The Dangerous Classes of New York Part 32

1857..........2,450 1859..........2,626 1860..........2,575 1865..........2,347 1869..........2,338 1870..........2,168 1871..........1,978

A decrease in fourteen years of 502, when the natural increase should have brought the number to 2,861.

Of boys under fifteen imprisoned, the record stands thus since the new cla.s.sification:--

1864..........1,965 1865..........1,934 1869..........1,873 1870..........1,625 1871..........1,017

Of males between fifteen and twenty, in our city prisons, the following is the record:--

1857..........2,592 1859..........2,636 1860..........2,207 1861..........2,408 1868..........2,927 1870..........2,876 1871..........2,936

It often happens that youthful criminals are arrested who are not imprisoned. The reports of the Board of Police will give us other indications that, even here, juvenile crime has at length been diminished in its sources.

ARRESTS.

The arrests of pickpockets run thus since 1861, the limit of returns accessible:--

1861............466 1862............300 1865............275 1867............345 1868............348 1869............303 1870............274 1871............313

In ten years a reduction of 153 in the arrests of pickpockets.

In petty larceny the returns stand thus in brief:--

1862..........4,107 1865..........5,240 1867..........5,269 1870..........4,909 1871..........3,912

A decrease in nine years of 195.

Arrests of girls alone, under twenty:--

1863..........3,132 1867..........2,588 1870..........1,993 1871..........1,820

It must be plain from this, that crime among young girls is decidedly checked, and among boys is prevented from increasing with population.

If our readers will refer back to these dry but cheering tables of statistics, they will see what a vast sum of human misery saved is a reduction, in the imprisonment of female vagrants, of more than five thousand in 1871, as compared with 1869. How much homelessness and desperation spared! how much crime and wretchedness diminished are expressed in those simple figures! And, if we may reckon an average of punishment of two months' detention to each of those girls and women, we have one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars saved in one year to the public by preventive agencies in this cla.s.s of offenders alone.

The same considerations, both of economy and humanity, apply to each of the results that appear in these tables of crime and punishment.

No outlay of money for public purposes which any city or its inhabitants can make, repays itself half so well as its expenses for charities which prevent crime among children.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

THE CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE WORK.

In reviewing these long-continued efforts for the prevention of crime and the elevation of the neglected youth of this metropolis, it may aid others engaged in similar enterprises to note in summary the principles on which they have been carried out, and which account for their marked success.

In the first place, as has been so often said, though pre-eminently a Charity, this a.s.sociation has always sought to encourage the principle of Self-help in its beneficiaries, and has aimed much more at promoting this than merely relieving suffering. All its branches, its Industrial Schools, Lodging-houses, and Emigration, aim to make the children of the poor better able to take care of themselves; to give them such a training that they shall be ashamed of begging, and of idle, dependent habits, and to place them where their a.s.sociates are self-respecting and industrious. No inst.i.tution of this Society can be considered as a shelter for the dependent and idle. All its objects of charity work, or are trained to work. The consequence is that this effort brings after it none of the bad fruits of mere alms-giving. The poor do not become poorer or less self-reliant under it; on the contrary, they are continually rising out of their condition and making their own way in the world. The laborer in this field does not feel, as in so many other philanthropic causes, doubtful, after many years of labor, whether he has not done as much injury as good. He sees constantly the wonderful effect of these efforts, and he knows that, at the worst, they can only fail of the best fruit, but certainly cannot have a bad result.

From the commencement our aim has been to put these charitable enterprises in harmony with natural and economic laws, a.s.sured that any other plan of philanthropy must eventually fail. In this view we have taken advantage of the immense demand for labor through our rural districts, which alone gives a new aspect to all economical problems in this country. Through this demand we have been enabled to accomplish our best results, with remarkable economy. We have been saved the vast expense of Asylums, and have put our dest.i.tute children in the child's natural place--with a family. Our Lodging-houses also have avoided the danger attending such places of shelter, of becoming homes for vagrant boys and girls. They have continually pa.s.sed their little subjects along to the country, or to places of work, often forcing them to leave the house. In requiring the small payments for lodging and meals, they put the beneficiaries in an independent position, and check the habits and spirit of pauperism. The Evening School, the Savings-bank, and the Religious Meeting are continually acting on these children to raise them from the vagrant cla.s.s. The Industrial Schools, in like manner, are seminaries of industry and teachers of order and self-help.

All the agencies of the Society act in harmony with natural laws, and touch the deepest springs of life and character. The forces underlying them are the strongest forces of society--Religion, Education, Self-respect, and love of Industry; these are constantly working upon the thousands of poor children under our charge. Thus founded on simple and natural principles, the Society has succeeded, because very earnest men and women have labored in it, and because its organization has been remarkably complete.

The _employes_ have entered into its labors princ.i.p.ally from love of its objects, and then have been retained by a just and liberal treatment on the part of the Trustees, and by each being made responsible for his department, and gaining in the community something of the honor which attends successful work.

