NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. CXCVIII-NOVEMBER, 1866.-VOL. XXXIII.

THE CIDER MILL.

UNDER the blue New England skies,
Flooded with sunshine, a valley lies:
The mountains clasp it, warm and sweet,
Like a sunny child, to their rocky feet.

Three pearly lakes and a hundred streams
Lie on its quiet heart of dreams.

Its meadows are greenest ever seen;
Its harvest fields have the brightest sheen:
Through its trees the softest sunlight shakes,
And the whitest lilies gem its lakes.

I love, oh! better than words can tell,
Its every rock, and grove, and dell:

But most I love the gorge where the rill
Comes down by the old, brown cider mill.

Above the clear springs gurgle out,
And the upper meadows wind about;

Then join, and under willows flow

Round knolls where blue-beech whip-stocks grow,

To rest in a shaded pool that keeps
The oak-trees clasped in its crystal deeps.

Sheer twenty feet the water falls

Down from the old dam's broken walls,

Spatters the knobby boulder's gray,
And, laughing, hies in the shade away,

Under great roots, through trout-pools still,
With many a tumble, down to the mill.

All the way down the nut-trees grow,
And squirrels hide above and below.

Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts there
Drop all the fall through the hazy air;

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the Dis trict Court for the Southern District of New York.

VOL. XXXIII.-No. 198.-Z z

H

683

THE WORK-HOUSE-BLACKWELL'S ISLAND.

RUNKENNESS and small thefts are two such the proposal was adopted by the Common

qualifications for at residence Council

in the institution which forms the subject of this article. The writer, therefore, has been prevented from emulating an English brother of the pen who created no small sensation by his treatment of a similar theme. come an inmate of the Work-house for the sake He has not beof a novel experience and the desire to give a vivid description. He may premise, however, that he has had advantages far from common in eliciting information concerning it, and that our artist" was on the spot when the accompanying sketches were made.

ture in 1850.
November of that year.
The corner-stone was laid in
of that date exhibits many features not seen in
the structure as completed. The engraving at
The architectural plan
two wings, the one extending northerly, the
the head of this article shows that it comprises
other southerly, from an extensive centre build-
ing.
back of this, is also to be descried in the orig-
A third wing, projecting immediately
inal plan, as well as four outhouses of consider-
able architectural pretensions situated on the
ture was to stand.
corners of an inclosure in which the main struc-
None of these have been

The Work-house is the most recently established of the institutions upon Blackwell's Isl-erected. and. Previous to the erection of the present building the classes that now fill it were distributed among the District Prisons, the Tombs, the Penitentiary, and the Alms-house. It was originally recommended, "for the employment of able-bodied inmates of the Alms-house," by a committee from the Board of Aldermen. As

the southern the male. They are similar in
The northern wing contains the female wards,
exterior and interior construction, and the pre-
sented view of the galleries and rows of cells in
the northern wing gives a fair idea of the ap-
pearance of each. In the middle of the further
extremity will be seen an altar-like structure,

male wing is not so regularly divided into small cells, some within it holding twentyfive beds, but its general capacity is doubtless the same. The largest number ever at any one period incarcerated within the walls has been 1700. This happened at the time of the riots in the city concerning the draft during the late war of secession. In 1855 the number of inmates was 200; in 1856 the daily average was 625, upon which, from that year to 1860, the annual increase was about 100, the daily average being, in 1860, 1208. Since that date there has been a gradual decrease, although in a fluctuating manner. For the past three years the daily average has been from 700 to 900. The expense to the city of each inmate is about fifteen cents daily, sometimes a trifle more, sometimes a trifle less.

The utmost economy prevails, and the containing a mammoth reflector, which at night | labor of the prisoners produces no inconsiderillumines the entire avenue. There are three able amount of money. This labor, contracted stories to the edifice, to which exceptions, how- for by manufacturers in the city, has in times ever, exist in the cross buildings at the end of past brought as much as $6000 to the ineach wing; these comprise four with a loft be- stitution in a single year. The manufacture sides. In them are the work-rooms, the offices, of cigars was then carried on in a somewhat and the reception-rooms. The centre building extensive manner. The receipts from concontains the apartments of the warden and phy-tracts fluctuate not a little, the principal cause sicians, the kitchens, the laundries, and the church auditory. Contiguous to and back of it, a small outbuilding with the usual tall chimney, is the engine-house, whence steam is generated for the whole institution as well as the Retreat, a structure now pertaining to the Lunatic Asylum, but which formerly belonged to the Work-house.

