THE OUTSIDERS 
 
 : By ANNIE S. SWAN = 
 
 70 
 
 A Sketch of . . 
 Salvation Army 
 Social Work 
 
REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 Class 
 
THE OUTSIDERS 
 
 BEING A SKETCH OF 
 
 THE SOCIAL WORK OF 
 THE SALVATION ARMY. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNIE S. SWAN, 
 
 Author of "Aldersyde," "The Gates of Eden, 
 "A Lost Ideal," " Carlo wrie," etc., etc. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 GENERAL BOOTH. 
 
 PRICE Is. 6d. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 101 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 
 1905-6. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL BOOTH . iii 
 
 A FOREWORD xv 
 
 i. THE NETHER WORLD ... i 
 
 ii. THE HELPING HAND .... 14 
 
 in. DOWN EAST BUT GOING UP . . 29 
 
 iv. IN THE SHADOW OF WESTMINSTER . 37 
 
 v. BACK TO THE LAND .... 53 
 
 vi. A NATIONAL PROBLEM ... 64 
 
 vii. WOMAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN . . 78 
 
 viii. THE FRIENDLESS GIRL ... 92 
 
 ix. THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN . . 102 
 
 x. A WATCH IN THE NIGHT . . .no 
 
 xi. EMIGRATION : A SOLUTION . . .123 
 
. ERSITY 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY GENERAL BOOTH. 
 
 STATISTICS recently issued by the British Government, 
 and information already obtained under the partial 
 operation of the recent Unemployed Workmen Act, 
 establish beyond all dispute the fact that there are 
 unfortunately in this country a very large number of 
 people without employment. 
 
 I have already made statements to this effect times 
 without number, and during my recent Motor Campaign 
 I endeavoured to impress the distressing truth upon 
 the minds and hearts of many of those holding Civic 
 and other positions of responsibility for the poor with 
 whom I came in contact, and urged upon them the 
 necessity for immediate action in dealing with the sad 
 condition of things. 
 
 Thanks to the enterprise of the Press, and the 
 growing sense of responsibility felt by the community, 
 scarcely a day passes without some important aspect 
 of the unemployed question being discussed. All this 
 is to the good. 
 
 163303 
 
iv Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 The more light we can obtain on the existing 
 want of employment, its causes and extent, and the 
 more suggestions furnished for its remedy, the better. 
 Those of us who are actively engaged face to face 
 with the problem in all its grim and harrowing 
 features must welcome such discussion. 
 
 A writer in a prominent London daily paper 
 asserted only the other day, that there were at the 
 present time at least one million men out of work 
 in the United Kingdom. This is a terrible state- 
 ment, but the author maintains its correctness. 
 
 Now it will be seen that this army of un- 
 employed men, with their wives and children, and 
 others dependent upon them, has to be supported in 
 one way or another. This cannot be done for less 
 than i per family per week, which means a most 
 unwelcome addition of nearly a million pounds per 
 week to the already burdened Poor Law and other 
 unproductive expenditure. 
 
 This appalling calculation may, it is true, go a 
 little beyond the facts ; but not very far. My own 
 observation, and the observations of my Officers 
 confirm it. For, as a rule, the reports that reach me 
 go to show that for every family having the courage 
 to make its suffering known there are many others 
 who pine and languish in secret. The mere tabulation 
 
Introduction by General Booth. v 
 
 of numbers in this case but barely represents the 
 terrible facts. Despite the accumulation of national 
 wealth, there is, I fear, an amount of poverty in the 
 country that is fearful to contemplate. 
 
 Now I think it will be evident that the evil we are 
 deploring arises out of the simple fact that there is 
 not sufficient work for those who require it. This 
 proposition is unassailable. A large amount of the 
 talk about the difficulty resulting from an unwilling- 
 ness to work on the part of the unemployed is, I am 
 satisfied, a perversion of facts. 
 
 There are no doubt, here and there, a number of 
 the idle and loafing classes who prefer to live on the 
 relief supplied by the Poor Law authorities, and the 
 generous doles of the charitable, than to earn their 
 bread by the sweat of their brow, and to accomplish 
 this manage to attach themselves to the ranks of the 
 dona fide unemployed. But they only form a fraction 
 of the non-working whole, and the brand deserved 
 by the few ought not to be indiscriminately stamped 
 on the many. 
 
 It is only too evident that the unemployed class 
 is created by the want of employment. 
 
 This lack of work is, I need not say, followed by 
 a want of wages, and on the heels of that calamity 
 
vi Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 comes the want of bread, followed alas !, only too 
 often by starvation, vice, and crime. The incidents 
 scattered throughout the following- pages form a black 
 commentary upon this downward trend ; and before 
 condemning in ill-considered language the seething 
 mass of helpless poverty and disorder found too 
 frequently in the lower strata of society, due allowance 
 should be made for the force of the circumstances 
 which has driven many of them into their sad position. 
 For poverty is as surely the parent of vice as vice is 
 the parent of poverty. 
 
 Now it will be evident to the most superficial 
 thinker on this subject that the only sufficient remedy 
 for this dismal condition of things is the supply of the 
 needed work. The people must be fed, and clothed 
 and housed, however imperfectly it may be done. 
 Society is under an obligation to do this. Self-interest, 
 to say nothing of the higher claims of humanity and 
 religion, demands it. Otherwise, riot, revolution, and 
 disorganisation will be the inevitable result. 
 
 This food and home, and other necessaries of 
 existence can only be supplied by the labour of the 
 men themselves, or by the exertions of others. The 
 latter method, it will be generally admitted, is very 
 unsatisfactory, and wherever adopted constitutes a 
 cause for complaint and criticism in no measured 
 
Introduction by General Booth. vii 
 
 terms. It is a kind of charity cursed usually by 
 those who give it, as well as proving a curse in its 
 disheartening and demoralising effect to those who 
 receive it. 
 
 The day is not far distant, in my opinion, when 
 it will be put aside as being not only an effete and 
 useless system, but ruinous, inasmuch as its unfailing 
 tendency is to create and multiply the very evil it is 
 intended to destroy. 
 
 I have before me a statement by a gentleman 
 concerning a London parish which reveals its 
 impolence, either as a palliative or effective remedy 
 for this distress. This statement shows that one out 
 of every sixteen persons is in receipt of Relief ; that 
 ;6o,ooo per annum are spent on Outdoor Relief alone; 
 that during the last year the number receiving such 
 Relief has risen from 3,773 to 6,207, and the Indoor 
 Paupers from 3,631 to 4,037 ; that some 300 able- 
 bodied men, ranging from 18 to 40 years of age, are 
 kept in comparative idleness in the Workhouse ; while 
 a Farm Colony, started in the interest of this very 
 class, is viewed by the Chief Constable of the District 
 as a source of disorder. To meet the expenditure, the 
 parish is rated at 12$. in the i ; and, most distressing 
 of all, there is no immediate hope of this state of affairs 
 being improved. Here is a ghastly picture that will 
 
viii Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 not only fill the minds of the Officials of this particular 
 parish with concern, but must create serious alarm 
 throughout the Kingdom, lest such a state of things 
 should become general. 
 
 What seems to me to be needed is a system that 
 will not only encourage people to work by furnishing 
 them with labour, but by depriving them of all means 
 of maintenance if they refuse to engage in it. The 
 application of a plan, based on this twofold principle, 
 will grapple with, and ultimately obliterate, the new 
 caste which is now coming to be satirically designated, 
 " The Unemployed." 
 
 I argue that while those who, through age, sick- 
 ness, or misfortune, are unable to work, shall be 
 maintained in a fair degree of comfort without work, 
 we ought to say, and say boldly, that those who are 
 able to work shall work, and that at some form 
 of remunerative labour. 
 
 Of course, it may be urged that this plan will 
 impose on those in authority the obligation of finding 
 work or the means for providing the maintenance of 
 the unemployed. To this I reply, that this differs 
 very little in principle from the prevailing system. 
 At the present time some sixteen millions of the 
 ratepayers' money is annually spent in maintaining 
 people without work ; under my plan this sum would 
 
Introduction by General Booth. ix 
 
 be spent in furnishing work for those who are able 
 to work, and who must constitute at least a third 
 of the total number of unemployed, and from the 
 proceeds of which work they could maintain themselves. 
 In course of time a property would be thus created 
 yielding- a return which would considerably reduce, 
 if not wipe out altogether the necessity for the present 
 Poor Rate. But that ideal is, I fear, a long way from 
 realisation, although the underlying principle would, 
 if applied in only a small way in every parish of the 
 land, be attended, I am convinced, with results 
 that would be both beneficial to the recipients of 
 this form of relief and profitable to the community 
 generally. 
 
 If, then, the remedy for the evil we are deploring 
 consists in providing work for the workless, how and 
 where can that work be found ? 
 
 It is only too evident that such work cannot be 
 provided in the city and town industries. Every 
 manufacturing enterprise is already crowded out with 
 the needed hands. Although trade is, doubtless, again 
 improving, such is the rate at which the needed 
 employe's multiply that there appears little or no pros- 
 pect of such an expansion as would be likely to cope 
 with the calamitous state of these things. If a new 
 industry could be created, it would only have temporary 
 
x Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 and comparatively small effect on the ranks of the 
 out-of-works. 
 
 If, then, it is not desirable to feed the people 
 in idleness ; if work cannot be found for them in 
 the existing town industries ; and if new industries 
 cannot be invented, what is to be done? 
 
 There seem to be only two ways of relief open 
 to us in this impasse. The first is a well-conducted 
 system by which the workless can be transferred to 
 those parts of the world where labour is required. If 
 the towns are crowded here, they are not fully occupied 
 there. If the land is occupied or for some reason 
 beyond the reach of the workless here, that is not the 
 case in the countries across the seas. If we cannot 
 bring the work to the people here, what course could 
 possibly be more sensible than to take the people to 
 the work there? 
 
 Over there, bread enough and to spare will be 
 found, as well as the opportunity of serving God, 
 helping to build up the Empire, and finishing up in 
 Heaven at last. What so natural, then, as to arrange 
 for the conveyance of these people to these new worlds ? 
 
 The Salvation Army has done something in this 
 way already. What we have done, we have done. I 
 am not ashamed of it, and I do not believe that I shall 
 
Introduction by General Booth. x i 
 
 have any reason to blush as to its development and 
 consequences on the last great day. Some particulars 
 as to the extent to which we have transferred people 
 from this to other lands, and of the care and 
 efficiency of our system of transportation will be 
 gathered from these pages. The Governments con- 
 cerned have professed their gratification with the 
 character of the emigrants and the ability with which 
 they have been selected, carried across the seas, and 
 distributed upon their arrival. The people themselves 
 have been permanently benefited and generally satisfied, 
 as is evidenced by the trifling number of complaints 
 that have reached us, and the cases that have turned 
 out failures. 
 
 And yet I am far from satisfied. A great deal 
 more might have been done, and done even more 
 efficiently had more practical sympathy been extended 
 to us, in the shape of heartier co-operation and the 
 supply of a larger capital. 
 
 The other method of grappling with the difficulty 
 is Colonisation that is to say, placing the people 
 on the land with a permanent interest in it, either 
 as freeholders or leaseholders ; in fact, this, in my 
 judgment, is the only really effective remedy. By this 
 plan the people assisted can, by their own exertions, 
 maintain themselves without in any way clashing with 
 
xii Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 the interests and well-being of their fellow-workers, 
 whether those workers be distant or near. 
 
 In the carrying out of this plan there will be 
 difficulties, to which reference will be made further on. 
 I simply say here to those who press these objections, 
 "Are there not difficulties in the continuance of the 
 present system ?" 
 
 To carry on Colonisation to an extent commensurate 
 with the necessity of the case, a large amount of 
 capital is, of course, required. 
 
 My scheme is before the public. It has been 
 considered by the Government and submitted to a 
 Departmental Committee. I must wait for the report 
 of that Committee. Should Government aid be granted 
 I can proceed ; if not, while I must consider what 
 is next to be done, I shall certainly not abandon 
 the attempt to give the principle the chance that it 
 deserves. 
 
 Several objections have, I know, been raised to this 
 transfer of the workless people to other countries by 
 either Emigration or Colonisation. Some of these 
 objections have their origin in pure sentiment, and 
 do not need any reply. One or two, however, call 
 for remark. 
 
 i. It is alleged that we are taking able-bodied 
 labouring men out of the country. They are 
 
Introduction by General Booth. xiii 
 
 designated " the cream of the working-classes/' and 
 the "bone and muscle of the nation." To this 
 I reply, after allowing for the exaggeration which 
 is self-evident in these statements, that while many 
 of this class will doubtless find a new home across 
 the seas who can be well spared here, others may go 
 whom it may seem very desirable to retain. But if 
 the able-bodied younger generation cannot find that 
 sustenance in the Fatherland, which is an absolute 
 necessity, and they can find it elsewhere, I do not see 
 any great cause for complaint in their being willing, 
 nay, anxious, to make the change, nor of any just 
 cause for objection to our enabling them to make 
 it in such a manner as will be most in harmony 
 with their interests physical, social, moral, and 
 religious. 
 
 2. Another objection urges that this transfer of 
 population is only an insufficient palliative to 
 the malady, failing to deal with the causes that 
 produce it. 
 
 To this I reply, that if, as is no uncommon thing, 
 a man staggers fainting to our doors, ready to die for 
 want of food, with a famished family, a fireless grate, 
 and an empty, cheerless home, and cries out, "Can't 
 you save us from the workhouse and the grave ? " 
 what must we do ? My pitying heart will not allow 
 
xiv Introduction by General Booth. 
 
 me to wait for Government interference, or Social 
 revolution. My compassion compels me to minister 
 to his needs in the readiest, most effective, and most 
 permanent manner possible ; and that is done, in 
 many instances, by the scheme of Emigration I have 
 just outlined, and by means of which he can be sent 
 where he will be welcomed, and where he will be able 
 to meet his needs, and those of his family, by the 
 labour of his own hands. 
 
 With respect to the other blessed methods of 
 alleviating the misery of the homeless and suffering 
 explained and enlarged upon in this pamphlet, 
 need say but little. We are hard at work, but I can 
 only maintain and extend our operations as I am 
 enabled by the generosity of my friends. Will you 
 help me as liberally as you possibly can ? 
 
 WILLIAM BOOTH. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 
 LONDON, E.G. 
 
 November, 1905. 
 
A FOREWORD. 
 
 T HAVE been interested for many years in the great 
 reformative and redemptive work being carried on 
 by The Salvation Army, and when asked whether I 
 would be willing to write a brief account of the 
 various branches which would form their Annual 
 Report, I gladly undertook the task. Though familiar 
 with much of their method, a minute investigation 
 undertaken so that the work might be as thorough 
 as possible, has surprised me beyond all telling. 
 From comparatively small beginnings the operations 
 of The Army have extended, until it is now a vast 
 reformative agency, with ramifications stretching all 
 over the known world. 
 
 Those who have hitherto solely associated The 
 Salvation Army with brass bands and a somewhat 
 noisy and aggressive display of Christian energy, 
 would stand amazed before the inner workings of 
 this great, efficient, and ofttimes silent machine. 
 
 It works while many others talk, very often while 
 others sleep. 
 
XVI 
 
 A Foreword. 
 
 Criticism is silenced before the efficiency of its 
 methods, the self-denial and devotion of its Officers 
 and rank and file, the magnitude of its results. 
 
 These pages can do little more than touch upon 
 all these ; but if they awaken an interest great 
 enough to provoke personal enquiry on the part of 
 those who hitherto have only looked on and criticised 
 from the outside, and they serve to enlist those who 
 have the means to maintain and extend The Army's 
 beneficent enterprises, then they will not have been 
 written in vain. 
 
 I ask for God's blessing on these pages and 
 expect it because the work is His, and has been 
 stamped with the seal of His approval. 
 
 ANNIE S. SWAN. 
 
 HAMPSTEAD, LONDON. 
 
 November, 1905. 
 
I. 
 
 THE NETHER WORLD. 
 
 difference between London and the capitals of 
 other countries is never more apparent than to the 
 observer who happens to get abroad early on a Sunday 
 morning*. The absolutely deserted streets will awaken 
 in him a great wonder, and, if he is a reverent person, 
 he will doubtless thank God anew for the benediction of 
 rest which has fallen like a mantle on the toiling and 
 careworn millions. In none of the continental cities I 
 have visited and these have been many can such 
 perfect quietude be found on the Sabbath Day. In 
 other countries, not only are the purveyors of food and 
 drink early astir plying their various callings with the 
 usual week-day diligence, but the great factories and 
 workshops are generally open also, at least for a part of 
 the day, so that there is no complete rest-day for the 
 people from one year's end to another. Long may we 
 keep our British Sabbath Day, and may we be strong 
 and diligent to resist any attempt to encroach upon it ! 
 
2 The Outsiders. 
 
 Nowhere is this stillness so absolute and striking as 
 in these quarters where on every working day the traffic 
 never slackens from early morning until midnight, where 
 the stream of humanity seems to have no end. South 
 of the river, down here by the " Elephant and Castle," 
 it was like a city of the dead in the comparatively early 
 hours of a certain Sunday morning when the writer had 
 business abroad. Newington Causeway certainly one 
 of the most congested centres in South London, where 
 at times vehicular and pedestrian traffic seem mingled 
 together in inextricable and dangerous confusion is 
 at this moment utterly deserted. There is not even a 
 stray milkman with his painted pram and his cheerful 
 " Milk O ! " to be seen or heard. 
 
 Deathly Silence. 
 
 The glaring ginshops with their pretentious fronts, 
 and familiar inviting legends, have even donned a decent 
 reticence. The mahogany doors are shut, the fine plate- 
 glass windows are covered, their gay frequenters are 
 nowhere to be seen. Where are they ? Who can tell ? 
 Melted like ghosts among the shadows of sleeping 
 London. In the side streets, where a few hours ago 
 the coster plied his trade, hoarsely shouting his wares 
 under the flaring naphtha lights, you can see the debris 
 he has left behind, decayed vegetables indeed, refuse 
 of every kind littering the way from kerb to kerb, 
 
The Nether World. 3 
 
 now the happy hunting ground of the slum cat and 
 the pariah dog. 
 
 But where is he ? Oh, if those stones could speak, 
 if these closed doors could be unswung, the veil lifted, 
 what would be revealed ! 
 
 The Borderland. 
 
 It does not bear thinking of, for here we are in 
 very shady walks better known to the police than to 
 ordinary folk. Have you heard of the famous New 
 Cut ? Here it is. The picture of decent repose. A 
 sleepy-eyed butcher is taking down his shutters, 
 getting ready against the time when the aristo- 
 cratic habituts of the locality shall sally forth to 
 purchase their Sunday dinners. He, at least, will 
 have no holiday. 
 
 Now we are in Blackfriars Road, one of these fine 
 open thoroughfares which certainly to the casual eye 
 betray no signs of congestion, or of slum life. It is in 
 the byways you must look for that in its glory, if I may 
 use such a word. As we drive slowly, we take many 
 a wondering glance into the side alleys, where slum- 
 land dwells. 
 
 We are in plenty of time, though invited to a large 
 breakfast party which necessitated a long journey from 
 north to south, undertaken while others slept. As we 
 near the hostel where this great meal is spread, we 
 
4 The Outsiders. 
 
 notice the guests beginning to assemble, gathering 
 in fact, in a long queue in front of the still obdurate 
 doors. Who are these assembling, so obviously with- 
 out a wedding garment ? Whence come they, whither 
 are they bound ? These are the two questions upper- 
 most in the mind of the startled observer who has not 
 the heart to ask them. She knows what the answer 
 would be. These, surely, are some of the ghosts that 
 have been hidden in the darkest shadows of the sleeping 
 city. A great gathering of the lost, the waste, "the 
 drift of both banks," as my Officer-guide aptly puts it. 
 It is, surely, a sight more for tears than wonder. 
 
 Actual Netherdom. 
 
 Watch them come, from this direction and from 
 that, mostly with the moucher's slouch, which is like no 
 other gait under Heaven. It is acquired through long 
 practice in evading the straight road. Some of their 
 heads are down, but others, in spite of rags and 
 tatters, wear a jaunty air. Fate has done its worst ; 
 they defy her now, they simply exist to grab what 
 may come in their way, catching at it, as the slum 
 dog yonder wolfs the bone from the garbage of the 
 gutters. Here and there is one more decently clad 
 than the rest, a faded air of respectability about him; 
 his head is mostly down, shame and he have not 
 parted company, though hope has long hidden herself 
 
The Nether World. 5 
 
 from him, and evaded his anxious quest. He is the 
 decent tradesman whom misfortune has steadily dogged, 
 who is numbered, through no fault of his own in the 
 sad ranks of the unemployed. Then there is the poor 
 gentleman, seldom absent from such gatherings. 
 You can tell him by the pathetic dignity he has not 
 quite lost. 
 
 All-Nighters. 
 
 The air is biting cold and raw. It is the first Sunday 
 in chill October, and does not belie its name. Some of 
 the waiting crowd put up their greasy coat collars, and 
 huddle closer together to find the heat in numbers even 
 here. The poor vital spark has been all but extinguished 
 by a night in the open. Every one of these men, and 
 there are hundreds, has been out all night. They are 
 homeless, and are here this morning by invitation of 
 The Salvation Army, not only to eat the free breakfast 
 provided, but to be helped and comforted in other 
 ways. The little door in the big gate is opened at last, 
 and one passes in with the crowd, a unit among an un- 
 savoury mass of submerged humanity, but a unit whose 
 heart has not been hardened by this and similar sights. 
 
 " The image of God," these are the words one 
 cons over and over as one passes through the yard, 
 already full. It is hard to believe but it is true. Well, 
 then, who is responsible for this frightful desecration of 
 
6 The Outsiders. 
 
 His image ? Is it God or man ? Come, stand by me 
 here, and, perhaps, after a time you may be able to 
 discern ; that is, if your blinding tears will permit you 
 to discern anything but the sight of misery in the mass. 
 Inside there is a large and cheerful hall, swept and 
 garnished, with even a little attempt at decoration in 
 front of the platform ; this being the day set apart for 
 Harvest Thanksgiving. Is this, then, a harvest to be 
 proud of ? O England, land of the happy and the 
 free ! 
 
 The "Outs" and "Ins." 
 
 The ordinary purpose of this great building, the 
 property of The Army, is that of a shelter for men. It 
 was full last night, but the inmates who, with perhaps 
 a few exceptions, paid for their shelter, have turned 
 out to make a way for their brothers several grades 
 lower than themselves in the social scale. Many of 
 the permanent lodgers here, now climbing up to better 
 things, began among the shivering crowd awaiting the 
 opening of those doors. Experience has given them an 
 understanding sympathy. 
 
 The beds they have vacated are set end on against 
 the wall ; in the side alleys or aisles, they are still 
 standing, though all made tidy and straight for the day. 
 Here there is another crowd ; the Major explains to 
 me that these are men whom The Army Scouts picked 
 
The Nether World. 7 
 
 up from the streets about midnight ; some of them 
 were supplied with hot soup and bread at two o'clock 
 in the morning, in another part of London, where they 
 were given an invitation card to admit to this breakfast. 
 
 These the Major proposes to interview first very 
 briefly, because many of them are fresh faces ; and it is 
 one of the chief aims of The Army to get hold of men 
 and women at the beginning, so to speak, before they 
 sink to the bedrock of the underworld. 
 
