The Dangerous Classes of New York Part 24

During the summer of 1865, I was present in London as a delegate to the International Reformatory Convention, and had the opportunity, for the second or third time, to investigate thoroughly the preventive and reformatory inst.i.tutions of Great Britain.

On my return I found that the President of our Board, of whom I have already spoken, had taken a lease of a building in a notorious quarter.

His idea was that some of my observations in England might be utilized here and tested in a preventive inst.i.tution. The quarter was well known to me. It had been the home and school of the murderous gang of boys and young men known as

"THE NINETEENTH STREET GANG."

It happens that the beginnings and the process of growth of this society of young criminals were thoroughly known by me at the time, and, as one case of this kind ill.u.s.trates hundreds going on now, I will describe it in detail:--

Seventeen years ago, my attention had been called to the extraordinarily degraded condition of the children in a district lying on the west side of the city, between Seventeenth and Nineteenth Streets, and the Seventh and Tenth Avenues. A certain block, called "Misery Row," in Tenth Avenue, was the main seedbed of crime and poverty in the quarter, and was also invariably a "fever-nest." Here the poor obtained wretched rooms at a comparatively low rent; these they sub-let, and thus, in little, crowded, close tenements, were herded men, women, and children of all ages. The parents were invariably given to hard drinking, and the children were sent out to beg or to steal. Besides them, other children, who were orphans, or who had run away from drunkards' homes, or had been working on the ca.n.a.l-boats that discharged on the docks near by, drifted into the quarter, as if attracted by the atmosphere of crime and laziness that prevailed in the neighborhood. These slept around the breweries of the ward, or on the hay-barges, or in the old sheds of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. They were mere children, and kept life together by all sorts of street-jobs--helping the brewery laborers, blackening boots, sweeping sidewalks, "smashing baggages" (as they called it), and the like. Herding together, they soon began to form an unconscious society for vagrancy and idleness. Finding that work brought but poor pay, they tried shorter roads to getting money by petty thefts, in which they were very adroit. Even if they earned a considerable sum by a lucky day's job, they quickly spent it in gambling, or for some folly.

The police soon knew them as "street-rats;" but, like the rats, they were too quick and cunning to be often caught in their petty plunderings, so they gnawed away at the foundations of society undisturbed. As to the "popular education" of which we boast, and the elevating and inspiring faith of Christianity which had reared its temples all around them, they might almost as well have been the children of the Makololos in Central Africa. They had never been in school or church, and knew of G.o.d and Christ only in street-oaths, or as something of which people far above them spoke sometimes.

I determined to inaugurate here a regular series of the "moral disinfectants," if I may so call them, for this "crime-nest," which act almost as surely, though not as rapidly, as do the physical disinfectants--the sulphate of iron, the chloride of lime, and the various deodorizers of the Board of Health--in breaking up the "fever-nests" of the city.

These measures, though imitated in some respects from England, were novel in their combination.

The first step in the treatment is to appoint a kind-hearted agent or "Visitor," who shall go around the infected quarter, and win the confidence of, and otherwise befriend the homeless and needy children of the neighborhood. Then we open an informal, simple, religious meeting--the Boys' Meeting which I have described; next we add to it a free Reading-room, then an Industrial School, afterwards a Lodging-house; and, after months or years of the patient application of these remedies, our final and most successful treatment is, as I have often said, the forwarding of the more hopeful cases to farms in the West.

While seeking to apply these long-tried remedies to the wretched young population in the Sixteenth Ward, I chanced on a most earnest Christian man, a resident of the quarter, whose name I take the liberty of mentioning--Mr. D. Slater, a manufacturer.

