*2010* ~ Year of the British Home Child in Canada

(Annie Macpherson)
Doyle came across one girl who had called at the Home after
leaving several employers and was handed 'advice' rather than practical
'help'. She became pregnant and Doyle asked her to call in at the Home,
only to receive this letter:

Dear Sir:
I write to tell you that I would very much like to see you on Wednesday,
but no, I cannot any more have the heart to go to Marchmont (the Home), for
it has never been a home for me, although it was told to me and all the
rest, that when we came to Canada it was to be a home. But, sir, I have
known the time when I would have been glad for a bit to eat and a bed to
lie on, for I my own self have had to sleep in barns for a shelter when the
snow have been so thick, and no person would be seen out, and have been to
Marchmont for a shelter, and was turned away, so that I have nothing to
thank them for....as long as they can bring out poor children to be pounded
half to death, and slave to the uttermost, that is all they care for.

Also mentioned is Macpherson's habit of inviting the children to ''repay''
the cost of their emigration in order to assist the emigration of other
children.

(Maria Rye)
Another girl described her punishment at Our Western Home for having
been returned for bad temper, or as I (Doyle) find it recorded by Miss Rye,
'violent temper'. She was placed in a room at the top of the house (it is
a large airy room) and kept there in solitary confinement for 11 days upon
bread and water, without book or work to divert her thoughts.

Your comments - responses - or your own stories are most welcome - GAIL