An organization has recently been effected in the city of New York,
under the title of the “Children’s Aid Society,” the
object of which is “to bring humane and kindly influences to bear
on homeless boys—to preach in various modes the Gospel of
Christ to the vagrant children of New York.”
As an evidence of the need of some such agency, it is stated
that in one Ward alone (the eleventh) there were in 1852, out of
12,000 children between the ages of five and sixteen, only 7,000
who attended school, and only 2,500 who went to Sunday-school,
leaving 5,000 without the common privileges of education, and about
9,000 destitute of public religious influence!
The views of the founders of this charity are summarily
presented in a circular as follows:
Page 99
A large multitude of children live in the city who cannot be
placed in asylums, and yet who are uncared for and ignorant and
vagrant. We propose to give to these work, and to bring them under
religious influences. A central office has been taken, and an
agent, (Charles L. Brace,) has been engaged to give his whole time
to efforts for relieving the wants of this class. As means shall
come in, it is designed to district the city, so that hereafter
every Ward may have its agent, who shall be a friend to the vagrant
child. “Boys’ Sunday Meetings” have already been formed, which we
hope to see extended until every quarter has its place of preaching
to boys. With these we intend to connect “Industrial Schools,”
where the great temptations to this class, arising from want of
work, may be removed, and where they can learn an honest trade.
Arrangements have been made with manufacturers, by which, if we
have the requisite funds to begin, five hundred boys, in
different localities, can be supplied with paying work. We hope
too, especially to be the means of draining the city of these
children, by communicating with farmers, manufacturers or families
in the country, who may have need of such for employment. When
homeless boys are found by our agents, we mean to get them homes in
the families of respectable, needy persons in the city, and to put
them into the way of an honest living.
It has been stated, in the public prints, that of 16,000
commitments for crime to the prisons of New York during the year,
at least one-fourth were minors, and it is estimated that not less
than 10,000 children in the city are daily suffering all the evils
of vagrancy.
We have had occasion more than once to refer, in terms of high
commendation, to the New York City organization for the relief
of the poor, corresponding in its main features to our Union
Benevolent Association. We regret to notice very loud and frequent
complaints of the continuance and increase of street-begging,
notwithstanding the laudable exertions of the Society. A leading
city newspaper has said within a week or two, that upwards of
a half million of dollars is annually spent by the
authorities and various societies, in the way of charity, “yet
our streets are thronged with beggars of all descriptions, and
particularly the avenues and streets up town, in almost any of
which, upon an average you can see from thirty to fifty going
from house to house, to the excessive annoyance of families, who
are often abused and insulted by them, because you do not meet
their demands. In fact it has become a nuisance of the worst
magnitude.”
There is much reason to apprehend that such nuisances must work
their own abatement. If our authorities were strong enough and
independent enough, to lay hold of the boys and
girls who constitute the materials from which street-beggars
are manufactured, and compel them (as a matter of public safety)
to submit to the discipline of an educational and industrial
school, it would make a bright opening in the prospect. Or, if
every man, woman and child who is found begging in the street, were
transferred at once to some charitable institution, (if they have
infirmities which prevent them from labor,) or to some working
institution, (if they are able-bodied,) and there put to some
wholesome labor in exchange for their sustenance and clothing, we
should not be without hope. But we see no way of suppressing the
evil, if neither of these methods is feasible.
Page 100
We have seen only newspaper reports of the proceedings at the
eighth anniversary of this active and very useful Association. We
understand that their condemnation of the yoke and the shower, as
modes of punishment, is very emphatic and unqualified, and among
the interesting facts which are drawn from their report, we select
the following:—
In the city of New York, since 1848, disorderly conduct (in
almost every instance the result of strong drink) has steadily
increased from 703 to 2,660, or 278 per cent.; intoxication has
increased about 75 per cent., and the two together from 5,579 to
11,280. By a comparison of the prison statistics for the last five
years, it appears that crimes against property have increased
only about 50 per cent.; but that crimes against the person have
increased 129 per cent., or from 1,300 in 1843 to 2,920 in 1852.
