STREET URCHIN'S VOW.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7889, 19 December 1903, Page 4

STREET URCHIN'S VOW.

[ 4. C A BOY'S RESOLVE AND WHAT CAME OF IT. i . , k Half-starved and clad in rags, a boy of seven on© day wandered about th© lowest quarters of Glasgow. He saw that other urchins were in the aainie plight as himself, ' and he vowed in after-life to brighten, the ' lives of such children. That vow was fulfilled. The boy was William Quarrier, the . founder of the Scottish Orphan Homes, who t died on Ootober 22. His career was a long record of noble unselfishness and broad-minded philanthropy. Thirty years 1 ago ha inaugurated 1 a scheme of orphan • homes, and since then nearly 11,000 destit tute children have received free board and . education and been taught trades. Mr , Quarrier also cent about 5000 children to Canada, and was instrumental in erecting the first consumptive sanatorium in Scotland. Mr Quarter's early struggles form a grim chapter in- his life. He was bom at Greenock in 1829, and, at the age of five* his father died, leaving ai widow to keep a family of three. William brought in a shilling a week by punching heads upon pins, and later was apprenticed to a shoemaker. At twelve, he qualified as 9- "journeyman," and found employment with a Mrs Hunter, of Glasgow. He was twenty-three when he started business on his own account, and at twentyseven he married the daughter of his late employer. Within a few years his business was thriving and extensive.Then he' began to put into practice the philanthropic ambitions of his boyhood, and aided by the donations of others, he eminently succeeded. Since 1872 he had in all the stewardship of over £447,650.