The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-06 00:00:00

THAMES.

JUVENILE TUMBLERS.--Richard Nicholas, aged
nine years, and George Neville, five, were brought
up on remand before Mr. Benson charged with va-
grancy.
These boys were arrested by Dillon, police-ser-
geant No. 19 R, while tumbling " cart wheels"
alongside an omnibus in the Commercial-road.
They were covered with mud and dirt, and their
heads were full of vermin. A few old rags were
pinned together on their bodies, and they were bare
legged and bare footed. They scarcely looked hu-
man. Their altered appearance after a week's stay
in the Stepney Union workhouse, in Bromley,
was most extraordinary. They were clean,
ar.d well clad, and had been well-fed for the last
seven days. Dillon, an intelligent officer, called
the magistrate's attention to them, and said that ,
Mr. Paker, a humane man, the master of the Step-
ney Union, had offered the children boots, but they
would not wear them, and preferred the freedom of
their feet to the leather and lace-ups. They had
been tumbling all the week in the union house, and
could not be stopped.
Mr. Benson noticed that the hair on the tops of
the prisoners' heads was partially gone, and asked
how that happened.
Dillon—By tumbling and throwing somersaults
on the road.
Mr. Benson—These children have begun to
tumble early. How do they learn it?
Mr. Joseph Smith, a solicitor, answered this ques-
tion by saying that children in the district learnt to
tumble directly they could run alone, and prac-
tised wherever there was a blank wall for their feet
to rest against, until they were able to throw somer-
saults alongside the omnibuses.
Mr. Benson—And the unthinking passengers
encourage this system of vagrancy by throwing
halfpence to the children. The nuisance done is
incalculable.
The mothers of the children said they would keep
them at home in future, and Neville's mother said
that an elder boy was so terrified with his brother
arrest that he had never been out to tumble since.
Mr. Benson was very glad to hear it. The chil-
dren ought to be sent to school and compelled to
attend there regularly.
The mothers said there were no schools in Rat-
cliff where they could be sent.
The officers and others in court said there were
ragged schools, free schools, and other educational
establishments in Ratcliff under the control of
the Coopers' Company, and such good men as
the Rev. Mr. Atherton, Mr„ John Holt, Mr. Derby,
Mr. Hughes, and others, and there was a large
school next door to the police-court for 800 chil-
dren, under the control of a well-known philan-
thropist, the Rev. W. Valentine, where the boys

would be readily admitted.
Mr. Benson said there was no excuse for keeping
the children away from school. There were plenty
of schools for the middle classes, for the poor, for
the very destitute, and for the ragged in Ratcliff
and other parts of Stepney. There was a gentle-
man in court who offered to take the boys into the
Rev. W. Valentine'slarge school next door. If the
boys were ever brought before him again he would
send them to an industrial school and never
allow their mothers to see them again. He
a poor girl who had
ohfer inhuman parents to
hadbe
been
nd
sent
tehna t
thein
streetst he
by

tunable alongside the omnibuses. Nothing could
be worse than the victims before him, and when
they were brought before his colleague, Mr. Paget,
they were covered with mu.d adhering to their
bodies, and it was doubtful if they had ever been
washed from their infancy. A few rags were fas-
tened on their limbs, and the hair of their heads
was full of insects. Nothing could be more shock-
ing. Stupid passengers on omnibuses give encou-
ragement to a system of vagrancy so demoralising.
He discharged the boys only ou the understanding
that' their mothers sent them to school, and kept
them out of the streets.

THE EASTERN FISHERIES.--The catches of her-
rings made by the Great Yarmouth boats have not been
very large, but there has been some improvement in the
quality of the fish landed. Prices have ranged at Yar-
mouth from £5 to £23 per last (13,200 fish.)
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 cases for home use or exporta-
tion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co.
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, London, W.O --cm-
Yertisement