Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-06-17

the habits OF the criminal class was the
immediate cause of the peculiar interest
which Raikes took in the question of
the instruction Of the. poor. On the
death of his father. in 1857, Robert be-
came proprietor and editor of the paper
and in its pages these subjects were
frequently prominent. Raikes's own
account of the commencement of the
movement is simple and direct, like all
his writing. Having been struck with
| concern, as he says, in one of his walks
in the city at seeing group of children
wretchedly ragged at play in the streets,
and also by the description which a
woman on the spot gave him of the
scenes of noise and riot which took
| place in the streets on Sundays, he in
quired of his informant whether there
| were any decent, well-disposed women
| in the neighborhood who kept schools
for teaching to read. 1 presently he
continues, +" was directed to four. To
those Iapplied, and made an agreement
| with them to receive as many children
as should send upon the Sunday. The
| women" he adds, " seemed pleased
with the proposal 1t was at the house
of Mr.. King in ST. Catherine street
that the first Gloucester Sunday-school
was started, in the month of July, 1880,
and it is this humble beginning which
is to be celebrated in July next, Just 100
years after the event. The second school
| was Immediately afterwards established
by Raikes in his own parish at the corner
of Greyfriars and Southgate street. The
third school is believed to have been es-
tablished by Mr.. Stock, and several
others were quickly started in other
parts of thee:ty The teachers in these
early schools were most of them paid
for their labors at the rate of one shil-
ling per Sunday. The good service
rendered by them in teaching so many
children to read can only perhaps be
appreciated by considering the wretch
eddy imperfect and partial nature of the
systems-if systems they can be called
for the instruction of the poor in those
days. The progress made from this
small beginning was really marvellous.
Only five years after the setting up of
the little school in St. Catherine street
ready 25O, 900 children at Sunday-schools
system, having already extended to Ire
land, was about to be introduced into
the colonies. This extraordinary growth
oCCIAo W HdNC OCCh III SICdo pdiC uuc W
Raikes's statements and appeals in the
Gloucester Journal. In 1888 the Court
ladies at Windsor were reported as
passing their Sundays in teaching the
poorest children. Raikes, being in that
town about this time, was sent for by
Queen Charlotte, and he has in private
note to friend recorded the interest
which the Queen evinced in the move
ment. The famous Mrs. Trimmer and
Hannah More rendered great service
with their pens. Raikes meanwhile
went steadily on his way, promoting
new schools in his own neighborhood
and elsewhere. The idea of conducting
Sunday-schools by unpaid teachers is
said to have originated in meeting
of Jealous Wesleyans. Wesley says that
as early as 1875 the masters in the school
at Bolton gave their services gratui-
tously, and q few years later the same
practice became general in Stockport.
Every succeeding year added to the
number of unpaid teachers, the Noncon-
formist churches being especially ready
to recognize the advantages of voluntary
Sunday-school labor, and thus by de-
grees paid teachers were entirely super
seeded and gratuitous instruction became
the universal rule.
The children attending Raike's Sum-
day-schools appear to have been, almost
without exception, without previous
training Of any kind. His conditions
were simply '.clean faces. clean hands
and hair combed" garments
and shoeless feet being no disqualified
ton. The duty of the instructor was to
teach them their letters, practice them
in spelling, and hear them read. In
a private letter to Colonel Townley,
Raikes says: 1T is now about three
years since we began, and [ wish you
were here to see the effect.' The go
ing among them,'' he says in the same
letter, "doing them little kindnesses,
distributing trifling rewards, and in
gratiating myself with them, have given
me an ascendancy greater than l ever
could have imagined, for l am told
by their mistresses that they are very
much afraid of my displeasure.' In
another interesting passage Raikes says:
:. You will understand that these chill
dren are from six years old to fourteen.
Boys and girls above this age who have
been totally undisciplined are generally
too refractory for this government. A
reformation in society seems to me to
be only practicable by establishing no.
tons of duty and practical habits of or
der and decorum at an early age" 1t
is pleasant to observe that with the dis
appearance of Ignorance, rags and naked
feet began to be less frequent. Raikes
retired from business at the age of sixty
seven, but his interest in this movement
continued to be undated. He died on
the 9Th of April. 1911, at the age of
seventy-five, leaving a large family.
Robert Raikes seems to have been q
man of liberal views, with no DISPOSE
ton to discourage but rather to foster
innocent amusements. Music was always
an important feature in the annual Sun
day-school festivals in his days, and in
one of his articles he defends against a
censorious correspondent his practice of
publishing in his paper notices of dra-
matte performances and other such
amusements which took place at inter-
walls in Gloucester. He is described as
'trather tall, somewhat portly, of fair
complexion and most benevolent ex-
preston of countenance. This is borne
<,,,< lxyb his oh bo orpoo,o