Excerpt from Street Arabs and Gutter Snipes: The Pathetic and Humorous Side of Young Vagabond Life in the Great Cities, With Records of Work for Their Reclamation A preface is like a doorway to a house, through which the reader finds access to the book. It also gives the author opportunity to explain or apologize. I take advantage of the custom, and, as I usher in the stranger, offer some explanations. This book is a plea on behalf of neglected and destitute children, found chiefly in our great cities, and too often educated in crime by unnatural parents or vicious guardians; or who, through the stress of circumstances, are forced into a course of life which tends to the multiplication of criminals and the increase of the dangerous classes. This evil is exposed by statement of fact, by illustrated narrative, and by statistics. If public attention is thereby arrested, and sufficient proof adduced to awaken an interest in child-life, and enforce a conviction that thousands of juveniles are degraded through neglect, I am persuaded the tragedies of which children form the chief part will materially decrease. A protest against wrong-doing is one step in the right direction; a plea for reform another; both, however, cover only a little of the road over which we must walk if we are alive to duty and sensible to privilege. The practical applications of proved remedies go still beyond, and reach unto the end in view within these pages. True, there are no grand schemes propounded of universal reform; no novel experiments demanded; nor are laws and regulations recognized as worthy of world-wide application. Examples are given of work done by humane organizations; and the wonderful achievements of individual enterprises in this field of philanthropy are prominently noticed, lint there can he no iron hand to grip and guide young vagabond life; it must be a hand of love tempered with firmness, guided with wisdom, and ever outstretched in the power of prayer and faith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Street Arabs and Gutter Snipes: The Pathetic and Humorous Side of Young Vagabond Life in the Great Cities, with Records of Work for Their Reclamation PDF

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