Sir John Kirk: The Children's Friend

Title Page

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SIR JOHN KIRK

THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND

John Stuart

Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged

London
S.W. Partridge & Co.
8 and 9 Paternoster Row
1907

BUCKINGHAM PALACE,
17th May 1907.

Sir, --I have had the honour of submitting your letter to the King, and I am commanded
to inform you, in reply, that His Majesty is happy to accept the copy of your "life" of Mr. John Kirk which you have forwarded to me for him. --I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant,

KNOLLYS.

JOHN STUART, Esq.

Foreword

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Dedicated
By Permission
To
Her Royal Highness
THE PRINCESS CHRISTIAN
Herself a lover
Of all good works

FOREWORD

Six years ago I had the pleasure of making Mr. John Kirk’s personal acquaintance. In 1903, in response to my wish that I should prepare a monograph of his life and work, he placed his numerous scrap-books at my disposal and gave me much personal information. The pressure of a busy life delayed the completion of my pleasant task, and there was, in addition, a modest reluctance on Mr. Kirk’s part to intrude his personality upon the public.

When the fact was known that 1907 marked forty years of service in connection with the Ragged School Union, a desire arose spontaneously in many minds that some mark of national appreciation should be bestowed upon so zealous and unselfish a worker. This culminated in the presentation of address, portrait, and substantial cheque at the Mansion House, fixed for May 14, 1907, under the presidency of the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor, Sir William Treloar.

This seemed a fitting time to expedite the publication of this sketch of Mr. Kirk’s life and work. The correspondence received by Mr. W. J. Orsman, honorary secretary to the Testimonial Fund, would of itself fill a volume, and has ranged from the humblest Ragged School worker to the Princess Christian, who graciously and most cordially accepted my dedication of this book to Her Royal Highness.

It is a delight to enjoy the friendship of a man like Mr. John Kirk, and I am grateful to him and to the publishers for the privilege of compiling, however unworthily, this sketch of a life full of usefulness and blessing.

JOHN STUART
March 1907

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Note to Second Edition

It is a matter of sincere satisfaction that the publishers’ large first edition of this book was exhausted nine months after publication. The many appreciative Press notices and numerous personal letters which have reached me are still more gratifying. Lord Knolly’s letter of acceptance by the King is printed on another page. Some slight corrections have been made in the body of the work, ensuring accuracy; and a further chapter has been added narrating the interesting series of events connected with the National Testimonial and Knighthood by His Majesty.

J.S.
HERSHAM,
WALTON-ON-THAMES

Chapter I

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Chapter I
From Village to City

The little house in which John Kirk first saw the light stands right opposite to the handsome parish church of Kegworth, a village of a thousand or more inhabitants, seventeen miles from Leicester. Its nearest market town, Castle Donington, is three miles away, and itself has a population under four thousand. So often does it happen that the unknown hamlet produces men whose names become household words.

It is an encouragement to resolute and ambitious youth in every age that positions are earned and won by those who were nurtured in humble surroundings, and without those special advantages which wealth and rank, education and patronage are though to bring. Mr. Kirk’s father was the village tinman and brazier, employing two or three assistants. He was a man of sterling moral qualities without any special religious enthusiasm.

His family consisted of six sons and three daughters. Samuel, the eldest, assisted his mother to maintain the business after his father’s death, and was of that bright winsome temperament which endeared him to the whole village, so that his death at the early age of twenty-seven was greatly lamented. John was the second son. The third was George, who died in 1899. One died in infancy, and Alfred is now in Canada. Charles, the youngest, after a brief foray into the turmoil of London business life, returned to Kegworth, where he fills a large share in the social and commercial life of the village, and is held in general regard. Of the three daughters, one died in early life, one several years ago, and the third still survives.

The roominess mentally associated with a thinly populated English village even in this generation is not always coincident with spacious dwellings or healthful systems of sanitation. And it not infrequently happens, despite the general rule, that country youths are far from robust. This, at least, was the case with John Kirk, whose impressions of childhood are rather of a “dull-grey.” He suffered much from headaches and languor, arising from physical weakness, so that he had little vigour for play, and was more content to watch the enjoyment of others’ games.

The delicate child, however, is often nearest the mother’s heart, and the good lady, who lived until 1891, achieving the ripe age of seventy years, and saw her son crowned with honour and success in incessant labours for children, could have no higher tribute than that son’s remark in later years: “A palace would have been a prison without mother. When she came in at the door my sorrow went out by the window.”

Until he was ten the boy attended the village national school, but when strong enough to face the trudge, three miles and back to Castle Donington, he studied at a small academy held in the Baptist School of that town. Of its master, Mr. Stenson, Mr. Kirk speaks in terms of high respect. The curriculum would not bear comparison with that of a twentieth century grammar school, but it included the rudiments of Latin. Mr. Stenson was a master of that art of graceful copper-plate handwriting so much in vogue in the early Victorian period, and its influence may be traced in the firm, rapid, and stylish penmanship whih characterizes Mr. Kirk’s very ample correspondence.

Still more valuable was the taste for reading and literature implanted by his tutor, and most helpful to his moral development was the personal example of Mr. Stenson and his sympathetic talks during the dinner hour. A good disciplinarian, he emphasised the need of reverence and the value of courtesy, of purity of speech, and of strict regard for truth –all which virtues have been amply displayed in at least one pupil’s subsequent career.

In an interesting series of articles in the Sunday Companion, entitled “Incidents of my Youthful Days,” Mr. Kirk in 1901 contributed some reminiscences of his boyhood. One is that of being separated from his mother on a busy market day in a midland town, when a kindhearted policeman gave the lost bairn a shelter at the police station and treated him to buns. Another is that of the yearly invasion of the “Sleepy Hollow” of Kegworth by Irish harvesters, and his dread lest any harm should come to his father when the Irish process of haggling began. This love for his father was a deep-seated affection, quite remarkable in a lad, and its fragrant memory remains to this day.

Presumably the boy was a favourite with the villagers, many of whom had entered upon the stress of life with but scant acquaintance with the three R’s. At all events they used him as their amanuensis. Husband and wife, widow and worker, and even lovers, called in his aid in the art of useful and polite letter writing.

An interesting experience with the pen came in his having a share in the copying of the old and faded parish registers, which dated back some three hundred years. “Sometimes,” says Mr. Kirk, “I would lift my eyes to look on the greensward under which the dust of the old generations was lying in the God’s acre just over the way.” Nor was it a bad preparation for the future conduct of many services that he copied something like a thousand hymns for a new compilation.

It is worth while to note the source of that deeper life which has subsequently flowed in so many streams of Christian usefulness. We are told: “Definite religious impressions came through a cousin –woman grown– who lived at some little distance. Sometimes I became her guest, and greatly I enjoyed my visit. How tenderly I was received –I can never forget her prayers with and for me. She took me to her class in the Sunday school. Through her I realised the unseen as I had never done before. How much I still owe to her saintly influence! How simply, sometimes, the heavenly is reached through hallowed channels of earth! As a now long experienced Sunday school teacher, I am strengthened in faith and good works by this sweet personal memory.”

Special interest in the young lad had also been displayed b the then curate of Kegworth, the Re. Peter Lilly. As ill-health compelled him to winter in the Riviera, his regard reached a climax in the offer to take with him the delicate boy. It was a remarkable opportunity for the stay-at-home villager, who had never even seen London. With some reluctance at parting so long from their child, the parents agreed, and John Kirk entered upon the first of his numerous Continental journeys. The experience was wider than that of mere travel. Basking in a sunny clime, and moving amid a strange people, he was to gather new impressions and ideas at a far more rapid rate than is possible in any school or academy. The width of view then acquired by the studious, inquiring lad has proved a valuable possession in a life crowded with incident and rich in personal acquaintance. An extract will show how well, on occasion, Mr. Kirk can use his pen.

“What a romance it was! First of all London, the unlimited, was glanced at, and then I battled with the rough seas of the Channel. I heard for the first time a strange tongue in a strange land. I saw the genius of its people enshrined in the stones of Amiens Cathedral. Then followed the wonders of Paris, the bustle of Lyons, the old-world air of Avignon, and the maze of Marseilles.

We left the railway for the diligence, and crept along the fairyland of the Riviera. We stayed not until our chosen shelter lay before us, in the midst of the oranges, the lemons and the olives, the blue waters of the great inland sea washing the strand outside the garden gate.”

Young Kirk was thirteen when cam to him this new revelation, and his stay at Mentone lasted six months. Politically, it was a rather exciting time. Napoleon III, having aided the ambitions of the young Italian nation, had annexed a portion of Sardinia to France, and the English lad heard a curious jargon of Italian-French.

But while gaining health, enjoyment, and experience by the Mediterranean shore he had endured an unexpected and distressing bereavement by the death of his father. It is even surmised that this was hastened by grief at the absence of his favourite son, for the affection of the boy for his father was equalled or surpassed by that of the father for his boy.

The bereavement had several consequences. It threw a heavy strain upon the widow with her young family to maintain. But the kind-hearted curate was equal to the occasion. He employed his companion in Italy in his Kegworth household as an assistant almoner in the neighbourhood.

During an epidemic of whooping-cough John’s share was to weigh and pack up the medicine. House to house visitation gave him an intimate acquaintance with the life and environment of the very poorest, and sowed seeds of sympathy which have since born rich fruitage.

In a year or so Mr. Lilly was appointed vicar of Collaton, near Paignton, and thither youn Kirk accompanied him, remaining until he was sixteen. Evenings were spent as a pupil of the village schoolmaster, and so progress was maintained. But he was also educating himself by rambles in the great book world. He was sub-librarian of the village library, and he read or skimmed every volume. To use his own phrase: “Reading awoke thought, it nurtured character, it bred judgment.”

The friendship of those early days between the curate and the village youth has been cemented by time. Proud of his quondam pupil, the now venerable clergyman is ever glad to entertain as his guest the philanthropist who has since acquired an almost national reputation. Mr. Kirk, for his own part, counted it one of the pleasantest features of a recent autumn holiday that he was able to spend some days in Mr. Lilly’s quiet country vicarage.

Mr. Lilly, now a venerable octogenarian, wrote as follows: –

"COLLATON VICARAGE
Jan. 12, 1907

DEAR SIR, –It has been to me a very great pleasure to hear of the movement for recognising in some suitable manner Mr. John Kirk’s forty years of faithful works in connection with the Ragged School Union, and to receive your kind invitation to the meeting at the Mansion House. I should indeed be rejoiced if it were possible for me to be present, but the long distance, together with my fourscore years, will not allow me to come.

I regret this the more because I can claim to be Mr. Kirk’s oldest friend, and have known him from his boyhood.

I feel sure that it will be a great satisfaction to all those who have had the opportunity of watching his indefatigable labours on behalf of the children to take part in this movement, and thus to testify their sense of the value of a life devoted, as it has truly been, to a work of such national importance. –

Believe me, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

PETER LILLY

In the same year, 1863, that witnessed Queen Alexandra’s enthusiastic arrival in London, John Kirk, now a youth of sixteen, made a humble entry into the business life of the metropolis. There existed at that time the “Church of England Book-hawking Society,” whose agent was a Mr. John Morgan in Paternoster Row. Its functions were subsequently transferred to Messrs. Rivington, publishers. His stay with Mr. Morgan was brief, but long enough to gain some experience of the publishing trade, and to master the simple but not very prevalent art of neatly covering books in brown paper. Those who practise it on their own volumes can testify to the valuable protection it affords.

The young bookworm’s first lodgings in London were in Whitechapel, where lived some former Kegworth neighbours. Thus early he saw day by day the East End poverty. The Old Bailey of that time, with its crowds awaiting the sentence in some great murder trial, differed from the modern thoroughfare.

It was characteristic of the new arrival that when asked to give a specimen of his handwriting by Mr. Morgan, he traced the words: “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

Further experience of books came in his next appointment. This was in the office of the Pure Literature Society, an organisation founded by Rob Roy Macgregor and others in the year 1844 for the purpose of disseminating healthy reading. Within a few months of its formation, Mr. Richard Turner was appointed secretary, an office he has now filled for more than half a century. On the ground floor of a roomy house in Buckingham Street, Adelphi, one of the quiet little thoroughfares between the busy Strand and the Thames Embankment, this Society has rendered, and is rendering, good service to the cause of pure literature. It publishes no books, but issues a list of those which may safely be purchased for libraries or gifts by persons who would make books a mental and moral inspiration. Each volume is read by at least two friends or members of the committee, and only on their recommendation is it added to the catalogue. So great is the enterprise of publishers, however, that the most recent list contains nearly five thousand titles of chosen books, varying in price from sixpence to half-a-guinea, and ranging over the fields of science, travel, biography, fiction, and Bible study. In the slack autumn months members of the staff call upon booksellers and newsagents throughout the country. All through the year there is a steady flow of applications for library grants –books being supplied to schools, clubs, parishes, army depots, and ships’ crews at half the published price. Thus a comparatively small income from subscriptions is turned into a highly useful channel.

These years of familiarity with the best books, when youth was dawning into early manhood, were of high educational value, not only to the mind of the book-lover, but in fostering his moral and spiritual impulses.

Moreover, the association with Mr. Turner ripened into life acquaintance and friendship. In later years they travelled frequently together in European tours, and in London philanthropy and Christian work they have been in constant touch. Mr. Kirk’s first connection with Ragged Schools came through Mr. Turner’s introduction, he himself being superintendent of the Ann Street School, Camberwell. In this, for five years, Mr. Kirk laboured as a teacher, and subsequently as honorary secretary, and here he met the lady who became his wife.

The young clerk’s salary was not princely, but it had to cover numerous demands, for John Kirk had sent to Kegworth for his younger brother George, and they lived and studied together. Both were of a persevering nature, and they toiled diligently at Pitman’s system of shorthand. John found it of service in taking down sermons and addresses, and as the future Mrs. Kirk had also mastered its symbols, letters of courtship were safe from prying eyes.

Mr. Kirk still preserves the following cards: –

1869, Des. 16

Kard ov membership to Jon Kirk of Fonetik Sosieti.
Klas I.

Izak Pitman,
Sekretari.

Jan. 12, 1870.

I hereby certify that Mr. John Kirk has a thorough knowledge of my system of phonography or Phonetic Shorthand and is a qualified teacher of the art.

(Signed) Izak Pitman.

George Kirk’s tastes inclined to the law, and in due time he practised as a solicitor.

Polytechnics and continuation schools had hardly arisen in the sixties, but private study has been the privilege of all ages. The young aspirant, however, attended evening classes for French and German at the Working Men’s College, and became a member of the Church of England Young Men’s Society.

Chapters II and III

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Chapter II
The Real Ragged School

Mr. Kirk was still a young man of twenty, in the office of the Pure Literature Society, when the call came to what has practically proved his life-work.

As has been mentioned, he was already associated with Ragged School work, and in that connection had come into touch with Mr. J. G. Gent, then and for many subsequent years secretary of the Ragged School Union. The Society’s offices were two rooms in Exeter Hall, the Exeter Hall of olden days, recognized throughout the English-speaking world as the centre of Christian philanthropic agencies.

The Ragged School Union was the Earl of Shaftesbury’s institution. The gulf between the aristocrat and the coster and the poor was vast but the Christian Earl –despite his tendencies to narrowness– could bridge it with delight to himself, and with joy to the recipients of his bounty and interest. Like all men of means and position, he was besieged with begging letters, and was content to seek the knowledge and aid of the Ragged School Union’s secretary, Mr. Gent.

The Strand was not a long way from his lordship’s house, 24 Grosvenor Square, afterwards occupied by another Ragged School Union president, the Earl of Aberdeen, and by others, and he was a frequent visitor to the office, and a fairly diligent attendant at the meetings of the committee and of sub-committees. It was also the practice of Mr. Gent, and after him of Mr. Kirk, to call upon Earl Shaftesbury once or twice weekly and keep him au courant with the Society’s affairs.

Mr. Gent himself, who died in 1894, at the ripe age of eighty-two, was an elderly, good-natured official of the quiet Times-reading type existing before typewriters, telephones, and a dozen mails a day had solved the problem of perpetual motion. The chief business of the Ragged School Union of the sixties was to aid in the maintenance of day schools for the poorest and most unkempt classes. In the year of the Second Reform Bill the Union had 200 such schools under its wing.

The British and Foreign School Society had united educational reformers throughout the country, who were caring for the children of those trade and artisan Nonconformists who objected to the Establishment. In London hundreds of thousands were unreached by Anglican, Catholic, or Noncomformist, and Ragged School workers did their best to empty the gutters. It was a heroic effort, heroically maintained, and, after all, could but touch the fringe of the population. The workers themselves were not readily endowed with this world’s goods, being recruited from tradesmen, foremen and superior clerks. The well-to-do who supported the Ragged School Union were comparatively few, and their gifts for a twelvemonth only aggregated £4,008.

The committee of the Union did not undertake direct work. They gathered funds and distributed them in grants to local committees who were facing the burden of day-school maintenance. A generation has grown up which knows nothing of those days of the lean kine; many missions to-day conduct operations in substantial buildings. But forty years ago the working philanthropists took what they could get, and the best was bad. Sheds and tenements of low pitch, ill-ventilated, without sanitation, with damp and dirty walls, unrelieved by maps and pictures, and fitted with desks and benches hardly good enough for firewood were the Victorian equivalent for the modern school palace.

These buildings were used by day for teaching, by night for clubs, meetings, and sundry purposes, and on Sundays for schools and services. In many cases one section of supporters would be most interested in the Sunday religious work; then came divided counsels and rough working.

Of course there were limited Government grants, awarded by H.M. inspectors, who lived in a state of chronic discontent at the miserable accommodation. But remonstrances were unavailing. Even had the early committees been as wise educationists as they were devoted philanthropists, their reply must have been the same: “No Funds!”

For the chief requisite in teaching is the teacher, and the teacher could no more live on air than a Scotch dominie, and he was less fortunate than his Highland brother in that he had not been early taught the value and economy of oatmeal. But it was hard work to provide the teachers’ salaries, small as the were. The ablest men and women of course obtained the best posts in Church and British and Wesleyan schools; those without certificates, and some who had never tried for parchments, gravitated to these poor Ragged Schools. The united incomes of husband and wife managing a boys’ and a girls’ school often failed to reach £100 a year, and where a headmistress of to-day receives £300 (it is true supervising many more scholars), the woman teacher of that day could often not count on more than £30.

Their qualifications varied; yet clearly, in many cases, the attainments were low; and in the early days of the London School Board, when, one by one, these schools were closed because not reaching an “efficient” standard, it was quite easy for an arrogant young solicitor to make merry before the magistrate over a teacher’s misuse of h’s and a sad indifference to Lindley Murray.

These workers must not, however, be wholly judged by such standards. Many, indeed most, came to their work with a zeal and a sympathetic interest in the children beyond all praise. Men like Mr. Kirk, whose experience and memory reach back to these early days, are the best able to realize what enormous strides have been made. But they aver, also, that no sooner was a school even of the humble and imperfect character just described, opened in a neighbourhood, than it gradually and unconsciously affected its inhabitants.

The schools were free; no payments were exacted from the scholars. The urchins who came were shoeless and hardly clad at all; they were ill-fed and often starving; they were the poorest of the poor. But soon there arose a feeling of amour proper; often stimulated by the efforts of teachers and committee to lighten their dark lot, they would try to come washed, and better clothed, and slowly dark ignorance gave way to the elements of knowledge. These keys, in turn, opened to many doors of wisdom, usefulness, and progress.

Every effort, too, such as that of the Ragged School Union, drove one more dart into the national conscience and helped to pave the way for the attempt made by Mr. W. E. Forster to institute a really national system of education in 1870.

It was in this seething time of reform and agitation that Mr. Kirk was appointed assistant secretary of the Ragged School Union. One day he was in Mr. Gent’s room when that gentleman was opening letters from candidates for the then vacant post. A happy thought struck the Secretary, who said in his quiet tones:

“Why don’t you apply for the post? You are just the man who could serve us.”

This was October 1867. Mr. Kirk took the hint, wrote his letter, and, with the slow haste characteristic of committees, in December the appointment was formally completed, and the young man entered on his duties.

They were far less onerous than have become those of his successors. With the aid of a boy, two or three copies of the monthly Ragged School Union Magazine had to be issued, subscriptions acknowledged, and full records kept of the Society’s connection with the Ragged Schools aided by grants.

Oversight was maintained through two inspectors of visitors, salaried by the Committee. One of those, Mr. E. J. Hytche, spent his time in calling and reporting on the schools north of the Thames, and Mr. R. J. Curtis visited those in South London.

Few names that can be recalled of the committee and workers of the sixties live now in public remembrance, though “their works follow them.” Mr. Robert Mountstephen, a ruddy-faced hay salesman in Smithfield Market, was a very devoted worker and a model Superintendent of his Ragged School in Field Lane. A one-armed man named Watts, a railway employee, proved what splendid service the humblest ranks may render. Mr. R. J. Snape, a barrister, who for forty years served on the committee, was a valuable co-worker. Miss Snape, his sister, became the wife of Prebendary Cadman, who at one time had no fewer than seven Ragged Schools under his immediate care.

The name of George Holland is indissolubly associated with George Yard, Whitechapel. He was a special favourite of Lord Shaftesbury, and often associated with H.R.H. the Duchess of Teck and with members of the aristocracy. Queen Victoria sent him a copy of her Life in the Highlands, with an autograph inscription. He was a real power in East London, and a neighbouring clergyman said of him that his life-work was the most perfect and satisfactory he knew.

Earl Cairns, Lord Chancellor, was a man remarkable for many gifts, and not least for his labour as a Sunday school teacher. He, too, was associated with Ragged School work. Dr. Stoughton, the Congregational historian and eminent divine, was also in fellowship with the movement, as was Rev. Henry Allon, the gifted and musical minister of Union Chapel, Islington. The Ragged School in Nichol Street was under his aegis, and Mr. Henry Spicer, with members of his family, were devoted teachers, as were also Mr. Henderson and Mr. Erlebach.

Dr. Allon’s successor, the Rev. W. Hardy Harwood, who is a great lover of children, is a vice-president of the Ragged School Union.

Dove Row Ragged School bears an honoured name, one of whose worthiest adherents has been Mr. Hardy, a day-school teacher. Mr. George Kelsey, who long served as treasurer, has but recently died. Mr. Cotsford, still living was until recently superintendent, and was associated with Mr. Gent in Agar Town even before the Ragged School Union was formed.

It is not always that workers see or know of the beneficent results of their toil. Yet sometimes the deeds of these worthy men come to light. In January of 1907 Mr. Kirk, while at Hove, met a grocer who in boyhood had been taught in Hatfield Street School by a Mr. Robottom, and now when groups of children are lodged in Hove working-class homes through the summer, gathers and cares for them the whole of Sunday. In this way he endeavours to requite the kindness shown him in early days.

Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy), whose energy and enthusiasm oozed at every pore, was deeply interested in the dissemination of pure literature. As everybody knows he was the originator of the Shoeblack Brigade, an offshoot of the Ragged School movement. In its early days no embers were enrolled save those who were nominated by teachers of Ragged Schools. The committee of the Union voted £200 towards the erection of premises for lodging and recreation in Saffron Hill, and in other ways assisted the movement. One of the most devoted workers in the Brigade was Mr. Martin Ware, long the superintendent of Peace Cottage Ragged School, St. Pancras, and a veteran standard-bearer of the Union. Mr. W. J. Taylor, Secretary of London Female Preventative and Reformatory Institution of Euston Road, also served his apprenticeship to Ragged School Union work at Peace Cottage.

One of Rob Roy’s marked characteristics was the persuading other people to work, and it was only natural that he should find valuable recruits in the legal profession with which he was himself connected. One of the most distinguished of these was the young student who has been so long known as the upholder of Christian statesmanship in the House of Commons and the advocate of Christian missions everywhere –Sir John Kennaway, Bart, M.P.

One of the men who companioned with him on the Conservative benches was the late Earl of Harrowby, better known as Viscount Sandon. When Mr. Forster’s Education Bill was in the air he was a constant caller at the Ragged School Union office to confer with the officials and the committee.

On the general question it was rather remarkable that Lord Shaftesbury, the unswerving friend of the poor, should have taken umbrage at Mr. Forster’s proposals. Of necessity they had to start from the premises of efficient education, which implied efficient teachers and efficient buildings. All schools and buildings, private or public, which, after a fair interval, failed to come up to a reasonable standard, must necessarily be regarded as inefficient and shut out from receiving government aid. Lord Shaftesbury was, as we have said, deeply interested in his clusters of Ragged Schools, and foresaw their doom, since it would be impossible, from private sources, to raise the amount needful to adapt them to the law’s new requirements. He therefore assumed a somewhat rather antagonistic position, and the Education bill had to be carried through without the valuable aid which, had he looked at the matter from another standpoint, he would have been able to render.

His view was not shared by all members of the committee, and Rob Roy, seeing that the change must come, and with an ever alert mind, was among those who resolved to adapt themselves to the new order of things and find some other channels of usefulness for the Ragged School centres in the metropolis.

The good Earl’s fears were well founded. On the formation of the London School Board, and its enquiry as to which were efficient schools, one after another of the poorly-equipped Ragged Schools were condemned, and had to be abandoned by the committees. The Sunday departments were maintained, but hardly one-tenth remained for secular education, and the last of them, Stephen-the-Yeoman, continued until 1906.

This mission in Marigold Place still continues its varied useful agencies, and may be described as an example of the very poorest. It is situated in Marigold Place, about fifty yards off Jamaica Road, Bermondsey on the one side, and a stone’s-throw from the river on the other. It is neighboured by a population largely consisting of dock labourers, and besides the drink cause of poverty, has that of casual and often scarce labour.

In 1859, in a room at the street corner, a very humble educational beginning was made, and in 1863 a small one-storeyed building was erected on the present site, to which Lord Shaftesbury was a constant visitor. So late as 1901, his son, the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, presided at the annual meeting of the Mission.

Through Lord Shaftesbury, Miss Charlesworth, author of that delightful book, Ministering Children, and aunt of the Miss Charlesworth who became a Salvationist and married one of General Booth’s sons, was led to take an interest in this particular school. She, with many of her friends, also became visitors. Miss Charlesworth was a lady of rare heavenly-mindedness and of great generosity, expressing itself in a variety of ways. On one occasion she came to the school, accompanied by a coster, whose entire barrowful of apples she had purchased. She specially set aside £100 from the profits of her book, English Yeomen, towards a new building in 1861 (hence the name of its hero, Stephen-the-Yeoman). Her brother, the Rev. Samuel Charlesworth, contributed generously to a second building twenty years later. It has two storeys, several class-rooms, and kitchen apparatus.

A tablet over one fireplace records Miss Charlesworth’s virtues, and another on the opposite side, below a portrait of Lord Shaftesbury, records his introduction of that lady. It was rather a sad coincidence that on the very day (October 1, 1885) the new foundation stone was laid, Mr. Kirk received a telegram announcing Lord Shaftesbury’s death.

It was a mixed school, accommodating about a hundred and fifty children. The four lady teachers constituting the staff drew a salary aggregate of £194, and in 1901 the Government grant amounted to £204. All other outgoings had to be met by donations. Each teacher wrought cheerfully in some other department of the mission. Miss Challis, the principal, after forty years’ service, is still, in optimistic youthfulness, continuing her self-sacrificing labours, and finds warm friends in Lady Newnes whose philanthropy iis as retiring as it is generous and in Miss Friedrichs, of the Westminster Gazette. Mr. Charles Morley, M.P., is president of the whole mission. Among other workers are Mr. Farmer –who founded the school– Mr. John and Mr. James Menzies, and Mr. J. H. Challis.

The kindergarten teacher was twelve years at work, and so gentle were her methods that even H.M. inspector mentioned the fact in one of his reports. Another assistant took entire charge of the breakfasts and dinners given in the winter months. The fourth rendered valuable service in the Sunday school held on Sunday evening. This is crowded with scholars, most of the boys among whom have, at one time or another, been in far too close touch with the police.

The various agencies of this and kindred schools are maintained in a truly Christ-like spirit –Sunday services, Band of Hope, Girls’ Friendly Society, Evenings for the People, Penny Bank, Flower Show, and the like. The Mothers’ Meeting at Stephen-the-Yeoman, long conducted by Mrs. Menzies and Miss Stone, is held on a week evening for the convenience of the women, and is largely attended. Strenuous efforts have been continuously made to find clothes for the children, wretchedly clad beyond any conception of West End folk. Sometimes a girl attends with absolutely only one garment, many without shoes and stockings, and the majority appear to wear foot-gear utterly useless for protection and originally the property of adults. The condition of some of the boys is pitiful in the extreme, and yet there is great difficulty in extending relief, for in many families a pawnable article does not long remain.

It is surprising what charming little people are some of these children in the infants’ department. Golden hair, lovely eyes, and pretty ways would make some them priceless treasures for the artist. They are quite a joy to the teacher, and, though sometimes mischievous, are remarkably obedient. A girl of six, who has quite a talent in recitation, one day suddenly altered a line, and declared, “It drives me fair balmy!” When reproved, she argued that she “Quite forgot herself.”

It is in the years of boyhood and girlhood that the influence of home (!) and surroundings is felt for evil, and the teachers’ difficulties increase.

But the twentieth century student of social problems will find, if he cares to visit, a real Ragged School in Marigold Place, Bermondsey.

Each Ragged School has almost invariably been a similar hive of useful agencies for adults as well as children. They were originally pitched in the most densely populated quarters and amid the worst slums. The conductor and his friends would raise their voices in hymn or speech in some court or alley, and women would open their windows, look on, and listen, the men perchance lounging against the walls with pipes in their mouths.

The next step was that some would be induced to enter the mission-room. To attract and hold them, clubs were formed and pleasant evenings maintained. When, perforce, day-teaching was stopped, additional efforts were made in this direction. Gymnasia were found to delight and recreate the children and the elder lads; Bands of Hope were sustained, and special services for children were promoted.

The Committee of the Ragged School Union altered also their method of making grants. Hitherto such monies as they received had been given solely to day-school managers; now they made smaller gifts in aid of every kind of useful effort which local committees set on foot.

Yet in face of the appalling ignorance of the masses, the educational idea was ever uppermost with men of the type of John Macgregor, and evening schools were started in very many of the buildings. Teachers of a superior stamp, employed by the London Board and Voluntary School managers, were not averse to adding to their income by working a couple of hours on several evenings of the week.

Evening schools are difficult at all times, even with the most ambitious pupils, for after a day’s physical toil or mental study, the penultimate hours before bed are the very worst for fixing intellectual powers on new subjects. Experience proved that in the poorer classes of working folk, fatigue, weak health, and insufficient nourishment subtracted largely from the power and willingness to learn. Nor did the evening school teachers cherish the same personal interest in their pupils as that felt by the less qualified men and women who had entered into the work largely as a labour of love. So year by year the number of these schools diminished. Now they are entirely merged in the London County Council Evening Continuation Schools.

It was necessary, of course, that they should be supervised on behalf of the Ragged School Union Committee. Mr. Curtis, already mentioned, retained his connection, paying in the evening the visits of inspection formerly made in the day. Mr. Hytche having retired, Mr. Kirk, whose position as assistant secretary made him familiar with the schools, took a share in the duties of inspection.

