Never had a home : a very commonplace history / by T.J. Barnardo.

  • Thomas John Barnardo
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Never had a home : a very commonplace history / by T.J. Barnardo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unable to continue the conversation. It was only with difficulty, and by taking mother and children separately, that I at last suc¬ ceeded in getting at the main facts which constituted their painful story of prolonged privation and wretchedness. The woman had come, I found, to seek the admission of her three little girls into our Homes, There was earnest appeal in every line of her face, and that appeal was pointed by the famished look and wasted forms of the whole family. Without delay I had a suitable meal supplied to both mother and girls ; but I found that it was needful to exercise not a little caution in placing food before the two younger children especially, whose eyes glistened ravenously as they saw the fare provided, simple though that was. After the meal, the first which they had had for many a day, the reaction of their overstrung nerves served to intensify their bodily weakness and bring about an almost utter exhaustion ; so that it was only after the lapse of several hours that I was able to cross-question the applicants, and to learn something of the history which lay behind their present miserable circum¬ stances. “Where have you lived?v was naturally one of my first queries to the mother when