The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 197 - The Orphans of New York City

Episode Date: August 8, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the explosion of orphans on the streets of New York City in the mid 1800'sSOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly American History podcast. Each

week I read a story from American history to my friend Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. It's gonna be about love my man. I hope so. All right I don't like where he is right now. Hey. Hey. Ow. Hey. Stop it. Stop it. Jose. You. I'm your father. Respect me. Look me in the eyes. You talking to me? It's gonna be about love. Are you sure? What are my eyes saying? I don't want to do this. What am I saying? I don't want to do this. Yeah that's exactly what they're saying. Oh god. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is

not gonna become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hell queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do my thing. Hi Gary. No. Nice to see you done my friend. No. No. June 19th 1826. Good time. James Lohing Brace was born in the New England town of Lichfield, Connecticut. His family was not wealthy but quite respected. Okay. His dad John Brace he's a teacher at the well-regarded Lichfield Academy. Sure. His mother had one other child Emma and when Charles was 15 he attended a sermon by one Horace Bushnell and it moved him so much that he decided to become a

minister. Wow. It's a good sermon. Beautiful. It's a beautiful story. It's a great story. That's it. That's it. This is a very short. That's the whole very short podcast. You've been shebanged. This is a nalup really. Charles went to Yale and studied theology from 1842 to 1846. After he got out he graduated. If for a short spell he taught in the Connecticut countryside then he went back to Yale and attended a year of divinity school. Okay. So he's not kidding around. No. He means it. He was ordained in 1849 as a Protestant minister and met the man who changed his life and would go on to be his mentor

Horace Bushnell. Okay. So he went back to Bushnell. Back to the Bush. Bushnell had written a book called Christian Nurture which discussed the malleability of the human soul under unconscious influences. Well you know I think a lot of times you wait for the line and here we are. There you are. From this Charles came to believe independent spirits must be carefully nurtured in childhood to create healthy adults. Okay. It's not a crazy. No it's not. He thought this nurturing could only be found if the child was in a family. Makes sense too. Sort of. That couldn't be the opposite of what was going on in New York City at

the time. Okay. Good good good. The Five Points neighborhood in Manhattan had become the first slum in America in 1825. Okay. The neighborhood had been built over the collect pond and the swamp land north of City Hall. The collect pond was just there were slaughterhouses around it and tanneries and they just all dumped their fucking shit into this pond. So it was just this disgusting and then they filled it over and they built a which is actually basically what happens today in in a probably worse fashion. It's no different. Where we have like those right next to rivers and we're like problem. What's the deal. I don't see a problem this

is just blood and poo and pee and we drink this one. This is just blood and poo and pee. That is a quote. Yep. Five Points was one of the neighborhoods not suited to large building because of the lack of bedrock. When the landfill in the neighborhood began to decay in the 1820s so it's actually decaying and methane is coming up and it's just it's a good situation. The houses honey are we sinking and does it smell like shit. Am I crazy. I feel like we're at an angle and it really just smells like someone's shit up my nose. Haven't even said the houses started to tilt and sink. It did it. Yeah. Of course it did. I didn't say that yet but that's what's next.

That's what happens when you build on a sinkhole. Mosquitoes were everywhere as was disease. Dave were there any issues with this area or building on it at this time. My God. My God. Those who could afford to leave did why the people who stayed behind were poor gang spraying forth and politicians use them to get what they needed. Everyone living in the area who was not committing crimes was constantly in danger of becoming a victim. Families were packed into small living areas. They would cook, eat, sleep all in the same room. Can you imagine a time when this would happen. Pakistan. With these living conditions came

children who made the street their home. Well there we go. They don't all turn out like Newsy's or Oliver. And things became worse after 1840 when apprenticeships basically disappeared from small workshops. So now there's no hope. Right. So an apprenticeship basically you you take in a young. Interns. Yeah an intern. You're taking a young teen for a few years. You teach him your like wood working craft or whatever you do. A skill. And then at the end of that he has worked for a long time but he is now as a skill which you can take out in the world. Yeah and but that is now. It's important. Vanishing. Right. Good. Factory started

cranking out what used to be done by an adult craftsman. Craftsman walking over a young apprentice. And so now it's a factory. Right. So no one is learning a craft from a factory like they did from. You know. Good. Gus. Good. Gus is. Good. So you're having a change of. Of the way the economic system works. So it's now going. Group of people. Right. And but so now it's more it's just quantity over quality. Right. But it's also you had children who used to be able to learn a craft. Low low on the social status. This group of kids who now have nowhere to go. So you're also created. Right. OK. So you're creating a pocket of

instability. Oh interesting. Then came a huge flood of European immigrants into the city between 1840 and 1855. What were the rumors in the European places where they were like. You don't understand. It is all garbage and everything tilts and smells like shit. And you get bitten by bugs. How could you not go. It only takes four months to get there. So almost 70% of the immigrants came into the U.S. coming into the U.S. came through the city in New York. The potato famine hit Ireland. So they fled and came to America. I think I'm going to ask you this. What was the potato. The potato famous was they just ran out of potatoes

and that was all they were eating. No. Good God. No. They may they had potatoes enough to eat. But the English would just take. Oh they took them. That's right. We just take them by guard and would fucking die in the streets. Are you watching him. He's really doing some gymnastics over here. I'm a little worried. Jose. He just he just jumped over that too. I mean what else would you do if you were here. So these people are super poor. So there's the best of the best. There's tons more people looking for work that isn't available. Right. By 1860 half of

the New York population were immigrants. The working class who were casual laborers were pushed into the. We're going to build a moat. We're going to we're going to build a great moat. We're going to build an unreal moat. It's going to be better than the great mode of China. The best catch pond. We're going to have American sharks. Our ponds are going to be the filthiest ponds. The way they used to be. Yeah. Yeah. So the working class were like casual laborers. Right. They're pushed into the underground economy. You know. Newspaper editor Horace Greenlee said two thirds. Horace Greenlee. Yeah. Didn't he was he didn't he go on to do a

bunch of shit. I'm very good at this. You might be thinking. Yeah. No you know that. Yeah. But you've heard his name before. OK. He did. But he did go on to do a bunch of shit. He I think historically speaking. I think some of the best historians will tell you that he did go on to do a bunch of do a bunch of shit. OK. Horace Greenlee who went on to do a bunch of shit. He said two thirds of people were living on one dollar per week. Historian Edward Spahn said New York was quote a sparkling gem set in a pile of garbage. OK. Yeah. Yeah. True. That is true. The diseases also would rip through the city. Epidemics of typhoid yellow fever or the flu took their

turns killing in packed places like five points. It was even worse as people died from TB cholera typhus trachoma which is an eye disease. And then auto correct change this because it says faves but it was something else. Oh no that's faves. That's where you'd over like stuff on Twitter. But it was a scalp disease that people died from. Yeah. That sounds like the worst. You kind of want that eye disease if you got faves. That's what I'm talking about. Hey. Jose keep it down. These diseases would leave many orphans. Other kids were just abandoned by their parents who could not afford to take care of them. Those are orphans being abandoned. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you're

an orphan but you're not in an orphanage. Orphans usually like the parents died but usually you know people don't even orphan is just like OK thank you can't do nothing with you get out of here. So it's just you're either an orphan or a pick pocket I guess. You're an orphan. I mean they're technically the orphans. Thank you. An example of a note left with a child outside of a nun's charity. Dear sisters by the love of God be so kind as to take this poor orphan child and if she should die please to bury her for me and I will be very happy. I cannot afford to bury her. Boy really. That's a really sour sad outlook. Grim. You know hey what about this kid's alive or. Yeah please nerd please take

good care of this child. She's my everything. Oh if she dies by the way. Also we want her to be cremated and sprinkled in the park. Please bury her instead of throwing her in the garbage like you guys do with all the other babies. Any way to get an ocean death. And other parents were out. We want a naval burial. What a proper naval burial for if possible. That'd be great to see. We'd like her stuffed and put on a flagpole. Yeah anyway sincerely crazy lady you can't handle this. Others had parents were alcoholics or drug addicts. Good. What all this led to was a glut of orphans on the streets of New York City. A glut. They were called street rats, gamons, urchins, gutter snipes and street

