Arizona republican., 1908-07-05
CITY BOYS HELPED
 BY THE COUNTRY
Waifs From New Works East Side Who Never Have Seen Trees or Grass Growing Turn With Enthu siasm to Farm Work.

New York, June 26.-(Special Cor
 respondence of The Republican.)- Jon a big farm a few miles up the Hud-
 son from this city three hundred boys
 from New York's crowded East Side
 are busily engaged In the various occupations usual to farm life at this
 season. hoeing corn and potatoes, lweeding garden, tending sheep and feeding pigs and chickens Many of
 them never saw a tree or a blade
 of grass growing except inside an
 iron fence until a few months ago. fThey are the youngsters who far
 various petty offenses have been
 committed to the New York Juvenile | asylum and have been sent to the
 big country establishment known as
 the Childrens Village, which the big
 asylum maintains near Dobbs' Ferry,
 about twenty miles from the city
 The success of the experiment, the
 enthusiasm with which. these children
 l of the streets and tenements have
 taken to country pursuits indicates
 that the very best way to give a fair
 chance in life to the boy who has
 been deprived of it in crowded and
 unhealthful city surroundings is to
 
 gains strength and independence, learns to do useful things and gets | rid of the warped view of life, and
 conduct that he has gained in his undesirable earlier surroundings. It | is a remedy that is extremely well | liked by the boys themselves for no other feature of the children's vil- lage has proved so popular as the | farm life and work.
 It. is customary for parents whose
 children have been committed to the Children's Village to make applica- tion for their release at the eXpira-
 ton of a boys time" Not long ago the committee on discharge received
 one such application and was sur prised to not that with it came a hesitating request that Willie" be allowed to remain at the Village be- cause he was sA anxious to see the lambs grow up. The Willie in ques- ton had been early appointed one of the shepherds who take turns in lwatching over the Village flock. The request was granted and the boy stayed on to watch the growth of the lambs quite unconscious" to quote Superintendent Hilles. that the larger growth had been in himself" One other instance will serve to show the value of this detail in the Iasylum's plan, for reforming boys by placing them amid surroundings free from the distracting and unnatural excitement supplied by the city. Shortly after the asylum had taken possession of its Chauncey home a small, fair haired boy applied for the place of shepherd. Every morning thereafter he tended his sheep upon the big village green facing the school house, where in the afternoon he studied. One day an English visitor Iattracted by the boys very evident interest in his charges gave him a quarter. This the lad turned into the .Office where each boy has a bank account, made possible by a system of discipline which enables the wards of the asylum to earn each day a Small sum of money by good behav- for. A few days after the episode of the quarter, the shepherd wrote a letter to the superintendent's office suggesting the advisability of using the twenty-five cents to provide him. self with a shepherds crook. At what period in this waifs career in the swarming streets and alleys of New York he had heard of a shep- herd or a shepherds crook it would be hard to say, but the impHtant point is that the boy was happy in his new vocation, guarding his sheep with an instinctive gentleness which means of just this sort were required to bring out and develop. In this .F -E, f,.a.> medium through which the vital per sonal interest was aroused that is necessary before a boy undergoing the process of reform can be ex- pected to develop a great deal of in the acquisition of use | full knowledge in the school, the in I dustrial shops or the farm with which . the Village is equipped.
 Here Is the idea in a nutshell as . given by MT. Mornay Williams. presi- dent of the Juvenile Asylum and . friend of every boy in it. He says: The street boy needs the open air, | the warm breath of nature on his | cheek the subtle teachings of the changing seasons, the new compan- ionship of wild and tanned animals, and by them he grows into a well | manhood" So the Children's | Village Is provided with sheep. pigs, | cows, horses and chickens. By na- ture in the first instance and later by intention, the site of the Village | has been fashioned to be one of the | most beautiful tracts along the Hud- son, diversified as it is by hill and | dale, by wood and field with just a | glint of the river here and there from | the windows of the sixteen cottages | and from various vantage points | about the place. II
 As in the case with the sheep so the piggery is a source of constant | interest to city boys and is a diver sion which aids in eliminating the memory of unwholesOme days when | instead of being in constant touch | with nature the boy was a part of | the life of vice ana crime, of fetid tenement house existence and condi- tions generally prejudicial to right | mental and moral growth and phy- | sical development. That one boy | brought with him a memory of the | city, of an exhibition somewhere in his former haunts of an animal | show, was evidenced not long ago at | the Village. The boy displayed an unusual interest in the pigs, spend ing much of his playtime at the