doled out to the descendants of those who have been driven from their ancestral lands to sink into the mire of an uncongenial manufacturing city. We saw elder men drawing younger men into drink dens by persuasions which were not free from physical force. We saw wives pleading with husbands already tottering to shameful fall. We saw women themselves so degraded that the memory of the spectacle will haunt us long. A two hours' walk showed us spectacles of shame and sin and misery such as we had never seen in many walks in cities which do not call themselves Christian. We cannot help saying these things because, underlying all our pleasure and interest in much beneficent organization which we saw in Glasgow, was the secret consciousness that all the evils it was combating were being for ever fed from below, and that the hearts of the best workers must well nigh fail them in their struggle, while the very legislation, which "takes up" the drunkard when he lies prone with empty pockets, and seizes his starving children for streetselling, treats the drink traffic only as a valuable contributory to the national revenue. The Saltmarket and the Trongate are also greatly widened and improved of late years. But the narrowest street without spirit shops will be cleaner, happier and healthier than the noblest boulevard which is full of them. Mr. Quarrier's In James Morrison Street, we Work. see the hall, where the "Poor Children's Dinners are daily served out, with a supplementary breakfast for adults on Sunday. We see also the Boys and Girls' Home and Receiving House of Mr. Quarrier's Orphanage at Bridge of Weir- -a noble charity, the detail of whose "report" is sadly convincing as to the household misery and waste caused by inebriety. Mr. Quarrier's work is fairly comprehensive in its own sphere, comprising as it does the Orphan Homes (an industrial village in themselves), a City Orphan Home, a Working Boys' Home, a Children's Night Refuge, a Young Women's Shelter, two homes for sick orphans, a Training Home for Canada, a Training College for Young Seamen, and a Canadian Distributing Home at Brockville, Ontario. It is a more cheerful and hopeful work than many, since, dealing solely with the young, its work is preventive, and it may be reasonably hoped that in new and good environment the children may be saved. The work has grown marvellously. In 1876, there were only 150 children in the cottage homes and 246 in the city home, while for that year the expenditure for maintenance and education was only 23001. and odd pounds. In 1893 the number in the Cottage Homes was 1271 and in the City Home 593, the outlay amounting to over 12,5021. All the homes are freely opened to inspection. Destitution is the title for admis private venture by a gentleman who had previously filled an appointment under the municipality. He has no fewer than seven of these houses in Glasgow itself, two in its immediate suburbs, and he is on the eve of opening another in Dundee. The houses average about 400 inmates each, some having 700 or 800, and others between 100 and 200. No women are received. Certain simple rough-and-ready rules of order and propriety are laid down; and the public rooms, if somewhat gloomy and cheerless, are at least lofty and spacious. The superintendent of the house we visited, told us that the men are not difficult to manage that they readily accept the discipline which works in their own interest-he added that there were many men among the lodgers who earned 30s. a week, but were "kept down " by drink. Notices of temperance meetings and services were posted up here and there, and the houses are visited regularly by agencies connected with the Y. M. C. A. and kindred societies. We chanced to hear of a curious social complication said to arise out of these common-lodging houses. It is said that men desert their families and contrive to keep out of sight amid this floating population, and that young lads leave their parents and prefer to spend their earnings at the lodginghouse rather than at home. In both of the houses we visited, newspapers mounted on reading-room stands were provided for the use of the inmates. It is significant that the readers were eagerly poring over the "sporting " columns. In one house, we saw the touching sight of a father with his motherless boy, to whom he was talking kindly while he gave him his breakfast. That was all the home they had, said the superintendent. The arrangements are primitive enough. We noticed a man getting some soup or tea in a large bowl, standing in its saucer. He took the saucer and stirred the liquid with it. A deposit of a penny is said to be required for the use of a spoon; deposit repaid when spoon returned. It is sad to realize that in a huge commercial city of Great Britain there are always several thousands of working men only too thankful to avail themseves of the bare shelter, warmth and rest which these lodging-houses can give. When we think of the dense forest of shipping on the Clyde, and of the numberless liners which leave her shores, we cannot help feeling that the public provision for the welfare and comfort of stranger seamen is not quite worthy of Glasgow. Nevertheless there is on the Broomielaw an admirable little Institute for Seamen, with reading and recreation rooms, a coffee tavern, and a Home for Distressed Seamen adjoining the quaint Seamen's Chapel in Brown Street; while on "the south side," i.e., across the Clyde, there are a Seamen's Bethel and more reading and recreation rooms. All these institutions work under the auspices of the Seamen's Friend Society. During the past year 96,000 seamen and their friends have attended services in the Brown Street Chapel and the south side Bethel, 196,000 tracts have been distributed, 246,000 visits have been paid to the reading rooms, 119 tea meetings and limelight entertainments have been held, 2523 libraries or parcels of books have been placed on ships, and lodgings have been found for 2755 destitute sea men. The Sailors' Home. It may be remarked, however, that this scheme makes no provision for the safe housing of seamen who are not destitute, but quite prepared to pay their way. Their case is met by the "Sailors' Home," also on the Broomielaw. This institution is no charity." Seamen pay 168. a week, ordinary seamen 148. and officers 20s.