[Illustration:  First interview with the news-boy.]

Patrick—­for by this name I shall call the boy—­sleeps at the lodging-house for news-boys, and is there learning to read.  I concluded that I would go there, and see for myself what had been done for the improvement and salvation of these energetic, active boys.  I found the building to which I had been directed, but could not readily find the entrance which led to the room I was seeking.  I inquired of some poorly-dressed children where it was.  A boy about ten years old guided me.  He asked if I wanted a boy.  I was sorry to say “No,” for he looked so bright and active that it seemed a pity not to give him some employment.

I ascended one flight of stairs, and another, and still another and another, before I came to the right door.  I knocked, and was admitted by a gentleman who has the oversight of these boys.  The room which I entered was nicely painted and whitewashed.  There were many seats with desks as in a a schoolroom, and there were books and slates on them.  Maps and pictures hung on the walls, and there was a library for those who could read.

The room was neat and tidy, and quite inviting in its appearance.  At the farther end of it was an office for the caretaker, and a bathing-room, where water can be used without stint or measure.  The boys enjoy the free use of the water, though probably many of them never bathed in their lives, before they came to the lodging-house.  If “cleanliness is next to godliness,” much has been already accomplished.

The school or sitting-room opens into the dormitory.  This is a large and well-ventilated apartment, and, being in the sixth story, overlooks most of the buildings in the vicinity.  There were accommodations for fifty boys, and the room is large enough for eighty.  Each boy has a separate bed.  They are arranged in two tiers, as in a steamboat.  The beds were all neatly made, and looked quite comfortable.  Many of these boys have never slept in a bed except in this room.  The remarks which they make to each other, when comparing their beds, with their clean sheets and pillow-cases, with the boxes, areas, and crannies where they have been accustomed to sleep, are very amusing.

I am happy to know that there has been a constant improvement among the boys.  They grow more orderly, and are more easily restrained, and some of them give promise of making useful men.  They are not allowed to use profane language, to fight, nor to smoke in the rooms, and generally manifest much kindness of feeling toward each other.

There was a table in the room, which interested me greatly.  It was of black-walnut.  In the top there were one hundred and ten different holes, large enough to admit a half-dollar.  Each of them was numbered.  This was the bank in which Patrick had deposited his money.  There were one hundred and ten little divisions in the drawer, corresponding with one hundred and ten openings in the top.  The boys each have a certain number for their own use, and if they choose, can safely secure their day’s earnings for a time of need.  The superintendent keeps the key of the drawer.