A recent effort by Montreal ladies to supply the need for the special treatment of young girl delinquents between the ages of twelve and sixteen, otherwise than in the Female Jail, hitherto their only harbour, was crystalized in the opening, in September, 1911, of a Girls’ “Cottage” Industrial School at Outremont, which, however, was shortly removed to Front Street, St. Lambert’s, in healthy and pleasant surroundings. It was incorporated by government in 1913. The work is carried on in connection with the juvenile court, but it is also open to friendless and destitute girls, being supported by voluntary subscriptions, and some government assistance. It has been placed under government inspection. Very useful lessons have been the outcome of this experiment. It has been shown that most of those “committed” by the law are the victims of the moron type of mental defectiveness and retarded intelligence and that others are the victims of a carelessly trained childhood and vicious environment. It has been found that the best method to rehabilitate these cases is by building up their health and by concentrating at present the educational part of their training upon domestic lines, to make them good housewives and able to support themselves hereafter. The “Cottage” system with its possibilities of homelike and industrial training is claimed to effect better cures than the cold and formal methods of the usual government reformatory. The presidents of the school have been: 1911, Mrs. F.H. Waycott; 1912, Mrs. J. Macnaughton; 1913-14, Miss Beatrice Hickson.
BOY DELINQUENTS
Modern reformatory work for boys began in Montreal in 1865. In 1858 a reformatory school for juvenile criminals was established at Isle aux Noix, near the frontier and at the head of the Richelieu river. Being an old military post it was again deemed necessary to occupy it and the reformatory was removed to St. Vincent de Paul, near Montreal, in 1861. In 1863 there were about fifty inmates in the institution.
The name of M. Berthelet and the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul now became connected with this work. The latter Congregation was founded in Belgium, in 1807, by Rev. P. Priest, a Canon of the Diocese of Ghent, shortly after the French revolution, to care for the sick and poor, the aged and orphans left destitute through the expulsion of the religious orders.
Canada heard of their eminent services abroad. At the time, there was in Montreal a gentleman, named Berthelet, and relief of the poor seemed to be the goal of his ambition. In fact, M. Berthelet’s happiness consisted in relieving their wants. He, too, heard of the Brothers’ good work, and he begged Bishop Bourget to invite them out to Canada. They accepted the kind invitation and accepted the charge of a home for old people and neglected children of the city, at the Asile St. Antoine provided by M. Berthelet on Labelle Street. Four Brothers of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul arrived on February 22, 1865, but moved to a larger home on Dorchester Street, opposite the Convent of La Miséricorde, on May 10, 1865. From there they moved to the new home built by M. Berthelet on Mignonne Street, now De Montigny, taking possession of it on February 19, 1868. The same work was continued but with doubtful success, till it found its present vocation as an industrial school, in 1873.
In 1870, the Government of the Province of Quebec had founded a reformatory for youthful delinquents and incorrigible children. Recognizing that happier results would be obtained, if it was under the supervision of a religious body, familiar with the work, the Government made overtures to the superior of the Brothers, but it was only in 1872 that matters were definitely arranged to the satisfaction of both parties. The Brothers have been in charge ever since. The reformatory is a blessing in disguise for many a family and for the community at large. Hundreds of its inmates are today honorable and law-abiding citizens with trades in their possession or equipped for a livelihood. They would have always been so had their parents or guardians done their duty by them and given them the example of an industrious, sober, honest and Christ-like life.
The four Brothers have now grown to 150. In addition, since 1874 they have founded off shoots of their Community in Canada and the United States.
SHAWBRIDGE BOYS’ FARM
Reformation work for non-Catholic boys is conducted at Shawbridge in the Laurentian Mountains.
As told elsewhere the “Boys’ Farm and Training School” at Shawbridge owes its first active steps to the farm committee of 1906 of the “Corporation of the Boys’ Home,” and its immediate inception to the board of nine directors of the “Boys’ Farm and Training School,” chosen out of the board of fifteen governors of the “Boys’ Home” in accordance with the reconstituted amendments granted in March, 1909, to the original charter, these amendments having been prepared by Mr. J.S. Buchan, K.C., to provide for the twin corporations of the Boys’ Home and the Boys’ Farm, the latter, however, being a distinct but subsidiary corporation. The first board of directors of the Boys’ Farm were J.R. Dougall, Rev. Dr. Eagan Hill, J.C. Holden, S.M. Baylis, C.S.J. Phillips, J.S. Buchan, K.C., F. Hague, F.S. Todd and G.W. Stephens. This board elected as their officers the following: President, J.S. Buchan, K.C.; vice president, S.M. Baylis; honorary secretary, F. Hague; honorary treasurer, C.S.J. Phillips. Mr. J.R. Dougall shortly became president on the resignation of Mr. Buchan. The reformatory is conducted on the cottage system, the prison atmosphere being carefully eliminated, so that it is rather a country farm home school than anything else, although the pupils are those committed thither by the courts of justice. Everything at the farm makes for health, virtue and hope, and is a good demonstration of the modern view of juvenile reformation.