Shocking Destitution at Denaby.

A shocking case of destitution has just come to light at Denaby. It appears that in consequence of rumours which had been circulated in the village concerning the destitute condition of the wife and two children of a collier residing at 52, Doncaster Road, Denaby, a woman named Bridget Clarke visited the house. She found that the rumours had in no way been exaggerated. There were in the house a boy and a girl, twins, aged seven months, who were entirely naked and in a shocking condition, being covered with dirt and vermin. The mother herself seemed to be very weak and her clothing consisted solely of a tattered dress, through which portions of her body could be observed in several places.

Mrs. Clarke visited the place for a fortnight and, on the solicitations of the husband, consented to take charge of one of the children, the other being entrusted to the care of a woman named Goodrich. The girl is in an extremely emaciated state and weighs a little above four pounds. There are two slight scars – one on the body and the other on the scalp. The boy’s thigh was broken about a fortnight ago. Medical assistance was sent for and the doctor, imagining that there was an abscess on the thigh, ordered linseed poultices to be applied. Dr. Sykes, of Mexboro’, however, found the thigh had been broken and had healed subsequently of itself.

From what can be ascertained at present there seems to have been no lack of food in the house. The traveller, who calls weekly from a Rotherham provision stores, asserts that he obtains very good orders from the house in question. There are five children in the house besides the twins, the eldest of whom works at the Denaby Main Colliery with his father. They are quite healthy and strong.

Mrs. Clarke, the woman who has kindly undertaken the charge of one of the children, is in poor circumstances, and has eight children of her own to support by her exertions, her husband being absent in America. No doubt gifts of flannel, &c., for the clothing of the infants, would be gratefully accepted by the kind foster-mother.