Robert F. Greeley
Published: 2015-07-07
Total Pages: 342
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Excerpt from Violet, the Child of the City: A Story of New York Life A Report of one of the numerous charitable associations which have lately sprung into existence informs us (we quote the language of the Editor of the Times, in which the article in question appeared), "That there are 10,000 vagrant children in this city; that in eleven Wards over 3,000 children, of whom 2,000 are girls, between eight and sixteen years old, are regularly trained to theft; that out of 16,000 criminals arrested during the year, one fourth were under 21, and 800 under 15 years of age. These children," says Mr. Raymond, "are thus engaged because they have no other way to earn a living, and nobody to teach them better. "The object of this Society (The Children's Aid Society) is" (we are still quoting the Times) "to see whether these children cannot be brought under better influences. It looks them up in the first place - gives them food, and sets them to work. One most admirable means of providing for them has been to find places for them with farmers, mechanics, and manufacturers in the country; and the report states that applications for these boys and girls, from various sections of the country, come in faster than they can be supplied. This is a most hopeful fact. All that is needed is money to send them to the places where they are wanted. Over 200 have been thus sent off. "Another mode resorted to is to provide workshops for them in the City, where they can be taught to do coarse work for manufacturers - receiving pay regularly, and at the same time learning how to earn an honest living. During the last year 115 boys have been thus employed in a shop for pegging shoes. The receipts of the shop have been $671, and the expenses $865; so that the net cost of this great charity has been but $194. Several schools have been established, where this class of children, who cannot attend the Ward Schools, are taught not only the elements of useful knowledge, but the elements of useful labor." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
