 Section XXVIII. A preventive home for unfallen girls when in danger. There is a story told, likely enough to be true, but a young girl who applied one evening for admission to some home established for the purpose of rescuing fallen women. The matron naturally inquired whether she had forfeited her virtue. The girl replied in the negative. She had been kept from that infamy, but she was poor and friendless, and wanted somewhere to lay her head until she could secure work and obtain a home. The matron must have pitied her, but she could not help her, as she did not belong to the class for whose benefit the institution was intended. The girl pleaded, but the matron could not alter the rule, and dare not break it. They were so pressed to find room for their own poor unfortunates, and she could not receive her. The poor girl left the door reluctantly, but returned in a very short time, and said, I am fallen now, will you take me in? I am somewhat slow to credit this incident. Anyway, it is true in spirit, and illustrates the fact that while there are homes to which any poor, ruined, degraded harlot can run for shelter, there is only here and there a corner to which a poor, friendless, moneyless, homeless, but unfallen girl can fly for shelter from the storm, which bids fair to sweep her away, whether she will or no, into the deadly vortex of ruin which gapes beneath her. In London and all our large towns there must be a considerable number of poor girls who, from various causes, are suddenly plunged into this forlorn condition, a quarrel with the mistress in sudden discharge, a long bout of disease and dismissal penniless from the hospital, a robbery of a purse, having to wait for a situation until the last penny is spent, and many other causes will leave a girl an almost hopeless prey to the linkside villains who are ever watching to take advantage of innocence when in danger. Then again what a number there must be in a great city like London who are ever faced with the alternative of being turned out of doors if they refuse to submit themselves to the infamous overtures of those around them. I understand that the society for protection of children prosecuted last year a fabulous number of fathers for unnatural sins with their children. If so many were brought to justice, how many were there of whom the world never heard in any shape or form? We have only to imagine how many a poor girl is faced with the terrible alternative of being driven literally into the streets by employers or relatives or others in whose power she is unfortunately placed. Now we want a real home for such, a house to which any girl can fly at any hour of the day or night, and be taken in, cared for, shielded from the enemy, and helped into circumstances of safety. The refuge we propose will be very much on the same principle as the homes for the destitute already described. We should accept any girls, say from fourteen years of age, who were without visible means of support, but who were willing to work and to conform to discipline. There would be various forms of labor provided, such as laundry work, sewing, knitting by machines, etc. Every beneficial influence within our power would be brought to bear on the rectification and formation of character. Continued efforts would be made to secure situations according to the adaptation of the girls, to restore wanderers to their home, and otherwise provide for all. From this, as with the other homes, there will be a way made to the farm and to the colony over the sea. The institutions would be multiplied as we had means and found them to be necessary, and made self-supporting as far as possible. Inquiry office for lost people. Perhaps nothing more vividly suggests the varied forms of broken-hearted misery in the great city than the statement that eighteen thousand people are lost in it every year, of whom nine thousand are never heard of any more. Anyway, in this world. What is true about London is, we suppose, true in about the same proportion of the rest of the country. Husbands, sons, daughters, and mothers are continually disappearing and leaving no trace behind. In such cases, where the relations are of some importance in the world, they may interest the police authorities sufficiently to make some enquiries in this country, which, however, are not often successful, or where they can afford to spend large sums of money, they can fall back upon the private detective, who will continue these enquiries, not only at home, but abroad. But where the relations of the missing individual are in humble circumstances, they are absolutely powerless, in nine cases out of ten, to effectually prosecute any search at all that is likely to be successful. Take for instance a cottager in a village whose daughter leaves for service in a big town or city. Shortly afterwards, a letter arrives informing her parents of the satisfactory character of her place. The mistress is kind, the work is easy, and she likes her fellow servants. She is going to chapel or church, and the family are pleased. Letters continue to arrive of the same purport, but at length they suddenly cease. Full of concern, the mother writes to know the reason, but no answer comes back, and after a time the letters are returned with gone no address written on the envelope. The mother writes to the mistress, or the father journeys to the city, but no further information can be obtained beyond the fact that the girl has conducted herself somewhat mysteriously of late, had ceased to be as careful at her work, had been noticed to be keeping company with some young man, had given notice and disappeared altogether. Now what can these poor people do? They apply to the police, but they can do nothing. Perhaps they ask the clergyman of the parish, who is equally helpless, and there is nothing for them but for the father to hang his head, and the mother to cry herself to sleep, to long and wait, and pray for information that perhaps never comes, and to fear the worst. Now our inquiry department supplies a remedy for this state of things. In such a case, application would simply have to be made to the nearest Salvation Army officer, probably in her own village, anyway, in the nearest town, who would instruct the parents to write to the chief office in London, sending portraits in all particulars. Enquiries would at once be set on foot, which