The three islands lying in the East River are among the most noticeable features of New York, and offer many attractions to the visitor to the city. They are Blackwell’s, Ward’s, and Randall’s islands. Of these, Blackwell’s Island is the most southern. It is about a mile and three-quarters in length, extending from Fifty-first to Eighty-eighth street, and comprises an area of about 120 acres. It takes its name from the Blackwell family, who once owned it, and whose ancestral residence, a tasteful wooden cottage, over a hundred years old, stands near the centre of the island, and is occupied by the Keeper of the Almshouse. The island was purchased by the city, in 1828, for the sum of $30,000. A further outlay of $20,000 was made in 1843 to perfect the title. The land alone is now worth over $600,000. The island is surrounded by a granite sea-wall, and has been made to slope gradually towards the water on each side by a thorough system of grading. This labor was performed by the convicts of the Penitentiary, and the inmates of the Workhouse. There is an excellent dock near the Penitentiary for boats, but no vessels are allowed to land here but the boats of the Department of Charities and Corrections. Visitors must obtain a permit from this department or they will not be allowed to set foot upon the island. The institutions on this and the other islands are supplied with the Croton water, a large main being carried across under the river.

RESIDENCE OF THE KEEPER OF THE ALMSHOUSE.

On the extreme southern end of the island is a stone building of moderate size and handsome design. This is the Small-pox Hospital. It was erected in 1854, at a cost of $38,000, and will accommodate one hundred patients. It is the only hospital in New York devoted to small-pox cases, and receives them from all the public and private institutions, and from private families. The accommodations are excellent, the attention the best. Those who are able to pay are required to do so. At the water’s edge, on the eastern side of this hospital, are several wooden buildings designed for the treatment of patients suffering from typhus and ship fever. These will accommodate one hundred patients, though the number is often greater.

Immediately in the rear of the Small-pox Hospital, though far enough from it to be removed from danger, is the Charity Hospital, a magnificent structure of gray granite, said to be the largest hospital in America. It consists of a central building with two wings, each three and a half stories in height, with a Mansard roof. The entire building is 354 feet long, and 122 feet wide. The eastern wing is occupied by males, and the western by females. The hospital is divided into 29 wards, the smallest of which contains 13 beds, and the largest 39. Twelve hundred patients can be accommodated with comfort. There are separate wards for the treatment of different diseases, and the medical attendance is the best that New York can afford. The whole establishment is a model of neatness, and is conducted in the most systematic and skilful manner. About seven thousand patients are annually treated here, the majority being charity patients. The average number of deaths is about four hundred and fifty.

SMALL-POX HOSPITAL.

Back of the Charity Hospital, and extending north and south, or parallel with the course of the island and river, is the New York Penitentiary, the first public institution erected on the island. It is a gloomy and massive edifice, constructed of hewn stone and rubble masonry. It is four stories in height, and consists of a central building and wings. The central building is 65 by 75 feet, and the wings each 200 by 50 feet in size. The entire building is exceedingly strong. The floors are of stone, and the stairways and doors of iron. It contains 500 cells for men, and 256 for women, but the number of convicts is generally in excess of the number of cells, and still greater accommodations are needed. It is probable that a new and larger Penitentiary will be erected on Hart’s Island, in Long Island Sound, about twelve miles from Blackwell’s Island. The prisoners at this institution are sent here by the city courts, for terms of from one to six months. Some, however, are sentenced to imprisonment for several years. The convicts are all required to labor. Formerly the men were required to engage in excavating stone from the rich quarries with which the island abounded, but which have now been exhausted. The erection of the new buildings on Randall’s, Ward’s, and Hart’s islands, furnishes constant employment to the convicts, who are daily conveyed between the prison and these institutions. Those who are able to work at the ordinary trades are allowed to do so in the workshops of the Penitentiary. The women are required to do sewing, housework, and the like.

CHARITY HOSPITAL.

