New-York tribune., 1903-04-05
TT W4S EVOLVED By THOMAS HOLMES 4 POLICE
COURT MISSIONARY LONDON.

one OF the effects Drink does, undoubtedly. in
the well-to-do. bring people down from sham
the son of q famous general officer himself once
holding commission in a crack regiment to
fighting with mis- dying boy for trinket. and.
on another day. to pitching the dead body on
the floor that he might pawn the blankets and
sheets; that is of my cases. But drink. the
problem of drink, must be looked on as an
effect of filthy garrets, monotonous labor and
starvation wages. We breed our drunkards. just
as we manufacture criminals. The begin
ming Of the cure, / feel confident is a tremen-
dous exodus from the poisonous slums and al
leys to the open country.
''Oh, the nonsense people talk about the poori
/ remember once famous woman coming down
to the East End, and telling audience Of her
hasgard sisters that of the things that
drove their husbands to the public house was
bad cooking And then-excellent souli-she
proceeded TO deliver a lecture pretty and ap-
petizing cookery. I could have screamed with
the irony Of it! longed to shout at her: Do
yoa know what the poor cook with? They cook
with saucepan. kettle. and a tin fork: de-
monstrate your dishes with their meanst But
half London is talking nonsense about the other
half People don't know; people won't trouble
TO know; they come to the problem with their
fast held theories ready made for the solution.
and they fit the problem to the theory They
don't want TO know the real shoddy.
But there are many ladies. of course doing
a great and silent work. Have you heard, to
take one instance which touches the subject of
the homeworxers, of the Farthfng League? A few
excellent ladies in Richmond consulted me
year ago on the subject of doing something for
the grounddown women, and the little Farthing
League is the result. The league asks ladies to
put into money box a farthing tax on every
yard and every article they purchase at the
diapers shops which has the usual &d. part
OF the price. Last year the league raised nearly
$40, and by this means 10I women sent
TO my Rest Home at Walton -on-the-NaZe for
two weeks holiday. and four for month. The
ages Of these varied from seventeen to some
thing near eighty, and TIE rate of their earnings
from 212d. an hour in the case of widow with
two children, to a penny an hour in the case of
an unhappy creature who thus kept body and
soul together by making tassels for umbrellas.
'By-the-bye j must tell you a little story
concerning this Rest Home. l sent down
a poor creature whom 1 had discovered nodding
off TO death over her matchbOxes. When she ar
rived she seemed dazed by the sight OF Gods
sea and the great wide laughing horizon. Some
Of us who were present watched her haggard
face and the lustTeless stare of her big cavern
Gus eyes: and as We looked we were puzzled TO
see that her hands, though striving to ex-
press her wonderrnent. worked ceaselessly and
cOnvulsively at her side This went so long
that gave up the theory of wonderTnent, and
presently discovered the truth. In front of the
sea, with the shrewd wind in her face. the noise
OF the the beach. and all about her
green downs and waving grasses-she was
making nlatchboxes.'