Arabs. Oh boy very. Last one got weird. Yeah. Well the street Arab nickname rose out of their lifestyle of wandering the streets peddling and stealing. Sure. So yeah why not. That's yeah. Technically a stereotype. Well a little bit. Hard to poke holes in it. Different slang was used based on their ages. The older tougher ones were called street Arabs and the smaller younger ones were gutter snipes. Interesting. So it was kind of like hockey ages. That's exactly right. Now you pee weas. Come on squirts. Now you street Arabs. Look who's not a gutter snipe anyway you crazy street Arab. They gutter snipe described by a reformer at the time quote this little chap generally roams around until he finds some courageous street Arab

scarcely bigger than himself perhaps to fight his battles and put him in the way of making a living which is generally done by selling papers in time the gutter snipe becomes a full fledged Arab with a large clientele too hard and steady fists and a horde of dependent and grateful snipes. My God very different. That's a lot of jargon. Yeah well it's almost sounds like a you want to be a street Arab you got to get a bunch of snipes but it also sounds like the commentary from a British. Yeah a nature show right. Yeah yeah. You can see slowly the street Arab is moving down the hall right behind him you see a pack of gutter snipes and we see the alpha in front. He's the main gutter snipe hopefully to be a street

Arab someday himself. He's the cheerleader of the main street Arab left behind the pack we see the baby snipe unable to complete his mission and you can see slowly the lioness eating the snipe. These these children would sleep in boxes or around steam grates. Some of them did not have winter coats and most were barefoot. I get the steam grates. There was an estimated 10 to 30,000 homeless children in New York in 1952. The population was 500,000. Oh my God. They would roam around in groups begging for pennies. I mean if seeing them you'd be like oh God I'm going to switch this. Here they come. Across the street. Just like a pack of locusts. Jesus. Just shoeless also. Shoeless. Shoeless in New York. Smelling like

gutter steam. By the way that's my favorite Meg Ryan movie shoeless in New York. Oh that is a good one. So good. That's so good. Gerard Butler's awesome. Homeless girls were said to be equal to homeless boys in number but they were more likely to be in an orphanage. Even if they had a family the girls were also in the streets though helping to bring in cash for the family. So some of these kids. You'd be like a day snipe. Some of these kids aren't orphans they are just out there selling newspapers and doing everything else they can do to make money for the family. Right. Singing about it. Yeah. Singing about it. But they pretty much could only quote sell papers, flowers or themselves. Well I'd say stick to the flowers

and the papers. Yeah. Got weird there. Stick there. Some of the girls were crossing sweepers. Sure. They would wait for a pedestrian who was going to cross the street. J Walker. As they did they would furiously sweep in front of the person as he or she walked. And they want to tip. Right. Yeah. They would ask for change. It's like when a homeless guy washes your windshield. It's honestly like in Italy there are like a lot of gypsy families and like you will. I mean they're like let me help you with your case. Let me help you with your case. Let me help you with your case. Let me help you with your case. Like nine of them. You're like no. No. And then they like one of them moves your case a foot. They're

like money money and you're like no no no money money and you're like no I didn't want you to move the case. Like we move the case. Where's the money. You're like no I'm not giving you any money like money money and you're like fuck off. And I like oh my god. That sounds great. Girls would also paddle or become petty thieves in pickpockets for many they would eventually transition into prostitution as they got older. Sophie Lyons worked mostly as a pickpocket but she also had a very small knives to quote slit open bag so I could get my fingers in. Whoa. Alrighty. After being arrested young Sophie testified in court that after her father went to fight in the Civil War her stepmother taught her

how to steal. Good. Well you want to trade like we were saying earlier. You don't want to send him out with nothing. Got to have a trade. Time for you to learn. Quote all during my early childhood I did little bit steal and was never sent to school. She said she pickpocketed every day bringing home more than a hundred dollars at night. Wow. Why would you want her in school. No I wouldn't get to the street sister. God yeah. Keep cutting the baggies. Quote I did not know it was wrong to steal. Nobody ever taught me that. Good excuse. I like that excuse. When caught the kids were often sent to children's asylums work houses or alms houses and those places were a nightmare. Great. They were overcrowded

and filthy. They treated kids more like animals than humans. The kids were beaten and whipped for misbehaving. Even then when they were 14 they were put out and expected to make their own way. Well they've learned. You're an adult now. You're a grown up now. OK man leave. Alright forget about the trauma. I haven't hit puberty yet. Go forget about the trauma get out there. I don't know. Use your skills. I have no skills. Use your skills. You taught me how to eat. Store stuff in your scars or something. Get out of here. What about puberty. Another job well done. Many of the boys became newsies in pickpockets. I do. I mean you just any time you hear newsies I just picture a pack of them singing in unison. Tremendous.

At the beginning of the street urchin wave pickpockets and shoplifters were mostly adults but then the kids took over juvenile crime at first was mostly less organized and in places like dumps junkyards and railroad yards. We're going to rob the dump. Got to get some filth today. I'll tell you that right now. Even those who had jobs were said to be lured into the world of crime and particularly pickpocking because that's where the real money was. From a charity for children quote from these child vagabonds come the pickpockets petty thieves small burglars cotton baggers copper stealers young prostitutes peddlers street sweepers and boot blacks that swarm in various parts of the city. What did boot blacks do. It's

a shoe shiner. Oh but it's all it's all under the guise of theft though. It's all like that like you like your shiny shoes and he's like these are just my socks. Where's that boy. That's who they were in contact with in the street. So basically they're saying that any all these pickups will grow up to be one of those shitty jobs. No no no Newsy or whatever is going to grow up to be anything of use. Right. And then those guys would then teach the younger kids. So it was like a right. It's a yeah. It's hard to break. And that's who the kids were seeing on the streets. Yeah. Well they know their options. They were getting to know and looking up to the adult boxers the pugilists. Oh those are the same thing

pickpockets cockfighters and pubgoers for most children as we know the street is where they hung out. Yep. It was their workplace their social center and where they entertain themselves. There are no parks at this point and playgrounds weren't coming for another 50 or 60 years. This was it. The street was the central place in the kids life. So weird eventually weird eventually pickpocking emerged as the perfect alternative to all the disappearing apprenticeships in the changing urban economy. Usually an older teenage pickpocket would teach the trade to what they would call their apprentices. Amazing to have an apprentice. Yeah. You won't be my apprentice. Yeah. Get your fingers in that pocket day. I'll show

you how to do it. Slip it in take it out. Boom. One of our detectives said the kids actually went through a course of instruction. Welcome to pickpockets. Right. We've got a five point plan to show you how to pick the best of pockets. Well. Everything's a song. Well you got a dig deep inside the bank to find the gold you want. Hey. Everything was reduced to a science. Other kids as was written in Oliver Twist by Dickens would be taught by the Fagans. Right. Older men who would show them the ropes in exchange for a place to stay. Cool guys. Good people never thought these people had issues. Right. Just a 47 year old man teaching a bunch of 11 year olds how to steal. Yeah. I'm a 47

year old guy and I got 34 kids living inside my space. I always remember that though when I was like growing up like there would like sometimes there'd be like a 15 year old who would just be like a leader of like 9 11 year olds and you'd be like weird like but he'd be like I'm the best stick with me guys and they'd be like yeah come on Chad's going this way on his bike. Yeah. That guy's always great. That's the dude who returns to high school nine years after he graduated to be like a new soda machine. Huh. Hey you guys you guys need a kid. Miss Cooper still teach. She doesn't. Hey what's up Miss Cooper. No I'm not here. Huh. Okay. Let's talk to you guys don't know me really. Anyone want beer.

