of ill-treatment of these children. The
task of distributing them is carried on so publicly by Mr. Tracy, and in
connection with such responsible persons, that any case of positive
abuse would at once be known and corrected by the community itself.

"'On this journey,' says the secretary, 'we heard of but one instance
even of neglect. We visited the lad, and discovered that he had not been
schooled as he should, and had sometimes been left alone at night in the
lonely log-house. Yet this had roused the feelings of the whole
country-side; we removed the boy, amid the tears and protestations of
the "father" and "mother," and put him in another place. As soon as we
had left the village, he ran right back to his old place!'

* * * * * * *

"We give our evidence below, consisting of letters from prominent
gentlemen, clergymen, bankers, farmers, judges, and lawyers, through the
West, where the main body of these poor children have been placed. We
think these letters, coming from some hundred different towns, and the
evidence on our books from the boys themselves, establish the remarkable
success of the work. Some of the writers speak of the children as
thriving 'as well as any other children;' and, in some cases, those who
have become disobedient and troublesome are said to have been so
principally through the fault of their employers; few instances,
comparatively, from this four or five thousand, are known to have
committed criminal offenses--in some States not more than four per cent.
This is true of Michigan; and in Ohio, we do not think, from all the
returns we can gather, that the proportion is even so large as that. The
agent of the American and Foreign Christian Union for Indiana, a
gentleman of the highest respectability, constantly traveling through
the State--a State where we have placed five hundred and fifty-seven
children--testifies that 'very few have gone back to New York,' and that
'he has heard of no one who has committed criminal offenses.'

"The superintendent of the Chicago Reform School, one of the most
successful and experienced men in this country in juvenile reform,
states that his institution had never had but three of our children
committed by the Illinois State Courts, though we have sent to the State
two hundred and sixty-five, and such an institution is, of course, the
place where criminal children of this class would at once be committed.

"A promi