USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 30
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It is not purely a charitable Institution. Each inmate pays a weekly board of from $3.50 to $6, according to her cir- cumstances and the room she occupies. A relief fund has been established to assist those who through sickness, loss of employment, or other causes, find themselves unable to pay their board. When the buildings are owned and furnished the income from the boarders will about pay the expenses. The girls are all of an interesting class. Many of them are the daughters of clergymen and other distinguished gentle- men. Every inmate is required to be either engaged in something useful or fitting for it. Of 29 inmates, in 1865,. 18 were artists, one a copyist, three were teachers, eight dress- makers and seamstresses; 203 different inmates were re- ceived during 1869, of whom 19 were artists, 33 teachers, 70- seamstresses ; the remaining 81 were saleswomen, book-keep -. ers, copyists, etc. Many young ladies tarry here while com-
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THE LADIES' CHRISTIAN UNION.
pleting their education. Some teach in private families, some in the public-schools, some are pupils in the school of design, others work at embroidery or some other species of ingenious handicraft. There are hours for receiving com- pany, when both sexes are admitted, but all are required to depart at ten in the evening. The Home is well supplied with books and periodicals. The house committee holds a meeting every Friday from twelve to one o'clock, when applications for admission are received and acted upon. Satisfactory testimonials of character are required in all cases, and valid reasons for their remaining in the city. Unmarried women only. are received, preference being given to the younger class. The Institution being an outgrowth of the great awakening of 1857, and the third article of the constitution making advancement in active personal piety the first duty of the members, it is not surpris- ing that the religious element has always been a marked feat- ure in the movement. Family prayer is daily conducted. Every Thursday evening a Bible class is taught at the Home, and on Wednesday at eleven A.M. a ladies' prayer-meeting is held at the social parlors, over the chapel of the Broadway Tabernacle, corner of Thirty-fourth street and Sixth avenue. Sectarianism is ignored, all attend the churches of the neigh- borhood on the Sabbatli, and many of the young women teach in the Sunday schools. The Home has been the spiritual birthplace of many thoughtful young ladies, and from its well-ordered circle some have ascended to the "House of many mansions " on high.
The superintendent, Mrs. S. F. Marsh, formerly the wife of a clergyman, a lady of rare executive and social qualities, with a nature too kind to be soured and too brave to be dis- couraged, has presided over the Institution with very great success for the last eight years. May she, with that associa- tion of pure spirits which established this model and pioneer Home, and who have so long and successfully toiled to ele- vate the young women of our day, reap the richest fruit of Christian toil on earth, and an imperishable crown beyond the grave.
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HOTEL FOR WORKING WOMEN.
(Fourth avenue and Thirty-third street.)
MERICA presents greater attractions to the laboring classes than almost any other country in the world. Its abundance of cheap, but valuable land, its free schools, Republican government, and religious liberty, coupled with the liberal remuneration of toil, and the respect of the laborer, rendering it of all countries most desirable for ambitious industry. There is a benevolence, also, which finds expression in the opening of "boarding-houses," "homes," and "hotels," for the comfort and advancement of those who toil singly and alone for an honest subsistence.
Mr. Alexander T. Stewart, who has hitherto done little toward placing his name among the benevolent of the metrop- olis, has recently, we are told, set aside six millions of dollars for the erection of two immense structures, one for working- women, and the other for working-men. The structure for working-women, which is now nearly completed, stands on Fourth avenue between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. The building, which is of iron, and fire-proof, has three fronts; that on Fourth avenne being one hundred and ninety-two feet six inches, those on Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets, two hundred and five feet respectively. The arca covered by the structure is forty-one thousand square feet. The main build- ing will be six stories high, with an additional story, in Mansard roof, and over the central portions of each front, a space of one hundred feet, there will be an additional story with a super- imposed Mansard roof, making the centre of each front eight stories. At the extremities of these central elevations, and also at the street angles, are turreted towers, twenty-four feet in width and height. The entire central height will be one hundred and nine feet.
