The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1861-03-06
A Scene i'm a Ragged school

LIZ NutuiIo SNCS SiupbIC uesCT ptiOu
Of the Edinburgh ragged schools in the Lon.
don Record, as follows:
"The children come at seven in the morn
ing-and come in rags and not in decent
clothes, for tnat wouldn't do; they would
60 to the pawn.shoP too soon. The first
thing they do is to strip-not to be thrashed,
but washed and we have q long bath, as
long as the gallery, and we make them
march along it as slow as II they were at
tending funeral, and the consequence is
that they get. what many people are fools
enough not 10 get, delightful bath. What
comes after the bath! Some of you are,
| dare say, Scotchmen. and will understand
me. They get grand Breakfast of porridge
and milk. Then comes prayer, and por-
ton of the Scripture is read then the work
of the school begins, and occupies four hours
of the day the children learn to read, and
to write, and to cipher and they learn car
pentering, and ox.making. and ehoemak-
ing. They come to US at half past seven in
the morning, and at half.pas seven at night
we take eff their school dress and give them
back their rags, and they 60 homeland the
rags are not worth the pawning. We never
kept child from home unless the house is
an infamous den of iniquity or the parents
cruel; we know that in the bosom of the
child, worthless as the parents may be, God
has planted link of affection, and what we
want to do is to improve an1 strengthen
that tie; and we have known instances
where those poor children have even carried
salvation to their homes. But all this, la
dies and gentlemen, requires expense we
must feed and we must cothe them it en-
tails the expense of teaching and of hous-
ing few of them and say that they de-
serve this fostering care-they deserve the
most fostering protection and help of the
government. ....
"You will very naturally say, you have
told us what these ragged boys Go in school /;
now tell US what they do out of school,
We'll, they just get on as well out of school
as they do in-they get on in way we
never expected. When they were getting
up banquets to the soldiers of the Crimea,
and to all the grand members of Parliament,
we thought we'd give banquet to our rag
ged BARNS, who had fought as great battle
as any Crimean soldier, and far harder too.
All Of sudden the thing was resolved on !;
ali of sudden the thing was done. We
have them, you know-these ragged school
scholars that were-cutting down the for
ests in America we have them herding
sheep in Australia we have them in the
navy and-what dye think ?-there was
an odd thing in this Wayne had comps-
tition among boys in the navy, and the rag.
ged school boys carried off the highest prize.
We have them in the army, too. just the
other day had In my drawiug.r DOM one of
nv ragged school scholars. 'What was
he doing there 2 you ask. Well he was
just standing beside very pretty girl dressd
like duchess, with an enormous crinoline,
and all that. There he was on his breast
he carried three medals. He had fought
the battles Of his country in the Crimea he
had gone up the deadly march to Lucknow, {,
and rescued the women and the children and
our soldiers there-and was proud Of my
ragged school boy when I saw him with his
honors.
aWell as | said, we resolved to give a
banquet; We furnished one OF our best
rooms and had it brilliant with gas. and
laurel. and ivy. sndthe coral.headed holly
and The quantity Of tss and 'tOast Il ism to