This Institution was commenced on the 2d of October, 1857, by five members of the "Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd," belonging to the Mother House of Angers, in France. The operations of the society began in a house in Fourteenth street, but in 1861 they erected a convent and chapel at the foot of Ninetieth street, East river. In 1864 a five-story brick building, fifty feet by ninety, was reared on Eighty-ninth street, one hundred and twenty-five feet from the convent, and in 1868 and 1869 another of the same size was joined to the end of the former, stretching across to Ninetieth street. The cost of their buildings has now exceeded $275,000, and another edifice is still to be added to complete their plan.

The order was founded by Père Eudes in 1661, with the avowed object of affording a refuge for fallen women and girls who desired to reform. Being an enclosed order, a veil of secrecy is thrown over most of their doings. The Lady Superior converses with the outside world through an iron-grated ceiling, inside of which the curious are seldom permitted to step, and the order, except a few outside Sisters, are forever concealed in the shadows of the cloister. By reception of novices, the order now numbers ninety members, besides the out-door Sisters; twelve of these are engaged in founding an order in Brooklyn, and eleven in Boston. The Institution is a house of correction, seeking the reform of abandoned women, some of whom come voluntarily, others by persuasion, some are sent by the courts, and some are placed here by their friends.

The Sisters declare that moral means alone are employed for the reformation of the inmates, and that those who come voluntarily can depart at pleasure; but some who have escaped have told doleful stories about the discipline and fare, upon the merits of which we shall not attempt to decide. The Sisters dwell in the convent, but some of them are said to be always with the inmates both night and day, in recreation, toil, devotion, and slumber. The inmates are divided into four classes, each of which is entirely separated from all the rest, with whom they are never allowed to communicate. The first class consists of penitent magdalens, who have been converted from the error of their ways, and who have been admitted to a low grade of the order. The second class is composed of penitent women and girls, received into the Asylum but not yet converted. The third is a preservation class, composed of children who are in danger of falling, most of whose parents are bad. The fourth consists of girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, who have been committed by the magistrates, and who remain during the term of commitment. About twenty-nine hundred have been received into the Institution since its founding, very many of whom are said to have reformed, though the screen which prevents public inspection leaves greater place for distrust than with almost any other institution in New York. In February, 1870, no less than seven hundred inmates were concealed within those walls, three hundred of whom had been sent by the magistrates, and the superioress informed us that one hundred and fifty more could be well accommodated. Their chief occupation is machine and hand sewing, embroidery, with various other species of remunerative handicraft, and laundry work. The Institution has a priest who conducts service every morning in the chapel, where all attend. This institution is noted as the place of the involuntary confinement of Mary Ann Smith, the daughter of a Romanist, who had embraced Protestantism. Many of the girls received remain permanently through life, a few after- wards marry, some after their reformation go out to service in good families, and not a few descend again to old practices and "wallow in the mire." The Public Authorities have dealt very liberally with this Institution.