would very possibly end in the restoration of the girl. The achievements of this department, which has only been in operation for a short time, and that on a limited scale as a branch of rescue work, have been marvelous. No more romantic stories can be found in the pages of our most imaginative writers than those it records. We give three or four illustrative cases of recent date. A Lost Husband. Enquiry. Mrs. S. of Newtown Leeds wrote to say that Robert R. left England in July, 1889, for Canada to improve his position. He left a wife and four little children behind, and on leaving said that if he were successful out there he should send for them, but if not he should return. As he was unsuccessful he left Montreal in the Dominion liner, Oregon, on October 30th, but except receiving a card from him ere he started, the wife and friends had heard no more of him from that day till the date they wrote us. They had written to the Dominion company who replied that he landed at Liverpool all right, so thinking he had disappeared upon his arrival they put the matter in the hands of the Liverpool police, who, after having the case in hand for several weeks, made the usual report, cannot be traced. Result. We at once commenced looking for some passenger who had come over by the same steamer, and after the lapse of a little time we succeeded in getting hold of one. In our first interview with him we learned that Robert R. did not land in Liverpool, but when suffering from depression, threw himself overboard three days after leaving America and was drowned. We further elicited that upon his death the sailors rifled his clothes and boxes and partitioned them. We wrote the company reporting this, and they promised to make enquiries in amends. But, as too often happens, upon making report of the same to the family, they took the matter into their own hands, dealt with the company direct, and, in all probability, thereby lost a good sum in compensation which we should probably have obtained for them. A Lost Wife. Inquiry. F. J. L. asked us to seek for his wife, who left him on November 4th, 1888. He feared she had gone to live an immoral life, gave us two addresses at which she might possibly be heard of, and a description. They had three children. Result. Inquiries at the addresses given elicited no information, but from observation in the neighborhood the woman's whereabouts was discovered. After some difficulty our officer obtained an interview with the woman, who was greatly astonished at our having discovered her. She was dealt with faithfully and firmly the plain truth of God set before her, and was covered with shame and remorse, and promised to return. We communicated with Mr. L. A few days after, he wrote that he had been telegraphed for, had forgiven his wife, and that they were reunited. Soon afterwards she wrote expressing her deep gratitude to Mrs. Bramwell Booth for the trouble taken in her case. A Lost Child. Inquiry. Alice P. was stolen away from home by Gypsies ten years ago, and now longs to find her parents to be restored to them. She believes her home to be in Yorkshire. The police had this case in hand for some time, but failed entirely. Result. With these particulars we advertised in the war cry. Captain Green, seeing the advertisement, wrote April 3rd from 3-C-S-M-H, that her lieutenant knew a family of the name advertised for, living at Gummersaw Leeds. We, on the 4th, wrote to this address for confirmation. April 6th we heard from Mr. P. that this lass is his child, and he writes full of gratitude and joy, saying he will send money for her to go home. We, meanwhile, get from the police, who had long sought this girl a full description and photo, which we sent to Captain Cutmore. And on April 9th she wrote us to the effect that the girl exactly answered the description. We got from the parents fifteen chillings for the fair, and Alice was once more restored to her parents. Praise God. A Lost Daughter. Enquiry. E.W. Age 17. Application from this girl's mother and brother, who had lost all trace of her since July, 1885, when she left for Canada. Letters had been once or twice received, dated from Montreal, but they stopped. A photo, full description and handwriting were supplied. Result. We discovered that some kind church people here had helped E.W. to emigrate, but they had no information as to her movements after landing. Full particulars with photo were sent to our officers in Canada. The girl was not found in Montreal. The information was then sent to officers in other towns in that part of the colony. The inquiry was continued through some months, and finally, through our major of division, the girl was reported to us as having been recognized in one of our barracks and identified. When suddenly called by her own name, she nearly fainted with agitation. She was in a condition of terrible poverty and shame, but at once consented on hearing of her mother's inquiries, to go into one of our Canadian rescue homes. She is now doing well. Her mother's joy may be imagined. A lost servant, inquiry. Mrs. M. Clevedon, one of Harriet P.'s old mistresses, wrote us in deep concern about this girl. She said she was a good servant, but was ruined by a young man who courted her, and had since had three children. Occasionally she would have a few bright and happy weeks, but would again lapse into the vile pad. Mrs. M. tells us that Harriet had good parents, who were dead, but she still has a respectable brother in Hampshire. The last she heard of her was that some weeks ago she was staying at a girl's shelter at Bristol, but had since left, and nothing more had been heard of her. The inquirer requested us to find her, and in much faith added, I believe you are the only people who, if successful in tracing her, can rescue and do her a permanent good. Result. We at once set inquiries on foot, and in the space of a few days found that she had started from Bristol on the road for Bath. Following her up we found that at a little place called Bridlington, on the way to Bath, she had met a man of whom she inquired her way. He hearing a bit of her story after taking her to a public house, prevailed upon her to go home and live with him, as he had lost his wife. It was at this stage that we came upon the scene, and having dealt with them both upon the matter, got her to consent to come away if the man