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kitchen, quarters of lamb by the score, and chickens and ducklings by the hundred, and giant joints of beef were still revolving on the spits in preparation for the demands of the hungry host who would in a few hours, clamour for sustenance. Fires were burning in other places; but they were of a much humbler sort-those that crackled under the slung pots of the gipsies; and naked swarms of the juvenile members of the tribe, having crawled out of the filthy canvas lairs in which they roost, crouched round about them, eager for the time of kettle-boiling and breakfast.

But of those who had lodged on the Downs through the preceding night all were not early risers. There were scores -hundreds, I may say, and still be fairly within the mark -who seemed to have arrived so far in the dark; and, casting hopelessly about for anything in the shape of shelter, just dropped down as does a sheep or a cow-with this difference, that the cow or the sheep does compose itself for rest decently, while the worn-out tramp does not. But it is only the adult males, the young tramps and the old tramps, who lie about so. There are scores of women cadgers and fusee sellers; but they huddle together against the wooden walls of the tall Grand Stand, that in a few hours will bloom like a prodigious bouquet and flash in the sun, all so rich and gay, as though there were no such things as poverty and rags and hunger in the world. They cluster together, those wretched women, some with babes at their breasts, and others with children of tender years gathering in under their old shawls and draggletail gowns, in some such manner as a hen gathers her chicks, but far less effectually and warmly; and here they will remain, like paupers gathered about the doors of a workhouse casual ward, until such time as the business of the day begins to stir, and the active police, who have lodged at the Grand Stand, and who have breakfasted, and are smart and fresh and fit for duty, bid them "clear out," and they are absorbed in the gathering crowd.

At present, however-half-past six a.m.-there is no crowd nor any sign of one. There is business doing, however. The proprietors of the countless booths that are ranged in rows on both sides of the race-course are up and busy, though as yet they do not deem it worth their while to throw open

their canvas doors and expose the tempting wealth of eatables within. This is sufficient precaution by day, but at night-time stronger protective measures have to be adopted. There is not a refreshment-booth keeper on Epsom Downs that is not provided with firearms; and any thief who should thrust his curious head in after the proprietor was supposed to have retired for the night would, in all probability, find it promptly and solidly rapped by some sturdy watchman who keeps guard just within the flimsy rag that serves as a door. But booth robberies on the Downs are seldom heard of. It is not as though the hundreds of povertystricken and famished ones who are spread about the neighbourhood were alert and lively. By the time they tramp from London and mount the hill, they are so utterly done up, that not even the sharp spur of hunger is sufficient to goad them to petty larceny for the stomach's sake.

I looked about in vain for some time for my comrades of the road, the hero of the pail, and he who had come to Epsom to fish for fortune with no more promising bait than a bunch of bits of string and a bradawl. At last I found the latter. Decent old fellow he was, he had had no breakfast, and was without even a penny to buy him a cup of coffee; but when I discovered him he was in the hands of the travelling barber, who had him between his knees on the grass already lathered for shaving. The charge was three halfpence, and this was the exact sum, with not a farthing over, that the stout-hearted old chap possessed: but he let it go without a pang, in order that he might appear respectable at that lucky spot on the slant of the hill, where on a memorable occasion, the man had sold one of his braces for a guinea, to patch up a broken-down harhess. I made inquiries for the man with the pail, and was informed by the other old fellow, as he wiped his clean shaven jaws, and winked at me over the edge of the towel, that it had turned out just as he expected it would he had ascertained that there were dozens of men with pails beside himself already on the spot, and that he had discreetly parted with the vessel in which he had placed such trust for the sum oftenpence, and was at that moment tramping back to London.

INFANT PAUPERS.

HAVING in view its future welfare, it is doubtful if much worse can be done for a destitute or deserted child of either sex than to consign it to a workhouse-there to be educated, maintained and trained until such time as it arrives at an age such as makes it eligible for the labour market. The system is objectionable from whatever point of view it may be regarded, and whatever condition of the child concerned. Should the poor little waif be the offspring of depraved parents, and familiarised from its earliest infancy with all it should have been taught to shun, the workhouse or its branch connection, the pauper school, provides but an indifferent reformatory. The alley-bred brat instinctively seeks congenial companionship, and amongst the hundreds besides himself the establishment accommodates, he is not long at a loss; and contributes his quota of contamination to the common sink, drawing freely on the same for a practical knowledge of vices with which he at present has but a limited acquaintance. However admirable the supervision may be, it is next to impossible to avoid this where children herd together in droves as it were, having a common playground, and the dormitories fitted with sores of bedsteads. Should the small unfortunate, dooned to a future of pauperism come of decent parents and such instances are far from rare-be a stranger to the arts anc subtleteir of juvenile wickedness, it is downright cruelty and worse to compel the helpless little creature to consort with companions who will speedily make him as bad as themselves.