-a charge of 18. is made for the transfer of luggage to or from ship. Captains can secure seamen from this establishment, and messengers are kept, whose duty it is to see that men who have signed articles 66 keep faith with their nautical employers. The Home is used by men of all nationalities. During our own brief visit we noted several Norwegians and Swedes and one African. Lessons in cookery are sometimes given for the improvement of seacooks. Everything in the house is fashioned and conducted in ship-style, though the officers' apartments are equal to those in any comfortable hotel. One thing, however, seemed to us to be strongly adverse to the best prosperity of such an establishment. Though under municipal patronage, with the Lord Provost at its head, it is "farmed out" to its managers an arrangement which appears little likely to work quite fairly for anybody concerned. The manager told us that he makes many bad debts; he showed us a room full of sailors' kits forfeited in consequence, and stated that when the final "sale" came, the kits were seldom found to contain anything of saleable value ! This is a sad record of cheery "Jack Tar," of whom we like to think as the soul of honour. In connection with the Home, there is a seamen's restaurant in Finniston Street. All efforts to help seafaring men amid the difficulties and temptations of their lives, should surely be on the broadest possible human basis. It should never be forgotten that the sailor on shore is emphatically a man of leisure, and that wholesome recreation should be cordially supplied to him even in a measure and of a style which might not be wise in the case of landsmen, especially those whose duties require regulated brain work. Jack ashore wants something to think about and talk about when Jack is at sea. His long months of monotony must be relieved by days of excitement to restore the balance which every human life requires, and his friends must charge themselves to give him this excitement in pure forms and safe places. While down in the neighbourhood of the Broomielaw, it is well to pursue our way along the banks of the Clyde and visit Glasgow Green, the oldest public park, and the place where the annual fair is held. After the gloomy streets, it felt bright and airy, and was well patronised by poor folks and barefooted children. School of Economy. On the margin of Glasgow Green stands the Logan-Johnston School of Domestic Economy-a modern institution of the most approved type. It owes its origin to the benefaction of a Glasgow tradesman and his wife, whose busts adorn the pretty entrance hall. There are a certain number of foundationers, lassies who receive a thorough domestic training, and there are open day classes where cookery, household work, laundry work, and needlework (from patching up to Holbein embroidery) are taught for moderate fees. There are evening classes for the same subjects at still lower rates. There are also lectures on hygiene and home sick nursing, and special courses of training for lady housekeepers, etc. Of course, everything here is on an ideal scale, and the general intelligence and resourcefulness of the girls must be well awakened to enable them easily to adapt themselves to the exigencies and make shifts which prevail perforce in many humbler households. Undoubtedly, such institutions set a high standard of household beauty and convenience which must in time raise the standard everywhere. Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. In such a paper as this we must leave aside a great deal. We can only glance at the Infirmaries and their allied medical missions, at the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb of which Glaswegians are justly proud, at the Homes of Shelter on Garnet Hill, at the convalescent hospitals and homes, or the Magdalen Institution on Stirling Road, to say nothing of a crowd of other meritorious institutions of philanthropic, social or educational significance. As combining the two latter features, we should like to dwell specially on the work of the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. which are here seen to the best advantage. The institute of the former is in Bothwell Street, a magnificent pile of buildings, which shelters under the same roof the offices of the Glasgow Foundry Boys' Religious Society, and the offices of the Glasgow Sabbath School Union. Of the former we need only say that its object is the religious, educational, and social elevation of the boys and girls of the city and suburbs, and that it works, when possible, in union with the churches and missions in its several districts, each branch, or meeting place, of the Society being specially connected with some congregation from which its workers are drawn. The most picturesque feature of its work -one which we believe originated with it, though it has now been largely copied in various modified forms is the annual fair-week trip for the working lads and girls, thus giving them opportunity for pure and delightful recreation elsewhere, at the very time when the dangers of their ordinary surroundings are at their worst. young people themselves contribute to the cost of their excursions, which usually involve "camping out" in the Western Highlands and the shores of Loch Fyne. The The work of the Glasgow Y. M. C. A. is vigorously carried on its memoranda including, besides services and Sabbath classes, circulating and reference libraries, reading rooms, baths, educational classes, a register of lodgings, a system of introductory letters, a savings bank, a gymnasium, a chess club and a golf club. The number attending the educational classes in all sections in Glasgow (there are four) is 2248. The gymnasium shows 179 enrolments, and successful rambles and