Secretaries and others calling at headquarters naturally took a liking to the young fellow of genial bonhomie and Christian courtesy with whom they had most to do. He was not a mere official, but a Ragged School worker like themselves, and numerous were the invitations he received to visit them on Sunday afternoons and evenings. Through the four decades following, this relish for Mr. Kirk’s presence has been preserved, and every mission affiliated to the Ragged School Union of to-day not only seeks his name for the printer’s placard, but gives him hearty welcome on arrival.

The young inspector, being known as a friend, was gladly received by the conductors of the evening schools, and in the course of time he became familiar with every school and with every department of local enterprise.

The committee felt equal confidence, for on Mr. Kirk’s acceptance of the secretaryship of the Open-Air Mission (to which our next chapter is devoted), he continued for some months to attend the Ragged School union office during the day and to discharge his mission duties in the evening. Very quickly, however, these increased, and the Open-Air Mission demanded the whole day, leaving only the evenings for the Ragged School Union service.

If 1867 – 73 was the most easeful period of Mr. Kirk’s strenuous life, that of 1873 – 9 must have been about the hardest, since through nearly the whole period he would, during five evenings of each week, visit something like a score of the evening Ragged Schools.

Advantage lay, however, in meeting a host of self-denying workers. There were men of ripe experience, as their grey hairs testified; men in the prime of life and devoting their best energies to the uplifting of their fellows; some were men of the same age, who have marched step by step with john Kirk in the varied developments and advances which have arisen in the Ragged School movement. Many have been called to higher service, and others are perforce resting from their labours, yet able to write or dictate a letter at times to show their unabated interest in the ever-increasing usefulness of the Ragged School Union.

Sir Charles Gage Brown, for some time medical adviser to the Colonial Office, was a member of the Ragged School Union Council, until failing health compelled him to retire. He was one of the first to write his good wishes for the Testimonial Fund, and his desire, if possible, to be present at the Mansion House meeting. The honoured secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Prebendary H. E. Fox, when Vicar of Christ Church, Westminster, was associated with the Ragged School there; in the house of Mr. Robert Baxter he and Mr. Kirk often met. Mr. Baxter was a Parliamentary solicitor, and father of the Rev. M. Baxter of Christian Herald fame.

Mr. James Pascall, a former member of the London School Board, was a worker for twenty years in the Croydon Ragged School.

Mr. J.T. Dunn, long connected with the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was superintendent for many years of the Richmond Street Ragged School, Walworth, and with his energetic colleague, Mr. C. G. Barr, Mr. Kirk has long worked in cordial intimacy.

Baptists are, generally speaking, hard workers, and Mr. Kirk has found no more faithful supporter than in the Rev. William Cuff, whose peculiar gifts have so long maintained in spiritual prosperity the manifold agencies of Shoreditch Tabernacle.

To the Lambeth school the members of the Briant family have been attached for two generations, Mr. Frank Briant, member of the London County Council, being still interested. With this in its early days some of the Doultons were associated. At present it rejoices in the superintendency of Mr. William Medwin, who is a worthy successor of the somewhat noted leader, Mr. W. H. Miller, who has long since passed to his rest.

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Chapter III
The Open-Air Mission

On July 17, 1873, Mr. Kirk was appointed secretary of the OPEN-AIR MISSION, another of the Christian agencies which were the outcome of Rob Roy’s ceaseless activity.

The Committee’s choice was not made because Mr. Kirk was himself an ardent open-air preacher, although in the summer of 1880 he had but one “dumb” Sunday. His natural gifts do not lie in the way of oratory. Long practice in the exposition of subjects more especially his own has made him an effective speaker, and wide reading and close observation have added a great wealth of illustration. But the office life of a busy man, when followed by an engagement from home almost every evening in the week, leaves scant opportunity for that quiet meditation which enables a man to plan with sermonic and scientific exactness a logical arrangement of thoughts. Speaking often, and frequently on the same platform at distant intervals, the best that he can do is to take the though which comes uppermost and clothe it with facts or anecdotes noted that day in the newspaper or the office correspondence.

Mr. Kirk’s easeful fluency of speech comes out to greatest advantage seated at his desk or across the dinner table. There, in cultured and dignified phrase and in quiet tones, he presents his argument with force and paints word-scenes with picturesque effect.

Nor was it in any way essential that the new secretary of the Open-Air Mission should himself be a street preacher. His business was to organise, guide, protect, support, and unite the company of earnest men who, in London, the provinces, and elsewhere, were intent on carrying the Gospel to the people.

The first committee of the Open-Air Mission was constituted in June 1853. The only name among the eight gentlemen who composed it which survives the lapse of years is that of Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy), who filled then, until his death, the post of honorary secretary. For several years the secretarial work was undertaken by Mr. John Wilde Taylor at an office in Robert Street, Adelphi, removed in later years to Duke Street.

The first report reads like a defence of open-air preaching, and this shows how marked the influence of the Mission has been on public opinion, since to-day no one would consider the practice needful of defence.

Its difficulties are common to every age, and they are outlined in the very first Occasional Paper issued by the Society. “There are, to begin with, the imprudent and indiscreet men who open up controversy they are not sufficiently well equipped to maintain. Then, a single mischievous person can disturb the congregation. And there are the peculiarities in the English climate which affect both speakers and hearers. One friend of the Mission, a University man, compiled a thirty-two age pamphlet to show that laymen had a right to preach.”

The new movement, however, went steadily on, extending to fairs and race-courses in the provinces, to public executions, and to any great concourse of people, such as a Royal visit. Other friends spent their summer vacations in rendering similar service.

In the course of a few years auxiliaries to the Mission were formed in several London districts –Southwark, St. Pancras, and Islington being specially to the front.

Early use was made of literature, and from the outset generous grants were made by the Religious Tract Society. The Mission also provoked other bodies to similar good works, such as the London City Mission, the Church Pastoral Aid Society, the Lay Helpers’ Association, Young Men’s Societies, and the London Diocesan Home Mission. An early record shows that some of the plans for regular week-night services included the leading clergymen and ministers of the neighbourhood.

A register was kept of lay preachers associated with the Mission, and a common rallying-point was found in a meeting held on the last Monday evening in each month. Speakers and subjects were highly varied, and proved extremely useful.

In 1860 Mr. Gawin Kirkham succeeded to the post of secretary, and except during the years 1873 – 7, was connected with the society until his death. His name is inextricably linked with the mission; he was a persuasive and powerful open-air speaker, a man of wide brotherly sympathies, and of a deeply spiritual nature. On his devoting his whole time to the office, the range and extent of its operations very considerably increased; permission had been obtained for services in the parks, others being regularly conducted in lodging-houses. Large and clearly-printed Scripture placards were regarded as effective silent preachers.

An amusing line in the report of the ninth annual meeting records that “Mr. Payne (subsequently Deputy Judge of the Clerkenwell Sessions) read his 1738^th poetic effusion.” At the same meeting one of the speakers was Mr. Robert Baxter, who, until his death, was one of the mission’s warmest friends.

Since in later years we have experienced the salutary change of executions being privately conducted, the younger generation can hardly realise that throughout the greater part of the Victorian era vast crowds were wont to witness the spectacle of a man or woman being hurled into eternity.

The records, e.g. of the Mission in 1862, describe a scene at Lancaster, when, to avoid the shame of a public execution, the prisoner drowned himself: “As the crowd of three thousand or four thousand people who had assembled would not go away, they were addressed for three hours by the secretary, the town missionary, a local minister, and a Yorkshire farmer. Many persons in the crowd had walked ten, twenty, and even thirty miles; and so morbid were the tastes of some that they shouted for the dead body to be brought out and hung up. It was deeply interesting to see the people sitting on the churchyard wall, and crowding round the preachers as they stood under the castle and spoke the words of eternal life.”

Many other executions were attended that year, and at that of Catherine Wilson, forty workers distributed 60, 000 tracts.

It is interesting to turn back to these days of the sixties and seventies of last century —days since which so much has happened— and learn the qualifications deemed essential for open-air preachers.

1. A good voice.

2. Naturalness of manner.

3. Self-possession.

4. A good knowledge of Scripture and of common things.

5. Ability to adapt himself to any congregation.

6. Good illustrative powers.

7. Zeal, prudence, and common sense.

8. A large loving heart.

9. Sincere belief in all he says.

10. Entire dependence on the Holy Spirit for success.

11. A close walk with God by prayer.

12. A consistent walk before men by a holy life.

Very few such Admirable Chrichtons were to be found; but while some men entered upon the work from egotism or unworthy motives, the majority of those identified with the Open-Air Mission were earnest godly men.

The value of union lay in mutual protection and counsel. Among a number of hints given by the South London Auxiliary —and often reprinted in the Mission papers— were sensible instructions, such as these: —

Work with others whenever you can, and as much as possible regularly with the same group.

Let there be an acknowledged leader with each group.

Avoid services at late hours, noisy singing, vulgar tunes, shouting, and ridiculous gestures.

Do not preach on controverted doctrines.

Do not attempt fine language or artificial manners.

Never resist the police.

Always speak courteously.

Give place to brethren who can speak better than yourself.

Always speak reverentially of God.

Never thrust tracts at persons.

At the time Mr. Kirk entered upon the work of the Mission — Mr. Gawin Kirkham having left it to assist the Rev. W. Pennefather at Mildmay— the number of members was 160, and the income from donations and subscriptions was £394. The races visited numbered 42, fairs 39, and other special gatherings 26. Enough fields were occupied to engage one man’s time and to require his ability. Mr. Macgregor, the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, who was treasurer, and other members of the committee had wisely judged that Mr. Kirk’s gifts of organisation and his eagerness for work would lead to the extension alike of fields, methods, and income. Nor were they disappointed, as the records of six and a half years’ service show.

The only remaining members of the original committee of the Mission, after twenty years of work, were Rob Roy and the late Hugh Owen (afterwards Sir Hugh Owen).

But in numbers and social weight the committee was now stronger, including Colonel Wilmot Brooke, Colonel Kelly, Colonel Roxburgh, Admiral Fishbourne, Mr. Robert Baxter, Sir C. Douglas Fox, Mr. Henry Gibson, Mr. Lockhart Gordon, Mr. Richard Turner, Mr. Joseph Weatherley, and others.

There was also a special list of distant corresponding members residing in various cities of the United Kingdom, and in Australia, Canada, Holland, Belgium, and the United States. Conspicuous among these was Mr. D. L. Moody, then located at Chicago.

The most delightful feature of the Open-Air Mission was, and is, its thoroughly unsectarian character. The first annual meeting arranged by Mr. Kirk was held at the Wesleyan Church, Approach Road, Victoria Park. On another occasion addresses were delivered by the Vicar of Blackwall, the Presbyterian Dr. Edmond, and Dr. Samuel Manning of the Religious Tract Society.

The first complete yearly report presented by Mr. Kirk showed considerable advance. In 1856 the fairs and races visited numbered 18; in 1872 the total was 107; in this year —1874— it had risen to 217, ranging from Deal to Plymouth, from Yarmouth to Southport; and the number of tracts presented by the Religious Tract Society alone numbered 223,000. The leading religious journals seem, from time to time, to have printed appreciative notices of the work done.

The twelve monthly conferences, held in various parts of the metropolis, had been full of interest. Rob Roy lectured on “The Sea of Galilee”; and it is interesting to note that thirty years ago Dr. Lorimer described “St. Paul Preaching at Rome,” and the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse dwelt upon “The Gospel Preached to the Poor.”

In this year, too, we come upon a report from the Christian Mission under the superintendence of William Booth, now General of the Salvation Army. He records that at their 34 stations, 7540 open-air services had been held; these in East London and some large provincial towns. A Hastings correspondent writes in the same year: “At Warrior Square we had services almost every fine Sunday evening, and a mission, under the superintendence of the Rev. W. Booth, held meetings in the Fish Market, Hastings.”

Provincial items came from numerous towns, such as Abingdon, Brighton, Cambridge University, Cardiff, Leeds, and Portsmouth, and Mr. Gawin Kirkham made his annual trip to Yorkshire, very truly remarking that “Seven services a day are enough to test any man.” Encouraging notes came also from Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee, from Halifax in Nova Scotia, and from Hobart Town, Tasmania.

The next year’s report (1876) showed that 200 members had been elected, who were assisted by some 600 workers, all being invited to the monthly conferences. Besides arranging this central series, Mr. Kirk had attended some 50 smaller conventions and meetings to extend open-air work. That year a service in French was held regularly in Soho, and Bank Holidays were being turned to good account.

Happily the old style of fair, with its crowds and excesses, was largely passing away, but a new departure had been taken in assisting, by special speakers, whose expenses were paid, various clergymen and ministers who undertook special missions. These in 1876 numbered 244, and included an encouraging month’s work in Guernsey. This involved increased expenditure; but the Mission was growing in public confidence, and the year’s subscriptions and donations amounted to £731, including a special gift of £100 from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Mr. Kirk was also successful in inducing Archbishop Tait to permit the use of Lambeth Palace grounds for the annual meeting of 1876, and himself to give an address. That statesman-ecclesiastic rightly observed: “Whatever efforts may have been made to extend the usefulness of the Church according to its prescribed and regular machinery, you will all see that it is quite impossible for any regular efforts of ordained clergy to keep pace with the ever-growing population…It is of the very essence of such efforts as that which has brought us here to-day, to endeavour to reach those who cannot be reached by the ordinary ministrations of our churches.”

The conferences of the year were maintained at their usual high level. Opened in January by Rob Roy, the chairmen included Lord Ebury, Sir George Williams, Mr. T. B. Smithies, Prebendary Row, and the Right Hon. Cowper Temple. Dr. Culross spoke on “The Preacher’s Commission”; Pastor William Cuff asked, apropos of Mr. Moody’s visit, “What has the Revival left Us?” Dr. Donald Fraser dealt with “Regeneration, as related to Gospel Preaching”; and Mr. W. R. Cooper delivered an instructive lecture on “Ancient Egyptian Theology and Literature and their relation to the Holy Scriptures.”

Thirty-five pages of the report are filled with interesting memoranda from the various districts. Mr. W. J. Orsman, so long the honorary superintendent of Costers’ Hall, says of St. Luke’s, Clerkenwell: “For our open-air services we have no banners or texts, but simply a hundred good singers, who are led by a small harmonium.” The Rev. Styleman-Herring regularly conducted open-air preaching in the barbican. At Ramsgate services were held nightly on the sands.

This was the year following Messrs. Moody and Sankey’s great missions, and everywhere sounded echoes of their speech and song. Even in France evangelistic efforts were being made. The Rev. W. F. Cobb organised five weeks’ energetic work among the Kentish hop-pickers. For the tenth consecutive year Mr. Kirkham visited the great Gala Day of Bury St. Edmonds, and was assisted by a hundred preachers and singers. The increased number of private race-courses had unfortunately provided further scope for effort.

The persistent efforts of the Mission had largely removed the scruples cherished by some Christian people as to the propriety of such visitation, and inherent difficulties of the work were slowly disappearing the Secretary’s love of reading led him to quote in the new report a passage from Conybeare and Howson’s Life of St. Paul, showing that the Great Apostle pursued an absolutely similar plan in visiting festivals at Corinth, Ephesus, and other cities.

His appreciation of books led to an attempt to form an office library for the preachers. Publishers and friends contributed, and some books were bought, but the collection hardly reached the dimensions or the usefulness that Mr. Kirk desired.

The number of towns visited during the year rose in 1877 to 271; and so general was the demand for capable helpers on the part of local friends, that Mr. Gawin Kirkham (after the death of the Rev. W. Pennefather) was appointed travelling secretary, devoting his whole time to open-air work. This, together with the expenses of other helpers, increased the expenditure, though, so great was the hospitality of friends, only once did he have occasion to use a hotel. Happily, under Mr. Kirk’s fostering care, the income also increased, the amount of donations and subscriptions in 1877 reaching £897, besides a legacy of £200. In addition, free grants of tracts were received of the nominal value of £258. The total of tracts, scripture cards, and other publications issued during the year grew to the large total of 637,500.

Mr. Kirk found another source of income and of greater public interest by enlisting the aid of London clergy and ministers. Sunday, May 5, 1877, was used in 187 pulpits to advocate the claims of the Mission, and gifts from the collections to the amount of £66 reached the Mission treasurer. Of these, forty-eight preachers belonged to the Established Church, and included many notable men, some of whom have long since joined the Master, while others are still proving their devotion by service. Among them may be mentioned Dr. Whittemore, Rev. Gordon Calthrop, Rev. R. C. Billing, Rev. H. E. Fox, Rev. C. Neil, Canon Hussey, Canon Money, Rev. Henry Sharpe, and Prebendary Webb-Peploe.

Among the ten Presbyterians were the Rev. J. B. Woffendale, who in his teens had carried the reference books to which, if needful, Rob Roy appealed when combating atheistic arguments in the still popular debating square near St. Pancras Station.

Baptists were specially cordial in this new movement, forty-five ministers lending their aid. The Rev. J. P. Chown, sturdy alike in form and principle, and in the zenith of his fame at Bloomsbury Chapel, was a faithful and powerful supporter of the Mission. Dr. Dawson Burns upheld the banner in Paddington, Pastor Cuff in Shoreditch, Dr. Culross in Highbury, George W. M’Cree in Borough Road, Charles Stanford in Camberwell, Pastor Frank White in Notting Hill, Rev. J. R. Wood in Upper Holloway, and Pastor C. B. Sawday at King’s Cross.

Congregationalists were less numerous, but included some able exponents –Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A., at Acton, Dr. Fleming in Kentish Town, Dr. M’Auslane in Finsbury, Rev. James Knaggs at Stratford, G. D. M’Gregor at Paddington Chapel, Thomas Sissons at Woolwich, Josiah Viney at Highgate, and J. De Kewer Williams at Hackney.

Quite a number of Wesleyan ministers then in the London circuits assisted, among them Thomas Champness, George Curnock, Professor Findlay, Allen Rees, and John S. Workman. Other denominations were represented, and some unattached bodies. (General) William Booth was then at a Mission Hall in Whitechapel Road, George Hatton in Clare Market, Gawin Kirkham at Conference Hall, Mildmay Park, and Mr. W. J. Orsman at Foresters’ Hall. A hundred other ministers, who wrote, sympathising with the objects of the Mission, from various causes were unable to unite in preaching.

In other respects 1877 was a year of progress. The register of members increased from 200 to 314. A list of 142 stations, occupied at regular times in London for preaching the Gospel, was issued to members. Many were sustained throughout the whole year. Twelve auxiliaries were maintained, and others were in course of formation. The single badge of membership –a small lettered ribbon to hang from the Bible– and only given after careful scrutiny, was being increasingly valued as a cementing link between the qualified preachers.

The School Board was abroad, and in the spirit of the new educational era the committee had arranged four lectures on “The Art of Reading and Speaking” by the Rev. Alexander J. D’Orsey, B.D., Lecturer on Public Reading and Preaching at King’s College, and as the first accommodation provided proved insufficient, a larger hall was secured, in which gathered some four hundred preachers. Many profited, and some continued their studies privately.

Owing to largely increased membership, the central monthly meetings were exchanged for district gatherings; but quarterly meetings were held in the Queen’s Square Mission Room, Westminster, long maintained by Mr. Robert Baxter, and used in the day as a Ragged School. This gentleman defrayed the expenses, and occasionally entertained members at his residence in Queen Anne’s Gate.

The monthly assemblies in 1876 had included a special address to open-air preachers by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and a lecture by Dr. Thain Davidson on “London a Hundred Years Ago.” In 1877 one subject was: “John Wesley: a Model for Open-Air Preachers,” and among the speakers was Sir Stevenson A. Blackwood. At the annual meeting the Earl of Shaftesbury presided, and the speakers included Dr. Paterson and Dr. Joseph Angus. At the annual meeting in 1878 the president was Sir John Kennaway.

The annual report for 1878 –the twenty-sixth– came out in new guise. It was printed in clearer type, and its special feature was illustrations. Woodcuts in those days were expensive, but nine engravings included “Preaching in the Punjab,” “Preaching at Paul’s Cross,” “An Open-air Pulpit at St. Mary’s, Whitechapel,” and “Gwennap Pit, Cornwall,” where John Wesley preached. These added greatly to the interest of what had now grown to a voluminous pamphlet of seventy-two pages. Advance was still the key-note. Mr. Kirk could now count on 375 members and 21 auxiliaries; 331 races, fairs, fêtes, and the like had been visited, and 726,000 tracts and papers had been distributed. Donations and subscriptions reached a total of £1,168; this the second, year’s church collections realised £162, and £76 had been forthcoming from the sale of tracts and books. The balance in hand had grown from £66 to £140.

A printed list of nearly two hundred stations in London gave the day and hour of service and the minister or layman who acted as superintendent.

Since Mr. Kirk’s appointment the Committee had issued to the members a motto card:

1874. “Occupy till I come” (Luke xix. 13)

1875. “Be not far from me” (Ps. Xxii. 11)

1876. “He is faithful that promised” (Heb. X. 23)

1877. “He that winneth souls is wise” (Prov. Xi. 30)

1878. “Redeeming the time” (Col. Iv. 5)

1879. “Lay up His words in thine heart” (Job xxii. 22).

Not long before her lamented early death (June 3, 1879), that gifted hymn writer, Frances Ridley Havergal, had woven these texts into six stanzas, which she sent, together with 6,000 of her leaflets, to the Mission, saying: “I do think yours is such a brave work for Jesus. May I pass on to you a text I never noticed till this morning? ‘My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand’ (Job xxix. 20), taken with ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col. i. 27), and ‘His bow abode in strength’ (Gen. xlix. 24). May your glory thus be fresh in you, and your bow renewed in your hand.”

This was the last complete report for which Mr. Kirk was responsible. When Mr. Gawin Kirkham heard that he had been appointed Secretary to the Ragged School Union, he remarked: “There isn’t a man in London who would not feel it an honour to be invited to fill that post.” He himself returned to the office he had previously held in the Open_Air Mission, and in which he had rendered such yeoman service.

The progress of the Mission had continued, and during 1879 had attracted considerable notice from the London Press. By this time the Christian Mission, under its larger title of “The Salvation Army,” was doing good and provoking opposition. Several Judges had upheld the Metropolitan Board of Works in refusing permission to preach on Clapham Common and Leicester Square. On the other hand, there was rejoicing at the increased toleration in Roman Catholic countries of open-air preaching, the Burgomaster of the Hague saying that “One good street preacher is worth ten policemen.”

In this connection Mr. Kirk himself contributed a brief report of his experiences at Basle, which shows his facility with the pen.

"There is a charm and attractiveness about any street novelty which conduces much to its popularity, if not success. The sight of the usual crowd at the street corner now no longer excites the query, “What is it?” but is often dismissed with the comment, “It is only the street preacher.” It was in some respects quite refreshing to confront an audience and to deal with people who had never before seen or probably heard of open-air preaching, and such an opportunity was afforded during the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Basle, in Switzerland, last summer.

The various conferences and meetings were deeply interesting, the unions of Christians from all lands was delightful, while a spirit of brotherly love and joy abounded. With all this it was felt that some testimony ought to be left with the people around, many of whom as in our own land, were too evidently strangers to Him whom to know is life eternal.

At my instigation an application was made to the town authorities, by General Field, for permission to preach out of doors. After some delay, Herr Sarassin intimated that there was nothing in the Swiss laws to prohibit this; he and his fellow burghers, however, did not feel justified in giving formal authority, but thought the experiment might be tried, and, it was hoped, with success and blessing.

A romantic spot was chosen at the foot of the old bridge spanning the river Rhine. A constant
stream of people passed and repassed, and the unused space on the bank of the swift-flowing stream seemed made for an open-air service. Some earnest German pastors attended, with the Revs. John Greton, De Kewer Williams, William Tyler, Wilson, and other veteran ministers; and Mrs. Michael Baxter secured the help of some ladies in the singing. Leaflets with Sankeys hymns in German were distributed to the people, who quickly began to gather round the knot of foreigners. The commencement of the singing was the signal for many more to come, and the crowd soon numbered some hundreds. It was a strange and impressive sight. Lofty houses overlooked, bearing strange-looking names; the many windows were thrown open. The surging crowd revealed a motley mixture of garb and face.

All went well for a time. “Safe in the arms of Jesus” was sung heartily, followed by earnest pleading with God to bless His word to the souls of the audience, and then Dr. Baedeker told of the love of God to poor perishing sinners, amid silence and attention. A portion of Scripture, rather indifferently read, was listened to impatiently. A German pastor next gave “Herrings for Nothing,” in a German dress, and at the literal intimation of “herrings for nothing,” which, by the way, were magnified to mackerels, some one angrily interrupted. He was joined by others; and as the disturbance increased, it was deemed prudent to sing. This over, the Rev. John Greton began to speak, each sentence being translated from the English by Pastor L———. He was not allowed to continue, for a gendarme came pushing his way through the crowd to the speakers, and insisted in loud tones on the meeting being stopped. The letter from General Field was produced amid great excitement in the crowd, but this failed to satisfy the irate representative of the law, who swore and got into a great passion. As further altercation seemed likely to cause a breach of the peace, Messrs. Greton and Kirk were led off to the police station, followed by the threats and jeers of the people.

Much gesticulatory talk followed, and, after promising to appear before the town authorities in the morning, the preachers were liberated, thankful to be counted worthy to suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake. The next morning Herr Sarassin kindly undertook the responsibility from the preachers, but begged them not to make another attempt.

So impressed, however, was this godly man with the desirability of such an effort, that he secured the central space in the Barrack Square on the following Sunday, and there ministers and laymen preached the everlasting gospel to an attentive audience of two thousand people.

Thus was an effectual door opened, and the good news of the kingdom proclaimed in spite of many adversaries."

The severance of Mr. Kirk from immediate association with the Open-Air Mission was received with very general regret, but this regret was tempered by rejoicing that he had entered into a sphere of yet wider usefulness. His term of office had brought him into contact with many hundreds of London’s most earnest Christian workers; in journeyings of the had met like-minded men in all parts of the country; and the regard for him cherished by many of high and of low degree had been deepened.

All this found expression in the most sincere and grateful fashion.

First came a minute upon the records of the Committee, moved by Mr. Richard Turner, seconded by Mr. John MacGregor, and supported by Colonel Robert Wilmot-Brooke:

“That the Committee of the Open-Air Mission regret to receive Mr. John Kirk’s resignation of the post of Secretary, the duties of which he has fulfilled, during nearly seven years, with zeal, ability, and success.

“The Committee believe that they express the general feeling of the members and friends of the Mission in sincerely thanking their late Secretary for his earnest work in the past, and uniting their hope and prayer that his future labours in another part of the Christian field may continue to receive the blessing of Almighty God.

LOCKHART GORDON, Chairman.”

In April 1880 the Committee showed their appreciation by doing Mr. Kirk the honour of adding him to their membership. He still retains the post, which is honorary in the second sense that he can spare but little time to join in the Committee’s deliberations.

The “general feeling” of the members rapidly assumed a more substantial form. At a gathering in December 1879, the secretaries of the Metropolitan Auxiliaries were constituted a Committee to arrange a testimonial; and though the united subscriptions were valued from the numerical rather than the financial point of view, in less than three weeks more than £50 was subscribed by 251 contributors. The presentation took three forms: (1) a handsome writing table, which in Mr. Kirk’s home has been in almost daily use; (2) a valuable gold watch which he wears to this day; and (3) a cheque for the unappropriated surplus.

Upon both watch and the writing table is engraved this inscription:

“Presented to Mr. John Kirk by Members and Friends of the Open-Air Mission as a token of esteem on his resigning the Secretaryship and with prayerful expectation that he will be blessed and prospered in his renewed connection with the Ragged School Union.

January 26, 1880
GAWIN KIRKHAM, Sec.’

It was not the least pleasing part of the whole matter that Mr. Kirkham should have thrown himself with enthusiasm into the testimonial to his friend and co-worker, and on February 16, 1880, he writes:

“MY DEAR KIRK, —I now close my pleasant labours in connection with your testimonial by handing you a cheque for the balance, £20, 11s. 9d. The accompanying album will explain everything else, and also enable you to peruse the correspondence.

The Lord bless you in your office, in your home, and in your spiritual life. —Ever yours,

“GAWIN KIRKHAM.”

This handsomely bound quarto album referred to had pasted on its leaves all the letters sent by subscribers in remitting amounts varying from sixpence to twenty shillings, and at the beginning has an alphabetical list of those so sending. The author may be permitted to say that few men can have in their possession an object of greater appreciation and interest, or an heirloom of which children and grandchildren may be more justly proud.

Among the indexed names are those which have been casually mentioned in the course of this chapter, and among others are Bishop Billing, Rev. Burman Cassin, Canon Clayton, William Quartermaine East, Jonadab Finch, William Forbes, John Groom, Dr. Gritton, H. L. Hastings (of the Boston Christian, who sent Mr. Kirk a copy of his Critical Greek and English Concordance), Sir Duncan MacGregor, Major C. H. Malan, R. Cope Morgan (of the Christian), Hon. Captain Moreton, Hon. Thomas Pelham, Wm. Olney, jun., Samuel Gurney Sheppard, Joseph Weatherley, Edward Wright, and Charles L. Young.

The list is comprehensive, not only in its representation of individuals and districts, but by the inclusion of so many officials of kindred societies.

Many of the letters are of indifferent calligraphy, but show the regard Mr. Kirk had inspired among the artisan workers in the Mission.

A friend writes from Uxbridge: “I have always received the greatest respect and assistance.”

One from Battersea: “Will you please axcept this small Triffel as a Token of my Esteem for the Fellowship and Services of Dear Mr. Kirk.”

A Camden Town worker, remitting twelve stamps, strikes at one of the roots of Mr. Kirk’s success as a secretary: “He has filled the post so well, paying the utmost attention to any communication.”

A Brentwood correspondent adds: “I never had to transact correspondence in Christian work with any secretary I liked so much.”

A lawyer in Chancery Lane says: “Although I have not the pleasure of his personal acquaintance, judging from the nature of his work in connection with the Mission, I can heartily join in any testimonial.”

At the first quarterly meeting in 1880 (January 26) in the Queen Square Mission Hall, Westminster, the presentation was made by Rob Roy, after which the Rev. Marcus Rainsford, M.A., delivered an address on “The Secret of Success.”

The Christian World wrote: “Mr. Kirk, who was received with immense applause, and who was evidently affected by it, expressed his feelings of deep gratitude for the testimonial, the value of which had been enhanced by the way in which it had been given and the kind words with which it had been accompanied.”

Chapters IV and V

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Chapter IV
The Ragged School Union

Mr. Kirk’s career is so intimately associated with the history of the Ragged School Union that every chapter of this book has necessarily some reference to it. Indeed, one day, before the premises in John Street were acquired, an envelope came with the address: “Kirk’s R.S.U., 37 Norfolk Street, Strand.” That history has been told in monthly or quarterly Records and Magazines for a period of sixty years, and at the time of the Union’s Diamond Jubilee, in 1904, was set forth with much fullness in Mr. Montague’s Sixty Years in Waifdom. It is not needful, even if space permitted, to write lengthily upon the subject. But a brief outline of that history and a bird’s-eye view of its present operations, all of which are interwoven with four decades of Mr. Kirk’s life, may be attempted, especially as the present writer has been able to see much of it, not only on paper but in practice.

Almost at the moment of writing there comes to Mr. Orsman a most interesting letter from an old worker, ninety-two years of age, living in the United States, which is worth reproducing in this connection.

“ANTRIM, New Hampshire,
Jan. 21, 1907.