Like that of all institutions upon the Island, the edifice is constructed of blue stone rubble masonry, the materials obtained from the insular rock. There are also several wooden outhouses belonging to it, a stable, a carpenter shop, a blacksmith shop, and a boat-house. The last contains not only the boat and crew of the Work-house Warden, but those of the Resident Physician of the Asylum as well.

The grounds of the institution comprise about ten or twelve acres, which, carefully cultivated by certain of the prisoners, afford fair yearly returns in a variety of vegetables. They are consumed by the institution. The paid officials of the Work-house number some thirteen, of whom the highest in rank is the Superintendent or Warden. Next in order come the Clerk, then the Engineer, the Keepers, and the Matrons. The Bellevue Hospital furnishes two physicians from its staff; which staff also fills the medical departments of the Penitentiary, the Alms-house, and the Island Hospital, its members taking turns in serving at every place.

It is supposed that it would be possible to crowd two thousand prisoners into the Workhouse, although it can not be strictly said that there are accommodations for them. In the female wing are some one hundred and thirty cells, each of which contains four beds. The

being the occasional suspension of a manufacturer. In the past year the receipts were only $2975, to which sum the Hoop-skirt Factory contributed its quota. There have also been cap and stocking contractors. Garments for United States troops were made here during the war.

The greater proportion of work, however, done by the prisoners is consumed by the institution and the various other departments under the control of the Commissioners. Carpenters, coopers, boat-builders, blacksmiths, wheel-wrights, tinsmiths, etc., are all employed at their respective branches, and their products, as may be required, are sent to the Almshouse, Bake-house, Bellevue steamboat, Bellevue Hospital, City Cemetery, Island Hospital,

Lunatic Asylum, Small-pox Hospital, Peniten- | ed in occupations requiring greater strength tiary, City Prison, Commissioners of Emigration, and Randall's Island.

The carpenters are mainly employed in making coffins for the use of the above-named institutions and the outdoor poor; from 700 to 900 are constructed yearly, of various sizes. The tailors do all the repairing and making required by the Work-house in coats, pants, vests, and caps, and also that needed by Randall's Island in boys' clothing. The women of the department are largely employed in the Sewing-room upon stockings, socks, dresses, under-garments for both males and females, shrouds, and mittens.

either of body or mind. They blast the rocks of the Island and hew the stone, the larger proportion of masons and house-carpenters coming from their ranks. The more fatiguing work is evidently apportioned them. A large quarry engages them continually.

The number of deaths in the Work-house, considering the population, is very small. Of over 12,000 commitments during the past year, 1865, only eighty died. The number of clopements is, however, not so minute, over 400 having escaped in the same period. This is owing in a great measure to the scattering of the inmates among the institutions.

It will be found interesting to examine the history of the Work-house, for a casual glance will determine that it is not now exclusively used for the reception of the classes for which

Latterly the Work-house women have been greatly used as help in other Island institutions as scrubbers, cooks, washers, and ironers, the Lunatic Asylum being well furnished with them. Including patients to the Island Hos-originally it was erected. The inquiry can not pital, the number of transferred inmates to other institutions as help during the year 1865 amounted to 1329 males, and 3336 females. These numbers, it will be understood, refer to different commitments merely, and include those sent up for a term of ten days as well as those for six months or a year. The daily average of inmates was 772. The males have been mostly employed in the grounds in tilling land, digging excavations for cellars and foundations, wheeling dirt, breaking stones, leveling, etc. Not a few wooden structures have been lately erected by the Commissioners, and Work-house mechanics have been largely used. The Penitentiary convicts appear to be employ

be held tiresome, for it embraces a period of but sixteen years. We learn from a report of distant date, emanating from the Superintendent of the Alms-house, that a majority of the inmates of that edifice had always been accustomed to idleness, and did not care for nor feel shame consequent upon pauperism. It was adjudged that a great point would be gained if there could be some line drawn, some distinction made-which could be impressed upon the feelings of the poor themselves-between those reduced by uncontrollable circumstances and those of a lazy, shiftless disposition. It was urged that the establishment of two institutions might tend to draw the line of