The social sense of the time is very well illustrated by the career of the famous Dick Whittington, as he is so well known from the children's stories with regard to him. He was born just after the middle of the century, shortly before the death of his father, Sir Richard Whittington, who had been declared an outlaw. The boy had to make his way for himself and the old legends depict him as going up to London to seek his fortune in the com pany of a cat to whom he is kind and the ani mal repays him by helping him to make his fortune. The part played by the cat has now been all whittled away by the rationalizing folklorists who have pointed out that a similar story is a commonplace in many languages. It is suggested that Dick made his fortune by achat or scat, that is, commerce or trade, and that in the course of time, the meaning of the word was transferred under the influence of folklore. There is no doubt about his having made his fortune however, and in 1392 he be came an alderman and sheriff at London and was chosen mayor in 1397 and several times later. He had no children of his own, and the principal interest of his career is not that he made his fortune, which is the part of the nur sery tale emphasized for children, but the noble disposition which he made of it, a portion of his story that has unfortunately not been told to children. It is for this latter reason that
he is spoken of as "the model merchant of the Middle Ages." He rebuilt Saint Bartholo mew's Hospital, which had been founded in the 13th century and still continues its good work. He built an almshouse for the aged poor where old married folk might live together till the end of their days, as well as a college and an addition to Saint Thomas' Hospital, South wark. He made arrangements for a maternity where young women "that hadde done amysse might he cared for with absolute privacy "in truste of a good mendement" so as to have a chance for reform. Most of this he did before his death, but he left still more generous ben efactions in his and all of them with the purpose of preventing poverty and suffering rather than merely providing temporary as sistance. No wonder that he is known as the "Father of the Poor" and that he is one of the well-known characters of the end of the Middle Ages. The records of London chari ties show many like him at this time.