504 



8CIENGE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 300' 



Figures are sometimes strange things, but 

 no less conTincing than strange. They |i:equently 

 force a man to assent to a proposition against his " 

 will, and in opposition to what he has persuaded 

 himself is true. The latest case in point, and the 

 one we have in mind, is a contribution of the 

 London Economist to the discussion on bad times 

 and depression. Great Britain has been commis- 

 erating itself on its unprosperous financial con- 

 dition, and John Bull has loudly asseverated that 

 he is losing money. In the face of this comes 

 the Economist with the statement, that, instead 

 of having grown poorer. Great Britain has, during 

 the last decade, saved and invested at least one 

 thousand million pounds sterling, a sum one-third 

 greater than the national debt. This immense 

 sum is believed to be far within the truth, since it 

 takes no account of the large sums annually spent 

 in improvements, nor of the very considerable 

 sum sent out of the country to secure foreign and 

 colonial investments. The Economist proves its 

 assertion by showing that within ten years the 

 country has invested the following sums : house 

 property, £400,000.000 ; home railways. £186,000,- 

 000 ; joint stock companies, £200,000.000 ; colonial 

 loans, £80,000.000 ; loans to English local authori- 

 ties, £72.000,000, — in all, £938,000,000. The 

 Spectator, in noticing this fact, thinks that it is 

 not so much, after all ; for it is only a saving of 

 "a hundi-ed million pounds sterling a year, or a 

 fifth more than is paid in national taxation, — 

 probably not two shillings in the pound of national 

 income, and certainly not a fourth of the income 

 of those who pay the income tax." This may be 

 so ; but practically it may make considerable dif- 

 ference in the expenditures of a people, to find, 

 that, instead of annually running behind, they 

 are really getting ahead each twelvemonth. But 

 be these figures what they may, it seems to be an 

 undoubted fact that a large section of the British 

 population feel that they grow poorer year by 

 year ; and, until we can determine more precisely 

 what weight attaches to the statistics prepared by 

 the Economist, we are unwilling to say emphati- 

 cally that such feeling is without any justification 

 in fact. 



Few orgaotzed charities are so uniformly 

 successful and so richly deserving as the Chil- 

 dren's aid society of New York City, of which Mr. 

 Charles L. Brace is the eflacient and judicious 

 executive oflficer. In describing the work of the 

 society at the annual meeting of the trustees, Mr. 



Brace detailed the principles of the society and 

 the results attained by proceeding upon them. 

 The principles were defined as the absolute neces- 

 sity of treating each youthful criminal or outcast 

 as an individual, and not as one of a crowd ; the 

 immense superiority of the home or family over 

 any institution in reformatory and educational in- 

 fluence ; the prevention of crime and pauperism 

 by early efforts with children, and the vital im- 

 portance of breaking up inherited pauperism by 

 putting almshouse children in separate homes ; 

 and, most of all, the immense advantage of 

 ' placing out ' neglected and orphan children in 

 farmers' families. The records of the city police 

 courts show how these principles work in practice. 

 While in thirty years the city's population has in- 

 creased from about six hundred and thirty thou- 

 sand to nearly a million and a half, the number of 

 girls committed for petty larceny has fallen in the 

 same period from over nine hundred to less than 

 two hundred and fifty. In the same time the 

 commitments of female vagrants have decreased 

 from 5,778 to 2,565. 



The industrial schools, employing over one 

 hundred teachers, and giving instruction to ten 

 thousand pupils, are the most important branch 

 of the society's work. Mr. Brace claims that " the 

 industrial schools act especially in preventing the 

 growth of a race of drunkards, as the children 

 become elevated above the habit. The enormous 

 deci'ease of some fifty per cent in cases of drunk- 

 enness known to the police during the past ten 

 years is one pioof of this. The remarkable de- 

 crease of some twelve and a half per cent in all 

 crimes against person and property during the 

 past ten years, as well as the decrease from previ- 

 ous years, is one of the most striking evidences 

 ever offered of the effects of such labors as those 

 of this society and of many similar charities. It 

 has gone on regularly in years both of business 

 depression and prosperity. It proves that such 

 labors are diminishing the supply of thieves, bur- 

 glars, drunkards, vagrants, and rogues." Another 

 original and useful branch of the society is its 

 lodging-houses, which combine the various func- 

 tions of school, workshop, emigration agency, 

 and lodging-house. Each child pays for his sup- 

 port by labor or money. The liberal benefactions 

 of Miss Wolfe, J. J. Astor, and Mrs. R. L. Stewart, 

 who have each put up large buildings for these 

 purposes, have greatly aided the society. There 