I'm Teddy Clay. Come on Teddy Clay. Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay Clay. Come on Clay. Thirty 34 sacks 34 sacks. This is 9 10 10 10 11 years ago 34 sacks 34 sacks. Don't. Kids. You guys look good though. Yeah. He has a cute bunch of cute cute boys and girls. Boys and girls. There we go again. In 1854 police chief George Matzel said that quote crime among boys and girls has become organized as it never was previously and they all had their own specialty based on things like how they looked for my pick pocket quote a boy can get next to a woman in a car or on the street for the purpose of pocket picking more easily than a man can. He is not so apt to arouse her suspicions. If he is a handsome

innocent looking boy and clever he can go far on this line of graft. Here's a policy. Don't talk to kids at all. Oh fuck I would I would be I would just be you'd have a spiked bat. Yeah I'd be knocked without question. Yeah they're at this point they're just like animals you just fend them off. I mean listen to your attitude already. It's insane. They're animals. So oh the kids who pickpocket women were called mall buzzers mall buzzers. Yeah okay. And though the child pickpockets do not usually go after women just one in five victims was female. Okay. So that's an unexploded market for them. It's an order to the street. Yeah. The exact number of street children in the city was never agreed upon. By the 1850s

police chief Matzel and the Reverend Halliday believed it was between five and 10,000 while other groups said it was between 10 and 30,000. I think that most people now think it was 10 and 30. Okay. Which is a big number. That's huge. Big swing. Yeah. Pickpocket Larry Caulfield bragged that from the ages of 13 to 15 quote I made a great deal of money at picking pockets without getting into difficulties with the police. The New York Times complained that they were so good at it that pick pickpocketer was rarely captured. But if one was and with their accomplice, they were arrested, they always got off because of lack of proof. So it's just perfect. Right. When Julius Rochelle had his pocket picked, he went into a William

Street establishment to look for the kid who had done it. He found a bunch of boys around a bench quote, I showed the boys aside and found under the bench this boy with his coat off, which I thought the cutler's boy was the pickpocket. Then all the other boys circled around him. Oh boy. I had to let I had to let my hold go the boy as there was a crowd of boys all around who immediately rushed between me and the boy and started jeering and laughing at me. Oh my god. He finally gave up and left. Oh my god. I've got numbers. Yeah, they do have numbers. Also my watch is gone. God damn it. Fuck. And the community, mostly being immigrants, often supported the pickpockets. George Appa was one. He got in.

He got into it because the other pickpockets quote, always were well dressed and had plenty of money for the fucking hot shit. The pickpockets now the hot shit in town. We'll be back. Oh, when when Apple was arrested once, he was asked if he knew the difference between right and wrong in court. And George answered, I know that I ain't doing wrong in picking pockets. So no, he was then asked if he had a right to steal. And he said, to a certain extent, yes, I do. Yeah. Yeah, I think kinda. Yeah, that's that's my we all have a role to play. Mine is to take shit out of people's pockets. Yeah, I think it seems fair. Hey, what's law? Hey, what is law? Why? Hey, what is this room? I don't want to get all philosophical

here, but why is law? Why is law, your honor? Which one's the honor? I'm talking about. Who is it? One day, George picked pocket and got a wallet on Wall Street. A policeman chased him and he got away. Unfortunately, he was shot in the stomach while he ran away. Now, did they have body cams back then? Well, a lot of orphans also had their torsos reversed. Excuse me? So when you run at them, the only way you can shoot them was in the tummy. We had to get shot in the stomach if he's running away. Oh, right. I get you. Well, I mean, yeah. Yeah. Maybe he was running backwards working on his calves. He went to a family. He was in acquaintance with and quote the good woman. Weird news. Hey, you guys. What's

for dinner? Extra hole, extra hole. New hall. And quote the good woman, Mrs. Maher hid me between the mattress of the bed where I remain until there's someone out looked around and returned and said everything was all right. And then he's been shot. Put him where the part is. And then that was the end of the story. There's no more word on what he did about the bullet. Did they get him out of the mattress? Yeah, it might still be there. This thing's lumpy. The boy. Oh, shit. Oh, God, that was two years ago. Oh, God, that one had a hole in him. He's dust. He's dust. When 14 year old Edward Luggenstein was arrested for pickpocketing, he admitted that he was part of a thieves school run by an older guy

on Ludlow. Each day the boys were sent to different Mr. Cooper. Is there something more interesting? You're looking at the window again. I'm glad you asked. Captain, my captain. Each day the boys were sent to different parts of the city. I was very disappointed with your midterm results. They would have a pickpocking chaperone, usually an older teen who would watch them work and give them tips as they picked pockets. So but how much? Okay, so I guess the general populace just doesn't have very much knowledge of this hierarchy. Otherwise, you'd be more suspicious when you saw like a 17 year old talking to 12 year olds sort of dishing out advice or a seven year old sitting around with five, five, eight

year olds and then going, okay, break and then I'll scatter and run for you. Right. I mean, is that is it just that we now? I don't know what people were thinking because these kids just kept making money. I just want to see how you would talk like I would like I mean, honestly, you just I just walked down the street doing the punching machine. Yeah. You get tired. You can also do the kicking machine. If they stole a purse, the older boy would take what was inside. After Edward stole his first purse, he was approached by another adult criminal quote, he had heard of our achievement and and kindly staked us and gave us a few private lessons in picking pockets. We were proud enough to be taken

notice of by this great man. We felt we were all rising in the world of graft and began to wear collars and neckties. What's my God? This is so weird. It just love little he got noticed by a big pickpocket. It's time to put on ties, boys. We got to start dressing the pot. I'm a pocket scout. I like what I see. I like the way your gang moves. I like what you're doing. I like how you do it. I like what you get. But you guys, you disorganize it. You don't know what you're doing. Move as a unit. You need a guy to show you the ropes to show you around. And that guy is me. Pickpocket, Barry. Also, let's start dressing like little billionaires. I'm going to need ties. Top hats, gentlemen. Pickpocketing is

not some slouch about crime. You come in here with a tie. Nope. You want to go and dress like that. You'll be a newsie. Yeah. So the idea is you just dress like a little billionaire and you're like, no, I have a disease. They're like, oh, you couldn't be a pickpocket. Right. Tell me more. But many still had to take jobs to supplement their pickpocketing comes. What? They have to get night jobs. Or so by day they pickpockets and then things are on the up and up at night. And then they have to get a side job because they're not making up pickpocketing. Okay. Well, you just get into pickpocketing. You got to have a you got to have a saturated market, I guess. So the pickpockets would also be newsboys and

shoe shiners, clerks, errand boys, messengers, telegraph operators, and a small few works and factories. Some newsboys would pay for lodging. So they had enough money to pay for a place to live, but it wasn't always the best situation. Oh, shocking. Some landlords would ask the kids to do errands for them and then pay them in rum. No. No. Kind of feels like they don't have a shot. It almost is like there's no rules in this city. I mean, pay them in rum. Yeah. Hey, kid. Yeah, you want to follow this. 14. 14. So these kids are eight. Eight. Jesus. Six. These are kids. There's not a dude. These pickpockets are children. Some of these who are getting paid in rum. There is in. I think it's in India.

