Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-02-03
SAVED MONEY.
The Reform School Trustees Show
Good Balance for 1899.
The Number Of Boys Decreased 10 I27 Dur.
ing the Year.

The Reform school has been conduct
during the past season. ana the showing
in other respects is 4 great credit 10
the efficient trustees. to Superintendent
Wentworth and his force Of teachers
and officers.
The 10th annual report Of the inStitu-
ton has been filed with the Governor
ana Council ana will be printed later.
TO read this report is to become in
terested in the institution for the boys
of Maine who have become refractory
at home and have to be sent some
where to be brought to their senses.
The trustees of the school are. 10 a
man. 50 very much interested in their
work that they do it after a time from
the love of it. They grow to look upon
the children as especial charges and
anything that is for their good is
quickly grasped. They go there not
from sense of duty, but from one TO
study the boys. In this place they see
the small boy in all his different
phases. They have every class Of small
boys. All are placed there fol' INSIDE
meanors of one sort and another. but
the conclusion that they are bad boys.
through and through. 1t is true there
are many Of the boys of the institution
Who are as near thoroughly bad as any
mortals can be. and they have a good
streak in them, doubtless, in case it
could be found, but the majority are
not bad from nature but from circum-
stance. To bring them back to good
boys again is not such a very hard
task.
The trustees and officials Of the
school understand their work thor
oughly. and they do not in any meas
ure. farther than is absolutely neces-
sary. make it like a prison. though cf
course they have to take all due pre-
cautions possible. No punishment is
inflicted upon a boy for acts committed
before he came to the school. All are
received on an equal and if one shows
signs of being industrious and obdient.
many are the little favors that are be
slowed upon him. Upon the bad boy
measures of restraint have to be
placed. but all are given every chance
Of showing the good there IS III them
no see the 100 boys in the institution
and study their faces is a privilege that
is worth more than the thought OF 1t
would perhaps suggest. for one often
wonders why such a face should be
seen in the institution. The trustees
in their report say that the restraint
nIaced upOn the boys by law cannot be
construed as a punishment, but rather
as a benefit. He is being educated and
taught some trade whereby he can earn
\ living when he leaves the institution
and he becomes after having been IN
the school so imbued with habits OF
Industry he seldom is afterwards
law man. Every boy who has been III
the institution for two years is allowed
10 go out on probation in case he has
behaved and the proper home can be
provided for him.
No deaths have occurred in the
school This wear. and the health is eX-
cpllent. This they attribute to the eX-
cellent sanitary conditions that sur
round the institute IN The number in
the school deere ed from December
1898 to that time in 1899. AT the FOR
mer date there We're 142 boys in the
school on the latter. but 121. There
were received during the year, 50, four
of whom were returned from probation.
There we're allowed to go out upon
probation during the year, Sc. II were
discharged and three escaped.
This has been memorable year in
many respects and chief among which