 Having cognisance of the fact that these are mostly 
 starving people, the Major does not waste time. There 
 is a dramatic, I had almost written a tragic, terseness 
 and brevity about his questioning. 
 
 Touching the Sore Spot. 
 
 " Morning, brother; where do you come from? 
 Name ? How long have you been out ? (Slept out). 
 What are you ? What trade do you follow ? Any 
 friends ? Cause of this ? " 
 
 Usually the questions are answered readily enough 
 up to now ; the last one is often received in silence. 
 But the Officer persists, and too often the answer 
 comes Drink. " Give it up, brother," says the Major, 
 cheerily, with a friendly hand on the slinking shoulder. 
 "Take that seat, and I'll talk to you by and by." 
 To witness the tenderness of this man, and at the 
 same time his insight and discrimination is to grasp 
 
8 The Outsiders. 
 
 one of the secrets of The Army's success. He can 
 spot the moucher and the loafer with unerring skill. 
 He gets the truth from these men ; often, as subsequent 
 enquiry shows, the whole truth, in answer to these 
 few leading questions upon which he is to base his 
 future dealing. They have their backs to the wall, so 
 to speak, and nothing is to be gained by subterfuge. 
 Obviously, the very fact of their presence there as 
 homeless wanderers makes explanation imperative. 
 
 The rising tide in my heart makes it somewhat 
 difficult for me to listen judiciously and disinterestedly 
 to these one-minute interviews, epitome as they are of 
 many a lifetime's misery. 
 
 The Mighty Barrier. 
 
 Is it comforting or the reverse, I wonder, that the 
 answer to the last query comes back so often in one 
 pregnant monosyllable Drink ?^ It makes one feel 
 that the time has come to cry aloud from the housetops 
 concerning this great and bitter evil. 
 
 A certain number are passed without either question 
 or remark. They are known, some of them hopeless 
 wasters whom The Army has assisted off and on, and 
 for whom, in the absence of legislation for which 
 The Army has been agitating of late, no drastic remedy 
 has been found. As the Officer remarks, they seem 
 to have solved the problem for themselves ! In a way 
 
The Nether World. 9 
 
 they are more ghastly to contemplate than the new- 
 comers about whom clings yet some odour of respecta- 
 bility. When a man has reached the point where he 
 will voluntarily accept and apparently be contented 
 with such a destiny, one is once more confronted 
 with the words " in the image of God." Has God 
 then forgotten these poor broken bits of drift upon 
 the human sea ? The Officer thinks not. Great is 
 his faith. 
 
 Heart-rending Hunger. 
 
 Of decent out-of-works there is a goodly share. 
 Depression in trade, wholesale paying-off of superfluous 
 hands, and the breaking up of the little home, the 
 gradual decline, the same pitiful tale we have heard 
 elsewhere, only somehow here it seems to be driven 
 home. For these men, decent, sober, willing to work, 
 are starving for a rnefn. Their eyes are glistening with 
 a wolfish hunger at the sight of food. It is a heart- 
 rending, heart-sickening sight in this richest and most 
 luxurious city in the world. 
 
 Presently all the available seats are full, and the 
 door is shut. Yes, some have been turned away, 
 although there is food, aye, and space to spare. More 
 officialism: we are only " certified" to hold a certain 
 number here, and it is as much as our " Licence " is 
 worth to exceed it by a single unit. So shut the door. 
 
 X 
 
 UNIVERSITY ) 
 
io The Outsiders. 
 
 The food already prepared is wrapped up in paper 
 bags to simplify distribution, and to enable a man to 
 carry it away decently if he is so minded. The Officer 
 smiles a little at the suggestion that he might carry it 
 away. Presently, as I help in the distribution of the 
 food, I see what a futile remark it was. There is 
 scarcely a word of thanks ; desperate men simply look 
 at you, they have no time for the courtesies of life. 
 
 The Gospel of a Meal. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to know what the fare is ? 
 A great thick slice of bread spread generously with 
 butter, a slice of cheese, a chunk of cake ; plain fare ; 
 but think of the number of such portions that have 
 to be prepared. 
 
 They sing the " grace " in a hoarse monotone, and 
 then we leave them to eat their meal minus the presence 
 of the looker-on. When we return in an hour's time 
 there is not a vestige of food remaining, even the 
 empty mugs containing the welcome liot tea have been 
 removed. Few have the satisfied look of men who have 
 had a full meal ; but, at least, all are warmed and 
 comforted. Many heads are down upon the little 
 ledge in front of each seat. Sleep has followed 
 naturally upon that sense of rest and warmth and 
 comfort to which many have been strangers for so long. 
 Now the service is about to begin. " Wake up, 
 
The Nether World. n 
 
 brothers ! " The kindly, yet stentorian voice of the 
 Major reaches even the furthest bench. There is a 
 general stirring, and Cowper's hymn is given out : 
 
 "There is a fountain filled with blood, 
 
 Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
 Lose all their guilty stains." 
 
 The tune is a familiar one, " Auld Lang Syne." They 
 sing with wonderful heartiness, the Major giving out 
 each verse before it is sung, accompanied by a running 
 comment of his own. Then there is a prayer, and 
 every head is bowed, and occasionally there is a long 
 breath, suspiciously like a sob. Once more the Major 
 speaks. 
 
 A Religion that Fits. 
 
 There is no ambiguity about his remarks, no play- 
 ing with facts, but rather fearless dealing with them ; 
 an insisting on the desperate need of every soul present. 
 Down in the depths they are, and it takes burning 
 words to penetrate these depths. The atmosphere 
 seemed charged with some electric force. That the 
 speaker has the ear of his strange audience is 
 evidenced by the rapt attention he receives. He 
 knows his men, has proved that it is a robust soul- 
 searching religion they need ; something that will pierce 
 the very joints of the poor armour they possess. 
 
12 The Outsiders, 
 
 Then comes testimony from those who have in past 
 days been themselves lifted from the pit. Men of no 
 education these, but they have words sufficient to tell 
 their story. Then a merry-faced, jovial-looking elderly 
 Soldier in a red Salvation jersey, whom we have 
 observed very active in all good work since this strange 
 scene opened, stands up to tell his story, for the glory of 
 God and the good of his fellow-men. He is one of the 
 numerous brands which have been plucked from the 
 burning, and his tale, told with a dramatic force many a 
 famous player might envy, rivets attention at once. 
 
 The Ex-Submerged's Eloquence. 
 
 He draws the picture of his former state with a dark, 
 even a lurid touch, relieved here and there with flashes 
 of real humour, which are keenly appreciated. His hearers 
 know these dark areas he describes ; they have been 
 there. The story of the ruined home, perhaps, touches 
 quick upon an open wound. There are tears yonder in 
 the eyes of that poor fellow leaning against the wall. 
 Perhaps his comrade, unconsciously, has repeated his 
 own story. The speaker passes with lightning rapidity 
 from the dark side to the bright. After giving a 
 graphic description of the scene in his wretched home 
 when he brought home two pounds honestly earned, he 
 tells how the wife waited for the police to pursue, 
 certain the money had been stolen ; and when it was 
 
The Nether World. 13 
 
 all explained at last, the child at his knee put the 
 question, " Oh, daddy, why did you never get saved 
 before ? " 
 
 " Get saved ! " he cried, in a mighty burst ot 
 pleading ; " get right with God, brothers, and be lifted 
 from the pit, even as I have been." 
 
 Let us slip quietly away, for this is holy ground. 
 They will be coming to kneel at the penitent-form 
 by and by, those whom the Spirit hath touched. It is 
 no place for the looker-on, however sympathetic and 
 even understanding. She tries to speak a few faltering 
 words to them before she goes, and leaves that strange 
 waiting, needy crowd with a prayer upon her lips and 
 grateful wonder in her soul. What wait they for ? This 
 is the day set apart for the Harvest Thanksgiving. 
 What sheaves from this desolate field ? The manner in 
 which such as really desire to be helped are dealt with 
 must be written of on a new page. This is holy ground. 
 God grant that such a picture, so moving and yet sa 
 terrible, may soon be swept from our midst, that men's 
 hearts and consciences will be so awakened that it will 
 be impossible to find its counterpart in any city in any 
 kingdom of the world ! 
 
II. 
 
 THE HELPING HAND. 
 
 E Headquarters of the City Colony work for 
 men in the Whitechapel Road is the place 
 appointed for dealing with the actual facts and possi- 
 bilities of the motley and pitiful crowd swept in by the 
 midnight scouts, and drawn from the ranks of the free 
 breakfasters. There each case is sifted, so far as is 
 possible, to the foundation, and treated on its merits, the 
 object being to restore each submerged man as quickly 
 as possible to the self-respecting, self-supporting ranks. 
 The greatest possible care and discrimination are 
 employed to bring about an end so desirable. 
 
 The man who wanted a helping hand was folding 
 circulars at a table in the Labour Bureau office. 
 He was a big, good-looking man, still on the 
 sunny side of forty. He had a frank, open face, 
 honest blue eyes, a written character from his previous 
 employer confirming the interviewer's favourable im- 
 pression of him, and assuring all whom it might 
 concern that the bearer was second to none at his 
 
The Helping Hand. 15 
 
 trade carter and horseman. His collar was clean, 
 his face shaven, his clothes well darned and brushed. 
 
 The Struggle to Keep Outside the "House/ 1 
 
 I asked him to show me his boots. He held them 
 up, and I could see his socks through the soles ! 
 Looking, searching for work, had worn them out. 
 Yet that very morning he had walked from Tooting 
 6J miles away and been at Social Headquarters 
 before 8 a.m. At night he would walk back home 
 again in order to save twopence for food. This man 
 has been out of work for three months, and is 
 jCs us. in arrears for rent. His wife is an indus- 
 trious, managing woman " the best of wives and the 
 best of mothers," says this heart-broken husband. 
 But for her contriving, this industrious pair and their 
 children would be in the workhouse. As it is, their 
 home is going bit by bit, and if the landlord insists 
 on the immediate payment of the ^"5 i is. owing for 
 rent, the family will lose their all. Together the 
 man and The Army they will be able to avert this 
 calamity. Certainly the first chance that offers for 
 securing a permanent situation for the man will be 
 seized. 
 
 It must be understood, however, that The Army 
 does not constitute itself into an over-grown creche 
 where grown-up babies and irresponsible persons are 
 
1 6 The Outsiders. 
 
 simply nursed with care and kindness at the expense 
 of somebody else. Their object is to lessen, not 
 increase, the number of useless and economically un- 
 productive lives. Having relieved the man's immediate 
 necessity, taken him by a brotherly hand, the next 
 thing is to make him pay for it, in the only coin 
 which will pass muster in a common-sense world. 
 That coin is work ! This is a healthy and honourable 
 test, appealing at once to the manliness of the 
 supplicant, and revealing to him, as it does, that this 
 is no dole-giving or pauperising institution. It is 
 founded on a principle which meets the man on his 
 own plane. It constitutes a ladder rough, I admit, but 
 nevertheless ready and at hand, the first rung being 
 one which places him in a position where he can, at 
 least, live. 
 
 The Labour Bureau. 
 
 It is not so easy as it looks, however. In the 
 case of the one-nighter, who has not become accus- 
 tomed to street life, who has fallen either through 
 drink or misfortune, but who has resources within 
 himself, if only he is helped to apply them, the 
 difficulty is not unsurmountable. The Salvation Army 
 Labour Bureau has earned a steadily growing reputa- 
 tion for reliability, and many employers of labour now 
 apply to the Commissioner there to supply the needed 
 
The Helping Hand. 17 
 
 men for any extra job, or for bits of work for which 
 some special skill is required. 
 
 While single men are sent to The Army's Elevators, 
 the Labour Bureaux, as I have indicated, endeavour to 
 procure temporary work for married people. 
 
 Out of 1,359 applications during a recent month, 
 527 married men were found employment. Such 
 temporary employment consists, as in the case of the 
 poor fellow from Tooting, of addressing envelopes, bill- 
 distributing, carrying sandwich-boards, cleaning windows, 
 canvassing for the Press and with articles of commerce, 
 and any other casual labour that may be requisitioned by 
 the business firms The Army is in communication with. 
 
 Skilled Out>of=Works. 
 
 There are few walks of life from which The Army 
 has not drawn representatives. They have always upon 
 their books a large and varied assortment of skilled 
 tradesmen, gardeners, labouring men and handy men 
 of all sorts, from whom selections may be made, and 
 a splendid outlet for these is Emigration. 
 
 During the past year a fair number of deserving 
 married people have been assisted to emigrate, and 
 perhaps no surer method can be found than this for 
 relieving this class of distressed. And it is Emigration 
 carried out in a parental spirit and in a scientific 
 manner. 
 
1 8 The Outsiders. 
 
 Tools have been redeemed out of pawn, in order 
 that workmen might have the fresh start. Rent has 
 been paid in many cases. As a result of the long 
 period of unemployment, eviction is threatened, but 
 the Labour Bureau Officers have taken evicted families 
 in hand, and found them a room, in order to keep 
 them out of the workhouse, and tide them over the 
 bar of their difficulty until able to cross the ocean, 
 and recommence the battle of life under happier 
 conditions. 
 
 A Fallacy Exposed. 
 
 As far as possible, every investigation has been 
 made into the previous history and antecedents of the 
 man, and the truth of his statements tested. His 
 very contact with The Army proves two facts that he 
 is necessitous, and desirous of getting another start. 
 But one remark here. Despite contradiction upon 
 contradiction, quite recently certain sections of the 
 public seem incapable of grasping the fact that 
 General Booth does not contemplate, and never did 
 contemplate, using his Emigration Department for 
 dumping the British refuse on other shores. His 
 motto is, *' Every country must consume its own 
 smoke." A proportion of the Social derelicts that 
 find a haven in The Army's Shelters, are, it is well 
 known, as decent and deserving fellows as walk the 
 
The Helping Hand. 19 
 
 streets of London or tend the sheep on a squatter's 
 farm in Australia. Misfortune has simply cast them 
 for the moment adrift. A helping hand in time will 
 restore them to industry in ninety-nine cases out of 
 one hundred, such cases being better for the experience ; 
 and it is these, and these only, who come under from 
 time to time the beneficent wings of Emigration. 
 
 A Tragic Sight. 
 
 The amount of actual misfortune, as distinguished 
 from the misery, a man may bring on himself by evil 
 courses, is really appalling. A chronic out-of-work, who 
 has acquired the moucher's dislike nay, abhorrence 
 for work, is a pitiful enough sight ; but it does not 
 wring the heart-strings like the sight of a decent 
 workman, whom misfortune has brought down, 
 standing patiently and dejectedly among the waiting 
 crowd of the unemployed waiting his turn and chance. 
 Who knows what may depend on that slender chance 
 very slender, indeed, where two hundred men apply 
 for a job where only one is required, as happens every 
 day just now. No doubt there is a small and much 
 impoverished home somewhere ; a devoted wife, 
 perhaps, and a band of pale-faced children crying 
 for bread. These are the things which drive even 
 the self-respecting man to despair, change him from 
 a law-abiding citizen into a hater of all laws. You 
 
20 The Outsiders. 
 
 can see in the waiting crowd outside the Commis- 
 sioner's office many such men. The iron has entered 
 into their .soul. 
 
 The importance of saving such, of keeping them 
 from further despair, is fully realised by The Army ; 
 but unfortunately their resources are far overtaxed. 
 Already, at the very beginning of the winter before, 
 indeed, it is actually upon us the outlook is black. 
 Many causes are contributory, all of them outside the 
 jurisdiction of any charitable or reformative society. 
 Emigration can only assist a few. Although the 
 newspapers assure us that there is a revival of trade, 
 the actual facts presented daily to this Social Head- 
 quarters would seem to point otherwise. 
 
 A Register of Distress. 
 
 A glance at the married men's register shows that 
 all sorts of tradesmen are affected by the prevailing 
 scarcity of employment. Professional Cook (3 children), 
 Ship's Steward (3 children), Coachman (3), House 
 Decorator (3), Carter (3), Cabinet-maker (3), Carpenter 
 (7), and Stableman (4). 
 
 One of the men, with four children, was visited by 
 an Officer at Dalston. They had neither bedstead, 
 bedding, chairs nor furniture whatever. Everything 
 had been pawned or sold for food. The only bed 
 they had was a mattress on the floor. One of the 
 
The Helping Hand. 21 
 
 children, by the way, had just been taken into the 
 Hospital ; starvation was really the cause of this little 
 one's trouble. The husband is an ex-soldier, 5ft. ioin., 
 and a very fine-looking man. His wife is a model of 
 cleanliness, and the floors and children's faces, as well 
 as the scanty clothes they wore, were as clean as 
 could be. While the Officer was in the house the 
 man came in with two bags of shavings, which he 
 had procured in a builder's yard. These he proceeded 
 to make into a fire by damping them. Needless to 
 say, food was at once provided for this family, and 
 temporary work has been found for the man. In one 
 month, 178 such families were relieved with parcels of 
 food after being visited. 
 
 Figures that Speak. 
 
 During the twelve months ending October 4th, 
 1905, 224,197 were supplied with soup and bread at 
 Wych Street. During six months of last winter, 
 another 50,000 had a similar midnight meal at 
 Whitechapel, and 33,940 received meals at the dock 
 gates within two months. 
 
 As indicating the variety of types who come under 
 The Army's influence it may be mentioned that on 
 the staff of one of the London Shelters there are an 
 electrical engineer (who is a relative of a well-known 
 professor), a schoolmaster, a diamond-cutter, a gardener, 
 
22 The Outsiders. 
 
 an engineer, two clerks (one of whom hails from 
 Australia), a soldier's son, a reservist of the Royal 
 Army Medical Corps, a grocer from South Africa, 
 an organist and choir leader, and an ex-publican. 
 
 All these men came to The Army homeless and 
 destitute, and sadly in need of a helping hand. All 
 are now in positions of responsibility, and in due time 
 will be restored to society. 
 
 At Bradford the other day The Army sheltered an 
 ex-civil servant and a man who once paid ,300 a year 
 for his business premises. These men came to The 
 Army quite friendless and penniless, but are now 
 doing well. 
 
 The "Paid Off." 
 
 War is not generally accepted as offering any 
 solution of labour problems, but rather the reverse, 
 but a long time of peace nevertheless adds its quota 
 to the general depression. To verify this it is only 
 necessary to mention that at the Government Rifle 
 Factory at Enfield within the last few months hundreds 
 of men have been paid off, and no promise given 
 regarding future employment. The looker-on might 
 quite justifiably contend that these men are in a sense 
 Government servants, and that to throw such a large 
 contingent of idle men upon the labour market at the 
 most difficult season of the year is, from the economic 
 
The Helping Hand. 23 
 
 to say nothing of the humanitarian point of view, a 
 short-sighted policy. I do not offer any suggestion, 
 only submit the impression made on the average 
 observer interested in the great and often trying 
 problems with which Governments have to deal. 
 
 The Salvation Army, itself an employer of labour, 
 a responsibility which has been thrust upon it by the 
 exigencies of the work it has undertaken, does not 
 make any attempt to deal with the great problem of 
 the skilled unemployed, except so far as trying to 
 relieve their immediate necessities, to put some heart 
 into them by brotherly sympathy, and by leaving no 
 effort unmade to bring them into the line of possible 
 employment. They have made friends and sympathisers 
 among the ranks of large employers, and they believe 
 that their appeals are often heeded at some loss to 
 such employers ; but even when all is told the fringe 
 of this terrible problem is barely touched ; it confronts 
 them with all its attendant horrors and evil&^t every 
 
 turn. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 Parliament's Responsibility. 
 
 The causes lie deeper than the resources of The 
 Army can touch, and undoubtedly those who have 
 given any close study to the matter are of opinion 
 that its importance would seem to call for a special 
 sitting of Parliament to deal with it alone. It is of 
 
24 The Outsiders. 
 
 more importance than the prestige of our Empire 
 abroad, or our so-called imperial interests. It is a 
 veritable cancer eating at the nation's heart. 
 
 When The Salvation Army first began to deal with 
 the seemingly impossible and unwieldy mass of the sub- 
 merged, it was at once confronted with the difficulties 
 of obtaining legitimate channels for the newly-directed 
 awakened energies to run in. Such labour as the waste 
 life is capable of is, at first at least, unskilled, uncertain 
 in many respects unreliable. 
 
 Work a Handmaid of Redemption. 
 
 A long course of the submerged life paralyses every 
 faculty, besides reducing the physical system to the 
 lowest ebb. The building up, spiritually, morally, and 
 physically, must of necessity be a very gradual thing. 
 But work of some kind, in fit measure to the damaged 
 capacity, must be instantly provided, since work is 
 the handmaid of salvation in every walk of life. 
 
 Realising this, and in order to overcome the primary 
 difficulties, The Army has established a system of 
 Elevators, which may be described as a combination 
 of workshop, home, and religious retreat. To the 
 Elevator come men from the cheaper Free Shelters of 
 The Army, or who are drafted in from the streets, or 
 through the operations of the Labour Bureau. 
 
 Now the work of the Elevator has three phases, or 
 
The Helping Hand. 25 
 
 grades, beginning with the paper-sorting industry at 
 Spa Road, Bermondsey. This is an industry requiring 
 little skill or apprenticeship ; the object-lesson provided 
 by watching his comrades at work, or receiving a few 
 directions from the foreman is usually sufficient to 
 enable the newcomer to start. 
 
 The paper is collected from the great warehouses 
 and shops, as well as from private houses, by men 
 with barrows, assisted by horses and carts where the 
 quantity is too large for the barrow-man. The men 
 have to be so far proved before they are permitted to 
 collect. They have to serve their time, as it were, at 
 the sorting-out process. They work at this business 
 in a large well-ventilated shed, which it was my 
 privilege to visit while collecting material for these 
 articles. About a hundred men are engaged in the 
 actual paper-sorting, which is conducted at long 
 shallow trays, into which the contents of the sacks 
 are emptied, and at which four men work. 
 
 " Waste " Matter for ** Waste " Man. 
 
 The contents of a waste paper bag are very varied, 
 and articles of differing value are frequently found and 
 restored to their owners. The wood which may be 
 found therein is sold to poor people, who make it into 
 halfpenny bundles. The straw is sold or used for 
 stable litter. The string" is sorted out into three 
 
26 The Outsiders. 
 
 classes, and sold to ropemakers. Rags and paper, 
 after being packed in bales by hydraulic pressure, are 
 sold to paper manufacturers at home and abroad. 
 /These details are mentioned to show that the whole 
 principle of small economies, as well as large, is 
 understood by The Salvation Army. And here is 
 another of those facts which illuminate these quarters 
 with the star of hope. 
 
 All the foremen have risen from the submerged 
 ranks, and are now wage-earners in the ordinary 
 ascending scale. 
 
 No Sweating. 
 
 But then each man from the moment of his first 
 appearance at the Elevator is a wage-earner. A task 
 is allotted to him, performance of which earns for 
 him his food and lodgings, etc. He is also allowed 
 a cash payment for work done in excess of his 
 allotted task. The Army are not sweaters ; it is the 
 regeneration of the man they aim at, and understand 
 that nothing will more quickly raise his self-respect 
 and increase it, than the undisputable fact, demon- 
 strated by such payment, that he is once more worth 
 something in the w r orld. 
 