I think it is. There's this whole weird set. Like there's this whole kind of like this. There are children who go around and will like collect recyclables and shit like that. And then they use the money they make from the recyclables or whatever they steal and like they'll steal from shops and stuff and they'll use it to buy glue and then they sniff glue. Oh, my God. And they're like and they're like glue addicts and they like pay. So they they steal recyclables and stuff to supplement their glue addiction and then they'll go to like movie theaters. These are like 11 year olds and they'll go to movie theaters with like glue strips like taped under their nose, be smoking cigarettes and just tripping out,

watching cartoons. And it's like a huge problem. We'll be right back with more slit your wrist. But when you see them on the glue, I'm not gonna lie, there's a party that's like that glue looks pretty decent. These kids are really. I didn't get it when they were going through the garbage. How much you get for a can? Bowery became the place where they all began to gather. It was like their surrogate home. Young boys, quote, infested the Bowery at all hours of the day and night. Is it eventually just going to be like when they would smash the rats with bats, except the boys? Okay. Even kids who did have homes would often go to the Bowery and stay there without going

home for days or even weeks. Hey mom, I'm gonna go down to the Bowery. See you next man. See you in a while. Bye. Oh, my God. Last time I saw you, you didn't have a mustache. I know I've been in the Bowery for five years. How's dad? I thought he was. All right. Well, good to catch up. Later. See you later. The kids would often gather in theaters. Investigator George McDermott went to Volk's Theater and was shocked by all the parentless children inside. There are about 200 children between seven and 10. Oh, my God. Some adults were there, quote, for the purpose of corrupting the minds of children. My God.

That's so weird. It's a different time. Oh, look, 207 year olds learning how to fence. Everything's fine here. The street rats even had their own theater. Sure. Right. Of course they did. The Ratter, the Grand Duke's Opera House. It was in a cellar of a building and the manager's stage hands, musicians, actors and audience were almost all young boys. What? I mean, this is insane. We're putting on a production. Tame it in a shrew. Oh, boy, a bunch of straight rates. For years, the Grand Duke's Opera House was the only theater that did not pay a license fee. Okay. Wait, so what is that mean?

So the city couldn't get him to pay. Oh, so this way to collect the fee. Get out of here with seven. You know, they have a point. They are actually seven years old. Quite competent directing. I like the take on it. Interesting take on an old story. Costumes not so good. The costume designer's crap. So it was also where my shoes? God damn it, where are my shoes? Where are my pants? Oh, fuck. So it was in this world in 1848 that Charles Loring Brace came with his ideas that every child should be in a family setting. Right. See, there's an issue.

What did you see? He saw an issue with this time. Yeah, for some reason, this didn't fit into his. I'm sure we'll get into some of the problems of the era and this podcast at some point in order to save their spirits and allow them to grow to be decent protective. You mean save their spirits being run, right? Yep. So at this point, he's 23 years old. And as bad as conditions were, the immigrant wave was just beginning and the street rap problem was big, but not as huge as it would become. New York was Charles' ultimate nightmare. He attended the Union Theological Seminary while volunteering to help children. He also taught Latin at a local school. Charles volunteered

at different New York City missions, spending most of his time at the Lewis Pieces Five Points mission in the heart of the madness. Okay. At first, he and Lewis tried to help the impoverished... It's kind of like dangerous minds, but with pickpockets. It's exactly like dangerous minds. We've been spending most of our lives living in the pickpockets paradise. I'm done. Fuck you for making me finish. So at first, he and Lewis tried to help the impoverished adults in Five Points who they believed had been poisoned by their life of poverty. But this proved incredibly difficult

the adults seemed to not want help and to be stuck in their ways. Interesting. Weird. Weird how that works. I would like, excuse me, I'm sitting in shit because I want to sit in shit. Would you ever have an interest in perhaps a topography? Something more... Would you like your shit... Library! Would you like your shit here too? Sorry, I should introduce myself.

Don't walk away without giving me some filth. Right. Yes, I am here... The smell's ungodly. I'm here to see if that's... Thank you, this is... Not a... This is called living. Compliment. That was a noosey!

Right. God. Incredibly big. Is that gravy? Oh, don't answer that. Don't answer that question. Don't answer that question. I would like to send you on a career path. It's not gravy. I can tell that it's not. Now that I look at the source, it's not from the dish. But the point is, would you be interested in something a little more mainstream? I'm going to go be sick. I'll be back in five minutes. Don't take me filth.

Oh, gosh. My god. I think I found a pig, man. My dad's over there. Sorry, I thought I shut the door. Smells ungodly. Is any of that gravy? So the adults didn't want help, so they turned their attention to the street Arabs and guttersnipes. Charles also started writing a column for the New York Times called, Walks Among the New York Poor. His descriptions were sensational for the predominantly middle class paper readers. He called the children street rovers and explained how they would create issues for the stability of society.

What? What? How could that be? What? How could an entire disenfranchised, hopeless group of people create a problem for society? I think it's just a phase. They're going to vote for Trump. Quote, they nod at the foundation of society and scampered away when light was brought

near them. Charles called Irish immigrants, quote, the dangerous class. Sure. Sure. That makes sense. Sure, that's fine. I mean, look, everyone realized that the Irish were a nightmare. I mean, come on. Problematic.

Sure. He also had a contradictory views on the street rovers, as he called them. He brought up the horrors of high crime due to the children's actions and included them in the dangerous class as well. The horrors of high crimes? The, how do you say, horrors? Okay. Horrors.

Horrors. Oh, okay. Right. Okay. He said they were what most threatened property and morals in society, but at the same time, he seemed to admire them, saying they were, quote, sharp, ready, lighthearted, quick to understand and quick to act, generous and impulsive, and with an air of being well used to steer their own canoe through whatever rapids and whirlpools.

Talk about an optimist. Yeah. He's super crazy optimist. I mean, he's, like, super crazy optimist. You mean the ambitious generation, as I like to call them? The wonder, the wonders who can get through anything? The entrepreneurial six-year-olds? The shining stars of street shit?

Welcome back to the shining stars of street shit. He walked among them and tried to learn about them. He once asked, did he go undercover as a kid? Hey, guys, what are we doing today? What? You want to play in the street? I'm big for my age. Why is you so big, mister?

I'm seven. I'm big. You're seven. I grew a lot. Is those shoes just taped to your knees? What? I gotta go. What year was your born?

Gotta go. What? Gotta get out of here. Go fast because his shoes is taped to his knees. This is how he was born. Let's beat him with rods. Beat him with rods. So one day he asked, quote, my boys, what is the great end of man?

When is he happiest? How would you feel happiest? Fuck you. And they responded, when we'd plenty of hard cash, sir. Oh, boy. Yeah, there's a lot of brainwashing deep in this patch. He served as a preacher for Blackwells Island. Blackwells was where the sick criminals and poor were housed.

But as much as he preached about God, he just saw poverty increasing and the number of homeless children going up and up. Time to build an arc. Yeah, build an arc. He started writing to a close friend that religion was inefficient. He's losing his way a little bit. Really? It's so weird.

He wanted to do something about the homeless children but didn't know what he could do. Then in 1850, his sister died of tuberculosis, which devastated him. He secluded himself in for a few days and then emerged with a new purpose. He was going to recharge his soul by going to Europe. While he was there, he observed foster care and then saw a place in Germany named the Rough House. OK. It was in the country and it looked like a farm.

Kids labored in the fields. He thought this was the perfect answer to save the New York kids' souls and in turn society. It's like a puppy haven. Yes. For people. Right. For kids. Oh, they can frolic.

They can graze. You run around, pick carrots. We'll slap them. Wash them down with the hose. When they get big enough and plump enough, we'll eat them. We'll get to the right size. We'll eat the boys. That's when he didn't see.

