cally in all of us, and a lot of stuff about a Cup of
Cold Water and These Little Ones. He exuded self-content.

He went on to remark that the hazardous occupations of Modern Industry
had, by their many mischances, stripped innumerable families of their
heads, and reduced them to a condition of the most deplorable. He
desired to remind them that the class to which they belonged was not the
Very Poor of the gutters, but the Respectable Poor who would not stoop
to receive the aid doled out by the State. No; they were not Gutter
Children, but, at the same time, the training they received was not such
as to create any distaste among them for the humblest employments of
Honest Industry, suitable to their position in life. He redeemed the
objects interested in his exertions from the immoralities of the Very
Poor, while teaching them to respect their virtues, and to do their duty
in that station of life to which it had pleased God to call them.

(The little objects seemed to appreciate this, for they applauded with
some spirit, on prompting from the matrons.)

He went on to suggest, with stodgy jocularity, that among them was
possibly a Prime Minister of 1955--think of Pitt--and perhaps a Lord
Kitchener. He spoke in terms of the richest enthusiasm of the fostering
of the Manly Qualities and the military drill--such a Fine Thing for the
Lads; and he urged them to figure to themselves that, even if they did
not rise to great heights, they might still achieve greatness by doing
their duty at office desk, or in factory, loom, or farmyard, and so
adding to the lustre of their Native Land--a land, he would say, in
which they had so great a part.

(Here the children cheered, seemingly with no intent of irony.) He added
that, in his opinion, kind hearts were, if he might so put it, more than
coronets.

The Gentleman smiled amiably. He nourished no tiny doubt that he was
doing the right thing. He believed that Christ would be pleased with him
for turning out boys and girls of fourteen, half-educated, mentally and
socially, to spend their lives in dingy offices in dingy alleys of the
City. There was no humbug here; impossible for a moment to doubt his
sincerity. He had a childlike faith in his Great Work. He was, as he
annually insisted, with painful poverty of epithet, engaged in
Philanthropic Work, alleviating the Distresses of the Respectable Poor
and ameliorating Social Conditions Generally. So he trained his children
until he