 The men live in large, commodious, and comfort- 
 able premises near the works, where every provision 
 is made for them to live cleanly lives. As an incentive 
 
The Helping Hand, 27 
 
 to effort and ambition, there is a graduated system of 
 sleeping- accommodation, culminating in what the men 
 have christened " the suburban residences," which are 
 simply old cottages acquired by The Army in the 
 immediate vicinity of the Elevator, though outside 
 the gates. Here several men whose good conduct 
 and general trustworthiness have been proved are 
 accommodated, two men to each room, where they are 
 permitted to exercise their individual taste, and to 
 gather about them their little treasures photographs, 
 and the like. Some of the rooms make a pathetic 
 object-lesson in the desire of every man to possess a 
 home. 
 
 Probation and Co-operation. 
 
 The period of probation in the Elevator is usually 
 from six to nine months, according to the individual 
 circumstances of each case. Meanwhile every effort 
 has been made to discover friends and relatives, and 
 many satisfactory cases of a converted prodigal returned 
 to his home could be given did space permit. 
 
 But it is an astounding and melancholy fact that 
 very many of these men seem to be both friendless 
 and homeless, and would willingly remain in the only 
 home they have known for many years. There are 
 some now in posts of responsibility who have been at 
 the Elevator since its foundation. Poverty, cold, and 
 
28 
 
 The Outsiders. 
 
 hunger have battered down their ambition to vie to a 
 higher scale, but for their present environments the 
 river or the pauper's grave would long ago have 
 claimed them. On the other hand, an average of 
 about two hundred men per annum are passed 
 through the Spa Road Paper-sorting Elevator, and 
 have found it a stepping-stone to better things. Such 
 is the work of The Army for those who are on the 
 very lowest rung of the ladder. Thus the Hand of 
 Help first ameliorates, and then delivers. 
 
 SUMMARY OF SOCIAL OPERATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 
 
 JUNE, 1905. 
 
 
 No. OF INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 Gt. Britain. 
 
 Abroad. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Children's Homes 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 Rescue Homes 
 
 24 
 
 82 
 
 106 
 
 Maternity Homes 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 Slum Posts 
 
 45 
 
 82 
 
 127 
 
 Food Depots and Shelters . 
 
 33 
 
 157 
 
 190 
 
 Labour Bureaux 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 Factories 
 
 11 
 
 88 
 
 99 
 
 Farm Colonies 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 Other Social Institutions . 
 
 7 
 
 65 
 
 72 
 
 Total Institutions 
 
 134 
 
 553 
 
 687 
 
 Total number of Officers and Cadets engaged in Social Work, 2,055. 
 
III. 
 
 DOWN EAST BUT GOING UP. 
 
 E casual observer, passing down the Whitechapel 
 Road, might look in vain for those hall-marks 
 which are supposed to indicate the very strongholds 
 of slum life. The Whitechapel Road is a wide and 
 cheerful thoroughfare, lined by spacious and prosperous 
 shops ; it has a constant flow of traffic, both pedestrian 
 and vehicular, and the folk who flit to and fro on 
 its ample side-paths appear like any other body of 
 respectable citizens pursuing their lawful business. If 
 he is in search of sensations or shocks, having re- 
 membrance of " Jack-the-Ripper " scares and such like 
 horrors, he is foredoomed to disappointment. The 
 slums are there right enough, however, typical in all 
 their complete misery of slums anywhere. Opening off 
 the Whitechapel Road, lying thickly behind it, is a 
 close network of by-streets and alleys, where are 
 to be found the denizens of the slum proper. If you 
 will walk with me, this fine, cool autumn day, taking 
 a slanting direction from the Headquarters of the 
 
30 The Outsiders. 
 
 City Colony, you may perhaps see what you will 
 consider worth your while. 
 
 The first thing that will strike you, when you 
 actually leave the wide thoroughfare of the Whitechapel 
 Road behind, is the sudden and inexplicable closeness 
 of the air. You feel as if you had suddenly entered a 
 crowded room in which there is no ventilation 
 
 An atmosphere inexplicably heavy and charged with 
 innumerable and indescribable odours will envelop you, 
 giving a heaviness to your eyes and a strange dryness 
 to the mouth. Many of the streets are very narrow, 
 also they are badly kept, so far as paving is concerned. 
 As to the lighting, a night visit would have to be 
 undertaken to entitle one to pass an opinion. 
 
 Deadly Dulness. 
 
 The narrow pavements are broken and uneven, and 
 the cobble stones in the middle of the streets have 
 many ruts in them, nice harbours for the garbage which 
 is one of slumdom's claims to bear the title. There is 
 not much bustle ; it is a quiet hour of the day. In 
 fact, the dulness is indisputable. The houses are tall, 
 and have small doorways and windows. In many of 
 the upper windows there is a card bearing the legend, 
 " Beds to let." My guide informs me that it means 
 that sleeping accommodation is to let in the day-time, 
 the same beds being occupied by others at night. A 
 
Down East But Going Up. 31 
 
 few further questions discover the subject to be 
 unsavoury and unsuitable for mixed discussion, but 
 think of the picture it reveals ! Some of the very quiet 
 and inoffensive-looking houses have been known to 
 afford living, to say nothing of sleeping accommodation, 
 for forty persons. 
 
 The authorities ? Oh, they do what they can, but 
 slumdom is both powerful and artful, and a good deal 
 has to be winked at. Hotbeds of vice undoubtedly, 
 but the forces are too strong ; we don't talk about it. 
 Shut the door ; so long as there is no open scandal 
 or horror, let it alone. 
 
 Children of the Ghetto. 
 
 There are numerous little shops, mostly bearing 
 a foreign name. Comment upon this elicits the fact 
 that now we are in Hebrew quarters ; yea, in the very 
 heart of Jewry itself. These mean streets have become 
 the heritage of Israel in England ; they represent the 
 stronghold of the Whitechapel Jew. The man who 
 trundles his barrow laden with melons close by us is 
 shouting his wares in an alien tongue, pure Yiddish. 
 It is the language of the children of the Ghetto too, 
 some of them beautiful as angels, who are playing 
 in the gutters. The ample matrons sitting unkempt 
 upon the door-steps mouth it as we pass. Doubtless, 
 they are commenting upon us. An inoffensive British 
 
32 The Outsiders. 
 
 matron attired in the quietest of raiment strikes a 
 new note. She is in an alien land. 
 
 We are confronted with a fresh problem here, the 
 problem of the alien, who is doing" the work which 
 Christian Britain should see is in the hands of her 
 own sons. One's soul burns, speech becomes difficult, 
 if not impossible, as street after street bearing the 
 unmistakable hall-mark is passed through. It is 
 Britain's boast that her flag is free, that it is unfurled 
 to protect whoever seeks her protection. It is a fine- 
 sounding sentiment, but the time comes when we must 
 deal with facts. There are not wanting signs of 
 awakening. 
 
 A Difficult Problem. 
 
 Meanwhile, I commend a walk through these 
 streets to any fair-minded person. It will serve as 
 an object-lesson in social economy as well as, perhaps 
 better than, any other. Here the Hebrew possesses 
 the land, and, if you care to follow up the trend 
 suggested by the subject, you can go to Soho, and see 
 how the Greeks and the French undesirables are in 
 possession there ; and on to Saffron Hill, where the 
 Italian colony has found a home ; and again back to 
 Whitechapel and Shoreditch, and all over the East-end, 
 where you will find the German sweater, who is cutting 
 the ground from under the feet of the British workman. 
 
Down East But Going: Up. 33 
 
 Then you can go home, if you like, and write a 
 poem on the glorious protection of the British flag, 
 which is prepared to protect everybody but those of 
 British flesh and blood. 
 
 Here, in Whitechapel Jewry, a solitary Englishman 
 recently put in his shop window, " English spoken 
 here ! " Let us pass on. 
 
 Our destination is another Salvation Elevator, to 
 wit, a carpentry and joinery factory in Hanbury 
 Street, Spitalfields. It is a ramshackle building, 
 cheaply obtained at the beginning, and since improved 
 and made suitable to its purpose the employment of 
 a hundred men or so. 
 
 A Salvation Shop. 
 
 It does not differ in any particular from any 
 other carpenter's or joiner's shop. The busy hum of 
 the circular saw, the whirr of machinery, driven by 
 electric motors, the pleasant stir of a workshop during 
 busy working hours, strike musically upon a healthy 
 ear. After the close stagnation of the mean streets, 
 with their unspeakable odours of decaying fried fish 
 and other things more objectionable still, how refresh- 
 ing is the clean, fresh sawdust smell ! 
 
 The workshops are all fitted up with the most 
 up-to-date machinery. The Army, competing in the 
 open market, asking no charity, but good money in 
 
34 The Outsiders. 
 
 exchange for a good article, have early realised and put 
 into practice the truest economy. It is interesting to 
 watch that wonderful mechanism which makes in an 
 incredible space of time, the mouldings necessary for 
 doors and windows. The men are of a higher grade 
 than those we shall see presently, but still all risen from 
 the submerged ranks, differing little from other workmen 
 in other workshops. They seem engrossed for the time 
 being in their immediate task ; a large order is on 
 hand to be delivered in a given time. And yet some 
 of these men have strange histories full of tragedy. 
 
 On the Up Grade. 
 
 One or two are pointed out to me quietly, and one 
 wonders to see such an expression of peace, after so 
 much stormy tossing on the high seas of life. As in 
 other branches, the foremen here, all skilled work- 
 men, have risen step by step to occupy positions of 
 trust and responsibility. It is a wonderful system 
 this ! What marvel that the inner working of these 
 great industries is so smooth, those at the head being 
 bound to the Organisation by stronger links than 
 hooks of steel. There is no bond on earth more 
 binding than gratitude to God and man for mercy 
 vouchsafed. 
 
 At every step of the way one is confronted with 
 that glorious and rare quality, which, if more universal, 
 
Down East But Going: Up. 35 
 
 would make the world so much brighter a place. I 
 speak of sanctified common sense. 
 
 We visited another centre, some distance away, 
 where the wood is prepared for the carpenters' shop. 
 On entering the yard one is surprised by the immense 
 piles of stored wood. The overseer smiles, and says it 
 will not take them long to get through it. Here, also, 
 is a branch of the wood-chopping industry ; and the 
 fact that there are wood-choppers and wood-choppers 
 is conclusively proved by a five-minutes' study of them 
 at their work. There is something fascinating in 
 watching the rise and fall of that chopper in the hand 
 of the expert. I see it now before me as I write. 
 Another visit to the tin-factory, where the mystery of 
 tin-can construction and the methods employed in 
 teaching unskilled men this work are revealed, ends 
 up an eventful day. 
 
 The Staff of Life. 
 
 There remain still to be described the Salvation 
 Bakery, where all the bread used in the various Homes 
 and Shelters is prepared, and other undertakings carried 
 on on the same principles and for similar ends as those 
 we have briefly described, providing occupation for 
 many hundreds of men. That great body of employe's 
 has been gradually sorted out, like the paper bales, 
 from a miscellaneous heap, each man apportioned his 
 
36 The Outsiders. 
 
 proper niche, the aim and object never lost sight of tor 
 a moment, that the best shall be made of him for this 
 world and the next. 
 
 I submit that the experiment has succeeded ; that 
 The Salvation Army has come nearer the great problem 
 of waste and submerged life than it has ever been 
 approached before. Their ramifications are vast, but 
 resources are limited by the money placed at their 
 disposal. I would that that section of the benevolent 
 public, who have for some unexplained reason or 
 prejudice closed the strings of their purses against the 
 appeals of The Army, would take a little trouble to 
 ascertain the facts, to arrive at some true and personal 
 understanding of the work which is being carried on. 
 
 Value for Money. 
 
 This cannot be done without taking a certain 
 amount of trouble ; but it is worth it. In face of the 
 results achieved, criticism is dumb. An Organisation 
 so varied and so vast must of necessity have a few 
 excrescences ; but what are these against the great sum 
 total added to the public good ? I make this fresh 
 appeal confidently, knowing, after the closest and most 
 impartial investigation, we have in The Salvation Army 
 fitted by knowledge, experience, and skill, and leader- 
 ship an organisation which is capable of grappling suc- 
 cessfully with the evils and the problems of our social life. 
 
IV. 
 IN THE SHADOW OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 E autumn wind is sighing through the old Abbey 
 trees, and the little wavelets on the river are lashed 
 into miniature cascades of foam. The red sun has set, 
 and the grey night is darkening down as we wend our 
 way past the long line of the Parliament houses and the 
 historic gateway of the Lords. There is no sign of life 
 about the imposing pile which represents so large a 
 part of our national prestige. Our legislators are 
 making holiday, though the problems with which they 
 are supposed to deal know neither holiday nor sleep. 
 Nay, they grow more acute with every passing hour. 
 
 Behind the immense shadow of this historic pile, 
 clustering near upon its dignity, is a network of mean 
 streets. My guide explains that the great scheme of 
 the County Council for the beautifying of London will 
 clear away all these, and bring in their place the sweep 
 of a noble embankment, which will be a thing of 
 beauty, whether viewed from the land or the waterway. 
 The cost? Oh, that will be colossal; but the greatest 
 
38 The Outsiders. 
 
 capital in the world is worth adorning ; and surely the 
 time has come for these unsavoury slums to be swept 
 away. If only their problems could be swept away with 
 them, then would we lie easier upon our pillows. Yet 
 one sighs a little over such drastic change. One who 
 has the historic sense must regret the gradual passing of 
 old London. Inevitable? Yes; there can be no birth 
 without a pang. 
 
 Weary Sentinels. 
 
 Meanwhile the neighbourhood is in a transition state. 
 There are great and awesome piles of new buildings 
 rearing proud heads to the red-shot sky, seeming to 
 crush into nothingness the huddling shadows of the old 
 houses in which the former makers of London lived. 
 We are still noting these contrasts, when we come 
 suddenly, in an unlikely place, upon a long line of men, 
 stretching from the doorway of a white-washed, barrack- 
 like building out into the street a silent, patient crowd, 
 among which there seems to be neither speech nor 
 chaff. They stand like sentinels, waiting the event. 
 There is a large gateway to the building, which, 
 standing open all day, is closed about four o'clock in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 In this gateway a small wicket has been cut, through 
 which may pass only one person at a time. Four 
 hundred and fifty is the "certified" accommodation 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 39 
 
 within, and when these have been carefully counted by 
 the Officer the door is shut. Pleading by those left 
 without is in vain. Even the drift of the streets has 
 come to understand that County Council regulations are 
 inexorable, and that when once accepted they will be 
 enforced with loyal strictness. So when the warning 
 hand goes up, and the door is shut, the long line still 
 left turns mutely away. Better luck to-mprrpw, .perhaps, 
 
 if they can get there in time. 
 
 ^ UNIVERSITY 
 Melting Units of Humanity. 
 
 ^^^^^"^^^ 
 
 Where will they go now? They do not consult 
 together ; these men are solitary units who seldom 
 take even a pal into confidence. They simply melt 
 away among the grey shadows, each to solve afresh 
 the problem of how much comfort can be secured 
 for one night by payment of two copper coins of the 
 King's realm. They are experts in small economies, 
 and they have proved by experience that at the West- 
 minster Salvation Army Shelter for Men the highest 
 value is received. Hence the long queue, the patient 
 waiting, the dull gleam of hope as each one passes 
 within. If you, too, will pass the door with me, perhaps 
 you will learn something of the reason why. 
 
 It is very cheerful in the little quadrangle lighted by 
 the gas-lamps. Here the line has formed up again to 
 pass the pay desk. Occasionally some case of desperate 
 
40 The Outsiders. 
 
 need is allowed to pass without payment, but this is 
 not a free lodging-house. If the Officer in charge, 
 skilled in the study of physiognomy, chances to detect in 
 some face signs of possibility, or of special despair, he 
 permits him to pass. It might be an opportunity who 
 knows? and The Salvation Army not only grips 
 opportunity, it makes it. 
 
 For the object of The Army is not merely to 
 relieve immediate necessity but to reform character, to 
 save souls, and so uplift^ on the soundest of all bases, 
 the submerged life. ^From the pay desk the men file, 
 'either TcTThe dining-room, where the meal is going 
 on, or to the great lavatory, where they are per- 
 mitted and expected to cleanse themselves before they 
 spend the night in a clean and decent place, and 
 sleep in a comfortable bed. 
 
 A Cleansing Stream. 
 
 A vision of that strange dressing-room of the 
 homeless will remain with me while I live. I see it 
 from a coign of vantage, unsuspected and unobserved. 
 It is a curious and pathetic sight. There are long 
 lines of clean slate basins fitted with taps innumerable ; 
 roller towels perfectly clean, renewed for each day's 
 ablutions, hang from the roof. There are deep white 
 stone tubs, where a man can wash his shirt or other 
 garment, and have it afterwards dried for him in the 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 41 
 
 hot room in a few minutes. In another place there 
 are baths, which can be had for the asking, and where 
 he is sometimes, if he is a bad case, gently pressed 
 to enter. The scene is lively, washing, spluttering, 
 shaving, hair-dressing ; there is one even drawing a 
 hole together with a needle and thread. 
 
 The Submerged Man's Toilet. 
 
 One old man, bearing himself with military aspect, 
 rivets my attention for the moment. He carefully takes 
 off a very ragged coat, gets out of a shirt whose hue 
 would defy description. He holds it up, regarding it 
 ruefully, then plunges it into a tub of water. 
 Evidently not skilled in the laundress art he rubs it 
 to and fro, occasionally shaking it out, and regarding 
 it, though not with any animation. It takes a long 
 time to clean, perhaps his poor old fingers are nerve- 
 less, his thin arms certainly do not suggest any virile 
 force ; finally, however, it passes muster, and he takes 
 it away to the hot cupboard to be dried. Then he 
 proceeds to make his own ablutions and toilet, a good 
 sousing of clean water, much rubbing with the roller 
 towel not quite so clean and crisp now, then he 
 fumbles amongst his old rags for a broken bit of 
 comb, with which he carefully trims his grey hair. 
 He looks better now, and his face less wan. 
 Presently, clothed and comforted, he seeks his way to 
 
42 The Outsiders. 
 
 the dining-room to care for the inner man. We shall 
 follow presently, but meantime the barber's shop in 
 the corner is interesting. The barber is clean and 
 white-robed ; he comes in from the outside, I am told, 
 paying a few pence for the privilege, and is allowed 
 to charge one half-penny for each shave. These men 
 are not exactly paupers ; they have all been out trying 
 to earn money, and have at least earned sufficient to 
 pay their w r ay for the night. 
 
 We cross the courtyard once more, where there are 
 groups of men standing about, some smoking, some 
 talking all looking more cheerful than they did an hour 
 ago. They are homeless men this is their home. You 
 who have never been homeless cannot realise what that 
 means to each unit in this pathetic crowd. 
 
 The Poor Man's Hostel. 
 
 How motley a crew it is one only fully realises when 
 seeing it in the mass from the little platform in the 
 dining-room, which is also used as a hall for meetings. 
 It is a big place, built temporarily of corrugated iron. 
 All will be swept away presently, when the County 
 Council's scheme of adornment is ready to be put into 
 practical shape. In winter it is warmed by hot water, 
 but on this mild autumn night it is warm enough without 
 in fact, too warm. But one forgets all minor 
 discomforts presently in study of the faces in front. It 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 43 
 
 is something- of an ordeal to face them, since no woman, 
 except she be an Officer of The Army about to address 
 them, is allowed in this great hostel of the sad. All who 
 serve and care for them are men, from the gate Officer 
 and the orderly up to the Major in command. There 
 are many curious glances cast at the strange innova- 
 tion, but all look friendly enough. What a sight it 
 is ! One's eyes are blinded for a moment through the 
 bitterness of the inward thoughts. For these are part 
 of London's workless and submerged only a drop in 
 its wide and bitter sea, but sufficing to reveal the actual 
 state of things. 
 
 The Sign of a Handkerchief, 
 
 It is easy to gather from the faces that it is, has 
 been, self-degradation in many cases, that vice has 
 been the stumbling-block. Quite evidently, men of 
 all classes and calibre are here. There is the poor 
 gentleman ; you can tell him by his air. It is an 
 indescribable air, and there is always the attempt at 
 respectability. His collar may be black, but he will 
 manage a collar somehow. When he gets down to 
 the knotted handkerchief about his neck, he and hope 
 have probably parted company for good. 
 
 Then there is the old man, who has been shoved out 
 by age. You know him by his pathetic eye, his bent 
 shoulders, his patient look. The loafer pure and 
 
44 The Outsiders. 
 
 simple is here, who only earns that he may eat 
 and sleep in comfort ; and the criminal also with his 
 low brows and heavy mouth ; the man within an arm's 
 length of me has spent forty-seven years of his life in 
 prison. Yes, it is a motley crew, and when the 
 Officer gives out the hymn, and they stand to join in 
 the singing, up comes the blinding mist again. It is 
 not a sweet song, oh, by no means ; the voices are 
 harsh ; there is no instrumental accompaniment ; it may 
 be rather called a volume of harsh sound. 
 
 " Jesus is our only argument!" 
 
 So runs the first line of the chorus. As they roll 
 it out one wonders whether they realise the meaning 
 of the word. Will any argument avail here, even the 
 argument of Jesus Himself? 
 
 Yes, I think it will. Presently you shall hear 
 and see. 
 
 The Key ~ Note. 
 
 The Major's breezy, cheery way seems to clear the air. 
 
 " Brothers ! " There is comradeship in the very 
 sound. 
 
 They listen with alert looks, some of them still 
 munching at their last slice of cake. He does not say 
 much, and then asks some of the brothers to stand up 
 in front, and give testimony as to how they have been 
 helped. 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 45 
 
 They are trophies gained in this holy war, but there 
 is nothing- very striking in their appearance, nor 
 theatrical in their simple relations of their story. All 
 who speak have declined and fallen through the same 
 medium drink and bad company. They differ in 
 appearance, but their story is the same. Little by 
 little, step by step, on the downward road, then the 
 arresting grip of The Army upon their shoulder, and 
 the uplifted heart. The last who speaks, a quiet, 
 gentlemanly-looking young man, with an educated accent 
 (he has been a schoolmaster), tells the same story. 
 
 The Voice of Testimony. 
 
 The testimony which The Army insists on, to prove^ 
 the sincerity of the penitence, and also to help others,/ 
 is no ordeal to most of them evidently. Out of the N 
 abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and their 
 gratitude is only equalled by their hope. Even my 
 friend, the little convict, adds his mite, and explains 
 how he became a brand plucked from the burning. All 
 listen attentively, though some of them have their 
 faces hidden in their hands ; perhaps these are new to 
 the road, they have their secret shame at finding 
 themselves here. 
 
 The appalling thought to a woman is that these 
 men have no home, that they have drifted clean away 
 from all the influences of women relatives on their 
 
46 The Outsiders. 
 
 lives. Asking- how this comes about, the Major tells 
 me that in some cases a man coming out of prison 
 finds his wife taken up with someone else ; while 
 others, thrown out of work, and unable to bear the 
 sight of the misery they have brought upon their own 
 people, simply cut themselves adrift, and throw off all 
 responsibility. The reinstatement is not easy, but in 
 every case it is attempted ; no effort is left untried, and 
 every possible enquiry is made, both as to the man 
 himself and in other channels where he is likely to be 
 known. The Salvation Army has a vast network of 
 machinery at work, touching every city, in almost every 
 f clime, so that its Investigation Department is the most 
 efficient in the world. 
 
