Description of the Orphan Houses
He new Orphan House No. 1 is fitted up for the
accommodation of 140 orphan girls and 80 orphan boys above eight years of age, and 80 female orphans from their earliest days till about eight.
No. 2 is fitted up for 200 infant and 200 older female orphans.
No. 3 is fitted up for 450 older female orphans.
No. 4 is fitted up for 210 boys of eight years old and upwards, 208 infant boys under eight, and 32 older girls to do the housework, 450 in all.
No. 5 is fitted up for 210 infant and 240 older female orphans.
House No. 1 is open to visitors every Wednesday afternoon; No. 2, Tuesday afternoon; No. 3, Thursday afternoon; No. 4, Friday afternoon; and No. 5, Saturday afternoon; but the arrangements of the establishments make it needful to show them at these times only. No ‘exceptions can be made. The first party of visitors will be shown through the houses at half-past two, God permitting; the second at three, and, should there be need, the third and last party at half-past three. It takes one. hour and a half to see the whole of each establishment.
We prefer fitting the girls for service, instead of ap- prenticing them to a business, as it is better for their bodies and souls. If the girls give us satisfaction, we recommend them to a situation. The girls generally remain under our care till seventeen years old; and, as we receive them from their earliest days, we have had girls
- from thirteen to seventeen years under our care.
The boys are apprenticed when between fourteen and - fifteen. We consider the welfare of each individual without any fixed rule. The boys have a choice of trade; but, having chosen, and being apprenticed, we do not allow them to alter. The boys and girls have an outfit provided, and any other expenses connected with their apprenticeship are. met by the establishment. The boys are apprenticed to carpenters, joiners, basket-makers, shoemakers, tailors and drapers, plumbers, painters and glaziers, linen-drapers, printers, bakers, grocers, hair-dressers, ironmongers, tin-plate workers, confectioners, hosiers, builders, millers, gas-fitters, smiths, outfitters, provision-dealers, sailmakers, upholsterers, wholesale grocers, chemists, seed-merchants, umbrella-makers, or electro-plate manufacturers. The boys and girls have the same mental training.
The following account of a visit to the: Orphan Houses is given by Mr. W. Elfe Taylor:
It is a striking sight to watch the orphans passing through the streets of Bristol, on their way to Divine worship. Every Sunday morning they march, two and two, up and down the hilly streets of that ancient city to Bethesda Chapel, where Mr. Müller ministers. Each House contributes two or three hundred children, the boys and girls in separate bands, accompanied by matrons and teachers. True is the saying often expressed, “That silent stream of children is the most powerful sermon ever preached in Bristol.”
One October afternoon we paid a long-promised visit to this remarkable institution. The walk up the hill which separates Ashley Down from the city, is one of the prettiest: out of Bristol, the road being studded with — elegant villas on each side, and, though so near a city resounding with the din of business, Ashley Down is as quiet and retired as if in the heart of the country.
At length we came within sight of the Orphan Houses, vast erections of almost interminable length. Entering the grounds in which two of the houses stand, we passed the lodge, a neat little cottage, and proceeded along the pathway by the carriage-drive, which, with a well-trimmed lawn and flower-beds, separates No. 1 and No. 2. There are large pieces of ground surrounding each house, devoted to cultivating végetables. Perfect order and neatness characterizes everything.
We were admitted into a stone hall, thence up a staircase into the waiting-room, occupied by several visitors. Books and pamphlets were spread on a table, near which sat a well-dressed young woman sewing. She was there to receive money from visitors who wished to buy Mr. Müller’s Reports or “Narrative;” but none were asked to purchase.
Orphan House No. 1 contains 140 girls and 80 boys above seven years of age, and 80 infants. There are three school-rooms, large, airy, cheerful-looking apartments. The girls’ school-room, on the ground floor, is spacious and fitted up with the best maps and helps for learning. As our party, numbering seventy, entered, we beheld one hundred and twenty girls sitting at work at low desks, all clothed in blue-print frocks and neat pinafores, their hair cut short behind, but arranged with great neatness. Ata signal, the girls all stood with their hands behind them, At another signal one of them struck up a song, in which all joined, and marched out, single file, with as much precision as soldiers. As they passed round the ends of the desks in front of the visitors, who lined the walls on either side, 1 looked carefully at the features of each child, and, although in some cases I saw traces of inherited disease, there was an appearance of health and cheerfulness in their faces.
We were taken to the girls’ “cloak and shoe room,” where we found a vast number of serviceable plaid cloaks for winter wear. Each girl has three pairs of shoes — sound economy on Mr. Muller’s part.
