USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 33
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The labors of the Association for the elevation of the indi- gent and the suppression of unnecessary pauperism, have
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ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF POOR. 507
been crowned with the most gratifying results. Its last . annual report states that the average number of families re- lieved for the ten years ending with 1860 was 8,632, in a pop- ulation averaging about 625,000 souls ; while in the decade closing with 1870, with a population of over 900,000, but 6,131 families had been the annual average number relieved. These figures show that during the first decade named there was an absolute gain in the pecuniary independence of the masses previously relieved of seventy-one per cent., and during the ten years closing with 1870 an additional im- provement of fifty-four per cent., or the substantial gain of one hundred and twenty-five per cent. during the last twenty years.
It will thus be seen that the amount of relief afforded by the sums of money expended give but an imperfect estimate of the service rendered by this Association to the cause of humanity. Always managed by wise, philanthropic minds, it has ever been first to discover the source of public evil, and prompt to suggest and apply the true remedy. Indeed, to this Association more than to any other are we indebted for the successful inauguration of more than a score of our most excel- lent charities. Besides furnishing the public with volumes of statistics, accumulated with great expense, in relation to our population, the causes and remedies of poverty, the unhealthy condition of our dwellings, and many other things which have led to great reforms, it has waged unceasing war with the public nuisances of the city, its lotteries, Sabbath desecra- tion, gambling dens, intemperance, and many other evils. In 1846 a system for the gratuitous supply of medical aid, to the indigent sick in portions of the city not reached by exist- ing Dispensaries, was organized. This led to the founding of the Demilt Dispensary in 1851, and the North-western Dispensary in 1852. In 1851 it projected the New York Juvenile Asylum.
A Public Washing and Bathing Establishment was estab- lished in 1852, at an expense of $42,000, and the following year the Association procured an act to provide for the care and instruction of Idle Truant Children.
In 1854 the Children's Aid Society was formed by the de -. mands of a public sentiment which this Association had largely created. The Workingmen's Home was erected in 1855, by the direction of the Association, at an expense of $90,000. During the war it held steadily on its way, and
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' 508
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
accomplished a vast amount of good in more ways than we have space to enumerate. We mention in honor of this society-last, but not least-in 1863 it organized the society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled, which ranks to- day among the noblest charities of New York.
The Honorable Robert M. Hartley has been the indefati- gable corresponding secretary and agent of the society since its formation, and to the patient thinking and incessant toil of this gentleman is the public indebted for much of the good accomplished by this and by several other societies. We cheerfully acknowledge our obligation to the secretary and his associate, Mr. Savage, for various items of informa- tion embodied in this work.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK.
(Corner of Fourth avenue and Twenty-third street.)
HE Young Men's Christian Association's are soci- eties which have for their object the formation of Christian character and the development of Christian activity in young men. The first Association was or- ganized in London on the sixth of June, 1844, and on the ninth of December, 1851, the first on this continent was formed at Montreal. The Boston Association established December 29, 1851, was the first in the United States, and the following years organizations sprang up in Washington, Buffalo, New York, the latter organized June 30, 1852. For several years little correspondence existed between the dif- ferent Associations ; but in 1854 the plan of holding an Annual Convention for the mutual interchange of thought, the gathering of statistical and other information, was intro- -duced. This Convention, held in Buffalo, recommended to the Associations the formation of a voluntary confederation for mutual encouragement, having two agencies for carrying on its work, viz. : An Annual Convention and a Central Com- inittee, the functions of these being only advisory or recom-
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING.
