The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-19 00:00:00

THE HOMELESS POOR.

A VISIT TO THE NEWPORT-MARKET REFUGE.

At the Newport-market Reftg y in December,
1814, one room, with accommodation for eight
uieu, was rented at Bs. a week ; shortly after-
wards another room was added ; next beds fur from
treaty to thirty men and women were provided :
and some idea of the modest confidence of the origi-
nal promoters will be given when it is said that the
gthuatiteed Income wherewith they opened their
refuge was just half-a-crown a month. But interest in
the subject spread, subscriptions flowed gradually
ie, until in March last a large slaughter-house was
rented at 150'. a year, and some 6001, laid out in
alteinug and adapting it for the reception of men,
women, at! children, 147 of whom were sheltered
there on the night preceding our inspection, last
week. Before this decided step was taken
I,ooof. !Lad been guaranteed by six gentlemen, and
as another 1,0001. was collected during the year,
300 i. of which may be relied upon as annual sub-
seriptiou. The refuge seems to be a remarkable and
encouraging instance of speedy and promising
success. Women and children are admitted et
half-past 5 every afternoon, men half an hour later,
and it may be useful to mention that the committee
not only sit every Tuesday, but are represented by
a lady superintendent, a male official, or a clergy-
mar, at all Lours during the day. The stranger
widiiug to observe the working of this most lute-
restimt institution hag only to proceed up the short
street running from St. Martin's-lane to Newport-
market, to continue up a butchers' alley, and to
turn down the first opening from it to the right.
This approacii to the Refuge is gloomy and dismal
in the entente. The few and widely scattered gas-
lamps serve only to make darkness visible, while
the ill-kept, unilagged roadway, the bad odours,
the Mout! oat Its and evil faces beard and seen around,
all testify to the explorer that be is in 0110 of the
niany low and wretched byplaces of Loudon,
and that the Refuge lie has collie to see has been
piteleal iu the very centre of squalid poverty, of
destitution, and possibly of crime. The knot of
meg,- l wee-begone figures waiting at the corner of
another dark turning are a sufficient guide to a
stranger, who, after knocking at some lofty closed
doors, limbs himself ou aclutittany iu a email
passage way, with a lofty weil-lit room opposite
and soloetbitig between a counting house and
a porter's ledge to his right. The entire building
lute been whitewashed and cicaued, but it is not
diet ult to truce its old uses, iu the size and form of
the recesses wherein the Lei are placed, any more
titit. it is to recognise in the cosy brightnees of the
Me in its cemre, in the well-scrubbed Mors, the
beneites ritueiug along its sides, and the books and
to sat cis - li-eived about its tables, evidence of Leto-
fort far the audOf thoughtful cousideratiou
in it managers. There were sax or eight pauper,
of &Oen. nt ages sitting or steeling about this
chamber on our arrival at line o'clora•k the other
evening. 'raceme had been admitted iu time usual
nrau:raper, on tpplicatiou at the door, and were found
to hew se:eh delicate and feeble health that Ler-
tuisetoti had tit en given them to stay indoors
througtiout the day. It is not an unusual practice
at this Refuge to allow'a elan or woman once ap-
pre red and :ululated to sleep there fur seven site-
sdive nights, going out after their bread anti coffee
in the inorniug to seek for work, and coining in at
the iceelar hour at night. This facilitates inclitiry
us to is truth of the personal detail,: they have
given, awl Las many instances led to the rcstors-
tem ol pour prodigals to their homes, aural to the
kuiiiig a helping hand to men and semen
too broken and cowed to help themselves.
Ot. tie• night preceding our visit, half the tow
cases admitted were skilled artisans out of work,
two were diseharged seamen who had received
pctiten•it of sixpeuce a day for a period now expired,
and the rest of the nondescript class who are
dubbed " laimourers." The crowd assent hied it tie•
door by six ,'clock each evening is of course com-
posed hoth of these who are coining home, so to
speak, and thee, who have to make good their
eZetni ta Ls received. Tba exate itatiou of the
Letter sink the entry of the particulars eouceriming
tle al in a h ...k arc carried on in the office or por-
ter', lodge j•it pained, each person standing at tie
open window, and being told to "go in or-ref iieed
acanraieeion, s I or she is thought to be "sadly
in dietre-s. There is neither searching nor Cl/111-
puIS,VY but each person admitted waehee
it hal. and ea', in a small ante-nom leading rant of
the main clianilar. This dune, they sit roiled the
fire re:l.l4l4—m weigst the works supplied we hided
"The "The Cortiliill," "Temple Bar,'
and " Maeuidien's Magazine "—after which eight
mutes < of laead and ball a pint of hot cetfee are
served melt to each. The temperature of the sleep-
ing rooms is never lower than 60 either by day or
night, ale! time barrack beds are supplied with rugs
and eoloniou bedding sufficient for warmth. The
women's sari upstairs is of the same size as the
otme for men, and is under the immediate direction
ate; contr.,: of a lady superititi talent, the windows
of is hose retail command every portion of time ward,
at el who makes inquiries of each new comer, and
rec., ade particulars, in similar fashion to the
boo;;-keeper dowimstairs. When this said was tilled
and the scat at the foot of each bed occupied by
a carer ore wretched figure, its aspect was painfully
striklug a:.d sadly suggestive. There were old feeble
women she, with half-glazed eyes, awl an expres-
sion of item which almost realised moaning to tic
ear, locked themselves to and fro, as if half stupi-
tied y long f,astiug, and more than half it
to Lich form ofsutferiugtheywere tcm endure next.
There were shrivelled, shrinking creatures who
clasped their infants tightly to their bosoms as if iu
dread that they would be called upon to give them
up ; there were girls of twenty with the wriueles
and lines of ago ; and a listless weary air pervaded
the whole body, as they sat silently round the
root., WOlLlall on a seat at the foot of the bed
ailotterai her. There were no books or periodicals in
this runs —d jelly because the colunattte ale nut
be:thinly ,ale died therewith—and it was noteworthy
VIA: !O. LI WI wa, lifted to gaze at the tiew comers,
nor.' wa, whispered to the neighbour ou the
adjoining bench, and that all seemed too almeerbed
tai, it ,•ne deep wretcheelhess to take interest or
41 e••••:ay• lesity iu aught else.

