Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
So widespread now are the operations of the Army, and so extensively
will this Bureau multiply its agencies that it will speedily be able to
make personal enquiries on both sides, that is in the interest alike of
the emigrant and the intended employer in any part of the world.
SECTION 3.--THE SALVATION SHIP.
When we have selected a party of emigrants whom we believe to be
sufficiently prepared to settle on the land which has been got ready
for them in the Colony over Sea, it will be no dismal expatriation
which will await them. No one who has ever been on the West Coast of
Ireland when the emigrants were departing, and has heard the dismal
wails which arise from those who are taking leave of each other for the
last time on earth, can fail to sympathise with the horror excited in
many minds by the very word emigration. But when our party sets out,
there will be no violent wrenching of home ties. In our ship we shall
export them all--father, mother, and children. The individuals will
be grouped in families, and the families will, on the Farm Colony, have
been for some months past more or less near neighbours, meeting each
other in the field, in the workshops, and in the Religious Services.
It will resemble nothing so much as the unmooring of a little piece of
England, and towing it across the sea to find a safe anchorage in a
sunnier clime. The ship which takes out emigrants will bring back the
produce of the farms, and constant travelling to and fro will lead more
than ever to the feeling that we and our ocean-sundered brethren are
members of one family.
No one who has ever crossed the ocean can have failed to be impressed
with the mischief that comes to emigrants when they are on their way to
their destination. Many and many a girl has dated her downfall from
the temptations which beset her while journeying to a land where she
had hoped to find a happier future
"Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," and he must
have his hands full on board an emigrant ship. Look into the steerage
at any time, and you will find boredom inexpressible on every face.
The men have nothing to do, and an incident of no more importance than
the appearance of a sail upon the distant horizon is an event which
makes the whole ship talk. I do not see why this should be so.
Of course, in the case of conveying passengers and freight, with the
utmost possible expedition, for short distances, it would be idle to
expect that either time or energies could be spared for the employment
or instruction of the passengers. But the case is different when,
instead of going to America, the emigrant turns his face to South
Africa or remote Australia. Then, even with the fastest steamers,
they must remain some weeks or months upon the high seas. The result
is that habits of idleness are contracted, bad acquaintances are
formed, and very often the moral and religious work of a lifetime is
undone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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