96 THE WORLD'S WORKERS. 



In order to understand the difficulties which the 

 managers of Kingswood had to face, it must be re- 

 membered that the inmates of reformatories are 

 always law-breakers. Ragged schools are for the 

 destitute and friendless ; reformatories are for the 

 criminal. Since, through the efforts of Mary Carpen- 

 ter, and of people of like mind with her, reformatory 

 schools have been placed under Government, the 

 children who go there are sent by a magistrate, after 

 they have been convicted of some offence against 

 the law, and probably have undergone a short im- 

 prisonment. In fact, they are sent to the reformatory 

 where formerly they would have been sent to gaol, 

 but they remain at the reformatory for a term of 

 years, and are not allowed to go away, so that there 

 is hope that they will be rescued from temptation. 



But when the Kingswood Reformatory was opened 

 the Reformatory Schools Acts had not been passed ; 

 consequently the managers had no legal power to 

 detain the children if they were not willing to stay. 

 All they could do was to influence and persuade 

 them. Some of the children were sent by their 

 parents or by friends, many were sent from a distance, 

 and all were very bad characters. Occasionally, in 

 the early days of the school, it happened that the 

 children resolved to run away, and then parties of 

 them, " led by some more daring spirit, often a girl, 

 would make their way into Bristol to re-visit their old 

 haunts, and to taste the pleasures of city life." 