excursions have been organised during the summer months. The Glasgow Y. W. C. A. whose centre is at 80 Bath Street, comprises an excellent boardinghouse for young women engaged in business, teaching, study, etc., and a servants' home for servants out of place. A branch house at Bridgeton was opened last year, with a good hall for meetings, classes, etc., and a boarding house for working women, chiefly mill hands. At the Bath Street Central Institute there are also reading-rooms, a registry office, and а most valuable and popular restaurant. The number of members and associates on the roll is 2830, while nearly a thousand young women, who are not members, enjoy some of the advantages of the association. There are forty-one branches, of which 19 are parochial or congregational, 16 undenominational, one is specially for hospital nurses, and five are junior branches for girls under 15. Those who have had opportunity of seeing anything of the home life of the boardinghouses, can bear testimony to their gracious hospitality and cheer--" even as a gleam of sunshine through the fog," as one wrote in the visitor's book. Industrial Reforms. The industrial workers of Glasgow are not behind in efforts for their own progress and betterment. During our visit to the city a Co-operative Floral Festival and Industrial Exhibition was held in the City Hall. All the exhibitors were members of cooperative societies, and the music of the evenings was provided by co-operative choirs. The scene was very gay and busy, and there was a honest and hopeful ring about it-the exhibitors mentally interested in each other, and providing their own amusement for themselves. "The National Federal Council of Scotland for Women's Trades" has its central office in Renfield Street. It has a membership of upwards of 100,000. Its honorary secretary, Miss Irwin (late assistant-commissioner under the Royal Commission of Labour), was formerly organising secretary of the Woman's Protective and Provident League, for which she has recently done good work by carrying out an inquiry into the circumstances of the employment of women in laundries. The facts disclosed in the papers she kindly gave us concerning these women and those others employed in shops, wring the heart, and set us asking strange questions-such as whether slavery is really abolished, while to eat a bit of honest bread women must toil for more than twelve hours daily that they may earn a wage which seldom exceeds 10s. weekly, and that in a place where rent is high, and fresh air and sunshine so impossible that in the rich West End many houses great and fair sta id shut up for eight or ten months out of the year because their owners declare that life even there can be neither healthy nor joyous! We have heard a great deal of the evil of absentee landlordism-evil which has tended to make our great cities what they are. But may not the evils of the absentee manufacturers and employers be in their turn at least equal in magnitude? Ought not men to ask if they should make their money under conditions which their own wives will not endure, and in which they will not rear their own children? 66 It may seem to some a far cry" from the little "upper chamber" where these new forces are struggling into vigorous life, to the grand Municipal Buildings which occupy the south side of George Square, which with its broad walks, shrubberies, fountain and statuary, makes a pleasant break amid the high square blocks in the "business" district of Glasgow. The history of Glasgow is essentially a commercial history. Even in 1656 a writer specially commended "the mercantile genius of the people." An authority tells us that "as early as 1516, trades in Glasgow were forming into guilds, but it was not till 1672 that the letter of guildry, adjusted in 1605, was confirmed by Parliament, which put an end to the perpetual disputes between the merchants and the trades' guilds." Previous to 1775 Glasgow wealth and speculation were chiefly concerned with the tobacco trade. When the American War of Independence interrupted that traffic, attention was turned to West Indian sugar, and to cotton goods. But it is the coal and iron trades, chemical works, the shipbuilding, and the marine engine shops which have "made" Glasgow. Its rapid development began only in the early years of the present century. erected at Gilmore Hill overlooking the Kelvin and West End Park, one of the three beautiful parks which, with the lovely Botanic Gardens, do so much to relieve the dismal monotony of streets and roads. The university is thoroughly wellequipped, grants degrees in all the four faculties, and awards 300 bursaries, ranging in value from 61. to 801.-indeed with exhibitions, fellowships and scholarships, the amount distributed yearly exceeds 8000l. Among its distinguished teachers or students of bygone days, it numbers Bishop Elphinstone, Bishop Burnet, Smollet, Dr. Adam Smith, Francis Jeffrey, Sir William Hamilton and the late Archbishop Tait. Its library contains about 175,000 volumes. Among its curiosities is Since then its population has gone up by leaps and bounds from 83,000 to upwards of 692,000. University. Naturally such rapid progress could Glasgow not be without grave dangers and disadvantages. It is one of the minor of these that the exigencies of material prosperity did not scruple to demand the sacrifice of one of the few historic buildings possessed by the city. In 1864, the buildings of old Glasgow College, in the High Street, founded in 1450, were sold and converted into a railway station, in whose purlieus a few ancient remains may still be traced. It is true that by this time the vicinage of the College had fallen into such squalor and degradation as to be little fit to form the surroundings of students in the most critical years of life. Handsome new college buildings designed by Sir Gilbert Scott were speedily one of the few original copies of the quaint volume known as "Zachary Boyd's Bible," being metrical versions of Scriptural history, which, though written in all