Year: 1879

Turn the City Hospital Into .


House Of Refuge.


Several times lately little boys hav'


been sent over to New Castle jail as


punishment for bad behavior, because


there is no other place they could bt


sent in Delaware for reformation


Only yesterday morning a little boy


about fourteen years of age, who had


the misfortune to lose leg by an


accident, in charge of a county consta-


BILE went hobbling along past our Office


on his way to New Castle Jail, because


he could not raise four dollars to pay


fine and costs for having at various
times insulted and annoyed an old gen


tleman living in Browntown, and also


because he could not get anybody to 60
on a bail bond for ose hundred dollars
that he would keep the peace. We are
not complaining that either the justice


or the constable did more or less than


their duty in this case, though from the


pitiful meanings and bewailings of the


boy as he passed along, it could not fail to
create sympathy in his behalf, and a
feeling Of disgust for officials who would
send boy like that to Jail where he
could scarcely fail by bad associations
to become more degraded and vicious
than he ever was before. In the case
alluded to our sympathies we're decid-
edly in favor of the boy until We made
m investigation Of the matter and found
that though young in years the boy
was already old in crime, and that it
was by the special request of his
parents that ..he was sent to Jail,
having become such an outlaw and
intolerable pest to society that he was
its constant foe, and they could do moth
ing more for him in the way Of reforma-
tion. Well, we thought, Is it possible
that parents who have boy right un-
der their eyes all the time, as was the
case in this instance, can bs so remiss in
the training Of their children that they
are allowed to tecome pests of socie-
ty? We cannot tbelieve that parents
have done their whole duty, no matter
what moralists may say upon the sub
ject, whose children are allowed to be-
come such nuisances that instead of
being sent to the public schools they
have to be sent to the county jail. How
ever it is not for US to discuss in this
article the question of who is response
BILE tor the doings of this bad boy. 1t
is enough for US to know at present that
there are not only one or two, but great
numbers of such boys at large in the
city of Wilmington without any pa
rental restraint whatever and If they
were all imprisoned for term the
peace and good order of society would
for the time be vastly improved. The
question is, what can be done to re-
form these bad boys' They are young
in years at least, and had they the
home training they should have, they
would no doubt develop some good
traits OF chararter that might lead to a
reformation, or that might prevent them
from plungng headlong deeper into
vice and crime. But what shall We do
with them Sending them to jail to
mingle with other hardened criminals
will never reform turm, and reforma-
tion more than punishment should be
the obj-cts of all our avs.


Unfortunately here IN Delaware there
is not n single rrformatory institution
provided by the State for the purpose
of making people better. There is no
reform school, no house OF refuge nor of
no Magdalen asylums, no
institutions for the blind, the weak, the
tottering in intellect, nothing whatever
for the protection of society but the
stern mandate of law, the Jail for Grim
inals and the Aims House for the poor.
The need of house of refuge for ncor-
rigible children has been felt for many
years, and what people need now more
than anything else of reformatory
character outside of the enforcement of
The license laws, is a place where bad
boys such as have been the subject of
this article, can be sent for the double
purpose of affording protection to socie-
ty and of reforming the boys. In order
% do this, why cannot the City Hospital,
which has become entirely useless ex-
,ept as rendezvous for politicians, be
converted into reformatory school
where bad boys and even girls, can :
be sent for the purpose of being
instead of being sent to
all as criminals ? The building is '
admirably adapted to that purpose,
md we do sincerely hope that as the
Ibolit on of the City Hospital is in con-
emplation by the City Council, that
,ody will make it present to the
tate, to be used as reform school, '
Nh 10 of o,urca coppot no don. ot on.. 1