NEW YORK PENITENTIARY.

No visitors are allowed on the Penitentiary grounds without a permit from the Commissioners. Sentinels are stationed along the water fronts, and guard-boats patrol the river to prevent the escape of the convicts. In spite of these precautions, however, men have succeeded in making their escape to the opposite shore.

GUARD-BOATS.

The convicts are clothed in a uniform of striped woollen garments, and are supplied with a sufficient amount of bedding and with an abundance of excellent but plain food. The allowance is about one pound of beef, and a quart of vegetable soup at dinner, ten ounces of bread at each meal, and one quart of coffee at breakfast and supper, to each man. In 1869, the total number of prisoners confined here during the year was 2005. A very large number of those sentenced to the Penitentiary are under the age of twenty-five. The proportion of females is about one-fifth. The foreigners are a little more than one-half of the whole number. A system of evening schools, at which the attendance is voluntary, has been instituted. The commutation system is also practised, by which the prisoner by good conduct may receive a proportionate abridgment of his term of confinement. Such conduct is reported every month by the Warden to the Commissioners, who report it to the Governor of the State, who alone has the power to shorten the terms in the manner mentioned. Religious services are conducted every Sabbath by Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen.

ALMSHOUSE.

To the north of the Penitentiary are two handsome and similar structures of stone, separated by a distance of 650 feet. These are the Almshouses. Each consists of a central story, fifty feet square and fifty-seven feet high, with a cupola thirty feet in height, and two wings, each ninety feet long, sixty feet wide, and forty feet high. Each is three stories in height. Each floor is provided with an outside iron verandah, with stairways of iron, and each building will furnish comfortable quarters for 600 people, adults only being admitted. One of these buildings is devoted exclusively to men, the other to women. Both are kept scrupulously clean, and it is said that they are kept by a daily brushing of the beds, which are taken to pieces every morning, entirely free from vermin. The grounds are well laid off, and are in admirable order. In short, the whole place is a model of neatness and careful administration. None but the aged and infirm, who are destitute, are admitted. Each newcomer is bathed immediately upon his or her arrival, and clad in the plain but comfortable garments provided by the establishment. He is then taken to the Warden’s office, where his name, age, and bodily condition are registered. At the same time, he is given a card inscribed with the number of the ward and the class to which he is assigned, this allotment being based upon an examination by the House Physician. The inmates are divided into four classes, as follows: I. Able-bodied men. II. Those who are able to do light labor and to act as inspectors or orderlies of the different wards. III. Those who are able to sweep the walks or break stones. IV. Those who are too old or infirm for any labor. Those assigned to the first three classes are compelled to perform the duties required of them on pain of dismissal. In the female house, the infirm are more numerous than among the males. Those able to work are employed in sewing and knitting, in keeping the wards in order, and in nursing the feeble and cripples. In 1870, there were 1114 persons in the Almshouses, from fifteen years of age upwards. A special provision is made in each house for blind inmates.

Attached to the Almshouse are the Hospitals for Incurables, which consist of two one-story buildings, 175 feet long, and 25 feet wide. One is devoted to men and the other to women. In these buildings are quartered those who are afflicted with incurable diseases, but who require no medical attention.

The Bureau for the Relief of the Outdoor Poor is connected with the Almshouse, though it conducts its operations in the city. The city is divided into eleven districts, each of which is in charge of a visitor, subject to the orders of the Superintendent of the Bureau. It is the duty of these visitors to examine into the causes of sickness, crime, and pauperism in their respective districts, and to report their observations to the Superintendent, who communicates them to the Department of Charities and Corrections. Temporary shelter is given to needy persons in the winter, and money, fuel, food, clothing, etc., distributed to deserving persons. In 1869, 5275 families were given money, and 7555 fuel by this Bureau; $128,000 being expended for these charities.

THE WORKHOUSE.

