Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-23
RESCUE WORK In LONDON
Mrs. Chant Tells Of What Has Been
Accomplished.
CHURCH OF TODAY NttoSAcTIvs WORKER;
Labors should lie Devoted to Fash
ionnble Quarters, us Well ms
to the slums of Great
Cities.

former, whose work has attracted no little
attention in this country, spoke before a
good-sized audience last evening at Unity
church on RESCUE Work in London Be
fore the lecture Mrs. b. II. Whitney sang
beautiful solo, Emmanuel" in a most
pleasing manner.
In her Introductory remarks, Mrs. Chant
said that it might be asked what relation
there could possibly be between rescue work
in London and affairs in Omaha. In answer
the lecturer said that she had observed a
most cordial interest throughout this country,
no less in Omaha than elsewhere, in the
work of England, and especially in what
ever concerned truth and righteousness. II
believe there is more interest taken in the
work among the slums in LondCn in this
country than there is in many parts Of Eng
land ITSELF" added the speaker.
Mrs. Chant declared that as prevention was
better than cure, so the responsibility OF
Christian people became greater. She as
serted that vice was by no means confined
to the slums, and that there was dire need
of rescue work in the more fashionable quar-
ters of London. She thought that too many
churches were sleeping along the road to
heaven, while the worshippers slept in COM
Portable pews. The church of today she
urged, needed to take a more active work in
rescue of the fallen. The church stood for
refuge for all men and women, as protest
against vice, and as turning point in the
lives of men and women away from the dark
shadows of their own lives to the truer and
nobler life, as found in the example Of
Christ.
A SOCIETY OF ONE MEMBER.
Mrs. Chant said she represented a society
which had for twenty-seven years consisted
OF one member That one member had been
president, secretary, treasurer and com
CIa had
never had any experience in rescue work
never read book or heard a sermon on the
subject. But one night she was going home,
in London, when she saw a policeman shak-
ing a girl roughly. She had been president
OF the London Peace society, but her peace
had always been of a very aggressive kind
When she saw any one oppressed her peace
was apt to rise in arms. She and the police
man had a scuffle, and in the end she had
the girl and the policeman was gone. She
had the girl, but she didn't know what to do
with her, for she herself was in lodgings,
not in her own home. Together they
walked down the street, searching for
lodging for the night: and the only one they
could find to take the girl in was a blind
woman.
Society had used more common sense to-
ward the man sinner than the woman.
Society had given him a chance to right
himself. That was the best way to help
redeem any person. But society had Away:
banded itself to keep down the woman who
had once fallen down. She felt like a
hypocrite to make such an address, because
she stood before the audience as If the only
sinners were among women. Sometime when
society came to a realizing sense that sin
on the side Of sex was just as debasing and
degrading to men as to women; just as
lowering to the character just great a
drag on growth and progress, then society
would cease to be obliged to fight the terrible
Il Ial t,ta 1nrI lie n,,f fHr nil, ntnn,
years. since her married life, her door had
always stood open for the outcast. There
a prophets chamber" in that house which
was seldom without its occupant.
II otter wonder why men do not see."
said she, " what they can do for their wives
They can make them so noble, or they can
keep them in such little, narrow rut. I'm
not much in favor of men setting out to do
rescue work among women. They had bet
ter address themselves to the rescue OF their
own sex, who, in truth, need 1t greatly"
Mrs. Chant then gave a descript on of tho
London slums. Remember" said she that
the people who go there to live don't make
the slums. The people who own them and
who take the rents for them are the people
who make the slums. If you want to keep
Omaha free from slums. you. must keep out
the people who make them: and they are
the people who care for nothing but money,
no matter where it comes from
Mrs. Chant then told of the long fight
over the raising of he age Of consent.
1T has been the deepest disgrace to Eng
no higher than 13. If Stead did nothing
else. he reused the whole of England with
his passionate pen. so that the criminal law
amendment was passed.
WORK OF PREVENTION. t,s'
"It is not rescue work that counts: it IS
prevention work. And while ] am doing res
cue work and the women of Omaha are do
~ hax, rtrl,t to audi
that the law shall not be manufacturing
fresh victims for our efforts Shame on the
one who says that women who are doing
rescue work have nothing to do with poll
tics When l am engaged in such work is
the time when / should be in the closest and
most intimate connection with the political
life OF my country"
After the passage of the new law In regard
to the age of consent England formed ma
tional vigilance committee to see that the
law was executed. The first case, Mrs. Chant
took in charge, and going to one OF the gildel
and high-toned dens of vice Of London, with
the copy of the new law in her hand, she
rescued child of Is, who had been inveigled
into the place. The law made retention IN
such house a crime punishable with TWO
years at hard labor.
"London is much improved" said Mrs.
Chant. 1T is bad enough, but there has
been an honest. easrnest effort to minim-
ize the temptations which draw the girls
to the streets"
She spoke of the sweat shops, where girls |
work from s In the morning till at night |
without fire in winter, for $2.25 week. The
girls had walked miles, perhaps, to reach |
the place of work, probably in pouring rain |
and snow. and then had to SIT all day IN |
the cold These poor girls sewed all day |
and they looked at the other girls each max |
ing perhaps 60 week in that other life Was |
there any wonder that their strength failed? |
II will not say that girls are driven to sin |
by low wages" said the speaker, because |
II would be a libel and an insult to the |
thousands of girls who meet their poverty |
ike heronies-the mute, suffering martyrs
,f civilization. But If a girl has any weak
ness in her nature, God must be pitful in
Iced to keep her from falling Sometimes
hey slip because of the temptations met in
heir places of amusement. And 1t is
most abominable shame that young men and
women must be dragged to their death at
he places where they go to seek amusement
For amusement Is such necessity to the
,oung. They must have 1t, and they Will
lave 1t.
''This sin is no worse than any other" the
peaker continued. "It is no more sinful to sin
n the flesh than to sin in the intellect, and be
mean and dishonest, and cheat and rob, and
njure your fellow men, your community and