Vol. LVIII. No. 2578. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 24, 1899. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
Chemicals and Clover in Drought. 
The Home of the Strawberry. 
“Daddy’s Boys.” 
A NOVEL SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. 
A VISIT TO THE GEORGE JR. REPUBLIC. 
A Factory for Good Citizenship. 
(concluded ) 
Starting a Republic,-— 1 How did the Republic 
begin, Mr. George ?” 
“ It was very simple ; I was in business in New 
York, and became interested in the boys that were 
either gone to the bad, or on the way there. I worked 
in the slums, and I had 
a Sunday-school in a 
low quarter uptown. 
After a while, I had 
special license given 
me to arrest boys, and 
so it came about that I 
made the acquaintance 
of a good many, who 
seemed to confide in me 
as their friend. There 
was one boy who came 
to consult me in regard 
to taking up burglary 
as a profession; h e 
knew of a boarding¬ 
house where some fel¬ 
lows from Sing Sing, 
whose terms had ex¬ 
pired, would soon be, 
and he thought they 
would be just the ones 
to take in as partners. 
If be failed, and was 
caught, why he cer¬ 
tain y wouldn’t feel 
any worse than busi¬ 
ness men did when 
tbeir bank broke, and 
not quite so badly ! 
He talked about the 
burglar business and 
of a plan he had made, 
as coolly and enthusi¬ 
astically, as another 
might of an honorable 
occupation. I after¬ 
wards brought him 
here. The majority of 
criminal boys who 
come here, are at first 
very boastful of their 
achievements, but that 
doesn’t last long, for 
they find themselves 
immediately in an at¬ 
mosphere of surveil¬ 
lance and suspicion. If 
a thief, the boys are 
all on guard against 
him ; if a firebug, their 
own personal effects 
are endangered, and he 
is especially watched; 
if unduly pugilistic, 
he is hustled into jail and bound over to keep the 
peace, so in a very short time he finds out that it is 
neither popular nor profitable to be a law-breaker, 
and gradually becomes interested in upholding the 
security of the society of which he is a member. 
“ I was boin and bred in this very spot, and was in 
the habit of coming up in Summer to spend a couple 
of months, and began in 1890 by bringing with me a 
few boys, to try upon them the effects of fresh air 
and clean surroundings. But I found that much of 
the good gained in two months of Summer was oblit¬ 
erated by 10 months in the city, and that two months 
were not enough to straighten out a bad boy. I 
thought a great deal on the matter ; I saw the objec¬ 
tions in the life and discipline of institutions ; I 
wanted to avoid these. I didn’t approve of giving 
something for nothing, which bred poverty and de¬ 
pendence, and loss of honest self-respect. I would 
make every child pay, in some way, for what it re¬ 
ceived. I believed that most forms of badness were 
the result of energy turned in the wrong direction, 
simply. How my plans were to be worked out I didn’t 
quite know, but I made up my mind to give my notions 
a trial, and necessarily, that must be in a small and 
very crude way. Now, however, after four years, I 
have been enabled to give up my work in New York, 
and devote all my time to the Republic. I intend to 
have at most only about 75 boys and girls, but I have 
now applications from 400.” 
“ How do you obtain them, and what is your legal 
hold upon them ? ” 
“ They come to me through various agencies—police 
magistrates, poorhouses, from parents themselves, 
who constitute me their guardian. Many are on parole 
from jails and prisons and placed in my custody—half 
of them have been arrested for crimes. Yes, we have 
a night patrol of the Republic police, but when the 
boys have work to do, I regard patrolling as too hard 
upon them, and employ others.” 
Schooling and Wages. —“ I noticed a school-room 
in the library building, and other desks elsewhere. 
How do you manage about their self-support when in 
school ? ” 
“The school is called the publishing house, and 
when they work in the 
publishing house, they 
are paid for it accord¬ 
ing to its severity. For 
instance, they get 
higher pay for work¬ 
ing in fractions than 
in addition. One of 
our boys will enter 
Cornell this Fall. A 
few go to the high 
school in the next 
town. We are going 
to have a high school 
here in the Republic. 
Some of the young¬ 
sters show astonishing 
aptitude as pupils. 
One boy became so in¬ 
terested as to try to 
take the regent’s ex¬ 
amination. I noticed 
that he worked late at 
night, and after he had 
tried the examinations, 
the principal of the 
high school told me 
that the boy had writ¬ 
ten the best United 
States history paper 
he had ever read. One 
of our boys has spoken 
on the platform with 
Chauncey Depew, and 
he had rather the more 
applause of the two ! 
He has, also, spoken in 
Plymouth Church, aDd 
he has been invited to 
speak before the Yale 
Sociological Club.” 
“ Doesn’t such success 
tend to give a boy the 
big head ? ” 
“ Not in the least. 
Our democracy here is 
so undilute d th at there 
isn’t any encourage¬ 
ment for big-headed¬ 
ness.” This distin¬ 
guished young orator 
was sent for, and he 
came bounding to us 
from the baseball 
ground, a fine, manly 
lad, of excellent appearance, but entirely unaffected. 
“ How are the boys paid ? ” 
“ It depends upon the work. Those in the ditch are 
paid by the hour. They are superintended by other 
boys. Yes, they do considerable farming, and here¬ 
after, agriculture and horticulture will receive more 
attention. A Cornell horticultural student has been 
given the post of farmer—a clean, nice young fellow— 
and before long, we shall have small fruits, and may¬ 
be, a canning factory, and a trade school. You see I 
FLOWER CYME OF CLIMBING HYDRANGEA. Fig. 181. See Ruralisms, Page 466. 