He went around himself through the rookeries of the district, and gathered the poor lads even in his own parlor; he fed and clothed them; he advised and prayed with them. We opened together a religious meeting for them. Nothing could exceed their wild and rowdy conduct in the first gatherings. On one or two occasions some of the little ruffians absolutely drew knives on our a.s.sistants, and had to be handed over to the police. But our usual experience was repeated even there. Week by week patient kindness and the truths of Christianity began to have their effect on these wild little heathen of the street. We find, in our Journal of 1856, the following entries (p. 11):--

"The other meeting has been opened in the hall, at the corner of Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, by Mr. D. Slater. It had, in the beginning, a rather stormy time, being frequented by the rowdy and thieving boys of the quarter. Mr. S. has once or twice been obliged to call in the help of the police, and to arrest the ringleaders. Now, however, by his patient kindness and anxiety for the welfare of the lads, he has gained a permanent influence. The police have remarked how much less the streets, on a Sunday, have been infested, since he opened the meeting, with vagabond boys. Several notorious street-boys have abandoned their bad habits, and now go regularly to the Public Schools, or are in steady business. The average attendance the first month was 88; it is now 162. The average evening attendance is 104.

There is a family of four boys, all orphans, whom their friends could do nothing with, and turned into the streets. They lived by petty stealing, and slept in hay-lofts in winter, and on stoops or in coal-boxes in summer. Since they came to the meeting they have all gone to work; they attend Public School, and come regularly to evening meeting. They used to be in rags and filth, but now are clean and well dressed. Their uncle came to me and said the meeting had done them more good than all their friends together."--(_Mr. Slater's Report._)

"Yesterday, Mr. Slater brought a thin, sad boy to us--had found him in the streets and heard his story, and then gave him a breakfast, and led him up to our office. The lad seemed like one weary almost of living.

'Where are your father and mother, my boy?' 'Both dead, sir.' 'Where are your other relatives or friends?' 'Hain't got no friends, sir; I've lived by myself on the street.' 'Where did you stay?' 'I slept _in the privy_ sometime, sir; and then in the stables in Sixteenth Street.'

'Poor fellow,' said some one, 'how did you get your living?' 'Begged it--and then, them stable-men, they give me bread sometimes.' 'Have you ever been to school, or Sunday School?' 'No, sir.' So the sad story went on. Within two blocks of our richest houses, a desolate boy grows up, not merely out of Christianity and out of education, but out of a common human shelter, and of means of livelihood.

"The vermin were creeping over him as he spoke. A few days before this, Mr. S. had brought up three thorough-going street-boys--active, bold, impudent, smart fellows--a great deal more wicked and much less miserable than this poor fellow. Those three were sent to Ohio together, and this last boy, after a thorough washing and cleansing, was to be dispatched to Illinois. A later note adds: 'The lad was taken by an old gentleman of property, who, being childless, has since adopted the boy as his own, and will make him heir to a property.'"

Several other lads were helped to an honest livelihood. A Visitor was then appointed, who lived and worked in the quarter. But our moral treatment for this nest of crime had only commenced.

We appealed to the public for aid to establish the reforming agencies which alone can cure these evils, and whose foundation depends mainly on the liberality, in money, of our citizens. We warned them that these children, if not instructed, would inevitably grow up as ruffians. We said often that they would not be like the stupid foreign criminal cla.s.s, but that their crimes, when they came to maturity, would show the recklessness, daring, and intensity of the American character. In our very first report (for 1854) we said:--

"It should be remembered that there are no dangers to the value of property, or to the permanency of our inst.i.tutions, so great as those from the existence of such a cla.s.s of vagabond, ignorant, ungoverned children. This 'dangerous cla.s.s' has not begun to show itself, as it will in eight or ten years, when these boys and girls are matured. Those who were too negligent, or too selfish to notice them as children, will be fully aware of them as men. They will vote--they will have the same rights as we ourselves, though they have grown up ignorant of moral principle, as any savage or Indian. They will poison society. They will perhaps be embittered at the wealth and the luxuries they never share.

Then let society beware, when the outcast, vicious, reckless mult.i.tude of New York boys, swarming now in every foul alley and low street, come to know their power and _use it!_

Again, in 1857, we said:--

"Why should the 'street-rat,' as the police call him--the boy whose home in sweet childhood was a box or a deserted cellar; whose food was crumbs begged or bread stolen; whose influences of education were kicks and cuffs, curses, neglect, dest.i.tution and cold; who never had a friend, who never heard of duty either to society or G.o.d--why should he feel himself under any of the restraints of civilization or of Christianity?