“MY DEAR MR. ORSMAN, —I am glad to learn that you are the secretary of a Testimonial Fund for Mr. John Kirk, and as I would like to have a small share in it, I enclose you a two-dollar bill. My personal acquaintance with Mr. Kirk (by correspondence) of more than twenty years has been to me a very pleasant one and I hope that God will preserve his life yet many years to continue his useful work.

“Perhaps there are not many persons who can look farther back on London Ragged Schools than I can. The first I became acquainted with was late in 1839, when I was asked to preach in the open air before one of them, I think, in Keate Street Spitalfields, near Whitechapel, and I stood on a chair furnished from the school, and, of course, I visited the school in connection with that service. A few months afterwards, in April 1840, I became acquainted with other Ragged Schools in Shoreditch, Westminster, Field Lane, etc.

“My first attempt in that direction was in Kingsland, were I was the first city missionary, 1840 – 1849, was in 1842, and in connection with that I attended the first [public] meeting which was called to consider the propriety of forming the Ragged School Union. After nearly ten years I was obliged to discontinue that school on account of circumstances I could not control. But my second effort, commenced at the beginning of 1848, was more durable, as it still continues, being at the present time the Dunn Street Mission, Shacklewell. I have before me the first annual report read at the first annual meeting at Kingsland Chapel, Jan. 26, 1849.

“It may interest you to know that I preached my first sermon in Ilford in March 1835, and although I am ninety-two years old, I preached seventeen times last year.

—With kind regards and best wishes, yours fraternally,
(Rev.) Wm. HURLIN.”

The meeting referred to in this letter was held July 5, 1844, when about forty persons attended, and nineteen schools joined together in the formally adopted title of the Ragged School Union.

In the previous year (February 1843) the following advertisement had appeared in the London Times: —

RAGGED SCHOOLS
FIELD LANE SABBATH SCHOOL, 63 WEST STREET
SAFFRON HILL.

The Teachers are desirous of laying before the public a few facts connected with this school, situated in this most wretched and demoralised locality. It was opened in 1841 for instructing (free of expense) those who, from their poverty or ragged condition, are prevented attending any other place of religious instruction. The school is under the superintendence of the District Missionary of the London City Mission, and is opened on Sunday and also on Thursday evening when the average attendance is seventy (adults and children). The teachers are encouraged by the success which, under God, has attended their efforts, as manifested by the increased numbers and altered conduct of some of the scholars. This appeal to the Christian public is made to afford permanency to a work of charity, commenced and supported by a few laymen, whose means are inadequate to the expenses necessarily attendant upon the enlarged state of the school. Any lady or gentleman willing to assist as teachers will be cordially welcomed.

This announcement had been drawn up by Mr. S. R. Starey, a solicitor’s clerk, after being asked by a God-fearing carpenter to look in some Sunday evening at the Field Lane School. He went; his interest deepened; he found that in London about a score of Ragged Schools were in operation; and on April 11, 1844, he called a meeting at his father’s house, 17 Ampton Street, near King’s Cross. Three others were present —a city missionary named Morrison, Mr. Moulton, a tool merchant, and Mr. W. Locke, a draper. They resolved to call a larger meeting.

Lord Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, having responded to the Times advertisement, Mr. Starey called upon him and secured his co-operation in the new movement, together with that of Mr. Joseph G. Gent, who was appointed Secretary. Mr. Starey himself left London to enter upon business in Nottingham, and soon planted Ragged schools on an unsectarian basis in that city. There was a little struggle at first to maintain the unsectarianism, but happily the sure foundation was laid upon which for six decades workers of all evangelical churches have been able to unite. Mr. Starey lived to see 140 schools established, and to be present at the Jubilee in 1894. His widow still survives, maintaining her interest in the Union, and specially in the Ogle Mews Ragged School.

Mr. William Locke became honorary Secretary of the Union, and maintained his interest in it through a long life; and certainly the movement owes much to his enterprise and zealous efforts.

Mr. Gent, after giving up the secretaryship in 1879, lived in retirement until his death, but retained membership of the Ragged School Union Council, and the title of consulting Secretary.

The first annual meeting was held in a side street from Tottenham Court Road, and the report dealt mainly with the result of inquiries. This meeting was addressed by Bishop Stanley of Norwich, Sir Robert Carden, and Judge Payne.

Four years later, January 1849, was commenced the issue of an organ, The Ragged School Magazine, to which “Old Humphrey” was a constant contributor. For many years the magazine was a vehicle of public discussion, and had an influence far beyond the limits of the Society’s membership. As the Union has developed its agencies, its monthly issue, published for some years under the title In His Name, and from January 1908 as The Shaftesbury Magazine, has rarely space enough for the briefest reports of its own work and that of the affiliated societies. Every month some 15,000 copies make their way into all parts of England, and some to other Continents.

The annual report is now a very comprehensive document, compactly as is conveyed statistical and financial information. The remarkable freshness displayed each year is a striking tribute to the mastery of detail possessed by its drafter, the Secretary. A postcard sent to the office at 32 John Street, Theobald’s Road, W.C., will secure a copy by return post.

The great progress of the Union is summarised in the fact that the 19 schools of 1844 hae increased to 144, and the 200 teachers to 5,000. The change in the general character of the Mission buildings is commensurate with the natural improvement in sixty years of house property and of public buildings generally. The original purpose of the Union was the combination of Ragged Schools, chiefly centres of day instruction, as described in an earlier chapter. In consequence of the enormous strides in the national attitude to elementary education, it falls to this last report to observe: “Coincident with a new Education Bill (1906) comes the final closure of the few remaining day Ragged Schools.”

There are still ragged and destitute children, as we have shown in the Sunday schools, but the term “Ragged School” is now largely a misnomer, and the schools have developed into well-equipped missions, at once the precursors and contemporaries of “institutional” churches. They are, in the majority of cases, independent organisations, raising their own funds, but receiving grants from the Ragged School Union Council, and making use of the central machinery for cripple, holiday, clothing, and other purposes. Grants were so made to 123 such independent missions or agencies in 1906.

There have for some time been several missions specially under central control, with their properties vested in the Council of the Union as an incorporated society. Of this class is the Ashley Mission in Bethnal Green. The lease was transferred to the Council in 1891, and the freehold acquired in 1905. For many years it has been under the honorary superintendence of Mr. T. Miller, aided by his wife. He is a tradesman, who consecrates all his evenings and Sundays to the Mission, and he has special gifts for drilling children, in the use of the camera, and of unlimited eloquence.

A second was the Shaftesbury Welcome in Battersea Park Road. These premises were acquired in 1897, and added to in 1905. There is an extraordinary list of operations maintained here by Mr. John Dyer, who is salaried by the Council, and spends much of the summer in superintending the gatherings of the Fresh-Air Fund south of the Thames.

An interesting development of Mr. Dyer’s work is a Mission among the gipsies and van-dwellers who make Battersea their headquarters, especially in the winter season. In one of the railway arches in Cabul Road there is a hall in which services are maintained, and a special staff of workers in the district cares for the religious welfare of an otherwise neglected body of wanderers.

On the occurrence of the Diamond Jubilee in 1904, a large special fund was raised, to which His Majesty the King contributed a hundred guineas, with the object of freeing certain leaseholds and taking over certain missions. Some were in danger of being closed but for this timely aid. Mr. Kirk and the Ragged School Union Council have had an arduous task completing these transfers in the years 1904-7, with the result that twenty additional mission premises are now held in trust by the Union.

The Latymer Road Mission is Notting Hill, originated in 1862 by the late Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., whose special feature is that its wood-chopping yard gives employment to some cripples (the year’s turnover being £1,100), cost the funds £1,583 for capital expenditure.

The John Pounds Mission in Stepney was acquired in 1905, and, after reconstruction, serves not only for mission agencies, but as the East End branch of the Union. Its superintendent, Mr. A. E. Varney, is another salaried agent of the Council, and not more remarkable for his stentorian voice and powers of organisation than for his great love of children and his passionate interest in crippledom. He lectures a good deal for the Union, and in the summer is busy at Loughton, where, nearly every day, from 500 to 1,000 children are entertained.

The freehold of Brentford School was purchased in 1890, and the work is maintained by a local committee. With the Camberwell Mission we deal in a separate chapter.

Fox Court, Gray’s Inn Road was transferred in 1905, but “remains under the unaffected control of the local committee.” The president is Sir Melvill Beachcroft, who contributed generously to the new buildings erected in 1884. Its superintendent is Mr. Thomas Fagg, manager of Dunn & Hewett’s Cocoa Works, who is still in harness after an unbroken record of fifty years’ service.

Fairlight Hall, Tooting, is an almost new enterprise of the Ragged School Union, though in various buildings a mission has been carried on for a dozen years. In 1904 freehold land was bought, and on July 1, 1905, the Marquis of Northampton opened a building with 600 seats, which has cost £3,000. It is a new centre in a new area, with an enthusiastic honorary superintendent, Mr. L. M. Shepherd, and is now one of the strongest missions in London.

Kimpton Mission, in Camberwell, was founded b the late Mr. Charles Steinitz, and the premises were purchased by the Council in 1898. It is conducted by a local committee, with Mr. H. Ernest Wood as president. He is a member of the Ragged School Union Council, which is largely recruited from mission presidents.

The Lamb and Flag Mission in Clerkenwell is an old institution, new freehold premises being acquired in 1888, and the Ragged School Union assuming responsibility through the Charity Commissioners. Here is carried on the cobbling class for cripple youths, twelve being taught and employed.

Ogle Mews was founded in 1843, and was served by Mr. Blennerhassett for forty years, having as colleagues for the same period Mr. William Unitt and Mr. Frederick Pitts. Another worker, Mr. Sandall Green, has toiled there for more than forty years. Its special feature is a crèche, with large accommodation, one of seven infant nurseries during school hours associated with the Union.

For the Orchard Mission in Blue Anchor Lane, Peckham, for many years conducted in two cottages, a site was furnished in 1904, and premises opened in 1906. Arthur’s Mission in Bermondsey was “originally housed in an old cowshed. A good friend of the Society, seeing the nature of the building and its dilapidated condition, offered to erect a new mission hall in memory of her departed son. A site was secured, and a suitable building erected in 1890.”

Hoxton has three missions. Once the district was known as the haunt of thieves, and it is far yet from being a model neighbourhood, but various regenerating influences have tended to great improvement.

The Hoxton Costers’ and Golden Lane Mission, founded in 1861 by Mr. W. J. Orsman, is perhaps the most familiar of all such agencies, although the coster’s donkey is not now much in evidence; and in a handsome pile of buildings is conducted, under Mr. Orsman and an executive committee, a whole series of enterprises. Did space permit, this mission would of itself fill a most interesting chapter, and might also be justified because of the intimate relation between himself and Mr. Kirk for nearly forty years. It was at the fortieth commemoration meeting of the Costers’ Mission, May 28, 1901, that the author made his first personal acquaintance with Mr. Kirk. His was the principal speech of an evening that naturally was full of high appreciation of Mr. Orsman. These extracts are quoted as showing how free is Mr. Kirk from any trace of littleness or envy, and also his admirable faculty for praising good men and good work. It is also an authoritative specimen of Mr. Kirk’s style of address:

“I also recognise in him one of my chiefs at the Ragged School Union —twice have his colleagues expressed their confidence and esteem by electing him Chairman of the Council, and to-day I know they are sharing in spirit with us at this enthusiastic gathering of friends. I would look, however, upon Mr. Orsman this evening rather as a personal friend, after an intimacy strangely varied and often confidential, f nearly thirty years’ growth. I owe him very much for kindnesses manifold, for ever-ready help, for patience with frequent and often troublesome requests, for counsel in perplexity, and for social pleasures not a few. There has been much of that fellowship of kindred minds, which the poet says ‘is like to that above,’ and for which I shall ever feel grateful. Can you wonder that I consider myself honoured in taking even a small part in this historic meeting? At least it allows me to claim for many friends and co-workers, quite outside Costers’ Hall, a substantial share in the affectionate regard you rightly desire to show to Mr. Orsman. He must be my text to-night —no other is possible for me— a big one truly. Now anything like eulogy would be out of place. We praise God for all our brother is and has done, and we magnify His grace as we note all too feebly a few traits of character worthy not only of our loving regard, but also of imitation by young Christians everywhere.

It says much in these fickle times that the young man of twenty, who, ‘after office hours,’ devotedly sought to serve his Lord and Master in the slums of Golden Lane, should at sixty be living and proclaiming the same soul-saving truths, and in the same old-fashioned way. Surely the virtue of steadfastness is prominent. It has been well said that it is easier to fulfil the prophetic forecast, ‘They shall run and not be weary,’ than it is to ‘walk and not faint.’ To plod on in one or two benighted centres of slumdom for forty years unceasingly is significant of much. Of so many it may be said, ‘Ye did run well.’ Cyclists tell us that a steep hill may be rushed if it is short, but for an ascent of a mile or more it means a steady strain of back and muscle. The typical British qualities of tenacity and grit are required, as well as grace, to thus endure to the end —amid the hundred-and-one discouragements of an aggressive Christian mission. It is only ‘dogged’ that does it. It is not always smooth sailing even with Christian workers, singers, and helpers. Well may it be said, ‘Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast like him that taketh it off.’

I like to recall the catholicity of spirit, the broad-mindedness which can take in the humble donkey and improve its condition; to feed the body of the starving child, that the mental pabulum of the School Board may be digested; the somewhat demonstrative coster —the work of municipal life —the honoured position of Justice of the Peace —the Governorship of the People’s Palace— and other institutions, as well as a preacher of the Gospel. It says something, too that all this and much more has been performed without the magic ‘Rev.’ as a prefix to name, let alone the oft-coveted but dubious ‘D.D.’

More than all is the adaptability of the man most marked —a versatility, as I can vouch from personal experience, of the most exceptional kind. Have I not seen him the genial host at a social gathering of the lunatics at Colney Hatch? The management, too, of a Donkey Show needs qualities not possessed by all. I have heard him giving brotherly and sage counsel to young open-air preachers, have seen tact and judgment manifested around the council table, and have heard interesting addresses from the steps of the Royal Exchange, in the heart of the city. He has spoken at drawing-room meetings in mansions of the rich, superintended children’s days in the country, taken possession of holiday homes, set up and printed his own reports and circulars, and in scores of other novel and varied circumstances, has acted wisely, spoken aptly, and dignified the particular occasions as though ‘to the manner born.’

May we not add the grace of brotherliness to those already mentioned? There has been no parleying with convictions, but there has been an apostolic effort to be all things to all men, in a good sense. The official connection with the Ragged School Union is an illustration. How he has stuck to that work, and what lasting influence he has exerted! It has been worth all the patient toil, and often unrecognised services which come from detail work, and well-nigh endless committees.

This personal binding magnetism has been especially apparent at Costers’ Hall, where there are banded together a worthy but somewhat complex band of leal-hearted helpers. As one of them once expressed it to me, ‘Mr. Orsman is a hero to us, we would follow him in everything.’”

Equally remarkable, but of a very different type, is the Christian Mission in Hoxton Market, where a working saddler, John Burtt, has wrought for nearly thirty years without any remuneration beyond the joy of having helped hundreds, ay thousands, of men and women and children, and of being well-beloved in the whole neighbourhood. John Burtt has a brotherly confidence in, and admiration for, Mr. Kirk that is touching to witness. Perhaps no one understands this uneducated and self-denying hero so well as the Ragged School Union Secretary.

One day Burtt wrote: “MR. KIRK, —One of my poor Costers Last night Notice how Tired & weary you looked, and this evening while at market they saw these beautiful Grapes and has sent them to round to me to Get them conveyed to you, which I do as you may guess with the greatest of pleasure.”

The humble cottages in which the work was carried on so long have been exchanged for roomier premises just across the Market, and the freehold was vested in the Union in 1904. Mr. John Burtt’s services are still voluntary, but his brother, Lewis Burtt, is now a salaried co-superintendent, and the mission is under the active presidency of Mr. T. S. Downing Wallace, who, with Mrs. Wallace, dispensed generous hospitality at Potter’s Bar to large parties from this and other missions. Especially valued was the yearly summer reunion of Ragged School Union workers, gathered from all parts of the metropolis.

A third Hoxton mission, vested in the Union, is that in Hamond Square, worked by a local committee under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Leach.

To all the 144 institutions, directly or indirectly affiliated, the parent Union renders manifold help. The early years of Mr. Kirk’s secretariat marked the gradual acquisition of control over educational facilities by the London School Board, and concurrently the rise of agencies which lend great fitness to the second title of the Union, viz., “The Shaftesbury Society.” As the name “Darwin” stands for certain theories of evolution, so the name “Shaftesbury” links together in the mind various ideas of social reform and methods of philanthropy. The change marks a transition from the mid-Victorian school of Manchester individualists to the later forms of Christian socialism, which build upon the truth that no man in a modern state can live wholly to himself. The Shaftesbury Society, even to the most sanguine optimist, has many generation of usefulness before it, while it is to be hoped that any use for the term “Ragged” will speedily disappear.

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Chapter V
The Shaftesbury Society

Undoubtedly the most interesting, the most dramatic, and the most beneficent of the agencies of the Shaftesbury Society is that of the CRIPPLES’ MISSION.

The cripples, like the poor, are always with us, but until a dozen years ago no one had any knowledge of the number to be found in London alone. In 1891 an American, a great lover of children, came to London, and, instead of the usual pursuit for wealth, sought out drift children in the East End, gathering them in sheds and halls, and visiting the dwellings where they lived. With the help of outsiders he took them on the trams to Victoria Park or open fields, giving them buns. In doing this he found some helpless creatures unable to join them —some, indeed, who never left the house. On these he bestowed especial care, in all cases making a record of the name and residence.

From the first the Ragged School Union helped to sustain the man and his work, and on his return to the States in 1893 it accepted the entire responsibility. A blind lady became a visitor; a kindergarten teacher was retained; and two other missionaries enlarged the field of inquiry, one of whom, Mr. A. E. Varney, has ever since engaged in the work. Steadily the work went on, ever increasing, until in 1895, the names of some 1,500 cripples were registered.

In October of that year Mr. James Greenwood, with descriptive power and sympathy, sketched in the columns of the Daily Telegraph the sad lot of some of these children, and urged that Christmas hampers might be sent to fifty of them, as had been done the previous Christmas by the Ragged School Union, so that helpless cripples might be the givers of a home feast. The borrowed idea “caught on”; the suggestion of fifty multiplied into five hundred, and money poured in to the Editor. A still more important result followed: friends sent in the names of nearly 7,000 cripples. The Telegraph authorities were overwhelmed, and sought the aid of Mr. Kirk, who, with all his staff, worked day and night that season. Eventually 5,500 hampers, worth nearly a sovereign each, and two cwt. of coal were dispatched to the forlorn little folk.

How, in some measure, that gift is yearly repeated by the efforts of Sir William Treloar is told in our next chapter. Good and permanent results were the outcome of 1895, for the Cripples’ Mission now covers Greater London, all poor child-cripples being regularly visited and helped in some degree. The metropolis is divided into nineteen sections, and these again into some two hundred centres, each dealing with from twenty to forty children. Many are able to attend a weekly or fortnightly meeting in cripples’ parlours, of which eighty now exist. Here they are taught forms of work, indulge in merry recreation, and listen to addresses.

Several paid agents devote their whole time to the work, the department at headquarters being in the capable hands of Miss Coles, whose pigeon-holes contain on special cards full information of each child. Otherwise, the labour of the divisional and local superintendents, and nearly a thousand visitors, is entirely voluntary. Nor is it bestowed in any stinted measure; each tries his or her utmost to lighten the lot of the unfortunates in their care, and raise funds for winter teas and summer treats. The young lady of one South London centre is a draper’s assistant, working every night, except Thursday, until 9:30, and giving that spare evening and Sunday to her beloved people.

Happily, their very helplessness evokes the spirit of real charity, and interest is shown in unexpected quarters. Several times the Messrs. Tussaud have given a large party, fetching them in vans. Mr. Maskelyne, while at the Egyptian Hall, twice invited groups. Several years the Crystal Palace directors invited 200 to their Christmas entertainment. Abel, the well-known batsman, has for several years joined in a cricket match at Victoria Park in aid of the Cripples’ Fund. Sir George and Lady Newnes have given garden parties at their beautiful housse on Putney Heath.

Mr. J. F. Shorey, an American resident in London, has for many years been an active and zealous friend in time and purse. In 1898 he retired from business, and transferred its future profits to the Cripples’ Fund. He is a member of the Ragged School Union Council, and, like Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Passmore Edwards, has the satisfaction during his lifetime of knowing the enjoyment and benefit his gift bestows.

Only to a limited degree does the Cripples’ Mission employ remedial measures. Hospitals and children’s societies exist to care for them medically and surgically. But the visitors of the Mission do not neglect this line of help. One great boon to some classes of cripples is proper surgical instruments, and they are often expensive. A sovereign well spent will sometimes save a child months, perhaps years, of suffering. In necessitous cases parents are urged to pay a art, say one-fourth, of the cost, and the Mission will add another fourth. Relying on the recommendation of the Ragged School Union, one of the existing Surgical Ad Societies will contribute, and the Hospital Sunday and Saturday Funds make up the remainder. In 1905-6 grants were made for 761 surgical instruments and boots, to the amount of £483. On spinal carriages was also spent £158; and there are now nearly 600 spinal carriages, mail-carts, and bath-chairs on loan from the Society.

It may here be mentioned that the loan system prevails in what the Ragged School Union provides for children. In the case of garments and boots, a receipt is signed by the parent or guardian that the articles will be produced on demand. Otherwise, in many cases they would be pawned or sold.

Physical and mental enfeeblement undoubtedly hinders the educational development of the majority of crippled children; it cannot affect the sweetness, though it may the strength, of their vocal organs. In the cripple parlours they delight in hymns. Several years ago emerged a competent honorary conductor, Mr. H. W. French, who with love and patience set himself to train some fifty cripple boys and girls in the East End. They could not read, so he chose easy rhymes for them to learn, and also composed and harmonised simple tunes. This choir has sung in many churches and chapels; but in far larger numbers they muster at the annual meeting in Queen’s Hall, boys and girls in parti-coloured sashes, and their action-songs are a source of much gratification to the audience.

One of the most pleasing features connected with cripple work is the outcome of a happy inspiration which came to the Rev. J. Reid Howatt, a Presbyterian minister and the “prince of children’s preachers.” In the year 1895 he was editing a children’s column in the New Age, and one summer day suggested that his young readers should mount on cards shells, sea-flowers, or other objects for distribution to those compelled to stay at home. There were but few responses for the prizes he offered; but the next week he printed an account of the joy these gave to the cripples who received them, and suggested that his readers might take each a cripple and agree to write a letter monthly, or to send a picture-book or other pleasant reminder.

The plan was so readily taken up that in one year there were 1,200 members of the CRUTCH AND KINDNESS LEAGUE. This made the work too much for one pair of hands, so the Ragged School Union undertook to keep the register. Now the Sunday at Home prints monthly notes and a list of new members, the present membership of the League being 8,500 residing in all parts of the world. The letters and papers they send brighten the cripples’ lives and exert much indirect influence for good on the writers, and on the children and their parents. In many cases a deep personal interest leads to the Leaguers raising money for special needs.

Here is a letter received by Mr. Kirk from St. Petersburg: —

Nov. 27 (Dec. 10), 1900.

DEAR SIR, —I write to acknowledge the safe arrival of our cards of membership of the C. and K. League for myself and daughter, Nos. 4962 and 4963. Many thanks for the same. We have written some letters, and I will endeavour to get some of the English children here to join the League. With every good wish for the prosperity of your work, —I remain, your sincere member,

Mrs. Pearson.
72 Schlusselburg Road,
St. Petersburg, Russia.

One prosperous scheme suggests another. Some are limited to a parish or small district; others are of a more general character. The HEARTS AND HANDS LEAGUE was started at the suggestion of the President himself, in 1895, when known as Lord Compton, and includes many young people of the upper grades of society, who make at least two garments a year each, which are passed on to the clothing department. The WHITE DOVE GUILD was a band of workers in North London who devoted their spare time to cripples. It was composed largely of the pupils of girls’ high and collegiate schools, and very remarkable was the variety of methods used in raising funds. Mr. Kirk was their president. One example of help was an excellent concert given after the Queen’s Jubilee Dinner, May 1897 in Morley Hall, Hackney.

Mr. Kirk is honorary secretary of THE GUILD OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, founded by Mr. F. A. Atkins in 1892, when editing the Young Woman. It is managed by a ladies’ committee, and has for president H.R.H. the Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Several thousands of members provide or make up material at home and in working parties, the product of which finds its way to 32 John Street. It has an excellent motto: “Sympathy and Service.”

The outcome of some correspondence in the Standard of December 1895 was the formation of a CHRISTMAS GUEST GUILD, which led to 500 poor children spending the Christmastide in well-to-do homes. They had to be carefully scrutinised and properly clothed before leaving, but they were the fortunate recipients of much kindness and help from their unaccustomed hosts.

The Council of the Ragged School Union aims at thoroughness; it cares for the whole child, physical, mental, and spiritual. It feeds him when hungry, visits him when sick, helps him to walk when lame, teaches him to read, makes his sad life joyous, and trains him religiously. More than that, it clothes him, and that is a big business. It does not send a ragged child to the seaside to be the gaze and butt of every passer-by, but it gives to boys and girls suitable under and outer clothing, and pays the greater part if not the whole cost of boots. Thus it justifies one of Mr. Kirk’s favourite titles when lecturing on the work of the Society: “Rags and Rubies.”

The Council has done this work, more or less, for many years for necessitous children as well as cripples, but in 1894 the Poor Children’s Aid Society was incorporated with the Ragged School Union, and in 1897 Mr. Harley Aspden, Editor of the Sunday Companion, who had organised the BAREFOOT MISSION, transferred that also. He has ever since used the columns of is journal to extend the usefulness of the Mission.

To get an idea of what the united effort means, one needs to pay a visit to the Ragged School Union headquarters, and to the department in charge of Miss Archer, one of Mr. Kirk’s most efficient colleagues. A large room in rear, 40 by 20 feet, furnished with cupboards, drawers, and shelving, will hold, with careful classification, an immense quantity of stores. But it is only a sort of customs house. Day by day, at the rate of one hundred or more a week, packages are arriving from friends all over the country, containing the most extraordinary assortment of articles —from a doll to a coachman’s tall hat with a cockade (!); from a book of dry sermons to a girl’s charming frock.

The clothing bought for boys is new, and a basement room is filled with boots and shoes, a large proportion of which are bought from the manufacturers.

Mission secretaries and visitors pay frequent visits to the office, and are better able to describe and secure what their little friends require. Applications are daily arriving by post. All is systemised, and in every case a printed form is filled up, giving the name and age of child, with whom residing, the school attended, the father’s occupation (if any) and earnings, the number in family, and the child’s height and personal appearance. When boots are required the length of the foot must be stated in inches. Each application must be signed by some agent or subscriber, who guarantees personal knowledge of the child’s circumstances.

In the year 1906, 8471 parcels were received, containing 32,547 new garments, 41,351 worn garments, and 4,127 pairs of boots. In addition were purchased 10,425 pairs of boots, 2,986 articles of clothing, and 3812 yards of material. Each Christmas H.R.H. the Princess of Wales despatches a grant of clothing from the London Needlework Guild, and a package of toys.

At Christmas time the room referred to overflows with toys and games, which are thoughtfully distributed. Through the summer Thursday is Flower Day, and scores of boxes and baskets arrive full of fresh flowers, which are speedily dispatched.

For several years past the Council has been experimenting along the lines of handicrafts for cripples. Cobbling and dressmaking classes have been conducted, and several have been apprenticed to saddlery, printing, and bookbinding. In the parlours various industries have been taught, including knitting, carving, fretwork, rug, mat, lace and basket making, and carpentry. An industrial exhibition was held in the Northampton Institute of the work done by the cripples, which afforded gratifying evidence of progress.

From the early days of the Ragged School Union attempts were made to provide the elder boys and girls attending Ragged Schools with a means of earning an honest living as shoeblacks, rag collectors, house boys, and boy messengers —but more especially in domestic service or factory occupations. As far back as 1853 the Union gave FAITHFUL SERVICE PRIZES to those who remained in the same situation at least a year, and were connected with Sunday schools. In the half century following, no fewer than 36,000 prizes have been awarded. One of the special features of the Anniversary May Meeting, first in Exeter Hall, and subsequently in Queen’s Hall, is the handling over by some distinguished lady of gifts to the most meritorious of these. Faithful service for one year entitles to a Paragraph Bible, for three years to a work-box for girls or a writing-desk for boys, and for five years a silver watch. To each is also given a handsome illuminated folio certificate, which is to be found framed and hung in many homes with great pride. For 1894 it bore the facsimile, “Victoria, R.I.” In 1899 Her Majesty looked through a list of the recipients during the previous five years, and in 1900 sent a cheque for £50. One of the first acts of King Edward was to renew the Royal patronage, and now the certificate bears the facsimile of his signature. In May 1906 H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, distributed 673 prizes.

Mention can only be made of 110 mothers’ meetings, with a membership approaching 10,000; of Sunday schools, either morning, afternoon, or evening, with 47,000 scholars; of 208 Bible classes returning 5,200 members; of 153 industrial classes and youths’ clubs with 5,700 members; of 153 industrial classes and youths’ clubs with 5,700 members; of 26 boys’ brigades with 885 members.

There are also 150 bands of hope, 45 school libraries, 50 penny banks, 24 clothing clubs, 55 goose clubs and loan clubs. Some help was also given in the form of emigration.

For many years past a large additional burden has rested on Mr. Kirk’s shoulders in connection with the FRESH-AIR FUND, which has now become an almost national institution, thanks to the persistence of Mr. C. Arthur Pearson, who originated the fund in 1892 in Pearson’s Weekly, and has since, in the columns of the Daily Express, the Standard, and other journals under his management, made it widely known.

The object of the fund is to give a large number of poor children a day in the parks, or in the country, by paying the railway fare and providing two meals. At first the movement was confined to London, but it now extends to nearly forty of the largest provincial centres, the total dealt with in 1906 being 200,000. Of these 101,395 were London children, and the working expenses of these excursions is shared with Mr. Pearson by the Ragged School Union.

None of Mr. Kirk’s co-workers is more appreciative of his energy and tact than Mr. C. A. Pearson, for the finding of responsible secretaries and committees, and the right selection of children involves much journeying and correspondence each year, centres as remote as Aberdeen, Dublin, Swansea, and Plymouth being included in the distribution of funds. The annual report pays tribute to “Mr. E. Kessell, who has been the devoted honorary secretary to the Fresh-Air Fund from the outset.” The Union’s roomy premises at the Shaftesbury Home, Loughton, on the edge of Epping Forest, have proved of inestimable service in caring in bright and rainy weather for the trainload that almost every summer day brings.

Many of the pleasantest associations of his later years have come to Mr. Kirk through a delightful movement founded in Adelaide, South Australia, September 1894, by “Uncle Harry” of the Adelaide Observer. It is called the “Children’s Sunbeam Society,” and, as its name implies, it brings rays of sunshine by the correspondence and gifts of thousands of members into the homes of many sick and suffering ones. One year it was suggested that funds should be raised for some of London’s poor children in the mother-land; and now each Christmas at least £100 comes into Mr. Kirk’s hands. This provides dinner at the “Edinburgh Castle” or some other large hall for thousands of children, with a programme of merriment. The Agent-General for South Australia, and other colonists, are usually present, and thus the bonds of union are cemented.

