transitory and illusive, would be very unsafe; yet from the general demonstrations of order and cheerful obedience which are observable to every visiter, the decorous attention of the children during religious service, the frequent instances which occur of private devotion after they have retired to their cells, and are unseen by their fellows, and the testimonials furnished by the letters, of which extracts have been given, we think it may be safely inferred, that under judicious management, a House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents may become a true penitentiary,-and that at least during the period of childhood and adolescence, no mind of ordinary native powers, however debased by vice, should be considered as beyond the reach of moral discipline and the admonitions of religious truth.

The assembling together of so large a number of the vagrant, corrupt, and wicked youth of the city as are collected in the House of Refuge, the entire confidence which the Superintendent is able to gain in his conversations with them, and the full confessions, which, in due time, they make of their past lives and actions, furnish data from which it is easy to deduce conclusions relative to the principal causes of that degradation and abandonment to vice which lead the culprit to prison or to infamy. There is no truth of sacred writ more fully confirmed by the testimony of ages, than that "evil communications corrupt good manners." A propensity to steal and to evade the truth, is often manifest at an early age, and appears to exist in different degrees of native force. But the temptation to these vices, might, it is believed, in all common cases, be easily checked, were it not for the power of associations, and the encouragement afforded by companionship in vice. The motives to thieving are therefore those principally which lead to vicious gratifications of a social character. The thief is often prodigal of his money. He squanders it to purchase a transient enjoyment with boon companions. Whatever holds out to him this lure, excites his unprincipled passion, and plunges him into the vortex of habitual indulgence. Among these causes of vicious excitement in our city, none appear to be so powerful

in their operation as theatrical amusements. The mention of the number of boys and young men who have become determined thieves in order to procure the means of introduction to the theatres and circuses, would appal the feelings of every virtuous mind, could the whole truth be laid open before them. A small sum is at first pilfered, to obtain a single sight of amusements respecting which they hear so much, and whose entertainments the street advertisements exhibit in such conspicuous and alluring characters. The first gratification prompts powerfully to the means of renewal,-new acquaintance is formed-the secrets of others still deeper in crime become known-other passions are elicited--dishonesty and falsehood, once rendered habitual, and the vicious propensities of the mind gaining a complete ascendency-the barriers of the law, and a regard for character, present no further impediments, than a desire to evade the one and to conceal the abandonment of the other.

In the case of the feebler sex, the result is still worse. A relish for the amusements of the theatre, without the means of honest indulgence, becomes too often a motive for listening to the first suggestions of the seducer, and thus prepares the unfortunate captive of sensuality for the haunts of infamy, and a total destitution of all that is valuable in the mind and character of woman.

The two following cases, selected from the examination of the boys of the Refuge, by the Superintendent, will tend to corroborate the opinion entertained by the Managers, that no greater evil could have befallen our city, in relation to the morals of its youth, than the extraordinary increase which has recently taken place in the number and variety of its theatres and other analogous places of public amusement. From the rivalship which prevails between these places, and the necessity of resorting to some means in order to sustain a reputation for numbers, the terms of admission are reduced to a modicum; and, if our information be correct, tickets of admission, even in some of the largest of these establishments, are freely granted to that class of females which it is expected will be able to bring companions with them, and thus add to the emoluments and appearance of the house.

June 24th, 1827. HS, from the Commissioners, by the intercession of his mother and friends, aged eleven years the third of March last, born in Yonkers, Westchester Co. N. Y. His father has been dead six or seven years, his mother keeps a boarding house, on the corner of B. and R. street, is to pay one thousand dollars rent annually, and has twenty-seven boarders.

H. lived two years with his uncle R. M., at H**** N****, Connecticut; returned to his mother in September last.

His first theft was sixpence from his mother; the second was two shillings from her, with which he went to the Chatham Theatre, and told his mother that he had been playing with boys in the street; then six shillings from his mother, which he spent in going to the Bowery Theatre twice; next five dollars from his aunt H. M., of which he spent three dollars, in going to the Park Theatre three times, and concealed the rest under his mother's back stoop; then four shillings from Miss J. M., which he spent in going to the Chatham Theatre, including ice cream, oranges, &c. &c.; then five dollars from Miss S., one of his mother's boarders-spent three dollars in going to the Bowery Theatre, and concealed the rest as before; next two dollars from Mrs. D., which he hid under the back stoop as before; then ten dollars from his mother, spent the greatest part in going twice to the Chatham Theatre, put the balance as before under the back stoop. The object of his hiding these little amounts, was, that he might have a sufficiency on the ensuing fourth of July.

January, 1827.

J——— MI—, from the Commissioners, at the request of his step-father, E. W. H. J. was born in Philadelphia; his father, who died about fourteen years since, was president of the N. A. I. C. He has four sisters and one brother living. About nine months since, his mother married E. W. H., a shipping merchant, who has since failed in business, and is now employed by R., and has a salary of sixteen hundred dollars per annum. J. appears to have had opportunities for a fair English and German education; was three years and a half at the Nazareth School, is naturally bashful and timid, submissive and quiet has lived thirteen months in his brother-in-law's printing office, and some time in the office of his step-father. He removed from Philadelphia to this city, about three months since.