would not marry her, giving him two days to make up his mind. The two days respite having expired, and he being unwilling to undertake matrimony, we brought her away, and sent her to one of our homes, where she is enjoying peace and penitence. When we informed the mistress and brother of the success, they were greatly rejoiced and overwhelmed us with thanks. A Lost Husband. In a seaside home last Christmas, there was a sour-owing wife, who mourned over the basest desertion of her husband. Wandering from place to place drinking, he had left her to struggle alone with four little ones depended upon her exertions. Knowing her distress, the captain of the corps wrote begging us to advertise for the man in the cry. We did this, but for some time heard nothing of the result. Several weeks later, a salvationist entered a beer-house, where a group of men were drinking, and began to distribute war cries amongst them, speaking here and there upon the eternity which faced everyone. At the counter stood a man with a pint pot in his hand, who took one of the papers past to him, and glancing carelessly down its columns, caught sight of his own name, and was so startled that the pot fell from his grasp to the floor. Come home, the paragraph ran, and all will be forgiven. His sin faced him, the thought of a broken-hearted wife and starving children conquered him completely. And there and then he left the public house and started to walk home, a distance of many miles, arriving there about midnight the same night, after an absence of eleven months. The letter from his wife, telling the good news of his return, spoke also of his determination, by God's help, to be a different man, and they are both attendants at the Salvation Army barracks. A seducer compelled to pay. Amongst the letters that came to the inquiry office one morning was one from a girl who asked us to help her trace the father of her child, who had, for some time, ceased to pay anything towards his support. The case had been brought into the police court and judgment given in her favor, but the guilty one had hidden, and his father refused to reveal his whereabouts. 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 in communication with him. The answers to an advertisement in the war cry, however, had brought the required information 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 sixteen pound 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 seen 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 Greta feared the future, and turned aside to spend the night in darkness, wretched and alone. Seven years had passed, and English traveler 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 crawl, at the door of which squatted an old hotentot, with a fair white-faced child playing on the ground nearby. Glad to accept the preferred shelter of the hut from the burning sun, the traveler 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 Greta, 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 hotentot's crawl, and wondering whether any way of rescue was possible. Then he remembered reading since his return the following paragraph in the Warcry. To the distressed, the Salvation Army invites 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 may be written in any language and should be addressed to Mrs. Bremwell 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 Writers was exploring the bush, and after some difficulty the crawl was discovered. The girl was rescued and saved. The hotentot was converted afterwards and both are now Salvation Soldiers. Apart from the independent agencies employed to prosecute this class of inquiries, 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 center under the direction of a capable officer and assistance 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 Warcry, with its 300,000 circulation, and from it copied into the 23 other Warcries published in different parts of the world. Specially prepared information in each case is sent to the local officers in the Army when that is thought wise, or special inquiry officers trained to their work are immediately set to work to follow up any clue which has been given by inquiring 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 inquiries is made, and where persons are able, all the costs of the investigation will be defrayed by them. End of Section 28. Recording by Tom Hirsch. Section 29 Refuges for the Children of the Streets. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Hirsch. For the waves 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 organization will enable us to do so, not only with facility and efficiency, but with trifling costs to the public. To begin with, children's crushes, or children's day homes, would be established in the centers 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 all little wholesome food, but exercise some humanizing 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 favorable surroundings. 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 utilization of their strength and capacity, amply supply all their own once, 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 too 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 unfavorable. By this method health would be promoted, school would be loved, the cost of education would be cheapened, and the natural bent of the children'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. Asylums for Moral Lunatics There will remain, after all has been said and done, one problem that has yet to be faced. You may minimize 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 resident of men and women who have, whether from heredity or custom, or hopeless demoralization, become reprobates. After a certain time, some men of science hold that persistence and 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. Sourfully, but remorselessly, it must be recognized 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 bit 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 about, 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 affect 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 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 labor 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 forever. 