BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES.
 
 A COSTERMONGER.
 
 5" 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE EOMANCE OF THE STREETS, 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 r p; 
 
 Utb a |3rtfatorn Jtotitt bg the 
 EIGHT HON. THE EAEL OF SHAFTESBUEY, E.G. 
 
 HODDEE AND STOUGHTON, 
 
 PATEENOSTEB KOW. 
 1873.
 
 Several of the chapters of this work having previously 
 appeared in a ivell-known periodical, some editorial notes by 
 Mr. Spurgeon have been retained. 
 
 fXWIS BROTHERS, PRINTERS BY WATER POWER, CHILWORTH, SURREY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 GOLDEN LANE 
 
 11 
 
 THE. TAVEENS OF PADDINGTON 
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MAEKETEES 
 
 139 
 
 2137762
 
 viii CONTEXTS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON 179 
 
 v. 
 LONDON BOUGHS , 215 
 
 art 2, dfoi 
 
 A DAY WITH THE MEDICAL MISSION 241 
 
 n. 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE 275
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 HE Author of the following 
 pages is one of those valuable 
 men abundant now, compared with the 
 past who, by devoting their talents and 
 their energies to the investigation of 
 human life particularly in its lowest 
 forms contribute largely to enlighten 
 the public mind on the perils that 
 threaten society, and on the remedies 
 that may yet be applied to them. 
 
 I first had the pleasure of making his
 
 2 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 acquaintance at a Costermongers' Meet- 
 ing in Golden Lane of which fraternity 
 I am, myself, a member, and I re- 
 ceived from him, then, a book called 
 * The Komance of the Streets.' The 
 present volume is a continuance of those 
 narratives, lively, forcible, picturesque, 
 and true ; in which last expression lies 
 a mighty claim on all, for its purchase 
 and perusal. 
 
 A claim, I maintain, is conveyed in 
 the word ' true ' - - for though I admit 
 the great and lasting benefit conferred 
 by Charles Dickens in his accurate and 
 unrivalled representations of the poorer 
 classes, and his unbounded sympathy for 
 suffering humanity ; yet they rested on 
 a general experience, and appeared in 
 the form of fiction. Here, on the con-
 
 PREFACE. 3 
 
 trary, the statements are facts ; and if 
 we go into the districts specified, one 
 will see the very people, hear the very 
 words, and stand on the very spots, set 
 out in detail in the work before us. 
 
 Most persons have read ' Poor Jack,' 
 by the celebrated De Foe a wonderful 
 work, collectively true as to its several 
 instances, though perhaps not the history 
 of a single individual. If De Foe had 
 found, in his day, a response to his appeal 
 on behalf of neglected children, such as 
 we hope may yet be found in ours, 
 England would have been spared much 
 sorrow and much degradation. 
 
 Now, one conclusion that we must, 
 
 all of us, arrive at, either after reading 
 
 these papers, or by visiting the people 
 
 themselves I answer at least for myself 
 
 2 *
 
 4 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 -is that, looking to all the hopes of 
 time and of eternity, we discover as good 
 materials for labour and for harvest, 
 among these forgotten classes, as we see 
 in any other condition of life. 
 
 The pursuit of knowledge under diffi- 
 culties has always been bepraised and 
 justly so but why should not the pur- 
 suit of an honest livelihood amid great 
 temptations be alike admired? Both 
 are great moral efforts, but I am in- 
 clined to think that the poor painstaking 
 Costermonger, proof against enticements 
 to fraud and falsehood, is, on the whole, 
 the better citizen of the two. Litera- 
 ture may adorn a nation, but the upright- 
 ness of its citizens is its bulwark. 
 
 These records, and those by other 
 writers in the same field, such as Mr.
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 Weylland, of the London City Mission,* 
 exhibit the presence and influence of 
 industry, perseverance, intelligence, and 
 probity, to a far larger extent, among 
 the rougher tribes of London, than most 
 people are aware of. All these qualities 
 may be called forth, amplified, and con- 
 firmed, by a considerate attention to the 
 desires, the necessities, and the peculiar 
 position, of these remarkable classes. 
 
 If their confidence be won and won 
 it may be by consistent kindness they 
 will listen to the word of advice, and 
 act upon it; they will hail the spiritual, 
 as well as the temporal, counsellor ; and 
 hymns of praise and prayer may be heard 
 in the back slums of Whitechapel and 
 St. Luke's, as fervent and as true pos- 
 
 * " The Book and the Man," a most interesting work.
 
 G 11 YEW AYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 sibly more so as in the Metropolitan 
 Cathedral of St. Paul's. 
 
 Very enormous segments of our London 
 population are now under the guidance 
 and care of individual Missions ; and 
 it is to one of these, Mr. Orsman's in 
 Golden Lane, to which the Author mainly 
 directs the public attention. 
 
 The account of the rise, condition, and 
 progress of these Missions, would be a 
 deeply interesting and most curious chap- 
 ter in the interior history of England. 
 At present we can say no more of them 
 than that they are some sixty or seventy 
 in number ; that tens of thousands, but 
 for such efforts, would never be taught 
 in the word of God, never hear the lan- 
 guage of sympathy, or enjoy a helping 
 hand. Their founders and conductors
 
 PREFACE. 1 
 
 are called ' Self-constituted,' and ' In- 
 truders' on the sacred office. For my own 
 part, I love trie text of our blessed Lord 
 ' By their fruits ye shall know them.' 
 And if supplication and thanksgiving, 
 purity and peace, faith and assurance, in 
 many hearts, be fruits according to the 
 Gospel, these ' Intruders ' require no 
 other proof of their real and effective 
 ordination. 
 
 To carry on the secular part of these 
 operations after an alms-giving fashion, 
 would be the ruin of the people ; but the 
 missionaries and writers, such as the 
 Author of the present volume, advise 
 and practice a very different course. 
 The whole system proceeds on the trite 
 and well-known rule, ' Aid those who 
 aid themselves.'
 
 8 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Doubtless, in the various occupations 
 of the working-sort, there are various 
 methods of assistance, hut Loan-funds 
 are beneficial in them all. Petty sums 
 so advanced, recover many, start many, 
 and maintain many, in the career of a 
 decent livelihood. 
 
 To insist on speedy and punctual re- 
 payment by small instalments, no inte- 
 rest being demanded; and on the co- 
 responsibility of a security, gives to the 
 whole an air of business, and preserves 
 the right relations of debtor and creditor. 
 The gratitude of the recipients is a suffi- 
 cient proof of the moral results of these 
 institutions. 
 
 I see our Author records the definition 
 of a 'Coster,' as given by himself 'A 
 Coster,' said his informant, 'is a cove
 
 PREFACE. 9 
 
 wot works werry 'ard for a werry poor 
 livinV This is the definition of no end 
 of small traders among the four millions 
 of our amazing metropolis. Our object 
 should be not so much to reduce the 
 labour, as to make it remunerative. And 
 here it is that a little opportune help 
 enables these enterprising people to avail 
 themselves of times, and secure markets 
 and merchandize. And while they are 
 quick and bold to labour for ' the meat 
 that perisheth,' not a few of them, we 
 are thankful to say, are ready to acknow- 
 ledge that ' Man doth not live by bread 
 alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
 out of the mouth of God.' 
 
 SHAFTE^BURY. 
 
 CASTLE WEMYSS, 
 
 WEMYSS BAY, 
 
 August Zoth, 1873.
 
 PART I. LONDON. 
 
 i. 
 GOLDEN LANE.
 
 I. 
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 
 
 EESOXS who have not seen some- 
 thing of the every-day life of Golden- 
 lane' and Whitecross-street, and the 
 working of Mr. Orsman's mission a valuable 
 mission in that remarkable neighbourhood, 
 cannot say that they have really seen the great 
 world of London. Passing along Old-street, 
 the passenger comes suddenly upon the dingy 
 entrance to the thoroughfares named, and if he 
 have an eye to take in what is archseologically 
 picturesque, he will surely find something in 
 the close frowning streets to repay a passing
 
 14 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 inspection. There is always something about 
 ancient roadways which, though not easily de- 
 fined, seems to bid strangers linger, and learn 
 what is there to be told about the past ; and 
 notwithstanding the abounding squalor and 
 misery, we may learn many lessons also, such 
 as may be turned to account in the present 
 day. 
 
