Sketch of the Formation of the Newsboys・Lodging House
While engaged as Secretary and Trustee of the Children's Aid Society, in 1853-54, I was pained at the sight of such numbers of newsboys and street-boys sleeping about at nights near the newspaper offices, in boxes or under stairways. I remember, on cold night, seeing some ten or a dozen of these little homeless creatures piled together to keep each other warm, beneath the stairway of the Sun office There used to be a mass of them also at the Atlas office, sleeping in the lobbies, until the printers drove them away by pouring water on them. One winter, an old burnt-out safe lay in Wall street, which was used as a bedroom by two boys who managed to crawl every night into the hole that had been burnt. I was often amused at their accounts of their various lodgings. 徹h, mister,・one said, 鍍here痴 nothing like them steam-gratins 吠t痴 just as good as a featherbed! And next to 粗m I likes a good box of sand, 祖ause you can git all up 喪ound you, and kinder snuggle in it; but bummin・is hard work in a nor・easter!・lt;p> The boys were, as might be expected, a fighting gambling set, and the little ones were continually plundered by the larger. On inquiring among the missionaries and others of the lower wards, I could not learn that these lads ever went to a Sunday-school or church, or ever had any good public influence exerted over them.
Occasionally, some unusually enthusiastic street-preacher would go among them, but they 田haffed・him so that he could do nothing for them.
I asked what became of them, but, as with Dickens・菟ost-boys,・no one seemed to know, until a printer undertook one day to show me, and we found some dozen young men who had been newsboys, in the back room of a gin shop, all more or less drunk, though it was then morning.
Thinking it necessary to consult the police as to any plans which might be adopted for the improvement of these lads, I called upon Capt. Matsell, the Chief. In reply to my suggestions he said, with a smile at such mistaken benevolence: 溺y dear, sir; nothing can be done for these boys! They are a set of perfect banditti!・I had resolved, however, to attempt a simple experiment ・to open a Lodging-house for them, as the entering wedge for good influences. I laid the plan before Judge J. L. Mason, the President of the society, to whose excellent judgment this charity has owed so much, before J. E. Williams, Esq., the Treasurer, to whose generous heart this enterprise of humanity became one of the warmest interests of his life, and who has done more to make it successful than any other person; Messrs. Howland, Russel, Kind, and others, and they all approved and gave it their earnest and cordial support, and the institution was formally adopted by the Board. The first means for it were raised in Rev. Mr. Cuyler痴 church, a gentleman present seconding my appeal with a speech that forced tears from all hearing.
The especial condition for the success of the movement, however was the man to carry out the execution of it. Providentially, at this time, I chanced upon one of those men who are, perhaps, peculiar to America ・a skillful mechanic, self-educated, of much natural tact, with an unbound pity for the weak and miserable, and a good deal of sternness toward the lazy and shiftless, and who had been long at work among the children of the Sunday-schools, Mr. C. C. Tracy. As it turned out, not one man in a thousand would have been so well adapted to open such an enterprise. He happened to be temporarily unemployed (having just sold out the good-will of his shop and tools), and, much against the advice of his friends, agreed to take charge of the intended Lodging-house. He at once began to search for a house, but few would admit such a set as the newsboys then were, within their building.
At length, he discovered an old, begrimed loft in the top of a building on the corner of Fulton and Nassau streets, the 鉄un Building.・The owner, Mr. M. Y. Beach, began his long course of kindness to us by saying we should have that room for the experiment, if every tenant left the building! Our plan was to divide the loft into a schoolroom, bedroom, office, and bathroom, and to furnish the bedroom with wooden 澱unks,・ placed one over another, so as to hold the most lodgers in a given space.(*Cliffnote: When iron began to come so much more into use, we substituted iron bedsteads for wooden, which is a great improvement, on account of their comparative freedom from vermin.)To Mr. Tracy was left the general carrying out of the plans with whatever changes he might think best.
In a few weeks, we had (at expense of about $1,000) all furnished and nicely equipped, a Lodging-house, which could accommodate seventy-five lodgers. Notice was given in the papers, and Mr. T. himself spoke to many of the leading boys, who always carried with them a train of imitators in whatever they undertook.
