The Irish standard., 1909-01-23
An English Social Reormer the Rev. w. X. Greenland,
Says London is Ahead in Depravity, Extravagance
and Hypocrisy.
A CONCLUSION AFTER YEARS OF PATIENT STUDY
Thinks That the Modern Babylon Deserving of the Same
Fate Melted Out to the Wicked Cities Mentioned
@- in the Bible.

,cause I have never trodden their
streets actually. This hope to corr
rect next August when am trying to
| arrange to accept few engagements
at your great chautauqua gatherings.
Il may find Chicago end New York" :"
he continued, better or worse than
H. G. Wells, Donald Fraser and scores
of others have found them. but there is
one thing 1 am confident I cannot find
them, and that is-worse than London.
If they are not absolutely better, bad
| though they are, then someone has
been telling me fairy tales about the
United States all my life"
But the lives of :he people them
selves aside from the strictly moral
side'' he was asked. 'Is there not
more luxury and wealth squandering
in America and France than in Eng
land?"
"As to Londons pleasure" he an
swered, "look-at her, hotels which havs
multiplied 80 rapidly Lately; .tbeir- ex-
travagance in flowers. wines, dress. is
only Srivaled BY storfes of the luxuri-
GUS East in barbaric tirnes, or the car
nival in the sensuous revival Of the
Renaissance. Think of the amount
spent on pleasure in London on one
night in which almost all classes par
! ticipate. A woman confessed to my
sister at dinner not long ago that she
never wore dress vnder any circum-
stances that cost less than $3.50. It re-
Gently has been said that $4,000 year
for an English society wonan's dress
es is a very moderate allowance.
"Then, again." he continued, take
London's contempt for humanity.
Where are men and women so cheap?
If you ask for rise in wages you
are at once told that if an advertise
ment is put in the papers tomorrow
morning, there will be ESQ men at least
as well educated as you, not to say
better, clamoring at the doors to take
your job at considerably less money
than you now are .:eceiving. I have
been living close to Walthamstow,
which is clerkdom, md more tragic
locality hardly exists in the world. It
is the tragedy Of silk-hatted, frock-
coated, silk -bloused .espectability sup
porting itself and its ritiful little villa
or $3.50 a year, haunted by the terror
Of sickness and the coming on of the de-
vitalizing years. They dare not pro-
test lest they should lose the $3.50
and then, the abyss.
The only man in London who has
dared, in my memory, to tell anything
approximate to the truth in these mat
ters is r. j. 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 authentic 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" was
suggested, "that the English metropolis
is the most charitable place in the
world. Have you any views on this
point?"
Eyes, London is charitable" was the
response, "but it is philanthropy by
proxy. We give our money, not our
selves. We send subscriptions to
charitable institutions, but we would
not for the life of US do the actual
distributing. In all the churches and
preach for all denominations-ther
is an ill-concealed dislike Of the poor.
Here are numbers Of our great religi-
GUS men who give great sums to in
stitutional churches and the like, who
have made, and still are making, their
money by underpaying their employees.
At the cash desk tthey are business
men; at the charitable Organization
meetings they are philanthropists.
They knock their men and women