 ' Moved by the highest considerations,' says 
 Mr. Orsman, ' I was led, in April, 1861, to 
 devote my leisure time, after office hours, to 
 the hard task of evangelising the benighted 
 costermongers, itinerant street - traders, and 
 others, who herd together by thousands in the 
 area circumscribed by Goswell-street, Old-street, 
 Bunhill-row, and Chiswell-street. The district 
 was in a terrible state of degradation, when, 
 with the word of God in my hand and a bundle 
 of " The British Workman " under my arm, 
 I commenced the crusade against sin. In my 
 first visits to these people I was compelled to
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 15 
 
 witness the grossest immoralities, and to hear 
 the foulest language from the lips of young 
 and old. There were " Twopenny hopping- 
 cribs," in which, stimulated by drink, the young 
 of both sexes joined; drunken fights and rob- 
 beries with violence were of daily occurrence. 
 The sanitary condition of the district was equally 
 bad. The alleys reeked with the foul refuse 
 of fish and vegetables, and the open drains 
 polluted the air, spreading disease far and 
 wide. 
 
 ' Notwithstanding we have lived to see a mar- 
 vellous change for good come over the district 
 in. which we labour, there is much, very much 
 yet to be done. Infidelity, with the notorious 
 Bradlaugh as its leader, has its head-quarters 
 in our midst ; low beer-shops and public-houses 
 are flauntingly attractive at almost every corner ; 
 the courts and alleys are still crowded with 
 unhealthy hovels, and swarm with men, women, 
 and children.
 
 16 BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 1 Beyond Golden-lane, which is inhabited en- 
 tirely by persons living daily from hand to 
 mouth, the condition of the masses of St. 
 Luke's, as of other districts in London, is a 
 subject for very anxious thought. High wages 
 and low morals ; political liberty of the widest 
 kind; thousands of working men of various 
 trades banding themselves together for " strikes ;" 
 open and secret sceptical and republican clubs 
 jointly springing up on every side ; the spread 
 of Jesuitical Ritualism; the growing profanation 
 of the Lord's-day, and the utter indifference 
 of the people to vital godliness, call for the 
 most lively sympathy and earnest action on the 
 part of every true Christian throughout the land. 
 
 ' These masses must be leavened by the 
 Gospel ; but what are we among so many ? 
 " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the 
 labourers are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord 
 of the harvest that He will send more labourers 
 into His harvest."
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 17 
 
 ' The Eeports contain much interesting in- 
 formation on the various classes who earn 
 precarious livelihoods, and sketches of coster- 
 monger and itinerant street-trade life, as well 
 as the method of our Evangelistic work among 
 them, which has been, and is still carried on 
 in entire dependence on God to supply all our 
 needs through His children. No collector is 
 employed, and all donations are promptly ac- 
 knowledged in writing to the sender. The 
 accounts are carefully kept and audited by 
 well-qualified gentlemen, and the books are 
 always open for the inspection of friends in- 
 terested in our work. Many donors have 
 personally visited us, as well as friends from 
 America and the Continent, whom we are 
 always glad to see.' 
 
 Here then is Golden-lane. Perhaps the dis- 
 trict should be doubly interesting in the eyes 
 of Christian philanthropists, because of its not 
 being a thoroughly bad neighbourhood in the 
 3
 
 18 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 criminal sense. The densely-packed courts are 
 not mere refuges for bad characters, as one 
 might judge from appearances; for in a great 
 part they are occupied by costermongers and 
 street- sellers, or, as they would call themselves, 
 general dealers. These costers are a hard- 
 working, patient, enduring class, accustomed to 
 making many shifts when times are 'quiet,' or 
 when the commodities they deal in command 
 prices in the open market which suit neither 
 the coster's .capital nor the pockets of his 
 humble customers. Dr. Johnson defined ' cos- 
 termonger ' as ' a person who sells apples.' 
 A more trustworthy authority on such a ques- 
 tion a citizen of Mr. Orsman's territory 
 summarily sets aside the lexicographer's inter- 
 pretation as a popular error of the Georgian 
 era. In fact, he declares ' a person who sells 
 apples ' to be * all gammon,' and then conr 
 siderately explains that a coster is 'a cove wot 
 works werry 'ard for a werry poor livin', and
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 19 
 
 is always a bein' hinterfered with, and blowed 
 up, and moved hon, and fined, and sent to 
 quod by the beaks and bobbies.' But if in this 
 degenerate age this useful class are accustomed 
 to hard work, hard fare, and hard usage, they 
 are at least able to lay claim to a lineage 
 ancient, if not proud. Thus we are told by one 
 journalist, that 'the costerrnongers of Golden- 
 lane and Whitecross-street are the direct de- 
 scendants of the " costard-mongers " mentioned 
 by Ben Jonson and his contemporaries, and 
 of the street traders who, in after years, fur- 
 nished such abundant material for the pencil 
 of Hogarth. There are costerrnongers in 
 Whitecross-street who can trace their descent 
 in an almost unbroken line to the time when 
 Golden-lane was lined with hedge-rows, beyond 
 which were green fields and smiling gardens, 
 amid which the sightless author of " Paradise 
 Lost " loved to stroll, when staying at his resi- 
 dence in Barbican, close by. There exists a 
 3 *
 
 20 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 curious resemblance in form and feature be- 
 tween the costermonger of St. Luke's and 
 many of the street traders in Hogarth's 
 pictures, for to this day the "costers" pre- 
 serve many of their old characteristics, not 
 the least marked being their intense dislike of 
 the police, who have replaced the old "Charlies," 
 a feeling which is duly reciprocated by the 
 blue-coated representatives of the law. In 
 olden time the costers who now" throng White- 
 cross-street were spread over the City, and had 
 stalls in Fore-street, Grub-street, Bedcross- 
 street, and other City thoroughfares, - but as 
 the value of City property increased, and the 
 need for keeping the principal streets free from 
 obstruction became more and more urgent, the 
 costermongers and street traders were driven 
 back step by step until they reached White- 
 cross-street, so that this part of London has 
 become the metropolis for costermongerdom.' 
 The coster of London who succeeds at his
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 21 
 
 calling will often be found to possess a shrewd 
 business head. He may not have mastered 
 the arts of reading and writing ; but, while 
 perambulating the London markets, his quick 
 eye readily fixes on whatever will turn his 
 penny. When times are good i. e., when 
 goods are cheap it is his delight to attend 
 Covent-garden, Spitalfields, or Billingsgate, 
 rather late in the morning, and after the 
 regular tradesmen are served, to clear away 
 the remnants at a cheap rate. Thus it often 
 happens that dealers who are obliged to pur- 
 chase before a certain hour, find themselves 
 in competition with sellers who are able to 
 retail at a profit goods equal in quality to 
 those in the shops, but at a reduced rate. 
 The coster, however, is a good servant of the 
 poor, and of the lower middle-class generally. 
 He can live on smaller profits than the shop- 
 keeper, and when a glut occurs in the market, 
 he quickly distributes goods with which his
 
 22 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 more powerful rivals would not care to trouble 
 themselves. 
 
 Golden - lane, then, is the metropolis of 
 the nation of costers ; and Mr. Orsman, the 
 voluntary evangelist of the province, is a 
 potentate whose mere word goes forth with 
 more authority among the natives than the 
 strongest official menaces. China - yard is, 
 perhaps, the most famous rendezvous of the 
 street- sellers, and our frontispiece represents 
 the costermonger in his every day aspect. 
 Very recently I passed some hours with Mr. 
 Orsman and his chosen constituents, when 
 I saw sufficient to verify the correctness of 
 reports previously heard concerning the great 
 evangelistic work in progress. It was Monday 
 evening, and after seven o'clock the mission 
 station began to show signs of life. Into one 
 room persons of the costermongering type 
 were passing to pay hard-won deposits into 
 the penny bank, and the business transacted
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 23 
 
 proved the existence of thrift and foresight 
 among the poor, engendered by Christianity, 
 such as was not known in Golden -lane a 
 dozen years ago, and which the majority of 
 our friends would not have supposed any 
 agency could have awakened. Poor women 
 came with their scanty savings, while many 
 pence and small silver coins were brought by 
 children. In one instance a man over seventy 
 years of age was found making a provision 
 against the time when he would be entirely 
 laid" aside by infirmity. As a supplement to 
 the bank, ' The Emily Fund ' * lends capital, 
 
 * Em'ly ain't a gal ; Em'ly is the name of a fund 
 at the Golden -lane Mission wot the wimmen an' gals 
 borrers from. I thinks this is 'ow it cum'd about. 
 Our President, the Earl, 'ad as good a wife as ever trod 
 a pair o' shoes, an' wen she died, poor crittur, an' went 
 til 'even, the Earl, insted o' tryin' tu forget her, as a 
 good menny does he sez tu his sons an' dorters, I 
 forgets their names, he sez, ' Supposin' we giv sum 
 money tu the Water-cress sellers' Mishun, an' Mr. 
 Orsman's Mishun, tu lend out without any interest tu 
 the wimmen wots 'ard up tu bi stock with, an' call it
 