The increase has been the greatest in the highest crimes. Thus
we find assaults to kill were 25 in 1848, and 39, 59, 61 and 75 in
1852, or three-fold. Manslaughter, in 1848, was 3, and then 4, 16,
11 in 1852, almost four-fold. Murder in 1848 was 9, and 9, 15, 21
and 56 in 1852, or more than six-fold.
Ninety per cent. of the whole number committed to this prison
during the past year, were intemperate! The returns of sixteen
State Prisons, for the year 1851, give us a grand total of 4,507
prisoners, 3,006 of whom were imprisoned for offences against
property, and 784 against the person.
It is stated that there is a greater number of cases of bigamy
and perjury in the State of New York, than in all the other fifteen
States; there being twenty-one cases of bigamy in New York, and
only fifteen in the other States; and seventeen cases of perjury to
three in all the other States.
The average period of confinement in Connecticut is six years,
seven months, twenty-nine days; and in the Eastern Penitentiary
of Pennsylvania it is only two years, six months and three
days.
The report of the State Penitentiaries of New York bear date
December 1, and show that 129 more convicts were in custody at
that time than in December, 1851. Of 1843, the whole number in
confinement, 924 were at Sing Sing, 752 at Auburn and 167 at
Clinton. One hundred and forty-three pardons were granted, or
about 1 in every 12 convictions! The expenses of all the prisons
exceeded the earnings by several thousands of dollars, showing the
fallacy of the argument so potent with most Legislatures, that by
associating prisoners in labor they become a source of profit,
while separating them involves great expense. The Clinton prison
is going largely into the iron business and wants more hands. We
would respectfully suggest, whether there are not many persons
at large in New York, and some quite considerable in importance
and respectable in appearance, too, who would find appropriate
employment there.
There has been some increase in the frequency of punishments by
the yoke, the shower bath, the ball and chain, and solitude.
Of 613 commitments, two-thirds confessed intemperate habits.
How many of the rest were moderate drinkers does not appear. The
average degree of education in the convicts received is less than
in some former reports.
Idiots in New York.—There are
two thousand eight hundred idiots in the State of New York. The
report of the superintendent of the Idiot Asylum, near Albany,
contains the following interesting passage:—“We have taught
a child to walk when we had first to awaken or cultivate a fear
of falling, as an incentive to any efforts on her part. We have
awakened perceptions of sounds in ears where the sense of hearing
resided without the use of it. We have developed perceptions of
sight through eyes that had never performed their appropriate
office. We have been teaching children to speak in every stage of
articulation. Cases that three years since only promised to be
hopeless, helpless burdens to their friends all their lives, have
been elevated to the rank of happy, useful members of society.
In almost all cases, and with very few, if any exceptions, those
usually called idiots, under the age of twelve or fifteen, may be
so trained and instructed as to render them useful to themselves,
and fitted to learn some of the ordinary trades, or to engage in
agriculture. Their minds and souls can be developed, so that they
may become responsible beings, acquainted with their relations to
their Creator and a future state, and their obligations to obey
the laws and respect the rights of their fellow-citizens. In all
cases, we believe, for we have seen what has been accomplished
in apparently desperate cases, they can be made cleanly and neat
in their personal habits, and enabled to enjoy the bounties
of Providence and the Comforts of life, and to cease being
incumbrances and annoyances to the families in which they reside.”
A friend tells us of a case in which a young girl of
considerable personal attraction, was rescued from impending
danger. Her mother was a widow with very scanty means of support.
This girl had a taste for, and some skill in music. Had been at
the public schools, and could read and write with facility, and
was indeed respectably educated for one in her station. Her mother
had determined to take boarders, and to give an air of gentility
to her house, she had also made arrangements to hire a piano. The
introduction of the class of boarders which the mother expected,
would have exposed the child to great danger. A Christian friend
saw this, and by timely and judicious efforts succeeded in securing
for her a situation where she would be protected and prepared for
usefulness, and for gaining a respectable livelihood.
How much more hopeful such simple preventive measures are, than
those which (though equally well meant) come later, and are at best
but remedial in their character.
We notice in the proceedings of the Legislature of Massachusetts
that it is proposed to build a new State Prison. It is but a year
or two since the Charlestown prison was greatly enlarged, so as to
meet what was supposed to be the demand for convict-accommodation.