In the rear of the Almshouse is the Workhouse, one of the handsomest buildings on the island. It is constructed of hewn stone, and consists of a central building four stories in height, with a northern and a southern wing, with a traverse section across the extreme end of each wing. In these traverse sections are located the workshops. The entire length of the building is 680 feet. Not counting the convict labor, the cost of its construction was over $100,000. The stone of which it was built was obtained on the island.

In the central building are located the kitchens, and storerooms, the private quarters of the Superintendent and the other officials, and a large and handsome chapel. The wings contain each a broad hall, on each side of which are three tiers of cells, one above the other. Iron galleries, with stairways, extend along the fronts of these cells, and afford access to them. There are 150 cells in each wing. Each cell is provided with an iron grated door, and contains four single berths. The cells are separated from each other by brick walls. In the workshops, the carpenter’s, blacksmith’s, wheelwright’s, tinner’s, tailor’s, and other trades are carried on. The men are also kept at work grading the island, building the seawall, and cultivating the gardens. Gangs of laborers are sent daily to engage in the works on Ward’s and Randall’s islands. The women are made to do the housework and cleaning of the various institutions on the island, and are employed in washing, mending, sewing, knitting, etc. All the inmates are obliged to labor.

The number of persons annually sent to the Workhouse is from 15,000 to 20,000. The vagrant, dissipated, and disorderly classes are sent here by the city police courts, ten days being the average term of commitment. Drunkenness is the principal cause of their detention here. Very few are Americans. Of the foreigners, the Irish are the most numerous, the Germans next.

Back of the Workhouse, and occupying the extreme upper portion of the island, is the New York City Lunatic Asylum. It is a large and commodious building, with several out-buildings, with accommodations for 576 patients. A new Lunatic Asylum is now in course of erection on Ward’s Island. It is to accommodate 500 patients. It is one of the most complete establishments in the country, and is built of brick and Ohio freestone. It is a very handsome building, with an imposing front of 475 feet. The two asylums will accommodate 1076 patients, but they are not adequate to the accommodation of all the afflicted for whom the city is required to provide. Still further accommodations are needed. In 1870, the number of patients committed to the care of the Commissioners was over 1300.

II. WARD’S ISLAND.

Ward’s Island takes its name from Jasper and Bartholomew Ward, who formerly owned it. It comprises an area of about two hundred acres, and is owned in about equal portions by the Commissioners of Emigration and the Department of Charities and Corrections. It is separated from New York by the Harlem River, from Blackwell’s and Long islands by that portion of the East River known as Hell Gate, and from Randall’s Island by a narrow strait called Little Hell Gate. It lies a little to the northeast of Blackwell’s Island, about half a mile from it, and is the widest of the three islands in the East River.

The Emigrant Hospital is described in another chapter.

The new Lunatic Asylum is located on the extreme eastern portion of the island.

Between the Emigrant Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum is the New York Inebriate Asylum, a handsome brick edifice, three stories in height, with a frontage of 474 feet, and a depth of 50 feet. It is provided with every convenience, is supplied with the Croton water, and has accommodations for 400 patients. The patients consist of those who either seek the Asylum voluntarily or are placed there by their friends, and who pay for their accommodations, and those who are sent to the institution by the police authorities for reformation. The treatment is moral as well as physical. The physician’s efforts to repair the ravages of dissipation in the physical system are supplemented by the labors of the chaplain and the other officers of the institution, who seek to revive in the patient a sound, healthy morality, which they strive to make the basis of his reformation.

III. RANDALL’S ISLAND.

Randall’s Island is so called from Jonathan Randall, a former owner. It lies about one hundred yards to the north of Ward’s Island, from which it is separated by Little Hell Gate. The Harlem Kills separate it from Westchester county, and the Harlem River from New York. About thirty acres of the southern portion are owned by the “Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents.” The remainder is the property of the “Commissioners of Charities and Corrections.”

HOUSE OF REFUGE: RANDALL’S ISLAND.

