New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-01
CHARITY AND EMPIRE.
DR.. Barnardo's Life Work-CoIoneL
Rkodes's MiscaLcuLation.
London, September 90.

more modest and sincere worker among the poor
never lived. When he needed money for his in
s,itutions-and this he cid until he fell back in
his desk chair and died with smile on his face
--he asked for it in a large way SO as to com
nsnd public attention. But he was himself a
simple, unpretentious man. who had devoted his
Isfe 70 q single purpose and dis1iked to have his
zeal and arduous labors trumpeted. Now that
death has come at sixty, when in the course Of
forty years of incessant work he had burned the
candle at both ends he is described IN laudatory
yhrase as su empire builder; but that is a title
which he would not have liked on his grave
stone He would have preferred n simpler leg
End, such as And he took little child and set
rim in The midst Of them" or even q benedic-
ton from Ton-AU-Alones. He was very good
70 ne" Indeed. the inspiration for his life
work may have come to him when he read
BLEAK House; and although the image OF Jo
the crossing sweep may have faded into dim
ness while ne medical student during an
outbreak Of cholera in the East End and a
teacher in 8 Stepney donkey stable, it
hack With hard realism and impressive pathos
when ragged homeless boy led him White
chapel-way and convinced him that hundreds of
neglected children were living nowhere and
sleeping anywhere. Thenceforth the figure OF
the homeless street waif was a transparent
picture in the window through which he looked
Of London. and before the end came he had res
cued sixty thousand children from restitution
and enabled them to thrive and prosper
About the time when DR.. Bernardo was ex-
ploring the haunts of the London street arabs.
smother great Englishman, who had read BLEAK
House was working among the homeless chill
6ren Of Gravesend. This was Chinese Gordon.
who found leisure for rescue work while he was
conducting engineering works at the mouth of
He Hafr cd neglected.
child whom ne found in the streets He fed.
clothed, sheltered and taught the ragged boys
OF Gravesend; and he interested himself in get
ting work for them, fitting them for occupations
af1oat or ashore, and keeping up correspondence
with them. so that he might exert a permanent
influence over them. In those days there was a
map Of the world over Gordon's desk, and stuck
in it were scores of pins with waxen heads like
the colored flags with which armchair strate-
gists follow the progress Of a military
paign- Each represented one of Gordon's
adopted street arabs at the port town from
which the last letter had been received; and the
pins with their waxen orifammes were moved
whenever a fresh batch of correspondence came
in. If Dr. Barnardo had borrowed Gordon's map
there would have been over sixteen thousand
pins required for Canada alone, and the number
would have been nearly quadrupled to represent
the aggregate work of forty years and a bureau
with scores of typewrite-s would have been
needed if systematic correspondence had been
attempted with bis wards in every quarter OF
the empire.
DR.. Bernardo, unlike the silent mystic Of
Gravesend. was not content with doing good
q small scale and without observation. From
the outset he courted publicity and strove to
interest everybody In his work His first visit
20 the new Tom-AIl-Alones, when in answer
70 his guides shriu whistle the little heads
popped Gp from roofs, hayricks ash barrels
and all sorts Of unexpected places he described
Ntvidly at mission service, and a report Of his
speech fell under the eyes of a great philan-
thropist. The late Lord Shaftesbury at once
asked him 10 dine with him. and the story was
repeated at table to a large company. Some Of the
diners suspected that the details were exag-
Eerated, and Lord Shaftesbury. intensely inter
ested- suggested that the whole party should
drive down from Grosvenor Square to the East
End and see if the homeless children could be
found sleeping in the open air: and when
halfpenny a head was offered seventy-three
ragged boys crawled out Of barrels and crates
sza counted hY lamplight. That incident
not only interested several rlch men, who at
once supplied money for starting rescue work
Of considerable magnitude, but it also impressed
the young medical student with the value Of
publicity Possibly DR.. Barnardo in his infam-
rsble enthusiasm over1ated the Importance Of
advertising hts work a an expedient for I'M
pressing the public with the moral obligation
Of supporting his enterprises: yet It is certain
that he could not have accomplished in the
course Of forty years vast work without
systematic measures for publicity. From the
dav when he scrubbed the floors and white
washed the walls of his first home for street
waits he never lacked substantial support, His
energy was as irrepressible his philanthropy,
and one institution followed another until there
were ordinances schools, workshops, labor
centres village settlements hospitals, en1igra-
ton bureaus, reception houses in the colonies
and experimental farms Of nine thousand acres
The money came for all these enterprises, and
while he never had as much as he wanted sInca
he was always thinking of q new way OF using
t. there was enough for carrying out q stu
oendous scheme for the relief Of overcrowded
slunas IN English cities and the redemption Of
SCORES OF Thousands Of poor children
r- Rs-na-do's work appealed 20 the char
table frnpuIses of human nature, created sym
rsfI,v for the pathos OF neglected childhood, and
fr,uregsed practical minds with the wisdom Of
preventive measures for taking potential pau
peTs and criminals when they were young and
converting them into trained workers It has
earned tributes from the Crown. the patronage
81 millionaire benefactors. end tho cooperation
Of charitable organizations and religious bodice
Incidentally it has provided Canada and other
7nlonfes with serviceable subjects But eulo-
gistS lose their sense Of proportion when they
deso-5ha this as process Of empire building
and tre founder Of q practical system Of child
recIar,ation as g. great imperialist- There has
h,an only one empire builder in recent English
history That was the dreamer at Kimberley
who pointed to the map and exclaimed. I want