The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-28 00:00:00

7HE CHARITIES OF LONDON.

That families starve in London is as certain as
that families feast in London, and when a case of
peculiar horror gets into the papers, and goes the
rounds, her Majesty's subjects ask, "How can
such things be? I, even I, poor as I am, would
have done something to relieve this distress had I
been aware of its existence." We may be sure that,
had the starving family known to whom to apply
for relief, that there they would have applied, so it
is from ignorance, both on the side of the want and
on the side of the plenty that a result so shocking
eventuates. An interesting book on the charitable
agencies and wants of London, by Charles B. P.
Bosanquet, was lately published by Messrs. Hatchard
and Co., 187, Piccadilly, wherein a chapter is de-
voted to suggestions to laymen. He notices how won-
derfullylittle the poorsometimes know of the arrange-
ments made for their relief. "It is co sma,lipleasure,"
he says, "to put some poor fellow who is suffering
tortures from a broken tooth into communication
with the Dental Hospital, Soho-square, where you
know he will get as good assistance as you can get
yourself. There is a society, 32, Slckville-street,
for the relief of distressed widows, the object being
to assist any of those of good character who apply
within a month of their husbands' death with sums
of from £1 to £2, termed the Widow's Gift, to enable
them to make a fresh start." how to get into a
dispensary or some neighbouring hospital ; where
to go for advice or for the aid expressly provided
for such cases, is information often of vital import-
ance to those the charity was instituted to benefit.
While the poor then are frequently ignorant on
these points, those who have money to give and a
wish so to give that it may reach the per-
sons they desire to aid, seldom know the proper
channel. It is, therefore, important that every
means of publicity should be given to the
best channels for relieving the wants of the
extremely poor, and we must say for the Standard
that there is no other paper in England which has
lent itself so generously to this work. If its politics
lead it into preaching the doctrine of the poor keep-
ing their places, it does at least seek to know where
those places are, and to direct there things of more
material value than the windy sayings of Mr.
Finlen. Mr. Bosanquet says, after enumerating
the great charities of London, " There are still
three societies about which a new corner may espe-
cially wish for information. The Society for the
Suppression of Mendicity (13, Red Lion-square)
was fouaded in 1818. It furnishes its subscribers
with tickets for persons begging in the streets ; its
officers inquire into the cases of persons presenting ,
these tickets, and members of the committee take it
in turn to be present at the office part of every
forenoon to hear the result, and to decide what
assistance shall be given. Work is offered in some
cases, and in winter bread and soup are given to
almost every person bringing a ticket. It employs
constables to arrest professional beggars and to pro-
secute
them. Any subscriber of two guineas a
year may send them applications from begging-
letter writers to investigate. The Metropolitan
Visiting and Relief Association (21, Regent-street)
was established after a meeting held at London
House during December, 1843. Its objectis to distri-
bute the contributions of charitable persons in such
parts of the town as most need them by means of
the clergy and their district visitors, but with the
condition that relief is to be given without regard
to the religious belief of those who are in want. It
distributed nearly £lO,OOO to 150 districts in the
winter of 1866-7, besides a considerable special effort
luring the cholera. The Society for the Relief of Dis-
tress
(28, King-street, St. James') was founded during
the winter of 1860. Its distinctive features are
(1) that a committee guarantee the expense of
management, so that all the money entrusted to
them by the public goes directly to the poor; (2) that
the society's almoners, as a general rule, themselves
take the relief, which is given in the form of orders
o❑ tradesmen to the poor; and (3), that it is abso-
lutely undenominational. In 1866-7 this society dis- '
tributed more than £7,000 through 120 almoners.
This society will investigate cases of distress in any
part of London for a subscriber.

There is a very interesting little charity estab-
lished by MI s Sophie Moody, Glen Fern, Bourne-
mouth, in aid of the children-workers in Bethnal-
green. Not. long ago much interest was excited
by the story of some little infant girl whose
life was used up in lucifer match-box making,
and immediately a flood of charity was
poured on the head of the little sufferer. But there
are thousands, and it is unfair to make selections
where whole classes are in like distress. The Rev.
Isaac Taylor, in describing the scene of this distress,
says, " into a space some 400 yards in length by 200
in breadth between six and seven thousand human
beings are crowded in poverty and squalor. This
tpboertsiopnitaoifif
eißdesthsnilak trade.l-gre Theth silk weavers, bye head-quarters of
whom the parish of St. Matthias is mainly populated,
are descendants of those Huguenot exiles who, for
the cause of God and truth, and liberty and life, fled
from the sunny plains of their native France in the
years which succeeded the massacre of St. Bartholo-
mew The descendants of these emigrants con-
tinue to inhabit the district ;many of them still
cherish proud traditions of their ancestry, many of
them, though now perhaps only clad in rags, bear
the old historic names of France _names of dis-
tinguished generals and statesmen and poets
and historian 3. The parents frequently find
it quite impossible to send their children to
school, even when they have clothes and shoes
in which to go. The poor little creatures have to
be retained at home to earn a few miserable pence
by means of som of the numerous " children's
For this woik the
payment is two-pence farthing traits" which unhappily flourish in Bethnal-green.
manufacture
ee
of trades,iucif
etrheforemo
boxes.
st
foremost, perhaps, is the
per gross, or 32
boxes for one halfpenny, out of which sum the little
labourers have to find their own paste. The other
day I took upon my knees a little girl who is employed
in this manner. She told me she was four years
old ; her mother said the child had earned her own
living ever since she was three years of age. This
infant now makes several hundred boxes every day
of her life, and her earnings suffice to pay the rent
of the miserable room which the family inhabits.
The poor little woman, as might be expected, is
grave and sad beyond her years ; she has none of a
child's vivacity ; she does not seem to know what
play means ; her whole thoughts are centred in the
eternal round of lucifer-box making, in whifili her

whole life is pasSed. She has never been beyond
the dingy street ie which she was born ; she
has never so much as seen a tree or a daisy or a
blade of grass. A poor sickly little thing, and yet
a sweet, obedient child—the deadly pallor of her
face proclaiming unmistakeably that she will soon
be mercifully taken away to a better world, where
at last the little weary fingers shall be at rest. This
is only one case out of scores and hundreds. The
mortality among young children is something fright-
ful.
It is a common thing for a mother to say that
she has buried six or eight, and reared one or two."
Mr. Taylor, to relieve this distress, has established
an industrial school, wherein the earnings of the
children are aided by contributions from the public.
Two hours a day are devoted to schooling, the work
being limited to four. About sixty infants attend,
and they average 37,000 boxes each week, with
1,000 bundles of fire-wood, the wages distributed
amounting to £3 or £4 a week. They get their meals
at the school, the daily dinner consisting either of
good pea-soup and bread, or of currant dumplings,
at a cost for each child of five farthings a day.
Their Christmas dinner was roast beef and plum-
pudding, untasted luxuries before to them. Clothes
are given as rewards for good conduct, and bare
toes and ragged frocks are now rather the exception
than the rule. We trust Miss Moody will be emi-
nently successful in her efforts to aid the work of
the Rev. Isaac Taylor, and we gladly give her the
publicity our columns afford, although we know no-
thing of her further than what a little scrap of a
pamphlet tells, and the interest in the movement
taken by a friend.-4119/0 -American Times.

DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and, case 4 for home use or exports,
tion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunvillo and Co.,
Belfast; or 1, B.unfort-buiMings, Strand, London W.Cl.—[Ad
Tertisementi