A strict system of accountability has been maintained, step by step, from the lowest to the highest executive officer. Of many engaged in the labors of this a.s.sociation, it can be truly said, that no business or commercial house was ever more faithfully and earnestly served, than this charity has been by them. Indeed, some of them have poured forth for it more vitality and energy than they would ever have done for their personal interests. They have toiled day and night, week-days and Sundays, and have been best rewarded by the fruit they have beheld. The aim of the writer, as executive officer, has been to select just the right man for his place, and to make him feel that that is his profession and life-calling. Amid many hundreds thus selected, during twenty years, he can recall but two or three mistaken choices, while many have become almost identified with their labors and position, and have accomplished good not to be measured. His principle has been to show the utmost respect and confidence, but to hold to the strictest accountability. Not a single _employe_, so far as he is aware, in all this time, during his service, has ever wronged the Society or betrayed his trust. One million of dollars has pa.s.sed through the hands of the officers of this a.s.sociation during this period, and it has been publicly testified [See testimony before the Committee on Charities of the Senate of New York, 1871.] by the Treasurer, Mr. J. E. Williams, President of the Metropolitan Bank, that not a dollar, to his knowledge, has ever been misappropriated or squandered.

A most important element of the success of this Charity have been, of course, the character and influence of its Board of Trustees.

It is difficult to speak of these gentlemen without seeming to use the language of compliment; but, in making known to other cities the peculiar organization which has been so successful in this, it must always be remembered what the character of trustees should be, who bear upon their shoulders so important a trust. These men are known through the city and indeed in distant parts of the country, as showing in their lives a profound and conscientious conviction of the responsibility which wealth and ability are under to the community. They are the best representatives of a cla.s.s who are destined to give a new character to our city--men of broad and liberal views on matters of practical religion, full of humanity, sensible and judicious, educated to appreciate culture and art, as well as business, with the true gentleman's sense of self-respect and respect for others, a profound and earnest spirit of piety, and that old Puritan perseverance which causes them not "to turn their hand from the plow," however disagreeable the task before them may be. Such men, when once morally imbued with the needs of a cause, could make it succeed against any odds.

Two or three men of their position, wealth, and ability, who should take the moral interests of any cla.s.s of our population on their hands, and be in earnest in the thing, could not fail to accomplish great results.

When they began to appear in our Board, I felt that, under any sort of judicious management, it was morally certain we should perfect a wide and permanent organization, and secure most encouraging results.

A great service, which has been accomplished by these gentlemen, has been in tabulating our accounts, and putting them under a most thorough system of examination and checking, and in allotting our various branches to each trustee for inspection. Many of the trustees, also, have their religious meetings at the Lodging-houses, which they individually lead and take charge of during the winter. They are thus brought in direct contact with the necessities of the poor children.

To no one, however, is the public so much indebted as to our treasurer, Mr. J. E. Williams.

For nearly twenty years this charity has been the dearest object of his public efforts, the field of his humanity and religion. During all this time he has managed gratuitously the financial affairs of the Society; begged money when we were straitened, and borrowed it when temporarily embarra.s.sed; never for a moment doubting that, if the work were faithfully done, the public would support it. At the end of this period (1872), having spent over a million of dollars, and requiring now some one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars per annum for our various branches, we find ourselves without a dollar of debt.

THE SECTARIAN DANGER.

One rock, which the manager of such a movement must always steer clear of, is the sectarian difficulty. He must ignore sects, and rest his enterprise on the broadest and simplest principles of morality and religion. The animating force must be the religious, especially the "enthusiasm of humanity" shown in the love for Christ, and for all who bear His image. But dogmatic teachings, and disputations, and sectarian ambitions, are to be carefully eschewed and avoided in such efforts of humanity. The public must learn gradually to a.s.sociate the movement, not with any particular sect or church, but with the feeling of humanity and religion--the very spirit of Christ Himself.

An essential thing, and often very disagreeable, to the earnest worker in it, is to give the utmost publicity to all its operations. The reason of this is, that such a charity depends for support and friends, not on an organized private a.s.sociation, but on the whole public. They need to know all its doings; this is often the only way of reminding them of their duty in this field. Moreover, the moneys spent are public trusts, and all that relates to their uses should be publicly known.

Gradually, by publicity, the general community come to have something of the same moral interest in the enterprise, that the special attendants of a church have in its welfare; and it becomes a truly public interest.

To attain this, the press should be the great agency, as well as the pulpit, wherever practicable. Annual reports, designed for all cla.s.ses, wherein there are figures for the statistical, facts for the doubting, incidents for the young, and principles stated for the thoughtful, should be scattered far and wide.

As the organization grows, State-aid should be secured for a portion of its expenses, that a more permanent character may be given it, and it may not be suddenly too much crippled by a business depression or disaster.

Of the modes in which money should be raised, I have already spoken. In all these matters, the general rule of wisdom is to avoid "sensation,"

and to trust to the settled and reasonable conviction of the public, rather than to temporary feeling or excitement.

Founded on such principles, and guided by men of this character and ability, and by those of similar purposes who shall come after them, there seems no good reason why this extended Charity should not scatter its blessings for generations to come throughout this ever-increasing metropolis.

To those now serving in it, no thought can be sweeter, when their "change of guard" comes, than that the humble organization of humanity and Christian kindness, which, amid many labors and sacrifices, they aided to found, will spread good-will and intelligence and relief and religious light to the children of the unfortunate and the needy, long years after even their names are forgotten; and for monument or record of their work, they cannot ask for more enduring than young lives redeemed from crime and misery, and young hearts purified and enn.o.bled by CHRIST, and many orphans' tears wiped away, and wounds of the lonely and despairing "little ones" of the world healed through instrumentalities which they a.s.sisted to plant, and which shall continue when they are long gone.

END.