The southern portion is occupied by the “House of Refuge,” which is under the control of the “Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents.” The buildings are of brick, and are constructed in the Italian style. They have a frontage of nearly 1000 feet, and were constructed at a cost of about $500,000. They constitute one of the handsomest public institutions in the city. The main buildings contain 886 dormitories, several spacious and fully furnished school rooms, a handsome chapel, which will seat 1000 persons, the kitchens, hospital, and officers’ quarters. The average number of inmates is about 700 boys and 150 girls. Every child is compelled to labor from six to eight hours every day in the week, and to attend school from four to five hours. The inmates consist of such juvenile offenders against the law as the courts commit to the Refuge in preference to sending them to prison. Some of them are young people, whose parents, unable to manage them, and wishing to save them from lives of sin and crime, have placed them in the hands of the Society for reformation. The discipline is mainly reformatory, though the inmates are subjected to the restraints, but not the degradation of a prison.

“The boys’ building is divided into two compartments; the first division, in the one, is thus entirely separated from the second division in the other compartment. The second division is composed of those whose characters are decidedly bad, or whose offence was great. A boy may, by good conduct, however, get promoted from the second into the first division. As a rule, the second division is much older than the first. Each division is divided into four grades. Every boy on entering the Reformatory is placed in the third grade; if he behaves well, he is placed in the second in a week, and a month after in the first grade; if he continues in a satisfactory course for three months, he is placed in the grade of honor, and wears a badge on his breast. Every boy in the first division must remain six months, in the second division twelve months in the first grade, before he can be indentured to any trade. These two divisions are under the charge of twenty-five teachers and twenty-five guards. At half-past six o’clock the cells are all unlocked, every one reports himself to the overseer, and then goes to the lavatories; at seven, after parading, they are marched to the school rooms to join in the religious exercises for half an hour; at half-past seven, they have breakfast, and at eight are told off to the workshops, where they remain till twelve, when they again parade, previous to going to dinner. For dinner they have a large plate of soup, a small portion of meat, a small loaf of bread, and a mug of water. At one o’clock, they return to their work. When they have completed their allotted task, they are allowed to play till four, when they have supper. At half-past four they go to school, where they remain till eight o’clock, the time for going to bed. Each boy has a separate cell, which is locked and barred at night. The cells are in long, lofty, well ventilated corridors, each corridor containing one hundred cells. The doors of the cells are all grated, in order that the boys may have light and air, and also be under the direct supervision of the officers, who, though very strict, apparently know well how to temper strictness with kindness. Before going to bed, half an hour is again devoted to religious exercises, singing hymns, reading the Bible, etc.

“One of the most interesting, and at the same time, one of the most important features of the Refuge, is the workshop. On entering the shop, the visitor is amused by finding a lot of little urchins occupied in making ladies’ hoopskirts of the latest fashionable design; nearly 100 are engaged in the crinoline department. In the same long room, about fifty are weaving wire for sifting cotton, making wire sieves, rat-traps, gridirons, flower baskets, cattle noses, etc. The principal work, however, is carried on in the boot and shoe department. The labor of the boys is let out to contractors, who supply their own foremen to teach the boys and superintend the work, but the society have their own men to keep order and correct the boys when necessary, the contractors’ men not being allowed to interfere with them in any way whatever. There are 590 boys in this department. They manage on an average to turn out about 2500 pairs of boots and shoes daily, which are mostly shipped to the Southern States. Each one has a certain amount of work allotted to him in the morning, which he is bound to complete before four o’clock in the afternoon. Some are quicker and more industrious than others, and will get their work done by two o’clock; this gives two hours’ play to those in the first division, the second division have to go to school when they have finished, till three o’clock, they only being allowed one hour for recreation. The authorities are very anxious to make arrangements to have a Government vessel stationed off the island, to be used as a training-ship for the most adventurous spirits. If this design is carried out it will be a very valuable adjunct to the working of the institution, and will enable the Directors to take in many more boys, without incurring the expense of extending the present buildings. The girls are also employed in making hoopskirts, in making clothes for themselves and the boys, in all sorts of repairing, in washing linen, and in general housework. The girls are generally less tractable than the boys; perhaps this is accounted for by their being older, some of them being as much as five or six and twenty. The boys average about thirteen or fourteen, the girls seventeen or eighteen years of age. Nearly two-thirds of the boys have been bootblacks, the remainder mostly ‘wharf rats.’