 24 BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 free of interest, to female street-sellers. This 
 charity is named after, and is established in 
 memory of, the late Countess of Shaftesbury ; 
 
 the Em'ly Fund, arter Mrs. Shaftesbury.' An' a werry 
 good fund it is tu. It's 'elped nearly fifty pepel alreddy, 
 an' will 'elp hundreds if all pays back wot they borrers. 
 Sum on 'em sells wegitabels an' greenstuff; some sells 
 coke ; sum, chumps o' wood ; sum, creases ; sum, flowers ; 
 an' I sees ole Mary the 'erb 'ooman ez got suffink, an' 
 Jinny wot sells Cow-heels (the name of the alley were 
 I used tu hang out), an' sheep's trotters. This ez bin 
 one of the wust winters I ever seed, an' no mistake : 
 wot with coals at seven pounds for tuppens-ha'penny ; 
 an' meat an' all sorts o' things werry dear, most on us 
 ez 'ed tu part with our stock money tu bi grub with, 
 an' so our missuses cant go out as they used tu, cos 
 there's nothink tu go out with. But God is good, and 
 when He shuts up one door He opens another. On 
 cors there's them pepel wot lends a quid (a 1), from 
 Friday tu Sunday nite, wen yer pays it back with a bob 
 (Is.), for interest. If a chap borrers a 1 every week 
 for a year, he ez to pay .2 12s. interest for it. I likes 
 yer fund, cos ther's nothink tu pay for interest. I wishes 
 there wos a great many more Earls o' Shaftesbury tu 
 'elp us poor corsters wen we are doun on our luck : that's 
 the rite sort o' religun tu 'elp them wot trise to 'elp 
 themselfs. Coster Jack in The Golden Lane Mission 
 Magazine.
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 25 
 
 and is a valuable agency much appreciated 
 by the poor women and girls for whose 
 special benefit it was instituted. To linger 
 in the ante-room after the bank business has 
 closed, is to see divers eager applicants for 
 this coveted boon, which effectively teaches 
 the poor to help themselves. 
 
 But what chiefly concerns us to-night is 
 not anything belonging to banks or charities ; 
 not even the devotional meeting in the large 
 room, where fervently earnest prayers by 
 poor women and others are offered, and some 
 hymns are sweetly rendered we have to 
 attend a meeting of costers in one of the 
 lower apartments of the mission house. 
 This interesting assembly is composed of 
 the members of ' The London Union of 
 General Dealers,' who meet here this evening 
 for the first time. The reason why the men 
 have found their way into this hospitable 
 shelter will need a word of explanation. Late
 
 2G BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIFY. 
 
 in the autumn of last year the vestry of St. 
 Luke's purposed issuing an edict forbidding 
 the costermongering fraternity any longer to 
 trade in Whitecross-street ; and probably the 
 vestry would have carried out its great idea 
 had it not been for the timely advice and 
 representations of Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. 
 Orsman. It may be remembered that when 
 news of the parish magnates having relented 
 gained currency, the extravagantly - expressed 
 joy of the poor people astonished many to 
 whom the good things of life come too regu- 
 larly for them always to remember their grati- 
 tude to the Giver. Out of the excitement of 
 that time sprang the benefit and protection 
 club referred to above. Many of the men 
 would have liked to identify this club with 
 the mission, had not circumstances fought 
 against them. One of the principal promoters 
 of the movement was a far-gone atheist, and, 
 as a speaker explained, this gentleman gave
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 27 
 
 his compeers distinctly to understand that 'he 
 would 'ave nothink wotever to do with the 
 business if the naeetins wos 'eld at a niisshun 
 'all.' Thus for the sake of securing the valued 
 services of this enlightened coadjutor, the little 
 society turned its back on Mr. Orsman's station, 
 and took up its abode as a club at a public- 
 house hard by. Evil consequences followed. 
 The atheist and his employers soon disagreed, 
 and not without reason, for he used them ill 
 and served them badly. Thus, after having 
 their books and general business plunged into 
 a state of confusion, from which it will require 
 both time and patience to extricate them, the 
 deluded costers were glad to accept Mr. Ors- 
 man's offer to enjoy the use of a room every 
 Tuesday night, free of all charges. 
 
 Entering the meeting with Mr. Orsman, I 
 find a goodly number already gathered, and 
 others arrive until the room is crowded. It is 
 a costers' business meeting purely and simply.
 
 28 B7EWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Though no intoxicants of any kind are allowed 
 to enter, a conveniently situated cupboard is 
 seen to be amply furnished with ginger-beer, 
 lemonade, and cake ; and these refreshments are 
 served out by a stout custodian as fast as the 
 gentlemen present choose to hand over the 
 reasonable charge of a penny for a bottle or a 
 slice respectively. As Mr. Orsman merely looks 
 in as a visitor, he takes no active part in the 
 proceedings ; but his countenance and advice 
 are so eagerly sought and valued by the men, 
 that he cannot easily get away again. Before 
 the business meeting begins, a running conver- 
 sation is kept up, the ruling genius among the 
 costers being a thick-set, cleanly-looking dealer, 
 who answers to the name of Wilkins. Wilkins 
 appears to wield a certain authority, besides 
 which he is a man who enjoys considerable 
 popularity among his order as a speaker in 
 public and as an adviser in general. When 
 Wilkins, distrusting his own judgment, requires
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 29 
 
 counsel's advice, he removes his hat, rises to his 
 feet, and addresses Mr. Orsman. It is true that 
 he lays no claim to the possession of oratorical 
 gifts, and so exemplifies a humility which must 
 be quite affecting to his more lowly neighbours ; 
 but as we are informed in significant tones, 
 Mr. Wilkins can speak his mind when 'the 
 shoe pinches.' As there is a general talk about 
 barrows, Mr. Orsman takes the opportunity of 
 explaining the working of the excellent club 
 connected with the mission. It is an immense 
 advantage to a street-dealer if he can command 
 a vehicle of his own, and therefore it is now 
 shown how the needful capital of seventy shil- 
 lings may be saved. Seventy shillings did Mr. 
 Orsman say ? He must please remember that 
 barrows, even, have ' gone up.' Nay, he is 
 informed somewhat authoritatively by Wilkins, 
 and by others who second that gentleman's 
 affirmation, that, f A good barrer now costs 
 four pound, and from that to four pun' ten.'
 
 30 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 There is one enviable individual present who 
 has actually paid ' seven pound ' for his barrow ; 
 and the proud smile of self-appreciation, not to 
 say of condescension, with which he communi- 
 cates the fact, shows that the aristocracy of 
 street-traders understand something of the re- 
 spect due to themselves and to their position in 
 life. The * seven pound barrer ' has expensive 
 appliances for carrying fire-wood, not required 
 by ordinary traffickers. 
 
 ' But, Wilkins, you are chairman of this meet- 
 ing, take your place,' says Mr. Orsman, putting 
 an end to minor discussions. The gentleman 
 addressed now steps to the front, and, with a 
 glass of ginger-beer on his right hand, pro- 
 ceeds to business. That Wilkins is a power 
 among costers is self-evident. The company 
 drink in his words as coming from one who, 
 both by native ability and by acquired talents, 
 is qualified to occupy the position of ' cheerman 
 to this society.' In quite a straightforward
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 31 
 
 manner, the difficulties into which the club has 
 been plunged by its late atheistical secretary 
 are explained, and Mr. Wilkins vents his indig- 
 nation in a manner calculated to show that 
 the laws against libel are not respected by his 
 order. When anything hits exceptionally hard 
 it is welcomed by vociferous acclamations, such 
 as shake the house, and obliging the chairman 
 to take breathing time, also allows of some at- 
 tention being given to the ginger-beer on the 
 right. Nor is the applause less deafening when 
 anything pleasing is spoken, as for example, 
 when Mr. Wilkins proposes that ' the Herl ' be 
 requested to honour the society by becoming 
 president, and that Mr. Orsman also honour 
 them by becoming treasurer. But there is one 
 sombre difficulty lagging in the back-ground, 
 as yet not alluded to a secretary is wanted ! 
 If the poor fellows crowding this room only 
 possessed those master gifts with which secre- 
 taries are supposed to be endowed, how hotly
 
 32 13 YE WAYS OF TWO* CITIES. 
 
 would this office be competed for with its certain 
 emoluments of threepence per quarter from each 
 member. Alas ! not one coster can aspire to 
 the position. Situated thus, the only alterna- 
 tive is to confess defeat or ask Mr. Orsman to 
 supply the deficiency, provided it be understood 
 that the men will insist on the gentleman's 
 accepting fees. In a few minutes, amid loud 
 cheers, it is announced that a resident in the 
 district, who will pay his salary back to the 
 funds of the society, will serve the men as 
 desired. 
 