The grand entrance on Fourth avenue has a width of forty- eight feet ; the portico is two stories high, with massive clus- : ter iron columns, resting on octagonal-shaped pedestals, and supporting foliated capitals. The design of the structure. with its different stories, their piers, columns, pilasters, and arches, crowned with the unique towers, presents a finished
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THE WATER-STREET HOME FOR WOMEN.
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architectural design. The first story contains twenty-four tine stores, each fifty-two feet wide and seventy feet deep. A wide stairway conducts to the interior. A portion of the halls are covered with marble. A steam elevator, running to the upper floor, ascends on either side of the staircase. The stories are high, averaging from nineteen feet six inches to eleven feet five inches. There is a large interior court-yard, ninety-four feet by one hundred and sixteen, which is to be ornamented with fountain, gold fish, etc. The whole struc- ture is heated by steam coil, the engine being so arranged as to work the elevators, drive in hot weather an immense fan for cooling the apartments, and afford mechanical appliances to the kitchen and the laundry. The dining-room is thirty by ninety-two feet, and another room of the same size is to be used for concerts, lectures, etc., and still another of similar dimensions will contain the library, and be the reading-room. The inmates are to pay a fixed price for the use of rooms ac- cording to their size and location, and the board will be con- ducted on the restaurant plan. If the proprietor really deals. as liberally with the inmates as some now suppose, this Insti- tution, situated in an eligible portion of the city, will be a valuable acquisition to the toiling women of Manhattan.
THE WATER STREET HOME FOR WOMEN.
(No. 273 Water street.)
URING the summer of 1868 the reading public was startled with a series of well-written articles published in Packard's Monthly, and partially reprinted and commented upon by most of the papers, purporting to set forth the career of the " Wickedest Man in New York." The attention of the city was thus called to the condition of society in Water street and its vicinity, and so profound was the conviction, in many thoughtful and pious minds, that something should be undertaken for this sin-blighted locality, that it resulted in a noon-day prayer-meeting, established in the dance-house of John Allen,t and conducted with much fervor for a considerable period. Though the effort did not
472
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
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result in the conversion of a large number from the neighbor- hood, it considerably sobered many, and had an excellent effect upon Christians of all denominations who took part in the undertaking.
Water street contains a few wholesale business houses, con- ducted through the day by amiable gentlemen residing in other places, but the resident population of the locality is perhaps the most depraved and infamous on the entire New York island. Murder and robbery have never been as frequent here as during the worst days of the Five Points, but for low groggeries, scandalous brothels, and dance-houses, where every sentiment of decency is ignored, and the whole popu- lace reduced to the lowest scuin of moral degradation, the locality has long been unrivaled .. Sailors and roughs of the lowest order, whose means will not admit them to houses equally disreputable but higher up on the ladder, here assem- ble nightly to waste their money and lives in drink and fran- tic revelry. The dance-house girls, also, are the most ignorant and helpless of their class. Many of them, reared in the neighborhood, have little knowledge of anything better, and little compunction for a life of crime. Some of them have never seen the better parts of the city, attended school or church, or been in any manner reached by the ministra- tions of religion.
They are the slaves of the proprietor in whose miserable shanty they dwell. He claims as his property the miserable garments they wear, so that, when one attempts to escape from brutal treatment, she is not unfrequently arrested for theft, and thrown into prison.
It was in this slum of moral putrefaction, after the excite- ment of the noon-day meeting had subsided, and religious efforts in the locality had been mainly suspended, that the Rev. William II. Boole, a member of the New York East Conference, and pastor of one of the city churches, under the inspiration of "a profound and responsible conviction," opened this Home and refuge for fallen women. The founder believed that greater good would result from an institution founded in the midst of this sea of social crime than from one removed from the locality, because of the ready access afforded those for whose benefit it was opened, and the reformatory influence it would exert in the neighborhood. Like the ladies at the Five Points, he was enabled to seize upon one of the chief citadels of corruption in the locality.
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THE WATER-STREET HOME FOR WOMEN.
