In Darkest England, and the Way Out

n 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 tha

allen, 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 t

.-IMPROVE

hings 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 afford

y 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 a

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

ings 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

MODEL SUBUR

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

n 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 live

estion 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 cottage

ere 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

situation, and on a line of railway. It is not absolutely necessary that it should be nea

ld 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 E

Each pass should have on it the portrait of the owner, and be fastened to some article of the dress, and be available

oods and parcels should

ble to suppose that

red acres of land in

surrounding property

he erection of one th

ute the nucleus of a m

d be possible for the tenant to become the owner-a good garden, pleasant surroundings, and other influences promotive of the health and happiness of the family. It is hardly necessary to remark that in connection with this Village there will be perfect freedom of opinion on all matters. A

-THE POOR

that the eternal want of pence is one of their greatest difficulties. In my most sanguine moments I have never dreamed of smoothing this difficulty out of the lot of man, but it is surely no unattainab

y cases, by the ignoring of this principle. If it is right for a great merchant to have dealings with his banker, if it is indispensable for the due carrying on of the business of the rich men that they should have at their elbow a credit system which will from time to time accommodate them with needful advances and enable them to stand up against the pre

ing yourself rich; to supply the needs of the poor will involve you in trouble so out of proportion to the profit that the game may not be worth the candle. Men go into banking and other businesses for the sake of obtaining what the American humourist said was the chief end of man in these modern times, namely, "ten per cent." To obtain a ten per cent. what will not men do? They will pen

self whether it would not be an object worth taking some trouble to secure, to furnish the great mass of our fellow countrymen, on

t of sharks, who cruelly prey upon the interests of the poor. The establishment of land banks, where the poor man is almost always a peasant, has been one of the features of

ish on clearly defined principles a Poor Man's Bank for the making of small loans on good security, or making advances to those who are in danger of being overwhelmed by sudden financial pressure-in fact, for doing for the "little man" what all the banks do

egarded as anything but an objectionable institution across the Channel-might be an excellent institution in England. Owing, however, to the vested interests of the existing traders it might be impossible f

il at last he has been compelled to pawn his tools. We register him, and an employer comes along who wants a carpenter whom we can recommend. We at once suggest this man, but then arises this difficulty. He has no tools; what are we to do? As things are at present, the man loses the job and continues on our hands. Obviously it is most desirable in the interest of the community that the man should get his tools out of pawn; but who is to take the responsibility of advancing the money to redeem them? This difficulty might be met, I think, by the man entering into a legal undertaking to make over his wages to us, or such proportion of them as would be convenient to his circumstances

s means. He has been a careful saving man, who has never borrowed a penny in his life, and does not know where to turn in his emergency. If he can not raise this money he will be sold up, his family will be scattered, his situation and his prospective pension will be lost, and blank ruin will stare him in the face. Now, were he in receipt of an income of ten t

ands of sharpers, who indeed, let him have the money, but at interest altogether out of proportion to the risk which they run, and use the advantage which their position gives them to extort e

ions and the number of their victims. This can only be done by a legitimate and merciful provision for these poor creatures in their hours of desperate need, so as to pre

o earn an honest penny by the use of, it may be a mangle, or a sewing-machine, a lathe, or some other indispensable instrument, and is without the few pounds necessary to buy it, must take it on the Hire System-that is to say, for the accommodation of being allowed to pay for the machine by instalments- he is

neighbourhood, and the honour of the lad's family is a security upon which a man may safely advance a small sum. All this would equally apply to a destitute widow, an artizan suddenly thrown out of work, an orphan family, or the like. In the large City all this kindly helpfulness disappears, and with it go all those small acts of service which are, as it were, the buffers which save men from being crushed to death against the iron walls of circumstances. We must try to replace them in some way or other if

