ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1304, 20 April 1872, Page 2

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.

THE REFUGE K)R THE STREET ARABS OF LONDON. (FROM THE LONDON ECHO, JANUARY 6.) The JEteftige in Great Queen-street on the occasion of the annual dinner last Wednesday was a sight worthy of being recorded. To be turned into a gathering of 630 boys and girls, boisterous and ruddy, with bright cheeks and bright eyes—ihe result of good air and <?ood food—and to remember thac the majority of these ai one time shivered on door-steps, or, wretched and ragged, wandered, homeless and foodless, in the mud of London, rapidly maturing into the seed-plot of crime—such a transformation was a thousand times brighter than anything to be seen in the best pantomime. The gathering was tightly packed • in the dining-room the jolly young tars from the Chichester trainingship, just arrived fresh from a taste of the sea air, greeted our view. It seemed difficult to believe that these young man of-war's men had but lately been rescued from dens in Seven-dials, the dirty gutters of the New-cut, and the sodden allies of sunless London. What a practical proof to all those who stand aghast at the poverty and misery of this great metropolis, that hearty good-will can so quickly change despairing misery into hopeful vigorous life—into splendid material for the commonwealth ! Just as J entered the meat and the potatoes were being served up. In my simplicity I was congratulating the boys upon the excellence of their food, but they were unanimously of the opinion that the "grub aboard ship was quite a< good," a compliment to the management the more valuable as it was quite spontaneous. What appetites! three plates full of beef and potatoes we saw stowed away right and left. < c Do yon ever get an indigestion ?" I asked of one of these splendid feeders. " What is that, sir?'' he quietly replied. Poor boy—how many would give riches for the same ignorance ! But whilst thus moralising, a busy hum ran through the room ; like that of bees overturned, the murmur gathered foroe. It was herald of the entry of King Plum-pud-ding. The rounds of Christmas pudding that disappeared upon the top of the three plates of meat was <* prodigious" as Dominie Sampson would have said: but I was glad to find that even from the depths of pudding the boys rose superior to creature comforts, and sentiment and friendship were not torgotten. A slight ripple of cheei>: ran along the table as a young " blue jacket" steered between the forms—a Chichester boy, just returned from a voyage, had come to see his old friends. A whirl' of the great mysterious sea, to which they were all tending, seemed to strike the lads as thev greeted their full-grown brother, as he passed them, with a round of applause. Strange tales these boys had to tell between Uieir mouthfuls of pudding. One lad walked all the way from Glasgow up to the great city on the look-out for work, when, after two months' sleeping in barns a*id eating turnips on the

roadside, he reached Highgate-hill one morning, some good Samaritan directing him to the Home, and saving him the fiercer struggle of fighting for a crust in this great city. Another had come all the way from Cornwall, like another Whitiington > to seek his fortune. But the sailor boys must not occupy all our- attention. The hoys of the Refuge, taught mechanical trades, such as shoeniaking, are alike worthy craftsmen lifted from the gutter. These are habited like young with stripes of red on their shoulders and wrists. Whilst the sailors recruit our JRoval and mercantile navy, these boys furnish trained workmen for the trades, and agriculture- is not neglected, as the society has a farm ai Bisley, in Surrey, where they are trained to cultivate the earth, and prepared for their future lite in the colonies. And what shall I say for the girls I Their numbers are very inferior to the boys, but great efforts are being made to increase them. At present they are in the Home in Broad street, bury, but it is intended to remove them—and to increase their number by 40'—to a country home at Sudbury, near Harrow. I must say these young gills do much credit to iheir present Bloomsbury home. One month, 1 was informed, is sufficient to render them the stout lasses they are, after being rescued from the gutter. After the dinner had been discussed, the childien were marched to the Freemason's Hall, where the Lord Mayor met them in order to give away the prizes to the most deserving. That this is a true work every onemust admit. There can be no dispute that, to turn this waste material into a fruitful working power, is a simple but a very high act of mercy, and a notable instance of the civilising influence of Christianity in the best sense of the word, I regret to find that the income to carry forward this fight falls, short by .£2,000 of that of last year; but J have not the slightest doubt that the public, seeing the valuable results already attained, will speedilv find ample means to carry on the good work.

