The long wings consist of a broad hall, skirted on either side with a succession of cells and sleeping apartments, which rise three stories high, fronted with iron corridors and stairways. Each wing contains 150 of these cells, which are wide, containing four single berths each, with grated doors, and are separated from each other by brick walls. The building is well arranged and well ventilated. One hundred and fifty lunatics have for some time been domiciled here, awaiting the completion of the new asylum on Ward's Island. The original intention of the building was not wholly for a house of correction, but an Institution in which the poor, unable to obtain employment, might be committed, and be, both to themselves and the authorities, profitably employed. As an industrial Institution for the virtuous poor, it has not succeeded, and is now devoted entirely to the vagrant, dissipated, and disorderly classes, who are committed by the police courts for terms of service, ranging from ten days to six months each. The larger number of commitments are for intoxication. It is mandatory on the magistrates to impose a fine on persons convicted of intoxication, and in default of payment to commit them to the Workhouse. The larger portion remain but ten days, but many are committed over and over again for the same offence, called by the clerks "repeaters," having served twenty or thirty terms for drunkenness. Tie warden has recommended a change of the law, so that habitual drunkards should be committed for from six to twelve months, giving small wages to the more industrious. He believes that, with an army of permanent laborers, large contracts might safely be made, securing a much larger income to the Institution, and the long confinement a permanent benefit to the convicts.

The men are kept at work breaking stones, grading, building sea-walls, cultivating the grounds, etc. The carpenters make the coffins for the various institutions, make and repair wheel-barrows, and carts, and toil in the erection of new buildings. Blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and tailors are employed at the respective trades. Companies of laborers are dispatched daily to toil on the neighboring islands. The women are detailed to toil in the numerous institutions, and are kept busy making and mending the garments of this immense population, and in knitting their stockings. From 15,000 to 20,000 of these convicts are annually received and again discharged, costing the public from $50,000 to $60,000 more than they are made to earn. But few of them are of American birth, Ireland, as usual, contributing the larger number, and Germany the next largest. If New York were purged of these dregs of European society, and her liquor traffic suppressed, there would be no need of this ponderous and expensive Institution. But as the tide of emigration is likely to still roll heavily upon our shores, and the legislation of the State to favor the rum traffic, there is little hope that the Workhouse will be deserted for many years to come. The establishment of this Institution has had a wholesome effect on the Almshouse population, as seventy persons were known to leave the Almshouse on the organization of this department. Many hundreds more, during the last twenty years, would, no doubt, have pressed their suits at the Almshouse if it had not been for its next door neighbor, the Workhouse, to which they were certain to be consigned.

The Labor Bureau, though not specially connected with the foregoing, we still notice here as a matter of convenience. A much larger number of unskilled laborers than can find employment during the winter months are always in New York city, and naturally fall a burden upon our private and public charities. The Commissioners, after duly considering this subject, resolved to establish a Bureau in July, 1868, to facilitate the transfer of unemployed laborers to other parts of the country needing their services. The Bureau was opened at the central office of the Commissioners, under the direction of the superintendent of Out-Door Poor, and the plan of its operations published in several leading papers of the country. It was proposed that employers should make application, setting forth the number of persons they required, the kinds Of work to be performed, and the rate of wages to be paid, the application to be accompanied with a remittance sufficient to cover the travelling expenses of the laborers. The applications received did not offer sufficient compensation to laborers, and as none of them, contained the money to defray the expenses of travel, the scheme failed. But the leading thought had been produced, and the next Legislature made an appropriation for a Labor and Intelligence Office. This was opened June 15, 1869, and from that date to January 1, 1870, there were 6,670 male applicants for employment, 11,813 females, and situations were obtained for 3,965 males, and 11,013 females. The labor of this office constantly increases and its success is very gratifying.