The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 26, February 1893: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 26, February 1893: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
Dr. Barnardo was born in 1845, in Dublin. Although an Irishman by birth,
he is not so by blood. He is really of Spanish descent, as his name
suggests.
[Illustration: DR. BARNARDO. _From a Photo by Elliott & Fry._]
"I can never recollect the time," he said, "when the face and the voice
of a child has not had power to draw me aside from everything else.
Naturally, I have always had a passionate love for children. Their
helplessness, their innocence, and, in the case of waif children, their
misery, constitute, I feel, an irresistible appeal to every humane
heart.
"I remember an incident which occurred to me at a very early age, and
which made a great impression upon me.
"One day, when coming home from school, I saw standing on the margin of
the pavement a woman in miserable attire, with a wretched-looking baby
in her arms. I was then only a schoolboy of eleven years old, but the
sight made me very unhappy. I remember looking furtively every way to
see if I was observed, and then emptying my pockets--truly they had not
much in them--into the woman's hands. But sauntering on, I could not
forget the face of the baby--it fascinated me; so I had to go back, and
in a low voice suggested to the woman that if she would follow me home I
would try to get her something more.
"Fortunately, I was able to let her into the hall without attracting
much attention, and then went down to the cook on my errand. I forget
what was done, except that I know a good meal was given to the 'mother'
and some milk to the baby. Just then an elder sister of mine came into
the hall, and was attracted as I had been to the infant; but observing
the woman she suddenly called out: 'Why, you are the woman I have spoken
to twice before, and this is a different baby; this is the third you
have had!'
"And so it came to pass that I had my first experience of a beggar's
shifts. The child was not hers; she had borrowed it, or hired it, and it
was, as my sister said, the third in succession she had had within a
couple of months. So I was somewhat humiliated as 'mother' and infant
were quietly, but quickly, passed out through the hall door into the
street, and I learned my first lesson that the best way to help the poor
is not necessarily to give money to the first beggar you meet in the
street, although it is well to always keep a tender heart for the
sufferings of children."
"Hire babies! Borrow babies!" I interrupted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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