THE POOR MA

get out of order. Hence, while it is important to remember that man has a stomach, it is also necessary to bear in mind that he has a heart, and a mind that is frequently sorely troubled by difficulties which, if he lived in a friendly world, would often disappear. A man, and still more a woman, stands often quite as much in need of a tr

f I die no one will pity me," is surely one of the bitterest cries that can burst from a breaking heart. One of the secrets of the success of the Salvation Army is, that the friendless of the world find friends in it. There is not one sinner in the world- no matter how degraded and dirty he may be-whom my people will not rejoice to take by

roubles, and are relieved. If there is any serious difficulty a family council is held, and all unite their will and their resources to get matters put straight. This is what we mean to try to get done in the New Organisation of Society for which we are labouring. We cannot know better than God Almighty what w

om they can go when pressed down with a sense of wrongs suffered or done, knowing that their confidence will be preserved inviolate, and that their statements will be received with sympathy. I propose to attempt to meet this want. I shall establish a department, over which I shall place the wisest, the pitifullest, and the most sagacious men a

elcome instead of repelling those who would obey the Apostolic precept: "To confess their sins one to another." Let not that word confession scandalise any. Confession of the most open sort; confession on the public platform before the presence of all the man's former associates in sin has long been one of the most potent weapons by which the Salvation Army has won its victories. That confession we have long imposed on all our converts, and it is the only confession which seems to us to be a condition of Salvation. But this suggestion is of a different kind. It

contemplate it working. I have no pleasure in inventing these departments. They all entail hard work and no end of anxiety. But if we are to represent the love of God to men, we must minister to all the wants and needs of the human

can obtain any legal assistance in the varied oppressions and difficulties from which

unsel him on such matters. In cases of sickness he can apply to the parish doctor or the great hospital, and receive an odd word or two of advice, with a bottle of physic which may or may not be of service.

imposition having to do with person, liberty, or property, or anything else of suf

London there are 6,000, mostly in very destitute circumstances. In the whole of London there cannot be less than 20,00

f of the best advice. But think of the multitudes of poor women, who, when they close their husbands' eyes, lose the only friend who knows anything; about their circumstances. There may be a trifle of money or a struggling busines

stitution could meet the necessities of all such cases. But we can do something, and in matters already referred to,

lves. All resort to law would be avoided either in counsel or practice, unless absolutely necessary. But where manifest injustice and w

in us a friend able to speak for them will often prevent the injustice which cowardly and avaricious persons might otherw

n. There will be at least one disinterested tribunal, however humble, to which business, domestic, or any

en in this direction, and will explain and illustrate the kind of work we c

n great distress. Her story was that of thousands of others. She had been betrayed by

pon this he gave her a few pounds in settlement of all claims upon him. The poor thing was in great poverty and distress. Through our solicitors, we immediately opened communications

ED AND

been in his service some little time he proposed that she should take a trip to London. To this she very gladly consented, all the more so when he offered to take her hims

her child was born, and a second time he threw her up and left her to starve. It was then she applied to our people. We hunted up the man, followed him to the country, threat

ROM I

e would return in two years and make her his wife. He wrote occasionally, and at last broke her heart by sending the news of his marriage to another, adding insult to injury by suggesting that she should come

nd the poor girl was driven to despair. Her case was brought before us, and we at once set to work to assist her. The Consul of the town where the seducer lived in style was communicated with. Appro

IRE S

aid for by weekly or monthly instalments. They struggle through half the amount perhaps, at all manner of sacrifice, when some delay in the payment is made the occasion not only for seizing the goods, which they have come to regard as their own, and on which their very exis

LENDERS, AND BIL

no real necessity-by all manner of specious promises as to easy terms of repayment. And once having got their dupes into their power they drag them down to misery, and ve

sionaries, and others who freely mix among the poor, seeing that they must be frequently appealed to for legal advic

OF UNDEFEN

reason for which often is the mere inability to secure an efficient defence. Although there are several societies in London and the country dealing with the criminal classes,

reful enquiry, might reasonably be supposed to be innocent, but who, through want of means, are u

ged may reasonably be supposed to be innocent, and is not in a position to defend himself, then we should feel free to advise such a case, hopi

s, and an Englishman came forward and legitimately, and for the purpose of honestly assisting him with means to put before the Court his

rsed by most Judges an

ll give practica

t will be made to secur

actual regeneration o

has been described und

ll be paid to f

, or otherwise rendering them help. Hundreds of this class fall into the deepest distress and demoralisation through want of friendly aid in the forlorn circumstances in w

ges in our Prison Management. In short, it will seek to become the true friend and saviour of the Criminal Classes in general, and in doing so we shall desire to act in harmony with the societi

nts, C

ration o

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tion for

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r Loss of Emplo

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cts, B

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f Kill

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Wrongful

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uble can come when they please to communicate in confidence the cause of their anxiet

egal counsel as to the course to be pursued in the various

risoners supposed to be innocent, together with the resistance of illegal extortions, and th

sion will be according to equity, and the costs cut down to the lowest possible figure. Such a Department ca

