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i

Out of Harm’s Way

ii
iii

Out of Harm’s Way

Creating an Effective Child
Welfare System
z
RICHARD J. GELLES

1
iv

1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN 978–0–19–061801–8

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
v

To my wonderful grandchildren
Max Natan Gelles
Lia Sidney Gelles
Gemma Taylor Gelles
vi
vii

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Child Welfare Is Not Brain Surgery; It’s Much

More Difficult 1

PART I : Tragedy and its Aftermath

1. In an Ideal World 9

2. In the Real World 27

3. System Reform: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects, Lawsuits,

and Policy Changes 47

PART II : Centers of Gravity

4. Who Is the Client? 75

5. Portals, Gates, and Decisions 93

6. Follow the Money: The Perverse Incentive of Federal Foster

Care Funding 117

7. Aging Out 137

8. It Takes a Village 155

viii

viii Contents

Appendix: Federal Child Welfare Legislation 163

References 171
Author Index 177
Subject Index 179
ix

Acknowledgments

The idea for this book percolated during the time I served as dean of the
School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. When
my thirteen-​year term ended, I began a two-​year sabbatical that afforded me
the uninterrupted time to plan and write this book. I was fortunate to receive
a Rockefeller Bellagio Academic Writer’s Residency, during which I com-
pleted most of the first draft of this book. The Bellagio Writer’s Residency is
an unparalleled opportunity to live in great beauty with a group of other writ-
ers and their partners. My time at Bellagio was a once-​in-​a-​lifetime chance to
write and test my ideas with a group of talented writers, playwrights, poets,
and musicians.
Back in the real world, I was grateful to friends and colleagues who reviewed
and critiqued drafts of the book. Lee Dushoff, during one of our brunches at
the Famous 4th Street Deli, broached the concept for the first chapter. Cassie
Statuto Bevan reviewed and commented on the chapter on foster care. Sarah
Wasch, program director at the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice
and Research, reviewed Chapter 1 from the perspective of a former child pro-
tective service worker. My colleague Johanna Greeson reviewed the chapter
on “aging out” and then reviewed the entire volume. Colleagues Jill Duer-​
Berrick, Bethany Lee Oxford, and Robin Mekonnen reviewed the entire vol-
ume and offered valuable ideas and feedback. Of course, in the end, I bear full
responsibility for the contents and conclusions in this book.
Dana Bliss, senior editor at Oxford University Press, provided overall
guidance and suggestions as the book took shape. I am grateful to Dana for
helping bring this project to fruition.
x
xi

Out of Harm’s Way

xii
1

Introduction
Child Welfare Is Not Brain Surgery; It’s Much
More Difficult

If the nation had deliberately designed a system that would

frustrate the professionals who staff it, anger the public who
finance it, and abandon the children who depend on it, it
could not have done a better job than the present child wel-
fare system.
national commission on children, 1991

A quarter-​c entury has passed since the U.S. National Commission

on Children made this damning assessment of the child welfare system in the
United States. While there have been some incremental changes in individual
child welfare systems and new federal and state legislation, the current status of
child welfare systems is not substantially better than it was in 1991. More than
half of the states operate child welfare systems under a court order resulting
from a class action lawsuit. The media continue to report local stories of chil-
dren grievously injured or killed while under the watch of a child welfare agency.
Child fatalities are, fortunately, relatively rare, but media coverage of the failings
of local child welfare systems goes beyond fatal maltreatment. For example:

• In April 2016 the New York Times ran a front-​page story about a man con-
sidered an “exemplary foster father” who had cared for 106 boys over mul-
tiple decades. Unfortunately, over the same multiple decades, the man was
the subject of numerous allegations of sexual abuse.1 In March 2016, the

1. http://​www.nytimes.com/​2016/​04/​02/​nyregion/​a-​foster-​father-​on-​long-​island-​a-​string-​of-​
suspicions-​and-​sexual-​abuse-​charges.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FChild%20
Abuse%20and%20Neglect&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics& region=stream&
module=stream_​unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection. Retrieved
May 1, 2016.
2

2 In t roduct ion

foster father was charged with sexually abusing at least five children. The
abuse went on for decades because the agencies charged with oversight of
the foster children and that foster care provider failed to communicate
with one another.
• In Rhode Island, a state that is facing a lawsuit from Children’s Rights
regarding the poor care of children in foster care, the state Department
of Children, Youth and Families admitted that, in April 2016, nearly two
thirds (63 percent) of the kinship placement homes in which children are
placed are unlicensed.2 The unlicensed homes can place children at risk,
as kin (relatives) who provide foster care have not completed the required
training. When the homes are unlicensed for longer than six months, the
state loses federal matching funds for the placements (see Chapter 6).
• In April 2016 in Philadelphia, administrators for the Department of
Human Services (DHS) admitted at a public hearing that child protective
service workers were falsifying their case records because they, the work-
ers, could not keep up with the caseloads.3 DHS officials reported that
seven child welfare workers were fired for filing false reports.4
• The Dallas Morning News reports that “tens of thousands of infants and
children believed to be in imminent danger of abuse or neglect, even death,
are not being seen promptly by state [Texas] child abuse investigators—​
and thousands of them haven’t been checked on at all.”5
• Four Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services workers
were indicted for criminal child abuse and fabrication of documents in the
20126 death of eight-​year-​old Gabriel Fernandez, who was tortured and
killed even though authorities had received numerous warnings of abuse
in his home. Gabriel’s death sparked widespread outrage and prompted a
series of reforms designed to improve how county officials monitor chil-
dren who show signs of being abused.

2. http://​www.providencejournal.com/​article/​20160429/​NEWS/​160429048. Retrieved May

1, 2016.
3. http://​philadelphia.cbslocal.com/​2016/​04/​29/​officials-​overworked-​phila-​child-​welfare-​case-​
managers-​resort-​to-​falsifying-​documents/​. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
4. http://​www.philly.com/​philly/​news/​20160503_​Seven_​child_​welfare_​workers_​fired_​for_​
false_​reports.html. Retrieved May 5, 2016
5. http://​trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/​2016/​05/​cps-​hasnt-​checked-​on-​thousands-​of-​texas-​
children-​in-​imminent-​danger-​of-​abuse-​records-​show.html/​. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
6. http://​www.latimes.com/​local/​lanow/​la-​me-​ln-​social-​workers-​charged-​gabriel-​fernandez-​
torture-​20160407-​story.html. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
3

Introduction 3

The child welfare systems’ responses to such stories are neither bold nor
particularly effective. In New York City, Rhode Island, Texas, Los Angeles,
and Philadelphia, as well as around the nation, responses to stories like those
mentioned above are calls for more workers, lower caseloads, and more fund-
ing. These are the same calls that have echoed for decades (see Chapter 3),
and yet significant improvements to the child protective service system still
elude us.
The criticisms of state and local child welfare systems do not mean that
every part of the system is dysfunctional or that the system fails every parent
and child with whom it comes in contact. But key components of the child
welfare system remain fundamentally flawed and broken.
The reality is that protecting children from abuse and neglect is not brain
surgery—​it is vastly more difficult. Brain surgeons have the advantages of at
least a decade of specialized training and use the latest and most advanced
technology. Child welfare caseworkers and supervisors have college degrees
and, for many supervisors, a master’s degree in social work or a related disci-
pline. Many child welfare systems offer no more than twenty hours of train-
ing before a new worker assumes a full caseload. The latest technology for
most child welfare caseworkers is a cellphone and perhaps a tablet or laptop
computer.
Brain surgeons never have to choose between saving the brain or the
patient. Child welfare workers face the daunting task of trying to preserve
families, ensure the safety and well-​being of children, and provide perma-
nence of caregiving for children. These goals are often contradictory, and opt-
ing for one raises the specter of failing to achieve the other goals. Preserving
families runs the very real risk children will be injured or killed. Foster care,
while improving safety and well-​being, is not a permanent form of childcare.
Although child welfare systems have worked to improve their information
technology systems, it remains true that Domino’s Pizza knows more about
the path pizzas take from oven to customer than workers in the child wel-
fare system know about the children and families in their care. Despite the
federal government’s investment of over $1 billion in the State Automated
Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS), only thirty-​six states have
implemented it. The federal government reimburses states 75 percent of the
development costs and 50 percent for operation. Nonetheless, thirteen states
do not even bother to invest in the system—​and for good reason: SACWIS
can inform users about what they did, not what they are doing. Let me give an
example. Today, if I ship a package by Federal Express or even the U.S. Postal
Service, I can track it from the time it leaves my hands until it is delivered. If
4

