JUVENILE OFFENDERS (ante), the name given to the class of vagrant children, abounding in cities and large towns, whose offenses against the peace and in infringe ment of the law, taken in connection with their youth, are not grave enough to entitle them to be denominated criminals within the meaning of the law. While there can be but little doubt as to the existence of this class under the older forms of civilization, there would not appear to have been any marked effort toward the suppression of the evil until late in the 17th century. The German wars and those of Napoleon, in their enormous production of the condition of orphanage, under circumstances calculated to carry those unfortunates who experienced it into vagabondage and consequent tempta tion, appear to have first concentrated the ideas of social economists on the subject. Accordingly we find, in the establishment founded at Halle by Herman Fromcke in 1695, the first recorded institution distinctly reformatory for children. This was, in fact, the "ragged school" of the kind established at the of the 18th c. by John Pounds, beginning the cobbler, in England. These individual efforts not only inculcated in the public mind the idea in pursuance of which they were originated, but speedily gave rise to organ ized effort in the same direction. About 1817 was established the London philanthropic society, which included in its purpose and practice the reformation of juvenile offenders. This organitation opened the first English house of refuge for children, which may be considered the prototype of similar institutions in America. The next such establish ment to which special importance is given in the history of the subject was founded by Dr. John Henry Wichern, in 1833, at a short distance from Hamburg, in Germany, and was called the Rauhe frau& In all these establishments the reformatory feature had been maintained, associated with education, and with mechanical labor, as in the trades. Contemporary with the early movements in that direction in England were the organized efforts which were made in America, among which that of time society for the reformation of juvenile delinquents in New York, 1823, was the first. This society originated in a movement among the society of Friends, which was made as early as 1818. So important had the subject become in the minds or leading American publicists of the day that EdWarelThitiftiigstrib, iu his celebrated .cOderof:4itiisii:na, developed his views with regard to it in impressive language. Ont of the New York society grew, by
slow stages, the magnificent institution of Randall's island. In Boston a reform school was established in 1820, and one in Philadelphia two years later. The next step iu advance was the combination of agricultural pursuits with the reform element, and out of this grew the modern "farm school," as it exists in and other states at the present day. The first farm school was established in Boston about 1837, and 10 yearA later the first state ref:0m school was organized at Mass. It has become the conclusion reached by experience that schools founded and managed, under government control ore, on the whole, more economically and systematically conducted than those by charitable organizations or individuals. In 1837 was founded near the city of T001.3, in France, the agricultural colony of Mettray, due to the labors of M. de Metz, who had carefully investigated the reform school systems of Germany and America, and who thereafter devoted his life to the object which had come to possess so much interest for civilized communities. The Mettray school, still nourishing, is an actual village, where live and work a multitude of town children of the lower stratum, in various stages of reform, and all progressive in their lives. The Met tray system, which was really a combination of special features in those of Germany and America; now became the model, and in 1853 was established, in close likeness to it, the industrial school for girls at Lancaster, which was soon followed at Lan caster, O., by the foundation of a 'similar school for boys. No account of reformatory institutions of the character of those which we are discussing would be comprehensive without some reference to the Five Points mission and the children's aid society of New York, the former the scene of the labors of rev. Mr. Pease and his fellow-workers; the latter,. which was founded in 1853 by rev. Charles L. Brace, an enterprise devoted to the removal of poor children front the temptations of the city, and their establish ment in country homes. Both these institutions have faithfully fulfilled the intent of their founders, and have clone much to ameliorate the condition of those whom they have taken under their charge. See CUILDREN'S AID SOCIETY, The number of reform schools in 1875 was: in the United States, 40; in Great Britain, 65; in Germany, 400; in France, 50; and in Italy, 33.