A small hardback book with a green cover on which title and subtitle: 'The story of Dr. Barnardo's Work in London', are imprinted in gold; the publisher is added to the foot of the spine, under a small and beautifully detailed insignia, but the author's name is not given, either on the cover, or on the title page. On the latter is printed: 'By the author of 'The Romance of the Streets' etc.,etc., who proves, on further bibliographical research, to be Godfrey Holden Pike, who wrote many historical and biographical works on evangelical topics from 1870 to 1904.
The anonymity is interesting and a characteristic of many authors of that era, including Barnardo himself, who contributed to such volumes as Night and Day, The Children's Treasury, Our Darlings, and Our Bubble, all edited and produced by Barnardo between 1874 and 1900. They contained a wide range of items from anecdotes to highly coloured romantic stories, mostly about destitute children, mixed with pious declamations, natural history, classical and historical tales, a wide range of fine coloured and black and white illustrations, notes on happenings within Barnardo's, and provision for donations. They were published by John F. Shaw and Co., and Haughton and Co., both of Paternoster Row, London, and may well constitute a genre of their own.
Hodder and Stoughton, the well-known publishers of this fine little volume, are also given as from Paternoster Row, London, 1875.
The Introduction is likewise anonymous, and is given as by the author of 'Jessica's First Prayer'. It relates Barnardo's work in East London to Charles Dickens, who had used the phrase 'A Star in the East' in describing a Children's Hospital a short distance from the subsequent site of Barnardo's Home for Boys in Stepney, and pursues the Advent analogy - the relationship of charitable almsgiving to charitable works.Chapters I and II present the relationship between poverty and petty larceny, using names and anecdotes, all in favour of charitable schooling over imprisonment. Chapter III describes the Home in Stepney Causeway in detail, and Barnardo evangelising through education, and overcoming unruliness by training and occupation. He then makes a prolonged diversion into the sins of licentious literature and the lewd theatre.
Chapter V returns to Nos 18 and 20 Stepney Causeway, with details of the geography of the Stepney Home and black and white illustrations of the training of the boys in various trades, and of the classrooms. He also relates Dr Barnardo's accounts of his extensive and frequent nocturnal expeditions through East London streets in search of homeless children, and such incidents as the inability to admit one boy who later was found dead in the streets, and, under the nickname Carrots, was the posthumous cause of Barnardo's policy of keeping an 'ever-open door' for all truly destitute children. On page 64, while extolling the appearance of some of the inmates, he mentions that the 'portraits of three well-favoured youths adorned the walls of the Royal Academy during a recent exhibition.' On the same page he relates: 'Another pleasing feature of the Home is the unmistakable bond of cordial friendship which unites Dr. Barnardo to his young constituents. He does not move about among them with any official air, but ties of real love unite him to the youthful hearts placed under his charge. He is free alike from affectation of dignity and from undue familiarity. The Doctor has a friend's salute for every lad whose eyes meet his own, and each little artisan responds with a smile, or speaks unrestrainedly. Never were a philanthropist and his charge more thoroughly in each other's confidence, and coming years will certainly foster the gratitude now existing in each young heart - gratitude to that overruling Providence which sent a helping hand when no friend was in sight, and when life's sole outlook was a starless night of despair'.
The schooling that Barnardo provided is also highly praised and in the context of the emphatic and interesting association of destitute children with vice and imprisonment by this author, education is clearly deemed of great importance.
Chapter VI is titled Dr. Barnardo's First Arab and is the tale of how a boy called Jim Jarvis, who wished to stay behind for the night when Barnardo was about to close the 'Ragged School' at which he taught prior to the establishment of the Mission in Stepney. From questioning the boy, Barnardo gathered that many slept out on the streets, and was taken to see the backstreets for confirmation. From this beginning Barnardo dated his realisation that his work was to care for homeless children.
Under the poignant title The Romance of Boy Life Chapter VII presents the stories of a number of children for whom admission to Barnardo's care has proved a life-saving relief for exhausted mothers.
Chapter VIII is devoted entirely to a perceptive account of the 'Ragged School' organisation as a whole, and the remaining chapters relate Barnardo's other achievements in Stepney, such as taking over a Gin Palace and converting it into a Mission Hall, and founding a Home for destitute girls.
Comment: An evangelical reporter who presents a relatively early and quite detailed account of Barnardo's East End Juvenile Mission in which he not only evaluates the insitutional care and education in combatting crime and destitution among children, but also clearly perceives the breadth and depth of Barnardo's compassion and competence brought to his work.
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