DOI issue:
January 16, 1864
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16873#0032
24
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 16, 1864.
THE BITER BIT.
First Cabby. “I’m waitin'’ i«ok the Meeger, your Honor!”
Second ditto (in an audible whisper). “ B’lieve me, ’tis the General, and I’m his Kyab.”
Green (?) Ensign. “ Aw—bore that—Can’t take Me, I suppose? I’m only a Captain.”
[Hibernians decidedly sold.
DINNERS EOR POOR CHILDREN WANTED.
The friends of M. Victor Hugo, and his foes too, for that matter,
must consider his Les Miserahles as being a good work: but a still better
work of his was thus the other day recorded by the Guernsey Star:—
“ On Thursday last, being Christmas eve, M. Victor Hugo entertained at Haute-
ville House the poor children who, for about two years, have been the constant
recipients of his bounty. The party consisted of 40 children and several of their
parents, for the whole of whom M. Hugo provides a substantial dinner once a
fortnight, 20 being received each week. These children are entertained without
any regard to their nationality or religion, English, French, Guernsey, and Irish—
Protestants and Catholics—being equally welcome, poverty being the only qualifica-
tion required.
“ The party assembled on Thursday having been regaled with a solid dinner and
a dessert of cake and wine, were taken into the billiard room, where several visitors
were assembled, and where, much to their delight, the children sawthe table spread
with a liberal supply of useful apparel, such as jackets, gowns, shirts, caps, bonnets,
stockings, and shoes.”
Thus the outer child was cared for not less than the inner one; the
latter being comforted by M. Victor Hugo as often as once a fortnight
during all the year. His motive for this systematic course of charity
the author of Les Miserahles thus explained:—
“ In ISIS, a commission of medical and other scientific men had been appointed
by the French Government, to inquire into the causes of diseases, such as scrofula,
rickets, and impoverishment of the blood (angine couenneuse) to which the children
of the poor were exposed, and which produced so much mortality among them.
The committee reported it as their opinion that these diseases were caused by the
children being almost totally strangers to animal food, and that they might be
checked by their having a meal of fresh meat once a month. Owing to pohtical
events, this report remained without effect, but it made a strong impression on his
(M. Hugo’s) mind, and he determined that when circumstances should permit he
would test the soundness of the theory propounded. He had, therefore, about two
years ago, commenced the humble little work of which the present meeting was a
part. He had selected 40 young children from the most necessitous classes of
Guernsey, and to these ho had given, not once a month, but once a fortnight, a
sound meal composed of fresh meat and a small glass of wine. And he had the
satisfaction of finding that his humble experiment had been undoubtedly success-
ful. Many of his poor little children who had been suffering from one or the other
of the diseases he had mentioned had been cured, and the physical constitution of
nearly the whole of them sensibly improved.”
A meal of fresh, meat once a month is not a very costly gift to make
to a poor child, and yet this little present may be productive of great
benefit. The stronger a child is, the greater is the cmance that he will
grow up a strong man : and the stronger a man is, the more work can
he do, and the less chance will there be of his coming on the parish. So
putting charity aside, it would be a wise economy to give the children of
poor people now and then a meal of meat, and strengthen thus their
sinews and their constitutions. There is, besides, the fact that duty
should oblige us to take care of the poor, and on this point M. Hugo
thus forcibly insists:—
“ He wished it to be clearly understood that he assumed no merit for what he
had done, for-it was a part of his creed that it was the positive duty of the rich to
care for the poor—a duty imposed alike by Christianity and common sense—and
that the rich had no right to spend then' superfluity on their own enjoyments, when
they saw their fellow-beings suffering around them. He had, he repeated, called
these poor children together with the view of carrying out an important experiment,
but he had also done it for the purpose of giving an example. He had the gratifi-
cation of assisting 40 children; if 20 persons would do the same, 800 children would
be cared for, and it was impossible to say what amount of good might thus be done
for the population of the island.”
We most heartily commend M. Hugo’s good example, and should be
glad to see steps taken by which it might be followed. Polks in general
perhaps might not find it quite convenient to invite a score of children
once a fortnight to their dinner-tables, for we fear there are few cooks
in this enlightened age who would condescend at any price to cook_ for
them. But surely folks might club together to hire a children’s dining-
room, where little people with large appetites might have a good meai
set before them once or twice a month. Public dinners are in general
most execrable nuisances, and Mr. Punch has long since ceased to have-
anything to do with them. But if poor children’s public dinners were
established in this country, Mr. Punch would be most happy to assist
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 16, 1864.
