asylums, children's aid societies, and similar institutions, the utmost vigilance is necessary to take advantage of the unusual opportunities afforded in this country for placing children in the family relation. Children coming under public care for either support or correction are susceptible of the following fourfold division: I. The homeless and destitute through death or poverty of parents. II. Truants from school.

III. Children rebellious of parental control; those

guilty of petty offenses and unsuited to orphanages, including vagrants and those in dange;r of falling.

IV. Boys and girls of hardened natures or of here

ditarily vicious propensities, who are guilty of felonious offenses.

The Orphanage is necessary for the kindly care and training of the first class, from which they should as soon as possible, through appropriate agencies, be placed in families.

The School for Truants is found only where the compulsory education law exists. The confinement here, while not incompatible with the tender years of the inmates, should be irksome, uncongenial, and for the briefest possible period, until the child is willing to take again his place in the public school.

The Industrial School for the third class is for those in danger of falling through bad associations or neglect of parents. This school should be pervaded with the atmosphere of a home, strongly aggressive and subjugating, inculcating habits of industry by precept and training, and permeated, as should all child-saving institutions, with high moral and religious teachings.

The Reform School for hardened youth, who need thorough discipline, should afford, in addition to other requisites, facilities for varied industries and school training.

The delinquent child must be regarded and treated as one morally diseased, needing in a certain sense, the same attention that is given by the physician to his sick patient. His condition must be studied and watched at every stage of his progress, and classification effected from time to time, so as to reach the best results. A complete system of classification will, therefore, have facilities for rapid transfer from one institution to another, and will provide that great watchfulness is exercised to determine when transfers are necessary, and that they are promptly effected.

Lastly, for the attainment of the greatest good, the institution needs to be small, to enable the reforming, elevating spirit of the officers to influence the children.

When in England, not long since, I had the pleasure of meeting a remarkable person, a public-spirited magistrate, whose position on% the bench gave him unusual opportunity for studying the question of juvenile delinquency. He was a gentleman of culture and refinement, as well as a philanthropist, and is now regarded as an authority on all matters relating to crime and correctional methods. Impressed with the importance of purifying the sources of evil with which he had officially to deal, he, of his own means and on his own estate, established a Reformatory for Boys, upon a basis which he had long deemed the right one, and placed it under the guidance of a young clergyman, who gave his life to the work without other emolument than the satisfaction derived from doing good. This institution has become a model of its kind, and it afforded me many avenues for study while there. I refer to the Hardwicke Court Reformatory, near Gloucester.

In a recent correspondence with its revered founder, T. B. LI. Baker, Esq., of Hardwicke Court, he thus alludes to our faulty system of classification:

"The present notion of putting a large number of boys together of all sorts, seems very wild. Of course I cannot say that such a system may not answer with you; though if any man were to propose a similar plan here, we should consider it equivalent to a certificate of lunacy. * * *

In reference to the size of reformatories, he remarks:

"I should say that a reformatory had better be content with fifty or sixty boys. There are few men who can fully enter into the feelings of more boys than this, so as to influence them strongly. I consider my superintendent to be a very good one, but I am sure the seventy or eighty boys that we now detain are more than he can become so intimate with as thoroughly to influence their character.

"In France they have large numbers in one establishment, but there they are divided into groups of twenty: each group has a 'Father,' ae he is called, who is responsible for his own boys, and each group lives in a separate detached home, with one superintendent over the whole.

"Our English School, at Red Hill adopted a similar plan, but Sydney Turner, who first established Red Hill, and was afterwards Inspector of Reformatories of all England and Scotland, after a time much preferred the smaller establishments."

It is, I think, now settled by all leading authorities, that reformatories for boys and for girls should be entirely distinct. Mary Carpenter, of England, was an earnest advocate for the separate system. Kingswood Reformatory, established through her efforts, demonstrated the impossibility of carrying on the work for both sexes satisfactorily in the same institution. This led to her founding the Red Lodge Reformatory, at Bristol, in which she was aided by Lady Byron. My observations corroborate the views of Justice Baker, and many others speaking with the authority of experience, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when abroad. Did time permit, a sketch of some of the institutions I then visited might be profitable ;but I will not now further extend this paper by alluding to them. Besides, justice could not be done them in a hurried notice. Suffice it to say, that I visited as an earnest seeker for truth, and for something to aid us here in our work, and brought away with me a mass of material that I hope at some future time to have opportunity of giving to the public.

