tion respecting these
practices, and by exposing them, drew the attention of the civil
authorities to them. One of the scoundrels, named Antonelli, was
arrested, tried, and sentenced to the penitentiary, and the infamous
business was broken up. The police authorities are possessed of
information which justifies them in asserting that some Italian children
fare quite as badly at the hands of their own parents. There have been
several instances where Italian fathers have made a practice of hiring
out their daughters for purposes of prostitution, while they were yet
mere children.

As a rule, the future of these little folks is very sad. The Italian and
the Mission schools in the Five Points and similar sections of the city
are doing much for them, but the vast majority are growing up in
ignorance. Without education, with an early and constant familiarity
with want, misery, brutality and crime, the little minstrels rarely "come
to any good." The girls grow up to lives of sin and shame, and many
fortunately die young. The boys too often become thieves, vagrants, and
assassins. Everybody condemns them. They are forced onward in their sad
career by all the machinery of modern civilization, and they are helpless
to ward off their ruin.

During one of the heavy snows of a recent winter, a child harper trudged
wearily down the Fifth avenue, on his way to the Five Points, where he
was to pass the night. It was intensely cold, and the little fellow's
strength was so exhausted by fatigue and the bleak night wind that he
staggered under the weight of his harp. At length he sat down on the
steps of a splendid mansion to rest himself. The house was brilliantly
lighted, and he looked around timidly as he seated himself, expecting the
usual command to move off. No one noticed him, however, and he leaned
wearily against the balustrade, and gazed at the handsome windows through
which the rich, warm light streamed out into the wintry air. As he sat
there, strains of exquisite music, and the sounds of dancing, floated out
into the night. The little fellow clasped his hands in ecstasy and
listened. He had never heard such melody, and it made his heart ache to
think how poor and mean was his own minstrelsy compared with that with
which his ears were now ravished. The wind blew fierce and keen down the
grand street, whirling the snow about in blinding clouds, but the boy
neither saw nor heard the strife of the elements. He h