London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
YOUNG PHILANTHROPISTS ON THE COMMON GREEN.
In securing a seaside residence for our youngsters it is not always advisable to attempt to obtain for them the questionable advantage of what may be termed A recreation ground may be very pleasant for the seniors, but occasionally the juniors find their chief amusement in quarrelling with one another. The occupants of frequently split into sets. The Browns refuse to talk to the Joneses, and both boycott the Robinsons. Then Young Hopeful, if he is of an ingenious turn of mind, utilises the backs of the houses as a sort of contributory savings bank. I have heard of a case where certain young gentlemen of a benevolent turn of mind appeared as with blue spectacles, wideawake hats, and mufflers complete, and set themselves to collect pence for a charitable object. Provided with a toy banjo and a miniature tambourine, they regaled the occupants of the Imperial Terrace with a selection of comic songs chosen from the of the neighbouring sands. Until their efforts in the cause of philanthropy were discovered by their parents these young | |
280 | disciples of Howard and Wilberforce collected something like three or four shillings a day. The collections, I have heard, were devoted to the encouragement of that languishing branch of trade, the and miscellaneous sweetstuff industry. I have been told that these same boy-benefactors, on the regatta night, having organised a small display of fireworks on proposed to admit the public to the grounds-a privilege hitherto reserved for the exclusive use of the residents of Imperial Terrace. However, that the public might not be overburdened with a sense of unsolicited obligation, the boys, with a tact considerably in advance of their years, proposed charging each candidate for admission the sum of twopence, as a sort of complimentary entrance fee. No doubt the sum realised by this thoughtful arrangement would have been expended on the further support of the decayed industry to which I have already referred. But, as ill-fortune would have it, the first persons to seek admission were the parents of the Masters Hopeful. This would have been a matter of small importance had a member of the firm been at the gate, but cruel fate decided that a sympathetic friend should have been left in charge, who knew not Mr. and Mrs. Hopeful, senior. This sympathetic friend, being a little misty in his arithmetic, informed the candidates |
281 | for admission that the charge was An followed -with tearful results. |
