The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-04-29
The Worlds Wickedest City.


dresses Is a very moderate allow
ance.
Then, again." he continued. "tare
Londons contempt for humanity
Where are men and women so cbeano
II you ask for rise in wages YOU are
told at once that If an advertisement
is put in the papers tomorrow morn.
ing there will be 250 men NJ Ieasr
as well educated as you, not TO saw
better, clamoring at the doors to take
your job at considerably less money
than you are receiving. l have been
living close to Walthamstow. which
Is clerkdom, and a more tragic local.
ity hardly exists in the world. It is
the tragedy of silk-hatted. frock.
coated, silk-bloused responsibility
supporting itself and its pitiful little
villa on $3.50 a year, tainted by the
terror Of sickness and the coming-on
OF the deyitalizing years. They dare
not protest lest they should lose the
S45O-and then, the abyss.
The only man in London who has
dared in my memory to tell ANYTHING
approximate to the truth in these
matters is r. ]. Campbell, and he is
hated and denounced accordingly. for
in my humble judgment, his voice is
the most Christian, not to say the
only voice in London with the authen-
tic ring of Nazareth and the Sermon
on the Mount in It. This is quite
apart from my attitude on the New
Theology"
1T is generally supposed, despite
all that you say against London" |
suggested, that the English metrop-
oils is the most charitable place in
the world. Have you any views on
this point?"
Yes, London is charitable" was
the response, but it is philanthropy
by proxy. We give our money, not
ourselves. We send subscriptions to
charitable institutions, but we would
not for the life of us do the actual
distributing. In all the churches
and l preach for all denomination
there Is an ill-concealed dislike of the
poor. There are numbers of our
great religious men, who give great
sums to institutional churches and
the like, who have made, and still
are making, their money by under
paying their employees. At the cash
desk they are business men; at the
charitable organization meetings they
are philanthropists They knock
their men and women down relent-
lessly, then with blare of trumpets
give $4,000 for the work of picking
them up. There never has been a
city on the earth before where bust
ness is business has been more trl-
umphantly the absolute, unyarying
rule and motto.
zone Of the most generous men to
churches in London I have ever
known, who thought nothing Of CIV
ing $500 to a building scheme for
new schoolroom, and spends two
hours Of every morning before break
fast in reading Thomas a Kempis,
dismissed his governess, who he ad-
mitted was the soul of the domestic
smoothness of his house, and who
was adored by his wife and children,
because she asked that he would add
$50 to the annual salary of 500
which he was paying her. He said
he could not afford 1t, though his
name is at this moment on one of the
largest commercial undertakings in
London and on scores Of foundation
stones in religious buildings. This
story is true because the girl is my
sister.
For its size and population no
city is more irreligious than London.
Only one in seven Of its population
attends any place Of worship, There
are many parts of London where