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. One, 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 of very common sentence passed upon wrong doors, and in some cases the law goes as far as to inflict penal servitude for a 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 at old age their latter days might be closed in comfort. In fact, so far as this class of people are concerned, we can see that they would be far better circumstance 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. Second, 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 involved 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. Third, 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. End of Section 29 Recording by Tom Hirsch Section 30 Assistance in General This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Hirsch There are many who are not lost who need help. A little assistance given today will perhaps prevent the need of having to save them to moral. There are some who, after they have been rescued, will still need a friendly hand. The very service which we have rendered them in 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 in the beginning, urgency is claimed rightly for those who have no helper, we do not therefore forget the needs and 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 upper crust 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. 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 in his 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. Can't 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 answered 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 this one we would rather stop in the shelter and sleep on the floor as we have been doing than to 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 the 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 accommodations 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 missus. 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 couples, who in turn demand that we should provide for them lodgings. This we propose to do, also on a commercial footing. I seek 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. 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 advantage 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 with the families of the 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 a 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 affected most satisfactorily by securing a contract for the labor only. The projectors of this 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 outbuilding 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 cooperative 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 licenses 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. First, the conveyance of each member actually living in the village to and from London at the rate of six pence per week. Each pass should have on it the portrait of the owner and be fastened to some article of the dress and be available only by workmen's trains running early and late and during certain hours of the day when the trains are almost empty. Second, the conveyance of goods and parcels should be at half the ordinary rates. It is reasonable to suppose that large landowners would gladly give one hundred acres of land in view of the immensely advanced values of the surrounding property which would immediately follow, seeing that the erection of one thousand or two thousand cottages would constitute the nucleus of a much larger settlement. Lastly, the rent of a four-roomed cottage must not exceed three shillings per week. Add to this the six penny ticket to and from London and you have three shilling six pence and if the company should insist on one shilling it will make four shillings, for which there would be all the advantages of a comfortable cottage, of which it would be possible for the tenant to become the owner, a good garden, pleasant surroundings, and other influences per motive 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 glance at the ordinary homes of the poor people in this great city will at once assure us that such a village would be a veritable paradise to them, and that were four, five, or six settlements provided at once they would not contain a tithe of the people who would throng to occupy them. If the love of money is the root of all evil, the want of money is the cause of an immensity of evil and trouble. The moment you begin practically to alleviate the miseries of the people you discover 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 unattainable ideal to establish a poor man's bank, which will extend to the lower middle class and the working population the advantages of the credit system, which is the very foundation of our boasted commerce. It might be better that there should be no such thing as credit, that no one should lend money, and that everyone should be compelled to rely solely upon whatever ready money he may possess from day to day. But if so, let us apply the principle all round. Do not let us glory in our worldwide commerce, and boast ourselves in our riches obtained in so many 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 a 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 pressure of sudden demands which otherwise would wreck them, then surely the case is still stronger for providing a similar resource for the smaller men, the weaker men. At present society is organized far too much on the principle of giving to him who hath, so that he shall have more abundantly, and taking away from him who hath not, even that which he hath. If we are to really benefit the poor, we can only do so by practical measures. We have merely to look around and see the kind of advantages which wealthy men find indispensable for the due management of their business, and ask ourselves whether poor men can not be supplied with the same opportunities. The reason why they are not is obvious. To supply the needs of the rich is a means of making 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 humorist said was the chief end of men in these modern times, namely ten percent. To obtain a ten percent, what will not men do? They will penetrate the bowels of the earth, explore the depths of the sea, ascend the snow-capped mountain's highest peak, or navigate the air if they can be guaranteed a ten percent. I do not venture to suggest that the business of a poor man's bank would yield ten percent, or even five. But I think it might be made to pay its expenses, and