The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-11-30
PURCHASED TWO
BABIES FOR SITS.
Doctor Thomas Bernardo Bought
Waits in Order to Provide
for Them.
HIS WORK IN L0NDoN's sLUMS.
Unlike Salvation Army and Other
Charitable Societies, He De-
votes His Whole Attention to
Children of. the Poor.

London. Nov. 29.-Probably the name oi
Doctor Thomas J. Bernardo is almost un
known in America, but 1t deserves to be-
come more familiar. for the doctor is on
Of the men who are really doing great
things for the poor of London, and doing /
in ways that are interesting to hear about
An article about him Is timely just now
for the Doctor Bernardo Homes" as they
are known all over England. celebrated the
twenty-ffth anniversary of their founda.
ton q day or two ago, being visited on tina
felicitous occasion by the Princess Henry o.
Battenberg.
Unlike the Salvation Army and Other
charitable societies, Doctor Bernardo dc.
votes his whole attention to looking out FOL
poor children.
in the world who do a regular business II
babies.
The doctor often buys babies.
Sometimes that is the only way to &c
them from the mothers who do them much
more harm than good
Doctor Barnarao has no fixed rate fol
but they are usually rather more expensive
The other day. for instance, a not par
ticularly enticing baby cost the doctor =
Its mother was in jail for assault, not PC
ing able to pay her rine. which amounted t
that sum, and she offered to turn all right,
in her offspring over to the doctor II nc
would advance the money necessary TOT mel
release.
Doctor Barnardo has a little army of ex
perienced ..searchers" In Lendon anG
throughout the Provinces. who visit cheaf
lodging-houses. tramps' Kitchens, casual
wards and slums, looking for waits.
EDUCATES BOYS AND GIRLS.
When the children are found the doctor
takes them into his homes and proceeds &c
I - kg.An AtVt ~ thai" nv fn0Ghlnl
the boys rad and training the girls TOT
business and as housewives
All this may not seem especially remark
able. The unusual part Of II Is. however
the scale on which Doctor Barnardo's work
In the thirty. six years that he has beer
6,000 have graduated from his homes.
The doctor began his efforts in a mere
shed in the heart of a slum; he now carries
on f1 separate homes and eleven nissiSn
branches. Last year he took IN over iitvN
children, Of whom s4 were unoer Year,
| far along In their education that the doctor
feels that they are .capabte Of making tner
way in the world he sends them on Y
C-anada-having an agreement to thar emo
with the Canadian Government.
Among the children at the homes wno
marched past the swee<-faeed Princess the
| the Dominion on the following Saturday.
All told. 12,S5 boys and girls have gone
to Canada, and probably doMn
homes. and OF this number. according TO
official statistics furnished the doctor by
I the Canadian Government, less than : per
Some of them are doctors, others lawyers,
clergymen. newspaper writer's and wha'
not.
On of the members of a Colonial Senate
who welcomed the Prince and Princess OF
Wales during their tour in the Ophir started
out as a Barnardo slum boy.
INCOME OF THE SOCIETY.
From these invariably grateful former
lions more than &,0o9 every year.
Voluntary subscriptions are the sole
source . Of the s b = 1rap r R ssss as income
The way in which those homes were start
ed 10 interesting. =.
Doctor Barnardn had at first no idea Of
But even while q STRUGGLING medical stu
dent his tendency for helping other pe0n.e
for boys. and managed to coax severa!
ragged little urchtns with whom he had
got on terms OF intimacy to join It,
before mentioned.
When the lessons we're over one evening
the ~raggedest and most forlorn Of the boys
showed some reluctance about going Out
into the night" He wanted to lie by the
"But." said the doctor, my lad. it's
tAAAlS = 6O iOAAN. w yOu lfGs ~
| mitted. /,
He told Doctor Rarnsrdo. too. that there
that he knew that didn't. live nowhere
either, and volunteered to show his friend
where his untucky little acquaintance
| spent their nights.
So the doctor. went around with him.
and Jimmy Jervis pointed out the various
s~tairways. halls and alleys which served
as the out-of-door bedrooms of q few OF
! London's stray children, and when that
nights round was over the medical pros
fession had lost a promising recruit.
Doctor Bernardo had determined to look
out for waits.
BABY WAS BLIND.
Not long ago a baby was received into
the special Babies Home, but In spite OF
being well fed and taken care of, 1t didn't
seem to take the slightest interest in thn
things about 1t.
Then 1t was discovered that the baby was
~blind-blind because one day. when its ami
able mother came home drunk, she had
stuck a sharp darping needle through the
Doctor Barnardo can tell many another
story as unpleasant about the past Of
some of the babies to whom he he - now
acting as a second mother.
He brings them up to be healthy boys
and, girls, and then trains them. as be does
all his proteges.
and half Spanish. He looks more like q
bustling. prosperous busfness man than
like a phifantirop;st. for ne Is short and
stout, with rather heavy ''mutton-chop'
For the last year or two he has had to
take things rather easier and allow his
many assistants to do. more and more of
for his life Of strain and activity has
brought heart disease upon him.
For years at the beginning of his work
o'clock in the morning n caught a train
home at II o'clock ut night.