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Ambrose Bierce - "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge"

Guy De Maupassant - "Selected Writings "

Jesus Joglar - "Vida de Lazarillo"

various authors - "Original Narratives of Early American History"

In Darkest England and The Way Out

G >> General William Booth >> In Darkest England and The Way Out




We called upon the elder man and laid the matter before him, but failed
to prevail upon him either to pay his son's liabilities or to put us
into communication with him. The answers to an advertisement in the
War Cry, however, had brought the required in formation as to his son's
whereabouts, and the same morning that our Inquiry Officer communicated
with the police, and served a summons for the overdue money, the young
man had also received a letter from his father advising him to leave
the country at once. He had given notice to his employers; and the #16
salary he received, with some help his father had sent him towards the
journey, he was compelled to hand over to the mother of his child.


FOUND IN THE BUSH.

A year or two ago a respectable-looking Dutch girl might have been seem
making her way quickly and stealthily across a stretch of long rank
grass towards the shelter of some woods on the banks of a distant
river. Behind her lay the South African town from which she had come,
betrayed, disgraced, ejected from her home with words of bitter scorn,
having no longer a friend in the wide world who would hold out to her a
hand of help. What could there be better for her than to plunge into
that river yonder, and end this life--no matter what should come
after the plunge? But Greetah feared the "future," and turned aside to
spend the night in darkness, wretched and alone.

Seven years had passed. An English traveller making his way through
Southern Africa halted for the Sabbath at a little village on his
route. A ramble through the woods brought him unexpectedly in front of
a kraal, at the door of which squatted all old Hottentot, with a fair
white-faced Child playing on the ground near by. Glad to accept the
proffered shelter of the hut from the burning sun, the traveller
entered, and was greatly astonished to find within a young white girl,
evidently the mother of the frolicsome child. Full of pity for the
strange pair, and especially for the girl, who wore an air of
refinement little to be expected in this out-of-the-world spot, he sat
down on the earthen floor, and told them of the wonderful Salvation of
God. This was Greetah, and the Englishman would have given a great
deal if he could have rescued her from this miserable lot. But this
was impossible, and with reluctance he bid her farewell.

It was an English home. By a glowing fire one night a man sat alone,
and in his imaginings there came up the vision of the girl he had met
in the Hottentot's Kraal, and wondering whether any way of rescue was
possible. Then he remembered reading, since his return, the following
paragraph in the War Cry: --

"TO THE DISTRESSED. The Salvation Army invite parents, relations,
and friends in any part of the world interested in any woman or girl
who is known, or feared to be, living in immorality, or is in danger
of coming under the control of immoral persons, to write, stating full
particulars, with names, dates, and address of all concerned, and,
if possible, a photograph of the person in who the interest is taken.

"All letters, whether from these persons or from such women or girls
themselves, will be regarded as strictly confidential. They maybe
written in any language, and should be addressed to Mrs. Bramwell
Booth, 101, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C." "It will do no harm to
try, anyhow," exclaimed he, "the thing haunts me as it is," and without
further delay he penned an account of his African adventure, as full as
possible. The next African mail carried instructions to the Officer in
Command of our South African work.

Shortly after, one of our Salvation Riders was exploring the bush, and
after some difficulty the kraal was discovered the girl was rescued and
saved. The Hottentot was converted afterwards, and both are now
Salvation Soldiers.

Apart from the independent agencies employed to prosecute this class of
enquiries, which it is proposed to very largely increase, the Army
possesses in itself peculiar advantages for this kind of investigation.
The mode of operation is as follows: --

There is a Head Centre under the direction of a capable Officer and
assistants, to which particulars of lost husbands, sons, daughters,
and wives, as the case may be, are forwarded. These are advertised,
except when deemed inadvisable, in the English "War Cry," with its
300,000 circulation, and from it copied into the twenty-three other
"War Crys" published in different parts of the world. Specially
prepared information in each case is sent to the local Officers of the
Army when that is thought wise, or Special Enquiry Officers trained to
their work are immediately set to work to follow up any clue which has
been given by enquiring relations or friends.