the resulting gain to the community would be enormous. Ask any merchant in your acquaintance where his business would be if he had no banker. And then, when you have his answer, ask yourself whether it would not be an object worth taking some trouble to secure to furnish the great mass of our fellow countrymen on sound business principles with the advantages of the credit system which is found to work so beneficially for the well-to-do few. Someday I hope the state may be sufficiently enlightened to take up this business itself. At present it is left in the hands of the pawnbroker and the loan agency, and a set 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 modern legislation in Russia, Germany, and elsewhere. The institution of a poor man's bank will be, I hope, before long one of the recognized objects of our own government. Pending that, I venture to throw out a suggestion without in any way pledging myself to add this branch of activity to the already gigantic range of operations foreshadowed in this book. Would it not be possible for some philanthropists, with capital to establish on a clearly defined principle, 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 for the big man. Meanwhile, should it enter into the heart of some benevolently disposed possessor of wealth to give the price of a racehorse, or of an old master, to form the nucleus of the necessary capital, I will certainly experiment in this direction. I can anticipate the sneer of the cynic who scoffs at what he calls my glorified pawn shop. I am indifferent to his sneers. A mont de pieté, the very name, Mount of Piety, shows that the poor man's bank is regarded 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 for the state to establish it, accepting at a ruinous expense. There would be no difficulty, however, of instituting a private mont de pieté which would confer an incalculable boon upon the struggling poor. Further, I am by no means indisposed to recognize the necessity of dealing with this subject in connection with the labor bureau, provided that one clearly recognized principle can be acted upon. That principle is that a man shall be free to bind himself as security for the repayment of a loan. That is, to pledge himself to work for his rations until such time as he has repaid capital and interest. An illustration or two will explain what I mean. Here is a carpenter who comes to our labor shed. He is an honest, decent man who has by sickness or some other calamity been reduced to destitution. He has, by degrees, pawned one article after another to keep body and soul together, until 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. We, in turn, undertaking to find him in food and shelter until such time as he has repaid the advance made. That obligation it would be the truest kindness to enforce with Radhamhantin severity, until the man is out of debt, he is not his own master. All that he can make over his actual rations and shelter money should belong to his creditor. Of course, such an arrangement might be varied indefinitely by private agreement. The repayment of installments could be spread ever a longer or shorter time, but the mainstay of the whole principle would be the execution of a legal agreement by which the man makes over the whole product of his labor to the bank until he has repaid his debt. Take another instance, a clerk who has been many years in the situation and has a large family which he has brought up respectably and educated. He has every prospect of retiring in a few years upon a superannuating allowance, but is suddenly confronted by a claim, often through no fault of his own, of a sum of fifty or a hundred pounds, which is quite beyond his 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 cannot 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 stir him in the face. Now, were he in receipt of an income of ten times the amount, he would probably have a banking account, and in consequence be able to secure an advance of all he needed from his banker. Why should he not be able to pledge his salary, or a portion of it, to an institution which would enable him to pay off his debt, on terms that, while sufficiently remunerative to the bank, would not unduly embarrass him? At present what does the poor wretch do? He consults his friends, who, it is quite possible, are as hard up as himself. Or he applies to some loan agency, and, as likely as not, falls into the hands 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 every penny he has. A great black book, written within and without in letters of lamentation, mourning and woe, might be written on the dealings of these user-ers with their victims in every land. It is of little service denouncing these extortioners. They have always existed, and probably always will. But what we can do is to circumscribe the range of their operations 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 prevent their falling into the hands of these remorseless wretches who have wrecked the fortunes of thousands, and driven many a decent man to suicide, or a premature grave. There are endless ramifications of this principle which do not need to be described here. But before leaving the subject, I may allude to an evil which is a cruel reality, a last to a multitude of unfortunate men and women. I refer to the working of the higher system. The decent poor man or woman who is anxious to 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 higher system. That is to say, for the accommodation of being allowed to pay for the machine by installments, he is charged, in addition to the full market value of his purchase, ten or twenty times the amount of what would be a fair rate of interest. And more than this, if he should at any time, through misfortune, fail in his payment, the total amount already paid will be confiscated, the machine seized, and the money lost. Here again we fall back on our analogy of what goes on in a small community where neighbors know each other. Take, for instance, when a lad who is recognized as bright, promising, honest, and industrious, who wants to make a start in life which requires some little outlay, his better to do neighbor will often assist him by providing the capital necessary to enable him to make a way for himself in the world. The neighbor does this because he knows the lad, because the family is