1 86 Life of Count Rumford. 



for a thousand persons. Thompson pledged himself 

 to prove that he carried economy even further in a 

 kitchen which he had made in a hospital at Verona. 

 Many out-patients, as we now call them, many poor 

 persons who received work from the establishment 

 without being inmates of it, were regularly provided 

 with food from it. As the meat-shops of the city had 

 long been laid under exacting contributions by the 

 mendicants, Thompson found their now relieved trades- 

 men gladly ready, at his suggestion, to keep tubs la- 

 belled " For the Poor," in which they would daily de- 

 posit scraps suitable for soups. The bakers also made 

 a similar composition for their own relief. 



Apologizing for a lack of orderly arrangement in the 

 matter of his Essay, though to general readers it seems 

 to be wonderfully methodical, Thompson proceeds to 

 describe in particulars the whole organization, routine, 

 and discipline of his establishment. He yields often 

 to an overflow of sentiment, proving that he mingled 

 in his martinet-like stiffness of regulation much of very 

 tender and considerate feeling. He tells us how he 

 encouraged a spirit of industry, pride, self-respect, and 

 emulation, finding help even in some trifling distinc- 

 tions in apparel. Some children who were too young 

 to be trusted with any material for mechanical work 

 were placed on benches around the hall where older 

 children were at labor, till, in the irksomeness of the 

 position, they cried to be allowed to do something, if 

 it were only to turn a wheel by foot or hand. Some 

 trifling reward encouraged them on from step to step 

 in their progress. 



Here, then, Thompson had in successful operation 

 two economical and benevolent institutions. The first, 



