t revenge among themselves, in
imitating the Sunday-school addresses delivered to them.

Still, ungoverned, prematurely sharp, and accustomed to all vileness, as
these lads were, words which came forth from the depths of a man's or
woman's heart would always touch some hidden chord in theirs. Pathos and
eloquence vibrated on their heartstrings as with any other audience.
Beneath all their rough habits and rude words was concealed the solemn
monitor, the _Daimon,_ which ever whispers to the lowest of human
creatures, that some things are wrong--are not to be done.

Whenever the speaker could, for a moment only, open the hearts of the
little street-rovers to this voice, there was in the wild audience a
silence almost painful, and every one instinctively felt, with awe, a
mysterious Presence in the humble room, which blessed both those who
spake and those who heard.

Whatever was bold, or practical, or heroic in sentiment, and especially
the dramatic in oratory, was most intently listened to by these children
of misfortune.

The Boys' Meetings, however, were not, and could not, in the nature of
things, be a permanent success. They were the pioneer-work for more
profound labors for this class. They cleared the way, and showed the
character of the materials. Those engaged in them learned the fearful
nature of the evils they were struggling with, and how little any moral
influence on one day can do to combat them. These wild gatherings, like
meetings for street-preaching, do not seem suited to the habits of our
population; they are too much an occasion for frolic. They have given
way to, and been merged in, much more disciplined assemblages for
precisely the same class, which again are only one step in a long series
of moral efforts in their behalf, that are in operation each day of
every week and month, and extend through years.

The first of these meetings was opened in 1848, under the charge of Mr.
A. D. F. Randolph by the members of a Presbyterian church, in a hall on
the corner of Christopher and Hudson Streets. This was followed by
another in a subsequent year in Wooster Street, commenced by the
indefatigable exertions of the wife of Rev. Dr. G. B. Cheever, and
sustained especially by Mr. B. J. Howland and W. C. Russell.

The writer took more or less part in those, but was especially engaged
in founding one in Sixth Street, near Second Avenue; another in 118
Avenue D, from which arose the "Wilson School" and the A