{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13434/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13434","id":"gutenberg_13434","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13434","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Sociology","Great Britain -- Social conditions","Salvation Army"],"text":"[Illustration: GENERAL BOOTH]\n\n\nREGENERATION\n\nBeing an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great\nBritain.\n\nH. RIDER HAGGARD\n\n\n1910\n\n\n\n\nDEDICATION\n\n\nI dedicate these pages to the Officers and Soldiers of the Salvation\nArmy, in token of my admiration of the self-sacrificing work by which\nit is their privilege to aid the poor and wretched throughout the\nworld.\n\nH. RIDER HAGGARD.\n\nDITCHINGHAM,\n\n_November, 1910_\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n     INTRODUCTORY\n\n     MEN'S SOCIAL WORK, LONDON\n\n     SPA ROAD ELEVATOR\n\n     GREAT PETER STREET SHELTER\n\n     FREE BREAKFAST SERVICE\n\n     EX-CRIMINALS\n\n     MEN'S WORKSHOP: HANBURY STREET, WHITECHAPEL\n\n     STURGE HOUSE, BOW ROAD\n\n     CENTRAL LABOUR BUREAU\n\n     INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT\n\n     EMIGRATION DEPARTMENT\n\n     WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK IN LONDON\n\n     HEADQUARTERS OF THE WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK\n\n     HILLSBOROUGH HOUSE INEBRIATES' HOME\n\n     MATERNITY NURSING HOME\n\n     MATERNITY RECEIVING HOME\n\n     MATERNITY HOSPITAL\n\n     'THE NEST,' CLAPTON\n\n     TRAINING INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK\n\n     WOMEN'S INDUSTRIAL HOME, HACKNEY\n\n     INEBRIATES' HOME\n\n     WOMEN'S INDUSTRIAL HOME, SOUTHWOOD\n\n     WOMEN'S SHELTER, WHITECHAPEL\n\n     SLUM SETTLEMENT, HACKNEY ROAD\n\n     PICCADILLY MIDNIGHT WORK\n\n     ANTI-SUICIDE BUREAU\n\n     WORK IN THE PROVINCES, LIVERPOOL\n\n     MEN'S SOCIAL WORK, MANCHESTER\n\n     OAKHILL HOUSE, MANCHESTER\n\n     MEN'S SOCIAL WORK, GLASGOW\n\n     ARDENSHAW WOMEN'S HOME\n\n     WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSE, GLASGOW\n\n     LAND AND INDUSTRIAL COLONY, HADLEIGH\n\n     SMALL-HOLDINGS SETTLEMENT, BOXTED\n\n     IMPRESSIONS OF GENERAL BOOTH\n\n     THE CHIEF OF THE STAFF\n\n     NOTE ON THE RELIGION OF THE SALVATION ARMY\n\n     APPENDICES\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S NOTE\n\nThe author desires to thank Mr. D.R. DANIEL for the kind and valuable\nassistance he has given him in his researches into the Social Work of\nthe Salvation Army.\n\nHe takes this occasion to make it clear that this book does no more\nthan set out the results of his investigations into some of that vast\nSocial Work, and his personal conclusions as to it and those by whom\nit is prosecuted.\n\nTo obviate any possible misunderstanding as to the reason of its\nwriting, he wishes to state further that it has not been compiled by\nhim as a matter of literary business.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY\n\n\nWHAT IS THE SALVATION ARMY?\n\nIf this question were put to the ordinary person of fashion or\nleisure, how would it be answered?\n\nIn many cases thus: 'The Salvation Army is a body of people dressed up\nin a semi-military uniform, or those of them who are women, in\nunbecoming poke bonnets, who go about the streets making a noise in\nthe name of God and frightening horses with brass bands. It is under\nthe rule of an arbitrary old gentleman named Booth, who calls himself\na General, and whose principal trade assets consist in a handsome and\nunusual face, and an inexhaustible flow of language, which he\ngenerally delivers from a white motor-car wherever he finds that he\ncan attract the most attention. He is a clever actor in his way, who\nhas got a great number of people under his thumb, and I am told that\nhe has made a large fortune out of the business, like the late prophet\nDowie, and others of the same sort. The newspapers are always exposing\nhim; but he knows which side his bread is buttered and does not care.\nWhen he is gone no doubt his family will divide up the cash, and we\nshall hear no more of the Salvation Army!'\n\nSuch are still the honest beliefs of thousands of our instructed\nfellow-countrymen, and of hundreds of thousands of others of less\ndegree belonging to the classes which are generally typified under the\nsynonym of 'the man in the street,' by which most people understand\none who knows little, and of that little nothing accurately, but who\ndecides the fate of political elections.\n\nLet us suppose, however, that the questioner should succeed in\ninteresting an intelligent and fair-minded individual holder of these\nviews sufficiently to induce him to make inquiry into the facts\nconcerning this Salvation Army. What would he then discover?\n\nHe would discover that about five and forty years ago some impulse,\nwherever it may have come from, moved a Dissenting minister, gifted\nwith a mind of power and originality, and a body of great strength and\nendurance, gifted, also, with an able wife who shared his views, to\ntry, if not to cure, at least to ameliorate the lot of the fallen or\ndistressed millions that are one of the natural products of high\ncivilization, by ministering to their creature wants and regenerating\ntheir spirits upon the plain and simple lines laid down in the New\nTestament. He would find, also, that this humble effort, at first\nquite unaided, has been so successful that the results seem to partake\nof the nature of the miraculous.\n\nThus he would learn that the religious Organization founded by this\nman and his wife is now established and, in most instances, firmly\nrooted in 56 Countries and Colonies, where it preaches the Gospel in\n33 separate languages: that it has over 16,000 Officers wholly\nemployed in its service, and publishes 74 periodicals in 20 tongues,\nwith a total circulation of nearly 1,000,000 copies per issue: that it\naccommodates over 28,000 poor people nightly in its Institutions,\nmaintaining 229 Food D\u00e9p\u00f4ts and Shelters for men, women, and children,\nand 157 Labour Factories where destitute or characterless people are\nemployed: that it has 17 Homes for ex-criminals, 37 Homes for\nchildren, 116 Industrial Homes for the rescue of women, 16 Land\nColonies, 149 Slum Stations for the visitation and assistance of the\npoor, 60 Labour Bureaux for helping the unemployed, and 521 Day\nSchools for children: that, in addition to all these, it has Criminal\nand General Investigation Departments, Inebriate Homes for men and\nwomen, Inquiry Offices for tracing lost and missing people, Maternity\nHospitals, 37 Homes for training Officers, Prison-visitation Staffs,\nand so on almost _ad infinitum_.\n\nHe would find, also, that it collects and dispenses an enormous\nrevenue, mostly from among the poorer classes, and that its system is\nrun with remarkable business ability: that General Booth, often\nsupposed to be so opulent, lives upon a pittance which most country\nclergymen would refuse, taking nothing, and never having taken\nanything, from the funds of the Army. And lastly, not to weary the\nreader, that whatever may be thought of its methods and of the noise\nmade by the 23,000 or so of voluntary bandsmen who belong to it, it is\nundoubtedly for good or evil one of the world forces of our age.\n\nBefore going further, it may, perhaps, be well that I should explain\nhow it is that I come to write these pages. First, I ought to state\nthat my personal acquaintance with the Salvation Army dates back a\ngood many years, from the time, indeed, when I was writing 'Rural\nEngland,' in connexion with which work I had a long and interesting\ninterview with General Booth that is already published. Subsequently I\nwas appointed by the British Government as a Commissioner to\ninvestigate and report upon the Land Colonies of the Salvation Army in\nthe United States, in the course of which inquiry I came into contact\nwith many of its Officers, and learned much of its system and methods,\nespecially with reference to emigration. Also I have had other\nopportunities of keeping in touch with the Army and its developments.\n\nIn the spring of 1910 I was asked, on behalf of General Booth, whether\nI would undertake to write for publication an account of the Social\nWork of the Army in this country. After some hesitation, for the lack\nof time was a formidable obstacle to a very busy man, I assented to\nthis request, the plan agreed upon being that I should visit the\nvarious Institutions, or a number of them, etc., and record what I\nactually saw, neither more nor less, together with my resulting\nimpressions. This I have done, and it only remains for me to assure\nthe reader that the record is true, and, to the best of his belief and\nability, set down without fear, favour, or prejudice, by one not\nunaccustomed to such tasks.\n\nAlmost at the commencement of my labours I sought an interview with\nGeneral Booth, thinking, as I told him and his Officers (the Salvation\nArmy is not mealy-mouthed about such matters) that at his age it would\nbe well to set down his views in black and white. On the whole, I\nfound him well and vigorous. He complained, however, of the difficulty\nhe was experiencing, owing to the complete loss of sight in one eye,\noccasioned by an accident during a motor journey, and the possible\ndeprivation of the sight of the other through cataract.\n\nOf the attacks that have been and are continually made upon the\nSalvation Army, some of them extremely bitter, General Booth would say\nlittle. He pointed out that he had not been in the habit of defending\nhimself and his Organization in public, and was quite content that the\nwork should speak for itself. Their affairs and finances had been\ninvestigated by eminent men, who 'could not find a sixpence out of\nplace'; and for the rest, a balance-sheet was published annually. This\nbalance-sheet for the year ending September 30, 1909, I reprint in an\nappendix.[1]\n\nWith regard to the Social Work of the Army, which in its beginning was\na purely religious body, General Booth said that they had been driven\ninto it because of their sympathy with suffering. They found it\nimpossible to look upon people undergoing starvation or weighed down\nby sorrows and miseries that came upon them through poverty, without\nstretching out a hand to help them on to their feet again. In the same\nway they could not study wrongdoers and criminals and learn their\nsecret histories, which show how closely a great proportion of human\nsin is connected with wretched surroundings, without trying to help\nand reform them to the best of their abilities. Thus it was that their\nSocial operations began, increased, and multiplied. They contemplated\nnot only the regeneration of the individual, but also of his\ncircumstances, and were continually finding out new methods by which\nthis might be done.\n\nThe Army looked forward to the development of its Social Work on the\nlines of self-help, self-management and self-support. Whenever a new\ndevelopment came under consideration, the question arose--How is it to\nbe financed? The work they had in hand at present took all their\nfunds. One of their great underlying principles was that of the\nnecessity of self-support, without which no business or undertaking\ncould stand for long. The individual must co-operate in his own moral\nand physical redemption. At the same time this system of theirs was,\nin practice, one of the difficulties with which they had to contend,\nsince it caused the benevolent to believe that the Army did not need\nfinancial assistance. His own view was that they ought to receive\nsupport in their work from the Government, as they actually did in\nsome other countries. Especially did he desire to receive State aid in\ndealing with ascertained criminals, such as was extended to them in\ncertain parts of the world.\n\nThus only a few weeks before, in Holland, the Parliament had asked the\nSalvation Army to co-operate in the care of discharged prisoners and\ngave a grant of money for their support. In Java the tale was the\nsame. There they were preparing estates as homes for lepers, and soon\na large portion of the leper population of that land would be in their\ncharge.\n\nGeneral Booth told me the story of a celebrated Danish doctor, an\noptician, who became attracted to the Army, and, giving up his\npractice and position, entered its service with his wife. They said\nthey wished to lead a life of real sacrifice and self-denial, and so,\nafter going through a training like any other Cadets, were sent out to\ntake charge of the medical work in Java. A recent report stated that\nthis Officer had attended 16,000 patients in nine months, and\nperformed 516 operations.\n\nIn Australia, the Government had handed over the work amongst the\nReformatory boys to the Army. In New Zealand, the Government had\nrequested it to take over inebriates, and was now paying a\ncontribution to that work of 10s. per head a week. There the Army had\npurchased two islands to accommodate these inebriates, one on which\nthe men followed the pursuits of agriculture, fishing, and so forth,\nand the other for the women. In Canada there was an idea that a large\nprison should be erected, of which the Salvation Army would take\ncharge. He hoped that in course of time they would be allowed greatly\nto extend their work in the English prisons.\n\nGeneral Booth pointed out to me with reference to their Social Work,\nthat it was necessary to spend large sums of money in finding\nemployment for men whom they had rescued. Here, one of their greatest\ndifficulties was the vehement opposition of members of the Labour\nParty in different countries.\n\nThis party said, for example, that the Army ought to pay the Trade\nUnion rate of wage to any poor fellow whom they had picked up and set\nto such labour as paper-sorting or carpentry. Thus in Western\nAustralia they had an estate of 20,000 acres lying idle. When he was\nthere a while ago, he asked the Officer in charge why he did not\ncultivate this land and make it productive. The man replied he had no\nlabour; whereon the General said that he could send him plenty from\nEngland.\n\n'Yes,' commented the Officer, 'but the moment they begin to work here,\nhowever inefficient or broken down they may be, we shall have to pay\nthem 7s. a day!'\n\nThis regulation, of course, makes it impossible to cultivate that\nestate except at a heavy loss.\n\nHe himself had been denounced as the 'prince of sweaters,' because he\ntook in derelict carpenters at their Institution in Hanbury Street\n(which I shall describe later), to whom he did not pay the Trade Union\nwage, although that Institution had from the first been worked at a\nloss. In this case he had made peace with the Parliamentary Committee\nby promising not to make anything there which was used outside the\nArmy establishments. But still the attacks went on.\n\nPassing from this subject, I asked General Booth if he had formed any\nforecast of the future of the Salvation Army after his own death. He\nreplied that there were certain factors in the present position of the\nArmy which seemed to him to indicate its future growth and continuity.\nSpeaking impersonally, he said that the present General had become an\nimportant man not by his own choice or through the workings of\nambition, but by the will of Providence. He had acquired a certain\nstanding, a great hold over his community, and an influence which\nhelped to concentrate and keep together forces that had grown to be\nworldwide in their character. It was natural, therefore, that people\nshould wonder what would happen when he ceased to be.\n\nHis answer to these queries was that legal arrangements had been made\nto provide for this obvious contingency. Under the provisions of the\nconstitution of the Army he had selected his successor, although he\nhad never told anybody the name of that successor, which he felt sure,\nwhen announced, was one that would command the fullest confidence and\nrespect. The first duty of the General of the Army on taking up his\noffice was to choose a man to succeed him, reserving to himself the\npower to change that man for another, should he see good reason for\nsuch a course. In short, his choice is secret, and being unhampered by\nany law of heredity or other considerations except those that appeal\nto his own reason and judgment, not final. He nominates whom he will.\n\nI asked him what would happen if this nominated General misconducted\nhimself in any way, or proved unsuitable, or lost his reason. He\nreplied that in such circumstances arrangements had been made under\nwhich the heads of the Army could elect another General, and that what\nthey decided would be law. The organization of the Army was such that\nany Department of it remained independent of the ability of one\nindividual. If a man proved incompetent, or did not succeed, his\noffice was changed; the square man was never left in the round hole.\nEach Department had laws for its direction and guidance, and those in\nauthority were responsible for the execution of those laws. If for any\nreason whatsoever, one commander fell out of the line of action,\nanother was always waiting to take his place. In short, he had no fear\nthat the removal of his own person and name would affect the\nOrganization. It was true, he remarked, that leaders cannot be\nmanufactured to order, and also that the Army had made, and would\ncontinue to make, mistakes up and down the world. But those mistakes\nshowed them how to avoid similar errors, and how and where to improve.\n\nAs regarded a change of headship, a fresh individuality always has\ncharms, and a new force would always strike out in some new direction.\nThe man needed was one who would _do_ something. General Booth did not\nfear but that he would be always forthcoming, and said that for his\npart he was quite happy as to the future, in which he anticipated an\nenlargement of their work. The Organization existed, and with it the\narrangements for filling every niche. The discipline of to-day would\ncontinue to-morrow, and that spirit would always be ready to burst\ninto flame when it was needed.\n\nIn his view it was inextinguishable.\n\n\n\n\nMEN'S SOCIAL WORK, LONDON\n\n\n\nTHE MIDDLESEX STREET SHELTER\n\nThe first of the London Institutions of the Salvation Army which I\nvisited was that known as the Middlesex Street Shelter and Working\nMen's Home, which is at present under the supervision of Commissioner\nSturgess. This building consists of six floors, and contains sleeping\naccommodation for 462 men. It has been at work since the year 1906,\nwhen it was acquired by the Army with the help of that well-known\nphilanthropist, the late Mr. George Herring.\n\nOf the 462 men accommodated daily, 311 pay 3d. for their night's\nlodging, and the remainder 5d. The threepenny charge entitles the\ntenant to the use of a bunk bedstead with sheets and an American cloth\ncover. If the extra 2d. is forthcoming the wanderer is provided with a\nproper bed, fitted with a wire spring hospital frame and provided with\na mattress, sheets, pillow, and blankets. I may state here that as in\nthe case of this Shelter the building, furniture and other equipment\nhave been provided by charity, the nightly fees collected almost\nsuffice to pay the running expenses of the establishment. Under less\nfavourable circumstances, however, where the building and equipment\nare a charge on the capital funds of the Salvation Army, the\nexperience is that these fees do not suffice to meet the cost of\ninterest and maintenance.\n\nThe object of this and similar Shelters is to afford to men upon the\nverge of destitution the choice between such accommodation as is here\nprovided and the common lodging-house, known as a 'kip house,' or the\ncasual ward of a workhouse. Those who avail themselves of these\nShelters belong, speaking generally, to the destitute or nearly\ndestitute classes. They are harbours of refuge for the unfortunates\nwho find themselves on the streets of London at nightfall with a few\ncoppers or some other small sum in their pockets. Many of these social\nwrecks have sunk through drink, but many others owe their sad position\nto lack or loss of employment, or to some other misfortune.\n\nFor an extra charge of 1d. the inmates are provided with a good\nsupper, consisting of a pint of soup and a large piece of bread, or of\nbread and jam and tea, or of potato-pie. A second penny supplies them\nwith breakfast on the following morning, consisting of bread and\nporridge or of bread and fish, with tea or coffee.\n\nThe dormitories, both of the fivepenny class on the ground floor and\nof the threepenny class upstairs, are kept scrupulously sweet and\nclean, and attached to them are lavatories and baths. These lavatories\ncontain a great number of brown earthenware basins fitted with taps.\nReceptacles are provided, also, where the inmates can wash their\nclothes and have them dried by means of an ingenious electrical\ncontrivance and hot air, capable of thoroughly drying any ordinary\ngarment in twenty minutes while its owner takes a bath.\n\nThe man in charge of this apparatus and of the baths was one who had\nbeen picked up on the Embankment during the past winter. In return for\nhis services he received food, lodging, clothes and pocket-money to\nthe amount of 3s. a week. He told me that he was formerly a commercial\ntraveller, and was trying to re-enter that profession or to become a\nship's steward. Sickness had been the cause of his fall in the world.\n\nAdjoining the downstairs dormitory is a dining and sitting-room for\nthe use of those who have taken bed tickets. In this room, when I\nvisited it, several men were engaged in various occupations. One of\nthem was painting flowers. Another, a watch repairer, was apparently\nmaking up his accounts, which, perhaps, were of an imaginary nature. A\nthird was eating a dinner which he had purchased at the food bar. A\nfourth smoked a cigarette and watched the flower artist at his work. A\nfifth was a Cingalese who had come from Ceylon to lay some grievance\nbefore the late King. The authorities at Whitehall having investigated\nhis case, he had been recommended to return to Ceylon and consult a\nlawyer there. Now he was waiting tor the arrival of remittances to\nenable him to pay his passage back to Ceylon. I wondered whether the\nremittances would ever be forthcoming. Meanwhile he lived here on\n7-1/2d. a day, 5d. for his bed and 2-1/2d. for his food. Of these and\nother men similarly situated I will give some account presently.\n\nHaving inspected the upper floors I descended to the basement, where\nwhat are called the 'Shelter men' are received at a separate entrance\nat 5.30 in the afternoon, and buying their penny or halfpennyworth of\nfood, seat themselves on benches to eat. Here, too, they can sit and\nsmoke or mend their clothes, or if they are wet, dry themselves in the\nannexe, until they retire to rest. During the past winter of 1909 400\nmen taken from the Embankment were sheltered here gratis every night,\nand were provided with soup and bread. When not otherwise occupied\nthis hall is often used for the purpose of religious services.\n\nI spoke at hazard with some of those who were sitting about in the\nShelter. A few specimen cases may be interesting. An old man told me\nthat he had travelled all over the world for fifty years, especially\nin the islands of the South Pacific, until sickness broke him down. He\ncame last from Shanghai, where he had been an overseer on railway\nwork, and before that from Manila. Being incapacitated by fever and\nrheumatism, and possessing 1,500 dollars, he travelled home,\napparently via India and Burma, stopping a while in each country.\nEventually he drifted to a lodging-house, and, falling ill there, was\nsent to the Highgate Infirmary, where, he said, he was so cold that he\ncould not stop. Ultimately he found himself upon the streets in\nwinter. For the past twelve months he had been living in this Shelter\nupon some help that a friend gave him, for all his own money was gone.\nNow he was trying to write books, one of which was in the hands of a\nwell-known firm. He remarked, pathetically, that they 'have had it a\nlong time.' He was also waiting 'every day' for a pension from\nAmerica, which he considered was due to him because he fought in the\nCivil War.\n\nMost of these poor people are waiting for something.\n\nThis man added that he could not find his relatives, and that he\nintended to stop in the Shelter until his book was published, or he\ncould 'help himself out.'\n\nThe next man I spoke to was the flower artist, whom I have already\nmentioned, whose work, by the way, if a little striking in colour, was\nby no means bad, especially as he had no real flowers to draw from. By\ntrade he was a lawyer's clerk; but he stated that, unfortunately for\nhim, the head partner of his firm went bankrupt six years before, and\nthe bad times, together with the competition of female labour in the\nclerical department, prevented him from obtaining another situation,\nso he had been obliged to fall back upon flower painting. He was a\nmarried man, but he said, 'While I could make a fair week's money,\nthings were comfortable, but when orders fell slack I was requested to\ngo, as my room was preferable to my company, and being a man of\nnervous temperament I could not stand it, and have been here ever\nsince'--that was for about ten weeks. He managed to make enough for\nhis board and lodging by the sale of his flower-pictures.\n\nA third man informed me that he had opened twenty-seven shops for a\nlarge firm of tobacconists, and then left to start in business for\nhimself; also he used to go out window-dressing, in which he was\nskilled. Then, about nine years ago, his wife began to drink, and\nwhile he was absent in hospital, neglected his business so that it\nbecame worthless. Finally she deserted him, and he had heard nothing\nof her since. After that he took to drink himself. He came to this\nShelter intermittently, and supported himself by an occasional job of\nwindow-dressing. The Salvation Army was trying to cure this man of his\ndrinking habits.\n\nA fourth man, a Eurasian, was a schoolmaster in India, who drifted to\nthis country, and had been for four years in the Colney Hatch Asylum.\nHe was sent to the Salvation Army by the After Care Society. He had\nbeen two years in the Shelter, and was engaged in saving up money to\ngo to America. He was employed in the Shelter as a scrubber, and also\nas a seller of food tickets, by which means he had saved some money.\nAlso he had a \u00a35 note, which his sister sent to him. This note he was\nkeeping to return to her as a present on her birthday! His story was\nlong and miserable, and his case a sad one. Still, he was capable of\ndoing work of a sort.\n\nAnother very smart and useful man had been a nurse in the Army Medical\nCorps, which he left some years ago with a good character.\nOccasionally he found a job at nursing, and stayed at the Shelter,\nwhere he was given employment between engagements.\n\nYet another, quite a young person, was a carman who had been\ndischarged through slackness of work in the firm of which he was a\nservant. He had been ten weeks in the Institution, to which he came\nfrom the workhouse, and hoped to find employment at his trade.\n\nIn passing through this building, I observed a young man of foreign\nappearance seated in a window-place reading a book, and asked his\nhistory. I was told that he was a German of education, whose ambition\nit is to become a librarian in his native country. He had come to\nEngland in order to learn our language, and being practically without\nmeans, drifted into this place, where he was employed in cleaning the\nwindows and pursued his studies in the intervals of that humble work.\nLet us hope that in due course his painstaking industry will be\nrewarded, and his ambition fulfilled.\n\nAll these cases, and others that I have no space to mention, belonged\nto the class of what I may call the regular 'hangers-on' of this\nparticular Shelter. As I visited it in the middle of the day, I did\nnot see its multitude of normal nightly occupants. Of such men,\nhowever, I shall be able to speak elsewhere.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SPA ROAD ELEVATOR\n\n\n\nBERMONDSEY\n\nThe next Institution that I inspected was that of a paper-sorting\nworks at Spa Road, Bermondsey, where all sorts of waste paper are\ndealt with in enormous quantities. Of this stuff some is given and\nsome is bought. Upon delivery it goes to the sorters, who separate it\nout according to the different classes of the material, after which it\nis pressed into bales by hydraulic machinery and sold to merchants to\nbe re-made.\n\nThese works stand upon two acres of land. Parts of the existing\nbuildings were once a preserve factory, but some of them have been\nerected by the Army. There remain upon the site certain\ndwelling-houses, which are still let to tenants. These are destined to\nbe pulled down whenever money is forthcoming to extend the factory.\n\nThe object of the Institution is to find work for distressed or fallen\npersons, and restore them to society. The Manager of this 'Elevator,'\nas it is called, informed me that it employs about 480 men, all of\nwhom are picked up upon the streets. As a rule, these men are given\ntheir board and lodging in return for work during the first week, but\nno money, as their labour is worth little. In the second week, 6d. is\npaid to them in cash; and, subsequently, this remuneration is added to\nin proportion to the value of the labour, till in the end some of them\nearn 8s. or 9s. a week in addition to their board and lodging.\n\nI asked the Officer in charge what he had to say as to the charges of\nsweating and underselling which have been brought against the\nSalvation Army in connexion with this and its other productive\nInstitutions.\n\nHe replied that they neither sweated nor undersold. The men whom they\npicked up had no value in the labour market, and could get nothing to\ndo because no one would employ them, many of them being the victims of\ndrink or entirely unskilled. Such people they overlooked, housed, fed,\nand instructed, whether they did or did not earn their food and\nlodging, and after the first week paid them upon a rising scale. The\nresults were eminently satisfactory, as even allowing for the\ndrunkards they found that but few cases, not more than 10 per cent,\nwere hopeless. Did they not rescue these men most of them would sink\nutterly; indeed, according to their own testimony many of such\nwastrels were snatched from suicide. As a matter of fact, also, they\nemployed more men per ton of paper than any other dealers in the\ntrade.\n\nWith reference to the commercial results, after allowing for interest\non the capital invested, the place did not pay its way. He said that a\nsum of \u00a315,000 was urgently required for the erection of a new\nbuilding on this site, some of those that exist being of a\nrough-and-ready character. They were trying to raise subscriptions\ntowards this object, but found the response very slow.\n\nHe added that they collected their raw material from warehouses, most\nof it being given to them, but some they bought, as it was necessary\nto keep the works supplied, which could not be done with the gratis\nstuff alone. Also they found that the paper they purchased was the\nmost profitable.\n\nThese works presented a busy spectacle of useful industry. There was\nthe sorting-room, where great masses of waste-paper of every kind was\nbeing picked over by about 100 men and separated into its various\nclasses. The resulting heaps are thrown through hoppers into bins.\nFrom the bins this sorted stuff passes into hydraulic presses which\ncrush it into bales that, after being wired, are ready for sale.\n\nIt occurred to me that the dealing with this mass of refuse paper must\nbe an unhealthy occupation; but I was informed that this is not the\ncase, and certainly the appearance of the workers bore out the\nstatement.\n\nAfter completing a tour of the works I visited one of the bedrooms\ncontaining seventy beds, where everything seemed very tidy and fresh.\nClean sheets are provided every week, as are baths for the inmates. In\nthe kitchen were great cooking boilers, ovens, etc., all of which are\nworked by steam produced by the burning of the refuse of the sorted\npaper. Then I saw the household salvage store, which contained\nenormous quantities of old clothes and boots; also a great collection\nof furniture, including a Turkish bath cabinet, all of which articles\nhad been given to the Army by charitable folk. These are either given\naway or sold to the employes of the factory or to the poor of the\nneighbourhood at a very cheap rate.\n\nThe man in charge of this store was an extremely good-looking and\ngentlemanly young follow of University education, who had been a\nwriter of fiction, and once acted as secretary to a gentleman who\ntravelled on the Continent and in the East. Losing his employment, he\ntook to a life of dissipation, became ill, and sank to the very\nbottom. He informed me that his ideals and outlook on life were now\ntotally changed. I have every hope that he will do well in the future,\nas his abilities are evidently considerable, and Nature has favoured\nhim in many ways.\n\nI interviewed a number of the men employed in these works, most of\nwhom had come down through drink, some of them from very good\nsituations. One had been the superintendent of a sewing-machine\ncompany. He took to liquor, left his wife, and found himself upon the\nstreets. Now he was a traveller for the Salvation Army, in the\ninterests of the Waste-Paper Department, had regained his position in\nlife, and was living with his wife and family in a comfortable house.\n\nAnother was a grocer by profession, all of whose savings were stolen,\nafter which he took to drink. He had been three months in the works,\nand at the time of my visit was earning 6s. a week with food and\nlodging.\n\nAnother had been a Barnardo boy, who came from Canada as a ship's\nsteward, and could find nothing to do in England. Another was a\ngentleman's servant, who was dismissed because the family left London.\n\nAnother was an auctioneer, who failed from want of capital, took to\ndrink, and emigrated to Canada. Two years later he fell ill with\npleurisy, and was sent home because the authorities were afraid that\nhis ailment might turn to consumption. He stated that at this time he\nhad given up drink, but could obtain no employment, so came upon the\nstreets. As he was starving and without hope, not having slept in a\nbed for ten nights, he was about to commit suicide when the Salvation\nArmy picked him up. He had seen his wife for the first time in four\nyears on the previous Whit Monday, and they proposed to live together\nagain so soon as he secured permanent employment.\n\nAnother had been a soldier in the Seaforth Highlanders, and served in\nthe Egyptian Campaign of 1881, and also in the American Army.\nSubsequently he was employed as a porter at a lodging-house at a \nsalary of 25s. a week, but left because of trouble about a woman. He\ncame upon the streets, and, being unable to find employment, was\ncontemplating suicide, when he fell under the influence of the Army at\nthe Blackfriars Shelter.\n\nAll these men, and others whom I spoke to at random but have no space\nto write of, assured me that they were quite satisfied with their\ntreatment at the works, and repudiated--some of them with\nindignation--the suggestion that I put to them tentatively that they\nsuffered from a system of sweating. For the most part, indeed, their\ngratitude for the help they were receiving in the hour of need was\nvery evident and touching.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT PETER STREET SHELTER\n\n\n\nWESTMINSTER\n\nThis fine building is the most up-to-date Men's Shelter that the\nSalvation Army possesses in London. It was once the billiard works of\nMessrs. Burroughes and Watts, and is situated in Westminster, quite\nnear to the Houses of Parliament. I visited it about eight o'clock in\nthe evening, and at its entrance was confronted with the word 'Full,'\ninscribed in chalk upon its portals, at which poor tramps, deprived of\ntheir hope of a night's lodging, were staring disconsolately. It\nreminded me of a playhouse upon a first-night of importance, but,\nalas! the actors here play in a tragedy more dreadful in its\ncumulative effect than any that was ever put upon the stage.\n\nThis Shelter is wonderfully equipped and organized. It contains\nsitting or resting-rooms, smoking-rooms, huge dormitories capable of\naccommodating about 600 sleepers; bathrooms, lavatories, extensive\nhot-water and warming apparatus, great kitchens, and butteries, and so\nforth. In the sitting and smoking-rooms, numbers of derelict men were\nseated. Some did nothing except stare before them vacantly. Some\nevidently were suffering from the effects of drink or fatigue; some\nwere reading newspapers which they had picked up in the course of\ntheir day's tramp. One, I remember, was engaged in sorting out and\ncrumpling up a number of cigar and cigarette ends which he had\ncollected from the pavements, carefully grading the results in\ndifferent heaps, according to the class of the tobacco (how strong it\nmust be!) either for his own consumption or for sale to other\nunfortunates. In another place, men were eating the 1d. or 1/2d.\nsuppers that they had purchased.\n\nEarly as it was, however, the great dormitories were crowded with\nhundreds of the lodgers, either in bed or in process of getting there.\nI noticed that they all undressed themselves, wrapping up their rags\nin bundles, and, for the most part slept quite naked. Many of them\nstruck me as very fine fellows physically, and the reflection crossed\nmy mind, seeing them thus _in puris naturalibus_, that there was\nlittle indeed to distinguish them from a crowd of males of the upper\nclass engaged, let us say, in bathing. It is the clothes that make the\ndifference to the eye.\n\nIn this Shelter I was told, by the way, that there exists a code of\nrough honour among these people, who very rarely attempt to steal\nanything from each other. Having so little property, they sternly\nrespect its rights. I should add that the charge made for\naccommodation and food is 3d. per night for sleeping, and 1d. or 1/2d.\nper portion of food.\n\nThe sight of this Institution crowded with human derelicts struck me\nas most sad, more so indeed than many others that I have seen, though,\nperhaps, this may have been because I was myself tired out with a long\nday of inspection.\n\nThe Staff-Captain in charge here told me his history, which is so\ntypical and interesting that I will repeat it briefly. Many years ago\n(he is now an elderly man) he was a steward on board a P. and O.\nliner, and doing well. Then a terrible misfortune overwhelmed him.\nSuddenly his wife and child died, and, as a result of the shock, he\ntook to drink. He attempted to cut his throat (the scar remains to\nhim), and was put upon his trial for the offence. Subsequently he\ndrifted on to the streets, where he spent eight years. During all this\ntime his object was to be rid of life, the methods he adopted being to\nmake himself drunk with methylated spirits, or any other villainous\nand fiery liquor, and when that failed, to sleep at night in wet grass\nor ditches. Once he was picked up suffering from inflammation of the\nlungs and carried to an infirmary, where he lay senseless for three\ndays. The end of it was that a Salvation Army Officer found him in\nOxford Street, and took him to a Shelter in Burne Street, where he was\nbathed and put to bed.\n\nThat was many years ago, and now he is to a great extent responsible\nfor the management of this Westminster Refuge. Commissioner Sturgess,\none of the head Officers of the Army, told me that their great\ndifficulty was to prevent him from overdoing himself at this\ncharitable task. I think the Commissioner said that sometimes he would\nwork eighteen or twenty hours out of the twenty-four.\n\nOne day this Staff-Captain played a grim little trick upon me. I was\nseated at luncheon in a Salvation Army building, when the door opened,\nand there entered as dreadful a human object as I have ever seen. The\nman was clad in tatters, his bleeding feet were bound up with filthy\nrags; he wore a dingy newspaper for a shirt. His face was cut and\nplastered over roughly; he was a disgusting sight. He told me, in\nhusky accents, that drink had brought him down, and that he wanted\nhelp. I made a few appropriate remarks, presented him with a small\ncoin, and sent him to the Officers downstairs.\n\nA quarter of an hour later the Staff-Captain appeared in his uniform\nand explained that he and the 'object' were the same person. Again it\nwas the clothes that made the difference. Those which he had worn when\nhe appeared at the luncheon-table were the same in which he had been\npicked up on the streets of London. Also he thanked me for my good\nadvice which he said he hoped to follow, and for the sixpence that he\nannounced his intention of wearing on his watch-chain. For my part I\nfelt that the laugh was against me. Perhaps if I had thought the\nSalvation Army capable of perpetrating a joke, I should not have been\nso easily deceived.\n\nThis Staff-Captain gave me much information as to the class of\nwanderers who frequent these Shelters, He estimated that about 50 per\ncent of them sink to that level through the effects of drink. That is\nto say, if by the waving of some magic wand intoxicants and harmful\ndrugs should cease to be obtainable in this country, the bulk of\nextreme misery which needs such succour, and it may be added of crime\nat large, would be lessened by one-half. This is a terrible statement,\nand one that seems to excuse a great deal of what is called 'teetotal\nfanaticism.' The rest, in his view, owe their fall to misfortune of\nvarious kinds, which often in its turn leads to flight to the delusive\nand destroying solace of drink. Thus about 25 per cent of the total\nhave been afflicted with sickness or acute domestic troubles. Or\nperhaps they are 'knocked out' by shock, such as is brought on by the\nloss of a dearly-loved wife or child, and have never been able to\nrecover from that crushing blow. The remainder are the victims of\nadvancing age and of the cruel commercial competition of our day. Thus\nhe said that the large business firms destroy and devour the small\nshopkeepers, as a hawk devours sparrows; and these little people or\ntheir employes, if they are past middle age, can find no other work.\nEspecially is this the case since the Employers' Liability Acts came\ninto operation, for now few will take on hands who are not young and\nvery strong, as older folk must naturally be more liable to sickness\nand accident.