 "We now rise to leave a meeting which, on the 
 whole, has been quite orderly, and the entire 
 absence of improper expressions has told much 
 in favour of the Christianising influence of 
 the Golden-lane Mission. Not that there have 
 been no obstreperous persons present to pro- 
 voke cries of ' cheer, cheer,' until Mr. Wilkins 
 necessarily exercised a chairman's authority; 
 we merely say the proceedings were as orderly
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 33 
 
 as most other meetings where numbers of men 
 associate for business purposes. What also 
 appeared striking was the unlimited authority 
 wielded over the men by Mr. Orsman. It was 
 the homage of real respect, paid by hard-work- 
 ing fellows, who, on the average, are probably 
 as honest as traders of a higher class. Yes, 
 their homage is paid to one whose life of volun- 
 tary self-sacrifice commands the admiration and 
 gratitude even of those who may not be able to 
 understand its spring. 
 
 In the mean time, places like Golden-lane 
 and Whitecross-street, to be well understood, 
 must be seen under different aspects. They 
 must be seen on the Sabbath as well as on 
 week-days. Like all other great centres of 
 population, London is a city of contrasts, but 
 the contrasts are perhaps more striking on 
 Sunday morning than at another time. The 
 quiet of rural lanes scarce surpasses the still- 
 ness of many streets around Cheapside when 
 4
 
 34 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 the Sabbath dawns. Alive with the hum and 
 eager competition of commerce during the week, 
 these places are as forsaken on Sundays as 
 if a panic had seized the traffickers to occasion 
 their precipitately retreating like an affrighted 
 army. Emerge from these avenues of dormant 
 warehouses, and step into one of the Sab- 
 bath markets, and how changed is the scene ! 
 It is as though the scattered builders of Babel, 
 having reunited, were there in confusion of 
 tongues disputing for mastery. Take places like 
 Whitecross - street and Leather -lane, and, if 
 you understand London life, you will see at a 
 glance how much there is in a Sabbath market 
 to attract and interest the lower classes. The 
 street, with its confusion of voices and mud 
 ankle-deep, is to the vulgar crowd a fair and a 
 world in itself. What disgusts genteel visitors 
 possesses fascinations for others less fastidious. 
 You are a person of taste : so is the artisan or 
 labourer in morning deshabille yonder, though
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 35 
 
 his taste may be coarser than yours. The 
 market is a scene of life such as he thoroughly 
 enjoys, provided the sky be clear and the wind 
 be not too biting to hinder his standing at the 
 street corner to smoke and gossip. Even small 
 shopkeepers are persons honoured in a way by 
 the class beneath them. Humble customers 
 appreciate the opportunity of lingering over a 
 bargain, or of chatting over the process of 
 paying another instalment off the accumulating 
 score. They would not attend the ordinary 
 public worship of God were there no market, 
 and they prefer the street to a confined, dirty 
 home. They would not hear the Gospel at all 
 were not the mission station open, and its 
 agents abroad to seek for the people the good 
 they will not seek for themselves. 
 
 In certain of these markets the stalls are 
 packed closely together, and are heavily laden 
 with vegetables, earthenware, toys, and other 
 goods,, all of which are pressed upon public
 
 3G BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 notice with eager looks and shrill cries. These 
 Sunday fairs were formerly allowed to remain 
 during the whole morning, but in Whitecross- 
 street, as well as in other localities, a com- 
 promise has been arranged with threatening 
 vestries, and a clearance has to be effected by 
 eleven a.m. 
 
 But though vestries may oust poor costers, 
 they can interfere little with the shops. These 
 being less subject to the authority of Bumble- 
 dom, open wide their doors, and should it suit 
 their convenience, they will employ a person to 
 take up a position on the pavement whose 
 natural gifts chiefly consist in a capacity for 
 making unlimited noise. I have even met with 
 a Sabbath auction in one notorious thorough- 
 fare. ' Pass in, genelmen, jest a goin' to com- 
 mence ' and the numbers who did pass in to 
 the frouzy store showed that auctions possess 
 charms for a class of loungers with whom time 
 passes heavily before the taverns open at one
 
 GOLDEN LAXE. 37 
 
 o'clock. Yet all these are missionary subjects, 
 and experience has proved that not a few may 
 be gathered into the Gospel fold. 
 
 Yes, he who would know anything about the 
 manners and customs of the London poor must 
 see them in the Sunday market. How inte- 
 rested they become in mere trifles, such as the 
 marking of a bird and the cost of a chisel. 
 Cannot they be taught to show some interest 
 in the Gospel ? See, yonder is a man selling 
 braces on the pavement, and a popular preacher 
 might be proud while commanding an audience 
 as attentive as the one gathered around that 
 dealer. Those braces, now, are such palpable 
 bargains, that the salesman seems to think he 
 is justified in being patronising. He is not 
 going to ask half-a-crown, not even eighteen- 
 pence for a pair the price is one shilling only. 
 He does a trade, and doubtless pities those who, 
 unimpressed by noise and argument, deny them- 
 selves a luxury by withholding their shilling.
 
 83 11YEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 A person even more successful, to judge by 
 the crowd he attracted, was a hat salesman 
 whom we have encountered. This genius, whose 
 mouth was too large to show a gentle origin, 
 and whose lungs were too powerful to warrant 
 our approaching within a certain number of 
 yards of his shop door y may have owed much of 
 his popularity to a green hat with a purple rim 
 with which he adorned h;s person, for the pur- 
 pose of producing a picturesque effect. ' Take 
 up the 'ats, genelmen, and judge the harticles 
 for yerselves. If you don't buy, why there's no 
 'arm done, cos this 'ere ain't like a warc'ouse 
 as yer goes in and then don't like to come out 
 on again without buying nothink.' A crowd of 
 curious men examine the hats, and half-crowns 
 pass rather rapidly from the pockets of pur- 
 chasers to the till of the seller. This trade is 
 stimulated by the premium of a cigar with every 
 hat sold. This, then, is the nature of the soil 
 on which London evangelists labour for a
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 39 
 
 harvest. They must work hard and patiently 
 to gather a congregation. An interested crowd 
 may be gathered in a few minutes by the shame- 
 less chicanery of petty traders. 
 
 If any one person is known better than another 
 in the purlieus of Golden-lane, that individual is 
 Lord Shaftesbury, or ' The Earl,' as the people 
 invariably call him. He is quite an idol among 
 the costers, and is reckoned one of their number. 
 On the day that the Princess Louise was mar- 
 ried, in June, 1871, the President of the Mission 
 left the wedding party at Windsor to attend the 
 annual festival of the dealers, when he was 
 welcomed by a native, who, mounted on ' The 
 Earl' barrow, made a characteristic speech. 
 Lord Shaftesbury has been presented with 
 several testimonials by his lowly, friends, such 
 as a photograph of costers selling in Whitecross- 
 street, a gold pencil-case, and a bouquet for 
 the ladies at home. When the late Countess 
 lay in her last illness, it is well known how the
 
 40 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 converts of Mr. Orsman's Mission sent np to 
 heaven their earnest prayers for her ladyship's 
 speedy recovery. 
 
 * The huge wave of sorrow as it rolls over 
 the great city deposits its dark sediment here,' 
 says our evangelist in reference to his district. 
 His words may be readily credited when we 
 consider that twenty thousand persons are 
 huddled together within the radius of a furlong 
 from the mission station. Of these, * thirty per 
 cent, are costermongers and itinerant street- 
 traders ; twenty per cent, are labourers and 
 poor women, who live by washing, charing, and 
 needlework ; thirty per cent, are either paupers 
 or persons of doubtful occupation ; and the 
 remaining twenty per cent, are industriously 
 wearing out their lives in the attempt to earn 
 a livelihood at the following occupations : arti- 
 ficial-flower makers ; brace-sewing at twopence 
 per dozen pairs ; toy-makers, wood-choppers, 
 and crossing-sweepers ; gutter-searchers for
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 41 
 
 cigar ends; bone pickers, and dust-bin searchers 
 for doctors' bottles, which, when washed, are 
 sold to chemists at one shilling and ninepence 
 per gross. Also fusee, sweetstuff, and herb 
 sellers, dealers in old clothes, and sorters of 
 the clearings of warehouses,' &c. 
 
