held down for me, I too made my ascent, and at length stood upon the stone coping or parapet which ran along the side. There, exposed upon the dome-shaped roof, with their heads upon the higher part and their feet somewhat in the gutter, but in a great variety of postures-some coiled up, as one may have seen dogs before a fire; some huddled two or three together, others more apart-lay eleven boys out on the open roof. No covering of any kind was upon them. The rags that most of them wore were mere apologies for clothes, apparently quite as bad as, if not even worse than, Jim's. One big fellow who lay there seemed to be about eighteen years old; but the ages of the remainder varied, I should say, from nine to fourteen. Just then the moon shone clearly out. I have already said it was a bitterly cold, dry night, and, as the pale light of the moon fel! upon the upturned faces of those poor boys, and as I, standing there, realized, for one awful moment, the terrible fact that they were all absolutely homeless and destitute, and were perhaps but samples of numbers of others, it seemed as though the hand of God Himself had suddenly pulled aside the curtain which concealed from my view the untold miseries of forlorn child-life upon the streets of London. Add to this that a passionate sense of the unfairness of things flooded my heart and mind as I stood that night upon the roof top. Why should these eleven have nothing, and I and countless others have all we needed? It all seemed so unfair, so wrong, the problem was so mixed. I was fairly dazed at the thought of it, and only found relief when I gave up trying to solve it and thought I must do just the one duty that lay so manifestly at my door-save this one poor lad, whatever might come of it. Jim looked at the whole thing from a very matter offact point of view. "Shall I wake 'em, sir?" he asked. "Hush," said I, "don't let us attempt to disturb them," and as one of them moved uneasily I hurried away. Reaching the street, Jim, blithely unconscious of any reason for special emotion on the subject, said: "Shall we go to another lay, sir? There's lots more !" But the doctor had seen enough to know that the Don't-Live-Nowheres existed, and to realize how they existed and where they slept. IV. THE FIRST HOME. The sight of these upturned piteous faces on the iron roof of that shed, glimmering wan through their dirt in the wintry moonlight, haunted Barnardo. Silently and before God he vowed to dedicate himself henceforth, while life lasted, to save the Arabs of the streets. The Chinese must seek other missioners; his work lay nearer home. But what could be done, and how could he do it? It seemed indeed a forlorn enough task. But the seed had been sown, and the sower who could employ Jim Jervis as his messenger could provide for the rest. Speaking of this long afterward, Dr. Barnardo said: I knew no one then who could render me any help in the rescue and care of these boys. I was, comparatively speaking, friendless and unknown in London myself; but our heavenly Father, who feeds the hungry ravens, and whose open hand supplies the young lions when they roar, heard the prayer of my heart, and gradually the way opened to accomplish the work I had set before me. I asked Him, if it was His holy will, to permit me to provide a shelter for such poor children, and to give me the wisdom needed to seek them out during the hours of darkness, and to bring them in to learn of God, of Christ, of Heaven. The answer was not long in coming. Some weeks afterward, Barnardo was at dinner at a great man's house, and opportunity occurring he spoke warmly of what he had seen and knew. For he had then seen other "lays" and he knew of what he spoke. His host and his fellow guests were incredulous. "Do you mean to tell us that this very night," they said, "raw and cold and wretched as it is, there are children sleeping out in the open air in London? 'I do," said Barnardo. "Can you show us them?" he was asked. Albeit somewhat shrinking lest the "lay" might that night be drawn blank, he stoutly declared he could and he would. So cabs were summoned, and a score of gentlemen in evening dress fared forth toward Slumdom piloted by Barnardo. Through the city they drove on and on and on, until they reached a space by Billingsgate Market, where he knew the lads slept by the score. A strange sight it was, that of these west end revelers straying to Billingsgate seeking outcasts— and finding none. For there was not a boy to be seen. For a moment Barnardo's heart sank within him; but a policeman standing by told him it was all right. They'll come out," he said, "if you give them a copper." 