of doing
without candles, surplices, or altar. It does not even boast a pulpit,
but draws the line so as to take in a harmonium, indispensable for
leading the tunes. At one end of the room is a platform, on which the
harmonium stands, and whereon the service is conducted.

It is the congregation rather than the preacher that I remember best in
connection with the Ragged Church. Half-past eleven is the hour for the
commencement of service, and was fixed upon chiefly to suit the
convenience of a portion of the congregation, who, having slept
overnight in the casual wards, are considerately detained in them till
eleven o'clock, by which time society is supposed to be comfortably
seated in its own churches, and is thus saved the shock of suddenly
coming upon Rags and Tatters going to church or elsewhither--Rags and
Tatters, it being well understood, not always showing themselves proof
against the temptation of improving the occasion by begging. At a
quarter to eleven there filed into the church threescore little girls,
all dressed in wincey dresses, with brown, furry jackets and little
brown hats, a monotony of colour that served to bring into fuller
contrast the red and black wool scarf each wore tightly tied round her
neck. They all looked bright, clean, and happy, and one noted a
considerable proportion of pretty-faced and delicately-limbed children.

How they were born, or with what parentage, is in many cases a question
to which the records of the institution supply no answer. They were
simply "found" on a doorstep, or arrested when wandering about the
street crying for the mother or the father who had cast them off. This
class of school-girl is generally distinguished by the fineness of her
Christian name, Blanche, and Lily, and Constance, being among the waifs
and strays who have found a refuge with the kindly matron of the Field
Lane Institution. There are others whose history is written plainly
enough in the records of the police-courts.

There is one, a prematurely aged little woman in her eleventh year, who,
previous to being sent here, passed of her own free will night after
night in the streets, living through the day on her wits, which are very
sharp. Another, about the same age, when taken into custody on something
more than suspicion of picking pockets, was found the possessor of no
fewer than seven purses. A third, who is understood to be now in her
ninth year, earned a handsome livelihood in the Haymarke