 Out of this great mass of casual lodgers who come 
 in every night it is the duty of the discriminating 
 Officer to pick those who can be helped permanently. 
 
 Expert Discriminators. 
 
 His book, like his heart, is full to overflowing, of 
 interesting cases. To take a few at random may 
 perhaps illustrate the point I wish to enforce, that The 
 Army is a great reformative and reclaiming force ; that 
 it deals with material discredited and cast-off by every 
 other organisation ; that its heart is wide and tender, its 
 resources unlimited, its methods the methods of rational 
 business and sanctified common sense. It is all but 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 47 
 
 mpossible to " take in" the Major, who has been at this 
 work nearly all his life. He is alive and awake to all the 
 shams and subterfuges ; he can spot a lie with unerring 
 instinct ; the moucher has no chance in his presence. 
 Yet, with all his sternness and perspicacity, there is a 
 tenderness which might shame a woman's. It has to 
 be seen to be believed or understood. 
 
 Graduating Downwards. 
 
 One day a man was sent up to Westminster from 
 the Blackfriars Free Breakfast, which I have already 
 described. A physical and moral wreck, yet bearing 
 about him the unmistakable marks of something 
 better. Close questioning elicited from him somewhat 
 unwillingly the admission that he was a professional 
 man, a graduate of one of our great universities. 
 While assisting in a medical practice in the Midlands, 
 he took to drink, driven to it by private troubles, 
 which need not be entered into here. Finally, after 
 much forbearance on the part of his principal, he 
 was dismissed. Without reference, without hope, he 
 quickly sank to the level of the casual tramp on the 
 road. 
 
 Without a penny in his pocket he tramped to 
 London, reduced in a few weeks from comparative 
 respectability to a state of abject misery and degradation. 
 A man must be so reduced, before he will drift into a 
 

 48 The Outsiders. 
 
 free breakfast hall where a dole is given out to the 
 midnight waifs of the City. The Officer there noted 
 him, and he was taken hold of, and finally sent up to 
 Westminster, the Major there being specially good at 
 dealing with such cases. He was one of the many to 
 whom free admittance was not refused. The Major 
 talked with him, pointing out the enormity of his sin. 
 To arrive at a true conception of sin is the very basis 
 and meaning of The Army's whole treatment of men. 
 They hold that without it there can be no real reform, 
 no true regeneration. What the poor, shivering wretch 
 tries to call ill-luck is promptly labelled by a different 
 and a truer name. The contention is sound, and is 
 probably the mainspring of their success as reformative 
 agents. 
 
 Making Men Think. 
 
 The man is made to think, to realise his own 
 position, and is pointed to the true remedy belief in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, pardon through the grace of 
 God, and honest effort to work out his own salvation. 
 
 The doctor, no stranger, perhaps, to such teaching 
 in his far-off Scottish home, was at length awakened. 
 He was tenderly watched and spoken to, given work 
 of a kind, so that he earned his food and shelter ; 
 but never from the Major's mind departed for an 
 instant his original and settled purpose to get this 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 49 
 
 man reinstated, sent back to his own proper sphere 
 and environment. Perhaps the very fixity of that 
 purpose accomplished what seemed to me little short 
 of a miracle. 
 
 The graduate of one of the proudest universities in 
 the world got upon his knees to scrub up the filth left 
 by his fellow-lodgers a test of a man's pride, surely, 
 if one could be found. He did it cheerfully, and when 
 he had been tried sufficiently he was lifted a step 
 higher. To make the story short, the man has been 
 reinstated ; he is now in a practice of his own, married, 
 and with a happy home ; the dark chapter in his life 
 is shut down for ever. Saved ? Yes, saved by the grace 
 of God and the humane, discriminating effort of The 
 Army, who are God's almoners, with a better under- 
 standing of His methods and His infinite mercy than 
 any other body of Christian people it has been my lot 
 to meet. Method objectionable ! Show me a better, 
 and I will listen to you. These are the results. 
 
 The Story of an Artist. 
 
 Another, an artist, came in with the casual drift 
 of the streets. Soon the Officer's attention was arrested, 
 and he was carefully watched. There is no difference 
 made here between peer and peasant, if I may use a 
 common phrase ; all are received precisely on the same 
 lines ; but the material differs, and, after a time of 
 
50 The Outsiders. 
 
 probation, treatment has to differ accordingly, just as the 
 physician of the body has to vary his treatment with 
 diagnosis of each case. It is discovered that he has 
 been a black-and-white artist, and has had some stand- 
 ing. Some of his work is obtained and offered to a 
 well-known firm. It is accepted, and hope begins to 
 rise again in the poor fellow's wrecked heart. It 
 is obvious that artistic work cannot be successfully 
 prosecuted in a Shelter, where there is little privacy 
 and still less facility for such work. The Army, 
 recognising this, trusts the man, rents him a little 
 room in the immediate vicinity, provides him there 
 with a bed and a table and drawing materials, and 
 bids him work. Result, in a few weeks' time he is 
 self-supporting, and now only anxious to recoup The 
 Army for their outlay. 
 
 The Right Target. 
 
 How is it done ? By the same method, an appeal 
 to the man's better nature, a gradual drawing by 
 the cords of love to the fountain-head of all love, 
 an awakening of conscience and soul conversion. You 
 may deride it or indulge in a secret sneer. But these 
 are facts that cannot be gainsaid, and they are only 
 typical of thousands. 
 
 From the dining-room I pass to inspect the beds, 
 where the guests will pass the night. They are 
 
In the Shadow of Westminster. 51 
 
 arranged in dormitories, rows and rows of little bed- 
 steads, with a good spring-bottom mattress, covered 
 in American cloth this, for obvious sanitary reasons, 
 being better than sheets a pillow and sufficient 
 covering. Willing hands have scrubbed these boards 
 of the floor white ; cleanliness and perfect order every- 
 where reign. 
 
 The Might of Twopence. 
 
 For twopence per night, any man, weary of sleep- 
 ing in the streets can come in here, at four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, have a wash, or bath of hot water, if he 
 prefers it, wash his garments, and have them dried for 
 him, eat a good meal, to be procured at trifling cost, 
 consisting of a pint of hot tea, a thick slice of bread 
 and butter, and a slice of cake, sit in a well-warmed 
 and lighted room, listen to heartening and helpful 
 words, be helped to a better life if he will, and sleep 
 in a clean and comfortable bed. Only those who have 
 seen the interiors of the common lodging-house, once 
 the only shelter available for such as these, and then 
 at double the price, can understand the appreciation 
 shown. Hence the long patient line in the street 
 opposite the wicket-gate. 
 
 Go down and see it any afternoon for yourselves. 
 
 There are economic conditions worthy of your study 
 here, if you are of a practical turn. If it is human 
 
52 The Outsiders. 
 
 nature and human weakness and the tragedy of life 
 that interest you, you will find it all here. And if 
 you are a scoffer at religion, here perhaps, with 
 such an object lesson before you, you might remain 
 to pray. 
 
 Night has fallen as we cross slantwise past the 
 old Abbey and Palace Yard towards Whitehall. Over- 
 head the serene and tender dark, but below the throng 
 and stress, and the glare of the lights that man has 
 made. The lights of London ! See them reflected on 
 the now quietened waters of Old Thames, like a 
 mirage. And have they not often proved a mirage 
 luring men to a bitter doom ? 
 
 Presently all is shut out, as the darkness of the 
 Underground swallows us. But the refrain is left, 
 the refrain of hope and help and maybe of glory : 
 
 "Jesus is our only argument!" 
 
 Seems as if that hoarse chorus will haunt us now for 
 ever. 
 
V. 
 BACK TO THE LAND. 
 
 might happen to see at Liverpool Street Station, 
 any morning-, a little group of persons in charge 
 of an Officer wearing The Salvation Army uniform. If 
 you felt at all curious regarding this little company, and 
 cared to put a question to the Officer in charge, you 
 would probably be courteously informed that they were 
 City Colonists being drafted down to the Farm Colony 
 in Essex. We are all familiar with the cry, " Back to 
 the Land," which in certain circles has passed into a 
 shibboleth, meaning very often nothing in particular. 
 Most of those who roll it glibly on their tongues as a 
 remedy for this evil or for that, have not even an 
 elementary knowledge of what is involved by such a 
 step, either for the individual or the community. There 
 is plenty of land in England, certainly especially waste 
 land ; but if the people sent back to the land should be 
 waste men, what then ? Old Mother Earth is kindly, 
 but she wants some understanding of her resources in 
 fact, considerable education in that direction else will 
 
54 The Outsiders. 
 
 she turn and maintain a continuous deaf ear to those 
 who woo her favour. To put waste men on waste land, 
 without guidance or knowledge, and without adequate 
 capital, would but add to the heavy problems of life. 
 And The Salvation Army does not exist to add to their 
 number, but, by God's grace, to diminish them. 
 
 The work in the city, which I have tried to describe, 
 early discovered cases of lapsed and idle men for whom 
 it was of great importance to provide some means of 
 cutting them off from old associations, and from all that 
 could remind them of an undesirable past. Also in cases 
 which were physically shattered, even regular habits, 
 good food, and the fair order of an upright life, failed to 
 build them up in the desired direction. Convalescent or 
 nursing homes for the weaker were out of the question 
 financially, even if the common sense methods of the 
 Army would have sanctioned them ; emigration also 
 for such cases was both undesirable and impossible, the 
 patient, if I may speak of him by such a name, being 
 yet unfit for independent existence. 
 
 Origin of the Idea. 
 
 Realising to the full the incomparable benefit likely 
 to accrue to the man who has been lifted actually from 
 the pit in a great city, if he could be transplanted to 
 the country, to breathe the pure air of heaven, to be 
 clean cut off from all that could even remind him of 
 
Back to the Land. 55 
 
 his past ; that it would not only be a good thing for 
 him, but would probably solidify as well as shorten 
 The Army's efforts on his behalf; and presuming 
 that some familiarity with agricultural work and con- 
 ditions would be invaluable for men destined to settle 
 abroad, the idea of the Farm Colony first took shape 
 in General Booth's heart. 
 
 In Rural England. 
 
 To-day, supposing for a moment that your awakened 
 interest in the little group you happened on at Liverpool 
 Street Station prompted you to take a short journey 
 with them, you would find the Land Colony an accom- 
 plished fact. It is not a long journey, and after you 
 get away beyond the vast chain of roofs, which you 
 may be permitted to think stretch too far eastwards, 
 when you are clear beyond the salt marshes and the low- 
 lying swamps out Tilbury way, you will be surprised to 
 discover, if you have not been this way before, what a 
 county of charm and surprise Essex is. Flat certainly 
 in large parts, but as you near Rayleigh, which is the 
 station for Salvation Town, you will be rewarded by 
 the sight of green uplands and undulating spaces which 
 convince you that you are in a country of genuine 
 beauty. 
 
 Hadleigh itself is an old-fashioned country village, 
 which viewed the coming of The Salvation Army with 
 
56 The Outsiders. 
 
 mixed feelings at first. But prejudice has long since 
 died down, and the citizens of the Farm Colony are 
 now regarded with both sympathy and hope. The 
 Army has certainly brought a new tide of life to these 
 remote regions, a humanising and quickening influence 
 into an atmosphere which did not trouble itself regarding 
 the problems of cities. The farm itself, once a great 
 stretch of practically waste land, with a noble frontage 
 to the river, has become a garden. Waste life presents 
 more serious difficulties than waste land, and expert 
 labour brought to bear on these solitary and unpro- 
 ductive places, has quickly caused them to blossom 
 like the rose. 
 
 Its Conversion. 
 
 The land was not to be used simply as a 
 dumping ground for city refuse, a refuge for unsolvable 
 problems ; it was to be made to contribute some part 
 of the cost of the great work of reclamation to be 
 carried on there. To walk or ride through its well- 
 tilled fields, among the green alleys of its flourishing 
 market gardens, to behold the new interests that have 
 sprung up, the poultry farm, the brickfields, and, 
 above all, the clean, flourishing-looking and picturesque 
 little town, is to be filled with wonder at what it is 
 possible for well trained and exercised faculties to 
 accomplish. This land, mark you, had mostly been 
 
Back to the Land. 57 
 
 abandoned as unproductive ; it has never at any time 
 commanded a high price ; they will tell you how many 
 families it has starved out in the past, and sent penniless 
 into the cities, to add to the problems that are now 
 solved here. But to-day you would find all this hard 
 to believe. 
 
 A Busy Hive. 
 
 The farm is carried on on the strictest business 
 principles ; those at the head of the various departments 
 are persons of undoubted skill, who are able to make 
 their undertakings pay as productively as the special 
 conditions will allow. The labour is the difficulty. 
 We will come presently to the consideration of that. 
 Everything that can be produced upon a farm is 
 produced here, of a kind and quality which commands 
 the best prices in the open markets. The produce is 
 conveyed to London or to Southend. For the former the 
 barge is the means of transit. See, there is one lying 
 yonder at the Colony Wharf, loading up. It is a long 
 time since I left the land, but I should say it is potatoes 
 that will be the cargo. Yes, there they are in the field 
 yonder, digging and loading the carts with might and 
 main. Thus are the heavy railway rates avoided, and 
 the returns are available for more profitable outlay. 
 
 The casual observer would be instantly struck by the 
 wisdom displayed by those responsible for the Farm 
 
58 The Outsiders. 
 
 Colony Scheme. Of course, it is a splendid idea to 
 take men back to the land, where there is plenty 
 to eat, good fresh air, and work for all. But there 
 were difficulties. The Colonists are often town folks, 
 whose only experience of country life is in the holiday 
 season when they rush to the sea or the hills, as the 
 case may be, mostly to pursue precisely the same 
 order of life. Their knowledge of farming life is very 
 superficial : they have a vague idea that it is a place 
 where corn is grown for bread-making, and potatoes 
 and other things for eating, and where cattle and 
 sheep are fattened for Smithfield and Leadenhall. 
 
 Confused Notions. 
 
 They have also a sort of vague idea that it is not 
 a serious profession this farming ; that anybody who 
 lives in the country is naturally a farmer. The idea that 
 agriculture is a science that has to be acquired through 
 much sore travail, that its triumphs are only to those 
 who will so treat it, would be very new, and a little 
 perplexing. Land, spoken of in the mass so carelessly, 
 requires study as intimate and unrelaxing as human 
 beings. In a word, it is one of the most difficult, as 
 well as one of the most delightful professions in the 
 world. Skilled labour it must have, and here is 
 precisely where The Army found itself confronted with 
 the greatest difficulty. 
 
Back to the Land. 59 
 
 The farm, among- other objects, must provide 
 occupation for the Colonists sent down from London, 
 or drafted in from other parts of England. 
 
 Those who come direct from London, who have had 
 the misfortune to be born and reared there, may never 
 have seen a field before. But of the actual possibilities 
 and realities of country life as they are presently 
 introduced to it, they were as ignorant as the babes 
 unborn. Small wonder that eyes only accustomed to 
 the squalor of the slums, to the moving* kaleidoscope 
 of London streets, open wide in wonder here. For the 
 rest, the same brotherly welcome awaits them, they are 
 surrounded by an atmosphere of hope, to which they 
 were introduced for the first time perhaps at the Free 
 Breakfast, at the Blackfriars Shelter, or standing in 
 the office of the Labour Bureau, and the Salvation 
 Flag is over all. 
 
 A Healthy Optimism. 
 
 If I were asked to say what is the outstanding**? 
 characteristic of The Army, JI should instantly answerv 
 a cheerful optimism. They start even down in the ' 
 depths, with the assumption that they are going to 
 succeed, having proved again and again what miracles 
 the grace of God can work in human hearts and lives. 
 
 But our new Colonist has often not the faintest idea 
 what will be required of him here in the way of w r ork. 
 
60 The Outsiders. 
 
 The paper-sorting shed, the wood-chopper's yard, the 
 carpenter's shop, the tin factory none of them could 
 be as strange to him as this. Put him in a field with 
 a spade in his hand, and bid him dig, and he will set 
 about it as awkwardly as may be. Confront him with 
 the mystery of seedtime and harvest, and his wonder 
 overflows ; yet w r ork he must, else he cannot be here. 
 For many weeks he will wield that spade at a loss, 
 financially, to himself and The Army. He will not even 
 earn the bread he eats. Never mind, he is getting 
 healed. 
 
 And a Healthy Environment. 
 
 He will see the sky, undimmed by any smoke save 
 the slim, graceful wreaths from cottage chimneys. The 
 sun will greet him fresh from Heaven as he steps across 
 the threshold of the door. He will learn to appreciate 
 " the useful trouble of the rain ; " he will hear the song 
 of birds in their native haunts ; he will begin to under- 
 stand the mystery of bud and bloom, of birth under 
 the gentle brown furrows of Mother Earth, and he will 
 begin to be healed. His back may ache at first, but 
 as he straightens himself in the furrow he will feel 
 new manhood stirring in his soul. The silver thread 
 of the river yonder will companion him often at his 
 solitary toil. To some, I am told, it is precious ; they 
 remember that it is the same old Father Thames that 
 
Back to the Land. 61 
 
 flows under the London bridges ; and in some strange 
 way they are comforted, and feel themselves less exiled 
 than before. 
 
 There are many phases to go through during the 
 healing process, some of them painful and difficult, 
 but the end is kept ever before the patient. And always 
 there is the atmosphere of sympathy to encourage him ; 
 those who are caring for his poor wrecked body are not 
 forgetful of his mind. And by means of this life in the 
 open, under God's sky, cut clean away from all the 
 sordid and dreadful past, many a man has been rescued 
 for time and for eternity. 
 
 Physical Culture. 
 
 To those who have knowledge of country life and its 
 pursuits, it must be a joy of no ordinary kind to come 
 back to the land in this way ; they quickly find and 
 make themselves at home. But the great percentage 
 of the labour is not only unskilled, but of the most 
 elementary kind, which makes the Farm Colony one'; 
 of the most expensive parts of the great Scheme for! 
 the regeneration of the under-world. But its results 
 are so increasingly satisfactory, so lasting, that its 
 operations are bound to grow year by year. A few 
 months spent at the Farm Colony, among all its 
 varied interests, is worth double the time anywhere 
 else, especially from the physical point of view. 
 
62 The Outsiders. 
 
 The Colony Town is one of the most cheerful, lively, 
 delightful little places imaginable. It has proved its 
 right to exist, and wears a correspondingly bright air. 
 The well-equipped school, the big comfortable Army 
 Hall, the many cottage homes, wherein have been 
 established family relations, once destroyed by the 
 devil and all his works. Oh, if only these peaceful 
 stones could speak, what tragedies of despair and hope 
 would they reveal ! 
 
 Free Men Once More. 
 
 In them dwell those who have been bound to The 
 Army, who have begged to be allowed to remain under 
 its sheltering wing, who are wage-earning and self- 
 supporting and a credit to any community. They may 
 be forgiven, perhaps, after all that has gone, for 
 thinking they are safest under the Salvation Flag. But 
 many have gone forth from these smiling Essex fields, 
 who by means of them, and all their blessed ministry, 
 have been restored to the world not the nether-world, 
 thank God, but the free glad world of self-respecting 
 men and women who seek the kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness. 
 
 The Farm Colony is broken up into many parts. 
 Many industries have been successfully started within 
 its environs. The brickfields provide employment for 
 numerous men, all of whom live yonder in the various 
 
Back to the Land. 63 
 
 buildings, in grades, according to their rank in the 
 scale. Not in the social scale, mark you, for there is 
 only one hall-mark, one scale here that of brothers and 
 comrades ; but it is right that the man who is rising, 
 who is being healed, and shows it by his conduct and 
 his actions, should be recognised. By and by, please 
 God, he may rise to one of the rose-covered cottages, 
 and shut himself in by the door of his own home. 
 
 We travelled back to Liverpool Street with two men 
 of high repute in the commercial world, who, having 
 great businesses to attend to, are yet never too busy to 
 spare a day at stated intervals to go down to the farm 
 for the purpose of giving expert opinion regarding its 
 working, and of offering suggestions to improve the 
 output. 
 
 These men would not take this trouble unless their 
 hearts were, first of all, touched ; and, secondly, unless 
 they were convinced that the undertaking were conducted 
 on proper business lines. 
 
 I commend the Farm Colony as an object lesson as 
 a proof of the sanctified wisdom and foresight that first 
 advocated the bringing of waste men and waste land 
 together. 
 
VI. 
 A NATIONAL PROBLEM. 
 
 T ONDON, in the still quiet hours of the early morning 
 ^ has an incomparable charm all her own. To see 
 the noble line of Oxford Street, swept and garnished, 
 the never-ending traffic cleared from it, as if by a 
 magic hand, is to gaze upon a picture never to be 
 forgotten. 
 
 The mysterious gossamer haze of the St. Martin's 
 summer seems to hang midway betwixt earth and sky ; 
 below, the clear line of the quiet streets, above, a 
 thousand roofs and spires and minarets seen as through 
 a glass darkly and suggesting some mystic world 
 beyond. The horses' hoofs awaken strange echoes on 
 the smooth cool wooden pavements which we have 
 almost to ourselves. Pedestrians are on foot, it is true, 
 but only working London is awake. 
 
 Incomparably beautiful, too, is the river, to which 
 we come by tortuous ways, past historic houses, where 
 the men of old London lived and died, all unconscious 
 that the city of their love and desire would become 
 
A National Problem. 65 
 
 the mammoth she is. How great is London ! The 
 truth is brought home as we traverse the endless 
 labyrinth of her streets on either side of her wide 
 waterway, and realise that each dwelling represents so 
 many units of her life. The river is smooth, like a 
 mill-pond, with the glory of the early sun upon the 
 water and the same witch-like gossamer haze veiling 
 all its blemishes or converting them into things of 
 beauty. To me this is, comparatively speaking, a new 
 London, especially that which lies south of the Thames. 
 We steadily sweep through the uninterrupted streets 
 out Battersea way, past Lavender Hill, and so to 
 Clapham Junction, and Wandsworth and Wandsworth 
 Common. We can see through the ragged branches 
 of the thinning autumn trees, a giant pile of masonry 
 whose further towers are lost among the morning mists. 
 
 Vigils by the Gate. 
 
 It is no palace of repute to which we have come ; 
 our morning vigil is with the anxious and the sad, 
 waiting outside the great gates of Wandsworth Jail. 
 Although we are early comers, there are already some 
 pathetic groups, chiefly women, some with babies in 
 their arms, many of them young, mostly well put on, 
 but with a pinched and hungry look upon their faces, 
 which tells its tale of struggle and stress. 
 
 The babies are well wrapped up and held close to 
 
66 The Outsiders. 
 
 kindly breasts, for the morning air is nipping- and chill. 
 There are several policemen on guard, and a smart 
 sergeant walks to and fro waiting for a deserter, 
 I am informed, on remarking that he does not look 
 like one waiting the release of a relative or friend. 
 