Every one of its 10,000 Officers, nay, almost every soldier in its
ranks, scattered, as they are, through every quarter of the globe, may
be regarded as an Agent. A small charge for enquiries is made, and,
where persons are able, all the costs of the investigation will he
defrayed by them.


SECTION 8.--REFUGES FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE STREETS.

For the waifs and strays of the streets of London much commiseration is
expressed, and far more pity is deserved than is bestowed. We have no
direct purpose of entering on a crusade on their behalf, apart from our
attempt at changing the hearts and lives and improving the
circumstances of their parents.

Our main hope for these wild, youthful, outcasts lies in this
direction. If we can reach and benefit their guardians, morally and
materially, we shall take the most effectual road to benefit the
children themselves.

Still, a number of them will unavoidably be forced upon us; and we
shall be quite prepared to accept the responsibility of dealing with
them, calculating that our organisation will enable us to do so,
not only with facility and efficiency, but with trifling cost to the
public

To begin with, Children's Creches or Children's Day Homes would be
established in the centres of every poor population, where for a small
charge babies and young children can be taken care of in the day while
the mothers are at work, instead of being left to the dangers of the
thoroughfares or the almost greater peril of being burnt to death in
their own miserable homes.

By this plan we shall not only be able to benefit the poor children,
if in no other direction than that of soap and water and a little
wholesome food, but exercise some humanising influence upon the mothers
themselves.

On the Farm Colony, we should be able to deal with the infants from the
Unions and other quarters. Our Cottage mothers, with two or three
children of their own, would readily take in an extra one on the usual
terms of boarding out children, and nothing would be more simple or
easy for us than to set apart some trustworthy experienced dame to make
a constant inspection as to whether the children placed out were
enjoying the necessary conditions of health and general well-being.
Here would be a Baby Farm carried on with the most favourable
surroundings.


SECTION 9.--INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

I also propose, at the earliest opportunity, to give the subject of the
industrial training of boys a fair trial; and, if successful, follow it
on with a similar one for girls. I am nearly satisfied in my own mind
that the children of the streets taken, say at eight years of age,
and kept till, say twenty-one, would, by judicious management and the
utilisation of their strength and capacity, amply supply all their own
wants, and would, I think, be likely to turn out thoroughly good and
capable members of the community.

Apart from the mere benevolent aspect of the question, the present
system of teaching is, to my mind, unnatural, and shamefully wasteful
of the energies of the children. Fully one-half the time that boys and
girls are compelled to sit in school is spent to little or no purpose
--nay, it is worse than wasted. The minds of the children are only
capable of useful application for so many consecutive minutes,
and hence the rational method must be to apportion the time of the
children; say, half the morning's work to be given to their books,
and the other half to some industrial employment; the garden would be
most natural and healthy in fair weather, while the workshop should be
fallen back upon when unfavourable.

By this method health would be promoted, school would be loved,
the cost of education would be cheapened, and the natural bent of the
child's capacities would be discovered and could be cultivated.
Instead of coming out of school, or going away from apprenticeship,
with the most precious part of life for ever gone so far as learning
is concerned, chained to some pursuit for which there is no
predilection, and which promises nothing higher than mediocrity if not
failure--the work for which the mind was peculiarly adapted and for
which, therefore, it would have a natural capacity, would not only have
been discovered, but the bent of the inclination cultivated, and the
life's work chosen accordingly.


It is not for me to attempt any reform of our School system on this
model. But I do think that I may be allowed to test the theory by its
practical working in an Industrial School in connection with the Farm
Colony. I should begin probably with children selected for their
goodness and capacity, with a view to imparting a superior education,
thus fitting them for the position of Officers in all parts of the
world, with the special object of raising up a body of men thoroughly
trained and educated, among other things, to carry out all the branches
of the Social work that are set forth in this book, and it may be to
instruct other nations in the same.


SECTION 10.--ASYLUMS FOR MORAL LUNATICS.