It is earnestly to be hoped, that if a new prison should be erected
in that State, the principle of separation will be adopted. If the
two systems could be once fairly tried in the actual presence of
the people of that ancient and intelligent Commonwealth, we should
have strong confidence that the groundless prejudices against
convict-separation would disappear, and that her example would be
set as effectually for the furtherance of correct views on the
important subject of prison discipline, as it has heretofore been
cited for the furtherance of misapprehension and error.
The earnings of the inmates of the Charlestown State Prison, for the year
ending September 30th, 1852, were $6,921.17 over expenses. Of the
inmates, 313 are Americans, 170 foreigners, 35 negroes and 12 mulattoes.
We have known a succession of annual reports of State prisons to
be published, in which the earnings of the convicts, over and above
the expenditures were quite “showy,” but by and by came a change
in the administration, and a balance appears against the concern,
sufficient to swallow up all the previously reported excess of
earnings. Each report of a favorable year made its impression on
the public mind, and hundreds of thousands who were misled by it,
will never see a notice of the detection of the error,—to
use no harsher term. We do not mean to intimate that there is any
reason to distrust the foregoing item, but simply to admonish the
reader that such statements are always to be taken with many grains
of allowance.
We understand that this institution is leased for a term of
years to a person, who allows the State a certain sum for the labor
of the convicts, &c. The report before us embraces the years
1851 and 1852. On the first of January, 1851, the prison contained
170 convicts. Since that time 38 have died, 41 have been pardoned,
1 has escaped, and 168 have been discharged by expiration of
sentence—making the whole number discharged within the past
two years, 248. During the same period, 295 have been received, and
the whole number now in confinement is 207. Fourteen only were born
in the State of Illinois!
The Legislature of New Hampshire at its last June session, received
a report from a Board of Commissioners for the establishment of a
State Reform School, to be located in the town of Concord, the cost
not to exceed $35,000, and to be planned for the accommodation of
300 boys, but finished at present for 120. An eligible site has
been obtained, and we hope soon to hear that the institution is
conferring wide and lasting benefits upon the community.
At the Somersetshire Sessions, held lately at Wells, England, an
interesting discussion took place on the subject of the punishment
and reformation of juvenile offenders. The subject was brought
before the Court by the reading of a circular, in which the
magistrates were called upon to adopt a memorial to the Marquis
of Lansdowne on this important subject. Mr. Lloyd Baker said he
had had the subject under his consideration for the last fifteen
years, and he laid before the Court statistics referring to the
criminal career of a number of youths at that moment confined in
the Gloucester County Prison, showing that they had been, most
of them, previously convicted once or twice; that this kind of
punishment, instead of having a moral effect upon them, appeared
only to have hardened them in crime by their coming in contact with
other bad adult characters, and that their trial and imprisonment
had cost the county from $75 to $100 a-piece. His argument was in
favor of an entirely new system of juvenile reformation. He was
followed by other magistrates, who spoke of the course imposed
upon them, to sentence mere children to confinement in a prison,
as a most unsatisfactory one. There was no moral effect in such
punishments, but, on the contrary, the effect was to break down
the first barrier to crime, and it was found that the shame of
imprisonment was overcome. One of them expressed an opinion that
what was wanted was a public receptacle for offenders of this
class who were not properly “prisoners,” but unfortunate individuals
who, by neglect of their parents, had been led into error. He did
not see why it should not be made compulsory upon such parents
who so neglected their offspring as to lead them to crime, to
contribute towards their support in such an establishment, in the
same manner as a runaway parent was called upon to contribute to
the support of his family. The discussion ended in the adoption
of a memorial, which was signed by all the magistrates present,
expressing their conviction, that the present mode of treating
and disposing of juvenile offenders was most inefficient and
unsatisfactory.
In a case of assault brought before a police-court, a most
extraordinary character appeared as a witness. The man is by
profession a thorough subterranean rat-catcher, for the supply
of those who keep sporting dogs. One-half of his life is spent
in quest of prey from the whole range of the sewerage of London.