Why should he be anything but a garroter and thief?"

"Is not this crop of thieves and burglars, of shoulder-hitters and short-boys, of prost.i.tutes and vagrants, of garroters and murderers, the very fruit to be expected from this seed, so long being sown? What else was to be looked for? Society hurried on selfishly for its wealth, and left this vast cla.s.s in its misery and temptation. Now these children arise and wrest back, with b.l.o.o.d.y and criminal hands, what the world were too careless or too selfish to give. The worldliness of the rich, the indifference of all cla.s.ses to the poor, will always be avenged.

Society must act on the highest principles, or its punishment incessantly comes within itself. The neglect of the poor, and tempted, and criminal, is fearfully repaid." (Pp. 5, 6.)

But the words fell on inattentive ears.

We found ourselves unable to continue our reforming agencies in the Sixteenth Ward; no means were supplied; our Visitor was dismissed, the meeting closed; Mr. Slater moved away, heavily out of pocket with his humane efforts, and much discouraged with the indifference of the Christian community to these tremendous evils; and the "Nineteenth-street Gang" grew up undisturbed in its evil courses, taking new lessons in villainy and crime, and graduating in the manner the community has felt the past few years. Both the police and the public have noted the extraordinary recklessness and ferocity of their crimes.

One, a mere lad, named Rogers, committed a murder, a few years ago, on a respectable gentleman, Mr. Swanton, accompanied by his wife, in the open street, on the west side of the city. He was subsequently executed. Some have been notorious thieves and burglars.

Another murdered an unoffending old man, Mr. Rogers, in open day, before his own door, and near the main thoroughfare of the city. The whole community was deeply thrilled by this horrible murder, and, though three of the "Gang" were arrested, the offender was never discovered.

Subsequently, one of the suspected young men was murdered by one of his own "pals."

The amount of property they have destroyed would have paid the expense of an Industrial School, Reading-room, Lodging-house and our other agencies for them, ten times over.

Now and then we have rescued two or three brothers of them, and have seen them become honest and industrious farmers in the West, while one of the same family, remaining here, would soon be heard of in Sing Sing or the city prisons.

The history of the growth of the "Nineteenth-street Gang" is only one example of the histories of scores of similar bands of ruffians now in process of formation in the low quarters of the city.

Our preventive agency was now placed, through the especial a.s.sistance of one of our trustees, in a better building, in Eighteenth Street. Here we had all our moral "disinfectants" under one roof, in the best possible efficiency.

The person to be appointed Superintendent, whom I had accidentally encountered, was a "canny Scotchman," and proved singularly adapted to the work. I feared at first that he was "too pious" for his place; as experience shows that a little leaven of carnal habits, and the jolly good nature which Religion ought only to increase, but which, when misapplied, it does sometimes somewhat contract, is useful in influencing these young heathen of the street. Perhaps they are so far down in the moral scale, that too strict a standard, when first applied to them, tends to repel or discourage them.

I particularly dreaded our friend's devotional exercises. But time and experience soon wore off the Scotch Presbyterian starch, and showed that the "root of the matter" was in him. The first quality needed in such a position is patience--a spirit which is never discouraged by ingrat.i.tude or wearied out by ill conduct. This our apparently somewhat sternly-righteous superintendent could attempt to show.

Then, next, the guide of such lads must be just--inflexibly just--and exact in the smallest particulars; for, of all things which a street-boy feels, is first any neglect of obligations.

This virtue was easy to the superintendent. He had, too, in him a deep well of kindness for the forlorn and unfortunate, which the lads soon appreciated. To my great satisfaction, at this time a gentleman threw himself into the movement, who possessed those qualities which always command success, and especially the peculiarities with which boys instinctively sympathize.

He was gifted with a certain vitality of temperament and rich power of enjoyment of everything human, which the rough lads felt immediately. He evidently liked horses and dogs; a drive four-in-hand, and a gallop "to hounds," were plainly things not opposed to his taste. He appreciated a good dinner (as the boys happily discovered), and had no moral scruples at a cigar, or an occasional gla.s.s of wine.