There will remain, after all has been said and done, one problem that
has yet to be faced. You may minimise the difficulty every way,
and it is your duty to do so, but no amount of hopefulness can make us
blink the fact that when all has been done and every chance has been
offered, when you have forgiven your brother not only seven times but
seventy times seven, when you have fished him up from the mire and put
him on firm ground only to see him relapse and again relapse until you
have no strength left to pull him out once more, there will still
remain a residuum of men and women who have, whether from heredity or
custom, or hopeless demoralisation, become reprobates. After a certain
time, some men of science hold that persistence in habits tends to
convert a man from a being with freedom of action and will into a mere
automaton. There are some cases within our knowledge which seem to
confirm the somewhat dreadful verdict by which a man appears to be a
lost soul on this side of the grave.

There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can
offer will tempt them to work; so eaten up by vice that virtue is
abhorrent to them, and so inveterately dishonest that theft is to them
a master passion. When a human being has reached that stage, there is
only one course that can be rationally pursued. Sorrowfully, but
remorselessly, it must be recognised that he has become lunatic,
morally demented, incapable of self-government, and that upon him,
therefore, must be passed the sentence of permanent seclusion from a
world in which he is not fit to be at large. The ultimate destiny of
these poor wretches should be a penal settlement where they could be
confined during Her Majesty's pleasure as are the criminal lunatics at
Broadmoor. It is a crime against the race to allow those who are so
inveterately depraved the freedom to wander abroad, infect their
fellows, prey upon Society, and to multiply their kind. Whatever else
Society may do, and suffer to be done, this thing it ought not to
allow, any more than it should allow the free perambulation of a mad
dog. But before we come to this I would have every possible means
tried to effect their reclamation. Let Justice punish them, and Mercy
put her arms around them; let them be appealed to by penalty and by
reason, and by every influence, human and Divine, that can possibly be
brought to bear upon them. Then, if all alike failed, their ability to
further curse their fellows and themselves should be stayed.

They will still remain objects worthy of infinite compassion.
They should lead as human a life as is possible to those who have
fallen under so terrible a judgment. They should have their own little
cottages in their own little gardens, under the blue sky, and, if
possible, amid the green fields. I would deny them none of the
advantages, moral, mental, and religious which might minister to their
diseased minds, and tend to restore them to a better state. Not until
the breath leaves their bodies should we cease to labour and wrestle
for their salvation. But when they have reached a certain point access
to their fellow men should be forbidden. Between them and the wide
world there should be reared an impassable barrier, which once passed
should be recrossed no more for ever. Such a course must be wiser than
allowing them to go in and out among their fellows, carrying with them
the contagion of moral leprosy, and multiplying a progeny doomed before
its birth to inherit the vices and diseased cravings of their unhappy
parents. To these proposals three leading objections will probably be
raised

1. It may be said that to shut out men and women from that liberty
which is their universal birthright would be cruel.

To this it might be sufficient to reply that this is already done;
twenty years' immurement is a very common sentence passed upon
wrong-doers, and in some cases the law goes as far as to inflict penal
servitude for life. But we say further that it would be far more
merciful treatment than that which is dealt out to them at present,
and it would be far more likely to secure a pleasant existence.
Knowing their fate they would soon become resigned to it.
Habits of industry, sobriety, and kindness with them would create a
restfulness of spirit which goes far on in the direction of happiness,
and if religion were added it would make that happiness complete.
There might be set continually before them a large measure of freedom
and more frequent intercourse with the world in the shape of
correspondence, newspapers, and even occasional interviews with
relatives, as rewards for well-doing. And in sickness and old age
their latter days might be closed in comfort. In fact, so far as this
class of people were concerned, we can see that they would be far
better circumstanced for happiness in this life and in the life to come
than in their present liberty--if a life spent alternatively in
drunkenness, debauchery, and crime, on the one hand, or the prison on
the other, can be called liberty.

2. It may be said that the carrying out of such a suggestion would be
too expensive.

To this we reply that it would have to be very costly to exceed the
expense in which all such characters involve the nation under the
present regulations of vice and crime. But there is no need for any
great expense, seeing that after the first outlay the inmates of such
an institution, if it were fixed upon the land, would readily earn all
that would be required for their support.