4 In t roduct ion

Federal Express or the U.S. Postal Service employed a system like SACWIS, all
they could tell me is how many packages they delivered in the past year, how
long they took to deliver, and what percentage of the packages were delivered
on time. Frankly, as someone interested in accountability for my package, that
is useless information. The lack of a real-​time information system creates the
very gaps the system claims children fall into when tragedies occur.
Many observers of the child welfare system often throw up their hands
and claim the system is so broken, the best thing to do is to tear it down and
start all over again. As tempting as the thought may be, that is not going to
happen. No one is seriously going to tear down an entire system and leave
children unprotected and parents without services while a new, “ideal” system
is created. Moreover, given the controversies in the child welfare field, there is
no agreement as to what such an “idealized” system would look like.
A second approach, seeking vast amounts of new funding, is not going to
happen either. Tight state budgets mean that states are decreasing funding for
child welfare services even though the federal government will match certain
expenditures, such as training for foster care caseworkers, at up to 75 percent
of state expenditures. The federal climate is no better: the last significant fiscal
investment in child welfare occurred in 1993—​more than twenty years ago.
So we are left with trying to leverage change with the system, as it exists, flaws
and all.
Twenty years ago, on the heels of the new federal funding for family
preservation and support services, I wrote my book The Book of David: How
Preserving Families Can Cost Children’s Lives. I had a rather elementary under-
standing of federal child welfare policy and the major federal law that gov-
erned the child welfare system—​Title IV-​E of the Social Security Act of 1935.
The Book of David narrowly focused on the policy that required child wel-
fare agencies to make “reasonable efforts” to preserve families. I believed that
the policy of “reasonable efforts” and the much-​touted successes of “inten-
sive family preservation services” programs led to the tragic and unintended
consequences of thousands of children dying after they and their parents had
come to the attention of child protective service agencies.
The Book of David, along with significant advocacy efforts by the Dave
Thomas Foundation, Cassie Statuto Bevan, then Senator Mike DeWine,
Congressman David Camp, and others, led to the enactment of the Adoption
and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA: Public Law 105–​89). The new legisla-
tion changed the primary goal of child welfare systems from preserving fami-
lies to the safety and well-​being of children.
5

Introduction 5

ASFA produced some important changes in child welfare systems. The

number of adoptions increased, while the length of time children spend in
out-​of-​home care decreased. But as important as national legislation can be, it
influenced only one narrow aspect of the child welfare systems.
Many of the remaining key components of the child welfare system remain
problematic, and individual tort actions, class action lawsuits, and local trag-
edies and scandals continue to plague child welfare systems and lend support
to the National Commission on Children’s dismal assessment of child welfare
systems.
After writing The Book of David and working to help pass ASFA, I spent
the next years twenty years studying the child welfare system in terms of both
policy and practice. I consulted on a variety of proposed changes in federal
policy. I testified before the Pennsylvania Task Force on Child Protection,
and my testimony became a guiding force in the task force’s legislative rec-
ommendations. I have served as an expert witness in two class action lawsuits
against state child welfare systems and served as an expert witness in more
than twenty tort actions pertaining to the standard of care for child welfare
professionals. For the last nineteen years I taught social workers, many of
who went into child welfare work upon graduation. In addition, with three
colleagues, I helped create the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice &
Research at the University of Pennsylvania. I continue to carry out research
on child abuse and neglect, and continue to present nationally and interna-
tionally on child welfare policy and practice.
My experiences as a researcher, consultant, expert witness, and participant
in the drafting of federal and state laws constitute the “methodology” used
to write this book. Over the last two decades my colleagues and I have con-
ducted research on the transfer of responsibility for child maltreatment inves-
tigations from child protective services to the sheriff ’s departments in four
counties in Florida. We also conducted a study of the Florida child maltreat-
ment hotline and the factors that influenced whether cases were screened in
or screened out. The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research
examined the policies and practices of the Philadelphia DHS from the time
of receiving a referral of child maltreatment through the investigation pro-
cess. As an expert witness in class action and individual tort actions—​both for
the plaintiffs and defendants—​I have read hundreds of thousands of pages of
case files. And last, I have attended innumerable trainings, conferences, sum-
mits, and legislative hearings on the topic of child maltreatment and child
welfare policy and practice. The conferences and hearings afforded me the
6

6 In t roduct ion

opportunity to meet and talk with experts on child welfare from around the
country and around the world.
Now I bring all these experiences together in a book designed to locate
the key problem areas within the child welfare system and bring about posi-
tive change. The theoretical philosophy I bring to this book is more advanced
and thought-​out than what I employed in The Book of David. In The Book
of David, I identified what I saw as a key policy problem and brought my
research skills to bear to point out that the implementation of the policy was
built on flawed research. I focused on one specific aspect of federal policy—​
the requirement to make “reasonable efforts” to preserve families in all cases
of child abuse and neglect.
Out of Harm’s Way applies a “center of gravity” approach. This approach,
which I employed in The Third Lie: Why Government Programs Don’t Work—​
and a Blueprint for Change (2011), seeks to identify a problem’s center of grav-
ity and then leverage that center of gravity to accomplish positive change.
A key component of locating the proper “center of gravity” is that there is
a strong likelihood change or movement is possible without calling for new
financial resources or a major restructuring of the system.
The “center of gravity” approach means that this volume does not have
a traditional “story arc.” The first chapter examines what can happen when
things go “right” in a case of child maltreatment. Chapter 2 presents the “per-
fect storm” when everything goes wrong. Chapter 3 picks up the theme men-
tioned earlier in this Introduction that when things go wrong in the child
welfare system, the responses of the system and policymakers are not partic-
ularly bold or effective. Chapter 4 begins a series of chapters that identify
four key centers of gravity that must and can be changed to improve the child
welfare system. First, as presented in Chapter 4, the system must devote itself
to being “child centered.” Chapter 5, the most technical chapter of the book,
examines the key work of child protective service workers—​making deci-
sions and how technology must be employed to improve decision making.
Chapter 6 explores the funding of foster care and how the existing federal
policy of funding creates a perverse incentive to keep children in foster care.
Chapter 7 focuses on the 20,000 children who “age out” of the foster care sys-
tem upon reaching the ages of either eighteen or twenty-​one. The belief that
children who grow up in foster care are ready to live independently at eigh-
teen or twenty-​one dooms children who age out of care to a sea of troubles.
The book’s conclusion brings the conversation back from centers of gravity to
the question of who is responsible for initiating and fostering change.
7

PA RT I

Tragedy and its Aftermath

8
9

In an Ideal World

Danielle Kelly was born prematurely in Youngstown, Ohio, on January

3, 1992. Danielle was her mother Andrea’s third child. Danielle was tiny at
birth and did not develop normally. Eventually doctors diagnosed Danielle
with cerebral palsy.1 Cerebral palsy is not a degenerative disease, but Danielle
was totally dependent on her mother and father for all her basic needs, and
would remain so for the rest of her childhood and adolescence.
Andrea and her husband Daniel’s marriage broke up shortly after Danielle
was born. Danielle and her siblings, who would eventually number nine,
remained with her mother and eventually moved to Philadelphia.
For her first four years, Danielle lived with her mother, two sisters, and six
or seven other children in a typical West Philadelphia row home. The home,
however, was severely cramped, lacked a functioning toilet, and was described
by Daniel after he made a visit as having rodents in the home and broken
floorboards. Daniel’s advice to his ex-​wife was she really needed to get her
things together.
Danielle’s condition deteriorated while she was in the care of her mother.
Her maternal grandmother found Danielle with her hair matted and knot-
ted and her teeth rotting away. Unable to care for her granddaughter herself,
Danielle’s grandmother reached out to Daniel, who was living in Pittsburgh
with his girlfriend.
Daniel traveled to Philadelphia and persuaded his ex-​wife to allow him to
take Danielle back with him to Pittsburgh. Daniel enrolled Danielle in school
in 1996 (she was then four years old), and school officials noted multiple areas

