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No. 426, Mat 22, 1858.] THE LBADEB, 497
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PLAYGROUNDS FOlt THE POOR. Some people t...
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SANITARY CONDITION OF THE ARMY. 31. Tub ...
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Xicw Roman Catholic Ilisuoi'.—The WtcMt/...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. 426, Mat 22, 1858.] The Lbadeb, 497
No . 426 , Mat 22 , 1858 . ] THE LBADEB , 497
Playgrounds Folt The Poor. Some People T...
PLAYGROUNDS FOlt THE POOR . Some people think of " play" only as sport for children , or excusable for men in the intervals of business . But its best meaning , and we suspect the old true meaning , is . expressed when we speak of men having " full play for their , faculties , " " fair play in a fight , " or the " full play of the limbs . " The fair play of the limbs is as necessary for good health as sufficient food ; think , then , of the children
of the poor , four or five in one room , nx houses without yards , in streets without enclosures , their best playground in . some . instances' a narrow court To keep ' these children from play is not as if you kept them from a play at the theatre or any other amusement useful and improving , but not essential . It is to keep their little but growing limbs cramped ; it is to commence the bending of
the b . ick , the twisting of the-limbs , the stunting of the stature , the narrowing of tiie chest . If men were all clear-sighted physicians , and could actually see what is going on in the small'bodies we cramp into stifling rooms , could sec liow each hour of forced inaction , of bad air , is slowly telling on the ¦ vital powers and life-bearing organs , they might be shocked to see that " yonder foul murder ' s done , " slowly but surely .
The interposition of tins topic tins week by Mr . Slaney in the House -between two roundsof the faction fight seems as strange as if a Belgian farmer sowed his seed after 'Ligiiy , and before Waterloo . Yet the seeds sown on the morrow of Ligny grew up into golden corn , and were made into wholesome bread , when the army of Napoleon had long been shattered beyond hope . The good done by this new bill for facilitating playgrounds for poor children , may live in . fresh cheeks and well-made limbs , when Mr . Cardwell ' s resolution wilt be a very petty piece of- very old Parliamentary gossip . Though is wim et
jjonuon cioseiy coYcrea nouses , ymere are spaces that would serve for playgrounds . The parks are to our mind much too jealously kept ; grass was certainly made to be seen , but the feeling of the turf beneath the feet is also pleasant , and should not be suggested as improper by so many iron railings . We have the ladies mile in Kotten-row , an excellent institutioii , where London beauties gather afresh the roses they lose in late hours ; but why not have children ' s acres hi each park , wherewith some kind watching the children of poor parents who cannot pay for a nursery maid . might leave their children to iilay together for a few hours r
AVe have nurseries for young trees in our parka ; why not organize out-of-door nuvscries for children ? If you pass through the mean streets of a poor neighbourhood each house bus its one or two or . ' three children , shut up'in their own dwelling , listless enough , pale enough . Could we go from house to house , and collect them all , say from twelve to four , and send them , a regiment of infants , to some green and pleasant enclosure in summer , or sonic small Crystal Palace iu winter , what hundreds of happy little hearts you niiglit make , what a harvest of rosebuds you might find
on their pale cheeks after a . month of such play ! This thing is done once a year or so now , when some kind folks take them to Sydcnham ; it ; should be done every day . It would cost little or nothing , and the good il , would tlo in many ways would be very great , for instance , inducing some lazy parents for very sbume to dress their children neatly , besides the solid advantage of giving to our future citizens a lair chance of growing up strong men and healthy women . lint we are almost ashamed to say , amidst these politico-economical reasons , that our first and chief thought about it . is , that it would make the children themselves so happy .
Sanitary Condition Of The Army. 31. Tub ...
