JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
As impossibly busy as Charles Dickens was--and this mostly throughout the course of his writing life--there was always something else going on for him beyond that tirelessly-busy stage. He always seemed to have time, too, even beyond all of this, to help people in need, physically and through his words. Dickens' interest and care for the poor, the working class, the sick, the abandoned, the beggars, the children, exposing them to the reading public, expressing care and understanding and sympathy, is perhaps unmatched in the 19th century.
I found this piece--new to me--in Dickens' edited ("conducted") Household Words, in the March 13, 1852 issue. It discusses the concept of the "Ragged School" in Dickens' visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, an institution for educating all-comers, including the homeless, the indigent, the sick, abandoned children, all done for free by volunteer teachers.
I wanted to reproduce the Household Words article, below.
There's a fine article explaining the ragged school available at the British Library site, here: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/ragged-schools
Another--cleaner--version of the Household Words article appears on the site Infed, here: http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/dickens_a_sleep_to_startle_us.htm
Image sources: Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293028986887;view=1up;seq=589;size=75
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