In Darkest England and the Way Out Part 27

We might amplify, but our Scheme proposes to take the poor slave right away from the public-houses, the drink, and the companions that allure him to it, and therefore we think the chances of reformation in him are far greater.

Then think of the great boon this Scheme will be to the children, bringing them out of the slums, wretched hovels, and filthy surroundings in which they are being reared for lives of abomination of every description, into the fields, amongst the green trees and cottage homes, where they can grow up with a chance of saving both body and soul.

Think again of the change this Scheme will make for these poor creatures from the depressing, demoralising surroundings, of the unsightly, filthy quarters in which they are huddled together, to the pure air and sights and sounds of the country. There is much talk about the beneficial influence of pictures, music and literature upon the mult.i.tudes. Money, like water, is being poured forth to supply such attractions in Museums, People's Palaces, and the like, for the edification and amelioration of the social condition of the ma.s.ses.

But "G.o.d made the country, man made the town," and if we take the people to the pictures of divine manufacture, that must be the superior plan.

Again, the Scheme is capable of illimitable application. The plaister can be made as large as the wound. The wound is certainly a very extensive one, and it seems at first sight almost ridiculous for any private enterprise to attempt dealing with it. Three millions of people, living in little short of perpetual misery have to be reached and rescued out of this terrible condition. But it can be done, and this Scheme will do it, if it is allowed a fair chance. Not all at once? True! It will take time, but it will begin to tell on the restering ma.s.s straight away. Within a measurable distance we ought to be able to take out of this black sea at least a hundred individuals a week, and there is no reason why this number should not go on increasing.

An appreciable impression on this gulf of misery would be immediately made, not only for those who are rescued from its dark waters, but for those who are left behind, seeing that for every hundred individuals removed, there is just the additional work which they performed for those who remain. It might not be much, but still it would soon count up. Supposing three carpenters are starving on employment which covered one-third of their time, if you take two away, the one left will have full employment. But it will be for the public to fix, by their contributions, the extent of our operations.

The benefits bestowed by this Scheme will be permanent in duration.

It will be seen that this is no temporary expedient, such as, alas!

nearly every effort hitherto made on behalf of these cla.s.ses has been.

Relief Works, Soup Kitchens, Enquiries into Character, Emigration Schemes, of which none will avail themselves, Charity in its hundred forms, Casual Wards, the Union, and a hundred other Nostrums may serve for the hour, but they are only at the best palliations. But this Scheme, I am bold to say, offers a substantial and permanent remedy.

In relieving one section of the community, our plan involves no interference with the well-being of any other.

(See Chapter VII. Section 4, "Objections.")

This Scheme removes the all but insuperable barrier to an industrious and G.o.dly life. It means not only the leading of these lost mult.i.tudes out of the "City of Destruction" into the Canaan of plenty, but the lifting of them up to the same level of advantage with the more favoured of mankind for securing the salvation of their souls.

Look at the circ.u.mstances of hundreds and thousands of the cla.s.ses of whom we are speaking. From the cradle to the grave, might not their influence in the direction of Religious Belief be summarised in one sentence, "Atheism made easy." Let my readers imagine theirs to have been a similar lot. Is it not possible that, under such circ.u.mstances, they might have entertained some serious doubts as to the existence of a benevolent G.o.d who would thus allow His creatures to starve, or that they would have been so preoccupied with their temporal miseries as to have no heart for any concern about the next life?

Take a man, hungry and cold, who does not know where his next meal is coming from; nay, who thinks it problematical whether it will come at all. We know his thoughts will be taken up entirely with the bread he needs for his body. What he wants is a dinner. The interests of his soul must wait.

Take a woman with a starving family, who knows that as soon as Monday comes round the rent must be paid, or else she and her children must go into the street, and her little belongings be impounded.

At the present moment she is without it. Are not her thoughts likely to wander in that direction if she slips into a Church or Mission Hall, or Salvation Army Barracks?

I have had some experience on this subject, and have been making observations with respect to it ever since the day I made my first attempt to reach these starving, hungry, crowds--just over forty-five years ago--and I am quite satisfied that these mult.i.tudes will not be saved in their present circ.u.mstances. All the Clergymen.

Home Missionaries, Tract Distributors, Sick Visitors, and everyone else who care about the Salvation of the poor, may make up their minds as to that. If these people are to believe in Jesus Christ, become the Servants of G.o.d, and escape the miseries of the wrath to come, they must be helped out of their present social miseries. They must be put into a position in which they can work and eat, and have a decent room to live and sleep in, and see something before them besides a long, weary, monotonous, grinding round of toil, and anxious care to keep themselves and those they love barely alive, with nothing at the further end but the Hospital, the Union, or the Madhouse. If Christian Workers and Philanthropists will join hands to effect this change it will be accomplished, and the people will rise up and bless them, and be saved; if they will not, the people will curse them and perish.

