Herewith, on the 137th anniversary of its very first issue, is the very first story (after an introduction by Mary Mapes Dodge and a short poem) from the very first issue. How typical that it would be about charity?The blue coat boys were not United States soldiers in uniform, not any soldiers in uniform, but boys of all ages between seven and fifteen, and this was the uniform they wore,—a blue coat or tunic, bright yellow petticoat, yellow stockings, a red leathern girdle about the waist, a white cravat about the neck, and on the head a little round, black woolen cap.
How many of these boys were there? where did they live? why did they wear so strange a dress? They lived in London, about one hundred years ago, dozens upon dozens of them; they were all members of a school known as Christ's Hospital (a strange name for a school), and their peculiar dress was the regular school uniform; they were charity scholars, brought from poor and respectable homes, to receive as good advantages as England could give even to. her wealthier sons, and to be fitted for entrance into the highest universities of the land. The school still exists in London, and blue coat boys may be seen there to-day, but those of whom I am going to tell you belonged to the old time.
The little seven-year-old boy, fresh from the home-love and petting, here found himself surrounded by a multitude of strange faces, numbering five and six hundred, sometimes as many as eight hundred. How awkward it must have seemed to him at first, when even the familiar garments which mother's hands had made must be laid aside and the quaint school garb assumed! I can fancy such a one, going over the great building for the first time, accompanied by an older scholar, who would explain to him the wonders of the place.
He would hear how this old building had once been the home of the Grey Friars, an order of monks, whose uniform was of the color indicated by their name—he would be shown into the boys' bed-rooms, and told that these were once monks' cloisters, where they counted their beads and said their prayers and did their penances. At certain places he would be stopped to listen to frightful details of the scenes that had been enacted just there, among these old monks in the ages gone by.
Then he would be told how, after the monks had been suppressed, the boy-king, Edward VI (whose memory all little students of English history learn to love), had, just a few months before his death, established in these extensive old buildings, this school for boys; he would have his attention drawn to the brass medal-like buckle which fastened his red leathern girdle; and the boy-face on it would always thereafter be associated in his mind with Edward VI, whom it was intended to represent. He would be taught to distinguish the monitors by their badge. Guess what this monitor's badge was. You never will: so give it up, and I will tell you. It was and still is, a superior style of shoe-string!
Had these blue coat boys any holidays? Yes; there was Christmas, when they clubbed their funds together and bought such refreshments as their means would allow, when even the penniless ones came in for a share of the good things, as they sat around the fire and told stories; then, on Christmas night, when the little ones had retired at their usual hour, seven o'clock, the monitors and older boys went through the halls and bed-rooms, singing their Christmas carols, until, as one of their number wrote years afterwards, when he was no longer a boy,—"I seemed to be transported to Bethlehem, and to hear the voices of the angels as they sang to the shepherds."
There was Easter, when the whole school marched in solemn procession through the London streets and were received by the Lord Mayor in his stately robes, who dispensed to each child cake, wine, and a shilling. That was a red-letter day, you may be sure. Then there were several days preceding Good Friday, when they "supped in public," and any persons in the city might come in to witness their proceedings; not so very stately a performance one would think, when he is told that they ate from wooden trenchers and the meal to which the public was invited as spectators was simply a meal of bread and cheese.
Lastly, there were the holidays known among them as whole leave days, when there were no studies and no dinner. This suited admirably the boys who were within walking distance of friends and parents, but those who had no other retreat but the school may well be excused if they longed for night and supper. It was bright enough at first; breakfist over, they wandered away to a famous bathing place, known as the New River; here they bathed and dived and swam, getting themselves appetites; then they came out of the water and watched the cattle feeding in the meadows, the bees gathering their stores of sweets from the flowers, the birds finding their supplies of seeds and grubs—all things around had something to eat—the very sight made them the hungrier. How long the afternoons were; they looked in at the bright shop windows, and then went to the Tower, where was a famous menagerie, md where they might watch the lions, for the keeper of the menagerie understood that blue coat boys were always to be admitted free of charge, whenever they applied for such a favor. I cannot think those holidays without dinner were red-letter days. Did they make much progress in their studies? Some of the brightest names in English literature belonged to men, who, in their childhood, were blue wat boys. It would be an interesting study for those of you who have leisure and taste for these things, to hunt up some of these names. Let me give you a few hints. One of them became a prominent English bishop. The initials of three, Who became famous as poets and prose writers, were, C. L., S. T. C. and L. H.
What did they read? It was before the days of children's magazines and children's literature, but they had Robinson Crusoe and the Arabian Nights. Do you know any brighter or more entertaining books, even now ?
They had some laws which were peculiar to themselves; these laws or traditions, handed on to each new-comer, and thus passing from generation to generation, were rigorously observed by all.
Among these traditions was the abstaining from all fat meats, and the refusal to eat certain kinds of sweet cakes. No one could tell how these traditions originated. The boys were strictly allowanced in the matter of food, and we are told that this allowance was "cruelly insufficient;" so much meat placed upon each plate, part lean, part fat; this fat was known among the boys as "gag," and no matter how hungry he might be, nor how much his appetite might crave it, no blue coat boy would willingly be a "gag-eater."
There is a touching story told of one who acquired among the other boys the reputation of a "gag-eater;" it was noticed that he quietly gathered up, after the meal, every bit of fat left on the plates of those who sat at the same table with himself; the hungry boys were not likely to leave a particle of bread, yet, if they did, the smallest bit of crust was never overlooked by him; all these scraps were placed in a blue-checked handkerchief, and the handkerchief on a bench by the side of his bed; the boys watched to see him eat it, but they only saw the scraps accumulating; it was rumored that he ate at night when others were asleep, but in this he was never detected. The "gag-eater" became odious to his fellows; he seemed a studious, gentle-hearted boy, yet they shunned him; no one would play with him or associate with him; he ate "strange flesh;" at length it was noticed that the blue-check handkerchief and its contents were regularly carried away, when he had leave of absence. His footsteps were traced by some of his school-fellows to the poorest part of the town, into a wretched garret; and when the whole matter was revealed, it was found that the parents of the poor boy had become so reduced that they were in danger of starvation, and the weekly supply of scraps in the blue-checked handkerchief was gladly received and eagerly devoured by the two old people. Honor to the brave "gag-eater!" I am glad to add that the school authorities came to the relief of his parents.
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