We are eating the children. Yeah, he just... And would you like to take a tour as a factory? Oh, no. I think I've seen quite enough. It's very rehabilitative. The heads are removed very quickly. Sorry?

The heads are removed very quickly. Sometimes a head will stick on and a boy will talk a little longer. But then you just zap it off. But they taste so good. Oh, you have not lived until you've had boykin. Oh, boykin. Bacon from boys. Boysage.

Oh, boysage. Have you ever had a boywurst? Oh, you got me boywurst. With a little boycrout. Oh, you're making me hungry. And some boychip. Ah, where's the boy? One thing he had noticed when he toured Tenements in New York was that former newsies and shoe

shiners were now adults living there and they mostly just sat drunk in back rooms. What do you think caused this phase? I don't know. Okay. He started to realize that those jobs were dead-end jobs. First, in 1853, he started an organization called the Children's Aid Society. In 1854, the CAS built the first lodging house for working city boys who he figured had the best chance of saving, right?

So go for the newsies first and the black boots. Right. It was called the Newsies Lodging House. He would continue to build lodging houses in the city, but his bigger and better plan came from the rough house in Germany. From that, Charles came up with the idea of sending orphans out of New York City to live on farms far from the gang life in New York. I mean, it's great.

That's a great idea. Trains? On paper. Trains at the time had expanded across the U.S. and were the cheapest way to travel. A ticket for a child was just $12, which was a lot cheaper than taking care of a kid in a lodging house. Oh, God. This is...

And they started what will become known as the orphan trains. Oh, God. What? Give me a ghost train. Any day. The plan was to just put kids on trains, have the trains stop in towns, and people would come down to the train station and pick a kid. What?

Like kittens? Yeah, but children. More fun. Everyone was apparently on board. This is insane. This is the crazy train. Everyone was apparently on board with this idea. What?

The first... Come on, we're going to go down to Penn Station. Pick out a boy. I can't. We can't. No, the whole day's got to be cleared. We're going to go find a couple of daughters. Yeah, we're going to go down to a train and then just yank them off and raise them.

No, no, they've been drinking rum and they have like dark histories. Yeah, they might feed the chickens. I don't know what they'll do. I'm excited to meet them. Oh, the first orphan train left New York on September 28, 1854. And then it pulled into the station and there was like no carts, just wheels. Wait, where are the kids? What the hell happened?

Where the hell is the train? C.A.S. took three types of kids, the children of destitute parents, then vagrant kids, and then finally criminals. All together, 46 kids got on the first orphan trade headed for Doe, Wajac, Michigan. He's just letting them loose in Michigan. They were sent 46 kids with one CSA agent to watch over them. No problem there. His name was E.P. Smith.

First, they took. Eyes peeled Smith. Oh, fuck yeah. First, they took a riverboat to Albany, even though the idea was for everyone taking a kid to have a recommendation from a judge or pastor. That wasn't the case. The first thing Smith did was let a passenger on the riverboat from Manhattan take one of the boys.

I fell in love with one of them. He's wonderful. I've been petting him the whole ride. He won't leave my arms. Oh God, he stole everything out of my pocket. He's so great. I don't know what my clothes are, but when I find them, it's exciting. When they got to Albany, Smith replaced that boy with another kid he met in the Albany

railroad yard. What? Because he still needed, he wanted to have the right number. Bring him along. Come on. You know what? Boy, this worked out great. I'm going to get inventoried.

This is an orphan train. We'll explain on the way. I'm going to be inventoried. I'm going to be inventoried. I need another boy. Whew, thank God. I was about to put a dog in a suit. The recede's got to match.

Come on. Smith never bothered to verify whether or not the boy was an orphan as the boy claimed, and then they boarded the train. I think that might be problematic when his parents are like, Henry. Smith kept a journal so we know how the first train ride went. Journaling, honestly, is such a mistake at times. The children were immigrants from many different countries. There were Italian, Norwegian, German, and Irish kids.

Most were between 10 and 12. One was six. The conductor told them they had arranged for the children to have their own train car, but that was not how it worked out. They were packed into a car with many others. It was a freight car. With rough benches installed, the benches had no backs. The only ventilation came when they opened the sliding doors.

Oh, Jesus. Some of the orphans crawled under the benches because the freight car was so packed with people. This was before electricity, so no lights at night. Just a dark nightmare car. No one was allowed to get off until the train reached Michigan, so a, quote, bathroom was rigged inside. I'm glad we got there, because my first question was going to be...

All he wrote. It's a fucking bucket in the corner, like what else could it be, and then you would throw it out. Like, what else could a bathroom be rigged? Could turn a boy into a toilet. If you got to go going, Ralph. They do that at Ikea. That's right.

Yeah. The boy for Gargan. Smith said the other people on the train were not of great character. That's so weird. It's shocking. People would buy a ticket. Shocking. To be in a freight car.

It wouldn't be of great character. I'll tell you what. This ride's a little more awkward than I anticipated. And he refused to, he refused to write about the worst acts they committed, but he did say they swore a lot and drank a lot of whiskey. I'm sure it was way worse than that. One passenger had a fire going in the corner of the train car, which made it very smoky because it was a train car.

Hey, we was thinking you could maybe clear it with the rest of us before you light the car on fire. Shut your faces. Okay. Are you not going to have them? Does anyone mind if I light a small fire over here? Hey, guys. You guys called.

I'm going to light a fire on the train car. Is someone going to be weird about my open flame? Oh, I hate smoking. Oh, it spreads. PC. After they arrived to try to take our fire, the truck, the train arrived at Buffalo, New York, and they, and then they were put on a steamer. They all got a sea sickness, probably because the air was fouled by all the shitting animals

on the deck above. Well, listen, you know what a steamer is. Then they were put on another train in Detroit and arrived in Doa Jack at 3 a.m. where they huddled together on the platform waiting for the sun to come up. Sounds like a good time. Their clothes. Were they tired? No, I'm sure they were fine.

Their clothes, which had been given to them brand new when they left New York, were now stained in the smell of animal food. Give them the new clothes once they've gone through this part. Thank you. It's like a graduation. The New York Times wrote, quote, their expressions were weary as if they had been caught doing something wrong and were wondering whether they were going to be punished. Sorry.

Isn't that exactly what's happening? In some of the younger children, this wariness verged on fear. That's so weird. They got scared because they were put in a train nightmare. You guys are scared? Why? Because a man lit a fire in a dark fart car? You know, they say it's best for children in the dark of night to take them and put them

on a train and then a steam train. Yeah, leave them with a head full of questions and lock them in the caboose for a night. You'll find some great stuff. Everyone in town knew about the orphan train as the CAS had put ads in a local paper beforehand and posted flyers all around town. Come get a boy. Get a boy. Get a boy.

Get a boy. Get two boys. Who wants a boy? Boys? Any boy? Boy? Boy? Boy?

Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy?

Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? Boy? The kids were then brought onto a stage in a church and one by one stepped on a crate so people could inspect them.

Oh, we got a lovely boy coming up next! Oh, look at this one, he's almost as pretty as a girl. He's four foot two, packing 79 pounds of sweet mitt magic. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Ralph! Come on, Ralph, turn around. Show them all. That's not bottom. OK, Ralph.

Ralph was the toilet. Ralph was the toilet on the train, so he's a little damaged. I ain't said I didn't want to be a toilet boy again. All right, there'll be no more talking from Ralph. Get Ralph off of there. Bring up Owen. Owen is a great specimen. Oh, you're going to love Owen.

