The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-25 00:00:00

FEEDING THE CHILDREN AT
MERTHYR.

The following are extracts from a most interesting article,
entitled "Feeding Five Thousand," in this week's Mayfair,
by the Rector of Merthyr :

"The great feed-5,000 children, every day, for
seventeen weeks—is now over, and I am just going to
start for a month's holiday, wife and I. But before I
go, my first duty is to thank the English-speaking
people, at home and abroad, for all they have done for
us. At first I confess things looked serious; but,
thanks to the Press, we regained public confidence,
and the money poured in in greater abundance than
ever..

_
"Indeed I do not suppose there ever were such
golden showers since the time of Daum. Every post
brought letters by the hundred. The first great fall '
was on a Sunday, the day after the account in the
Daily News of the first dinner given to the children.
When the bag came in I called my wife's attention to
it before I opened it. It was filled to repletion, and
ready to burst. Accompanying it was a kind of thick
brown-paper bag, bearing an official stamp, and I
wondered what it could be. But I did not care much
about opening it, lest it might prove a damper to the
joy raised by seeing how lull the other bag was. I
never dreamt it contained what it really did. It
was much larger than my own bag. It had also two
strong bands round it, looking like girders. Judge of
my astonishment when I opened it, to find it was full
of letters ! Letters by the hundred ! It was, in fact,
what the postmaster called a 'Registered Bag.' Thus
I received, every day for weeks, between three and
four hundred letters registered and unregistered, con-
taining moneys in all shape and form—gold, silver,
cheques, Post Office orders, stamps, drafts, recipes
for making soup, samples of soup, inquiries for
servants, and good advice how to face the diffi-
culty without end. In fact, there never was I
believe, such interest taken in any question before. . .
"These letters amount to several thousands. I have
kept them nearly all. My sons, who were working in
the other room, burnt a few after they had been an-
swered, and before I had asked them to keep them as
a record. They came from all parts, wherever the
Daily News circulated, and some of the most interest-
ing of them from children. Some children sent
money 'for the little chilCren's dinner at Merthyr,'
which they said, 'would have been spent otherwise in
cakes and lollipops.' One letter came enclosing a good
sum of money from the children of one of her Majesty's
Ambassadors in an eastern country. Another came
from the West Indies, enclosing £2O from a father
who had just read the account of the children's
dinner at Merthyr in the Daily News, and ex-
pressing a hope that the draft enclosed would
enable ma to repeat it. I had the satisfaction of
telling him that it had been repeated then daily
for five weeks, and that I had money enough to repeat
it daily for twelve weeks more. This gentleman, as I
was afterwards informed, was so moved by the account
given that, thinking of his own little ones out of health
in England, he sent me the £2O as a thank-offering for
their improved state since their arrival here, which
news was conveyed to him by his wife by the same
mail that took out the Daily News of the sth of
January. Then, again, other children sent me money,
approaching nearly £2O, which the parents said would
have been the cost of the children's annual party,
which, for the sake of the Merthyr children, they this
year gladly managed to do without. . . .

_
The Rector then gives some very interesting particulars
respecting the manner in which the children and the babies
were cared for. He thus concludes his article, which is
well worth perusal :

"We have still a gloomy future, it is true, before
us • but, as God has taken care of us in the past, I
make no doubt that he will again help us in the future.
I could say a great deal more. For instance, ask you
what is to become of us if things do not mend? How
are we to dispo.e of these boys and girls that we have
nothing to do for? The girls that are budding into
womanhood; who have never been taught for service;
who have looked to the great works now stopped for
their daily bread? Then the boys, what is to be done
with them- big, strapping fellows of fifteen and six-
teen? All these are most serious questions; and yet,
how are they to be solved—when work is so scarce
everywhere?"

A special telegram from Berlin to the Pall Mall
Gazette says :—" Queen Victoria has invited Prince Frederick
Charles and his daughter, the Princess Louise Margaret, to
Balmoral. The Queen wishes the marriage of the latter with
the Duke of Connaught to take place in England."

- -
The Prince Imperial's speech at the dinner of the
Newspaper Press Fund was a model of neatness. Whether
the Prince commits his speeches to memory or not, he is
always exceedingly successful in these little after-dinner
efforts. It was curious on Saturday to see the Prince, him-
self an exile, sitting down to dinner with the exiled Midhat,
as twin patrons of the English newspaper press.—Truth.

- - -
The leap in the dark" is always credited to the
late Lord Derby, but the idea originated with Lora John
Russell, who first made use of the expression in Ih4o,
during the Cabinet discussions as to the advisability of a
dlasolution.—Tr4a.