5. Dickens viewed the educational systems in New York with approval
In New York Dickens toured a facility offered by the city government known as the Refuge for the Destitute. He compared it most favorably to London which produced, in his imagination, characters such as Bill Sykes and the Artful Dodger. It was, “an Institution whose object is to reclaim youthful offenders, male and female, black and white, without distinction; to teach them useful trades, apprentice them to respectable masters, and make them worthy members of society”. Dickens thought highly of the means through which the Institution was administered, though he questioned the efficiency of treating young women, familiar with the streets, as if they were somehow once again little girls.
Dickens found the educational facilities of the city to be excellent, and said so without the savage wit he applied to other institutions. For example, he called the city’s fire department “admirable” before adding “as indeed it should be, having constant practice”. Dickens primary reason for being in New York on his first visit there (he would return later in his tour) was to arrange for reservations for passage home late in the spring. From New York, he began his travels across the United States which carried him west to St. Louis, south into slave-holding Virginia, and to many sights and sounds in between. He was able to observe and record the many different perceptions Americans held of themselves and their place in the world in 1842.