1. The exact clinical term is “spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.”

10

10 T r aged y an d Its Aft er m at h

of Danielle’s developmental delay. She could not feed herself and was not
toilet trained.
After a year in Pittsburgh, Daniel moved to Arizona. Daniel Kelly was
hardly an ideal father, and Danielle’s life circumstances were problematic.
There were reports of suspected child maltreatment of the Kelly children,
although none of the reports pertaining to Danielle were substantiated.2
Because the reports were not substantiated, Child Protective Services (CPS)
had no continuing involvement with the Kelly children or Danielle. Danielle
was enrolled in five different schools in four years and spent two years with
no schooling or therapy. Daniel was not diligent in getting his daughter to
school during the times she was enrolled, so her progress was less than it could
have been. But Danielle was fortunate that Daniel’s girlfriend cared for and
nurtured Danielle and her brother. Family photographs showed her riding
a pony, attending a party, and smiling with classmates. Although limited by
her cerebral palsy, Danielle learned to talk and feed herself. Her school report
cards described young Danielle as an “active learner” and “one of the sweetest
students” in her school.
In 2001, when Danielle was nine years of age, Daniel and his girlfriend
broke up and Danielle was withdrawn from school. There is no evidence the
school reached out to either Daniel or CPS in Arizona to ensure that Danielle
would be re-​enrolled in the same or another school.
Without a girlfriend or wife, Daniel asked the children’s maternal grand-
mother to care for his two children, but the grandmother became ill and was
not able to assume full responsibility for a special-​needs child or her brother.
So in 2003 Daniel Kelly took Danielle and her brother back to Philadelphia
and invited his ex-​wife Andrea and her children to move in with him, Danielle,
and her brother. Shortly after the entire family moved in, Daniel moved out
to live with a new girlfriend—​leaving behind Danielle and her brother.
Once Daniel was gone, things began to deteriorate for Danielle and her
siblings. Danielle was never enrolled in school and the home situation quickly
disintegrated, with no functioning utilities, and mattresses and food splayed
all over the floors.
A situation like that of the Kelly family does not stay hidden for very
long.3 Eventually someone contacted Philadelphia’s Department of Human

2. One report of assaulting his son was substantiated and Daniel was arrested.
3. Even before the report of suspected neglect of Danielle, an anonymous report was filed in
August 2003 regarding Mr. Kelly striking his children with an extension cord.
11

In an Ideal World 11

Services (DHS), the city agency responsible for operating the CPS system.
Pennsylvania has a unique means of categorizing reports of suspected child
abuse and neglect. Cases of physical abuse and sexual abuse are investigated
under the title of CPS, or child protective service reports; cases of neglect,
including physical, emotional, educational, and medical neglect, are investi-
gated under the title of GPS, or general protective services. Danielle’s case,
because it did not involve physical or sexual abuse, was assigned as a GPS
investigation.
On May 12, 2004, a friend of a Kelly family relative called in an anon-
ymous report of suspected child maltreatment to CHILDLINE, the
Philadelphia child abuse and neglect hotline. The report was classified as a
GPS report and assigned for investigation to Dana Swoford. Swoford was a
seasoned CPS investigator. Danielle Kelly was one of fifteen cases assigned to
Swoford. By agency policy, Swoford had sixty days to investigate the report
of suspected maltreatment. If the report was a CPS report, Swoford would be
required to make a recommendation as to whether the case would be consid-
ered “Founded,” “Indicated,” or “Unfounded.”4 With a GPS report, Swoford
would determine whether the case did or did not require services. However,
Pennsylvania law would allow Swoford to seek a judicial order to take a child
into protective custody if he had probable cause to believe the child was in
imminent danger of harm.
Swoford’s first task would be to visit Danielle in her home. Before that,
however, he pulled up the family’s case history from the agency’s data sys-
tem. He reviewed the earlier report of suspected child physical abuse that the
agency had received in August 2003. That report provided important basic
information—​large number of children in the home, one child with cerebral
palsy, and an allegation of a father using a belt to hit his children.

4. For CPS reports, Pennsylvania has three categories for the results of investigations:
(1) Founded: A child abuse report made … [and there is] any judicial adjudication based
on a finding that a child who is a subject of the report has been abused, including the
entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or a finding of guilt to a criminal charge
involving the same factual circumstances involved in the allegation of child abuse.
(2) Indicated: A child abuse report made … if an investigation by the county agency or the
Department determines that substantial evidence of the alleged abuse exists based on
any of the following:
(i) Available medical evidence.
(ii) The child protective service investigation.
(iii) An admission of the acts of abuse by the perpetrator.
(3) Unfounded: A report made under the CPSL and this chapter unless the report is a
founded report or an indicated report.
12

12 T r aged y an d Its Aft er m at h

According to state statute and the normal standard of care, CPS profes-
sionals are to visit the child and the individuals responsible for the child’s wel-
fare. For a GPS case, the investigator needs to determine what services the
family might need and whether the family is willing to accept services.
GPS reports are not normally responded to as emergencies, and nothing
in the report motivated Swoford to drop everything and begin his investiga-
tion immediately. He had fourteen other active cases, some CPS and most
GPS reports. Swoford decided to try to arrange an announced visit with
the Kelly household, but no telephone contact number was provided in the
report. So, the day after he was assigned the case, Swoford drove out to the
Kelly apartment in West Philadelphia.
Swoford knew from experience that GPS investigations were tricky. The
two-​tier system used in Pennsylvania seems to send a message that GPS calls
are less serious and children are in less danger than when the report is for
physical or sexual abuse. On the other hand, Swoford knew that many GPS
calls involved children in grave danger. He was trying to determine not just
what kind of services a family might need, but also what level of risk a child
was living under.
GPS investigations often involve families living in chaotic situations with
limited economic, psychological, and social resources. Nearly all of the inves-
tigations were of families with a single parent. More than half of Swoford’s
GPS investigations involved caregivers with alcohol or substance abuse
problems. Every family Swoford investigated was living below the poverty
line. Child maltreatment laws specifically stipulate that a case should not be
“founded” or “substantiated” simply because of poverty, but the problem usu-
ally is that poverty is so intertwined with other issues, like housing, drugs,
and psychological issues, that it is almost impossible to determine whether
child risk arose primarily from poverty or from factors within the control of
a caregiver.
Swoford’s visit to the Kelly home was hardly an exception to his past expe-
riences. Living in the home were Andrea Kelly, Danielle, and perhaps as many
as six other children. The house was a mess, with trash strewn around the liv-
ing spaces. Unwashed dishes and pots and pans were stacked carelessly around
the kitchen. The overpowering smell of rotting food and urine reminded
Swoford of many such GPS home visits.
Although the visit occurred on a school day during school hours,
Danielle was at home, lying on a bare mattress in what appeared to be her
bedroom. Swoford introduced himself to Mrs. Kelly and explained that she
and her children were the subjects of a GPS report of suspected neglect.
13

In an Ideal World 13

Swoford asked if he could see Danielle first and then he would talk with
Mrs. Kelly.
Danielle looked in pretty rough shape. She was lying on a bare mattress
that was soiled with various stains and generally filthy. Danielle was dressed
in a tee shirt and shorts and was essentially uncommunicative. She did offer
Swoford a smile, but beyond that very little in the way of communication.
After a few minutes with Danielle, Swoford asked if he could see the rest
of the house. He quickly deduced that there were no functioning utilities; as
a result, the toilet and sinks did not function.
When the brief tour was over, Swoford sat down and spoke with Mrs.
Kelly. She spoke in a flat monotone and went over her family situation. She
was receiving a monthly Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
allowance and food stamps. She had signed up for Social Security Disability
benefits for Danielle. Beyond that, she was overwhelmed with caring for her
children. She had not been able to muster the energy to enroll Danielle in
school and seemed unaware of Danielle’s rights under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (Public Law 101–​476). On the plus side, Mrs.
Kelly did not appear to have either an alcohol or substance abuse problem.
With the initial visit complete and having seen the subject of the report—​
Danielle—​Swoford was concerned but not overly alarmed. He had seen many
mothers who were overwhelmed with childcare responsibilities, many moth-
ers with limited coping skills, and many mothers struggling to meet the needs
of special-​needs children. At least he would not have to find a substance abuse
treatment program for Mrs. Kelly, as those were always in short supply.
Swoford returned to his office and began to examine the full case files on
the Kelly children and make collateral contacts. He had asked Mrs. Kelly for
names of friends or relatives he could call, and he also wanted to contact the
school at which Danielle should be enrolled.
The case file and collateral contacts turned up more of the same. Reports of
suspected neglect went back to 1997. The Kelly children were often observed
ill clothed and dirty. The 1997 report came from a local eye hospital that oper-
ated on Danielle’s younger brother and reported that when he arrived for his
surgery he had a “foul” odor, his clothes were dirty and covered with insects,
and his teeth were decayed. A GPS investigation of that report echoed what
Swoford found—​the family was living in a two-​bedroom apartment that was
infested with mice and roaches and was determined to be unsafe for children.
The Department of Human Services provided assistance with housing and
medical appointments for the children. Mrs. Kelly was offered parenting
classes and job training.
14

