person was removed to the Fever Hospital and died. The others appeared to have much groundless dread of being removed to that excellent institution.

Whilst delirious, it was very affecting to see this poor girl's child crawling and playing over her. It was an ideal of helplessness and misery. When she recovered, she commenced attendance on public worship, and I have some hope respecting her condition of mind. It is an axiom that impurity and misery are sooner or later unfailing in companionship. Blessed would it have been for this poor child of woe, if she had borne the yoke of obedience to Christ in her youth; she would not have walked in the ways of much vanity, and her voice would not have been heard in fellowship with sinners, (Lam. iii.)

Blessed, thrice blessed is that religion, that rises in the soul in life's morning! My young reader, this case may have a message from God to thee; want of religion in youth, may precipitate into many remediless errors beside impurity :-

"Oh! smile not! nor think it a worthless thing,
If it be with instruction fraught;

That which will closest and longest cling,

Is alone worth a serious thought!

Should aught be unlovely with power to shed,
Grace on the living, and hope on the dead.

"Now in thy youth beseech of Him,

Who giveth, upbraiding not;

For light in thy heart, that shall never grow dim,
And love, that Christ be not forgot.

And through life, and in death, thy God will be,
Honour, and glory, and strength to thee."

I could fill a volume with details of extreme want and starvation. The extreme penury of numbers arises from intemperance, but this is very far from always being the case.

Those of my readers who have their clean shirts, etc., three times a week, nicely aired, and ready for use at their beds' heads, may hardly know many of the difficulties in the way of cleanliness, that the very poor have to encounter. One poor lad upon my district, destitute of a home, lodging at a threepenny lodging-house when he could obtain the threepence, and in carts and stables, or on staircases, etc., when he could not, lately pleased me very much in the matter of cleanliness. He had only one shirt, but he managed to have it clean, and I was asking him how he effected this arrangement. "Why, you see, sir," said he, "I goes to some

bye place, and there I whips off my shirt; well, then, I runs to a blind alley up Whitecross Street, where some waste hot water runs from some works through a pipe in the wall-there I washes my shirt. Well, then I runs to the lime-kilns, the other side of Blackfriars Bridge, and there I dries my shirt and puts it on. A clean shirt for me- -it makes you feel so comfortable-I can't abear no filth." This anecdote found its way into various periodicals, and the poor lad received several other clean shirts, and presents in money.

On another occasion, visiting a very poor family-sweeps-but who kept themselves marvellously clean for their calling, I found Mrs. C in bed, and told her I was sorry to find she was ill, commencing some suitable remarks on the uncertainty of health, etc., inquiring if she was having proper medical advice. To my surprise, the poor woman said, "I'm not ill, sir, thank you." "The fact is, sir," she added, "I've only one gown, what you see on the line there, (I did not observe it before,) and I don't like being dirty, so I shall have to lay a-bed till it's dry." This is far from the only instance of the kind I could name.. The difficulties in the way

of cleanliness presented by extreme poverty, are very great.

Visiting a cabman one day, who was seriously ill in bed, I found him dressed up in a fine castoff woman's bed-gown, with a large frill round his neck. Some one had, I suppose, given this to his wife, and I should not be surprised if it constituted his whole stock of linen. This man is subject to fits; and cab proprietors will not employ him.

I certainly should not mention these odd details, except with the view of exciting sympathy on behalf of such destitute persons.

Many of the poor people upon my district are almost perished for want of sufficient clothing to protect them from the weather, and many visited by me appear to have contracted their dying illnesses from this cause. Many a poor woman has said to me, "I've nothing upon me, Mr. Vanderkiste, but the gown you see."

One poor lad, a gipsey, nearly a man, who works when he can obtain a job in Smithfield Market, had no lower garments, until I bought him an old pair, except an old sack fastened at the waist, and hanging round him. He attends our Evening Ragged School.

When the north wind blows, reader, it

well to consider

may

be

"Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and window'd raggedness defend you
From seasons such as these? Oh! I have ta'en
Too little care of this."

I have sometimes been desired to visit sick persons late at night, and it has been curious and painful to observe, how a whole family would be stowed into one bed, the children placed in a row at the bottom. Five and six persons lie in a bed thus.

Some of the occupations followed by persons upon my district are very strange. The fine and beautiful morocco leathers, in use for splendid Bibles, etc., are prepared for use by a particular kind of animal refuse.* I will give some very brief particulars respecting three persons who are thus occupied.

An aged man who followed this employ, a man of excellent address, once gave me the subjoined account. In his youthful days he followed the

*No chemical preparation is found to answer the purpose.