SANITARY CONDITION OF THE ARMY . 31 . Tub causes of the excessive mortality in the troops both at home iiud abroad which wore assigned by the various witnesses before the Commission , are arranged under the lour heads of : —1 . Night , duty . ~ . V \ ant of exercise and suitable employment . . 3 . Intemperate and debauched habits among ; the soldiers . 4 . Crowding and iusuHicicnt ventilation , and nuisances arising from latrines and defective sewerage in barracks . Examining the evidence upon these points we find Colonel the lion . S . Lindsay , of the l \ , ot Guards , says thai , with other causes assisting , the night duty is the most prominent cause of 11 us excessive mortality in that corps . Bui , what does the reader suppose is this terrible night duty to which the stalwart ; CqWstrciuner is exposed ?—anything
as bad as the sentry duty at Hongkong , or the Deptford night guard on the banks of the Thames , redolent of the sewers and cesspools of all London , or the night duty on the granite wharfs and piers at Plymouth , where he is blown through and through for two hours by the keen north-easter ?—or is it as pestilential as the beat of the London policeman through sinks and dens of Lambeth ? No ; but this is his cruel lot— -every fifth night lie is on guard for two hours under the walls of the royal palaces , the Government offices , the Bank ' . of England , the Tower , & c . Nothing . very loathsome or
stagnant in these localities ; the sentry-boxes , as far as we know them , are generally placed in some sheltered nook or other . Well , lie is relieved , and retires to the guardroom , where , it is true , the poor fellow is not provided with a feather-bed , but he can sleep , as a soldier should when waiting his guard , on the bunk before a roaring fire for ' four hours ; then he turns , but for his last , two hours , with which his night work ends for nearly a week . If we are to consider the mere loss of rest , the question really becomes ludicrous : Compare the amount of rest possible to an accoucheur in good
practice in London , or to that obtained by Members of Parliament on committee , or railway guards and engineers , or the whole body of naval and seafaring men ¦ it is vastly in . favour of the Guardsman . Colonel Lindsay speaks of the men lying down in their watch-coats and perspiring , and then turning out into the cold air ; or it may be their coats were wet . There would , no doubt , he a certain amount of exciting cause in . all this , but we suspect that if any special influence is to be assigned to the night duty , ifc will be found to be connected with the condition of the guardroom . As the evidence does not afford any description of a guardroom , we shall supply one . In a word , it is generally a disgusting place , damp and dirty , and confined in dimensions . It is damp , because it is . what is called cleaned
every morning by upsetting "buckets of water on the floor and mopping them up again , and it is only the tremendous lire which the men contrive to keep going pretty much all the year round that keeps t lie place at all dry or purified . It is nearly always overcrowded at the worst time , that is , at night ; for there is frequently the guard and the pickets , and men brought in by them , with any odd prisoners awaiting orders fox court-martial—in all numbering from 30 to ' 10 persons . A certain proportion of the men . " brought in" arc usually exhibiting all the disgusting effects of drunkenness , and the prisoners are often poor -unfortunate deserters , halfstarved and filthy 3 driven to the last extremity of suffering in trying to evade tlic laws . The clothes of these deserters arc sometimes so loathsome and
so positively dangerous as a source of disease , that the medical officer has ordered them to be burnt , and the men of the corps have clubbed , one an old jacket and another , a pair of trousers or an old shirt , to clothe the man . It is not uncommon for these prisoners to be kept night and day in the guardroom , subsisting on the sixpence a dag allowed , with a short daily interval for exercise , for several weeks : muL if wa . rcniRinhnr ri . < rhtlv . no several weeks ; andif we remember rightlyno
, , sort , of bed is allowed them till they have been confined in this guardroom for ten days . Such a permitted custom has always appeared to us not only as extreme bad management , hut calculated to produce disease amongst healthy men . We can see no reason why the guard should be made to associate with defaulters in this way , so demoralizing to the men . The moment a non-commissioned
olhcur or commissioned olliccr disgraces himself , he is ordered to lua private room and not allowed to associate with any one . Tliore could surely be no dilliculty raised against ( .. he plan of a separate guardroom , not to call it a cell , for men awaiting their trial . By such an arrangement , the men who are obliged to be in the guardroom , and who are honestly performing their duty , would not . be subjected to moral anil physical injuries arising from being crammed into a close and disgusting room with a company of drunkards , deserters , and suspects . Night duty , alleged as a cause of mortality , docidedlv breaks down . No doubt there arc instances
