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The knowledge of the work begun in 1883 rapidly spread, and in 1885 Liverpool citizens started their boys' camp at Hoylake. Then Newcastle, Bradford, Nottingham, and Leicester took up the movement, and in each town it was very successfully carried out. Since those early days these summer camps for city boys have grown in number and effectiveness, and are now established all over the country.

It is with sincere gratitude, if not with pride, that we have seen the gradual adoption of this form of practical philanthropy started so long ago for the benefit of poor and necessitous children. The figures of our own camp are not without interest, and bear eloquent testimony to the growth of the movement. In the first year, as already stated, twenty boys were taken to camp, and every season afterwards the numbers gradually increased, until in 1913 3,846 boys participated, and last year, under war conditions and the difficult restrictions of railway travelling, 2,698 had a week's holiday at our splendidly equipped camp, which is now fixed at Southport. The total number of boys dealt with during the last thirty-five years is 63,664.

The applicants for the holiday are recommended by Ragged School teachers, city missionaries, health visitors, and other workers among the poor. Schoolboys pay Is. 6d. and working lads 2s. 6d. toward the cost of railway and the provision of food, which latter element costs the committee about 75. per week per boy. The public are appealed to for support, and the response is always very generous. Whenever there is a case of real need a holiday is provided free of all charge.

Whilst our camp provides a holiday for boys, the girls are not forgotten. We have a large house for these, standing in its own grounds, beautifully situated at Colwyn Bay, and it is always full of weak and delicate children.

The Wood Street Mission, so well known in Manchester for its many social and religious activities, have also a camp at St. Anne'son-the-Sea, which is open from May to September for the poorest children-boys and girls alternate weeks of the city.

I am aware that this provision of holidays for poor children is only one phase of the many agencies throughout the land on behalf of this class, and to some people may seem to be comparatively a small thing in comparison to the more continuous efforts in other directions for the amelioration of the conditions under which they live. I have sometimes been met with the criticism that while it is a pleasant thing to give the boy or girl a week or fortnight by the sea, the benefit derived from such a holiday must be very limited, and perhaps hardly

worth the trouble and expense. Whilst admitting that one week out of fifty-two is a very small proportion, it is a grievous mistake to suppose that the same proportion applies to the resultant effect on the life of the child. One has only to spend such a holiday, even if it only be for a few days, in the company of these children to realize in some degree what it really means to them. Looking up from the narrow courts and alleys in which they are compelled to dwell all the year round they may see perhaps a bit of blue sky, but they never can dream that earth and heaven do meet together somewhere. I have tried to imagine what must have been the thoughts of the little Manchester slum girl which prompted her on one of these holidays to kneel down and fondly kiss a little daisy grown in a meadow, or the little cripple boy, as he entered the camp and beholding the illimitable sea for the first time, stand aghast and exclaim "Oh! isn't it grand? I never saw so much room out of doors in all my life before.' From a lengthened experience of this kind of practical philanthropy I am an enthusiast for these holidays. I know their value to the individual and to the community. Many a grown man and woman have come to us in after years, with no little emotion and deep gratitude, and referring to their visit to the camp or home, have testified to an abiding influence which has followed them through the subsequent years as a result of the kindness received in their days of childhood and need.

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It is very gratifying to know that Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Minister of Education, realizing the value of these holidays to the children in our day schools, has now made State provision for them to a certain extent. No little credit is due to the voluntary workers, who by their persistent and increasing efforts in the past have demonstrated the need for State action, and have ever sought to influence it for the welfare of poor children. This pioneer work of the Ragged School teachers and others is now bearing good fruit in many directions.

If ever this particular kind of work was needed surely it is in these days. Amidst all the sorrow and tragedy surrounding us it is comforting to know that, despite the strain and stress of the War, it is possible to still provide for the poor children of our large cities the holiday which radiates in health and vigour through many months, and is a pleasant uplifting memory for future years.

Central Refuge,

Francis Street,

Strangeways,

Manchester.

THE MAKING OF THE CHILD CITIZEN.

By FREDERICK J. GOULD.

Author of "British Education after the War"; "Children's Book of
Moral Lessons," &c.

IN April, 1918, when thousands of our sons, brothers, and friends were dying in France to defend the honour of their British citizenship, I chanced to give, to a class of sixteen children, one of my customary Demonstration Lessons in the presence of an assembly of students. I chose a theme which I have often dealt with in pre-war days—namely, Service of the Public Good-and I opened with a legend of heroic selfsacrifice performed in the city of Rome. In a semi-casual way I asked :

"The city of Rome-and what are the people of a city called ?”’ "Citizens," answered the girls and boys.