Furnished with a bull’s eye lantern, a good-sized folding trap, and
a short rake, he enters the main sewer, at the foot of Blackfriar’s
Bridge, and pursues his dangerous avocation, waist-deep in mud
and filth of every description. The sewers literally swarm with
rats, which he catches by hand, and places them in his cage as
easy as if they were young kittens. His underground journeys
extend for miles. He has been under Newgate, and along Cheapside
to the Mansion House. He has traversed from Holborn to Islington,
closely inspecting all the passages that enter the grand sewer of
the mighty metropolis. On one occasion, an obstruction occurred to
a drain at the foot of Holborn Hill. Terms were speedily agreed
upon, and our subterranean explorer started off to the foot of
Blackfriar’s Bridge, and in half an hour his voice was heard down
the gully-hole; he speedily cleared away the obstruction, and
received his reward, thus saving the expense of breaking up the
roadway. It is not, however, to the rats alone that he pays his
attention; he frequently falls in with a rich prize, particularly
in the City sewers. On one occasion he found a silk purse,
containing gold and silver; on another a gold watch and seals,
numbers of silver spoons, rings and other articles of value. He
has been three times attacked with the typhus fever, but rapidly
recovered on each occasion.
A London paper tells us, that Mr. Bedford, the coroner for
Westminster, held an inquest lately in Millbank Penitentiary,
touching the death of Thomas Wilkinson, a convict, aged nineteen
years, a clothdresser, who was found one Sunday morning lying dead
and bleeding on the floor of his cell, having cut his throat with
a razor which was given him to shave, during the momentary
absence of the warder in charge. From the question of convict
prison discipline having recently been slightly agitated in the
public journals, the separate system was inquired into by the
coroner, who asked Dr. Baily if he could throw any light on the
case, to guide the jury as to the cause of the act. Dr. Baily
thought that it was brooding over the length of his sentence, and
stated further that, during eighteen years, in that prison, from
1824 to 1842, with an average of 454 prisoners, only three had
committed suicide, but then their sentences were only two, three or
four years. Again, in the ten years as a convict prison, from 1843
to 1853, there had been thirteen suicides. So that he thought it
was more the length of the sentences than the separate confinement,
although he must own that the latter would accelerate or aggravate
any disease which might be on a prisoner, and also tend to suicide,
by giving them an opportunity when they would be brooding over
a long prospect of imprisonment. The jury returned a verdict to
the effect that the deceased destroyed himself during a state of
temporary insanity, brought on by the separate system!
We have put a few words in italics to mark the absurdity
of such a verdict. (1.) No evidence of insanity is stated,
except that which the fatal act furnishes. (2.)
As favorable an opportunity is offered, during half of every
twenty-four hours in a congregate, as in a separate prison. (3.)
If it is brooding over an unusually long sentence that produces
suicidal insanity, the verdict should be, that the deceased
destroyed himself during a state of temporary insanity, brought on
by a mistake of the law or of its administrators!
It is our painful duty to record three deliberate and atrocious
murders committed within the bounds of the city of Philadelphia
since our last issue.
The first was committed in broad day, in one of the most frequented
parts of the city, upon a man in his own store, and was attended
with circumstances of ferocity rarely equalled. The perpetrator of
the deed has not been discovered.
The second was the wanton butchery of an unoffending man,
apparently without any motive, except the indulgence of a
blood-thirsty malevolence.
The third was committed upon two unprotected females, and with a
ferocity of which we should hope few human beings are susceptible,
even in their most savage state. The only apparent motive for the
cruel and dastardly deed was a pittance of money. How far the
wretched monster on whom the guilt of this double murder has been
fixed by the law and the testimony, may have been implicated in
other deeds of blood ascribed to him by popular rumor, it is not
for us to say, but we suppose there is no doubt that he was not
long since a convict in the State Penitentiary at Sing Sing, N. Y.,
and was pardoned by the Executive of that State!
How much of his term of punishment was abridged by this
interposition of extraordinary clemency, we are not informed; but
if the full execution of his sentence would have carried the period
of his confinement beyond the 10th of March, 1853, it is clear
that the abridgment of it opened the way for the terrible deed
which we have now recorded. And are we not justified in holding
the pardoning power responsible, in
foro conscientiæ, at least, for the consequences of taking
a convict out of the hands of the ministers of justice, while he
is undergoing wholesome discipline by their order, and sending him
back into the community as one whose punishment was greater than
he deserved? Who knows but that an ill-judged interposition of
Executive power may sometimes breed a contempt for public authority,
and stimulate a reckless convict to more audacious violations of law!
