"
"And what is it?"
"In visiting the district which has been allotted to me, I have found an
unusual number of ignorant, vicious boys, cared for by no one, growing
up for the prison or the gallows. I have thought of making some effort
to gather them together and start a ragged school. Some friends have
agreed to provide the means. But the pay would necessarily be small, and
the labor and difficulty great."
"A teacher of tatterdemalions! It _isn't_ an inviting field of labor."
"No, to a refined man it must be repulsive. Nothing but the idea of
doing good would make it a pleasure or even endurable."
"I confess myself utterly without any such motive. I hate poor people,
and ragged children, and sick women, the forlorn wives of drunken
brutes. I shut my eyes to all such odious sights. They say, in a hotel
you must never go into the kitchen, if you would keep your appetite; and
I am sure one must avoid these wretches in the cellar, if he would have
a cheerful view of life in his attic."
"You are not so hard-hearted as you would have me believe.
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