The first thing he recollects to have stolen, was six large silver spoons from his mother, about four years since, for which he obtained nine dollars; the half of it he gave to his cousin, and spent the remainder in gambling on the fourth of July. The next was five dollars from his father, after which he ran away, and was absent about one week; he then took a large six dollar atlas, which his step-father gave him, and sold it for three dollars, and spent it by going to the Theatre; then, a box of mathematical instruments from his father, which he sold for three dollars; at different times, a large number of books from his father's library, one of which he sold for five dollars, it being full of valuable plates; next, his mother's gold watch, which he pawned for ten dollars, but his mother obtained it again by paying the sum for which it was

pawned. He stole his sister's necklaces, offered them for sale, and the man detaining them, his sister obtained them again. His father then found him in the Theatre, and sent him to his brother-inlaw's, with a view to save him; he continued there thirteen months, as above, and then returned to Philadelphia. On his departure from his brother-in-law's, Mr. G. T., he stole two watches, which, upon his arrival in Philadelphia, he sold for twelve dollars and a half, and as his father was in New-York on business, he spent it in going to the theatre, &c. It appears that as he came to NewYork, on his return from his brother-in-law's, by the way of Philadelphia, he commenced his old trade with renewed vigor; the first commencement was in sacrificing his father's library, by selling Rollin's Ancient History, breaking a set of the Encyclopedia, by selling eight volumes out of forty, French and German books, dictionaries, &c. ; next, a suit of his mother's bed curtains, for which he obtained seven dollars. He, about this time, formed an acquaintance with a thief, by the name of C. A. Crossing from Brooklyn one night, on their way he made an agreement with A. to meet him at his father's house, very early next morning, and he would furnish him with some of his mother's bed clothes; A. came, and J. gave him a load, which he sold and returned him half the proceeds.

It would be well here to remark, that it was now in the summer season, and J's mother had put away her curtains, sheets, blankets, &c. in trunks in their garret. A. and J. continued for a week or more to lug off these articles, until they had stripped the house pretty thoroughly: the last articles that A. was furnished with, were Mrs. H's cloth coat, silk frock, white dress, &c, which he kept and returned no more. The greatest amount that J. ever received from Allen, at any one time, was ten dollars for his mother's goods stolen. J. also stole his father's saddle and bridle, for which he obtained seven dollars; then he went to a neighboring clerk, and by stratagem, persuaded him to sign a merchant's name to five checks, one for forty-five dollars, two for thirtyfive dollars each, one for twenty-five dollars, and another for fifteen dollars. He went to different shops where his father dealt, and changed the greater part of them, and raised about one hundred dollars, and stole fifty dollars more from his father. This occurred on a Saturday evening, and on Sunday morning he started for Philadelphia. His father, accidentally received early information of his departure, and overtook him at Elizabeth Town, in the afternoon; had him locked up one day, and on the following day told him that he could trust him no longer, and that he should be obliged to send him to sea. J. did not wish to go,

therefore he went to a house where Mr. C. President of the L. S. boarded, and told the landlady, that Mr. C. had sent him for his coat, which he obtained and sold in the Bowery for eleven dollars; then a pair of boots from his father, for which he obtained three dollars and a half; then a coat from his cousin G. H. for which he obtained seven dollars, and ran away from his father and took private board, to avoid being sent to sea. His father found him in the Chatham Theatre, about seventeen days since, put him in Bridewell, and from thence to the House of Refuge.

His friends and himself all say that his great thirst for visiting theatres and places of amusement, was the leading passion which induced him to steal so much.

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It is not believed that these are very rare or very peculiar cases. The number of boys that occupy the lower seats of the theatres and of those too whose ged appearance indicates the poverty in which they live, is said to be very great; and the examinations of the Refuge would lead to the conclusion, that these places are the resort almost universally of those, who, by the dishonesty of their lives become candidates for the Refuge and City Prison. But it is much easier to point out these evils than to prescribe the remedy. It would not perhaps be extravagant to assert that were the theatres and circuses made to contribute an amount equal to the maintenance of the city prison, they would do no more than compensate for the extent of the moral evil which they entail upon the inferior classes of our population.

In the management of the female part of the institution and in the domestic arrangements of the whole establishment, the Managers can cordially acknowledge the assistance which has been derived from the Ladies' Committee. Their attentions have been steadily directed, in weekly visits to the Refuge, to the moral and religious improvement of the females, and to the strengthening of the hands of the Matron in her delicate and important duties. Although it may not be probable that the number of female subjects will much exceed its present proportion, yet every instance of restoration to virtue, or protection from the horrors of vice in this class of its subjects, cannot fail to yield the blessing of an ample reward for all the labor and care it may have cost. "The benevolent interests of the Matron, (observes the Sixth Report of the London Society for the improvement of Prisons, &c.) will not be confined to the walls of her gaol. There is not perhaps in the whole range of human destitution, a more genuine object of compassion, than the friendless girl, who quits a prison, with the desire, yet without the means of reformation. Satisfactory may have been her conduct during confinement, and gratifying the proofs of her moral improvement;