This institution is located in Fulton. It was opened a year since,
and has received 70 patients. There are 460 acres of land attached
to it, 30 of which are under culture. Dr. T. R. H. Smith is the
principal physician.
On the 20th of December there were 232 convicts in custody, of whom
146 were from the county of St. Louis. Of the countries of their
nativity, Ireland furnishes the largest number, and Germany the
next largest. Of the States of the Union, Pennsylvania furnishes
the largest number. We are happy to learn that the physician is a
decided advocate of convict-separation.
Page 105
IT IS SAID,
(AND WE PRESUME ON GOOD AUTHORITY,)
-
—That, on the 12th of November
last, notice was given in the British House of Commons of a bill
for the codification of the criminal laws.
-
—That, in the Massachusetts
Legislature, the Committee on Prisons have reported against
allowing the families of convicts a portion of their earnings.
-
—That, the London Society for
improving the condition of the Insane, have offered a premium of
twenty guineas for the best essay that shall be presented, showing
the progressive changes since Pinel’s time in the moral management
of the Insane, and the various contrivances to dispense with
mechanical restraints.
-
—That, the Emperor of France
has decided, that out of ten millions of francs appropriated to
the improvement of the lodging-houses of the laboring classes,
three millions shall be put at the disposal of the Minister of the
Interior to procure plans!
-
—That, the inmates of the
Cincinnati House of Refuge are 235, and that the number of juvenile
culprits at large is fearfully increasing.
-
—That, the three State prisons
of New York, (containing 1783 convicts, of whom only 80 are
females,) will require a considerable sum beyond their earnings
for their support, viz.: for the Auburn prison, $14,000; for the
Sing Sing Prison, $7,000; for the Clinton Prison, $27,000. Yet the
Clinton Prison is not regarded as an unsuccessful experiment!
We hope this important fact will be known to the Missouri
Legislature before they determine to adopt the congregate system,
on the ground of its economy. “As a general thing,” says the
report of a commissioner of Missouri on that subject, “the prisons
employing this” (the associate system) “support themselves.” It is
wise to look before we leap.
-
—That, very favorable
commencement has been made in the establishment of an institution
in or near Philadelphia, for the instruction of idiots and
feeble-minded children.
-
—That, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum
at Jacksonville, Ill., admitted during its last term 100 pupils, 94
of whom were from within the State. The whole number of mutes in
the State is estimated at 500.
-
—That, the Illinois Asylum for
the Blind has in it 25 pupils. The whole number of the blind in the
State is estimated at only 60. A building is nearly ready for their
accommodation.
-
—That, the Illinois State
Lunatic Asylum admitted during the year 138 patients, of whom 38
were restored to sanity, 50 were discharged, and 82 remain under
treatment.
-
—That, the rite of
confirmation, as observed in the Established Church of England,
was lately administered by the Bishop of Manchester to 28 prisoners
in the gaol in that town, varying in age from 14 to 55 years. The
whole scene is represented as having been very impressive.
-
—That, the number of idiots in
the State of New York is not less than 2,800, of whom one-fourth
are under 14 years of age. There are 42 pupils in the State
institution for idiots, 30 of whom are supported by the State. The
trustees recommend the purchase of a building having accommodations
for 100 pupils, of whom 64, (eight from each judicial district,)
it is proposed to support at the expense of the State; and the
remaining 36, by friends. The estimated cost of a suitable building
is $20,000; and the annual appropriation necessary to maintain the
establishment will be $10,000.
-
—That, a new organization
of the police of New York contemplates the total release of the
policemen from all political influence, as it provides that they
shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall only be
removed for neglect of duty or the violation of police regulations.
That the Chief of Police shall be appointed by the Mayor, with the
approval of the Board of Aldermen, and not the Common Council, as
has been the law hitherto; that every policeman appointed must be a
citizen of the United States, and a resident of the ward for which
he has been nominated. He must also present to the Mayor, with his
certificate of nomination, another, signed by twenty-five reputable
citizens, two-thirds of whom must reside in the ward at the time of
signing the certificate, certifying that they have been personally
acquainted with him five years last past, and that during that time
he has borne a good character for honesty, morality and sobriety.