14 T r aged y an d Its Aft er m at h

As soon as the services ended and the intervention was ruled successful,
there were more neglect reports on the Kelly family. The reports were essen-
tially the same—​mother and children living in filthy conditions and no utili-
ties. Andrea Kelly would accept services but as soon as the services ended, the
situation would return to the deplorable living conditions for the children.
The pattern was pretty clear to Swoford, and he realized that it placed
Danielle in significant danger. As far as he could see, Danielle was unable to
fend for or protect herself. She could not survive without assistance, could
not feed herself, and could not, on her own, meet any basic hygienic needs.
Just providing for Danielle’s needs would require a fairly substantial set of
resources and, in addition, there would have to be resources to ensure that
Danielle enrolled in and attended school. The normal route would be to yet
again offer and provide the same services to Mrs. Kelly and then withdraw
the services once the situation stabilized. But Swoford felt that while there
would be short-​term improvement, over the long term, little would change
and Danielle would be at greater and greater risk.
So Swoford did what he had rarely done before—​he walked down the hall
and laid out his concerns to his supervisor, Lynn Shankle. Shankle too was
a veteran at the DHS. She had joined DHS as an intake worker right out of
college. Promoted to a caseworker, Shankle enrolled in the Master’s of Social
Work program at Temple University. A few years after she completed her
MSW degree, she was promoted to supervisor. She and Swoford had worked
together in the investigations unit for four years.
Swoford told Shankle he thought the best course of action would be to
seek an emergency removal of at least Danielle and perhaps the two other
youngest children. State law allowed the DHS to take a child into protec-
tive custody provided that “the immediate safety and well-​being of the child
requires removal from the setting in which the alleged child abuse occurred.”5
The department would need a court order, and if the order was granted, the
department could hold the child for up to 72 hours. The next step would be
to seek a judicial ruling that the child was dependent and that the custody
of the child would be granted to the department. The dependency hearing
would give Mrs. Kelly the opportunity to have legal representation and make
her case that the Danielle was not in immediate risk.
Shankle trusted Swoford’s judgment even though she knew the depen-
dency hearing might end up with Danielle returned to her mother. So,

5. 55 Pennsylvania Code §3490.57. Protective Custody.

15

In an Ideal World 15

Shankle called the DHS attorney, Jennifer Zaiger, and she and Swoford laid
out the case for seeking the emergency removal and the basis of the depen-
dency hearing.
Zaiger listened to their argument, reviewed Swoford’s case notes, and
suggested they bring in the DHS medical director, Deborah Christ. Zaiger
felt she needed to know more about Danielle’s medical condition before she
decided whether to go ahead with the request for a court-​ordered emergency
removal.
Dr. Christ met with the team later the same afternoon. She also reviewed
Swoford’s notes and asked him to provide as much detail as he could with
regard to Danielle’s health and physical condition. Dr. Christ’s main concern
was whether Danielle was eating, was being cared for, and had seen a phy-
sician in the recent past. According to Swoford there was no evidence that
Danielle had seen or was seeing a physician. Her physical condition appeared
limited. Based on what data she had, Dr. Christ advised that the case would
be stronger and Danielle’s condition more risky if Danielle was not being fol-
lowed by a physician and had not seen a doctor in the past year. Swoford said
he would go out to the home the next morning to obtain what information
he could on whether Danielle was seeing a doctor.
Swoford again drove out to West Philadelphia to the Kelly home. He was
a bit surprised that nothing had changed since his visit the day before. Many
times after he made an unannounced investigatory visit, there would be some
effort to clean the home and get better organized in case of a follow-​up visit.
At the Kelly home, everything was as it was the day before—​the filth, the
trash, and the odors. Danielle looked as if she had not moved from the bed,
although there was a glass of water at her bedside. Andrea Kelly could not
remember Danielle’s doctor’s name or the last time Danielle had visited the
doctor. Andrea also had no idea what Danielle weighed or whether there were
any special doctor’s orders regarding her care. The bottom line was that there
was no indication Danielle was seeing a physician at all. Since she was not
enrolled in school, a school nurse did not see her either. The DHS records did
not include any indication of a visiting nurse seeing Danielle during any time
the family was receiving in-​home services.
Swoford returned to his office and relayed the new information (or rather
the non-​information) to Shankle. Shankle called Dr. Christ and said there was
no indication Danielle was seeing or being followed by a doctor. Dr. Christ,
without any indication of alarm, said this was very concerning and that there
was a strong indication that Danielle’s well-​being was being compromised by
her mother’s lack of action to provide physical care and suitable medical care.
16

16 T r aged y an d Its Aft er m at h

In addition, Mrs. Kelly was making no effort to enroll Danielle in school,

Dr. Christ thought they were very close to the definition of imminent danger
in the Kelly home.
Zaiger agreed that the case was at least worth an attempt to obtain a court
order for an emergency removal. A dependency hearing would sort out all
of the facts. Zaiger was quite aware that a removal is a drastic step. Even in
Danielle’s case, the removal would be traumatic for the child, and there was
no guarantee that a special-​needs foster care provider would ensure Danielle’s
well-​being. On the other hand, there seemed to be at least probable cause
that the child was at risk of harm through her mother’s ongoing neglect of
her needs.
The court order was obtained. The administrative judge of the Family
Court generally trusted Zaiger’s judgment and had had sufficient interaction
with Swoford over the years to know Swoford would not remove a child from
a home without significant cause. Zaiger delivered the order to Swoford, and
Swoford prepared to face the difficult task of removing Danielle from the
home. He knew he would not be able to effect the move on his own, so he
asked if he could be accompanied by a police officer and have an ambulance
ready to transport. Swoford asked his supervisor to prepare for a transfer of
the case to an ongoing caseworker who would be tasked with finding an emer-
gency placement for Danielle. Federal and state law requires children removed
from their caregivers to be placed in the least restrictive environment. The
least restrictive environment would be with a relative, but Swoford’s review of
the case files indicated that there was no blood relative or family friend who
would be prepared to take on Danielle’s care. In that case, the ongoing worker
would have to find a foster home capable of caring for a special-​needs child.
Two days after Danielle was removed from the Kelly home and placed
into an emergency foster care placement, the DHS team appeared before
Judge Kennedy, administrative judge of the Philadelphia Family Court. Judge
Kennedy had issued the order for the removal and was at least familiar with
the case. Zaiger appeared for the department and Swoford accompanied her.
Swoford appeared in case there were questions the judge wanted to ask him,
but in general the investigator did not speak during the dependency hearing.
Prior to meeting in the courtroom, Zaiger met with Andrea Kelly and
Ellen Nye, Kelly’s court-​appointed attorney. Nye had met Kelly in the waiting
room outside the courtroom only fifteen minutes before the meeting with
Zaiger. Nye had read the court order and the DHS complaint against Andrea
Kelly. She had only a few minutes to introduce herself to Kelly before the
hearing.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 SUMMER HOLIDAYS.
At length the long vacation, which the good Alma Mater allows for the
refreshment of the minds and bodies of her dear children, came to set
Wordsworth at liberty; and, in the summer of 1788, he revisited his native
scenes at Esthwaite. The old cramp of University life, with its dissipations,
and frivolous pleasures, fell from him like an evil enchantment, the first
moment when he beheld the bed of Windermere,

“Like a vast river stretching in the sun.

With exultation at my feet I saw
Lake, islands, promontories, gleaming bays,
A universe of Nature’s finest forms,
Proudly revealed with instantaneous burst,
Magnificent, and beautiful, and gay.
I bounded down the hill, shouting amain
For the old ferryman; to the shout the rocks
Replied; and when the Charon of the flood
Had stay’d his oars, and touched the jutting pier,
I did not step into the well-known boat
Without a cordial greeting.”

