3-074-752 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The London Samaritan Society's distribution of boots and clothing to poor children, 1883. '1. Waiting for their Turn. 2. Trying-On. 3. The Clothes Department. 4. A New Coat for an Old One. 5. Not Made to Measure. 6. Tender Feet. 7. Comparing Notes...the London Samaritan Society...which has its headquarters in one of the poorest parts of the East End,...provides food, clothes, and assistance of all kinds...The work of clothing the naked goes on every Saturday evening throughout the winter...How gladly the mothers tried the frocks and petticoats offered them on their children!...There a woman measured a pair of trousers against the puny stature of her son, sighing to find that they were vastly too big for him...in came a poor boy, wet and footsore, to see if there might perchance be a pair left for him...anything was preferable to bare feet, and he ultimately was grateful for a pair that might have suited his father. It was curious to see the small girls and boys comparing notes as they held out their frocks and jackets for one another's inspection...how little it takes to make a child happy...there can be no better way of disposing of the cast-off clothes that are sure to accumulate in a family...for the relief of wretchedness'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.