sober seriousness by a worthy Presbyterian divine, and scholar (who was three times elected rector of the university), are so bald and unimaginative that to quote from them would, in these days, expose one to the charge of irreverence, if not of blasphemy! Glasgow has other educational endowments of considerable value. Anderson's College still retains its medical classes, though its Arts' faculty has been absorbed by the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, which has over 2000 students enrolled in its classes. St. Mungo's College (dating only from 1889) has faculties in medicine and law. St. Margaret's College is founded for the higher education of women. The School of Arts, and Haldane's Academy, must not be forgotten. The ancient City Grammar School is now in charge of the school board, which has recently reorganised a school of similar standing for girls. There are sixty-seven public elementary schools in Glasgow, and the scholars on the roll number about 62,000. It was at the Andersonian Institution in Glasgow that in 1800 Dr. Birkbeck first established a course of lectures to working men on science and the practical arts, which has proved the germ from which Mechanics' Institutes afterwards sprung. The success of the scheme was so rapid, that while only seventy-five artisans attended the first lecture upwards of 500 were attracted to the fourth! Though Glasgow has several large public libraries where books may be consulted-such as the Mitchell, with its 75,000 books, the Stirling, and the Glasgow public library-yet it has no free public lending library. The Athenæum in St. George's Place and Buchanan Street is a high class institution, whose aim is "to put before the public the fullest and most recent information on all subjects of general interest, whether commercial, literary or scientific, and to provide an agreeable place of resort in the intervals of business. Its library contains upwards of 18,000 volumes, 600 newspapers weekly are laid out in its news room, its magazine room being equally well supplied with current periodical literature. There are recreation rooms, a restaurant and a gymnasium. The subscription, arranged for life, or as annual, or quarterly, is exceedingly moderate, and with trifling extension may include the advantages of German, French, Spanish, Dramatic, Dialectic or other clubs. There is a Commercial College and courses of popular lectures are arranged. Schools of music and of art also find place in the programme of the athenæum. In long and busy Sauchiehall Street we find the Corporation Picture Galleries, which possess a rich collection of statuary and paintings, especially of the Flemish school. One room, hung round by portraits of ex-provosts, contains in its centre ́an interesting collection of water colour sketches of Glasgow as it used to be. It is indeed a vanished Glasgow which is set forth!-though even yet among the steep old streets leading up to St. Mungo's Cathedral, we noticed not only some quaint red-tiled gables, but actually one steep thatched roof! We cannot close our paper better than by a record of two institutions, set down on the very fringe of the suburbs of the great city, just where the harvest fields and hedges meet and almost mingle with the last straggling streets. One of these is the Glasgow Institution for Orphan and Destitute Girlss-a beautiful and commodious building at Park Drive, Whiteinch, a shipbuilding village in the suburbs, which deserves a visit, if only for the singular "fossil grove " embodied in its public park. The institution receives 60 girls. Those of the school age attend the neighbouring board school, the elder ones remain at home, in training for domestic service. The house is a new one, and the artistic taste displayed in its architecture and appointments is in pleasing contrast to the hard and gloomy tone given formerly to some philanthropic establishments. Old Folks' Home. Beside this institution, stands another of a very sweet and simple character which owes its foundations to members of the Allan family-the well known shipowners. It is an Old Folks' home. Married couples are admitted, and so are solitary old men and women. The couples have two tiny rooms, all to themselves, the single folks have one. The rooms are provided with beds, bedding, shelves, and cupboards, and all else the aged people are free to provide for themselves out of the treasured relics of their past. House-room, fire and light are absolutely free, any little means which the old people may have are utilised for their other needs, and if too little means are forthcoming, well, there are possibilities of kindly supplement. The old people do their own cooking, each room being provided with a pretty little range, thus are they not only secured that privacy which is generally so dear to the aged, but they are provided with the occupation which is the best safeguard against ennui and repining. Yet they have a corporate life in their pleasant public room, provided with newspapers and magazines, and occasionally enlivened by a lime light exhibition or a little singing. The establishment has a garden of its own, in which, at the time of our visit, many of its inmates were busy. It seemed a veritable haven of refuge-out of the storm of life-out of the whirl of the big city, presided over by a genial woman superintendent, who never spoke of herself and her charge by different pronouns but always by the collective we," and who had a humorous twinkle in her honest eye which went far to explain her assertion that "we all get on very comfortably together." We have but given a glimpse into the city of Glasgow; we have but followed a few of the sunbeams of kindness and human interest which play about even where the smoke is densest, and the chimney stalks rise most thickly. I The Burden. "Who daily loadeth us with benefits." COULD go through it patiently—aye! singing— (The valley, in its lonesome winding length) But that the burden every day is bringing I go with listless step and weary shoulders, MARION. |