There are many who are not lost,who need help.A little assistance given to-day will perhaps prevent the need of having to save them to-morrow.There are some,who,after they have been rescued,will still need a friendly hand.The very service which we have rendered them at starting makes it obligatory upon us to finish the good work.Hitherto it may be objected that the Scheme has dealt almost exclusively with those who are more or less disreputable and desperate.This was inevitable.We obey our Divine Master and seek to save those who are lost.But because,as I said at the beginning,urgency is claimed rightly for those who have no helper,we do not,therefore,forget the needs and the aspirations of the decent working people who are poor indeed,but who keep their feet,who have not fallen,and who help themselves and help each other.They constitute the bulk of the nation.There is an uppercrust and a submerged tenth.
But the hardworking poor people,who earn a pound a week or less,constitute in every land the majority of the population.We cannot forget them,for we are at home with them.We belong to them and many thousands of them belong to us.We are always studying how to help them,and we think this can be done in many ways,some of which Iproceed to describe.
SECTION 1.--IMPROVED LODGINGS.
The necessity for a superior class of lodgings for the poor men rescued at our Shelters has been forcing itself already upon our notice,and demanding attention.One of the first things that happens when a man,lifted out of the gutter,has obtained a situation,and is earning a decent livelihood,is for him to want some better accommodation than that afforded at the Shelters.We have some hundreds on our hands now who can afford to pay for greater comfort and seclusion.
These are continually saying to us something like the following:--The Shelters are all very well when a man is down in his luck.
They have been a good thing for us;in fact,had it not been for them,we would still have been without a friend,sleeping on the Embankment,getting our living dishonestly,or not getting a living at all.
We have now got work,and want a bed to sleep on,and a room to ourselves,and a box,or something where we can stow away our bits of things.Cannot you do something for us?"We have replied that there were Lodging-houses elsewhere,which,now that they were in work,they could afford to pay for,where they would obtain the comfort they desired.To this they answer,"That is all very well.We know there are these places,and that we could go to them.But then,"they said,"you see,here in the Shelters are our mates,who think as we do.
And there is the prayer,and the meeting,and kind influence every night,that helps to keep us straight.We would like a better place,but if you cannot find us one we would rather stop in the Shelter and sleep on the floor,as we have been doing,than go to something more complete,get into bad company,and so fall back again to where we were before."But this,although natural,is not desirable;for,if the process went on,in course of time the whole of the Shelter Depots would be taken up by persons who had risen above the class for whom they were originally destined.I propose,therefore,to draft those who get on,but wish to continue in connection with the Army,into a superior lodging-house,a sort of POOR MAN'S METROPOLE,managed on the same principles,but with better accommodation in every way,which,I anticipate,would be self-supporting from the first.In these homes there would be separate dormitories,good sitting-rooms,cooking conveniences,baths,a hall for meetings,and many other comforts,of which all would have the benefit at as low a figure above cost price as will not only pay interest on the original outlay,but secure us against any shrinkage of capital.
Something superior in this direction will also be required for the women.Having begun,we must go on.Hitherto I have proposed to deal only with single men and single women,but one of the consequences of getting hold of these men very soon makes itself felt.Your ragged,hungry,destitute Out-of-Work in almost every case is married.
When he comes to us he comes as single and is dealt with as such,but after you rouse in him aspirations for better things he remembers the wife whom he has probably enough deserted,or left from sheer inability to provide her anything to eat.As soon as such a man finds himself under good influence and fairly employed his first thought is to go and look after the "Missis."There is very little reality about any change of heart in a married man who does not thus turn in sympathy and longing towards his wife,and the more successful we are in dealing with these people the more inevitable it is that we shall be confronted with married couple's who in turn demand that we should provide for them lodgings.This we propose to do also on a commercial footing.
I see greater developments in this direction,one of which will be described in the chapter relating to Suburban Cottages.
The Model-lodging House for Married People is,however,one of those things that must be provided as an adjunct of the Food and Shelter Depots.
SECTION 2.--MODEL SUBURBAN VILLAGES.
As I have repeatedly stated already,but will state once more,for it is important enough to bear endless repetition,one of the first steps which must inevitably be taken in the reformation of this class,is to make for them decent,healthy,pleasant homes,or help them to make them for themselves,which,if possible,is far better.I do not regard the institution of any first,second,or third-class lodging-houses as affording anything but palliatives of the existing distress.
To substitute life in a boarding-house for life in the streets is,no doubt,an immense advance,but it is by no means the ultimatum.
