EARLY DAYS. DRINKINGFOUNTAIN, SMITHFIELD, LONDON. HE origin of this fountain, which is in course of erection, and which is repre sented in our Frontispiece, is interesting. It appears that Sir Martin Bowes, a goldsmith and citizen of London, who was Lord Mayor in the year 1546, left a sum of money for "the repair of conduits." www. which Sir Martin Bowes, one may well suppose, would have heartily approved had he been now alive, or could have foreseen how the city would come, hundreds of years after his death, to be better supplied with water than it could be by laying down open troughs or wooden pipes to convey it. The consent of the proper authorities having been obtained, it has been resolved to place the work in the centre of a circular space connected with the roadway down to the Great Western Railway depót, in front of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The principal figure of those which will adorn the fountain will represent Peace, crowned with a wheaten garland, and bearing in the left hand a branch of olive, while the right is raised as if bestowing the blessings of peace. Around the statue will be grouped four polished granite fountain-basins, and below these will be four drinking-bowls of white marble. At the corners will be sculptured the arms of Sir Martin Bowes and those of the But these conduits in process of time gradually fell into disuse, water being brought into the city by other channels. The sum left by the worthy citizen was suffered to increase, by the successive additions of yearly interest, until it amounted to more than one thousand two hundred pounds sterling. This amount it was lately proposed to expend in the erection of a drinking-fountain; a use of it VOL. XIII. SECOND SERIES.-January, 1873. City of London. Four statues, representing Temperance, Faith, Hope, and Charity, will be placed under as many handsome canopies. The whole structure, which is to be of Portland stone, is estimated to cost upwards of fifteen hundred pounds. Many, we trust, of those who in future times will quench their thirst here, will remember with gratitude the citizen to whose benevolence the fountain owes its existence, and will, if they have it in their power, copy his good example. THE BIBLE A LAMP. ARRY was sent on errand one evening in winter-time. After giving him his message, his mother said, "Be sure you take the lantern with you, Harry." "What do I want with a lantern?" answered the boy, "I know the way fast enough.' Very soon in crossing the road If beware! wise, you tell him a fault, he gives saucy replies; When he has not his way, in a fury he flies. he stumbled into a hole, and I know of a boy, neither gentle nor knocked the flesh from his shin bone, and covered his clothing with mud. On his way back he forgot the fence was broken near the edge of a ravine, and as he groped his way along he fell over the bank to the bottom. He succeeded in getting out, but returned home covered with mud and bruises. The lantern Ah, Passion's the wolf with the very large eyes, So ready to snap, to trample, and tear. Beware of this wolf, little children, beware! "WE NEVER PRAY, MOTHER." "And a little child shall lead them NE of the town missionaries, who spend most of their time in going from house to house to try to do the people good, called some months ago at a cottage which looked very untidy and dirty. A woman was baking bread, and a little boy was seated by the fire. "Will you accept a tract?" the visitor asked. "No," was the reply; we want no tracts here." "Do you go to any place of worship?" "It is twenty years since I was in a church or chapel." May I pray with you?" was asked in a kind tone. "No, I would rather not." A few words of counsel and warning were spoken, and the good man left the house. When the door closed behind him, the child said, "O, Mother! why did you not take the tract -he looked such a kind man ? I wish he had prayed, for we never pray, Mother." The woman felt that she had done wrong, but did not like to say so. A few weeks only had passed, when the little boy was seized with a severe illness, and in two days he died. When the missionary called again, he saw a change in the appearance of the house, for it now looked quite clean and tidy. The woman, on seeing who the stranger was, said, "Come in, come in; I want to see you." He sat down, and she told him with many tears how her boy had wished her "to treat the good man kindly if he ever again." She added, ever since he died, I have felt unhappy about my sins. I have been a great sinner, do pray for me. came among his money by mistake for a shilling. Now the boy had a battle about that money. "The sovereign must go back to your master," says conscience; "it is not yours." "Your master gave it you," says temptation; "keep it, Willie, perhaps it was not a mistake, and if it was, it will never be found out." "Don't listen to temptation, Willie," says conscience; "you know it was a mistake, and that you have no right to the sovereign." "You are very poor," says temptation; "look at your clothes, Willie, how old they are, and this will buy new ones." "You are wrong, Willie, to listen to what temptation is saying; listen to what the Bible says, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,' says conscience. Willie, you will bea blockhead," says temptation, "if you don't keep the sovereign.” "It will be a curse to you as long as you live," says conscience, "if you do; and then there is another world, Willie ; take it back at once." "Nay, wait till to-morrow," says temptation, "it will be time enough." “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,'' says conscience; "do it at once, and you will have a quiet SCHOOL-BOY, who had gone out to a situation, one Saturday received from his master a sovereign Sunday." |