R INTELLIGENC

and if we are effectually to deal with the forces of social evil, we must have ready at our fingers' ends the accumulated experience and information of the whole world on this subject

ase with the Government, it is not likely that the innumerable private organisations which are pecking here and there at the social question should possess any systematised method for the purpose of comparing notes and storing information. This Intelligence Department, which I propose to found on a small scale at first, will have in it the germ of vast extension which will, if adequately supported become a kind of University, in which the accumulated experiences of the human race will be massed, digested, and rendered available to the humblest

I want to establish a system which will enable me to use, not only the eyes and hands of Salvation Officers, but of sympathetic friends in all parts of the world, for purposes of noticing and reporting at once every social experiment of importance, any words of wisdom on the social question, whether it may be the breeding of rabbits, the organisation of an emigration service, the best method of conducting a Cottage Farm, or th

e ameliorating of the condition of the people, if in nothing else than in using their eyes and ears, and giving me the benefit of their brains as to where knowledge lies, and how it can best be utilised. I propose to make a beginning by putting two capable men and a boy in an office, with instructions to cut out, preserve, and verify all contemporary records in the daily and weekly press that

CO-OPERATIO

lies the voluntary combination of individuals to the attaining an object by mutual help, mutual counsel, and mutual effort. There is a great deal of idle talk in the world just now about capital, as if capital were the enemy of labour. It is quite true that there are capitalists not a few who may be regarded as the enemies, not only of labour, but of the human race; but capital itself, so far from being a natural enemy of labour, is the great object which the labourer has consta

co-operative principles which bid fair, in the opinion of the promoters, to succeed; but after one, two, three, or ten years, the enterprise which was started with such high hopes has dwindled away into either total or partial failure. At present, many co-operative undertakings are nothing more or less than huge Joint Stock Limited Liability concerns, shares of which are held lar

; you must invest in those to whom you entrust the management of your co-operative establishment the same liberty of action that is possessed by the owner of works on the other side of the repudiation of the rotten and effete regime of the Bourbons, the French peasants and workmen imagined that they were inaugurating the millennium when they scrawled Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity across all the churches in every city of France. They carried their principles of freedom and license to the logical ultimate, and attempted to manage their army on Parliamentary principles. It did not work; their undisciplined levies were driven back; disorder reigned in the Republican camp; and the French Revolution woul

ed to clamour for great schemes of State Socialism. The whole thing can be done simply, economically, and speedily if only the workers will practice as much self-denial for the sake of establishing themselves as capitalists, as the Soldiers of the Salvation Army practice every year in Self Denial Week. What is the sense of never making a levy except during a strike? Instead of calling for a shilling, or two shillings, a week in order to maintain men who are starving in idleness because of a dispute w

posed to attempt something in this direction in my new Social Scheme. I shall endeavour to start a Co-oper

han warnings to avoid certain mistakes, beacons to illustrate the need of proceeding on a different tack. Broadly speaking, your experimental communities fail because your Utopias all start upon the system of equality and government by vote of the majority, and, as a necessary and unavoidable consequence, your Utopians get to loggerheads, and Utopia goes to smash, I shall avoid that rock. The Farm Colony, like all the other departments of the Scheme, will be governed, not on the principle of counting noses, but on the exactly opposite principle of admitting no noses into the concern that are not willing to be guided by the direct

that is vital to the interests of the commonwealth. So far from there being an innate objection on the part of mankind to being governed, the instinct to obey is so universal that even when governments have gone blind, and deaf, and paralytic,