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YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK. 509
mendatory. Sixteen of these National Conventions have now been held, many of which have been large and impress- ive. The Association organized and conducted, during the late war, the Christian Commission, whose toils and useful- ness cannot be too highly commended. There are now in the United States seven hundred and seventy-six associations and sixty-two in the British Provinces, with a membership of over one hundred thousand. Twelve of these have already erected or purchased buildings of their own, and twenty-one more at least are collecting funds to do so. The Association in New York city was the third organized in America, and has a membership at present of over six thousand. The headquar- ters of the Association were for several years at No. 161 Fifth avenne ; and to reach the masses of young men in the various wards of the city, four branches have been formed, one of which is at Harlem, one at No. 285 Hudson street, one at No. 473 Grand street, and one for colored men at No. 97 Wooster street. Each branch is supplied with a library free to all the members, with a reading-room supplied with the principal magazines and papers of the city, and with occa- sional lectures from distinguished men. The Association appoints several committees to which the principal labor is committed. It has a committee on Invitation, on Member- ship, on Employment, on Boarding-houses, on Visitation of the Sick, on Devotional Meetings, on Choral Society, on Literary Society, and one on Churches. Young and middle- aged men from all evangelical denominations unite, forget- ting denominational distinctions, and do annually a vast amount of good. Ilundreds of young men loitering in the streets are picked up and saved from dens of dissipation and crime. Strangers are recommended to suitable boarding- houses, introduced to members of churches in their neigh- borhood, and many furnished with good situations in busi- ness. For several years the Association contemplated the erection of a suitable building, which, in addition to its ample accommodations, would furnish an income, so greatly needed in the prosecution of its work. An act of incorporation passed the Legislature April 3, 1866, granting power to hold real or personal estate for the uses of the corporation, whose annual rental value should not exceed $50,000. A plot of land on the south-west corner of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue was purchased, at a cost of $142,000. On the 13th of January, 1868, ground was broken, and on De-
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510
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
cember 2d, 1869, the building was dedicated, Drs. Dewitt, Tyng, Adams, Kendricks, Thompson, Ridgaway, Messrs. Dodge, Randolph, General Howard, Governor Hoffman, and Vice-President Colfax taking part in the exercises.
The edifice, which is very attractive, is five stories high, with a front of eighty-six feet nine inches on Fourth avenue and one hundred and seventy-five feet on Twenty-third street. Immense blocks of granite form the base of the walls, and as they ascend Ohio free and New Jersey brown stone, with their varying colors, are agreeably interspersed with an occasional vermiculated block. The windows, in a variety of forms, ex- hibit the beauty and strength of the arch-line, and the polished archivolts are richly ornamented with carved voussoirs. The central door is marked by rich columns and surmounted by the arms of the Association.
The roof is crowned with a superb central and three angu- lar towers. The ground floor is rented for stores. Entering on Twenty-third street, ascending a flight of stairs, you pass to the right into the grand hall, capable of seating one thousand five hundred persons, so perfectly ventilated that a crowded audience departs, at the close of a lecture, leav- ing the air as pure as it found it. The hall is furnished with a Chickering piano-forte and a pipe organ, which cost $10,000, both of which were purchased with the proceeds of a concert held in the hall on the evening of the 1st of December, 1869. To the left of the staircase is a pleasant reception-room, from which is an entrance into the secretary's room, the large reading-room, to three committee-rooms, to a wash-room, a bath-room, to a gymnasium, and after descending two flights of stairs to a bowling-alley. Upon the next floor is the library, capable of containing twenty thousand volumes, a small lecture-room, with seating for four hundred persons, four smaller rooms for evening classes in penmanship, draw- ing, book-keeping, the sciences, and the languages. : The upper stories are rented to artists and others.
The edifice cost, exclusive of the site, $345,000, on which there remains a debt of $150,000, which the managers hope to remove with the rent of the stores. Such an embodiment of modern Christianity is rarely seen in one building. . The noble edifice presents the study of architecture, the first floor exhibits the activities of business, while farther up are found painting, music, eloquence, conversation, reading, study, rec- reation, and worship-all that can attract, expand, and ennoble the soul.
THE PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK.
(Bible House.)
HIE Prison Association of New York was organized on the evening of the 6th of December, 1844. The objects of this Association, as set forth in its constitu- tion, are: 1. A humane attention to persons arrested and held for examination or tried, including inquiry into the circumstances of their arrest, and the crimes charged against them ; securing to the friendless an impartial trial and protec- tion from the depredations of unprincipled persons, whether professional sharpers or fellow prisoners. 2. Encourage- ment and aid to discharged convicts in their efforts to re- form and earn an honest living. This is done by assisting them to situations, providing them tools, and otherwise coun- seling and helping them to business. 3. To study the question of prison discipline generally, the government of State, county, and city prisons, to obtain statistics of crime, disseminate information on this subject, to evolve the true principles of science, and impress a more reformatory charac- ter on our penitentiary system. The Association was duly incorporated, with large power for the examination of all prisons and jails in the State, during the second year of its operations, and required to report annually to the Legislature. A female department was organized the first year (The Isaac T. Hopper Home), which soon became an independent society, abundant in labor and rich in results. Its history and work- ings are elsewhere traced in this work.
During the twenty-five years of its operations closing with 1869, the Association visited in the prisons of detention of New York and Brooklyn, 93,560 poor and friendless persons, many of whom were counseled and assisted as their cases re- quired.
The officers of the society carefully examined 25,290 com- plaints; and at their instance 6,148 complaints were with- drawn, as being of a trivial character, or founded on mis- take, prejudice, or passion. During the same period, 7,922 persons were discharged by the Courts on the recommendation of these officers as young, innocent, penitent, or having of-
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512
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
fended under mitigating circumstances, making a total of 133,922 cases, to which relief in some form had been extended. During the same period 18,307 discharged convicts had been aided with board, clothing, tools, railroad tickets, or money ; 4,139 of the same class had been provided with permanent situations, swelling the number to 156,368.
But the principal work of the Association has been intel- lectual. It has again and again examined every prison, peni- tentiary, and jail throughout the State (numbering about one hundred in all), and those of the surrounding States, and of the Canadas, pointing out faithfully in its annual reports the defective constructure of these establishments, the incompe- tency or barbarity of keepers, the chief defects of our prison system, and has sought industriously to educate public senti- ment and influence the Legislature toward a more humane, rational, and reformatory system of prison administration. The Association has conducted a valuable correspondence with enlightened men of the Old World, who have made this subject a matter of special study, thus bringing together the researches and experiments of all countries. It has collected volumes of statistics which no student can afford to do without. It in- forms us that the sixty-eight county jails of New York State cost annually about a quarter of a million of dollars for their maintenance, of which sum not five hundred dollars are expended with any view to meeting the religious wants of the prisoners. None are supplied with libraries or facilities of instruction, and scarcely any have Bibles, though the statute specially enjoins it.
An earnest inquiry has been made by the Association into the sources of crime, and the want of due parental care and government has been found the most prolific of all. To im- prove society, we must practise upon the injunction, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Of the approximate causes, drink is most potent. Two-thirds of all prisoners interrogated ac- knowledged that they were of intemperate habits, and not one in a hundred had totally abstained from its use.
Next in the scale comes lewdness. Of six thousand women committed to jail in one year, over three-fourths were prosti- tutes, and near half the men prisoners interrogated confessed that they were frequenters of brothels. Theaters are sources of great evil. Nearly fifty per cent. of all committed to prison have frequented these places.
"BLACK MARIA "-the carriage used in carrying criminals from the Courts and Tombs to Blackwell's Island.
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COURT OF SPECIAL SESSIONS IN THE TOMBS.
BRIDGE OF SIGHS "-connecting inner and outer Prison in the Tombs.
WILL
7/11
PREACHING TO THE FALLEN WOMEN IN THE TOMBS.
513
THE CITY PRISONS.
The gambling saloon, above all other places, hardens man's moral nature. Of 975 prisoners at Auburn, 317 were ac- knowledged gamblers, about one-third ; and the same propor- tion was found in the prisons of Connecticut.
Ignorance and vice are found in sad conjunction. In the State of New York but two and seven-tenths per cent. of the general population are unable to read; but of its criminals thirty-one per cent. do not possess that ability.
Early indolence is another source of great evil. It has been ascertained that, of the prisoners of the whole United States, more than four-fifths have never learned a trade.
The Association has contended nobly for the introduction of skilled labor into our prisons, and the retention of prisoners until they are masters of their trades, thus furnishing the means for honorable subsistence after their release.