Nor is this, serious though it be, the only disadvantage of parochial fostering is generally adopted. It is a fact, painful as it is undeniable, that boys and girls workhouse bred differ strangely in habit and demeanour from ordinary children. Wherever they are seen, at play, at school, out walking, or at meals, they seem to be oblivious of life's sunny side. They

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droop at the neck and keep their eyes downward, as though to them the sky were always leaden, and it were hopeless to look up at it, and they shrug their narrow shoulders beneath their coarse grey jackets in a cold and uncomfortable manner, as though, whichever way the wind might blow for other folk, for them it was always due east. However buoyantly disposed by nature, in a workhouse atmosphere they speedily lose their lightheartedness, and to all appearance grow moodily resigned to what they are powerless to struggle against. Nor is this unaccountable. For the healthful development of its mind a child requires to be taken not only by the hand but by the heart as well, by some one it can love and trust, and on whom it can surely rely for sympathy and comfort at all times and seasons--some one to whom it can confide its small troubles and failures, and who is always ready with a kindly word of encouragement. It is this that, at all events, the majority of children shut away from the world in a manner indicated miss and pine for. It is a want which not even the most benovolent system of workhouse management can supply, and whicd amidst a flock of black sheep and white, were best not attempted, as it will only lead to suspicion of favouritism and increased discontent.

Then comes the question--and it is by no means a new one-is there any other better method of providing for children who are "thrown on the parish"? There is a method which has been bravely pushing its way for several years past, but concerning the advantages of which boards of guardians are not agreed. Nevertheless, it has received, and is still receiving, an amount of steady encouragement which gives promise of increased success in the future. The philanthropists who have the business in hand style themselves the Committee for Promoting the Boarding Out of Pauper Children, the chairman being Francis Peek, Esq., of the London School Board, and its patrons, amongst others, Earl Shaftesbury and the Bishops of Chester, Ripon, and Exeter. The plan adopted is quite different from the old "farming" mode. The children are placed in carefully selected and respectable homes in country places, usually but one child, and never more than two in each, and the well being of the juveniles is effectually provided for by a

system of irregular visits and personal supervision on the part of certain ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

The first question that naturally arises is-are there to be found in all parts of the kingdom ladies or gentlemen who will give their good services to this not particularly attractive work? The answer, as furnished by the committee's last report, is that in no single case has such assistance been required and not been cheerfully rendered, and, furthermore, the said committee plainly assert and tender evidence in proof that there are hundreds of homes open to pauper children in all parts of the country of exactly the kind sought for, but that children cannot be got from the guardians to send to them. And this is the more astonishing because the boarding out plan has the strong recommendation of being vastly economical. In the society's last report we read:-"The plan has been adopted with much success by the Leeds guardians. . . The result has been a saving of nearly £70 per week." Nevertheless the system, which has so much to recommend it, progresses but slowly. In the Contemporary Review Mr. Peek writes:-"Of 48,000 children over whom the State has control, 4,000 were being trained to a life of pauperism, surrounded with pauper associations and exposed to all the contaminating influences of daily intercourse with bad characters, whilst only 8,000 were otherwise provided for in district schools or by being boarded out in cottage homes."

There is really no reason why this healthful system of transplanting should not be more generally adopted. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bath, Carlisle, Warwick, Kendal, Bradford, Gloucester, and several other important towns have tried it, and are well satisfied with the result, and it it is only fair to assume that what is pleasant and profitable for Leeds and Liverpool would not fail to be so for all other parts of the country. The wholesale system of housing and training, more particularly as regards girls, is to be deplored. Girls are shrewder than boys, and more easily accommodate themselves to circumstances. It may well happen that the superintendent of an institution may refer with just pride to the fact that her youthful charges are obedient, docile and intelligent, and that the

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