3. But it may be said that this is impossible.

It would certainly be impossible other than as a State regulation.
But it would surely be a very simple matter to enact a law which should
decree that after an individual had suffered a certain number of
convictions for crime, drunkenness, or vagrancy, he should forfeit his
freedom to roam abroad and curse his fellows. When I include vagrancy
in this list, I do it on the supposition that the opportunity and
ability for work are present. Otherwise it seems to me most heartless
to punish a hungry man who begs for food because he can in no other way
obtain it. But with the opportunity and ability for work I would count
the solicitation of charity a crime, and punish it as such. Anyway, if
a man would not work of his own free will I would compel him.


CHAPTER 6. ASSISTANCE IN GENERAL.

There are many who are not lost, who need help. A little assistance
given to-day will perhaps prevent the need of having to save them
to-morrow. There are some, who, after they have been rescued,
will still need a friendly hand. The very service which we have
rendered them at starting makes it obligatory upon us to finish the
good work. Hitherto it may be objected that the Scheme has dealt
almost exclusively with those who are more or less disreputable and
desperate. This was inevitable. We obey our Divine Master and seek to
save those who are lost. But because, as I said at the beginning,
urgency is claimed rightly for those who have no helper, we do not,
therefore, forget the needs and the aspirations of the decent working
people who are poor indeed, but who keep their feet, who have not
fallen, and who help themselves and help each other. They constitute
the bulk of the nation. There is an uppercrust and a submerged tenth.
But the hardworking poor people, who earn a pound a week or less,
constitute in every land the majority of the population. We cannot
forget them, for we are at home with them. We belong to them and many
thousands of them belong to us. We are always studying how to help
them, and we think this can be done in many ways, some of which I
proceed to describe.


SECTION 1.--IMPROVED LODGINGS.

The necessity for a superior class of lodgings for the poor men rescued
at our Shelters has been forcing itself already upon our notice,
and demanding attention. One of the first things that happens when a
man, lifted out of the gutter, has obtained a situation, and is earning
a decent livelihood, is for him to want some better accommodation than
that afforded at the Shelters. We have some hundreds on our hands now
who can afford to pay for greater comfort and seclusion.
These are continually saying to us something like the following: --

The Shelters are all very well when a man is down in his luck.
They have been a good thing for us; in fact, had it not been for them,
we would still have been without a friend, sleeping on the Embankment,
getting our living dishonestly, or not getting a living at all.
We have now got work, and want a bed to sleep on, and a room to
ourselves, and a box, or something where we can stow away our bits of
things. Cannot you do something for us?" We have replied that there
were Lodging-houses elsewhere, which, now that they were in work,
they could afford to pay for, where they would obtain the comfort they
desired. To this they answer, "That is all very well. We know there
are these places, and that we could go to them. But then," they said,
"you see, here in the Shelters are our mates, who think as we do.
And there is the prayer, and the meeting, and kind influence every
night, that helps to keep us straight. We would like a better place,
but if you cannot find us one we would rather stop in the Shelter and
sleep on the floor, as we have been doing, than go to something more
complete, get into bad company, and so fall back again to where we were
before."

But this, although natural, is not desirable; for, if the process went
on, in course of time the whole of the Shelter Depots would be taken up
by persons who had risen above the class for whom they were originally
destined. I propose, therefore, to draft those who get on, but wish to
continue in connection with the Army, into a superior lodging-house, a
sort of POOR MAN'S METROPOLE, managed on the same principles, but with
better accommodation in every way, which, I anticipate, would be
self-supporting from the first. In these homes there would be separate
dormitories, good sitting-rooms, cooking conveniences, baths, a hall
for meetings, and many other comforts, of which all would have the
benefit at as low a figure above cost price as will not only pay
interest on the original outlay, but secure us against any shrinkage of
capital.