 To commence work among this mass of 
 wretchedness and heathenism with a stock-in- 
 trade of a Bible and a bundle of tracts, revealed 
 the existence of faith and moral courage such 
 as few can rejoice in possessing. Answers to 
 prayer were on the wing, however, and rewards 
 also, since one convert's confession like the 
 following and many such came forward would 
 repay for a large outlay of persevering toil. 
 ' " Now mates, yer thinks yer sees Bill Wilkins, 
 don't yer? An' so yer do, but not the same 
 man yer used to see, an' I'll tell yer how it is. 
 Yer knows how I used to go to Hornsey with my 
 nets a bird-catching every Sunday, an' how I 
 used to come home drunk and 'ave a row with
 
 42 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 the missus. Well, about three year ago I was 
 conrin' home a swearin' to myself 'cos I couldn't 
 get my usual beer as they sez as how I wasn't 
 a bony-fidy traveller. Well, I sees the people 
 a-comin' out of church, an' I envied 'em ; then 
 I listens to a street-preacher who offered me a 
 tract. Sez I, ' No use to me, guv'nor.' ' Why ?' 
 ' 'Cos I can't read.' ' Then come to our 
 mission-hall this evening,' says he." He then 
 described his first visit to the mission, and how 
 "that ere party I sees in the mornin' takes me 
 right afore all the people to a seat close agin 
 the preacher, an' I wished I hadn't 'ave gone," 
 &c. The words, " God so loved the world," 
 &c., touched his heart, and he went home a 
 wiser and a better man. He suffered much 
 pecuniary loss in his trade, and although much 
 persecuted at home and elsewhere, he was con- 
 sistent and useful in his life, and he died, as he 
 had lived, rich in faith.' 
 
 After conversion these men can detail their
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 43 
 
 experience, and can define the Gospel before 
 their own companions in language clear and 
 forcible, as well as affecting. Listen to one of 
 Mr. Orsman's converts, as he addresses a 
 crowded meeting of costers : 
 
 ' The main p'int of this meeting, my friends, as I con- 
 sider it, is to p'int ye to the Lamb of God. " Who hath 
 believed our report ? and to whom hath the arm of the 
 Lord been revealed ? " Bless the Lord it has been re- 
 vealed to me. Ye all know what I were, and I 'ave to 
 tell yer what I am. One text of Scripter has stuck 
 by me " God so loved the world, that he gave His 
 only-begotten Son, that whosoever" mind, ivliosoever, 
 that takes all in, and leaves none out " believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." One 
 day, afore I were converted, when I were in liquor, I 
 said to a policeman that I'd knock his brains out. He 
 took me up. As we was going along to the magistrate 
 next morning, I says to him, " Now, Mr. X., what do 
 you think I should do ? " " Why," said he, " plead 
 guilty." So when I was taken afore the magistrate, he 
 axed me what I had to say. I said, " Guilty, my lord, 
 and I'm very sorry for what I've done." Then he fined 
 me half-a-crown, or be locked up. But I was skinned 
 out. Ye all know, my friends, what it is to be skinned 
 out. So I was locked up. But presently the turnkey 
 who locked me up came back, turned the key t'other way, 
 opened the door, and told me to go out. Somebody had
 
 44 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 paid the fine for me ; and when I got outside the walls, 
 a man on the other side of the street made a sign to me 
 wi' his finger to come to him ; and when I went he put 
 three shillings and sixpence into my hand, so that I had 
 something to go on wi'. Now, my friends, Jesus Christ 
 opens the door of our prison for us, sets us free, and gives 
 us everlasting life to begin wi'. Ain't this wonderful ! 
 And He invites ye all to trust Him.' 
 
 In another instance, a child in the school 
 became the means of her parents' conversion. 
 Her sister having died of an infectious disease, 
 this little one was sent from home, to be away 
 until after the funeral. Unknown to her friends, 
 however, she returned, and was found kneeling 
 in prayer beside her sister's coffin ' I am one 
 of Thy lambs, and so I want to leave this wicked 
 world.' The mother, moved to tears, may have 
 foreseen the sequel the little creature soon 
 sickened, and then died, singing one of the hymns 
 she had learned in her class. 
 
 Here are other examples of work, selected 
 from many more, and given in Mr. Orsnian's 
 own words :
 
 GOLDEN LAXE. 45 
 
 ' Men and women, ungodly in their lives, when dying 
 have sent for us, and in some cases we have witnessed 
 terrible scenes. Here is a specimen : A widow with 
 four children, of the respective ages of thirteen, eleven, 
 eight, and five years, and a married daughter and her 
 husband, lived in a back room ten feet square, and for 
 which he paid two shillings and ninepence weekly. 
 When visited, all were ill with the fever. The mother 
 and child died shortly afterwards. The room was filthy 
 and desolate : it contained only a broken table, four 
 chairs tied up with pieces of string, and a broken look- 
 ing-glass. The bodies of the deceased were like the 
 room, and we had even to supply coverings to bury 
 them in. One evening we were sent for to visit the 
 father of some of our Band of Hope scholars. He was 
 dying of bronchitis, struck down in the prime of life. 
 In the same room lay his wife, hi a delirious fever. The 
 poor man was unconscious, and all efforts to rouse him 
 seemed fruitless. His aged mother and many other 
 relatives were weeping round the bed, hoping that he 
 might at last rally sufficiently to hear the sweet message 
 of the Gospel, and to avow his faith in Jesus. Just as 
 we were about to leave, it was suggested that we should 
 sing some hymns that he loved to hear his children sing. 
 "We sang softly, the hymn, "Just as I am;" but he 
 seemed to hear not until we sang 
 
 " Eock of Ages, cleft for me." 
 
 And when we reached the last verse, his lips moved 
 his eyes lighted up with unearthly fire, and he sang
 
 46 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 audibly the last two lines. He died that night, and we 
 trust he is now singing the everlasting song. A young 
 lad recently caught the fever, and died, after two' days' 
 illness, in the hospital. Singularly enough, on the pre- 
 vious Sunday he had prayed in the Bible-class for the 
 first time in public. For three months previously he had 
 been a true Christian. His sudden death has been the 
 means of leading his parents to the house of God. A 
 year ago we were sent for to visit a young married 
 woman of respectable family, who was nearly frantic 
 with terror at the prospect of death. She had caught 
 cold at a ball, and rapid consumption had set in. When 
 we first saw her, the doctor had just given her up. We 
 read, prayed, and talked with her many times after that, 
 and we had the delight of hearing her testimonj- to the 
 love of Christ. She is gone to be with the angels, and 
 her father and family now regularly attend the mission.' 
 
 Many converts in this district, which a few 
 years ago was not over safe to pass through 
 after nightfall, can tell of strange experience ; 
 and when one can be persuaded to become an 
 autobiographer, a striking life-story, harrowing 
 in its details, may possibly be the result. One 
 of Mr. Orsman's converts thus writes about 
 herself : 
 
 ' In one of the London model lodging-houses, about
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 47 
 
 seven years ago, there might have been seen a family 
 which consisted of the following members : a man nearly 
 forty-five years of age, four children, whose ages ranged 
 from four to ten, an infant a week old, and a young 
 woman nineteen years of age. It was plain, even to a 
 casual observer, that an improper familiarity existed 
 between the man and young woman. The infant of 
 which we have spoken was hers, and although it had 
 been born such a short time, the mother exhibited a black 
 eye and swollen jaw. The man was a widower; his wife 
 had died a year before, leaving an infant three weeks old. 
 During her illness she had been carefully nursed by the 
 young woman already mentioned, and who was betrothed 
 to the dying woman's son. Before she died she had 
 begged her kind nurse to look after her children when she 
 was gone, a sacred duty which was willingly accepted. 
 Not long after the death of his wife the husband sought 
 an opportunity to seduce the young woman. In an evil 
 hour, under the influence of strong drink, her ruin was 
 effected. Her sweetheart, when he discovered it, enlisted 
 for a soldier ; and thus we find this young woman hiding 
 her shame and burying her days with this man, passing 
 off before the world as his wife. The aspect of the room 
 bespoke the most abject poverty; miserable food and 
 scanty clothing were telling on the inmates' health. A 
 year after this a change took place. Actuated by more 
 evil motives than those which prompted him to seduce 
 and ill use a young woman, he deserted her on the 3rd 
 of June, leaving his four children and her own little one 
 to battle with a world to which she had hitherto been
 
