Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-09-23

tanned, by experiment, that meal Of
animal food, furnished once week to
children of the utterly destitute classes,
utfices to keep them at least in COM
,arative health, and to ward off the
worst effects Of cold and hunger on i'm
poverished frames. To carry this into
practice, two or three societies have
been formed, within the last few years,
whose object is to provide regularly
once week, during the winter months,
a substantial meat meal for as many as
possible of the poorest children of Lon
don, thus fulfilling in the most literal
manner possible, the divine injunc-
ton, "Feed my lambs" In addition to
these dinners, which are provided for
the prevention of disease arising from
want of food, there are other dinner ia
bles specially prepared for affording
suitable nourishment for children who
are already sick. A glance at one of
each of these societies may not be with
out interest. By invitation Of the Sec
rotary, Mr.. Williams, we visited the
Refuge for Homeless and Destitute
Boys, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on a Fri
day, the day when these weekly din
ners are provided. One o'clock was
the hour fixed for dinner, and on arriv-
ing at that hour, the little guests were
already focking in in considerable num-
bers. It was bitter winters day the
snow was falling fast outside, and very
pitiful and abject some of these little
wanderers appeared, as, with faces
pinched by the cold, they crept inside
the hospitable door of the Refuge, shak-
ing the snow-fakes off their scanty
clothes. Two and two, to the number of
about four hundred, they were marched
up stairs to a large upper room, where
they were seated opposite long deal Ia
bles in patches of eighteen or twenty.
In the middle OF each table was two or
three tin bowls of water, and in each
place was tin platter, little knife
and fork, and thick slice of bread !;
while from large table at the upper
end of the room arose a grateful odor,
preceding from some fifteen or twenty
large dishes, on which were seen good
~ Joints of beef and mutton, and whole
mountains of steaming potatoes. Ia
an incredibly short space of time these
were cut up and distributed, and on the
platter before each child there appeared
a pile of meat and potatoes. So liberal
indeed were the portions served, that
on seeing them we began to compre-
bend how one such meal week can
suffice to save these lambs from the
jaws of the wolf of famine. When all
were served, silence was commanded,
and the secretary leading them, a few
words of grace was sung by the whole
four hundred. Various were the keys
in which that grace was sung, and very
weak were some of the little voices that
raised it; but it may we'll have had
meaning and reality which is often
wanting to the grace that is said over
many a Widespread board. Then for
a while great silence fell upon all the
little company, and the serious business
of eating commenced. It was curious
to mark the different ways in which
they ate their meal. Some set to work
voraciously f.; others took it more easily,
and some few we noticed who played
with their food as delicately as any lit
tie pet of the nursery could have done;
but these were chiefly the ones whose
features gave painful evidence that the
hard struggle with want into which
their little existence had been
thrown had proved too much for them
It took some little time before the meal
was finished and, according to the con-
siderate rule of the institution, those
who do not eat the whole of the portions,
are allowed to carry the remainder away
with them, a privilege of which not
few avail themselves. When at last all
had been eaten or pocketed, and the last
platter had been emptied, grace was
again sung as before, and the secretary
kindly enquiring "Have you had
good dinner?" chorus of little voices
answered, eyes, yes" When would
you like to have another 90 "Next
Friday, please sir, was the eager all
swer. -Su1ad0g Magazine.