THE " ROUGH " HOUSE OF HAMBURG.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 64, 15 March 1878, Page 4

THE " ROUGH " HOUSE OF HAMBURG.

The "Rough Houße of Hamburg" ia an institution which our philanthropists would do well to study. Forty years aeo Hamburg was renowned for heine the wickedest city in the world. " It's vice was more opeu, its materialism grosser, and it's religion more of a sham." The only hope nf religion was among the younger clasae3 of the criminals. A few spasmodic efforts were made lo teach and refine them, but all in vain, while at length even these were given up, and respectable Hamburg folded its bonds and wondered at the wickedness of its neighbors. Then a certain Emanuel Wichern, firm of purpose, and believing in the old maxim, "Desperate couroge makes one majority," put his hand to the enterprise his heart in the work — and carried it through. The enterprise, like the famous "Refuge of Fritz Miller, has never asked for State or individual aid, and has always been amply supported. In October, 1832, Emanuel Wichern and his mother opened the doors of a small cottage known as " Das Rauhe Haus," announced their purpose, and waited. At the end of a week three boys hnd come ; at the end of two months there were twelve — all that the house could hold. Their ages varied from sto 15, nnd they were uniformly steeped in crime. Such a band of prematurely developed rascals were probably never collected together before. Wichern waa a sentimentalist, and the only rule was love. There was no restraint. The inmates came aud went at will. A high wall which surrounded the grounds was removed in order that there should not be even the semblance of forcible control. At the end of a year the first twelve boys were reformed. Applications for admission poured in, and the twelve built themselves a new house, and gave up the old one to the new comers. Then a house was built for the girls. The day it waa finishedit was filled — and filled with the vilest of the vile. The boys had given trouble enough, but the girls were by far more wicked and unmanageable. But Wiehern's sentinaentalism conquered here, too. From that time to this the "Rough House of Hamburg" has pressed ou in its triumphant career. It now consists of thirty .eight separata houses, owt>e 400 acres of hind, and educates yearly more than 1100 boys and girls- Of ils 43,000 grammes, not more than 5 per cent, huve faller. It has given rise to more than 800 similar reformatories in Prussia. Of these, that of Berlio, founded in 1858, is the largest and keeps busy, merely in the wotk of superintendence, forty -eight men. The Order of the " Knights of St. John," of which we heard bo much during the Frarjco-Prusßian war, was founded at the " Rough House of Hamburgh," and now controls all the kindred institutions in the country. Immanuel Wichern is si ill at the heud of aflairs.— English paper.