One night in 1864, William met a boy who was crying. He had been selling matches and some older boys had stolen them and now he would have no money. William decided that now that he was no longer poor he had to help.
He called a meeting of street boys and formed the Shoeblack Brigade. The boys went out cleaning shoes on street corners - they kept some of the money they earned and the rest was used to replenish the stock of brushes and polish that they used.
