Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-04-10
The London GamIn.


Good Words for March has a long ar
ticle upon the London street boys, from
which we select the sue3 3oiued:
Being anxious to learn how many of
the hundred and twenty boys at pres
ent in the Refuge had slept upon the
streets, the master, while they were as
sembled at dinner. asked the question
How many boys have slept for a week
together oustide of any house In
stantly fifty little hands were held up.
How many for three months ThiF-
teen held up their hands. Itssems al
most incredible that poor little chill
dren, for so many days eonseeutively
should have braved the weather, many
of them through the winter months.
Two or three of the boys told me that
among the "pads" was a famous place
to sleep in. "Pads" are small baskets
in which fish is brought to Billingsgate
market. One poor little fellow told me
he ''cuddled up" one night in barge,
and when the men came to work at
FIVE o'clock in themorning one Of them
put rope around his middle and
''chueked him out into the river"
pulling him in again and repeating the
process "as If he had been q bucket Of
water and this was in the winter =
"but," said he, another Of the men
said he had little ones of his own, and
he did not like to see me served so, and
he took me to coffee shop and had
my clothes dried and gave me some
coffee
We have all heard of the little va
grant who told his chum of the prime
discovery he lad made Of a sleeping
place-the iron garden roller in Re
gents Park; but we question if even
this odd resting-place could match the
sleeping accommodation one pale little
urchin confessed he was obliged to put
up with, namely, q "drain-pipe," at
Sadler's Wells, and ''Oh, it did blow
round me cold" said the little fellow,
shiVeriug with the bare recollection of
his nights lodging. All the boys had
slept in carts and market baskets in
Convent Garden, and under the rail
way arches, and one lad said he though.
he would one time make himself com
! Portable in Water-butt, but the snow
came down when he was asleep and
covered him. Who shall say what are
I the Villanies perpetrated under the
Adelphi dark arches, the well known
resort of hOuseless wanderers? al
slept there one night, SAID little boy,
"and there were above hundred there
at the same time, huddled about in
parties of twenties in the different cor
ners. The policeman came and used
his belt to Us, and drove Us out-men,
women, and children, and We went in
the parks. Another policeman said he
didn't like to see Us hit about, and he
took me to cofee-shop and gave me
some coffee; but another boy stole my
boots, and 1 was obliged to go bare
footed"
But there was one rather stout lad
who spoke of his lodgings on the cold
ground without the slightest sense Of
its having been more than common
hardship.
Il used,'' said he, "to sleep in the
'New-found-out.'"
Where is that?" 1 asked, with a
look of establishment.
"Oh, that is the arches underneath
the Charing Gross Hotel," speaking of
1t as some delectable abode.
How very little one half of the world
knows how the other half lives This
wild, out-of-door, bitter life, led by the
majority of the lads before they entered
the Refuge, gives them an unsettled,
untameable nature that is not easily
conquered. OF these l.675 destitute
children thus received, LOIS were boys,
and 659 girls, for the more dependent
sex are also cared for by this institu-
ton
Something more of the lives which
these little ones once led may be in
ferred from the following little episode
occurring in November last, AT Worship
strees police court, in which any of US,
instead of the police, might have dis
played the part of good Caliph.
William Hawkins and William Frost,
with naked feet and nearly naked bod
es. were charged before Mr.. Cooke with
being found destitute in the public
Itreets.
Dolman, 1l9 H, deposed that he
ound the boys sleeping in an uneoy-
red van.
.MdBtSJFdtS: W nat blul6 was II u
Constable: Two O'Clock this morning.
Magistrate ito the eldest boy): How
Id are you?
Frost; Going on for my eight.
Magistrate {: Where are your parents?
Frost: 1 amt got none: fathers
cad, and mothers gone away some
here.
Magistrate: How long have you been
leeping about the streets in this ways
Frost: Oh, about half q year-no
hree months, 1 amt got no 'lations
Magistrate What do you do for
wing?
Frost: I don't know. hold horses
,metimes.
Magistrate: Where did you last see
our motherl
Frost: At Dalston. She lived some.
here there.
Magistrate: How old are you, HaW-
ins }?
Hawkins: Pm all six.