“The Directors of the House of Refuge, while having a due regard for the well-being of its inmates, very properly take care that they are not so comfortable or so well-fed as to lead them to remain longer in the reformatory than necessary. As soon as the boys appear to be really reformed, they are indentured out to farmers and different trades. In the year 1867, no less than 633 boys and 146 girls were started in life in this way. Any person wishing to have a child indentured to him, has to make a formal application to the Committee to that effect, at the same time giving references as to character, etc. Inquiries are made, and if satisfactorily answered, the child is handed over to his custody, the applicant engaging to feed, clothe, and educate his young apprentice. The boy’s new master has to forward a written report to the officer, as to his health and general behaviour from time to time. If the boy does not do well, he is sent back to the Refuge, and remains there till he is twenty-one years of age. Most of the children, however, get on, and many of them have made for themselves respectable positions in society. The annals of the Society in this respect are very gratifying and interesting. Many young men never lose sight of a Refuge which rescued them in time from a criminal life, and to which they owe almost their very existence. Instead of alternating between the purlieus of Water street and Sing Sing, they are many of them in a fair way to make a fortune. One young man who was brought up there, and is now thriving, lately called at the office to make arrangements for placing his two younger brothers in the House, they having got into bad company since their father’s death. A very remarkable occurrence took place at the institution not long ago. A gentleman and his wife, apparently occupying a good position in society, called at the Refuge and asked to be allowed to go over it. Having inspected the various departments, just before leaving, the gentleman said to his wife, ‘Now I will tell you a great secret. I was brought up in this place.’ The lady seemed much surprised, and astounded all by quietly observing, ‘And so was I.’ So strange are the coincidences of human life.”

The institutions on this island controlled by the Department of Public Charities and Corrections, are the “Nurseries,” the “Infant Hospital,” and the “Idiot Asylum.”

The Nurseries consist of six large Brick buildings, each three stories in height, arranged without reference to any special plan, and separated from each other by a distance of several hundred feet. Each is in charge of an assistant matron, the whole being under the supervision of a Warden and matron. These nurseries are devoted to the care of children over four years old, abandoned by their parents, and found in the streets by the police, and children whose parents are unable to care for them. Wherever the parent is known the Commissioners afford only temporary shelter to the children, requiring the parents to resume their care of them at the earliest possible moment. Three months is the limit for gratuitous shelter in such cases. Where the parent is unknown, the child is cared for until it is of an age to be apprenticed, or until some respectable persons take it for adoption. Only healthy children are received into the nurseries, and none may remain in them after reaching the age of sixteen years. The average number of inmates is about 2400 per annum.

The Infant Hospital is for the reception of children under the age of four years, for foundlings, for children whose parents are too poor to take care of them, and for the sick of the Nurseries proper. The children are divided into three classes: I. The “Wet nursed:” II. The “Bottle fed:” III. The “Walking Children.” They are retained here unless claimed by their parents until they attain the age of three or four years, when they are transferred to the Nurseries mentioned above. The Hospital is a large and handsome brick building, and will accommodate several hundred children and their nurses.

The Idiot Asylum is a large brick building, with accommodations for several hundred patients. It contains at present about 150 of these, whose ages vary from six to thirty years. They represent nearly all the different phases of idiocy, and are well cared for. Some of them have been greatly improved in mind by the treatment and discipline pursued.