Mr. J. H. Finlayson, one of the proprietors of the Adelaide Observer, resides in London, and with his family is able to attend these gatherings. Mrs. Finlayson was a vice-president of the ladies’ auxiliary, and Miss Finlayson is now a member of the working committee. It is interesting to note that one of the branches of the Sunbeam Society has been named the “John Kirk Circle.”

Through the introduction of Mr. Downing Wallace, an auxiliary to the Ragged School Union has lately been formed in South Africa.

It remains, in this connection, to speak of one great delightful agency of the Shaftesbury Society, the Children’s Holiday Homes. We are familiar with the establishment by the seaside of convalescent homes in connection with city hospitals. In like manner it seemed clear that residence on the country-side or by the sea-shore for some weeks would be sure to invigorate cripple children living in the slums. Not only cripples but other boys and girls would gain by a fortnight under healthy conditions. For this latter class there are now numerous societies.

The Ragged School Union plan is to find in certain centres cottage homes where one or more boys and girls will be treated kindly as members of the family, some competent agent giving general oversight. Ten shillings, roughly, covers the stay of one boy or girl for two weeks, in addition to which there is the railway fare. During 1906 the total number of children, including 1,455 cripples, so sent was 6,862.

Of these a considerable proportion stayed in the Holiday Homes belonging to the Society. In past years houses have been hired, but in course of time, by special gifts and purchases, buildings have been permanently acquired. Now the Society has cause to be proud of Homes at Bognor, Addiscombe, Southend, Margate, and Bournemouth, besides selecting the inmates for Princess Christian’s Home at Windsor.

With one exception these homes are two-storied, so that the crippled folk may have as little climbing as possible. All are well provided with playrooms and games, outdoor and indoor; and usually active local committees of ladies become visitors and friends of the ever-changing inmates. The period of residence in the summer is a fortnight, in the winter a month, and in very exceptional instances a much longer period is allowed. Several have stayed at Bournemouth for a year. At the Southend Home, so great an interest was taken in one girl by the Home’s honorary surgeon, Dr. Clough Waters, that she stayed for five or six years, and was beloved by all. She came in an utterly helpless condition endured many operations, and presently was able to walk with crutches, and finally without them.

The change that is wrought is often marvellous; in nearly every case the child gains weight from two to five pounds. A little girl sent to Margate in a cage jacket after a few weeks was able to run about. A small boy who was lying on three chairs when the Queen visited the People’s Palace, was the next year attending school. These results are due to the tender care of matrons and nurses; to a liberal supply of nourishing food; to exercise and open air, to sea baths, and to the joyousness of the whole environment.

No money contributed to any philanthropic society yields more practical and substantial results than that which sustains these Cripples’ Holiday Homes.

ARTHUR’S HOME, at Bognor, is a beautiful building erected on land purchased in 1891, with accommodation for forty children. The cost was defrayed by a lady who desired to remain anonymous, and in memory of her deceased son Arthur. An inscription on the portal, “To make some children happy,” indicates a fully realised desire of the donor. Each Home has a small “prophet’s chamber” for some visitor, and Mr. and Mrs. Kirk delight to spend a day or two at Bognor and to cycle in the neighbourhood.

The SOUTHEND CRIPPLES’ HOME, on the Southchurch beach, originated with a gift of £200 from Mrs. Leone Levi in memory of her husband. A local committee, under the generous and energetic efforts of Mrs. Prosser, honorary secretary, has made the townspeople proud and glad to help. Five years later H.R.H. Princess Louise opened a new freehold building, and in 1906 an additional wing was added under the Diamond Jubilee scheme. The Home accommodates thirty-six children, and on the annual Pound Day, in which several towns and villages near unite, often 3,000 pounds’ weight of useful goods are contributed, besides considerable sums of money.

ROB ROY CRIPPLES’ HOME, at Margate, is influentially supported, but at present occupies an adapted freehold house which accommodates twenty-six children. Efforts are being made to secure a site and to erect a building specially suited to cripples’ requirements. As its name implies, it commemorates the long devotion of Mr. John MacGregor to the Ragged School Union.

The VICTORIA CRIPPLES’ HOME, at Alum Chine, Bournemouth was built through the kindness of Mr. Passmore Edwards on land mainly provided through the generosity of Captain and Mrs. Harrison, in 1897. A new wing was also added to this out of the Ragged School Union Diamond Jubilee Fund, so that now twenty-four children can be accommodated. This home is charmingly situated.

The ASHBURTON HOMES, at Addiscombe near Croydon, include three detached houses, a hall for meetings, and spacious gardens. The property was presented to the Society on the death of Louisa Lady Ashburton, in accordance with the terms of the trust deed. The Homes have thirty-six beds and are occupied by relays of cripples girls.

Of Princess Christian’s Home at Englefield Green, and of the Shaftesbury Retreat at Loughton (which in 1906 was visited by 55,650 children), we have spoken elsewhere. At Shepherd’s Well, near Dover, the Ragged School Union owns twenty acres of agricultural land, which, when funds are forthcoming, may be turned to account for a camp, holiday home, or farm colony.

Chapters VI and VII

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Chapter VI
The Lord Mayor and the Cripples

Among public men there are a few with whom Mr. Kirk has had so much to do as with Sir William Treloar, long known as “the children’s Alderman,” and who in 1906-7 won golden opinions as “the children’s Lord Mayor.” Sir William’s feeling towards the Ragged School Union Secretary is clearly shown by permitting the salon of the Mansion House to be used for a meeting to inaugurate a testimonial to Mr. Kirk, by presiding thereat, and by declaring that his work in connection with the children’s banquet and cripples’ hampers would have been impossible but for his cordial co-operation and organizing skill.

If there is one feature of his life-work more dear to Mr. Kirk’s heart than another, it is that of the Cripples’ Mission. The same remark applies to Sir W. Treloar; hence the deep-seated friendship between the two men. In his year of office the Lord Mayor was found present at cripples children’s gatherings in every part of London: now in the big hall of some public bath; then in a theatre; anon at Madame Tussaud’s; again in the London County Council parks, or on Tagg’s Island taking tea with a cripples’ party on its return from an up-river trip. He has been doing this all along; hence his intimate acquaintance with the child-cripple problem, and his statesmanlike proposal to build and maintain a Cripples’ Institute where young people can be trained in some useful occupation, and be saved from becoming a burden to their families or to the State.

Thirteen years ago Alderman Treloar obtained the use of the Guildhall from the then Lord Mayor for a banquet to poor children, and each year following the consent has been renewed. By a personal appeal, Sir William now is able to raise nearly £2,000, including donations from the King and Queen, and this enables him to dispatch a hamper or rather a box, to each of the 7,200 cripples on the Ragged School Union register.

It is an interesting spectacle about noon on the day of the banquet, which usually falls on the last day of the year. In the Guildhall porch stand the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and other officials, supported by members of the Common Council and Ragged School Union superintendents, with Sir William Treloar and Mr. Kirk in charge of the arrangements. Brief speeches are made, then the drivers of thirty laden vans drive past and receive from the Lord Mayor’s hands instructions as to the delivery of their loads. They pass to various metropolitan centres, where honorary visitors of the cripples receive the boxes, which are at once distributed by the local Mayors or other friends. The gift consists of a meat pie, a cake, a Christmas pudding, tea and sweets, separate provision being made for the Jewish crippled children, of whom 180 receive a hamper at the Feast of Chanucah.

On 31^st December 1906 Mr. Kirk read the following statement: —

“MY LORD MAYOR, SHERIFFS, AND WORSHIPFUL MAYORS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, —On behalf of all the workers amongst the cripple children on the register of the Ragged School Union, it is my privilege to congratulate you upon your election to the honoured position of Lord Mayor and Chief Magistrate of the City of London. We do so the more heartily because we know that the high position will be used for the permanent benefit of the afflicted children.

I recall with pleasure and interest my first meeting with you many years ago. I had long cherished the wish that the portals of this ancient Guildhall might be opened to the poor children of our Ragged School Missions. Hearing of your kindness of heart and deep interest in child life, I asked for an interview, when you not only listened sympathetically to my plea, but promised to do your best with your colleagues on the Corporation, to obtain the use of the Guildhall for a feast for the children, and further to collect the money to defray the cost. That is thirteen years ago, and every year since then some 1,300 little ones have been regaled as Christmastide has come round. Seeing that fresh children are selected for each banquet, it means that thousands of London’s poorest ones can proudly say that they once dined with the Lord Mayor, Lady Mayoress, and Sheriffs in the ancient Hall where emperors, kings, and great ones of the earth have been entertained; and who will limit the influence of such an inspiring memory?

After the first banquet in 1894 there was a balance remaining of just over £10o, which you desired should be spent upon the children. The Lady Superintendent of our Cripple Department, Miss Coles, suggested that, as some of the children were home-tied and unable to be present at the public feast, a Christmas dinner should be given in the home, the idea being that for once the sick one should act as host, and invite the whole family to a pleasant repast. The scheme was a complete success, and gave immense pleasure. Later in the year “One of the Crowd” visited some of these poor homes, and, hearing of this special dinner, resolved to repeat it. A touching appeal appeared in The Daily Telegraph, which so moved the hearts of many, that about £9,000 was received in response. The then list of some 1,500 names and addresses of cripple children on the Ragged School Union register was thus swollen to over 7,000, the Editor having passed on the names, and a substantial hamper of good things was given to all the specially poor cases.

The whole story of this famous Christmas Hamper is one of the romances of modern missions. When I found The Daily Telegraph did not propose to repeat the effort, and knowing how disappointed the suffering children would be, I again sought your kindly aid. You were not sure whether the public would respond to such a demand, and it was a great responsibility for you to undertake. But when I assured you that my Council would assist with any possible deficiency, you kindly consented to ask for funds, not only for the Children’s Banquet, but also for the Christmas Hamper for the little cripples. To the great joy of the children, these gifts have been continued year by year, and with increasing public interest and support.

I have to state, further, that again every home has been visited and the addresses verified, and the 7,200 hampers now await your kind despatch. Before asking you, however, to hand the weigh bills to the Carmen, will you be good enough to receive a little party of the cripple children, and listen to what one of them, Leslie Lamport, has to say on behalf of the whole number?”

“OUR OWN LORD MAYOR, —We like to think of you as our own Lord Mayor, because you have been so good to us all.

There are only four of us here, but there are many hundreds besides who could not be with us to-day. In the name of all these cripples on the Ragged School Union register, we want very much to thank your Lordship and the Lady Mayoress for all your kindness, and for once again sending round these thousands of Christmas Hampers which the big vans and horses have just taken away.

We feel glad that you have been able to get some help from their Majesties, the King and Queen, and a lot of other good people, including the Corporation of which you are the Head, to pay for them. We are thankful also to you for letting us have a look at the Lord Mayor’s Show from you windows, though we can see you in your robes better now than we could in that funny old coach.

Our friend, the visitor of the Ragged School Union, has told us of what you are trying to do for us when we get older. It will be grand to have such a fine Home and Training School to look forward to.

Now will you please accept this token of the love and gratitude of the little cripples of London? It has been paid for by the pennies we have given, with a little help from our Visitors.

We wish the Lady Mayoress and your Lordship every blessing through the New Year. Goodbye!”

The memento consisted of —Two silver figures, 6½ inches high, a cripple boy and girl on ebony pedestal, standing in all 10 inches high. The inscription plate on the pedestal bore the following words: —

PRESENTED TO
SIR WILLIAM PURDIE TRELOAR
LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, 1906-7
FROM THE PENCE AND WITH THE AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE OF
SIX THOUSAND CRIPPLE CHILDREN OF THE
RAGGED SCHOOL UNION AND SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY.
DECEMBER 31^ST, 1906.

At five o’clock the same day a splendid meal is set before the boys and girls hailing from various Ragged Schools, and they are waited on by scores of male waiters in evening dress, who must find them a vivid contrast to their customary aristocratic and aldermanic guests. After dinner an entertaining programme is gone through, and the children’s delight is unbounded. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress come in state, but the speeches are few and short. Various gifts are forthcoming —a shawl each from one Councillor, a cracker from Tom Smith, sweets from a confectionary firm, a story-book from some publisher, while even the handsome programmes are contributed gratis. One year the Common Council gave 1,250 new pennies, and in 1906 were added a post-card portrait of Sir W. Treloar, and a very handsome illustrated dinner-card, which included a portrait of Mr. Kirk.

On Lord Mayors’ Days, and at such royal processions as the Jubilee and the Coronation, Sir William always places the windows of his business premises in Ludgate Hill at the disposal of the Cripples’ Mission, and it is encouraging to glance at the tiers of smiling children, forgetful for the moment of the physical weakness which hinders their joining in the throng outside.

The Guildhall and the Mansion House remind us of the noteworthy participation in the work of the Union which characterised the civic reign of Sir Faudel-Phllips and Lady Faudel-Phillips in 1897, the Mansion House being used for a crowded meeting on the Cripple Movement on March 30, and Lady Faudel-Phillips giving a Cripples’ party in the Egyptian Hall. Lady Faudel-Phillips has also taken a deep interest in the Cripples’ Home at Southend, one summer opening a garden fête there.

Another Lord Mayor, Alderman Sir Robert Carden, was a genuine philanthropist and deeply interested in Ragged Schools. His foible was an aversion to cabmen. On one occasion, when Mr. Kirk was with him, he refused to take a cab, preferring a stuffy ‘bus until he got within the City bounds, when he knew exactly the legal fare. In the year of his Mayoralty, Sir Robert attended in state the meeting of the Ogle Mews Ragged school, a practice followed for twenty years by successive Lord Mayors. A portrait of Sir Robert Carden, painted by Mr. Barker Harrison, hangs in the Council room in John Street.

The bond of association with the work of the Ragged School Union and the ancient City Corporation was emphasised in November 1906 by its Council being invited to join in the historic show as it passed through the streets of London. In addition to an emblematic car, on which were representatives of cripple industries, Mr. Kirk and other officials rode in separate carriages.

In the Jubilee year 1894, the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House was granted by Lord Mayor Tyler for a public meeting. At this the speakers included the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Canon Fleming, Dr. Pentecost, and Mr. Charles Steinitz.

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Chapter VII
Patrons and Presidents

The Ragged School Union has always been rich in friends, and not least among those whose wealth or position gave strong reinforcement to their personal interest. No doubt the active presidency of Lord Shaftesbury had much to do with this, but it chiefly sprang from the unselfish endeavour of the Christian educated classes during the Victorian era to bridge the enormous gulf which separated them from the toiling and moiling masses. Many of these have passed into the Land where rich and poor are equal, and where the weary toilers are at rest; but the twentieth century bids fair to be even more marked than the nineteenth in manifestations of the real brotherhood of mankind.

Support of the Union came direct from the throne itself. The late Queen Victoria graciously became its Patron, and not only sent contributions to its funds, but displayed special interest in the Faithful Service Prizes annually awarded to the young men and women who have remained for some time with the same employers. Her Majesty signed her autograph to the handsome certificate, and the replica of this now appears in many thousand homes. Very naturally, too, the Queen took a lively interest in the Home for Crippled Boys near Windsor, which is the special care of her daughter, the Princess Christian.

In the Jubilee year of 1887, the Council of the Ragged School Union promoted an address to Her Majesty, which was signed by 30,000 teachers and children belonging to the schools affiliated to the Union. It read as follows: —

TO HER GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN

May it please your Majesty, —

We, the teachers and scholars of Ragged Schools and Missions to the Poor in and around London, would most respectfully join with your whole people in offering to your Majesty very hearty congratulations on the celebration of the jubilee of your glorious reign.

In every home of the kingdom your name has long been a household word for all that is good, noble, and charitable.

We have learned with hearty gratitude that your Majesty has been graciously pleased to become the Patroness of the Ragged School Union, which has been so helpful to us.

And we earnestly pray that Almighty God may bless your Majesty, and long spare you to reign over a happy, obedient, and grateful people.

The sheets of signatures were bound in one handsome volume, which was presented to Her Majesty by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The penny pamphlet issued by the Reiligious Tract Society —The Life of Queen Victoria— with a photograph of Her Majesty, was distributed in large numbers to the signatories.

One of the earliest communications despatched after King Edward’s accession to the throne was a letter to Mr. Kirk stating his willingness to become its Patron.

Our beloved Queen Alexandra, from her spontaneous interest in all that concerns the welfare of children, was sure to extend it to those cared for by the Shaftesbury Society. This was specially the case in the year of Queen Victoira’s Diamond Jubilee, when several hundred thousand poor were fêted from the funds raised by Her Royal Highness. Visits were paid by the Princess to several halls, and a long stay was made at the People’s Palace, where a thousand crippled children were entertained to dinner. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress (Sir George and Lady Faudel-Phillips) were present, with Earl Compton, President; Mr. Fred Warman, chairman; and Mr. Henry Wood, vice-chairman of the Ragged School Union Council. These were presented to the Prince and Princess, as were also Mr. and Mrs. Kirk, and Miss Coles, head of the Cripple Department.

The Princess inquired concerning the food and tasted it, and as to how the helpless children had been conveyed to the hall; and then walked between the tables, to the children’s great delight, accompanied by her daughters, Princess Maud and Princess Victoria.

The King, then Prince of Wales, kindly made a brief speech, in which, addressing the President, he said: “We are very glad to come here to see this entertainment of the Ragged School Union, and I am very glad to see so many bright and happy faces, although, alas! some are sick and sorrowing. It has given us great pleasure to be present to take part in this ceremony.”

These words were followed by cheers for the Prince and Princess, and then came a programme, of great delight to the children, including pieces by the Cripple Choir. Songs were also sung by Madame Antoinette Sterling, who often ministered to children’s delight, both at indoor and outdoor gatherings. She loved singing to young people, and expressed a strong preference for ballads that contained stories of children. A Jubilee Medal and a New Testament were given to each guest, and hampers were sent to those cripples too severely afflicted to leave their homes.

One of the most genial and sympathetic helpers of the Union was H.R.H. Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck. On one occasion Her Royal Highness presented the Faithful Service Prizes at the May Anniversary, and had a pleasant word for each recipient. Her Royal Highness opened the new wing of the Field Lane Refuges in 1892, and for some time was Patron of the King Edward Mission in Spitalfields. At another time, Her Royal Highness opened the Homes at Addiscome, erected by the late Lady Louisa Ashburton, which were transferred, at her death, to the Ragged School Union.

After the death of Princess Mary, a memorial window was place in Kew Church, which bears the name of the Ragged School Union and other institutions. The Bishop of Ripon (Dr. Boyd Carpenter) preached the dedication sermon, and among those present was the late Duke of Cambridge, brother of Her Royal Highness, who held a long and interesting conversation with Mr. Kirk.

Among the subscribers were “several boys and girls who had received benefits in the shape of clothing from Her Royal Highness, and had since gone out into situations,” and who collected between them no less a sum than £5.

In response to a request for information from Sir C. Kinloch Cooke, Her Royal Highness’ biographer, Mr. Kirk penned some reminiscences, which appear in Chapter XXIV. He says: “I shall never forget the way in which she at once expressed her willingness to come to one of our meetings. It was a beautiful illustration of her generous nature, but it was outdone by the keen interest afterwards manifested, as she became more and more acquainted with the ramifications of our work.” Her presence at a prize distribution “seemed to give the impression that the Ragged School was not just a society, but a large family of sons and daughters, and that Princess Mary personified the divine spirit of motherhood.”

The King’s sisters have also identified themselves with the work of the Union. H.R.H. Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyll) laid the foundation stone of the Cripples’ Home at Southend, and H.R.H. Princess Henry of Battenberg presented the Faithful Service Prizes at the May Anniversary in 1906. This function was also graciously performed on one occasion by H.R.H. the Duchess of Albany, who enjoyed the task so much that she smilingly “wished she were giving them away the whole evening.”

H.R.H. the Princess Christian has taken an even closer interest in several departments of the Society’s work. Her Royal Highness opened the new buildings of the Richmond Street Mission in Walworth in 1894.

Her Royal Highness, accompanied by her daughter, the Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, attended the annual meeting in Queen’s Hall in 1902, and received purses presented by delegates from 150 schools affiliated to the Union. The representation was diversified, including children, old women, cripples, and one blind man, and some of the purses typified deep interest and self-denial, for one contained 150 pennies and another 500 farthings.

In 1902 Her Royal Highness again graced the annual meeting in the same hall with her presence, and distributed a long array of books, watches, workboxes, and certificates, which constitute the prizes for Faithful Service.

It is, however, in the Holiday Homes for Cripples that Princess Christian has displayed the keenest interest. In the little village of Englefield Green, four miles from Windsor and three from Egham, and not a long way from Cumberland Lodge, Her Royal Highness’ Windsor residence, stands a beautiful little house in its own grounds. This gives accommodation for twelve crippled boys, and to the master and matron. A lawn in front with flower beds, a field for play to the left, a kitchen garden and orchard in the rear, are never-failing attractions to lads from London slums. There is a poultry yard, and a stable for the pony that draws the chaise to and from the station, in which ride the more helpless cripples, and once a week to Windsor town, where the boys have tea. It is an ideal home for a month’s residence, and delight reaches a climax one evening in January when Her Royal Highness herself turns hostess at a Christmas party in the Home.

The first cost of the building was £1,200, towards which the editor of the Daily Telegraph donated £200 out of his famous appeal for Christmas Hampers in 1895. It was opened on July 4, 1896, in the presence of a distinguished company. The Honourable Evelyn Ashley represented the Ragged School Union, and Mr. and Mrs. Kirk attended by special invitation. In a short speech read by Her Royal Highness occur the following passages: —

“In the year 1890, in response to an appeal made in the Windsor and Eton Express by Mr. Kirk, on behalf of the London Ragged School Union Holiday Scheme, a small house was taken on Bachelor’s Acre, Windsor, and during that and the following summer about 200 boys were given a fortnight’s holiday. On the expiration of the lease, as it was thought that a more complete country life would be better for the boys, a cottage was rented on this ground, and each summer between 120 and 130 boys have enjoyed the advantages of fresh air, recreation, and good food, combined with the softening influences of a happy home life.

From the first the Queen became an annual subscriber of £10, and I supported the work, but since its removal I have been able to take a personal interest in the boys. Last autumn, on being informed that the old cottage was no longer fit for habitation, I felt it would be a disgrace for the work to come to an end in this neighbourhood. After ascertaining that no suitable house was available, I determined to make myself responsible for the land, and to throw myself on the generosity of kind friends to supply funds for building and furnishing a cottage capable of containing twelve boys, with a man and his wife in charge. Hitherto our work has been limited to the summer months, and the subscriptions, added to the payment of five shillings per week for each boy by the Ragged School Union, have covered our expenses. Now, however, that we have a substantial building, I trust that its usefulness may be extended into the winter.

This expectation has been fulfilled. All the boys received into the Home are selected by the Cripples’ Department of the Union, and for at the rate mentioned. Working expenses and repairs are the responsibility of Her Royal Highness, who delegates the actual supervision to Miss Potter, secretary of the Hampstead Y.W.C.A. The Princess, however, finds many helpers, and not long ago was the recipient of a handsome cheque of 250 guineas from Mr. Astor, the American millionaire, and proprietor of the Pall Mall Gazette. Mrs. Grant Gordon and Miss Emily Loch are zealous co-operators in the success of this Home.

The older boys, who retain vivid and delightful recollections of their visits to Englefield Green, are met by Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the master and matron, each autumn at tea in the Ragged School Union Council room. Last year Her Royal Highness paid a brief but cordial visit to the party, to their great delight, and her appreciation of Mr. Kirk may be measured by the letter from Her Royal Highness, read at the Mansion House meeting, on January 14, 1907:

“I am desired by the Princess Christian to say that as a movement is on foot to mark the great services rendered by Mr. Kirk to the Ragged School Union, Her Royal Highness is anxious to express her warm appreciation, from personal experience, of the invaluable work done so unostentatiously by Mr. Kirk, and how glad the Princess is to hear of the movement to bestow some mark of appreciation on him. —Faithfully yours,

J.E. MARTIN, Major.”

The Princess Christian’s daughter, Princess Louise Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein, has taken an active interest in the Guild of the Good Samaritan, one of the many departments of Ragged School Union enterprise, and in March 1907 opened a sale of work in the Harley Street residence of Lady St. Helier.

Outside the Royal Family, all others yield to the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury the place of honour as friend and upholder of the Ragged School Union. His lordship said on one occasion: “I would rather be President of the Ragged School Union than Prime Minister of England.” And of all the two hundred philanthropic organisations from which came deputations to his funeral, there was none that occupied a place nearer to his heart. He gave generously of his time and thought: others through him dispensed their charities. Just before his death Sir Moses Montefiore sent him a cheque for £15, and in passing it on to the Secretary of Earl wrote:

July 22, 1884.

“DEAR KIRK, —You may keep the letter as a record of a man in his hundredth year who can feel and write like one of five-and-twenty. Do not suppose I have omitted to thank him. That grand old Hebrew is better than many Christians. —Yours,

SHAFTESBURY”

The great philanthropist not only concerned himself with the general organisation, but was the visitor, friend, patron, and president of many of its individual branches. Everyone has read of the special interest he took in the Golden Lane Mission to Costers, and of the handsome donkey they presented to the aristocrat who so loved them as quite to unbend in their company. How vast and far-reaching was the influence exerted by the “good Earl” can never be determined on earth. Here is a sample letter which indicates its extension in far-away China: —

“SHAFTESBURY HOUSE,
SEAMEN’S MISSION AND HOME,
SHANGHAI, August 20, 1901.

MR. JOHN KIRK.

DEAR SIR, —I am familiar with your name all my life, and seeing the account of your Christmas treat in the paper Sketch of January 2, and the medallion of the good Earl, I thought I would write you to help me to get a photo of him.

I was once a very poor lad in London, and by hard sticking I kept my situation in the City for twenty-eight years. I then gave it up to come as a missionary to the Chinese, and have for seven years been out here, till the needs of our own countrymen, sailors and bluejackets, were so force upon me that I opened a room for them; and though not a year has passed, we have had the blessing of God, and are now having a fine new building put up —the expenses about £60 a month. I dearly want a photo of the Earl, for it is his life, and loving sacrifice for the poor, that has been such a blessing to me. My wife calls him my patron saint. I named this home after him, in remembrance of the blessing I got in ’81 at Shaftesbury House, Margate Y.M.C.A. Possibly you can send me some kind of picture of him. —Yours in the Lord’s service,

ROBERT J. FELGATE.”

Mr. Kirk had the honour of being present at the banquet given to Lord Shaftesbury on the occasion when the City conferred upon him its freedom, March 5, 1884. The then Lord Mayor was Sir Robert Fowler, and the 300 guests included the chief men of prominence connected with religious and philanthropic societies. The plan of the tables gives a list of names. Dr. Oswald Dykes, Presbyterian, sat next to Wesleyan Dr. Rigg; and the editor of the Nonconformist next to the editor of the Record. Many have gone from us, like Dr. Stoughton, Dr. Allon, Dr. Newman Hall, Dr. Hannay, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, and Professor Leone Levi. On the right of the Lord Mayor sat Lord Shaftesbury, and on the left, Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lord Shaftesbury, after a long and useful life, received the merited honour of a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, on October 8, 1885; and it was fitting that the representative committee which met to arrange the funeral should appoint Mr. Kirk, secretary of the Ragged School Union, as its executive officer. It was a sympathetic multitude that lined the streets, and a notable assemblage of public men and women who filled the venerable Abbey. The eight pall-bearers were Mr. John Macgregor, Mr. H. R. Williams, Sir George Williams, Mr. W. J. Orsman, Mr. J. G. Gent, Mr. William Williams, Mr. George Holland, and Mr. J. M. Weylland —five of them , at least, very actively associated with the Ragged School Union. After the Dead March in Saul had been played the procession passed to the north aisle door of the north transept, through which the body reverently carried on the way to its final resting-place in the family tomb at St. Giles, Dorsetshire.

The members of the executive committee subsequently took luncheon with the baroness Burdett-Coutts at her town house in Piccadilly, and her ladyship presented to each a photograph of the nobleman with whom she had worked in many a social enterprise, and one of herself also bearing her autograph. The Baroness also asked for the signatures of those present, that they might be kept in the archives of the mansion.

Mr. Edwin Hodder’s voluminous life of Lord Shaftesbury enabled readers to grasp the many sided character of the dead Earl. To one of the weekly journals Mr. Kirk contributed some interesting reminiscences. He emphasised Lord Shaftesbury’s industry and business character. The Earl wrote his own letters; and when the Countess died, and hundreds of pathetic epistles came —from the Queen to the factory lad— he said: “I am busy, but I want to answer every one,” and did so. Asked on one occasion to acknowledge the gift of £100 to his loved schools, the Earl replied: “Certainly, as often as you like. I would get up in the middle of the night to write such a letter.”

He often referred letters to the Secretary of the Ragged School Union. The very last inquiry received was in reference to a poor woman whose husband had failed in business and whose children were ailing. A favourable report speedily brought the instruction: “Send the child to the seaside for a month. Mind, I pay the expense.” And a cheque to cover this was sent from his death-bed at Folkestone well-nigh his last act of benevolence.

Ragged School workers could always get audience of their President. Says Mr. Kirk: “Was it a request to take the chair, it might be at a meeting in some humble school in a remote corner of the big city, out came the diary. ‘What hour did you say?’ The answer given, the diary was consulted, and, if not already engaged for the hour, he would accept. It was never a case of willingness, but of ability. I have known him, when four meetings were already promised for one day, cheerfully undertake a fifth.”

Lord Shaftesbury was very happy in penning apt and terse appeals, and he dislike those of a gushing nature. But he had an eye to effect in speech-making. He once remarked: “It is always desirable to finish your speech well. A bad speech is often redeemed by an effective close. I always strive to have a text or some telling sentence to finish up with.”

After forty such years of service as Lord Shaftesbury had rendered to the Ragged School Union, it would have been little short of a miracle to find an equally competent successor. But the mantle of the good Earl in many societies fell upon the young Scotch nobleman the Earl of Aberdeen, and he accepted also the presidency of the Ragged School Union. He retained the post until his appointment to the Governor-Generalship of the Canadian Dominion, when, in view of a five years’ absence, he relinquished it. Even in North America he was not unmindful of the “Aberdeen Ragged School,” established just off Regent Street in memory of his distinguished father, and in 1895 writes: “Dear Mr. Kirk, please find cheque for expenditure in respect of the children’s day in the country.”

The Union’s third president, who has since 1893 so worthily filled the post, was Earl Compton, a member of Parliament who was becoming widely known as a social reformer and Christian philanthropist of the best type. Both he and his wife (until her lamented death in 1902) and their daughter, now Lady Loch, have taken the deepest and most active interest in the Union’s work.

In 1895 he writes to Mr. Kirk that “his little girl, Lady Margaret, gives £2 to help one or two poor cripple children to have some country air. She has herself chosen this way of spending the money.”

Reasons of health compelled his absence abroad, but his thoughts were ever turning to the Society; and on Boxing Day of the same year he writes from on board the dahabeah “Osiris” (on the Nile): “May God’s best blessing be on the Ragged School Union and its Council during the coming year, and a special blessing to you its secretary. —Always your sincere friend, COMPTON”

Letters like the following, in the sender’s own handwriting, and not through the cold medium of the typewriter, bring encouragement to heavily taxed officials, and show the writer’s essential kindness of heart: —

“March 8, 1896.