THE BITER BIT.
First Cabby. “I’m waitin'’ i«ok the Meeger, your Honor!”
Second ditto (in an audible whisper). “ B’lieve me, ’tis the General, and I’m his Kyab.”
Green (?) Ensign. “ Aw—bore that—Can’t take Me, I suppose? I’m only a Captain.”
[Hibernians decidedly sold.
DINNERS EOR POOR CHILDREN WANTED.
The friends of M. Victor Hugo, and his foes too, for that matter,
must consider his Les Miserahles as being a good work: but a still better
work of his was thus the other day recorded by the Guernsey Star:—
“ On Thursday last, being Christmas eve, M. Victor Hugo entertained at Haute-
ville House the poor children who, for about two years, have been the constant
recipients of his bounty. The party consisted of 40 children and several of their
parents, for the whole of whom M. Hugo provides a substantial dinner once a
fortnight, 20 being received each week. These children are entertained without
any regard to their nationality or religion, English, French, Guernsey, and Irish—
Protestants and Catholics—being equally welcome, poverty being the only qualifica-
tion required.
“ The party assembled on Thursday having been regaled with a solid dinner and
a dessert of cake and wine, were taken into the billiard room, where several visitors
were assembled, and where, much to their delight, the children sawthe table spread
with a liberal supply of useful apparel, such as jackets, gowns, shirts, caps, bonnets,
stockings, and shoes.”
Thus the outer child was cared for not less than the inner one; the
latter being comforted by M. Victor Hugo as often as once a fortnight
during all the year. His motive for this systematic course of charity
the author of Les Miserahles thus explained:—
“ In ISIS, a commission of medical and other scientific men had been appointed
by the French Government, to inquire into the causes of diseases, such as scrofula,
rickets, and impoverishment of the blood (angine couenneuse) to which the children
of the poor were exposed, and which produced so much mortality among them.
The committee reported it as their opinion that these diseases were caused by the
children being almost totally strangers to animal food, and that they might be
checked by their having a meal of fresh meat once a month. Owing to pohtical
events, this report remained without effect, but it made a strong impression on his
(M. Hugo’s) mind, and he determined that when circumstances should permit he
would test the soundness of the theory propounded. He had, therefore, about two
years ago, commenced the humble little work of which the present meeting was a
part. He had selected 40 young children from the most necessitous classes of
Guernsey, and to these ho had given, not once a month, but once a fortnight, a
sound meal composed of fresh meat and a small glass of wine. And he had the
satisfaction of finding that his humble experiment had been undoubtedly success-
ful. Many of his poor little children who had been suffering from one or the other
of the diseases he had mentioned had been cured, and the physical constitution of
nearly the whole of them sensibly improved.”
A meal of fresh, meat once a month is not a very costly gift to make
to a poor child, and yet this little present may be productive of great
benefit. The stronger a child is, the greater is the cmance that he will
grow up a strong man : and the stronger a man is, the more work can
he do, and the less chance will there be of his coming on the parish. So
putting charity aside, it would be a wise economy to give the children of
poor people now and then a meal of meat, and strengthen thus their
sinews and their constitutions. There is, besides, the fact that duty
should oblige us to take care of the poor, and on this point M. Hugo
thus forcibly insists:—
“ He wished it to be clearly understood that he assumed no merit for what he
had done, for-it was a part of his creed that it was the positive duty of the rich to
care for the poor—a duty imposed alike by Christianity and common sense—and
that the rich had no right to spend then' superfluity on their own enjoyments, when
they saw their fellow-beings suffering around them. He had, he repeated, called
these poor children together with the view of carrying out an important experiment,
but he had also done it for the purpose of giving an example. He had the gratifi-
cation of assisting 40 children; if 20 persons would do the same, 800 children would
be cared for, and it was impossible to say what amount of good might thus be done
for the population of the island.”
We most heartily commend M. Hugo’s good example, and should be
glad to see steps taken by which it might be followed. Polks in general
perhaps might not find it quite convenient to invite a score of children
once a fortnight to their dinner-tables, for we fear there are few cooks
in this enlightened age who would condescend at any price to cook_ for
them. But surely folks might club together to hire a children’s dining-
room, where little people with large appetites might have a good meai
set before them once or twice a month. Public dinners are in general
most execrable nuisances, and Mr. Punch has long since ceased to have-
anything to do with them. But if poor children’s public dinners were
established in this country, Mr. Punch would be most happy to assist