The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-23
BEING WATCHED
 WITH INTEREST.
Youngsters From Crowded Tenement' Content to Remain in Model Village on the Hudson-HOw
 They Become Useful Citi.ens.

New York, July 22, 1s05.-Settlement house workers, free doctors' city missionaries and other friends or the poor have been watching with interest an experiment which has been in prog rass for several months near this city and which has been so successful that 1t can be, perhaps, no longer called an exneriemnt When the trustees Of the New York Juvenile Asylum placed 800 gamins from the slums in modei VII Iare which has been called "reforma- tory without a fence,' many supposed that the youngsters. to quote the poet would
 Fold their tents like the Arabs
 And as silently steal away"
 But these street Arabs. although not so much as a strand of barbed wire stands as a physical barrier between them and the outside world, show little disposltion to return to the noise ana the glare and the excitement of the Rowery and its surrounding streets which are only twenty miles away.
 The trustees of the Asylum deter mined to build for their wards as at- tractive village as the architects could plan and to conduct 1t In as lib- eral a way as the care of several nun dred boys of any walk In life would warrant. Sympathy. not restraint was to be the method of dealing with the youngsters, who. for the most part. had come from the unwholesome sur roundings of the s1um districts of Americas greatest city, many being committed to the care of the Asylum by the police courts.
 Of course, the sudden change from the old Asylum buildings. where escape was not so easy, proved too great temptation for a few of the youngsters and. in all, twelve have ventured out into the great world. Of these two were promptly returned by their par ents. and another little chap was found in the vicinity a day or so after his disappesraLCe. Very hungry and be- draggled, h. was brought back to his dinner and then. his appetite satisfied. began to feel more like the hero he had expected to be. But he soon discov- cred that in some mysterious way he was never able to tell the story of his adventures to the admiring audience he had dreamed of The teachers saw to 1t that the adventure fell nat and its hero appeared in the light of nothing more enviable than very foolish lit tie boy.
 This is the modern idea of discipline that marks a long step forward in the battle against poverty and crime in out great cities and has driven out the training schools for criminals form erly designated with unconscious irony as juvenile reformatories." The visi- tor to the little colony on the summit of the long ridge just above Dobb's Ferry sees little to remind him of the fact that the great majority of the vtl lage's population ars not voluntary residents No turnkeys guard the ap- proaches and for nearly it's whole ex- tent the farm of 2S5 acres in the midst Of which the Asylum stands is per fectly open to the surrounding country. Were 1t not for their plain ,well-worn uniforms and heavy shoes the 300 boys who may De seen any bright day play ing baseball on the improvised dia- monds that dot the strands between the village green and its fringe of cot taRes dominated by a big schoolhouse, might easily be mistaken for the pupils of some private boarding school.
 After all it is much as a boarding school that the Asylum Is run. The boys. the authorities say, are in need of intelligent sympathy more than or rules and regulations. The persistent rehel can be transferred to the State reformatory on Randalrs Island if he Tails to respond to the policy of kind ness but to most of the youngsters svnnathy is too much of a novelty to he scorned. Those of the institutions wards who are not committed to its care, as petty offenders against the Iaws have been sent there by the courts as to a temporary refuge from noglected homes until new and satis | factory homes can be found for them. How complete is the ignorance of these Youngsters of everything outside the narrow range of slum experience can hardly be realized except by those to whose lot has fallen the responsibility | for fresh air excursions.
 Hey, Missus" shouted new ar rival to the wife of the superintendent on his first day at the village. Do | vnu get breakfast. dinner and supper | here lust as you do in the city?'
 It is not long. however, before the houa make themselves quite at home in