A Strange Story.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 385, 17 July 1889, Page 3

A Strange Story.

A^VotfKO- priest has- just died in the northwest of London, whose name, the ' Daily Telegraph , says, may; well be saved from oblrsion. Under circumstances less sensational than those which have made Father Dumi6n,'s..name. ring: through Christendom;, , Blather "'D§u^l'a£-3Eope has practised, in lh.e unromanjic£ra>pnotony ot the Ifavrovv.Rpajl^a^sejf'Surr^ftder as complete As that oL. the Herd '-ol : t&&' Leper Island. Close to^ that landmark ojf the busman, ' The Prince of \Vales,' stands a Home for Boys, - ancf, in connection with it, a bakery" atfd_ printing works, The place was founded by the Rev. Lord Archibald Douglas, a brother of the Marquis of Queensberry and of Lady Florence Dixie, He brought his fortune and the fervour ot his new-found faith to his task. Even the Harrow Road is not without its romance.' Lord Archibald's sister, Lady Gertrude Douglas, joined her brother, and identified herself with hjs renunciation of "society 1 , ' perhaps -'too completely ; for during his absence in Canada, whither he had taken som,e of his she married the head baker and became' Lady Gertrude Stock. Some five years £igo Loj'd Archibald found hie increasing cares 'too heavy for him. He-retired to quiet. mission life in Scotland^ and his phce in the Harrow Road was taken by his cousin, Father Douglas Hdpe. v A great grandson, on his father's side, of Lord fi'opetoun, and on his mother's^ of ( the Dyrke ot Buccleuch, he ' called bWsJins ' \VMi-' kll the blue blood of Scotland. His father^ Mr Hope, ot Luff-nes.-,'\vas at one'tiiiW noje.nßber for Windsor, and his mother, a daughter of Loid Montagu, was ,an early .bedchamber woman to the Queen. 1 Butifa'thet 1 ifop*e had obliterated .the traditions •of hi?"." family, and the memories of Eton and Christ. Church, when 'he went 'to St Vincent's Hd'me to be priest, teacher," father -afid nuise to 70 'boys, mostly rescued frbntfitho London streets. He shared their *rough food, and lived their life iiv schoolroom and playground. If he had ever thought of himself he might have known that, in spite of. his 6, feet of stature and his brilliant physique, he was not seasoned for the rough life he had adopted! His entire devotion isolated him from his; .fellows in the outer world ; but those who'got'glimpses of him were not astonished fib K'e&r'that rheu matic fever had caiVied lfii'ivaway last Thursday afternoon. He was laid to rest 'yesterday in thte' 1 cemetery at EJefesal Grr tn — not far from the* scene of his five years' labour bf love. * _; 1 ' In amplification of those details, I may add (remarks- al.a 1 . .London! 'correspondent) that the sifter pt the Aoheist Marquis and of* "ttte ' ' oc'centVic-' A^ady Florence Dixie, was- a mature .spinster of 40 , when she married .the . baker, having been born in T842, and* %he i nie-kikiiance taking place in 1882. For some time Lady Gertrude sold in the shop the 1 .bread made by her husband in the bakery. A number of snobs and curiosity- mon&eVs use : d, Himv£ver, to call at the shop and' 1 •make 1 "siiiSll^urchascs, for the purpose pi teeing > " - a marquis's 'dauglvtei' servib'g . -heßin'S <.the counter. ; O^ng'« to ftbeee" ■annoyances and other b'eUu&estj Laclyi Gertrude 1 left "the shop, and is "iivrnEr. privately with her oven-tending husband. The brother, • Lord Archibald, ( hacl the family incapacity for practical life, and,vjhilanthropic a^Veie'h'is intentions in staitfng the 'home a"nd 'teaching trades to the boys, he soon beftali' t to* find that the financial nianagemerjl " of _, the printing office and -t^e 'traicery was beyond his 'powers." Worried' to s*<seaBhs *<5ea8h with monetary troubles, he deckled to ' Withdraw into a >quieter'sphere, leaving 1 the development of his pet bobbies fco his .far more practical 'cousin - y Cardinal Manning, as Archbishop of the diocese, being . cabled in to advise as to the future manage^ment of the little community, got together with so much, .enthusiasm., and "controlled with so little common sen&e." The"Car<3ihal is, above all things, a man of ;afiUiVs and of strict exactitude 'in' matters 'financial, and he at once closed the no'ii.-'payir/g bakery, and handed over' to practical hands the nonpaying' printing office, ' giving the newcomers the plant on condition that they took' a certain nutnbet* of the home boys as apprentices: • The home is now maintained mainly by public subscriptions and by the earnings of the. 'boys who" work for outside masters during the day and return to the home at night time, the ambitious attempt) to establish a' self-supporting community having "been' banished to the limbo of othet similar failures, '