The "Kit Burns Dog-Pit," rum, carousal, and brothel shop, had obtained a world-wide notoriety, the proprietor gathering lucre from the most brutal and corrupting expedients ever tolerated in a civilized town. The proprietor of this estab- lishment, with no sympathy in the object of the mission, was strangely moved to offer his building for the moderate rent of one thousand dollars per annum, obligating himself to con- tinue the lease for six years. The lease was at once taken, and the work of cleansing and remodeling the premises un- dertaken. The building is a four-story brick, twenty-five by thirty-four feet, with a rear extension which originally con- tained the "pit," but which has since been changed into a kitchen and several bath-rooms. On February 8, 1870, in presence of a vast concourse of people that crowded the building, the "pit," and the adjoining street, the Insti- tution was solemnly dedicated by the Rev. Bishop Janes, the Rev. S. H. Tyng, G. W. Woodruff, S. W. King, and W. McAllister taking part in the exercises. The addresses con- tained many pungent utterances, and produced a profound impression. The Home was not formally opened for the reception of inmates until the 10th of March, 1870, and in a short time the applications for admission were so numerous that many were turned away for want of room to accommo- date them.
In projecting the Institution, it was believed that some dif- ficulty would be experienced in drawing these abandoned creatures into it, and it was proposed to hold evening meet- ings in the hall set apart for public worship, to which it was hoped they might be attracted, and so impressed with truth as to be led to seek refuge and aid in this Christian Home. But as more than could be admitted have from time to time presented themselves, without solicitation, no plans for reach- ing them have been necessary.
The internal management of the Home is under the direc- tion of two resident matrons and a missionary, who are con- stantly employed in self-sacrificing labors of love, and who are heartily identified with the movement, receiving no stated salary, but trusting entirely to the unsolicited contributions of the friends of the cause for their supplies. The matrons have charge of the domestic department, direct the girls in their household duties, and conduct the religious meetings when held exclusively with the inmates of the Institution, in which they are assisted by Christian ladies from the city. The mis-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
sionary, Mr. Henry M. Little, has charge of the Sabbath preaching, the daily and evening prayer-meetings held in the hall, and acts in concert with the matrons in the general ad- ministration of the Home. The duties of the day begin and end with prayer, in which all join.
A general prayer-meeting is held on Tuesday evening, and another on Thursday evening, of each week, when the mis- sionary is assisted by Christian brethren from the up-town churches. These services are designed to reach the vile young men of the neighborhood, and have in some instances been crowned with marvelous results. Men so dissipated and reck- less as to have been wholly abandoned by their friends, and given over as quite incorrigible, have drifted into these ser- vices, where they have been awakened and converted, after which they have returned to their homes and pursued honest careers. A young Englishman of liberal education, and who had been a journalist, but by dissipation and other vices had sunk himself to the depths of despair, resolved to commit sui- cide. He filled his pockets with brick, and stood on the pier for the fatal plunge. By some influence the dreadful act was delayed, he went to the Water-street prayer-meeting, was re- claimed by Divine grace, and has stood firm for months in a pious and useful career. Other examples might be given.
The only condition of admission to the Home is a desire to reform, though they may not know by what process the refor- mation is to be effected. The managers believe that nothing short of Divine grace can reform a fallen woman ; hence they desire to retain each inmate until she has been genuinely converted to God, and thus rendered sufficiently strong to lead a virtuous life on her return to the outside world. A genuine change of heart is the first, last, and great thing sought by the managers in the reception of an inmate. In the meantime work from the stores is taken, each inmate re- ceiving one-half of her earnings. The labor thus far, how- ever, lias not been very productive. During the first five months after the opening of the Home, about one hundred inmates were admitted, some of whom were pronounced the " most desperate characters of the street." But few of them returned to their old ways, many became industrious, tidy, and serious, and about ten per cent., it was thought, gave evi- dence of a changed heart." But with the more perfect or- ganization of the Institution has been given also a larger measure of spiritual influence, and we learn that more than
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THE WATER-STREET HOME FOR WOMEN.
fifty per cent. of all admitted during the last six months have deliberately entered upon a genuine Christian career. The labors of Christian ladies, who assemble several times each week to mingle prayers and exhortations with the inmates in their upper rooms, have not failed of gratifying results, and are more effective than services conducted by persons of the opposite sex.
