Heart-rending are the tales which have reached our ears as to the way in which many of them have been decoyed from their homes, and as to the miserable existence which they have since been dragging out. Every Indian city teems with a too fast increasing number of similar unfortunates, for whom at present nothing has been attempted. We propose, therefore, very largely to extend our Homes at all the large centres of population. Connected as will be this department with the network of other agencies that we have already established, and increased as will be our facilities for reaching this class, we are confident that we shall be able to carry out this much-needed reform on a scale commensurate with the evil, besides warning the youths of our cities against the terrible contamination to which they are at present exposed. All the weight of our increasing influence will be thrown into the scale for cutting off both the supply and demand of this infamous traffic in human souls. CHAPTER XII. "THE COUNTRY COLONY"--"WASTEWARD HO!" As has been already explained in the first part of this book, the congested state of the labor market in the agricultural districts is leading to an enormous and increasing immigration of the country population towards the towns, not as a matter of preference, or of choice, but of dire necessity. The object of the Country Colony, as applied to India, will be twofold: 1. It will seek to divert into more profitable channels the steadily increasing torrent of immigration from the villages to the towns. 2. It will re-direct and re-distribute the masses of the Submerged Tenth who already exist in every large city. Like his English representative, the Indian village bumpkin has a natural aversion to town life. Peculiarities in his dialect, dress, and manners make him the laughing-stock of the clever Cockney townsman. His simplicity and ignorance of the world cause him to be easily victimised by the city sharper, for whom he is no match in the struggle of life. He sighs for his green fields, and longs to get away from the bustle that everywhere surrounds and bewilders him. He surrenders these preferences only, because starvation is staring him in the face, and he has better chances of working, begging, or stealing in the city than in his village.