(To THE EDITOR OP THE SPECIATOR."3 Sia, — In response to your
appeal I have pleasure in sending the enclosed £10 to the C.O.S., and 1 wish it could have been £100, for I can heartily endorse every word you say about the Society. While practising art professionally in London, my sister and I many times applied to the C.O.S. for information about cases that came under our view, and we were always delighted at the care with which everything was looked into and sifted, the results being often surprising. I may mention two instances : A woman brought a lovely, but crippled and sickly, child to the studio, offering her as a model, and at the same time begging, with a pitiful tale of the father's cruelty and desertion. Our sympathy was aroused, but instead of giving the expected relief we started inquiries for the missing father through tho C.O.S., with the result that it was discovered that the woman had stolen the child from a perambulator in the park, while the nursemaid was chatting with a soldier, to use for begging purposes. It was crippled by herself when drunk by being thrown downstairs, and having its legs broken and never set. The child's mother was found, and the poor child returned to her, I am afraid, in a dying condition, and the wretched thief was punished. The inquiry took the C.O.S. months. In the other instance a very venerable looking old man, with a beau- tiful face, offered himself as a model, and while being painted began to beg, telling a most sad story. He proved on inquiry to be an absolute rascal, and not a safe inmate for a lady's studio. When we told him we should not require him any more he at once threw off the mask of gentle old age, and the transformation was extraordinary. We were very glad to have our landlord at hand, and to get the man safely away. If people with kind, soft hearts would give to the Societyg
instead of to cases they.have no means of testing, these clever professional beggars would disappear, and the. really deserving could better be helped. The C:0.8. was equally good in looking into these cases, and kind and generous in assisting us to help them. Before I close this letter I hope you will allow me, of Ulster descent on my mother's side, to thank you from my heart for your splendid advocacy through thick and thin. It has been the greatest consolation to me during this storm of bitterness and misunderstanding, when even papers intended for the young have joined in supporting Sinn Fein and abusing Ulster for obstinately standing in the way of peace, and finally in giving fulsome praise to Mr. Lloyd George for accomplishing through kindness " what Cromwell failed to do" through force. Certainly Oliver Cromwell would not have been satisfied with the present state of affairs !—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