He must also present to the Mayor a certificate from the Chief of
Police, certifying that the said applicant can read with ease, and
write legibly the English language, that he well understands the
first four rules of arithmetic, and that he is a proper person to
appoint to said office.
These rules if faithfully observed, would probably exclude some
of the present incumbents in most of our cities.
-
—That, the whole number of
convicts in the Illinois Penitentiary is 227, and the whole expense
of conveying convicts from the counties in the State to the
penitentiary, is $14,990.05! The Governor thinks it unwise to have
a very large number of convicts congregated in one prison, and he
submits to the consideration of the Legislature, whether the public
interest in regard to this subject would not be better subserved by
building another penitentiary, to be located at some eligible point
in the northern part of the State.
We hope one of them, at least, will be established on the
Pennsylvania system.
-
—That, a little ragged urchin,
begging in the streets of Detroit, was asked by the lady of the
house (where his baskets had been well replenished,) if his parents
were living? “Only dad, marm,” said the boy. “Then you’ve enough in
your basket now, to feed the family for some time,” said the lady.
“Oh! no I haven’t neither,” said the lad, “for dad and me keeps
five boarders; he does the housework, and I does the market’n.”
Page 107
-
—That, a new edifice for the New
York Deaf and Dumb Institution is to be built, the present location
having been rendered ineligible for such a purpose, by the opening
of new thoroughfares. The site selected is in the vicinity of Fort
Washington, near the line of the Hudson River Rail-road, and the
cost of the site and building is estimated at $120,000.
-
—That, on the 1st day of January
the population of the New York City Almshouse was 5557; out-of-door
paupers, 1332; total, 6909—sufficient to stock a large
village.
-
—That, the practice prevails among
certain of the magistrates of the county of Philadelphia, (names
not given,) of committing to the county prison persons known to be
guiltless of any offence to justify their commitments—that
such persons are sometimes retained in prison for weeks, and it
is added, that this reprehensible system puts the county to an
increased expense, merely to place costs in the pockets of the
committing magistrates.
-
—That, instruction on the Phonetic
plan has been given with much success in several of the penal
institutions abroad, among which are the Preston House of
Correction and the Glasgow Bridewell.
-
—That, not a single case has
yet been known of a convict’s losing his reason as a necessary and
natural consequence of being separated from other convicts.
We have to express our thanks to various friends for their
thoughtful kindness in forwarding us copies of reports, and among
them are the following:
Annual reports of the Officers of the New Jersey State Lunatic
Asylum for 1852.
Twentieth Annual Report of the State Lunatic Hospital at
Worcester, Mass. for 1852.
Report of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane for the year
1852.
Tenth Annual Report of the State Lunatic Asylum of the State of
New York, 1852.
Annual Report of the State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg,
Penn.
Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern
State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, 1852.
Report of the Inspectors of the Western State Penitentiary of
Pennsylvania for 1852.
Sixteenth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the
Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 1852.
Twentieth Annual Report of the Managers of the Pennsylvania
Institution for the Instruction of the Blind for 1852.
Report of the State Prison of New Jersey for 1852.
Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Reform School
at Westborough, Mass.
Page 108
Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the
Prison Discipline Society of Boston, 1851-2.
Act of Incorporation, By-Laws, &c., of New York Juvenile
Asylum.
Twenty-Eighth Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for
the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents of New York, 1852.
Annual Report of Board of Managers of Philadelphia Charity
Schools, 1852.
Report of Managers of the Magdalen Society for 1852.
Annual Report of the Managers of the Boston Asylum and Farm
School for 1852.
Eight Report of the Baltimore Manual Labor School for Indigent
Boys for 1852.
Report of Commissioners on the State Reform School of
Pennsylvania.
