Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-07-29
LETTER FROM MONTREAL.
correspondence of the Alexandria GAZETTE.
MONTREAL, july 241a18S6.

MONIhEAL july II, loOU.
returned from Quebec this morning and
have 50 much yet 10 see here that shall
not leave for home until next week. have
exceptional advantages for seeing nstitu.
| tions cot known or inaccessible to most
| strangers, my friend, with whom am stay.
ing, being acquainted with their managers.
The ono which has interested me most has
been the Reform School, which have visit.
ed twice. They have there about five hun.
dred boys, from some so small that I mar
veled to see them in such place, to grown
young men. They are sent there chiefly
for petty offences against the law, but some.
times by parents who can not manage them.
They wear coarse uniform of blue, trim
med with red, and look quite happy and
| contented, as indeed they may be, being
| we'll fed, clothed and lodged, and having
choice of fourteen trades. They are under
the charge OF the Brothers Of Charity"
and are taught letters by them part of the
day, while the rest is passed :u learning
trades from workmen employed for that
purpose. On our first visit there was nei-
ther work nor school, it being the festival
of St. Vincent OF Paul, the patron
saint of the establishment. We found
the boys playing foot and base ball,
in several yards, according to size.
These yards are large and provided with
| wooden blocks, marked tffor base ball, and
| it was strange to hear tho voice of the old
brother, in his gown and skull cap, crying
out foul ball" 1.-TWO Strikes" &C., as um-
pire, while Il younger brother, in the same
dress, Kept the score, and the boys shouted
n,. IF
They have nice chapel to the adornment
Of which many of them contribute and a
little theatre or exhibition hall, the scenery
of which they painted. The perspective is
not above criticism, but, otherwise, it is we'll
done On our second call, we found the
boys at work and it was really funny to see
fifty little tailors of y or IA sitting gravely
on the benches making coats, or as many lit
tic shocmakers pounding away on sDles, Or
sewing, cutting, or fitting. Each boy has
| choice Of q trade if after three months he
dslkes it, or is found unsuited for it, he has
choice of another and another, until one is
found to suit him. We attended an evening
service in the large and splendid church at
tached to the school, and some of the
boys seemed to be very fervent in
their prayers, while most of them
joined with spirit in The singing.
The brothers told u5 that their success was
encouraging, and that they had already sew
era! young men employed on wages, to
teach trades, who had been taught there as
| prisoners, though they had been but few
| years in charge.
| We visited, aIso, the Grey Nuns, who have
eleven houses here. They are said to be
very rich. having become so by the increase
in value of property left them by their found
ress, Madame de Iouvile, the widow of q
French general; but if their revenues are
princely, their use of them is truly royal,
| for there is no form of human woe they do
not strive to allevate-the foundling, the
| orphan, the aged, the crippled, the sick, the
fallen are all tho objects of their care. Their
dress is rather subducd yellow than what
we should call grey, aud they wear black
cape, and it is said that they owe their
name to the Indians, to whom they gave
spirits when they required them in illness,
and who, supposing they used them habit
ually themselves, applied to them name
which sounded like the French word for
grey, but which meant something like wine
| bibbers. FIDELIs.