The boys’ schoolroom does not materially differ from the girls’. There are about 80 “boys seated at desks, dressed in blue cloth jackets and courduroy trousers. They looked sturdy, good-tempered fellows in vigorous health. At the command they rose and marched as had the girls. Two rooms are appropriated as work-rooms — one for boys and one for girls. The former are taught; a few at a time, to knit and mend their own stockings, and the girls to make their own garments.
Then come the play-rooms — one for boys and one for girls — for use in bad weather; large rooms, with a few low forms and no other furniture. There is a cap-
ital court for each class of orphans, and swings and apparatus for exercise and play. The girls’ play-room is divided into small pigeon-holes, one for each child, well stored with dolls, dolls’ houses, and a variety of toys, the gifts sometimes of relatives (allowed to visit the orphans once a month), sometimes of ladies who present them to teachers to be used as rewards.
The infant department never fails to arrest attention. Would we could adequately bring before the reader the “infant school,” with its two hundred little ones, many not more than three years of age. A prettier sight we have rarely witnessed than these destitute children, marshaled in perfect order at a word of command, marching around the room to the sound of their own merry voices. They proceeded in soldier-like manner to the gallery, and when seated sang two or three pretty songs. Some infants are taken in so young that they are literally babies, and are nursed in a small room by a motherly head nurse, assisted by two or three elder girls. It was a touching sight to watch these infants toddling about with pretty horses or dolls in their hands, or in the arms of their nurses. Around the room arè little basket beds in which these babies may be placed, with all the fondness of a mother’s love. The “infant wardrobe” is one of the prettiest sights in the establishment. It is a room twenty feet long, with painted deal presses on each side, divided into small pigeon-holes, in each of which are laid, neatly folded, small duplicates of the various articles of clothing worn. by the infants. One side is set apart for the girls’ wardrobes, each little pile of clothing ‘crowned by a pretty little bonnet, and each garment carefully rolled and pinned. On the opposite side stood the same number of presses for the boys’ clothes, and on the top of each tiny wardrobe that occupied the pigeon-holes was a little blue cloth cap. Scarcely any part of the house affects strangers so much as this infants” wardrobe, and it is common to see tears in the eyes of visitors as they gaze on the order and nicety which prevail, and think of the love which so wonderfully cares for the wants of these little ones.
Next to the infants’ wardrobe room comes the infants’
is anal dormitory. At the end is a passage, on each side of which are situated the private rooms of the matrons and teachers. These are comfortably furnished, and in keeping with the station of those who occupy such positions. Each individual has a separate apartment.
The infants’ dormitory is a spacious room, with abundant air and light, filled with little iron bedsteads, light yellow, some fitted with railings to preserve the younger babies from falling out, ranged in three rows from one end of the room to the other. Here. is no other article of furniture in the room. Four larger beds, two at each end of the room, are occupied by the elder ’ girls who take charge of the forty orphans who sleep in this room. Forty infants occupy the corresponding room to this.
There is a third bedroom for girls, in which 140 orphans sleep, two occupying one bed. Here is the same cleanliness of floors, and spotless purity of quilts and bedclothes. One woman, in amazement, exclaimed,’ looking at the well-scrubbed floors, “Why, you might eat your dinner off them!” A benevolent gentleman observed, as he gazed at the beds with the bedclothes folded down with utmost nicety and precision, “Ah, they would never have slept in such beds if their parents had lived!” Great was the admiration this comfortable apartment elicited. But it is impossible to describe the effect; it must be seen to be understood. At the end of the room a small window opens into a bedroom occupied by one of the teachers, who is thus enabled to overlook the movements of the children.
The dormitories for boys correspond exactly with the one just mentioned, except that only forty sleep in each.
e the THE WORK OF FAITH.
There is a smaller dormitory with eight beds for the elder girls, called “house-girls,” engaged in housework, and on the point of being sent out to service. Each has a good, strong box to hold her clothes. These girls assist the servants in the housework.
After we had seen the infants’ wardrobes, we were invited to inspect two other wardrobe rooms. The first was the boys’. The arrangement agrees with that containing the infants’ clothes. Each boy has a compartment in which to keep his clothes, with his number in one of the large deal presses that line the room. Six boys take charge of the wardrobes, and see that everything is kept in order. When their term of service expires, their place is supplied by six others, until each boy of a fit age has taken his turn. The boys have each three suits of clothes. The girls’ wardrobe room corresponds with that for the boys, except that it is much larger. The painted deal presses are divided into little pigeon-holes. The girls have five changes of dress: three blue print frocks for ordinary wear, a lilac pattern dress for Sundays during the summer, and a brown merino dress for winter. Six girls, in rotation, take charge of the female wardrobes of the house.
