Two Young Waifs and a Plea for Reform

An article in the POST-INTELLIGENCER this morning tells a pathetic story of two little waifs now confined in the county jail, and suggests the ever-living question of what to do with these youngsters to prevent them from drifting into the ever-increasing class of vagrants and criminals. Years ago I was connected with the department of justice and my duties caused me to make several visits to the reform school for colored boys in Maryland. Shortly after the close of the civil war, a number of philanthropic gentlemen in Baltimore were impressed with the fact that the police courts were crowded daily with a large number of petty thievery and vagrancy cases, the culprits being almost entirely boys, at ages ranging from 8 to 16 years. After securing a charter, they purchased a worn-out farm in southern Maryland, erected a comfortable brick building, and utilized an apprenticeship system. When a boy is sent to the school, he is kindly received, assigned to a ward, and given a uniform. He rises at 5 a. m. and participates in a structured day of schooling and agricultural or mechanical work. If both the boy and his assigned master are satisfied after a probation period, the boy is apprenticed during his minority, with wages collected by the institution and paid over to the boy upon his reaching his majority. An institution of like character in this state would save such boys as those now in jail, who are but two out of many hundreds now in this state growing up to be worthless citizens and a source of enormous expense to the community.