The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-03-18

tratlng TO my stranger friend the situation o
these unhappy children, | added that, new
ertheless, they might get education, and Sc
cure some measure both of common anc
Christian knowledge but mark how, anC
where. Not as in the days of cur blessed
Savior, when the tender mother brought hel
child for His blessing. The Tailor brings
them now! Their only passage to school is
through the Police office; their passport is q
conviction Of crime. And in this Christian
and enlightened city it is only within the
dark walls Of aprison that they are secure
either of school or Bible When one thinks
Of ones own happy boys at home. bound
ing free on the green, and breathing the
fresh air of heaven-or of the little fellow
that climbs fathers knee and asks the
oft repeated story Of Moses or of Joseph
it is sad thing TO look in through the eye
let Of cell door, on the weary solitude Of a
child spelling its way through the Bible. Il
makes one sick to hear men sing the praises
Of the fine education of our prisons. How
much better and holier were il to tell us OF
an education that would save the necessity
of prison-schooll like well TO see the
life boat, with her brave and devoted crew;
but with far more pleasure from the window
Of my old country manse, used to look
out at the Bell Rock Tower, standing erect
amid the stormy waters, where, in the mists
Of the day, the bell was rung, and in the
darkness Of the night the light was kindled;
and thereby the mariners we've nos saved
from the wreck, but saved from being
wrecked at all.
What vivid, terrible picture this is, from the
life, and by the hands Of a master.
Here is pregnant extract, as to the expense
The Juvenile convict, We should always
recollect, is only unit, who has risen acct
dentally to the top, out of an unconvicted
class nowise better than himself What is
TO be done with the rest? Are they to wait
ill their turn comes alSo---till ruthless So
ciety, which has never done single act Of
duty or of kindness by them, challenges
them, much in the same humor that Abhor-
son summoned Master Bernardine, to come
out and be hanged! Or are We prepared al
length TO take the trouble Of treating them
as human beings--we say nothing of i'm
mortal souls-and 10 make a serious at
tempt towards placing them in circumstan-
ces where, for the first time in their lives,
chance of happiness and of virtue may be
brought within their reachl 1t is more
question of trouble than Of expense; since
we may rest assured that they are costing us
more in their wild neglected state living on
the public, and to be guarded against as
criminals, than if they were at once to I'M
dertake the charge Of bringing them within
the domestic pale of civil life. You will
maintain them cheaper; domeslioated at your
barn door, than left TO help themselves from
your land and fields, as game. 1t is the
selfsame question which occurs respecting
the moral, as the physical health OF towns.
Will you go TO the thought and the expense
Of sswerages and drainages, and so secure
to the poor, fresh water and fresh air; or,
will you wait I'LL far heavier charge rolls
back upon you as a Poor-rate, swollen with
the miseries incident TO the long sickness
and early death OF the labonng man,
whose family depends upon his labor! Take
a word from MIR. Guthrie, on this subject,
also
DO you fancy that, by refusing this ap-
peal, ard refusing TO establish these schools,
you, the public will be saved the expense
Of maintaining these Outcasts A great
and demonstrable mistake. They live lust
now and how do they live Not by their
honest industry, but az your expense. They
beg and steal for themselves, or their par
ents beg and steal for them. You are not
relieved of the expense Of their sustenance
by refusing this appeal. The OLD Man Of
the Sea sticks to the back Of SInbad and
surely it were better for Sinbsd to teach the
old man to walk on his own feet. pray
the public to remember, that begging and
stealing, while in most cases poor trades to
those who pursue them, are dear ones to the
public. Catch yon little fellow, with his
pale face and pteous whine, and search, as
some Of us have done, his wallets, and you
will be astonished at the stores of beef and
bread concealed beneath his rags. Don't
blame him, however, because he whines on !;
he must reach his den at night, laden with
plumber. You forget that sound beating
may await him if he returns empty handed !;
and you also forget that at some expense he
has TO keep his mother in whiskey, rs well
as his brothers and sisters in food. You
have often tried to put down public begging,
the dearest and most vicious way OF main
tanning the poor till some such plan as
ours is adopted, you never can. Not to
speak Of the beggars that prowl about our
public streets, hundreds Of children set out
every morning to levy their subsistence foI
the day, by calls at private houses. They
beg when they may--they steal when they
can. Such a system is disgrace TO So
ciety its evils are legion and we can fancy
no plan that goes so directly, and with such
sure promise of success, to the root OF these
evils, as that we now advocate. We say
with Daniel Defoe, that begging 10 shame
to any country: if the beggar is an un
worthy object of charity, it is shame tha
he should be allo,ced to beg; if worthy
object Of charity, ii is shame that he shoule
be compelled to beg
The following paragraph gives some accoun
Of the origin Of Ragged Schools DIR. HAw
TREY, is one of the most distinguished scholar
in England, the able and bonored head of tn
greatest of the great Schools from which o
many Of Englaud's highest names have issued
How Christ-l:ke the example Of this eminent man
aud how the glory of place, and scholarship, an