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MARY CARPENTER. 83 



the purpose. Miss Cobbe tells us that on a winter's 

 night, when half the gas lights were out, it consisted 

 chiefly of dens of drink and infamy, before which 

 groups of miserable, drunken men and women used 

 to shout, scream, and fight. The ordinary Bristol 

 policemen were never to be seen at night in Lewin's 

 Mead ; it was said that they were afraid to show 

 themselves in the place. A short time before the 

 ragged school was opened, some Bow Street con- 

 stables had been sent down to ferret out a crime 

 which had been committed there, and they reported 

 that there was not in all London such a nest of 

 wickedness as existed there. 



The children who attended the school were exactly 

 of the class whom it was desirable to reach. It was 

 literally a "ragged" school. None of the children 

 had shoes and stockings, some had no shirt and no 

 home, sleeping in casks on the quay, or on steps, and 

 living by petty thefts. Professor Carpenter tells us 

 that on the first Sunday after the school was opened 

 about twenty boys were assembled, and some who 

 came in the morning brought more in the afternoon, 

 which showed that they liked it. But beginning to 

 be tired in the afternoon one of them said, " Now let 

 us fight," and in an instant they were all fighting. 

 Peace was, however, soon restored, and the proceed- 

 ings went on with greater order than could have 1 > 

 expected. 



Fortunately, kind friends came forward with 

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