The Great Acceptance: The Life Story of F. N. CharringtonThorne, Guy
History
The Great Acceptance: The Life Story of F. N. Charrington
Thorne, Guy
Charrington, Fredk. N. (Frederick Nicholas), 1850-1936; Poor -- England -- London
He stood at the very door of this music hall, and took every possible
opportunity of entering into conversation with such people as
responded to his tentative advances. Many and many a man and woman,
who were going to this place with nothing but sensual and material
thoughts, were given pause by the proffer of a tract, or, more often
still, by a few earnest words from the young evangelist and his
helpers.
The scenes at this time--outside the flaring front of the music
hall--were extraordinary. I do not propose to enter into many details,
simply because they will be well seen in the legal evidence which is
to follow. It is sufficient to say that the proprietors of the hall
brought an action against Mr. Charrington, and the records of that
_cause célèbre_ tell their own story.
But there are certain incidents, as I said in an earlier part of this
chapter, which have never before been made public, and which I had
some difficulty in obtaining my friend's permission to record.
This Lusby's Music Hall was, without doubt, a sink of iniquity. It was
notorious in the locality, but it also spread its evil tentacles
westwards. The well-to-do, foolish, and drunken young "bloods" of the
period--I believe "masher" was their designation at the time--used to
drive down in cabs from Piccadilly and haunt Lusby's in pursuit of the
girls of the East End. It was a new sensation. It provided an
evening's amusement quite out of the common.
One night during Mr. Charrington's campaign, five young men arrived
from the West End in evening dress. As they were entering the music
hall, Mr. Charrington and his friends spoke to them in no uncertain
way. I have been told--and I feel quite sure--that the remonstrances
addressed to them were made in the most quiet, gentlemanly, and
unobtrusive manner. At any rate, these people were horribly enraged.
There are two things you must not do if you wish to be popular with
worldly men. You must not wound any man's vanity, and you must not
interfere with his guilty pleasures.
Charrington and Ion Keith-Falconer, both of them men of breeding and
position themselves, hit these young aristocrats from Piccadilly too
hard. A remonstrance from some earnest but illiterate tub-thumper
might have been passed by with a light laugh, or at most a sneer. In
this case an evil and malignant anger was aroused. These young men
were again accosted, and their resentment was thereby heightened to
fever heat.
With faces flushed with drink, their eyes blazing with anger, they
advanced to the young evangelist, loudly expressing their
determination to "do for him."
Then occurred, in an instant, one of the most pathetic and dramatic
things of which I have ever heard.
Several wretched girls, who had been with these young men, plying
their dreadful trade and hoping to reap a richer reward than usual,
turned round upon their patrons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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