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,'Marchmonf, Annie MacPherson's receiving home, Belleville, circa 1873. (Library and Archives Canada PA-207772) alleys and docks were filthy and diseased. In the last quarter of the 1800s, half the children died before their fifth birthday. Outcast and impoverished, .these children were branded as "waifs and strays," "guttersnipes" or "street ArabsjThefirst attempt to help in 1844 was called :"The. Ragged Schools Movement." The spcial reformers of the age felt it a religious-calling to rescue these children. Annie .MacPherson, founder of the Marchmont Home in Belleville writes: Boys came to Us [in London] for shelter instead of going to empty barrels, railway arches, and stairways,, ,But our walls had limits, and our failures: in finding employment for many away from their old haunts became a great difficulty, and the God-opened way of emigration to Canada was pressed upon us. - MacPherson accompanied her first group to Belleville in 1870. Philanthropist Thomas Bamardo fully embraced child migration in 1881, opening Hazelbrae in Peterborough. Both of these homes were for Protestant children. Catholic children were placed at first through Quebec; in 1904 St. George's Home was established in Ottawa. The Lorentes say "thousands" were sent to the Ottawa Valley primarily through these receiving homes. There were many other agencies in other areas. Dave arid Kay Lorente have no doubt the reformers were sincere. Barnardo described his program as the "Highway of Hope," . often describing these children as gifts to Canada, the "flower of the flock." An associate of MacPherson paints this 18 Art Monk, at age 11, just before coming to Canada, 1923. (Courtesy of Dave Lorente) pastoral scene: Miss MacPherson has been Sometimes a parent would give permission able to spend...much of her time visiting for the child to be sent abroad. But someamong the different farms where our chil- times, it was done without. dren are located, within some 20 or 40 miles Children were often too young to compreof Belleville in the counties of Hastings and hend, at first, the gravity of what was hapPrince Edward...and oh! the joy of these pening to them. children to hear the Susan Kelly came cheery voice of her who through St. George's hadflrstseen and relieved Home in Ottawa to their misery in the old Calumette Island, near country. Pembroke, when she was However, the picture 10. She was "scared" she was not always pretty. In says to be in a new coun1869 Maria Rye was the try. But what she rememfirst to establish a home bers most was the nun who in Canada at Niagarabought all the kids ice on-the-Lake. Answering cream when the ship many critics, she admitdocked in Quebec in 1920. ted the short-comings of For some it was an adsome of her methods, venture, sailing on ships writing in 1893: At the with lofty names like commencement of my Empress of Scotland, Susan Kelly, at age 6, St. Mary's work I did indenture the Hesperian, and Minchildren, but practically Orphanage, Waithamstow, England, 1916. nedosa. Art Monk tells The it did not work, there was (courtesy of Susan and son, Gerard Chaput) Cobden Sun in 1993: "it far more danger to the was all a lark. We didn't realize what was child in being obliged to stay where it had happening. I can remember laughing and become hateful and was not wanted. At the giggling about it." He was 11-years-old when commencement of this work in 18691 fondly he came to Marchmont in Belleville in 1923. hoped... all the people who took them would Although Art was treated well by the Leech be perfect; experience soon undeceived me. family in Rankin, he always knew he was Most children in the sending homes were different. He was alone a lot, he says, with his not orphans.' Perhaps a parent had died thoughts. "I would wonder what's happenleaving the family destitute. Longing for a ing." Lonely, he would often cry himself to better life for their children, a parent might sleep. As an adult he didn't tell his own family willingly sign over their rights to an agency. he was a Home Child until 1989. The Country Connection