Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/230

218 According to the report of Her Majesty's Inspector, the boys cost 7s. 8d. per head per week, but there was an industrial profit of £601 11s. 4d., £309 0s. 11d. having been received for hire of boys' labour. The Treasury paid £1,350 14s., the rates no less than £1,007 18s. 11d., and subscriptions brought in £83 13s. Of 125 discharges, only 40 per cent, were reported to be doing well, 4 per cent. convicted, 16 per cent. doubtful, and as many as 40 per cent. unknown.—Penn Street School, an establishment of a similar character, was certified in Jan., 1863. There were 60 boys and 5 officers. The boys cost only 5s. 6d. par head per week. The school received £673 16s. 11d. from the Treasury, £275 0s. 10d. From the rates, £93 2s. from subscriptions, and £100 9s. 3d. from the hire of boy labour. There is an industrial profit of £136 193. 11d. Of 37 discharges 70 per cent. are said to be doing well, 6 per cent. to be re-convicted, 3 per cent. dead, and 21 per cent. unknown.—At Shustoke School, certified in February, 1868, there were 130 boys, under 11 officers. The boys cost 6s. 8d. per head per week. £1,580 I7s. 11d had been received from the Treasury; £1,741 16s. from the rates, of which, however, £1,100 had been spent in building, &c.; industrial profit, £109 3s. 7d. Of 27 discharges 74 per cent. were reported to be doing well, 18 per cent. to be convicted, 4 per cent. to be doubtful, and 4 per cent. to be unknown.—Saltley Reformatory was established in 1852. There were 91 boys under detention and 16 on license at the time of the inspector's visit; 9 officers. This school received £1,371 14s. 3d. from the Treasury, £254 19s. 1d. from the rates, and £99 16s. 6d. from subscriptions. The boys cost 6s 8d. per head per week, and there was £117 9s. 10d. industrial profit, representing the produce of their labour. Of 74 boys discharged in 1879-81, 69 per cent. are reported to be doing well, 19 per cent. to be reconvicted, and 12 per cent. unknown.—At Stoke Farm Reformatory, established in 1853, there were 78 boys under detention, in charge of 10 officers; and 19 on license. Stoke received £1,182 19s. 8d. from the Treasury, £102 17s. 6d. from the rates, and £100 from subscriptions. The boys cost 6s. 11d. per head per week, and there was an industrial profit of £18 14s. 11d. Of 62 boys discharged in 1879-81, 76 per cent. were reported to by doing well, 16 per cent. to be convicted of crime, 5 per cent. doubtful, 1⅓ per cent. dead, 1½ per cent. unknown.

Licensed Victuallers Asylum, Bristol Road, founded in 1848, to receive and maintain for life distressed members of the trade and their wives or widows.—The Secretary is Mr. H. C. Edwards, The Quadrant, New Street.—See "Trade Societies." Little Sisters' Home.—Founded in 1864, by three French and two English members of the Catholic "Order of Little Sisters of the Poor," the first home being at one of the large houses in the Crescent, where they sheltered, fed, and clothed about 80 aged or broken-down men and women. In 1874 the Sisters removed to their present establishment, at Harborne, where they minister to nearly double the number. The whole of this large family are provided for out of the scraps and odds-and-ends gathered by the Sisters from private houses, shops, hotels, restaurants, and bars of the town, the smallest scraps of material, crusts of bread, remains of meat, even to cigar ends, all being acceptable to the black robed ladies oi' charity daily seen in the town on their errand of mercy. Though essentially a Catholic institution, the "Little Sisters" bestow their charity irrespective of creed, Protestants being admitted and allowed freely to follow their own religious notions, the only preference made being in favour of the most aged and destitute.

Magdalen Asylum and Refuge.—First established in 1828, the chapel in Broad Street being opened in 1839.