ely connected with the penal system of the city is the "Prison
Association of New York." This society was organized in 1844. Its
constitution declares that its objects are: "I. A humane attention to
persons arrested and held for examination or trial, including inquiry
into the circumstances of their arrest, and the crimes charged against
them; securing to the friendless an impartial trial, and protection from
the depredations of unprincipled persons, whether professional sharpers
or fellow-prisoners. II. Encouragement and aid to discharged convicts
in their efforts to reform and earn an honest living. This is done by
assisting them to situations, providing them with tools, and otherwise
counselling them and helping them to business. III. To study the
question of prison discipline generally, the government of the State,
County, and City prisons, to obtain statistics of crime, to disseminate
information on this subject, to evolve the true principles of science,
and impress a more reformatory character on our penitentiary system."

[Picture: "BLACK MARIA."]

Between 1844 and 1869, the members and agents of the Association visited
in the prisons of New York and Brooklyn 93,560 persons confined there.
These were poor and friendless prisoners, and they received from the
Association such advice and aid as their cases demanded. During the same
period, 25,290 additional cases were examined by the officers of the
Society. They succeeded in obtaining the withdrawal of 6148 complaints,
as being trivial, or based upon prejudice or passion. Upon their
recommendation, the courts discharged 7922 persons guilty of first
offences, and who were penitent, or who had committed the offence under
mitigating circumstances. They also provided 4130 discharged convicts
with permanent situations, and furnished 18,307 other discharged convicts
with board, money, railroad tickets, or clothing, to help them to better
their condition. In the twenty-five years embraced in the above period,
they thus extended their good offices to 156,368 persons. A noble
record, truly.

XIV. THE PRESS.

I. THE DAILY JOURNALS.

The Metropolitan Press is the model after which the journals of the
entire country are shaped, and, taken as a whole, it is the best
institution of its kind in existence. The leading New York journals have
but one superior in the whole world--the London _Times_--and they
frequently equal, th