Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/657

Rh by which it is sought to train a certain number of poor children, if the vicious be excluded. But the theory of the founders of the institution is that children are not naturally vicious, but are rendered so by surroundings or influence; and hence, if they failed in successfully dealing with them, they would be compelled to fall back upon the assertion that bright and well-behaved children may be made into expert artisans—a proposition which no one has ever denied.

Fortunately for them and fortunately for those whom they especially set out to aid, not one child out of that multitude which has applied for admission has been found, to be beyond the reach of intelligent treatment; not one has been found where evil propensities were more than skin-deep.

Strange to say, the lad who upon entry proved the most stupid, most stubborn, and ill-mannered, rose by rapid stages until, finally, he reached the head of his class! This lad, upon his first appearance, was found to be not only dirty and ragged, but so obstinate that he would only answer questions when it pleased, him to do so. His eyes were half closed, he rarely looked up, and altogether he seemed, if the description of those who saw him may be relied upon, more fitted for the career of a cow-boy or that of a bandit than for such peaceful occupations as those of the mechanic and decorator. The manager of the school called up the official physician and asked him what ailed the lad. The physician made a careful examination, and then reported that, besides being naturally vicious, the lad was weak-minded. But this was by no means satisfactory to the manager. He examined the lad himself, and made an altogether different diagnosis of the case. In his opinion the lad's behavior and appearance were due to a long course of ill-treatment and neglect. He had him thoroughly washed, fed, and clothed, and prescribed good treatment.

At first he was dull, very dull; his mind seemed never to have been called into action, but little by little he began to wake up; day by day his eyes opened wider and wider; the cloud that seemed to have settled over his face was gradually dispelled; and finally one day, when something more interesting than usual was afoot, he so far forgot himself as to smile. Henceforward he gave no further trouble. His teachers say he made rapid progress, and they finally discovered that, instead of being mentally weak, as the physician had said, he possessed a mind unusually acute.

Many of the children when first entered exhibit that viciousness which, it is alleged, is inherent in those whose parents are of a class essentially vicious. These children, or many of them, may be said to have been reared in the gutters, and they found even the gutters more agreeable than the darkened, squalid chambers provided for them in the adjoining tenement-house, and willingly risked the dangers of the crowded street without rather than endure the ill-treatment to be had within. At first they show a disposition to repel the advances of