New-York tribune., 1902-08-03


younger children may study and the older ones
work at various trades and vocations. such as
blacksmithing, tailoring, shoemakng, short
hand and telegraphy. church occupies the
southern hill of the grounds. The dining rooms
are supplied with food from central kitchen
In the cottages are also individual Kitchens
where food may be reheated if necessary Inc
whole group of seventy-fve buildings Will De
heated and furnished with water from central
plants.
The change Of surroundings from the prison.
Ike halls the sent building, in Amsterdanl-
ave. to the cottage life of the Dobbs Ferry
farm, although entailing greater cost WILL
it is believed have d marked effect on the a1ter
rifa Of the children In the beginning, these
WATTS are brought to the asylum through the
courts and the Gerry society. Nearly all even
at their early age, have committed crlilhdi
offence. Because OF their extreme youth-1or All
IRE between the ages of five and fifteen years
they are not sent TO RandalFs Island with older
and more hardened offenders, but kept by them
selves The time was. however, when this city
imprisoned all its children with older and hard-
ened criminals and as a result almost all finally
6rifted into ways of crime. Later, when chill
dren were removed by themselves to RandalIs
Island they were cared for by adult paupers,
Migrants and even criminals Children under
two years old were cared for by women prison.
ers from the city's workhouse.
With the establishment of the New-York Ju-
veniIe Asylum in 1853, in its first home, at No.
100 Bauk-st., which pioneer in this work,
many of these abuses were corrected Thirty
thousand children have now passed through the
institution, of whom six thousand have secured
homes in the Far West. Many who have been
miles away from their old Fairgrounds in the
streets and cutters of this city have developed
into men of high standing. Hundreds corre-
spond regularly with the head officials Of their
former home. and some, imbued with gratitude
for what has been done for them, are erecting
similar institutions in the States Of their adop-
ton. The asylum has a Chicago agency,
| through which its children are sent to respect
| able homes and into responsible hands.
The new home at Dobbs Ferry. when COM
! plete. will cost about 81 100000 Many of the
| cottages are OF remarkable elegance, and have
caused some to make the criticism that too
much money is being spent on such class OF
children. In replying to this objection Mr..
| Hes said:
| There is good stuff in the great majority
of these children and all that is necessary is 10
| bring it out. What is most essential in the
| early as well as the later life of a human being
| is a home The child who plays in the gutter
away from all parental restraint and guidance
| is absolutely without a home. The child in a
| great institutional building, where he is one of
thousand. making exception. of course, OF
the moral influence of his teachers, is almost
without the true home influence. But in the
cottage, where twenty boys or girls live to-
gether, there greater semblance of the
family more native home associations and a
quicker response the part of the child tt
moral influences.
Because of the fact that this city is the land
ing place for thousands of foreign immigrants
| iS ia hat them
duced to the lowest verge of poverty, and tneil
children. taking to the street. become waits
Leggars, scamps, rowdies and, not few, Grim
inals. 1t is with this class that the New-Yorl
Juvenile Asylum has to deal. and, as far as pos
| sible, develop them into good citizens"
| The president of the board of directors Il
MOrnay Williams. to whose interest in the in
stitutOn and efforts to enlarge its facilities il
due to a great degree the change from AmSter
dam-ave. to Dobbs Ferry.