Oh, Owen is very in this fall. Smith explained the program to the people, talked about the, quote, ragged regiment, as he called them, and asked for donations. He said the boys were handy and could learn any trade or labor, and the girls could be used for housework. I mean, that's kind of an, I mean, you talk about sleeping with one eye open

on night one of this experiment. Again, from the New York Times. The adults mingled with Smith's party. Some blinked back tears that such innocence should have, should already have known such hardship. Others looked them up and down and asked questions, trying to assess their strength and honesty. While one or two went so far as to squeeze the children's muscles

and plunge a finger into their mouths to check their teeth. The kids were then given out the next morning at the local tavern where they had spent the night. That is a really perfect setting for this. Of the 46 kids, 37 were chosen by families that day. Oh, that's just awful for nine. I mean, those nine are like, ah. Could you imagine?

And remember when you weren't picked for a game? Yeah. Like kick. Imagine not being picked for life. For life. Boy, you're not good enough to have it on my house. You piece of shit. Give me the one with one arm.

I don't know. His tongue felt weird. Go away. The other nine got back on the train, and this time went to Chicago. Don't worry. They got a lot of idiots in that town. Where Smith then put them on a train to Iowa City all alone.

Smith just got on a train to Chicago and headed back to New York. Well, I'm sure they all went to Iowa City. Well, the kids were met in Iowa City by a Reverend Townsend whose job it was to then find homes for them. Oh, that's a task. Future trains would keep going from town to town and with the kids until they were all finally picked. That's right.

I said future trains because this was considered wildly successful. And more and more trains began making their way across the country full of children. Often the kids had no idea what was going on. Good. They just thought they were going on some crazy train adventure only to be passed some stranger in a weird town. Sort of what cattle experience.

Oddly, some of the kids were angry and resentful because they actually still had relatives in New York. The same Brooklyn. Hey, I was just with my Bobby Jim. My Bobby Jim, my Uncle Jim. My Bobby Jim. My Uncle Jim. He's not making any sense.

Where's my Bobby Jim? I was with my Sally Ann. Oh, fuck. So the kids arrived in their past. Other kids were happy to suddenly have a family after living on the streets for so long. OK. One young girl, Winifred Williams,

who had been placed in an orphanage when she was a baby because her mother was unwed and thought her wealthy family would disown her. Winifred was put on a train at Grand Central Station with no idea what was happening. The train finally stopped in Kirksville, Missouri, and the children were taken to a packed church and told to sit in chairs on the stage.

An old man with a white beard approached Winifred and pointed a bony finger at her. Santa? I'll take that one. My wife is sick and I need someone to wash the dishes. No, no, no, no. No, thank you. That's all good stories.

No, no, no, no. No. So goes the beauty of adoption in middle 1800s. Oh, and that was that. Kids who only... Go live with Santa and wash his dishes. Kids who only spoke a foreign language had a rough go, often stopping at town after town until they found a family who spoke the same language.

Oh, we got a match. Oh, yeah. Slovenia. Come on down. Descriptions of the kids would appear in ads before the trains arrived in town. I can't wait to meet Kevin. Here's one that was posted in a Nebraska newspaper.

All children received under the care of this association are of special promise in intelligence and health and are in age from one month to 12 years and are sent free to those receiving them on 90 days trial unless a special contract is otherwise made. That's right. Four easy payments of $99.99. All right.

90 day trial or we have a money back guarantee. That's right. If you're not satisfied with your youth, just put it back in the original packaging and send it back to us. No cost at your expense. Full payment. Get a boy for $35.99.

Not available in Hawaii every month. Homes are wanted... A one month old too? Yeah. Homes are wanted for the following children. Eight boys aged 10, 6, and 4 years. English parents, blondes. Very promising.

Two years old, blond, fine-looking, healthy American, has had his foot straightened. Walks now OK. My question was going to be about his foot. Is it straightened? Glad we got that out of the way. Walks now OK. OK.

Six years old, dark hair and yes, good looking and intelligent American. Ten babies, boys and girls from one month to three months. I'll take all 10. What? What baby boy has fine head with face, black eyes, and hair, fat and pretty three months old? Can I get the fat pretty black eyed one?

Uh, how, what is the best way to cook the little one? Sorry, I'm not going to give you the baby. What is the, which is the heat, which? Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir. Sir, we're trying to find homes for these children and I'm not going to give it to you. Why are you so plump? You get out of here.

Weren't you in Iowa City? Get out of here. I was. Get out of here. Quit trying to cook the babies. I've been in so many cities. Get out of here. This guy keeps trying to eat all the kids.

And he never changes his story. He keeps asking how to cook them every city. What about that one? How much did you think that one would take to? To what? Are they seasoned? Get out. Back in New York, Charles realized the battle

against street crime appeared unstoppable. The immigrants just kept flooding into the city and with them came poverty due to lack of jobs and then crime. CS started offering reading courses, giving away medical and dental care. He also opened reading rooms to get people away from their tenements, which often had grog houses in the building. Amazing. At first, the reading rooms appeared successful,

but quickly were abandoned as reading was not as fun as beer. Yeah, I mean, come on. What were you thinking? Yeah. Well, do you want to go down there and get housed with some of your best 11-year-old friends or do you want to take a magical journey through words? By the time 1866 rolled around,

Larseny made up between one-third and one-half of all crimes committed in New York. Amazing. Lower Broadway became a pickpockets paradise, the vast majority of whom were not being arrested. In 1870, CAS treated over 24,000 different children, which included 6,000 orphans and 15,000 homeless kids. And there were the babies. Babies turned out to be a problem for CAS to unload on the orphan trains.

Farmers were looking for kids who are ready to work, which is the opposite of a baby. Right. I just love the idea of like a farmer feeling a baby's arm. What, you thinking he can lift lumbar? Oh yeah, he can absolutely lift anything. Because he looks like he can't hold his head up. I don't think that's fair.

I mean, I think he's choosing to leave his head down. I'm telling you, I've seen this kid build a barn. Okay, on his own. Okay, tell him to carry that chair across the room. Well, again, I think he, okay, but I will say this. He doesn't like to perform when I tell him to, but once you get him on the farm, he'll do anything. Hey, Casper.

Casper. Casper. Hey, Casper, move that chair. Hey, Casper. Yeah, he doesn't look like he's got the... No, no, no, hold on a second. Casper. Casper, move the chair.

He doesn't, he looks like a baby. Yeah, I'm telling you, once he gets going, you'll never see a kid lift like this. Did he roll over? Can he or did he? Can he? No, and he didn't. All right, I want the 12-year-old.

May I make one more pitch here? Okay. You got to see this kid irrigate. This kid, this kid, this kid, irrigate. I don't know what your farm, this kid irrigation wise. He's one of the best baby mines we've got going. Yeah, we got wheat. We're okay with that.

I'm telling you, you haven't, yeah. We don't have orchards. Get him out there tilling. Get him out there tilling. I don't, okay. Get him out there tilling. I want the 12-year-old. And the baby.

Take the 12-year-old and the baby. I don't want the baby. Baby comes with the 12-year-old. I want the baby. Sir, no. Do they... Why do you want him? Does he come with lemon pepper?

Why? Why would you ask that? I have Tabasco. Excuse me? Why do you want that? Jesus, he would taste... You're eating them. No, get out.

It's the same guy. Get out. Get out. Get out. Come up with a lie. And there were a lot of babies... I think Casper's dead now that I'm looking at him close. I don't think he made it through the night.

And there were a lot of babies now being abandoned in New York City. In the city, there were... What does that even look like? Auctions. I mean, that you're just walking around and you're like, oh, a dying baby. Basically. In the city, there were auctions called

Vendues, in which people would bid for a baby and the lowest bidder would get the child. Why would you go? The lowest bid represented how little a bidder thought he could spend on food and clothing for the baby for one year. Wait, you need to back it up here. They had auctions. They had auctions. And everyone would bid for the lowest amount.

