Thirty-seven years ago a number of Christian ladies in New York were moved to begin a work in behalf of the helpless, the exposed, and the forsaken. An organization known as the "American Female Guardian Society" was formed, and its executive committee for some time held their weekly meetings in a small rear basement under the old Tract House. These devoted women visited the city prisons, and the manufactories where hundreds of young girls were employed, distributing religious tracts, papers, Bibles, Testaments, giving counsel to the inexperienced, and providing situations for many out of employment. They also scanned the poorest districts, employed pious female missionaries to visit from house to house, to instruct and encourage the ignorant and desponding. Poor forsaken children, destined for the almshouse, were taken to their own houses and provided for until suitable homes could be obtained for them. At that time there were no "Girls' Lodging Houses," "Working Women's Unions," or "Homes," where innocent, penniless young females could apply for a night's lodging and the necessary helps to a situation. No doors save those leading to the prison, the almshouse, or the brothel, were certain to open to the indigent, friendless, unfortunate girl or widow, unexpectedly thrown into the whirl of this great city. To guard young females, to provide for helpless childhood, and to care for the sorrowing widow, seem to have been the leading thoughts of the association. A work so eminently Christ-like, now commended by the most vile, was then watched with indifference and suspicion by many of the good. The managers of many of the pioneer benevolent associations, in their triumphant contests with the prejudices and calumny of their generations, have fought battles requiring a courage and deserving the honor of a Wellington or a Washington. The great change wrought in public sentiment, concerning Christian duty to the friendless and fallen, the decided support cheerfully given during the last twenty years, and the numerous similar charities that have sprung up in every section of the country, are sources of the most profound satisfaction to the surviving early friends of this excellent Institution. During the early years of the movement their records show that more than temporal advantage came to many houses of destitution, scores if 'hot hundreds were converted to God, and drawn into the fold of the great Shepherd. Still their efforts lacked- concentration and thoroughness, for want of a building suited to their undertaking. No plan for the reception of inmates really commensurate with the aims of the society was adopted until 1847, when a building situated on the corner of Second street and the Bowery was rented. About this time the managers issued a printed appeal for means to erect a Home for the Friendless, calling attention to the numbers of females constantly out of employment, and the scores of orphan or deserted children who, by early care, might be saved from pauperism and prison. The means came, lots were purchased on East Thirtieth street, and in December, 1848, the Home, a fine three-story brick edifice, with accommodations for at least one hundred and fifty persons, was dedicated, to the great joy of the managers, who had toiled amid embarrassments so many years. The sphere of usefulness of the society was now greatly enlarged. Hundreds were annually fed, instructed, and furnished with situations. This Institution is not a Home for those who are friendless because guilty of crimes against society, nor to adult paupers, of whom the Scriptures say, "If any will not work, neither shall he eat;" nor yet for the aged, infirm, or diseased, for whom other establishments have been erected. It is a temporary asylum for homeless, friendless children, an arched and gilded passage-way from dingy, remorseless poverty, to a home of affection, culture, and elevation.