DEAR MR. KIRK, —It was such a pleasure to hear from you, but you do not mention yourself, and I want to know how you are.”

A few months later the death of his highly esteemed father gave to the President the title of “The Marquis of Northampton,” and under the pressure of the first few days he writes:

“September 16, 1896.

“MY DEAR MR. KIRK, —I have already had hardly time to think, as you can understand, but I write to say that I fear my attendance at Margate is impossible. I could not face an audience just yet under my father’s name. I hope in the future to be of more use to the Ragged School Union. Pray for us all on Saturday, and for me especially to have guidance. —Affectionately yours, C.”

That hope has found abundant fruition in the President’s later career; and whether it be in opening a new Cripples’ Home, in addressing a gathering of drift children, or in presiding at the great annual gathering in Queen’s Hall, one notes the deep sincerity and high Christian resolve of the Union’s President. His love for the Shaftesbury Society grows as his confidence in its usefulness develops. Acknowledging a birthday remembrance in 1901, the Marquis writes:

“As long as I can be of use, I hope to be spared and given health and strength, but I don’t wish to see the sunset of my friends’ lies. Many affectionate thanks. —Yours sincerely,

NORTHAMPTON.”

Chapters VIII and IX

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Chapter VIII
Other Friends of the Union

BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS, the great woman-philanthropist, who passed away as the old year 1906 came to a close, and who in so many matters had been co-worker with Earl Shaftesbury, always kept in touch with the operations of the Ragged School Union. With her Mr. Kirk came into constant and close association. This ripened into such warm regard and confidence, that it was no uncommon thing for him to be summoned by telegram or messenger to the mansion in Stratton Street, itself a veritable museum of interesting, valuable, and curious objects. Lady Burdett-Coutts took a special pleasure in showing visitors over the house, and in pointing out the exact spot where her father, Sir Francis Burdett, was seized and haled to prison. Sometimes there were personal friends or guests of the Baroness, whom she would introduce. In this way H.R.H. Princess Mary of Teck, and her daughter, now the Princess of Wales, were introduced to Mr. Kirk, who was specially sent for to meet them at Stratton Street. Sir Francis de Winton and the late Colonel Sanderson were similarly introduced, and both afterwards served the Union acceptably. Usually she sough information or counsel upon some question awaiting settlement, as, for example, at the time of the Boer War, when her ladyship had undertaken charge of the soldiers’ widows in the Highgate district. Then discussion would follow on current social topics, and these the Baroness always approached with an almost masculine mind, and with great intelligence, yet always combined with womanly tenderness.

One October she wrote to Mr. Kirk expressing her willingness to personally visit some of the Ragged School workers. A programme was arranged, and on several evenings, accompanied by the Ragged School Union secretary she saw the schools and other agencies actually at work, yet always moving among her humbler colleagues in a queenly, gracious way, without the slightest suspicion of patronage or superiority.

In the year 1892 a new Ragged School was to be opened in Manchester, and the committee there, through the intervention of Mr. Kirk, begged that the Baroness would visit the city. To his request she answered: “If you will accompany me, I will go, and you shall be my guest.”

The Baroness stayed at the Queen’s Hotel, and in the three days of her visit met with an almost royal reception from all classes. She was welcomed by the Mayor and Councillors in State, and presented with an address and bouquet. The new school was opened; a public luncheon followed: and later she opened a grand bazaar. It was the time of the cutting of the Ship Canal, and the Baroness and her suite were conveyed in a little saloon carriage. Engineers and directors explained the plans. On their return to the terminus she shook hands with the engine-driver, much to his astonishment and delight, and thanked him for the safe journey.

For a long time the name of the Baroness appeared as president of the ladies’ working parties, and when her ladyship was appointed president of the Women’s Committee to arrange conferences and displays at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, and edited a substantial volume of papers, she was careful to give prominence to the departments of Ragged School Union work, which were summarised by Mrs. Kirk.

The Baroness assisted at numerous functions in connection with individual Ragged Schools, among others inaugurating the new buildings of Nelson Street, Camberwell, in March 1887. In earlier days she was naturally much interested in One Tun Ragged School, near to St. Stephen’s Church, Westminster, built by her in honour of her father. Of this, Archdeacon Sinclair in his younger days was incumbent, and laid the foundation of his friendship with Mr. Kirk. In this district the Baroness was associated with a very remarkable and highly cultured woman, Miss Adeline Cooper, who subsequently married Mr. Barker Harrison. Fifty years ago she was considered quite advanced, and claimed to have established the first set of workmen’s dwellings and the first working men’s club. She also bought the “One Tun” public-house, and converted it into a Ragged School, among whose workers were Sir Robert Carden and Deputy-Judge Payne.

When the marble statue of Lord Shaftesbury in Westminster Abbey was unveiled, Mr. Kirk stood at the side of the Baroness, and when on Saturday, January 5, 1907, her body was laid to rest in that great Valhalla, he looked on with many glad memories of her usefulness.

Miss Dorothy Tennant, who became the wife of the greatest African explorer, Henry M. Stanley, has for many years associated herself with the work of the Ragged School Union. She acquired considerable reputation by the quaint vigour of her sketches of children, and some of these have graced the pages of the Society’s magazine, In His Name.

While preparations for the wedding in Westminster Abbey were in progress, Miss Dorothy Tennant sent for Mr. Kirk and told him that while inviting her grand friends, she must also include some of her crippled protégés. She wished him to select six boys and six girls, for whom seats would be reserved in the best position. It added to the sweetness of the remembrance that she could say: “Mr. Stanley is interested, because he was a workhouse boy himself.”

Miss Tennant handled Mr. Kirk a sovereign, with which the children were sumptuously entertained at the One Tun Ragged School, near at hand. Each was supplied with a wedding favour (July 12, 1890), which bore a miniature representation of the “Dark Continent.” Some in the crowd offered money to the children if they would sell, and in two cases some heartless person tore the memento from the child’s breast.

In subsequent years Lady Stanley attended various cripples’ gatherings, and on one occasion, in Battersea Park, Sir Henry accompanied her and made a kindly address to the children.

Law as well as Art has shown sympathy in the person of Lady Jeune, now Lady St. Helier, whose salon was a centre of intellectual culture and breadth. Equally gifted as writer and as speaker, her ladyship gives valuable help to the Shaftesbury Society at drawing-room meetings, and she is now President of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, and is frequently in attendance at meetings of the committee. Her drawing-room in Harley Street was used for a sale of fancy work in aid of the funds of this auxiliary. Mr. Kirk first made acquaintance with Lady Jeune at meetings of the Dinner Committee, working under the London School Board. He also occasionally met Sir Richard Webster, now Lord Chief-Justice, at George Yard Ragged School.

Miss Cotton, author of Our Coffee Room, at Dorking, now Lady Hope, has always been a zealous friend of Ragged Schools, and interested, with her generous husband, Mr. T. A. Denny, in all good works.

Mr. Kirk found a willing helper in the lady who wrote as “Hesba Stretton,” and whose best known book, Jessica’s First Prayer did so much to arouse interest in child-waifs. She also issued a special article, to which Lord Shaftesbury wrote an introduction, that served to enlighten a large body of readers. With the gifted Frances Ridley Havergal Mr. Kirk also came several times into contact. “A.L.O.E.,” too, greatly interested herself in the Ragged School at Saffron Hill, and for some time maintained in Berkshire a home of rest for weary workers.

The ladies named are mentioned because they have a national reputation; they are but types of thousands of earnest, self-denying women in and out of London, without whose voluntary and prayerful co-operation the Ragged School Union would be utterly unable to carry on its operations. A countless number of these have personally met Mr. Kirk, and have mutually given and received strength and inspiration.

The late Duke of Westminster, who was a relative of Lord Shaftesbury, beneath a somewhat reserved exterior was deeply sympathetic with the many movements of his time concerned with the uplifting of his fellows. He contributed £100 a year to the funds of the Union, and one afternoon in 1890 presided at a meeting in Grosvenor House, his London residence. The splendid portrait chamber was filled, and explanatory addresses were given by Earl Compton and Mr. Kirk.

In Lord Brassey the House of Lords finds another worthy illustration of the motto, Noblesse oblige. He and Lady Brassey have also placed their mansion in Park Lane at the Council’s disposal. In 1894 his lordship addressed the annual meeting in Queen’s Hall, and at Christmas 1901 was one of the most interested spectators of Sir W. Treloar’s banquet in the Guildhall. It was pleasant to see the man of political affairs, and ex-Colonial Governor, an authority on matters naval and mercantile, walk slowly down the aisles deep in thought as he contrasted the faces and circumstances of those around him with the many experiences through which he has passed in a strenuous and altruistic career.

An eminent statistician is not exactly the type of man one would expect to find enthusiastic in Ragged School work, but few contemporaries were more devoted to the poor than Professor Leone Levi. He had all the sunny, affectionate qualities of his native Italy, but with it a spirit of great humility and deep religiousness. He married a Scotch lady, and through her became associated with Regent Square Presbyterian Church. During Dr. Oswald Dykes’ pastorate he became an elder. When Mr. Kirk met the Professor he was a teacher in Chequer Alley Ragged School. Then he gave himself to the school in Saffron Hill, amongst the Italian colony. There, aided by two ladies, he conducted a Bible class for new arrivals from Italy who understood little of English. Professor Levi was a man of keen intellect and shrewd insight, and in the drafting of a difficult circular or appeal he was always ready to give of his best. Many a time did Mr. Kirk visit his chambers in the Temple; and he declares that among the many public men he has met, there are few whom he holds in more reverent memory. That there was true reciprocity of feeling is evident from a letter written at Matlock Bath, in August 1887. In a tiny handwriting, Professor Levi says he has been recruiting, and goes on:

“DEAR MR. KIRK, —Your life is a blessed one, constantly doing good. Long may you be spared to be a benefactor to the poor and castaway. A sweet, youthful pair like you and Mrs. Kirk, with children of your own, and always intent on providing for the children’s good, must needs be ever possessed with a gleeful spirit and a thankful heart. —Yours sincerely,

LEONE LEVI.”

Mr. Kirk was equally intimate with Judge Payne of the Middlesex Sessions, a man of remarkably versatile gifts and genuine piety, who was characterised as the “Poet Laureate of the Ragged School Movement,” because of his facility at the end of a meeting in summing up its incidents in extemporaneous rhymes. He was responsible for more than two thousand of these tail-pieces. He was at the first gathering of the Union in 1845, and rarely missed a subsequent meeting until his death in 1870, at the age of seventy-two. His speeches were characterised by pointed clearness and humorous phrase.

At a somewhat later period emerged into prominence on the temperance platform Mr. Mark Knowles, who began life as a shoeblack, and worked his way up into successful practice as a barrister. He spoke at the Ragged School Union annual meetings, and in him Mr. Kirk always found a ready worker.

Many of the men who rendered excellent service in the Victorian period have passed away, such as Mr. Edward Denison, a popular M.P., who lived near the Ragged School, Stepney, and was, in fact, the precursor of Toynbee Hall; Mr. Leonard Shaw, the Barnardo of Manchester; Mr. W. H. Collingridge, founder of the City Press; and Paxton Hood the noted preacher, who often visited the Ragged School Union office. With that quaintly humorous lecturer, Mr. De Kewer Williams, Mr. Kirk travelled in Switzerland, finding him a most genial companion. He had gathered the finest collection of Oliver Cromwell relics, which was dispersed at his death. Another clerical lecturer in humorous vein was the Rev. M‘Connell Hussey, first vicar of Christ Church, North Brixton, whose burl successor, the Rev. W. R. Mowll, Mr. Kirk also met in Ragged School work at Ogle Mews.

Popular also in South London were George Wilson M‘Cree and George M. Murphy in the seventies and eighties. Nor did the Ragged School Union Secretary find heartier co-operation than with the eloquent Newman Hall, who occasionally spoke at Exeter Hall, and traced his first Ragged School speech back to early days in Hull. In South London, too, Mr. Kirk met Archbishop Benson, when assisting at a series of Church of England special services in the “Old Vic” Theatre, conducted by Mr. Neale Horne. In the days of his predecessor, Archbishop Tait, he had visited at Lambeth Palace.

North of the river Dr. Cummings was famous at Crown Court Presbyterian Church, opposite Drury Lane theatre, and he was associated with two Ragged Schools, receiving help from Dr. Robert Cross, long the Honorary Physician to the Ragged School Union. Farther East wrought strenuously a Congregational minister, the Rev. Dr. William Tyler, who made many journeys in his pony and cart to King Edward School, Spitalfields, whose superintendent, Mr. Charles Montague, was a member of the Ragged School Union Council, and whose place at Spitalfields is filled with remarkable ability by his son, Mr. Henry E. Montague. Another son, Mr. C. J. Montague, published, in 1904, Sixty Years in Waifdom, a volume full of information on the place in English history occupied by the Ragged School movement.

In the east end also laboured the Rev. Dr. Billing, Rector of Spialfields and later Bishop of Stepney who attended many drawing-rooms in advocacy of the Ragged School Union, and also spoke at Grosvenor House. On one occasion Mr. Kirk wished him to speak at Redhill, but he had been from home so much that Mrs. Billing declared, “He shan’t go!” Promising to take the utmost care of him, the lady’s reluctance was at last overcome.

Mr. Kirk had several interviews with Dean Stanley, who delighted to escort parties of Ragged School workers through his much-loved Abbey. As a churchman Mr. Kirk was licensed as a “lay reader,” and one year spent a month at Keble College, Oxford, where training lectures were given by Dr. Boyd and Dr. Talbot, now Bishop of Southwark. In his turn Mr. Kirk, attired in gown, read lessons in the college chapel.

Mr. Kirk had a good deal to do with Dean Farrar in connection with a movement to benefit young lads founded by Sir Henry Gordon. The Dean felt how critical is the age between fourteen and twenty. Dr. Farrar on one occasion preached at Margate in aid of the Ragged School Union Home there. In one of his letters to Mr. Kirk he says he has just written reviews of two remarkable books —Charles M. Sheldon’s In His Steps and Wallace’s Wonderful Century.

Nonconformist “bishops” have been equally interested in Mr. Kirk and his work, and none was kinder than the famous Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Once a year the Lecture Hall of the Tabernacle was and is placed at the disposal of the Ragged School Union Council for a prayer meeting and address. His son, Mr. Thomas Spurgeon, carries on the traditions with no less delightful sympathy. Mr. S. R. Pearce, a deacon of the Tabernacle, who long worked in a Bermondsey Ragged School, is one of Mr. Kirk’s personal friends; and many ardent workers, like Mr. W. J. Orsman and Mr. C. G. Barr, still retain their membership of the Tabernacle church.

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Chapter IX
Among the Writers

It is not easy to explain how Mr. Kirk became acquainted with so many literary men. He is quite a connecting link between writers of the later nineteenth century and the men who stand in the forefront of the twentieth. No doubt is it partly due to the excellent “copy” which newspaper men and others can find in the operations of the Shaftesbury Society; in part, also, to the unfailing geniality of Mr. Kirk’s conversation; but most of all, perhaps, to the wide range of information belonging to a man who is an omnivorous reader and has a retentive memory. Several extracts printed in this volume bear witness to the skill of its subject as a writer. The double insight gained by using the pen and reading the productions of other pens makes Mr. Kirk sympathetic with men and women of the craft.

It was natural, to begin with, that a man of Sir Walter Besant’s aims and temperament should be in hearty sympathy with Mr. Kirk’s work, and, among other efforts, he wrote an article in the Contemporary Review, which was reprinted, and rendered great service. The well-known writer of boys’ books, W. H. G. Kingson, was not only a racy story-teller, but a very godly man of sane judgement, and often advised Mr. Kirk in his earlier years about preachers and evangelists.

Canon Eskine Clarke will long be remembered for his bright editing of the children’s magazine, Chatterbox. Mr. Kirk knew him at Derby, and subsequently at Battersea. The editor of another valuable children’s magazine, Sunshine, the Rev. Dr. Whittemore, was a similar worker. The Ragged School Union distributes many volumes issued by such houses as Messrs. Partridge & Co. and the Religious Tract Society, so that the secretaries and editors of the latter body —Dr. Manning, Dr. Macaulay, Dr. Green— were well known to its Secretary, and the connection is maintained through its present officials —The Rev. A. R. Buckland and Mr. James Bowden. Mr. Kirk was one of the guests at the coming of age dinner of the Boy’s Own Paper, held on the birthday of its Editor, Mr. G. A. Hutchison, October 31, 1899, at the Holborn Restaurant. To him fell the lot of proposing “The Old Boys,” and in doing so Mr. Kirk recalled his early friendship with Mr. Hutchison, and his interest in boys and all that concerned them. He knew the journal in its early days, when Rob Roy and W. H. G. Kingston were contributors.

On especially friendly terms has been that gifted editor, the Rev. Charles Bullock, B.D., whose magazines Home Words, The Fireside, etc., have disseminated much healthy reading in many thousands of English homes. Their chief association was in the “Robin Dinners” movement, initiated by Mr. Bullock. From year to year Home Words readers have contributed large sums, enabling good dinners with high-class entertainments to be given at Christmas time to London’s poor children, not as a pauper dole but as a seasonable remembrance. Each year some 30,000 children are thus catered for, at different centres. This splendid service is still continued, under the joint secretariat of Mr. Kirk and Mr. C. Ashton Bullock, B.A., the worthy son of so good a father. From the room to which Mr. Bullock is now confined, at Coomrith, Eastbourne, he writes:

MY DEAR MR. ORSMAN, —I dictate a few lines (for I am unwell), to ask you to add enclosed [cheque] to the list of subscriptions being raised to our good friend Mr. Kirk, one of the noblest workers in London.

I very seldom leave my room, but I work in my “Press Pulpit.” —Ever yours sincerely,

CHARLES BULLOCK.

There is considerable distance between an Evangelical clergyman of the type of Mr. Bullock and the Roman Catholic dramatic critic, Mr. Clement Scott, but Mr. Kirk’s liberal mind is quick to recognise the remarkable generosity which specially belongs to all classes of public entertainers. Mr. Scott, when critic on the staff of the Daily Telegraph, used to give dinners on Christmas Day to poor children in Old Vic Theatre, near Waterloo station. These were left to Mr. Kirk to arrange so far as the food was concerned, but Mr. Scott brought the “talent,” which in the course of years included all the theatrical celebrities. Here Mr. Kirk met Henry Irving, John L. Toole, Lionel Brough, and that wonderful actress Mrs. Keeley, who lived to the age of ninety.

Underlying all was a strain of seriousness. One day Mr. Clement Scott asked Mr. Kirk to see one of his “butterfly” friends and gave him a letter to a young swell in a Westminster flat. He went there, and the young fellow came out.

“What do you want?”

“Fifty pounds,” was Mr. Kirk’s reply, “for the maintenance during the winter of a soup-kitchen.”

The rich young gentleman smiled, but wrote a cheque for the amount, and what was of higher moral value, took a great interest in the work, maintaining it for several winters.

Another benefactor introduced by Mr. Clement Scott was an actress, Miss Edith Woodworth, who, though resident at Nice from ill-health, supplied the funds for a Christmas dinner and entertainment. Mr. Kirk gathered 500 children at the Ragged Schools in Lambeth Walk, and they were royally treated. The Daily Telegraph of December 16, 1885, gave a column report of the proceedings, which included sleight-of-hand by the clever conjuror Bertram, and an amusing speech and song by Mr. J. L. Toole.

About the same time Mr. Clement Scott contributed a lengthy poem to Punch, “The Coming Winter, a tragedy in Black and White.” He sent a copy of this powerful plea for the children to Mr. Kirk, with his autograph.

Mr. Scott also originated the “Buttercup and Daisy Fund,” for giving poor children a breath of fresh air, and many parties were entertained, chiefly in Bushey Park. Not infrequently the kind-hearted donor would come down to enjoy the scene.

Mr. Kirk has one regret in this connection. A suitably inscribed clock which he treasured as a souvenir was subsequently removed by a burglar.

As regards the Daily Telegraph, which came so notably to the front in its Christmas appeal for cripples’ hampers in 1895, it may be mentioned that Mr. Kirk was brought into close touch with the proprietor, Lord Burnham, with Mr. Le Sage, the editor, with Mr. J. Hall-Richardson, and other members of the staff, all of whom maintain the pleasant relations then inaugurated.

The name of Thomas Cooper, chartist and apologetic lecturer and author, carries us further back. Mr. Kirk counts it gladness to have met and known the venerable and sturdy old man.

Among the writers still serving their generation, he has been able to interest Mr. G. R. Sims, who at one time suggested the observance of St. Pancras Day for a children’s festival. For Mr. F. A. Atkins, so long the judicious editor of the Young Man and the Young Woman, and founder of the Home Messenger, he has written several contributions, and has often welcomed his co-operation. Other men have lunched with him in his miniature dining-room at headquarters, and came away doubly refreshed, turning their knowledge into columns of matter. Mr. Raymond Blathwayt published an interesting interview in Great Thoughts; Mr. Hartley Aspen uses the columns of the Sunday Companion to further the objects of the Barefoot Mission, which he founded. Mr. Arthur Mee, Mr. Pett Ridge, Mr. Frank T. Bullen, and a host of other novelists and journalists have made use of Mr. Kirk’s stores of information and suggestion.

The standpoints of The Christian and The Christian World are in some respects dissimilar, but their proprietors have been alike in their appreciation of Mr. Kirk. Mr. R. C. Morgan at the Mansion House testified to his high regard and long-standing knowledge of his work; Mr. James Clarke, of the Christian World, in his life-time cordially co-operated with the Ragged School Union, and his sons have continued the tradition and lent its columns to make known its claims. In this connection should be mentioned the veteran philanthropic journalist, Mr. G. Holden Pike, one of Mr. Kirk’s intimate associates, whose books and countless newspaper and magazine sketches have always been marked by accurate knowledge and heartfelt sympathy.

Chapters X and XI

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Chapter X
Of Like Mind

It would be almost impossible, and certainly undesirable, for the secretary of one philanthropic agency to confine himself entirely to his own work. The man of one idea may be valued for his enthusiasm, but is apt to become narrow-minded. The politician rubs shoulders with many kinds of workers, from the stately aristocrat to the vigorous navvy. The religionist can rarely shut himself to his own sect, but, sooner or later, must join with other workers in forms of Christian activity common to all. The scientist will assuredly be found fraternising with apostles of research along other lines. And the social reformer finds that in order to advance his own aims he must hold comradeship with many kindred spirits in order to arrest public attention.

This theory, at least in the case of Mr. Kirk, is abundantly upheld by his practice. All forms of religious, temperance, and social enterprise are dear to him, and if only there were more days in the month and more months in the year, he would gladly enlarge his co-operation. In some cases he has originated movements, especially those which brought union, believing that in unity lies strength.

Thus he was one of the founders, jointly with Mr. Richard Turner (of the Pure Literature Society), of the Secretaries’ Prayer Union. For many years the Ragged School Union office was in Exeter Hall, in whose numerous rooms are found the headquarters of many societies. In February 1887 a circular, signed by R. Turner, E. J. Kennedy, Gawin Kirkham, A. O. Charles, John Kirk, and A. J. S. Maddison, was issued to paid secretaries of religious and philanthropic societies, and, at a meeting held, March 16, in Exeter Hall, it was resolved to form a Prayer Union “to supplicate the blessing of Almighty God upon the work of the societies represented, and also to effect a closer union between the officials thus engaged.” The meetings are held monthly, and the yearly subscription is 2s. 6d. the first honorary secretary was Mr. Clarence Hooper, but, later, the post was taken by Mr. Kirk, and, by the year 1890, some eighty secretaries were in union. The usual programme is tea at 4:30, and “prayer, praises, and perseverance” from 5 to 6. In 1893 Mr. Kirk was chosen president. The Union still maintains its existence with refreshing results.

In 1891 was founded a union on a much broader basis. The Institute of Secretaries is a body welding together official workers, largely from a business standpoint. On Octoberr 8 1894, Mr. Kirk was elected a Fellow of this Institute, which accounts for the letters “F.C.I.S.,” sometimes appended to his name. This organisation, which has now secured a Royal Charter, tries, in a way, to do for its members what the Chartered Institute for Accountants does for men concerned with balance sheets; but it is more easy to hold an examination into the capacity of a student to conduct a proper audit than to determine the possession of those varied and peculiar qualities which, as in the case of Mr. Kirk himself, go to make up a competent or ideal secretary of a philanthropic organisation.

Participation in Sunday school work was fundamental to a worker in Ragged Schools, since Sunday teaching was an integral art of their work. Mr. Kirk’s first experience of actual teaching was in the village of Marldon, near Paignton, subsequently at St. Bartholomew’s, Bethnal Green, and Camden Church School in Peckham. At that time the vicar was the present Canon Fleming, and the superintendent Mr. Charles Steinitz, who founded the Kimpton Road Mission, and was a most useful man to the Ragged School Union. In subsequent years Mr. Kirk came to know the joint secretaries of the Sunday School Union, which includes the great majority of Free Church schools —Mr. Fountain J. Hartley, Mr. W. Tresidder, and Mr. Groser, whose son, Mr. W. H. Groser, is still using his pen its service. Mr. Kirk is on the list of speakers for the South London auxiliary of the Sunday School Union. He became very intimate with Mr. Benjamin Clarke, editor of the Sunday School Chronicle and other publications issued by the Sunday School Union. He was a man of considerable charm and ability, who subsequently became secretary of the Homes for Little Boys at Farningham, where sometimes Mr. Kirk preached. These were founded by the Rev. A. O. Charles while acting as secretary of the Homes for Little Boys at Farningham, where sometimes Mr. Kirk preached. These were founded by the Rev. A. O. Charles while acting as secretary to the Reformatory and Refuge Union. He too was a man of rare sympathetic nature, and with him Mr. Kirk, came into constant and close association. Mr. Kirk addressed the West London Auxiliary in Exeter Hall, 1884, the Birmingham Sunday School Union in 1898, and at the Sunday School Convention, held in the same city in October 1901, he read a paper on “Reaching the Waifs of the Street.” He was the guest of Mr. George Cadbury, and rejoiced in the special facilities permitted him for seeing the model village and factories of Bourneville.

In the course of his paper Mr. Kirk defined a waif as “that child whose parent or guardian practically lets him do as he pleases” and affirmed, from his experience, that unless these children are drafted into our State-aided Industrial Schools or otherwise laid hold of by the child-rescue organisations, they gravitate towards the reformatory and the prison cell, and go largely to swell our criminal and dangerous classes. He proceeded:

“Nor is the waif merely a Sunday problem. He is in evidence all the week, and every week in the year; he is there not only during the day, but far on into the night. My thirty-seven years’ experience has been largely in the great metropolis, although I am not unfamiliar with the condition of the congested streets in other large centres of population. A good half of the children seem to be in the streets until nearly midnight, clustering chiefly around the bright gaslight of the public-houses, which offer their debasing wares long after other shops are closed. Where four, six, or ten live in one, or at most two, rooms, this crowding in the streets in the summertime is almost pardonable. It is quite distressing to see them hanging round the one doorway, trying to get a breath of air, and adding to the noise and turmoil which never seem to give these slum districts a period of quiet. The girls, especially, dance, and that prettily, to the music of the organ-grinder, and they are full of spirits, considering the grey, depressing conditions which surround them. If the children go out for a day’s excursion they never seem to tire, and return home singing the music-hall songs of the day.

I would give a foremost place to special gatherings of these street waifs on Sunday and on week-nights, at which Gospel truths should be presented in an interesting fashion. I am old enough to recall the great revival which took place under Messrs. Moody and Sankey. I remember well the first conference of ministers, when Mr. Moody drew attention to the large numbers of people outside all places of worship. He said, in effect: “If you will unite in helping me gather these outsiders to special meetings, we may do much, by God’s help, to fill up your empty pews, leaving the question of increased accommodation until afterwards.”

He urged the essential features of such gatherings. They must be bright, cheerful, interesting, and orderly; competent speakers must be appointed and trained. Mr. Kirk laid stress on the virtue of hospitality, recalling a party of hooligan lads who were invited, Sunday by Sunday, in batches of half-a-dozen, to a well-to-do home, and so were brought into contact with courtesy and refinement, with the result that their manners were wonderfully changed.

Mr. Kirk has also been a member of the Evangelical Alliance, joining in their reunions in Switzerland and Denmark. He has taken part, too, in meetings of the Church Association, though avoiding, as a rule, directly controversial agencies.

The Y.M.C.A. is another national institution with which Mr. Kirk has been more or less identified ever since the first Sunday he passed in London, which he spent in Y.M.C.A. rooms at Aldersgate Street, City. In 1865 he joined the Y.M.C.A. at St. George’s, Camberwell, whose honorary secretary was Mr. W. B. Strugnell, who was associated with Ann Street Ragged School, and who is still an appreciative correspondent of Mr. Kirk. He was also a member of the Kennington Y.M.C.A., and occasionally gave an address at the Aldersgate Street and Exeter Hall prayer meetings. Various matters brought him into touch with the venerable founder of the movement, Sir George Williams, with whom he dined in St. Paul’s Churchyard. It would be difficult to say through which of the many societies they were both associated with he came into touch with Lord Kinnaird. That nobleman, presiding at the Mansion House meeting of the Testimonial Fund, laid claim to knowing him for an almost longer period than any one else in the room. A similar claim was made by Mr. W. Hind-Smith, a former secretary of the Leeds Y.M.C.A. Coming one day to London he visited Exeter Hall, and there conceived the project which led to its purchase on behalf of the national association. Subsequently he and Mrs. Hind-Smith founded the Young Abstainers’ Union, a Temperance organisation which has very successfully carried instruction to many young people of a higher grade in society than is usually found at Band of Hope meetings.

Mr. Quintin Hogg was a friend and co-worker of many years’ standing. Until his great work amongst young men absorbed mind, leisure, and means, he taught in several Ragged Schools. Mr. Kirk was associated with the various stages of the Polytechnic which has made Regent Street famous, and justified the recent erection of a statue to so noble and eminent a citizen as Quintin Hogg.

In 1888 Mr. Kirk joined Mr. Woodhall in conducting a party of fifty-six lads, aged fourteen to sixteen, belonging to the Polytechnic, who spent twenty-five days travelling in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland for a sum of between £5 and £6. This seemed so incredibly low that the Pall Mall Gazette interviewed Mr. Mitchell, travel secretary to the Polytechnic, who showed how it was done so cheaply. The lads saw everything and fared well, and, under the guidance of so skilled a traveller as Mr. Kirk, must have had a highly diverting and educational time.

In the year 1877 Mr. Kirk joined the Bible Reading and Prayer Union, founded by the Rev. Thos. Richardson, Vicar of St. Paul’s, Mile End. For many years Mr. Richardson was closely associated with Ragged Schools, and Mrs. Richardson, in her maiden days, worked the first badges for the Shoeblack Brigade.

Amongst the societies with offices at Exeter Hall was the Aged Pilgrims’ Friends’, and so friendly was he with the secretary, Mr. Campion, that Mr. Kirk used to open his letters when away on holiday. He was also interested in the Society for erecting buildings for the labouring classes.