\n\nAgain, he told me that it has become the custom in large businesses of\nwhich the dividends are falling, to put in a man called an\n'Organizer,' who is often an American.\n\nThis Organizer goes through the whole staff and mercilessly dismisses\nthe elderly or the least efficient, dividing up their work among those\nwho remain. So these discarded men fall to rise no more and drift to\nthe poorhouse or the Shelters or the jails, and finally into the river\nor a pauper's grave. First, however, many spend what may be called a\nperiod of probation on the streets, where they sleep at night under\narches or on stairways, or on the inhospitable flagstones and benches\nof the Embankment, even in winter.\n\nThe Staff-Captain informed me that on one night during the previous\nNovember he counted no less than 120 men, women, and children sleeping\nin the wet on or in the neighbourhood of the Embankment. Think of\nit--in this one place! Think of it, you whose women and children, to\nsay nothing of yourselves, do not sleep on the Embankment in the wet\nin November. It may be answered that they might have gone to the\ncasual ward, where there are generally vacancies. I suppose that they\nmight, but so perverse are many of them that they do not. Indeed,\noften they declare bluntly that they would rather go to prison than to\nthe casual ward, as in prison they are more kindly treated.\n\nThe reader may have noted as he drove along the Embankment or other\nLondon thoroughfares at night in winter, long queues of people waiting\ntheir turn to get something. What they are waiting for is a cup of\nsoup and, perhaps, an opportunity of sheltering till the dawn, which\nsoup and shelter are supplied by the Salvation Army, and sometimes by\nother charitable Organizations. I asked whether this provision of\ngratis food did in fact pauperize the population, as has been alleged.\nThe Staff-Captain answered that men do not as a rule stop out in the\nmiddle of the winter till past midnight to get a pint of soup and a\npiece of bread. Of course, there might be exceptions; but for the most\npart those who take this charity, do so because if is sorely needed.\n\nThe cost of these midnight meals is reckoned by the Salvation Army at\nabout \u00a38 per 1,000, including the labour involved in cooking and\ndistribution. This money is paid from the Army's Central Fund, which\ncollects subscriptions for that special purpose.\n\n'Of course, our midnight soup has its critics,' said one of the\nOfficers who has charge of its distribution; 'but all I know is that\nit saves many from jumping into the river.'\n\nDuring the past winter, that is from November 3, 1909, to March 24,\n1910, 163,101 persons received free accommodation and food at the\nhands of the Salvation Army in connexion with its Embankment Soup\nDistribution Charity.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FREE BREAKFAST SERVICE\n\n\n\nBLACKFRIARS SHELTER\n\nOn a Sunday in June I attended the Free Breakfast service at the\nBlackfriars Shelter. The lease of this building was acquired by the\nSalvation Army from a Temperance Company. Behind it lay contractors'\nstables, which were also bought; after which the premises were rebuilt\nand altered to suit the purposes to which they are now put, the\nstabling being for the most part converted into sleeping-rooms.\n\nThe Officer who accompanied me, Lieut.-Colonel Jolliffe, explained\nthat this Blackfriars Shelter is, as it were, the dredger for and the\nfeeder of all the Salvation Army's Social Institutions for men in\nLondon. Indeed, it may be likened to a dragnet set to catch male\nunfortunates in this part of the Metropolis. Here, as in the other\nArmy Shelters, are great numbers of bunks that are hired out at 3d. a\nnight, and the usual food-kitchens and appliances.\n\nI visited one or two of these, well-ventilated places that in cold\nweather are warmed by means of hot-water pipes to a heat of about 70\ndeg., as the clothing on the bunks is light.\n\nI observed that although the rooms had only been vacated for a few\nhours, they were perfectly inoffensive, and even sweet; a result that\nis obtained by a very strict attention to cleanliness and ample\nventilation. The floors of these places are constantly scrubbed, and\nthe bunks undergo a process of disinfection about once a week. As a\nconsequence, in all the Army Shelters the vermin which sometimes\ntrouble common lodging-houses are almost unknown.\n\nI may add that the closest supervision is exercised in these places\nwhen they are occupied. Night watchmen are always on duty, and an\nOfficer sleeps in a little apartment attached to each dormitory. The\nresult is that there are practically no troubles of any kind.\nSometimes, however, a poor wanderer is found dead in the morning, in\nwhich case the body is quietly conveyed away to await inquest.\n\nI asked what happened when men who could not produce the necessary\ncoppers to pay for their lodging, applied for admission. The answer\nwas that the matter was left to the discretion of the Officer in\ncharge. In fact, in cases of absolute and piteous want, men are\nadmitted free, although, naturally enough, the Army does not advertise\nthat this happens. If it did, its hospitality would be considerably\novertaxed.\n\nLeaving the dormitories, I entered the great hall, in which were\ngathered nearly 600 men seated upon benches, every one of which was\nfilled. The faces and general aspect of these men were eloquent of\nwant and sorrow. Some of them appeared to be intent upon the religious\nservice that was going on, attendance at this service being the\ncondition on which the free breakfast is given to all who need food\nand have passed the previous night in the street. Others were gazing\nabout them vacantly, and others, sufferers from the effects of drink,\ndebauchery, or fatigue, seemed to be half comatose or asleep.\n\nThis congregation, the strangest that I have ever seen, comprised men\nof all classes. Some might once have belonged to the learned\nprofessions, while others had fallen so low that they looked scarcely\nhuman. Every grade of rag-clad misery was represented here, and every\nstage of life from the lad of sixteen up to the aged man whose\nallotted span was almost at an end. Rank upon rank of them, there they\nsat in their infinite variety, linked only by the common bond of utter\nwretchedness, the most melancholy sight, I think, that ever my eyes\nbeheld. All of them, however, were fairly clean, for this matter had\nbeen seen to by the Officers who attend upon them. The Salvation Army\ndoes not only wash the feet of its guests, but the whole body. Also,\nit dries and purifies their tattered garments.\n\nWhen I entered the hall, an Officer on the platform was engaged in\noffering up an extempore prayer.\n\n'We pray that the Holy Spirit may be poured out upon these men. We\npray, O God, that Thou wilt help them to take fresh courage, to find\nfresh hope, and that they may rise once again to fight the battle of\nlife. We pray that Thou mayst bring to Thy feet, this morning, such as\nshall be saved eternally.'\n\nThen another Officer, styled the Chaplain, addressed the audience. He\ntold them that there was a way out of their troubles, and that\nhundreds who had sat in that hall as they did, now blessed the day\nwhich brought them there. He said: 'You came here this morning, you\nscarcely knew how or why. You did not know the hand of God was leading\nyou, and that He will bless you if you will listen to His Voice. You\nthink you cannot escape from this wretched life; you think of the past\nwith all its failures. But do not trouble about the years that are\ngone. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other\nthings shall be added unto you. Then there will be no more wandering\nabout without a friend, for I say to you that God lives, and this\nmorning you will hear from others, who once were in a similar\ncondition to yourself, what He has done for them.'\n\nNext a man with a fine tenor voice, who, it seems, is nicknamed 'the\nYorkshire Canary,' sang the hymn beginning, 'God moves in a mysterious\nway.' After this in plain, forcible language he told his own story. He\nsaid that he was well brought up by a good father and mother, and lost\neverything through his own sin. His voice was in a sense his ruin,\nsince he used to sing in public-houses and saloons and there learnt to\ndrink. At length he found himself upon the streets in London, and\ntramped thence to Yorkshire to throw himself upon the mercy of his\nparents. When he was quite close to his home, however, his courage\nfailed him, and he tramped back to London, where he was picked up by\nthe Salvation Army.\n\nThis man, a most respectable-looking person, is now a clerk in a\nwell-known business house. In his own words, 'I knelt down and gave my\nheart to God, and am to-day in a good situation.'\n\nNext a Salvation Army soldier spoke. Four years before he had attended\nthe Sunday morning meeting in this hall and 'found the friendship of\nGod. He has helped me to regain the manhood I had lost and to do my\nduty. For two years now I have helped to support an invalid sister\ninstead of being a burden to every one I knew, as once I was.'\n\nAfter the singing of the hymn, 'Rock of Ages,' another man addressed\nthe meeting. He had been a drunkard, a homeless wanderer, who slept\nnight after night on the Embankment till fortune brought him to this\nservice and to the Penitent-Form. Since that time, two and a half\nyears before, no drink had passed his lips, and once again, as he\ndeclared, he had become 'a self-respecting, respectable citizen.'\n\nThen a dwarf whom I had seen at work in the Spa Road Elevator, and who\nonce was taken about the country to be exhibited as a side show at\nfairs and there fell a victim to drink, gave his testimony.\n\nAnother verse, 'Could my tears for ever flow,' and after it, in rapid\nsuccession, spoke a man who had been a schoolmaster and fallen through\ndrink and gambling; a man who, or whose brother, I am not sure which,\nhad been a Wesleyan preacher, and who is now employed in a Life\nAssurance Company; a man who had been a prisoner; a man who had been a\nconfirmed drunkard, and others.\n\nAlways it was the same earnest, simple tale of drink and degradation,\npassed now for ever; of the Penitent-Form; of the building up of a new\nself, and of position regained.\n\nMore singing and an eloquent prayer which seemed to move the audience\nvery much, some of them to tears; an address from a woman Salvation\nArmy Officer, who pleaded with the people in the name of their\nmothers, and a brief but excellent sermon from Commissioner Sturgess,\nbased upon the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son as recorded\nin the 22nd chapter of St. Matthew, and of the guests who were\ncollected from the highways and byways to attend the feast whence the\nrich and worldly had excused themselves.\n\nThen the great and final invocation to Heaven to move the hearts of\nthese men, and the invitation to them to present themselves at the\nPenitent-Form. Lastly a mighty, thundering hymn, 'Jesu, Lover of my\nsoul,' and the ending of the long drama.\n\nIt was a wonderful thing to see the spiritually-faced man on the\nplatform pleading with his sordid audience, and to watch them stirring\nbeneath his words. To see, also, a uniformed woman flitting to and fro\namong that audience, whispering, exhorting, invoking--a temptress to\nSalvation, then to note the response and its manner that were stranger\nstill. Some poor wretch would seem to awaken, only to relapse into a\nstate of sullen, almost defiant torpor. A little while and the leaven\nbegins to work in him. He flushes, mutters something, half rises from\nhis seat, sits down again, rises once more and with a peculiar,\nunwilling gait staggers to the Penitent-Form, and in an abandonment of\ngrief and repentance throws himself upon his knees and there begins to\nsob. A watching Officer comes to him, kneels at his side and, I\nsuppose, confesses him. The tremendous hymn bursts out like a paean of\ntriumph--\n\n     Just as I am, without one plea,\n\nit begins, the rest I forget or did not catch.\n\nNow the ice is broken. Another comes and another, and another, till\nthere is no more room at the Penitent-Bench. They swarm on to the\nplatform which is cleared for them, and there kneel down, and I\nobserved the naked feet of some of them showing through the worn-out\nboots.\n\nSo it goes on. At length the great audience rises and begins to\ndepart, filing one by one through a certain doorway. As they pass,\nOfficers who have appeared from somewhere wait for them with\noutstretched arms. The most of them brush past shaking their heads and\nmuttering. Here and there one pauses, is lost--or rather won. The\nSalvation Army has him in its net and he joins the crowd upon the\nplatform. Still the hymn swells and falls till all have departed save\nthose who remain for good--about 10 per cent of that sad company.\n\n[Illustration: SEEKING THE HOMELESS AT MIDNIGHT.]\n\nIt is done and the catcher feels that he has witnessed the very\nuttermost of tragedies, human and spiritual.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMere common 'revivalism'! the critic will say, and it may be so. Still\nsuch revivalism, if that is the term for it, must be judged by its\nfruits. I am informed that of those who kneel here experience shows\nthat but a small percentage relapse. The most of them become what in\nthe Salvation Army cant--if one chooses so to name it--is known as\n'saved.'\n\nThis means that from drunkards and wastrels stained with every sort of\nhuman fault, or even crime, they are turned into God-fearing and\nrespectable men who henceforward, instead of being a pest to society\nand a terror to all those who have the misfortune to be connected with\nthem, become props of society and a comfort and a support to their\nrelatives and friends.\n\nThus is the mesh of mercy spread, and such is its harvest.\n\nThe age of miracles is past, we are told; but I confess that while\nwatching this strange sight I wondered more than once that if this\nwere so, what that age of miracles had been like. Of one thing I was\nsure, that it must have been to such as these that He who is\nacknowledged even by sceptics to have been the very Master of mankind,\nwould have chosen to preach, had this been the age of His appearance,\nHe who came to call sinners to repentance. Probably, too, it was to\nsuch as these that He did preach, for folk of this character are\ncommon to the generations. Doubtless, Judea had its knaves and\ndrunkards, as we know it had its victims of sickness and misfortune.\nThe devils that were cast out in Jerusalem did not die; they reappear\nin London and elsewhere to-day, and, it would seem, can still be cast\nout.\n\nI confess another thing, also; namely, that I found all this drama\ncuriously exciting. Most of us who have passed middle age and led a\nfull and varied life will be familiar with the great human emotions.\nYet I discovered here a new emotion, one quite foreign to a somewhat\nextended experience, one that I cannot even attempt to define. The\ncontagion of revivalism! again it will be said. This may be so, or it\nmay not. But at least, so far as this branch of the Salvation Army\nwork is concerned, those engaged in it may fairly claim that the tree\nshould be judged by its fruits. Without doubt, in the main these\nfruits are good and wholesome.\n\nI have only to add to my description of this remarkable service, that\nthe number netted, namely, about 10 per cent of those present, was, I\nam told, just normal, neither more nor less than the average. Some of\nthese doubtless will relapse; but if only _one_ of them remains really\nreformed, surely the Salvation Army has vindicated its arguments and\nall is proved to be well worth while. But to that one very many\nciphers must be added as the clear and proved result of the forty\nyears or so of its activity. Whatever may be doubtful, this is true\nbeyond all controversy, for it numbers its converts by the thousand.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe congregation which I saw on this particular occasion seemed to me\nto consist for the most part of elderly men; in fact, some of them\nwere very old, and the average age of those who attended the\nPenitent-Form I estimated at about thirty-five years. This, however,\nvaries. I am informed that at times they are mostly young persons. It\nmust be remembered--and the statement throws a lurid light upon the\nconditions prevailing in London, as in other of our great cities--that\nthe population which week by week attends these Sunday morning\nservices is of an ever-shifting character. Doubtless, there are some\n_habitu\u00e9s_ and others who reappear from time to time. But the most of\nthe audience is new. Every Saturday night the highways and the hedges,\nor rather the streets and the railway arches yield a new crop of\nhomeless and quite destitute wanderers. These are gathered into the\nBlackfriars Shelter, and go their bitter road again after the rest,\nthe breakfast, and the service. But as we have seen here a substantial\nproportion, about 10 per cent, remain behind. These are all\ninterviewed separately and fed, and on the following morning as many\nof them as vacancies can be found for in the Paper Works Elevator or\nelsewhere are sent thither.\n\nI saw plenty of these men, and with them others who had been rescued\npreviously; so many, indeed, that it is impossible to set out their\nseparate cases. Looking through my notes made at the time, I find\namong them a schoolmaster, an Australian who fought in South Africa, a\npublican who had lost \u00a32,000 in speculation and been twelve months on\nthe streets, a sailor and two soldiers who between them had seen much\nservice abroad, and a University man who had tried to commit suicide\nfrom London Bridge.\n\nAlso there was a person who was recently described in the newspapers\nas the 'dirtiest man in London.' He was found sitting on the steps of\na large building in Queen Victoria Street, partly paralysed from\nexposure. So filthy and verminous was he, that it was necessary to\nscrape his body, which mere washing would not touch. When he was\npicked up, a crowd of several hundred people followed him down the\nstreet, attracted by his dreadful appearance. His pockets were full of\nfilth, amongst which were found 5s. in coppers. He had then been a\nmonth in the Shelter, where he peels or peeled potatoes, etc., and\nlooked quite bright and clean.\n\nMost of these people had been brought down by the accursed drink,\nwhich is the bane of our nation, and some few by sheer misfortune.\n\nNeither at the service, nor afterwards, did I see a single Jew, for\nthe fallen of that race seem to be looked after by their fellow\nreligionists. Moreover, the Jews do not drink to excess. Foreigners,\nalso, are comparatively scarce at Blackfriars and in the other\nShelters.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EX-CRIMINALS\n\n\nOn the afternoon of the Sunday on which I visited the Blackfriars\nShelter, I attended another service, conducted by Commissioner\nSturgess, at Quaker Street.\n\nHere the room was filled by about 150 men, all of whom had been\nrescued, and were then working in the various Shelters or elsewhere. I\nmay say that I have seldom seen a congregation of more respectable\nappearance, and never one that joined with greater earnestness in a\nreligious service.\n\nI will take this opportunity to observe that the Salvation Army\nenforces no religious test upon those to whom it extends its\nassistance. If a man is a member of the Church of England or a Roman\nCatholic, for instance, and wishes to remain so, all that it tries to\ndo is to make him a good member of his Church. Its only _sine qua non_\nis that the individual should show himself ready to work zealously at\nany task which it may be able to find for him.\n\nThe rest of that afternoon I spent in interviewing ex-criminals who\nwere then in the charge of the Salvation Army. To give details of\ntheir cases in this book is impossible. Here I will only say,\ntherefore, that some of these had been most desperate characters, who\nhad served as much as thirty or forty years in various prisons, or\neven been condemned to death for murder. Indeed, the nineteen men whom\nI interviewed had, between them, done 371 years of what is known as\n'time.'\n\nI cannot honestly report that I liked the looks of all these gentry,\nor believed everything that they told me. For instance, when such\npeople swear that they have been wrongly convicted, an old lawyer and\nmagistrate like myself, who knows what pains are taken by every\nEnglish Court to safeguard the innocent, is apt to be sceptical.\nStill, it should be added that many of these jailbirds are now to all\nappearance quite reformed, while some of them are doing well in more\nor less responsible positions, under the supervision of the Army.\n\nThe Salvation Army Officers have authority from the Home Office to\nvisit the various prisons, where the inmates are informed that those\nwho are desirous of seeing them must give in their names. Then on a\ncertain day, the Officer, who, under Commissioner Sturgess, is\nresponsible for the Prison work of the Army in England, appears at the\nWandsworth or the Pentonville Prison, or wherever it may be. There he\nfinds, perhaps, as many as 150 men waiting to see him, the total\nnumber of ex-prisoners who pass through the hands of the Army in\nEngland averaging at present about 1,000 per annum. He interviews\nthese men in their cells privately, the prison officials remaining\noutside, and stops as long with each of them as he deems to be\nneedful, for the Governors of the prisons give him every opportunity\nof attaining the object of his work. This Officer informed me that his\nconversation with the prisoners is not restricted in any way. It may\nbe about their future or of spiritual matters, or it may have to do\nwith their family affairs.\n\nThe details of each case are carefully recorded in a book which I saw,\nand when a convict is discharged and given over to the care of the\nArmy, a photograph and an official statement of his record is\nfurnished with him. This statement the Army finds a great help, as in\ndealing with such people it is necessary to know their past in order\nto be able to guard against their weak points.\n\nThe Government authorities have now begun to seek the aid of the Army\nin certain special cases. If they feel that it is unnecessary to\nretain a man any longer, they will sometimes hand him over, should the\nSalvation Army Officers be willing to take him in and be responsible\nfor him. General Booth and his subordinates think that if this system\nwere enlarged and followed up, it would result in the mitigation or\nthe abbreviation of many sentences, without exposing the public to\ndanger.\n\nIn discussing this matter with them, I ventured to point out that it\nwould be a bad thing if the Army became in any way identified with the\nprison Authorities, and began, at any rate in the mind of the criminal\nclasses, to wear the initials G.R. instead of those of the Army upon\ntheir collars. This was not disputed by Commissioner Sturgess, with\nwhom I debated the question.\n\nWhat the Army desires, however, is that the Government should\nsubsidize this work in order to enable it to support the ex-convicts\nuntil it can find opportunity to place them in positions where they\ncan earn their own bread. The trouble with such folk is that,\nnaturally enough, few desire to employ them, and until they are\nemployed, which in the case of aged persons or of those with a very\nbad record may be never, they must be fed, clothed, and housed.\n\nAfter going into the whole subject at considerable length and in much\ndetail, the conclusion which I came to was that this work of the\nvisitation of prisoners by Salvation Army Officers, and the care of\nthem when released either on or before the completion of their\nsentences, is one that might be usefully extended, should the Home\nOffice Authorities see fit so to do. There is no doubt, although it\ncannot guarantee success in every case, that the Salvation Army is\npeculiarly successful in its dealings with hardened criminals.\n\nWhy this is so is not easy to explain. I think, however, that there\nare two main reasons for its success. The first is that the Army takes\ngreat care never to break a promise which it may make through any of\nits Officers. Thus, if a man in jail is told that his relatives will\nbe hunted up and communicated with, or that an application will be\nmade to the Authorities to have him committed to the care of the Army,\nor that work will be found for him on his release, and the like, that\nundertaking, whatever it may be, is noted in the book which I have\nmentioned, and although years may pass before it can be fulfilled, is\nin due course carried out to the letter. Now, convicts are shy birds,\nwho put little faith in promises. But when they find that these are\nalways kept they gain confidence in the makers of them, and often\nlearn to trust them entirely.\n\nThe second and more potent reason is to be found in the power of that\nloving sympathy which the Army extends even to the vilest, to those\nfrom whom the least puritanical of us would shrink. It shows such men\nthat they are not utterly lost, as these believe; that it, at any\nrate, does not mark them with a figurative broad arrow and consign\nthem to a separate division of society; that it is able to give them\nback the self-respect without which mankind is lower than the beast,\nand to place them, regenerated, upon a path that, if it be steep and\nthorny, still leads to those heights of peace and honour which they\nnever thought to tread again.\n\nThis is done not by physical care and comfort, though, of course,\nthese help towards the desired end, but by its own spiritual means, or\nso it would appear. Its Officers pray with the man; they awake his\nconscience, which is never dead in any of us; they pour the blessed\nlight of hope into the dark places of his soul; they cause him to hate\nthe past, and to desire to lead a new life. Once this desire is\nestablished, the rest is comparatively simple, for where the heart\nleads the feet will follow; but without it little or nothing can be\ndone. Such is the explanation I have to offer. At any rate, I believe\nit remains a fact that among the worst criminals the Salvation Army\noften succeeds where others have failed.\n\nAnother point that should not be overlooked in this connexion is that\nit must be a great comfort to the sinner and an encouragement of the\nmost practical sort to find, as he sometimes will, that the hands\nwhich are dragging him and his kind from the mire, had once been as\nfilthy as his own. When the worker can say to him, 'Look at me; in\nbygone days I was as bad as or worse than you'; when he can point to\nmany others whose vices were formerly notorious, but who now fill\npositions of trust in the Army or outside of it, and are honoured of\nall men; then the lost one, emerging, perhaps, for the fifth or sixth\ntime from the darkness of his prison, sees by the light of these\nconcrete examples that the future has promise for us all. If _they_\nhave succeeded why should _he_ fail? That is the argument which comes\nhome to him.\n\nThere remains a matter to be considered. Let us suppose that as time\ngoes by the Authorities become more and more convinced of the value of\nthe Army's prison work, and pass over to its care criminals in\never-increasing numbers, as they are doing in some other countries and\nin the great Colonies, what will be the effect upon the Army itself?\nWill not this mass of comparatively useless material clog the wheels\nof the great machine by overlading it with a vast number of\nex-prisoners, some of whom, owing to their age or other circumstances,\nare quite incapable of earning their livelihood, and therefore must be\ncarried till their deaths? When I put the query to those in command,\nthe answer given was that they did not think so, as they believed that\nthe Army would be able to turn the great majority of these men into\nrespectable, wage-earning members of society.\n\nThus of those who have been sent to it lately from the prisons, it\nhas, I understand, been forced to return only two, because these men\nwould not behave themselves, and proved to be a source of danger and\ncontamination to others. As regards the residuum who are incapacitated\nby age or weakness of mind or body, General Booth and his Officers are\nof opinion that the Government should contribute to their support in\nsuch places as the Army may be able to find for them to dwell in under\nits care.\n\nI hope that these forecasts, which after all are made by men of great\nexperience who should know, may not prove to be over-sanguine. Still\nit must be remembered that in England alone there are, I am told, some\n30,000 confirmed criminals in the jails, not reckoning the 5,000 who\nare classed as convicts. If even 20 per cent of these were passed over\nto the care of the Army, with or without State grants in aid of their\nsupport, this must in the nature of things prove a heavy burden upon\nits resources. When all is said and done it is harder to find\nemployment for a jailbird, even if reformed, than for any other class\nof man, because so damaged a human article has but little commercial\nvalue in the Labour market.\n\nIf, however, the Salvation Army is prepared to face this gigantic\ntask, it may be hoped that it will be given an opportunity of showing\nwhat it can do on a large scale, as it has already shown upon one more\nrestricted. Prison reform is in the air. The present system is\nadmitted more or less to have broken down. It has been shown to be\nincompetent to attain the real end for which it is established; that\nis, not punishment, as many still believe, for this hereditary idea is\nhard to eradicate, but prevention and, still more, reformation.\n\nThe 'Vengeance of the Law' is a phrase not easy to forget; but among\nhumane and highly-civilized peoples the word Vengeance should be\nreplaced by another, the best that I can think of is--Regeneration.\nThe Law should not seek to avenge--that may be left to the savage\ncodes, civil and religious, of the dark ages. Except in the case of\nthe death sentence, which is not everywhere in favour, it should seek\nto regenerate.\n\nIf, then, among other agencies, the Salvation Army is able to prove\nbeyond cavil that it can assist our criminal system to attain this\nnoble end, ought not opportunity to be given it in full measure? Is it\ntoo much to hope that when the new Prison Act, of which the substance\nhas recently been outlined by the Home Secretary, comes to be\ndiscussed, this object may be kept in view and the offer of the\nSalvation Army to co-operate in the great endeavour may not be lightly\nthrust aside? If its help is found so valuable in the solution of this\nparticular problem in other lands, why should it be rejected here, or,\nrather, why should it not be more largely utilized, as I know from\ntheir own lips, General Booth and his Officers hope and desire?[2]\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEN'S WORKSHOP\n\n\n\nHANBURY STREET, WHITECHAPEL\n\nThis Salvation Army carpentering and joinery shop has been in\nexistence for about fifteen years, but it does not even now pay its\nway. It was started by the Army in order to assist fallen mechanics by\ngiving them temporary work until they could find other situations.\n\nThe manager informed me that at the beginning they found work for\nabout thirty men. When I visited the place some fifty hands were\nemployed--bricklayers, painters, joiners, etc., none of whom need stop\nan hour longer than they choose. From 100 to 150 men pass through this\nWorkshop in a year, but many of them being elderly and therefore\nunable to obtain work elsewhere, stop for a long while, as the Army\ncannot well get rid of them. All of these folk arrive in a state of\nabsolute destitution, having even sold their tools, the last\npossessions with which a competent workman parts.\n\nThe Parliamentary Committee of the Labour Party and the Trade Unions\nhave recently stirred up a great agitation, which has been widely\nreported in the Press, against the Hanbury Street Workshop, because\nthe Army does not pay the Union rate of wages. As a result the Army\nnow declines all outside contracts, and confines its operations to the\nwork of erecting, repairing, or furnishing its own buildings.\n\nHere it may be stated that these complaints seem to be unreasonable.\nThe men employed have almost without exception been taken off the\nstreets to save them from starvation or the poorhouse. Often enough\nthey are by no means competent at their work, while some of them have\nfor the time being been rendered practically useless through the\neffects of drink or other debaucheries. Yet it is argued with violence\nthat to such people, whom no business firm would employ upon any\nterms, the Army ought to pay the full Trade Union rate of wages. When\nevery allowance is made for the great and urgent problems connected\nwith the cruel practice of 'sweating,' surely this attitude throws a\nstrange light upon some of the methods of the Trade Unions?\n\nThe inference seems to be that they would prefer that these derelicts\nshould come on the rates or starve rather than that the Army should\nhouse and feed them, giving them, in addition, such wage as their\nlabour may be worth. Further comment seems to be needless, especially\nwhen I repeat that, as I am assured, this Hanbury Street Institution\nnever has earned, and does not now earn, the cost of its upkeep.\n\nIt is situated in the heart of a very poor district, and is rather a\nramshackle place to look at, but still quite suitable to its purposes.\nI have observed that one of the characteristics of the Salvation Army\nis that it never spends unnecessary money upon buildings. If it can\nbuy a good house or other suitable structure cheap it does so. If it\ncannot, it makes use of what it can get at a price within its means,\nprovided that the place will satisfy the requirements of the sanitary\nand other Authorities.\n\nAll the machines at Hanbury Street are driven by electric power that\nis supplied by the Stepney Council at a cost of 1_d_. per unit for\npower and 3_d_. per unit for lighting.\n\nAn elderly man whom I saw there attending to this machinery, was\ndismissed by one of the great railway companies when they were\nreducing their hands. He had been in the employ of the Salvation Army\nfor seven years and received the use of a house rent free and a wage\nof 30_s_. a week, which probably he would find it quite impossible to\nearn anywhere else.\n\nThe hours of employment are from 6.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. if the man is\nengaged on outside work, or to 6 p.m. if he labours in the workshop,\nand the men are paid at various rates according to the value of their\nwork, and whether they are boarded and lodged, or live outside. Thus\none to whom I spoke, who was the son of a former mayor of an important\ntown, was allowed 3_s._ a week plus food and lodging, while another\nreceived 9_s._ a week, 5_s._ of which was sent to his wife, from whom\nhe was separated. Another man, after living on the Army for about two\nyears, made charges against it to the Carpenters' and Joiners' Union.\nHe returned and apologized, but had practically to be kept under\nrestraint on account of his drinking habits.\n\nAnother man spent twenty years in jail and then walked the streets. He\nis now a very respectable person, earns 27_s._ 6_d._ a week, and lives\noutside with his wife and family. Another was once convicted of\ncruelty to his children, whom he placed under the boards of the\nflooring while he went out to drink. These children are now restored\nto him, and he lives with them. Another among those with whom I\nhappened to speak, was robbed by a relative of \u00a34,000 which his father\nleft to him. He was taken on by the Army in a state of destitution,\nbut I forget what he earned. Another, the youngest man in the Works,\ncame to them without any trade at all and in a destitute condition,\nbut when I saw him was in charge of a morticing machine. He had\nmarried, lived out, and had been in the employ of the Army for five\nyears. His wage was 27_s._ 6_d._ a week. Two others drew as much as \u00a32\n5_s._ 11_d._ each, living out; but, on the other hand, some received\nas little as 3_s._ a week with board and lodging.\n\nAmongst this latter class was a young Mormon from Salt Lake City, who\nearned 4_s._ 6_d._ a week and his board and lodging. He had been in\nthe Elevator about three months, having got drunk in London and missed\nhis ship. Although he attended the Salvation Army meetings, he\nremained a Mormon.\n\nIn these Works all sorts of articles are manufactured to be used by\nother branches of the Salvation Army. Thus I saw poultry-houses being\nmade for the Boxted Small Holdings; these cost from \u00a34 5_s._ to \u00a34\n10_s._ net, and were excellent structures designed to hold about two\ndozen fowls. Further on large numbers of seats of different patterns\nwere in process of manufacture, some of them for children, and other\nlonger ones, with reversible backs, to be used in the numerous Army\nhalls. Next I visited a room in which mattresses and mattress covers\nare made for the various Shelters, also the waterproof bunk bedding,\nwhich costs 7_s._ 9_d._ per cover. Further on, in a separate\ncompartment, was a flock-tearing machine, at which the Mormon I have\nmentioned was employed. This is a very dusty job whereat a man does\nnot work for more than one day in ten.\n\nThen there were the painting and polishing-room, the joinery room, and\nthe room where doors, window frames, and articles of furniture are\nconstructed; also special garden benches, cleverly planned so that the\nseat can be protected from rain. These were designed by a young lady\nwhom I chance to know in private life, and who, as I now discovered\nfor the first time, is also a member of the Salvation Army.\n\nSuch is the Hanbury Street Workshop, where the Army makes the best use\nit can of rather indifferent human materials, and, as I have said,\nloses money at the business.\n\n\n\n\nSTURGE HOUSE, BOW ROAD\n\n\n\nThis branch of the Men's Social Work of the Salvation Army is a home\nfor poor and destitute boys. The house, which once belonged to the\nlate Dr. Barnardo, has been recently hired on a short lease. One of\nthe features of the Army work is the reclamation of lads, of whom\nabout 2,400 have passed through its hands in London during the course\nof the last eight years.\n\nSturge House has been fitted up for this special purpose, and\naccommodates about fifty boys. The Officer in charge informed me that\nsome boys apply to them for assistance when they are out of work,\nwhile others come from bad homes, and yet others through the Shelters,\nwhich pass on suitable lads. Each case is strictly investigated when\nit arrives, with the result that about one-third of their number are\nrestored to their parents, from whom often enough they have run away,\nsometimes upon the most flimsy pretexts.\n\nNot unfrequently these boys are bad characters, who tell false tales\nof their past. Thus, recently, two who arrived at the Headquarters at\nWhitechapel, alleged that they were farm-labourers from Norfolk. As\nthey did not in the least look the part, inquiries were made, when it\nwas found that they had never been nearer to Norfolk than Hampstead,\nwhere both of them had been concerned in the stealing of \u00a310 from a\nbusiness firm. The matter was patched up with the intervention of the\nArmy, and the boys were restored to their parents.\n\nOccasionally, too, lads are brought here by kind folk, who find them\nstarving. They are taken in, kept for a while, taught and fed, and\nwhen their characters are re-established--for many of them have none\nleft--put out into the world. Some of them, indeed, work daily at\nvarious employments in London, and pay 5s. a week for their board and\nlodging at the Home. A good proportion of these lads also are sent to\nthe collieries in Wales, where, after a few years, they earn good\nwages.\n\nIn these collieries a man and a boy generally work together. A while\nago such a man applied to the Army for a boy, and the applicant,\nproving respectable, the boy was sent, and turned out extremely well.\nIn due course he became a collier himself, and, in his turn, sent for\na boy. So the thing spread, till up to the present time the Army has\nsupplied fifty or sixty lads to colliers in South Wales, all of whom\nseem to be satisfactory and prosperous.\n\nAs the Manager explained, it is not difficult to place out a lad as\nsoon as his character can be more or less guaranteed. The difficulty\ncomes with a man who is middle-aged or old. He added that this Home\ndoes not in any sense compete with those of Dr. Barnardo; in fact, in\ncertain ways they work hand in hand. The Barnardo Homes will not\nreceive lads who are over sixteen, whereas the Army takes them up to\neighteen. So it comes about that Barnardo's sometimes send on cases\nwhich are over their age limit to Sturge House.\n\nI saw the boys at their dinner, and although many of them had a bad\nrecord, certainly they looked very respectable, and likely to make\ngood and useful men. The experience of the Army is that most of them\nare quite capable of reformation, and that, when once their hearts\nhave been changed, they seldom fall back into the ways of dishonesty.\n\nThis Home, like all those managed by the Salvation Army, is spotlessly\nclean, and the dormitories are very pleasant rooms. Also, there is a\ngarden, and in it I saw a number of pots of flowers, which had just\nbeen sent as a present by a boy whom the Army helped three years ago,\nand who is now, I understand, a gardener.\n\nSturge House struck me as a most useful Institution; and as there is\nabout it none of the depressing air of the adult Shelters, my visit\nhere was a pleasant change. The reclamation or the helping of a lad is\na very different business from that of restoring the adult or the old\nman to a station in life which he seems to have lost for ever.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CENTRAL LABOUR BUREAU\n\n\n\nThis Bureau is established in the Social Headquarters at Whitechapel,\na large building acquired as long ago as 1878. Here is to be seen the\nroom in which General Booth used to hold some of his first prayer\nmeetings, and a little chamber where he took counsel with those\nOfficers who were the fathers of the Army. Also there is a place where\nhe could sit unseen and listen to the preaching of his subordinates,\nso that he might judge of their ability.