“As to the appearance of these young Ishmaelites, it was plain that they had rarely made the acquaintance of soap and water.  Hands, feet and face exhibited a uniform crust of mud and filth.  As it was necessary to obtain order, the superintendent, remembering that ‘music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,’ decided to try its effects on the untamed group before him; and giving out a line of a hymn adapted to the tune of ‘Lily Dale,’ he commenced to sing.  The effect was instantaneous.  It was like oil on troubled waters.  The delighted youngsters listened to the first line, and then joined in with such hearty good-will that the old shanty rang again.

“The attempt to engage and lead them in prayer was, however, a matter of great difficulty.  They seemed to regard the attitude of kneeling as very amusing, and were reluctant to commit themselves so far to the ridicule of their companions as to be caught in such a posture.  After reading to them a portion of the Holy Scriptures and telling them of Jesus, they were dismissed, greatly pleased with their first visit to a Sabbath-school.

“As for ourselves, we had also received a lesson.  We found—­what indeed we had expected—­that the poor children were very ignorant, but we also found what we did not expect—­namely, such an acute intelligence and aptitude to receive instruction as admonished us of the danger of leaving them to grow up under evil influences to become master-spirits in crime and pests to society.  Many of the faces that we had just seen were very expressive—­indeed, painfully so.  Some of them seemed to exhibit an unnatural and premature development of those passions whose absence makes childhood so attractive.

“Hunger! ay, its traces were also plainly written there.  It is painful to see the marks of hunger on the human face, but to see the cheeks of childhood blanched by famine, to behold the attenuated limbs and bright wolfish eyes, ah! that is a sight.

“The organization of a day-school came next.  There were hundreds of children in the district close about the mission who were wholly without instruction.  They were too dirty, vicious and disorderly to be admitted into any of the public schools; and unless some special means of education were provided, they must grow up in ignorance.  It was therefore resolved to open a day-school, but to find a teacher with her heart in such a work was a difficulty hard to be met; moreover, it was thought by many unsafe for a lady to remain in this locality alone, even though a suitable one should offer.  But one brave and self-devoted was found, and one Sunday it was announced to the children in the Sabbath-school that a day school would be opened in the same building at nine o’clock on Monday morning.