The first night (March 18th, 1854) the schoolroom was crowded with a motley congregation of ragged and rough boys ・many having come in only to make a disturbance. Mr. Tracy addressed them simply and kindly, and told them the objects of the plan: that we wanted to prevent them from growing up vagrants, and to save them from exposure to the weather, and consequent disease, and to help them on in th world. But that they were not objects of charity, but each one a lodger in his own hotel, paying his six cents for a bed, and the only rules were that they should keep order among themselves, and use the bath. They cheered him warmly, and a larger boy, a 都peculator,・created a great impression by paying at once his whole week痴 lodging in advance. Those who had come merely 鍍o make a row,・left in disgust, and the others passed a quiet evening, and were greatly delighted with the luxury of plenty of cold water in the bath.
When they were 鍍urned in,・the Superintendent could hear their exclamations of satisfaction. 釘etter than bumming ・hey, Jim?・迭ather warmer than the soft side of a plank, aint it?・泥id ye nivir see a bed afore?・and the like. The next day several said the 田ouldn稚 sleep, the beds were so soft!・During the night there was 斗arking・going on in the stairways by the outsiders: the gas burner was twisted off, which might have been followed by serious consequences if Mr. Tracy, expecting this had not provided a cut-off in the inside.
The next evening more came in to take beds. The Superintendent talked pleasantly and instructively to them, and the boys, feeling that the keeping of order depended on themselves were very quiet. They seemed to enjoy the Lodging-room very much, but ont thing they could not understand, and were continually 都peering・after ・What all this was for? Some whispered, 的t痴 a House-o・Refuge trap!・another 的 know ・it痴 worse 疎n that ・it痴 a Sunday-school trap!・
After a time Mr. Tracy introduced the Lord痴 Prayer, which the little audience joined in heartily. One lad, in some doubt, came up afterward, and asked, 的 say, Mr. Tracy, was that a Protestant or a Catholic prayer?・展ell, my boy,・he replied, 的 believe all Christian churches hold to that prayer!・
He was unfolding, on one occasion, the Golden Rule, 添ou must do unto others as you would have them do unto you!・They seemed very much surprised. 的s it really in the Bible, Mr. Tracy?・and one added, rather despairingly, 釘ut suppose you池e short, and couldn稚?・(i.e., suppose you have no money, and cannot help other boys.) On another occasion, My. T. relates the result of one of his lectures as follows (Ann. Report, p. 25. 1855):
典his evening, while a number of them were telling each other what they had for supper, I undertook to reason with them about their diet- that they should avoid some of the nice things which they had mentioned, and live more upon plainer food, as that was healthier and cheaper; that they should allow their reason, instead of their appetite, to control them in the selection of their food. 羨h, sir,・said one boy, 層hen a feller is hungry, and has a good hot dinner smokin・before him, it痴 no time to reason; and I have made up my mind that them ruffled-shirt 賭uills・(clerks) shan稚 eat up all the good things, nohow?・I concluded to drop the matter for the present, and took another subject.・lt;p> Their especial vices Mr. T. soon found to be their wasting of money and their gambling. Some of the more active boys earned sometimes from $3 to $5 a day with the sale of 摘xtras,・and the smaller averages 75 cents. Yet every penny went for follies ・theatres, cards, dice, policy-tickets,* and games with pennies, while the lads themselves remained ragged and poor. (*Cliffnote: A kind of lottery ticket.)To correct these habits, he introduced innocent games, such as checkers, backgammon, and others; and he contrived, what has since been a great blessing to hundreds of street-boys, the 哲ewsboys・Bank.・This was simply a table with a drawer divided into separate little compartments, each with a slit in the lid, into which the boys dropped their pennies each box being numbered and reserved for a depositor. The drawer was carefully locked and, after an experience of one or two forays on it from petty thieves who crept in with the others, it was fastened to the floor and the under part lined with tin.
The Superintendent, following his usual plan, called the lads together for a meeting, told them the object of the bank, which was to make them save their money, and put it to vote how long it should be kept locked. They voted for two months, and thus, for all this time, the depositors could not get at their savings. Some repented and wanted their money, but the rule was rigid. At the end of the period the bank was opened in the presence of all the lodgers, with much ceremony, and the separate deposits were made known, amid an immense deal of 田haffing・from one another. The depositors were amazed at the amount of their savings; the increase seemed to awaken in them the instinct of property, and they at once determined to deposit the amounts in the city savings banks, or to buy clothes with them. Very little was spent foolishly. This simple contrivance has done more to break up the gambling and extravagant habits of the class, than any other one influence. The Superintendent now pays a large interest on deposits, and out Trustees have offered prizes to the lads who save the most.* (*Cliffnote:An interesting fact should be related in this connection: 典o meet an absolute necessity, B. J. Howland, Esq., one of our stanchest friends,・says the Superintendent in a late report, 電eposited with me, two years since, the sum of ten dollars, to be loaned in small sums to worthy boys, to enable them to make a start in the world. Recently, a lady friend (Mrs. M) added ten dollars to the fund. During the year $255.57 was loaned from this fund, and the profits derived by the boys from the sum borrowed amounted to $649.95, or a little more than 252 per cent. Only one dollar and eighty cents remain unpaid of the money loaned, which we have not given up for lost. The money so borrowed has, in many cases, been returned in a few hours, and the average length of time it has been kept does not exceed one day. The plan has worked most admirably. We have loaned it in sums of five cents and upwards. Several who have availed themselves of it have been able to acquire a capital, so as to require no further assistance, and now have money in the savings bank.・During the present year (1867), the savings in bank of the boys will amount to about $200 a month, beside what is deposited in the city banks, or invested continually in business.