There is something very delightful and refreshing in this burst of

enthusiasm, and it shews clearly enough, which was the University
Wordsworth loved best. At Cambridge he was a prisoner, with his dark heart
yearning for the sunshine of his native hills; but here he was free, his heart
no longer dark nor sad, but flooding with light and joy, and exulting in the
delicious beauty of Nature.
And what strikes me as very touching and beautiful in the poet’s relation
of this visit to his birthplace, is the fact that he did not forget his old dame,—
although certain critics have of late declared that he had no heart,—but that
on the contrary he went straight to her cottage, and so closed his journey
from Cambridge. Hear how he speaks of her and her reception of him:
 “Glad welcome had I, with some tears, perhaps,
From my old dame, so kind and motherly,
While she perused me with a parent’s pride.
The thoughts of gratitude shall fall like dew
Upon thy grave, good creature! While my heart
Can beat, never will I forget thy name.
Heaven’s blessings be upon thee where thou liest
After thy innocent and busy stir
In narrow cares, thy little daily growth
Of calm enjoyment, after eighty years,
And more than eighty of untroubled life,
Childless; yet, by the strangers to thy blood
Honoured with little less than filial love.”

Such is the affectionate tribute which Wordsworth pays to her memory.

And if the reader be anxious to know all the small and large delights which
the poet felt in renewing his acquaintance with the scenes of his childhood, I
must refer him to the “Prelude.” He will there read how the old dame led
him—he “willing, nay, wishing to be led,” through the village and its
neighbourhood. How each face of the ancient neighbours was like a volume
to him; how he hailed the labourers at their work “with half the length of a
long field between,” how he shook hands with his quondam schoolfellows;
proud and yet ashamed of his fine Cambridge clothes, doing everything in
the way of recognition, in short, which a kind generous, and loving heart
could dictate. The brook in the garden, which had been imprisoned there
until it had lost its voice—he hailed also, with the delight of many
remembrances, and much present pleasure. And then how his heart
overflows at the sight of his favourite dog—the rough terrier of the hills—an
inmate of the dame’s cottage by ancient right!—a brave fellow, that could
hunt the badger, or unearth the fox—making no bones about either business.
The poet slept, too, during this visit, in his old sleeping room;
 “That lowly bed, where I had heard the wind
Roar, and the rain beat hard, where I so oft
Had lain awake on summer nights to watch
The moon in splendour couched among the leaves
Of a tall ash that near our cottage stood;
Had watch’d her with fixed eyes, while to and fro
In the dark summit of the waving tree
She rock’d with every impulse of the breeze.”

The poet then describes the refreshing influence which Nature spread,
like a new element of life, over his spirit, and quotes even the time and place
—viz., one evening at sunset, when taking his first walk, these long months,
round the lake of Esthwaite, when his soul

“Put off her veil, and self-transmuted, stood

Naked in the presence of her God;”

whilst a comfort seemed to “touch a heart that had not been disconsolate;”
and “strength came where weakness was not known to be—at least not felt.”
Then he took the balance, and weighed himself:
“Conversed with promises, had glimmering views
How life pervades the undecaying mind;
How the immortal soul, with godlike power
Informs, creates, and thaws the deepest sleep
That time can lay upon her; how on earth
Man, if he do but live within the light
Of high endeavours, daily spreads abroad,
His being armed with strength that cannot fail.”

Here was evidence that the soul of the poet was settling down, if we may
say so, to something like repose, preparatory to the grand aim and purpose of
his life. He begins to see that idleness and pleasure will not last—will not
serve any end in the world; and that man must be a worker, with high
endeavours, if he is indeed to be or do anything worthy of a man.—And this
light breaking in upon him, through the twilight of Nature and his own soul,
is soothing, consolatory, and hopeful to him. He begins, likewise, to take a
fresh interest in the daily occupations of the people around him; read the
opinions and thoughts of these plain living people, “now observed with
clearer knowledge;” and saw “with another eye” “the quiet woodman in the
woods,” and the shepherd roaming over the hills. His love for the grey-
headed old dame returns to him again and again in these latter pages of the
“Prelude,” and he pictures her as a dear object in the landscape, as she goes
to church,

——“Equipped in monumental trim;

Short velvet cloak, (her bonnet of the like,)
A mantle, such as cavaliers
Wore in old time.”

And then her

——“smooth domestic life,

Affectionate, without disquietude,
Her talk, her business pleased me, and no less
Her clear, though shallow stream of piety,
That ran on Sabbath days a fresher course;
With thoughts unfelt till now, I saw her read
Her Bible on hot Sunday afternoons,
And loved the book, when she had dropped asleep,
And made of it a pillow for her head.”

It would be impossible to follow the poet in all those minute relations of

incident and feeling which run throughout the “Prelude,” during this first
vacation amongst the hills.—One anecdote, however, must be told, for it is
an inlet into the poet’s nature, and shewed that he had a heart, and deep
sympathies also for suffering and poverty, let the critics say what they will.
During the autumn, while Wordsworth was wandering amidst the hills
round Windermere,—with no living thing in sight, and breathless silence
over all,—he was suddenly startled by the appearance of an uncouth shape,
in a turning of the road. At first he was a little timid, and perhaps alarmed,
for it was close to him, and he knew not what to make of it. The dusky light
of the evening increased the mystery, and Wordsworth retreated noiselessly
under the shadow of a thick hawthorn, that he might watch it unobserved. It
turned out to be a poor wanderer, of tall stature,
 “A span above man’s common measure, tall,
Stiff, lank, and upright; a more meagre man
Was never seen before, by day or night.
Long were his arms, pallid his hands; his mouth
Looked ghastly in the moonlight; from behind
A mile-stone propped him up.”

He wore a faded military garb, and was quite alone—

“Companionless,
No dog attending, by no staff sustained,
He stood, and in his very dress appeared
A desolation, a simplicity,
To which the trappings of a gaudy world
Make a strange back-ground.”

Presently, he began to mutter sounds as of pain, or birth-pangs of uneasy

thought,—
“Yet still his form
Kept the same awful steadiness; at his feet
His shadow lay, and moved not.”

Wordsworth now came from his hiding place, and hailed the poor, lone,
desolate, old man, who rose, slowly, from his resting place,

“and with a lean and wasted arm,

Returned the salutation; then resumed
His station, as before.”

The poet entered into conversation with him, and asked him to relate his
history. It was the old tale—told with a quiet uncomplaining voice, a stately
air of mild indifference. He had served in the Tropic islands, and on landing,
three weeks ago, he had been dismissed the service. He was now journeying
homeward, to lay his weary bones in the churchyard of his native village.
Wordsworth was touched at the uncomplaining misery of the poor old man,
and invited him to go with him. The veteran picked up his staff from the
shadowy ground, and walked by the poet’s side down into the valley, where
a hospitable cottage was soon found, and the soldier bestowed for the night.
On leaving him, Wordsworth
 “entreated that, henceforth,
He would not linger in the public ways,
But ask for timely furtherance and help,
Such as his state required.”

And now, mark the touching reply of the friendless old man:

“With the same ghastly mildness in his look

He said, “My trust is in the God of heaven,
And in the eye of him who passes me.”

And in this manner,—with occasional adventures, but none so memorable

as this,—Wordsworth passed his vacation. Nature, too, had claimed him for
her own—for her bard, minister, and interpreter; had purified him of the
frivolities which had previously lowered his mind, and loosed the girds of
his gigantic spirit, and she now made him happy in the consciousness of his
destiny. During one of his morning walks, he thus describes this
consciousness:—
“My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be; else sinning greatly,
A dedicated spirit. On I walked
In thankful blessedness, which yet survives.”

Subsequent portions of his vacations were spent in Wales, and Penrith, on

the southern border of Cumberland. His mother’s relations resided at this
latter town, and it was with them that his beloved sister Dorothy was placed
when the poet’s family was broken up. It was the daughter of these relations
also to whom the poet was married in after life. Her name was Mary
Hutchinson; she was a schoolmate of the poet’s at Penrith, and an
affectionate, intelligent, good wife she made him, during the forty-eight
years of their wedded life. And now, during the holidays, these beautiful
persons—viz. Dorothy and Mary, were his companions, as he roved amongst
the scenery of Penrith.[E]” He mounted with them the Border Beacon, on the
north-east of the town; and, on that eminence, now overgrown with fir trees,
which intercept the view, but which was then free and open, and displayed a
glorious panorama, he beheld the wide plain stretched far and near below,
closed by the dark hills of Ullswater on the west, and by the dim ridges of
Scotland on the north. The road from Penrith towards Appleby, on the south-
east, passes, at about a mile’s distance, the romantic ruins of that

“Monastic castle mid tall trees,

Low standing by the margin of the stream,”

where the river Lowther flows into the Emont, which descends from the lake
of Ullswater through a beautiful and fertile valley, in which at the village of
Sockbridge, some of Wordsworth’s ancestors lived, and where, at the church
of Burton, some of them lie buried. That “monastic castle” is Brougham
Castle, a noble and picturesque ruin. This was a favourite resort of the
youthful poet and his sister.

