sudden impulse, he put his instrument to his mouth, and joined in the melody. The musicians nodded, and signed to him to take his place among them. He complied; but they had not proceeded far, when the bridegroom, stepping out of his place in the procession, approached the boy, and, laying his hand on his shoulder, said, in a hurried voice, "In the name of Heaven, who are you?" Rudolph looked round, and as soon as he saw the person that addressed him, the flute dropped from his hands, and he threw himself passionately into the young man's arms, exclaiming, “O, Conrad, Conrad, is it indeed you!" "Rudolph Wolfganger!" cried Conrad, who scarcely knew whether to be pleased or terrified at the sudden appearance of his young friend among the bridal train, "where have you come from, and how did you get here ?” These questions would have taken some time to answer, even had Rudolph been sufficiently composed to reply coherently. But this was neither the time nor the place for confidential communications, as they both remembered, when the first surprise was over. Strange to say, Rudolph was the first to recover himself. He broke from Conrad and Grete, for the latter was almost as much affected by the sight of him as her husband, and saying, "You know, Conrad, you always said I was to play at your wedding," he took his place among the musicians, and the march was resumed in the same order as before this unexpected interruption. "This is strange, Grete, is it not?" said Conrad, as he walked by the side of his bride. "We had just been talking about Berchtesgaden, and thinking of those who would have been around us if we had all been at our old home. This boy came into my mind with the rest, and when I saw him walking just before us, and playing the very tune I myself taught him, I almost thought it must be his ghost, or some false spirit that had taken his likeness." "And it is neither the one nor the other," answered Grete, "but himself in his own person. I long to know his history, how he came here, and where he is going. Poor fellow! he looks ill; I am afraid he has a tale of sorrow to relate!" BY CALDER CAMPBELL. NOON is coming: brightly gleaming Life with all its varied hum; Up and work! for rich and poor, Calls for "labor" evermore! Up! Night's slumbers, which have bound us, Twilight cometh: birds are winging But, pale Evening, too, hath duties, Night is coming: upward gazing, What a field of stars is there! Prayer its humble hands is raising, Whispering words that wander- Where? Ask not! They shall reach a hearer Where God's music ne'er is dumb! Work, and hope, and smile, and pray; Pass thus manfully the day, Thanking HIM for health, and say, "Earth's rest near, and Heaven's rest nearer: "Tis well that Night hath come!" And the Night will pass: in shadow One would never rest for aye; In dark lane, as on light meadow, Welcome is the dawn of day! To help the helpless! Lo, thy neighbor "THD SCHOOL OF REFORM, WESTBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS. "HERE are few things more hopeful in the present aspect of the times than the multiplication and extension of Houses of Refuge and Reformation for Children and Youth. Those who have observed with much care the various processes by which a depraved character is built up, can appreciate, in some degree, the importance of any means to interrupt them. But it is only those who have seen and known the incorrigibility of a finished rogue, that can put a proper estimate on early reformatory influences."* On the other hand, there is no sight on earth more pitiful than that presented by a large class of the children, especially the boys, of our cities and more considerable towns-with ignorant, vicious, and wretched parents; ever engaged in a running fight with hunger; with miserable sleeping places, even if they have a home; with little or no education; breathing from the first a corrupting atmosphere; taught and often forced to lie and steal; the moral nature, in addition to its own proclivity, always urged in the wrong direction, and the gentle affections and higher aspirations of susceptible childhood crushed down under the oppression of cruelty and crime. What manner of chil dren must these be! "I have seen enough of the poor and desolate," says the Hon. Theodore Lyman, "to be long ago convinced, that many of the persons that go to jails, houses of correction, and state prisons, are originally led there in consequence of the ignorance, or the poverty, or the neglect, or the dissolute habits of parents, or from the want of proper guardians in their youth; in other words, from being exposed in some way to a temptation, that they had either not knowledge enough, or resolution enough to resist." Who can look into the faces of these little street merchants and vagrants without feeling a keen pang and an inward conviction that there has been unpardonable neglect somewhere. Scarcely a characteristic mark of childhood is to be seen; the buoyant step, the ingenuous look, the plump cheek, the ringing laugh, have given place to the long, measured tread of a man, the broad stare of the knave, the emaciated and precociously mature face of one familiar with fasting, toil, and disease, and the coarse shout of the street. This is one of the class so quaintly and truly called "anybody's child-a little fiend, a social curse, a hypocrite, a liar, a thief." If," says the author of the above sentence, "the state had long ago made somebody The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discip- accountable for the child, and taken upon line for April, 1854. itself the duties of the parent, anybody's the most earnest inquiries of municipal bodies, and the investigations of intelligent philanthropists. The Hon. Emory Washburn, now Governor of Massachu. says, "I doubt if a term of our criminal courts passes, in our larger cities, in which children, and those too of a tender age, are not arraigned before them. Often is the heart pained at the spectacle of boys, with the open and ingenuous countenance that gives so much of its charm to that age, and with all the interesting associations which cluster around childhood, standing up amidst old and hardened villains, and receiving, like them, the sentence of an ignominious punishment." child, in lieu of the dreadful creature you recoil from, would now be a hopeful little fellow, with the rose of youth upon his cheek, and the truth of happy childhood upon his lips. Let our voice cry aloud-setts, To whom does anybody's child belong? To some of us, surely; if not to all of us. What are our laws if they secure for the child no protection? What are we if, under our eyes, anybody's child grows up to be everybody's enemy." The way the state has been accustomed, heretofore, to take care of "anybody's child" has been, to allow him to remain, under the Argus eyes of the officers of the law, rapidly passing through his preliminary discipline for crime, unrestrained; watching him until he begins to exhibit the necessary and irresistible results of his training, in the commission of petty offenses. Then the state resolutely takes hold of "anybody's child," (still a child,) and places him for his further discipline in the house of correction, with mature and finished criminals of every character. Sidney Smith says, with characteristic point, "Large public schools are established for the encouragement of profligacy and vice, and for providing a proper succession of house-tablishment of the House of Refuge there, breakers, profligates, and thieves. They are schools too conducted without the smallest degree of partiality or favor, there being no one, however mean his birth, or obscure his situation, who may not easily procure admission to them. The moment any young person evinces the slightest propensity for these pursuits, he is provided with food, clothing, and lodging, and put to his studies under the most accomplished thieves and cut-throats the community can supply." It is the deliberate opinion of an English magistrate, resulting from personal observation, during a long experience, that early imprisonment is the great and primary cause from which crime originates. "From this source most of the evils flow which affect the youthful offender, and at the earliest age he is led into those paths of vice, from which afterward there is no escape; from which the light of hope is almost excluded, and where the tears of repentance (if they fall) are generally disregarded." The increase of crime, of late, among the young, from whatever cause it arises, has been a subject of general and painful remark. In our cities it has called forth From the report made to the legislature of Massachusetts, preliminary to its action upon the subject of a reform school, it is stated that during the year 1845 there were ninety-seven youths, under the age of sixteen, convicted and sentenced to the houses of correction; the statistics of four counties not being included, in one of which, (Suffolk,) in the year 1847, one hundred and one boys were committed to the House of Reformation in eight months. In the city of New-York, before the es of the persons brought before the police magistrate in one year, four hundred and eighty were under twenty-five years of age, and a very large number of both sexes between nine and sixteen, most of whom were children wandering about without home, and with no one to care for them. Out of the four hundred and ninety-one convicts now in the State Prison of Massachusetts, two hundred and twenty-one were not more than twentytwo years of age when admitted, sixtyseven not more than eighteen, and fourteen only sixteen. Sixty-two boys were committed by the court in Boston last year to the House of Reformation, their ages running between seven and fifteen. Quite a number of these boys were sentenced for inveterate truancy, and of these the directors of the institution say, "A want of wholesome parental control at home, rather than any natural tendency to evil, is the cause of their straying from school. A large proportion of them were between seven and twelve, and but little acquainted with crime. But little hope can be entertained of their being good and obedient children until the improving and reforming process shall reach the homes of these boys, and convert them from the abodes of wretchedness and evil example to those of comfort and better influences." The sentencing of a boy of immature age to a house of correction or county jail, has been understood to be tantamount to utter ruin. The pestiferous society of older and hardened criminals, the almost absolute lack of reformatory culture, the utter poverty both as to means of subsistence and reputation in which the young offender issues from his confinement, at the close of his sentence, are almost positive prophecies of his early return to the same quarters for his second offense. Indeed, crimes have been committed to secure a home and bread by famishing youth shut out from honorable employment by their loss of character. This course is continued until sudden death or a terrible crime arrests forever, or for a long period, the course of depravation. There are boys now in the Reform School who, according to their own testimony, have been previously committed for crimes more than a score of times. The state punishes them for their breaches upon her peace, and in addition makes them worse, and then punishes them again more severely for the crime she herself has nursed in them. In the old world, of late, special attention has been drawn to the cause and cure of juvenile crime. In England, France, and especially in Germany, reformatory and manual-labor schools for the neglected and exposed portions of the young have been established, and the experiments have been eminently successful. It has been found to be a matter of social economy to take those that are most tempted, and have just yielded to the first overt act of sin, and place them beyond the reach of the solicitations with which they have been surrounded, and the pressure of want; bestow upon them a good education; inspire them with all the wholesome incentives to an upright and virtuous life, and instruct them in all the principles and practices of the Christian religion, rather than to allow them to sink deeper into iniquity, acquire a greater power to do harm, peril the peace of society, and then, without the hope of reformation or corresponding returns, to be forced to restrain them at increased expense. Sufficient evidence of the wisdom of this course is found in the fact that a large proportion of those now confined in our prisons, commenced their 66 career in crime when they were children. A convict in the prison in Auburn, N. Y., was first convicted when only ten years old, and has since been, at different times, twenty-eight years a convict, supported by the state, at an expense of not less than two thousand dollars. Half the interest of that sum, seasonably expended in his proper training, might have given him to the state as an intelligent, industrious, upright citizen, and a sharer of the public burdens." It is said that the worst use the state can put a subject to is to execute him; and the next is to imprison him. office dren. There is a higher and a nobler that she may perform for her chilLike a wise and loving mother, she may shelter and nurture them in her arms, correct with gentle discipline their errors, and secure for herself their future benedictions and services. A young man was passing along the streets on his way to the state prison, in the company of the officers of justice. The sight was peculiarly painful, and much feeling was manifested in his behalf. Said a thoughtful man to another by his side, "If the same amount of interest that is now exhibited had been practically shown this youth ten years ago, he would never have gen found in such a condition." The state of Massachusetts had the honor of being the first to provide a state institution for the reform and moral training of juvenile offenders. The cities of Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia, had previously provided houses of refuge and reformation for the youth of their several municipalities, and several noble private establishments, like the Farm School in Boston, had been in operation for a few years; but the Westborough School "was the first enterprise in our country, whereby a state, in the character of a common parent, has undertaken the high and sacred duty of rescuing and restoring her lost children, not so much by the terrors of the law as by the gentler influences of the school." The proposition for a school of reform was brought before the legislature in the session of 1846, by a petition numerct sly signed by the citizens of the state, and containing among them the name of the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Commissioners were appointed at this session to select an eligible lot of land, to procure the proper plans for the necessary buildings, and to elaborate a system of government and discipline. In their report to the next legislature, they set forth this noble object as the leading idea of the school: "to take those who might otherwise be subjected to the degradation of prison discipline, and separate them from vicious influences; to teach them their duty to God and their fellow-beings; prepare them to earn an honest livelihood by honorable industry, in some trade or agricultural employment; and to give them such an intellectual education as will fit them properly to discharge the common business of life." During the session of this commission they received from a gentleman-who with a modesty equaled only by his munificence, withheld his name from the public-ten thousand dollars for the promotion of the interests of the new institution, and a proposition to bestow ten thousand more if the state would grant an equal amount, an offer that was at once responded to by her representatives. But this was not the limit of this extraordinary anonymous endowment. It being thought desirable at a later date to annex an adjoining farm, the twenty-five hundred dollars required for its purchase came from the open hand of the same donor, who had vailed his face from the public acclamation, and the sincere gratitude and admiration of the community. And even this was not all. In the month of July, 1849, the Hon. Theodore Lyman died at his residence in Brookline, Mass., honored and lamented by all that knew him, leaving in his will the princely sum of fifty thousand dollars, in addition to all his former donations, as a legacy to the school. Thus from one truly Christian gentleman, the state received the ample sum of over seventytwo thousand dollars, for the purpose of reforming the wretched and tempted children of the commonwealth. A gift so unostentatious, so noble, and so well-distributed, is rarely recorded in the annals of our charities. It is not within the province of the human mind to measure the good that will be accomplished by this benevolent act, or to number the benedictions, from the lips of those ready to perish, upon the memory of this philanthropic man. A simple bust in the beautiful chapel of the institution is the only visible representative of the donor; but the whole massive pile of buildings is his noblest monument, and his memory among the boys will ever be "like ointment poured forth." General Lyman had felt the importance of this state movement for the reform of juvenile offenders, from his active participation in the Farm School, of which corporation he was, for a number of years, the president. This institution, an illustration of which has been provided for us, by Moses Grant, Esq., the vice-president and energetic patron of the school, is a private charity, receiving no aid from the state or city, and established by generous individuals, at first in the city itself, and afterward removed to Thompson's island, in Boston harbor, the whole of which is owned by the corporation. Its object is to secure the education and reformation of boys, who from the loss of their parents, or from other causes, are exposed to extraordinary temptations, and liable to become vicious, dangerous or useless members of society. In this institution manual labor is coupled with careful mental and moral instruction; and from the fact of the isolated position of the island, the restraint and discipline of the boys is easily secured, without severity, and more indulgence in recreation can be allowed than if upon the main land. From 1835 to 1852 there were seven hundred and thirty admissions, an average of about fifty a year. These boys are indented to farmers or mechanics in the country, where their advancement in education and improvement in moral character justify their removal. The number of inmates is now limited to one hundred. The success of this experiment in the unmistaken reformation of many of the youths, and their heartfelt gratitude when, in mature life, they could appreciate the kindness that saved them from destruction, prepared General Lyman's mind for a wider field of effort, and he at once seized upon the occasion offered by the inquiry on the part of the state to accomplish this object. In his anonymous letter accompanying the offer of the second ten thousand dollars, he says, “I put a great value on the State Manual-Labor School, and am exceedingly desirous not only that it should begin well, but that it should meet with undoubted success, and deserve and secure the approbation and support of the community. For I do not think that a measure, costing an equal |