Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-03

sands of little children who were pre-
vented by illness or infirmity from attend
ing the banquet given every Christmas
time by the corporation Of London to the
poor children of the city. He investigated
and the result of his inquiries was the
establishment of the Treloar Hamper fund
1t began in a small way, but for the last
fourteen years, Sir William Treoar
boasts, not a single crippled child In Lon
don has been without hamper Of good
thing to eat and toys to delight at Christ
mas time. The title of the fund explains
its object. A corps of investigators seeks
out the little cripple and every Christmas
time a hamper of good things is dis
patched to each of them. Mucn of the
money is raised by public subscriptions
and many of Sir Williams associates in the
corporation and in the trade guilds, which
form so great a feature of London's civic
life, contribute in kind; but there is always
a large deficit to be made up, and this in
var1ably has been contributed by sir Will
lam himself.
From supplying Christmas hampers to
the cripples to trying to cure them was a
natural step. Sir William found that while
many of the little u~nfortunates spent their
lives in and out Of hospitals few of them
received permanent benefit. Most of the
child, cripples are victims of tuberculosis
OF the bone and the cure OF this terrible
disease is a slow process. Few hospitals
can spare a bed for the months or years
necessary to effect a cure and the result
has been that the little victims have been
merely patched up and sent home again
to fresh suffering. One of the inmates of
Sir Williams home. a little girl only II
years old, has undergone no less than
twenty operations in hospital She is now
in a fair way to be permanently cured
without further operative treatment.
League of ~ChiIdren.
These facts impressed on Sir William
the need for an Institution devoted 10
the patient and scientific treatment of
such cases and he made up his mind TO
crown his life work by founding it. The
opportunity came when he became lord
mayor in 1907. He threw the whole In
fluence of his great office into the scale.
He issued letter after letter TO tine press,
pointing out the need of an institution
such as he had planned and the money
began to flow In. slowly, but steadily.
Then he interested the queen IN his work
and the money began to flow faster. He
secured her permission to organize the
Queen Alexandra League of Children TO
aid in collecting for the home, and the
queen herself designed the badge of mem
bership. The league has now many thou
sands Of members, who are described by
Sir William as "the little children who
are doing well. working for the little chill
dren who are ILL.,"
His crowning feat of begging, however,
was when he induced Parliament to turn
over to him the great hospital at Alton,
which was built for the care of wounded
and sick soldiers during the Boer war.
1t was called the "Absent-Minded Beg
gar" hospital because the War office
built 1t in response TO Mr.. Kipling's stir
ring appeal for the men who were fight
ing England's battles. The war ended
before IL was ready for use and Il had
never been occupied. AS 1t stood It had
cost the government about 500. 900, and
Parliament voted It to Sir William Ire