. •
-ante tl. or as- this ward is a small room
for d....till!ta and forsaken boys, from twenty to
of whom clustered round the door as we
eateral .Save that they were being kindly treated
now, they realised the description of the inmates
of lh.thehw.s Hall. Pale and haggard faecs--lank
ii ;tires—children with the Collll2Cll:LticeN
of old 1.1, :.—bays of stunted growth—little filo,
,hou'al have been handsome darkened with
the ..• c.l of sullen dogged sutferim;—childlimal
with its beauty ,zoiie and its lidplessw,s alone re-
m:met-4-7,mi vicious-faced boys, broodiii• with
lia • •e, like malefactors in a gaol—all those
w. .1. ie. Desertion in Mll3ll, cases, start ,ition iu
otie-r.. had been their passport to the lb.lieze.
in broad Dormtshire dialect told us
how •.his feytber had brunt him up to kinnoti, •
lett Min iti the park ;" here another n tistie-
faced explained that his mother had roll
away. !iii ing him to discover a shut up Inoue when
returwsl from labouring in the fields. Some
of them to mere babies, and were not only
xhirtle.. but almost literally baked ; others had
only cane out of maratitine, where it had been
twee—•,ry to keep dims, until freed of the vermin
wherewith they swarmed. A per ventage of these
came out of the houses in the vicinity, but the
sty :..01 drifted with older wanderers into the
kit l mai hospitable gate. It is proposed by the
dire...nes of the Refuge to establish a permanent
seho..l for the children who, it is stated, " crowd the
ir:.et beighhourhoo:l, and spend their whole
ine streets.," and a rough calculation has
been moue that about 500/. would enable the coin-
mitt, e to take premises and adapt thou for such a
school, ac.i that 2501. a year would be sufficient to
defray its Minna! eXpeilfte. It should be mentioned
that the president of the Refuge is the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, that the Bishop of London, Lord
Derby, and the Duke of liuccleuch, are among its
vice- i.re,idetits, arid that its working committee in-
cludes many names well known to the public. If one
hundred inmates were received every night the cost
of mailitamine it. inclusive of all expenses, would be,
it is e,tl/11 lead, 1,0,01, a year ; but it is 0:4 .11 ti.iraitly
hoped that through donations and subscriptions the