at least related by ties of neighborhood, and the honor 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 artisan 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 we are to get back, not to the Garden of Eden, but to the ordinary conditions of life, as they exist in a healthy small community. No institution, it is true, can ever replace the magic bond of personal friendship, but if we have the whole mass of society permeated in every direction by brotherly associations established for the purpose of mutual help and sympathizing counsel, it is not an impossible thing to believe that we shall be able to do something to restore the missing element in modern civilization. THE MOMENT YOU SET ABOUT DEALING WITH THE ONCE OF THE PEOPLE, you discover that many of their difficulties are not material, but moral. There never was a greater mistake than to imagine that you have only to fill a man's stomach and clothe his back in order to secure his happiness. Man is much more than a digestive apparatus liable to 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 trusted advisor as he or she does of a dinner or a dress. Many a poor soul is miserable all the day long and gets dragged down deeper and deeper into the depths of sin and sorrow and despair for want of a sympathizing friend who can give her advice and make her feel that somebody in the world cares for her and will help her if they can. If we are to bring back the sense of brotherhood to the world we must confront this difficulty. God, it was said in old time, set the desolate in families, but somehow in our time the desolate wander alone in the midst of a careless and unsympathizing world. There is no one who cares for my soul, there is no creature loves me, and if 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 the hand and pray with and labor for, if thereby they can but snatch him as a brand from the burning. Now we want to make more use of this, to make the Salvation Army the nucleus of a great agency for bringing comfort and counsel to those who are at their wits' end, feeling as if in the whole world there was no one to whom they could go. What we want to do is to exemplify to the world the family idea. Our father is the keynote. One is our father, then all we are brethren. But in a family if anyone is troubled in mind or conscience there is no difficulty. The daughter goes to her father, or the son to his mother, and pour out their soul's trouble 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 organization of society for which we are laboring. We cannot know better than God Almighty what we'll do good to man. We are content to follow on his lines, and to mend the world we shall seek to restore something of the family idea to the many hundreds of thousands, millions, who have no one wiser or more experienced than themselves to whom they can take their sorrows or consult in their difficulties. Of course we can do this but imperfectly. Only God can create a mother. But society needs a great deal of mothering, much more than it gets. And as a child needs a mother to run to in its difficulties and troubles, to whom it can let out its little hurt and confidence, so men and women, weary and worn in the battles of life, need someone to whom they can go when pressed down with a sense of wrongs, suffered or done, knowing that their confidence will be preserved and violent, 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 pitifulest, and the most sagacious men and women whom I can find on my staff, to whom all those in trouble and perplexity shall be invited to address themselves. It is no use saying that we love our fellow men unless we try to help them. And it is no use pretending to sympathize with the heavy burdens which darken their lives unless we try to ease them and to lighten their existence. In so much as we have more practical experience of life than other men, by so much are we bound to help their inexperience and share our talents with them. But if we believe they are our brothers, and that one is our father, even the God who will come to judge us hereafter for all the deeds that we have done in the body, then must we constitute in some such imperfect way as is open to us the parental office. We must be willing to receive the outpourings of our struggling fellow men, to listen to the long buried secret that has troubled the human heart, and to welcome instead of repelling those who would obey the apostolic precept to confess their sins one to another. Let not that word confession scandalize 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 is not imposed as a means of grace. It is not put forward as a preliminary to the absolution which no one can pronounce but our Lord himself. It is merely a response on our part to one of the deepest needs and secret longings of the actual men and women who are meeting us daily in our work. Why should they be left to brood in misery over their secret sin when a plain straightforward talk with a man or woman selected for his or her sympathetic common sense and spiritual experience might take the weight off their shoulders which is crushing them into dull despair? Not for absolution, but for sympathy and direction do I propose to establish my advice bureau in definite form. For in practice it has been in existence for some time, and wonderful things have been done in the direction on which I 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 heart. Nor is it only in affairs of the heart that this advice bureau will be of service. It will be quite as useful in affairs of the head. As I conceive it, the advice bureau will be the poor man's lawyer and the poor man's tribute. There are no means in London so far as my knowledge goes by which the poor and needy can obtain any legal assistance in the very depressions and difficulties from which they must, in consequence of their poverty and associations, be continually suffering. While the well-to-do classes can fall back upon skillful friends for direction or avail themselves of the learning and experience of the legal profession, the poor man has literally no one qualified to counsel 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. But if his circumstances are sick, out of order, in danger of carrying him to utter destitution or to prison or to the union, he has no one to appeal to who has the willingness or the ability