“Those mouldering towers

Have seen us side by side, when having clomb
The darksome windings of a broken stair,
And crept along a ridge of fractured wall,
Not without trembling, we in safety looked
Forth, through some Gothic window’s open space,
And gather’d with one mind a rich reward
From the far stretching landscape, by the light
Of morning beautified, or purple eve.”

In aftertimes this castle was to be the subject of one of his noblest lyrical
effusions. “The Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle.”
“High in the breathless hall the minstrel sate,
And Emont’s murmur mingled with the song.”

A little beyond the castle, by the roadside, stands the Countess’ Pillar, a
record of filial affection, and Christian charity to which also he has paid a
poetical tribute; and the woods of Lowther, at a short distance on the south,
were ever associated in his memory with the delightful days which he passed
in his vacations at Penrith, and were afterwards the scene of intellectual
enjoyment in the society of the noble family whose name they bear.”
A remarkable man, and one connected by friendship with the poet, lived
between Penrith and Lowther, at Yanwath. This was Mr. Thomas Wilkinson
“a quaker, a poet, a professor of the topiarian art, a designer of walks,
prospects, and pleasure grounds.
 ‘Spade! with which Wilkinson hath till’d his land,
And shap’d these pleasant walks by Emont’s side,’

and the verses which follow, will hand down the name of Wilkinson to
posterity, together with that of John Evelyn, and the Corycian old man of
Virgil.”
Wordsworth’s last college vacation was spent in a pedestrian tour in
France, along with his friend Robert Jones, of Plas-yn-llan, near Ruthin, in
Denbighshire. De Quincy thinks that the poet took Jones along with him as a
kind of protective body-guard, against the rascality of foreign landlords, who
in those days were apt to play strange tricks upon travellers, presenting their
extortionary bills with one hand, whilst they held a cudgel in the other, to
enforce payment. De Quincy, however, is not quite sure of this, but
conjectures the fact to have been so, because Wordsworth has only
apostrophised him in one of his poems commencing

“I wonder how Nature could ever find space

For so many strange contrasts in one human face.”

Jones, however, seems to have been a scholar and gentleman; and

Wordsworth frequently visited him, not only at his house, in Plas-yn-llan,
but afterwards at Soulderne, near Deddington, in Oxfordshire, when Jones
was made incumbent of that place. At all events, whatever sympathies—
whether intellectual or those of friendship—united these college chums, it is
certain that they commenced their tour together, and ended it with mutual
satisfaction. They set out on the 13th of July, 1790, for Calais, via Dover,
“on the eve of the day when the king took an oath of fidelity to the new
constitution.” The poet gives a highly coloured account of his wanderings
through France, Switzerland, and Italy, in the “Prelude,” and a chart of the
entire journey, commencing July 13th, at Calais, and ending September 29th,
at a village three miles from Aix-la-Chapelle, is recorded in the “Memoirs.”
There is likewise a letter addressed to his sister, dated September 6th, 1790,
Kesill (a small village on the Lake of Constance), in which the poet
describes his own feelings and reflections during this romantic journey. In
this letter he says, “My spirits have been kept in a perpetual hurry of delight,
by the almost uninterrupted succession of sublime and beautiful objects
which have passed before my eyes during the past month.” He then
describes the course they took from, the wonderful scenery of the Grande
Chartreuse to Savoy and Geneva; from the Pays de Vaud side of the lake to
Villeneuve, a small town seated at its head. “The lower part of the lake,” he
says, “did not afford us a pleasure equal to what might have been expected
from its celebrity. This was owing partly to its width, and partly to the
weather, which was one of those hot, gleamy days, in which all distant
objects are veiled in a species of bright obscurity. But the higher part of the
lake made us ample amends; ’tis true we had some disagreeable weather,—
but the banks of the water are infinitely more picturesque, and as it is much
narrower, the landscape suffered proportionally less from that pale steam,
which before almost entirely hid the opposite shore.” From Villeneuve they
proceeded up the Rhone, to Martigny, where they left their bundles, and
struck over the mountains to Chamouny, and visited the glaciers of Savoy.

“That very day,

From a bare ridge, we also first beheld,
Unveiled, the summit of Mont Blanc, and grieved
To have a soulless image on the eye,
That had usurped upon a living thought
That never more could be. The wondrous vale
Of Chamouny stretched far below, and soon,
With its dumb cataracts, and streams of ice,
A motionless array of mighty waves,
Five rivers, broad and vast, made rich amends,
And reconciled us to realities;
There small birds warble from the leafy trees,
The eagle soars high in the element;
There doth the reaper bind the yellow sheaf,
The maiden spread the haycock in the sun;
While Winter, like a well-tamed lion, walks,
Descending from the mountain to make sport,
Among the cottages, by beds of flowers.”

From Chamouny they returned to Martigny, and went from thence, along
the Rhine, to Brig, where, quitting the Valais, they made for the Alps, which
they crossed at Simplon, and visited the Lake Como, in Italy. Wordsworth’s
description of the scenery round Como, is in his highest manner:—
“The banks,” he says, “of many of the Italian and Swiss lakes are so steep
and rocky as not to admit of roads; that of Como, is partly of this character.
A small footpath is all the communication by land between one village and
another, on the side along which we passed for upwards of thirty miles. We
entered upon this path about noon, and owing to the steepness of the banks,
were soon unmolested by the sun, which illuminated the woods, rocks, and
villages of the opposite shore. The lake is narrow, and the shadows of the
mountains were early thrown across it. It was beautiful to watch them
travelling up the side of the hills—for several hours, to remark one-half of a
village covered with shade, and the other bright with the strongest sunshine.
It was with regret that we passed every turn of this charming path, where
every new picture was purchased by the loss of another, which we should
never have been tired of gazing upon. The shores of the lake consist of
steeps, covered with large sweeping woods of chestnut, spotted with
villages, some clinging upon the summits of advancing rocks, and others,
hiding themselves in their recesses. Nor was the surface of the lake less
interesting than its shores; half of it glowing with the richest green and gold,
the reflection of the illuminated wood and path, shaded with a soft blue tint.
The picture was still further diversified by the number of sails which stole
lazily by us, as we passed in the wood above them. After all this, we had the
moon. It was impossible not to contrast that repose, that complacency of
spirit, produced by these lovely scenes, with the sensations I had
experienced two or three days before in passing the Alps. At the lake of
Como my mind ran through a thousand dreams of happiness, which might be
enjoyed upon its banks, if heightened by conversation, and the exercise of
the social affections. Among the more awful scenes of the Alps, I had not a
thought of man, or a single created being; my whole soul was turned to Him,
who produced the terrible majesty before me.” From Como the tourists
proceeded to the country of the Grisons; from thence to Switzerland, and the
lakes Lucerne, Zurich, Constance, and the falls of the Rhine. At Basle, a
town in Switzerland, upon the Rhine, they bought a boat, and floated down
that glorious river, which, as Longfellow says, “rolls through his vineyards,
like Bacchus, crowned and drunken,” as far as Cologne, returning home by
Calais.
In passing the Alps, the travellers lost their way, and were benighted.
They were afterwards indebted for their safety to a peasant; and in speaking
of this event, the poet has the following fine passage in the “Prelude:”—
 “The melancholy slackening that ensued
Upon these tidings by the peasant given,
Was soon dislodged. Downwards we hurried fast,
And with the half-shaped road which we had missed,
Entered a narrow chasm. The brook and road
Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy strait,
And with them did we journey several hours,
At a slow pace. The immeasurable height
Of woods decaying, never to be decayed,
The stationary blasts of waterfalls,—
And in the narrow rent, at every turn
Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and forlorn,
The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky,
The rocks that muttered close upon our ears,
Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside,
As if a voice were in them; the sick sight
And giddy prospect of the raving stream,
The unfettered clouds, and region of the Heavens,
Tumult and peace, the darkness of the light—
Were all like workings of one mind, the features
Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree;
Characters of the great Apocalypse,
The types, and symbols of eternity,
Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.”