66 A halfpenny a head was offered, and then from out a great confused pile of old crates, boxes and empty barrels which were piled together, covered with a huge tarpaulin, seventy three boys crawled out from the lair where they had been seeking a shelter for the night. Called out by the offer of a halfpenny, there they stood, beneath the light of the lamps, a sorrowful and mournful regiment of the great army of the destitute, confronting an even more sorrowful and mournful regiment of the well-to-do. "I pray God," said Dr. Barnardo, "that I may never again behold such a sight." But it was a vision which, although apocalyptic in its horror, carried with it a glad promise of better things to come. For Lord Shaftesbury was of the party, and with him were many of the best philanthropists in London. After thus having proved his case Dr. Barnardo was not long in getting to his life work. He says: As may well be imagined, I began in a very small way. A little house in a mean street was first opened for some twenty-five boys. We did the repairs ourselves. Many a happy hour was spent in whitewashing the walls and ceilings, scrubbing the floors, and otherwise putting what seemed to me at that time a veritable mansion of capaciousness into suitable condition for the reception of my first family. Then I spent two whole nights upon the streets of London, cast my net upon the "right side of the ship," and brought to shore twenty-five homeless lads, all willing and eager to accept such help as I could give them. Thus had Jim's message from the Lord borne the fruit whereto it was appointed. Dr. Barnardo had found his vocation. The Home was born. The litthe one has now become a thousand, and in place of twenty-five homeless boys he has now 5,000 boys and girls in his Homes. But although Dr. Barnardo has been the cultivator of the crop from which this great harvest has been reaped, the message from the Lord came by little Jim-little Jim Jervis, the first of a procession of more than 30,000 of the Don't-Live-Nowheres who, thanks to his message, have been homed and saved. V. OPPOSITION. In Dr. Barnardo has dealt in thirty years with 30, 000 children, or, to put it roughly, an average of 1,000 per annum. He has been assailed in eightyeight of these cases, chiefly on account of the protection he has afforded to the children of Roman Catholics. None of these children had been admitted until after the Catholic priests concerned had refused to do anything for the little ones. seventy-six of the eighty-eight cases the proceedings were stopped in their initial stage by the discovery that the action of Dr. Barnardo was fully covered by the provisions of the Custody of Children's act, a measure which was passed by Parliament largely owing to the evidence furnished by Dr. Barnardo as to the iniquitous condition of the law as it formerly stood. Under the old law, which the judges themselves condemned when they administered it, there were twelve cases brought into court. Of these the majority were decided in Dr. Barnardo's favor. Only in three cases did the judges give judgment against him, and in those cases the conduct of Dr. Barnardo was admitted to be morally right although judicially it had to be pronounced legally wrong. He practiced what he described as philanthropic abduction in one case only. A little girl, whose step-father was said to have twice assaulted her, was declared by the court to have no option but to return again to the brute who was her legal guardian. To save that child from the worst outrage, which on the third attempt would probably have been completed, Dr. Barnardo, at the child's urgent entreaty, sent her abroad, thereby placing her outside the jurisdiction. This was, of course, extra legal conduct, for which he was held to have committed contempt of court, but many people still think he did nothing more than his obvious duty. Such action as he attempted in this case and in the celebrated Gossage case, can, Dr. Barnardo says, never again be necessary, the law, which has since been altered, being now efficient to safeguard the welfare of any child or young person in jeopardy through evil-disposed relatives. The worst that can be charged against Dr. Barnardo has been an excessive reluctance to give up children whom he has rescued from the slums to the hands of those from whom they had been delivered, especially when those persons were admittedly the mere catspaws of the priests. Dr. Barnardo is an Irish Protestant who sees the Pope through lurid spectacles, and in one or two cases he made what seemed to me a quite unnecessary fuss about returning the child to Catholic custody. Fortunately saner counsels now prevail on both sides. The policy adopted by Cardinal Vaughan on this question deserves honorable mention, as the one solitary instance in which he has shown himself wiser than his predecessor. There is now peace between the Cardinal and Dr. Barnardo, although, of course, neither has abated one jot or one tittle of his deep conviction as to the essentially heretical and unorthodox religious beliefs of the other. PART II. THE OUTCOME OF JIM'S APPEAL. I. A FAMILY OF FIVE THOUSAND. It is the largest family in the world. Fathers of families of five find themselves often put to it to manage their little ones. But Dr. Barnardo keeps the whole multifarious congeries of homes and houses and brigades and agencies in full swing from year's end to year's end. It makes the head ache to try to remember merely the names of all the institutions which have grown out of that first Home, founded as the result of Jim's message. I merely print here a list of the branches of that tree of life which Dr. Barnardo had tended so vigilantly all these years: The following branches are devoted wholly to the rescue and training of children: 1. HOME FOR WORKING AND DESTITUTE LADS, 18 to 26 Stepney Causeway, London, E. 2. LEOPOLD HOUSE ORPHAN HOME FOR LITTLE BOYS, 199 Burdett Road, London, E. 3. NURSERY HOME FOR VERY LITTLE BOYS, Teighmore, Gorey, Jersey. 