At a meeting of the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge,
Philadelphia, the following preamble and resolution were adopted,
viz:
Whereas, The increase of Juvenile Delinquency in all
the large cities of our country, has claimed the attention of
philanthropists; and whereas, the Board of Managers of the
House of Refuge, Philadelphia, are desirous that errors in modes of
training the young, and other causes co-operating to produce the
evil referred to, may be presented in such a form as to claim the
serious consideration of parents and guardians throughout the land;
therefore,
Resolved, That the Board of Managers do offer a premium
of one hundred dollars for the best essay, and fifty dollars for
that next in order of merit, to be awarded by a committee of
literary gentlemen: Provided, that such essays shall not
exceed fifty octavo pages in length, and shall be contributed
before the first day of July, A. D. 1853; and whether successful or
not in competition, shall be at the absolute disposal of the Board
of Managers.
In accordance with the above preamble and resolution, the
premiums therein named are now offered, without restriction as to
the residence of competitors.
The Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, Frederick A. Packard, Esq., and
Stephen Colwell, Esq., have consented to act as the Committee,
to examine and adjudge as to the merits of the Essays offered in
competition.
Competitors for the above named premiums, will please address
their manuscripts to “John Biddle, No. 6 South Fifth Street,
Philadelphia;” and send therewith, their names and places of
residence, under sealed envelopes.
As the object of the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge in
offering the above-named premiums, is mainly to call the attention
of parents and guardians to errors in the prevalent modes of
training the young—a subject which should claim the attention
of every reader—the undersigned would call the attention of
editors of newspapers generally, throughout the United States, to
this advertisement, and ask the favor of an insertion of it, or of
the more important parts of it, in the columns of their papers.
By order of the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge.
THOS. P. COPE, President of H. of R.
JOHN BIDDLE, Secretary of H. of R.
Philadelphia, Feb. 17, 1853.
Page iii
(Continued from second page of cover.)
highly valuable periodical, communicating much and various
important information upon the subject of which it treats. It is
the only publication of the kind in the country, is certainly a
very much needed one, and ought, therefore, to be well sustained by
the public.
From the Episcopal Recorder.
This periodical gives a large amount of information on Prison
Discipline, and cannot fail to interest such as grieve over the
sufferings occasioned by crime, and regard the imprisoned criminal
as still belonging to our common humanity, and needing the
commiseration of the wise and good.
From the Public Ledger.
We have received the October number of the Pennsylvania Journal of
Prison Discipline and Philanthropy, published under the direction
of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the Miseries of Public
Prisons. It is stored with interesting matter.
From the Presbyterian.
We have been reading with great interest the Pennsylvania Journal
of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy.
INTO THE ALLEGED TENDENCY OF THE SEPARATION OF CONVICTS, ONE FROM
THE OTHER, TO PRODUCE DISEASE AND DERANGEMENT.
By a Citizen of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia: E. C. & J. Biddle. 1849.
It is, as might possibly be anticipated from the residence of the
author, an elaborate and ardent defence of the separate system of
confinement. The charge of its peculiar tendency to induce disease
and insanity, is altogether denied, and the testimony of the
successive physicians to the Eastern State Penitentiary, during a
term of nearly twenty years, goes very satisfactorily to warrant
the denial.
The author is not, however, inclined to rest at this, but carries
the war into the enemies’ camp. The chapter entitled Medical
Practice, in a Congregate Prison, is calculated to attract
attention, from the positions laid down in it, and their startling
illustrations, deduced from the well known case of Abner Rogers.
It is not the time or the place for us to enter on this warmly
controverted subject, and we have noticed the work only on account
of its bearing on the subject of insanity, and as forming a part
of its literature.—Am. Journal of Insanity, published
by the Superintendent of the New York Lunatic Asylum, July,
1850.
So far as the leading controversy, in regard to the rival systems
of prison discipline, is concerned, it seems to us to cover
the entire ground with singular ability.—Princeton
Review.
☞ A few copies of this pamphlet are
still on hand, and may be had on application to the publishers,
corner of Fifth and Minor streets, or to any member of the Acting
Committee.
Page iv
OFFICERS FOR 1852-3.
President—James J. Barclay.
Vice-Presidents—Townsend Sharpless, Charles B. Trego.
Treasurer—Edward Yarnall.
Secretaries and Committee of Correspondence—
William Parker Foulke, Edward Townsend.
Counsellors.
Job R. Tyson, Garrick Mallery.
Acting Committee.
