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It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

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V.
NYJA Deportation Policies
Taken from the pages of a New York Juvenile Asylum annual report (not sure of the year).
"Formation of Companies for Deportation" is the title on page 37:
"The Superintendent of the Asylum is required to select out, from time to time, among the children under his care, all such as are fit for indenture, and these are appropiately drilled and instructed with special reference to their speedy deportation. Considerable enthusiasm prevails, and while their minds are exercised with the busy preparations, the occasion is seized upon to present and enforce, by simple illustrations and interesting stories, those great moral and religious truths which are the only guarantees to success and happiness. Each company numbers about 50, which are as many as can be conveniently taken at one time. After about a month is passed in these preliminary preparations at the Asylum, the company is brought down to the House of Reception, where they can see their friends, and have their new suits of clothes got in readiness. Here our Indenturing Agent, Mr. George H. Allan, makes the acquaintance of each of them, inquires into their antecendents, consults their wishes and hears what their friends have to say. He enters all needful particulars concerning each child, in a memorandum book, and, in about a week after being brought down, they are prepared to leave with him. No child is permitted to go, however, without first being brought before the Committee, and examined as to its character, fitness, and willingness; and, in all cases, there must be a written certificate from a Physician connected
with the Institution, that the health of the child is such that it is a proper subject for apprenticeship."
"The appointed day of departure having arrived, the little emigrants are assembled in the school room of the House of Reception. A number of Directors, Contributors, and friends of the Institution attend, and the children go through a variety of exercises, -repeating, in concert, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, several of the Psalms, Parables, and other portions of Scripture; and also, by singing, in concert, many hymns, anthems, instructive songs and glees. Short addresses are made to them, and the Divine blessing is invoked.
"They are then formed in a procession, and are taken to the Erie Rail Road Depot in Jersey City, where they take their places in a car provided for their exclusive use. Here, again, some of the same exercises are repeated, to the gratification of crowds of passengers; and while they move away, on their journey, with tears of joy and beating hearts, they carry with them the prayers of many who attend to see them off, that their Father in Heaven may preserve them from danger and watch over and guide them in all their future lives.
"Sufficient food is taken along to last the greater portion of the journey. In the winter they are each provided with a new blanket to keep them warm, and they travel, day and night, until some convenient place is reached for a stoppage of a few hours, and perhaps for a night’s rest. They invariabley maintain a correct deportment, through-out; and the Indenturing Agent is frequently urged by passengers while the cars are in motion and by the citizens of the the large towns whre the train stops, to allow
CROSSROADS Vol. 18, January, 1992 page 6