This Swiss tour furnishes the materials for many autobiographical

passages in the “Prelude,” which was written about ten years afterwards—
and more immediately for the poem entitled “Descriptive Sketches,” written
in 1791-2, and dedicated to Mr. Jones. These sketches, and another poem,
called “The Evening Walk,” were published by Johnson, of Cambridge, in
1793. They are, according to De Quincy, who bought up the remainder, in
1805, as presents, and as future curiosities in literature—“forcibly
picturesque, and the selection of circumstances is very original and
felicitous.” I cannot speak of these poems at first hand, for they were never
republished, and only a few extracts are included in the poet’s collected
works. De Quincy, however—himself the greatest master of our language,
and the highest literary judge in Britain—is good to speak after. “The
Evening Walk” is dedicated to the poet’s sister, and was written during his
school and college days. It is an ideal representation of the Lake scenery.
The “Sketches” were composed chiefly in the poet’s wandering on the banks
of the Loire, 1791-2. From the specimens I have seen of them, they appear to
be founded, like the earlier pieces already quoted, upon the style of Pope,
though they are clothed in high and dignified language, and glow with all the
gorgeous colouring which poetry can command and apply. They are totally
unlike his mature poems, and have a different artistic base and execution. It
will be seen from them, however, that what is called the “meanness” and
“poverty” of Wordsworth’s latest effusions, is not the result of incapacity,
but of theoretic principle.
The “Sketches” fell into the hands of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1794,
and were the means of introduction between these two great men, and of a
life-enduring friendship.
“There is in them,” says Coleridge, in his “Biographia,” a harshness and
acerbity combined with words and images all aglow, which might recal those
products of the vegetable world, where gorgeous blossoms rise out of a hard
and thorny rind or shell, within which the rich fruit is elaborating. The
language is not only peculiar and strong, but at times knotty and contorted,
as by its own impatient strength; while the novelty and struggling crowd of
images, acting in conjunction with the difficulties of the style, demand
always a greater attention than poetry,—at all events, than descriptive poetry
has a right to claim.”
Here is a specimen of this “gorgeous blossomy” style:

“Here half a village shines in gold arrayed,

Bright as the moon; half hides itself in shade;
While from amid the darkened roof, the spire,
Restlessly flashing, seems to mount like fire:
There all unshaded, blazing forests throw
Rich golden verdure on the lake below.
Slow glides the sail along the illumined shore,
And steals into the shade the lazy oar;
Soft bosoms breathe around contagious sighs,
And amorous music on the water dies.”
 MORE TOURS, AND FRANCE.
In 1791 Wordsworth graduated, and left the University for London, where
he spent four months; and in May of the same year he visited his friend
Jones, in Wales, and made a tour through the northern parts of the
Principality. A moonlight night on Snowdon is thus finely described in the
“Prelude:—

“It was a close, warm, breezeless summer night,

Wan, dull, and glaring with a dripping fog,
Low hung, and thick, that covered all the sky;
But undiscouraged, we began to climb
The mountain side. The mist soon girt us round,
And after ordinary traveller’s talk
With our conductor, presently we sank
Each into commerce with his private thoughts:
Thus did we breast the ascent, and by myself
Was nothing either seen or heard that checked
Those musings, or diverted, save that once
The shepherd’s lurcher, who, among the grass,
Had to his joy unearthed a hedge-hog, teased
His coiled-up prey, with barkings turbulent.
This small adventure, for even such it seemed
In that wild place, and at the dead of night,
Being over and forgotten, on we wound
In silence as before. With forehead bent
Earthward, as if in opposition set
Against an enemy, I panted up
With eager pace, and no less eager thoughts.
Thus might we wear a midnight hour away,
Ascending at loose distance each from each,
And I, as chance, the foremost of the band.
When at my feet the ground appeared to brighten,
And with a step or two, seemed brighter still;
Nor was time given to ask or learn the cause,
For instantly a light upon the turf
Fell like a flash, and lo! as I looked up,
The moon hung naked in a firmament
Of azure without cloud, and at my feet
Rested a silent sea of hoary mist.
 A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved
All over this still ocean, and beyond
Far, far beyond the solid vapours stretched
In headlands, hills, and promontory shapes,
Into the main Atlantic, that appeared
To dwindle, and give up his majesty
Usurped upon, far as the sight could reach.
Not so the ethereal vault; encroachment none
Was there, nor loss; only the inferior stars
Had disappeared, or shed a fainter light
In the clear presence of the full-orbed moon,
Who, from her sovereign elevation gazed
Upon the billowy ocean, as it lay
All meek and silent, save that thro’ a rift—
Not distant from the shore whereon we stood,
A fixed, abysmal, gloomy, breathing place—
Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams
Innumerable, roaring with one voice!
Heard over earth and sea, and in that hour,
For so it seemed, felt by the starry heaven.”

This is poetry; and with the exception of the Arab and Dromedary
passage, is certainly the finest in the “Prelude.”
After the completion of this tour, Wordsworth was urged by his friends to
take holy orders; but he was not of age for ordination, nor was his mind
sufficiently imbued with love for the clerical functions at this time, even had
he been of age, to have induced him to have assumed them. A Mr. Robinson
offered him the curacy of Harwich, whilst he was in Wales, and the curacy
was the high way to the Living. But from the above circumstances, and other
motives of an active and political nature, the offer was declined, and his non-
age was the apology. The truth is, that Wordsworth, like all the young,
enthusiastic, and highly-gifted men of that time, was filled with the grand
idea of liberty, and the hope of further enfranchisement from old forms of
error and superstition, which France had raised upon the theatre of her soil.
And accordingly, in November, 1791, he determined to cross the channel,
and winter in Orleans, that he might watch the progress of events. He had at
this time a very imperfect acquaintance with the French language, and set
out on his journey alone. In that same month, France was in the convulsions
of her first agony—her first birth-pangs of Revolution. “The National
Assembly met; the party of Madame Roland and the Brissotins were in the
ascendant; the war of La Vendee was raging; the army was in favour of a
constitutional monarchy; Dumourier was Minister of the Exterior; a German
army was hovering on the French frontier; popular sedition was fomented by
the Girondists, in order to intimidate the government, and overawe the
Crown. In the following year, 1792, the sanguinary epoch of the Revolution
commenced; committees of public safety struck terror into the hearts of
thousands; the king was thrown into the prison of the Temple; the massacres
of September, perpetrated by Danton and his associates, to daunt the
invading army and its adherents, deluged Paris with blood; the Convention
was constituted; monarchy was abolished; a rupture ensued between the
Gironde and the Montagne; Robespierre arose; Deism was dominant; the
influence of Brissot and of the Girondists was on the decline; and in a short
time they were about to fall victims to the power which they themselves had
created.”[F]
Such is a summary of the events which transpired whilst Wordsworth was
in France; and he has left us a record of the hopes, and wild exultations with
which he hailed the Revolution, when it first boomed above the horizon of
the morning.

“Before him shone a glorious world

Fresh as a banner bright, unfurled
To music suddenly;
He looked upon the hills and plains,
And seemed as if let loose from chains,
To live at liberty.”

But, alas! the counterpart of the picture came as suddenly, not attended by
the sweet breathings of a delicious music, but by the roar of mad and fiery
throats, and the pageantry of blood and death. Before these dread events took
place, and whilst hope was still high in the poet’s heart, he made
acquaintance with some of the most distinguished personages on the
republican side—and, amongst others, with General Beaupuis, whom he
characterises as a philosopher, patriot, and soldier, and one of the noblest
men in France. At length, he stands in the midst of the Revolution; quits
Orleans for Blois, and, in 1792, arrived in Paris, only a month after the
horrors and massacres of September. Republicanism had prevailed—and
what a republic it proved! All law and order suspended, or dead—thousands
of innocent and patriotic men condemned to death on the faintest suspicions
—the ghastly skeleton of Atheism seated on the throne of God—and liberty
strangled in her own cradle. “What a picture,” says De Quincy, “does
Wordsworth give of the fury which then possessed the public mind; of the
frenzy which shone in every eye, and through every gesture; of the stormy
groups assembled at the Palais Royal, or the Tuilleries, with ‘hissing
factionists,’ for ever in their centre? ‘hissing,’ from the self-baffling of their
own madness, and incapable, from wrath, of speaking clearly; of fear already
creeping over the manners of multitudes; of stealthy movements through
back streets; plotting and counter-plotting in every family; feuds to
extermination—dividing children of the same house for ever; scenes, such as
those of the Chapel Royal (now silenced on that public stage), repeating
themselves daily amongst private friends; and to show the universality of
this maniacal possession—that it was no narrow storm discharging its fury,
by local concentration, upon a single city, but that it overspread the whole
realm of France—a picture is given, wearing the same features of what
passed daily at Orleans, Blois, and other towns. The citizens are described in
the attitudes they assumed at the daily coming in of the post from Paris; the
fierce sympathy is pourtrayed with which they echoed back the feelings in
the capital; men of all parties had been there up to this time—aristocrats as
well as democrats, and one, in particular, of the former class, is put forward
as a representative of this class. This man, duly as the hour arrived that
brought the Parisian newspapers, read, restlessly, of the tumults and insults
amongst which the Royal Family now passed their days; of the decrees by
which his own order were threatened or assailed; of the self-expatriation,
now continually swelling in amount, as a measure of despair on the part of
myriads, as well priests as gentry,—all this, and worse, he read in public;
and still as he read—

‘his hand
Haunted his sword, like an uneasy spot
In his own body.’