\n\nThe large hall is now part of yet another Shelter, which contains 232\nbeds and bunks. I inspected this place, but as it differs in no\nimportant detail from others, I will not describe it.\n\nThe Officer who is in charge of the Labour Bureau informed me that\nhundreds of men apply there for work every week, of whom a great many\nare sent into the various Elevators and Shelters. The Army finds it\nextremely difficult to procure outside employment for these men, for\nthe simple reason that there is very little available. Moreover, now\nthat the Government Labour Bureaux are open, this trouble is not\nlessened. Of these Bureaux, the Manager said that they are most\nuseful, but fail to find employment for many who apply to them.\nIndeed, numbers of men come on from them to the Salvation Army.\n\nThe hard fact is that there are more idle hands than there is work for\nthem to do, even where honest and capable folk are concerned. Thus, in\nthe majority of instances, the Army is obliged to rely upon its own\nInstitutions and the Hadleigh Land Colony to provide some sort of job\nfor out-of-works. Of course, of such jobs there are not enough to go\nround, so many poor folk must be sent empty away or supported by\ncharity.\n\nI suggested that it might be worth while to establish a school of\nchauffeurs, and the Officers present said that they would consider the\nmatter. Unfortunately, however, such an experiment must be costly at\nthe present price of motor-vehicles.\n\nI annex the Labour Bureau Statistics for May, 1910:--\n\n     LONDON\n\n          Applicants for temporary employment  479\n          Sent to temporary employment         183\n          Applicants for Elevators             864\n          Sent to Elevators                    260\n          Sent to Shelters                      32\n\n     PROVINCES\n\n          Applicants for temporary employment  461\n          Sent to temporary employment         160\n          Applicants for Elevators             417\n          Sent to Elevators                    202\n          Sent to Shelters                      20\n          Sent to permanent situations          35\n\n\n\nTHE INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT\n\nThis is a curious and interesting branch of the work of the Salvation\nArmy. About two thousand times a year it receives letters or personal\napplications, asking it to find some missing relative or friend of the\nwriter or applicant. In reply, a form is posted or given, which must\nbe filled up with the necessary particulars. Then, if it be a London\ncase, the Officer in charge sends out a skilled man to work up clues.\nIf, on the other hand, it be a country case, the Officer in charge of\nthe Corps nearest to where it has occurred, is instructed to initiate\nthe inquiry. Also, advertisements are inserted in the Army papers,\nknown as 'The War Cry' and 'The Social Gazette,' both in Great Britain\nand other countries, if the lost person is supposed to be on the\nContinent or in some distant part of the world.\n\nThe result is that a large percentage of the individuals sought for\nare discovered, alive or dead, for in such work the Salvation Army has\nadvantages denied to any other body, scarcely excepting the Police.\nIts representatives are everywhere, and to whatever land they may\nbelong or whatever tongue they may speak, all of them obey an order\nsent out from Headquarters wholeheartedly and uninfluenced by the\nquestion of regard. The usual fee charged for this work is 10_s_.\n6_d_.; but when this cannot be paid, a large number of cases are\nundertaken free. The Army goes to as much trouble in these unpaid\ncases as in any others, only then it is not able to flood the country\nwith printed bills. Of course, where well-to-do people are concerned,\nit expects that its out-of-pocket costs will be met.\n\nThe cases with which it has to deal are of all kinds. Often those who\nhave disappeared are found to have done so purposely, perhaps leaving\nbehind them manufactured evidence, such as coats or letters on a\nriver-bank, suggesting that they have committed suicide. Generally,\nthese people are involved in some fraud or other trouble. Again,\nhusbands desert their wives, or wives their husbands, and vanish, in\nwhich instances they are probably living with somebody else under\nanother name. Or children are kidnapped, or girls are lured away, or\nindividuals emigrate to far lands and neglect to write. Or, perhaps,\nthey simply sink out of all knowledge, and vanish effectually enough\ninto a paupers grave.\n\nBut the oddest cases of all are those of a complete loss of memory, a\nthing that is by no means so infrequent as is generally supposed. The\nexperience of the Army is that the majority of these cases happen\namong those who lead a studious life. The victim goes out in his usual\nhealth and suddenly forgets everything. His mind becomes a total\nblank. Yet certain instincts remain, such as that of earning a living.\n\nThus, to take a single recent example, the son of a large bookseller\nin a country town left the house one day, saying that he would not be\naway for long, and disappeared. At the invitation of his father, the\nArmy took up the case, and ultimately found that the man had been\nworking in its Spa Road Elevator under another name. Afterwards he\nwent away, became destitute, and sold matches in the streets.\nUltimately he was found in a Church Army Home. He recovered his\nmemory, and subsequently lost it again to the extent that he could\nrecall nothing which happened to him during the period of its first\nlapse. All that time vanished into total darkness.\n\nThis business of the hunting out of the missing through the agency of\nthe Salvation Army is one which increases every day. It is not unusual\nfor the Army to discover individuals who have been missing for thirty\nyears and upwards.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EMIGRATION DEPARTMENT\n\n\n\nSome years ago I was present one night in the Board-room at Euston\nStation and addressed a shipload of emigrants who were departing to\nCanada under the auspices of the Salvation Army. I forget their exact\nnumber, but I think it was not less than 500. What I do not forget,\nhowever, is the sorrow that I felt at seeing so many men in the prime\nof life leaving the shores of their country for ever, especially as\nmost of them were not married. This meant, amongst other things, that\nan equal number of women who remained behind were deprived of the\npossibility of obtaining a husband in a country in which the females\nalready outnumber the males by more than a million. I said as much in\nthe little speech I made on this occasion, and I think that some one\nanswered me with the pertinent remark that if there was no work at\nhome, it must be sought abroad.\n\n[Illustration: INMATES OF A MEN'S INDUSTRIAL HOME.]\n\nThere lies the whole problem in a nutshell--men must live. As for the\naged and the incompetent and the sick and the unattached women, these\nare left behind for the community to support, while young and active\nmen of energy move off to endow new lands with their capacities and\nstrength. The results of this movement, carried out upon a great\nscale, can be seen in the remoter parts of Ireland, which, as the\nvisitor will observe, appear to be largely populated by very young\nchildren and by persons getting on in years. Whether or no this is a\nsatisfactory state of affairs is not for me to say, although the\nmatter, too large to discuss here, is one upon which I may have my own\nopinion.\n\nColonel Lamb, the head of the Salvation Army Emigration Department,\ninformed me that during the past seven years the Army has emigrated\nabout 50,000 souls, of whom 10,000 were assisted out of its funds, the\nrest paying their own way or being paid for from one source or\nanother. From 8,000 to 10,000 people have been sent during the present\nyear, 1910, most of them to Canada, which is the Mecca of the\nSalvation Army Emigration policy. So carefully have all these people\nbeen selected, that not 1 per cent have ever been returned to this\ncountry by the Canadian Authorities as undesirable. The truth is that\nthose Authorities have the greatest confidence in the discretion of\nthe Army, and in its ability to handle this matter to the advantage of\nall concerned.\n\nThat this is true I know from personal experience, since when, some\nyears ago, I was a Commissioner from the British Government and had\nauthority to formulate a scheme of Colonial land-settlement, the Prime\nMinister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, told me so himself in the\nplainest language. Indeed, he did more, formally offering a huge block\nof territory to be selected anywhere I might choose in the Dominion,\nwith the aid of its Officers, for the purposes of settlement by poor\nfolk and their children under the auspices of the Salvation Army.\nAlso, he added the promise of as much more land as might be required\nin the future for the same purpose.[3]\n\nMost unhappily, as I hold, that offer was not accepted by the British\nGovernment. If this had been done, by now hundreds of English families\nwould have been transferred from conditions of want at home in the\nEnglish towns, into those of peace and plenty upon the land abroad.\nMoreover, the recent rise in the value of Canadian land has been so\ngreat that the scheme would not have cost the British taxpayer a\nhalfpenny, or so I most firmly believe.\n\nUnfortunately, however, my scheme was too novel in its character to\nappeal to the official mind, especially as its working would have\ninvolved a loan repayable by instalments, the administration of which\nmust have been entrusted to the Salvation Army or to other charitable\nOrganizations. So this priceless opportunity was lost, probably for\never, as the new and stricter emigration regulations adopted by\nCanada, as I understand, would make it extremely difficult to emigrate\nthe class I hoped to help, namely, indigent people of good character,\nresident in English cities, with growing families of children.\n\nYoung men, especially if they have been bred on the land, and young\nmarriageable women are eagerly desired in the Colonies, including\nAustralia; but at families, as we have read in recent correspondence\nin the newspapers, they look askance.\n\n'Why do they not want families in Australia? I asked Colonel Lamb.\n\n'Because the trouble of housing comes in. It is the same thing in\nCanada, it is the same thing all through the Colonies. They do not\nwant too much trouble,' he answered.\n\nThese words define the position very accurately. 'Give us your best,'\nsay the Colonies. 'Give us your adult, healthy men and women whom you\nhave paid to rear and educate, but don't bother us with families of\nchildren whom we have to house. Above all send us no damaged articles.\nYou are welcome to keep those at home.'\n\nTo my mind this attitude, natural as it may be, creates a serious\nproblem so far as Great Britain and Ireland are concerned, for the\nquestion will arise, Can we afford to go on parting with the good and\nretaining the less desirable?\n\nOn this subject I had a long argument with Colonel Lamb, and his\nanswer to the question was in the affirmative, although I must admit\nthat his reasons did not at all convince me. He seemed to believe that\nwe could send out 250,000 people, chosen people, per annum for the\nnext ten years without harm to ourselves. Well, it may be so, and, as\nhe added, 'we are in their (that is, the Colonies') hands, and have to\ndo what they choose to allow.'\n\nAlso his opinion was that 'the best thing possible for this country is\nwholesale emigration,' of course of those whom the Colonies will\naccept. He said, 'People here are dissatisfied with their present\ncondition and want a change. If we had money to assist them, there is\npractically no limit to the number who want to go. There are tens of\nthousands who would conform to the Canadian regulations. One of the\nthings we advise the man who has been forced out of the country is\nthat rather than come into the town he should go to the Colonies.'\n\nOn the matter of the complaints which have been made in Canada of the\nemigrant from London, Colonel Lamb said, 'The Londoner, it is alleged,\nis not wanted. The Canadian is full of self-assertiveness, and the\nCockney has some of that too; he does not hesitate to express his\nviews, and you have conflicting spirits at once. The Cockney will\narrive at the conclusion in about twenty-four hours that he could run\nCanada better than it is now being run. The Scotchman will take a week\nto arrive at the same conclusion, and holds his tongue about it. The\nCockney says what he thinks on the first day of arrival, and the\nresult is--fireworks. He and the Canadians do not agree to begin with;\nbut when they get over the first passage of arms they settle down\namicably. The Cockney is finally appreciated, and, being industrious\nand amenable to law and order, if he has got a bit of humour he gets\non all right, but not at first.'\n\nColonel Lamb informed me that in Australia the Labour Party is afraid\nof the Army because it believes 'we will send in people to bring down\nwages.' Therefore, the Labour Party has sidetracked General Booth's\nproposals. Now, however, it alleges that it is not opposed to\nemigration, if not on too large a scale. 'They don't mind a few girls;\nbut they say the condition that must precede emigration is the\nbreaking up of the land.'\n\nColonel Lamb appeared to desire that an Emigration Board should be\nappointed in England, with power and funds to deal with the\ndistribution of the population of the Empire and to systematize\nemigration. To this Imperial Board, individuals or Societies, such as\nthe Salvation Army, should, he thought, be able to submit their\nschemes, which schemes would receive assistance according to their\nmerits under such limitations as the Board might see fit to impose. To\nsuch a Board he would even give power to carry out land-settlement\nschemes in the British Isles.\n\nThis is a great proposal, but one wonders whence the money is to come.\nAlso how long will it be before the Labour Parties in the various\nColonies, including Canada, gain so much power that they will refuse\nto accept emigrants at all, except young women, or agriculturalists\nwho bring capital with them?\n\nBut all these problems are for the future. Meanwhile it is evident\nthat the Salvation Army manages its emigration work with extraordinary\nsuccess and business skill. Those whom it sends from these shores for\ntheir own benefit are invariably accepted, at any rate in Canada, and\nprovided with work on their arrival in the chosen Colony. That the\nselection is sound and careful is shown, also, by the fact that the\nArmy recovers from those emigrants to whom it gives assistance a\nconsiderable percentage of the sums advanced to enable them to start\nlife in a new land.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK IN LONDON\n\n\n\nAt the commencement of my investigation of this branch of the\nSalvation Army activities in England, I discussed its general aspects\nwith Mrs. Bramwell Booth, who has it in her charge. She pointed out to\nme that this Women's Social Work is a much larger business than it was\nbelieved to be even by those who had some acquaintance with the\nSalvation Army, and that it deals with many matters of great\nimportance in their bearing on the complex problems of our\ncivilization.\n\nAmong them, to take some that she mentioned, which recur to my mind,\nare the questions of illegitimacy and prostitution, of maternity homes\nfor poor girls who have fallen into trouble, of women thieves, of what\nis known as the White Slave traffic, of female children who have been\nexposed to awful treatment, of women who are drunkards or drug-takers,\nof aged and destitute women, of intractable or vicious-minded girls,\nand, lastly, of the training of young persons to enable them to deal\nscientifically with all these evils, or under the name of Slum\nSisters, to wait upon the poor in their homes, and nurse them through\nthe trials of maternity.\n\nHow practical and efficient this training is, no one can know who has\nnot, like myself, visited and inquired into the various Institutions\nand Refuges of the Army in different cities of the land. It is a\nwonderful thing, as has happened to me again and again, to see some\nquiet, middle-aged lady, often so shy that it is difficult to extract\nfrom her the information required, ruling with the most perfect\nsuccess a number of young women, who, a few weeks or months before,\nwere the vilest of the vile, and what is stranger still, reforming as\nshe rules. These ladies exercise no severity; the punishment, which,\nperhaps necessarily, is a leading feature in some of our Government\nInstitutions, is unknown to their system. I am told that no one is\never struck, no one is imprisoned, no one is restricted in diet for\nany offence. As an Officer said to me:--\n\n'If we cannot manage a girl by love, we recognize that the case is\nbeyond us, and ask her to go away. This, however, very seldom\nhappens.'\n\nAs a matter of fact, that case which is beyond the regenerating powers\nof the Army must be very bad indeed, at any rate where young people\nare concerned. In the vast majority of instances a cure is effected,\nand apparently a permanent cure. In every one of these Homes there is\na room reserved for the accommodation of those who have passed through\nit and gone out into the world again, should they care to return there\nin their holidays or other intervals of leisure. That room is always\nin great demand, and I can imagine no more eloquent testimony to the\nmanner of the treatment of its occupants while they dwelt in these\nHomes as 'cases.'\n\nIn truth, a study of the female Officers of the Salvation Army is\ncalculated to convert the observer not only to a belief in the right\nof women to the suffrage, but also to that of their fitness to rule\namong, or even over men. Only I never heard that any of these ladies\never sought such privileges; moreover, few of the sex would care to\nwin them at the price of the training, self-denial, and stern\nexperience which it is their lot to undergo.\n\nMrs. Bramwell Booth pointed out to me that although the actual work of\nthe Army on these women's questions is 'more than just a little,' it\nhad, as it were, only touched their fringe. Yet even this 'fringe' has\nmany threads, seeing that over 44,000 of these women's cases have been\nhelped in one way or another since this branch of the home work began\nabout twenty years ago.\n\nShe added that scarcely a month goes by in which the Army does not\nbreak out in a new direction, open a new Institution, or attempt to\nattack a new problem; and this, be it remembered, not only in these\nislands but over the face of half the earth. At present its sphere of\ninfluence is limited by the lack of funds. Give it enough money, she\nsaid, and there is little that it would not dare to try. Everywhere\nthe harvest is plentiful, and if the workers remain comparatively few,\nit is because material means are lacking for their support. Given the\nmoney and the workers would be found. Nor will they ask much for\nmaintenance or salary, enough to provide the necessary buildings, and\nto keep body and soul together, that is all.[4]\n\nWhat are these women doing? In London they run more than a score of\nHomes and Agencies, including a Maternity Hospital, which I will\ndescribe later, where hundreds of poor deceived girls are taken in\nduring their trouble. I believe it is almost the only one of the sort,\nat any rate on the same scale, in that great city.\n\nAlso they manage various Homes for drunken women. It has always been\nsupposed to be a practical impossibility to effect a cure in such\ncases, but the lady Officers of the Salvation Army succeed in turning\nabout 50 per cent of their patients into perfectly sober persons. At\nleast they remain sober for three years from the date of their\ndischarge, after which they are often followed no further.\n\nAnother of their objects is to find out the fathers of illegitimate\nchildren, and persuade them to sign a form of agreement which has been\ncarefully drawn by Counsel, binding themselves to contribute towards\nthe cost of the maintenance of the child. Or failing this, should the\nevidence be sufficient, they try to obtain affiliation orders against\nsuch fathers in a Magistrates' Court. Here I may state that the amount\nof affiliation money collected in England by the Army in 1909 was\n\u00a31,217, of which \u00a3208 was for new cases. Further, \u00a3671 was collected\nand paid over for maintenance to deserted wives. Little or none of\nthis money would have been forthcoming but for its exertions.\n\nMrs. Bramwell Booth informed me that there exists a class of young\nmen, most of them in the employ of tradesfolk, who habitually amuse\nthemselves by getting servant girls into trouble, often under a\npromise of marriage. Then, if the usual results follow, it is common\nfor these men to move away to another town, taking their references\nwith them and, sometimes under a new name, to repeat the process\nthere. She was of opinion that the age of consent ought to be raised\nto eighteen at least, a course for which there is much to be said.\nAlso she thought, and this is more controversial, that when any young\ngirl has been seduced under promise of marriage, the seducer should be\nliable to punishment under the criminal law. Of course, one of the\ndifficulties here would be to prove the promise of marriage beyond all\nreasonable doubt.\n\nAlso to bring such matters within the cognizance of the criminal law\nwould be a new and, indeed, a dangerous departure not altogether easy\nto justify, especially as old magistrates like myself, who have\nconsiderable experience of such cases must know, it is not always the\nman who is to blame. Personally, I incline to the view that if the age\nof consent were raised, and the contribution exacted from the putative\nfather of an illegitimate child made proportionate to his means, and\nnot limited, as it is now, to a maximum of 5s. a week, the criminal\nlaw might well be left out of the question. It must be remembered\nfurther, as Mrs. Booth pointed out herself, that there is another\nremedy, namely, that of a better home-training of girls who should be\nprepared by their mothers or friends to face the dangers of the world,\na duty which these too often neglect. The result is that many young\nwomen who feel lonely and desire to get married, overstep the limits\nof prudence on receipt of a promise that thus they may attain their\nend, with the result that generally they find themselves ruined and\ndeserted.\n\nMrs. Bramwell Booth said that the Army is doing its utmost to mitigate\nthe horrors of what is known as the White Slave traffic, both here and\nin many other countries. With this object it has a Bill before\nParliament at the present time, of which one of the aims is to prevent\nchildren from being sent out of this country to France under\ncircumstances that practically ensure their moral destruction. It\nseems that the state of things in Paris in this connexion is, in her\nown words, 'most abominable, too horrible for words.' Children are\nprocured from certain theatre dancing schools, and their birth\ncertificates sometimes falsified to make it appear that they are over\nfourteen, although often they may be as young as twelve or even ten.\nThen they are conveyed to vile places in Paris where their doom is\nsure.\n\nLet us hope that in due course this Bill will become law, for if girls\nare protected up to sixteen in this country, surely they should not be\nsent out of it in doubtful circumstances under that age.\n\nNeedless to say abominations of this nature are not unknown in London.\nThus a while ago the Army received a telegram from a German girl\nasking, 'Can you help?' Two of its people went at once to the address\ngiven, and, contriving to get into the house, discovered there a young\nwoman who, imagining that she had been engaged in Germany as a servant\nin an English family, found herself in a London brothel. Fortunately,\nbeing a girl of some character and resource, she held her own, and,\nhaving heard of the Salvation Army in her own land, persuaded a\nmilkman to take the telegram that brought about her delivery from this\nden of wickedness.\n\nUnfortunately it proved impossible to discover the woman who had hired\nher abroad, as the victim of the plot really knew nothing about that\nprocuress. This girl was restored to her home in Germany none the\nworse for her terrific adventure, and a few weeks later refunded her\ntravelling expenses. But how many must there be who have never heard\nof the Salvation Army, and can find no milkman to help them out of\ntheir vile prisons, for such places are no less.\n\nAnother branch of the Army women's work is that of the rescue of\nprostitutes from the streets, which is known as the 'Midnight Work.'\nFor the purpose of this endeavour it hires a flat in Great Titchfield\nStreet, of which, and of the mission that centres round it, I will\nspeak later in this book.\n\nThe Women's Social Work of the Salvation Army began in London, in the\nyear 1884, at the cottage of a woman-soldier of the Army who lived in\nWhitechapel. This lady, who was interested in girls without character,\ntook some of them into her home. Eventually she left the place which\ncame into the hands of the Army, whereon Mrs. Bramwell Booth was sent\nto take charge of the twelve inmates whom it would accommodate. The\nseed that was thus sown in 1884 has now multiplied itself into\nfifty-nine Homes and Agencies for women in Great Britain alone, to say\nnothing of others abroad and in the Colonies. But this is only a\nbeginning.\n\n'We look forward,' said Mrs. Bramwell Booth to me, 'to a great\nincrease of this side of our work at home. No year has passed without\nthe opening of a new Women's Home of some kind, and we hope that this\nwill continue. Thus I want to build a very big Maternity Hospital if I\ncan get the money. We have about \u00a320,000 in hand for this purpose; but\nthe lesser of the two schemes before us will cost \u00a335,000.'\n\nWill not some rich and charitable person provide the \u00a315,000 that are\nlacking?\n\n\n\n\nTHE HEADQUARTERS OF THE WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK\n\n\n\nLOWER CLAPTON ROAD\n\nThe Women's Social Headquarters of the Salvation Army in England is\nsituated at Clapton. It is a property of nearly three acres, on which\nstand four houses that will be rebuilt whenever funds are forthcoming\nfor the erection of the Maternity Hospital and Training Institution\nfor nurses and midwives which I have already mentioned. At present\nabout forty Officers are employed here, most of whom are women, under\nthe command of Commissioner Cox, one of the foremost of the 600\nwomen-Officers of the Salvation Army in the United Kingdom who give\ntheir services to the women's social work.\n\nIt is almost needless for me to add that Commissioner Cox is a lady of\nvery great ability, who is entirely devoted to the cause to which she\nhas dedicated her life. One of the reasons of the great success of the\nSalvation Army is that only able people exactly suited to the\nparticular work in view are put in authority over that work. Here\nthere are no sinecures, no bought advowsons, and no freehold livings.\nMoreover, the policy of the Army, as a general rule, is not to allow\nany one to remain too long in any one office, lest he or she should\nbecome fossilized or subject to local influences.\n\nI remember when I was in America hearing of a case in which a very\nleading Officer of the Army, who chanced to be a near relative of\nGeneral Booth, declined to obey an order to change his command for\nanother in a totally different part of the world. The order was\nrepeated once or twice, and as often disobeyed. Resignation followed\nand an attempt to found a rival Organization. I only mention this\nmatter to show that discipline is enforced in this Society without\nfear, favour, or prejudice, which is, perhaps, a principal reason of\nits efficiency.\n\n\n\n\nHILLSBOROUGH HOUSE INEBRIATES' HOME\n\n\nUnder the guidance of Commissioner Cox I inspected a number of the\nLondon Women's Institutions of the Army, first visiting the\nHillsborough House Inebriates' Home. This Home, a beautifully clean\nand well-kept place, has accommodation for thirty patients,\ntwenty-nine beds being occupied on the day of my visit. The lady in\ncharge informed me that these patients are expected to contribute 10s.\nper week towards the cost of their maintenance; but that, as a matter\nof fact, they seldom pay so much. Generally the sum recovered varies\nfrom 7s. to 3s. per week, while a good many give nothing at all.\n\nThe work the patients do in this Home is sold and produces something\ntowards the cost of upkeep. The actual expense of the maintenance of\nthe inmates averages about 12s. 6d. a week per head, which sum\nincludes an allowance for rent. Most of the cases stay in the Home for\ntwelve months, although some remain for a shorter period. When the\ncure is completed, if they are married, the patients return to their\nhusbands. The unmarried are sent out to positions as governesses,\nnurses, or servants, that is, if the authorities of the Home are able\nto give them satisfactory characters.\n\nAs the reader who knows anything of such matters will be aware, it is\ngenerally supposed to be rather more easy to pass a camel through the\neye of a needle than to reclaim a confirmed female drunkard. Yet, as I\nhave already said, the Salvation Army, on a three years' test in each\ncase, has shown that it deals successfully with about 50 per cent of\nthose women who come into its hands for treatment as inebriates or\ndrug-takers. How is this done? Largely, of course, by effecting\nthrough religious means a change of heart and nature, as the Army\noften seems to have the power to do, and by the exercise of gentle\npersonal influences.\n\nBut there remains another aid which is physical.\n\nWith the shrewdness that distinguishes them, the Officers of the Army\nhave discovered that the practice of vegetarianism is a wonderful\nenemy to the practice of alcoholism. The vegetarian, it seems,\nconceives a bodily distaste to spirituous liquors. If they can\npersuade a patient to become a vegetarian, then the chances of her\ncure are enormously increased. Therefore, in this and in the other\nfemale Inebriate Homes no meat is served. The breakfast, which is\neaten at 7.30, consists of tea, brown and white bread and butter,\nporridge and fresh milk, or stewed fruit. A sample dinner at one\no'clock includes macaroni cheese, greens, potatoes, fruit pudding or\nplain boiled puddings with stewed figs. On one day a week, however,\nbaked or boiled fish is served with pease pudding, potatoes, and\nboiled currant pudding, and on another, brown gravy is given with\nonions in batter. Tea, which is served at six o'clock, consists--to\ntake a couple of samples--of tea, white and brown bread and butter,\nand cheese sandwiches with salad; or of tea, white and brown bread and\nbutter, savoury rolls, and apples or oranges.\n\nIt will be observed that this diet is as simple as it well can be; but\nI think it right to add, after personal inspection, that the inmates\nappear to thrive on it extremely well. Certainly all whom I saw looked\nwell nourished and healthy.\n\nA book is kept in the Home in which the details of each case are\ncarefully entered, together with its record for two years after\ndischarge. Here are the particulars of three cases taken by me at\nhazard from this book which will serve to indicate the class of\npatient that is treated at this Home. Of course, I omit the names:--\n\n     _A.B._ Aged thirty-one. Her mother, who was a drunkard and\n     gave A.B. drink in her childhood, died some time ago. A.B.\n     drove her father, who was in good circumstances, having a\n     large business, to madness by her inebriety. Indeed, he\n     tried to commit suicide by hanging himself, but, oddly\n     enough, it was A.B. who cut him down, and he was sent to an\n     asylum. A.B. had fallen very low since her mother's death;\n     but I do not give these details. All the members of her\n     family drank, except, strange to say, the father, who at the\n     date of my visit was in the asylum. A.B. had been in the\n     Home some time, and was giving every satisfaction. It was\n     hoped that she will be quite cured.\n\n     _C.D._ Aged thirty. C.D.'s father, a farmer, was a moderate\n     drinker, her mother was a temperance woman. Her parents\n     discovered her craving for drink about ten years ago. She\n     was unable to keep any situation on account of this failing.\n     Four years ago C.D. was sent to an Inebriate Home for twelve\n     months, but no cure was effected. Afterwards she\n     disappeared, having been dismissed from her place, and was\n     found again for the mother by the Salvation Army. At the\n     time of my visit she had been six months in the Home, and\n     was doing well.\n\n     _E.F._ Aged forty-eight; was the widow of a professional\n     man, whom she married as his second wife, and by whom she\n     had two children, one of whom survives. She began to drink\n     before her husband's death, and this tendency was increased\n     by family troubles that arose over his will. She mismanaged\n     his business and lost everything, drank heavily and\n     despaired. She tried to keep a boarding house, but her\n     furniture was seized and she came absolutely to the end of\n     her resources, her own daughter being sent away to her\n     relatives. E.F. was nine months in the Hillsborough Home,\n     and had gone as cook and housekeeper to a situation, where\n     she also was giving every satisfaction.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MATERNITY NURSING HOME\n\n\n\nLORNE HOUSE, STOKE NEWINGTON\n\nHer Royal Highness Princes Louise, the Duchess of Argyll, defrayed the\ncost of the purchase of the leasehold of this charming Home. The\nlady-Officer in charge informed me that the object of the\nestablishment is to take in women who have or are about to have\nillegitimate children. It is not, however, a lying-in Home, the\nmothers being sent to the Ivy House Hospital for their confinements.\nAfter these are over they are kept for four or sometimes for six\nmonths at Lorne House. At the expiration of this period situations are\nfound for most of them, and the babies are put out to nurse in the\nhouses of carefully selected women with whom the mothers can keep in\ntouch. These women are visited from time to time by Salvation Army\nOfficers who make sure that the infants are well treated in every way.\n\nAll the cases in this Home are those of girls who have fallen into\ntrouble for the first time. They belong to a better class than do\nthose who are received in many of the Army Homes. The charge for their\nmaintenance is supposed to be \u00a31 a week, but some pay only 5s., and\nsome nothing at all. As a matter of fact, out of the twelve cases\nwhich the Home will hold, at the time of my visit half were making no\npayment. If the Army averages a contribution of 7s. a week from them,\nit thinks itself fortunate.\n\nI saw a number of the babies in cradles placed in an old greenhouse in\nthe garden to protect them from the rain that was falling at the time.\nWhen it is at all fine they are kept as much as possible in the open\nair, and the results seem to justify this treatment, for it would be\ndifficult to find healthier infants.\n\nFive or six of the inmates sleep together in a room; for those with\nchildren a cot is provided beside each bed. I saw several of these\nyoung women, who all seemed to be as happy and contented as was\npossible under their somewhat depressing circumstances.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MATERNITY RECEIVING HOME\n\n\n\nBRENT HOUSE, HACKNEY\n\nThis Home serves a somewhat similar purpose as that at Lorne House,\nbut the young women taken in here while awaiting their confinement are\nnot, as a rule, of so high a class.\n\nIn the garden at the back of the house about forty girls were seated\nin a kind of shelter which protected them from the rain, some of them\nworking and some talking together, while others remained apart\ndepressed and silent. Most of these young women were shortly expecting\nto become mothers. Certain of them, however, already had their\ninfants, as there were seventeen babies in the Home who had been\ncrowded out of the Central Maternity Hospital. Among these were some\nvery sad cases, several of them being girls of gentle birth, taken in\nhere because they could pay nothing. One, I remember, was a foreign\nyoung lady, whose sad history I will not relate. She was found running\nabout the streets of a seaport town in a half-crazed condition and\nbrought to this place by the Officers of the Salvation Army.\n\nIn this house there is a room where ex-patients who are in service can\nbring their infants upon their holidays. Two or three of these women\nwere here upon the occasion of my visit, and it was a pathetic sight\nto see them dandling the babies from whom they had been separated and\ngiving them their food.\n\nIt is the custom in this and other Salvation Army Maternity Homes to\nset apart a night in every month for what is called a Social Evening.\nOn these occasions fifty or more of the former inmates will arrive\nwith their children, whom they have brought from the various places\nwhere they are at nurse, and for a few hours enjoy their society,\nafter which they take them back to the nurses and return to their\nwork, whatever it may be. By means of this kindly arrangement these\npoor mothers are enabled from time to time to see something of their\noffspring, which, needless to say, is a boon they greatly prize.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MATERNITY HOSPITAL\n\n\n\nIVY HOUSE, HACKNEY\n\nThis Hospital is one for the accommodation of young mothers on the\noccasion of the birth of their illegitimate children. It is a humble\nbuilding, containing twenty-five beds, although I think a few more can\nbe arranged. That it serves its purpose well, until the large\nMaternity Hospital of which I have already spoken can be built, is\nshown by the fact that 286 babies (of whom only twenty-five were not\nillegitimate) were born here in 1900 without the loss of a single\nmother. Thirty babies died, however, which the lady-Officer in charge\nthought rather a high proportion, but one accounted for by the fact\nthat during this particular year a large number of the births were\npremature. In 1908, 270 children were born, of whom twelve died, six\nof these being premature.\n\nThe cases are drawn from London and other towns where the Salvation\nArmy is at work. Generally they, or their relatives and friends, or\nperhaps the father of the child, apply to the Army to help them in\ntheir trouble, thereby, no doubt, preventing many child-murders and\nsome suicides. The charge made by the Institution for these lying-in\ncases is in proportion to the ability of the patient to pay. Many\ncontribute nothing at all. From those who do pay, the average sum\nreceived is 10_s_. a week, in return for which they are furnished with\nmedical attendance, food, nursing, and all other things needful to\ntheir state.\n\nI went over the Hospital, and saw these unfortunate mothers lying in\nbed, each of them with her infant in a cot beside her. Although their\nimmediate trial was over, these poor girls looked very sad.\n\n'They know that their lives are spoiled,' said the lady in charge.\n\nMost of them were quite young, some being only fifteen, and the\nmajority under twenty. This, it was explained to me, is generally due\nto the ignorance of the facts of life in which girls are kept by their\nparents or others responsible for their training. Last year there was\na mother aged thirteen in this Hospital.\n\nOne girl, who seemed particularly sad, had twins lying beside her.\nHoping to cheer her up, I remarked that they were beautiful babies,\nwhereon she hid her face beneath the bedclothes.\n\n'Don't talk about them,' said the Officer, drawing me away, 'that\nchild nearly cried her eyes out when she was told that there were two.\nYou see, it is hard enough for these poor mothers to keep one, but\nwhen it comes to two--!'\n\nI asked whether the majority of these unfortunate young women really\ntried to support their children. The answer was that most of them try\nvery hard indeed, and will use all their money for this purpose, even\nstinting themselves of absolute necessaries. Few of them go wrong\nagain after their first slip, as they have learned their lesson.\nMoreover, during their stay in hospital and afterwards, the Salvation\nArmy does its best to impress on them certain moral teachings, and\nthus to make its work preventive as well as remedial.\n\nPlaces in service are found for a great number of these girls,\ngenerally where only one servant is kept, so that they may not be\ntaunted by the others if these should find out their secret. This as a\nrule, however, is confided to the mistress. The average wage they\nreceive is about \u00a318 a year. As it costs them \u00a313, or 5_s_. a week, to\nsupport an infant (not allowing for its clothes), the struggle is very\nhard unless the Army can discover the father, and make him contribute\ntowards the support of his child, either voluntarily or through a\nbastardy order.\n\nI was informed that many of these fathers are supposed to be\ngentlemen, but when it comes to this matter of payment, they show that\nthey have little title to that description. Of course, in the case of\nmen of humbler degree, money is even harder to recover. I may add,\nthat my own long experience as a magistrate goes to confirm this\nstatement. It is extraordinary to what meanness, subterfuge, and even\nperjury, a man will sometimes resort, in order to avoid paying so\nlittle as 1_s_. 6_d_. a week towards the keep of his own child. Often\nthe line of defence is a cruel attempt to blacken the character of the\nmother, even when the accuser well knows that there is not the\nslightest ground for the charge, and that he alone is responsible for\nthe woman's fall.[5] Also, if the case is proved, and the order made,\nmany such men will run away and hide themselves in another part of the\ncountry to escape the fulfilment of their just obligations.\n\nIn connexion with this Maternity Hospital, the Salvation Army has a\nTraining School for midwives and nurses, all of whom must pass the\nCentral Midwives Board examination before they are allowed to\npractise. Some of the students, after qualifying, continue to work for\nthe Army in its Hospital Department, and others in the Slum\nDepartment, while some go abroad in the service of other Societies.