 Facing the noble front of the Jail is a broad 
 tree-lined avenue leading out to the main road. As 
 the hands in the great clock tower wear round towards 
 eight o'clock, the crowd is augmented by little knots 
 of twos and threes, with here and there a single unit, 
 seeming to shrink away from the rest, although all 
 are bent on the same errand. Possibly, this is the 
 first experience of the kind, and passing bitter it is. 
 
 The Tears of the Respectable. 
 
 Among the latter class could be numbered at once 
 a middle-aged and most respectably dressed woman, 
 who is weeping quietly under the shadow of the 
 straggling hedge. After a moment, the kind-faced 
 Officer of The Army, to whose department this work 
 belongs, ventures to offer a quiet word of comfort and 
 sympathy. He is successful in eliciting the facts which 
 are very simple, but in their way heartrending. No 
 ghastly tale of crime, premeditated and persisted in, is 
 revealed to his accustomed ears. A mother waiting 
 for her son, an only boy, not yet fifteen, caught 
 slinging down chestnuts in Greenwich Park. 
 
A National Problem, 67 
 
 Although, undoubtedly, the amenity of public parks 
 must be preserved, and hooligan destruction thereof 
 promptly checked, it is in the nature of a boy to sling 
 chestnuts. If he did not he would hardly be a healthy 
 human boy. Sentence, five days' imprisonment ! 
 
 The Brand on the Young. 
 
 This to a respectable lad, the only son of a decent 
 and hardworking tradesman, the idol of his sisters, is 
 a trial as black as death. Surely the magistrate who 
 gave the sentence was in a hurry that special morning, 
 and did not treat each case upon its merits. For, 
 inevitably, the experience to which this open-faced 
 and open-hearted lad has been subjected will have one 
 of two results. Either he will have received a sharp 
 and lasting lesson, and will for ever shun all paths 
 that lead jailwards, or he will have lost the natural 
 fear of the interior of such a place. I submit that he 
 should not at his age have had the option of choice. 
 
 But this is no time for moralising on miscarriages 
 of justice, even if one's feelings are deeply moved ; for 
 the small wicket in the great iron-studded door is 
 opened, and the first batch of prisoners step out. They 
 are a sorry crew. The Salvation Officer, privileged 
 beyond the ordinary watchers, stands close by the 
 wicket with a little sheaf of white tickets in his hand. 
 Already the way has been prepared for their reception 
 
68 The Outsiders. 
 
 of the message they bear by visits made in the cells by 
 the Major himself. Of late years many concessions 
 have been made by the Home Office to The Army, 
 results having convinced it that their operations do not 
 tend to the making of criminals, but the reverse. Quite 
 obviously these men belong to the criminal and vicious 
 class. The degenerate head, the scowling, furtive look, 
 the aspect of slouching suspiciousness, the hang-dog air, 
 all are hall-marks of the profession. One glances with 
 an involuntary shudder of pity at the waiting women, 
 some of whom have lives linked up to such as these. 
 
 A Pitiful Scene. 
 
 Two move forward to meet them. A respectable 
 young woman takes hold of what would appear to be 
 the most degenerate of them all. To look at him and 
 contemplate life by the side of such an one, is to obtain 
 a glimpse of the nether world indeed. She pleads with 
 him, quite obviously, to come in a certain direction ; he 
 scowls and refuses, and, finally leaving her standing in 
 the roadway, runs off positively runs in another 
 direction. The M^jor calmly informs me he has 
 only gone to the nearest pub to invest in a little liquid 
 courage, and will presently be back. He is right, and 
 he returns by and by with a more jaunty and cheerful 
 air, and the couple move off together. He is one of 
 those who have refused the white ticket. 
 
A National Problem. 69 
 
 A shabby little trap is waiting- in charge of a 
 sporting-looking man of the lowest class. He speeds 
 forward to meet one of his own calibre, who has just 
 been released. They shake hands jovially, with much 
 laughter, and then drive away together. They are 
 known to The Army and the police members of a 
 notorious gang who prey upon the community, and are 
 generally minus of some member paying penalty for 
 their united wickedness. But they hang faithfully 
 together ; in fact, the loyalty of vicious pals to their 
 comrades in prison, and their manifest anxiety to get a 
 hold of them again, is a serious hindrance to The 
 Army's work. 
 
 Hurrying Away. 
 
 The first batch quickly disappears down the avenue, 
 one or two dropping in by the way at the Prison Gate 
 Shelter, where a hot cup oi coffee awaits any who may 
 desire it. But the majority hurry on, anxious to get 
 away from the immediate scene of their imprisonment. 
 
 The first of the second batch is the soldier for whom 
 the sergeant waits, a slim, well set-up young man, who 
 carries himself as a soldier should. He is in uniform, 
 and carries good-conduct stripes, which show that his 
 offence has not been a very serious one, perhaps only a 
 drunken brawl ; anyhow, he marches off gaily enough 
 by his sergeant's side. 
 
70 The Outsiders. 
 
 Here comes the little lad of Greenwich fame, walk- 
 ing dazedly, his eyes blinking, as if long shut out from 
 the cheerful morning sun. Suddenly he sees his mother, 
 and breaks into a run, with the tears streaming down 
 his face. Next moment he is in her arms, and the 
 Major seems to shadow them with his kindly presence ; 
 for this is a little sacred scene set apart from the more 
 sordid elements of our strange vigil. They walk away 
 quickly down the avenue, the Major with them, just to 
 assure them of his sympathy and his practical help, if 
 need be, supposing the boy should find it difficult now, 
 with the prison stain upon him, to get work. There 
 are many Christian employers of labour, thank God, 
 who would be glad to give such a lad a chance. A 
 big, comfortable policeman standing close by us, to 
 whom we make a remark about this travesty of justice, 
 at the same time blaming the constable who " ran him 
 in," remarks with a shrug of his huge shoulders : 
 
 " Wot are we to do, mum? We've certain rules 
 and regulations give us. I 'ave a 'eart meself, only I 
 durstn't use it." 
 
 What will the Boy Become? 
 
 They are coming yet, fresh from the prison gates, 
 a sorry, sorry crowd, their poor clothes all sodden and 
 creased, and as if they had been flung on some dust- 
 heap until the day came for them to get into them once 
 
A National Problem. 71 
 
 more. To see those men, to make even the most 
 casual study of their types, is to realise in some faint 
 degree the constant menace under which the respect- 
 able public live. For this is only one day and one 
 prison. Ninety-seven is the number to be released this 
 morning, and every morning this week, and every other 
 week to come throughout the year. And alas ! 
 their places are promptly filled by others, who go to 
 makejip^each day's fresh record of discovered crime. 
 
 \ 
 Criminaj^JBeform. 
 
 The Salvation Army is the first Organisation that 
 has ever tackled seriously, on any adequate scale, this 
 great problem of crime, and the saving and preventin 
 of criminals. The objects of their Priso 
 Agencies may be briefly stated, as they occur in their 
 book of Orders and Regulations : 
 
 " (a) To help them in their difficulties. They may 
 be justly charged or not. Anyway, they are human 
 beings, and have souls, and are to be pitied and 
 assisted, if may be. 
 
 " (b) We want to reform and save them, if that be 
 possible. 
 
 " (c) We want to comfort and help their relatives, 
 after the same fashion. 
 
 " (d) We want to get them into our Homes, and 
 directly under our influence, for these purposes." 
 
72 The Outsiders. 
 
 The methods adopted are such as must commend 
 themselves to all reasonable persons, and are charac- 
 terised by the same everyday wisdom that is a feature of 
 all the other branches of the work. Now that permission 
 has been obtained to visit the prisoners during the period 
 of their incarceration, the Officers upon whom this 
 delicate and serious duty devolves have been warned by 
 their leaders that they must keep before them the only 
 object, of such intervention the assistance and possible 
 salvation of the prisoner. He is not to encourage 
 complaints against injustice or criticisms of the prison 
 system. His business is outside all that. 
 
 An Essential Awakening. 
 
 What is wanted is that the habitual criminal should 
 
 \have awakened in him a sense of sin. With him, as a 
 
 rule, crime is no sin. The sin lies in being found out. 
 
 To reach the heart of such an one, to turn it Godwards, 
 
 does it not seem a superhuman task? 
 
 If you could see, as I saw them, the types released 
 from Wandsworth Jail any morning in the week, 
 between the hours of eight and ten, you might be 
 pardoned a dubious head-shake. But, praise be to God, 
 it is possible. And there are living in the community 
 to-day hundreds of hardworking respectable men and 
 women, all of whom have been in prison, many of them 
 long-timers, who belonged actually and actively to the 
 
A National Problem, 73 
 
 criminal classes, but whom The Army has rescued 
 
 and uplifted. I have myself talked with many such, 
 
 heard life stories which, put down in cold print, would 
 not be believed. 
 
 A Redeemed Trinity. 
 
 I have before my mind's eye at this moment three 
 picked at random from among many others. One, a 
 man who had done thirty-three years for burglaries and 
 other crimes, who was familiar with Dartmoor, Portland, 
 Millbank, the Scrubbs (when it was a convict prison), 
 and to whom the network of crime was .meat and 
 drink. To look upon him now, a respectable, even a 
 sweet-faced old man, telling his story humbly and 
 without any boastfulness, is to obtain a new lesson 
 in life. 
 
 He told me the story of his first acquaintance with 
 The Army in one of the large convict prisons, where 
 the Officers are permitted to visit long-time men from 
 time to time. They are left in no doubt as to where 
 to apply when they are released, and if they are 
 desirous of leading a better life. It is the difficulty of 
 awakening this desire, which makes this work so long 
 and weary, and, oftentimes, discouraging. For while 
 it may be possible for the respectable working-man, 
 whom misfortunes or even folly have submerged, to 
 rise, by means of the social ladder offered by The 
 
74 The Outsiders. 
 
 Army, it is often impossible for the criminal. He is 
 usually dead to shame, he has no character to lose, his 
 only fear and check is the vision of a further prison. 
 Therefore, before he can really be helped, his better 
 nature must be brought to life from the dead ; God's 
 grace must touch the man, and uplift him through 
 human agency. 
 
 The Criminal's Imagination. 
 
 In some cases these men, coming under the opera- 
 tions of The Army, hear from them for the first time 
 the story of the Great Redemption. Sometimes it lays 
 hold of an imagination which a criminal career has not 
 by any means blunted. It appeals to his dramatic 
 instinct, as it were, and in the silence of his cell he 
 may ponder upon it. But it would not be possible to 
 follow the tortuous workings of such a mind ; with 
 God all things are possible. The fact is indisputable 
 that The Army has reformed and restored to clean lives 
 a very considerable number of the criminal class of both 
 sexes both in this and other lands. They have with 
 experience very much improved their methods. 
 Although they are ready to meet a prisoner at the 
 gate, and to advise him regarding his future, they do 
 not seek to bear him away as a trophy. The little 
 white card with the legend upon it tells him all he 
 wishes to know, the addresses at which he may present 
 
A National Problem. 75 
 
 himself if he really has the desire to repent and to be 
 helped. 
 
 The Label Removed. 
 
 Realising also the extreme difficulties, as well as 
 the special dangers, besetting a criminal, even while 
 endeavouring to reinstate him, they have ceased to set 
 him apart either in their Homes or in their work. The 
 men are distributed through the various departments ; 
 received in whatever Institution is likely to be most 
 needful for his case. Everything of the nature of 
 a label is strictly avoided. Absolute silence is regarded 
 concerning his past. His presence at work is accepted 
 as a token that he himself desires to bury it, and he is 
 discouraged from ever alluding to it. If his heart is 
 really touched, and a new manhood awakened in him, 
 he is only too thankful to bury it. Some of the stories 
 I have heard from the lips of ex-convicts were known 
 only to the police and The Army Officers. 
 
 That such reticence is necessary can readily be 
 understood by those who have any knowledge of the 
 ticket-of-leave system as applied to ex-prisoners. One of 
 them, a Scotchman, who had spent the greater part of 
 his life in convict prisons, informed me that the ticket- 
 of-leave system, as presently administered by the police, 
 is responsible for many a man's continuance in a career 
 of crime. Such a man may be sincerely anxious to do 
 
76 The Outsiders. 
 
 better, and start work with that end in view, but 
 somehow the facts of his career seem to leak out. As 
 the police in most cases are the only custodians of his 
 secret, he naturally blamed them. Again and again 
 he found himself sent adrift. Even in cases where the 
 employer, a humane man, would have been disposed 
 to give him a chance, the tide of opinion among his 
 other employes was too strong for him. Suspected, 
 shunned, shut out from the ordinary walks of life, as 
 this man pathetically informed me, what was he to do 
 but return to the only paying occupation he knew ? 
 
 A Partial Solution. 
 
 The Salvation Army, whose efforts for the 
 amelioration of human misery have been so obviously 
 blessed, have, by the establishment of different forms 
 of industry in their own factories and workshops, 
 succeeded in partially solving this problem. 
 
 To see that daily horde of degenerate and criminal 
 men being released from confinement, to watch them 
 slink away, to be swallowed up in the great vortex, 
 to plan further crime, no doubt, is to receive an 
 object lesson of the first magnitude. I commend the 
 experience to any doubter. He can satisfy himself 
 any morning between the hours of eight and ten by 
 spending a short time outside the gates of any one 
 of our great prisons. And, when he has satisfied 
 
A National Problem. 77 
 
 himself as to the calibre of those let loose, he may, 
 if he likes, make the fullest enquiry as to The 
 Salvation Army's method of getting a hold of and 
 dealing with them. 
 
 And if he happens to have money in his pocket, 
 I venture to predict that he will find a fresh investment 
 for it, which will bring him sound sleep, and a feeling 
 of security which would surprise him. 
 
 NOTE. <2,OOO are needed for the 
 maintenance of oun Work among 
 Prisoners in Jail during the current 
 year, and for those discharged from 
 prison. Surely ten times this amount 
 would be worth expending ! 
 
VII. 
 WOMAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN. 
 
 A ND now we come to the consideration of that sad 
 -"- problem the case of the submerged woman. 
 Surely the picture and future of such an one is hopeless. 
 We have always been taught to believe that the recla- 
 mation of a submerged woman might be numbered 
 among the miracles, if not among the impossible 
 happenings of life. 
 
 Life is generally harder for women than for men. 
 Nowhere is it harder for them than in the lowest strata 
 of society, if I may dignify certain ranks of life with 
 such a title. 
 
 The wife of a skilled and prosperous tradesman of 
 industrious habits, justly proud of his respectability, and 
 recognising his own value to the community, needs no 
 pity from any man. In some respects her lot is an 
 enviable one. If she be a woman of average ability, 
 with some practical knowledge of housekeeping affairs, 
 and the still more valuable knowledge of how to lay out 
 the weekly sum entrusted to her, she can contribute 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 79 
 
 materially to the success of their dual undertaking. 
 They have no appearance to keep up, except the 
 appearance of honesty, which comes naturally to them. 
 They occupy a responsible position they are part of the 
 backbone of the nation. They may, if thrifty, lay by a 
 little for the rainy day, and rear their children in ways 
 of thrift and honour. House-rent is their most serious 
 item, it being admittedly, in London, out of all pro- 
 portion to other expenditure, or to the earning capacity 
 of the payer. But food and clothing never were 
 cheaper. The children are educated at the expense of 
 the State, and there is always room everywhere for the 
 skilled operative. 
 
 A Scandalous Ignorance. 
 
 Such is the sunny side of the picture. But unfor- 
 tunately every decent workman does not secure a 
 thrifty, capable, and industrious wife. The education 
 of our young women in the household arts, in the 
 purchasing capacity of money in a word, in the 
 aptitude which will fit them to be helpmeets to their 
 husbands, when they get them, is not only deplorably 
 deficient, it is a national disgrace. I have no hesitation 
 in saying that the absolute ignorance of certain sections 
 of British womanhood of the simplest elements of 
 domestic economy is the conducing cause of a large 
 proportion of the misery and poverty and crime in 
 
8o The Outsiders. 
 
 these islands. When this ignorance is combined with 
 indulgence in strong drink, then does the case become 
 hopeless ? No, not quite ; it is possible to raise even 
 the lowest ; but, oh, that such searching among the 
 lost should be necessary ! 
 
 The women who are submerged, who are in 
 immediate and desperate need of some friendly help- 
 ing hand, naturally separate themselves into certain 
 classes. 
 
 The Woman Inebriate. 
 
 There are drunken women, who, through their 
 terrible appetite, have lost all ; whose homes, if they 
 ever possessed them, have long been sacrificed ; whose 
 friends have cast them off, and to whom nothing, 
 apparently, is left, but the unhallowed pleasure of 
 satisfying their craving for drink. Degraded and 
 besotted, w r hen they have not joined the actual ranks 
 of the criminal, they have become veritable waifs of 
 the streets, sleeping now in the common lodging- 
 house, that pest-place, where there is often neither 
 morality nor decency, occasionally in the casual ward 
 of some great workhouse ; oftenest of all, perhaps, 
 in some doorway or under the buttresses of a bridge 
 or tunnel, hopelessly down, in their rags and tatters ; 
 how is it possible to carry an evangel of hope to 
 them? It is possible, as we shall presently see. 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 81 
 
 Then there is the criminal woman, released from 
 jail, outside the pale of decent society, shunned of all 
 men and women, even the most degraded. If possible, 
 her case is one degree more hopeless than that of 
 the confirmed drunkard. She must steal or starve. 
 
 Then there are the widows and orphans, neither 
 criminal nor drunken, but the victims of appalling 
 misfortune. Bereft by death of their natural protectors 
 and providers, they become the prey of sharpers of 
 both classes, and what little substance they may have 
 possessed is stolen from them, and they are left 
 penniless and helpless, very often without any clear 
 capacity for earning, like so much drift thrown upon 
 the seashore. 
 
 Alone and Forsaken. 
 
 Then there is the large army of wives and mothers 
 who have been deserted, for whose husbands we have 
 to look among the submerged men. Oh, it is a 
 ghastly and varied array, sufficient to make the angels 
 weep. But though the hearts of The Army Officers 
 may be, and often are, full to bursting, a stern control 
 is kept upon emotion, and their cry is ever "all hands 
 to work." There is a labour bureau, and a registry 
 office for women at Hackney, where those willing to 
 work can be helped and advised. There is a depart- 
 ment which will fit her with the necessary clothing to 
 
82 The Outsiders. 
 
 enable her to take any work available : a loan, be it 
 understood, and generally regarded so scrupulously. 
 Many touching instances of hard-won earnings being 
 devoted to the work of The Army by those who have 
 benefited by its generosity, are on record among the 
 annals of the Women's Social work. The actually 
 submerged are reached by the ordinary midnight work 
 among the homeless. They are, so far as accommoda- 
 tion will permit, taken into the various Shelters and 
 Elevators, where their capabilities are tested, and made 
 use of. In every case, the desire and aim is to restore 
 the woman, to make her once more self-respecting and 
 self-supporting. 
 
 Classification and Adaptation. 
 
 It may be well to mention here for the information 
 of those to whom the idea would be new, that a 
 list of capable women available for every branch 
 of women's work is kept at the Headquarters at 
 Hackney, and enquiries for such women by prospective 
 employers will be met with every frankness and 
 sincerity. No woman will be passed for what she is 
 not, and their characters so far as is possible have 
 been sifted and tested. The Army fully realises the 
 danger of putting irresponsible or unreliable persons 
 in positions where trust might be abused. Therefore 
 every care is taken to test the woman before she is 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 83 
 
 recommended. At the Shelters, she is helped as the 
 men are ; her physical need relieved first, and some 
 attempt made to reach her spiritual need also. In 
 many cases restoration to friends and home has been 
 made possible, and it may be understood that the 
 gratitude for such restoration knows no bounds. Space 
 will not permit to give instances, but these can be 
 obtained by any interested person from the Head- 
 quarters of the Women's work at Mare Street, 
 Hackney. 
 
 Human Castaways. 
 
 A class of persons even more difficult to help are 
 those who are not only homeless, but friendless, in whom 
 no solitary human being takes the slightest interest, 
 whose ultimate hope is merely the rest of a pauper's 
 grave. That there are hundreds of such women upon 
 our streets has been amply proved, and has taxed the 
 resources of The Army's agencies to the utmost. 
 
 Few of those who may peruse these words are 
 familiar with the network of mean streets that lie in 
 the rear of many of our most brilliant thoroughfares, 
 places so ghastly, so forlorn, so sordid and wretched, 
 that even to take a casual walk through them creates 
 an impression difficult to shake off. 
 
 One autumn day, when I had the compilation of this 
 book in contemplation, I paid a visit to these mean 
 
84 The Outsiders. 
 
 streets, and in the course of other experiences visited a 
 Women's Shelter in the East End. It is situate in the 
 very heart of that dark continent. I might linger to 
 describe the almost indescribable sights and sounds of 
 that strange locality ; but it is the Shelter with which we 
 have immediately to do. Here we see what is done for 
 the submerged woman on the lowest rung of the ladder. 
 The little narrow door is opened for us by a kind-faced 
 woman whose tongue quickly betrays that she has 
 come from North of the Tweed. Her broad Scotch 
 strikes a pleasant, familiar note here in an alien land. 
 A warm handshake passes between us. We are of the 
 same land and kindred, and though pursuing our work 
 in different grooves, each, praise God ! actuated by the 
 same motives. 
 
 A Home and a Haven. 
 
 It is a comparatively quiet hour of the day four 
 in the afternoon and we see the place cleaned 
 and purified after the one night's batch, and waiting 
 for the next to come in. Here are 276 beds; 
 there is never an empty one. Nightly many are 
 turned from the doors, and only the want of a 
 few hundred pounds prevents the providing of others. 
 The Captain in charge tells us that her inmates are 
 chiefly old women, the preference being given to them ; 
 because, truly, there cannot be a more pitiable object 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 85 
 
 under Heaven than an old, infirm woman, towards whom 
 no one has a duty to perform, cast in her failing days 
 upon the mercy of the streets. The charge for bed and 
 food here is twopence, and most of them are able to earn 
 that by selling matches, bootlaces, or other trifles in 
 the streets. At night they come "home." That they 
 truly regard it as a home is evidenced by the fact that 
 there are some permanent inmates who have been 
 sheltered there for years. 
 
 "A Vested Interest," 
 
 One, whom they call Number One, has slept in the 
 same bunk for nine years, and has, in fact, appropriated 
 it for her own sole use. She has a vested interest in 
 that bed. Poor old soul ! She is perfectly happy, and 
 though the day should come when Granny will not be 
 able to present her twopence at the pay-desk, she will 
 not be ousted, you may be sure, from her own particular 
 bunk, where summer and winter she sleeps warm and 
 secure as a little child. She is now saving up a few 
 coppers to help The Army to give her decent burial. 
 The Army has been father and mother and home and 
 family to Granny, and she repays them with all the 
 gratitude of which her poor, withered old heart is 
 possible. I can well believe that the sight of these 
 homeless women, who have borne the burden and heat 
 of the day, must be a pathetic one. Here they are 
 
86 The Outsiders. 
 
 incomparably happier than in any workhouse. They 
 have their freedom, and are treated like human beings, 
 and not like part of a great machine. 
 
 The place is scrupulously clean. There is precisely 
 the same provision made for personal cleanliness here 
 as in the Men's Shelters, and each long dormitory, 
 with all the beds, is disinfected every day. 
 
