"Something attempted, something done!" / by T. J. Barnardo.

  • Barnardo, Thomas John, 1845-1905.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: "Something attempted, something done!" / by T. J. Barnardo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/298 (page 6)
    Ampler Machinery. More Thorough Work. A Growing Demand. Two Prominent Features. Movements ot Popula- tion. I f f couragement which followed my efforts to enlarge the gates of these Cities of Refuge for the Little Ones. As the result of the material enlargements thus briefly referred to, I began 1888 with a wider scope and ampler machinery than I had ever enjoyed during the previous history of the Homes ; and I have every day since derived advantage from the larger premises thus placed at my disposal. It has been a year of consolidation, of real advances in organization, of steady progress, and of much blessing in things spiritual as well as temporal. The extensions have en- abled me to subdivide and classify the various young residents according to age, acquirements, and circumstances, more minutely than was heretofore possible; the training imparted has been more thorough, and the supervision closer; while I have personally re- joiced in the greater liberty I thus acquired of keeping the door of opportunity yet more widely open to every destitute little creature that claimed the privilege of being cared for. Another general feature of the year has been the growing demand for the agency of Homes like ours. Indeed, it is saddening to reflect that, with all our Christian and philanthropic efforts, such need appears still to widen. During the 22J years that have elapsed since my first arab was picked up from the street, nothing has occurred to weaken, but much to strengthen the call for workers among the poor and destitute. All the conditions of city life for the very poor have been, since 1866, steadily growing harsher. No thoughtful observer can have failed to be struck with two prominent social features of recent years,—the diminution of the rural popula- tions, and the steady flow of inhabitants into the large towns. This centralizing process began, speaking generally, about the year 1870, and with the decline of the agricultural interest it has continued in an ever increasing ratio. In 1871, throughout England and Wales, about one-third of the people lived in the country, and about two- thirds in the towns. But the census of 1881 revealed a still more ■ unequal distribution. It was demonstrated that the country had grown at only half the rate that might have been expected, while the urban increase had been at one-and-a-third times its normal rate; so that, on the whole, there was in 1881 an additional dis- placement of nearly three-quarters of a million of people in favour of the populous towns, and at the expense of the purely country