SECTION 4.--SOME OBJECTIONS MET.

Objections must be expected. They are a necessity with regard to any Scheme that has not yet been reduced to practice, and simply signify foreseen difficulties in the working of it. We freely admit that there are abundance of difficulties in the way of working out the plan smoothly and successfully that has been laid down. But many of these we imagine will vanish when we come to close quarters, and the remainder will be surmounted by courage and patience. Should, however, this plan prove the success we predict, it must eventually revolutionise the condition of the starving sections of Society, not only in this great metropolis, but throughout the whole range of civilisation. It must therefore be worthy not only of a careful consideration but of persevering trial.

Some of these difficulties at first sight appear rather serious.

Let us look at them.

Objection I.--It is suggested that the cla.s.s of people for whose benefit the Scheme is designed would not avail themselves of it.

When the feast was prepared and the invitation had gone forth, it is said that the starving mult.i.tudes would not come; that though labour was offered them in the City, or prepared for them on the Farm, they would prefer to rot in their present miseries rather than avail themselves of the benefit provided.

In order to gather the opinions of those most concerned, we consulted one evening, by a Census in our London Shelters, two hundred and fifty men out of work, and all suffering severely in consequence.

We furnished a set of questions, and obtained answers from the whole.

Now, it must be borne in mind that these men were under no obligation whatever to make any reply to our enquiries, much less to answer them favourably to our plan, of which they knew next to nothing.

These two hundred and fifty men were mostly in the prime of life, the greater portion of them being skilled workmen; an examination of the return papers showing that out of the entire number two hundred and seven were able to work at their trades had they the opportunity.

The number of trades naturally varied. There were some of all kinds: Engineers, Custom House Officers, Schoolmasters, Watch and Clockmakers, Sailors, and men of the different branches of the Building trade; also a number of men who have been in business on their own account.

The average amount of wages earned by the skilled mechanics when regularly employed was 33s. per week; the money earned by the unskilled averaged 22s. per week.

They could not be accounted lazy, as most of them; when not employed at their own trade or occupation, had proved their willingness to work by getting jobs at anything that turned up. On looking over the list we saw that one who had been a Custom House Officer had recently acted as Carpenter's Labourer; a Type-founder had been glad to work at Chimney Sweeping; the Schoolmaster, able to speak five languages, who in his prosperous days had owned a farm, was glad to do odd jobs as a Bricklayer's Labourer; a Gentleman's Valet, who once earned #5 a week, had come so low down in the world that he was glad to act as Sandwich man for the magnificent sum of fourteenpence a day, and that, only as an occasional affair.

In the list was a dyer and cleaner, married, with a wife and nine children, who had been able to earn 40s. a week, but had done no regular work for three years out of the last ten.

We put the following question to the entire number: -- "If you were put on a farm, and set to work at anything you could do, and supplied with food, lodging, and clothing, with a view to getting you on to your feet, would you be willing to do all you could?"

In response, the whole 250 replied in the affirmative, with one exception, and on enquiry we elicited that, being a sailor, the man was afraid he would not know how to do the work.

On being interrogated as to their willingness to grapple with the hard labour on the land, they said: "Why should we not? Look at us.

Can any plight be more miserable than ours?" Why not, indeed?

A glance at them would certainly make it impossible for any thoughtful person to a.s.sign a rational reason for their refusal--in rags, swarming with vermin, hungry, many of them living on sc.r.a.ps of food, begged or earned in the most haphazard fashion, without sufficient clothing to cover their poor gaunt limbs, most of them without a shirt.

They had to start out the next morning, uncertain which way to turn to earn a crust for dinner, or the fourpence necessary to supply them again with the humble shelter they had enjoyed that night. The idea of their refusing employment which would supply abundantly the necessaries of life, and give the prospect of becoming, in process of time, the owner of a home, with its comforts and companionships, is beyond conception. There is not much question that this cla.s.s will not only accept the Scheme we want to set before them, but gratefully do all in their power to make it a success.

II.--Too many would come. This would be very probable.

There would certainly be too many apply. But we should be under no obligation to take more than was convenient. The larger the number of applications the wider the field for selection, and the greater the necessity for the enlargement of our operations.

III.--They would run away. It is further objected that if they did come, the monotony of the life, the strangeness of the work, together with the absence of the excitements and amus.e.m.e.nts with which they had been entertained in the cities and towns, would render their existence unbearable. Even when left to the streets, there is an amount of life and action in the city which is very attractive. Doubtless some would run away, but I don't think this would be a large proportion.

The change would be so great, and so palpably advantageous, that I think they would find in it ample compensation for the deprivation of any little pleasureable excitement they had left behind them in the city. For instance, there would be--

A Sufficiency of Food.