 To come in from the indescribable filth and smells 
 of the slums, which in this neighbourhood can be 
 seen and felt in their full squalor and misery, is to 
 breathe a purer atmosphere, both morally and physically. 
 There is a perfect cleanliness and brightness, and in 
 the pantry, where they are cutting up the bread and 
 butter for the inmates' tea, everything is spotless and 
 shining. Also the kind, true face of the Captain, who 
 has given her life to this wonderful ministry, is the 
 inspiration of the place. 
 
 God is here, undoubtedly, befriending, through His 
 servants, the old ladies forgotten of the world. 
 
 Slum Lighthouses. 
 
 Another branch of the Social work for women, 
 which almost deserves a chapter or article to itself, so 
 beautiful and important is it, is what is termed the 
 Slum work. 
 
 Perhaps you will call with me one evening at a 
 certain Slum Post as the centres of this work are 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 87 
 
 termed in Somers Town, hard by King's Cross, where 
 there is slum work as pronounced as in any Whitechapel 
 area. But there is a certain life and brightness here we 
 did not observe off the Whitechapel Road. The naphtha 
 lights flare above the laden coster barrows, and the 
 children are dancing merrily to the street organ strains 
 of "The Honeysuckle and the Bee." At almost every 
 corner the public-houses are in full swing, the tempting 
 glare of the lights beckoning many a poor wretch to 
 further degradation. 
 
 The Brightness of God. 
 
 The Slum Post does not herald its existence with 
 any array of banners. It has no flaring sign to 
 attract the passer-by. A modest doorway, with a shop- 
 front window only dimly lighted seems to make a 
 contrast to all the surrounding gaudy show. A knock 
 at the little door ensures its speedy opening by a 
 cheerful bright-faced Lieutenant in Salvation dress, 
 whose youth and winsome looks surprise one. Surely 
 she has given up much to devote herself to such 
 work, but her looks would seem to say that great 
 gain is hers. In fact, a cheerful brightness is the out- 
 standing characteristic of The Salvation Army face. 
 There is no sour-vizaged religion here ; the light within 
 burns steadfastly, and sends forth illuminating rays. 
 There is a group of children gathered on the scoured 
 
88 The Outsiders. 
 
 benches, listening to the strains of a gramophone, 
 which some kind friend has presented to the Post. 
 The place, formerly a pie-shop, has been converted 
 into a small hall or schoolroom, where meetings are 
 held, and the children taught. This is one of the 
 children's nights. 
 
 Behind the shop are the usual living rooms. When 
 you pass back into them you are brought face to 
 face with the real power of the Slum Post. Here 
 you are cut off by a little passage from the din and 
 squalor of the street. It is a very quiet simple little 
 place, a sort of glorified kitchen, bright and clean 
 and inviting. Here the Sisters of the Slum Post live. 
 They sleep in a room upstairs. 
 
 " Ready, Aye Ready!" 
 
 In their home they are available to the call of the 
 needy and the sad, at any hour of any day or night. 
 Their duty is to go, like the doctor or the policeman, 
 when they are sent for. Very often it is in the night 
 to help to nurse a desperate case, or to ease a dying 
 bed, or give succour to some woman in her extremity. 
 Nothing comes amiss to them : they talk of the 
 tragedies of life as if they were the merest common- 
 places. After breakfast, when they have set their own 
 little home in order, they sally forth to visit special cases 
 of sickness ; go to homes where cleaning has to be done, 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 89 
 
 or where comfort in hours of anguish or shame is most 
 needed of all. Their object being to help, brighten, 
 and improve the wretched homes in their vicinity, they 
 are willing to show the woman how to work and clean 
 up her house, if necessary, or do it themselves, if 
 she is ill, or, for some other reason, unable to work. 
 
 The afternoon is devoted to house-to-house visita- 
 tion, to finding out fresh cases of need, to making new 
 friends, and trying to get in touch with the people. 
 
 Perfect Love. 
 
 It would surprise you what these dear women have 
 to do, and can do. They have learned to bear with 
 silent courage sights and sounds which unnerved them 
 at the beginning. Even dirt and smells do not affect 
 them as formerly, and it is certainly wonderful how they 
 are protected, not only from possible contagion, but 
 from a thousand dangers to which young and attractive 
 women might naturally, in such a neighbourhood, be 
 exposed. They do not seem to know the meaning of 
 fear, going about on their grave duties at all hours of 
 the night, often quite alone. It is certain that some 
 unseen protection is round about them. They, too, have 
 a special work among old women, most of whom live in 
 solitary rooms, the rent of which is just covered by the 
 outdoor relief granted by the parish. Sometimes this is 
 augmented by small contributions from members of their 
 
90 The Outsiders. 
 
 family, or from outside persons interested, and which 
 The Army Officers administer. It is surprising 1 how 
 little these poor souls can actually subsist upon, and 
 how they cling to the idea of a little corner of their own. 
 To possess and enjoy it, rather than face the prospect of 
 entering" the workhouse, they will suffer in silence 
 unheard-of privations. Their longevity is astonishing. 
 Life does not seem to depend really upon the multitude 
 of things a man hath, but rather the reverse. 
 
 The Gospel of Soap. 
 
 The Lieutenant tells me that, as a rule, the old 
 ladies keep their little homes very clean. When they 
 are unable to do so the Sisters will clean periodically 
 for them, and even take away their clothes to wash 
 at the Slum Post ; in fact, no service is beneath 
 these devoted women. They are enabled to brighten 
 many dark and almost hopeless lives ; the little visit 
 is looked forward to, and the talk about things unseen 
 and eternal gradually and increasingly appreciated. 
 
 It would be easy to fill a small book with a 
 record of their experiences ; in fact, as the Officers 
 say, the difficulty is to know where to begin or end. 
 The thought uppermost in my mind as I turn away 
 from the little door, to face once more the gay 
 squalor of the gaslit streets, is wonder that such 
 things are possible. 
 
Woman's Work for Woman. 91 
 
 What do these women get out of it all ? Barely a 
 living wage ; continuous work of the hardest and most 
 wearing kind ; obscurity, since the world knows not, 
 and will never hear of them ; very often they die at 
 their posts. Weaving a crown of glory, undoubtedly, 
 they are, day in and day out, though not the crown 
 coveted by the world. 
 
 The great day will reveal the magnitude of such 
 self-sacrifice. 
 
 The love of God constrains them. No other words 
 can adequately explain a sacrifice so precious, and 
 which seems to convert into nothingness the ordinary 
 idea of duty and service towards one's fellows. 
 
 Of still another important department of Women's 
 work I must speak in a further chapter. 
 
 NOTE. To maintain our Social Work 
 amongst Women, including the Rescue 
 and Industrial Homes, Shelters, Mater- 
 nity and Nursing Work and the Slum 
 Operations, we require 2O,OOO during 
 the year. 
 
VIII. 
 THE FRIENDLESS GIRL. 
 
 >npHE original plan of the Creator to make man the 
 breadwinner, and woman his helpmeet and dis- 
 tributor of his earnings, has long been departed from in 
 many walks of life. Whether there has been corre- 
 sponding gain in happiness, and in family well-being, is 
 a question which need not be entered upon here. The 
 condition of the marriage market in the lower strata of 
 society would probably surprise even the apostles of the 
 most advanced creed. 
 
 Of course there are green fields here and there even 
 in the deserts. It is possible to find even among the 
 submerged, many instances of conjugal and family 
 devotion which do much to redeem the black darkness 
 around. 
 
 But too often it is a mere casual partnership, in which 
 there is no bond, and scarcely a responsibility understood 
 or accepted. Both parties go their own way, and both 
 earn a livelihood legitimately, or otherwise, according 
 to their capacity and the particular circumstances in 
 which they happen to be placed. 
 
The Friendless Girl. 93 
 
 And even where the husband is a labouring 1 man, 
 in possession of a slender though steady weekly wage, 
 his method of disbursing it is peculiar. If he is a 
 sober man, without any pronounced vices, and kind- 
 hearted to boot, then his family may not fare so 
 ill ; but if otherwise, as is so often the case, the 
 wife has to step into the breach and earn what she 
 can. Home life, as understood in happier circum- 
 stances, scarcely exists ; the nursery of the children 
 is the street, where there is no supervision exercised 
 over them, and where they imbibe what they please 
 in the way of vice. 
 
 Women v. Men Wastage. 
 
 This slack view of responsibilities undoubtedly 
 accounts for a very large proportion of the actual 
 destitution and misery which exists amongst women. 
 Although wastage among women may be regarded 
 by certain economists as less serious than among men, 
 who are the wage-earners, and, therefore, in their 
 estimation, the more important units of the State, to 
 some minds it seems not less, but more appalling. 
 
 God intended the softer influence of woman to 
 sweeten life, for which purpose He endowed her with 
 certain attributes denied to man. But in that great 
 area of poverty and misery and crime which you and 
 I are traversing together in these pages, the best 
 
94 The Outsiders. 
 
 attributes of womanhood have been, if not finally 
 crushed out, at least pushed into a space so infinitesimal, 
 that they do not count. Struggle and fighting are 
 bound, sooner or later, to harden and scarify. Some 
 of these women know nothing else from the cradle 
 to the grave ; even the love of little children, God- 
 given and God-intended for the uplifting and softening 
 of life, seems here to have lost its potent influence. 
 
 Separation and Desertion. 
 
 When hope has departed, and there has come a 
 gradual disillusionment regarding the future, there is 
 always the drink, the open door of the gin palace, 
 for the time, merciful oblivion ; though after it there 
 comes a sharper despair. Often, when the best years 
 of her life are gone, the married woman suddenly 
 finds herself bereft of her partner. Perhaps he has 
 gone to jail, or, more likely, taken up with someone 
 else, or simply tired of the corroding care of family 
 life, in hopeless environment, has taken himself off to 
 another town, or, may be, to another part of some 
 great city, where he can disappear and live in 
 comparative freedom and safety. 
 
 How often the latter course is adopted would 
 surprise you, but it provides a quota that helps to 
 account for the great army of homeless and, apparently, 
 unattached men who daily come within the operations 
 
The Friendless Girl. 95 
 
 of The Salvation Army. It would seem necessary to 
 explain this here, in order to make clearer some of 
 the causes of misery and destitution among- women 
 and the necessity for the agencies which The Army 
 has set going. 
 
 Then there is the great host of what may be 
 called the almost hopelessly abandoned women, who 
 have lost their character, sometimes at the beginning 
 through small fault of their own, and who had no 
 alternative in the end but to ply their trade as their 
 more ambitious sisters do night after night on 
 Piccadilly. There are many Piccadillys in England, 
 and a vast army of these unhappy recruits in a service 
 which has its root and foundation in hell. 
 
 Mother But not Wife, 
 
 In this connection there has to be reckoned and dealt 
 with, by any reformative agency, the large number ot 
 young women and girls, some of them mere children, 
 who have motherhood in view, and nowhere to turn for 
 aid. In circumstances where a woman needs all the care 
 and love and kindness it is possible to bestow or receive, 
 thousands of our sisters find themselves bereft of all, 
 with nothing before them but the workhouse infirmary, 
 or a ward in one of our great hospitals. While it is 
 true that there they receive help at the actual time of 
 need, it must be understood that the few institutions that 
 
96 The Outsiders. 
 
 deal with such cases are not in any sense of the word 
 homes. The hospital, at any rate, is a teaching school, 
 for one thing* ; the object of its existence being simply to 
 receive cases of childbirth, its beds are not supposed to 
 be available for any other purpose. A fortnight is the 
 usual period allowed for the detention of each patient. 
 She is then sent out with her mite of a baby, homeless, 
 friendless, often altogether forsaken and despised, to face 
 the world. Her physical state at the end of two weeks' 
 time may be imagined, but it can only be understood 
 by those who have gone through a similar experience. 
 Where is she to turn at such a time ? I have seen 
 such an one pass away from the gates of a hospital, 
 the bitter wind sweeping through her thin garments, 
 holding to her breast a little bundle rolled in a shawl 
 a mother and a baby to face a great cold world in 
 which she had not one friend ! 
 
 Woman's Adversity our Opportunity. 
 
 The Army, in its great scheme for the relieving of 
 human sorrow, quickly realised that this was a depart- 
 ment requiring instant and efficient effort. At such a 
 time a woman's heart is naturally receptive ; her 
 weakness of body renders her peculiarly grateful for 
 any kindness, and if she has the natural instincts of a 
 mother's heart, she will also be anxious regarding 
 the future of her child. 
 
The Friendless Girl. 97 
 
 ( 
 
 To meet this need The Army has established in the 
 near vicinity of the Women's Headquarters at Hackney, 
 a Maternity Home for such cases as I have described 
 to wit, young women, hitherto decent, who have been 
 led into trouble by some man in whom probably they 
 had placed their trust. In connection with the Maternity 
 Home, there is also a properly equipped and organised 
 Hospital, under medical supervision, and in which 
 invaluable work is being done in the training of nurses. 
 
 It can be readily understood that as the inmates of a 
 Maternity Home and Hospital even for some weeks 
 before the child arrives are in no fit state to do much 
 work, the cost of their maintenance constitutes a heavy 
 drain upon The Army's resources, and it is necessarily 
 one of the most expensive branches of the work. If 
 funds would permit of its extension, so that paying 
 patients could be received, and more probationary nurses 
 accepted, then the heavy expenses and anxieties would 
 be considerably lessened. 
 
 A Crying Need. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that the provision made 
 in London for the reception of women and girls who 
 have made one step aside from the right path, and have 
 to suffer these appalling consequences, are strangely 
 inadequate, considering the number of such cases and 
 the amount of other charitable agencies at work. 
 
98 The Outsiders. 
 
 Now it can be realised that under such circum- 
 stances a young girl needs a friend ; that very often, if 
 one is found to point her in the right way, she, fresh 
 from the impression of the exceeding bitter lesson she 
 has received, may be permanently established in the way 
 of righteousness. But that friend has to be found ; 
 and one shudders to think of the very many who never 
 find her, and who, deserted and betrayed, leave the 
 infirmary or workhouse simply to sink lower. 
 
 Another Downward Step. 
 
 Hampered with a child for whom the author of its 
 being takes no responsibility, if fortunate enough to 
 obtain a situation, she has to put her baby out to nurse, 
 a step which opens up another long vista of darkness 
 the baby-farming industry. The payments to the 
 nurse-mother, so often inadequate to the return given, 
 are a serious drain upon the poor creature's slender 
 resources. Then separated from her child, the mother- 
 love has little opportunity to grow, and the chances 
 are that her last state may be worse than her first. 
 
 To obviate these difficulties, The Army has organised 
 a complete system of supervision which may be briefly 
 explained. During the time the patient has been under 
 their care, The Army has not been idle in her cause. 
 The Investigation Officers make it their first business 
 to discover the man. 
 
The Friendless Girl. 99 
 
 Very often there are happy instances of a subsequent 
 marriage and the establishment of a little home, in cases 
 where, without the intervention of The Army, such a 
 consummation would have been impossible; but it must 
 be understood that it is the spiritual and physical 
 welfare of their patient which is kept in view, and 
 they would not hand her over to an undesirable 
 husband simply to escape responsibility. Rather 
 would they help her back by some other means to 
 the path of respectable independence. Her capabilities 
 are discovered, and every effort is made to obtain 
 suitable employment for her. 
 
 The Army as the Girl's Guardian. 
 
 At the same time they seek to foster the mother- 
 love in the girl's heart, so that she may feel it both 
 a privilege and a duty to work for her little one. 
 
 The Army assists her to find a suitable caretaker 
 for the child, the whole object here, as elsewhere, being 
 to encourage the sense of individual responsibility, and 
 to inculcate the duty of every capable man and woman to 
 work so that their responsibilities may be adequately 
 fulfilled by themselves. The girl, softened and grateful 
 for the kindness received, in many cases her soul really 
 touched through human love to some understanding of 
 Divine grace, goes out of the Home a better woman than 
 she entered it. And the results of such gracious 
 
ioo The Outsiders. 
 
 influences do not end with her, but are diffused through 
 her in other places, where perhaps the light has not yet 
 penetrated. She becomes, in her turn, a labourer for the 
 good, as well as for the warning of others. 
 
 The Army does an immense business in the way of 
 reinstating women in domestic service from which they 
 have fallen through circumstances such as I have related, 
 and other adverse influences. 
 
 Kindly Co-operation. 
 
 In every case the truth is told to the prospective 
 mistress, and I am thankful to be able to record the 
 almost universal willingness of women in other walks 
 of life to further and promote the good work The 
 Army has begun. But for their co-operation the 
 problem would be much more difficult and expensive 
 than it is, as it would entail finding some other means 
 of livelihood for the women, who are not lost sight of 
 after they have once been helped. 
 
 I submit that The Army's methods are both humane 
 and reasonable, that they deserve the support of all 
 Christian people, but especially may I say the support 
 of women, more happily placed, who have never known 
 such temptation as assails their often friendless sisters. 
 
 And I would plead here too for some more fully- 
 awakened conscience on the part of those who employ 
 young women in any capacity whatsoever. Their 
 
The Friendless Girl. 101 
 
 responsibility does not end with the mere payment of 
 wages. It is not too much to say that many a girl in a 
 crisis of her life undreamed of by her mistress might have 
 been saved the final downward step had there been any 
 sympathy or interest bestowed in her personal history 
 and life by that mistress. 
 
 I commend this to ladies and employers of labour, 
 who have perhaps never given this matter a serious 
 thought. 
 
IX. 
 THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN. 
 
 >npHE Women's Social work would obviously be in- 
 complete without some provision for the care of 
 the children, who unfortunately are too often the chief 
 sufferers through the wrongdoing or misfortunes of their 
 parents. 
 
 The amount of actual child destitution and misery 
 in London is appalling. The half could never be told. 
 We, who regard childhood as the crown of happiness 
 in the home, find it difficult to realise the attitude of 
 those who bring them into the world, and then leave 
 them, which in too many instances is literally true. It 
 is a happy case sometimes when they do so leave them. 
 The foundling on the doorstep in a state of unconscious 
 innocence enters life less heavily handicapped than the 
 children of the slums. If there is a sight under Heaven 
 calculated to arouse the most holy indignation in the 
 human breast, it is surely to be found in the outraged 
 and neglected child. 
 
 In addition to the natural feelings evoked by the sight 
 
The Cry of the Children. 103 
 
 of its misery, another consideration steps in the serious- 
 ness of the outlook for the future, since every such 
 child left in its poverty and degradation will presently 
 become a still more difficult problem. The chances are 
 all in favour of its joining the ranks of the incapable 
 or the criminal, and becoming, in its turn, a menace to 
 society. It is considerations such as these, as well as 
 the finer feelings common to humanity, which have 
 caused The Army to establish the Children's Aid Society, 
 which is somewhat similar in its aims and methods to 
 the work of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
 to Children ; only they begin, if possible, lower down, 
 aiming to get at this mighty evil root and branch, 
 Therefore they take care of the mites who are born under 
 the roof of their Maternity Home. 
 
 Not Left to Drift. 
 
 In every case, as I have said, it is the aim, when they 
 have failed to obtain any satisfaction from the father of 
 the child, to foster in the mother's heart both mother-love 
 and responsibility, which are not always co-existent. 
 They help her in every possible way, when the child has 
 to be put out to nurse ; they endeavour to find a suitable 
 and reliable home for it, and in cases where it is difficult 
 or impossible for various reasons for the mother to pay 
 the full amount required, they may supplement it. They 
 act with their customary discretion and humanity here. 
 
104 The Outsiders. 
 
 The results are encouraging. Association with the fine 
 spirit of The Army Officers during her period of rest 
 and recovery have in most cases presented to the 
 mother's mind an entirely new view of life. No effort 
 has been spared to awaken such a view. And there 
 are many touching instances of the poor young mother's 
 devotion to her nameless baby, and her self-denying 
 efforts to earn sufficient to keep it in comfort. 
 
 But, naturally, this part of the work is infinitesimal 
 as compared with what is done outside for the relief 
 of child-misery. 
 
 Abandoned Waifs. 
 
 The Slum Officers, stationed in every part, and 
 free, in most cases welcome, to investigate almost 
 every home, find much to appal and discourage. The 
 Warden of the Children's Home, at " The Nest," Clapton 
 Road, has many heartrending tales to tell of the 
 condition in which most of her little brood have been 
 found. In many cases they were simply abandoned, 
 found helpless and homeless in the streets ; in other 
 cases, though provided with shelter, called by courtesy 
 a home, their treatment there was calculated to destroy 
 them, body and soul. 
 
 It is difficult, seeing them now, under that happy 
 home roof, to realise what their previous experience 
 has actually been. Happily, children easily forget, 
 
The Cry of the Children. 105 
 
 and are quick to respond to immediate kindness, else 
 were the work among them more depressing than it is. 
 They look a very bright and bonny band, as seen 
 either in the spacious nurseries of " The Nest," or playing 
 in the old garden, which has been saved for the 
 children out of the gradual demolition of what was 
 once a select suburb of London. Here and there, one 
 comes across a strange little face, which seems to belong 
 to neither woman nor child. If you enquire into the 
 history you need not be surprised if you have your 
 feelings harrowed by the suggestion of some 
 unnameable offence. The tale of suffering childhood 
 in London would not dare to be written, no community 
 would permit its perusal. We know this, and The 
 Army knows it, so they go on quietly, saving where 
 they may, and always ready to stretch out the helping 
 hand. 
 
 The Holiest Ideal Home. 
 
 As far as possible the idea of a home, rather than 
 that of an institution, is carried out at " The Nest." 
 There are very young babies there in their own 
 department, babies in cradles, sucking contentedly at 
 bottles, with round eyes opened wonderingly, but not 
 anxiously, upon this great problem called life, which 
 happily is presently being solved for them. Then 
 there are the toddling mites, just of an age to be rivals 
 
io6 The Outsiders. 
 
 for the possession of certain toys. There are a good 
 many toys in "The Nest" nurseries, but a big family 
 can get through them in a surprisingly short space 
 of time, even with much doctoring and mending. 
 When Christmas comes, may I ask any who may 
 read this, to remember at the annual clearance of the 
 nursery cupboards, that what they are clearing out 
 would be welcomed with shouts of delight at " The 
 Nest." Even if they cannot do something more sub- 
 stantial to lighten the burdens, then this might be done. 
 As the little ones pass from these playing nurseries 
 they are taught in schoolrooms and prepared in various 
 ways for earning their own living in the great world 
 they must re-enter by and by. 
 
 Early Fights with Heredity. 
 
 The little maids are taught housework, given tasks 
 suitable to their strength from a very early age, and 
 are all taught habits of tidiness, purity, and obedience 
 from the first day they enter these gates of mercy. 
 There is endless patience, endless love, and courage 
 needed here. Hidden in many an outwardly fair casket 
 are possibilities of evil against which the Officers have 
 to guard continually. One vicious child can easily 
 contaminate many, and some of these poor little atoms 
 of humanity have known only vice previous to their 
 coming here. 
 
The Cry of the Children. 107 
 
 There is great love and tenderness, mingled with the 
 necessary discipline, for such difficult cases. It is never 
 for a moment forgotten that the child has been more 
 sinned against than sinning ; she has to be gradually 
 weaned away from bad language and foul thoughts and 
 ungracious deeds. It is not an easy task, and can 
 only be undertaken by those who have a special aptitude 
 for it. 
 
