among
the poor, surely we do not mean only drawing, design, and painting.

The popularity of this museum has been argued as a proof of its
efficiency. It attracts, as I have stated already, over 2,000 on every
free day all the year round. On the one day in the week when an
entrance fee of sixpence is required it attracts from twenty to forty.
This means that out of two millions of people in East London there is
so little enthusiasm for Art that only forty can be found each week to
pay sixpence in order to enjoy quiet galleries and undisturbed study.
Remember that East London is not altogether a poor place; there are
whole districts which are full of villa residences as good as any in
the southern suburb; there are many people who are wealthy; but all
the wealth and all the Art enthusiasm of the place will not bring more
than forty every week to pay their sixpence. As for copying the
pictures, I do not know if any facilities are afforded for the
purpose, but I have never seen anyone in the place copying at all.

The throng of visitors on free days may partly be explained on other
grounds than the love of Art. It is a place where one can pleasantly
lounge, or sit down to rest, or lazily look at pleasant things, or
talk with one's friends, or take refuge from bad weather. This is as
it should be; the place is regarded as a pleasant place. Yet the
number of visitors has fallen off. In the first year of its existence
nearly a million entered the gates; four years later an equal number
was registered; for the last three years the number has fallen to less
than half a million. Its popularity, therefore, is on the decline.

It is, again, a great place for children. They are sent here just as
they are sent to the British Museum and the South Kensington Museum,
in order to be out of the way. You will always see children in these
places, strolling listlessly among the rooms and corridors. Once, for
instance, on a certain Easter Monday, I encountered, in the South
Kensington Museum, a miserable little pair, who were crying in a
corner by themselves. Beside the cases full of splendid embroideries
and golden lace, among which they had strayed, they looked curiously
incongruous, and somewhat like the unfortunate pair led to their
destruction by the wicked uncle. They had, in fact, been sent to the
museum by their mother, with a piece of bread-and-butter for their
dinner, and told to stay there all day long. By this time the
bread-