The friendliness and sympathy of their new a.s.sociates. There would be abundance of companions of similar tastes and circ.u.mstances-- not all pious. It would be quite another matter to going single-handed on to a farm, or into a melancholy family.

Then there would be the prospect of doing well for themselves in the future, together with all the religious life, meetings, music, and freedom of the Salvation Army.

But what says our experience?

If there be one cla.s.s which is the despair of the social reformer, it is that which is variously described, but which we may term the lost women of our streets. From the point of view of the industrial organiser, they suffer from almost every fault that human material can possess. They are, with some exceptions, untrained to labour, demoralised by a life of debauchery, accustomed to the wildest license, emanc.i.p.ated from all discipline but that of starvation, given to drink, and, for the most part, impaired in health. If, therefore, any considerable number of this cla.s.s can be shown to be ready to submit themselves voluntarily to discipline, to endure deprivation of drink, and to apply themselves steadily to industry, then example will go a long way towards proving that even the worst description of humanity, when intelligently, thoroughly handled, is amenable to discipline and willing to work. In our British Rescue Homes we receive considerably over a thousand unfortunates every year; while all over the world, our annual average is two thousand. The work has been in progress for three years--long enough to enable us to test very fully the capacity of the cla.s.s in question to reform.

With us there is no compulsion. If any girl wishes to remain, she remains. If she wishes to go, she goes. No one is detained a day or an hour longer than they choose to stay. Yet our experience shows that, as a rule, they do not run away. Much more restless and thoughtless and given to change, as a cla.s.s, than men, the girls do not, in any considerable numbers, desert. The average of our London Homes, for the last three years, gives only 14 per cent. as leaving on their own account, while for the year 1889 only 5 per cent. And the entire number, who have either left or been dismissed during that year, amounts only to 13 per cent. on the whole.

IV.--They would not work.

Of course, to such as had for years been leading idle lives, anything like work and exhaustive labour would be very trying and wearisome, and a little patience and coaxing might be required to get them into the way of it. Perhaps some would be hopelessly beyond salvation in this respect, and, until the time comes, if it ever does arrive, when the Government will make it a crime for an abled-bodied man to beg when there is an opportunity for him to engage in remunerative work, this cla.s.s will wander abroad preying upon a generous public. It will, however, only need to be known that any man can obtain work if he wants it, for those who have by their liberality maintained men and women in idleness to cease doing so. And when it comes to this pa.s.s, that a man cannot eat without working, of the two evils he will choose the latter, preferring labour, however unpleasant it may be to his tastes, to actual starvation.

It must be borne in mind that the penalty of certain expulsion, which all would be given to understand would be strictly enforced would have a good influence in inducing the idlest to give work a fair trial, and once at it should not despair of conquering the aversion altogether, and eventually being able to transform and pa.s.s these once lazy loafers as real industrious members of Society.

Again, any who have fears on this point may be encouraged by contrasting the varied and ever-changing methods of labour we should pursue, with the monotonous and uninteresting grind of many of the ordinary employments of the poor, and the circ.u.mstances by which they are surrounded.

Here, again, we fall back upon our actual experience in reclamation work. In our Homes for Saving the Lost Women we have no difficulty of getting them to work. The idleness of this section of the social strata has been before referred to; it is not for a moment denied, and there can be no question, as to its being the cause of much of their poverty and distress. But from early morn until the lights are out at night, all is a round of busy, and, to a great extent, very uninteresting labour; while the girls have, as a human inducement, only domestic service to look forward to--of which they are in no way particularly enamoured--and yet here is no mutiny, no objection, no unwillingness to work; in fact they appear well pleased to be kept continually at it. Here is a report that teaches the same lesson.

A small Bookbinding Factory is worked in connection with the Rescue Homes in London. The folders and st.i.tchers are girls saved from the streets, but who, for various reasons, were found unsuitable for domestic service. The Factory has solved the problem of employment for some of the most difficult cases. Two of the girls at present employed there are crippled, while one is supporting herself and two young children.

While learning the work they live in the Rescue Homes, and the few shillings they are able to earn are paid into the Home funds.

As soon as they are able to earn 12s. a week, a lodging is found for them (with Salvationists, if possible), and they are placed entirely upon their own resources. The majority of girls working at this trade in London are living in the family, and 6s., 7s., and 8s. a week make an acceptable addition to the Home income; but our girls who are entirely dependent upon their own earnings must make an average wage of 12s. a week at least. In order that they may do this we are obliged to pay higher wages than other employers. For instance, we give from 2 1/2d. to 3d. a thousand more than the trade for binding small pamphlets; nevertheless, after the Manager, a married man, is paid, and a man for the superintendence of the machines, a profit of about #500 has been made, and the work is improving. They are all paid piecework.

Eighteen women are supporting themselves in this way at present, and conducting themselves most admirably. One of their number acts as forewoman, and conducts the Prayer Meeting at 12.30, the Two-minutes'