The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-06-04 00:00:00

BOARDING-OUT OF PAUPER
CHILDREN.

HAD anything been wanting to prove the
superiority of the boarding-out system in the
in the case of pauper children to the practice
of immuring them in workhouses, it was
supplied by the striking occurrences which
happened the other day at Denmead in Devon
For some time past children of this class, be.
longing to different parishes in London, have
been domiciled among the cottagers in that
district, which, beside being remote from the
metropolis, is exceedingly salubrious and
pleasant. On account, apparently, of find-
ing the expenses of the system slightly
higher than they anticipated, the St. Pancras
guardians decided on removing and taking
back the children chargeable to their union,
and notices were forwarded specifying the
day when this unwise and unfeeling decision
would be carried into effect When the
poor children were made aware of what was
intended they became gratly distressed, as
they had grown attached to their foster
parents, their playmates, and the rural
surroundings of the district. After condol-
ing with each other and taking counsel
together, they concerted a plan for getting
into hiding places in the neighbourhood early
on the day when the emissaries of the guard-
ians were expected to arrive. Accordingly
the officials on reaching the spot found them-
selves rather awkwardly situated, as the
children, nineteen in number, had all dis-
appeared, and a search for the artful little
stowaways had, therefore, to be made far and
wide in all directions. It may be taken for
granted that the officials in conducting their
e.
search did not get much assistance from the
dwellers in the district, and the greater part
of the day was consumed before the last of
the nooks and corners, in which the fugitives
had taken refuge, could be discovered. But
even when a full muster was made the officials
did not succeed in taking them all away.
Eight were retained by their foster parents,
who, feeling a great repugnance at the idea
of parting with them, declared their willing-
ness to bring up the little ones who had been
entrusted to their care without fee or reward.
Of the remaining eleven three were reported
to have made their escape when the woebe-
gone captive band was being conveyed to
the railway station. The guardians of St.
Pancras, when they came to their ill-judged
decision, seemed to have forgotton that the
saint from whom their parish gets its name, a
Roman youth of Patrician blood, who suffered
martyrdom in the reign of Diocletian—has
the special distinction of being regarded and
reverenced as the patron saint of children.
Though the occurrences at Denmead had
their comic side, especially in connection
with that played by the emissaries of the
metropolitan parish authorities in an extra-
ordinary game of hide and seek, the pathetic
side had, nevertherless, most prominence.
Singularly affecting was the extreme
reluctance exhibited by the children to being
torn away from the district, where they had
experienced much kindly treatment and
enjoyed a new-found happiness in romping
about the fields. To them the dilTererce
between cottage life in the country and work-
house life in the town constituted all the
difference between freedom and bondage,
comfort and misery, heathful recreation and
harmful restraint. Guardians of the poor
are very short-sighted who cannot recognise
and appreciate the advantages of a system
which has stood the test of lengthened trial
in many districts of the country, and which
has proved its excellence in the practical and
c mvincing form of beneficial results.
Pauperism is only perpetuated and extended
when the children of poor parents are kept
together in workhouses, and taught together
in workhouse schools, like the inmates of in.
stitations for the blind, or asylums for the
d..!af and dumb. There is something in the
atmosphere of workhouses inimical to the
griwth in children of that spirit which
_would, under better and more stimulating
surroundings, enable them to rise above the
-meanness, miseries, and hardships of the
condition into which they were born. All
the depressing circumstances, associated
with the daily routine of existence in the
workhouse, are east aside and left behind by
the children fortunate enough to get boarded
out in cottage homes. They are saved the
dismal spectacle of casuals in back courts or
wards, making payment for night's lodging,
supper, and breakfast by breaking stones
or picking oakum, like felons in gaols, as if
poverty were a crime, demanding the punish-
ment of hard labour. They have come
under a e weet influences of household life,
which is better adapted than any other form
of life Nx lien the domestic virtues are vigil-
antly guarded by the heads of families, for
promo t ing tie growth of cheerful, affection-
-a' e, and wholesome natures. The pauper
children thus happily situated soon become
attavhed to their foster parents, who, com-
miserating their lot, treat treat them
with kindness, and take a keen interest in
watching the development of their disposi-
tions. How strong the mutal attachment
grows was shown by the circumstance
previously mentioned that eight of St.
Pancras pauper children were adopted as
members of their own families by the foster
parents who had them in charge. The
boarded-ont_chilaren, when in the fields with
their cottage ph; , mates, forget that there is
anything of the Parish element about them,
and feel as happy as the day is long. If
t , y cannot quite appreciate the full mean.
i i.,; of the poet's line, "God made the
countiy, and man made the town," they are
a: least perfectly conscious that they enjoy
themselves better in the country than they
ever did in the town) and that the singing