A CHILD'S HEROISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 92, 11 January 1908, Page 11

A CHILD'S HEROISM.

A, correspondent in a recent'issue of the "Daily Mail,'' Writing about the bitter tress and! destitution in Sunderland, duo, to the lack of work, tells of a little girl's heroism. .

. "It is tho children,";ho says,-"who present the most acute point of the distress.' Some of the working-class suburbs . hero have prided themselves in the past, on tho fact that their birth-rate is far above tho average of the country. Sunderland is a town of large families.' Now . many of these l children are exist- . ing—l cannot call it living—in a way that must break numbers of' ■them down if continued for a week or two. more. When. a family of father,' mother, and four chiltlren struggle along 611 an odd weekly lialf - crown oamed . by the • eldest hoy, as in 0110, case, i' bread and weak\£ea will not go r ory day. In many cases there.is not oven tlio'half-crown.' . ' .1 .

"A little lass of ciplit came,to her schoolmistress. , 'I'lcasc, miss, my little • brother has, no breakfast. -Can you give him some?'. . ..

"'But ,whnt. about you, Mary?'. the teacher, asked. 'Have you had ( auy? Won't.you come, too?' " (Thank- you, miss, but I can cam my own living. Igo out to work.' "On furthc-r inquiry the 1 teachcr found that for weeks the little lass had ;beeu'. going; to a neighbour's house for an hour or so in tho morning, an hour ; at noon, and an hour in the evening, helping *to mind the baby and to wash up, in return for food. No free meals for, her.- And no offers could persuade her to share the. school breakfasts. .

- "This independence is the dominant note mi all sides.' Doubtless there are loafers at Sunderland as elsewhere,, but-' they are very little in evidence. , The skilled mechanic 'generally refuses even to put his name on the books of the Distress Committee. He has something put by- for a rainy day, and ho >is drawing bis 'out' allowance froiii his trade union. Ho leaves relief for. the labourer and for the less fortunate."