Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great BritainHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Religion
Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great Britain
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Great Britain -- Social conditions; Salvation Army
When she had left the room, having in mind the capacities of the
average servant, and the outcry she is apt to make about her
particular 'work,' I said that it seemed strange that one young woman
could fulfil all these multifarious duties satisfactorily.
'Oh,' said the matter-of-fact Colonel, 'you see, she belongs to the
Salvation Army, and looks at things from the point of view of her
duty, and not from that of her comfort.'
It is curious at what a tender age children learn to note the habits
of those about them. When this little Bessie was given _2d_. she
lisped out in her pretty Scotch accent, 'Mother winna have this for
beer!'
THE WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSE
GLASGOW
The last place that I visited in Glasgow was the Shelter for women, an
Institution of the same sort as the Shelter for men. It is a
Lodging-house in which women can have a bed at the price of 4_d_. per
night; but if that sum is not forthcoming, they are not, as a rule,
turned away if they are known to be destitute.
The class of people who frequent this Home is a very low one; for the
most part they are drunkards. They must leave the Shelter before ten
o'clock in the morning, when the majority of them go out hawking,
selling laces, or other odds and ends. Some of them earn as much as
2_s_. a day; but, as a rule, they spend a good deal of what they earn,
only saving enough to pay for their night's lodging. This place has
been open for sixteen years, and contains 133 beds, which are almost
always full.
The women whom I saw at this Shelter were a very rough-looking set,
nearly all elderly, and, as their filthy garments and marred
countenances showed, often the victims of drink. Still, they have good
in them, for the lady in charge assured me that they are generous to
each other. If one of the company has nothing they will collect the
price of her bed or her food between them, and even pay her debts, if
these are not too large. There were several children in the place, for
each woman is allowed to bring in one. When I was there many of the
inmates were cooking their meals on the common stove, and very curious
and unappetizing these were.
Among them I noted a dark-eyed lassie of about sixteen who was crying.
Drawing her aside, I questioned her. It seemed that her father, a
drunken fellow, had turned her out of her home that afternoon because
she had forgotten to give him a message. Having nowhere to go she
wandered about the streets until she met a woman who told her of this
Lodging-house. She added, touchingly enough, that it was not her
mother's fault.
Imagine a girl of sixteen thrown out to spend the night upon the
streets of Glasgow!
On the walls of one of the rooms I saw a notice that read oddly in a
Shelter for women. It ran:--
_Smoking is strictly prohibited after retiring_.
THE LAND AND INDUSTRIAL COLONY
HADLEIGH, ESSEX
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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