\nThe scale of fees for this four months' course in midwifery varies\naccording to circumstances. The Army asks the full charge of eighteen\nguineas from those students who belong to, or propose to serve other\nSocieties. Those who intend to go abroad to work with medical\nmissionaries, have to pay fifteen guineas, and those who are members\nof the Salvation Army, or who intend to serve the Army in this\nDepartment, pay nothing, unless, at the conclusion of their course,\nthey decide to leave the Army's service.\n\nAt the last examination, out of fourteen students sent up from this\nInstitution, thirteen passed the necessary test.\n\n\n\n\n'THE NEST'\n\n\n\nCLAPTON\n\nWhen I began to write this book, I determined to set down all things\nexactly as I saw or heard them. But, although somewhat hardened in\nsuch matters by long experience of a very ugly world, I find that\nthere are limits to what can be told of such a place as 'The Nest' in\npages which are meant for perusal by the general public. The house\nitself is charming, with a good garden adorned by beautiful trees. It\nhas every arrangement and comfort possible for the welfare of its\nchild inmates, including an open-air bedroom, cleverly contrived from\nan old greenhouse for the use of those among them whose lungs are\nweakly.\n\nBut these inmates, these sixty-two children whose ages varied from\nabout four to about sixteen! What can I say of their histories? Only\nin general language, that more than one half of them have been subject\nto outrages too terrible to repeat, often enough at the hands of their\nown fathers! If the reader wishes to learn more, he can apply\nconfidentially to Commissioner Cox, or to Mrs. Bramwell Booth.\n\n[Illustration: SOME OF THE CHILDREN AT 'THE NEST'.]\n\nHere, however, is a case that I can mention, as although it is\ndreadful enough, it belongs to a different class. Seeing a child of\nten, whose name was Betty, playing about quite happily with the\nothers, I spoke to her, and afterwards asked for the particulars of\nher story. They were brief. It appears that this poor little thing had\nactually seen her father murder her mother. I am glad to be able to\nadd that to all appearance she has recovered from the shock of this\nawful experience.\n\nIndeed, all these little girls, notwithstanding their hideous pasts,\nseemed, so far as I could judge, to be extremely happy at their\nchildish games in the garden. Except that some were of stunted growth,\nI noted nothing abnormal about any of them. I was told, however, by\nthe Officer in charge, that occasionally, when they grow older,\npropensities originally induced in them through no fault of their own\nwill assert themselves.\n\nTo lessen this danger, as in the case of the women inebriates, all\nthese children are brought up as vegetarians. Before me, as I write,\nis the bill of fare for the week, which I tore off a notice board in\nthe house. The breakfast on three days, to take examples, consists of\nporridge, with boiling milk and sugar, cocoa, brown and white bread\nand butter. On the other mornings either stewed figs, prunes, or\nmarmalade are added. A sample dinner consists of lentil savoury, baked\npotatoes, brown gravy and bread; boiled rice with milk and sugar. For\ntea, bananas, apples, oranges, nuts, jam, brown and white bread and\nbutter and cocoa are supplied, but tea itself as a beverage is only\ngiven on Sundays. A footnote to the bill of fare states that all\nchildren over twelve years of age who wish for it, can have bread and\nbutter before going to bed.\n\nCertainly the inmates of 'The Nest,' if any judgment may be formed\nfrom their personal appearance, afford a good argument to the\nadvocates of vegetarianism.\n\nIt costs \u00a313 a year to endow a bed in this Institution. Amongst\nothers, I saw one which was labelled 'The Band of Helpers' Bed. This\nis maintained by girls who have passed through the Institution, and\nare now earning their livelihood in the world, as I thought, a\ntouching and significant testimony. I should add that the children in\nthis Home are educated under the direction of a certificated\ngoverness.\n\nMy visit to this Refuge made a deep impression on my mind. No person\nof sense and experience, remembering the nameless outrages to which\nmany of these poor children have been exposed, could witness their\npresent health and happiness without realizing the blessed nature of\nthis work.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRAINING INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN SOCIAL WORKERS\n\n\n\nCLAPTON\n\nColonel Lambert, the lady-Officer in charge of this Institution,\ninformed me that it can accommodate sixty young women. At the time of\nmy visit forty-seven pupils were being prepared for service in the\nWomen's Department of what is called 'Salvation Army Warfare.' These\nCadets come from all sources and in various ways. Most of them have\nfirst been members of the Army and made application to be trained,\nfeeling themselves attracted to this particular branch of its work.\n\nThe basis of their instruction is religious and theological. It\nincludes the study of the Bible, of the doctrine and discipline of the\nSalvation Army and the rules and regulations governing the labours of\nits Social Officers. In addition, these Cadets attend practical\nclasses where they learn needlework, the scientific cutting out of\ngarments, knitting, laundry work, first medical aid, nursing, and so\nforth. The course at this Institution takes ten months to complete,\nafter which those Cadets who have passed the examinations are\nappointed to various centres of the Army's Social activities.\n\nWhen these young women have passed out and enter on active Social work\nthey are allowed their board and lodging and a small salary to pay for\ntheir clothing. This salary at the commencement of a worker's career\namounts to the magnificent sum of 4s. a week, if she 'lives in' (about\nthe pay of a country kitchen maid); out of which she is expected to\ndefray the cost of her uniform and other clothes, postage stamps, etc.\nUltimately, after many years of service, it may rise to as much as\n10s. in the case of senior Officers, or, if the Officer finds her own\nboard and lodging, to a limit of \u00a31 a week.\n\nOf these ladies who are trained in the Home few leave the Army. Should\nthey do so, however, I am informed that they can generally obtain from\nother Organizations double or treble the pay which the Army is able to\nafford.\n\nThis Training Institution is a building admirably suited to the\npurpose to which it is put. Originally it was a ladies' school, which\nwas purchased by the Salvation Army. The dining-room of the Cadets was\nvery well arranged and charmingly decorated with flowers, as was that\nof the Officers beyond. There was also a Cadets' retiring-room, where\nI saw some of them reading or otherwise amusing themselves on their\nSaturday half-holiday. The Army would be glad to find and train more\nof these self-sacrificing workers; but the conditions of the pay which\nthey can offer and the arduous nature of the lifelong service\ninvolved, are such that those of a satisfactory class are not too\nreadily forthcoming.\n\nAttached to this Training Institution is a Home for girls of doubtful\nor bad antecedents, which I also visited. This Rescue Home is linked\nup with the Training School, so that the Cadets may have the\nopportunity of acquiring a practical knowledge of the class of work\nupon which they are to be engaged in after-life. Most of the girls in\nthe Rescue Home have passed through the Police-courts, and been handed\nover to the care of the Army by magistrates. The object of the Army is\nto reform them and instruct them in useful work which will enable them\nto earn an honest living.\n\nMany of these girls have been in the habit of thieving from their\nmistresses or others, generally in order to enable them to make\npresents to their lovers. Indeed, it would seem that this mania for\nmaking presents is a frequent cause of the fall of young persons with\na natural leaning to dishonesty and a desire to appear rich and\nliberal. The Army succeeds in reclaiming a great number of them; but\nthe thieving instinct is one not easy to eradicate.\n\nAll these girls seemed fairly happy. A great deal of knitting is done\nby them, and I saw a room furnished with a number of knitting\nmachines, where work is turned out to the value of nearly \u00a325 a week.\nAlso I was shown piles of women's and children's underclothing and\nother articles, the produce of the girls' needles, which are sold to\nhelp to defray the expenses of the Home. In the workroom on this\nSaturday afternoon a number of the young women were engaged in mending\ntheir own garments. After their period of probation many of these\ngirls are sent out to situations found for them by the Army.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMEN'S INDUSTRIAL HOME\n\n\n\nHACKNEY\n\nThis Home is one of much the same class as that which I have just\ndescribed. It has accommodation for forty-eight girls, of whom over\n1,000 have passed through the Institution, where they are generally\nkept for a period of six months. Most of the young women in the Home\nwhen I visited it had been thieves. One, who was twenty-seven years of\nage, had stolen ever since she was twelve, and the lady in charge told\nme that when she came to them everything she had on her, and almost\nall the articles in her trunk were the property of former mistresses.\n\nIn answer to my questions, Commissioner Cox informed me that the\nresult of their work in this Home was so satisfactory that they\nscarcely liked to announce it. They computed, however, that taken on a\nthree years' test--for the subsequent career of each inmate is\nfollowed for that period--90 per cent of the cases prove to be\npermanent moral cures. This, when the previous history of these young\nwomen is considered, may, I think, be accounted a great triumph. No\nmoney contribution is asked or expected in this particular Home.\nIndeed, it would not be forthcoming from the class of girls who are\nsent or come here to be reformed, many of whom, on entering, are\ndestitute of underclothing and other necessaries, The needlework which\nthey do, however, is sold, and helps to pay for the upkeep of the\nplace.\n\nI asked what was done if any of them refused to work. The answer was\nthat this very rarely happened, as the women-Officers shared in their\nlabours, and the girls could not for shame's sake sit idle while their\nOfficers worked. I visited the room where this sewing was in progress,\nand observed that Commissioner Cox, who conducted me, was received\nwith hearty, and to all appearance, spontaneous clapping of hands,\nwhich seemed to indicate that these poor young women are happy and\ncontented. The hours of labour kept in the Home are those laid down in\nthe Factory Acts.\n\nWhile looking at the work produced by the inmates, I asked\nCommissioner Cox if she had anything to say as to the charges of\nsweating which are sometimes brought against the Army, and of\nunderselling in the markets. Her answer was:--\n\n'We do not compete in the markets at all, as we do not make sufficient\narticles, and never work for the trade or supply wholesale; we sell\nthe garments we make one by one by means of our pedlars. It is\nnecessary that we should do this in order to support our girls. Either\nwe must manufacture and sell the work, or they must starve.'\n\nHere we have the whole charge of sweating by the Army in a nutshell,\nand the answer to it.\n\nIn this Home a system has been devised for providing each girl with an\noutfit when she leaves. It is managed by means of a kind of deferred\npay, which is increased if she keeps up to the standard of work\nrequired. Thus, gradually, she earns her outfit, and leaves the place\nwith a box of good clothes. The first thing provided is a pair of\nboots, then a suitable box, and lastly, the materials which they make\ninto clothes.\n\nThis house, like all the others, I found to be extremely well\narranged, with properly-ventilated dormitories, and well suited to its\npurposes.\n\n\n\n\nTHE INEBRIATES' HOME \n\n\n\nSPRINGFIELD LODGE, DENMARK HILL.\n\nThis house, which has a fine garden attached, was a gentleman's\nresidence purchased by the Salvation Army, to serve as an Inebriates'\nHome for the better class of patients. With the exception of a few who\ngive their services in connexion with the work of the place as a\nreturn for their treatment, it is really a Home for gentlefolk. When I\nvisited it, some of the inmates, of whom there are usually from\ntwenty-five to thirty, were talented ladies who could speak several\nlanguages, or paint, or play very well. All these came here to be\ncured of the drink or drug habit. The fee for the course ranges from a\nguinea to 10_s_. per week, according to the ability of the patient to\npay, but some who lack this ability pay nothing at all.\n\nThe lady in charge remarked drily on this point, that many people\nseemed to think that as the place belonged to the Salvation Army it\ndid not matter if they paid or not. As is the practice at Hillsborough\nHouse, a vegetarian diet is insisted upon as a condition of\nthe patient receiving treatment at the Home. Often this is a cause of\nmuch remonstrance, as the inmates, who are mostly persons in middle or\nadvanced life, think that it will kill them. The actual results,\nhowever, are found to be most satisfactory, as the percentage of\nsuccesses is found to be 50 per cent, after a year in the Home and\nthree years' subsequent supervision. I was told that a while ago, Sir\nThomas Barlow, the well-known physician, challenged this statement. He\nwas asked to see for himself, he examined a number of the patients,\ninspected the books and records, and finally satisfied himself that it\nwas absolutely correct.\n\nThe Army attaches much importance to what may be called the after-care\nof the cases, for the lack of which so many people who pass through\nHomes and then return to ordinary life, break down, and become,\nperhaps, worse than they were before. The seven devils of Scripture\nare always ready to re-occupy the swept and garnished soul, especially\nif they be the devils of drink.\n\nMoreover, the experience of the Army is that relatives and friends are\nextraordinarily thoughtless in this matter. Often enough they will, as\nit were, thrust spirituous liquors down the throat of the\nnewly-reformed drunkard, or at the least will pass them before their\neyes and drink them in their presence as usual, with results that may\nbe imagined. One taste and in four cases out of six the thing is done.\nThe old longings awake again and must be satisfied.\n\nFor these reasons the highly-skilled Officers of the Salvation Army\nhold that reclaimed inebriates should be safeguarded, watched, and, so\nfar as the circumstances may allow, kept under the influences that\nhave brought about their partial recovery. They say that they owe much\nof their remarkable success in those cases to a strict observance of\nsuch preventive methods for a period of three years. After that time\npatients must stand upon their own feet. These remarks apply also to\nthe victims of the drug habit, who are even more difficult to deal\nwith than common drunkards.\n\nAt this Home I had a conversation with a fine young woman, an\nex-hospital nurse, who gave me a very interesting account of her\nexperiences of laudanum drinking. She said that in an illness she had\ngone through while she was a nurse a doctor dosed her with laudanum to\ndeaden her pain and induce sleep. The upshot was that she could not\nsleep without the help of laudanum or other opiates, and thus the\nfatal habit was formed. She described the effects of the drug upon\nher, which appeared to be temporary exhilaration and freedom from all\ncare, coupled with sensations of great vigour. She spoke also of\ndelightful visions; but when I asked her to describe the visions, she\nwent back upon that statement, perhaps because their nature was such\nas she did not care to set out. She added, however, that the sleep\nwhich followed was haunted by terrible dreams.\n\nAnother effect of the habit, according to this lady, is forgetfulness,\nwhich showed itself in all kinds of mistakes, and in the loss of power\nof accurate expression, which caused her to say things she did not\nmean and could not remember when she had said them. She told me that\nthe process of weaning herself from the drug was extremely painful and\ndifficult; but that she now slept well and desired it no more.\n\nTo be plain, I was not satisfied with the truth of this last\nstatement, for there was a strange look in her eyes which suggested\nthat she still desired it very much; also she seemed to me to\nprevaricate upon certain points. Further, those in charge of her\nallowed that this diagnosis was probably correct, especially as she is\nnow in the Home for the second time, although her first visit there\nwas a very short one. Still they thought that she would be cured in\nthe end. Let us hope that they were right.\n\nThe Army has also another Home in this neighbourhood, run on similar\nlines, for the treatment of middle-class and poor people.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMEN'S INDUSTRIAL HOME\n\n\n\nSOUTHWOOD, SYDENHAM HILL\n\nThis is another of the Salvation Army Homes for Women. When I visited\nSouthwood, which is an extremely good house, having been a gentleman's\nresidence, with a garden and commanding a beautiful view, there were\nabout forty inmates, some of whom were persons of gentle birth. For\nsuch ladies single sleeping places are provided, with special dining\nand sitting-rooms. These are supposed to pay a guinea a week for their\nboard and accommodation, though I gathered that this sum was not\nalways forthcoming. The majority of the other inmates, most of whom\nhave gone astray in one way or another, pay nothing.\n\nA good many of the cases here are what are called preventive; that is\nto say, that their parents or guardians being able to do nothing with\nthem, and fearing lest they should come to ruin, send them to this\nplace as a last resource, hoping that they may be cured of their evil\ntendencies.\n\nThus one girl whom I think I saw, could not be prevented from gadding\non the streets, and therefore had been placed here. Another young\nwoman was a schoolmistress who would not get out of bed and refused to\nwork. When she came to the Home she was very insolent and\nbad-tempered, and would do nothing. Now, I was informed, she rises\nwith the lark, at 6.30 indeed, and works like a Trojan. I could not\nhelp wondering whether these excellent habits would survive her\ndeparture from the Home. Another lady, who had been sentenced for\nthefts, was the daughter of a minister. She horrified the Officers by\nregretting that she had gone to jail for so little, when others who\nhad taken and enjoyed large sums received practically the same\nsentence. She was reported to be doing well.\n\nAnother, also a lady, was the victim of an infatuation which caused\nher to possess herself of money to send to some man who had followed\nher about from the time she was in a boarding school. Another was a\nforeigner, who had been sent to an American doctor in the East to be\ntrained as a nurse. This poor girl underwent an awful experience, and\nwas in the care of the Salvation Army recovering from shock; but, of\ncourse, hers is a different class of case from those which I have\nmentioned above. Another was an English girl who had been turned out\nof Canada because of her bad behaviour with men. And so on.\n\nIt only remains to say that most of these people appeared to be doing\nwell, while many of those in the humbler classes of life were being\ntaught to earn their own living in the laundry that is attached to the\nInstitution.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMEN'S SHELTER\n\n\n\nWHITECHAPEL\n\nThis is a place where women, most of them old, so far as my\nobservation went, are taken in to sleep at a charge of 3_d._ a night.\nIt used to be 2_d_. until the London County Council made the provision\nof sheets, etc., compulsory, when the Army was obliged to raise the\npayment. This Shelter, which is almost always so full that people have\nto be turned away, holds 261 women. It contains a separate room, where\nchildren are admitted with their mothers, half price, namely\n1-1/2_d._, being charged per child. There is a kitchen attached where\nthe inmates can buy a large mug of tea for a 1/2_d._, and a huge chunk\nof bread for a second 1/2_d._; also, if I remember right, other\narticles of food, if they can afford such luxuries.\n\nThe great dormitory in this Shelter, it may be mentioned, was once a\nswimming-bath. Some of the women who come to this place have slept in\nit almost every night for eighteen or twenty years. Others make use of\nit for a few months, and then vanish for a period, especially in the\nsummer, when they go hop or strawberry picking, and return in the\nwinter. Every day, however, fresh people appear, possibly to depart on\nthe morrow and be seen no more.\n\nI asked whether the aged folk had not been benefited by the Old Age\nPensions Act. The lady Officer in charge replied that it had been a\nblessing to some of them. One old woman, however, would not apply for\nher pension, although she was urged to take a room for herself\nsomewhere. She said that she was afraid if she did so, she might be\nturned out and be lonely.\n\nI visited this Shelter in the late afternoon, before it was filled up.\nA number of dilapidated and antique females were sitting about in the\nrooms, talking or sewing. One old lady was doing crochet work. She\ntold me that she made her living by it, and by flower-selling. Another\ninformed me that it was years since she had slept anywhere else, and\nthat she did not know what poor women like her would do without this\nplace. Another was cooking the broth. Her husband was a sea captain,\nand when he died, her father had allowed her _\u00a31_ a week until he\ndied. Afterwards she took to drink, and drifted here, where, I was\ninformed, she is doing well. And so on, and so on, _ad infinitum_. The\nHanbury Street Women's Shelter is not a cheerful spot to visit on a\ndull and rainy evening.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SLUM SETTLEMENT\n\n\n\nHACKNEY ROAD\n\nSlum work is an important branch of the Social labours of the\nSalvation Army, Thus last year the Slum Sisters visited over 105,000\nfamilies, over 20,000 sick, and over 32,000 public-houses, in which\nwork they spent more than 90,000 hours of time. Also they attended 482\nbirths, and paid nearly 9,000 visits in connexion with them.\n\nThere are nine Slum Settlements and Posts in London, and nineteen\nothers in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The old system used to be\nfor the Sisters and Nurses to live among the lowest class of the poor,\nlodging in the actual tenements in which their work was carried out.\nThis, however, was abandoned as far as possible, because it was found\nthat after the arduous toil of the day these ladies could get little\nrest at night, owing to the noise that went on about them, a\ncircumstance that caused their health to suffer and made them\ninefficient. Now out of the 117 Officers engaged in Slum work in Great\nBritain, about one-half who labour in London live in five houses set\napart for them in different quarters of the city; fifteen Officers\nbeing the usual complement to each house.\n\nThe particular dwelling of which I write is a good specimen of them\nall, and from it the Sisters and Nurses who live there work\nShoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, and the Hoxton and Hackney\nRoad districts. It is decently furnished and a comfortable place in\nits way, although, of course, it stands in a poor neighbourhood. I\nremember that there was even the finishing touch of a canary in the\nwindow. I should add that no cases are attended in the house itself,\nwhich is purely a residence.\n\nTo this particular Settlement two qualified midwives and a nurse are\nattached. While I was there one of the midwives came in, very tired,\nat about half-past eleven in the morning. Since three o'clock on that\nsame morning she had attended three confinements, so no wonder she was\ntired. She said that one of her cases was utterly unprovided with\nanything needful as the father was out of work, although on the\noccasion of a previous confinement they had all they wanted. Now they\nlived in a little room in which there was not space 'to swing a cat,'\nand were without a single bite of food or bit of clothing, so that the\nbaby when it came had to be wrapped up in an old shawl and the woman\nsent to the Infirmary. The Sister in charge informed me that if they\nhad them they could find employment for twice their strength of nurses\nwithout overlapping the work of any other charity.\n\nThe people with whom they deal are for the most part those who have a\nrooted objection to infirmaries, although the hospitals are much more\nused than was formerly the case. The system of the Army is to make a\ncharge of 6_s_. 6_d_. for attending a confinement, which, if paid, is\ngenerally collected in instalments of 3_d_. or 6_d_. a week. Often,\nhowever, it is not paid, and the charge remains a mere formality. She\nadded that many of these poor people are most improvident, and make no\nprovision whatsoever for these events, even if they can afford to do\nso. The result is that the Army has to lend them baby garments and\nother things.\n\nThe Sister said in answer to my questions that there was a great deal\nof poverty in their district where many men were out of work, a number\nof them because they could find nothing to do. She thought that things\nwere certainly no better in this respect; indeed, the state of\ndepression was chronic. Owing to the bad summer of 1909, which\naffected the hop-picking and other businesses, the destitution that\nyear was as great during the warm months as it usually is in the\nwinter.\n\nThe poor of this district, she said, 'generally live upon fried fish\nand chips. You know they cannot cook, anyway they don't, and what they\ndo cook is all done in the frying-pan, which is also a very convenient\narticle to pawn. They don't understand economy, for when they have a\nbit of money they will buy in food and have a big feast, not thinking\nof the days when there will be little or nothing. Then, again, they\nbuy their goods in small portions; for instance, their coal by the\nha'p'orth or their wood by the farthing's-worth, which, in fact, works\nout at a great profit to the dealers. Or they buy a farthing's-worth\nof tea, which is boiled up again and again till it is awful-looking\nstuff.'\n\nI asked her what she considered to be the main underlying cause of\nthis misery. She answered that she thought it was due 'to the people\nflocking from the country to the city,' thereby confirming an opinion\nthat I have long held and advanced. She added that the overcrowding in\nthe district was terrible, the regulations of the Public Health\nAuthorities designed to check it being 'a dead letter.' In one case\nwith which she had to do, a father, mother, and nine children lived in\na room that measured 9 ft. by 9 ft., and the baby came into the world\nwith the children looking on!\n\nThe general weekly rent for a room containing a family is 5_s_., or if\nit is furnished, 7_s_. 6_d_. The Sister described to me the furniture\nof one for the use of which this extra half-crown is charged. It\nconsisted of a rickety bed, two chairs, one without a back and one\nwithout a seat, and a little shaky table. The floor was bare, and she\nestimated the total value of these articles at about their weekly rent\nof 2_s_. 6_d_., if, indeed, they were worth carrying away. In this\nchamber dwelt a coachman who was out of place, his wife, and three or\nfour children, I wonder what arrangement these poor folk make as to\nthe use of the one chair that has a bottom. To occupy the other must\nbe an empty honour. With reference to this man the Sister remarked\nthat as a result of the introduction of motor vehicles, busmen,\ncabmen, and blacksmiths were joining the ranks of her melancholy\nclientele in numbers.\n\nThis and some similar stories caused me to reflect on the remarkable\ncontrast between rents in the country and in town. For instance, I own\nabout a dozen cottages in this village in which I write, and the\nhighest rent that I receive is 2_s_. 5_d_. a week. This is paid for a\nlarge double dwelling, on which I had to spend over \u00a3100 quite\nrecently to convert two cottages into one. Also, there is a large\ndouble garden thrown in, so large that a man can scarcely manage it in\nhis spare time, a pigsty, fruit trees, etc. All this for 1_d_. a week\nless than is charged for the two broken chairs, the rickety bed, and\nthe shaky table! Again, for \u00a310 a year, I let a comfortable farmhouse;\nthat is, \u00a33 a year less than the out-of-work coachman pays for his\nsingle room without the furniture. And yet, as the Sister said, people\ncontinue to rush from the country to the towns!\n\nNor, it seems, do they always make the best of things when they get\nthere. Thus the Sister mentioned that the education which the girls\nreceive in the schools causes them to desire a more exalted lot in\nlife than that of a servant. So they try to find places in shops, or\njam factories, etc. Some get them, but many fail; and of those who\nfail, a large proportion go to swell the mass of the unemployed, or to\nrecruit the ranks of an undesirable profession. She went so far as to\nsay that most of the domestic servants in London are not Cockneys at\nall, but come from the country; adding, that the sad part of it was\nthat thousands of these poor girls, after proper training, could find\ncomfortable and remunerative employment without displacing others, as\nthe demand for domestic servants is much greater than the supply.\nThese are cold facts which seem to suggest that our system of free\neducation is capable of improvement.\n\nIt appears that all this district is a great centre of what is known\nas 'sweating.' Thus artificial flowers, of which I was shown a fine\nspecimen, a marguerite, are made at a price of 1_s_. per gross, the\nworkers supplying their own glue. An expert hand, beginning at eight\nin the morning and continuing till ten at night, can produce a gross\nand a half of these flowers, and thus net 1_s_. 6_d_., minus the cost\nof the glue, scissors, and sundries. The Officers of the Army find it\nextremely difficult to talk to these poor people, who are invariably\ntoo busy to listen. Therefore, some of them have learnt how to make\nartificial flowers themselves, so that when they call they can join in\nthe family manufacture, and, while doing so, carry on their\nconversation.\n\nFor the making of match-boxes and the sticking on of the labels the\npay is 2-1/2_d_. per gross. Few of us, I think, would care to\nmanufacture 144 matchboxes for 2-1/2_d_. I learned that it is not\nunusual to find little children of four years of age helping their\nmothers to make these boxes.\n\nThe Slum Sisters attached to the Settlement, who are distinct from the\nMaternity Nurses, visit the very poorest and worst neighbourhoods, for\nthe purpose of helping the sick and afflicted, and incidentally of\ncleaning their homes. Also, they find out persons who are about\nsixty-nine years of age, and contribute to their maintenance, so as to\nsave them from being forced to receive poor-law relief, which would\nprevent them from obtaining their old-age pensions when they come to\nseventy.\n\nHere is an illustration of the sort of case with which these Slum\nSisters have to deal; perhaps, I should say, the easiest sort of case.\nAn old man and his wife whom they visited, lived in a clean room. The\nold woman fell sick, and before she died the Slum Sisters gave her a\nbath, which, as these poor people much object to washing, caused all\nthe neighbours to say that they had killed her. After his wife's\ndeath, the husband, who earned his living by selling laces on London\nBridge, went down in the world, and his room became filthy. The Slum\nSisters told him that they would clean up the place, but he forbade\nthem to touch the bed, which, he said, was full of mice and beetles.\nAs he knew that women dread mice and beetles, he thought that this\nstatement would frighten them. When he was out selling his laces, they\ndescended upon his room, where the first thing that they did was to\nremove the said bed into the yard and burn it, replacing it with\nanother. On his return, the old man exclaimed: 'Oh, my darlings,\nwhatever _have_ you been doing?'\n\nThey still clean this room once a week.\n\nThe general impression left upon my mind, after visiting this place at\nHackney Road and conversing with its guardian angels, is, that in some\nof its aspects, if not in all, civilization is a failure. Probably\nthoughtful people made the same remark in ancient Rome, and in every\nother city since cities were. The truth is, that so soon as its\nchildren desert the land which bore them for the towns, these horrors\nfollow as surely as the night follows the day.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PICCADILLY MIDNIGHT WORK\n\n\n\nGREAT TICHFIELD STREET\n\nI visited this place a little before twelve o'clock on a summer night.\nIt is a small flat near Oxford Street, in which live two\nwomen-Officers of the Army, who are engaged in the work of reclaiming\nprostitutes. I may mention that for the last fourteen years the Major\nin charge, night by night, has tramped the streets with this object.\nThe Titchfield Street flat is not in any sense a Home, but I saw a\nsmall room in it, with two beds, where cases who may be rescued from\nthe streets, or come here in a time of trouble, can sleep until\narrangements are made for them to proceed to one of the Rescue\nInstitutions of the Army.\n\nThis work is one of the most difficult and comparatively unproductive\nof any that the Army undertakes. The careers of these unfortunate\nstreet women, who are nearly all of them very fine specimens of female\nhumanity, for the most part follow a rocket-like curve. The majority\nof them begin by getting into trouble, at the end of which, perhaps,\nthey find themselves with a child upon their hands. Or they may have\nbeen turned out of their homes, or some sudden misfortune may have\nreduced them to destitution. At any rate, the result is that they take\nto a loose life, and mayhap, after living under the protection of one\nor two men, find themselves upon the streets. Sometimes, it may be\nsaid to their credit, if that word can be used in this connexion, they\nadopt this mode of life in order to support their child or children.\n\nThe Major informed me that if they are handsome they generally begin\nwith a period of great prosperity. One whom she knew earned about \u00a330\na week, and a good many of them make as much as \u00a31,000 a year, and pay\nperhaps \u00a36 weekly in rent.\n\nA certain proportion of them are careful, open a bank account, save\nmoney, retire, and get married. Generally, these keep their bank-books\nin their stockings, which, in their peculiar mode of life, they find\nto be the safest place, as they are very suspicious of each other, and\nmuch afraid of being robbed. The majority of them, however, are not so\nprovident. They live in and for the moment, and spend their ill-gotten\ngains as fast as they receive them.\n\nGradually they drift downwards. They begin in Piccadilly, and\nprogress, or rather retrogress, through Leicester Square on to\nTottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, and thence to the Euston Road,\nending their sad careers in Bishopsgate and Whitechapel. The Major\ninformed me that there are but very few in the Piccadilly\nneighbourhood whom she knew when she took up this work, and that, as a\nrule, they cannot stand the life for long. The irregular hours, the\nexposure, the excitement, and above all the drink in which most of\nthem indulge, kill them out or send them to a poorhouse or the\nhospital.\n\nShe said, however, that as a class they have many virtues. For\ninstance, they are very kind-hearted, and will always help each other\nin trouble. Also, most of them have affection for their children,\nbeing careful to keep them, if possible, from any knowledge of their\nmode of life. Further, they are charitable to the poor, and, in a way,\nreligious; or, perhaps, superstitious would be a better term. Thus,\nthey often go to church on Sundays, and do not follow their avocation\non Sunday nights. On New Year's Eve, their practice is to attend the\nWatch Night services, where, doubtless, poor people, they make those\ngood resolutions that form the proverbial pavement of the road to\nHell. Nearly all of them drink more or less, as they say that they\ncould not live their life without stimulant. Moreover, their\nprofession necessitates their walking some miles every night.\n\nFor the most part these women lodge in pairs in their own flats, where\nthey pay about 35_s_. a week for three unfurnished rooms. The Officer\ntold me that often some despicable man, who is called a 'bully,' lives\non them, following them round the streets, and watching them. Even the\nsmartest girls are not infrequently the victims of such a man, who\nknocks them about and takes money from them. Occasionally he may be a\nhusband or a relative. She added that as a class they are much better\nbehaved and less noisy than they used to be. This improvement,\nhowever, is largely due to the increased strictness of the police.\nThese women do not decrease in number. In the Major's opinion, there\nare as many or more of them on the streets as there were fourteen\nyears ago, although the brothels and the procuresses are less\nnumerous, and their quarters have shifted from Piccadilly to other\nneighbourhoods.\n\nThe Army methods of dealing, or rather of attempting to deal with this\nutterly insoluble problem are simple enough. The Officers walk the\nstreets every night from about twelve to two and distribute cards in\nthree languages according to the nationality of the girl to whom these\nare offered. Here they are in English, French, and German:--\n\n     Mrs. Booth will gladly help any Girl\n     or Woman in need of a friend.\n     _APPLY AT_\n     79 Great Titchfield Street,\n     or 259 Mare Street, Hackney, N.E.\n\n[Illustration: BONNES NOUVELLS.]\n\n     Vous avez une amie\n     qui est dispos\u00e9e \u00e0\n     vous aider.\n\n     (S addresser)\n     Madame Booth\n     79 Great Titchfield Street,\n     Oxford Street,\n     Londres, W.\n\n     MADAM BOOTH will herzlich gerne Jedem\n     M\u00e4dchen oder Jeder Frau helfen, die sich\n     in Noth auf eine Freundin befinden.\n\n     259 Mare Street, Hackney,\n     70 Great Titchfield Street, W.\n\nMost of the girls to whom they are offered will not take them, but a\ngood number do and, occasionally, the seed thus sown bears fruit. Thus\nthe woman who takes the card may come to Great Titchfield Street and\nbe rescued in due course. More frequently, however, she will give a\nfalse address, or make an appointment which she does not keep, or will\nsay that it is too late for her to change her life. But this fact does\nnot always prevent such a woman from trying to help others by sending\nyoung girls who have recently taken to the trade to the Titchfield\nStreet Refuge in the hope that they may be induced to abandon their\nevil courses.\n\nOccasionally the Army has midnight suppers in its Regent Hall for\nthese women, who attend in large numbers, perhaps out of curiosity. At\nthe last supper nearly 300 'swell girls' were present and listened to\nthe prayers and the exhortations to amend their lives. Sometimes, too,\nthe Officers attend them when they are sick or dying. Once they buried\none of the women, who died whilst under their care, holding a midnight\nfuneral over her at their hall in Oxford Street.\n\nIt was attended by hundreds of the sisterhood, and the Major described\nthe scene as terrible. The women were seized with hysterics, and burst\ninto shrieks and sobs. They even tried to open the coffin in order to\nkiss the dead girl who lay within.\n\nAmongst many other cases, I was informed of a black girl called\nDiamond, so named because she wore real diamonds on her dresses, which\ndresses cost over \u00a3100 apiece. The Army tried to help her in vain, and\nwrote her many letters. In the end she died in an Infirmary, when all\nthe letters were found carefully hidden away among her belongings and\nreturned to the Major.\n\nThe average number of rescues compassed, directly or indirectly, by\nthe Piccadilly Midnight work is about fifty a year. This is not a very\ngreat result; but after all the taking of even a few people from this\nhellish life and their restoration to decency and self-respect is well\nworth the cost and labour of the mission. The Officers told me that\nthey meet with but little success in the case of those women who are\nin their bloom and earning great incomes. It can scarcely be\notherwise, for what has the Army to offer them in place of their\ngaudy, glittering life of luxury and excitement?\n\nThe way of transgressors is hard, but the way of repentance is harder;\nat any rate, while the transgressor is doing well. On the one hand\njewels and champagne, furs and motors, and on the other prayers that\ntalk of death and judgment, plain garments made by the wearer's\nlabour, and at the end the drudgery of earning an honest livelihood,\nperhaps as a servant. Human nature being what it is, it seems scarcely\nwonderful that these children of pleasure cling to the path of 'roses'\nand turn from that of 'thorns.'\n\nWith those that are growing old and find themselves broken in body and\nin spirit, who are thrust aside in the fierce competition of their\ntrade in favour of younger rivals; those who find the wine in their\ntinsel cup turning, or turned, to gall, the case is different. They\nare sometimes, not always, glad to creep to such shelter from the\nstorms of life as the Army can offer, and there work out their moral\nand physical salvation. For what bitterness is there like to that\nwhich must be endured by the poor, broken woman of the streets, as\nscorned, spat on, thrust aside, she sinks from depth to depth into the\nlast depth of all, striving to drown her miseries with drugs or drink,\nif so she may win forgetfulness even for an hour?