“In short, as there never has been so strong a national convulsion diffused
so widely, with equal truth, it may be asserted that no describer, so powerful,
or idealizing, so magnificent in what he deals with, has ever been a living
spectator of parallel scenes.”
The reaction of the atrocities and enormous crimes of the Revolution,
upon Wordsworth’s mind, was terrible. But a short time before the
Revolution commenced, we find him the espouser, the advocate of
democracy; the enemy of monarchial forms of government, and
consequently of hereditary monarchy; the foe, likewise, of all class
distinctions and privileges; for he regarded these as enemies to human
progress and happiness.—After his return to England, he says, in one of his
unpublished letters to the Bishop of Llandaff, “In my ardour to attain the
goal, I do not forget the nature of the ground where the race is to be run. The
destruction of those institutions which I condemn, appears to me to be
hastening on too rapidly. I abhor the very idea of a revolution. I am a
determined enemy to every species of violence. I see no connection, but
what the obstinacy of pride and ignorance renders necessary, between reason
and bonds. I deplore the miserable condition of the French, and think that we
can only be guarded from the same scourge by the undaunted efforts of good
men. I severely condemn all inflammatory addresses to the passions of men.
I know that the multitude walk in darkness. I would put into each man’s
hand a lanthern to guide him; not have him to set out on his journey
depending for illumination on abortive flashes of lightning, the corruscations
of transitory meteors.” These were the opinions of Wordsworth before, and
at the commencement of the Revolution. As I said, however, the crimes into
which the leaders of it subsequently plunged, and the mad passions which
influenced them, completely revolutionised the mind of Wordsworth, and
filled him with the darkest forebodings. He lost for a time, his generous faith
in men, his hope of human liberty, and his belief in the perfection of human
nature. He has given a fearful picture of his state of mind at this period, in
the Solitary of the “Excursion,” which the reader will do well to consult. The
events of the Revolution, however, brought with them much wisdom to
Wordsworth. They turned his thoughts inward, and compelled him to
meditate upon man’s nature and destiny,—upon what it is possible for man
to become; whilst they gave breadth, and depth, and expansion to his higher
sympathies. From this time Wordsworth’s mission as a priest may be dated.
He was no longer a mere dreamer, but was deeply impressed with the stern
realities—with the wants and necessities of his time; and he resolved to
devote himself to the service of humanity.
In De Quincy’s admirable “Lake Reminiscences,” in Tait’s Magazine,
already alluded to, it is stated that by his connection with public men,
Wordsworth had become an object of suspicion long before he left France,
and was looked upon as an English spy. How little did these persons know of
Wordsworth! At this very time his whole soul was in the cause for which the
patriots were struggling; and his own noble heart was rendered still nobler,
braver, and better, by his daily communings with the grand and sublime
nature of his friend Beaupuis. To this man De Quincy pays the finest tribute
of admiration and reverence which ever came from the pen of the historian,
or the mouth of the orator. “This great season,” he says, of “public trial had
searched men’s natures, revealed their real hearts; brought into life and
action qualities of writers not suspected by their possessors; and had thrown
man as in alternating states of society, each upon his own native resources,
unaided by the old conventional forms of rank and birth. Beaupuis had shone
to unusual advantage under this general trial. He had discovered, even to the
philosophic eye of Wordsworth, a depth of benignity very unusual in a
Frenchman; and not of local, contracted benignity, but of large, illimitable,
apostolic devotion to the service of the poor and the oppressed;—a fact the
more remarkable, as he had all the pretensions, in his own person, of high
birth, and high rank; and, so far as he had any personal interest embarked in
the struggle, should have allied himself to the aristocracy. But of selfishness
in any shape, he had no vestiges; or if he had, it shewed itself in a slight
tinge of vanity; yet no—it was not vanity, but a radiant quickness of
sympathy with the eye which expressed admiring love—sole relic of the
chivalrous devotion once limited to the service of the ladies. Now again he
put on the garb of chivalry; it was a chivalry the noblest in the world, which
opened his ear to the Pariah and the oppressed all over his misorganized
country. A more apostolic fervour of holy zealotry in this great cause has not
been seen since the days of Bartholomew Las Casas, who shewed the same
excess of feeling in another direction. This sublime dedication of his being
to a cause which, in his conception of it, extinguished all petty
considerations for himself, and made him thenceforward a creature of the
national will,—“a son of France,” in a more eminent and lofty sense than
according to the heraldry of Europe—had extinguished his sensibility to the
voice of worldly honour: ‘injuries,’ says Wordsworth—

——‘injuries
Made him more gracious.’

And so utterly had he submitted his own will, or separate interests, to the
transcendant voice of his country, which, in the main, he believed to be now
speaking authentically for the first time since the foundation of Christendom,
that, even against the motions of his own heart, he adopted the hatreds of the
young Republic, growing cruel in his purposes towards the ancient
oppressors, out of very excess of love for the oppressed; and against the
voice of his own order, as well as in stern oblivion of every early friendship,
he became the champion of democracy in the struggle everywhere
commencing with prejudice, or feudal privileges. Nay, he went so far upon
the line of this new crusade against the evils of the world, that he even
accepted—with a conscientious defiance of his own inevitable homage to the
erring spirit of loyalty embarked upon that cause—a commission in the
Republican armies preparing to move against La Vendee; and finally in that
cause, as commander-in-chief, he laid down his life.”
 RETURNS TO ENGLAND.
Before this last event occurred, however, in the autumn of 1792,
Wordsworth had left France for London, where he remained, more or less,
for upwards of a year; and it was during this time, that he wrote the
unpublished letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, respecting the political opinions
of his lordship, contained in an appendix to one of his sermons, a portion of
which letter has already been quoted. And although Wordsworth still cleaves
to his democratic ideas, and announces them fearlessly to the bishop, he by
no means sympathises, as will be seen, with the mad actors in the
Revolution. On the contrary, he is pained to agony when he hears of the
atrocities committed in the name of liberty; and when, in the year 1794,
crossing the sands of Morecomb Bay, during one of his visits to
Cumberland, he asked of a horseman who was passing, “What news?” and
received for answer, that “Robespierre had perished,” “a passion seized him,
a transport of almost epileptic fervour prompted him, as he stood alone upon
the perilous waste of sands, to shout aloud anthems of thanksgiving, for this
great vindication of Eternal justice.”
Wordsworth was shocked, however, when England, after the death of the
king, on January 21st, 1793, declared war with France; and now resolved to
withdraw his mind, as much as possible, from the disappointed hopes which
politics had brought him as their harvest, and devote himself to poetry.
Accordingly, he left London, and once more commenced his ramblings, and
poetic labours. He passed a part of the summer of 1793 in the Isle of Wight,
hoping to find repose there; but the booming of terrible cannon, every
evening, at Portsmouth, and the consciousness that a fleet was equipping in
that port against France, made him sad, and full of misgivings as to the result
of the enterprise. He soon left the beautiful island, therefore, and wandered,
on foot, all over the vast plain of Salisbury—visiting the old and melancholy
temple of the ancient Druids—and passing thence by Bristol and Tintern to
North Wales. It was during this tour, on Salisbury Plain, that he commenced
his poem entitled “Guilt and Sorrow;” a production of considerable vigour
and ability.
Having now, in 1793, completed his twenty-third year, his friends again
urged him to receive holy orders; but, feeling that he was not inwardly