(EAST-END JUVENILE MISSION.)

URGENT APPEAL.

In the East of London, situated in three parishes, and surrounded by a dense population, are the various Institutions comprehended under the name of the East-End Juvenile Mission.  These include the Refuges for Destitute and Neglected Children usually called after their founder, “Dr. Barnardo’s Homes.”

The East-End Juvenile Mission was for many years under the sole direction of its founder, but during the past few months a Committee has undertaken, in conjunction with him, its financial control and general administration.

As very few who have heard of the Homes can have any adequate idea of the great variety of work comprehended by this Mission, or of its weighty claims upon the contributions of the benevolent, we may be permitted to briefly state its more important branches.

1.  The old building known as the Home for Working and Destitute Lads, in Stepney Causeway, contains at present about 260 boys; whilst a new building is being reared in the same locality, and when finished the whole will accommodate 400 otherwise homeless or orphan boys.

2.  Destitute Orphan or Neglected Girls are also cared for by this Mission, and are trained upon the family system, which is, in many respects, preferable to the old method of massing together large numbers of female children in one great Institution.  In the Village Home at Ilford there are now twenty-four little Cottages, each detached from its neighbours, and superintended by a Christian woman specially selected for the performance of her important duties.  These Cottages are intended to contain respectively from fifteen to twenty little orphan or destitute girls, who are being trained therein for domestic service.  When the Village is completed and fully occupied there will be thirty Cottages, calculated to contain about 600 such children.

3.  An Infirmary for Sick Children, containing thirty beds, has also been opened in Stepney Causeway, and is worked in connection with the other Institutions.

4.  A most important and practical Temperance work has also been established and carried on by this Mission.  The first Coffee Palace in the Metropolis, the “Edinburgh Castle,” was founded by Dr. Barnardo in Limehouse, in February, 1873.  The success which attended it and its fellow, the “Dublin Castle,” situated in Mile-end, has, in a large measure, led to the establishment of other Institutions of a similar character.

5.  The Free Ragged Schools of the Mission contained every Sunday about 1,700 children, gathered from the poorest streets of Limehouse, whilst two Large Mission Halls, situated in the midst of the adult population, and seating 2,500 persons, are on Sunday crowded by the working classes, who throng to hear in them earnest evangelical addresses.  These varied religious and temperance efforts, among adults, as well as the educational and refuge work among destitute children, need a considerable sum of money for their support.

During the past year the pressing needs of these Institutions, owing to extraordinary expenses in building, were only met by obtaining from the bankers an advance of £6,000.  The Committee are now most anxious to repay that sum, and with this object appeal to the benevolently disposed for assistance to remove from these valuable Institutions the burden of debt under which they are labouring for the first time since their establishment in 1867.

Contributions in response to this appeal may be sent to the Bankers of the Institution, Messrs. Dimsdale, Fowler, and Co., 50, Cornhill; or the London and South-Western Bank, Bow Branch; and will be gratefully acknowledged by the Honorary Director, Dr. Barnardo, at the Office of the Institution, 18, Stepney Causeway, E.

CAIRNS, President.

KINNAIRD, Vice-President.

W. FOWLER, Treasurer.

SAML. GURNEY SHEPPARD, Chairman of Committee.

HOME FOR WORKING & DESTITUTE LADS,
      18 & 20, Stepney Causeway, London, E.