Meetings for song, conversation, and social intercourse are also held occasionally in the parlor under the direction of the resident officers. Friends from the neighborhood and others are sometimes invited to attend. These gatherings are charac- terized by all the freedom of a well-ordered family, and at some of them conversions have occurred.' More than once since its opening, that devoted Christian vocalist, Philip Phillips, has volunteered to sing his choicest songs to the inmates of the- Home and the assembled populace of that demoralized neigh- borhood. On one occasion, a careful distribution of handbills and complimentary tickets through the dance-houses and liquor saloons of the locality brought together an immense crowd of both sexes, even filling the platform, on which Mr. Phillips sat, with abandoned women. An eye-witness said, " It was indeed a novel entertainment for those ears, always filled with blasphemy and foul speech, to hear 'Singing for Jesus,' from the silvery lips of our sweet singer in Israel.
" At times the deep silence was almost painful ; and when Mr. Phillips sung the 'Dying Child,' there was scarcely a dry eye among those so little accustomed to weep. The songs were interspersed with those short, sweet exhortations which Mr. Phillips so effectively uses to promote the deeply spirit- ual character of. his singing, and on this occasion were more than usually blessed in their appropriateness and effect. When, near the close, he asked how many would join in the request for prayer and try to live a better life, more than forty hands went up, and several of the women near him said aloud, ' I will, Mr. Phillips ; I will try.'"
The founder of the Water Street Home for Women is not wealthy, and at the beginning invested the few hundred dol- lars he possessed to obtain the lease and pay the rent for a part of the first year. It required a large faith in the infinite Provider to launch an enterprise of this character in this locality, against the judgment of so many excellent people ;. yet, believing himself Divinely directed, he set about the- work without fear. The Home is carried on exclusively
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
as a work of faith, no solicitation in any form being made for funds, except prayer and reliance upon God. In the right time means came to defray the expense of repairing, furniture was contributed, and bread given. The rule is not to incur debt. More than once " the last loaf has been eaten" at supper, with no knowledge of what should be on the morrow, but He that feeds the ravens has through His servants sent a timely supply. May the Home never lack encouragement! We re- joice in the auspicious opening of another refuge for the most despised and helpless class in this sin-darkened world. Truly there is something appalling in the case of a fallen woman. A man may descend to deepest prodigality, waste his substance and become a companion of harlots, yet his re- turn is hailed with highest joy. But a fallen woman is pro- nounced lost, and given over as incorrigible. Her reformation, if not openly ridiculed, is long viewed with distrust, even by the excellent of her own sex. This movement in Water street has already resulted in the discontinuance of eight or ten brothels in the vicinity, and the policemen patrolling the lo- cality pronounce it much improved.
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OLD: BREWERY.
FIVE POINTS 2196IJN
THE FIVE-POINTS MISSION.
(No. 61 Park street.)
A quarter of a century ago the Five Points in New York presented the most appalling state of society on the American continent. The locality was a low valley between Broadway and Bowery, originally covered by the Collect pond, and the name was acquired by the converging of three streets instead of two, one of the blocks terminating in a sharp point. The ground, being marshy and uninviting, was settled by the poor and dissolute, mostly from foreign countries, who by degrees became so notoriously disorderly, that it was not considered safe for a respectable person to pass through it without a police escort; and these officers were often maltreated and murdered{ About fifty thousand persons inhabited this local- ity, without a Protestant church, or a school, bidding utter defiance to all law and decency. There were underground passage-ways connecting blocks of houses on different streets, making crime easy and detection difficult. Every house was
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
a filthy brothel, the resort of persons of every sex, age, color, and nationality. Every store was a dram-shop, where from morning to morning thieves and abandoned characters whetted their depraved tastes, concocted and perpetrated crimes and villainies, rendering day and night hideous with their incessant revelries.
The respectable inhabitants living within five minutes' walk of this appalling carnival were astonishingly indifferent to the fearful degradation which there existed, many believing that the majority among them preferred to riot in wretched vices, to starve upon the scanty wages of crime, to be housed in kennels, poor-houses, or jails, racked with loathsome disease, and scourged by the law, rather than dwell in quiet respect- ability by their own careful industry.
