Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 707, July 14, 1877Various
History
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 707, July 14, 1877
Various
Periodicals
Little girls up to the age of eleven or twelve are rescued weekly from
misery and danger and placed under the care of a Mother. Even babies
of only twelve and fifteen months are admitted, in cases where the
detective, employed by Dr Bernardo to find out wretched and abandoned
children, learns that the child will be brought up by a 'tramp' to a
life of infamy. Before a girl thus rescued is permitted to join the
family of which she is to become a member, she is carefully tended
for several weeks in a Home in London, in order that her freedom from
disease and her personal cleanliness may be secure; after which she
is sent down to Ilford, and becomes at once a member of a _family_,
with a dozen other girls of varying ages for playmates and sisters.
The Mother gives her a kiss, and tells her to be a good girl, and they
will all love her dearly; and in a few days the forlorn little one is
transformed into something human and child-like. In order to become
acquainted with the internal organisation of this 'Home' training of
large numbers of destitute children gathered together from all parts of
London, we recently visited Dr Bernardo's 'Village Home' at Ilford, the
third and most recently founded establishment of the kind. Thither we
repair, and find that the pretty red cottages which compose the Village
form an oblong square, which surrounds a large open space of ground,
intended hereafter to inclose a piece of grass of sufficient size for
the grazing of a few sheep. A picturesque gateway admits the visitor to
the governor's house, which is built in the same style as the cottages.
We were met at the entrance by the governor.
'The children are all in school now,' said he; 'what do you say to
going there first, and then you will see them all together?'
During a walk of some five or six minutes, past a dozen cottages and
through two or three turnstile gates, we met on our road half-a-dozen
happy-faced little children minding babies younger than themselves.
The school-rooms occupy a long detached building. We entered one, a
large cheerful room furnished with desks and forms, and hung with maps,
pictures of animals, and illustrated texts of Scripture and homely
proverbs.
The girls regarded us with bright cheerful curiosity. There was no
stolid indifference or sullen discontent expressed in any of their
faces. They stood up as the governor took off his hat, and each one
dropped us a quick little courtesy and smiled pleasantly as we passed
by her desk. The ages of the children in this room varied from perhaps
ten to fourteen or fifteen; and we observed that their hair was not
cropped, that it was braided close to the head, according to the fancy
of the owner, where it was long; and that those who had it short wore
either a round comb or piece of dark ribbon to keep it from falling
over their eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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