Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island
Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island
Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island
Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island
Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island

Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island

Regular price
$25.00
Sale price
$25.00
Unit price
per 
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Stoddard, William O. Walled In: A True Story of Randall's Island; Illustrated. New York &c.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1899. [7397]

Tan cloth with red & black decoration, spine faded, 5 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, binding a bit worn, light soil. Frontispiece portrait of the "Walled in Regiment" in formation on parade grounds, other plates are "The Silent Printing Office," with boys in front of printing machines, and "They All Stood While the Drum Beat," boys in formation on a parade ground. The book has 134 pp., a few finger smudges, and is in good used condition. Good. Hardcover.

In the latter half of the 19th century New York City's Randall's Island was the site of a House of Refuge for teenage criminals, mainly Irish. This descriptive account of life in the House of Refuge is related as a story. The boys wore uniforms and were taught discipline by "a naval officer, detailed there by the Government to be practically the colonel of a regiment of pretty wild boys. He was there to teach them discipline, order, obedience, only a shade or so more strictly than if they had been cadets at West Point, or the Naval Academy at Annapolis." The story the planning for and execution of escape from the island, and the results.

Published by Fleming H. Revell Company, perhaps the leading publisher of evangelical books in America at the end of the 19th century.

William Osborn Stoddard (1835-1925), b. Homer, New York; d. Madison, New Jersey. Stoddard was an author, journalist, and editor, as is perhaps best remembered as an assistant secretary to Abraham Lincoln during his first term as president. After the war his poor health kept him from fulfilling or accepting several government appointments.; and he devoted himself to writing. He produced over 100 book, 70 of them for boys.