The London City Mission is always able to work harmoniously with the Ragged School Union, in some cases its agents using halls belonging to the affiliated missions. Mr. Kirk was on familiar terms with the Rev. John Garwood, author of the Millioned People City, and with Mr. J. M. Weylland, author of the quite famous volume, The Man with the Book, who served the City Mission for forty years. Naturally, too, he came into close touch with the later secretaries, Rev. Robert Dawson and the Rev. T. S. Hutchinson.

It should be noted that for nearly thirty years, Mr. Kirk has been on the rota for a service each month at the Lothian Road Chapel, under the honorary superintendence of his friend Mr. Joseph P. Gent, son of the first secretary of the Ragged School Union.

He often rendered assistance to the Evangelisation Society, appreciating heartily its honorary secretary, Captain W. E. Smith, and his successor, Mr. John Wood. The latter writes, May 17, 1900:

“DEAR MR. KIRK, —I greatly appreciate your kind word, and am astonished to hear that with such a juvenile appearance you can remember Mr. Gilbert! You must have the secret of perpetual youth.”

A willingness to preach, and the love of preaching soon gives a man plenty to do, and Mr. Kirk has found himself in varied pulpits. One Christmas Day he took the service at the Royal Vic Theatre; at another time he spoke in the Soldiers’ Home at Winchester; once he was found at a cap meeting in Pontypool; at another time, in Mildmay Hall.

In this connection it may be noted that Mr. Kirk very early made the acquaintance of Mr. D. L. Moody on his first visit to England, and assisted in both the great missions that were held in London by Messrs. Moody and Sankey. At a later date he met Dr. Torrey, and, quite recently, had the pleasure of interviews with Mr. W. Moody, the wise successor of his father’s work at Northfield.

Mr. Kirk has for many years joined actively with workers among the many blind folk of London, frequently addressing a meeting conducted by Mrs. Starey in St Pancras, and others of the South London Blind Society, under the lead of Mr. Edmonds. He has also joined in meetings of the blind at the Ashley Mission, promoted by that gifted friend of the London afflicted, Mr. W. Mead, himself blind.

One of the societies which made Exeter Hall famous was the “Sacred Harmonic,” whose officials were located in the hall. There Mr. Kirk often met Mr. G. W. Martin, who started his musical career as a choir boy in Westminster Abbey, and later became the composer of much popular music. In earlier days the sol-fa movement gathered many young people, and as the future Mrs. Kirk was musical, they both attended the classes conducted by Mr. Joseph Proudman.

With the midnight meeting movement, originated by Mr. John Stabb, and of which Mr. Wilson M‘Cree is now secretary, Mr. Kirk also came into line. Mr. Stabb was connected with the Fox and Knot Ragged School in Smithfield, with which, of late, was amalgamated the Hatfield Street Ragged School, and it still continues its beneficent work.

Mr. Kirk was early associated with the formation of the Poor Children’s Aid Society. When times are bad and distress is keen, the benevolent feel impelled to set some machinery in motion to assuage the lot of the very poorest, especially of the children. He had for some time been a Board School manager, and early in 1887 he joined several members of the London School Board —Mr. J. R. Diggle, the chairman, Mr. Henry Spicer, J.P., and Mr. J. T. Helby, Sir Walter Farquhar, Canon Barker, Rev. Archibald Brown, Vice-Admiral Somerset— on a committee, whose object was to provide food and shelter for destitute children. Good work was done, but in 1891 the movement, like many others, was transferred to the Ragged School Union. Mr. J. R. Diggle, who became a member of the Ragged School Union Council, and has always manifested the warmest appreciation of its Secretary, was at one time a Ragged School worker at Gray’s Yard.

Almost concurrently with this movement came the formation of the London School Dinners Association. Members of the London School board, including Mrs. Besant, were vigorous advocates of such effort, and an unofficial committee was formed at the School Board offices, of which Mr. Kirk has been a member through the whole period. None could know better than the Secretary of the Ragged School Union how many starving children were compelled to attend school, or the folly and waste of attempting to give instruction to insufficiently nourished brains. Happily, the many voluntary efforts stirred public opinion, and 1906 saw passed an Act of Parliament designed to encourage and aid these efforts by local education authorities. The Association, however, is still doing good work, having found a home at the Ragged School Union office, 32 John Street, with Mr. A. H. Ward, who for over twenty years has been Mr. Kirk’s trusted lieutenant, as secretary.

For some time Mr. Kirk was a member of the Vegetarian Society’s committee which provides dinners for poor children, and early n 1907 presided at a concert held in the Tribune Rendezvous to promote this object.

There are few active Ragged School workers who are not more or less closely identified with the Temperance movement, especially in the form of personal abstinence. Mr. Kirk has always set that example, and so far as time permitted joined in various missions and meetings. In the wonderful Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance work, as far back as 1878, he was associated with Mr. William Noble in Hoxton, and was chairman of a meeting in Stepney Temple Mission in 1893. On other platforms he has spoken with that prince of orators, James A. Raper; with John Hilton, still ripe and vigorous as he approaches his ninetieth year; with that gifted preacher, Ossian Davies; with that upbuilder of the National Temperance League, Mr. Robert Rae, and his son and successor, Mr. John T. Rae; and with many others. Occasionally he has addressed meetings at the Royal Naval School at Greenwich, so successfully maintained by his friend, Mr. W. S. Campbell.

With a later movement, that of Pleasant Sunday Afternoon gatherings of men or of men and women, Mr. Kirk has been connected as a speaker. His Mission and Bible class experiences have taught him how to gain the ear of the working classes, and the lines of his own work have furnished material for interesting addresses. At Browning Hall, at Whitefield’s Tabernacle, in the Masonic Hall, Camberwell, in town and in country, he has been invited more often than he could accept; but probably the most interesting Pleasant Sunday Afternoon to himself was a gathering in October 1901, in his native village of Kegworth.

Mr. Kirk tells a delightful story of how the P.S.A. movement has drawn out hitherto undiscovered talent. “I met a big, burly engine-driver in the Midlands who gave some most effective and pathetic recitations to his fellow-workmen, who were gathered in large numbers. The good man told me afterwards that he never dreamt that he had this gift, but he was tempted one Sunday, when there was a failure in the programme, to give a recitation, learned as a boy at the Band of Hope. He was so encouraged that he has gone on, and is now in great request for his services.”

In the task of suppressing gambling he has felt the keenest interest, and was a member of the preliminary committee which gathered at the Daily News office, and led to the formation of a society, with Mr. George Cadbury as president. It is not always that an agitation wins such immediate and beneficial results as the Street Betting Act of 1906 affords, and which has already greatly lessened the activities of “bookies,” at all events in our streets.

One of the latest enterprises in which Mr. Kirk has been concerned is the British Institute for Social Service. This is one of the many developments of the fecund brain of Dr. J. B. Paton of Nottingham, and its earliest beginnings were in the library of Browning Hall, where the Rev. F. H. Stead, Mr. Tom Bryan, M.A., Rev. J. F. B. Tinling, the late Mr. Budgett Meakin, and several other gentlemen discussed the possibility of forming an association on the lines of the American Institute. This pigeon-holes technical, statistical, and sociological information, which is carefully edited and placed at the disposal of members of the Institute. Here one may learn the best way of rearing a garden city or a model cottage, or the latest form of co-operation in manufacture or sharing out of profits among workpeople. The British Institute has taken tangible shape under the presidency of the Earl of Lytton and an influential committee, and has well-equipped offices in Southampton Row.

It is not pretended that the movements touched upon in this chapter, or elsewhere, are all that Mr. Kirk has been associated with. In the course of forty years benevolent activity displays itself in many forms, and to name all in which he has been interested would fill pages. For some years there was a small organisation with beautiful ideals —the Christian Kingdom Society; very different in its vast ramifications is the S.P.C.E. or Christian Endeavour organisation.

Some reference, however, must be made to his friendly relations with many leaders in movements for the reclamation and care of boys, girls, and young people. After the death of General Gordon, his brother Sir Henry Gordon promoted a “Gordon Memorial Fund,” for the benefit of poor children. In this Mr. Kirk and “Rob Roy” cordially co-operated, and an office was opened in Exeter Hall; but as time went on the fund was merged in a larger military movement of remembrance. Some £500, however, was invested jointly in the Ragged School Union and the Reformatory and Refuge Union funds, the divideneds of which are still used for the same objects.

He was early connected with the work of Miss Rye, and for thirty years attended the valuable monthly meetings for workers arranged by Miss Macpherson, who died in 1906. He has, of course, been brought into constant touch with Mr. F. N. Charrington of Mile End fame, and has always worked in friendly alliance with Mr. J. W. C. Fegan, who began his beneficent career in aiding boys as a Ragged School teacher in Deptford.

Forty years have elapsed since the young Dr. Barnardo came to the Ragged School Union office with his first batch of messenger lads in their distinctive dress, and often Mr. Kirk and he came into friendly contact. He had even closer touch with that remarkable man, Mr. W. Williams, himself slightly deformed who had at one time three Ragged Schools under his care, and then founded the National Refuges, now so valuable an institution. Through Lord Shaftesbury’s influence, the Government handed over the training-ships Chichester and Arethusa. Mr. Kirk used sometimes to go down to Bisley and address the lads in the Farm School. With Dr. Bowman Stephenson and Dr. Gregory, of the Wesleyan Children’s Home, he has been on friendly terms; and his interest in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and his nearness to Stockwell brought him into active co-operation with the Rev. Vernon Charlesworth and the workers at the Stockwell Orphanage.

London is not the only home of great institutions for neglected and destitute children. Mr. Leonard Shaw, who founded the Strangeways Refuges of Manchester and Salford, is succeeded by Mr. T. R. Ackroyd; and with both these zealous workers Mr. Kirk has held frequent intercourse and correspondence. Then there was the zealous worker William Quarrier, in the Homes at the Bridge of Weir; and Mr. Alexander M‘Keith, the “Children’s Man” of Glasgow, whose work in the Saltmarket Mr. Kirk delights to visit. And away in Dublin he was glad to meet his friend and Ragged School co-worker, Mrs. Smiley.

All were engaged in the same glorious work of caring for the uncared-for young people.

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Chapter XI
American Trips

A highly formative influence in Mr. Kirk’s life was a two months’ trip to Canada and the United States which he was able to take in the autumn of 1890. No one who has made that grand tour, whether with rapidity or deliberation, but returns with a greatly enlarged mind and a wider horizon. Impressions of men and things, of the natural and the artificial, accumulate with overpowering continuity, and it requires an observing eye and a clear mind to form anything like a reliable judgment upon the experiences passed through.

So devoted was Mr. Kirk to his duties, and so exigent appeared the constant and varied calls made upon his knowledge and his capacity for quick decision, that it must ever remain a wonder how he succeeded in tearing himself away from the Ragged School Union office for so long a period. Not that the time while away seemed long. It was ceaselessly occupied, and all too short for the programme undertaken, and for that still larger programme of cities unvisited and wonders unseen.

But there can be no doubt that his receptive brain was filled with a store of new illustrations and pleasant experiences, while he succeeded in priming himself with a knowledge of such movements and institutions as were more immediately connected with his own lines of work among children and the poor.

He was accompanied on the trip by his younger brother George, who became the reporter of the tour. His legal mind, accustomed to hearing both sides, and to careful analysis of cause and effect, makes his manuscript volume, Over Land and Sea, a record of permanent value. It is full of grateful appreciation of that extraordinary kindness and hospitality ever shown by Americans to Englishmen well accredited. It has many bits of well-written description of the notable scenes they visited, and the public men they met. Nor does it fail to point out some of the defects and dangers which imperil the future of the great Republic.

The travellers were well armed in the matter of introductions.

Sir George Williams, President of the English Y.M.C.A., wrote generally “To the Presidents and Secretaries of the Y.M.C.A.’s of America”:

“With real pleasure and confidence I commend to you the bearer, Mr. John Kirk, the much esteemed secretary of the Ragged School Union, who is on a short visit to your country. He is worthy of your Christian love and sympathy, and I bespeak for him your valued offices.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who highly valued Mr. Kirk’s labours and constantly extended to him evidence of high appreciation, wrote, under date July 16, 1890, an autograph letter as follows:

“I think it quite superfluous for me to commend Mr. John Kirk to American friends. He is a noble worker for our Lord, and all the good things friends please to think of, they may impute to Mr. Kirk, and take them as said by me. The work of Ragged Schools is needed still and its influence is excellent. Mr. Kirk is the right man to look after this work, and I wish him boundless success.

C. H. SPURGEON.”

The Earl of Aberdeen, not yet associated with Canada as its most popular Governor-General of recent times, wrote to Mr. Kirk as follows: —

“Dear Mr. Kirk, —I shall be very pleased if, during your tour in the United States and Canada, you find it of any service to use my name as an introduction to any friends with whom I may have the honour of being acquainted.

Your long and useful connection with the Ragged School Union and its comprehensive work, as secretary, will certainly increase the interest and value of your trip, both to yourself and others. With best wishes, I remains, yours very truly,

ABERDEEN.”

Letters were also furnished by Lord Kinnaird, Mr. W. T. Stead, Dr. Monro Gibson, and other London friends, which ensured the brothers a hearty welcome by whomsoever they called on.

Later, in Boston, Mr. H. L. Hastings editor of the American Christian, wrote:

“To whom it may concern—

The Bearer, Mr. John Kirk, secretary of the Ragged School Union of Great Britain, one of the most important benevolent agencies of the century, over which the late lamented Lord Shaftesbury presided for so many years, visits America for a brief period. I commend him to the kindly confidences of all Christian people, philanthropists and directors of charitable institutions. Any information given and courtesies shown to him and his brother, who accompanies him, will be regarded as an especial favour by, —Yours truly,

H. L. HASTINGS.”

The travellers sailed in the Allan S.S. Polynesian from Liverpool to Montreal, leaving the Mersey on August 7, 1890, and set foot again on English soil on Sunday, October 5, having returned from New York, via Queenstown, to Liverpool by the magnificent Cunard liner, the Umbria.

The interval covered the hottest period of the North American year, a circumstance rather exhausting to energetic sightseers. Nor was it a pleasant variation that on many days the rain fell incessantly. Our spasmodic showers at home give no indication of the heavy, unceasing downpour for a whole day and longer which is characteristic of American cities.

The Allan liners stop at Quebec for a few hours, and Mr. Kirk enjoyed his first Canadian experience in climbing the Heights of Abraham, and in examining the famous Citadel. This was on Sunday, August 17. Next day found them in the lovely city of Montreal; the view here from the top of Mount Royal —whence the name is derived— is the finest in Canada. They experienced the thrill of shooting the Lachine Rapids. Next day they visited the capital, Ottawa, with its elegant Parliament House, and on Wednesday arrived in Toronto. Here they stayed some time, and found genial and instructive hosts in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. Deane.

Toronto is largely the home of Scottish folk, and is a city of churches and chapels, with a couple of cathedrals, Anglican and Catholic. It is a vigorous commercial centre and the vigour extends to its numerous social and philanthropic reformers. Here Mr. Kirk met many kindred souls.

One afternoon they sailed on Lake Ontario, on the edge of which the city stands, with a party of children taken out by the local Fresh-Air Fund. Mr. George Kirk remarks: “there was an abundant supply of food for the children, and the blow was very enjoyable. The children, although poor, had not that sickly, poverty-stricken look that London children have. There were a few without shoes or stockings, but we were told this was more on account of the warmth than actual want.”

On the Sunday they went out to a “camp,” the big religious picnic which has such fascination for American Christians. It was a pretty sight when the tents were lit up, but a late prayer meeting struck English visitors as a rather “grotesque proceeding.” Two or three went on like raving maniacs, whilst the uproar and excitement were deafening. Now and then a “convert” was brought out to the penitent’s stool.

Of course they visited Niagara, and not only did the accustomed thing, but attempted the rarer feat of being rowed through the “Cave of the Winds” at the foot of the American Fall on Goat Island. Enveloped in a hideous-looking dress, for protection against the shower-bath, they undertook, not very successfully, the perilous experience, and were heartily glad to return to terra firma.

Hardly recovered from this excitement, they went north on a visit to the Muskoka lakes, and at the end of a fortnight said good-bye to Canada, and entered the beautiful city of Detroit, on Lake Michigan. The tree-lined avenues of this town are unequalled. Mr. Kirk was naturally most interested in the Home for Friendless Children, a kind of crèche where mothers and friends can leave their children for the day, or week, or longer. They were surprised at the cleanliness of the order and the good appearance of the children. In the dining-room they found that the little ones were even supplied with serviettes. As a matter of fact, this is considered in the States as essential to the table as a knife and fork, or a glass of iced water.

As an indication of the impression made by Mr. Kirk upon Canadian philanthropists, the following letter speaks. It is written to Mr. Orsman by Mr. J. J. Kelso, who is superintendent of the Ontario system, which aims at a union of Government, municipal and local philanthropic effort. Under the Children’s Protection Act passed in 1893, there are now 56 Children’s Aid Societies in the Province of Ontario, and in thirteen years 4,000 neglected or dependent children have been placed in Christian foster-homes instead of orphanages or reformatories.

“PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS,
TORONTO, Jan. 21, 1907.

W. J. ORSMAN, ESQ., J.P.,
LONDON, ENGLAND.

DEAR SIR, —In reading over the interesting monthly paper of the Ragged School Union, I was greatly pleased to see that some public recognition is about to be made of the long and devoted service of Mr. John Kirk. I had the pleasure of meeting him during his visit to this country some fifteen years ago and have closely followed his work since that time. In all his work he appears to have steadily maintained his enthusiasm; there has been a sanity of judgment in all his efforts, and his work has been marked by a thoroughly Christian and evangelistic spirit. He has many friends and admirers in Canada, and if I may speak for them, I cordially join with you in the recognition of his splendid services, not only to the children but to the nation.

—Yours sincerely,

J. J. KELSO

A couple of days later found them in Chicago, where their letters of introduction rendered them great service. An inspection of the stockyards and the slaughter-houses almost persuaded them into turning vegetarians. They were greatly impressed by the well-known “go-a-headedness” of the Chicagoans. “No other town is like it. Rush, push, work, and activity seem part of the atmosphere of the place. Trams, elevators, and business all seem conducted on the principle of being in a hurry. A sluggard is entirely out of place there.”

Leaving Chicago, they found the Pullman car luxurious and dining accommodation ample and cheap. Passing Harper’s Ferry, they arrived at Washington after twenty-seen hours’ ride, in an oppressively hot atmosphere, justifying the fans they saw in the churches.

Once more they heard the hymn, “Jesus, lover of my soul,” which, with “Blest be the tie that binds,” appears to be sung at almost every American service. They did the numerous sights of Washington, the Capitol, the Patent Office, the Treasury, the Museum, the White House, and near by Arlington Cemetery and the Potomac, and George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. They had a chat with Mr. John Wanamaker, the great Philadelphia merchant, and in that year Postmaster General.

Next they came to Baltimore, and made unpleasant acquaintance with mosquitoes. Mr. Kirk was specially interested in the monument to George Peabody, one of the city’s benefactors.

Philadelphia is only a hundred miles away, and proved one of the most interesting experiences of the tour. Here they met Mr. Child, the proprietor of the Public Ledger, one of the clean, dignified dailies published in the States. Girard’s College, an orphanage maintaining 1,600 boys until they are seventeen years of age, was an institution replete with interest.

“On entering the lodge at the gateway we were asked by an attendant if we were clergymen. Curiosity led us to enquire why such a question was put. ‘Because,’ said the attendant, ‘if you were, that would prevent your going over, as, under the Founder’s will, no clergyman of any denomination is allowed in the college, even as a visitor.’ On reading the will afterwards we found the reason for this extraordinary rule is that the founder did not wish the scholars to have their minds unsettled by conflicting faiths or creeds, but he directed that they should be taught the principles of morality. The trustees, to carry out this, have caused religious instruction to be given daily from the Bible —as containing the purest principles of morality— without reference to any denomination or sect. Having shown we were not disqualified visitors, and entered our names in a book, we passed through the grounds. Thence we proceeded, unattended, through the other buildings, with a curious feeling of freedom after the bumbledom of England.”

They met there a young man who was formerly a helper at Nelson Street Ragged School before he left London.

Two hours’ swift travelling brought them to New York, whence they started on a circular tour of a thousand miles among the mountain and lake scenery and natural wonders of New York State and New England generally.

On the way they called at Boston, replete with historical associations, and paid the usual homage to Plymouth Rock, on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed. They visited orphanages and industrial schools, whose general equipment they found superior to those at home. The courtesy and intelligence displayed by those who showed them over were very striking. The Newsboys’ Home was specially interesting; it is a kind of polytechnic with facilities for washing, bathing, reading, recreation, and forms of mental improvement. Boston newsboys are licensed by the authorities. Not far away was Harvard University.

The railway leading through the picturesque White Mountains is a fine piece of engineering. But the portions of hotel meals were so infinitesimal they failed to appease their appetites. Sunday came, but there was no place of worship near and they communed in the temple of nature. Next day they climbed Mount Washington, 6, 200 feet, by a railway of terribly steep gradients but their engine stuck fast and they narrowly escaped accident.

Onward they journeyed, through romantic scenery to Lake Champlain, and in a day or two found themselves in Albany, the capital of New York State. Thence on a fine rier steamer they sailed down the Hudson, through the Catskill Mountains, past the Palisades, and on September 13 were again in New York.

In the metropolis they spent some days hearing De Witt Talmage, Dr. John Hall, and Dr. Cuyler, and visiting several large Sunday schools and the fine premises of the Y.M.C.A. They rainy weather was inimical to sight-seeing, but did not deter Mr. Kirk from interviewing the newspapers and gathering facts as to the Fresh-Air Fund and mission work.

A visit was paid to the juvenile asylum, 173^rd Street, a voluntary institution subsidised by the municipality for boys and girls who have been convicted of petty offences, or whose parents are unable to control them. It numbers a thousand inmates. Its chief feature is that parents who place their children under its care give up all control over them after a certain time.

All their New York experiences were considerably lightened by the kindness of Mr. G. Fraser of the British Consulate Office, which extended right to their departure on the Umbria, Saturday, September 27. On the following Saturday evening they entered the Mersey.

Mr. Kirk was, of course, considerably interviewed both in Canada and the States, all Americans being anxious to know every Englishman’s impressions of their big country almost before he has had time to form them. Like other sensible men, Mr. Kirk’s was a balanced judgment: business vigour had to be set against political corruption, and theoretic constitutional views of the equality of the human race against the contemptuous treatment bestowed by whites upon the negroes.

Mr. Kirk was glad to be again in the bosom of his family and at his office desk, and within a few days of his return (October 15) a notable assembly was convened in Lower Exeter Hall to congratulate him.

Mr. James Roberson, the then chairman of the Ragged School Union Council, presided, and on the platform were grouped Messrs. W. J. Orsman, Charles Steinitz, Peregrine Platt, and many officials of kindred societies, while Lord Kinnaird and others sent messages of regret at their enforced absence.

The chairman rejoiced at Mr. Kirk’s safe return, for “He was one among a thousand” —one to whom, in the first place, they were much attached, and one whose interest in his work was so intense that it excited the admiration of all with whom he came in contact. Then, amid loud cheering, he presented him, on behalf of the teachers, with the volumes Picturesque America, at the same time assuring him “That we think most highly of you and of your work.”

The genuine modesty of Mr. Kirk’s character found expression in his first sentence: “Dear Mr. Robertson, fellow-workers, and friends, —I had much rather be sitting among you than occupying the prominent position now assigned to me. Still, it is a great pleasure to be again in the midst of so many with whom I have worked for years. Really, this spontaneous, cordial welcome exceeds my deserts; but, from my heart, I thank you for it.”

Much of his subsequent talk was concerned, of course, with the climate, the buildings, the scenery, and the people of the country he had just left. Then he described the Sunday schools and churches. One or two matters may be quoted more fully:

“The institute which seemed to him to correspond the most closely to our own Ragged School is the Five Points Mission in New York. It has 500 children, drawn from the worst districts of the city. They attend school daily, and are provided with clothing and simple food, having two meals a day —the one he saw them take consisted of biscuits and milk. Their clothes are made by the ladies interested in the work. The school is under State regulation, and in receipt of a Government grant. On Sundays, however, there are Gospel services, to which these children are invited; and there is also a Sunday school. In connection with the day school there are evening classes for elder children. It is a remarkable fact that in the day school there is not a single American. They are chiefly Jews, Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, Irish, and a few English.

“As to temperance, he did not see a single drunken person during the whole of his visit, but he was told there was a good deal of secret drinking. The deference paid to women struck him much. As to the children, they are decidedly more precocious than ours, and the reverse of shy.

“One trait in the American character he admired greatly —the respect for and the honour awarded to honest labour. He would illustrate this: On the base of the fine Franklin monument at Washington may be read on the four sides: Patriot—Philanthropist—Philosopher—Printer. He did not think the word Printer would have been added to a statue in Trafalgar Square. Again the memorial stone in the hall of Juvenile Asylum, Washington, bears not only the name of the architect, but also those of the mason and the carpenter.”

From all he had seen, Mr. Kirk drew two or three useful lessons.

“One was that the Americans manage their Christian and philanthropic work in a very business-like manner. For instance, in their work for children there is an adaptability, a brightness, a directness which we might copy with advantage. In this connection he would mention the Holiday Homes and the Fresh-Air Homes for children. They are far ahead of us in these matters. And the Press does yeoman service as regards these Homes, and has repeatedly proved its sympathy by direct pecuniary assistance.”

In the years which have followed, our London and provincial papers have showed themselves no whit behind the American Press in their sympathy with the advocacy of similar enterprises.

In the winter season which followed, Mr. Kirk lectured on his tour in the States in various parts of the metropolis and in other towns. A number of lantern views greatly added to the interest of the narrative, and profit came to various funds.

In 1903 Mr. Kirk again visited America, the rest which change gives being absolutely necessary. But he set about his holiday so vigorously that it hardly tended to the desired physical upbuilding. This time he was accompanied by Mrs. Kirk, and one reason was to see their daughter Hilda, who, married in England in 1896, had for several years resided in New York.

The visitors arrived in May, and in due course went right across Canada to British Columbia. In Ontario are agencies of several English philanthropies, and Mr. Kirk studied them in detail. On the same ship had sailed sixty young people to Miss Macpherson’s Home at Stratford, Ontario. The distributing home of Mr. Fegan’s work is at Toronto, and at one of the four centres of the Barnardo homes, Peterborough, he stayed at the institution for girls. He bears testimony to the thoroughly efficient way in which these are conducted and the truly home-like feeling that pervades them.

As may be supposed, the public and press attention was even greater, kinder, but more pertinacious than thirteen years before. Mr. Kirk found letter-writing difficult on the train and when not riding the demands of friends and reporters were incessant.

On his return to New England he had a very pleasing experience. An English friend who had years before met a Roman Catholic priest, Father Boyle of Pittsfield, Mass., gave him an introduction. Mr. Kirk was hardly prepared for the warmth of his welcome. He wrote as follows:

“ST. JOSEPH’S RECTORY,
PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS,
July 14, 1903.

MY DEAR MR. STUART, —I cannot go to rest without sending you a line. My course has been a series of changes and surprises. I have been in strange cities under novel conditions, meeting all sorts of people, with a result that I have been adjusting my perspective, checking my impressions, squaring my views, and taking in fresh ideas to such an extent that I have really been disinclined to write letters. I must unburden myself when I can crystallise my thoughts and experiences more clearly.

Who would have thought John Kirk would have found himself the honoured guest of a Roman Catholic priest, comparing notes with veritable fathers and enjoying such fellowship as simply leaves me dumbfounded? Father Boyle is kindness itself. He met me to-day at the Depôt, drove me round this beautiful district, with promises of more to follow on the morrow. I never met with a heartier reception; everything thought of; and in this luxurious room I found not only paper, pens, etc., but actually stamps laid out for me.

After dinner I found myself quaffing a cigar [Mr. Kirk smokes very rarely and only because it will set companions at ease] with three fathers on the lawn. When the shades of evening fell, I was given a cosy chair in the study, and the good man and I talked of all sorts of subjects, from Benjamin Kidd and Darwin to the history of America. Well, it is very enjoyable, and I am anticipating a happy time until Friday, when I rejoin the ‘missus’ on Long Island. —Very sincerely yours,

JOHN KIRK

Another letter, dated from the New York Herald office on June 29, shows how much he puts into one day; and some sentences reveal his keen sense of humour:

“My extended travel in Canada meant that beyond the merest fragment of news I have been shut off from all communication. When we got to Flushing on Friday, very early, it was such a joke. The postman threatens to strike. There was a bundle of letters and a clothes-basket of papers. I spent the day in resting and reading, and so managed to pull up a little.

Yesterday I got to town early, attended Plymouth Church, and shook hands with Dr. Hillis. I crossed Brooklyn Bridge and plunged into the slums, wandered up and down amid the smells and dirt of Young Italy. Went to service at M‘Cauley’s Mission, then to an open-air meeting in Italian, and so on to the Methodist Mission School at Five Points and the Children’s Service close by. Afterwards was in time for address at Y.M.C.A up town. I aimed at a Wesley special service, but could not strike the church, so went home.

Have much to tell, but must leave for the upper room [his little dining apartment at the Ragged School Union headquarters in John Street].”

Before leaving New York Mr. Kirk had the pleasure of taking lunch with Dr. Lyman Abbott, the pulpit and editorial successor of Henry Ward Beecher.

Mr. and Mrs. Kirk left New York on July 30, and arrived home after a busy three months, to find a warm greeting from co-workers and the exchange of English for American interviewers.

Chapters XII and XIII

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Chapter XII
Mr. Kirk's Own Mission

By devoting this chapter to a sketch of the Camberwell Mission and Ragged School, of which Mr. Kirk has been superintendent for now thirty years, two purposes will be served. In the first place, the description of one such branch of the Ragged School Union will give some idea of the methods employed, to an equal or less extent, in all the hundred and more affiliated institutions. Beyond this, it will show that the Secretary of the Ragged School Union is a general who directs operations with a full knowledge as commanding officer of one of the regiments or companies composing the main army.

From the first, almost from boyhood, we have seen that John Kirk loved to work for his fellows. In his native village, and again in Devonshire, he was a help to his neighbours, or at work in the Sunday school. When he arrived in London, he sought opportunities of service, and in whatever part of the metropolis he resided, some school or society was the better for his nearness.

When after marriage, he settled in Brixton, he found Sabbath employment near home in the Ragged School in Nelson Street, Camberwell. His brother George joined him, and Mrs. Kirk also used her musical gifts in the same sphere. This was in 1876, and in the next year its honorary secretary, Mr. Travers Buxton, being compelled to leave England, earnestly begged Mr. Kirk to take over his responsibilities, and, in effect, to maintain the operations of the Ragged School. The young man of twenty-nine accepted the position, and still maintains it, through, happily, the chief secretarial burden is now borne by Mr. A. H. Ward, his right hand at John Street. In the thirty years have been witnessed, in the individual mission, those various agencies and developments peculiar to the religious and philanthropic life of three notable decades in English history.

Of the esteem in which Mr. Kirk has been held by past and present workers at Camberwell, there are many proofs in tangible mementoes. A highly appreciative letter from several teachers in 1883 accompanied the gift of two armchairs.

One of the earliest letters forwarded to Mr. Orsman, as secretary of the National Testimonial Fund, was the following: —

“KING EDWARD’S SCHOOL,
WILLEY, SURREY,
Jan. 29, 1907.

DEAR SIR, —Enclosed I have pleasure in handing you a small contribution.