To the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal church must ever be accorded the high honor of inaugurating measures for carrying light into this God-forsaken valley of moral blackness. As early as 1848 the Ladies' Home Missionary Society of this denomination, having previously established several missions in different parts of the city, which have since grown into large, flourishing churches, turned its attention toward this long- despised center of abandoned humanity. Impressed with the magnitude and difficulties of their undertaking, the so- ciety selected a number of Christian gentlemen of high stand- ing, who were constituted an advisory committee; upon whom it has always safely relied for counsel and means. In the spring of 1850, Rev. L. M. Pease, of the New York Conference, was appointed to this unpromising field. A room, twenty by forty feet, at the corner of Little Water and Cross streets, was hired, fitted.for holding service, and on the first Sabbath filled with the most motley, filthy, and reckless group that ever crowded a religious service. A lady described it as " a more vivid description of hell than she liad ever imagined." The Sunday school began with seventy unruly scholars. For a time confusion reigned. The boys would turn somersaults, knock each other down, and follow any other vicious inclina- . tion. ยป Order and system were gradually introduced, and in time this school became as orderly as any in the city.
Intemperance was the universal crime and curse of the lo- cality, and it soon becaine evident that nothing could be ac- complished unless this fiery tide could be arrested. A series of temperance meetings were commenced (which have been continued more or less ever since), and over a thousand signed .
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THE FIVE-POINTS MISSION.
the pledge the first year. The next chief difficulty in the way of success was the universal poverty of the population. Reformation with many involved immediate starvation, unless some new channel of industry could be opened. The hunger of a starving family must be somewhat appeased with bread before their minds can be interested in the Gospel. Mr.
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FIVE POINTS
ION
ROOMS
YSTORE
THATITIN
FIVE POINTS MISSICH
THE FIVE-POINTS MISSION.
Pease, with characteristic energy, soon arranged to supply a hundred with needle-work, becoming personally responsible to the manufactories, suffering constant pecuniary loss on ac- count of the poorness of the work. This industrial depart- ment required his constant attention to prevent thefts and losses ; drew him in part away from the pastoral and outside spiritual toil contemplated by the managers, which, with some unfortunate business complications, resulted at length in the severance of his connection with the Ladies' Missionary
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
society. Mr. Pease gave evidence of the deepest devotion to his work, and surprised all his friends by early making his residence and removing his family into the center of this abandoned neighborhood, that the whole weight of his in- fluence and toil might be thrown into the movement.
The next year Rev. J. Luckey was appointed to this field. The accommodations of the Mission were totally inadequate, and measures were set on foot to secure permanent buildings. Mr. Harding generously offered the society the use of the Metropolitan Hall for a public meeting, the Hutchinsons and Alleghanians volunteered to sing gratuitously, and Revs. Beecher and Wakeley to speak on the occasion. The hall was crowded, and $4,000 secured for the Mission. The next year the hall was again tendered, and John B. Gough lectured to a delighted audience, which subscribed $5,000 toward the Mission. In 1852, after mature deliberation, the society pur- chased the Old Brewery, a name it bore from the business once carried on in it, for the sum of $16,000. The large building was at this time in great decay, but inhabited by hundreds of the most desperate characters in the city, and was the acknowledged headquarters of crime in this fearful locality. There were dark, winding passage-ways extending through the whole edifice, various hiding places for criminals, and dark, damp rooms, where scores of wretched families herded promiscuously together. The avenue extending around the outside of the building was familiarly known as " Mur- derer's Alley" and " The Den of Thieves." To demolish this literal pandemonium and erect in its place a temple of mercy to humanity, and of worship to God, was one of the noblest triumphs of Christianity. Inspection proved the building in- capable of repair ; it was pulled down, and on the 27th of Jan- uary, 1833, the corner-stone of the new building was laid by Bishop Janes, of New York, several distinguished clergymen, representing different denominations, taking part in the exer- cises. On the sixteenth day of the following June it was solemnly dedicated to the service of education and religion ; and the managers and missionaries, with feelings too deep for expression, found themselves in possession of a brick building, seventy-five by forty-five feet, and five stories high, containing, besides a neat parsonage, chapel, and school-rooms, two stories, extending over the entire building, to let at reasonable rates to suitable families. The schools, which had been conducted in a temporary wooden building in the park, were transferred
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