chiefly in the country, either for adoption
or as members of the families. . . They receive a good common school
education, or are trained to some useful business, trade, or profession,
and are thus fitted for the great duties of mature life. We know that
our work prevents crime; keeps hundreds of children out of the streets,
keeps boys out of bar-rooms, gambling houses, and prisons, and girls out
of concert saloons, dance houses, and other avenues that lead down to
death; and that it makes hundreds of cellar and attic homes more cleanly,
more healthy, and more happy, and less wretched, wicked, and hopeless.
We never turn a homeless child from our door. From past experience we
are warranted in saying that one dollar a week will keep a well filled
plate on our table for any little wanderer, and secure to it all the
benefits of the Mission. Ten dollars will pay the average cost of
placing a child in a good home."

During the ten years of its existence, the Mission has received more than
10,000 children into its day and Sunday schools. Hundreds of these have
been provided with good homes. Thousands of poor women have left their
little ones here while they were at their daily work, knowing that their
babies are cared for with kindness and intelligence. The famous
nurseries of Paris exact a fee of four cents, American money, per head
for taking care of the children during the day, but at the Little
Wanderers' Home, this service is rendered to the mother and child without
charge.

Yet in spite of the great work which the Missions are carrying on, the
wretchedness, the suffering, the vice and the crime of the Five Points
are appalling. All these establishments need all the assistance and
encouragement that can possibly be given them. More workers are needed,
and more means to sustain them. "The harvest indeed is plenteous, but
the laborers are few."

XXVIII. THE MILITARY.

The city is very proud of its military organization, and both the
Municipal and State Governments contribute liberally to its support.
This organization consists of the First Division of the National Guard of
the State of New York. The law creating this division was passed in
1862, when the old volunteer system was entirely reorganized. Previous
to this, the volunteers had borne their entire expenses, and had
controlled their affairs in their own way. By the new law important
changes were introduced.

The division consists of four