A CORNISH WAIF'S STORY

by Emma Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 1956

A childhood some sixty years ago seems to return to a still earlier century in the conditions it describes and is an appealing account of abandonment and abuse and indignities endured and fortunately transcended. Emma Smith, the illegitimate child of a slipshod woman, who married a man who would have nothing to do with Emma, had happier memories of her grandparents, particularly her grandfather, a Cornish miner, who was blind and unable to take care of her. After intervals in and out of the Union, the workhouse, Emma was then taken to a Plymouth slum where she was left with the Pratts, shared a filthy, infested room with them- and others, and was used to beg for coppers by Mr. Pratt, a Fagin- like character. At 9, turned out on the street, she spent a happier period in a Salvation Army home, then a hospital ward, then was returned to the Pratts until she ran away. A home run by Sisters, which was actually a penitentiary, was again a more secure refuge until at 15 she went out into the world and into service-ultimately to marry... A simply rendered account, without self-pity or recrimination, but with an unfailing, unflagging human interest.

Pub Date: May 18, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION