Vagrant Children of New York.—
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:
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.