- James J. Barclay,
- Townsend Sharpless,
- Charles B. Trego,
- Edward Yarnall,
- William Parker Foulke,
- Edward Townsend,
- Job R. Tyson,
- Garrick Mallery,
- F. A. Packard,
- Jeremiah Hacker,
- William Shippen,
- Charles Ellis,
- A. T. Chur,
- Morris Wickersham,
- M. W. Baldwin,
- Mark Balderston,
- Joshua L. Baily,
- Thomas Latimer,
- Josh. T. Jeanes,
- John M. Wetherill,
- Horatio C. Wood,
- John Lippincott,
- John J. Lytle,
- Henry M. Zollickoffer,
- William S. Perot,
- Benjamin J. Crew,
- Isaac G. Turner,
- William U. Ditzler.
☞ Quarterly Meeting of the Society,
2nd second day (Monday) of January, April, July and October.
Inspectors of the State Penitentiary for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
- John Bacon,
- Richard Vaux,
- Hugh Campbell,
- Singleton A. Mercer,
- Andrew Miller.
Warden—John S. Halloway.
Resident Physician—D. W. Lassiter, M. D.
Moral Instructor—Thomas Larcombe.
Clerk—William Marriott.
Teacher—George Neff.
Visiting Committee of the Eastern Penitentiary.
- Townsend Sharpless,
- Edward Townsend,
- James J. Barclay,
- A. Theodore Chur,
- Joshua J. Jeanes,
- Matthias W. Baldwin,
- Joshua L. Baily,
- John Lippincott,
- John J. Lytle,
- Horatio C. Wood,
- Isaac G. Turner,
- Benjamin J. Crew.
Inspectors and Officers of the Philadelphia County
Prison.
President.—Jesse R. Burden, M. D.,
Treasurer.—T. C. Bunting. M. D.,
Secretary.—E. A. Penniman,
- Edward C. Dale,
- Samuel Palmer,
- Robert O’Neill,
- Hugh O’Donnell,
- Thomas E. Crowell,
- Godfrey Metzger,
- Charles T. Jones,
- Joseph K. Howell,
- Joshua S. Fletcher,
- William Elliott,
- Samuel McManemy,
- John T. Smith.
Superintendent.—Anthony Freed.
Deputy Superintendents.—William B. Perkins, John Mirkil.
Clerk.—Wm. J. Crans.
Matron.—E. McDaniel.
Physician.—Dr. J. C. Wall.
Moral Instructor.—Rev. Wm. Alexander.
Assistant Keepers—
- C. Stagers,
- William Sharp,
- H. C. Snyder,
- Alexander Campbell,
- F. Laird,
- J. B. Haines,
- A. Morrison,
- Alexander Burden,
- J. Watt,
- G. Kirkpatrick,
- William McGrath.
Visiting Committee on the County Prison.
- William S. Perot,
- Dr. William Shippen,
- Jeremiah Hacker,
- H. M. Zollickoffer,
- Thomas Latimer,
- Paul T. Jones,
- Morris S. Wickersham,
- John M. Wetherill,
- Charles Ellis,
- B. B. Comegys,
- William U. Ditzler.
Return to top.
Transcribers’ Notes.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the
public domain.
The beginning of the third page of the cover was marked with:
(Continued from second page of cover.).
The following table shows changes made by the transcriber. Page#
refers to the number of the printed page. Page ii is the inside
front cover. Page 58 is the eighth page in this issue which was
numbered 58 (for the year). Page 70 is the twentieth page in this
issue which was numbered 70, and so on. Page iv is the outside back
cover.
Change table
| Page# |
original |
changed to |
| ii |
expresse |
expressed |
| 58 |
there |
their |
| 70 |
substracted |
subtracted |
| 74 |
attractions; |
attractions;” |
| 76 |
mismangement |
mismanagement |
| 76 |
impunity. |
impunity.” |
| 82 |
viz |
viz. |
| 84 |
seasonable |
reasonable |
| 89 |
homocidal |
homicidal |
| 95 |
considered. |
considered.” |
| 95 |
years! |
years!” |
| 96 |
VIII |
VIII. |
| 97 |
Unforfortunately |
Unfortunately |
| 105 |
viz |
viz. |
| 106 |
That |
—That |
| 107 |
That |
—That |
| iv |
Matron |
Matron. |
| iv |
Wickersham |
Wickersham, |