The Association has ranked among its members many of the first men of the State. Its office is in Room 38, Bible House.
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HALLS OF JUSTICE OR TOMBS, CENTRE STREET.
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THE CITY PRISONS.
The first building used as a jail on Manhattan was on the corner of Dock street and Coenties slip. After the erection of the City Hall in Wall street, the criminals were confined in dungeons in the cellar, while debtors were imprisoned in the attic apartments. The next prison erected was known as the "New Jail," called also the "Provost" (see page 74), from its having been the headquarters and chief dungeon of the infamous Cunningham, the British provost marshal of the Revolution. It was a strong stone building erected for the imprisonment of debtors, and is now the Hall of Records. The pillars which now ornament it are of later origin. The. next was the Bridewell (see page 69), a cheerless, graystone edifice, two stories high, with basement, a front and rear pediment, which stood a little west of the present City Hall. It was erected for the confinement of vagrants, minor of- fenders, and criminals awaiting trial, in 1775, just in time to serve as a dungeon for the struggling patriots of the Revo- lution. The building was scarcely finished, the windows had nothing but iron bars to keep out the cold, yet in the inclement season the British thrust eight hundred and sixteen Ameri- can prisoners, captured at Fort Washington, into this build-
INTERIOR OF MALE PRISON
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BOYS HALL .- TOMES.
FEMALE PRISON 2° TIER.
515
THE CITY PRISONS.
ing, where they continued from Saturday to the following Thursday, without drink or food. During these perilous years all the public and many of the private buildings, besides nu- merous sugar-houses and ships, were crowded with suffering American prisoners of war. New York was indeed a city of prisons. The Bridewell was finally demolished, and much or the material used in the erection of the Tombs in 1838. After the establishment of independence a large stone prison surrounded by a high wall was erected on the west side of the island, three miles above the City Hall, called at that time Greenwich village. It was ready for the reception of convicts in August, 1796, was designed for criminals of the highest grade, and was the second State Prison in the United States. Sing-Sing prison was begun in 1825 and completed in 1831. The New York County Jail, situated at the corner of Ludlow street and Essex Market place, was opened in June, 1862, and took the place of the old Eldridge street jail. It is built in the form of an L, ninety feet on each street, forty feet deep and sixty-five high, leaving a yard of fifty feet square, surrounded by a high wall, in which prisoners are allowed to exercise. The building contains eighty-seven cells. Besides the above . there are four other places of involuntary confinement on Manhattan, all of which are under the control of the Com- missioners of Charities and Corrections, and in each of which a Police Court convenes every morning to examine the charges brought against persons arrested. The Halls of Jus- tice, the principal building situated between Centre, Elm, Leonard, and Franklin streets, on the site of the old Collect Pond, was begun in 1835 and completed in 1838. It is a two-story.building constructed of Maine white granite in the Egyptian order, is 253 by 200 feet and occupies the four sides of a hollow square. The front on Centre street is reached by a broad flight of granite steps, and the portico is supported by several massive Egyptian columns. The windows, which ex- tend through both stories, have heavy iron-grated frames. The female department is situated in the section which ex- tends along Leonard street, and is presided over by an amiable Christian matron who has held her position with great credit for more than twenty years. In the front of the editice are rooms for the Court of Sessions, the Police Court, etc., which have given it its name, " Halls of Justice." In the centre of the enclosed yard, distinct from the other buildings, stands the men's prison, 142 by 45 feet, containing 148 cells. State
516
NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
