The morning call., 1893-11-07
VICE AND VIRTUE
Contrasts of the World S
Greatest City.
Evangelist Smiley Presents a Strik-
ing Picture of the Capital OF
the British Empire.


The PRESBYTERIAN Ministerial Union
held an open meeting in the Howard
Church yesterday morning, when. as had
been announced. Rev. Francis +. Smiley.
the evangelist from Philadelphia, who has
been in this city a week or two, read a
deeply interesting paper on 1.-The Evan
gelization OF Great City" London was
the city specially referred 10, but what
was said about it was designed to have a
bearing upon city evangeization in gen.
eral, and especially in San Francisco.
In hasty birdseye view which he gave
of London he spoke of it as the Linden
of the old Romans" which, from being
little more than collection of huts on a
dry spot in the midst of marsb." had
grown to be a city covering nearly 700
square miles, elm bracing over 40 900 acres.
and containing a population of 5000, 600
equal to that Of ten of the largest cities in
the United States or five of the largest in
the world. The city has 5000 miles of
streets, which are lighted by nearly mil
lion lamps. A child is born every three
minutes, and a death occurs in every five
minutes; and such is the rapid increase of
the population that 100000 are added every
year.
1t is a city of superlatives. where the
richest and the poorest are to be seen, and
things the most sacred and the most pro-
fame are found; plenty and poverty. intelli-
gence and ignorance, purity and vice stand
in striking antithesis. The average citizen
of the West End is as ignorant of his
neighbor at the East End as he is of the
inha bitants Of Thibet. and between West
minister and Whitechapel hardly any in
tercOurSe whatever exists.
1t Is a city Of contrasts; 500, 900 are said
TO wake up every morning not knowing
whence their food for the day is to
come, and yet the waste from the tables of
the rich would feed them all. One night
seventeen men and women were counted
sleeping on the stone pavement of West
minister bridge, and on the same night $50,
or $500, was naid for box al fash on
able opera. The cost of two bouquets at
drawing room" exceeded the yearly in-
come of one of the oldest and most agrees
sive evangelstic societies in the kingdom.
1t is a city Of extremes. Walk through
the West End, where money is freely
spent and fashion is layishly displayed :;
then turn TO the East End, with its murky
docks, its narrow streets. its dirty pur-
iieus and its reeking tenements, and one
can hardly realize that he is in the same
city.
The agencies of the devil abound, and
are active night and day. Intemperauce
and pauperism are fearfully prevalent. In
one street every sixth house is q grOgShOp
and 1000 persons were seen to enter Il
single one of these places on Saturday
night; 92, 52S destitute ones were relieved
by the authorities in one week. The prev
alence of criminality is startling. London
is resp0D sible for third of the crime in
the tire kingdom. The social evil is ap-
I 81
counted among the popula ton. The over
crowding is almost inevitable; 1913, 900 fam.
lilies, some of them containing six or eight
members, live there, each family in a
single room, and in one district covering
only three acres 1907 human beings are
compelled to exist.
But the picture of London has a bright
side. 1t contains 1000 places OF public
worship. many Of which are open for re-
lgIous services every day in the year.
From some OF these evangelistic bands go
out to conduct services at mission stations
in theaters, In concert halls and in the
open air. Both readers and missionaries
go to the houses of the poor and the me-
elected, and special work is organized for
the spiritual benefit of the firemen, the
police, the soldiers. the river toilers, and
others. The London City Mission Society
employs 500 paid missionaries, and ex-
ponds for the work which ii maintains
nearly $3.50, 600 year.
The results of these efforts and the out
lay attending them are very encouraging.
During the past few years marked i'm
provement among those in whose behalf
the work is done has been observed, and
the determination to preserve it is stronger
than ever.
After the reading of the paper remarks
were made by several members of the
union, among them Rev. Messrs. Adams,
Bevier. Woodwork and Rhodes, and by
Rev. F. b. Pulan and Rev. F. E. Smith of
the Congregational Club, as well as Rev.
w. b. Lucas. DID,, of New York. j. G.
Chown of the Christian Union Mission, s.
Patterson ana John Martin were among
the speakers, the last two having formerly
lived in London. Mr.. Martin said he was
born not very far from Whitechapel, and
was familiar with many of the facts pre-
sented by MIR. Smiley. He testified spe.
cially to the good results following from
the efforts TO evangelize the lower slope of
that city. 1t seemed to be the impression
that something OF the kind ought TO be
undertaken in this city, where that field
for it is open cannot be denied.