Finding some of the lodgers eager to learn to write, the Superintendent quietly opened an informal evening school for them, inducing several gentlemen of the city to come in occasionally and lecture or give lessons. All this, however, had to be managed very cautiously, lest we should make the Lodging-house a 澱ore・to the boys.
We chanced upon our religious meetings something in this wise. The boys had attended on a Sunday some public funeral, which impressed them much, and, while talking together earnestly over the matter, Mr. T. suggested that they should hear a chapter read, and a prayer. They assented, and a meeting was held, from which has arisen the long course of religious meetings held since for the newsboys. Of these meetings I cannot express my feelings more strongly than in the following passage from the Annual Report of the Children痴 Aid Society for 1864:
典hee is something unspeakably solemn and affecting in the crowded and attentive meetings of these boys of a Sunday evening, and the thought that you speak for a few minutes on the high themes of Eternity, to a young audience who, to-morrow, will be battling with misery, temptation, and sin in every shape and form, and to whom your words may be the last they ever hear, of either friendly sympathy or warning.・lt;p> The effects on the boys of this constant, patient, religious instruction, we know to have been most happy. Some have acknowledged it, living, and have shown better lives. Others have spoken of it in the hospitals, and on their death-beds, or have written their gratitude from the battle field, on so many hundreds of which these lads have bravely fought.
On one occasion, a boy who had fallen into thieving habits, was so much struck with shame, after one of these meetings, that he called the Superintendent aside and confessed his offenses, and gave up his dark lantern, his wrench, and pocket pistol, with other tools of his nefarious business. He subsequently put into a good place, and became an honest boy.
Mr. Tracy, though full of kindness to the unfortunate was a strict disciplinarian, as was necessary with these children; and, what was absolutely indispensable to the success of the enterprise, he took care that the most rigid exactness should characterize all his dealings with them. Gradually thus, step by step, he began to gain an influence over them. Individual boys became more clean and less ragged; they swore less and gambled less; there was less fighting and quarreling among them; cheating diminished, and stealing almost ceased. They learned to read and write; many kept up daily prayer, and listened with great apparent devoutness in the meetings. More and more, traits of generosity and kindness appeared in them, which were carefully cherished by us. Following out the plan of the Children痴 Aid Society, they were scattered over the whole country, some taking places with farmers, others in factories, others in shops, on railroads, and in telegraph offices. They generally succeeded. Their shrewdness and quickness, with the self-reliance they had acquired in their rough life, made them very efficient in whatever they undertook. Our object was generally to get them out of street-trades, such as boot-blackening and paper-selling, for these, if continued too long, lead to an ideal, vagrant life, and, in America, innumerable occupations are open to all who will enter them. Yet even those who remained in the city grew up honest and steady young men ・sometimes even showing an earnest life of religious purpose.
The kindness which these boys showed to one another more and more, as they remained under out charge, was one of the most encouraging features of the work to us.
Boys coming in without a penny, ragged and dirty, and vermin-covered, nameless* orphans, have not unfrequently been clothed and started into business by the others.(*Cliffnote: Boys have come in who did not know their own names. They are generally known to one another by slang names, such as the following: 溺ickety,・迭ound-hearts,・滴orace Greeley,・展andering Jew,・擢a?? Jack,・撤ickle Nose,・鼎ranky Jim,・泥odge-me-John,・典ickle-me-foot,・適now-Nothing-Mike,・徹誰eill the Great,・撤rofessor,・and innumerable others. They have also a slang dialect.) No story of misfortune was ever presented to them without its calling forth a generous response, and 杜aterial aid.・They contributed from their small earnings to the 溺ount Vernon Fund,・to the Kansas sufferers, to those who lost in certain severe fires in the city, to the Sanitary Commission, and many other worthy objects. With all the change and improvement which have been beheld in hundreds of these children, since the Lodging-house was opened, it must not be supposed that any very wonderful change can be seen in the externals of the class. That is, the newsboys, as a class, are continually filled up by new boys who are turned adrift or made orphans, or in some way become homeless. They new members, in the beginning, look as ragged and miserable as any of the former ones used to do; but, when they have been a short time in the business, they do not turn out thieves and vagabonds, as their predecessors did, but, with their savings, they are enabled to enter new places, or are sent to situations by the Society. The few old newsboys who have remained in the Lodging-house, are (with single exceptions) as respectable lads as can be found.
