第19章 ON THE VERGE OF THE ABYSS.(2)

That is an authentic human document--a tran from the life of one among thousands who go down inarticulate into the depths,They die and make no sign,or,worse still,they continue to exist,carrying about with them,year after year,the bitter ashes of a life from which the furnace of misfortune has burnt away all joy,and hope,and strength.Who is there who has not been confronted by many despairing ones,who come,as Richard O----went,to the clergyman,crying for help,and how seldom have we been able to give it them?It is unjust,no doubt,for them to blame the clergy and the comfortable well-to-do --for what can they do but preach and offer good advice?To assist all the Richard O----s'by direct financial advance would drag even Rothschild into the gutter.And what else can be done?Yet something else must be done if Christianity is not to be a mockery to perishing men.

Here is another case,a very common case,which illustrates how the Army of Despair is recruited.

Mr.T.,Margaret Place,Gascoign Place,Bethnal Green,is a bootmaker by trade.Is a good hand,and has earned three shillings and sixpence to four shillings and sixpence a day.He was taken ill last Christmas,and went to the London Hospital;was there three months.A week after he had gone Mrs.T.had rheumatic fever,and was taken to Bethnal Green Infirmary,where she remained about three months.Directly after they had been taken ill,their furniture was seized for the three weeks'rent which was owing.Consequently,on becoming convalescent,they were homeless.They came out about the same time.He went out to a lodging-house for a night or two,until she came out.He then had twopence,and she had sixpence,which a nurse had given her.They went to a lodging-house together,but the society there was dreadful.

Next day he had a day's work,and got two shillings and sixpence,and on the strength of this they took a furnished room at tenpence per day (payable nightly).His work lasted a few weeks,when he was again taken ill,lost his job,and spent all their money.Pawned a shirt and apron for a shilling;spent that,too.At last pawned their tools for three shillings,which got them a few days'food and lodging.He is now minus tools and cannot work at his own job,and does anything he can.Spent their last twopence on a pen'orth each of tea and sugar.

In two days they had a slice of bread and butter each,that's all.

They are both very weak through want of food.

"Let things alone,"the laws of supply and demand,and all the rest of the excuses by which those who stand on firm ground salve their consciences when they leave their brother to sink,how do they look when we apply them to the actual loss of life at sea?Does "Let things alone"man the lifeboat?Will the inexorable laws of political economy save the shipwrecked sailor from the boiling surf?They often enough are responsible for his disaster.Coffin ships are a direct result of the wretched policy of non-interference with the legitimate operations of commerce,but no desire to make it pay created the National Lifeboat Institution,no law of supply and demand actuates the volunteers who risk their lives to bring the shipwrecked to shore.

What we have to do is to apply the same principle to society.We want a Social Lifeboat Institution,a Social Lifeboat Brigade,to snatch from the abyss those who,if left to themselves,will perish as miserably as the crew of a ship that founders in mid-ocean.

The moment that we take in hand this work we shall be compelled to turn our attention seriously to the question whether prevention is not better than cure.It is easier and cheaper,and in every way better,to prevent the loss of home than to have to re-create that home.