to help him. Now we want to create a court of counsel or appeal to which anyone suffering from imposition having to do with person, liberty or property, or anything else of sufficient importance can apply and obtain not only advice but practical experience. Among others for whom this court would be devised is the shamefully neglected class of widows, of whom in the east of London there are 6,000, mostly in very destitute circumstances. In the whole of London there cannot be less than 20,000, and in England and Wales it is estimated there are 100,000, 50,000 of whom are probably poor and friendless. The treatment of these poor people by the nation is a crying scandal. Take the case of the average widow, even when left in comfortable circumstances. She will often be launched into a sea of perplexity, although able to avail herself of the best advice. But think of the multitudes of poor women who, when they close their husband's eyes, lose the only friend who knows anything about their circumstances. There may be a trifle of money or a struggling business or a little income connected with property or some other possession, all needing immediate attention and that of a skilful sort in order to enable the poor creature to weather the storm and avoid the vortex of utter destitution. All we have said applies equally to orphans and friendless people generally. Nothing, however, short of a national institution could meet the necessities of all such cases. But we can do something, and in matters already referred to, such as involved loss of property, malicious prosecution, criminal and otherwise, we can render substantial assistance. In carrying out this purpose it will be no part of our plan to encourage legal proceedings in others or to have recourse to them ourselves. All resort to law would be avoided either in counsel or practice unless absolutely necessary. But where manifest injustice and wrong are perpetrated, and every other method of obtaining reparation fails, we shall avail ourselves of the assistance the law affords. Our great hope of usefulness, however, in this department lies in prevention. The knowledge that the oppressed poor have in us a friend able to speak for them will often prevent the injustice which cowardly and avaricious persons might otherwise inflect, and the same considerations may induce them to accord without compulsion the right of the weak and friendless. I also calculate upon a wide sphere of usefulness in the direction of friendly arbitration and intervention. There will be at least one disinterested tribunal, however humble, to which business, domestic or any other questions of a contentious and litigious nature can be referred without involving any serious costs. The following incidents have been gathered from operations already undertaken in this direction, and we'll explain and illustrate the kind of work we contemplate and some of the benefits that may be expected to follow from it. About four years ago a young and delicate girl, the daughter of a pilot, came to us in great distress. Her story was that of thousands of others. She had been betrayed by a man in a good position in the West End, and was now the mother of an infant child. Just before her confinement her seducer had taken her to his solicitors, and made her sign and swear an affidavit to the effect that he was not the father of the then expected child. Upon 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 with the man, and after negotiations he, to avoid further proceedings, was compelled to secure by a deed a proper allowance to his unfortunate victim for the maintenance of her child. Shaddled and caught. A was induced to leave a comfortable home to become the governess of the motherless children of Mr. G, whom she found to be a kind and considerate employer. After she had 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 himself to a good appointment he had secured for her. In London he seduced her, and kept her as his mistress, until tired of her he told her to go and do as other women did. Instead of descending to this infamy she procured work and so supported herself and child in some degree of comfort when he sought her out and again dragged her down. Another child was born, and a second time he threw her up and left her to start. It was then she applied to our people. We hunted up the man, followed him to the country, threatened him with public exposure, and forced from him the payment to his victim of sixty pounds down, an allowance of one pound a week, and an insurance policy on his life for four hundred fifty pounds in her favor. Sixty pounds from Italy. C was seduced by a young Italian of good position in society who promised to marry her, but a short time before the day fixed for the ceremony he told her urgent business called him abroad. He assured her he 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 and live with his wife as her maid, offering at the same time to pay for the maintenance of the child till it was old enough to be placed in charge of the captain of one of the vessels belonging to his firm. None of these promises were fulfilled, and C, with her mother's assistance, for a time managed to support herself and the child. But the mother, worn out by age and trouble, could help her no longer, and the poor girl was driven to despair. Her case was brought before us, and we at once set to work to assist her. The council of the town where the seducer lived in style was communicated with. Approaches were made to the young man's father, who, to save the dishonor that would follow exposure, paid over sixty pounds. This helps to maintain the child, and the girl is in domestic service and doing well. The higher system. The most cruel wrongs are frequently inflicted on the very poorest persons in connection with this method of obtaining furniture, sewing machines, mangals, or other articles. Caught by the lure of misleading advertisements, the poor are induced to purchase articles to be paid for by weekly or monthly installments. 