Mr. Tracy remained at the head of the Lodging-house till 1856. At this time the Children痴 Aid Society had begun to employ him in a new and broader field as their Western Agent, in taking out their large parties of children to the West. It was a place of much responsibility, requiring great tact and a spirit of true devotion to humanity. The numbers at the Lodging-house fell off in his repeated and necessary absences, until it became needful to appoint a new Superintendent, Mr. C. C. Wiegand. Mr. W., but his activity in searching the markets and docks, soon gathered in more even than the old numbers. He also introduced various improvements, especially a new table of statistics of the lodgers. A prolonged effort of his to break the theatre-going of the boys, by introducing private theatricals among them, did not succeed. On his departure for California in 1858, to take an office in the Mint, Mr. C. O辰onnor was appointed Superintendent, and Mrs. O辰onnor, Matron. Under their united charge, the Lodging-house has attained a success such as it never enjoyed before. The qualities, by which they have influenced so large a number of street-boys, and managed them so many years, without once a disturbance and with increasing good feeling from the children, are the most hearty kindness, and, at the same time, the most exact justice of dealing, and the severest of discipline. During the years, for instance, 1866-67, they have had under their charge eight thousand one hundred and ninety-two different boys, from five to fifteen years of age, following all possible street-trades: a number greater probably than in all the Asylums for children in the city altogether. Yet there has hardly been an instance of disorder or complaint; every thing has proceeded quietly, silently, and with good order, the children constantly improving, and being transferred to good places.
The usefulness of the Lodging-house has also been greatly increased, during the last few years, by the constant devotion to its interests of the new President of the Society, Wm. A. booth, Esq., who holds the place of the late lamented Judge Mason. This gentleman devotes the great experience and the admirable judgment, gained during a long business-life, to the interests of humanity, so that often almost his whole time is spent for the good of others. By his influence, the Lodging-house has been enlarged and improved, so that now it can accommodate one hundred and fifty lodgers ・the large audience-room also being much extended. Mr. Booth also takes charge, every alternate Sunday evening, of the religious meeting, which, during the last two or three years, has been increasingly orderly and impressive.
Our Lodging-house has a very plain and simple appearance, and we have often wished that we could have more commodious and enlarged quarters.
From the beginning I have made it a great point to secure in the lodging-rooms good ventilation; and, by a simple system of shafts to the roof, we have attained such purity of air in our bedrooms, as can hardly be found in any hospital or asylum of the city. The great height of the buildings also favors the health of the lodging-rooms ・they being open to air and sun ・so that for ten years the number on our sick-list has been so small as scarcely to be worth mentioning. By a liberally use of water and good 塗ousekeeping,・we are kept wonderfully free from vermin.* (*Cliffnote: One of the boys is hired as barber, and shaves some of the heads closely.)
Of course so many hundreds of wild, fun-loving boys, floating in from every quarter of the city, many of them mere street-vagrants, need a strong hand. This Mr. O辰onnor holds. His punishments are mainly fines, and occasionally something more severe, as a warning. The slightest want of justice, or an excessive harshness, would send these little rovers back to their wandering, Arab-like life. On the other hand, any failure in discipline would make the place intolerable to every one.
The great peculiarity of the New York Newsboys・Lodging-house, as distinguished from similar European institutions, is the payment demanded from the lodgers.* (*Cliffnote: This is now six cents for lodging, three cents for supper, and one cent for use of lockers.)The object of this is to cultivate the feeling of independence and self-respect in these children, and to aid in the support of the charity. They value the place more from paying for it, and do not contract the vices of paupers. I had always feared that we could not combine the system of half-pay and half-charity; that is, that some should be required to pay and others be received free. We have done so, however, for years. They Superintendent acquires great tact in discerning who are truly impoverished and unlucky, and who lazy or deceitful. Possible, the public opinion among the boys themselves helps him in obtaining pay from so many. In 1866-67 there were paid by the boys toward the expenses of the establishment, $2,718.79.