 Teaching and Training. 
 
 In one's careful survey of the ramifications of this 
 great Army, one is struck everywhere by the fitness of 
 the Officers for the particular task entrusted to them, 
 undoubtedly one of the chief elements of its success. 
 One reason for this is not far to seek. In the Training 
 Homes, presided over by men and women of experience 
 and foresight, they are carefully sorted out, every 
 aptitude considered, every faculty consecrated and 
 trained ; hence a great body of self-denying and 
 capable workers who make few mistakes. In the 
 work of the children it is obvious that such extreme 
 care is necessary. For in the most impressionable 
 years of life the book is written ; it is difficult 
 afterwards to wipe the words from its pages. A visit 
 to "The Nest" is a lesson in charity and an example 
 of what womanhood, consecrated to the service of God 
 and man, can do, and is doing, for the human race. 
 
io8 The Outsiders. 
 
 "The Nest " is also an open door for the mothers 
 who have been deserted or wronged in some way, and 
 who could not go out to earn unless some shelter could 
 be found for their children. They are, of course, not 
 received into the workhouse without their mothers. 
 There are cases of children received into "The Nest," 
 the thankful mother gladly contributing what she can 
 towards their support. It is veritably a door of hope for 
 poor womanhood, left with hostages to fortune, unaided, 
 to fight the cruel battle of life. 
 
 A Happy Combination. 
 
 I think I have said enough to prove the need for the 
 existence of such Homes. It may be said that there are 
 many institutions for the care of neglected children ; but 
 in almost every case entrance there means complete 
 separation from the parents, who are not often 
 encouraged to make any enquiry regarding them. "The 
 Nest" supplies the opportunity whereby poor women 
 may, at least, refresh their hearts with some of the 
 sweeter privileges of motherhood, while at the same 
 time they are encouraged to work for their children 
 outside. The depth of mother-love in these poor 
 women is often proved when some suggestion has 
 been made for adoption of a child, so that her 
 immediate burden may be removed. She finds it 
 impossible to make up her mind. She realises fully 
 
The Cry of the Children. 109 
 
 what advantage it would be for the child, but her 
 heart is torn with agony at the prospect of a parting 
 which will be final. 
 
 The Salvation Army do not seek to bias her deci- 
 sion. They know that her instincts are God-implanted. 
 Having proved, by long experience, that such instincts 
 are not only natural, but preservative, their whole 
 desire and aim is to foster them. Love for her children 
 will help to preserve a solitary woman immune from 
 temptation. The prospect of seeing her baby now and 
 then will make her good and happy, and keep her busy 
 at work ; in short, will often keep her safe. 
 
 NOTE. 1O will cover Out - of - Pocket 
 Expenses for one year for a Child 
 under The Army's care. 
 
X. 
 A WATCH IN THE NIGHT. 
 
 come in to London from a quiet suburb late in 
 the evening, in fact, at one's usual bed-time, is a 
 curious experience for a person of quiet tastes and 
 studious habits. And yet there is that in the lights and 
 the glare and the throng which at once fascinates and 
 fills with a wondering enquiry. Who are these people ? 
 Are they mysterious units for whom the day has no 
 charm, who find some strange kinship with the night? 
 Outwardly they do not differ at all from the throng 
 of the daytime streets, except, perhaps, that there are 
 greater contrasts to be observed in dress and demeanour. 
 Anyhow they seem very much alive, and there is no 
 visible sign of weariness or desire for sleep about them. 
 
 There is a quiet air of bustle and stir about the 
 place of meeting, or rather our rallying-point to-night, 
 for it is not an ordinary meeting we are to take part 
 in, but something far different. 
 
 It is the evening of the first of January, New Year's 
 Day. There must be much feeling here in London 
 
A Watch in the Night. 
 
 in 
 
 on such a night, especially among those who may 
 remember that New Year's Night was always a home 
 festival, perhaps in some far-away but never-forgotten 
 village home of their childhood. 
 
 ~. If UNIVERSITY 
 
 The Little White Ticket. 
 
 -^fc^^ 
 
 We are going to be merry, too, as is meet on 
 such a day. The signs of our coming celebration are 
 visible within, in the warm, well-lighted Hall, where 
 the tables are spread with good cheer. A little white 
 ticket offered at the door explains in part, at least, the 
 meaning of these tables spread at the midnight hour, 
 for guests whose number is uncertain, and who will 
 come in, as they did of old, from the highways and 
 byways, in haste or reluctantly, according to their 
 realisation of their need. Of the need itself there is 
 no doubt, as you and I shall presently see. Thus 
 
 MRS. BOOTH 
 
 WILL GLADLY HELP ANY GIRL OR 
 WOMAN IN NEED OF A FRIEND. 
 
 259 Mare Street, Hackney, N.B., or 
 79 Great 7 itch field Street, 
 
 Oxford Street, W. 
 
 runs the little white card which is offered, and has 
 been offered for some days to the people for whom 
 these preparations have been made. 
 
ii2 The Outsiders. 
 
 At half-past eleven a procession is formed at the door 
 of the Hall, a procession composed entirely of women, 
 of these brave, sweet-faced sisters who have given 
 themselves to this Christlike work ; at their head their 
 devoted leader, Mrs. Bramwell Booth. I count it both 
 a privilege and an education of a kind to be permitted 
 to take my place by her side for this one night. My 
 work lies in other fields, but it has not closed my 
 woman's heart, nor bereft me of understanding sympathy 
 with this incomparable ministry for the cure of bodies 
 and souls. 
 
 Heavenly Music at Midnight. 
 
 The Band falls into line in front of us, and to the 
 strains of a familiar hymn we start upon what may be 
 termed, in no irreverent words, a real Salvation March. 
 It is no new sight upon Regent Street now, and though 
 it always interests the giddy throng, there is no open 
 hostility shown, as in former days, when the crusade 
 was an experience not to be undertaken without 
 special preparation and prayer for protection. 
 
 The steadfast face of the woman at my side is the 
 keynote to the whole proceedings. Tender sympathy, 
 fixity of purpose, faith that such purpose will be 
 realised, enable one naturally timid to face and lead such 
 an enterprise ; to go down into the very pit, if need be, 
 to bring up her sisters who are struggling there. 
 
A Watch in the Night. 113 
 
 As we move on, slowly and steadily down the middle 
 of the street, guided and piloted, as it were, by friendly 
 policemen, we are joined and augmented by all sorts 
 and conditions. Where should we be without music, 
 that compelling force which softens and draws, and 
 makes so much possible ? One naturally asks the 
 question as the beautiful strains melt upon the midnight 
 air, now softly and pathetically, now swelling to some 
 chorus in which all may join. But it is mostly in a 
 minor key, for this is no triumphal march to-night, 
 but a journey for the touching and saving of souls. 
 
 A London Plague Spot. 
 
 Nearing Piccadilly, the strains become more and 
 more familiar. If you could hear "Home, sweet home" 
 played at midnight on these gaudy thoroughfares, 
 and realise what appeal the strains were intended to 
 make, you would, perhaps, say to yourselves, as I did, 
 " O God, how can such things be?" What strikes one 
 now, as the throng increases, and we are pressed on 
 every side, is the number of young people who are 
 out, apparently alone, without any apparent incentive 
 or desire to go home to their legitimate rest. 
 
 It is midnight now, and it is presumed that these 
 young men and lads have all some occupation in the 
 daytime, for which a certain amount of freshness and 
 vigour is required. Yet here they are, fascinated 
 
ii4 The Outsiders. 
 
 and tempted by the glare and glamour of the street, 
 which at this hour really only illuminate the path to 
 hell. 
 
 Every one of these is some mother's son. That is 
 the thought uppermost in one's mind as the eyes 
 roam from face to face, seeking some explanation of 
 this strange anomaly. As a nation we must surely 
 continue and increase in degeneracy if this is the way 
 in which our youth takes its rest. 
 
 In Touch with the Outcast. 
 
 Of the women, is there any need to speak ? They 
 are here because, apparently, they have no choice. 
 The broad fair road, so fair at the beginning, has 
 beckoned them. See them in their ghastly finery, their 
 painted faces, which do not for a moment mask their 
 miserable souls; hear the swish of their silken skirts, 
 and the echo of their mirthless laughter. From the 
 brilliant pavements, from under the glaring gas lamp, 
 from the sheltered doorway, they watch the march as 
 it moves toward them. They know all about us, of 
 course. In many a hidden silken pocket lies the little 
 white card, kept for the day of emergency. That day 
 is not here yet, perhaps, but it is coming swift and 
 soon. Their gaze is a friendly one. Some laugh, 
 indeed, but it is the laughter of pleasure and not 
 resentment. The theatres are shut now, the midnight 
 
A Watch in the Night. 115 
 
 restaurants are emptying, too. The carriages roll by. 
 Fair heads look out, and are sometimes quickly drawn 
 back. In one case the blind is sharply pulled down 
 by a man's hand ; a father, perhaps, not too anxious 
 to answer the questions put by his little girl, or a 
 jealous lover who would keep his white dove unspotted 
 from the world. 
 
 The throng at Piccadilly Circus has swelled into a 
 great crowd. We stand there a moment, and it is 
 " Home, sweet home ! " we sing. Can you picture it? 
 You may be able ; but, could you but hear these strains 
 to-night, they would follow you to the day of your 
 death. 
 
 Through Black Portals. 
 
 Slowly round the corner, and up Piccadilly, we pass, 
 pausing by and by at the door of one of the most 
 notorious night-restaurants in London, which has been 
 responsible for the ruin of many a fair life. They are 
 closing, too, and we are reinforced from its black 
 portals. As we turn to make the backward journey, 
 there walk beside us many young women, whose dress 
 and looks proclaim what they are. Some of them talk 
 familiarly to the Officers, for with us, to-night, of course, 
 keeping purposely on the very outside of the march, are 
 those whose lives are given to this special work. 
 
 They know every face on Piccadilly. They make 
 
n6 The Outsiders. 
 
 no unfortunate mistakes in selection, and they are able 
 at a glance to detect those who come for the first time, 
 to whom the midnight streets are a new experience. 
 It is thus they are able to save, in many cases at the 
 very beginning, girls who would, without such help, 
 undoubtedly sink for ever into the mire. 
 
 The method of their ministry has, however, endeared 
 them to most of the sad sisterhood. Even those 
 unwilling for various reasons to leave their sinful life, 
 fully trust these devoted women, having proved them to 
 be true friends, and perhaps deep down in their hearts is 
 the conviction that, sooner or later, they will need them. 
 So they walk with us quite openly. At first I, unused 
 to the methods and procedure of this mission, fancy that 
 we have touched the whole heart of the midnight world, 
 and that the guests will presently be too many for the 
 feast. 
 
 A Gate of Life, 
 
 It is not so, however. The music compels them, the 
 friendly air, the pressure on the arm, the kind word 
 of invitation, perhaps also the steadfast look on the 
 beautiful face of the woman who is the heart and soul of 
 this work ; anyhow, they accompany us to the door 
 whence we came an hour ago. It is there the real 
 work of pleading and invitation begins. But there are 
 many headshakes, a bursting sob now and again, a 
 
A Watch in the Night. 117 
 
 hastily-spoken word, as the strange crowd falls away 
 from the open door. To come in may mean so much to 
 them, and the future is uncertain. Perhaps, too, they 
 have visions of jail-like captivity, of being shut off 
 for ever from that which their souls love, for which they 
 have bartered their happiness, their very hope of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Branded Youth. 
 
 When at last we enter the place of welcome, and the 
 door is shut, we see that about a hundred and fifty 
 women have accepted the invitation. As busy hands 
 wait upon the guests, there is a chance for the looker-on 
 to take a keen and careful glance round. It is painful 
 to see so many very young faces, girls of seventeen or 
 eighteen, who cannot have been long upon the bitter 
 road. They have very little to say for themselves, and 
 do not readily answer questions. Some of them are 
 foreigners ; one Danish girl, with a fresh, sweet, child- 
 like face, could not speak a word of English. Side by 
 side with these younger and more hopeful guests are the 
 worn and battered habitues upon whom drink and loose 
 living have set their indelible mark. Some of them 
 quite evidently are in drink now. As a whole, it is a 
 heartrending and terrible sight to any woman in whom 
 the tenderness of womanhood is not dead. That the 
 work is a labour of love to the workers is evident by 
 
n8 The Outsiders. 
 
 their low, quiet, tender tone, the gentleness of their 
 ministrations. There is no shrinking ; they treat all 
 as sisters indeed. 
 
 Mrs. Booth the Mother. 
 
 After supper there is a hymn, and Mrs. Booth rises 
 to speak. It would be impossible here to set down the 
 pathos and the winning power of her appeal. God has 
 given to this woman very special gifts, which use only 
 deepens and sanctifies. She is a mother, speaking to, 
 and yearning over lost and erring children, yet young 
 enough to be able to enter fully into some of the special 
 temptations which have conduced to their fall. She 
 speaks quite plainly and simply about the life they 
 are leading, and offers them a way out. She closes 
 with the promise that if any will stay behind, and go 
 home with her, they will find a home indeed, where they 
 will be safe ; where, if they desire it, their friends will 
 be communicated with, and from whence it may be 
 possible for them to rise to better things. This is 
 the note insisted upon here, as in every other branch 
 of The Army's work the note of hope, of possibility, of 
 forgiveness and help first, and then of restoration to the 
 ranks of womanly independence and honour. 
 
 In the grey morning across sleeping London, some 
 of the Officers drive with what may be called the trophies 
 of their holy campaign. The Home where such as these 
 
A Watch in the Night. 119 
 
 are received is far from these busy haunts of shame, 
 right down at the Women's Settlement at Hackney. 
 
 The welcome there does not lack. At this Receiving" 
 House, great care is taken in interviewing them, so 
 that no mistake may be made, regarding the ultimate 
 treatment of each case. As far as possible, each girl's 
 story is obtained from her own lips. It is at times 
 difficult to win entire confidence, because the nature of 
 the life they have been leading has probably destroyed 
 all trust. The first object of the Officers is to discover 
 something concerning the girl's antecedents. If she has 
 friends to whom it is possible to apply, and if she is 
 willing that such application should be made, letters 
 are written. There are many happy and encouraging 
 instances of restoration to friends, which of course leave 
 The Army with one less tax upon its resources. 
 
 Getting at the Heart, 
 
 In some cases, however, the last thing a girl 
 who has been in this dark maze wishes to do is 
 to communicate with her friends. She prefers to be 
 dead to them, rather than they should know or guess 
 the full extent of her degradation. Sometimes, after 
 a time spent in the Rescue Home, amid all its loving 
 and softening influences, a change comes over her 
 thoughts, and the letter is finally written, which 
 nearly always brings about a happy consummation. 
 
120 The Outsiders. 
 
 At the Receiving House the whole nature of the 
 life in a Rescue Home is explained to the girl, and 
 she is invited to promise to become an inmate there 
 for a certain period three months being the shortest 
 time recommended. 
 
 It is not a reformatory in the ordinary sense, 
 though the work carried on there is, indeed, of a 
 reformative kind. The idea of home is carried out in 
 all the arrangements. To go over one of these Homes 
 is to take a lesson in the whole art of Christian 
 service, of sanctified common sense. 
 
 Comfort without Luxury. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that there is 
 any unnecessary luxury. On the contrary, everything 
 is of the plainest and simplest kind. But there is a 
 brightness as well as cleanliness ; in a word, there 
 is an air of a happy fireside. All the service for the 
 girls being a voluntary labour of love on the part of 
 the Warden (as the Chief Officer of each Home is 
 styled) an atmosphere is created and maintained which 
 will not be found in any other Rescue Home in the 
 world. It is the Salvation atmosphere, if I may so 
 put it, deepened and intensified here to a great tender- 
 ness. At the same time, the necessary firmness and 
 discipline is enforced. The women are not compelled 
 to wear a degrading badge. They are allowed to 
 
A Watch in the Night. 121 
 
 dress neatly in their own clothes, undue adornment 
 alone being discouraged. 
 
 They are given work of a kind suited to their age and 
 capacity. Of occupations there is a wide choice in the 
 Women's Social work. There is the laundry, for those 
 who have been used to hard menial labour; the knitting 
 machines, where so much useful stuff is turned out, 
 and for which a ready market is found. Needlework 
 of different kinds, whatever branch of it the inmate is 
 found best adapted for ; Dressmaking, Underclothing, 
 Text-making, Flags, Banners, etc., Upholstery, Paper- 
 bag Making, Pin-sorting, etc., in fact, the occupations 
 of the Home are so varied that almost every capacity 
 can be accommodated. 
 
 Work, the Handmaiden of Hope. 
 
 A certain amount of work is, of course, expected 
 and exacted from every inmate, the idea kept in the 
 very foreground being to prepare her to take a place in 
 a future life in which she will be able to maintain 
 herself. The work, however, is not so easy as it seems, 
 for it must be remembered that the majority of these 
 women have long been a law unto themselves, and 
 therefore feel acutely the slightest embargo laid upon 
 their freedom. Even reasonable restrictions are often 
 chafed under, as they would not be by persons who 
 had always led a self-respecting life. 
 
122 The Outsiders, 
 
 Then the terrible periods of depression to which 
 they are liable are very often followed by an uncon- 
 trollable desire to return to their old haunts. The 
 Officers and sisters need to exercise a vigilance that 
 will not relax day nor night. They learn to read the 
 signs as others read an open book. 
 
 The Greatest Change. 
 
 As in every other department of the Social Service 
 here, the chief and most desired aim of the Officers is 
 to bring their sisters into a true realisation of sin, its 
 consequences, and its only true remedy. Here, perhaps, 
 more than in any other department, the Officers are 
 dependent on their success in bringing souls to Christ. 
 A change of nature is the supreme condition for which 
 they strive. No human agency can permanently lift 
 these tortured and degraded souls, and make a future 
 possible for them. 
 
 Anyone reading these words, and feeling the desire 
 to make more intimate acquaintance with this sad, but 
 glorious and encouraging work, need only make a visit 
 to the centre of the Women's Social work at Mare 
 Street, Hackney. A card or letter to Mrs. Booth will 
 ensure a welcome, and every facility will be given for 
 inspection and enquiry. 
 
XI. 
 EMIGRATION: A SOLUTION. 
 
 problem of the workless man is ever with us. 
 Although the kinder airs of summer may make it 
 less acute and insistent, no sooner do the days begin to 
 darken towards a coming winter than the spectre leaps 
 up, gaunt, hungry, clamorous, to shadow our waking 
 hours and haunt our dreams. There is admittedly no 
 greater hardship in the wide world than for a man able 
 to work, and willing to work, to find no opportunity of 
 work. It is an injustice against which the very heavens 
 cry out. 
 
 Now, while it is not denied that among the vast 
 ranks of the unemployed there is a section who belong 
 to the waste and unproductive area whose creed is no 
 work, no amount of specious reasoning, of sweeping 
 assertion, can do away with the fact that there is a 
 genuine unemployed problem, which will have to be 
 dealt with more seriously and adequately than it has 
 been heretofore. 
 
 The causes invariably asked for by those who are 
 
124 The Outsiders. 
 
 confronted with, and made uncomfortable by this 
 problem, are variously stated. The favourite and most 
 glibly uttered is, " depression of trade." It has been 
 proved by quite recent statistics, however, that there is 
 no actual depression in trade, but a revival along certain 
 lines. The causes have to be searched for deeper down, 
 and the actual facts faced. 
 
 The main cause may be briefly summed up thus : 
 there is not sufficient work in these islands to employ 
 and maintain the number of persons who require such 
 employment and maintenance. 
 
 The Price of Invention. 
 
 To this state of things, deplorable and menacing 
 as it undoubtedly is, a great variety of other causes 
 conduce. The most important is the continuous march 
 of progress in the inventive and industrial world, which 
 produces each day something new in the way of labour- 
 saving apparatus. In almost every trade and calling 
 this holds good. It is the explanation of the distress 
 which has for some time existed at Leicester, the 
 centre of the bootmaking industry, represented by the 
 remarkable " march to London," still fresh in the 
 public mind. 
 
 The actual output of boots at Leicester is, at the 
 present moment, greater than at any previous period in 
 the history of the trade ; so that the explanation of the 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 125 
 
 distress is simply found in the general adoption of 
 labour-saving machinery, which is cheaper than hand- 
 labour, and therefore naturally welcomed by the manu- 
 facturers, whose object is to make their business as 
 profitable as possible. 
 
 The giant strides made by electricity may also be 
 cited. Every householder knows how the use of electric 
 light for lighting, heating, cooking, and other purposes 
 has simplified his expenditure on house decoration, and 
 lessened the number of individuals required to work his 
 establishment, be it large or small. As time goes on 
 improvements are bound to increase, and depression in 
 the employment world will be correspondingly increased. 
 
 An Inalienable Right. 
 
 These are incontrovertible facts, open to any observ- 
 ing mind to corroborate. Meanwhile, what concerns us, 
 is what is to become of the men and women who have 
 hitherto made a living wage at these industries ? 
 Obviously they can neither starve, nor become a 
 perpetual and degrading burden upon charity. Every 
 man has the right to live. It is just here where a 
 scheme of emigration, or land colonisation, steps in, 
 with its suggestion of hope and possibility. 
 
 Our Empire is unequally distributed. In her far 
 lands, upon which the sun never sets, there is room and 
 to spare, work and to spare, for all who are honestly 
 
126 The Outsiders. 
 
 willing to work. The difficulty is to bring the two the 
 workless and the work together. That this should be 
 an insurmountable difficulty appears to me a far greater 
 mystery than the problem of the unemployed. The land 
 is there, the work is there, and the people who will 
 welcome the workers gladly ; but the wherewithal to 
 bring the demand and the supply together is absent. 
 
 Our Three-Class Emigrants. 
 
 The people whom Emigration would largely benefit 
 may be roughly divided into three classes : 
 
 1. The small capitalist who would be able to bear 
 the expense of his own and his family's trans- 
 ference to the new country, but who would 
 require some guidance when he arrived, and who 
 would therefore prefer to travel under the auspices 
 of a properly accredited society. 
 
 2. The man who may be able to obtain part of the 
 
 cost from some municipality or some private 
 friends, but who needs some financial help. 
 
 3. The man who has nothing but a pair of willing 
 hands, and the cost of whose transference must 
 be wholly borne by some person or persons 
 interested. 
 
 The plan of Emigration, as it has been pursued 
 in past years by The Salvation Army, has answered 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 127 
 
 admirably. The results of the system have been most 
 encouraging. 
 
 The Question of Character. 
 
 In every case, the emigrants selected have been men 
 of good character, likely to do well, and to be an acquisi- 
 tion to the country giving them refuge. There is an 
 idea abroad in the mind of a section of the public that the 
 submerged are being shipped oversea, sent out of the 
 country for their country's good. There could not be a 
 more disastrous policy, if it were pursued even on the 
 most meagre lines. The results would recoil upon the 
 promoters with relentless surety. There would be an 
 immediate and justifiable outcry on the part of the land 
 suffering from such an invasion. 
 