\n\nSometimes, too, these patient toilers in the deep of midnight sin\nsucceed in dragging from the brink those that have but dipped their\nfeet in its dark waters. _Nemo repente fuit turpissimus_--no one\nbecomes altogether filthy in an hour--runs the old Roman saying, which\nis as true to-day as it was 2,000 years ago, and whether it be spoken\nof body or of soul, it is easier to wash the feet than the whole\nbeing. When they understand what lies before them certain of the young\nshrink back and grasp Mercy's outstretched arms.\n\nOne night about twelve o'clock, together with Lieut.-Colonel Jolliffe,\nan Officer of the Army who was dressed in plain clothes, I accompanied\nthe Major and the lady who is her colleague, to Leicester Square and\nits neighbourhood, and there watched their methods of work, following\nthem at a little distance. Dressed in their uniform they mingled with\nthe women who marched the pavements, and now and again, with curiously\nswift and decisive steps glided up to one of them, whispered a few\nearnest words into her ear, and proffered a printed ticket. Most of\nthose spoken to walked on stonily as people do when they meet an\nundesirable acquaintance whom they do not wish to recognize. Some\nthrust past them rudely; some hesitated and with a hard laugh went\ntheir way; but a few took the tickets and hid them among their laces.\n\nSo far as the work was concerned that was all there was to see.\nNothing dramatic happened; no girl fled to them imploring help or\nasking to be saved from the persecutions of a man; no girl even\ninsulted them--for these Officers to be insulted is a thing unknown.\nAll I saw was the sowing of the seed in very stony ground, where not\none kern out of a thousand is like to germinate and much less to grow.\nYet as experience proves, occasionally it does both germinate and\ngrow, yes, and bloom and come to the harvest of repentance and\nredemption. It is for this that these unwearying labourers scatter\ntheir grain from night to night, that at length they may garner into\ntheir bosoms a scanty but a priceless harvest.\n\nIt was a strange scene. The air was hot and heavy, the sky was filled\nwith black and lowering clouds already laced with lightnings. The\nmusic-halls and restaurants had given out their crowds, the midnight\nmart was open. Everywhere were women, all finely dressed, most of them\npainted, as could be seen in the glare of the electric lights, some of\nthem more or less excited with drink, but none turbulent or noisy.\nMixed up with these were the bargainers, men of every degree, the most\nof them with faces unpleasant to consider.\n\nSome had made their pact and were departing. I noticed one young girl\nwhose looks would have drawn attention anywhere, whispering an address\nfrom beneath an enormous feathered hat to the driver of a taxicab,\nwhile her companion, a pleasant-looking, fresh-coloured boy, for he\nwas scarcely more, entered the vehicle, a self-satisfied air upon his\nface. She sprang in also, and the cab with its occupants glided away\nout of my ken for ever.\n\nHere and there stalwart, quiet policemen requested loiterers to move\non, and the loiterers obeyed and re-formed in groups behind them; here\nand there a respectable woman pushed her way through the throng,\ngathering up her skirts as she did so and glancing covertly at this\nunaccustomed company out of the corners of her eyes.\n\nWhile watching all these sights we lost touch of the Salvation Army\nladies, who wormed their way through the crowd as easily and quickly\nas a snake does through undergrowth, and set out to find them. Big\ndrops began to fall, the thunder growled, and in a moment the\nconcourse commenced to melt. Five minutes later the rain was falling\nfast and the streets had emptied. That night's market was at an end.\n\nNo farmer watches the weather more anxiously than do these painted\nwomen in their muslins and gold-laced shoes.\n\nMeanwhile, their night's work done, the Salvation Army ladies were\ntramping through the wet back to Titchfield Street, for they do not\nspend money on cabs, and the buses had ceased to run.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ANTI-SUICIDE BUREAU\n\n\n\nThis is a branch of the Army's work with which I have been more or\nless acquainted for some years.\n\nThe idea of an Anti-Suicide Bureau arose in the Army four or five\nyears ago; but every one seems to have forgotten with whom it actually\noriginated. I suppose that it grew, like Topsy, or was discovered\nsimultaneously by several Officers, like a new planet by different\nastronomers studying the heavens in faith and hope. At any rate, the\nresults of the idea are remarkable. Thus in London alone 1,064 cases\nwere dealt with in the year 1909, and of those cases it is estimated\nthat all but about a dozen were turned from their fatal purpose. Let\nus halve these figures, and say that 500 lives were actually saved,\nthat 500 men live to-day in and about London who otherwise would be\ndead by their own hands and buried in dishonoured graves. Or let us\neven quarter them, and surely this remains a wonderful work,\nespecially when we remember that London is by no means the only place\nin which it is being carried on.\n\nHow is it done? the reader may ask. I answer by knowledge of human\nnature, by the power of sympathy, by gentle kindness. A poor wretch\nstaggers into a humble little room at the Salvation Army Headquarters\nin Queen Victoria Street. He unfolds an incoherent tale. He is an\nunpleasant and disturbing person whom any lawyer or business man would\nget rid of as soon as possible. He vapours about self-destruction, he\nhints at dark troubles with his wife. He produces drugs or weapons--a\npoint at which most people would certainly show him out. But the\nOfficers in charge do nothing of the sort. They laugh at him or give\nhim a cup of tea. They bid him brace himself together, and tell them\nthe truth and nothing but the truth. Then out pours the awful tale,\nwhich, however bad it may be, they listen to quite unmoved though not\nunconcerned, for they hear such every day. When it is finished, they\nask coolly enough why, in the name of all that their visitor\nreverences or holds dear, he considers it necessary to commit suicide\nfor a trifling job like that. A new light dawns upon the desperate\nman. He answers, because he can see no other way out.\n\nWhy, exclaims the Officer, there are a dozen ways out. Let us find one\nof them. You, A., have been faithless to your wife. Well, when the\nmatter is explained to her, I daresay she will forgive you. You, B.,\nhave defrauded your employer. Well, employers are not always\nrelentless. I'll call on him this evening and talk the matter over.\nYou, C., are hopelessly in debt through horse-racing or speculation.\nWell, at the worst you can go through the Court and start afresh. You,\nD., have committed a crime. Go and own up to it like a man, stand your\ntrial, and work out your sentence. I daresay it won't be so very heavy\nif you take that course, and we will look after you when it is over.\nYou, E., have been brought into this state through your miserable\nvices, drink, or whatever they may be. Cure yourself of the\nvices--we'll show you how--don't crown them by cutting your throat\nlike a cur. You, F., have been afflicted with great sorrows. Well,\nthose sorrows have some purpose and some meaning. There's always a\ndawn beyond the night; wait for that dawn; it will come here or\nhereafter.\n\nAnd so on, and on, through all the gamut of human sin and misery.\n\nOf course, there are cases in which the Army fails. As I have said,\nthere were about a dozen of these last year, six of which, if I\nremember right, occurred with startling rapidity one after the other.\nThe Suicide Officers of the Army always take up the daily paper with\nfear and trembling, and not infrequently find that the man whom they\nthought they had consoled and set upon a different path, has been\ndiscovered dead by drowning in the river, or by poison in the streets,\nor by whatever it may be. But everything has its proportion of\nfailures, and where intending suicides are concerned 1 or 2 per cent,\nor on the quarter basis that I have adopted as beyond question of\nsincerity of intent, 4 or 8 per cent is not a large average. Indeed,\n20 per cent would not be large, or even 50 per cent. But these figures\ndo not occur.\n\nOf course, it is suggested that many of those who drift into the\nAnti-Suicide Bureau have no real intention of making away with\nthemselves, but that they come there only to see what they can get in\nthe way of money or other comfort. As regards money, the answer is\nthat, except very occasionally, the Army gives none, for the simple\nreason that it has none to give. For the rest the fatal cases which\nhappen show that there is a grim purpose at work in the minds of many\nof the applicants. But I repeat, let us halve the figures, let us even\nquarter them, which, as Euclid remarked, is absurd, and even then what\nare we to conclude?\n\nBefore proceeding with my comments upon this work I ought to state,\nperhaps, that the Army has various branches of this Anti-Suicide\nCrusade. Thus, it is at work in almost all our big cities, and also in\nAmerica, in Australia, and in Japan. The Japanese Bureau was opened\nlast year with very good results. This is the more remarkable in a\ncountry where ancient tradition and immemorial custom hallow the\nsystem of _hara-kiri_ in any case of trouble or disgrace.\n\nMoreover, the idea is spreading, Count Tolstoy is said to have been\ninterested in it. Applications have been received from the Hague for\nparticulars of the Army methods in the matter. Similar work is being\ncarried out in Vienna, not by the Army, but on its lines. The Army has\nbeen informed that if it will open an Anti-Suicide Bureau in Budapest,\noffice accommodation, etc., will be found for it. And so forth.\n\nColonel Unsworth who, until recently had charge of the Anti-Suicide\nBureau from its commencement, is of opinion that suicide is very much\non the increase, a statement that it would be difficult to dispute in\nview of the number of cases recorded daily in the local Press. For\ninstance, I read one on this morning of writing, in a Norfolk paper,\nwhere a farmer had blown out his brains, to all appearance because he\nhad a difference of opinion with his wife as to whether he should, or\nshould not, take on another farm.\n\nColonel Unsworth attributed this sad state of affairs to sundry\ncauses. The first of these was the intense and ever-increasing nervous\npressure of our time. The second, the spread of fatalism, The third,\nthe advance of materialistic ideas, and of the general disbelief in\nthe doctrine of future retribution. The fourth, a certain noticeable\nreturn in such matters to the standard of Pagan nations, especially of\nancient Rome, where it was held that if things went wrong and life\nbecame valueless, or even uninteresting, to bring it to an end was in\nno sense shameful but praiseworthy. In illustration of this point, he\nquoted a remark said to have been made by a magistrate not long ago,\nto the effect that in certain conditions a man was not to be blamed\nfor taking his own life.\n\nHis fifth reason was that circumstances arise in which some people\nconvince themselves that their deaths would benefit their families.\nThus, insurances may fall in, for, after one or two premiums have been\npaid, many offices take the risk of suicide. Or they may know that\nwhen they are gone, wealthy relatives will take care of their\nchildren, who will thus be happier and better off than these are while\nthey, the fathers, live. Wrong as it may be, this, indeed, is an\nattitude with which it is difficult not to feel a certain sympathy.\nAfter all, we are told that there is no greater love than that of a\nman who lays down his life for his friend, though there ran be no\ndoubt that the saying was not intended to include this kind of laying\ndown of life.\n\nColonel Unsworth's sixth cause was the increasing atrophy of the\npublic conscience. He stated that suicide is rarely preached against\nfrom the pulpit, as drunkenness is for instance. Further, a jury can\nseldom be induced to bring in a verdict of _felo-de-se._ Even where\nthe victim was obviously and, perhaps painfully sane, his act is put\ndown to temporary insanity.\n\nOther causes are drink, hereditary disposition, madness in all its\nprotean shapes; incurable disease, unwillingness to face the\nconsequences of sin or folly; the passion of sexual love, which is\nsometimes so mighty as to amount to madness; the effects of utter\ngrief such as result from the loss of those far more beloved than\nself, of which an instance is at hand in the case of the Officer in\ncharge of the Shelter at Great Peter Street, Westminster, mentioned\nearlier in this book, who, it may be remembered, tried to kill himself\nafter the death of his wife and child; and lastly, where women are\nconcerned, terror and shame at the prospect of giving birth to a\nchild, whose appearance in the world is not sanctioned by law or\ncustom.\n\nSuicide among women is, however, comparatively rare, a fact which\nsuggests either that the causes which produce it press on or affect\nthem less, or that in this particular, their minds are better balanced\nthan are those of men. I was told, at any rate, that but few women\napply to the Suicide Bureau of the Army for help in this temptation;\nthough, perhaps, that may be due to the greater secretiveness of the\nsex.\n\nSpeaking generally, this magnitude of the evil to be attacked may be\ngauged from the fact that about 3,800 people die by their own hands in\nEngland and Wales every year, a somewhat appalling total.\n\nIntending suicides come into the hands of the Army Bureau in various\nways. Some of them see notices in the Press descriptive of this branch\nof the Social Work. Some of them are found by policemen in desperate\ncircumstances and brought to the Bureau, and some are sent there from\ndifferent localities by Salvation Army Officers.\n\nI have looked through the records of numbers of these cases, but, for\nobvious reasons, it is difficult to give a full and accurate\ndescription of any of them. The reader, therefore, must be content to\naccept my assurance of their genuine nature. One or two, however, may\nbe alluded to with becoming vagueness. Here is an example of a not\ninfrequent kind, when a person arrives at the office having already\nattempted the deed.\n\nA business man who had recently made a study of agnostic literature,\nhad become involved in certain complications, which resulted in a\nquarrel with his wife. His means not being sufficient to the support\nof a double establishment, he took the train to London with a bottle\nof sulphonal in his pocket (not a drug to be recommended for his\npurpose) and swallowed tabloids all the way to town. When he had taken\nseventy-five grains, and the bottle, as I saw, was two-thirds empty,\nhe found that the drug worked in a way he did not expect. Instead of\nkilling him, it awoke his religious susceptibilities, which the course\nof agnostic literature had scotched but not killed, and he began to\nwonder with some earnestness whether, after all, there might not be a\nHereafter which, in the circumstances, he did not care to face.\n\nIn this acute perplexity he bethought him of the Salvation Army, and\narrived at the Bureau in a state of considerable excitement, as\nquickly as a taxicab could bring him. A doctor and a fortnight in\nhospital did the rest. The Army found him another situation in place\nof the one which he had lost, and composed his differences with his\nwife. They are now both Salvationists and very happy. So, in this\ninstance, all's well that ends well.\n\n_Case Two._--A man, in a responsible position, and of rather\nextravagant habits, married a wife of more extravagant habits, and\nfound that, whatever the proverb may say, it costs more to keep two\nthan one. His money matters became desperately involved, but, being\nafraid to confide in his wife, he spent a Sunday afternoon in trying\nto make up his mind whether he would shoot or drown himself. While he\nwas thus engaged, a Salvation Army band happened to pass his door, and\nreminded him of what he had read about the Anti-Suicide Bureau.\nPostponing decision as to the exact method of his departure from this\nearth, he called there, and was persuaded to make a clean breast of\nthe matter to his wife.\n\nAfterwards the Army took up his extremely complicated affairs. I saw a\npile of documents relating to them that must have been at least 4 ins.\nthick. The various money-lenders were interviewed, and persuaded to\naccept payment in weekly or monthly instalments. The account was\nalmost square when I saw it, and the person concerned extremely happy\nand grateful. I should say that, in this case, a lawyer's bill for the\nwork which was done for nothing would have amounted to quite \u00a350.\n\nIn another somewhat similar case, that of an official who had tampered\nwith moneys in his charge, though this was not discovered, some of the\ncreditors had placed the business in the hands of\ndebt-collecting-agencies, than whom, said Colonel Unsworth, 'there are\nno harder or more cruel creditors.' At any rate, they drove this poor\nman almost to madness, with the usual result. A friend brought him to\nthe Army, who shouldered his affairs, dealt with the debt-collecting\nagencies, obtained help from his connexions, and paid off what was\nowing by instalments. He and his family are now again quite\ncomfortable.\n\n[Illustration: AT ONE OF THE ARMY FOOD DEPOTS.]\n\n_Case Three_.--A man was cursed with such a fearful temper that he\ncould keep no situation. He came to London in a state of fury, with a\nrazor in his pocket. Happening to see the words 'Salvation Army\nShelter' on a building, it occurred to him to hear what the Suicide\nOfficers had to say before he cut his throat. They dealt with the\nmatter, and showed him the error of his way. He is now in a very good\nsingle-handed situation abroad where, as he cannot talk the language,\nhe finds it difficult to quarrel with those about him.\n\n_Case Four_.--Telephone operator, who was driven mad by that dreadful\ninstrument and by domestic worries. The Army Officers saved the man\nand smoothed over the domestic worries; but how he gets on with the\ntelephone instruments is not recorded.\n\n_Case Five_.--Unsuitable marriage and bad temper. The wife had become\ninvolved in some trouble in early life, and unwisely, as it proved,\nconfessed to the husband, who brought it up against her every time\nthere was a quarrel between them. In this instance, also, suicide was\naverted and the domestic differences were arranged.\n\n_Case Six_--A man in a business firm, married, with children, was\nthrough no fault of his own thrown out of work, owing to the\nappointment of a new manager. He came at last to the Embankment, and\nafterwards applied for a job in answer to an advertisement. The\nadvertiser told him it was a pity that as he had been so near the\nriver he did not go into it. The man determined to commit suicide; but\nthe Officers dissuaded him from this course and helped him. He\nreturned a year later in a condition of considerable prosperity,\nhaving worked his way to a Colony where he is now doing extremely\nwell, his visit to England being in connexion with the business in\nwhich he had become a partner.\n\nAnd so on _ad infinitum._ I might tell many such stories, some of them\nof a much more tragic character than those I have instanced, but\nrefrain from doing so lest by chance they should be identified,\nespecially where the individuals concerned belonged to the upper\nstrata of society. Perhaps enough has been said, however, to show what\na great work is being done by the Army in this Department, where in\nLondon alone it deals with several would-be suicides every day.\n\nOf course, some of these people are frauds. For instance, one of the\nOfficers told me that not long ago a medical man, who was evidently a\ndrunkard, called on him and said that he would commit suicide unless\nmoney were given to him. He was informed that this was against the\nrules; whereon the man produced a bottle and said that if the money\nwere not forthcoming, he would drink its contents and make an end of\nhimself in the office. As may be imagined the Officer went through an\nanxious moment, not quite knowing what to do. However, he looked the\nman over, summed him up to the best of his judgment and ability, and\ncoming to the conclusion that he was a bully and a braggart, said that\nhe might do what he liked. The man swallowed the contents of the\nbottle, exclaiming that he would be dead in a few minutes, and a pause\nensued, during which the Officer confessed to me that he felt very\nuncomfortable. The end of it was that his visitor said, with a laugh,\nthat 'he would not like to cumber the Salvation Army with his corpse,'\nand walked out of the room. The draught which he had taken was\ncomparatively harmless.\n\nAs I have mentioned, however, a proportion of the cases are quite\nirreclaimable. They come and consult the Army, then depart and do the\ndeed. Six that can be traced have been lost in this way during the\nlast few months.\n\nColonel Unsworth explained to me what I had already guessed, that this\nbusiness of dealing with scores and hundreds of despairing beings\nstanding on the very edge of the grave, is a terrible strain upon any\nman. The responsibility becomes too great, and he who has to bear it\nis apt to be crushed beneath its weight. Every morning he reads his\npaper with a sensation of nervous dread, fearing lest among the police\nnews he should find a brief account of the discovery of some corpse\nwhich he can identify as that of an individual with whom he had\npleaded at his office on the yesterday and in vain.\n\nOn former occasions when I visited him, Colonel Unsworth used to show\nme a small museum of poisons, knives, revolvers, etc., which he had\ntaken from those who proposed to use them to cut the Gordian knot of\nlife.\n\nNow, however, he has but few of these dreadful relics. I asked him\nwhat he had done with the rest. He answered that he had destroyed\nthem.\n\n'The truth is,' he added, 'that after some years of this business I\ncan no longer bear to look at the horrid things; they get upon my\nnerves.'\n\nIf I may venture to offer a word of advice to the Chiefs of the\nSalvation Army, I would suggest that the very responsible position of\nfirst Anti-Suicide Officer in London is not one that any man should be\nasked to fill in perpetuity.\n\n\n\n\nWORK IN THE PROVINCES\n\n\n\nLIVERPOOL\n\nWhen planning this little book I had it in my mind to deal at some\nlength with the Provincial Social Work of the Army, Now I find,\nhowever, that considerations of space must be taken into account; also\nthat it is not needful to set out all the details of that work, seeing\nthat to do so would involve a great deal of repetition.\n\nThe Salvation Army machines for the regeneration of fallen men and\nwomen, if I may so describe them, are, after all, of much the same\ndesign, and vary for the most part only in the matter of size. The\nmaterial that goes through those machines is, it is true, different,\nyet even its infinite variety, if considered in the mass, has a\ncertain similitude. For these reasons, therefore, I will only speak of\nwhat is done by the Army in three of the great Midland and Northern\ncities that I have visited, namely, Manchester, Liverpool, and\nGlasgow, and of that but briefly, although my notes concerning it run\nto over 100 typed pages.\n\nThe lady in charge of the Slum Settlement in Liverpool informed me\nthat the poverty in that city is very great, and during the past\nwinter of 1919 was really terrible owing to the scarceness of work in\nthe docks. The poor, however, are not so overcrowded, and rents are\ncheaper than in London, the cost of two dwelling-cellars being about\n2_s_. 6_d_., and of a room about 3_s_. a week. The sisterhood of\nfallen women is, she added, very large in Liverpool; but most of these\nbelong to a low class.\n\nIn this city the Army has one Institution for women called the 'Ann\nFowler' Memorial Home, which differs a good deal from the majority of\nthose that I have seen. It is a Lodging-Home for Women, and is\ndesigned for the accommodation of persons of a better class than those\nwho generally frequent such places. This building, which was provided\nin memory of her mother by Miss Fowler, a local philanthropist, at a\ncost of about \u00a36,000, was originally a Welsh Congregational chapel,\nthat has been altered to suit the purpose to which it is now put. It\nis extremely well fitted-up with separate cubicles made of oak\npanelling, good lavatory accommodation, and kitchens in which is made\nsome of the most excellent soup that I ever tasted.\n\nYet strange to say this place is not as much appreciated as it might\nbe, as may be judged from the fact that although it is designed to\nhold 113 lodgers, when I visited it there were not more than between\nforty and fifty. This is remarkable, as the charge made is only 4_d_.\nper night, or 2_s_. a week, even for a cubicle, and an excellent\nbreakfast of bread and butter, fish, and tea can be had for 2_d_.\nOther meals are supplied on a like scale, with the result that a woman\nemployed in outside work can live in considerable comfort in a room or\ncubicle of her own for about 8_s_. a week.\n\nThe lady in charge told me, however, that there are reasons for this\nstate of affairs. One is that it provides for people of a rather\nhigher class than usual, who, of course, are not so numerous as those\nlower in the social scale.\n\nThe principal reason, however, is prejudice. It is known that most of\nthe women accommodated in the Army Shelters are what are known as\n'fallen' or 'drunks.' Therefore, occupants of a Home devoted to a\nhigher section of society fear lest they should be tarred with the\nsame brush in the eyes of their associates.\n\nHere is a story which illustrates this point which I remember hearing\nin the United States. A woman, whose inebriety was well known, was\npicked up absolutely dead drunk in an American city and taken by an\nOfficer of the Army to one of its Homes and put to bed. In the morning\nshe awoke and, guessing where she was lodged from various signs and\ntokens, such as texts upon the wall, began to scream for her clothes.\nAn attendant, who thought that she had developed delirium tremens, ran\nup and asked what was the matter.\n\n'Matter?' ejaculated the sot, 'the matter is that if I don't get out\nof this ---- place in double quick time, _I shall lose my character!_'\n\nThe women who avail themselves of this 'Ann Fowler' Home are of all\nages and in various employments. One, I was told, was a lady separated\nfrom her husband, whose father, now dead, had been the mayor of a\nlarge city.\n\nA Liverpool Institution of another class, known as 'The Hollies,' is\nan Industrial Home for fallen women, drunkards, thieves, and\nincorrigible girls. It holds thirty-eight inmates and is always full,\na good many of these being sent to the place from Police-courts whence\nthey are discharged under the First Offenders Acts.\n\nI saw these women at their evening prayers. The singing was hearty and\nspontaneous, and they all seemed happy enough. Still, the faces of\nmost of them (they varied in age from forty-six to sixteen) showed\ntraces of life's troubles, but one or two were evidently persons of\nsome refinement. Their histories, which would fill volumes, must be\nomitted. Suffice it to say that this Home, like all the others, is\nextremely well-arranged and managed, and is doing a most excellent and\nsuccessful work.\n\nWhen the women are believed to be cured of their evil habits, whatever\nthey may be, they are for the most part sent out to service. There are\ntwo rooms in the place to which they can return during their holidays,\nor when they are changing situations, at a charge of 5s. a week. This\nmany of them like to do.\n\nNext door to 'The Hollies' is another Home where young girls with\ntheir illegitimate babies, and also a few children, are accommodated.\nIt is arranged to hold twenty-four mothers, and is generally full. A\ncharge of 5s. a week is supposed to be made, but unless the cases are\nsent from the workhouse, when the Guardians pay, in practice little is\nrecovered from the patients. When they are well again, their babies\nare put out to nurse, as at the London Maternity Home, and the girls\nare sent to service, no difficulty being experienced in finding them\nplaces. During the two years that this Home had been open eighty-two\ngirls had passed through it, and of these, the Matron informed me,\nthere were but ten who were not doing so well as they might. The rest\nwere in employment of one sort or another, and seemed to be in the way\nof completely regaining their characters.\n\nI visited this place late at night, and in the room devoted to\nchildren, as distinct from infants, saw one girl of nine with a\ncurious history. This child had been twelve times in the hands of the\npolice before her father brought her to the Army on their suggestion.\nHer mania was to run away from home, where it does not appear that she\nwas ill-treated, and to sleep in the streets, on one occasion for as\nlong as five nights. This child had a very curious face, and even in\nher sleep, as I saw her, there was about it something wild and\ndefiant. When the Matron turned her over she did not yawn or cry, but\nuttered a kind of snarl. I suppose that here is an instance of\natavism, that the child throw back for thousands or tens of thousands\nof years, to when her progenitors were savages, and that their\nprimitive instincts have reasserted themselves in her, although she\nwas born in the twentieth century. She had been ten months in the Home\nand was doing well. Indeed, the Matron told me that they had taken her\nout and given her opportunities of running away, but that she had\nnever attempted to avail herself of them.\n\nThe Officer in charge informed me that there is much need for a\nMaternity Hospital in Liverpool.\n\nThere are also Institutions for men in Liverpool, but these I must\npass over.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEN'S SOCIAL WORK\n\n\n\nMANCHESTER\n\nThe Officer in charge of the Men's Social Work in Manchester told me\nthe same story that I had heard in Liverpool as to the prevailing\ndistress. He said, 'It has been terrible the last few winters. I have\nnever seen anything like it. We know because they come to us, and the\ntrouble is more in a fixed point than in London. Numbers and numbers\ncome, destitute of shelter or food or anything. The cause is want of\nemployment. There is no work. Many cases, of course, go down through\ndrink, but the most cannot get work. The fact is that there are more\nmen than there is work for them to do, and this I may say is a regular\nthing, winter and summer.'\n\nA sad statement surely, and one that excites thought.\n\nI asked what became of this residue who could not find work. His\nanswer was, 'They wander about, die off, and so on.'\n\nA still sadder statement, I think.\n\nThe Major in charge is a man of great organising ability, force of\ncharacter, and abounding human sympathy. Yet he was once one of the\nmelancholy army of wasters. Some seventeen years ago he came into the\nArmy through one of its Shelters, a drunken, out-of-place\ncabinet-maker, who had been tramping the streets. They gave him work\nand he 'got converted.' Now he is the head of the Manchester Social\nInstitutions, engaged in finding work for or converting thousands of\nothers.\n\nAt first the Army had only one establishment in Manchester, which used\nto be a cotton mill. Now it is a Shelter for 200 men. Then it took\nothers, some of which are owned and some hired, among them a great\n'Elevator' on the London plan, where waste paper is sorted and sold.\nThe turn-over here was over \u00a38,000 in 1909, and may rise to \u00a312,000. I\nforget how many men it finds work for, but every week some twenty-five\nnew hands come in, and about the same number pass out.\n\nThis is a wonderful place, filled with what appears to be rubbish, but\nwhich is really valuable material. Among this rubbish all sorts of\nstrange things are to be found. Thus I picked out of it, and kept as a\nsouvenir, a beautifully-bound copy of Wesley's Hymns, published about\na hundred years ago. Lying near it was an early edition of Scott's\n'Marmion.' This Elevator more than pays its way; indeed the Army is\nsaving money out of it, which is put by to purchase other buildings.\n\nThen there are houses where the people employed in the paper-works\nlodge, a recently-acquired home for the better class of men, which was\nonce a mansion of the De Clifford family, and afterwards a hospital,\nand a store where every kind of oddment is sold by Dutch auction.\nThese articles are given to the Army, and among the week's collection\nI saw clocks, furniture, bicycles, a parrot cage, and a crutch. Not\nlong ago the managers of this store had a goat presented to them,\nwhich nearly ate them out of house and home, as no one would buy it,\nand they did not like to send the poor beast to the butcher.\n\nIn these various Shelters and Institutions I saw some strange\ncharacters. One had been an electrical engineer, educated under\nProfessor Owen, at Cardiff College. He came into money, and gambled\naway \u00a313,000 on horse-racing, although he told me that he won as much\nas \u00a38,000 on one Ascot meeting. His subsequent history is a story in\nitself, one too long to set out; but the end of it, in his own words,\nwas 'Four years ago I came here, and, thank God! I am going on all\nright.'\n\nWhy do not the writers of naturalistic novels study Salvation Army\nShelters? In any one of them they would find more material than could\nbe used up in ten lifetimes; though, personally, I confess I am\ncontent to read such stories in the secret annals of the various\nInstitutions.\n\nAnother man, a very pleasant and humorous person, who was once a\nChurch worker and a singer in the choir, etc., when, in his own words,\nhe used 'to put on religion with his Sunday clothes and take it off\nagain with them,' came to grief through sheer love of amusement, such\nas that which is to be found in music-halls and theatres. His habit\nwas to spend the money of an insurance company by which he was\nemployed, in taking out the young lady to whom he was engaged, to such\nentertainments. Ultimately, of course, he was found out, and, when\nstarving on the road, determined to commit suicide. The Salvationists\nfound him in the nick of time, and now he is foreman of their\npaper-collecting yard.\n\nAnother, at the ripe age of twenty-four, had been twenty-seven times\nin prison. His father was in prison, his eldest brother committed\nsuicide in prison by throwing himself over the banisters. Also, he had\ntwo brothers at present undergoing penal servitude, who, when he was a\nlittle fellow, used to pass him through windows to open doors in\nhouses which they were burgling.\n\nI suggested that it was a poor game and that he had better give it up.\nHe answered:--'I shall never do it again, sir, God helping me.'\nReally I think he meant what he said.\n\nAnother, in the Chepstow Street Shelter, where he acted as\nnight-watchman, was discharged from Portland, after serving a fifteen\nyears' sentence for manslaughter. His trouble was that he killed a man\nin a fight, and as he had fought him before and had a grudge against\nhim, was very nearly hanged for his pains. This man earned \u00a39 in some\nway or other during his sentence, which he sent to his wife.\nAfterwards, he discovered that she had been living with another man,\nwho died and left her well off. But she has never refunded the \u00a39, nor\nwill she have anything to do with her husband.\n\n\n\n\nOAKHILL HOUSE\n\n\n\nMANCHESTER\n\nOakhill House is a Rescue Home for women, which was given to the Army\nby Mrs. Crossley, a well-known local lady. It deals with prison,\nfallen, inebriate, and preventive cases. At the time of my visit there\nwere sixty-three inmates, but when a new adjacent building is\ncompleted there will be room for more. There is a wonderful laundry in\nthis Home, where the most beautiful washing is done at extremely\nmoderate prices. The ironing and starching room was a busy sight, but\nwhat I chiefly remember about it was the spectacle of one melancholy\nold man, the only male among that crowd of women, seated by a\nsteam-boiler that drove the machinery, to which it was his business to\nattend. (No woman can be persuaded to look after a boiler.) In the\nmidst of all those females he had the appearance of a superannuated\nand disillusioned Turk contemplating his too extensive establishment\nand reflecting on its monthly bills.\n\nThe matron in charge informed me that even for these rough women there\nis no system of punishment whatsoever. No girl is ever restricted in\nher food, or put on bread and water, or struck, or shut away by\nherself. The Army maxim is that it is its mission not to punish but to\ntry to reform. If in any particular case its methods of gentleness\nfail, which they rarely do, it is considered best that the case should\ndepart, very possibly to return again later on.\n\nShe added that although many of these women had committed assaults,\nand even fought the Police, not one of them attacks another in the\nHome once in a year, and that during her twenty years of work,\nalthough she had lived among some of the worst women in England, she\nhad never received a single blow. As an illustration of what the\nSalvation Army understands by this word 'work' I may state that\nthroughout these twenty years, except for the allotted annual\nfortnight, this lady has had no furlough.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEN'S SOCIAL WORK\n\n\n\nGLASGOW\n\nI saw the Brigadier in charge of the Men's Social Work in Glasgow at a\ngreat central Institution where hundreds of poor people sleep every\nnight. The inscriptions painted on the windows give a good idea of its\ncharacter. Here are some of them: 'Cheap beds.' 'Cheap food.' 'Waste\npaper collected.' 'Missing friends found.' 'Salvation for all.'\n\nIn addition to this Refuge there is an 'Elevator' of the usual type,\nin which about eighty men were at work, and an establishment called\nthe Dale House Home, a very beautiful Adams' house, let to the Army at\na small rent by an Eye Hospital that no longer requires it. This house\naccommodates ninety-seven of the men who work in the Elevator.\n\nThe Brigadier informed me that the distress at Glasgow was very great\nlast year. Indeed, during that year of 1909 the Army fed about 35,000\nmen at the docks, and 65,000 at the Refuge, a charity which caused\nthem to be officially recognized for the first time by the\nCorporation, that sent them a cheque in aid of their work. Now,\nhowever, things have much improved, owing to the building of\nmen-of-war and the forging of great guns for the Navy. At Parkhead\nForge alone 8,000 men are being employed upon a vessel of the\nDreadnought class, which will occupy them for a year and a half. So it\nwould seem that these monsters of destruction have their peaceful\nuses.\n\nGlasgow, he said, 'is a terrible place for drink, especially of\nmethylated spirits and whisky.' Drink at the beginning, I need hardly\nremark, means destitution at the end, so doubtless this failing\naccounts for a large proportion of its poverty.\n\nThe Men's Social Work of the Army in Glasgow, which is its\nHeadquarters in Scotland, is spreading in every direction, not only in\nthat city itself, but beyond it to Paisley, Greenock, and Edinburgh.\nIndeed, the Brigadier has orders 'to get into Dundee and Aberdeen as\nsoon as possible.' I asked him how he would provide the money. He\nanswered, 'Well, by trusting in God and keeping our powder dry.'\n\nAs regards the Army's local finance the trouble is that owing to the\nnational thriftiness it is harder to make commercial ventures pay in\nScotland than in England. Thus I was informed that in Glasgow the\nCorporation collects and sells its own waste paper, which means that\nthere is less of that material left for the Salvation Army to deal\nwith. In England, so far as I am aware, the waste-paper business is\nnot a form of municipal trading that the Corporations of great cities\nundertake.\n\nAnother leading branch of the Salvation Army effort in Scotland is its\nPrison work. It is registered in that country as a Prisoners' Aid\nSociety, and the doors of every jail in the land are open to its\nOfficers. I saw the Army's prison book, in which are entered the\ndetails of each prison case with which it is dealing. Awful enough\nsome of them were.\n\nI remember two that caught my eye as I turned its pages. The first was\nthat of a man who had gone for a walk with his wife, from whom he was\nseparated, cut her head off, and thrown it into a field. The second\nwas that of another man, or brute beast, who had taken his child by\nthe heels and dashed out its brains against the fireplace. It may be\nwondered why these gentle creatures still adorn the world. The\nexplanation seems to be that in Scotland there is a great horror of\ncapital punishment, which is but rarely inflicted.\n\nMy recollection is that the Officer who visited them had hopes of the\npermanent reformation of both these men; or, at any rate, that there\nwere notes in his book to this effect.\n\nI saw many extraordinary cases in this Glasgow Refuge, some of whom\nhad come there through sheer misfortune. One had been a medical man\nwho, unfortunately, was left money and took to speculating on the\nStock Exchange. He was a very large holder of shares in a South\nAfrican mine, which he bought at 1s. 6d. These shares now stand at \u00a37;\nbut, unhappily for him, his brokers dissolved partnership, and neither\nof them would carry over his account. So it was closed down just at\nthe wrong time, with the result that he lost everything, and finally\ncame to the streets. He never drank or did anything wrong; it was, as\nhe said, 'simply a matter of sheer bad luck.'\n\nAnother was a Glasgow silk merchant, who made a bad debt of \u00a33,000\nthat swamped him. Afterwards he became paralysed, but recovered. He\nhad been three years cashier of this Shelter.\n\nAnother arrived at the Shelter in such a state that the Officer in\ncharge told me he was obliged to throw his macintosh round him to hide\nhis nakedness. He was an engineer who took a public-house, and helped\nhimself freely to his stock-in-trade, with the result that he became a\nfrightful drunkard, and lost \u00a31,700. He informed me that he used to\nconsume no less than four bottles of whisky a day, and suffered from\ndelirium tremens several times. In the Shelter--I quote his own\nwords--'I gave my heart to God, and after that all desire for drink\nand wrongdoing' (he had not been immaculate in other ways) 'gradually\nleft me. From 1892 I had been a drunkard. After my conversion, in less\nthan three weeks I ceased to have any desire for drink.'