Both myself and wife had the privilege of working on the Committee of Nelson Street, Camberwell, with Mr. Kirk for some years, and can testify to his loyalty and zeal in promoting the best interests of that institution, as well as the parent one…I am only a working man. May God grant Mr. Kirk His richest blessing and length of days.

—Yours faithfully,

RALPH POOR, Master Shoemaker.

The nomenclature of London streets often changes, and it would be rather difficult to identify Nelson Street as Toulon Street, its present name. As a home of social reform it has a long history, dating back to 1810, when a free school was opened in what was little more than a barn. Seven years later the Duke of Sussex presided at the annual meeting, and in 1849 a Ragged School was opened in connection with the newly-formed Union.

When Ruskin was born in Camberwell, and Robert Browning in Walworth, there was a genteel population and an air of the country in these suburbs of the city. Yet even in Camberwell there were slums, and the condition of the Irish colony in Camberwell was so rough, dirty, and unsanitary, that it would be impossible to persuade even the South Londoner of to-day to comprehend it. The early teachers of the Ragged School picked their way at night down a muddy road by the aid of lanterns, and the character of the pupils was in keeping with the surroundings.

Very slowly did matters improve under the compulsion of successive Acts of Parliament. The School Board, formed in 1870, speedily took education into its own hands, and the Ragged School in Nelson Street closed its useful career as a day school. But, as shown in an earlier chapter, Sunday schools and other agencies had arisen in connection with the day school, and these were maintained with even new life and power under the superintendence of Mr. T. E. Crabb.

A great impetus was given to the institution when Mr. Kirk took the helm, with his remarkable vigour and gifts of organisation. To begin with, the Earl of Shaftesbury became president, and the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, now Lord Kinnaird, treasurer. Then he saw all the workers of the mission and gathered them in the house of his friend, Mr. J. G. Gent, who lived near. There was not much scope in the old low-roofed building of one room. Among those early workers was Mr. C. A. Parker, who is still an active member of the Committee.

Carrying his colleagues with him, new movements were set on foot, and even Mr. Kirk is willing to confess that in those years he worked really hard and under very rough and trying conditions. Through two winters he gave lectures to working men, and established a lads’club. For ten years Sunday morning breakfasts were provided for the destitute, until presently it was found that the wrong kind of feeling was engendered. Sunday schools were held, morning, afternoon, and evening; important Bible classes were maintained. Mrs. Kirk established a Mothers’ Meeting, and various week-day agencies were kept actively at work.

With ever-widening usefulness it was not to be expected that the friends would be content with the scant accommodation afforded by the old building. Four years after Mr. Kirk became secretary the freehold was purchased for £400, and six years later, in October 1886, the foundation-stone of a spacious suite of buildings, costing £2,000, was laid by Mr. Edward Rawlings, an old teacher in the school, who became president after the death of Lord Shaftesbury. For twenty years, until his death in 1906, Mr. Rawlings proved a most generous friend to the Mission. Six months later the opening ceremony was performed by Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who gave an admirable review of Ragged School history at the evening meeting.

The financial statement was presented by Lord Kinnaird, who was then treasurer, and who announced among the liberal donors Mr. Samuel Morley and Mr. H. R. Williams, both constant friends of the Ragged School movement. Among other speakers were Professor Leone Levi and Canon Hussey. Two years later, at a cost of £450, class-rooms and soup-kitchen were added, the late Marchioness of Northampton taking part in the opening.

About this time Mr. Kirk received the following letter: —

DEAR MR. KIRK, —The teachers of the Camberwell Mission and Ragged School desire to express their thankfulness to God for the great goodness He has shown in blessing the efforts put forth by you to build and free from debt the present mission buildings, so commodious and suitable for carrying on the long-established work of the Mission.

They also desire to thank you for the noble way in which you have worked in the interest of the schools and the great kindness they have always received at your hands, and add their earnest prayer to God that you may long be spared to continue your labour of love in the Master’s service in the building which so much owes its existence to you, and also to enjoy the esteem so richly merited. —Yours sincerely,

BERNARD G. HOCH.
WILLIAM SOUTH ANDREWS.
CHAS. A. PARKER.
RACHEL JOHNSON.

The report of the Camberwell Mission for 1905-6 is a comprehensive document. The premises have now been vested in the Ragged School Union, which during the year subscribed £44 towards the expenditure. The Committee of fifteen, including two ladies, conducts operations as before without interference, and rejoices in the services as treasurer of Mr. Travers Bluxton, M.A.

The Sunday schools are the present stronghold of the Mission with attendances, morning 60, afternoon 250, evening 430. One can well believe that “many of the classes are overcrowded, making teaching a heavy task”!

The evening school closes at eight, and at 8:15 each Sunday there is a Gospel service. For this Mr. Kirk is responsible, and most Sundays he conducts it himself.

A Christian Band meets on Monday evening; and on Wednesday a Bible School is held, with an average attendance of 150; and there is a weekly meeting for “drift” children, at which lantern slides are often shown. A Senior Girls’ Bible Class meets on Tuesday, and an Adult Bible Class on Wednesday evening. There is a Mothers’ Meeting, with 62 members.

Temperance work is active. The Gospel Temperance Society for adults meets weekly, and has 108 names on the roll; the Band of Hope is unusually large, with 578 on the list; and the Women’s Total Abstinence Union meets alternate Wednesday afternoons. These are all reinforced by the winter Pleasant Monday Evenings, which have an average attendance of 250.

There are the Compton clubs for men and lads; a Goose-Club, with over 100 members; a Boy’s Brigade; a Penny Bank with 155 depositors; a Labour Loan Society of 500 members, which, during the year, advanced and was repaid nearly £1,200; a Clothing Club, and a Ladies’ Working Party.

Each Wednesday during the winter about 200 dinners were given to children, funds being supplied by the Destitute Children’s Dinners Society, and the Robin Dinner Fund provided for 350 happy recipients.

A Cripples’ Parlour with 70 children is held every Wednesday under Mr. Louis Spong’s superintendence, in which Miss Finlayson is a welcome worker. They were able to see the Lord Mayor’s Show, and were entertained by private friends, besides sharing in the privileges of the Holiday Homes and other beneficent agencies of the Cripples’ Mission.

For a long time Mr. A. Spong, of the London City Mission has aided in the conduct of Tuesday evening services, which, in the summer, are held in the open air.

Looked at in tabular form even this outline does not exhaust the range and energies of the Camberwell workers, but the striking feature is that the whole mission was maintained for the year at the reasonable expenditure of £282, of which £60 was spent on repairs, the accounts being duly audited by Mr. Percy Child, Chartered Accountant.

Well might the Right Hon. Charles Booth, the author of Life and Labour in London, who in general was far from friendly to mission agencies, say of this particular field in South London: “The Camberwell Mission belongs to the powerful organisation of the Ragged School Union, and is in the hands of the secretary of that Union (Mr. John Kirk) —a remarkable man.”

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Chapter XIII
An Office Sketch

Mr. Kirk is comfortably housed so far as his everyday duties are concerned as Secretary of the Ragged School Union. When he was appointed to that post the office was in Exeter Hall. Growth compelled a transference to rooms in Norfolk Street, Strand, and in 1900 the Council wisely decided to remove to still larger premises. For this purpose a lease was secured of a four-storeyed house at 32 John Street, near Holborn.

The neighbourhood has many advantages. John Street, near Doughty Street in which Charles Dickens lived for some time, leads northward to the squares of Bloomsbury and to the termini of the three northern railways. No. 32 is only half-a-dozen doors from the house in which Lord Beaconsfield was born, in Theobald’s Road, the important thoroughfare connecting Oxford Street by electric tram with Shoreditch and Whitechapel. Holborn town hall is within two minutes’ walk, and John Street runs parallel with Gray’s Inn Road. The Ragged School Union headquarters are therefore easy of access from all parts of the metropolis, but, standing back from the main road, are very quiet. A few doors away is the Baptist chapel in which the well-known Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel preached for many years.

A generation ago the houses in John Street were really town mansions, but they are now mainly used by lawyers and professional men. No. 32 is the busiest of them all, for there are many callers in connection with the various departments. The railway van is often at the door, and a cripple’s visit is a frequent occurrence. There is no postal delivery but the Ragged School Union shares it; and always a hundred, some days many more, letters and papers are dropped into the spacious letter-box. With what eagerness they are opened for who knows what good fortune of a legacy or handsome donation ma any day help forward the noble work of the Shaftesbury Society?

The basement or area is used for boots and shoes and other storage. The ground floor is ascended by a few steps, and off the wide hall, the first room looking on to the street, is the Secretary’s office. The second room, a large one beyond, is reached from the hall and by an inner passage from the front room. It has some half-dozen desks, at which is done the clerical work of the union —and much more besides. Beyond this is the large room of the Barefoot Mission, so large that it is often used for At Homes of the ladies’ auxiliary, when 80 or 100 persons find seats.

On the first floor are two large apartments. One is the home of the Cripples’ Mission, and here may often be found some ladies rendering voluntary assistance to the paid staff. At certain periods of the year there is a great stress of work. The other room is the board room or council chamber, with portraits of the Ragged School Union worthies and other pictures upon the walls. Here on the second Friday of each month the Ragged School Union Council meets, and many other days and evenings the room is used for conferences, committees, and the like. Not the least enjoyable functions are the gatherings of the staff and personal friends at dinner on Mr. Kirk’s birthday.

On the next floor one room is used for the staff dinner, arranged by themselves. A smaller room permits recreation in the dinner-hour between one and two. In a tiny room on the same floor Mr. Kirk takes lunch, and could rest, if opportunity permitted; but of late years he is so generally accompanied by a friend, chiefly on Ragged School Union business, that the interval is hardly so restful as it should be. The remaining rooms are occupied by the caretaker and his wife.

The staff commences operations at 9:30, and leaves about six; that is the normal rule, which has, however, many departures, for there are some things that may not be postponed.

Mr. Kirk usually leaves his home in Raleigh Gardens, Brixton, soon after nine, and is ready for business at ten. He sits at his roll-top desk facing a large bookcase, stored with many books of reference, and others sent for review. First, there is the morning’s correspondence to handle. The numerous subscriptions are rapidly dealt with and acknowledged, and all the accountant’s share of the work is undertaken by Mr. A. H. Ward. Then there are interviews with the heads of the departments and outside agents. The preparation and selection of matter for the magazine demands thought, and there is a vast amount of business arising from the Council meetings and the Fresh-Air Fund, with multitudinous matters of detail. It is by the perfection of detail that an organizer scores real success.

There are also interviews with journalists, with printers and contractors, with mission superintendents, with legal advisers, with friends and subscribers from a distance, and with those who have some axe to grind. From ten to four or five makes a long and exhausting day, and it is no wonder that the Secretary gets aweary.

Even then the day’s work is but half finished, for there is scarcely an evening that Mr. Kirk is not called upon to fill some engagement. Nor do the days run quite as smoothly as the clock, for to-day there is a committee meeting in the City, and to-morrow the affairs of the Home at Bournemouth or Margate need personal attention; while a flying trip must be made to Wales or the North in order to set the Fresh-Air Fund in motion.

Then there are country Unions to visit. Mr. Kirk addressed the Leicester Ragged School Union in 1884, and again in 1896. He was at Oldham in 1896 and 1898. He joined in the Lancaster Town Mission in 1897. When the jubilee of the Manchester and Salford Union occurred in 1901, and the Marquis of Northampton presided at a meeting in the Free Trade Hall, Mr. Kirk conveyed a message of greeting from the London Council. So at Bolton, Bristol, Cheltenham, Warrington, Lincoln, Coventry, Gravesend, and elsewhere, the committees are all proud to welcome the London Secretary in their midst.

Lectures nowadays are less popular than they used to be, but during his years of office Mr. Kirk has filled a good many evenings in this way. The Ragged School Union owns lanterns and numerous slides, and Mr. Kirk’s travels on the Continent and in America have furnished him with splendid subjects. In 1890 he lectured at Sutton, Wood Green, and elsewhere on “Paris and its Wonderful Exhibition.” His visit to Spain and Gibraltar in 1883 was a fruitful theme. At East Grinstead he spoke of “Life in the Big City,” ad on “Life in the Slums” at Carnarvon, Cambridge, Eastbourne, and other places. The title might vary: “In Darkest London” was delivered at High Wycombe, Earl Carrington presiding; “Rags and Tatters,” and the like, in other places in and out of London; but the matter invariably comes round to Mr. Kirk’s life-work. For as a writer in the Sketch, July 21, 1891, remarked, “He lives and moves and has his being in the movement.”

Mr. Kirk maintains the most harmonious relations with his staff. The ordinary conception of employer and employees is non-existent; there is a comradeship which is full of affectionate regard. The chief is unselfishly considerate of the strength and ability of his assistants, while they are prepared to do anything nature makes possible for their chief. As far back as 1897, when Mr. Kirk completed his jubilee, their esteem found expression in the gift of a reading-stand and easy-chair, presented by Mr. A. H. Ward as spokesman, in the most cordial terms.

If the reader has patience to glance through the entries of one month in Mr. Kirk’s diary, some idea would be gained of the multifariousness of a busy secretary’s duties. The month was chosen at random.

October 1902

Oct. 1. Service at Westminster Abbey, with procession to place wreath on statue of Lord Shaftesbury. (This is done each year.)

“ 2. Meeting at Browning Hall Settlement, Walworth.

“ 3. Conference of Workers among the Drift Children.

“ 4. Social Gathering of Cripple Workers at suburban residence of Divisional Superintendent.

“ 5. (Sunday afternoon)): Ragged School Union Mission, Battersea. Harvest Festival.

Evening: Camberwell Mission Harvest Thanksgiving.

“ 6. Special Conference at 12 o’clock in City with Treasurer of Ogle Mews School.

Evening: Ashley Mission, Bethnal Green. Harvest Thanksgiving.

“ 7. Workers’ Meeting, Fox Court, Holborn.

“ 8. At Margate Cripples’ Home. Meetings afternoon and evening.

“ 9. Ladies’ Auxiliary Committee at 3:30.

Lambeth Ragged School. Trustee’s Meeting at School Board Offices at 5 p.m.

“ 10. Ragged School Union Council Meeting.

(This begins at 3:30 and never ends before 6.)

Staff Prayer Meeting with address at 7.

8:30: Important Meeting at Locksfields Mission to organise Local Committee.

“ 11-13. Engagements for Services in Herfordshire, and Monday Evening Lecture, but cancelled.

“ 14. Address at Lothian Chapel.

Joined later in Evangelistic Service at Camberwell Mission.

“ 15. Conference at Guildhall on Child Hawking, at 5.

Address at Ladies’ Sewing Party at Brixton, at 7:30.

“ 17. Potters Bar. Meeting. Spent night at Heronfield.

“ 19. Sunday: Camberwell Mission.

“ 20. Special Consultation in City at mid-day on Local School.

Town Hall, Finsbury. Mayor’s Party to Cripples.

“ 21. Appointment with builders at Shaftesbury Retreat, Loughton.

“ 22. Consultation at 11 o’clock re Hoxton Market Mission.

Battersea. Evening at Gipsies’ Mission.

“ 23. Secretaries’ Prayer Union.

“ 24. Five Days’ Visit to Lowestoft. Meetings in Open Air for Fishermen—at Bethnal— at Railway Mission Hall.

“ 29. Cripples’ Conference, Lavender Hill.

“ 30. Ragged School Union Lecture, Presbyterian Church, Tulse Hill.

“ 31. With Local Cripple Workers at Stroud Green.

October follows the summer with nearly every day concerned in some fresh-air outing or other gathering. It leads on to the winter season and Christmas, with the pressure of poverty and destitution, and the Lord Mayor’s Cripple Hampers. With the turn of the year arrives the necessity for securing speakers early for the annual meeting in May, then the preparation of report and audit of accounts. Hardly is May past before the summer season returns, and so all the year round the Secretary’s mind and brain are continually strained.

“Go Away!” says the doctor, and friends re-echo the request. But if one goes away for two or three days he carries also the cares, and returns to find an accumulation of correspondence. It is better when a real holiday of two or three weeks can be taken abroad and letters are debarred. At times, with Mrs. Kirk, Mr. Richard Turner, or other friends, he has freely traversed Europe, and “done” Gibraltar, Germany, Spain, Brittany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

But there is no place like home; and after much journeying in train and bus, in tram and car, and by slow and express trains, there is nothing that Mr. Kirk enjoys better than the quiet of his own hearth and the pleasure of reading a book in his own armchair.

Chapters XIV and XV

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Chapter XIV
The Man Himself

It has long been a favourite heading with our society newspapers to describe Lord This or Mr. That “at home.” While intended, to a large degree, to satisfy a natural but not wholly pardonable curiosity on the part of readers as to that aspect of a popular man’s life which they cannot see, it is also an indirect tribute to the conviction that knowledge of any man is incomplete without some glance of him in his family circle and amid his domestic environment.

For more than thirty years, save for a short spell at Dorking, Mr. Kirk has resided in what was once fashionable Brixton, and which is still marked by wide roads, front gardens, back lawns, and especially by the wealth of foliage which constitutes the highway from Kennington to Streatham one long, leafy avenue. Churches and chapels abound, but gradually the once fashionable terrace is being rebuilt or transformed into business premises.

Kennington Park itself is one of London’s charms. Its beautiful flower-beds are next the pavement; its gardeners’ lodges, long ago built as model cottages, are proof of the interest displayed by Albert the Good in all that concerned the people, and may be regarded as one of the tendencies influencing his son, Edward VII., to deep concern as to the housing of the people. The park, which really covers but a few acres, was originally laid out with wonderful skill, making it appear far larger than it really is. This is due to the Scotch gardener who designed it. Mr. Kirk tells of a visit he once paid to the good woman with whom the gardener lived, and she described how he would sometimes get up in the middle of the night, when a dream or new idea had come to him, and go out to see its effect upon his work.

Other men have fled to the suburbs; if anything, as the result of occasional removals, Mr. Kirk has drawn nearer his office. Yet it is well, perhaps, that he is compelled to spend at least half-an-hour each way in the open air, and, though oft repeated, the scene never tires the man who is intent upon the study of an ever-varied, ever-changing human procession.

Once inside his home, a man feels a restfulness unobtainable elsewhere, and Mr. Kirk’s affectionate nature finds its response in the family and his passion for the Ragged School Union in their sympathetic co-operation. Before their marriage Mrs. Kirk was a teacher in Ann Street Ragged School; it was here, indeed that he found his future helpmeet, Miss Elizabeth Ayris, who, gifted with a retentive music memory, a good voice, and a ready touch, rendered most useful service, especially in the Camberwell Mission.

Mrs. Kirk was early in possession of Mr. Curwen’s Intermediate Sol-fa Certificate for reading music at first sight and writing from ear. When the Barefoot Mission developed, Mrs. Kirk spent a good share of the week for a long time in voluntary assistance at the Ragged School Union office. When it became imperative to have a lady regularly in charge, and Mrs. Kirk was set free, the council of the Union presented her with a gold watch suitably inscribed.

Mr. and Mrs. Kirk’s family consists of four sons and three daughters, the latter especially having often joined their father in various forms of service on behalf of the Ragged School Union. The younger boys appear to the writer to be two of the most affectionate sons to be found in a day’s march.

The continued progress of the Fresh-Air Fund inaugurated by Mr. C. A. Pearson has involved Mr. Kirk in very considerable travel, and brought him into the most pleasant relations with the founder of the Fund. None is more appreciative of the Ragged School Union secretary than Mr. Pearson himself, and in May 1906 he gave a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel to mark the fifteenth year of the operations of the Fund.

On that occasion he presented Mr. Kirk with a gold watch and chain. Nor did he forget the two members of the staff who superintend the outings in North and South London. Mr. Varney was the recipient of a clock, and Mr. John Dyer of an epergne.

Among other souvenirs of appreciation there came, in December 1893, a handsome bookcase, presented by the workers at Arthur’s Mission, Snowsfields, on the completion of a new building in the provision of which Mr. Kirk has been largely instrumental.

Mr. Kirk is appreciative of art, and never fails to present himself one day during the Royal Academy Exhibition at the earliest hour the gates are open, that he may have a time for quiet inspection. But that which strikes a guest in his house is its permeation with books. Book-shelves line the breakfast-room, book-cases fill the dining room; and thousands more in upper rooms await more convenient lodgment.

They are largely books of reference and of study, with a leaning to Biblical exposition and theology. Very many are the gifts of friends and institutions, and of authors. One naturally finds Mr. Edwin Hodder’s Life of Lord Shaftesbury, with the author’s name, and a note saying he should some day like to write the life of Mr. Kirk himself. Three volumes of the Life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon came from their author, G. Holden Pike. A volume from Earl Compton, now Marquis of Northampton, is inscribed, “For my Friend John Kirk.”

There are also, three volumes of C. H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, resented by the late Sir George Williams.

Farther back, in 1879, from his travelling companion, Mr. R. Turner, was received that useful compendium Chambers’ Encyclopœdia, inscribed, “To my Dear and Valued Friend.”

In 1891 the committee and teachers of the Camberwell Mission presented together with an illuminated address, a sumptuously bound edition, in six volumes calf, of Ruskin’s Modern Painters.

A gift highly prized by Mr. Kirk is that of Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living and Dying, in two volumes quarto, calf, containing the inscription: “Presented to John Kirk in recognition of his services and great amiability when acting as superintendent to the Boys’ Sunday School in the parish of St. Mary, Newington, Feast of St. David, 1872.” This is signed by Dr. Maclagan, then rector of the church, and now Archbishop of York.

Poetry is represented in a gift from Colonel A. B. Richards, editor of the Morning Advertiser in 1876, who wrote a somewhat ambitious poem, Medea.

Among other cherished mementoes of the past are a “licence to act as lay reader in the parish of Seven Dials,” countersigned by Dr. Jackson, the then Bishop of London; also the original certificate (awarded for faithful service to members of Ragged Schools) signed by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and countersigned by Lord Shaftesbury as president and Mr. Kirk as secretary.

When at home Mr. Kirk works at the desk presented by the Open-air Mission. Its shelves and drawers are mainly devoted to notes of sermons and addresses to which he has listened. A score of foolscap 8vo notebooks devote a page to each —divisions, subdivisions, and notes. An ingenious diary, issued by some publisher, needs only a number to be entered, and in a drawer numerically arranged will be found the small budgets of notes —hundreds of them—corresponding to these entries. Other volumes contain Mr. Kirk’s own notes in the way of preparation, the whole covering a field of service extending over thirty to forty years.

No man can continually write notes and use illustrations in countless talks to Bible classes, mission congregations, open-air crowds, and public meetings without first of all storing the memory. In this last chapter we return to one of the keynotes of the first —namely, Mr. Kirk’s love of reading. When forty years of age, and overwhelmingly busy, he still found time to join the Victoria Reading Circle, and in 1886-7 was awarded a certificate for plodding through its course of English literature. In 1881 he was a member of the Church Homiletical Society, and regularly received a copy of the Clergyman’s Magazine. Through two sessions he attended St. Paul’s Chapter house, and listened to lectures by Bishop Magee and other divines.

Besides a good acquaintance with literature of the past, he always appears to have a knowledge of what has just been issued from the press. As a matter of duty, a good many periodicals have to be glanced through, but in addition, a free use of the circulating library makes him an intelligent companion on the latest biography or worthy novel. Long practice and possession of the editorial instinct enable him to get rapidly through a book, omitting the unimportant sections, but always grasping the pith and marrow. His own “sanity of judgment” renders him also an acute critic, but his criticism, in nearly all cases, is tinged with the same tolerance and generosity of feeling that mark his personal intercourse with men and women.

“Reading,” says Bacon, “makes a full man” —that is, it provides knowledge; and the axiom is as true as it is axiomatic that “Knowledge is power.” Quick in decision as Mr. Kirk is in general, you cannot get him to pronounce definite opinions offhand on men, on plans, or on subjects of which he is ignorant or only partially informed. He is grateful to anyone who will give him information at first hand or suggest a book or article which will supply his lack.

When he feels that he knows, he comes readily to a decision, and so far as it pertains to his authority, the outcome of his knowledge will be carried into effect. This was well put in a letter written to him by the proprietor of London’s Calendar, over ten years ago:

“May 6, 1895.

DEAR SIR, —It has been in my mind for a long time to write and congratulate you on being the most enterprising secretary of a charitable society I have yet met in my London work. This comes spontaneously, and not because you are one of my subscribers.”

About the same time another writer of one of the countless magazine articles, describing Mr. Kirk and the work of his Society, quotes his frequent utterance: “Yes, if a thing has to be done, it had better be done at once”; adding, “In that sentence appears a marked indication of Mr. Kirk’s energy.”

If I may on this last page or two, refer more directly to my own personal relation, I should say that that exactly covers my experience. For many years I had been familiar with the name of Mr. John Kirk, and casually acquainted with the agencies of the Ragged School Union, but it was less than six years ago, when taking journalistic notes of a festival at Costers’ Hall that I was unexpectedly introduced to Mr. Kirk himself. I remember to this day the hearty handshake, the pleasant smile, and the cheery conversation which followed.

By request I called upon him a day or two after, and began an intimacy which has been a source of delight and inspiration, and which has enabled me to understand the wealth of esteem and affection lavished upon him by men and women of all classes, and by young and old alike. He is one of the reliable men. Instinctively you know where he will be found, and, what is more to the point, that he will always be found there.

I do not profess that I know exactly his theological opinions. One talks in friendship and takes certain things for granted as the result of one’s knowledge. We have seen in these chapters how closely he has been associated with men of all the churches, and with men outside the Church, but are conscious, nevertheless, that he rings true to the evangelic note, enlightened by the results of scientific and Biblical research. But what one feels most clearly is that the entire disregard of self which animates all his words and actions proves how true a disciple he is of the Master, and how fully he believes in the Apostle’s declaration, Faith, Hope, Love, but the greatest of these is Love.

Men of true spirituality of mind rarely lay bare the depths of the soul, and Mr. Kirk is not a preacher or conversationist whose sentences are interlarded with pious phrase. But we have seen that he founded the Secretaries’ Prayer Union as meeting a deep longing of his own heart, and in all movements that tend in reverence and sincerity to bring the man nearer to his Maker he has always sought to take a share. The same quality of spirit debars him —humorous story-teller as he is— from any of those phrases or references which border on the irreverent or indelicate. He is not of the smoking-room type either of lay or cleric. It is perhaps this quality and an innate reverence for womanhood that has made him so many friends among the gentler sex.

Of the stronger, sterner qualities that attract men he must possess a large share, since intimate acquaintances and admiring friends are far more numerous in his experience than among most men. These qualities include the welcome virtue, as I have said, of reliability. I have had no doubt, whenever Mr. Kirk made a promise to me, of large or small moment, that it would be kept, and that if unavoidable circumstances hindered its fulfilment, I should receive before, not after, the disappointment either letter or telegram.

He commends himself to men by the quickness of his intuition, the shrewdness of his judgment, and the rapidity of his decision. Talk to him for five minutes in unfolding a plan, and he will master it. To a man with but a few hours per day, and scores of subjects awaiting action, this gift of prompt resolve is as valuable as it is rare.

Another charming possession of Mr. Kirk is the gift of letter-writing. His calligraphy, if at all unreadable, is so because of its flourishes, not for its lack of formation of the letters. He writes very rapidly with pen or pencil, at his desk, in the train or at a meeting, but he never fails to have some sentence in the unique way of compliment or gratitude or sympathy. I long since discovered this quality and began to treasure his letters, several of which I have ventured to quote. He dictates much of his correspondence, but never hesitates to uses his own pen, and sometimes even apologises for the cold type-written letter when too busy to write himself.

With all his attention to detail Mr. Kirk is a true leader, for as soon as a colleague or subordinate wins his confidence he bestows almost unlimited trust. Even when things go awry he shows extraordinary patience. Any man who engages in public life, or has much to do with committees, especially if upon them sit men whose knowledge and conceit are in inverse proportions, has many opportunities of restraining inward passion and indignation. I should not care to aver that Mr. Kirk never waxes wroth, but I can declare, having met him in many and varied circumstances, that I have never known him outwardly lose temper. Slang or expletive phrases never escape his lips.

I have not asked the Ragged School Union Secretary, who has to work with men of all parties, what his politics are; I am content to be assured that he is progressive, with a small “p,” in every sense of the word. He is a man with an open mind, not wedded to things because they have long existed, but with too much experience to accept an idea simply because it is new. He is exceedingly tolerant of the right of other men to think and act and speak as they please; but that in no way diminishes the quiet determination with which he pursues his own aims. He does not sulk, however, if majorities are too strong for him. He makes the best of things when outvoted or when some favourite scheme cannot be carried into effect.

The sum of all these virtues is expressed in the word “tact.” Mr. Kirk is essentially a man of tact. If the workers of some affiliated mission are at loggerheads, or if some subscriber is offended at one odd sentence in the magazine, or by an action done by some person for whom the Ragged School Union Secretary has no sort of responsibility, he will frame the most courteous reply or seek an interview and smooth matters over. We all require tact in every walk of life, but a society like the Ragged School Union, with many ramifications, is a special field for the cultivation of philosophic and Christian virtues; and the onward progress of the Shaftesbury Society during the last twenty-five years is largely due to Mr. Kirk’s power of handling men —and women.

The foundation of all his strenuous work lies in the great fact of Mr. Kirk’s deep love for children. He is always at home with them —rich or poor, merry or sad, clean or unwashed. Well might the Morning Leader the other day describe him as “The Poor Child’s Friend.” He has a claim to an even more comprehensive title, “The Children’s Friend.”

The outward presentment of Mr. Kirk is almost as well known as that of a popular actress; he is one of the men who photograph well, and the portrait which forms our frontispiece is a very happy representation. He is a little below middle height, and in the lack of grey hairs he wears well in spite of arduous toil. His only physical recreation is the use of the bicycle, for as a man he remains what he was as a boy, the lover of the intellectual.

Mr. Kirk’s chief defect is that he works too hard, and always wishes to be doing more. It is remarkable that ere he enters on his sixtieth year he should have seen and done so much. His friends might show their friendliness by yielding him a little more leisure, for the wealth of knowledge, the ripeness of experience, and the sobriety of judgment of which he is possessed are rarely found combined in the same man, and should in coming years prove of great value in the solution of the child-problems, to the elucidation of which Mr. Kirk has devoted his life.

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Chapter XV
The King's Favour

In the autumn of 1906 proposals were set on foot to commemorate Mr. Kirk’s forty years of service in connection with the Ragged School Union. The Council determined that the Testimonial, whatever its extent, should be a unit, and not divided into various gifts. They further stood aside, as a Council, in order that the Testimonial Committee might be representative. At the same time many members of the Council were included in that authority. The true link, however, lay in the choice of Mr. W. J. Orsman as Hon. Secretary of the whole movement. Mr. Orsman was the father of the Council; he was Sir John Kirk’s colleague of longest standing, and a close personal friend. Happily circumstanced in leisure and public associations, he devoted himself for a full half-year, with the minutest detail to the building up of a movement worthy of the R.S.U. and its Secretary.

Not only did the Council make a wise selection in this respect, but they conferred as to the extent of their own contributions, and jointly agreed upon a sum which, while not lavish, was substantial enough to set the Testimonial Fund rolling merrily. Later on they felt justified, as a Council, in undertaking to defray from the Society’s funds all the actual expenses of the Testimonial, so that the entire gifts of subscribers might go straight to the recipient. That this was justifiable is self-evident to any person who reflects upon the splendid advertisement given to the Shaftesbury Society by all the incidents of the Mansion House Presentation.