 48 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 a stranger. For two days the poor girl was in a state 
 of mind bordering on distraction. She determined to 
 send his four children to a relatire, sell the miserable 
 home to a broker, and throw herself and child on the 
 mercy of friends, from whom, however, she expected but 
 little. For six weeks they supported her, but, with the 
 exception of blows, she led a worse life than when co- 
 habiting with the man. Treated with contempt, and 
 working like a slave, she thought of suicide. Sugar of 
 lead was obtained, but she over-dosed herself, and the 
 hand of God prevented her from rushing unprepared into 
 the presence of her Judge. Her reason left her ; she was 
 removed to the insane ward of the workhouse, and when, 
 after three weeks, it pleased God to restore her senses, 
 she found out the dreadful truth that she was again 
 likely to become a mother. She resolved to leave the 
 workhouse and seek her living in the world. She took 
 her babe, and without a penny went forth. For two days 
 they tasted nothing but the scanty allowance from the 
 casual wards of Marylebone and St. Pancras, where she 
 slept at night, after walking the streets all day. She saw 
 her folly in leaving the workhouse, and again entered it. 
 Her baby was taken from her and placed in the nursery, 
 among children infected with measles, itch, whooping-- 
 cough, &c. The baby was pining away, and the mother 
 could plainly see that it was fretting itself to death. She 
 could not bear the thought of her child thus dying, and 
 she obtained her discharge from the hoiise. Once 
 more she was in the streets, homeless and friendless. It 
 was a pitiful sight ; a dying babe in a sinful, but withal
 
 GOLDEN LAXE. 49 
 
 a true-hearted, mother's arms. For days she wandered 
 about and slept in the tramp-sheds at night. This state 
 of things told upon her health. One night, while sleeping 
 in the casual ward of the West London Union, she was 
 taken so ill that the superintendent sent to her own 
 parish for a messenger to take her there. Her baby now 
 was dying, and it pleased God in His mercy to take it 
 home to Himself. She saw the babe buried, and once 
 more threw herself on the world, but not for long, for the 
 next night she was taken to the workhouse again, and again 
 became the mother of a boy. At the end of four months 
 she obtained her discharge and five shillings from the 
 Board. She made her way to the place where she first fell 
 in Golden-lane, and entered one of the tramps' kitchens. 
 The most devilish forms of immorality and vice pre- 
 vailed there, and the scenes which she nightly witnessed 
 were so repulsive that she accepted the proposal of a 
 once fellow-pauper, whom she met in the street, to go 
 and live with her. She soon discovered that her bene- 
 factress was both a prostitute and a thief, and her spirit 
 revolted at living on such iU-gotten gains. She left this 
 abode of infamy, and for a few days wandered about the 
 streets, and slept on door-steps and under railway arches, 
 till she was well nigh starving. Again she appealed to 
 the Board of Guardians for relief without going into the 
 house. She was granted five shillings; and now, free 
 from evil companions, she entered a common lodging- 
 house. One night an inmate apprised her of a plot, 
 by some rough fellows, to enter her bedroom and make 
 an onslaught on her defenceless condition. In a state 
 5
 
 50 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of mind bordering on madness she left the house, and, ' 
 
 thinking herself too vile to seek a refuge in prayer to 
 
 God, she again meditated suicide. She dare not drown 
 
 her infant, and could not find it in her heart to leave it 
 
 to the mercy of the world : thus she was spared from 
 
 committing the dreadful deed. Oh, the reward of crime ! 
 
 Here was a young woman hungry and cold, for she had 
 
 to go without food to pay for the bed from which she 
 
 had to fly, an infant vainly trying to draw support from 
 
 a milkless breast, and without a friend in the world. 
 
 Where could she go ? what could she do ? The Friend 
 
 of the friendless looked down upon her, and again 
 
 directed her steps to the workhouse. She repined at 
 
 her lot, but the awful fact stared her in the face that 
 
 she had disregarded the example and deathbed advice 
 
 of her Christian father, and that she had departed from 
 
 the paths of virtue. Another trial awaited her : the 
 
 baby was taken ill and died. She rebelled against the 
 
 All-wise providence, for she could not see His wisdom 
 
 in taking her child to a better home. She sought for 
 
 means to destroy her life ; but poison was not obtainable, 
 
 the knives were out of her reach, and the windows so 
 
 constructed that she could not throw herself out of them. 
 
 The kind-hearted matron one morning told her that 
 
 she had obtained a situation for her, and would give her 
 
 necessary clothing. Though she rejoiced in heart, there 
 
 were no words of thankfulness to the Almighty : no, she 
 
 thought her fortune was turning, and that though she 
 
 had sinned, she had lived a moral life hitherto, which 
 
 amply compensated for the sin of the past.'
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 51 
 
 The writer suddenly stops in her history 
 where the best part requires to be told. She 
 was taken to the missionary meeting by some 
 Christian people, who in the model lodging- 
 house had frequently interfered to shield 
 her from the violence of a drunken paramour. 
 At the meeting she formed good resolutions, 
 which were soon forgotten. There she affected 
 to refuse religion, by turning sacred things 
 into ridicule, until she was turned back from 
 this dangerous path. ' At last the Spirit 
 of God touched her heart,' says Mr. Orsman ; 
 ' and a few Sundays ago, after I had spoken 
 earnestly from the words, " How can these 
 things be ?" she came into the inquirers' meet- 
 ing, broken down in spirit, weeping over her 
 sins, and inconsolable. Earnest prayers were 
 offered, and that night many hearts thanked 
 God for what they had seen and heard. 
 Shortly after she began to realise the power 
 of a Saviour's love, and she is now humbly 
 5*
 
 52 1 1 YE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 confessing Him in her daily life.' This young 
 woman is now the valued matron of a public 
 institution in America. 
 
 In regard to the regular preaching of the 
 Gospel which takes place at the mission-house, 
 a member of the Society of Friends, who once 
 attended, remarks, ' The worship was very 
 simple a hymn the Bible read and fa- 
 miliarly illustrated and expounded prayer, 
 in which we were asked to engage a simple, 
 well-arranged, clear, and educated sermon 
 a sermon which encouraged us personally. 
 City life sharpens the apprehensions of the 
 classes who live by their wits, and a clear 
 line of thought and apt illustration seems to 
 be well understood. The character of the ad- 
 dress would have been listened to with respect 
 and attention from any congregation. It is 
 noteworthy that a period of silent prayer forms 
 part of the proceedings, and the congregation 
 are asked to pray, each for what they most
 
 GOLDEX LAXE. 53 
 
 need. Our attention was specially called to 
 an important fact, that this is not merely 
 a " preaching place." The audience is not 
 draivn together by any prospect of any temporal 
 gain; in fact, not a few have had to suffer, 
 not only persecution but pecuniary loss, in 
 consequence of their religious views.' 
 
 During the winter months the children's 
 dinner is immensely popular. This was once 
 visited by the correspondent of The Daily 
 Telegraph, e.g. : 
 
 4 And, at the stroke of one o'clock, here they come 
 trooping in, their young eyes twinkling in blissful 
 expectancy as their young noses sniff the savoury 
 stew seething in the cauldron below, and just done. 
 I have not yet seen the cauldron. As they come 
 swarming in, their tiny ill-shod feet and their uncovered 
 arms and legs blue with cold, faster and thicker yet, 
 till the doorway bids fair to be blocked up, and there 
 is still a mob behind, I have misgivings as to my 
 friend's declaration that there will be enough for all and 
 to spare. And what an awful thing it would be if, say, 
 only a dozen of these poor narrow-chested mites of 
 things, who passed last night in a delicious dream of 
 Irish stew, who smacked their lips over the breakfast
 
 54 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 slice of dry bread flavoured with the promise of it, 
 should be sent empty away! I do not believe that 
 they would survive the shock. They would faint and 
 fall, still clutching the basin that was now a mockery 
 and a snare : they would go mad and run amuck among 
 then* more fortunate stew-consuming brethren. Here 
 they come, each one bringing his or her " dinner 
 things." I wish the reader could see the choice 
 collection ! Handleless jugs, milk-cans, baking dishes, 
 sauce tureens, small-sized tin saucepans', publicans' beer 
 cans, tin washing bowls anything. They come of all 
 ages, from the sturdy street boy of ten to the tiny 
 six-months-old baby in arms. There were scores of 
 babies under two years old, brought by their sisters and 
 brothers.' 
 
