The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-18
TO GIVE STREET
URCHINS A CHANCE
100000
PLANT
FOR TRANSFORMING RAW MATE
RIAL OF THE SLUMS INTO
GOOD CITIZENS.

New York Juvenile Asylum Which
Has sent Out Into the World
$4,000 Boys and Girls-Many OF
Them Are Now Men and Women
Prominent in Business and in the
Professions in Every State in the
Union.
New York, Dec. 17.-One of the larg-
est Christmas parties in this great city
this year will be held in a stone build
ing on Washington flights, where over
900 little folks will gather around two
great Christmas trees laden with toys
and the good things appropriate to the
season. To many of this regiment of
children, the gathering will be the first
Christmas party in which they have
been included among the guests. They
have come mostly from the crowded
East Side to be made into good Ameri-
cans by the New York Juvenile Asy-
lum. an institution which in the fifty
years of its existence has sent out
into the world $1,000 boys and girls.
The party on Washington Nights
has an especial significance this year
because by the time another Christmas
comes, the work of the institution will
have been transferred to a new home
which, when completed, will represent
an expenditure of $1,000, O0O capital
invested in what may be described as
the business of Transforming the raw
material of the slums into the finished
product of good citizenship.
The great majority of children re-
ceived into this New York asylum
are the victims of misfortune to which
they have not themselves contributed.
and they do not enter the building on
Washington Hight through the police
courts. Among them are only a few
who have been committed to the asy-
lum because of misdemeanors They
are mostly the orphans of the tene-
nents or the children of parents who
have found the struggle of life too hit
ter to enable them to keep their fam
lies together. These children of to-
day constitute the raw material from
which are to be made the men and
women OF tomorrow. Left to them
selves or to chance charity in the
crowded streets they would be in con-
slant danger of falling into wrong-do-
ing Under the care of the ASYLUM
they are brought under healthful and
helpful influence both in the institu-
ton itself and in the homes which are
found for them.
Its Beneficiaries in Every State.
In every state and territory in the
union, including far-off Alaska are
men ana women now prosperous and
successful who recall similar Christmas
parties in the asylum building on the
flights. One of the Christmas SER
mons Which will be preached in New
DIX thls year will be delivered by a
former pupil of the asylum. for he is
now the rector of a large church in
Brooklyn. Another graduate who a
snort time ago added to the Christmas
cheer OF the directors by sending them
generous check, the proceeds TO he
ADDED to the graduates building fund
Is a prominent lawyer in a Western
city. In his case, it may be truthfullv
SAID that he got his start in life bv
steaIlng apples from a push-cart on the
boWery' He was only six years old, a
street urchin growing up among evil
hnuehces from which he was removed
because of his theft of the apples.
Iact to which he jokingly alluded in
the letter accompanying his check. He
SAID that While it might be true that
Eve fall came through eating an ap-
pie 1t was certain that his own regen-
Grafton was directly traceable to the
same cuse.
waits OF a Great City.
Strange stories are sometimes brought
10 light in the history of these little
WAITS of great city, but as a rule
the tale would be a monotonous re-
eilal OF hardships and poverty There
+ httle that is romantic in the daily
NE OF the garment worker, street ped
ier' factory hand or dock laborer liv-
ing IN the tenement districts of the
american metropolis, but now and then
mere comes to light a bit of family
history which serves as the exception
TO prove the rule
-Four wears ago three small children,
Two boys and a girl, were sent to
the asylum and, after the usual per-
lGd OF training, homes were found for
them in the West. There these chill
uren were heard speaking of a wealthy
New York woman who had recently
oled. They said that she was their
aunt. A lawyer was consulted and
the officials of the asylum were APP
pealed to for proofs of the alleged re-
latlonship. These were obtained and
with the identity of his clients thus
established the lawyer filed a claim
upon the property and confidently eX-
poets that it will be sustained by
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