I can take care of that baby for $75. $75. They were named... I can do $74. They were named that tuning youths. I could do that baby for $69. Let's see you do that baby for $69. Good luck to that guy.

That baby's gonna die. That is insane. Named... That is the name that tune. The name that tune for babies. I can raise that baby in five notes. I can raise that baby in four. Okay.

Additional babies, sorry, abandoned babies were called foundlings. People would just leave babies on other people's doorsteps, hoping they had the ability to take care of the baby. What? Soon receptacles were set up around New York City. Which night's baby night? Where people could drop... It's the pink bin, right?

Drop off a baby. You put it in the pink bin? God damn it, Larry. That's the garbage can. Oh, boy. I filled it with babies. Can we just put our yard waste in the garbage? And then put the garbage in the baby bin?

I don't want to restock the baby. There's nine of them. Oh, my God. They're all crawling around in there. Can we just... Can we just leave those ones and we'll put the other... Come on, hurry up. We got to get to the street.

The baby guy's coming. So they were... So there's like... I don't know what they are, receptacles. So bins, boxes, cribs around New York City that... Like the nines would leave out or whatever. And then you put a baby in it, and then none would walk by and look for a baby in the...

Because America is fucking insane. Okay. For whatever reason, people also left babies at garbage dumps. What the fuck? I mean, they actually made a system where your horribleness could thrive, perhaps, and you're still like, I don't want to make the trip.

That's like... That is literally like what people don't recycle. For God's sakes. It's a different bag. Just do it. We've already ruined everything. Can we just make the crawl a little slower? Well, we have to dump anyway.

We might as well get rid of the baby. Just pretend like it fell out of the bag. Oops. Drive. Oh, God. In 1869... I think the fall woke him up. In 1869, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul

started the first foundling asylum. Within just a few months of opening, they had 123 babies. They kept expanding the building and getting more babies. Wet nurses were hired. What? Wet nurses. Oh, okay. You know.

I've seen it. And the sequels. And the babies kept coming. Soon, they were overwhelmed with the babies and decided to start baby trains. The difference between your face... Dave. Your face.

Dave, you just said they decided to start baby trains. Your face is just so great. I'm crazy for thinking that you just said something and... I said they decided to start baby trains. You know what? Let's start baby trains. They were also called something else, mercy trains. Well, I know I went with babies.

Right. The big difference between the orphan trains and the baby trains was the... That they didn't use coal. They used babies. You could just throw a baby off. Throw them in there. You could throw by if you could catch them. Oh, my God.

As that perspective, parents were found ahead of time for the babies. People would ask for specific hair and eye color combo. They'd choose a boy or girl. Then they would have a number assigned to them. And a baby would have that number stitched into their clothes. When the baby arrived on the train, the parents would have their adoption number written on a piece of paper, like a claim check.

And someone would make sure it matched and off they go with their baby. There's your son, 18. There's your 18. You got an 18. I can't wait to raise 18. Hey, we got a 16 over here. I'm 16. You're 16.

Yeah. Oh, wait. Sorry. I'm 19. I had that the wrong way. Oh, whoops. That was close. Oh, almost gave you that one.

I was going to say I wanted a girl. That would be the same. Yeah, one of them terrible. I would have killed the boy. Yeah, I haven't ever died. Sir, what do you... What do you plan to do with nine? How?

How, what are you going to do to... A stew. Excuse me? A sweet stew. You're going to make a stew or your name is stew? Oh, yeah. Get out. We have told you many times to leave.

Just lie to us. Just based him for a while. Get out of here. How does he keep getting in here? I think he has a train. The first baby train sped off in 1873. No one checked up on the prospective parents to see if they were decent. Good.

While the orphan trains just went to farmland because they were to be used for labor. I mean, that's literally how they were selling the orphan trains as labor. Dave, just to be clear, this is a time in American history when people were sending orphans and babies on trains just to put them anywhere. Correct. Yeah. Okay. That sums it up.

I feel like we're going off the rails on a baby train. No. Baby. The baby trains are going off the rails on a baby train. Yeah, they're going off the rails on a baby train. No. Baby. The baby trains went to the west and south. In one year alone, 300 babies were taken to the state of Louisiana. Oh, my God.

Meanwhile, people had had it with the pickpocketing orphan criminals in New York. People began to demand a crackdown on the child pickpocketing problem. Besides just the orphan trains, they looked to the law and demanded the police finally do something. So between 1869 and 1876, prosecutions of pickpockets tripled, increasing from 91 to 302 per year, and juries finally started convicting them. By 1876, 79% of pickpocketing cases ended in conviction. Wow. Meanwhile, judges started giving out brutal sentences.

Before 1873, just a few teenagers had been sent to prison. The most in one year was six. In 1874 and 1876, 25 kids were sent to Sing Sing Prison. It's fine. Well, that's where newbies should go. It's fine. Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing Sing. A 14-year-old Irish immigrant was sent to the House of Refuge for a year for stealing a dollar. Teenagers Josh Goldin and Alfred Johnson, both who had pickpocketed 50 cents each,

were given three-year jail sentences. Wow. John Kelly was given four years for stealing five cents. Oh, my God. A five-year-old was sent to an adult jail. Uh, I found a problem with our plan. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah, Mr. Mouth?

Yeah. You're going to sing-sing. Why, um... I said I made a boom-boom. That's it. Ten years instead of five. You keep it up. What is love?

Fifteen years. You keep going, you little bastard. I like little bouncing balls. Twenty years! Hard labor, sing-sing. Milk? Can I have some? Solitaire confinement.

Somebody make him stop talking. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah.

Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah.

Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah.

Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah.

Life! After 1875, courts convicted over 1,500 children aged 14 years or younger. In 1876, New York convicted 9,500 teenagers, 2,600 who were under 14. When a pickpocket hit 15 now, he had as good a chance to be in the penitentiary. He could be convicted as a street Arab. Yes. Yeah. He had just as good a chance to be in a penitentiary as one of the houses for refuge or lodging or whatever. 85% of convicted 16 and 17 year olds ended up in syncing. So clearly the orphan trains were going to continue. The CAS was trying to help these kids by giving them a

way to start over. And the court system it was believed was creating permanent criminals. But so were the CAS lodging houses. Between 1854 and 1885, over 150,000 boys entered the multiple CAS lodging houses in New York. The average stay was one week, which wasn't the best to reform a criminal. Oh no, it takes a week. They did become a great way for kids to learn something else, crime. Yeah, networking. A newspaper reporter wrote, quote, the lodging houses in other places where boys assemble

are training schools for vice. One former resident said use became, quote, the swellest of crooks. Child pickpocket Larry Caulfield said as an inmate, older kids taught him how to, quote, bang a super that was pickpocketing a watch by breaking it off the chain. Wow. So the CAS continued with the orphan trains as they appear to be successful. Though by this point, the Catholic Church became concerned that Catholic children were being put in Protestant homes. Well, the Catholics have always had empathy towards the kids. They should be living here

in the Vatican. So pre-started announcing in towns that a train was coming and Catholics would sign up to take a Catholic child. They did not seem to be as concerned that siblings were often being split up on the auction platform. I mean, right there, like, yeah, they're more concerned about him, a Protestant kid, yeah, a Protestant family taking a Catholic kid. Oh, up on the auction platform became the origin of the turn up for adoption, except here, a farmer was picking up his indentured servant.

