The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

three hundred and sixty-fifth. which Is Christmas, the barriers are down and rich and poor, high and lowly, unite in the work of making real for the children of the metropolis the most polyglot and gigantic Santa Claus in Christendom.
 That the spirit of Yuletide may not go to waste, but that out of all the good cheer and generous heartedness the most benefit may come, there have been established all sorts of under takings to care for the unfortunate contact points" as the social worker calls them. A directory publishe ed by the Charity Organization society gives the number which may properly be in cluded in the list as 3700; but as a matter of fact the contact points" in
 greater New York are nearer 10000.
 Each has it's special mission with which
 it busies itself 52 weeks in the year;
 but on the odd day of the 365 all en-
 ergies are devoted to the same end.
 Whether it be a prison association or a free kindergarten, a hospital or a
 fresh air charity, day nursery a ju-
 venile asylum, legal aid society or
 one of the variety of educational cen
 tres, clubs and schools, each enterprise
 for the betterment of mankind becomes
 on Christmas a distributing station
 for the immense dynamic force of hap
 piness that might otherwise amount to
 little better than blundering good will.
 Allowing an average of five workers
 for each of the contact points"-and
 this is low estimate-there are 50 900 individuals employed in specially di-
 recting the Christmas spirit of Gotham. Christmas, of course, Is primarily the children's day. But entirely apart from the desire to give holiday cheer to a host of boys and girls, to many of whom little other happiness ever comes, there Is very serious reason for the constant work through the various
 "contact points" for juveniles. From the youngsters of today will be de- veloped the men and women of tomor- row, and sociologists agree that in the work of bettering mankind an ounce of prevention Is worth many pounds of cure. Children being In the formative state are more easily moulded than tn cir parents, who often are so far broken in spirit and so discouraged as to make impossible more than slight improvement
 Yet in a city where so much Is to
 be done as here complete success can
 not be hoped for from prevention
 
 slums assimilate evil from their sur
 roundings in spite of all that can be
 done to help them against themselves.
 Sooner or later they commit an offense against law and orde~-many times
 only a minor offence but still one so-
 ciety cannot overlook for it's good or
 theirs Then they pass from the world
 of freedom Into a land of captivity,
 whither also find their way scores of
 youthful unfortunates who, innocent
 of any wrongdoing themselves, must be protected against cruel or neglect ful parents or rescued from the demor- alizing influences of bad family asso- citations.
 Curiously enough, however, the hu- l man mites who have come into tihs estate of restraint through the Juven- ile court are among the happiest of New York's tenement children at Christmas time, and for that matter, during all the rest of the year. At least, this surely is true of those who
 find themselves in one of the institu-
 tions which have adopted modern re-
 formative methods for young delin-
 quents, and have moved out into the
 country where wholesome air and Gods
 sunshine work miracles in human na-
 ture that were impossible In the
 cramped, prison-like quarters of other
 days, that at their best could not keep
 the little feet from straying on the pavements.
 Perhaps the most famous institu-
 tion of this sort in the country is the
 Children's Village of the New York Juvenile asylum at Dobbs Ferry. Here there are 16 cottages in tract of 300 acres of fields and woodland, and in each cottage 20 children await the com ing of Santa Claus with an interest as keen and wholesome as that in any home In the land. The citizens of this model village range in age from years to IS, two of the cottages being given exclusively to the use of children under 6. The colony now numbers 320 little people, and as fast as funds are obtained for the work, other houses
 will be built, until thousand young sters can be cared for.
 Anything approaching a real Christ mas is new to these children of the streets and slums. Last year some of them were selling papers late into the night, eating a scanty meal bouBslt from a push cart peddler and sleeping in a dirty tenement room or on the sidewalk where a little comfort was to be found by one who curled his
 weary body on the grating over some warm cellarway At the village Christ mas eve will be spent before big open fires in the living rooms of the cot tages, with games, corn popping, laughter and excited anticipation of the morrow. Dawn will find each vil- lager snugly tucked in a small white bed which he has come to call his own, and the rising hour will mark the beginning of round of fun. An entertainment in which the boys take part, and the distribution of presents is sch eduled for the forenoon. After that there is to be genuine, old-fash toned Christmas dinner with turkey and fxins"; and in the afternoon there
 will be more presents for some since friends and relatives have been invited
 to share in the festivities, coming on a
 special train from the city, 20 miles away.
 The visitors, moreover, will not re- turn empty handed, for Rany gifts have been fashioned by the poys work ing spare moments in the trades shops, or have been bought with the merit money 1t is possible for a lad to earn by exemplary conduct. The amount seems small-a cent for perfect con duct and satisfactory progress in studies, but that 1t is given at all is characteristic of the methods of the modern asylum. There are no harsh, repressive methods for forcing boys into a certain mold, but all along the line they are stimulated toward ex- cellence and encouraged to develop in dividuality, to bes happy and healthy, in short, to be just normal children. Punishment is the last resort to be
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