A. Sad Revelation.—At the funeral of a young man, who was interred at the paiish churchyard, Burslem, lately, instead of the customary burial certificate given by the Registrar being produced, an old summons against the deceased for being drunk and disorderly was handed in to the official by mistake. A huge wreath of hollv, mistletoe, and laurel was placed last Christmas, by an unknown hand, upon the tomb of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey. Under the title "South Sea Bubbles," the young Earl of Pembroke will (says the Athenaeum) shortly publish an account of his experiences on the Southern Ocean, Another British ironclad is reported to be in a very unsatisfactory condition. The Royal Oak, one of the largest wood built vessels carrying heavy armour, seems to be in the same defective state as her sister ship, the Prince Consort, was lately found to be. The defects in the wooden hulls of these vessels are so extensive that the Admiralty may well hesitate before sanctioning the outlay that will he necessary to repair them thoroughly. Apart altogether from the question of cost, Mr Gosehen will have to consider whether the day has not gone by for the construction of vessels of the Prince Consort class. Cardinal Cullen has issued a pastoral against intemperance, which he says is on the increase in Ireland. The address is commended bv the Irish journals of all shades of opinion. The Naval and Military Gazette hears that a "shower" of royal warrants, cai lying out Mr Card well's scheme, will appear. The tines for drunkenno-s in the army amounted last year to ; and it is intended to continue for another year the experimental appropriation of a portion of the fund to reward well-conducted soldiers. With regard to the new German coinage it is stated that the Government propose to issue at first 6,277,000 pieces of 20 marks each, and 1,395,000 pieces of 10 marks each. The 20 mark piece will be of about the same value

as our pound sterling, and the issuethus contemplated will consequently amount to about £7,000,0Q0i At the assizes at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the other day, a man named; John Smith was found guilty of garotting and sentenced to> seven years" penal servitude and to be flogged. The prisoner begged bard, for an alteration of the sentence. "I hope yon will give me the seven years," he pleaded,, " but, for mercy's sake, don't flog, me,, my lord !'" To this Mr Baron PigoU replied that he did not wish to be severe, but an example was necessary. Mr James Hammond,, of Providence, in the United States, has had' a marvellous fall, which is somewhat profanely described by the New York Tribuneas "the most extraordinary tumble since Satan was kicked out of Heaven." From the fourth story of a high building,, lie, being intoxicated, fell over the-: railing of a circular staircase. On his way down his head" broke a. 2£, inch: iron railing, and he smashed through a skylight into a tailor's shop; He was picked up senseless and carried' home*, when it was found that he was not. hurt, only " a little sore." Jt is said that he must have been killed if he had, not been in what is called "a balmy condition" when he went over, but that, on the other hand, though drunkenness saved his life, it caused his fall,, and, we may add, brought to light the thickness of his skull. On the whole,, therefore, it is a comfort to know that the moral lies rather against alcohol, than for it, for we have not all heads, like that of James Hammond. As to the fall, we will substitute "Vulcan" for the other potentate,, and then give, a general adhesion to the opinion, of the Tribune. In the mercantile and commercial worlds, however, falls equally dreadful are quite commonly accompanied by equal immunity.—London. Echo. The population of the-United States, enumerated at the census of 1870, is. now reported by the superintendent of the census to. be 38,923,210. Thecolored population is 4,886,387; 383,712; Chinese, 63,254. The Atlantic cables of 1865 and: 1866 are showing signs of decreasing., insulation. The condition of the cables does not affect the legular and rapid* transmission of messages ; and the company have sent out Mr WilloughbySmith to superintend the tests which: are being made at Heart's Content. The London Times makes the startling announcement that of the'wdioleannual sickness from typhoid fever,, 100,000 cases at least, may be fairly set down as preventable, and a very large proportion of the cases may bedirectly traced to the pollution of drinking water in towns by the absorption of sewer gas, and in villages by the percolation of sewage through the soil into surface wells. It appears from the last files of the Mouiteur that gold mining in New Caledonia is still being proceeded with, both leefing and alluvial, and that theyield and general indica;ions are sufficient to keep the miners in heart to go. on with the work and continue the large outlay necessary. The London Echo, Jan. 6, says:— An English farmer's wife, who, some time ago, found that apaity of Baptists had performed the inaugural ceremony of their sect on her premises, exclaimed indignantly, " Drat the creatures! I'll teach them to leave all their nasty sins in my pond S" The proprietors of the banks of the Merrimao river, in Massachusetts, were probably not equally disturbed, but they must needs have been a little astonished a few Sundays, ago by the spectacle of a band of colored, Baptists cutting a hole in the ice and plunging into it one aftet another their negro neophytes. Mahometanism, has. been described as a religion only, suited for warm countries, with its, frequent ablutions, its long Ramadan fast,, and its paradise which, as Moore says, is so* " easily made, Only black eyes and lemonade."' —But these poor Baptists, natives of' the burning tropic, obliged to acclimatise the practice of Jordan in the Merrimao, certainly gave proof of xeall For obvious leasom* we indulge the hope that they belonged to that t-ection, of their very respectable body known* as. Hard Shell Baptists.