Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-02-26
Visit 70 q Ragged School.

tiDIy ~ a. lth7S1Nu DCaAOOl
"A Ragged School, quoth the reader;
spray, what kind of school is that!" few
words will suffice to answer this inquiry. A
"rarrtd school" is a Sunday school eslab-
lished by private benevolence in a city dis
trict Of the meannst kind, where every house
is worn on, and crazy, and almost every ten
f ant a beggar. or perhaps something worse.
4 school, moreover, in which no children
are to be found who would be admitted into
any other school; for, ragged, diseased, and
crime-woFn, their very appearance would
scare away the children of well-conducted
parents and hence, If they were not educated
there, they would receive no education at all.
In London there exists several ragged
schools one situated in the very heart of
St. Giles :; anolhpr-the one we propose to
Observation-Disclosures nigh that worse than St.
Giles, Field-lanc, Smithield-the head quar-
tiers Of thieves, ]coincss, burglars, and outcasts
Of society. This Sunday School was found
cd in 1871, and originated in tho benevolent
efforts Of Mr.. Pfovan, a hero in humble life.
After much e%Xertion, especially in overcom-
ing the objections of the parents, who con-
sidered the reformation of their offspring as
the loss Of so much capital, iorty-fve young
persons, varying in age from six to eighteen.
Z iIHhCGu " dttGIu tue SClUDls AZ pre-
sent, the average attendance on Sundays ex-
ceeds a hundred. The school is also opened
three times a week, when instruction of an
ordinary kind is impaired gratuitously by a
lady. Mosi-we may say all-the fathers
Of the scholars belong to the predictions class,
and the mothers fallen characters, who bear
deep traces Of guilt and disease in their coun-
tenances. Many of the children have been
incarcerated for felony-eIucated thereto BY
their parents, as the trade whereby they are
to live and the destiny of all, unless better
principles shall be implanted at school than
can be acquired at home, is the hulks or Nor
folk Island. All honor, then, TO the brave
men and women who have consecrated the
day of rest TO the god-like task of rescuing
their fellow-creatures from a lite of shame
and misery-to change the rufian into an
honest man.
} ate at 65 West street, a locality where vice
n and fever hold fearful sway. To open it in
c any other neighborhoed, would be to defeat
the object of the projectors. The very habiii-
: ments of the boys, so patched that the cha
h racter of the original texture could scarcely
d be CLEANED, would almost be sufficient to pre-
clude their ingress to a more respectable
neighborhood, and make them sink abashed
= into loathsome lens. 1t follows, that the OBJ.
m ject of the promoters of the I" ragged school .
a the in-gathering of the ortcast--requires
at that it should be held amidst the homes O.
these outcasts. The house has that battered
Mt worn aspect, which speaks Of dissolute idle
ut ness; the windows are dark and dingy, and
IN the street too narrow 10 admit a current OF lrest
Iy air; and it needed, on the rainy day in March
in which it was visited, but a slight active
- Imagination to call up visions of the robbie.
\ - - ,-L:-I l-.- "
is it, and Of which it has been the scene.
re The entrance to the school was dark and
Id there being no windows to illuminate the
S! rickety staircase, we stumbled into the schoo
Ter room on entering the first floor before we were
Tor aware. On entering, the eye was greeted
fe, by a spectacle to which, from its mingled
'ar humor and pathos, the pencil of Hogar,l
he could alone have done justice. We found a
- group of from forty TO fifty girls in one room
nd and about sixty boys in another; the girls
although the offspring of thieves, quiet, win
I'm ming, and maidenIy; but the boys full of gri
m mace and antics, and by Jest and cunning
IL glances, evincing that they thought the ide;
oil of attending school fine fun. Foremos
he among them was a boy, apparently aged Sc.
led v%enteen, but as self-colIected as a man of for
to ty, of enormous head, and with a physiorno
Dor my in which cunning and wit were eouall
lex blended, whose mastery over the other bow
of was attested by their all addressing him a
ror :" caPtain." The boys had their wan, vice
worn faces as clean as could be expected
r>t and their rags seemed furnished up for tn,
IA occasions; whilst their ready ~repartee, an,
led striking original remarks, and the electric
light OF the eye, when some peculiar practi
era cal Joke was peTpetrated, evinced that intel
az lect was there, however uncullivated or mis-
lue used Unless we are greatly self-deceived
cE' we beheld IN this unpromiSing assemblap
as good a show Of heads as we have ever see
Ia any other Sunday school, and the remar
len is justified by what we learned with resner
ok to the shrowdness generally eyinced bv lhes
nto children. The predominant tempeamer
was the sangulne, a constitution which indi
sed Gates a great love for animal exercise an
during the Time we were present, thew an
RI peared as II they could not sit quiet one mr
ell ment-hands, feet, head, nay the very trun
llSeli seemed struggling 10 do snnetbino
ana ana mat something generally heing found i
4 to sheer mischief.
me Hymns were occasionally sung to liyel
on measures, the girls singing with a syee,nes
Sc and pathos that sunk deep into the heart. h,
IN The boys continually grlmacing and iokinc
I'M dovetalllng into the hymns the GC.ends E
m popular songs, yet all the time attempting I
md looS grave aud sober, as if they were payin
to tue most respectful attention. When m
ing superintendent told the boys that he wa
iod about to pitch the tune, and that thew mn,
follow him, the boy before mentioned as N
me captain cried out in a stage whisper, 9. NJ
law - says we are to follow him; wond,
Inc where he's going to Ia jest hailed with
The laugh by his confederates. Dnrinr t.ar,
he ing questions of an unanswerable ,harart,
were submitted by the boys to their master
on. for eXamplc . Won M.ern ,tnrrinu.-