4. OPEN-ALL-NIGHT REFUGE FOR HOMELESS BOYS AND GIRLS, 6, 8 and 10 Stepuey Causeway, London, E. 5. LABOR HOUSE FOR DESTITUTE YouthS, 622, 624 and 626 Commercial Road, London, E. 6 to 54. VILLAGE HOME FOR ORPHAN AND DESTITUTE GIRLS, Barkingside, Ilford, Essex. 55. BABIES' CASTLE, Hawkhurst, Kent. 56. HER MAJESTY'S HOSPITAL FOR WAIF CHILDREN, 13 to 19 Stepney Causeway, E. 57. SERVANTS' FREE REGISTRY AND HOME, Sturges House, 32 Bow Road, E. 58. RESCUE HOME FOR YOUNG GIRLS IN SPECIAL DANGER, Private Address. 59. THE BEEHIVE (Industrial Home for Older Girls), 273 Mare street, Hackney, N. E. 60. CITY MESSENGER BRIGADE, Head Offices. 61. UNION JACK SHOEBLACK BRIGADE AND HOME, Three Colt street, Limehouse, E 62. WOOD-CHOPPING BRIGADE, 622 Commercial Road, E. 63. BURDETT DORMITORY, Burdett Road, E. 64. CONVALESCENT SEASIDE HOME, 5 and 6 Chelsea Villas, Felixstowe, Suffolk. 65. JONES MEMORIAL HOME FOR INCURABLES, 16 Trafalgar Road, Birkdale. 66. HOME FOR GIRL WAIFS, 3 Bradninch Place, Exeter. 67, 68 & 69. CHILDREN'S FREE LODGING HOUSES: 81 Commercial street, Whitechapel, E; 12 Dock street, Leman street, Whitechapel, E.; 12 St. John's Place, Notting Hill, W. 70 & 71. EMIGRATION DEPÔTS AND DISTRIBUTING HOMES-For Girls: "Hazelbrae," Peterborough, Ontario. For Boys: 214 Farley avenue, Toronto, Ontario. 72. INDUSTRIAL FARM, Russell, Manitoba 73. BOARDING OUT BRANCH (with about 120 local centers), Head Offices. 74 BLIND AND DEAF MUTE BRANCH, Head Offices. 75. BRANCH FOR CRIPPLES OR DEFORMED Children, Head Offices. 76. THE CHILDREN'S FOLD, 182 Grove Road, Victoria Park, E. 77. SHIPPING AGENCY, Head Offices: With branches at CARDIFF and YARMOUTH. 78 to 85. EVER-OPEN DOORS, Eight Rescue Branches in BATH, BIRMINGHAM, BRIstol, Cardiff, LEEDS, LIVERPOOL, NEWCASTLE and PLYMOUTH, respectively. Such a city of a family demands its own organs, and Dr. Barnardo, in addition to all his other cares, is editor of at least three magazines. Night and Day, the official organ of the institutions, records the history and progress of the work, and abounds with interesting illustrations and incidents of the efforts carried on for the rescue and relief of waifs and strays. The Young Helpers' League Magazine is published in the interests of the Young Helpers' League, a world wide union of young people on behalf of the sick and ailing children in the Homes. Bubbles (weekly number, one penny; monthly part, sixpence) is a unique colored magazine which sup plies illustrated accounts of the Homes from week to week. There are also other publications describ ing and illustrating special aspects of the work. The Homes are open every afternoon, except on Saturday and Sunday, to any who choose to visit them and see for themselves the nature of the enterprise. Visitors to the Girls' Village Home are met every afternoon (except Saturday and Sunday) at Ilford Station by a conveyance, which awaits the train leaving Liverpool street at 1.10 p.m. As for the actual work done, I cannot do better than print here the latest figures kindly brought up to date for me by Dr. Barnardo. This is in bold statistics an outline of what came out of James Jervis being sent to tell of the tribe of the Don'tLive-Nowheres : Total number of children rescued, trained, and Fresh applications during the year.. Children maintained, educated, etc., in the 28,491 12,696 8,286 6,911 2,501 ... Fresh cases admitted during the year Children, included in the above, rescued during 1895 from circumstances of grave moral danger.... Children rescued during the year from utter destitution, but of decent parentage.......... Incurable cripples, physically disabled and blind children, or deaf-mutes admitted during 1895. Infants in arms admitted. Average number of children admitted every twenty-four hours during the year..... Largest number of admissions in one day Children boarded out in England on 31st December, 1895.... Boys and girls assisted to situations at home, sent to sea, or otherwise placed out in life during the year, etc., etc.................... Boys and girls placed out in Colonies during 1895.... Total number of trained boys and girls emigrated by means of the Homes to the Colonies, to 31st December, 1895....... Number of deaths during the year.. Rate of mortality per 1,000 for the year Children educated, partly fed or clothed at Free Day Schools.... 1,251 1,250 71 87 8.04 38 1,401 1,590 733 8,048 30 4.34 1,03 |