 As it is, there has never come a single complaint 
 from any government or community to which Salvation 
 emigrants have been sent, but the reverse. On all sides 
 testimony is borne to their desirability as citizens and 
 colonists, the result of careful and searching enquiry and 
 investigation before they were sent out. This objection 
 being disposed of at once, and for ever let us hope, our 
 attention may be turned for a moment to the other diffi- 
 culties in the way of the intending emigrant, and those 
 who are seeking to promote his exodus from the Mother 
 Country. 
 
 To begin with, the large majority of those wishful 
 
128 The Outsiders. 
 
 to emigrate are married persons with families. Now the 
 difference between our congested country and the lands 
 oversea is this : here children are a handicap ; the 
 married employe who possesses them holds his post 
 very precariously. How familiar are we with the acjver- 
 tisement "no encumbrance!" We hear of the decay 
 of home life, and race suicide, but is there not a 
 premium set upon sterility ? In the case of those 
 employed on large estates, the childless state is almost 
 a condition of their employment. In the New Country 
 children are a man's most valuable asset. Blessed is he 
 that hath his quiver full of them ! 
 
 Housing and the Birth Rate. 
 
 But, unfortunately, it complicates the matter of his 
 transference so considerably that often for that reason, 
 likely and desirable emigrants have to be refused. Part 
 of the large exodus from the country to the towns can 
 be explained by the lack of housing accommodation for 
 them in villages and small towns. There are many 
 villages in England where the marriage rate is low, 
 simply because no houses can be found for the young 
 people to live in. In many cases landlords will not 
 build because they wish to preserve the amenity and 
 privacy of their surroundings ; in other cases it is the 
 lack of money. The recent exhibition of cheap cottages 
 at the Garden City in Herts aroused an extraordinary 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 129 
 
 amount of interest on the part of the landlords, many 
 of whom would willingly build, if it were not so expensive 
 a job. They require a return upon their outlay, which 
 ordinary cottage-building will certainly never give. 
 
 The Stream to the City. 
 
 Thus we see the married man with the large family 
 crowded out of the country, and cast like drift upon the 
 sea of city life. If he has been an agricultural labourer 
 (and there are thousands of such among- the lower strata 
 of London life), what chance has he, pitted against the 
 sharper wits of those who have been born and bred in 
 the thick of the fight ? He must sink. There is no 
 known law to prevent him. It is such as he we would 
 get a hold of before it is too late. In the case of the 
 agricultural labourer, or the man who has even a cursory 
 or superficial knowledge of country matters, the new life 
 oversea presents no problem. He is quickly absorbed, 
 and becomes native to the soil. 
 
 But even for the absolutely unskilled, the man who 
 is only an inferior spade worker, there is hope, provided 
 he is not afraid of work. The scarcity of labour in the 
 agricultural districts of new countries is simply appalling. 
 This is specially true of Canada and the North-West 
 Territories. I have myself seen in the small hours of 
 the morning on the platform of a wayside station in 
 Manitoba, crowds of waiting farmers eagerly watching 
 
130 The Outsiders. 
 
 for the incoming of what is called " the harvest train," 
 bringing harvesters from the east, willing to pay any 
 wage for labour, skilled or unskilled, that would assist 
 them to get their grain from the field to the barn or 
 the wheat elevator. 
 
 One man who had waited patiently for seven hours, 
 and who required eight hands, did not obtain a single 
 one, though the train arrived crowded with harvesters. 
 They simply enquired the price i.e., two and a-half 
 dollars a day, and all found and boarded the train 
 again, having heard that prices were higher further on. 
 
 The Prairie Life. 
 
 It may be contended that such a boom only lasts a 
 very short time ; but any farmer will gladly hire a man 
 at a yearly wage, varying from forty to sixty pounds per 
 annum, with everything found, so that he may be 
 available when the time of stress comes. In the case 
 of the casual harvester, who cannot expect to be 
 employed for a longer period than two months at this 
 particular branch of industry, there are other occupations 
 open working on the railroad, and in the lumber camps. 
 It is not pretended or offered that the berth shall be 
 easy. The work is harder and the hours longer than in 
 the Old Country; but the wages are higher, the conditions 
 of life more healthy, the chance incomparably greater ; 
 in a word, it is possible for a man to be a man there, 
 
Emigration : A Solution. 131 
 
 and not an encumbrance. Every man there willing to 
 work has his market value, which increases year by 
 year, as he becomes more familiar with the requirements 
 of the new country. But even for the lowest spade work 
 there is continuous demand. 
 
 Waiting for the Husbandman. 
 
 It must be understood, however, that this statement 
 applies exclusively to the recently settled parts of the 
 country. The cities have their own problems, as we 
 have, and they do not welcome nor offer any encourage- 
 ment, even to skilled tradesmen. This must be borne 
 in mind by the intending emigrant that it is to the 
 land he must go, that only upon the land is there room. 
 To fully realise what room there is, one must journey, 
 as I did, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The 
 train speeds across these vast tracts of prairie land, 
 thousands, nay, millions of acres of virgin soil waiting 
 for the touch of man's hand, to make it blossom like the 
 rose. It is a wonderful experience, one never to be 
 forgotten. 
 
 I see these incomparable vistas, even as I write, 
 the sun dipping blood-red upon the far horizon, the 
 rolling billows of the untouched wilderness, the bones 
 whitening on the lonely trail, the pelican standing lonely 
 by the desolate lakes. These things have to be seen, and, 
 being seen, enter into the soul. They are realities, 
 
132 The Outsiders. 
 
 and no chimera of the imagination, no fairy tale 
 woven for a set purpose. 
 
 And further, I saw and talked with many who 
 had striven long" and encountered only bitter failure 
 in the Old Country, who here have established home- 
 steads and made a position for themselves, such as 
 they could never have achieved in the British Islands. 
 Innumerable cases came under my own immediate and 
 personal observation, of men who had no knowledge 
 of agriculture until they went out, who had had to buy 
 their experience day by day. There was no pretension 
 that it had been or was an easy life. Pioneering needs 
 strength and courage and almost unremitting toil. 
 But it has its compensations ; for the family man, 
 such compensations as can never be told. 
 
 Emigration Escorts. 
 
 The .Emigration Department of The Salvation 
 Army has been one of its most successful branches. 
 As before stated, every effort is made to select only 
 suitable families, that will be a distinct gain to the 
 new country, and in no way likely to become a burden. 
 This is due to the country willing to receive them, no 
 less than to those who are willing to help the scheme 
 here. They are advised by experts regarding their 
 future life, and met and encouraged and helped by 
 The Army agents on the other side. If they keep 
 
Emigration : A Solution. 133 
 
 in touch with The Army, they need never be without 
 a friend. 
 
 That this comradeship is fully appreciated has 
 again and again been borne witness to by the 
 settlers in their home letters. A sheaf of those inter- 
 esting documents are beside me as I write ; all bear 
 the same tale of gratitude, and the desire to repay 
 the primary cost of sending them out. Complaints 
 only come from those whose natural characteristics 
 have somehow escaped the vigilance of the promoters, 
 and who will never do any good in any country, 
 because they belong by choice to the unemployed. 
 They are the shiftless, the ne'er-do-wells, who desire 
 to eat at others' expense. But it is not the case of 
 such we are presently considering. 
 
 The Fields of Ontario. 
 
 In connection with the Canadian scheme, it may be 
 mentioned that a large number of The Army emigrants 
 have been settled in the Eastern States, notably in 
 Ontario, which has been largely depopulated of its work- 
 ing men and women by the great rush to the North- 
 West. Desirable and well-cultivated farms are to be 
 had there at advantageous prices, where they formerly 
 commanded the highest. As regards climate, that of 
 Canada is undoubtedly severe in winter, especially on 
 the great stretches of the prairies. Experiments have 
 
134 The Outsiders. 
 
 proved beyond all doubt, however, that settlement will 
 in a few years' time somewhat alter and modify climatic 
 conditions. Thus in certain of the more thickly popu- 
 lated portions of Manitoba they can sow three weeks 
 earlier than formerly. 
 
 In the same way the settlement of the hot plains of 
 Australia and Queensland, the planting of trees, the 
 irrigation and cultivation of the soil and the other 
 conditions inseparable from a populated part of the 
 country would do something to modify climatic con- 
 ditions of another kind. The inference is, that the 
 Creator intended the land for the people, to be held 
 not in great trusts and unmeasurable tracts, but in 
 moderate sections so that there may be enough for all. 
 
 The Voice of Discord. 
 
 If this view could be accepted, and we could come 
 nearer to co-operation with Divine purpose, many of 
 our most difficult problems would disappear. At any 
 rate, Emigration undoubtedly presents the most hopeful 
 solution of the one presently pressing most heavily 
 upon us. But the work is hindered at an absolute 
 stand-still, indeed unless funds are forthcoming. 
 
 At the present crisis there has been a cry raised by 
 the Labour Leaders and others that there is no need to 
 emigrate ; that there is land to spare for all in England ; 
 and that if the same outlay were made, the results would 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 135 
 
 be immediate and more satisfactory than emigrating the 
 people. While there can be no question of the desira- 
 bility of an English Land proposal, those who have 
 studied the conditions of agriculture will have their 
 doubts. To begin with, colonial land is to be had for 
 nothing, or at a nominal cost. English land has a high 
 market value for other purposes than agriculture. For 
 instance, some local authorities in London are about to 
 purchase 600 acres of land sixty miles from London, the 
 agricultural value of which for purposes of production is 
 about $ per acre. Because of its location, however, the 
 purchasers will have to pay from 12 to ^"15 per acre. 
 
 The Home Barrier. 
 
 There are very few parts of England, Scotland, or 
 Ireland where any land worth expending labour upon 
 could be obtained at $ per acre, and then the 
 burdens would be so heavy as to further handicap the 
 new settler. He would not be able to make a living 
 wage. The cost of transit also for farming produce has 
 to be taken into consideration. The enormous prohibi- 
 tive charges of railway companies in these islands is 
 well known. Fruit is allowed to rot in the orchards 
 because the market prices cannot afford to cover the cost 
 of transit. The conditions in this country are not 
 favourable to the small holder, though under certain 
 abnormal conditions he may do well. 
 
136 The Outsiders. 
 
 In fact, a land colonisation scheme in England 
 bristles with difficulties, unknown in any of the colonies ; 
 and while it may be successfully initiated on a small 
 scale by private beneficence or public funds, it is not 
 likely, by reason of the disabilities named, to become 
 at all adequate to the need. 
 
 As regards official aid, the present powers vested in 
 Boards of Guardians and Distress Committees, though 
 they have ameliorated, do not solve the problem. State 
 aid, either for home or foreign colonisation, cannot be 
 granted without special Act of Parliament. Everybody 
 knows the cumbrous working of that machine, and the 
 inevitable delays connected with it. The voice of 
 Party heard therein would be louder than the voice 
 of Humanity. 
 
 The Monetary Query. 
 
 Therefore in this immediate crisis we would seem to 
 be forced back upon private benevolence and public- 
 spirited generosity. There is plenty of money in the 
 country ; also, thank God, plenty of generous-minded 
 holders thereof. If they could be convinced of the 
 economic value of an emigration scheme on a large 
 scale, there can be no doubt that the needed funds would 
 be quickly forthcoming. It is a great loan that is asked, 
 for humanitarian purposes, in order to lift an intolerable 
 load from overburdened hearts and lives. Who are the 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 137 
 
 bearers of this burden ? Primarily, those who are 
 suffering, through no fault of their own, privation in a 
 land of plenty, and all those who have not been seared 
 by prosperity, but to whom is still left the seeing eye 
 and the understanding heart. 
 
 A Peep at the Strand. 
 
 If you happen to be abroad in the Strand in the 
 small hours of the morning, and would turn in for a 
 little to Wych Street, you would there see an object 
 lesson which might drive the truth home. Perhaps you 
 do not know Wych Street. It is not difficult to find. 
 Hard by St. Mary's Church, just opposite Aldwych 
 the scene of a recent historic opening round the corner, 
 between twelve and two, you might any morning, come 
 upon a strange sight a long queue of waiting men, 
 patient men, bearing themselves mostly in silence, unlike 
 the crowd that waited a few hours earlier outside the 
 gallery doors of the amusement halls. What wait 
 they for? Just step across, and you will see presently, 
 when the door is opened. It is not a place of amuse- 
 ment, though situate in the heart of the theatre world. 
 It is a Shelter for homeless men. Not a sleeping 
 shelter, for here, if even one, worn out by the pitiless 
 streets, should lay his head down to seek merciful 
 oblivion, he will be instantly awakened by a kind, but 
 relentless touch. To sleep in an unlicensed place in 
 
138 The Outsiders. 
 
 London is to commit one of the unpardonable sins, 
 and we do not want the door closed, as it certainly 
 will be if we disregard the County Council's regulations. 
 The guests may eat here and rest for a little while 
 listening to words of comfort and cheer, but there 
 must be no drooping eyelids. 
 
 This is The Salvation Army Depot for relieving 
 the starvation of the midnight streets. If you are 
 soft of heart or easily haunted, you had better hurry 
 on, it is no place for you. But if you are interested 
 in the problems of humanity, and would ease them, 
 according to such opportunity as is given you, it will 
 be worth your while. 
 
 There may be hundreds of guests, or there may be 
 thousands ; it depends on the weather largely, and on 
 the conditions of the casual labour market. If there 
 is snow on the ground, you might be surprised to see 
 the number lessened instead of increased : they are 
 afraid to miss the chance of a stray sweeping job 
 in the morning. 
 
 Not all Spongers. 
 
 You are bound to be surprised and arrested by the 
 appearance and demeanour of these men. Among 
 them you will find, of course, the usual sub-strata 
 of wasters, chronics, call them what you will those 
 who loaf and sponge and do everything but work, 
 
Emigration: A Solution. 139 
 
 and who do not deserve anything from the world that 
 owes them nothing. But their need is not refused, 
 for it is not The Army's business to discriminate here. 
 They are homeless like the rest, shivering, starving 
 atoms of humanity with no place wherein to lay their 
 heads. But a large proportion are of other calibre 
 and kind, a great army of decent men, brought down 
 by misfortune, never by their own fault. They are 
 the victims of that depression in trade, which has 
 incidentally, perhaps, lowered your own dividends, and 
 suggested a little reduction of expenditure in certain 
 directions. 
 
 Shall They Starve. 
 
 Some of them have still their stock-in-trade, a bag 
 of tools slung across their backs. They can starve, 
 and tighten up the belt, but they cannot part with that 
 which may buy food on the morrow, not for them 
 alone, but for others who are dependent upon them, 
 somewhere crying for bread. There are men of all 
 ranks and classes who have come down. You could get 
 realistic copy here, if you are so inclined ; though, as a 
 rule, they are not garrulous ; theirs is the sullen silence of 
 despair. Many of the faces are new to the Adjutant, that 
 eager-faced, hollow-eyed "Mac"; himself raised from 
 the depths, and known by the lamp of his zeal to every 
 dweller in the depths. But they will not long be new. 
 
140 The Outsiders. 
 
 For when a man gets down here to the plane which 
 makes him thankful for a basin of hot soup and a chunk 
 of bread, at an hour w r hen the honest and happy toiler 
 is sound upon his pillow, where is his chance ? 
 
 Hardly fit subjects for emigration these, you say, 
 mayhap, with a shudder, as you turn heart-sick away. 
 It is not suggested. What is suggested is, that the 
 number of such should not be increased. There is 
 another 'waiting army, ready to sink, to become such 
 as this. Let us take them before it is too late. 
 
 Brother, with the full purse, this is the problem 
 you are asked to solve, a great preventive measure in 
 which you are asked to assist. Go to Wych Street, and 
 look on ; and then close those purse strings, if you can. 
 
 NOTE. <3,OOO are required during the 
 current year to assist suitable people 
 to Emigrate to Situations found for 
 them by The Army. 1O will Transfer 
 a Man or Woman to Work In Canada. 
 <5OO are needed to Maintain the 
 Midnight Meals. 
 
OUR NEEDS. 
 
 The principal items of our expenditure during the year ending 
 30th September, 1906, are as follows, and help is earnestly asked to 
 meet these, the work being entirely dependent upon Voluntary Gifts. 
 
 For Maintenance and Extension of Work amongst the Destitute 
 and Outcast (both Men and Women) in London and Provincial 
 Towns, including Shelters for Homeless Men and Women, 
 Homes for Ex-Criminals, Rescue Homes, etc. ... ... ... 15,500 
 
 For Maintenance and Extension of the Slum Sisterhood, including 
 
 Training Nurses for the Sick Poor 3,000 
 
 For Prison Visitation Staff and Prison-Gate Brigades 2,000 
 
 For Special Relief and Distress Agencies 5,000 
 
 For Development and Maintenance of the various Industrial 
 
 and Agricultural Departments at the Hadleigh Colony ... 6,000 
 
 For Extension of Industries and commencing New Departments 
 
 of Work o ^y ... ... 2,000 
 
 For Assistance and Partial Maintenance of the Unemployed 
 
 and Inefficient 3,500 
 
 For Assisting suitable Men and Women to Emigrate 3,000 
 
 For the General Management and Supervision of all the above 
 
 Operations 2,000 
 
 42,000 
 
 Cheques and Postal Orders should be made payable to WILLIAM BOOTH, 
 crossed " Bank of England, Law Courts Branch," and sent to MRS. BOOTH, 
 101 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.G. Clothes for the Poor should be 
 forwarded to 259 Mare Street, Hackney, N.E. 
 
A FEW FIGURES SHOWING SOME OF THE WORK OF THE 
 DARKEST ENGLAND SCHEME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1904. 
 
 DURING 1905. 
 
 TOTAL TO 
 SEPT. 30, 1905. 
 
 Number of Meals supplied at 
 Cheap Food Depots .. 
 
 42,035,398 
 
 4,974,412 
 
 47,009,810 
 
 Number of Cheap Lodgings for 
 the Homeless 
 
 18,434,841 
 
 1,503,705 
 
 19,938,546 
 
 Number of Meetings held in 
 Shelters 
 
 109,702 
 
 5,664 
 
 115,366 
 
 Number of Applications from 
 Unemployed registered at 
 Labour Bureaux 
 
 173,144 
 
 18,135 
 
 191,279 
 
 Number received into Factories 
 
 43,188 
 
 2,475 
 
 45,663 
 
 Number for whom Employment 
 (temporary or permanent) has 
 been found 
 
 151,704 
 
 22,740 
 
 174,444 
 
 Number of Ex-Criminals received 
 into Homes 
 
 7,204 
 
 325 
 
 7,529 
 
 Number of Ex-Criminals assisted, 
 restored to friends, sent to situa- 
 tions, etc. 
 
 4,333 
 
 569 
 
 4,902 
 
 Number of Applications for Lost 
 Persons 
 
 31,571 
 
 2,456 
 
 34,027 
 
 Number of Lost Persons Found 
 
 11,571 
 
 412 
 
 11,983 
 
 Number of Women and Girls 
 received into Rescue Homes . . 
 
 29,505 
 
 2,157 
 
 31,662 
 
 Number of Women and Girls 
 received into Rescue Homes 
 who were sent to Situations, 
 Restored to Friends, etc. 
 
 24,562 
 
 1,836 
 
 26,398 
 
 Number of Families visited in 
 Slums 
 
 Number of Families prayed with 
 Number of Public Houses visited 
 
 505,343 
 299,246 
 374,300 
 
 122,119 
 65,424 
 62,208 
 
 627,462 
 364,670 
 436,508 
 
 Number of Lodging-houses 
 visited 
 
 5,495 
 
 2,433 
 
 7,928 
 
 Number of Lodging-house Meet- 
 ings held 
 
 2,502 
 
 604 
 
 3,106 
 
 Number of Sick People visited 
 and nursed . . 
 
 30,728 
 
 7,754 
 
 38,482 
 
THE SALVATION ARMY. 
 
 The "Darkest England" Social Scheme, it must always be remembered, 
 is but one branch of a vast world-wide work, out of which it 
 has grown, and by the success of which alone it has been suggested 
 and made possible. 
 
 The Salvation Army exists to deal with that deeper degradation 
 and intense hunger of the poor, which has come upon all 
 nations alike, and which is, we believe, the fountain from 
 which all the external miseries spring. Had the love of Christ 
 prevailed amongst even Christian nations, they would not have 
 allowed so many millions of their neighbours to become 
 homeless and immoral. Therefore The Army aims at forcing 
 upon the attention of all, whether they have forgotten or have 
 not so much as heard of Him, the Saviour crucified for the 
 whole world. 
 
 To this end The Army applies to the propagation of the Gospel 
 the same principles of adaptation to the existing need, of hard 
 work, of business-like enterprise, of military discipline, precision, 
 and devotion, which characterise the work described in this 
 review. By means of open-air meetings and processions, bands 
 of music, flags, uniforms, popular announcements, and every 
 other lawful device, it continually advertises the love of Christ 
 to the lost and hopeless, and the duty of devotion, even to 
 death, for the salvation of others. 
 
 The teachings of The Army are limited to those great elementary 
 truths of the Gospel which are admitted by all Christian peoples; 
 and these it reiterates, in speech and song, in language such 
 as the common people understand, and with a loving urgency 
 to which millions yield. 
 
 Information as to its history, progress, and work can always be 
 obtained from the Secretary, at the International Headquarters, 
 Queen Victoria Street, London. 
 
LEQACIES. 
 
 NOTICE TO FRIENDS who are about to make their WILLS, and desire to 
 help the work of THE DARKEST ENGLAND SOCIAL SCHEME. 
 
 THE good intentions of some friends have been made useless in consequence 
 of their not knowing the proper form in which a Bequest of a Legacy for 
 charitable purposes should be inserted in their Wills. 
 
 All kinds of property, without exception, can now be legally bequeathed for 
 charitable purposes, and the following form of legacy is recommended. Where 
 a legacy does not consist of a certain amount of money, care should be taken 
 to clearly identify the property, or shares or stock (or whatever it may be) 
 intended to be bequeathed. 
 
 "7 GIVE AND BEQUEATH TO WILLIAM BOOTH, or other The General 
 for the time being of THE SALVATION ARMY, and Director of the Darkest 
 
 England Social Scheme, the sum of (or) MY TWO freehold 
 
 houses known as Nos in the county of 
 
 (or) my ordinary stock of the London and North-Western Railway 
 
 Company (or) my shares in Limited (or as the case may be) to 
 
 be used or applied by him, at his discretion, for the general purposes of THE 
 DARKEST ENGLAND SOCIAL SCPIEME. And I direct the said last-mentioned 
 legacy to be paid within twelve months after my decease." 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR EXECUTION OF WILL. 
 
 THE Will must be executed by the Testator in the presence of two witnesses 
 who must sign their names, addresses and occupations at the end of the Will. 
 The best method to adopt, for a Testator to be quite sure that his Will is 
 executed properly, is for him to take the Will and his two witnesses into a room, 
 lock the door, and tell the witnesses that he wishes them to attest his Will. 
 All three must sign in the room, and nobody must go out until they have 
 all signed. 
 
 GENERAL BOOTH will always be pleased to procure for any friends desiring 
 to benefit The Darkest England Scheme Fund, by Will or otherwise, further 
 advice, and will treat any communications made to him on the subject as 
 strictly private and confidential. 
 
 Letters dealing with the matter should be marked Private, and addressed 
 GENERAL BOOTH, 101 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.G. 
 
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