Part 7 (1/2)

”But he wanted a boy who could write a good hand.”

Their countenances fell.

”Well, now, suppose we have a night-school, and learn to write--what do you say, boys?”.

”Agreed, sir.”

And so arose our evening-school.

The Sunday Meeting, which is now an ”inst.i.tution,” was entered upon in a similarly discreet manner. The lads had been impressed by a public funeral, and Mr. Tracy suggested their listening to a little reading from the Bible. They consented, and were a good deal surprised at what they heard. The ”Golden Rule” struck them as an altogether impossible kind of precept to obey, especially when one was ”stuck and short,” and ”had to live.” The marvels of the Bible--the stories of miracles and the like--always seemed to them natural and proper. That a Being of such a character as Christ should control Nature and disease, was appropriate to their minds. And it was a kind of comfort to these young vagabonds that the Son of G.o.d was so often homeless, and that he belonged humanly to the working cla.s.ses. The pet.i.tion for ”daily bread” (which a celebrated divine has declared ”unsuited to modern conditions of civilization”) they always rolled out with a peculiar unction. I think that the conception of a Superior Being, who knew just the sort of privations and temptations that followed them, and who felt especially for the poorer cla.s.ses, who was always near them, and pleased at true manhood in them, did keep afterward a considerable number of them from lying and stealing and cheating and vile pleasures.

Their singing was generally prepared for by taking off their coats and rolling up their sleeves, and was entered into with a gusto.

The voices seemed sometimes to come from a different part of their natures from what we saw with the bodily eyes. There was, now and then, a gentle and minor key, as if a glimpse of something purer and higher pa.s.sed through these rough lads. A favorite song was, ”There's a Rest for the Weary,” though more untiring youngsters than these never frisked over the earth; and ”There's a light in the Window for Thee, Brother,”

always pleased them, as if they imagined themselves wandering alone through a great city at night, and at length a friendly light shone in the window for them.

Their especial vice of money-wasting the Superintendent broke up by opening a Savings-bank, and allowing the boys to vote how long it should be closed. The small daily deposits acc.u.mulated to such a degree that the opening gave them a great surprise at the amounts which they possessed, and they began to feel thus the ”sense of property,” and the desire of acc.u.mulation, which economists tell us, is the base of all civilization. A liberal interest was also soon allowed on deposits, which stimulated the good habit. At present, from two hundred to three hundred dollars will often be saved by the lads in a month.

The same device, and constant instruction, broke up gambling, though I think policy-tickets were never fairly undermined among them.

The present Superintendent and Matron of the Newsboys' Lodging-house, Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor (at Nos. 49 and 51 Park Place), are unsurpa.s.sed in such inst.i.tutions in their discipline, order, good management, and excellent housekeeping. The floors, over which two hundred or two hundred and fifty street-boys tread daily, are as clean as a man-of-war's deck. The Sunday-evening meetings are as attentive and orderly as a church, the week-evening school quiet and studious. All that ma.s.s of wild young humanity is kept in perfect order, and brought under a thousand good influences.

The Superintendent has had a very good preliminary experience for this work in the military service--having been in the British army in the Crimea. The discipline which he maintains is excellent. He is a man, too, of remarkable generosity of feeling, and a good ”provider.” One always knows that his boys will have enough to eat, and that everything will be managed liberally--and justly. It is truly remarkable during how many years he controlled that great mult.i.tude of little vagabonds and ”roughs,” and yet with scarcely ever even a complaint from any source against him. For such success is needed the utmost kindness, and, at the same time, the strictest justice. His wife has been almost like a mother to the boys.

In the course of a year the population of a town pa.s.ses through the Lodging-house--in 1869 and '70, _eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-five_ different boys. Many are put in good homes; some find places for themselves; others drift away--no one knows whither. They are an army of orphans--regiments of children who have not a home or friend--a mult.i.tude of little street-rovers who have no place where to lay their heads. They are being educated in the streets rapidly to be thieves and burglars and criminals. The Lodging-house is at once school, church, intelligence-office, and hotel for them. Here they are shaped to be honest and industrious citizens; here taught economy, good order, cleanliness, and morality; here Religion brings its powerful influences to bear upon them; and they are sent forth to begin courses of honest livelihood.

The Lodging-houses repay their expenses to the public ten times over each year, in preventing the growth of thieves and criminals. They are agencies of pure humanity and almost unmingled good. Their only possible reproach could be, that some of their wild subjects are soon beyond their reach, and have been too deeply tainted with the vices of street-life to be touched even by kindness, education, or religion. The number who are saved, however, are most encouragingly large.

The Newsboys' Lodging-house is by no means, however, an entire burden on the charity of the community. During 1870 the lads themselves paid $3,349 toward its expense.

The following is a brief description of the rooms during the past five years:

The first floor is divided into various compartments--a large dining-room, where one hundred and fifty boys can sit down to a table; a kitchen, laundry, storeroom, servants' room, and rooms for the family of the superintendent The next story is part.i.tioned into a school-room, gymnasium, and bath and wash rooms, plentifully supplied with hot and cold water. The hot water and the heat of the rooms are supplied by a steam-boiler on the lower story. The two upper stories are filled with neat iron bedsteads, having two beds each, arranged like s.h.i.+ps' bunks over each other; of these there are two hundred and sixty. Here are also the water-vats, into which the many barrelsful used daily are pumped by the engine. The rooms are high and dry, and the floors clean.

It is a commentary on the housekeeping and accommodations that for eighteen years no case of contagious disease has ever occurred among these thousands of boys.

The New York Newsboys' Lodging-house has been in existence eighteen years. During these years it has lodged 91,326 different boys, restored 7,278 boys to friends, provided 5,126 with homes, furnished 576,485 lodgings and 469,461 meals. The expense of all this has been $132,888.

Of this amount the boys have contributed $32,306.

That the Lodging-house has had a vigorous growth, is shown by the following table:

TABULAR STATEMENT SINCE ORGANIZATION

========================================================

Return-

YEAR

No. of

No. of

No. of

ed to

Boys.

Lodgings.

Meals.

friends.

-------------------------------------------------------- 1854 to 1855..

408

6,872

........

.......

1855 to 1856..

374

7,599

........

.......

1856 to 1857..

387

5,157

........

.......

1857 to 1858..

800

8,026

11,923

.......

1858 to 1859..

3,000

14,000

13,114

.......

1859 to 1860..

4,500

19,747

13,341

100

1860 to 1861..

4,000

27,390

16,873

247

1861 to 1862..

3,875

32,954

19,809

.......

1862 to 1863..

3,000

29,409

20,000

396

1863 to 1864..

6,325

36,572

25,506

437

1864 to 1865..

6,793

42,446

30,137

576

1865 to 1866..

7,256

43,797

32,867

633

1866 to 1867..

8,192

49,519

33,633

719

1867 to 1868..

8,599

51,740

35,617

819

1868 to 1869..

8,944

53,610

54,092

896

1869 9 months.

7,383

39,077

33,207

642

1869 to 1870..

8,655

55,565

56,128

713

1870 to 1871..

8,835

53,005

53,214

1,100

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