 Boys who come to dine in this fashion must 
 come as becomingly attired as means will per- 
 mit ; hence the origin of the boys' sewing class. 
 ' The use of that potent little weapon of civili- 
 sation, the needle, is not particularly well-known 
 to many of the mothers of the neighbourhood,' 
 says Mr. Orsman. ' There are many boys whose 
 mothers are dead, or so habitually dead drunk, 
 that their conveyance to the cemetery would be 
 little loss from a domestic point of view. So,
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 55 
 
 some time ago, it was proposed to the young- 
 sters that if they had a mind to patch up their 
 rags a bit, patch-pieces would be found, and a 
 good-natured matron would show them the way 
 to stitch. The proposition was agreed to with 
 alacrity, and is still in high favour. The 
 " class," through the limited accommodation, 
 is restricted to thirty; and" as in no case are 
 the boys found to be in possession of a spare 
 garment of the sort that so sorely needs repair, 
 it is a strictly private class, to which nobody is 
 admitted except on business. Any boy guilty 
 of " larking," or in any way disturbing the 
 sober propriety so essential to the existence of 
 the class, is instantly banished; and, to the 
 credit of the poor little ragged tailors, it is said 
 that such expulsions are rare. It is, perhaps, 
 only natural that the care and perplexity attend- 
 ing the stitching together of rags that will 
 scarcely bear the weight of a needle, should at 
 times incline the operators to meditate on the
 
 56 BYE WATS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 advantage of being altogether independent of 
 artificial covering. "Wouldn't it be fine to do 
 without altogether, Jack ! " I heard an enthu- 
 siastic youth of eight remarking to his friend. 
 " Couldn't you get lots of browns from the coves 
 on the homblibustes ! They allers pitches at 
 yer when your trowsis is tore. They'd pitch 
 more if you give 'em more to pitch at, I'll be 
 bound." "Ah!" rejoined the other, "so they 
 might; but where'd you put the browns wot 
 they pitched yer, if yer didn't have no pockets 
 on?" An argument that effectually silenced 
 the young philosopher, and reconciled him to 
 his job of adapting the sleeves of his father's 
 old jacket as legs to the still trustworthy " upper 
 part" of his corduroys.' 
 
 I must not omit to state that Golden-lane 
 has its annual holiday, and I will here 
 introduce a description of the last summer 
 excursion, which I specially prepared for a 
 London newspaper.
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 57 
 
 ' GOLDEN-LANE IN THE COUNTEY. 
 
 \" Golden-lane ain't dead yet," remarked an elderly 
 dame on the morning of Wednesday, the 18th instant, 
 who, besides being in morning deshabille, carried a 
 jug with which she would pound the back of a neigh- 
 bour if provoked to do so by a challenge of holiday 
 wit. Boys and girls in the mission-house were cheer- 
 ing vociferously, while a crowd which rendered the 
 narrow roadway well-nigh impassable showed that 
 some exceptionally stirring occurrence was attracting 
 the populace from the network of courts and alleys 
 which constitutes the neighbourhood. The now well- 
 known " 124 " was being besieged by a strong force 
 of good-humoured assailants, who in many instances 
 were also vainly clamouring for tickets. Then the 
 banners and strains of holiday music told aU strangers 
 that Mr. Orsman's day and Sunday-school children, 
 Bible-classes, and other friends, were about to depart 
 on their annual excursion. 
 
 ' It might well be an exciting time, when nearly 
 eight hundred passengers, young and full grown, who 
 rarely see the fields, realised the fact that a special 
 train was even then being put in readiness to give 
 them "a day in the country," at the People's Gardens, 
 Willesden. The school classes were taken free, while 
 outsiders and hundreds of these were necessarily left 
 behind were charged sums varying from ninepence 
 to one shilling and threepence, the tickets including 
 railway fare and "a good tea." The costerrnongers'
 
 58 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 renowned haunt was thus altogether en fete, business 
 being apparently entirely suspended while the pro- 
 cession formed, and, " preceded by the band," according 
 to the programme, marched in triumph to Broad-street 
 Station. The company was quite of a motley kind. 
 There were children of all sizes, as well as adults of 
 all ages, and on landing at Willesden, after half-an- 
 hour's pleasant run, their sudden invasion of the lanes 
 not a little astonished the good natives of the neigh- 
 bourhood who were not in Mr. Orsman's secret. 
 
 ' The People's Gardens are a new institution, being 
 enclosed from the Old Oak Common. Embracing a 
 wide area, a portion of the land is laid out in flower 
 beds, croquet lawns, and bowling greens, besides which 
 there are refreshment buildings, and an immense plat- 
 form. On arriving here at noon, the visitors under- 
 stand that they are to begin the day's pleasure by 
 promenading the gardens, by shaking hands with every- 
 body, and by inspecting what there is curious to see 
 in the panorama and menagerie. But Golden-lane 
 holiday-makers are able to do little in following a 
 programme until they have dined; and, as the large 
 company have for the most part furnished them- 
 selves with a picnic dinner, they are seen here, there, 
 and everywhere, dining on viands Varying in quality 
 and quantity, and which sadly enough in some in- 
 stances speak of the necessitous condition of the poor 
 people. 
 
 ' It was agreeable to find that Mr. Orsman's notions 
 of what should characterise a day's outing were of
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 59 
 
 the right kind. It is surely a mistake on the part 
 of certain good people when they attempt to turn a 
 holiday excursion into a religious revival service ; and 
 some who have done so do more than they would like 
 being accredited with in creating a distaste for religion 
 among those who are willing enough to attend Gospel 
 services at the right time and place. The earnest 
 evangelist strives to live above even the suspicion of 
 cant, and Mr. Orsman provides a holiday programme 
 which costers, their wives and offspring, can really 
 appreciate, while none of them doubt his zeal in the 
 work of evangelisation. After dinner the girls, first 
 the big ones and then the little ones, run and skip 
 for prizes, and wonderful to behold is the distribution 
 which follows of work-boxes, frocks, books, and even 
 lockets. A like liberality is manifested on behalf of 
 the boys. The strong lads run " three-legged " and 
 "wheelbarrow" races, jump in sacks, and in various 
 ways manage to create as much merriment as many 
 of the spectators are able to bear, until the bell an- 
 nounces tea. Later in the day the members of the 
 Bible-class also enter the lists as competitors for 
 prizes, and even costers' wives eagerly embrace oppor- 
 tunities of winning articles valuable in daily life, such 
 as teapots, stays, and other covetable things. 
 
 ' Next on our programme comes the tea. The 
 children are to be served first; and truly the eager- 
 ness of the excitable little creatures over this feast 
 of the year is at once interesting and painful. As 
 a matter of propriety, bread-and-butter must be put
 
 60 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 forward as a beginning ; but " Shall we 'ave any cake, 
 sir? Shall we 'ave any cake?" is asked in quick, im- 
 patient tones, again, and again: and the eyes of the 
 questioners repeat the query "Cake?" Yes, there 
 it comes, and not on plates either, but piled up on 
 capacious trays in a thoroughly liberal style ; and that 
 cheer after cheer should shake the large building in 
 honour of currant cake is not at all surprising to those 
 who are acquainted with the liking which Golden- 
 laners entertain for the entremets of life. The second 
 tea, provided for the adults, is a no less characteristic 
 scene ; and the consumptive powers of the large com- 
 pany unmistakably perplex and astonish the contractor 
 at the head of the commissariat department. The 
 loaves, the butter, and the plates of cake with which 
 the tables were too scantily furnished are cleared as 
 if in a twinkling; and the demand for a further supply 
 comes forth in a Babel of shouts, perhaps the reverse 
 of polite, and in a rattling of crockery ominously sug- 
 gestive to the uninitiated of a breach of the peace. 
 But "All's well that ends well;" and now follow the 
 evening entertainments. 
 
 ' Were not our space so limited, much more could 
 be said about this remarkable "day in the country;" 
 about the garden party, the fire - balloons, the fire- 
 works, and other novelties on which Golden-lane still 
 looks with favour. If anything could be read in the 
 faces of the costers and their families, surely it was 
 regret that such a season should come to an end 
 at all. Xor was the return home at evening less
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 61 
 
 triumphant tlian the coining out in the morning. At 
 Broad-street Station another crowd awaited the return 
 of the special train; and, in the mean time, Golden- 
 lane itself was actually illuminated by several en- 
 thusiastic tradesmen of the vicinity, who provided 
 coloured fire and other lights. Thus ended a day long 
 to be remembered even by the genteel visitors who 
 joined the excursion. What shall be said of the 
 immense influence wielded by one man and his assist- 
 ants over one of the poorest districts? Does it not 
 speak more for the power of the Bible and of prayer 
 than aught which so-called scientific objectors can ad- 
 vance against them? "What is still more encouraging, 
 Mr. Orsman has proved that there exists a wonderful 
 readiness among the poor to receive the Gospel, when 
 that Gospel is carried to them by those who understand 
 its power.' 
 