\n\nThis man became night-watchman in the Shelter, a position which he\nheld for twelve months. He said: 'I was promoted to be Sergeant; when\nI put on my uniform and stripes, I reckoned myself a man again. Then I\nwas made foreman of the works at Greendyke Street. Then I was sent to\npioneer our work in Paisley, and when that was nicely started, I was\nsent on to Greenock, where I am now trying to work up a (Salvation\nArmy) business.'\n\nHere, for a reason to be explained presently, I will quote a very\nsimilar case which I saw at the Army Colony at Hadleigh, in Essex.\nThis man, also a Scotsman (no Englishman, I think, could have survived\nsuch experiences), is a person of fine and imposing appearance, great\nbodily strength, and good address. He is about fifty years of age, and\nhas been a soldier, and after leaving the Service, a gardener. Indeed,\nhe is now, or was recently, foreman market-gardener at Hadleigh. He\nmarried a hospital nurse, and found out some years after marriage that\nshe was in the habit of using drugs. This habit he contracted also,\neither during her life or after her death, and with it that of drink.\n\nHis custom was to drink till he was a wreck, and then take drugs,\neither by the mouth or subcutaneously, to steady himself. Chloroform\nand ether he mixed together and drank, strychnine he injected. At the\nbeginning of this course, threepennyworth of laudanum would suffice\nhim for three doses. At the end, three years later (not to mention\nether, chloroform, and strychnine), he took of laudanum alone nearly a\ntablespoonful ten or twelve times a day, a quantity, I understand,\nwhich is enough to kill five or six horses. One of the results was\nthat when he had to be operated on for some malady, it was found\nimpossible to bring him under the influence of the anaesthetic. All\nthat could be done was to deprive him of his power of movement, in\nwhich state he had to bear the dreadful pain of the operation.\nAfterwards the surgeon asked him if he were a drug-taker, and he told\nme that he answered:--\n\n'Why, sir, I could have drunk all the lot you have been trying to give\nme, without ever knowing the difference.'\n\nIn this condition, when he was such a wreck that he trembled from head\nto foot and was contemplating suicide, he came into the hands of the\nArmy, and was sent down to the Hadleigh Farm.\n\nNow comes the point of the story. At Hadleigh he 'got converted,' and\nfrom that hour has never touched either drink or drugs. Moreover, he\nassured me solemnly that he could go into a chemist's shop or a bar\nwith money in his pocket without feeling the slightest desire to\nindulge in such stimulants. He said that after his conversion, he had\na 'terrible fight' with his old habits, the physical results of their\ndiscontinuance being most painful. Subsequently, however, and by\ndegrees, the craving left him entirely, I asked him to what he\nattributed this extraordinary cure. He replied:--\n\n'To the power of God. If I trusted in my own strength I should\ncertainly fail, but the power of God keeps me from being overcome.'\n\nNow these are only two out of a number of cases that I have seen\nmyself, in which a similar explanation of his cure has been given to\nme by the person cured, and I would like to ask the unprejudiced and\nopen-minded reader how he explains them. Personally I cannot explain\nthem except upon an hypothesis which, as a practical person, I confess\nI hesitate to adopt. I mean that of a direct interposition from above,\nor of the working of something so unrecognized or so undefined in the\nnature of man (which it will be remembered the old Egyptians, a very\nwise people, divided into many component parts, whereof we have now\nlost count), that it may be designated an innate superior power or\nprinciple, brought into action by faith or 'suggestion.'\n\nThat these people who have been the slaves of, or possessed by certain\ngross and palpable vices, of which drink is only one, are truly and\ntotally changed, there can be no question. To that I am able to bear\nwitness. The demoniacs of New Testament history cannot have been more\ntransformed; and I know of no stranger experience than to listen to\nsuch men, as I have times and again, speaking of their past selves as\nentities cast off and gone, and of their present selves as new\ncreatures. It is, indeed, one that throws a fresh light upon certain\ndifficult passages in the Epistles of St. Paul, and even upon the\ndarker sayings of the Master of mankind Himself. They do, in truth,\nseem to have been 'born again.' But this is a line of thought that I\nwill not attempt to follow; it lies outside my sphere and the scope of\nthese pages.\n\nAfter the Officer who used to consume four bottles of whisky a day,\nand is now in charge of the Salvation Army work in Greenock, had left\nthe room, I propounded these problems to Lieut.-Colonel Jolliffe and\nthe Brigadier, as I had done previously to Commissioner Sturgess. I\npointed out that religious conversion seemed to me to be a spiritual\nprocess, whereas the craving for drink or any other carnal\nsatisfaction was, or appeared to be, a physical weakness of the body.\nTherefore, I did not understand how the spiritual conversion could\nsuddenly and permanently affect or remove the physical desire, unless\nit were by the action of the phenomenon called miracle, which mankind\nadmits doubtfully to have been possible in the dim period of the birth\nof a religion, but for the most part denies to be possible in these\nlatter days.\n\n'Quite so,' answered the Colonel, calmly, in almost the same words\nthat Commissioner Sturgess had used, 'it _is_ miracle; that is our\nbelief. These men cannot change and purify themselves, their vices are\ninstantaneously, permanently, and miraculously removed by the power\nand the Grace of God. This is the truth, and nothing more wonderful\ncan be conceived.'\n\nHere, without further comment, I leave this deeply interesting matter\nto the consideration of abler and better instructed persons than\nmyself.\n\nTo come to something more mundane, which also deserves consideration,\nI was informed that in Glasgow, with a population of about 900,000,\nthere exists a floating class of 80,000 people, who live in\nlodging-houses of the same sort as, and mostly inferior to the\nSalvation Army Shelter of which I am now writing. In other words, out\nof every twelve inhabitants of this great city, one is driven to that\nmethod of obtaining a place to sleep in at night.\n\nIn this particular Refuge there is what is called a free shelter room,\nwhere people are accommodated in winter who have not even the few\ncoppers necessary to pay for a bed. During the month before my visit,\nwhich took place in the summer-time, the Brigadier had allotted free\nbeds in this room to destitute persons to the value of \u00a313. I may add\nthat twice a week this particular place is washed with a carbolic\nmixture!\n\n\n\n\nTHE ARDENSHAW WOMEN'S HOME\n\n\n\nGLASGOW\n\nI visited two of the Salvation Army's Women's Institutions in Glasgow.\nThe first of these was a Women's Rescue Home known as Ardenshaw. This\nis a very good house, substantially built and well fitted up, that\nbefore it was bought by the Army was the residence of a Glasgow\nmerchant. It has accommodation for thirty-six, and is always full. The\ninmates are of all kinds, prison cases, preventive cases, fallen\ncases, drink cases. The very worst of all these classes, however, are\nnot taken in here, but sent to the Refuge in High Street. Ardenshaw\nresembles other Homes of the same sort that I have already dealt with\nin various cities, so I need not describe it here.\n\nIts Officers visit the prisons at Duke Street, Glasgow, Ayr, and\nGreenock, and I saw a letter which had just arrived from the chaplain\nof one of these jails, asking the Matron to interest herself in the\ncase of a girl coming up for trial, and to take her into a Home if she\nwere discharged as a first offender.\n\nWhile I was eating some lunch in this house I noticed a young woman in\nSalvation Army dress coming up the steps with a child of particularly\ncharming appearance. At my request she was brought into the room,\nwhere I extracted from her a story which seems to be worth repeating\nas an illustration of the spirit which animates so many members of the\nArmy.\n\nThe young woman herself had once been an invalid who was taken into\nthe Home and nursed till she recovered, after which she was sent to a\nsituation in a large town. Here she came in contact with a poor family\nin which the mother is a drunkard and the father a respectable,\nhardworking man, and took a great fancy to one of the children, the\nlittle girl I have mentioned. This child, who is about five years of\nage, it is her habit to supply with clothes and more or less to feed.\nUnfortunately, however, when the mother is on the drink she pawns the\nclothes which my Salvation Army friend is obliged to redeem, since if\nshe does not, little Bessie is left almost naked. Indeed, before\nBessie was brought away upon this particular visit her protectress had\nto pay 14_s_. to recover her garments from the pawnshop, a\nconsiderable sum out of a wage of about \u00a318 a year.\n\nI asked her why she did not take away this very fascinating child\naltogether, and arrange for her to enter one of the Army Homes. She\nanswered because, although the mother would be glad enough to let her\ngo, the father, who is naturally fond of his children, objected.\n\n'Of which the result may be,' remarked Lieut.-Colonel Jolliffe grimly,\n'that about a dozen years hence that sweet little girl will become a\nstreet-walking drunkard.'\n\n'Not while I live,' broke in her foster-mother, indignantly.\n\nThis kind-hearted little woman told me she had been six years in\nservice as sole maid-of-all-work in a large house. I inquired whether\nit was a hard place. She replied that it would be easier if her four\nmistresses, who are sisters and old maiden ladies, did not all take\ntheir meals at four different times, have four different teapots,\ninsist upon their washing being sent to four different laundries,\nemploy four different doctors, and sleep in four different rooms.\n'However,' she added, 'it is not so difficult as it was as there used\nto be five, but one has died. Also, they are kind to me in other ways\nand about Bessie. They like me to come here for my holiday, as then\nthey know I shall return on the right day and at the right hour.'\n\nWhen she had left the room, having in mind the capacities of the\naverage servant, and the outcry she is apt to make about her\nparticular 'work,' I said that it seemed strange that one young woman\ncould fulfil all these multifarious duties satisfactorily.\n\n'Oh,' said the matter-of-fact Colonel, 'you see, she belongs to the\nSalvation Army, and looks at things from the point of view of her\nduty, and not from that of her comfort.'\n\nIt is curious at what a tender age children learn to note the habits\nof those about them. When this little Bessie was given _2d_. she\nlisped out in her pretty Scotch accent, 'Mother winna have this for\nbeer!'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSE\n\n\n\nGLASGOW\n\nThe last place that I visited in Glasgow was the Shelter for women, an\nInstitution of the same sort as the Shelter for men. It is a\nLodging-house in which women can have a bed at the price of 4_d_. per\nnight; but if that sum is not forthcoming, they are not, as a rule,\nturned away if they are known to be destitute.\n\nThe class of people who frequent this Home is a very low one; for the\nmost part they are drunkards. They must leave the Shelter before ten\no'clock in the morning, when the majority of them go out hawking,\nselling laces, or other odds and ends. Some of them earn as much as\n2_s_. a day; but, as a rule, they spend a good deal of what they earn,\nonly saving enough to pay for their night's lodging. This place has\nbeen open for sixteen years, and contains 133 beds, which are almost\nalways full.\n\nThe women whom I saw at this Shelter were a very rough-looking set,\nnearly all elderly, and, as their filthy garments and marred\ncountenances showed, often the victims of drink. Still, they have good\nin them, for the lady in charge assured me that they are generous to\neach other. If one of the company has nothing they will collect the\nprice of her bed or her food between them, and even pay her debts, if\nthese are not too large. There were several children in the place, for\neach woman is allowed to bring in one. When I was there many of the\ninmates were cooking their meals on the common stove, and very curious\nand unappetizing these were.\n\nAmong them I noted a dark-eyed lassie of about sixteen who was crying.\nDrawing her aside, I questioned her. It seemed that her father, a\ndrunken fellow, had turned her out of her home that afternoon because\nshe had forgotten to give him a message. Having nowhere to go she\nwandered about the streets until she met a woman who told her of this\nLodging-house. She added, touchingly enough, that it was not her\nmother's fault.\n\nImagine a girl of sixteen thrown out to spend the night upon the\nstreets of Glasgow!\n\nOn the walls of one of the rooms I saw a notice that read oddly in a\nShelter for women. It ran:--\n\n_Smoking is strictly prohibited after retiring_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAND AND INDUSTRIAL COLONY\n\n\n\nHADLEIGH, ESSEX\n\nThe Hadleigh Colony, of which Lieut.-Colonel Laurie is the Officer in\ncharge, is an estate of about 3,000 acres which was purchased by the\nSalvation Army in the year 1891 at a cost of about \u00a320 the acre, the\nland being stiff clay of the usual Essex type. As it has chanced,\nowing to the amount of building which is going on in the neighbourhood\nof Southend, and to its proximity to London, that is within forty\nmiles, the investment has proved a very good one. I imagine that if\never it should come to the hammer the Hadleigh Colony would fetch a\ngreat deal more than \u00a320 the acre, independently of its cultural\nimprovements. These, of course, are very great. For instance, more\nthan 100 acres are now planted with fruit-trees in full bearing. Also,\nthere are brickfields which are furnished with the best machinery and\nplant, ranges of tomato and salad houses, and a large French garden\nwhere early vegetables are grown for market. A portion of the land,\nhowever, still remains in the hands of tenants, with whom the Army\ndoes not like to interfere.\n\nThe total turn-over of the land 'in hand' amounts to the large sum of\nover \u00a330,000 per annum, and the total capital invested is in the\nneighbourhood of \u00a3110,000. Of this great sum about \u00a378,000 is the cost\nof the land and the buildings; the brickworks and other industries\naccount for \u00a312,000, while the remaining \u00a320,000 represents the value\nof the live and dead stock. I believe that the mortgage remaining on\nthe place, which the Army had not funds to pay for outright, is now\nless than \u00a350,000, borrowed at about 4 per cent, and, needless to say,\nit is well secured.\n\nLieut.-Colonel Laurie informed me on the occasion of my last visit to\nHadleigh, in July, 1910, that taken as a whole even now the farm does\nnot pay its way.[6] This result is entirely owing to the character of\nthe labour employed. At first sight, as the men are paid but a\ntrifling sum in cash, it would appear that this labour must be\nextremely cheap. Investigation, however, gives the story another\ncolour.\n\nIt costs the Army 10_s_. a week to keep a man at Hadleigh in food and\nlodgings, and in addition he receives a cash grant of from 6_d_ to\n5_s_. a week.\n\nCareful observation shows that the labour of three of these men, of\nwhom 92 per cent, be it remembered, come to the Colony through their\ndrinking habits, is about equal to that of one good agricultural hand\nwho, in Norfolk, reckoning in his harvest and sundries, would\nearn--let us say, 18s. a week. Therefore, in practice where I, as a\nfarmer, pay about 18s., or in the case of carters and milkmen nearly\n\u00a31, the Army pays \u00a32, circumstances under which it is indeed difficult\nto farm remuneratively in England.\n\nThe object of the Hadleigh Colony is to supply a place where broken\nmen of bad habits, who chance in most cases to have had some connexion\nwith or liking for the land, can be reformed, and ultimately sent out\nto situations, or as emigrants to Canada. About 400 of such men pass\nthrough the Colony each year. Of these men, Lieut.-Colonel Laurie\nestimates that 7-1/2 per cent prove absolute failures, although, he\nadded that, 'it is very, very difficult to determine as to when a man\nshould be labelled an absolute failure. He may leave us an apparent\nfailure, and still come all right in the end.'\n\nThe rest, namely 91 per cent or so, regain their place as decent and\nuseful members of society, a wonderful result which is brought about\nby the pressure of discipline, tempered with kindness, and the\ninfluence of steady and healthful work.\n\nPersons of every class drift to this Colony. Thus, among the 230\nColonists who were training there when I visited it in July, 1910,\nwere two chemists and a journalist, while a Church of England\nclergyman had just left it for Canada.\n\nAs a specimen of the ruck, however, I will mention the first\nindividual to whom I happened to speak--a strong young man, who was\nweeding a bed of onions. He told me that he had been a farm labourer\nin early life, and, subsequently, for six years a coachman in a\nprivate livery stables in London. He lost his place through drink,\nbecame a wanderer on the Embankment, was picked up by the Salvation\nArmy and sent to one of its Elevator paper-works. Afterwards, he\nvolunteered to work on the land at Hadleigh, where he had then been\nemployed for nine months. His ambition was to emigrate to Canada,\nwhich, doubtless, he has now done, or is about to do. Such cases might\nbe duplicated by the dozen, but for this there is no need. _Ex uno\ndisce omnes_.\n\nAll the labour employed, however, is not of this class. For instance,\nthe next man to whom I spoke, who was engaged in ploughing up old\ncabbage land with a pair of very useful four-year-olds, bred on the\nfarm, was not a Colonist but an agricultural hand, paid at the rate of\nwages usual in the district. Another, who managed the tomato-houses,\nwas a skilled professional tomato-grower from the Channel Islands. The\nexperience of the managers of the Colony is that it is necessary to\nemploy a certain number of expert agriculturalists on the place, in\norder that they may train the raw hands who come from London and\nelsewhere.\n\nTo a farmer, such as the present writer, a visit to Hadleigh is an\nextremely interesting event, showing him, as it does, what can be done\nupon cold and unkindly land by the aid of capital, intelligence, and\nlabour. Still I doubt whether a detailed description of all these\nagricultural operations falls within the scope of a book such as that\nupon which I am engaged.\n\nTherefore, I will content myself with saying that this business, like\neverything else that the Army undertakes, is carried out with great\nthoroughness and considerable success. The extensive orchards are\nadmirably managed, and were fruitful even in the bad season of 1910.\nThe tomato-houses, which have recently been increased at a capital\ncost of about \u00a31,000, produce many tons of tomatoes, and the French\ngarden is excellent of its kind. The breed of Middle-white pigs is to\nbe commended; so much so in my judgment, and I can give no better\ntestimonial, that at the moment of writing I am trying to obtain from\nit a pedigree boar for my own use. The Hadleigh poultry farm, too, is\nfamous all over the world, and the Officer who manages it was the\nPresident for 1910 of the Wyandotte Society, fowls for which Hadleigh\nis famous, having taken the championship prizes for this breed and\nothers all over the kingdom. The cattle and horses are also good of\ntheir class, and the crops in a trying year looked extremely well.\n\nAll these things, however, are but a means to an end, which end is the\nredemption of our fallen fellow-creatures, or such of them as come\nwithin the reach of the work of the Salvation Army at this particular\nplace.\n\nI should add, perhaps, that there is a Citadel or gathering hall,\nwhich will seat 400, where religious services are held and concerts\nare given on Saturday nights for the amusement of the Colonists. I may\nmention that no pressure is brought to bear to force any man in its\ncharge to conform to the religious principles of the Army. Indeed,\nmany of these attend the services at the neighbouring parish church.\nNotwithstanding the past characters of those who live there,\ndisturbances of any sort are unknown at Hadleigh. Indeed, it is\nextremely rare for a case originating on the Colony to come before the\nlocal magistrates.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SMALL-HOLDINGS SETTLEMENT\n\n\n\nBOXTED, ESSEX\n\nGeneral Booth and his Officers are, as I know from various\nconversations with them, firmly convinced that many of the great and\npatent evils of our civilization result from the desertion of the land\nby its inhabitants, and that crowding into cities which is one of the\nmost marked phenomena of our time. Indeed, it was an identity of view\nupon this point, which is one that I have advanced for years, that\nfirst brought me into contact with the Salvation Army. But to preach\nthe advantages of bringing people back to the land is one thing, and\nto get them there quite another. Many obstacles stand in the way. I\nneed only mention two of these: the necessity for large capital and\nthe still more important necessity of enabling those who are settled\non it to earn out of Mother Earth a sufficient living for themselves\nand their families.\n\nThat well-known philanthropist, the late Mr. Herring, was another\nperson much impressed with the importance of this matter, and I\nremember about five years ago dining with him, with General Booth as\nmy fellow-guest, on an occasion when all this subject was gone into in\ndetail. So lively, indeed, was Mr. Herring's interest that he offered\nto advance a sum of \u00a3100,000 to the Army, to be used in an experiment\nof land-settlement, carried out under its auspices. Should that\nexperiment prove successful, the capital repaid by the tenants was to\ngo to King Edward's Hospital Fund, and should it fail, that capital\nwas to be written off. Of this \u00a3100,000, \u00a340,000 has now been invested\nin the Boxted venture, and if this succeeds, I understand that the\nbalance will become available for other ventures under the provisions\nof Mr. Herring's will. A long while must elapse, however, before the\nresult of the experiment can be definitely ascertained.\n\nThe Boxted Settlement is situated In North Essex, about three miles\nfrom Colchester, and covers an area of 400 acres. It is a flat place,\nthat before the Enclosures Acts was a heath, with good road frontages\nthroughout, an important point where small-holdings are concerned. The\nsoil is a medium loam over gravel, neither very good nor very bad, so\nfar as my judgment goes, and of course capable of great improvement\nunder intensive culture.\n\nThis estate, which altogether cost about \u00a320 per acre to buy, has\nbeen divided into sixty-seven holdings, varying in size from 4-1/2\nacres to 7 acres. The cottages which stand upon the holdings have been\nbuilt in pairs, at a cost of about \u00a3380 per pair, which price\nincludes drainage, a drinking well, and, I think, a soft-water\ncistern. These are extremely good dwellings, and I was much struck\nwith their substantial and practical character. They comprise three\nbedrooms, a large living-room, a parlour, and a scullery, containing a\nsink and a bath. Also there is a tool-house, a pigstye, and a movable\nfowl-house on wheels.\n\nOn each holding an orchard of fruit trees has been planted in\nreadiness for the tenant, also strawberries, currants, gooseberries,\nand raspberries, which in all occupy about three-quarters of an acre.\nThe plan is that the rest of the holding should be cultivated\nintensively upon a system that is estimated to return \u00a320 per acre.\n\nThe arrangement between the Army and its settlers is briefly as\nfollows: In every case the tenant begins without any capital, and is\nprovided with seeds and manures to carry him through the first two\nyears, also with a living allowance at the rate of 10_s_. a week for\nthe man and his wife, and 1_s_. a week for each child, which allowance\nis to cease after he has marketed his first crops.\n\nThe tenancy terms are, that for two years the settler is a tenant at\nwill, the agreement being terminable by either party at any time\nwithout compensation. At the end of these two years, subject to the\napproval of the Director of the Settlement, the settler can take a 999\nyears' lease of his holding, the Army for obvious reasons retaining\nthe freehold. After the first year of this lease, the rental payable\nfor forty years is to be 5 per cent per annum upon the capital\ninvested in the settlement of the man and his family upon the holding,\nwhich rent is to include the cost of the house, land, and\nimprovements, and all moneys advanced to him during his period of\nprobation.\n\nIt is estimated that this capital sum will average \u00a3520 per holding,\nso that the tenant's annual rent for forty years will be \u00a326, after\nwhich he will have nothing more to pay save a nominal rent, and the\nremainder of the lease will be the property of himself, or rather, of\nhis descendants. This property, I presume, will be saleable.\n\nSo, putting aside all legal technicalities and complications, it comes\nto this: the tenant is started for two years after which he pays about\n\u00a34 a year rent per acre for the next forty years, and thereby\nvirtually purchases his holding. The whole question, which time alone\ncan answer, is whether a man can earn \u00a34 per acre rent per annum, and,\nin addition, provide a living for himself and family out of a\nfive-acre holding on medium land near Colchester.\n\nThe problem is one upon which I cannot venture to express any decisive\nopinion, even after many years of experience of such matters. I trust,\nhowever, that the answer may prove to be in the affirmative, and I am\nquite sure that if any Organization is able to cause it to work out\nthis way, that Organization is the Salvation Army, whose brilliant\nbusiness capacity can, as I know, make a commercial success of the\nmost unpromising materials.\n\nI should like to point out that this venture is one of great and\nalmost of national importance, because if it fails then it will be\npractically proved that it is impossible to establish small holders on\nthe land by artificial means, at any rate, in England, and at the\npresent prices of agricultural produce. It is not often that a sum of\n\u00a340,000 will be available for such a purpose, and with it the\ndirection of a charitable Organization that seeks no profit, the\noversight of an Officer as skilled and experienced as Lieut.-Colonel\nHiffe, and, in addition, a trained Superintendent who will afford\nadvice as to all agricultural matters, a co-operative society ready to\nhire out implements, horses and carts at cost price, and, if so\ndesired, to undertake the distribution or marketing of produce. Still,\nnotwithstanding all these advantages, I have my misgivings as to the\nultimate result.\n\nThe men chosen to occupy these holdings by a Selection Committee of\nSalvation Army Officers, are for the most part married people who were\nborn in the country, but had migrated to the towns. Most of them have\nmore or less kept themselves in touch with country life by cultivating\nallotments during their period of urban residence, and precedence has\nbeen given to those who have shown a real desire to return to the\nland. Other essentials are a good character, both personal and as a\nworker, bodily and mental health, and total abstention from any form\nof alcohol. No creed test is required, and there are men of various\nreligious faiths upon the Settlement, only a proportion of them being\nSalvationists.\n\nI interviewed two of these settlers at hazard upon their holdings,\nand, although the year had been adverse, found them happy and hopeful.\nNo. 1, who had been a mechanic, proposed to increase his earnings by\nmending bicycles. No. 2 was an agriculturist pure and simple, and\nshowed me his fowls and pigs with pride. Here, however, I found a\nlittle rift within the rural lute, for on asking him how his wife\nliked the life he replied after a little hesitation, 'Not very well,\nsir: you see, she has been accustomed to a town.'\n\nIf she continues not to like it 'very well,' there will, I think, be\nan end to that man's prospects as a small holder.\n\nI had the pleasure of bring present in July, 1910, at the formal\nopening of the Boxted Settlement, when the Salvation Army entertained\nseveral hundred guests to luncheon, many of them very well-known\npeople. The day for a wonder was fine, General Booth spoke for over an\nhour in his most characteristic and interesting way; the Chairman,\nEarl Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture, blessed the\nundertaking officially and privately; everybody seemed pleased with\nthe holdings, and, in short, all went merrily as a marriage bell.\n\nAs I sat and listened, however, the query that arose in my mind\nwas--What would be the state of these holdings and of the tenants or\nof their descendants on, say, that day thirty years? I trust and hope\nthat it will be a good state in both instances; but I must confess to\ncertain doubts and fears.\n\nIn this parish of Ditchingham, where I live, there is a man with a few\nacres of land, an orchard, a greenhouse, etc. That man works his\nlittle tenancy, deals in the surplus produce of large gardens, which\nhe peddles out in the neighbouring town, and, on an average, takes\npiecework on my farm (at the moment of writing he and his son are\nhoeing mangolds) for two or three days a week; at any rate, for a\ngreat part of the year. He is a type of what I may call the natural\nsmall holder, and I believe does fairly well. The question is, can the\nartificially created small holder, who must pay a rent of \u00a34 the acre,\nattain to a like result?\n\nAgain, I say I hope so most sincerely, for if not in England 'back to\nthe land' will prove but an empty catchword. At any rate, the country\nshould be most grateful to the late Mr. Herring, who provided the\nfunds for this intensely interesting experiment, and to the Salvation\nArmy which is carrying it out in the interests of the landless poor.\n\n\n\n\nIMPRESSIONS OF GENERAL BOOTH\n\n\n\nIt has occurred to the writer that a few words descriptive of William\nBooth, the creator and first General of the Salvation Army, set down\nby a contemporary who has enjoyed a good many opportunities of\nobserving him during the past ten years, may possibly have a future if\nnot a present value.\n\nOf the greatness of this man, to my mind, there can be no doubt. When\nthe point of time whereon we stand and play our separate parts has\nreceded, and those who follow us look back into the grey mist which\nveils the past; when that mist has hidden the glitter of the\ndecorations and deadened the echoes of the high-sounding titles of\nto-day; when our political tumults, our town-bred excitements, and\nmany of the very names that are household words to us, are forgotten,\nor discoverable only in the pages of history; when, perhaps, the\nSalvation Army itself has fulfilled its mission and gone its road, I\nam certain that the figure of William Booth will abide clearly visible\nin those shadows, and that the influences of his work will remain, if\nnot still felt, at least remembered and honoured. He will be one of\nthe few, of the very few enduring figures of our day; and even if our\ncivilization should be destined to undergo eclipse for a period, as\nseems possible, when the light returns, by it he will still be seen.\n\nFor truly this work of his is fine, and one that appeals to the\nimagination, although we are so near to it that few of us appreciate\nits real proportions. Also, in fact, it is the work that should be\nadmired rather than the man, who, after all, is nothing but the\ninstrument appointed to shape it from the clay of circumstance. The\nclay lay ready to be shaped, then appeared the moulder animated with\nwill and purpose, and working for the work's sake to an end which he\ncould not foresee.\n\nI have no information on the point, but I should be surprised to learn\nthat General Booth, when Providence moved him to begin his labours\namong the poor, had even an inkling of their future growth within the\nshort period of his own life. He sowed a seed in faith and hope, and,\nin spite of opposition and poverty, in spite of ridicule and of\nslander, he has lived to see that seed ripen into a marvellous\nharvest. Directly, or indirectly, hundreds of thousands of men and\nwomen throughout the world have benefited by his efforts. He has been\na tool of destiny, like Mahomet or Napoleon, only in this case one\nfated to help and not to harm mankind. Such, at least, is my estimate\nof him.\n\nA little less of the spirit of self-sacrifice, a different sense of\nresponsibility, and the same strength of imagination and power of\npurpose devoted to purely material objects, might have raised up\nanother multi-millionaire, or a mob-leader, or a self-seeking despot.\nBut, as it happened, some grace was given to him, and the river has\nrun another way.\n\nOpportunity, too, has played into his hands. He saw that the\nrecognized and established Creeds scarcely touched the great, sordid,\nlustful, drink-sodden, poverty-steeped masses of the city populations\nof the world: that they were waiting for a teacher who could speak to\nthem in a tongue they understood. He spoke, and some of them have\nlistened: only a fraction it is true, but still some. More, as it\nchanced, he married a wife who entered into his thoughts, and was able\nto help to fulfil his aspirations, and from that union were born\ndescendants who, for the most part, are fitted to carry on his\nlabours.\n\nFurther, like Loyola, and others, he has the power of rule, being a\nborn leader of men, so that thousands obey his word without question\nin every corner of the earth, although some of these have never seen\nhis face. Lastly, Nature endowed him with a striking presence that\nappeals to the popular mind, with a considerable gift of speech, with\ngreat physical strength and abounding energy, qualities which have\nenabled him to toil without ceasing and to travel far and wide. Thus\nit comes about that as truly as any man of our generation, when his\nhour is ended, he, too, I believe, should be able to say with a clear\nconscience, 'I have finished the work that Thou gavest me to do':\nalthough his heart may add, 'I have not finished it as well as I could\nwish.'\n\nNow let me try to convey my personal impressions of this man. I see\nhim in various conversations with myself, when he has thought that he\ncould make use of me to serve his ever-present and impersonal ends,\ntrying to add me up, wondering how far I was sincere, and to what\nextent I might be influenced by private objects; then, at last,\nconcluding that I was honest in my own fashion, opening his heart\nlittle by little, and finally appealing to me to aid him in his\nlabours.\n\n'I like that man; _he understands me!_' I once heard him say,\nmentioning my name, and believing that he was thinking, not speaking.\n\nI tell this story merely to illustrate his habit of reflecting aloud,\nfor as he spoke these words I was standing beside him. When I repeated\nit to his Officers, one of them remarked horrified:--\n\n'Good gracious! it might just as well have been something much less\ncomplimentary. One never knows what he will say.'\n\nHe is an autocrat, whose word is law to thousands. Had he not been an\nautocrat indeed, the Salvation Army would not exist to-day, for it\nsprang from his brain like Minerva from the head of Jove, and has been\ndriven to success by his single, forceful will.\n\nYet this quality of masterfulness is tempered and illuminated by an\nunfailing sense of humour, which he is quite ready to exercise at his\nown expense. Thus, a few years ago he and I dined with the late Mr.\nHerring, and, as a matter of fact, although I had certain things to\nsay on the matters under discussion, his flow of most interesting\nconversation did not allow me over much opportunity of saying them. It\nis hard to compete in words with one who has preached continually for\nfifty years!\n\nWhen General Booth departed to catch a midnight train, for the\nContinent I think, Mr. Herring went to see him to the door. Returning\npresently, much amused, he repeated their parting words, which were as\nfollows:--\n\nGENERAL BOOTH: 'A very good fellow Haggard; but a talker, you know,\nHerring, a talker!'\n\nMR. HERRING (looking at him): 'Indeed!'\n\nGENERAL BOOTH (laughing): 'Ah! Herring, you mean that it was _I_ who\ndid the talking, not Haggard. Well, _perhaps I did_.'\n\nSome people think that General Booth is conceited.\n\n'It is a pity that the old gentleman is so vain,' a highly-placed\nperson once said to me.\n\nI answered that if he or I had done all that General Booth has done,\nwe might be pardoned a little vanity.\n\nIn truth, however, the charge is mistaken, for at bottom I believe him\nto be a very humble-minded man, and one who does not in the least\noverrate himself. This may be gathered, indeed, from the tenor of his\nremarks on the subject of his personal value to the Army, that I have\nrecorded at the beginning of this book.\n\nWhat people of slower mind and narrower views may mistake for pride,\nin his case, I am sure, is but the impatient and unconscious\nassertiveness of superior power, based upon vision and accumulated\nknowledge. Also, as a general proposition, I believe vanity to be\nalmost impossible to such a man. So far as my experience of life goes,\nthat scarce creature, the innately, as distinguished from the\naccidentally eminent man, he who is fashioned from Nature's gold, not\nmerely gilded by circumstance, is never vain.\n\nSuch a man knows but too well how poor is the fruit of his supremest\neffort, how marred by secret weakness is what the world calls his\nstrength, and when his gifts are in the balance, how hard it would be\nfor any seeing judge to distinguish his success from common failure.\nIt is the little pinchbeck man, whom wealth, accident, or cheap\ncleverness has thrust forward, who grows vain over triumphs that are\nnot worth having, not the great doer of deeds, or the seer whose\nimagination is wide enough to enable him to understand his own utter\ninsignificance in the scale of things.\n\nBut to return to General Booth. Again I hear him explaining to me vast\nschemes, as yet unrealized, that lurk at the back of his vivid,\npractical, organizing brain. Schemes for settling tens of thousands of\nthe city poor upon unoccupied lands in sundry portions of the earth.\nSchemes for great universities or training colleges, in which men and\nwomen might be educated to deal with the social problems of our age on\na scientific basis. Schemes for obtaining Government assistance to\nenable the Army to raise up the countless mass of criminals in many\nlands, taking charge of them as they leave the jail, and by\nregenerating their fallen natures, saving them soul and body.\n\nIn the last interview I had with him, I read to him a note I had made\nof a conversation which had taken place a few days before between Mr.\nRoosevelt and myself on the subject of the Salvation Army. Here is the\nnote, or part of it.\n\nMR. ROOSEVELT: 'Why not make use of all this charitable energy, now\noften misdirected, for national ends?'\n\nMYSELF: 'What I have called \"the waste forces of Benevolence.\" It is\nodd, Mr. Roosevelt, that we should both have come to that conclusion.'\n\nMR. ROOSEVELT: 'Yes, that's the term. You see the reason is that we\nare both sensible men who understand.'\n\n'That is very important,' said General Booth, when he had heard this\nextract. '\"Make use of all this charitable energy, now often\nmisdirected for national ends!\" Why not, indeed? Heaven knows it is\noften misdirected. The Salvation Army has made mistakes enough. If\nonly that could be done it would be a great thing. But first we have\ngot to make other people \"understand\" besides Roosevelt and yourself.'\n\nThat, at least, was the sense of his words.\n\nOnce more I see him addressing a crowded meeting of City men in\nLondon, on a murky winter afternoon. In five minutes he has gripped\nhis audience with his tale of things that are new to most of them,\nquite outside of their experience. He lifts a curtain as it were, and\nshows them the awful misery that lies often at their very office\ndoors, and the duty which is theirs to aid the fallen and the\nsuffering. It is a long address, very long, but none of the hearers\nare wearied.\n\nAt the end of it I had cause to meet him in his office about a certain\nmatter. He had stripped off his coat, and stood in the red jersey of\nhis uniform, the perspiration still streaming from him after the\nexertion of his prolonged effort in that packed hall. As he spoke he\nate his simple meal of vegetables (mushrooms they were, I remember),\nand tea, for, like most of his family, he never touches meat. Either\nhe must see me while he ate or not at all; and when there is work to\nbe done, General Booth does not think of convenience or of rest;\nmoreover, as usual, there was a train to catch. One of his\npeculiarities is that he seems always to be starting for somewhere,\noften at the other side of the world.\n\nLastly, I see him on one of his tours. He is due to speak in a small\ncountry town. His Officers have arrived to make arrangements, and are\nwaiting with the audience. It pours with rain, and he is late. At\nlength the motors dash up through the mud and wet, and out of the\nfirst of them he appears, a tall, cloaked figure. Already that day he\nhas addressed two such meetings besides several roadside gatherings,\nand at night he must speak to a great audience in a city fourteen\nmiles away; also stop at this place and at that before he gets there,\nfor a like purpose. He is to appear in the big city at eight, and\nalready it is half-past three.