The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-04-18


At Charing Cross and Waterloo
there we're 100 men snatching eag-
erly chunks of bread and the bowls
of soup which the army officers kind
ly distributed. The police consta-
bles we're gentle and considerate, but
1t was a sad sight to see hungry men
marshalled to receive q charity. To
understand them adequately and
truly 1 ought to have been tramp
side by side with my fellow bank
rupts, and not a visitor looking on
from without.
Yet a number of men talked free
ly; one had tramped from Newcas-
tie expecting to find in London a
good job and a golden wage. In
stead he found a piece of bread and
a sip of soup on the Embankment.
Another had good, strong, swarthy
face, and l hazarded the remark that
he was not Londoner and discov-
cred that he was an Australian. Un-
fortunately he is not the only Colon
ial who has touched bottom in Lon
don.
Over twenty-five per cent. were
young men, many of them mere lads;
and the police officers confirmed the
opinion of the social experts who
maintain 1t is not misfortune that
brings this class to the doss house
and the Embankment. There was
one face knotty as a stunted oak on
some bleak hillside, which attracted
me by its black despair. Not only
did he sullenly refuse to reply, but
snappishly bade his comrades not to
answer our questions. He was per-
fectly right, and Immediately recog-
nized the higher voice, the voice of
humanity, and maybe the voice of
God, and at once deslsted from feed
ing a curiosity, howsoever we'll mean
ing and innocent, upon the wretched-
ness of my fellow men.
One of the Bloomsbury Sisters who
accompanied me called our attention
to an old man who had tainted at
one end of the long, sad line. He
lay full length on the steps of Water
loo Bridge, his head pillowed on a
cruel ledge Of stone. There was re-
finement in his face, and his white
beard was neatly trimmed. He was,
we learned, a graduate of Cambridge,
and had once been sent to the Uni
vesity as the pride and the hope OF q
cultured home. But forty years
have passed since then, and for the
past two nights he has been without
sleep and food, and has fallen on the
inhospitable stones without strength
to care to open his eyes any more.
The sister speaks to him. He opens
his eyes with languid Indifference,
but when he sees a kind, womanly,
Christlike face bending over him,
may be he mistakes it for one of the
faces OF long ago; anyhow he is
aroused. and comes back to tell his
sorrowful tale.
The case of these 100 men sug.
gests rich study in contrasts. BY
our side Is a dark river heaving Its
bosom like a living thing. with q
light reflected here and there like q
sinister CLEAN of a serpent's eye
Close at hand is the Hotel Cecil
where rich men fare sumptuously
every night, utterly regardless OF
Lazarus on the Embankment. Low
er down in Scotland Yard. where mil
lions are spent in tracking criminals
but not a penny in saving them. Be-
yond that the War Office. red with
gore and black with the waste OF
money enough to solve every socia
problem that troubles our land. Fur
ther still is the House of Commons
to which some of us look in great
hope, but whose existence has beer
completely erased from the horizon
of the men of the Embankment.
The one bright spot of hope is the
self-sacrifice of the Salvationists. Fol
the soup is handed round by volun
tary workers, workingmen who have
come all the way from Bermondsey
and give their nights rest and theil
kid labor in order to feed the hun
| cry and relieve the hapless. They
too, were once in the gutter, but the!
saw something, and that vision is the
secret of their sacrifice. One of then
told me how he had become a cyni,
and "moucher." He met {
clergyman when he was famishins
for food, who, instead of loaf. gave
| him a tract-"Thou shalt not live by
bread alone" He cursed the clergy
from that hour, and in the light o.
his experience his cursing was as hol!
as a paternostre. Not long after
ward he stood outside ring of opeI
air temperance workers he signed tn,
pledge, obtained a shilling, and be
came cadger. But he has now beer
on his feet for fifteen years and i
J doing magnificent work. If all tn
| Christians In London had the devo
tion and the sacrifice of these hum
BILE Salvationists the New Jerusalem
would ere now have come down OF
Holborn and the Strand prepared a
bride adorned for her husband"
The second night / dispensed wit
tie and collar and Overcoat and cuffs
and greatly enjoyed my emancipa
ton, as l dived down into one of tn
narrow streets of central London an
asked O bewildered and suspectin
constable for a doss house. / wen
in and took my kip" and had be
No. SS allotted to me. l had left al
the necessaries of life behind excep
a few pennies and a packet of tabs.
My first task was to get a light
which a gruff neighbor kindly CAV
me by holding the end of his pip
/ close To nv face NV second dificul