Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-19
MIR. wAKEmAN,s JoURNEYINGs

tuition and the American Hue An-
 chor Society-ChiIdren on the out
 Door List-The Discipline and Re-
 gime-Recreation and Amusement-
 Music EveryWhere-Public Service.
 LILERPooL, Dec. 2. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Every one who has crossed the ocean in one of the great liners knows all about Entertainment Night" at sea. Yet few know, save in dim sort of way, the real object of the impromptu diversion, or have any manner of idea as to what be- comes of the large sums thus frequently realized.
 On some one night ct each voyage the great dining salon of the ship is trans formed into concert hall, theater and lecture-room combined. Among from two hundred to thousand passengers there are always found men, women and youths who can do some one little or big thing we'll. The witty man, the sarcastic man, the elocutionist, the poet and the story telling man are all on shipboard. Then there are the misses or mesdames who play or sing, or both. And there is always found the rubicund clergyman, the brow wrinkled senator or the bland, unctuous judge to preside.
 Agaiu, scarcely a voyage of the mail ships occurs when there are not profes- sional people on board, usually the best of European actors, singers, instrumentalists, and all manner of specialists from dsn- seuse to freak, who are travelling from one continent to another to fill their various engagements. These are folk with hearts quick to respond to anything genuine with charity at the end of it. So that with the amateur performers willing to be distin- guished, and the distinguished artists will ling to perform, Entertainment Night" brings program often of very great vari- ety and merit, and fills the salon with hundreds of passengers who are on this night'for the first and last time in full dress on shipboard.
 F The transformation of passengers them selves is not the least interesting feature of this concert in mid-ocean. The most genuinely aristocratic people on shipboard are usually the shsbbiest of all passengers at all other times than this. Even this night many dress richly but soberly. But the rule is tn make the occasion one of at least partial display in dress, and major ity honor the event with costumes and jewels befitting the most select social gath erings in any land. To the first tripper" it is an affair of unique interest and de- light. The oldest travellers awaken from their ordinary tolerative lethargy and per init themselves to be drawn into the bril- liant salon, after the manner of blase the ater foyer loungers. Even the officers and stewards of the ship welcome the affair as a relief to the monotony of the voyage And, as have taken the pains to find out, the generous sums secured from the sale of programs and the irrevocable "collsc- tion," provides for one of the most need ful and deserving of all charities patheti- cally suggested by the endless and dolor- ous tragedies of the sea.
 The proceeds of these Entertainment Night" collections secured on all steam ships plying between New York, Philsdel- phia Baltimore, Boston and Liverpool, ex- l cept one, are turned over to the officers of the Liverpool Seamen's Orphan institu- l tion, which is almost exclusively support | ed in this manner. The exception noted | is on the part of the Inman line. This | line, having American affinities, and being largely the property of American owners, bestows one-half of the sums thus collect I ed upon the Liverpool institution and the | other half upon the American Blue An chor society's charity, kinded institution Whether they go to Liverpool or New 1 York no one should ever hesitate about | giving literally when distinguished actors, 1 clergymen, iurists or simple citizens ''pass l the hat" at sea, for these Sesmen's Or | phan homes are among the noblest chari- l ties of our time.
 l Every American tourist to Europe | should visit the Liverpool institution. Its
 offices are at IA Water street, not five
 hundred yards from the steamer landing
 where the secretary, Captain Edward
 Stubbs, R. N, will extend every possible
 courtesy, as all the officers of the orphan
 age are peculiarly gratesui to Americans
 fo- without their contributions the grand
 work of this charity would wholly fail
 and everything possible is done by Cap
 tain Stubbs, Sir James Poole, the treasur
 CT, and Rev. 0. E. Gaussen, the chaplain
 to make Americans feel that they have sc
 quired personal interest in and regart
 for the institution. l know of no othel
 place in all Britain where an American | citizen can experience the same delightfu
 feeling
 The orphanage was founded in 1869 t
 feed, clothe and educate the destitute O
 necessitous children of all classes of sea
 men or seafaring men. It is not restrict
 ed to any nationality, though children o !: seamen who have sailed five years out o
 the port of Liverpool have the preference The frequent recurrence of such names a :, Lund, Lundgren, Schavii, etc., indicat
 the Scandinavian paternity ot many of tn | children. Recipients of relief are divide : | into two classes, the children admitted t , | the institution and those placed on tn | "out-door list"
 I Inability of the widow to support thes | children is the only qualification. Relic
 of some kind has never been refused l The boys are retained to the age of foul teen, and are then sent to trades and ott
 CT vacations, many securing comfortabl clerical positions. The girls, if the t mothers wish it, are kept in the institI l. tion until they are fifteen; the last yes 5 being passed in receiving training in a
 branches of household work, while scho' instruction is also continued.
 J. Children on the outdoor list are thol s whose mothers desire to retain them ul
 der their own care. It frequently hal !, pens that there is not in the widowed fan K fly child old enough for public scho' y life, or religious difficulties may interven n Again there are deaf and dumb childre
 and those who are unfortunately mentall
 incapacitated from receiving instruction " To meet such cases as these the institutio t. grants an annual allowance of clothir l. and boots, and monthly allowance of te
 shillings I know of many instance !, where this cash allowance pays the enti d rent and actually keeps a roof over u n desolate familys heads. There arc no rt P tape and official captiousness about thi The sole condition of payment of u IL money ia that the child shall produce st certificate of school attendance, providir
 it be able to attend school.
 t, Of these two classes there are at u e present time three hundred and sixty chi d dren in the orphanage, and nearly u B. same number on the outdoor list. 4 Le idea of the expenditure for so great al le | practical charity can be had from tl k fact that the annual cost of maintainir ,f each child in the orphanage is trifie ov e sixty dollars. and the annual expense upt le each child in the outdoor relief class, l 0, cluding cash allowance and clothing, le forty dollars. About thirty-tiye hundr Id children have been cared for in one or t
 other of these two ways since the orgaI s, | zation of the charity. Noble as has be If the work accomplished, the need for t is extension is pitiful indeed. I have not t d. figures at hand as to the loss of Americ es l seamen: but the returns from the Engli .l- board of trade are appalling in their e re dence of loss of life at sea; for they sht d, that in the nineteen years following t
 establishment of this orphanage, no lt as than S2 920 seamen died in English shl at abroad, of whom 51, 156 were drown'
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