第73章 MORE CRUSADES.(7)

It is really a mystery how they live.

A poor woman in Drury Lane was paralyzed.She had no one to attend to her;she lay on the floor,on a stuffed sack,and an old piece of cloth to cover her.Although it was winter,she very seldom had any fire.

She had no garments to wear,and but very little to eat.

Another poor woman,who was very ill,was allowed a little money by her daughter to pay her rent and get her food;but very frequently she had not the strength to light a fire or to get herself food.She was parted from her husband because of his cruelty.Often she lay for hours without a soul to visit or help her.

Adjutant McClellan found a man lying on a straw mattress in a very bad condition.The room was filthy;the smell made the Officer feel ill.

The man had been lying for days without having anything done for him.

A cup of water was by his side.The Officers vomited from the terrible smells of this place.Frequently sick people are found who need the continual application of hot poultices,but who are left with a cold one for hours.

In Marylebone the Officers visited a poor old woman who was very ill.

She lived in an underground back kitchen,with hardly a ray of light and never a ray of sunshine.Her bed was made up on some egg boxes.

She had no one to look after her,except a drunken daughter,who very often,when drunk,used to knock the poor old woman about very badly.

The Officers frequently found that she had not eaten any food up to twelve o'clock,not even a cup of tea to drink.The only furniture in the room was a small table,an old fender,and a box.The vermin seemed to be innumerable.

A poor woman was taken very ill,but,having a small family,she felt she must get up and wash them.While she was washing the baby she fell down and was unable to move.Fortunately a neighbour came in soon after to ask some question,and saw her lying there.She at once ran and fetched another neighbour.Thinking the poor woman was dead,they got her into bed and sent for a doctor.He said she was in consumption and required quiet and nourishment.This the poor woman could not get,on account of her children.She got up a few hours afterwards.As she was going downstairs she fell down again.The neighbour picked her up and put her back to bed,where for a long time she lay thoroughly prostrated.The Officers took her case in hand,fed,and nursed her,cleaned her room and generally looked after her.

In another dark slum the Officers found a poor old woman in an underground back kitchen.She was suffering with some complaint.

When they knocked at the door she was terrified for fear it was the landlord.The room was in a most filthy condition,never having been cleaned.She had a penny paraffin lamp which filled the room with smoke.The old woman was at times totally unable to do anything for herself.The Officers looked after her.

SECTION 3.REGENERATlON OF OUR CRIMINALS.--THE PRISON GATE BRIGADEOur Prisons ought to be reforming institutions,which should turn men out better than when they entered their doors.As a matter of fact they are often quite the reverse.There are few persons in this world more to be pitied than the poor fellow who has served his first term of imprisonment or finds himself outside the gaol doors without a character,and often without a friend in the world.Here,again,the process of centralization,gone on apace of late years,however desirable it maybe in the interests of administration,tells with disastrous effects on the poor wretches who are its victims.

In the old times,when a man was sent to prison,the gaol stood within a stone's throw of his home.When he came out he was at any rate close to his old friends and relations,who would take him in and give him a helping hand to start once more a new life.But what has happened owing to the desire of the Government to do away with as many local gaols as possible?The prisoners,when convicted,are sent long distances by rail to the central prisons,and on coming out find themselves cursed with the brand of the gaol bird,so far from home,character gone,and with no one to fall back upon for counsel,or to give them a helping hand.No wonder it is reported that vagrancy has much increased in some large towns on account of discharged prisoners taking to begging,having no other resource.

In the competition for work no employer is likely to take a man who is fresh from gaol;nor are mistresses likely to engage a servant whose last character was her discharge from one of Her Majesty's prisons.

It is incredible how much mischief is often done by well-meaning persons,who,in struggling towards the attainment of an excellent end --such,for instance,as that of economy and efficiency in prison administration--forget entirely the bearing which their reforms may have upon the prisoners themselves.

The Salvation Army has at least one great qualification for dealing with this question I believe I am in the proud position of being at the head of the only religious body which has always some of its members in gaol for conscience'sake.We are also one of the few religious bodies which can boast that many of those who are in our ranks have gone through terms of penal servitude.We,therefore,know the prison at both ends.Some men go to gaol because they are better than their neighbours,most men because they are worse.Martyrs,patriots,reformers of all kinds belong to the first category.No great cause has ever achieved a triumph before it has furnished a certain quota to the prison population.The repeal of an unjust law is seldom carried until a certain number of those who are labouring for the reform have experienced in their own persons the hardships of fine and imprisonment.