The whole
establishment seems admirably conducted. The boys and girls are kept
apart, and each one has a very nice, clean bed-room, arranged in prison
fashion, and opening on to long galleries; but with nothing to give the
idea of a cell, so perfectly light and airy is each room. There is an
hospital for the boys and one for the girls, large and well ventilated
rooms; that of the girls is beautifully cheerful, with six or eight nice
clean beds; but it says a good deal for the attention paid to their
health, that out of the whole number of boys and girls, there was only
one boy on the sick list, and he did not appear to have much amiss with
him. This is somewhat surprising, as the rooms in which they work are
heated by warm water, to a temperature which we should have thought must
be very prejudicial to their health, but with this exception, they have
every advantage. A large playground, a very large chapel, where they
meet for prayers and reading the Bible, the boys below, and the girls in
a gallery, and large airy schoolrooms. The children are admitted from
the age of 7 up to 16, and the boys are usually kept till 21, and the
girls till they are 18. The girls are taught needlework and household
work, or rather are employed in this way, independently of two hours and
a half daily instruction in the school, and the boys are brought up to a
variety of trades, either as tailors, shoemakers, workers of various
articles in wire, or the like.
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