Well, it's because that's what they were being billed as workers for your farm. Taking kids quote, took turns giving their names, singing a little ditty or saying a piece up on the platform. Be real nice up there. Hey, you sing a song, you're gonna get taken by a nice family. It's the good ship. Lollipop, it's a sweet trip to the king. Hey, I want that one. He's pathetic. Um, not what I was going for.

It was said the people taking kids were screened, but that wasn't necessarily true. Applicants for children. Yeah. Screening's over right here. Oh, thank you. Actually, you get a couple right here. Thank you. Take the brother, leave the sister. Applicants for children were supposed to be screened by communities of local businessman

ministers or physicians, but the screening was rarely very thorough. Some weren't. Sort of like a smog check. Yeah. Right. Some weren't screened at all. They would come up and ask for a kid and the CAS agent would look them over to see if they had decent clothes and were clean. He'd ask them about their property jobs and if they went to church. If he didn't think they were liars

or degenerates, he'd give them the kid. It's like customs. Yeah. Good. It is like customs. Yeah, go ahead, take one. You look good. You seem fine. You're a nice sweater.

Thank you. You want two? Yeah, I'd love to. And it was said there would be follow-up home visits by agents, but that was clearly impossible with thousands of children being given away. Right. The CAS would often send a letter of inquiry to see how things were going. Check yes for fine, no for dead.

But in most cases, the letters were not answered. Right. This system led to abuse for some and some of them would run away now being homeless in an entirely different area that they were completely... Fresh meat. ...old to. It is believed 75% of the kids had normal good lives, but the other 25% not so great. The unfortunate were not fed well and worked hard until they became adults. Even the ones

that did have good lives were teased in school for being trained children. Hey, trainee! I was... My parents died and they put me on a shout-up trainee. Shout-up, you stupid trained kid. Others feared the kids coming to their small towns. They thought the orphans would bring crime and violence to their town. This led to kids often not being trusted by people in the community.

And... It's so amazing to think of the time. It's all good. People just... Hated kids. Yeah. Everyone. For being an orphan.

Yeah. And unfortunately, not all the kids on orphan trains were orphans. What? Someone had been separated from their families or siblings. One report from 1873 said 40% of children placed that year had at least one parent alive. What? The CAS always got permission in writing from the parents, but the problem with that was is that not all of the parents spoke English, so they had no idea they would never see

their kid again. God is yes, man. Yeah, it's good. We're going to take him on a ride. A little trippy trip. With a yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. All right, say goodbye, Vaughn. Yes, Vaughn. Okay. Take a little train trip. Vaughn? Yep. Get yourself a job.

Come back. Who's Vaughn? Yep, sure. Yes. Uh-huh. It's Vaughn. Yeah. Okay.

Yes. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Come on. Even when they did know what was happening, the kids, it wasn't what they thought. One kid was given an envelope from his dad when he left, inside with his father's contact intro. So, this father knew- Keep in touch. This father knew what was happening.

He was like, okay, this is going to be a better life for him. I'll give him up for this, but I'll still-he'll know where I am. I'll have a pen, pal. Wait, wait, yeah. We'll be able to keep in touch. A pen, dad. Right? But what happened got on the train the CS chaperone told them he wouldn't need the envelope and took it from him

There you go. Never saw his father again. Take care The demand for kids was huge in Maryville, Texas train after train came through as a hundred and fifty families wanted children there were actually fights in the street because There were so many people and so few children when a chain arrived what and other cities got in on it because of the Success New York was having Boston and other cities on the East Coast and then large Midwest cities like Chicago We're all putting kids on trains and sending them off to the life of an indentured What is happening Charles Franklin was one such kid. He was six and only spoke German. We're pro-choice as

Then you get to decide if you keep it or not. Just put it on a train to put on a train Hey, there's more kids on this train than when we got to this town Shh Start her up fire it One name was okay, so this kid six his name was pinned on his jacket when he got Off the train from New York in Rockford, Illinois He was put in a covered wagon with some other kids They were taken in the wagon on an overnight trip by a farmer to Durant, Illinois

There other farmers came and each picked one of the kids out of the wagon Charles went with an Irish family So he could not talk to them because they spoke English and he spoke German So he worked are you ready to work hard for us? Very hard. You ready to work hard. You're ready to work hard there. Well, she got uh that You're good, huh? Hard, that's yeah

Okay, get out there bang get going fine. All right Fine, why are you standing there fine? Yeah, what are you fucking idiot? Yeah Pick up the shovel go that's him. Yeah Mickey hi James. Hey beat the shit out of this one fine Can you beat the fucking German out of him? Absolutely. It's gonna take a while though He was worked hard very hard. The family was not loving at all. Hey, remember being six? He Was just simply a servant or you know a slave Whatever you want to call it when he was 17

One night he told the family he was going to the outhouse and left and never came back. What took so long fuck I don't know But some kids would lash out when they were being inspected by the crowd eight-year-old Shula's Elliott Bobo was put on an orphan train. I want the Shula's Bobo boy Jesus Christ. How many clown kids are we gonna put on the train? How about how many clouds you're fucking having kids? By the way, it's like the 15th clown kid. I'm Bobo I'm Bobo the fucking clown. I'm Bobo the thief. I can't stop making kids So Elliot Bobo's put on I want to have a clown car when I'm done

35 So he's put on an orphan train after his mom died and his dad became a raging alcoholic At the town the train stopped in he had a farmer come up to him and squeeze his muscles then say oh You'd make a good hand on the farm Elliot yelled you smell bad the man then grabbed Elliot by the arm and was gonna take him when Elliot bit him Oh, but that didn't work then Elliot kicked the man and that was it now No one wanted him. He then sat crying in his chair and no one tried to soothe him He eventually was taken by someone in another town and actually ended up having a good life

Family, okay. All right smart kick There were a few there were a few success stories two orphan train boys became governors one became a Supreme Court Justice And several became mayors congressmen and local representatives though many children grew up to be drifters and thieves At least one became a murderer But overall the lives their lives were probably better The main goal trial of Charles Bruce's plan was to remove children from slums where they had a few opportunities or hope and To place them in good Christian homes his program would turn out to be the forerunner of Modern foster care

Many of the kids were better off quote. We were hungry I don't ever recall taking a bath in a tub of water We slept on old dirty mattresses on the floor and the rats ran over our heads and through our hair lots of nights And we'd wake up screaming on the street. We don't know where we didn't know where our parents were We never did know So that seems a lot worse than living on a farm at least on one with an okay family Charles Brace died in 1890 while still running the CIS and the orphan trains his sons then took over the orphan trains ran for 75 years

The final one went to Texas in 1929. They stopped for several reasons. There was a decrease in the need for labor on farms also Social services agencies put more emphasis on trying to keep struggling families together And then there was the rise of the welfare system which helped those financially support their kids new programs helped immigrants find job and housing and New child labor laws limited the amount of hours a child could work Other laws made it hard to move train loads of kids from one state to another

Soon individual and small-group foster homes were placed the trains during those 75 years 200,000 children were moved by train from cities to farms That is crazy 75 years there were orphan trains No one knew about it until the 70s Really? No one wrote about it. All of a sudden one person wrote a book about it. No one talked about it It's just like it didn't happen that's so crazy and

what honestly is and I Think part of the you know part of the thing is that It just sounds so crazy, but it is something like those are Similar conditions in countries now that that kids live in oh totally I mean they get they get they get pawned off on other people. They get they get sold. It's good to know that we had Kid slaves too Well, that's just it so we had slavery for all those years and the north is talking about right. Yeah, so the north was doing this

This is what the north was doing on their farms Taking fucking children off trains and making them work see and then liberal slavery is liberals will solve it liberals will solve it and they're working children. Yeah, but white ones asshole Yeah, I don't know man. It really is just all so fucked We signed cars