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ms net inionncinliff, uxjionrl.— i be gunlargeming icr of forceJ tbe Ic off is ab-near,hi tiigonyA.maneui-lvertherefore be granted, and it wai sot down for the SLh of June.House or Kefage.Mr. John H. Holliday, of the In-dinuipoliB Sentinel, recently paid a pro-foesional visit to the House of Refuge, at Plainfield. Prom his excellent account of what he saw and heard there, \ro make the following selections, only regretting that wo have not room for the entire article:PL A.IN YIELDJwas eur-r the itlen hot-*ned iomsago |Pa-jpy:Fourteen mile* west of Indianapolis, urrounded by hills and lying to the south of the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad, is the pleasant little Quaker village of Plainfield. Originally settled by members of that soct from which Indian agents arc now selected, it still hasthat distinctive charactor which marks tho abodes of the foliowors of George Fox, although many of its citizens now find a spiritual homo in the bosoms of otbor denominations. It is well named. Plain, prim, precise, substantial, yet not unpleasant. It is a village of white bouses and green yards, where people do not stretch their nocks out of tho windows to gaze at an unfortunate stranger who may bo walking by their gates, and where tho ears of the passer are not tortured by the profano jiDgling of pianos, or tho dhcordant icreachings of young girls who have got on to far in music as touttompt oporatic selections.’' A visit, to a majority of the villagers now-a-days, is enough to convince one that the aforesaid George Fox was not quite as foolish as sodiii people have imagined, when be anathematized music. Hut in that respect Plainfield is a happy exception.It is a thriving village, too, being surr rounded by a good country, and having a lair abura of trade; hut it is too close to Indianapolis ever to hope to outgrow vil-lagohood. To n Democrat It o|fer3 noadvantages politically, for the poople brag that there aro but two or three Democratic votes in the precinct, and a dilligcnt inquiry on our part revealed j ibo fact that but one copy of tho Sentinel is taken there. To the Quakers oftha State, however, it is a place cf great report, being usually chosen ns tho place for holding “yearly meeting,” and rumor has repeatedly ana loudly affirmed that in the fugitive slave law days it was an important and extensively patronized station on the “Underground Railroad. At present the only interest or importance it can have for Grangers is as the I station from w hich is reached the Indiana House of Refuge.TUB BYBTBMtakea n v •me.ini i Id-Ma\I■vcntheo toilloiortf «ofhatlissursi»'»d ^ur e a tod icyAdopted at the Indiana tit bool is tbe same m iu Use at the Ohio and other schdolsin this country. It fs of foreign birth, having first been tried and dovolop-*».t by Wichern at the “Raub House” in Hamburg. At a glance it seems based n,.e upon a most unbounded faith in human nrP nature and a deadly enmity to the doc-irino of total depravity, but an examina-h ti m shows that this is bnt seeming, thatits roois go down much deeper. It isfounded on tho principles of the Christianroligion, and in us great euccu** offersfresh ard woighty ovidenco df the vitalizing efloet of those principles. Its object is not to puniiu but to reform—to * mould tbe characters of the young afresh,to straighten the warped, crooked mind, lo make good and useful men out of boys who have by the commission of crime put themselves outside the pale of society, and who, if leu to themselves, would Iq tbeordinary couraeof events become society’s greatest enemies. By teaching industrious habits, developing the mind by education and impressing upon these morally diseased patients the truths of theQoSr pul, a work of reformation has been accomplished in some of the rue ft difficult esses wbiob is perfectly astonishing.THE FAMILIES.t1r1c1c6ItVRttUUs!alwtlbantceiernes t. Ioful,re,tso'“IinastoT!ofitexbeloiinn-■6-ifhin utTho whole institution is under the care j and direction of the tiuperintendent and rd | Matron, tbe ’alter of whom fills to a great extent the place of a mother, butthe boys liye in families Thereare at present two of these, eachhaving fifty members. Each family Das at its bead a House Father/’ who takes tbe place of a father to the boys.—vohebe\o.JD9 iDOOFtolehiivlt;thitblt;»Pha:tomyamsil«ret
Newspaper Details
Terre Haute Weekly Express
Terre Haute, Indiana, US
Wed, Jun 02, 1869
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Plainfield P.
IN, USA 25 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Terre Haute, Indiana
Western Register and Terre Haute Advertiser
Terre Haute Wabash Courier
Terre Haute Tribune Star
Terre Haute Tribune
Terre Haute Star