Another peculiar feature is the constant effort to get the boys away to 都ituations・in the country. A more particular account of this will be given hereafter in a work describing the Children痴 Aid Society and its results.* (*Cliffnote: It may be noted here that over 10,000 homeless children have been sent to homes and places of employment, mainly in the West, by the Children痴 Aid Society since it was founded.)It is this great opportunity for emigrations which has led us to discourage the formations of 鉄hoe-black Brigades・and the like, inasmuch as such movements tend to keep the street-children in the city.
The Newsboys・Lodging-house is one of the many branches or works of the CHILDREN担 AID SOCIETY, and while that is sustained, will be kept up. We hope that this year the Society may be endowed with a fund in answer to its appeal for the especial purpose of making this most simple but beneficent charity for street-boys, perpetual.
During the thirteen years in which the Lodging-house has been at work, 307,602 lodgings have been supplied to homeless boys. But few lads remain over year after year, and as the whole number of different lads, counting year by year, is 48,910, we may fairly conclude that at least more than forty thousand different boys have been the subjects of this charity. During that time $53,025.57 have been expended by the Children痴 Aid Society for this object, of which the great proportion has been the fruit of private liberality.
During the same period, $14,739.74 have been paid by the boys toward the expenses of the Lodging-house, in petty sums of four or five cents for lodging, etc. There were also saved by the lads and deposited in their bank, $14,501.70, omitting from the calculation three years in which no account was kept. Over a regiment of these boys have joined the army; great numbers who were placed on farms in the West have enlisted, and are thus returning to the nation what their benefactors have so kindly done for them. One of them recently, at his death in a Virginia hospital, bequeathed all his savings ($100) to the Society. During the years 1866-67, 8,192 different boys have been members of this institution. The number of lodgings furnished were 33,633; of meals, 49,519. Their payments toward the expense were $2,127.44. The number every night is from 140 to 150.
The following are some interesting statistics of the Lodging-house for 1866-67:
During the past year we have kept a record of the nativity, age, parentage, and ability to read and qrite of every boy entering the Lodging-house, with the following result, to wit:
Nativity
Born in the United States・・・・・・ 4,102
・Ireland・・・・・・.. 3,009
・England・・・・・・ 377
・Germany・・・・・・. 380
・Scotland・・・・・・ 142
・Canada・・・・・・. 62
・France・・・・・・. 46
・Wales・・・・・・. 21
・Poland・・・・・・. 4
・Italy・・・・・・・ 17
・Switzerland・・・・・. 11
Unknown・・・・・・ 21
________
Total・・・. 8,192
Age of Boys
5 years old ・・・・・・・・・ 7
6 ・ ・・・・・・・・・ 19
7 ・・・・・・・・・・ 21
8 ・・・・・・・・・・ 40
9 ・・・・・・・・・・ 134
10 ・・・・・・・・・・ 534
11 ・・・・・・・・・・ 562
12 ・・・・・・・・・・ 786
13 ・・・・・・・・・・ 2,019
14 ・・・・・・・・・・ 2,250
15 ・・・・・・・・・・ 1,086
16 ・・・・・・・・・・ 524
17 ・・・・・・・・・・ 145
18 ・・・・・・・・・・ 50
19 ・・・・・・・・・・ 17
______
Total, 12 months・・. 8,192
Number of boys able to read and write ・・. 4,259
・・・ read ・・. 2,288
・・neither able to read or write ・ 1,645
_______
Total, 12 months・・. 8,192
Number of orphans ・・・・・・・ 2,926
・half-orphans ・・・・・... 3,904
・ whose parents are living ・・・・.. 362
________
Total, 12 months・ 8,192
NUMBER OF BOYS RECOVERED FROM VAGRANCY AND PLACED IN THE COUNTRY HOMES
February, 1866 ・・・・・・・・・. 45
March, ・・・・・・・・・・. 102
April, ・・・・・・・・・・. 61
May, ・・・・・・・・・・. 76
June, ・・・・・・・・・・. 19
July, ・・・・・・・・・・. 36
August, ・・・・・・・・・・. 17
September, ・・・・・・・・・・. 54
October, ・・・・・・・・・・. 44
November, ・・・・・・・・・・. 57
December, ・・・・・・・・・・. 94
January, 1867 ・・・・・・・・・. 102
_____
Total・・・・・707
Seven hundred and nineteen truant boys have been restored to their relatives and friends.
Average attendance at night school ・80.
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