Organization of the Five Points House of Industry, for the Year 1862-63

New York, New York: The Institution, 1862. Very good. Some light toning and spotting. Wrappers lightly dust soiled.. Vol. VI, No. 2 of the Monthly Record of the Five Points House of Industry, a society formed to counteract rising crime and poverty rates in New York in 1851. The recipients of the society's charity were often fallen women and prostitutes who had fallen on hard times in the streets of New York. Accordingly, the audience for this journal largely consisted of upper class women in a position to donate their time and wealth. Presumably because of this, the journal often reads like a sentimental novel, emphasizing the emotional consequences of poverty and illness on lower class women and children: "There was one case that specially pressed upon our attention. It was that of a little girl about twelve years old ... Her disease was Typhoid fever ... Among the visions of the long, sleepless nights of [the] sickness was the sorrowful face of that poor child, in the midst of her uncomfortable surroundings; and the utter contrast in her condition and ours afforded us abundant cause for reflection" (p. 26).

8vo (9" by 6"), pp. [3], 26-48, bound in original illustrated blue wrappers.