\n\nFive minutes later he has been assisted on to the platform (for this\nwas before his operation and he was almost blind), and for nearly an\nhour pours out a ceaseless flood of eloquence, telling the history of\nhis Organization, telling of his life's work and of his heart's aims,\nasking for their prayers and help. He looks a very old man now, much\nolder than when first I knew him, and with his handsome, somewhat\nJewish face and long, white beard, a very type of some prophet of\nIsrael. So Abraham must have looked, one thinks, or Jeremiah, or\nElijah. But there is no weariness in his voice or his gestures; and,\nas he exhorts and prays, his darkening eyes seem to flash.\n\nIt is over. He bids farewell to the audience that he has never seen\nbefore, and will never see again, invokes a fervent blessing on them,\nand presently the motors are rushing away into the wet night, bearing\nwith them this burning fire of a man.\n\nSuch are some of my impressions of William Booth, General of the\nSalvation Army.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHIEF OF THE STAFF\n\n\n\nNo account of the Salvation Army would be complete without some words\nabout Mr. Bramwell Booth, General Booth's eldest son and right-hand\nman, who in the Army is known as the Chief of the Staff. Being\nconvinced of this, I sought an interview with him--the last of the\nmany that I have had in connexion with the present work.\n\nIn the Army Mr. Bramwell Booth is generally recognized as 'the power\nbehind the throne.' He it is who, seated in his office in London,\ndirects the affairs and administers the policy of this vast\nOrganization in all lands; the care of the countless Salvation Army\nchurches is on his shoulders, and has been for these many years. He\ndoes not travel outside Europe; his work lies chiefly at home. I\nunderstand, however, that he takes his share in the evangelical\nlabours of the Army, and is a powerful and convincing speaker,\nalthough I have never chanced to hear any of his addresses.\n\n[Illustration: MR. BRAMWELL BOOTH, Chief of the Staff.]\n\nIn appearance at his present age of something over fifty, he is tall\nand not robust, with an extremely sympathetic face that has about it\nlittle of his father's rugged cast and sternness. Perhaps it is this\nevident sympathy that commands the affection of so many, for I have\nbeen told more than once that he is the best beloved man in the Army,\nand one who never uses a stern word.\n\nI found him busy and pressed for time, even more so, if possible, than\nI was myself; he had but just arrived by an early train from some\nprovincial city. In fact, he was then engaged upon his annual\nvisitation to all the Field Officers in the country, which, as he\nexplained, takes him away from London for three days a week for a\nperiod of six weeks, and throws upon him a considerable extra strain\nof mind and body. The diocese of the Salvation Army is very extensive!\n\nI said to Mr. Bramwell Booth that I desired from him his views of the\nArmy as a religious and a social force throughout the wide world, in\nevery land where it sets its foot. I wished to hear of the work\nconsidered as a whole, likewise of that work in its various aspects,\nand of the different races of mankind among which it is carried on.\nAlso, amongst others, I put to him the following specific questions:--\n\n     In what way and by what means does the Army adapt itself to\n     the needs and customs of the various peoples among whom it\n     is established?\n\n     What is its comparative measure of success with each of\n     these peoples, and what future is anticipated for it among\n     them respectively?\n\n     Where is the work advancing, where does it hang in the\n     balance, and where is it being driven backwards?\n\n     What are your views upon the future of the Army as a\n     religious and social power throughout the world, bearing in\n     mind the undoubted difficulties with which it is confronted?\n\n     Do you consider that now, after forty-five years of\n     existence, it is, speaking generally, on the downward or on\n     the upward grade?\n\n     What information can you give me as to the position of the\n     Army in its relations with other religious bodies?\n\nAt this point Mr. Bramwell Booth inquired mildly how much time I had\nto spare. The result of my answer was that we agreed together that it\nwas clearly impossible to deal with all these great matters in an\ninterview. So it was decided that he should take time to think them\nover, and should furnish his replies in the form of a written\nmemorandum. This he has done, and I may say without flattery that the\npaper which he has drawn up is one of the most clear and broad-minded\nthat I have had the pleasure of reading for a long while. Since it is\ntoo long to be used as a quotation, I print it in an appendix,[7]\ntrusting sincerely that all who are interested in the Salvation Army\nin its various aspects will not neglect its perusal. Indeed, it is a\nvaluable and an authoritative document, composed by perhaps the only\nperson in the world who, from his place and information, is equal to\nthe task.\n\nPersonally I venture upon neither criticism nor comment, whose r\u00f4le\nthroughout all these pages is but that of a showman, although I trust\none not altogether devoid of insight into the matter in hand.\n\nTo only one point will I call attention--that of the general note of\nconfidence which runs through Mr. Bramwell Booth's remarks. Clearly he\nat least does not believe that the Salvation Army is in danger of\ndissolution. Like his father, he believes that it will go on from good\nto good and from strength to strength.\n\nThere remain, however, one or two other points that we discussed\ntogether to which I will allude. Thus I asked him if he had anything\nto say as to the attacks which from time to time were made upon the\nArmy. He replied as his father had done: 'Nothing, except that they\nwere best left to answer themselves.'\n\nThen our conversation turned to the matter of the resignation of\ncertain Officers of the Army which had caused some passing public\nremark.\n\n'We have an old saying here,' he said, with some humour, 'that we do\nnot often lose any one whom we very much desire to keep.'\n\nI pointed out that I had heard allegations made to the effect that the\nArmy Officers were badly paid, hardly treated, and, when they proved\nof no more use, let go to find a living as best they could.\n\nHe replied that, as to the matter of money, the Army had established a\nPension fund in all the Western countries, which now amounts to a\nlarge total. In this country the sum was about \u00a344,000, and during\n1909 about \u00a31,800 had been paid here in pensions. This, however, was\nonly a beginning, but he thought that the effort was being made on the\nright lines, and that, notwithstanding their poverty, a really\nadequate Pension fund would be built up in due course.\n\nThen of a sudden he became eloquent. He said he admitted that the Army\nhad little to offer. Those who came into its service knew that this\nwas so; that they had no hope of temporal reward; that thenceforth the\ngreat feature of their life and work was that it must be filled with\nlabour and self-denial. The whole business of helping and saving our\nfellow-creatures was one of struggle and suffering. Sacrifice was the\nkey-note of Christianity as laid down by its Founder. Those who sought\nmoney and temporal honour must look elsewhere than to the Salvation\nArmy. Its pride and glory was that thousands were willing to suffer\nand deny themselves from year to year, and to find their joy and their\nrecompense in the consciousness that they were doing something,\nhowever little, to lighten the darkness and relieve the misery of the\nworld.\n\nHere are some of his actual words upon this matter that I will quote,\nas I cannot better them:--\n\n'The two facts of real consequence about our Officers are these:\nFirst, that their numbers go on increasing year by year, and second,\nthat they remain devoted to their work, very poor, and absolutely bent\non obtaining a reward in Heaven. But let me quote here from General\nBooth on this matter:--\n\n'\"I resolved that no disadvantage as to birth, or education, or social\ncondition should debar any one from entering the list of combatants so\nlong as he was one with me in love for God, in faith for the salvation\nof men, and in willingness to obey the orders he should receive from\nme and from those I authorized to direct him. I have, of course, had\nmany disappointments--not a few of them very hard to bear at the\ntime--but from the early days of 1868, when I engaged my first\nrecognized helper, to 1878, when the number had increased by slow\ndegrees to about 100, and on to the present day, when their number is\nrapidly approaching 20,000, there has not been a single year without\nits increase, not only in quantity, but in quality.\n\n'\"I am sometimes asked, What about those who have left me? Well, I am\nthankful to say that we remain in sympathetic and friendly relations\nwith the great bulk of them. It was to be expected that in work such\nas ours, demanding, as it does, not only arduous toil and constant\nself-denial and often real hardships of one kind or another, some\nshould prove unworthy, some should grow weary, and others should faint\nby the way, whilst others again, though very excellent souls, should\nprove unsuitable. It could not be otherwise, for we are engaged in\nreal warfare, and whoever heard of war without wounds and losses? But\neven of those who do thus step aside from the position of Officers, a\nlarge proportion--in this country nine out of ten--remain with us,\nengaged in some voluntary effort in our ranks.\"'\n\n'But,' continued Mr. Bramwell Booth, 'I would be the last person to\nminimize our losses. They may be accounted for in the most natural\nway, and yet we cannot but feel them and suffer from them. And yet it\nis all just a repetition of the Bible stories of all ages; nay, of all\nstories of genuine fighting in any great cause. The great feature of\nour present experience in this matter is that the number who go out\nfrom us grows every year smaller in proportion to the whole, and that,\nas the General says in the above extract, a very large proportion of\nthose continue in friendly relations with us.\n\n'The triumph of these splendid men and women, in the face of every\nkind of difficulty in every part of the world is, however, really a\ntriumph of their faith. It is not the Army, it is not their leaders,\nit is not even the wonderful devotion which many of them manifest,\nwhich is the secret of their continued life and continued success, nor\nis it any confidence in their own abilities. No! The true\nrepresentative of the Army is relying at every turn upon the presence,\nguidance, and help of God in trying to carry out the Father's purpose\nwith respect to every lost and suffering child of man. By that test,\nalike in the present and future, we must ever stand or fall. The Army\nis either a work of faith or it is nothing at all.\n\n'Everything throughout all our ranks can really be brought to that\ntest, and I regard with composure every loss and attack, every puzzle\nand danger, chiefly because I rely upon my comrades' trust in God\nbeing responded to by Him according to their need.'\n\nPerhaps I may be allowed to add a few remarks upon this subject. A\ngreat deal is made of the resignation of a few Salvation Army Officers\nin order that they may accept excellent posts in other walks of life;\nindeed, it is not uncommon to see it stated that such resignations\nherald the dissolution of the Society. Inasmuch as the number of the\nArmy's Officers is nearing 20,000 it would seem that it can very well\nspare a few of them. What fills me with wonder is not that some go,\nbut that so many remain. _This_ is one of the facts which, amongst\nmuch that is discouraging, convinces me of the innate nobility of man.\nAn old friend of mine of pious disposition once remarked to me that\n_he_ could never have been a Christian martyr. At the first twist of\nthe cord, or the first nip of the red-hot pincers, he was sure that\n_he_ would have thrown incense by the handful upon the altar of any\nheathen god or goddess that was fashionable at the moment. His spirit\nmight have been willing, but his flesh would certainly have proved\nweak.\n\nI sympathized with the honesty of this confession, and in the same way\nI sympathize with those Officers of the Salvation Army who, in racing\nslang, cannot 'stay the course.'\n\nLet us consider the lot of these men. Any who have entered on even a\nsecular crusade, something that takes them off the beaten, official\npaths, that leads them through the thorns and wildernesses of a new,\nuntravelled country, towards some distant goal seen dimly, or not seen\nat all except in dreams, will know what such an undertaking means. It\nmeans snakes in the grass; it means savages, or in other words veiled\nand poisonous hatreds and bitter foes, or, still worse, treacherous\nfriends. The crusader may get through, in which case no one will thank\nhim except, perhaps, after he is dead. Or he may fail and perish, in\nwhich case every one will mock at him. Or he may retreat discouraged\nand return to the official road, in which case his friends will remark\nthat they are glad to see that his insanity was only of the\nintermittent order, and that at length he has learned his place in the\nworld and to whom he ought to touch his cap.\n\nWell, these are official roads to Heaven as well as to the House of\nLords and other mundane goals, a fact which the Salvation Army Officer\nand others of his kind have probably found out. On the official road,\nif he has interest and ability--the first is to be preferred--he might\nhave become anything, and with ordinary fortune would certainly have\nbecome something.\n\nBut on the path that he has chosen what is there for him to gain? An\ninheritance of dim glory beyond the stars, obscured doubtless from\ntime to time, if he is like other men, by sudden and sickening\neclipses of his faith. And meanwhile the daily round, the insolent\ngibe, and the bitter ingratitude of men that leaves him grieving. Also\nnot enough money to pay for a cab when it is wet, and considerable\nuncertainty as to the future of his children, and even as to his own\nold age. Few comforts for him, not even those of a glass of wine to\nstimulate him, or of tobacco to soothe his nerves, for these are\nforbidden to him by the rules of his Order. Unless he can reach the\nvery top of his particular tree also, which it is most unlikely that\nhe will, no public recognition even of his faithful, strenuous work,\nand who is there that at heart does not long for public recognition?\nIn short, nothing that is desirable to man save the consciousness of a\nvirtue which, after all, he must feel to be indifferent (being well\naware of his own secret faults), and the satisfaction of having helped\na certain number of lame human dogs over moral or physical stiles.\n\nIn such a case and in a world which we must admit to be selfish and\nimperfect, the wonder is not that certain Salvation Army Officers,\nbeing trained men of high ability, yield to tempting offers and go,\nbut that so many of them remain.\n\n'Look at my case,' said one of them to me. 'With my experience and\norganizing ability I am worth \u00a32,000 a year as the manager of any big\nbusiness, and I could have it if I liked. Here I get about \u00a3200!'\n\nThis was one of those who remain. I say all honour to such noble\nsouls, for surely they are of the salt of the earth.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE ON THE RELIGION OF THE SALVATION ARMY\n\n\n\nThe religious faith of the Salvation Army, as I have observed and\nunderstand it (for little has been said to me on this matter), is\nextremely simple. It believes in an eternal Heaven for the righteous\nand--a sad doctrine this, some of us may think--in a Hell, equally\neternal, for the wicked.[8] Its bedrock is the Bible, especially the\nNew Testament, which it accepts as true without qualification, from\nthe first word to the last, troubling itself with no doubts or\ncriticisms. Especially does it believe in the dual nature of the\nSaviour, in Christ as God, and in Christ as man, and in the\npossibility of forgiveness and redemption for even the most degraded\nand defiled of human beings. Love is its watchword, the spirit of love\nis its spirit, love arrayed in the garments of charity.\n\nIn essentials, with one exception, its doctrines much resemble those\nof the Church of England, and of various dissenting Protestant bodies.\nThe exception is, that it does not make use of the Sacraments, even of\nthat of Communion, although, on the other hand, it does not deny the\nefficacy of those Sacraments, or object to others, even if they be\nmembers of the Army, availing themselves of them. Thus, I have known\nan Army Officer to join in the Communion Service. The reason for this\nexception is, I believe, that in the view of General Booth, the\nSacraments complicate matters, are open to argument and attack, and\nare not understood by the majority of the classes with which the Army\ndeals. How their omission is reconciled with certain prominent\npassages and directions laid down in the New Testament I do not know.\nTo me, I confess, this disregard of them seems illogical.\n\nThe motto of the Army is 'Salvation for all,' and, as I have hinted in\nthese pages, it has a sure conviction of the essential persistence of\nmiracle in these modern days. It holds that when a man kneels at the\nPenitent-Form and 'gets converted,' a miracle takes place within him,\nif his repentance is true, and that thenceforward some Grace from on\nHigh will give him the power to overcome the evil in his heart and\nblood.\n\nIt believes, too, in the instant efficacy of earnest prayer, and in\nthe possibility of direct communication by this means between man and\nhis Maker.\n\nHere is an instance of this statement. While inspecting the Shelters\nin one of the provincial cities, I was shown a certain building which\nhad recently passed into the possession of the Army. The Officer who\nwas conducting me said that the negotiations preliminary to the\nacquisition of the lease of this building had been long and difficult.\nI remarked that these must have caused him anxiety. 'Oh, no,' he\nanswered, simply. 'You see I had talked with the Lord about it, and I\nknew that we should get the place in the end.'\n\nThis reply may cause some to smile, but I confess I find such\nchildlike faith touching and even beautiful.\n\nThere is small doubt that consciously or unconsciously, the Salvation\nArmy has followed St. Paul's example of being all things to all men,\nif 'by all means' it may save some. This is the reason of its methods\nwhich to many seem so vulgar and offensive. Once I spoke to an Officer\nhigh up in the Army of this matter, instancing, amongst other things,\nits brass bands and loud-voiced preaching at street corners.\n\n'My dear sir,' he replied, 'if we came to convert _you_, we should not\nbring a brass band or send a missionary who shouted out sacred names\nevery minute. Possibly, if we thought that you were open to the\ninfluences of music, we might send a first-rate violinist to play\npieces from the classical masters, and we should certainly send a man\nwhom we knew to be your intellectual equal, and who could therefore\nappeal to your reason. But our mission at present is not so much to\nyou and your class, as to the dregs of humanity. The folk we deal with\nlive in a state of noise of which you have no conception, and if we\nwant to force them to listen to us, we must begin by making a greater\nnoise in order to attract their attention at all. In the same way it\nis of no use wasting subtleties on them; we have to go straight to the\nmain points, which are clear and sharp enough to pierce their\ndrink-besotted intelligences, or to reach any fragment of conscience\nthey may have remaining in them.'\n\nI thought the argument sound and well put, and results have proved its\nforce, since the Salvation Army undoubtedly gets a hold of people that\nfew other forms of religious effort seem able to grasp, at least to\nany considerable extent.\n\nI wish to make it clear, however, that I hold no particular brief for\nthe Army, its theology, and its methods. I recognize fully, as I know\nit does, the splendid work that is being done in the religious and\nsocial fields by other Organizations of the same class, especially by\nDr. Barnardo's Homes, by the Waifs and Strays Society, by the Church\nArmy, and, above all, perhaps, by another Society, with which I have\nhad the honour to be connected in a humble capacity for many years,\nthat for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Still it remains true\nthat the Salvation Army is unique, if only on account of the colossal\nscale of its operations. Its fertilizing stream flows on steadily from\nland to land, till it bids fair to irrigate the whole earth. What I\nhave written about is but one little segment of a work which\nflourishes everywhere, and even lifts its head in Roman Catholic\ncountries, although in these, as yet, it makes no very great progress.\n\nHow potent then, and how generally suited to the needs of stained and\nsuffering mankind, must be that religion which appeals both to the\nWest and to the East, which is as much at home in Java and Korea as it\nis in Copenhagen or Glasgow. For it should be borne in mind that the\nbasis of the Salvation Army is religious, that it aims, above\neverything, at the conversion of men to an active and lively faith in\nthe plain, uncomplicated tenets of Christianity to the benefit of\ntheir souls in some future state of existence and, incidentally, to\nthe Reformation of their characters while on earth.\n\nThe social work of which I have been treating is a mere by-product or\nconsequence of its main idea. Experience has shown, that it is of\nlittle use to talk about his soul to a man with an empty stomach.\nFirst, he must be fed and cleansed and given some other habitation\nthan the street. Also the Army has learned that Christ still walks the\nearth in the shape of Charity; and that religion, after all, is best\npreached by putting its maxims into practice; that the poor are always\nwith us; and that the first duty of the Christian is to bind their\nwounds and soothe their sorrows. Afterwards, he may hope to cure them\nof their sins, for he knows that unless such a cure is effected,\ntemporal assistance avails but little. Except in cases of pure\nmisfortune which stand upon another, and, so far as the Army work is\nconcerned, upon an outside footing, the causes of the fall must be\nremoved, or that fall will be repeated. The man or woman must be born\nagain, must be regenerated. Such, as I understand it, is at once the\nbelief of the Salvation Army and the object of all its efforts.\nTherefore, I give to this book its title of 'Regeneration.'\n\n\n\nTHE NEED IS GREAT!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_The principal items of the Salvation Army's expenditure for Social\nWork during the financial year ending September 30, 1911, are as\nfollows, and help is earnestly asked to meet these, the work being\nentirely dependent upon Voluntary Gifts_.\n\nFor Maintenance of Work amongst the Destitute\n  and Outcast Men and Women, including Shelters\n  for Homeless Men and Women, Homes for Children,\n  Rescue Homes, etc.....................................  \u00a315,000\n\nFor Maintenance of the Slum Sisterhood and Nurses\n  for the Sick Poor.....................................   \u00a33,000\n\nFor Prison Visitation Staff and Prison-Gate Work........   \u00a35,000\n\nFor Work among Youths and Boys..........................   \u00a32,000\n\nFor Special Relief and Distress Agencies................   \u00a35,000\n\nFor Development of the Work and Agricultural\n  Departments of the Hadleigh Colony....................   \u00a33,000\n\nFor Assistance and Partial Maintenance of the\n  Unemployed and Inefficient............................   \u00a35,000\n\nFor Assisting suitable Men and Women to Emigrate........   \u00a33,000\n\nTowards the provision of New Institutions for Men\n  and Boys in London and various provincial Cities......  \u00a310,000\n\nFor the General Management and Supervision of all\n  the above Operations..................................   \u00a32,000\n                                                          -------\n                                                          \u00a353,000\n\nCheques and Postal Orders should be made payable to WILLIAM BOOTH,\ncrossed 'Bank of England, Law Courts Branch,' and sent to MRS. BOOTH,\n101 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C. Clothes for the poor and\narticles for sale are always needed.\n\n\n\n\nLEGACIES\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLadies and Gentlemen are earnestly asked to remember the needs of the\nSalvation Army's Social Work (the 'Darkest England' Social Scheme), in\nconnexion with the preparation of their wills.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll kinds of property can now be legally bequeathed for charitable\npurposes, and the following form of legacy is recommended. Where a\nlegacy does not consist of a certain amount of money, care should be\ntaken to identify clearly the property, shares, stock, or whatever it\nmay be intended to be bequeathed.\n\n_'I GIVE AND BEQUEATH TO WILLIAM BOOTH, or other the General for the\ntime being of the Salvation Army, and Director of the \"Darkest\nEngland\" Social Scheme, the sum of \u00a3............_ (or) _MY TWO\nfreehold houses known as Nos.......... in the county\nof................_ (or) _my \u00a3............ ordinary stock of the\nLondon and North-Western Railway Company_ (or) _my shares\nin............Limited_ (or as the case may be) _to be used or applied\nby him, at his discretion, for the general purposes of the \"Darkest\nEngland\" Social Scheme. And I direct the said last-mentioned Legacy to\nbe paid within twelve months after my decease.'_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDIRECTIONS FOR EXECUTION OF WILL\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Will must be executed by the Testator in the presence of two\nwitnesses, who must sign their names, addresses, and occupations at\nthe end of the Will in the presence of the Testator. The best method\nto adopt for a Testator to be quite sure that his Will is executed\nproperly, is for him to take the Will and his two witnesses into a\nroom, lock the door, and tell the witnesses that he wishes them to\nattest his Will. All three must sign in the room and nobody must go\nout until all have signed.\n\nGENERAL BOOTH will always be pleased to procure further advice for any\nfriends desiring to benefit the Salvation Army's work in any of its\ndepartments, by Will or otherwise, and will treat any communications\nmade to him on the subject as strictly private and confidential.\nLetters dealing with the matter should be marked Private, and\naddressed to GENERAL BOOTH, 101 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.C.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX A\n\n\nNOTES ON THE ARMY'S FUTURE\n\n(Following My Conversation with Mr. Rider Haggard)\n\nBY BRAMWELL BOOTH\n\nWhen asked to give my own view of the present and probable future\ninfluence of the Salvation Army upon the world, I feel in no danger of\nexaggeration. If any one could imagine what it has been for me to sit\nat its centre almost without intermission for more than thirty-five\nyears, receiving continual reports of its development and progress in\none nation after another, studying from within not only its strength\nand vitality, but its weaknesses and failures, and labouring to devise\nremedies and preventatives, until what was a little unknown Mission in\nthe East End of London has become the widely, I might almost say, the\nuniversally recognized Army of to-day, he could perhaps understand\nsomething of my great confidence.\n\nCurious indeed seem to be the thoughts of many people about\nus!--people, I mean, who have only had a glance at one of our open-air\nmeetings, or have only heard some wild challenge of General Booth's\ngood faith, and have then more or less carefully avoided any closer\nacquaintance with us. They often appear to be under the impression\nthat you have only to persuade a few people to march through any\ncrowded thoroughfare with a band, to gather a congregation, and, if\nyou please, to form out of it an Army, and from that again to secure a\nvast revenue! I often wish that such people could know the struggles\nof almost every individual, even amongst the very poorest, between the\nmoment of first contact with us and that of resolving to enlist in our\nranks. How few, even now, seem aware of the fact that so far from\npaying or rewarding any one for joining in our efforts, all who do so\nare from the first called upon daily not only to give to our funds,\nbut by sacrifice of time, labour, money, and often of health as well,\nto constitute themselves efficient soldiers of their Corps, and assist\nin providing it with every necessity.\n\nEvery one of the 3,000,000 meetings held annually, even in this\ncountry, depends upon the voluntary giving up of the time and effort\nof working-men and women who have in most cases to hurry from work to\nhome, and from home to meeting-place, after a hard day's labour. Much\nthe same may be said of the 450,000 meetings held annually on the\nContinent of Europe; with this difference, that our people there have\nmostly to begin work earlier in the day, and to conclude much later\nthan is the case here. Their evening meetings, in conformity with the\nhabits of the country concerned, must needs be begun, therefore,\nlater, and conclude much later than similar gatherings in the United\nKingdom.\n\nA cursory glance through the seventy-four newspapers and periodicals\npublished by the Army--generally weekly--in twenty-one languages,\nwould show any one how variously our people everywhere are seeking to\nmeet the different habits of life in each country, and how constantly\nnew plans are being tried to attain the supreme object of all our\nmultitudinous agencies--the arousing of men's attention to the claims\nof God and their ingathering to His Kingdom.\n\nThe original plan adopted in this country of going to the people by\nmeans of meetings and marches in the streets, is in many lands not\nlegally permissible, while in others it is almost useless. Our\nleaders, therefore, have always to be finding out other means of\nattaining the same end. This has resulted in very great gains of\nliberty in several ways. On the Continent, for example, though it is\nnot possible to get a general permission to hold open-air meetings in\nthe streets, it is becoming more and more usual to let our people hold\nsuch gatherings in the large pleasure-grounds, provided within or on\nthe outskirts both of the great cities and the lesser towns. In some\ncases the announcements of further meetings, made somewhat after the\nstyle of the public crier, develops into a series of short open-air\naddresses. In other cases, conspicuously in Italy, where our work is\nonly as yet in its infancy--the sale of our paper, both by individual\nhawkers and by groups of comrades singing the songs it contains in\nmarketplaces, largely makes up for the want of the more regularized\nopen-air work.\n\nAnd in the courts of the great blocks of buildings which abound in\ncities like Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and elsewhere, meetings are\nheld which are really often more effective in impressing whole\nfamilies of various classes than any of our open-air proceedings in\ncountries like England and the United States.\n\nBut everywhere the Army seeks especially, though not by any means\nexclusively, for those who are to be found frequenting the\npublic-houses, cafes, beer gardens, dives, saloons, and other\ndrinking-places of the world. In all countries our people sell our\npapers amidst these crowds, as well as at the doors of the theatres\nand other places of amusement, and the mere offer of these papers, now\nthat their unflinching character as to God and goodness is well known,\nconstitutes an act of war, a submission to which in so many million\ncases is no slight evidence of confidence among the masses of the\npeople in our sincerity, and, so far, a sign of our success.\n\nBut 'The War Cry' seller is in the countries of more scattered\npopulation, such as Switzerland, some of the colonies, and large parts\nof India, much more than is the case in the big cities, the\nrepresentative of every form of helpfulness. He, or she, not merely\noffers the paper for sale to those who have neither opportunity nor\ninclination to attend religious services of any kind, but enters\nhimself where no paper ever comes, holds little meetings with groups\nof those who have never prayed, heartens those who are sinking down\nunder pressure of calamity, visits the sick-room of the friendless,\nand often becomes the intermediary of the suffering and destitute and\nthose who can help them in their dismal necessities.\n\nOf the persistent hopefulness with which our people everywhere go to\nthe apparently abandoned, I will only say that it constitutes a store\nof moral and material help, not only for those people themselves, but\nfor all who become acquainted with it, the value of which in the\npresent it is difficult to exaggerate, and the influence of which on\nthe future it is equally difficult to over-estimate.\n\nWhile leaving the utmost possible freedom for initiative to our\nleaders, we are seeking everywhere to solidify and regularize every\neffort that has once been shown to be of any practical use. Any one\namongst us, down to the youngest and poorest in any part of the world,\nmay do a new thing next week which will prove a blessing to his\nfellows, and some one will be on the watch to see that that good\nthing, once done, be repeated, and, so far as may be, kept up in\nperpetuity.\n\nWhere special classes of needs exist, we must of course employ special\nagencies. The vitality and adaptability of the Army in the presence of\nnew opportunities is one of the happy auguries for the future. While\nall that is virile and forceful in it increases, there is less and\nless of the rigid and formal.\n\nFourteen or fifteen years ago some Officers were set apart to visit\nthe Lapps who range over all the Territories to the north of\nScandinavia. This meant at first only months of solitary travelling\nduring the summer, and no little suffering in the winter, with little\napparent result. But gradually a system of meetings was established,\nthe people's confidence was gained, and at length it has been found\npossible to group together various centres of regular activity amongst\nthese interesting but little-known people, and now experienced leaders\nwill see both to the permanence of all that has already been begun,\nand to the further extension of the work.\n\nIn Holland, where our work has assumed the proportions of a national\nmovement, the beneficent effects of which are recognized by all\nclasses, the canal population is helped by means of a small sailing\nship, on which are held regular meetings for them. Our Norwegian\npeople also have a life-boat called the _Catherine Booth_ stationed\nupon a stormy and difficult part of the coast, which not only goes out\nto help into safety boats and boats' crews, but whose crew also holds\nmeetings on islands in remote fisher hamlets where no other religious\nvisitors come.\n\nThe same principle of adaptation to local conditions and requirements\nwill, I doubt not, quickly ensure success for the small detachment of\nOfficers we have just sent to commence operations in Russia.\n\nIn Dutch India we have not only a growing Missionary work amongst both\nJavanese and Chinese, but Government Institutions have been placed\nunder our care, where lepers, the blind, and other infirm natives, as\nwell as neglected children, are medically cared for and helped in\nother ways.\n\nIn South Africa, both English and Dutch-speaking peoples are united\nunder one Flag, and give themselves up to work amongst the native\nraces round them--races which constitute so grave a problem in the\neyes of all thoughtful men who know anything of the true position in\nSouth Africa. One of the latest items of news is that an Angoni has\naccepted salvation at one of our settlements in Mashonaland, and on\nreturn to his own home and work--lying away between Lake Nyassa and\nthe Zambezi--has begun to hold meetings and to exercise an influence\nupon his people which cannot but end in the establishment of our work\namongst them.\n\nBut, to my mind, one of the most important features of our work in all\nEastern and African lands is our development of the native power under\nexperienced guidance to purely Salvationist and therefore\nnon-political purposes. Surely the most potent possible corrective for\nthe sort of half rebel influence that has grown or is growing up in\nAfrica under the name of Ethiopianism, as well as for much of the\nstrange uneasiness among the dumb masses of India, is the complete\norganization of native races under leaders who, whilst of their own\npeople, are devoted to the highest ethical aims, and stand in happy\nsubjection to men of other lands who have given them a training in\ndiscipline and unity which does not contemplate bloodshed.\n\nWe are now beginning both in India and Africa, as well as in the West\nIndies, to find experienced native Officers capable of taking Staff\npositions; that is, of becoming reliable leaders in large districts\nwhere we are at work. These men have not merely all the advantages of\nlanguage and of fitness for the varieties of climate which are so\ntrying to Westerners, but they show a courage and tenacity and\ntact--in short, a capacity for leadership and administration such as\nno one--at any rate, no one that I know of--expected to find in them.\nHere is opened a prospect of the highest significance.\n\nMore than can be easily estimated has been done in spreading\ninformation about us for some years past by Salvationists belonging to\nvarious national armies and navies. We encourage all such men to group\nthemselves into brigades, so far as may be allowed, in their various\nbarracks and ships. Thus united, they work for their mutual\nencouragement, and for the spreading of good influences among others.\nIt was such a little handful that really began our work in the West\nIndies, and we have now a Corps in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of\nAfrica, formed by men of a West Indian regiment temporarily quartered\nthere. The same thing has happened in Sumatra by means of Dutch and\nJavanese soldiers.\n\nFor British India we naturally felt ourselves first of all, as to the\nheathen world, under obligation to do something. And no inconsiderable\nresults have followed the efforts which were first commenced there\ntwenty-eight years ago. Our pioneers, though they greatly disturbed\nthe official white world, won the hearts of the people at a stroke, by\nwearing Indian dress, living amongst and in the style of the poorer\nvillages. Soon Indian converts offered themselves for service, and\nafter training; were commissioned as Officers, and it was at once seen\nthat they would be far more influential than any foreigners. From the\npoint at which that discovery was really made, the work assumed\nimportant proportions, passing at once in large measure from the\nposition of a foreign mission to being a movement of the people\nthemselves.\n\nThe vastness of the country and the difference of language have led to\nour treating it as five separate commands, now under the general lead\nof one headquarters. Incidentally, this has helped us in dealing with\nsome of the difficulties connected with caste, as it has been possible\nto remove Indian Officers from one part of India to another, and we\nhave made some efforts which have, I admit, proved less successful in\nsome districts than in others, to deal with castes which, within their\nown lines, are often little more than Trade Unions with a mixture of\nsuperstition.\n\nMeanwhile, the practical character of our work has shown itself in\nefforts to help in various ways the lowest of the people to improve\ntheir circumstances. The need for this is instantly apparent when one\nreflects that some 40,000,000 of the inhabitants of India are always\nhungry. A system of loan banks, which has now been adopted in part by\nthe Government, has been of great service to the small\nagriculturalists. The invention of an extremely simple and yet greatly\nimproved hand loom has proved, and will prove, very valuable to the\nweavers. New plans of relief in times of scarcity and famine have also\ngreatly helped in some districts to win the confidence of the people.\nIndustrial schools, chiefly for orphan children, have also been a\nfeature of the work in some districts.\n\nRecently the Government, having seen with what success our people have\nlaboured for the salvation of the lower castes, have decided to hand\nover to us the special care of several of the criminal tribes, who are\nreally the remnants of the Aborigines. Although this work is at\npresent only in its experimental stage, all who have examined the\nresults so far have been delighted at the rapidity with which we have\nbrought many into habits of self-supporting industry, who, with their\nfathers before them, had been accustomed to live entirely by plunder.\nAbout 2,000 persons of this class are already under our care.\n\nThere are some 3,000,000 of these robbers in different parts of India.\nThey are only kept under anything like control at great cost for\npolice and military supervision; but we are satisfied that, if\nreasonable support be given, a great proportion of them can be\nreclaimed from their present courses of idleness and crime, and in any\ncase their children can be saved.\n\nWe have been able in India, perhaps more than in any other part of the\nworld, to realize the international character of our work by linking\ntogether Officers from England, Germany, Holland, and the Scandinavian\ncountries, as well as from America, in the one great object of helping\nthe heathen peoples. But most of all we have rejoiced in being able to\nblend East and West, European Officers having often been placed under\nmore experienced Indian comrades, as well as vice versa. The great\ncommon purpose dominating all sections of the Army, and the influences\nof the Spirit of God, have united men of different levels of\nintelligence, and knit them together in the same fellowship, without\nany unwise mingling of races. We have now 2,000 Officers in India, and\nthat alone is a testimony of the highest significance to the success\nof our efforts, and to the possibilities which lie before us. But even\nmore important in its bearing upon the future, in my estimation, is\nthe wonderful ambition dominating our people there to reach every\nclass, but most of all to deal with the low caste, or outcast, as they\nare sometimes called. Many of our Indian Officers have followed in the\nsteps of our pioneers in the country, and, consumed by an enthusiasm\namounting to a passion for their fellows, have literally sacrificed\ntheir lives in the ceaseless pressing forward of their work.