'Oh, yes; and are you citizens?"

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It is possible (though I think it was not the case) that the children, remembering they had no votes, supposed they were too young to have attained the status of citizenship. So I went on with my legend of Curtius, who, by his death, closed the dangerous pit in the forum; and I added stories of a loyal telegraph superintendent (a Hindu); and of children who assisted in the extermination of mosquitoes in the yellowfever region, and so forth. At the close of my lesson, having thanked the class for its attendance, I said :—

"Will the girl citizens please pass out, and the boy citizens follow?" They all rose up and marched, and I do not believe they will ever again doubt their civic status, whether they possess votes or not. In one hour I had, so to say, added sixteen citizens to the roll of a pleasant little seaside resort. The object had been effected in two very simple ways. I had assured them that I, for my part, regarded them as fellowcitizens. And I had aroused their admiration for certain types of service of the public good, and, at more than one point, these types were such as might well fall within the possibilities of their own experience. The proposition that I am here implying is this: that parents and

teachers can, and ought, to accustom children to the idea that young people may be effective members of the city (that is, the Commonwealth, British or other), and prove their membership by their conduct. I may in passing observe here that I am entirely in favour of votes for all men and women, aged 21 and upwards, without any property qualification whatever. But I suspect and abhor the civic instruction, so-called, which places the vote in the first line of importance. I would place it last, as the merest machinery. In the first line I should place whatever method will awaken and inspire civic enthusiasm.

tion first, machinery last.

Inspira

It being understood by the children, therefore, that they are in effect already citizens, one proceeds to search for the natural means of inspiration. One need not search long. The natural means is the portrayal of admirable examples. As Wordsworth has said, in a sentence which is profoundly true in its psychology: "We live by admiration, hope, and love." Which, then, are the admirable. examples? I mean no disrespect to Prime Ministers, Viceroys, Senators, M.P.s, and the like, when I affirm that in the earlier stages I should not select such personages, though, of course, I would not exclude them. Civilization grows out of fellowship, based on industry. The fiends in Milton's Hell were industrious, but not civilized, because they knew not fellowship in its true sense. Nor is mere fellowship or personal attachment enough to build the real civilitas, or city culture, or civilization. There must be a spirit of service to the organized public whole, in village, city, or country. Hence our primary types should be chosen from the men and women who, practising industry, were moved by a spirit of fellowship to give a larger meaning to life than industry alone could give, and who, in one form or another, exhibited devotion to the general welfare. Such types (to name a few almost at random) would be Moses, the shepherd; Cincinnatus, the farmer; Captain Cook, the marine surveyor; Ronald Ross, the medical man (and, as he is sometimes named, because of his far-reaching sanitary labours, the "Maker of the Panama Canal "). I particularly emphasize this civic value of industry in its widest After the War, he who is not industrious will be a moral outcast and a civic nullity. Social esteem will, of course, be accorded to people whose labour moves in the circle of literature, teaching, officialdom, &c. But we must on no account fail in practical reverence for those basic arts and crafts upon which the whole world-polity ultimately rests. Arts and crafts, simply as such, have no moral

sense.

significance. An artist or a craftsman may be a contemptible sort of citizen. But the art or craft dedicated to the social ministry and betterment is one of the glories of civilization.

Whether, therefore, we follow the story of humanity at large, or of England and our British Commonwealth, the order of accent should be: first, examples of social and civic service displayed in the fields of industry and in the patience and courage which developed agriculture, manufacture, mining, engineering, &c.; second, the spiritual expression of social feelings as seen in the lives of saints, pioneers, teachers, poets, artists, and the like (St. Francis, Buddha, Dante, Angelo, &c.); third, statesmen, political reformers, administrators. The young citizen's moral training will progress in three stages: first, he (or she) should understand the call to definite, personal service in household, art, craft, office, and perhaps camp; second, he should derive inspiration from the splendid record of humanity in general, and of the religious devotion, art, and literature of his native country (never forgetting the association with scenery as, e.g., Gray's Elegy with Stoke Poges churchyard); and third, he should be led into a practical interest in the political superstructure-namely, local government, national government, parties, votes. I repeat: Inspiration first, machinery last.'

Armorel,

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Woodfield Avenue,

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Ealing,

London, W.5.

The cursory references to social evolution above made are somewhat enlarged upon in a pamphlet on "History, the Supreme Subject in the Instruction of the Young," which I shall be pleased to send free to any reader of THE CHILD who writes to me for a copy at Armorel, Woodfield Avenue, Ealing, London, W.5.

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