Thus the work of reformation advanced; they became more tidy, industrious, studious, regular in their habits, and serious at divine service. Ministers and other speakers were invited to address them. One has well said, "There is something unspeakably solemn and affecting in the crowded and attentive meeting of these boys, and the thought that you speak for a few minutes on the high themes of eternity to a young audience, who, to-morrow, will be battling with misery, temptation, and sin, in every shape and form, and to whom your words may be the last they ever hear of friendly sympathy or warning." The seed has sometimes sprung up suddenly, and in other instances after many days. At one service a boy addicted to thieving was so impressed that at its close he called the superintendent aside, confessed his crimes, gave up a dark lantern, a wrench, a pistol, and has since filled a good place as an excellent boy. No story of misfortune has ever been presented to the boys without eliciting a generous response and material aid. They contributed to the "Mount Vernon Fund," to the Kansas sufferers, to the Sanitary Commission, and to the relief of sufferers from great fires in the city. Thousands have gone to the country, scarcely any of whom have turned out drunkards, some of them have entered the ministry and the learned professions, and many of them have accumulated property. Many of them are singularly talented; and, being early schooled to tact and self-reliance, they almost invariably succeed in any undertaking. The newsboys and boot-blacks of New York are a new crop each year, ragged and ignorant as their predecessors. So the toil of this' society continues from year to year. The society has five lodging-houses at present, the one at No. 49 Park place being the largest, having accommodations for two hundred and fifty. A fund of $70,000 has been provided to build or purchase a building in that ward. Three of the trustees have recently purchased the building occupied in the Sixteenth ward. It is a four-story brick in Eighteenth street, near Seventh avenue, has accommodations for a hundred boys, and cost $14,000. The same fruit has not attended the lodging-house system among the girls, yet it has been a necessity and a success. The edifice No. 27 Saint Mark's place has been purchased for a Girl's lodging-house, at an expense of$22,500. The lodging-houses are supplied with reading-rooms, evening schools, music, and meals. The twenty-two industrial schools for poor girls are located in the different sections of the city where the class for which they were instituted are most numerous. These children and half-grown girls are sought out by visitors appointed by the managers. They are such as do not attend the ward schools, wild, ragged, apparently untamable, many of them growing up within a few blocks of Union square and other fashionable centers, living in cellars, garrets, or miserable shanties, without any of the advantages of school or church. They are when found filthy, indolent, quarrelsome, and profoundly ignorant of everything. They cannot close a rent in a garment, or attend to any household duty. In these schools they are taught, besides other species of handicraft, the use of the sewing-machine, which invariably secures them a good situation. Beside "the paid teachers, many ladies of culture volunteer to assist in conducting these schools. During the last nine months, 7,000 different children have been under instruction in these industrial schools, 12,000 have found quarters in the lodging-houses, and 2,298 have been placed in homes, mainly in the West. The managers express deep gratitude that no railroad accident has ever occurred while conducting the more than eighteen thousand children to their new homes in various parts of the country. The children are not legally bound out, so but that if they prove truant, or their employers play the tyrant, the connection may be at any time dissolved. No one not engaged in this work can appreciate the magnitude of the evil this society is toiling to prevent, or the good it is yearly accomplishing. Notwithstanding the increase of population, the sentences to the city prisons, for such offences as children usually commit, are less than formerly. We find the total for vagrancy for 1869 only about half what it was in 1862—2,071 as against 4,299, and the females only numbered 785 against 3,172 in 1862; the total of this year, 646 less than in the year previous. In petit larceny, the total was only increased from 2,779 to 3,327 in seven years, though population has probably increased thirty-five per cent. in that time, and among females it has risen only from 880 in 1862, to 989 in 1869; while the total is 836 less than last year.

"The commitments of boys under 15 years are less than four years ago—1,872 in 1862 against 1,934 in 1865, and of girls between 15 and 20, less than they were seven years ago—1,927 against 2,081; and of those under 15, less, being 325 in 1869 against 372 in 1862; the total commitments in 1869, as against 1862, are 46,476 to 41,449; in 1868 they were 47,313.

"The arrests for vagrancy are 2,449 against 3,961 in 1862; for picking pockets, 303 against 466; for petit larceny, 4,927 against 3,946, and against 5,260 in 1865, and 5,269 in 1867.

"The arrests of minors are less than they were in 1867, and but little greater than in 1863, 12,075 against 11,357; and those of female minors have fallen off, in seven years, 2,397 against 2,885 in 1862 to 3,132 in 1863—the total amount of all ages is 78,451 in 1869 against 84,072 in 1863, and 71,130 in 1862.

"The marked changes which everywhere occur in criminal records of our city, in the arrest and punishment of girls, is especially due, we believe, to the agency of Industrial Schools.'"