A word of gratitude must be set down to Mr. W. Mann Cross, Chairman of the Council in 1906-7, who, as a member of the City Corporation, was on friendly terms with Sir W. Treloar, then Lord Mayor, and thus succeeded at the outset in enlisting his co-operation. It was at a tiny lunch-party of three in Mr. Mann Cross’s room that the first details of organisation were determined. To Sir William Treloar the warmest thanks of everyone are due for the extreme cordiality of his assistance. He was busy with his own great scheme of behalf of Cripples, but the Mansion House was always at the disposal of the Committee, with his lordship in the chair. On January 14, 1907, he gave a luncheon to about twenty friends, and, later in the afternoon, nearly a hundred gathered in the Lord Mayor’s parlour, when the Testimonial was resolved upon. His kindness culminated in permission to use the noble Egyptian Hall for the Presentation, and he added a generous contribution. From first to last H.R.H. Princess Christian rendered the movement great service. Her early letter of commendation was widely published; H.R.H. subsequently accepted the dedication of this volume; and her association with the King reinforced His Majesty’s previous knowledge of Mr. Kirk.

Mention of the chief helpers would be far from complete if the name of Mr. C. Arthur Pearson were omitted. His constant intercourse with Mr. Kirk in extending the usefulness of the Fresh-Air Fund had not only aroused his admiration and appreciation, but cemented a feeling of warm regard, and it was through a very generous offer of his that the Committee decided to post an appeal to all R.S.U. subscribers. Subsequently he called on Lord Knollys, and this led to the King’s command to Mr. Kirk to visit His Majesty at Buckingham Palace.

In noting the constituent elements which made the Testimonial so successful, the newspapers cannot be overlooked. From the very first meeting they rendered liberal and admirable service. Special articles were written and interviews held with Mr. Kirk; reports were given of the preliminary meeting; and subsequently the Committee’s appeal, with a covering letter of the President, the Marquis of Northampton, was widely printed. On the day fixed for Mr. Kirk’s visit to the King, summaries of various length were printed; and when, in the afternoon, the knighthood became known, voluminous articles appeared in successive editions of the evening papers. Next day The Times’ notice was of considerable length, and every daily paper in the land wrote fully, not only on the life and work of Mr. Kirk, but upon the manifold agencies of the Shaftesbury Society.

In addition, numerous editorial comments were penned, running, in some cases, to a full column, as in the Western Daily Press and Lancashire Daily Post. The London weekly papers —political, literary, fashionable, and sectional— together with hundreds of country journals, from Penzance to Aberdeen, and from Norwich to Cork, joined in the record. The albums containing these cuttings form not the least interesting and valuable of the gifts which fell to Sir John’s lot. They are at once a striking tribute to his abounding popularity and to the interest displayed by British journalists in the work of social reform. It was also deemed of sufficient importance by London correspondents of American papers to cable across the ocean. The keynote of all was the sense that the honour bestowed was well deserved, and that the King had once more displayed his great tact and his appreciation of faithful service.

“The most remarkable thing about the Testimonial,” said Mr. Orsman, in his statement at the Mansion House, “was its spontaneity,” and that was certainly its most pleasing feature. At first the Committee aimed at a thousand pounds, but when once the appeal was issued money literally flowed in. Many a day saw the arrival of a hundred letters. It was not that any very large amounts were tendered. Only three contributions exceeded £20, and the average was from ten to fifteen shillings. “A Poor Woman” sent a shilling, several “Ragged School Workers” six or twelve stamps, and many wished they could send more.

Some of the cripple children united their pennies in the various Parlours. In many of the Missions and Ragged Schools, workers contributed their shillings and half-crowns. The Office Staff combined in one gift; so also in several Homes. The numerous branches of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, as well as the Guild of the Good Samaritan, put their gifts into one common stock, and thus offered a most liberal contribution. When the news reached South Africa any friends remitted to England, as did others in Canada, and several in the United States. The Sunbeam Society of South Australia, through “Uncle Harry,” mailed five pounds. In Italy, Russia, Germany, France, and elsewhere, English residents learned of the movement, and contributed sympathetic letters and liberal money gifts.

So by degrees the amount crept up. On the last day it was thought to make the cheque £1,907, but other amounts came in, notably a cheque from Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P., and another in memory of the late Baroness, besides gifts from Sir Thomas Lipton and Messrs. Rothschild.

There came also congratulatory resolutions from kindred societies and organisations, including the Religious Tract Society, Sunday School Union, Secretaries; Prayer Union, London Schools Dinner Association, Reformatory and Refuge Union, London Schools Dinner Association, Reformatory and Refuge Union, British Institute of Social Service, Destitute Children’s Dinner Society, Central (Red) Shoeblack Society, Evangelisation Society, London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution, United Kingdom Band of Hope Union, Liverpool Ragged School Union, Blackburn Ragged School, Newcastle-on-Tyne Poor Children’s Holiday Association, Birmingham Sunday School Union, The East London Shoeblack Brigade, The Robin Dinner Fund, and The Open-Air Mission.

The general opinion of Committee and subscribers was evidently in favour of handling over to Mr. Kirk all the money that was raised. But eventually it was arranged that Mr. William Rainey, R.I., should execute a portrait in oils.

For this Mr. Kirk gave special sittings, and the portrait, representing the Secretary at his desk in the office, now hangs on the wall of the Council Chamber. The head and shoulders were reproduced on a smaller canvas and presented to Lady Kirk, whose drawing-room it now adorns.

To Lady Kirk was also presented a valuable Drawing-room Clock with Westminster chimes.

The Address, chastely wrought by Mr. Henry E. Montague, and undertaken as a mark of high esteem, consisted of four folio leaves, mounted on thick board. Among the illustrations were Kegworth Church, Sir John at his desk, Arthur’s Holiday Home at Bognor; portraits of the late Earl of Shaftesbury, the late Baroness Burdett Coutts, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Lord Mayor. The album was handsomely bound in green morocco.

The long stay of the King in the Mediterranean delayed Mr. Kirk’s call to Buckingham Palace, but in the middle of May Lord Knollys wrote that the date was fixed was Thursday, May 23^rd, at 11:30.

A fortnight earlier the writer of this volume, armed with influential introductions, approached the Prime Minister, and on May 13 paid a visit to Downing Street with the desire that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman would suggest the name of Mr. Kirk among the recipients of Birthday Honours. As the result showed, this visit bore fruit, for in a letter to Sir John Kirk, dated May 27, 1907, the Prime Minister’s Secretary writes: “Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had much pleasure in recommending your name to the King, and it gives him great satisfaction that this mark of appreciation should have been conferred on you by His Majesty, in recognition of the great work to which you have devoted your life.”

But Mr. Kirk was in entire ignorance of these facts when he arrived at Buckingham Palace. The fount of honour lies in the King, and His Majesty not only acceded to the Prime Minister’s request, but did so with such promptness and cordiality as considerably to enhance the generosity of the gift. The dramatic scene was described in almost every newspaper in the land.

The Marquis of Northampton had been commanded by the King to introduce Mr. Kirk, and shortly after 11:30 they were ushered into the Royal presence. The King’s manner was most gracious, setting his guest entirely at ease. He reminded him of the visit of himself and the Queen to the People’s Palace in 1887, and, without further ado, said he proposed to make him a knight. Mr. Kirk was taken aback, and began to decline, at which His Majesty smiled, and said it was the Prime Minister’s particular wish. The Marquis, appealed to by Mr. Kirk, advised him to accept the honour. Forthwith the King touched a bell, and a sword was brought. He bade Mr. Kirk kneel, then tapped either shoulder, and said, “Rise, Sir John!”

He then shook hands with him, bade him give his congratulations to Lady Kirk, and the brief audience was at an end.

Then came the beginning of a succession of congratulations by post and telegraph, which kept Sir John and Lady Kirk busy for weeks. The first newspaper announcement appeared in the Evening Standard, but through the afternoon the chief item on all the placards was “Knighthood of Sir John Kirk.” Pressmen flocked to the office; more than a hundred telegrams were delivered, and subsequently some seven hundred letters. Church Committees and P.S.A. gatherings passed resolutions, and everyone vied with each other in exhausting the dictionary in terms of congratulation.

The Secretary of the Liverpool Ragged School Union voiced the general feeling when he wrote: “In our view it is the nation desiring to show its regard and affection for one beloved by all.” Mrs. Savage, who was John Kirk’s first hostess when he came to London as a youth, wrote: “May God bless you very much, and may your latter years be the happiest of your life.” His own Mission at Camberwell once more thanked their Superintendent for his long service, and wished that “the autumn of life may be peaceful and calm, blessed with the companionship of God as Friend and Counsellor.” The Rev. W. J. Mayers wrote: “Warmest congratulations. It serves you right! God bless you and your work more and more.” The Secretary of the British Institute for Social Service expressed the feelings of many in the sentence: “I should like to congratulate His Majesty upon the dignity he has added to the order of English Knighthood.”

A friend in Dulwich sent this note: “I want to tell you that on Wednesday a man belonging to one of the Roman Catholic families told me with what pleasure he had read in the papers the account of your experiences last week. Yesterday two poor women who had lived in Toulon Street spoke of their gladness on learning of the favour shown to you.” An Old Ragged School Boy, now a stoker on H.M.S. Edgar, wrote: “Your work cannot be appreciated on all sides more highly than it is.”

Mr. George Hatton wrote: “My beloved brother, no one among your multitude of friends more heartily rejoices in the great honour the King has conferred upon you than your old fellow-worker. May the great King of kings smile upon, bless, and keep you!” The Rev. F. H. Stead truly said: “In thus honouring you the King does honour to the Ragged School Union, to all workers among the poor, and not least to himself. When I first heard the news I did not credit it. It seemed too good to be true.”

Miss Halse told this story of St. James’ Place School: “ I was much amused this afternoon. A little girl came up to me and said, ‘Please, teacher, father said, “When you go to school you will hear something about night!” At first I was greatly puzzled. Then it struck me she must be speaking of you, and so it turned out. The children clapped when I told them about it.”

Mr. C. G. Barr conveying a resolution from the Richmond Street Mission, said: You have a warm corner in the heart of every worker.” Sir Edmund Verney wrote: “Will you allow me to assure you of the great satisfaction the conferring of your knighthood has given to myself as well as to all your friends?”

A Cripple Girl in Harrow Road wrote: “I was so very pleased you have been Knighted by our Dear King, for you are our Dear Friend to poor and cripples. Dear Sir John Kirk, give my love to Lady John Kirk. —Yours truly Greatful, Carrie Warren.”

Harold Taylor, aged six, sent his photograph showing crutches, and his mother added: “Harold has so begged of me to write and tell you how pleased he is to know you have been to see King Edward, and that he has made you such a grand gentleman; and he wonders if you will ever go to tea with the King.”

The little boy perhaps learned that even that happened, for at the King’s great Garden Party at Windsor Castle on Saturday, June 22, 1907, Sir John and Lady Kirk were among the invited guests. Their holiday trip to Scotland was postponed to enable them to share the pleasure of such a unique occasion, when eight thousand of the King’s highest and worthiest subjects were assembled.

Three girls in Birmingham sent the following letter: —

“TO SIR JOHN KIRK.

DEAR SIIR, —We, being members of the Crutch and Kindness League, write to congratulate you on the result of your visit to the King. We are glad about it, and also the testimonial given to you and Lady Kirk. Hoping your work will prosper,

We remain,
FRANCES NAISH.
KATIE NAISH.
CATHERINE MASON.

May Clare, aged 11, wrote: “Dear Sir, —Just a line to congratulate you on hearing of your Knighthood. And wishing you a very hearty success. —From one of your Junior Crippled Children.”

From the Children in Boundary Lane Blind Schools came this, in Braille type: —

“DEAR SIR JOHN, —We are all writing a letter to let you know how glad we are to hear that you have been knighted. Yesterday dinner-time Miss Barker showed the children who see a little your photo, which was in the paper. It makes us remember how kind you have been to us. —With love from your little friends.”

Pastor John Wilson of Woolwich wrote; “Glad to see the announcement in to-day’s paper. It serves you right! Heartiest congratulations. It is like the King. He is a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us. And so is the man he delights to honour.”

The following interesting letter appeared in The British Weekly: —

“SIR, —May I be permitted to draw your attention to the almost prophetic utterance of Mr. John Stuart in his article on “The Romance of Ragged Schools” in the British Monthly for October 1902 (p. 485)? ‘Some day, when King Edward adds to the orders he has already founded one for the recognition of altruistic service, Mr. Kirk will in it assuredly hold a high place.’ —I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

S. T. CHECKLAND.”

Cordial messages came to Sir John from the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, of which he is a Fellow; and many delightful letters from individual officials, all rejoicing in the honour paid by the Testimonial and the Knighthood.

But a joint (engrossed) letter, signed by thirty members of the Secretaries’ Prayer Union, is specially treasured by him. It reads thus: —

“Your brother Secretaries of the many Religious and Philanthropic and Missionary Societies of this great Metropolis of the world, represented by the SECRETARIES’ PRAYER UNION, of which Union you were one of the promoters in 1887, and have taken an active part in its welfare ever since, feel that they cannot let the present time go by without offering you their sincere and hearty congratulations at having completed forty years of blessed service for the Master on behalf of the poor and outcast of our City.

The undersigned members pray that your life may long be spared for the benefit of those you love and serve, and that the blessing of our Gracious Heavenly Father may ever rest upon your labours for Him.”

The presentation of the Testimonial, originally fixed for May 14, was postponed to Friday, May 24, in view of the expected visit to Buckingham Palace. By a gracious arrangement, this was fixed for the day previous, May 23. Hundreds of tickets had been applied for, and others were sent to subscribers resident in and around London, but the events at the Palace stimulated public desire to take part in the ceremony, which was fixed for three o’clock.

Meanwhile, seats were being found on the dais for seventy or eighty persons of importance, including the speakers and members of the R.S.U. Council, etc. Among those who were able to attend were Lord Frederick Fitzroy, Sir Chas. Gage Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Bryan, Rev. J. Scott Lidgett, Sir George and Lady Faudel-Phillips, Sir John Kennaway, Sir G. Tyler, Mr. Sheriff Dunn, Canon Horsley, Lady Beachcroft, Professor Garvie, Dr. Garnett, Mr. C. Ashton Bullock, Mr. Clarence Hooper, Mrs. Downing Wallace, Mrs. Burgwin, and Mr. Raymond Blathwayt. At three o’clock the Lord Mayor escorted Lady Kirk to the platform, and she took a seat on his left, next her being the Lady Mayoress. Sir John sat on the Chairman’s right, next him the Marquis of Northampton and the late Hon Evelyn Ashley.

The scene in the hall was splendid. The Lord Mayor said he had never seen in it so large an assembly. The Egyptian Hall seats about 700, but all the aisles and vacant spaces were filled with persons standing. The stewards wore artificial roses, kindly made by blind girls; and the cripple workers of Mr. John A. Groom’s Flower Mission presented Lady Kirk with a really beautiful bouquet of artificial red roses.

Each guest received a handsome souvenir artistically printed. It contained the Order of Proceedings, List of Committee, an account of the Testimonial, the Text of the Address, a brief Life-study of Sir John Kirk, and a Statement respecting the Aims and Work of the Ragged School Union. It was illustrated by new portraits of Sir John and Lady Kirk and of the speakers, and by a page of views.

One merit of the programme was its brevity. Everything was compressed into just one hour. Sir William Treloar is a model Chairman, and speedily called upon the Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. J. Orsman, to read a statement. This he did with elocutionary clearness and effect.

The Marquis of Northampton made the presentation. His affectionate regard for Sir John is well known, and he never spoke more tactfully and graciously than on this occasion We reproduce from The Times the report of what he actually said: —

LORD NORTHAMPTON, in making the presentation, said that they were anxious to do honour to Sir John Kirk, because they felt that his life had been spent in Christian activity, and especially because, for the longest part of his life, he had devoted himself whole-heartedly and unselfishly to the service of the poorest and suffering children of this great city. He had always faithfully discharged his duty, and his work, done with a modesty which he (the speaker) had never met with in any other person, had received its reward, against his own inclination no doubt, but to the intense pleasure of his friends, at the hands of His Majesty. It was no secret now that, even at the eleventh hour, their friend tried to evade the honour that was to be conferred upon him. It had wisely been settled that there should be beside him one person who was perfectly determined that he should not evade that honour; and he was glad to believe that, when the honour was accepted at last, it was accepted because he felt that it was not only a distinction given to a man worthy of it, but also an honour to all engaged in religious and philanthropic work. He wished to assure their friend John Kirk —for they would always remember him as John Kirk without the ‘Sir’— and also Lady Kirk, who had been a splendid help to her husband of their deepest affection for them both, and of their recognition of the strenuous and self-denying service which they had rendered during so many years. He then formally made the presentation; and referring to the cheque for £2,000, said Sir John Kirk could accept this not as a gift of money, but as a gift of love from thousands of his co-workers and friends. They knew that they were not saying good-bye to him by any means. His Majesty, with the tact which he always showed, when Mr. Kirk said that he felt that he could not accept the honour of knighthood, replied that it would be an additional impetus to the good work which he had been doing, and would, perhaps, enable him to do even more in the future than he had done in the past. They all thanked their Secretary from their hearts for what he had done, and they wished him the best blessings that God could bestow upon him, and his wife and family.

To the Rev. J. Reid Howatt, long a friend of the family, fell the honour of speaking to Lady Kirk, and on all hands it was agreed that he admirably performed the task. Then the Lady Mayoress rose, and by way of handing over the clock, cordially shook hands with Lady Kirk, the audience cheering heartily.

The hero of the afternoon now faced an assembly which stood to do him honour, and cheered and hurrahed and waved handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. He did not trust himself to extemporaneous utterance, but read his reply, which was at once clear and dignified.

Capable and notable men undertook the vote of thanks to the Lord Mayor. It was moved by the Hon. Evelyn Ashley in cordial terms, this being almost his last public appearance before his lamented death. It was seconded by Mr. Frank A. Bevan, Treasurer alike of the Fund and of the Ragged School Union, and supported Mr. C. Arthur Pearson. The agreement of the audience was extremely hearty, and Sir William Treloar was evidently much touched by its cordiality.

At the suggestion of the Marquis of Northampton, the great audience joined in the Doxology, and then dispersed.

From May 24 onward Sir John Kirk has paid the penalties of popularity and fame. Invitations reach him from every side to speak here and preside there. Everywhere he has met with cordial welcomes, but these reached their climax when, on Saturday, June 15, 1907, he and Lady Kirk paid a visit to Kegworth.

Arriving about one o’clock, they found the church bells ringing and the people gathered near the magnificent church. On Sunday morning there was a large muster of men at the Adult School, to whom Sir John gave an address.

The enthusiasm culminated in a meeting held at the Temperance Hall on Monday evening. The platform was decorated; a local orchestra provided music; half a dozen representatives of the religious bodes made short speeches; and an address was presented in graceful terms by Mrs. Bedford. The address was illuminated and illustrated, and framed in oak taken from the church, and probably four hundred years old. Sir John replied, and an address was delivered by Mr. John Stuart, who travelled specially from town, as did several of Sir John’s children.

Next day visits were paid to the day schools, and sixty girls wrote essays, “What I think of Sir John Kirk.” They were extremely creditable in writing, spelling, and composition. Many girls thought Sir John had a pleasant face; one said, “I am sure he would be a nice headmaster”; and another remarked, “If everybody was as good as Sir John Kirk there would not be many bad people in the land.” The boys wrote similar essays, and all the scholars were given holiday in celebration of Sir John’s visit to his native place.

At their first meeting subsequent to the striking events of May, the members of the R.S.U. Council expressed their congratulations to their Secretary, and passed a resolution conferring upon him the title of DIRECTOR. As this second edition issues from the Press, it finds Sir John full of work and grateful for opportunities of increased service.

MR. W. J. ORSMAN’S STATEMENT AT THE MANSION HOUSE
May 24, 1907

"My Lord Mayor, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, -

The most remarkable feature of this Testimonial is its spontaneity. It has been in no sense manufactured, nor has any sort of pressure -moral or otherwise- been exerted to induce the flow of contributions which results in the substantial cheque to be handed to Sir John Kirk this afternoon.

Last autumn the R.S.U. Council found that isolated attempts were being made to show the regard of friends for their leader and co-worker; but the Council thought it better that one united effort should be made. And because I and my dear friend have been associated in good works for more than forty years, I had the honour of being asked to become the Honorary Secretary of this movement. It has proved -if a little arduous- one of the most delightful experiences of my life. From the very first interview with the Lord Mayor -whose help throughout has been so sympathetic and unstinted -down to this crowning demonstration, even I accustomed as I am to the affectionate regard bestowed upon our Secretary -even I have been amazed at the imensity of esteem revealed by the thousands of communicaions I have received, many of which are mounted in this album. Even before any public appeal was made, letters and cheques arrived from some whose names are unknown to me.

Since then, they have streaed in from every district of London, from almost every county in England, rom remote villages in Wales, from North Britain, and from Ireland, from many friends in the West Indies and South Africa. Some have arrived from France and Germany; one lady in Moscow sent £20; Sir Victor Drummond, just before his death, sent £5 from Munich -all proving that distance is no barrier to continued interest in our Secretary's work. The amounts sent have been as various as the givers. We have not sought large sums, and were as glad of 'sixpence from a Ragged School teacher,' or scholar, sent anonymously, as of the cheques that came to hand.

The last counterfoil on my receipt books shows the number 2050, accounting for as many donations. But nearly a hundred of these represent groups of subscribers. Sixty or seventy of the affiliated Missions of the R.S.U. sent remittances through their secretaries, and thus the great army of their voluntary teachers, recruited mainly from the humbler classes, were able to tender their modest shillings. The Ladies' Auxiliary of the R.S.U., and the Guild of the Good Samaritan, also combined their gifts.

It would take hours to read the encouraging words of my correspondents. The burden of many was a wish that their gifts could have been more commensurate with their feelings of affection. One says: 'I have always regarded Mr. Kirk as something far beyond an official.' Our friend, the Hon. Lionel Ashley, son of the good Earl of Shaftesbury, wrote: ' The value of his work is beyond words.' We have also received a cablegram from 'Uncle Harry' of hte Adelaide Observer, conveying the congratulations of 13, 000 members of the Sunbeam Society, of South Australia; and a letter, just to hand, encloses a substantial donation. Clergymen of many denominations, politicians, social reformers, and business men have accompanied their gifts with the most generous tributes of admiration.

Archdeacon Sinclair intended being here to-day, but is out of town. The Rev. F. B. Meyer is in Rome; Pastor Thomas Spurgeon is ill; Dr. Clifford thinks it most fitting to recognise the 'wise, laborious, self-sacrificing, and devoted services' of our friend; Dr. Oswald Dykes speaks of 'his long and self-denying labours.' Rev. C. H. Kelly writes that 'Mr. Kirk has rendered valuable services to the rescue and training of the childrern'; Dr. J. B. Paton says: 'His abounding and devoted services on behalf of the poorest children of our country have always commanded my grateful admiration.' We are reminded of one of Mr. Kirk's most appreciative friends in Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts' remark: 'I am quite sure that the Baroness, if she could speak, would add her voice in the same sense, and use her efforts in the same direction.'

It has also been gratifying to receive a warmly-written letter from Mr. Emanuel Barnett, of Aldgate, who calls attention to our friend's thoughtful treatment of Jewish children. He sends a donation 'in honour of a gentleman whose humanity and philanthropy know no creed.'

By his gracious courtesy in receiving Mr. Kirk yesterda at Buckingham Palace, and by the distinguised honour which he has paid to our Secretary, and through him to the whole world of philanthropy, the King in a very real sense participates in to-day's auspicious event, and H.R.H. the Princess Christian, who sent a letter of cordial symathy at the inauguration of this movement, would have been present here but for an important engagement. Lord Kinnaird, my oldest colleague on the R.S.U. Council, is in Scotland, filling the onerous duties of his new post as Lord High Commissioner. The thoughts of one venerable clergyman are with us this afternoon -the Rev. Peter Lilly, of Collaton, in Devon, with whom John Kirk spent part of his boyhood. His eighty years forbade the long journey to town.

It is four months since the meeting which set the Testimonial on foot was held in the Lord Mayor's parlour. Repeatedly since then the Committee has met at the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor making time, amid his man duties, to preside. The Committee, guided by numerous suggestions of subscribers, felt that the wisest disposition of the Fund was to hand over practically the entire amount. After defraying the cost of the oil paintings by Mr. William Rainey, R.I. and gifts to Mrs. Kirk, we are able to write a cheque for £2000. Perhaps I may add that all the printing and postage expenses of the Fund have been defrayed by the Ragged School Union.

I think, too, we may reagrd ourselves as fortunate that, having four years ago begun a biography of Mr. Kirk, our friend, Mr. John Stuart -one of the most active members of our Committee- was able to complete it at Easter. We congratulate Messrs. S. W. Partridge & Co. on its production, and are all glad, not only that Princess Christian allowed the book to be dedicated to Her Royal Highness, but that this week His Majesty the King has graciously accepted a copy from the author.

I should like, also, to pay tribute to our friend Mr. H. E. Montague, who has illumiated the Address in album form con amore; and to thank Mr. A. H. Ward, the Accountant of the R.S.U., for the ceaseless and intelligent assistance he has rendered to the Testimonial Committee.

I am sure I voice the feelings of my colleagues on the R.S.U. Council, and ideed the sentiments of all present here, when I say that this tribute we ay is not merely gratitude for the past, but a sense of favours to come, and that we all cordially desire for our Secretary long years of active service and suggestive counsel.

For myself, who have worked so long and so closely with my dear friend, John Kirk, I can only say, in conclusion, that it is an intense joy to me to have piloted the barque of this recognition of his beneficent career into the magnificent haven of the demonstration of to-day."

SIR JOHN KIRK’S RESPONSE

"My Lord Mayor, My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, -

It was a severe ordeal yesterday to stand before His Majesty the King and to hear his kindly, gracious words of appreciation. It was still more trying to kneel before him, and to feel the ominous tap of the knightly sword. But I do not know whether my present task of endeavouring to express my sense of indebtedness to you all is not even more difficult. To be the central figure of this influential gathering, to hear so many words of praise, and to be the recipient of such generous tokens of affection and regard, is a signal honour of which I feel most unworthy, and which I feel powerless to acknowledge in fitting and adequate terms. But the fact that I am surrounded by friends who will sympathise with me, and not expect the impossible, is a source of inspiration and help. I pity the man who could stand here as I do and not be moved to his inmost depths, and in need of the greatest self-control over his emotions.

It is cheering to me to know that this National Testimonial is not a salve for wounded feelings, nor of the nature of restitution for past neglect (for I hae ever had a most indulgent and considerate Council), nor is it -as I am glad to be assured- a gentle hint that the time has come for me to make room for a better man. No, I am not retiring; but hope, by God's goodness, to be able to work on in the cause of the dear children for at least some years to come; though, with a record of sixty years of life behind, it is obvious that the allotted time cannot be indefinitely prolonged.

May I say that the alue of your all too generous recognition is greatly enhanced by associating my dear wife with the Testimonial? She is in every way worthy. For many years she was most active as Honorary Superintendent of what is now known as the Barefoot Mission of the Ragged School Union, and always passively helping by allowing me to be free for outside service. It has been well said that a man must ask his wife's permission to succeed in life, and good it is, as in my case, where the wife is the true helpmeet of the husband.

But in all humility and sincerity would I say, 'God be praised! for from Him alone cometh every good and perfect gift.' As Lord Shaftesbury said on a similar occasion in the Guildhall -'What hast thou thou didst not receive?' I should be a traitor to my deepest convictions if I did not thus at the outset ackowledge the good hand of God which has been with and upon me all through life, and I would bear my humble testimony to the faithfulness of His declaration that 'Them that honour Me I will honour.'

Need I say how much I feel the kindness of His Majesty the King in so graciously signalising the beneficent work of the R.S.U. by granting an audience to its President and its Secretary yesterday, and, to my very great surprise, conferring honours on me which I cannot even yet fully realise? Never in his wildest dreams did the orphan lad, who forty-four years ago changed omnibuses at the corner of Princess Street opposite, on coming to London, think such distinction would be his, or such a gathering would ever be possible in this historic hall. I rejoice that there is present to-day the dear friend, Mrs. Savage, who gave me my first motherly greeting that memorable July day in 1863.

I must add how greatly I appreciate your personal kindness, Lord Northampton, though you are much too generous in estimating my humble labours in a cause you have so much at heart, as the honoured President of the R.S.U., a position Lord Shaftesbury declared he would rather occupy than be President of the Royal Academy.

To you, my Lord Mayor, I feel that I owe a debt I can never repay. We are all glad to remember you as the Children's Lord Mayor, and it was quite in keeping with the fitness of things that the R.S.U. should be thus publicly honoured by the City during your year of office.

To Mr. Pearson and his great work with Pearson's Fresh Air Fund, by means of which nearly two million children have enjoyed a day's holiday in the country, I owe more than I can say. I have yet to learn all that the success of this Testimonial owes to his enthusiasm and generosity.

I thank also Mr. H. E. Montague for the beautiful Album, a work of art which I shall cherish as the clever production of a friend and co-worker.

To my old firend Mr. Orsman -who has acted as Honorary Secretary of the Fund, with the voluntary assistance of Mr. John Stuart and my loyal lieutenant, Mr. A. H. Ward- I tender my grateful acknowledgments. My wife and I will value the Portrait, the Clock, the Address, and the substantial cheque very much indeed, and they will all serve to remind us of the most important event in our lives, if such a reminder were necessary, and they will be cherished, I hope, by our children for years to come.

Above all we shall prize the kindly messages, the expressions of affection and esteem from all sides and from friends all over the world. Time would fail me to mention a tithe of the names, but I mus make one or two further references. It was perhaps to be expected that the members of the Office Staff would desire some share in this Testimonial -and the workers and children of our Schools, Cripple Parlours, Holiday Homes, and the Local Committees.

May I say how kind the Press has been about the whole affair? and that I thus publicly acknowledge, and with a grateful heart, the share it has had in the success of to-day.

Above all, I do not forget that underlying the whole effort there has been the consciousness that I represent, however unworthily, a Christ-like movement which has been and stiill is of enormous benefit to the whole community. The Ragged School Union is practically a living monument of the life and work of the late Lord Shaftesbury, and to have his honoured son present with us is on the lines of historic continuity.

To the Society may be traced the genesis of Free Education -of the system of Emigration, the great Industrial School system, the origin of Shoeblack Brigades, of Mother's Meetings, of Children's Breakfasts and Dinners, to say nothing of 'Days in the Country,' 'Fortnightly Holidays,' etc.

I would plead, in conclusion, earnestly for the young life of the leisured classes to give themselves more fully to the uplifting of their less favoured brothers and sisters. The call of the times is for the service of all who love their country and their God, and who desire to see the feet of the poor children placed firmly upon the 'nonslipping steps' of industry, sobriety, and God-fearing citizenship. To borrow a figure from our Tube stations, who will be the 'lift-man,' in Christ's Name, to raise thousands more of the poor children of our cities into the more ample space, the higher life, and the fresh air and sunshine of God's favour and love?"