All this physical energy and richness of temperament seemed to accompany him in his religions and philanthropical life. He was indefatigable in his efforts for the good of the lads; he conducted their religious meeting every Sunday evening; he advised and guided, he offered prizes, gave festivals and dinners, supplied reasonable wants, and corresponded with them. And, at length, to crown his efforts, he proposed to a few friends to purchase the house, and make it a home for the homeless boys forever.

This benevolent measure was carried through with the same energy with which he manages his business, and the street-boys of the west side of New York will long feel the fruits of it.

For our own and the public benefit, our worthy superintendent had, among his other qualities, what was of immense importance for his work--the true Scotch economy.

No manufacturer ever managed his factory, no hotel-keeper ever carried on his establishment with such an eye for every penny of useless expenditure, as faithful manager of trust-funds looked after every item of cost in this School, and Lodging-house. Thus, for instance, during the month of May last, he lodged eighty boys every night, and fed them with two meals, at a cost to each lodger of five cents for a meal and five cents for lodging, at the same time feeding and lodging some gratuitously. The boys were kept clean, had enough to eat, and were brought under all the good moral and mental influences of the House; and, at the end of the month, the inst.i.tution had not only cost nothing to the public, but Mr. Gourley absolutely turned over eleven dollars and sixty-five cents to the Society. That is, his rent being paid, he had managed to keep his boys, pay the wages and food of three servants, a night-watchman, and errand-boy, and the salaries and table expenses of the superintendent, matron, and their family of four children. If this is not "economical charity," it would be difficult to find it.

On one occasion the patience of our worthy superintendent was put to a severe test.

For two years he fed and lodged two youthful "vessels of wrath." They were taught in the Night-school, they were preached to, and prayed with in the Sunday meeting, they were generously feasted in the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivals. At last, as the crowning work of benevolence, he clothed and cleaned them, and took them with him to find them a home in the Far West.

Here, when they had reached the land of independence, they began to develop "the natural man" in a most unpleasant form.

They would not go to the places selected; their language was so bad that the farmers would not take them; finally, after their refusing to take places where they were wanted, and making themselves generally disagreeable, Mr. Gourley had to inform the lads that they must shift for themselves! Hereupon they turned upon their benefactor with the vilest language. Subsequently they met him in the streets of the Western town, and were about to show themselves--what a Western paper calls--"muscular orphans," by a vigorous a.s.sault on their benevolent protector; but finding, from the bearing of our excellent brother, that he had something of the old Covenanter's muscle in him, and could show himself, if necessary, a worthy member of the old Scotch "Church militant," they wisely avoided the combat.

Mr. Gourley returned home down-hearted, his high Calvinistic views of the original condition of the human heart not being weakened by his experience. We all felt somewhat discouraged; but, as if to show us that human nature is never to be despaired of, Mr. Gourley afterwards received the following _amende_ from the two ingrates:--

HOPEFUL NEWS FROM HARD CASES.

"P----, Mich., June 6, 1870. "Mr. J. GOURLEY:

"_Dear Sir_--Knowing that you are one of those who can forget and forgive, I take the liberty of writing these few lines to you, hoping that I will not offend you by so doing. W---- and I both wish to return our thanks to the Society for giving us the aid they have. We are now both in a fair way of making men of ourselves. We are happy to think that we are free from the evil temptations that the poor boys of New York are exposed to. We are respected by all who know us here. Boys of New York little know of the pleasure there is to be found in a home in the 'Far West.' We expect to stay here for two years yet, and then make a short visit to New York. We would like to visit the 'Old Hotel,' if you have no objection. We would like to have you write and let us know how the boys are getting along, and if little Skid and Dutchy are still in the hotel. I would advise all boys who have no home to go West, and they will be sure to find one. W---- is foreman on the largest farm in the town, and has hired for three years at one hundred dollars per year, and found in everything. I am working in a saw-mill this summer. I worked on a farm the first winter and summer. Last winter I worked in the lumber-wood, and this summer I will try the mill. I get twenty dollars a month, and have since I left you at the depot. We both went to work the next day. I wish you would be so kind as to answer this, and oblige your obedient servants, "B. T.