While the aim should be to make the institution as efficient as possible, by proper classification and wisely directed industrial and other training, it should constantly be kept in mind, that it is a necessity to be resorted to only when unavoidable, the saving of the child outside the institution being the primary thought. In the interest of the child, therefore, to save it from the stigma of a criminal sentence and the family from the attendant disgrace, also to obviate the large expense coming on the public, the effort of institutions should be limited to such cases as cannot be saved by other means.

The State of Massachusetts in 1869 and again in 1870, enacted laws establishing a system of dealing with juvenile offenders, which, in my opinion, was the most beneficial of any then existing. The statutes provide for the appointment of a State Agent, who, in a certain sense, acts as counsel for juvenile offenders.

The law reads:

"When, a complaint before a judge or court, against any boy or girl under seventeen years of age, for any offense is made or pending, a notice in writing thereof shall be given to said Agent, who by himself or assistant shall have an opportunity to investigate the case, attend the trial and protect the interest of or otherwise provide for such child."

These children must have complaints against them heard and determined separately from the ordinary criminal business of the courts. This practically secures a special court for hearing the cases of children apart from those of adults.

Then, again, the judge may, "upon the request of the Agent, authorize the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, to take an indenture or place in charge of any person, or the State Primary School, such child, until he or she attains the age of twenty-one years, or for a less time, and the Board can, if the chiJd proves unmanageable with the person with whom h« or she has been placed in charge, transfer him or her to the State Reform or Industrial School."

While making a tour of the New England States some years ago, examining this and other systems, I devoted considerable time to a careful inquiry into its workings and results. I also had an interview with the State Agent, Mr. Gardiner Tufts, and was so interested in his clear exposition of the system, that I was pleased when an opportunity presented itself to invite that gentleman to prepare a paper on the subject, that should reach a large audience. This occurred in 1880, when Chairman of the Committee on Dependent and Delinquent Children of the Seventh National Conference of Charities The paper presented by Mr. Tufts attracted much attention in England, and the Howard Association has, by resolution, expressed the opinion that this system, as outlined by Mr. Tufts, was the best extant.

But I must pass to the second division of my paper —

INDUSTRIAL ^RAINING.

The importance of thorough industrial training is recognized in every State of the Union. Such being the case, the method adopted becomes of primary importance, and is, in fact, a matter of discussion and legislation at the present time.

The best solution of this problem, it seems to me, is to be found in a reference to the experience of the oldest workers in the field, who have been, at the same time, experimenters, earnestly and intelligently testing the true value of successive expedients. Those who have no private interest to subserve, no narrowing prejudices to foster, no selfish scheme to promote, but who aim with a single eye to be of public service by devising plans to save the youth of the country from the vicious and criminal life to which they may, either by circumstances or inherited tendency, be predisposed, are best qualified to afford enlightenment on this subject and it is from such my conclusions have been drawn. *

Our country has advanced sufficiently to successfully antagonize old-time conservatism wherever it has been found a hindrance to real progress; and there should be no hesitation, especially in a matter that so vitally concerns the rising generation, in breaking away from the shackles of the past, remanding them to oblivion, and with them, the cruelty and brutality of which they are the accredited parents. What, then, do we learn from experience? An examination of various Reformatories of the United States shows that their inmates have hitherto been employed at some form of outdoor or mechanical labor, either under the Contract System, with outside direction of labor, or under what is known as the Free Labor System, where the labor is under the entire direction of the officers of the institution. The ages at which children should be employed has also formed the subject of discussion, some holding to the opinion that young children should not be employed, but simply attend school, devoting to recreation and slight outdoor avocations whatever spare time they might have. But, however opinions may vary as to the age at which children should be placed at some form of industry, all admit its value at a proper age. There are at present, as already stated, but two labor systems, however they may vary in details of working, the Contract and the Free Labor systems.

I recently made an attempt to obtain the views on this subject of all having charge of juvenile reformatories in this country. For this purpose a correspondence was instituted, and replies received embodying the experience of nearly every representative officer in charge of this work in the United States. The result of this inquiry is as fQllows:

In addition to New York, the Contract System, with outside control of labor, is upheld in Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, and was, till last winter, in Pennsylvania.

The Free Labor system is maintained in Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and now in Pennsylvania.

The following industries are carried on under the Contract System:

Shoemaking.

Wicker work.

Cane seating.

Brush-making.

Clothes-making.

Hosiery-making.

Carpet-bag making and harness stitching.