The society does not abandon them, and if a complaint arises of improper treatment, it causes legal proceedings to be instituted against those who are responsible therefor.

A recent case of this kind was that of the “Old Gentlemen’s Home.”

It will be readily seen that the cases which come before the society must be very numerous:  during the nine years of its existence it has investigated 13,077 complaints, involving 52,308 children, prosecuted 4,035 cases, convicted 3,637 offenders, rescued and placed in homes or institutions 7,555 children.  In the last three years it has temporarily sheltered and clothed 1,092 children and furnished them with 9,309 meals.  These figures acquire a singular force when one reads in the annual reports the curious history of these cases setting forth the facts in detail.  In 1882 the magistrates of the city issued 1,267 warrants.  On the information furnished, 834 children were held in custody, 1,040 released.  The city of New York is compelled to pay for the support of children thus committed to custody.  A saving of $108,160 has therefore been realized to the benefit of the tax-payers of New York.  In 1883 they received 2,966 complaints; there were 1,176 prosecutions and 1,128 convictions; 2,008 children were placed in institutions of charity.  Of 2,341 children arrested 1,078 were held, 1,263 released.

The resources of the society are derived exclusively from the liberality of the public.  It receives no aid either from the State or city.  On the contrary, it pay taxes even on the water used in the care of the children in its charge.  The account of receipts and expenditures amounts to about $17,000.  Of the $43,000 which its building cost, $25,000 remain on mortgage.  The field in which the society employs its activity is already large, and is rapidly extending.  It endeavors to obtain from the legislature laws which will defeat the aims of those too numerous enterprises which, under color of charity, utilize young children, for example, the baby farms and those establishments (called hospitaliers) which have neither the means nor the facilities necessary to their proper conduct.  It requires that children shall not be employed in manual labor before the age of fourteen years, and only after their physical capability has been certified to by a physician.  It insists on the prohibition of all dangerous occupations.  The former articles in this Bulletin on the abuses which exist in the industrial employment of children in New York show how justifiable is this action of the society.  “Thousands of children,” says Mr. Gerry, “die of diseases contracted in these injurious employments; in this respect our nation is far behind Europe in its means of affording protection to children.  In France, severe laws have been in operation since 1841.  England has promptly followed this example, and like the English legislation, that of France expressly forbids the employment of children in the manufacture of dangerous substances,