-A MATRIMO

in religious associations, in daily employments, and in their amusements on the village green. They have learned their A, B, C and pothooks together, and when the time comes for pairing off they have had excellent opportunities of knowing the qualities and the defects of those whom they select as their partners in life. Everything in such a community lends itself naturally to the indispensable preliminaries of love-making, and courtships, which, however m

of manhood and womanhood with which our streets are strewn, unless it does make some attempt to bridge this hideous chasm which yawns between the two halves of humanity. The older I grow the more absolutely am I opposed to anything that violates the fundamental law of the family. Humanity is composed of two sexes, and woe be to those who attempt to separate them into distinct bodies, making of each half one whole! It has been tried in monasteries and convents with but poor success, yet what our fervent Protestants do not seem to see is that we are reconstructing a similar false system for our young people without the safeguards and the restraints of convent walls or the sanctif

o wish to marry would be a matter of much greater delicacy than the registration of the joiners and stone-masons who wish to obtain work. But the thing is not impossible. I have repeatedly found in my experience that many a man and many a woman would only be too glad to have a friendly hint as to where they might prosecute their attentions or from which they might receive proposals. In connection with such an agency, if it were established-for I am mot engaging to undertake this task- I am only throwing out a possible suggestion as to the development in the direction of meeting a much needed want, there m

tic arts. But if you are in the Backwoods or in the Prairie or in the Bush, no baker's cart comes round every morning with the new-made bread, and I have often thought with sorrow of the kind of stuff which this poor wife must serve up to her hungry husband. As it is with baking, so it is with washing, with milkin

must get back to nature, whose fundamental laws our social arrangements have rudely set on one side with consequences which as usual she does not fail to exact with remorseless severity. There have always been born into the world and continue to be born boys and girls in fairly equal proportions, but with colonising and soldiering our men go away, leaving behind them a continually growing surplus of marriageable but unmarried spinsters, who cannot spin, and who are utterly unable to find themselves husbands. This is a wide field on the discussion of which I must not enter. I merely indicate it as one

WHITECHAPEL

s of the poor who, year in and out, never get beyond the crowded city, with the exception of dragging themselves and their children now and then to the parks on holidays or hot summer evenings. The majority, especially the inhabitants of the East of London, never get away from the sunless alleys and grimy streets in which they exist from year to year. It is true that a few here and there of the adult p

s desirable in their case as in that of their more highly favoured fellow-creatures. But I would make it possible for every man; woman and child, to get, now and then, a day's refreshing change by a visit to that never-failing source of interest. In the carrying out of this pl

ted. I am told that the cost of haulage for an ordinary passenger train, carrying from five hundred to a thousand persons, is 2s. 7d. per mile; a railway company could take six hundred passengers seventy miles there, and bring them seventy miles back, at a cost of #18 1s. 8d. Six hundred passengers at a shilling is #30, so that there would be a clear profit to the company of nearly #12 on the haulage, towards the payment of interest on

nager sufficiently public-spirited to try the experiment. When such a man is found, I purpose to set at once about my Sea-Side Establishment. Thi

hased on which buildings would be erected, calculat

harged at our London Food Depots. There would, of course, be gr

t prices. Beds for single men and single women could be charged at the low rate of sixpence a night, and children in

e allowed within the pre

ng, without the expense of hiring a machine, and other arrangeme

emunerative rates. One of the first provisions for the comfort of the excursionists would be the erection of a large hall, affording ample shelter in case of unfavourable weather, and in this a

ats would be let out at moderate prices, and a steamer to carry people so many miles out to sea, and so

uit laden orchards; could wander for hours on the seashore, have comforting and nourishing refreshment, and be landed back at home sober, cheered and invigorated for the small sum of 3s. A couple o

needy occupants of their parishes; schools, mothers' meetings, and philanthropic societies of all descriptions would come down wholesale; in short, what Brig

g without a subvention, then the necessary subvention should be forthcoming. If it could be made possible for the joyless toilers to come out of the sweater's den, or the stifling factory; if the seamstress could leave her needle, and the mother get away from the weary round of babydom and household drudgery for a day now and then, to the cooling, invigorating, heart-stirring influences of the sea,