The New Year was ushered in by a most distressing
calamity. There is an industrial school at Forest Gate whither the children of several. Unions are sent, and on New Year's morning upwards of six hundred boys and girls were sleeping in it. After midnight a smell of smoke was perceived, and it was found that two of the dormitories, occupied by eighty-four little boys, were full of vapour. George Hare, the yardsman in charge of the dormitories, was roused, and got out most of the boys, but twenty-six of them were left behind and were all suffocated, the smoke apparently having stupified them as they lay. It seems to have taken away their senses with unusual rapidity; but there is a question, as yet unsettled, whether many minutes were not lost in breaking open the doors, which were locked from the outside, a dangerous practice and wholly unnecessary. It may be hoped that none of the poor little creatures suffered any pain; but the accident should be very carefully investigated, as there is always danger in these crowded buildings. Warmth is a necessity in them, and in practice can be obtained only through pipes which gradually dry up everything into tinder. Even brick will not endure heat for ever, as everybody except furnace-builders seems to think it will.
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