of some
"up-to-date" reporter. If, however, it is
in any degree true, every person guilty
of it. including not only the men but the
Matron of the Home and her assistants,
should be indicted and sent to prison for
good. long terms. No punishment is too
bad for them.
AS for the broad question whether cor
porai punishment SHOULD be used at all,
,pinions vary widely. Just now, the
state institutions of Colorado are some
what celebrated for their success in re-
storing order, discipline and good morals,
under Warden Hoyt, after a prolonged
period of chaos. by the use of what is
denominated plain old-fashioned spank
ing This remedy has been applied in
ali the penal and reformatory institu-
lions of the State. and those very same
newspaper are proclaiming it a humane
and beneicent method of discipline in one
DAVIS issue. while in another they de-
nounce as cruelty and barbarism precise
~ the same practice in the New York
state Woman's Reformatory at Hudson
or our own at Trenton. Those who take
an interest in penal methods cannot fail
to notice that, however institutions start
out. they sooner or later drift around to
the use OF corporal punishment in ex-
IRENE cases. It may take five or ten or
twenty years, but inevitably managers
seem to despair of attaining results with
out an ultimate resort to physical pain,
and where whipping of some sort is not
used, ~stringing up by the thumbs, chain
ing in painful positions, cold douche or
some one of a dozen other pain producing
methods is employed. This is true in
Europe Just as 1T il in every State in this
country. It may well be believed, in
deed. that moderate corporal punishment
OF the more or less old-fashioned kind is
by far the best ultima ratio in the case
ct least Of youthful offenders in reforma-
tory institutions, provided 1t is admin
hfered without such unnecessary circum-
stances Of improperly as the Journal
charges In the present case Certainly 1t
seems a common sense view that such
punishment, judiciously limited. is far
preferable to dark cell, bread and water,
close confinement, chains, douche, or
other substitute pain producers. 1t seems
lsss harmful. both physically and morally,
and the howl which is occasionally raised
about it Is due to a hysterical misapplI-
cation Of words far more than to any
thoughtful consideration Of facts or con
ditions-
It IL to be hoped that Governor voor-
hees will DOL into the present charges
sufficiently to make sure that 40 over