The dining-room, where all the orphans take their meals, is a spacious apartment filled with long tables and forms, all as white as paper. While inspecting this room, we noticed some of the elder girls employed in spreading the snow-white table-cloths for the evening meal. Others entered the room with trays of bread and butter. Afterwards, some hundreds of cups, filled with milk and water, were placed on the tables; but the orphans were not called to tea until after the visitors left.
The orphans’ food at breakfast is oatmeal porridge and milk. No doubt this wholesome food is one cause of the healthy, ruddy appearance of the orphans. The dinner varies. Monday there is boiled beef; Tuesday, soup, with a good proportion of meat; Wednesday, rice with treacle (molasses); Thursday, boiled - mutton; Friday, soup; Saturday, bacon. Sunday they dine on rice with treacle, that as few as possible may be kept from public worship. The orphans breakfast at eight, dine at one, and sup at six. -
The kitchen should not be overlooked. Here we saw the cooking apparatus, one of the most improved description, in which one fire performs a variety of offices at distant parts of the room. Three huge, upright, copper cylinders are used to boil porridge. A long pipe connects them with the fireplace; they consist of two vessels, one inside the other. The steam is admitted through the pipe into the space between the outer and inner vessels; and a short time is sufficient to boil the porridge. The cooking apparatus is probably the most complete and efficient known.
We went into the store-rooms. One was full of shoes, caps, haberdashery (tapes, pins, thread, needles, etc.) Another contained an abundance of sheeting, blankets, calicoes, etc. A third, provisions of various descriptions, Scotch oatmeal in barrels, good wheaten flour in sacks, large quantities of meat, bread, and sugar. We saw the bakehouse and the washhouse. In the latter was an American washing-machine, where wooden balls do the work of human knuckles. There was also a machine for wringing the clothes, called a Centrifugal Drying Machine.
Another apartment is the “shoe and cloak room.”
Then there are the “washing-places.” They are furnished with baths; and all around the walls are bags containing the brush and comb belonging to each child, and the number of the child painted over each. The greatest care is taken to insure thorough cleanliness, and guard against the spread of infectious complaints, should they at any time exist.
The children all rise about six o’clock. The elder children retire about eight or nine; the younger an hour earlier. The teachers conduct religious worship at half-past eight in the morning, and just before supper. They have two holidays, Whitsuntide and Christmas. But the orphans never leave the house on these occasions except in company with their teachers. The beautiful manner in which the girls decorate their rooms at these holidays with their own work, festoons of artificial flowers, etc., is one of the many significant ` indications of the healthful, free, cheerful spirit pervading the entire establishment.
The girls are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, English history, a little of general history, all kinds of useful needlework and household work. They make their clothes and repair them. Mr. Miller well observes in one of his reports: “If they do not do well, temporally and spiritually, and do not become useful members of society, it shall not be our fault.” The boys have the same instruction as thé girls, knit and mend their stockings, make their beds, clean their shoes, scrub their rooms, and work a` little in the garden, digging, planting, and weeding.
There is a more earnest desire to educate and discipline the mind and draw out the kindly affections than to cram the head with a large variety of knowledge of questionable utility. In proof of the success attending this system of education, we refer to the general admiration expressed by such visitors and distinguished statesmen and members of Parliament as Dean Stanley, Sir John Pakington, Robert Cecil, Sir W. Miles, etc. It would be difficult to convey the admiration and surprise illustrious men express at the character of the Institution; and the principles on which it is conducted. But what they especially note, while in the class-room, is the accuracy with which the children write from dictation.
The “most diligent efforts are made to render them familiar with the Bible. The great doctrines in which all Christians agree are carefully taught, without the slightest sectarian bias.
Another point of exceeding importance is the happy effects of judicious care in regard to diet, ventilation, cleanliness, and the Ence tient of cheerfulness and invigorating exercise.
These results are strikingly observable in the appearance of the children who have been long in the Institution, as compared with those who have recently entered. The most significant fact in illustration of the foregoing is that, during a period of five years, the average rate of mortality has been under one per cent. When considered in connection with the circumstance that all the children, having lost both parents, may be presumed to inherit from them diseased, weakly constitutions, too much importance can hardly be attached to it. In many cases where the children on entering have exhibited symptoms of scrofula, these have gradually disappeared under the effects of the above influences,