Something superior in this direction will also be required for the
women. Having begun, we must go on. Hitherto I have proposed to deal
only with single men and single women, but one of the consequences of
getting hold of these men very soon makes itself felt. Your ragged,
hungry, destitute Out-of-Work in almost every case is married.
When he comes to us he comes as single and is dealt with as such,
but after you rouse in him aspirations for better things he remembers
the wife whom he has probably enough deserted, or left from sheer
inability to provide her anything to eat. As soon as such a man finds
himself under good influence and fairly employed his first thought is
to go and look after the "Missis." There is very little reality about
any change of heart in a married man who does not thus turn in sympathy
and longing towards his wife, and the more successful we are in dealing
with these people the more inevitable it is that we shall be confronted
with married couple's who in turn demand that we should provide for
them lodgings. This we propose to do also on a commercial footing.
I see greater developments in this direction, one of which will be
described in the chapter relating to Suburban Cottages.
The Model-lodging House for Married People is, however, one of
those things that must be provided as an adjunct of the Food and
Shelter Depots.


SECTION 2.--MODEL SUBURBAN VILLAGES.

As I have repeatedly stated already, but will state once more, for it
is important enough to bear endless repetition, one of the first steps
which must inevitably be taken in the reformation of this class, is to
make for them decent, healthy, pleasant homes, or help them to make
them for themselves, which, if possible, is far better. I do not regard
the institution of any first, second, or third-class lodging-houses as
affording anything but palliatives of the existing distress.
To substitute life in a boarding-house for life in the streets is,
no doubt, an immense advance, but it is by no means the ultimatum.
Life in a boarding-house is better than the worst, but it is far from
being the best form of human existence. Hence, the object I constantly
keep in view is how to pilot those persons who have been set on their
feet again by means of the Food and Shelter Depots, and who have
obtained employment in the City, into the possession of homes of their
own.

Neither can I regard the one, or at most two, rooms in which the large
majority of the inhabitants of our great cities are compelled to spend
their days, as a solution of the question. The overcrowding which fills
every separate room of a tenement with a human litter, and compels
family life from the cradle to the grave to be lived within the four
walls of a single apartment, must go on reproducing in endless
succession all the terrible evils which such a state of things must
inevitably create.

Neither can I be satisfied with the vast, unsightly piles of
barrack-like buildings, which are only a slight advance upon the
Union Bastille--dubbed Model Industrial Dwellings--so much in
fashion at present, as being a satisfactory settlement of the burning
question of the housing of the poor. As a contribution to this
question, I propose the establishment of a series of Industrial
Settlements or Suburban Villages, lying out in the country, within a
reasonable distance of all our great cities, composed of cottages of
suitable size and construction, and with all needful comfort and
accommodation for the families of working-men, the rent of which,
together with the railway fare, and other economic conveniences,
should be within the reach of a family of moderate income.

This proposal lies slightly apart from the scope of this book,
otherwise I should be disposed to elaborate the project at greater
length. I may say, however, that what I here propose has been carefully
thought out, and is of a perfectly practical character.
In the planning of it I have received some valuable assistance from a
friend who has had considerable experience in the building trade,
and he stakes his professional reputation on its feasibility.
The following, however, may be taken as a rough outline: --

The Village should not be more than twelve miles from town; should be
in a dry and healthy situation, and on a line of railway. It is not
absolutely necessary that it should be near a station, seeing that the
company would, for their own interests, immediately erect one.

The Cottages should be built of the best material and workmanship.
This would be effected most satisfactorily by securing a contract for
the labour only, the projectors of the Scheme purchasing the materials
and supplying them direct from the manufacturers to the builders.
The cottages would consist of three or four rooms, with a scullery,
and out-building in the garden. The cottages should be built in
terraces, each having a good garden attached. Arrangements should be
made for the erection of from one thousand to two thousand houses at
the onset. In the Village a Co-operative Goods Store should be
established, supplying everything that was really necessary for the
villagers at the most economic prices. The sale of intoxicating drink
should be strictly forbidden on the Estate, and, if possible,
the landowner from whom the land is obtained should be tied off from
allowing any licences to be held on any other portion of the adjoining
land. It is thought that the Railway Company, in consideration of the
inconvenience and suffering they have inflicted on the poor,
and in their own interests, might be induced to make the following
advantageous arrangements: --

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