of stations abroad exposed to malaria ; when , as at Hong-Kong for example , the bad ulVoct upon the , sentries has been ftvidenl . ; these arc exceptional , and have been remedied now by the establishment of a native police for night duly . A truer source of mortiility for tlie Guards nmslbc . sought , as we think , in the fact that they are always in London , and consequently more exposed
to the allurements of town life and the facilities for dissipation , not the least of " which , by the way , is the late hours , they are allowed to keep , viz . halfpast ten at night , being an hour later than other troops are allowed ; especially for men . who , we are told , "have necessarily a great deal of idle time on their hands . " We find in the report that when the Guards were removed from the indulgences of London life to suppress the rebellion in Canada ia 1 S 38 , their health improved , though probably their duty was harder both day and night ; the rates were , in the Line , 16 " 5 per 1000 per annum , and in the Guards , 145 per 1000 . In considering : want of exercise and suitable
employment as one ot the causes alleged in the evidence , we start with the deduction from the general tables of mortality , that occupations requiring much exercise of mascular power , whether in-doors or in the open aiiyare more favourable to life and health than those requiring less exertion .-. Comparing the two classes of soldiers , Cavalry and Infantry , the result is in favour of the former , as 13 * 6 per 1000 is to 17 - 9 per 1000 . The report explains this by the greater amount of exercise taken by the cavalry man in the open air , his groom ing and general stable duty , his horse exercise and his drill with the sword , which bring into plav a greater variety of muscles ;
whereas , not . h ing can be more constrained than tlie exercise of a foot soldier , and we . hiight . addj nothing could be much less adapted for his active duties than the present equipment of the infantry man , except it were that in which he was accoutred for the great Crimean campaign . As walking with a load of from fifty-six to sixty pounds' weight to carry is the principal function of a foot soldier , one would expect that all the stress being upon his feet we should find him with a particularly well-designed pair of shoes . Nothing' of tlie kind ; he is placed in a pair of large ¦ thick , bluchers , made of the hardest and most
inflexible leather—instru . Kients . ol tort ure ^ intact , on the march—technically Called " amnnuutioners / ' Then his pack is strapped on his chest in the way most calculated to chafe his arms and oppress his breathing . In the ranks we find him placed in what is so admiringly called " acompact mass ; " arid so indeed he is , for he is literally wedged in , and such , is the pressure in the centre of a rank that careless or weakly men are sometimes actually squeezed out in the process of wheeling . This gives an idea of tlie sort of exercise the men are made to undergo every
day ; and tlic futility of-such routine-training , of men destined for great bodily exertions is soon shown in the speedy way in which it all becomes upset in a campaign . The only attempt to develop a man ' s muscular system properly is made upon the recruits for a short time after joining—they get what is called " setting-up drill , " which is all very well in its way , but sliould be carried on throughout a regiment constantly . Above all , as it seems to us , should the soldier , as well as everybody , indeed , be trained in athletic exercises ? -We cannot
sufficiently urge upon tlie authorities the necessity of carrying out the recommendation of the Commission upon this subject , founded as it is upon the advice and experience of such veterans as Generals Mansell and Lawrence , the Quartermaster-General , and Colonel Lindsay . The lieport says : "Of the time that the soldier has to himself he spends a very small portion in exercise out of doors ; every encouragement and facility should be given to tlic soldier to practise athletic and out-of-door games and sports , as necessary both for his physical and moral health .
In the liYcnch army these considerations are so entirely recognized , and so great is the importance attached to them , that not only arc the soldiers made to pass through a certain course of gymnastic exercises , but among the duties prescribed in the instructions for the medical inspectors is that of inquiring into the practice of these exercises in their districts . We are , therefore , inclined to place want of exercise , and especially of that species of exercise which useful labour supplies , and which would , brace and develop the chest and . frame , among the causes of the sickness and mortality of the infantry soldier . ( Wo be continued . }
Xicw Roman Catholic Ilisuoi'.—The Wtcmt/...
Xicw Roman Catholic Ilisuoi ' . —The WtcMt / llcyixter is authorized to announce that the Itcv . Franc-id Ainliorat has been nominated to the vacant Roman Catholic see of Northampton . Mr . Amherst is head of the senior branch of the family , from h cadet of which Karl Aiuherst is dcscciulwl , ami which hus always retained tliG Uomuit Cat hoi iu faith . CumuMi-ttATK J ) km : at . — A church rato lma been refused iu Trinity parish , li ridge water , by a largo majority .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22051858/page/17/
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