.criminals have been executed in the open court. The prison stands on low, damp ground in the vicinity of a poor and riotous neighborhood, is poorly ventilated, was never calen- lated to well accommodate over two hundred prisoners, yet, the annual average is nearly four hundred, and often greatly exceeds that number. It has lately been condemned by the grand jury of the county as a nuisance, and as the Commis- sioners have repeatedly recommended the building of a large and well-arranged prison in a more suitable locality, it is not likely that the frowning, dingy "Tombs" will long continue in the city. The building as it appeared some thirty years ago contained a high tower which was destroyed by fire on the day appointed for the execution of Colt, and is believed to have been a part of the unsuccessful plan for his escape. The next largest is the Jefferson Market prison, situated at the corner of Greenwich avenue and Tenth street. Its exterior is of brick, and contains besides its conrt-rooms twenty-five large cells, a single one of which sometimes contains ten or twenty drunken men. The daily commitments here amount to from thirty-five to fifty, and in seasons of general disorder many more. Adjoining the prison stands engine house No. 11 of the old fire department, which has been arranged for the female prison. This prison is kept remarkably clean, not- withstanding the masses of seething corruption huddled to- gether in it day and night through all the year. The cells are well warmed but not furnished with beds, as the prisoners are usually detained here but one night, and never but a few days. Many of them are so filthy and so covered with vermin, that beds cannot be kept in a proper condition. The third district prison is known as the Essex Market, situated at 69 Essex street, and is a little smaller than the one just described. The fourth is situated at Fifty-seventh street and Lexington avenue; the cells, capable of holding about forty prisoners, are in the basement under the Court-house. Small as these prisons are, no less than 49,423 persons were detained in theni during 1870. All classes are seen here, from the ignorant imbruted bully to the expert and polished villain. Some are abashed and sit weeping over their folly ; others are reticent and collected. The visitor is often surprised to learn that that handsome female leaning over the banister, clad in rich silks, with gold chain, pin, and bracelets, is a prisoner ar- rested for disorderly conduct.
The business at the Police Courts, and also at the Court
N. Y. DISPENSTIR
04
NEW YORK DISPENSARY. North- West corner of Centre and White Streets.
NORTHERN DISPENSARY-
NORTHERN DISPENSARY. Waverly Place corner of Christopher Street.
SODA WATER
EASTERN DISPENSARY. No. 57 Essex Street.
DEKILT DISPENSARY. Corner of Second Avenue and East Twenty-Third Street.
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THE CITY PRISONS.
of Sessions, is dispatched with wonderful rapidity. At the former the Justice hears the charge of the officer, the expla- nation of the prisoner, and decides without counsel or jury whether he shall be discharged, fined, or detained for trial at the Court of Sessions. The vast majority of all arrested are discharged after spending a night in the station-house. The Court of Sessions convenes every Tuesday and Saturday for the trial of all cases involving doubt, argument, or proof. This is strictly a criminal court, and the prisoner is allowed to introduce counsel and witnesses. A visitor from the country where a criminal suit consumes from three to ten days takes his seat in the court-room and is surprised to see six or ten cases disposed of in thirty minutes.
The names of Mrs. Blake and Bridget -- are called. Bridget has been the servant of Mrs. B., who has caused her arrest for stealing money from the drawer. Mrs. B. takes the witness stand, makes her full statement to the Judge, answers all his questions as to how she knew Bridget took the money, when she caused her arrest, &c. The policeman is next called, who states that he arrested her and found the money. Bridget, who has been leaning on the iron railing which cuts off the prisoners' space from the main court-room, is now called upon. She has no counsel, but wishes Mrs. R. to speak in her behalf. The lady is heard-states that Bridget lived several years in her house, and was never known to steal. The Judge recalls Mrs. Blake and inquires hurriedly, " Has she ever stolen anything of you before ?" On being told that she has not, he turns to Bridget and says, " The Court suspends judgment as this is the first offence, but if you ever come here again I shall send you to Blackwell's Island." Two men are arraigned for striking a policeman who arrested them in a drunken row, swinging a loaded revolver. The officer gives his testimony, after which he is thoroughly sifted by the counsel of the prisoners, who tries in vain to entangle and embarrass him. Next come witnesses for the prisoners (old cronies), who drank freely with them on the occasion referred to, but who know they were not drunk or disorderly-that the pistol fell out of his pocket, and that . the officer was wholly to blame. The officer is recalled, and reaffirins what he has said. "Have you no witnesses to sustain you ?" says the Judge. The officer had not supposed it necessary to bring any. The Judge wrings about on his chair, runs his fingers through his whiskers and says, "The law
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