\n\nIn America we have had to deal, perhaps, with the other extreme of\nhuman needs. Throughout Canada there is very little to be seen of\npoverty and wretchedness. In the United States the great cities begin\nindeed to have areas of vice and misery not to be surpassed in any of\nthe older cities of the world. But everywhere we have found people who\nhave become forgetful of God, neglectful of every higher duty, and\nabandoned to one or other form of selfishness. Our work in the United\nStates especially has been confronted with difficulties peculiar to\nthe country, its widespread populations and their cosmopolitan\ncharacter being not the least of these. Nevertheless, we have now in\nthe States and Canada nearly 4,000 Officers leading the work in 1,380\nCorps and Societies, and 350 Social Institutions. I ought to say that\nit has not been found easy to raise large numbers in many places, but\nof the generosity and devotion of those who have united themselves\nwith us, and the immense amount of work which they accomplish for\ntheir fellows, it is impossible to speak too highly.\n\nI look with confidence to the future in both these great countries.\nGovernments and local Authorities are beginning to grant us the\nfacilities and help we need to deal effectually with their abandoned\nclasses, as well as to attack some other problems of a difficult\nnature. Within the last few years, we have placed in Canada more than\n50,000 emigrants, chiefly from this country. Their characteristics,\nand their success in their new surroundings, have won for us the\nhighest commendation of the Authorities concerned.\n\nIn the vast fields of South America, we have as yet only small forces,\nbut we have established a good footing with the various populations,\nand have already received no inconsiderable help for our purely\nphilanthropic work from several of the Governments. Our latest new\nextensions, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru, and Panama, seem to offer\nprospects of success, even greater than we have been able to record in\nthe Argentine or Uruguay. Before your book is published, we shall\nprobably have made a beginning also in both Bolivia and Brazil.\n\nThe South American Republics--chiefly populated by the descendants of\nthe poorest classes of Southern Europe--are professedly Roman\nCatholic. The influence of the priesthood, however, owing to various\ncauses, seems to be on the wane, and a habit of abandoning all\nreligious thought is much on the increase. But the realization that\nour people never attack any Church, or quibble about details of creed\nand ceremonial, has won their way to the hearts of many, and there can\nbe no doubt that we have a great future amongst these peoples. In Peru\nthe law does not allow any persons not of the Romish Church to offer\nprayer in public places, but when it was found that our Officers made\nno trouble of this, but managed all the same to hold open-air and\ntheatre services very much in our usual style, great numbers of the\npeople were astonished at the 'new religion,' and so many had soon\nbegun to pray 'in private' that we have little doubt about the future\nof our work there.\n\nIn thinking of the future, I cannot overlook our plans of organization\nwhich have, I am persuaded, much to do with the proper maintenance and\ncontinuance of the work we have taken in hand.\n\nWhile striving as much as possible to avoid red tape, or indeed any\nmethods likely to hinder initiative and enterprise, we are careful to\napply a systemization comprehensible to the most untrained minds, so\nthat we may make every one feel a proper degree of responsibility, as\nwell as guard them from mere emotionalism and spasmodic activity,\naccompanied as that kind of thing often is, by general neglect.\n\nThus no one can join the Army until after satisfying the local Officer\nand some resident of the place during a period of trial of the\nsincerity of his profession. He must then sign our Articles of War.\nThese Articles describe precisely our doctrines, our promise to\nabstain from intoxicants, worldly pleasures, and fashions, bad or\nunworthy language, or conduct, and unfairness to either employer or\nemploy\u00e9, as well as our purpose to help and benefit those around us.\n(See Appendix B.)\n\nSome local voluntary worker becomes responsible for setting each\nrecruit a definite task in connexion with our efforts, and all are\nplaced under the general oversight of their Captain. A Corps, which is\nthe unit of our Organization, is organized under a Captain and\nLieutenant who have been trained in the work they have to do as\nleaders. Corps are linked together into divisions under Officers, who,\nin addition to seeing that they regularly carry out their work, have\nthe oversight of a considerable tract of country, with the duty of\nextending our operations within that area. In some countries a number\nof divisions are sometimes grouped into provinces with an Officer in\ncharge of the whole province, and each country has its national\nheadquarters under a Territorial Commissioner, all being under the\nlead of the International Headquarters in London.\n\nNo time is wasted in committee-ing or debating amongst us, and yet in\nall matters of finance and property there is such arrangement that\nseveral individuals are cognizant of every detail, and that no one\nperson's fault or neglect shall necessarily involve permanent injury\nor loss. The central accounts in each country, including those in\nLondon, are under the care of public auditors; but we have also our\nown International Audit Department, whose representatives visit every\nheadquarters from time to time, so as to make sure, not only that the\naccounts are kept on our approved system, but that all expenditure is\nrigidly criticized. All who really look into our financial methods are\nimpressed by their economy and precision. The fact is that almost all\nour people have been well schooled in poverty. They have learned the\nvalue of pence.\n\nAll this seems to me to have great importance in connexion with\nestimates of our future. On the one hand we are ever seeking to\nimpress on all our people the supreme need of God's spirit of love and\nlife and freedom, without whose presence the most carefully managed\nsystem could not but speedily grow cold and useless. But at the same\ntime, we insist that the service of God, however full of love and\ngladness, ought to be more precise, more regular, nay, more exacting\nthan that of any inferior master.\n\nII\n\nAs to your question whether we are generally making progress, I think\nI can say that, viewing the whole field of activity, and taking into\naccount every aspect of the work, the Army is undoubtedly on the\nup-grade. Naturally progress is not so rapid in one country as\nanother, nor is it always so marked in one period as in another in\nparticular countries, nor is it always so evident in some departments\nof effort as in others; but speaking of the whole, there is, as indeed\nthere has been from the very beginnings, steady advance.\n\nIn some countries, of course, there is more rapid development of our\npurely evangelistic propaganda, while in others our philanthropic\nagencies are more active. Progress in human affairs is generally\ntidal. It has been so with us. A period of great outward activity is\nsometimes followed by one of comparative rest, and in the same way the\nspirit of advance in one department sometimes passes from that for a\ntime to others. A period of great progress in all kinds of pioneer\nwork, for example in Germany, is just now being followed there by one\nof consolidation and organization. A time of enormous advance in all\nour departments of charitable effort in the United States is now being\nsucceeded by a wonderful manifestation of purely spiritual fervour and\nawakening.\n\nIn this, the old country, our very success has in some ways militated\nagainst our continued advance at the old rate of progress. Not only\nhas much ground already been occupied, but innumerable agencies,\nmodelled outwardly, at least, after those we first established, have\nsprung into existence, and are working on a field of effort which was\nat one time largely left to us. And yet during the last five years the\nArmy has enormously strengthened its hold on the confidence of all\nclasses of the people here, increased its numbers, developed in a\nremarkable degree its internal organization, greatly added to its\nmaterial resources, as well as maintained and extended its offering of\nmen and money for the support of the work in heathen countries.\n\nBut even in places where we have appeared to be stagnant, in the sense\nof not undertaking any new aggressive activities, we are constantly\nmaking as a part of our regular warfare new captures from the enemy of\nsouls, maintaining the care of congregations and people linked with\nus, working at full pressure our social machinery, training the\nchildren for future labour, raising up men and women to go out into\nthe world as missionaries of one kind or another, and doing it all\nwhile carrying on vigorous efforts to bring to those who are most\nneedy in every locality both material and spiritual support.\n\nLike all aggressive movements, the Army is, of course, peculiarly\nsubject to loss of one kind or another. That arising from the removals\nof its people alone constitutes a serious item. Any one who knows\nanything of religious work amongst the working-classes will understand\nhow great a loss may be caused--even where the population is,\ngenerally speaking, increasing--by the removal of one or two zealous\nlocal leaders. But such losses are trifling compared with those which\nfollow from some stoppage of employment when large numbers of workmen\nmust either migrate or starve.\n\nSimilar results often occur from the change of leadership. The removal\nof our Officers from point to point, and even from country to country,\nis one of our most indispensable needs; but, of course, we have to pay\nfor it, chiefly in the dislocation and discouragements and losses\nwhich it often necessarily entails.\n\nSo far from such variations being in any way discreditable to us, we\nthink them one of the most valuable tests of the vitality and courage\nof our people, both Officers and Soldiers, that they fight on\nunflinchingly under such circumstances--fight on happily, to prove\nthat while fluctuations of this character are very trying, they often\nalso open the way both to the wider diffusion of our work elsewhere\nand to the breaking up of entirely new ground in the old centres.\n\nIn brief, it is with us at all times a real warfare wherein triumphs\ncan only be secured at the cost of struggles that are very often\npainful and unpleasant. You cannot have the aggression, the advance,\nthe captures of war without the change, the alarms, the cost, the\nwounds, the losses, which are inseparable from it.\n\nA very striking and thoughtful description of some of the work done at\none of our London Corps has recently been issued by a well-known\nwriter. I refer to 'Broken Earthenware,' by Mr. Harold Begbie. No one\ncan read the book without being impressed by the sense of personal\ninsight which it reveals. But how few take in its main lesson, that\nthe Army is in every place going on, not only with the recovery but\nwith the development of broken men and women into more and more\ncapable and efficient servants and rescuers of their fellows.\n\nThat this should be so is remarkable enough as applied to Westerners,\nbroken by evil habits and more or less surrounded by wreckage, but how\nmuch more valuable when applied to the teeming populations of the\nEast! There in so many cases there is no past of criminality or even\nof vice as we understand it to forget, but only an infancy of darkness\nand ignorance as to Christ and the liberty He brings.\n\nMany of our best Indian Officers have been snatched from one form or\nother of outrageous selfishness, but thousands of our people there are\ngradually emerging from what is really the prolonged childhood of a\nrace to see and know how influential the light of God can make even\nthem amongst their fellows. Ten years ago in Japan a Salvationist\nOfficer was a strange if not an unknown phenomenon, but with every\nincrease of the Christian and Western influences in that country,\nevery capable witness to Christ becomes, quite apart from any effort\nof his own, a much more noticed, consulted, and imitated example than\nhe was before. In Korea, after a couple of years' effort, we have seen\nmost striking results of our work, and have just sent, to work among\ntheir own people, our first twenty married Koreans, after a\npreliminary period of training for Officership. It is most difficult\nto realize the revolution involved in the whole outlook on life to men\nwho have been looked upon as little more than serfs, without any\nprospect of influence in their country.\n\nThe same processes of inner and outer development which have made of\nthe unknown English workman or workwoman of twenty years ago, the\nrecognized servants of the community, welcomed everywhere by mayors\nand magistrates to help in the service of the poor, will, out of the\nclever Oriental, I believe, far more rapidly develop leaders in the\nnew line of Christian improvement in every sphere of life. It is\nconsiderations such as these which make me say sometimes that the\ndanger in the Army is not in the direction of magnifying, but rather\nof minimizing the influences that are carrying us upward and outward\nin every part of the world.\n\nBut in our own estimation there is another reason which perhaps equals\nall these for calculating upon a wider development of the Army's\nfuture influence. During the last twenty years we have been pressing\nforward amongst a very large number of Church and missionary efforts.\nOur speakers have notoriously been amongst the most unlearned and\nungrammatical, and therefore often despised, while so many thousands\nof university men were preaching and writing of Christ. But no one now\ndisputes the fact that the old-fashioned proclamation of the doctrine\nof Jesus Christ as a Divine Saviour of the lost has largely gone out\nof fashion. The influence of the priest, of the clerk in holy orders,\nof the minister, has been so largely undermined that candidates for\nthe ministry are becoming scarce in many Churches, just while we are\nseeing them arise in steadily increasing numbers from among the very\npeople who know the Army and its work best, and who have most\ncarefully observed the demands of sacrifice and labour it makes upon\nits leaders.\n\nOne cannot but rejoice when one hears ever and anon of some conference\nor congress at which various efforts are made to recover, at any rate,\nthe appearance of a forward movement in the Churches. But the most\nserious fact of all, perhaps, is the mixture amongst these\nChristianizing plans, whether in one country or another, of the\nunbelieving leaven, so that it is possible for men to go forth as the\nemissaries of Christianity who have ceased to believe in the Divine\nnature of its Founder, and who look for success rather to schemes of\neducation and of social and temporal improvement than to that new\ncreation of man by God's power, wherein lies all our hope, as indeed\nit must be the hope of every true servant of Christ.\n\nBut I call attention to these facts not to reproach any Church. Far\nfrom it. I simply desire to point out one reason for thinking\nourselves justified in anticipating for the Army a future influence\nfar beyond anything we have yet experienced.\n\nRecent 'defences' of Christian revelation have, in our view, been far\nmore seriously damaging than any attacks that have ever been made from\nthe hostile camp. In the hope--a vain hope--of conciliating\nopposition, there has too often been a timid surrender of much that\ncan alone give authority to Christian testimony. If Jesus Christ was\nnot competent to decide the truth or untruth of the Divine revelation,\nwhich He fully and constantly endorsed as such, how absurd it is to\nsuppose that any eulogies of His character can save Him from the just\ncontempt of all fearless thinkers, no matter to what nationality they\nbelong.\n\nThe Army finds itself already, and every year seems more and more\nlikely to find itself, the only firm and unalterable witness to the\ntruth of Christ and of His redeeming work in many neighbourhoods and\ndistricts, among them even some wide stretches of Christian territory.\nAnd the times can only bring upon us, it seems to me, more and more\nthe scrutiny of all who wish to know whether the declarations of the\nScriptures as to God's work in men are or are not reliable. This,\nthen, however melancholy the reflection may be--and to me it is in\nsome aspects melancholy indeed--assures to us a future of far wider\nimportance and influence than any we have dreamed of in the past.\n\nOur strength, as your book eloquently shows, in dealing with the\ndeepest sunken, the forgotten, the outcasts of society, the pariahs\nand lepers of modern life; has ever been our absolute certainty with\nregard to Christ's love and power to help them. How much greater must\nof necessity be the value and influence of our testimony where the\nvery existence of Christ and His salvation becomes a matter of doubt\nand dispute! Here, at any rate, is one reason which leads me to\nbelieve that the Salvation Army has before it a future of the highest\nmoment to the world.\n\nIII\n\nIn relation to other religious bodies, our position is marvellously\naltered from the time when they nearly all, if not quite all,\ndenounced us.\n\nI do not think that any of the Churches in any part of the world do\nthis now, although no doubt individuals here and there are still\nbitterly hostile to us. In the United States and in many of the\nBritish Colonies the Churches welcome our help, and generally speak\nwell of our work; and even many Roman Catholic leaders, as well as\nauthorities of the Jewish faith, may be included in this statement. On\nthe Continent there are signs that they are slowly turning the same\nway.\n\nNow, I confidently expect a steady extension of this feeling towards\nus as the Churches come more and more to recognize that we not only do\nnot attack them, but that we are actually auxiliaries to their forces,\nnot only gaining our audiences and recruits from those who are outside\ntheir ministrations, but even serving them by doing work for their\nadherents which for a variety of reasons they find it very difficult,\nif not impossible, to accomplish themselves.\n\nAt the same time it would be a mistake to think that we have any\ndesire to adopt any of their methods or ceremonials. We keep\neverywhere to our simple and non-ecclesiastical habits, and while we\ncertainly have some very significant and impressive ceremonials of our\nown, the way our buildings are fitted, the style of our songs and\nmusic, and the character of our prayers and public talking are\neverywhere entirely distinctive, and are nowhere in any danger of\ncoming into serious competition with the worship adopted by the\nChurches.\n\nSome of our leading Officers think that in one respect our relations\nto the Churches, their pastors, and people are unsatisfactory. In the\nUnited States it is customary for the clergy and leaders of every\nChurch to treat our leaders with the most manifest sympathy and\nrespect. But there is far too marked a contrast between that treatment\nand that which we receive in many other countries. There are, of\ncourse, splendid exceptions. Still few members of any Church are\nwilling to be seen in active association with us.\n\nI daresay this is very largely a question of class or caste, and I am\nvery far from making it a matter of complaint. We would, in fact, far\nrather that our people should be regarded as outcasts, than that they\nshould be tempted to tone down the directness of their witness, or\nthat they should come under the influence of those uncertainties and\nmisgivings to which I have already made reference. Nevertheless, it is\ncertainly no wish of ours that there should remain any distance\nbetween us and any true followers of Christ by whatever name they may\nbe called. And so we keep firmly, even where it may seem difficult or\nimpolitic to do so, to our original attitude of entire friendliness\nwith all those who name the Name of Christ.\n\nI give a few figures bearing upon the present extent of our\noperations:--\n\n  Number of Countries and Colonies occupied by\n    the Salvation Army                                       56\n  Languages in which the Work is carried on                  33\n  Corps, Circles, and Societies of Salvationists          8,768\n  Number of persons wholly supported by and employed\n    in Salvation Army Work                               21,390\n    Of those, with Rank                                  16,220\n    Without Rank                                          5,170\n  Number of Training Colleges for Officers and\n    workers                                                  35\n    Providing accommodation for                           1,866\n  SOCIAL OPERATIONS.--\n    Number of Institutions                                  954\n    Number of Officers and Cadets employed                2,573\n    Number of Local Officers, voluntary and unpaid       60,260\n    NUMBER OF PERIODICALS                                    74\n      These Periodicals are published in twenty-one languages,\n      and have a total circulation per issue of about one million\n      copies.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX B\n\n\nTHE SALVATION ARMY'S ARTICLES OF WAR\n\n\nHAVING received with all my heart the salvation offered to me by the\ntender mercy of Jehovah, I do here and now publicly acknowledge God to\nbe my Father and King, Jesus Christ to be my Saviour, and the Holy\nSpirit to be my Guide, Comforter, and Strength; and that I will, by\nHis help, love, serve, worship, and obey this glorious God through\ntime and through eternity,\n\nBELIEVING solemnly that the Salvation Army has been raised up by God,\nand is sustained and directed by Him, I do here declare my full\ndetermination, by God's help, to be a true Soldier of the Army till I\ndie.\n\n     I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Army's\n     teaching.\n\n     I believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord\n     Jesus Christ, and conversion by the Holy Spirit are\n     necessary to salvation, and that all men may be saved.\n\n     I believe that we are saved by grace, through faith in our\n     Lord Jesus Christ, and he that believeth hath the witness of\n     it in himself. I have got it. Thank God!\n\n     I believe that the Scriptures were given by inspiration of\n     God, and that they teach that not only does continuance in\n     the favour of God depend upon continued faith in and\n     obedience to Christ, but that it is possible for those who\n     have been truly converted to fall away and be eternally\n     lost.\n\n     I believe that it is the privilege of all God's people to be\n     wholly sanctified, and that 'their whole spirit and soul and\n     body' may 'be preserved blameless unto the coming of our\n     Lord Jesus Christ,' That is to say, I believe that after\n     conversion there remain in the heart of the believer\n     inclinations to evil, or roots of bitterness, which, unless\n     overpowered by divine grace, produce actual sin; but these\n     evil tendencies can be entirely taken away by the Spirit of\n     God, and the whole heart, thus cleansed from anything\n     contrary to the will of God, or entirely sanctified, will\n     then produce the fruit of the Spirit only. And I believe\n     that persons thus entirely sanctified may, by the power of\n     God, be kept unblameable and unreprovable before Him.\n\n     I believe in the immortality of the soul; in the\n     resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end\n     of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and\n     in the everlasting punishment of the wicked.\n\nTHEREFORE,\n\n     I do here and now, and for ever, renounce the world with all\n     its sinful pleasures, companionships, treasures, and\n     objects, and declare my full determination boldly to show\n     myself a soldier of Jesus Christ in all places and\n     companies, no matter what I may have to suffer, do, or lose,\n     by so doing.\n\n     I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use\n     of all intoxicating liquors, and from the habitual use of\n     opium, laudanum, morphia, and all other baneful drugs,\n     except when in illness such drugs shall be ordered for me by\n     a doctor.\n\n     I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use\n     of all low or profane language; from the taking of the name\n     of God in vain; and from all impurity, or from taking part\n     in any unclean conversation, or the reading of any obscene\n     book or paper at any time, in any company, or in any place.\n\n     I do here declare that I will not allow myself in any\n     falsehood, deceit, misrepresentation, or dishonesty; neither\n     will I practise any fraudulent conduct in my business, my\n     home, nor in any other relation in which I may stand to my\n     fellow-men, but that I will deal truthfully, fairly,\n     honourably, and kindly with all those who may employ me, or\n     whom I may myself employ,\n\n     I do here declare that I will never treat any woman, child,\n     or other person, whose life, comfort, or happiness may be\n     placed within my power, in an oppressive, cruel or cowardly\n     manner, but that I will protect such from evil and danger so\n     far as I can, and promote to the utmost of my ability their\n     present welfare and eternal salvation.\n\n     I do here declare that I will spend all the time, strength,\n     money, and influence I can in supporting and carrying on\n     this war, and that I will endeavour to lead my family,\n     friends, neighbours, and all others whom I can influence, to\n     do the same, believing that the sure and only way to remedy\n     all the evils in the world is by bringing men to submit\n     themselves to the Government of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n     I do here declare that I will always obey the lawful orders\n     of my Officers, and that I will carry out to the utmost of\n     my powers all the orders and regulations of the Army; and\n     further that I will be an example of faithfulness to its\n     principles, advance to the utmost of my ability its\n     operations, and never allow, where I can prevent it, any\n     injury to its interests, or hindrance to its success.\n\nAND\n\n     I do here and now call upon all present to witness that I\n     enter into this undertaking, and sign these Articles of War\n     of my own free will, feeling that the love of Christ, who\n     died to save me, requires from me this devotion of my life\n     to His service for the salvation of the whole world, and\n     therefore wish now to be enrolled as a Soldier of the\n     Salvation Army.\n\n     _Signed_...........................................\n\n     _Image (full Christian and Surname)_\n\n     _Address_........................................\n\n     _Date_........................    _Corps_.............\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX C\n\nCOPY OF THE SALVATION ARMY BALANCE SHEET, EXTRACTED FROM THE\nFORTY-THIRD ANNUAL STATEMENTS OF ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING\nSEPTEMBER 30, 1909.\n\n_Copies of this Balance Sheet with Statements of Account can be had\nupon application. The Balance Sheet and Statements of Account for the\nyear ending September 30, 1910, will be posted from the press early\nnext year. The Balance Sheet of The Army's Social Fund can be obtained\nfrom the Secretary._\n\n\nLIABILITIES\n\n DR.\n                                       \u00a3     s. d.\nTO LOANS UPON MORTGAGE,\n    including accrued Interest     540,277   3  11\n\n\"  LOANS FOR FIXED PERIODS,\n    including accrued Interest     121,958   8   1\n\n\"  RESERVE FUNDS, including\n    General and Special Reserves   176,143  15   \u00bd\n\n\"  SUNDRY CREDITORS                 10,359   3   2\n\n\"  COLONIAL AND FOREIGN\n    TERRITORIES FUND                55,219  10   7\n\n\"  SELF-DENIAL FUND\n    (Balance)                        3,463  12   3\n\n\n                                   ----------------\nCarried Forward                   \u00a3907,621  13 1/2\n\n\nASSETS\n\n CR.\n                                    \u00a3    s. d.          \u00a3     s. d.\nBY FREEHOLD and LEASEHOLD\n    PROPERTY (at or below\n    cost) in the United\n    Kingdom, as on September\n    30, 1908                    1,066,923 16  2-1/2\n\"  Additions during the year       23,271  4  6\n                               --------------------\n                                1,090,195  2  8-1/2\n\"  Freehold Estate in\n    Australia                      10,375  3  6\n                               -----------------   1,100,571  6  4-1/2\n\"  INVESTMENTS, including\n    Investment of Reserve\n    and Sinking Funds                                196,412  9  2\n\"  FURNITURE and FITTINGS\n    at Headquarters, Officers'\n    Quarters, and\n    Training College, as on\n    September 30, 1908              5,412 16  1\n\"  Additions during the year        2,768  9  5-1/2\n                                    ---------------\n                                    8,181  5  6-1/2\n   _Less_ Depreciation              2,433 19  9\n                                    ---------------    5,748  5  9-1/2\n                                                     -----------------\nCarried forward                                   \u00a31,802,732  1  4\n\n\nBALANCE SHEET--_continued_\n\nDR.\n\nBrought forward                                       907,621 13 0-1/2\n\nTo The Salvation Army Fund,\n\nas per last Balance Sheet         411,701  0 6-1/4\n\n\" Donations and Subscriptions\n    For Capital Purposes\n(including building\nContributions,\n\u00a320,044 0s. 2d.)                   37,044  6 2\n\n\" General Income and Expenditure\n     Account\n(Balance)                           1,309 17 8-1/2\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                                                      450,064 18 4-1/2\n                                                     -----------------\n\n                                                   \u00a31,357,706 11 5\n\nCR.\n\nBrought forward                                      1,302,732 1 4\n\nBy Loans\n\n\" Trade Headquarters Fund              27,902 16 5\n\n\" Sundry Colonial and\n    Foreign Territories                 8,606 16 0\n                                      ------------\n\n                                                       34,506 12 5\n\n\" Sundry Debtors                                       18,360 10 4\n\n\" Cash at Bank                                           2,107 7 4\n\n                                                   ---------------\n                                                   \u00a31,357,706 11 5\n\nWe have examined the above Statement with the Books, Accounts, and\nVouchers relating thereto, and certify the same to be correct. We have\nalso verified the Bank balances and Investments.\n\nKNOX, CROPPER & CO.,\n\n_Chartered Accountants._\n\n16 FINSBURY CIRCUS, E.C.\n\n_December_ 31, 1909.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX D\n\nA FEW FIGURES SHOWING SOME OF THE WORK OF THE DARKEST ENGLAND SCHEME\nIN THE UNITED KINGDOM.\n\n        TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1909              DURING     TOTAL TO\n                                           1910       SEPT. 30, 1910\nNumber of Meals supplied at\n  Cheap Food D\u00e9p\u00f4ts            69,784,480  6,869,897  76,654,377\nNumber of Cheap Lodgings for\n  the Homeless                 27,850,674  2,445,300  30,295,974\nNumber of Meetings held in\n  Shelters                        140,747      8,660     149,407\nNumber of Applications from\n  Unemployed registered at\n  Labour Bureaux                  302,538     13,009     315,547\nNumber received into Factories     63,694      6,754      70,448\nNumber for whom Employment\n  (temporary or permanent) has\n  been found                      249,453     20,210     269,663\nNumber of Ex-Criminals received\n  into Homes                        8,840        416       9,256\nNumber of Ex-Criminals assisted,\n  restored to Friends,\n  sent to situations, etc.          7,886      1,166       9,052\nNumber of Applications for Lost\n  Persons                          44,001      2,120      46,121\nNumber of Lost Persons found       13,710        398      14,108\nNumber of Women and Girls\n  received into Rescue Homes       44,417      3,679      48,096\nNumber of Women and Girls\n  received into Rescue Homes\n  who were sent to Situations,\n  restored to Friends, etc.        37,168      3,346      40,514\nNumber of Families visited in\n  Slums                           998,079    109,750   1,107,829\nNumber of Families prayed with    577,550     64,141     641,691\nNumber of Public-houses visited   630,021     33,188     663,209\nNumber of Lodging-houses\n  visited                          17,330      3,457      20,787\nNumber of Lodging-house Meetings\n  held                              7,319      1,792       9,111\nNumber of Sick People visited\n  and nursed                       93,233     21,912     115,145\n\n\n\n\nNOTES:\n\n\n[1: See Appendix C]\n\n[2: The following extract from the recently issued 'Report of\nthe Commissioners of Prisons and the Directors of Convict Prisons,'\nfor the year ended March 31, 1910, Part I [Cd. 5360], published since\nthe above was written, sets out the present views of the Authorities\non this important matter:--\n\n     'Out of the present inmates of convict prisons over 40 per\n     cent have been previously in penal servitude, viz. out of\n     3,046 male convicts in convict prisons, 1,253 had been\n     previously sentenced to penal servitude, 672 once, 271\n     twice, 196 three times, and 114 four times or more. Mr.\n     Secretary Churchill has referred to us the question whether,\n     and in what way, it would be possible to make any impression\n     on this roll of recidivism--this unyielding _corpus_ of\n     habitual crime. The problem is never absent from the minds\n     of those responsible for the administration of prisons and\n     the treatment of crime, and during recent years great\n     efforts have been made to improve the machinery of\n     assistance on discharge, fully impressed as we are with the\n     truth of the old French saying, \"_Le difficile ce n'est pas\n     emprisoner un homme, c'est de le rel\u00e2cher_.\" We have tried\n     to avail ourselves fully of the resources offered by such\n     powerful agencies as the Church Army, Salvation Army, as\n     well as other societies who have for years operated in this\n     particular field of charitable effort. We recognize the\n     ready help given by all these agencies. No doubt by their\n     efforts many difficult and unpromising cases have been\n     rehabilitated; but after full consideration we have come to\n     the opinion that the task of rehabilitation in the case of\n     men returning to freedom after a sentence of penal servitude\n     is too difficult and too costly to be left entirely to\n     voluntary societies, unaided by any grant of public funds,\n     and working independently of each other at a problem where\n     unity of method and direction is above all things required.\n     Mr. Secretary Churchill, to whom these views have been\n     represented, at once agreed that the difficulty lay in this\n     question of discharge, and that the official authority,\n     acting in close and friendly co-operation with the voluntary\n     societies must take a more active part than hitherto in\n     controlling the passage into free life of a man emerging\n     from penal servitude. ... A plan is now under consideration\n     for establishing a Central Agency of Control for Discharged\n     Convicts, on which both the official and unofficial element\n     will be represented, with a subsidy from public funds, the\n     purpose of which will be to take in hand the guidance and\n     direction of every convict on the day of discharge' (pp. 15,\n     16).]\n\n[3: See Parliamentary Blue Book [Cd. 2562].]\n\n[4: The scale of pay in the Salvation Array for Officers in charge of\nCorps (or Stations) is as follows:--For Single Men: Lieutenants, 16s.\nweekly; Captains, 18s. weekly. For Single Women: Lieutenants, 12s.\nweekly; Captains, 15s. weekly. For Married Men, 27s. per week and 1s.\nper week for each child under 7 years of age, and 2s. per week for\neach child between the ages of 7 and 14. Furnished lodgings are\nprovided in addition.]\n\n[5: But the day before this proof came into my hands it was my duty to\nhelp to try a case illustrative of these remarks. In that case a girl\nwhen only just over the age of sixteen had been seduced by a young man\nand borne a son. First the father admitted parentage and promised\nmarriage. Then he denied parentage, and, apparently without a shadow\nof evidence, alleged that the child was the result of an incestuous\nintercourse between its mother and a relative. At the trial, having,\nit seemed, come to the conclusion that this wicked slander would not\nenable him to escape an affiliation order, he again frankly admitted\nhis parentage. In the country districts, at any rate, such examples\nare common.--H. R. H.]\n\n[6: The loss is being reduced annually, that for the financial year\nwhich has just closed being the lowest on record.]\n\n[7: See Appendix A]\n\n[8: On this and other points see the Salvation Army's 'Articles of\nWar,' Appendix B.]\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\nAffiliation Orders, 91, 109-110.\n\n'Ann Fowler' Home, 166, 168.\n\nAnti-Suicide Bureau, 151-164.\n\nArdenshaw Women's Home, Glasgow, 188.\n\nArgyll, Duchess of, 103.\n\n'Articles of War,' 257.\n\nAustralia, 14, 83.\n\nBalance-sheet for 1909, 260-261.\n\nBarlow, Sir Thomas, 123.\n\nBarnardo, The late Dr., 71, 73, 233.\n\nBlackfriars Shelter, 41.\n\nBooth, General, 7, 10-12, 14-18, 57, 61, 63, 85, 97, 200-201, 206,\n  208-217, 223.\n\nBooth, Mr. Bramwell, 218-225.\n\nBooth, Mrs. Bramwell, 87, 89, 91-93, 95, 144.\n\nBoxted Small Holdings, 69, 200-207.\n\nBritish Government, The, and Colonial Land Scheme, 82.\n\nCanada, 14, 82-86.\n\nCarrington, Earl, 206.\n\nCentral Labour Bureau, 75.\n\nChief of the Staff, The: see Mr. Bramwell Booth.\n\nCox, Commissioner, 96, 98, 119, 120.\n\nCriminals in England, 61.\n\nCrossley, Mrs., 176.\n\nDrink, 37.\n\nDuke Street, Glasgow, 188.\n\nEdinburgh, 179.\n\nEmbankment Soup Distribution, 22, 39, 40.\n\nEmigration Department, 80;\n  Emigration Board, 85.\n\nEmployers' Liability Act, 38.\n\nEx-Criminals, 54.\n\nFirst Offenders Act, 168.\n\nFree Breakfast Service, 41.\n\nFuture of the Salvation Army, Notes on, 237.\n\nGlasgow, 165, 178-182, 192.\n\nGovernment Labour Bureaux, 75-76.\n\nGovernment Subsidy, 57.\n\nGreat Peter St. Shelter, 33, 157.\n\nGreat Titchfield St., 94, 140, 150.\n\nHadleigh Land Colony, 76, 182, 184, 194, 198, 199.\n\nHanbury St. Workshop, 65-70.\n\nHerring, The late Mr. George, 19, 200, 201, 207, 212.\n\nHillsborough House Inebriates' Home, 98, 102, 122.\n\nHollies,' 'The, 168, 169.\n\nHome Office, The, 55.\n\nIliffe, Lieut.-Colonel, 204.\n\nImpressions of General Booth, 208.\n\nIndia, 23.\n\nInebriates' Home, The, Springfield Lodge, 122.\n\nInternational Investigation Department, 77.\n\nIvy House Maternity Hospital, 107.\n\nJava, 233.\n\nJolliffe, Lieut.-Colonel, 41, 148, 185-186, 190-191.\n\nKing Edward Hospital Fund, 201.\n\nLabour Bureau, Central, Whitechapel, 75;\n  Statistics, 76.\n\nLabour Party and Trade.\n  Unions, 65, 85-86.\n\nLamb, Colonel, 81, 83-85.\n\nLambert, Colonel, 115.\n\nLand Colony, Hadleigh, 194.\n\nLaudanum-drinking, 124, 183.\n\nLaurie, Lieut.-Colonel, 194-196.\n\nLaurier, Sir Wilfrid, 82.\n\nLiverpool, 165.\n\nLondon County Council, 129.\n\nLondon Maternity Home, 169.\n\nLorne House, 103, 105.\n\nManchester, 165;\n  Social Institutions, 172.\n\nMaternity Home, Lorne House, Stoke Newington, 103.\n\nMaternity Home, Brent House, Hackney, 105-106.\n\nMaternity Hospital,\n  Hackney, 105, 107;\n  Liverpool, 171.\n\nMaternity Hospital, New, required, 170.\n\nMen's Social Work,\n  Glasgow, 178;\n  London, 19, 65;\n  Manchester, 171.\n\nMiddlesex Street Shelter, 19.\n\nMidnight Work, Social, 94.\n\nNeeds, Our, 235.\n\nNest,' 'The, Clapton, 112.\n\nOakhill House, Manchester, 176.\n\nOld-Age Pensions Act, 130.\n\nParis, 93.\n\nParliamentary Committee of the Trade Unions, 65.\n\nPenitent Form, The, 46-48, 51, 230.\n\nPentonville Prison, 56.\n\nPiccadilly Midnight Work, 140.\n\nPrevention of Cruelty to Children, Society for the, 233.\n\nPrincess Louise, H.R.H., 103.\n\nPrison Act, The New, 63.\n\nPrison Reform, 62, 63 (note).\n\nPrison Visitation, 55, 188.\n\nPrisoners' Aid Society, 180.\n\nQuaker Street, 54.\n\nReligion of the Salvation Army, Note on the, 229.\n\nRescue Home, The, 117.\n\n'Revivalism!' 49.\n\nRoosevelt, Mr. 214-215.\n\n'Rural England,' 10.\n\nSacraments, The, 230.\n\nSalvation Army, Some Statistics of the, 9-10.\n\nScale of pay, Officers', 90 (note).\n\nScotland, 131, 179.\n\nSlum Settlement, The Hackney Road, 131.\n\nSlum Sisters, 88;\n  Some Statistics of their work, 131.\n\nSmall Holdings, 200-207.\n\nSouthwood, Sydenham, 126.\n\nSpa Road Elevator, 27, 46, 79.\n\nSturge House, 71-74.\n\nSturgess, Commissioner, 19, 36, 47, 54, 55, 57, 186.\n\nSweating, Charges of, refuted, 28, 66, 120-121.\n\nTitchfield Street Home, The, 140, 145, 150.\n\nTrade Unions and rate of Wages, 15-16.\n\nTraining Institute for Women Social Workers, The, 115.\n\nUnsworth, Colonel, 155, 157, 160, 164.\n\nVegetarianism, 99, 113-114.\n\nVisitation of prisoners by Salvation Army Officers, 55-56.\n\nWandsworth Prison, 56.\n\nWaste Paper Department,\n  Spa Road, 27, 31, 52;\n  Manchester, 172;\n  Glasgow, 180.\n\nWhite Slave Traffic, 87, 93.\n\nWhitechapel, 72, 75, 95, 132, 142.\n\nWomen's Industrial Home, Hackney, 119;\n  Sydenham, 126.\n\nWomen's Shelter, 129.\n\nWomen's Social Work, London, 87;\n  Headquarters, 96.","title":"Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great Britain","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":58662}