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 existence depends, but by availing themselves of some technical clause in the agreement for robbing them in addition. In such circumstances the poor things, being utterly friendless, have to submit to these infamous extortions without remedy. Our bureau will be open to all such. Tallymen, moneylenders, and bills of sale-mongers. Here again we have a class who prey upon the poverty of the people, inducing them to purchase things for which they have often no immediate use. Anyway, for which there is 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 in very often utter temporal ruin. Once in their net escape is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. We propose to help the poor victims by this scheme as far as possible. Our bureau, we expect, will be of immense service to clergymen ministers of all denominations, district visitors, missionaries, and others who freely mix among the poor, seeing that they must be frequently appealed to for legal advice, which they are quite unable to give, and equally at a loss to obtain. We shall always be very glad to assist such. The Defense of Undefended Persons The conviction is gradually fixing itself upon the public mind that a not inconsiderable number of innocent persons are, from time to time, convicted of crimes and offenses, the reason for which often is the mere inability to secure an efficient defense. Although there are several societies in London and the country dealing with the criminal classes, and more particularly with discharged prisoners, yet there does not appear to be one for the purpose of assisting unconvicted prisoners. This work we propose boldly to take up. By this and many other ways we shall help those charged with criminal offenses, who, on a most careful inquiry, might reasonably be supposed to be innocent, but who, through want of means, are unable to obtain the legal assistance and produce the evidence necessary for an efficient defense. We shall not pretend authoritatively to judge as to who is innocent or who is guilty, but if after full explanation and inquiry the person charged 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, hoping thereby to save such person and his family and friends from much misery and possibly from utter ruin. Mr. Justice Field recently remarked, For a man to assist another man who was under a criminal charge was a highly laudable and praiseworthy act. If a man was without friends, and an Englishman came forward and legitimately, and for the purpose of honestly assisting him with means to put before the court his case, that was a highly laudable and praiseworthy act, and he should be the last man in the country to complain of any man for so doing. These remarks are endorsed by most judges and magistrates, and our advice bureau will give practical effect to them. In every case an attempt will be made to secure not only the outward reformation, but the actual regeneration of all whom we assist. Special attention, as has been described under the criminal reform department, will be paid to first defenders. We shall endeavor also to assist as far as we have the ability the wives and children of persons who are undergoing sentences by endeavoring to obtain for them employment or otherwise rendering them help. Hundreds of this class fall into the deepest distress and demoralization through want of friendly aid in the forlorn circumstances in which they find themselves on the conviction of relatives on whom they have been dependent for a livelihood or for protection and direction in the ordinary affairs of life. This department will also be responsible for gathering intelligence, spreading information, and the general prosecution of such measures as are likely to lead to the much needed beneficial changes in our prison management. In short, it will seek to become the true friend and savior of the criminal classes in general, and in doing so we shall desire to act in harmony with the societies at present in existence who may be seeking for objects kindred to the advice bureau. We pen the following list to give some idea of the topics on which the advice bureau may be consulted. Claim for accidents, administration of estates, adulteration of food and drugs, questions of agency, disputed agreements, affiliation cases, cruelty to animals, wrongful arrest, assault, bankruptcies, bills of exchange, bills of sale, forfeited bonds, breach of promise, cruelty to children, custody of children, compensation for injuries, compensation for accident, compensation for defamation, compensation for loss of employment, etc. Confiscation by landlords, breach of contracts, infringement of copyright, county court cases, debts, illegal distress, divorce, ejectment cases, employer's liability act, duties of executors, breach of factory act, attempted fraud, sale of goodwill, forfeited guarantee, error at law, disputes of husbands and wives, false imprisonment, custody of infants, cases of intestacy, judgment summonses, landlord and tenant cases, lapses and renewals of leases, disputed legacies, libel cases, licenses, questions of the marriage law, masters and servants acts, right of public meeting, mortgages, alleged negligence, next of kill wanted, alleged nuisances, the law of partnership, registration and infringement of patents, pawnbrokers and their pledges, police cases, probate, rates and taxes, reversionary interests, cases of seduction, servants wrongful dismissal, sheriffs, charities as treated, disputed tendencies, infringement of trademarks, cases of trespass, trustees and trusts, wages kept back, disputed and unproved wills, cruelty to women, grievances of workmen, etc. The advice bureau will therefore be, first of all, a place where men and women in trouble can come when they please to communicate in confidence the cause of their anxiety, with a certainty that they will receive a sympathetic hearing and the best advice. Secondly, it will be a poor man's lawyer, giving the best legal counsel as to the course to be pursued in the various circumstances with which the poor find themselves confronted. Thirdly, it will act as a poor man's tribune and will undertake the defense of friendless prisoners supposed to be innocent together with the resistance of illegal extortions and the prosecution of offenders who refuse legal satisfaction for the wrongs they have committed. Fourthly, it will act wherever it is called upon as a court of arbitration between litigants, where the decision will be according to equity and the costs cut down to the lowest possible figure. Such a department cannot be improvised, but it is already in a fair way of development, and it can hardly fail to do a great good.