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9
The Boys' Refuge in Great Queen Street.
33. It is interesting to compare the results of training and occupation
in the Boys' Refuge in Great Queen Street with the vital
condition of boys at the same age among the community at large.
The boys received into this Refuge are taken, as a rule, off the
streets; some are sent by the magistrates, others are brought to
the doors by the police; some are forwarded with a note or address
by charitable persons, but all are either vagrants or destitute
children. They thus come from the lowest classes of society, have
been ill fed and ill cared for, and many with constitutions vitiated
by disease. As soon as they enter the Refuge, however, suitable
care is taken of them, and they are subjected to proper sanitary and
educational discipline. Many are forwarded to the "Arethusa" and
"Chichester" training ships to be turned into sailors, and others
are provided for in various ways, as opportunities offer ; but up to
the end of 1874 about 150 were retained in the house. These are
taught trades, chiefly shoemaking, tailoring, firewood cutting, and
the making of fruit punnets. About half of their time is spent in
work and half in education. Their diet is simple, but evidently
sufficient; they get soup, in which the vegetables are thoroughly
incorporated by long boiling, bread as a staple, and four ounces of
cooked meat for each boy three times a week. The rooms or halls
in which they work and sleep are very large, but it may be doubted
whether adequate superficial space is given to each boy in the
sleeping apartment for ventilation. At any rate, there is no luxury
here—everything is conducted on the most economical scale, and the
good results to be witnessed are not due to extravagant liberality.
The utmost attention is paid to cleanliness and to the good order of
the necessary sanitary conveniences. The occupation of the boys
provides healthy exercise for their minds and induces habits of
attention and industry. Under these favourable circumstances we
might expect the health of the children to improve rapidly, and
such we find to be the case. There is little sickness among them,
and the majority of them have fresh cheeks and a healthy look, in
remarkable contrast to the puny, sickly, and cadaverous gutter
children from among whom they are taken.
34. In the course of three years (1872-3-4) 1,356 children were
received into the Home, which, with 150 in the Home at the commencement,
gives an aggregate of 1,506 children under the charge
of the superintendent during the period. Of this number only 440
were retained in the house to be taught trades and provided with
elementary instruction. Among this number, during the three
years, there has been but one death in the Institution. Three were
sent to hospital as incurable, but the superintendent states that two
of these eventually recovered. Assuming that the other boy died,
this would give two deaths in three years in an annual population
of 147 boys from ten to fifteen years of age, which is equivalent to a
death rate of 4.5 per 1,000.
Now, the mean rate of mortality among boys at the same ages