Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-12
OUR LONDON LETTER.
EXPLORING THE EAUNTS or THE
LOWER CLASS OF POOR.
benevolent Work IT Huts and
Saloons - The Drink Traffic
and its Regulation-Etc
LONDON, March Is, 1884.

" hat ls meant - Liz II ~ u VIZ DCsNSi
classes Of iondoners to visit the sluns and
courts Of this great city and see for them
selves the AFFECT poverty and wretchedness
that prevail :he.e. London has always
been affected in TINS way at intervals but
never t. such an extent as during the pres
ent winter A pamphlet called The Bit
ter Cry started the furore and with an
enterprise quite foreign to their ordinary
method of procedure. The matter was then
taken up 10y tie newspapers. The aristoc-
racy have been the leaders in this SUM
ming" business, and finally royalty fell
into line. The last celebrity to do the
rounds was the Prince Of Wales. The
thing has been altogether overdone, and
naturally there have been protests The
Bishop Of Bedford said recently that for
people to 20 about 10 see the poor, as if
they were q show to stare at, was a shame.
What would be an unwarraHtable intru-
sion in Relg-avia, he added, was no less -
in Whitechapei. The comic press has hit
off this mania beautifully, by sending the
poor around to see how the rich live.
Still, that the exposure Of the
GIANT SKELETON OF LoNDoN's POVERTY
Has done good, is unquestionable One
practical result is the appointment of q
royal commission TO see what can be done
in the case. What strikes one first in
looking at the personnel of this commits
-. ,f.at7 gE,o .
Catholic Cardinal and Protestant Bishop,
churchman and dissenter, Prince and
laborer, Tory, Liberal and Radical, sit to-
gether in deliberation upon this grave mat
ter, and surely, from such a combination
wise and timely measures of relief may be
expected. Perhaps, however, the best re-
suits of the prevailing mania IN regard TO
the poor viii be, not 50 much in what com
mittees may do, as IN the new impulse
given to individual effort. 1t is nothing
uncommon now to hear of titled ladies and
gentlemen going from house to house in
the poorer districts, not simply to see the
occupants, but to instruct and help them.
One lady Of rank, still young and at
tractive, has resolved to devote her whole
life TO the care of the poor women and
children of Bethnal-green. She lives in a
single room in the East End, and employs
her time in visiting. The objects and
methods Of this
SELF-APPOINTED MISSIONARY
Are somewhat peculiar. She knocks at
the door of the miserable room, laden not
with provisions or cheap clothing but with
soap, scrubhing- a pail and
IL l,,Fls &,
and her daughters to work scrubbing the
floor and walls, while she minds the chill
dren or watches the wretched dinner cook
ing on the fire. The work finished, she in
quires the price per hour, make business
like calculation OF the time occupied. pays
the amount, and departs, promising to call
again The lady declares that during the
many weeks she has been pursuing this
course she has never met with the slight
est opposition to her wishes nor in any in
stance have the brooms and brushes disap-
peared 1t is said, too, that her efforts in
the cause Of cleanliness have wrought a per
ceptibie improvement in many Of the
dwellings Of that locality.
EVANGELICAL WORK N SALOONS.
Speaking Of the strange methods en-
poyed to reach anc rescue the masses Of
this metropolis reminds me Of what the
London City Mission is doing in regard to
the public drinking places 1t has nine
teen missionaries constantly employed IN
visiting these places, and up 10 the present
time evangelical labor has been bestowed
upon 5000 Of them. This Is not crusade
to close them up, nor Is it, properly speak
ing, q temperance movement. BY q mu
tual understanding between landlord and
missionary the latter topic Is studiousIy
avoided, the visitors simply presenting re
hgion 20 the treGuenteTs OF such places in
liz general aspects. Tracts are distributed
and personal appeals made, and, if possible,
q subsequent visitation is arranged % take
place a: the individuals home. There
are, in all. over 900 saloons in London
so that at present, less than oue-hat the
full number have been reached in tins
way: but au appeal is now being made for
the funds necessary 10 employ twenty
more workers, when It is expected the
whole field viii Ike covered. At the an
nual meeting Of the Mission, iust held,
the missionary for the Bernondsey dis
trict said that the landlords and the land
ladies and uarmcn and harmaids Of public
houses were no better than men and wo-
men elsewhere. nor did ne think that they
were w0l~s. Ia the course Of visiting such
places for eleven years he had only been
told to leave the premises three times. lie
added. however. that OF two Of these occa-
sions he was not only told TO go, but was
thrown OAK. With reference TO
r5rI urrsE ~EArFrc