 It must occasion Mr. Orsman no little joyful 
 satisfaction when he looks around on the results 
 of his toil. He can point to hundreds of per- 
 sons who though once wallowing in profligacy 
 are now adorning the Gospel. Numbers of his 
 converts have emigrated, to become examples of 
 Christian uprightness in foreign climes. Not a 
 few whom he has been instrumental in raising 
 socially, as well as spiritually, by the grand
 
 62 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ameliorating power of religion, are now occu- 
 pying honourable positions in life. Some of 
 the rescued youths have entered the Civil Ser- 
 vice, others are Sabbath-school teachers, while 
 a few are ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 Only completely to summarise the work ac- 
 complished in Golden-lane during one year 
 would be no easy task. First, the Gospel is 
 faithfully preached at the mission-house, where 
 also Bible-classes and inquirers' meetings are 
 held. There are special services for children, 
 a Sabbath-school served by teachers who are 
 converts of the Mission, and a free day-school, 
 in which we are told ' the T)est lesson-book is 
 the Bible.' Between four and five thousand 
 dinners are given away each winter to famish- 
 ing children. Then the scholars are taken 
 into the country for an excursion every year, 
 and ' the summer outing is looked forward 
 to as the event of the year by these poor 
 little ragged ones. ... As the time draws
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 63 
 
 nigh they grow so nervous with excitement, 
 that it is very hard to restrain them.' Tea 
 and cake, followed by lectures and dissolv- 
 ing views, are occasional treats provided for 
 the adults of the neighbourhood; and of the 
 value of such entertainments we need har- 
 bour no doubts, since one woman testified when 
 dying, ' That picter o' the woman clingin' to 
 the cross, with the roarin' waves all around, 
 made me understand that beautiful hymn, 
 " Simply to Thy cross I cling," an' now I know 
 He WILL save me.' Nor must we overlook the 
 soup-kitchen, the clothing and barrow clubs, 
 the * Emily ' Fund, the visitation of the sick, 
 the mothers' sewing club, and the maternity 
 society. The boon conferred by this last is best 
 known to those who enter a room all but bare, 
 to carry with them comforts and necessary 
 clothing for some prostrate sufferer who has 
 scarce bed or covering to comfort her during 
 nature's trial.
 
 64 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 In his great work Mr. Orsman has enlisted 
 the gratitude and sympathy of the Church at 
 large. While empty city churches are thickly 
 scattered around his district, to serve no higher 
 purpose than that of providing comfortable 
 stipends for scholarly incumbents, or of in- 
 teresting curious archaeologists, this volunteer 
 in Christ's service has stormed the very castle- 
 keep of London heathenism, and to the surprise 
 of his friends has successfully planted the 
 Gospel standard on ground from which many 
 have turned aside with a shudder as from a 
 God-forsaken field. May his life long be spared 
 to win yet greater trophies, and may all needful 
 pecuniary support be offered by those who, 
 possessing wealth, have learned to become 
 cheerful givers to Him who gave Himself for 
 them. In fine, may the new mission-building 
 as yet only ' one of the hopes of the future ' 
 soon be an accomplished fact; and may it 
 testify to another generation of the holy courage
 
 GOLDEN LANE. 65 
 
 and perseverance of a man whom posterity 
 will remember and honour as the Apostle of 
 Golden-lane. 
 
 The frontispiece appears by permission of the 
 proprietors of The Graphic; and some persons 
 may wish to know that Mr. Orsinan's address 
 is 75, Oakley-road, Islington. 
 
 NOTE BY ME. SPURGEON. We know of no evangelistic 
 work in London so wisely conducted and permanently 
 useful as that which was inaugurated by Mr. Orsnian, 
 and has been carried on by him for so many years. Our 
 beloved friend has always rejoiced in being connected 
 with the Tabernacle, though he has not been dependent 
 in any degree upon us for funds. Our heart rejoices at 
 every remembrance of him. He is one of that honourable 
 body of men who are not chargeable unto the churches, 
 but abide in their callings and preach the Gospel freely. 
 Only by labourers of this class can our back slums be 
 reached. Hard by the very centre of infidelity, our 
 brother exhibits a practical Christianity, and he ought to 
 have the sympathy of all believers in so doing, a sym- 
 pathy not of words only, but shown in pecuniary help 
 towards the building he requires.
 
 II. 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 
 
 6 *
 
 II. 
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 
 
 OT until a comparatively recent date 
 have the aggressive forces of Chris- 
 tianity ventured on disputing the 
 ground with the enemy by seeking trophies 
 of victory in public-houses. Viewed from any 
 standpoint the public-house mission is a daring 
 innovation. When first proposed some years 
 ago, the scheme appeared to be novel, and 
 even Utopian; so that while ordinary people 
 were disposed to smile derisively at the broach- 
 ing of such an idea, many friends of missions 
 and true helpers of the poor doubted the ex-
 
 70 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 pediency of carrying Gospel pearls into places 
 where they would probably be trampled under 
 foot. These happily groundless fears may in 
 part have arisen from popular misapprehen- 
 sion as to the true nature of public-houses, 
 and also of the sentiments of those who con- 
 duct them; for as regards this department of 
 knowledge, the majority of easy-going people 
 are likely to be in a condition of complete 
 ignorance. 
 
 Public-houses differ very widely in character, 
 and only in a few exceptional instances are 
 they worthy of being denounced as altogether 
 bad; while not a few are as respectably con- 
 ducted as the nature of taverns will allow, 
 closing on Sundays, and discouraging excess 
 by every means. The characters of the land- 
 lords differ as widely as their houses. Un- 
 worthy characters are found among them, as 
 they may be found among all other classes of 
 tradesmen ; but happily, numbers of men with
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTON. 71 
 
 sterling traits of character are found in the 
 publican ranks.* Then why should not the 
 Gospel be carried into taverns as well as into 
 squalid courts and alleys ? As places of public 
 resort, taverns would seem to be just the very 
 places where those characters may be en- 
 countered whom the City Mission seeks to 
 reclaim. If religion be out of place in a 
 public-house, there must be something radi- 
 cally wrong somewhere ; and to reiterate, as 
 some are in the habit of doing, this popular 
 opinion, is to condemn an influential trading 
 community in a very sweeping manner, even 
 though the opinion may come from persons 
 who as nominal Christians see no harm in the 
 calling of the licensed victualler. To raise 
 objections on the ground of the two things 
 
 being opposed to each other, is simply to asso- 
 * NOTE BY MR. SPURGEON. "We do not hold ourselves 
 responsible for the way in which Mr. Pike puts the matter. 
 We would not join in condemnatory sentences ; but, for 
 all that, the evils of the trade are incalculable.
 
 72 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ciate public-houses with what is bad, and 
 with what is bad alone.* 
 
 It is believed that nd class of tradesmen 
 more readily listen to Christian advice than 
 publicans. They are also both sensitive and 
 hospitable, and were not their profession too 
 often stigmatised as altogether bad by certain 
 people, one obstacle to a reformation would be 
 removed. As some, however, still persist in 
 associating the public-house trade with de- 
 pravity alone, Mr. Landlord may too often 
 prefer leaving religion untouched, and so avoid 
 being classed among hypocrites by the unthink- 
 ingly severe. Yet strange as the anomaly may 
 perhaps appear, there are Christians even 
 among publicans. Here is one, for instance, 
 who professes religion, closes on Sundays, and 
 
 * NOTE BY ME. SPUEGEON. But a common public- 
 house is not the place in which a person of such cha- 
 racter would choose to live. The evils of the trade 
 could not be endured by such : if they stayed in it they 
 would be under daily trial.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 73 
 
 subscribes to the funds of the London City 
 Mission. There is another who speaks a good 
 word for the tracts whenever they are dis- 
 tributed in his bar, while his daughter is a 
 successful Sunday-school teacher. Yet another 
 is met with who so strongly advocates ' fair- 
 play,' that he desires to be ah 1 owed to pay 
 for the literature given away in his house 
 for philanthropic purposes. So far are pub- 
 licans from being advocates of Sunday labour, 
 that many, perhaps the majority who super- 
 intend their own trade, would welcome an agi- 
 tation which would secure them their portion 
 of weekly rest. On this head, my friend the 
 missionary, whose work I am about to describe, 
 thus testifies : ' The publicans, as a body, are 
 not unconscious of the evils of their trade. 
 They groan under the present state of things. 
 Their desire to have the Sunday as a day of 
 rest is general; and to secure this great boon 
 and right for themselves, their families, and
 
 74 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 their assistants, they would gladly submit to 
 some pecuniary loss. Many public -houses, 
 however, are in the hands of capitalists, who 
 employ active barmen and showy barmaids to 
 serve and do the laborious part of the work. 
 The unseen but powerful capitalists are the 
 persons most opposed to any movement to 
 secure a relaxation in the hours of business, 
 especially on the Lord's-day. The legislature 
 and the press are not willing to view the whole 
 subject as affecting the publicans primarily, 
 and, through them, their customers. Eeform 
 in this direction is further off, I fear, than it 
 was a year since. All depends now on the 
 efforts of private individuals and evangelical 
 societies.' My friend ranks high in the favour 
 of certain landlords, as, indeed, he ought to 
 do ; and the fact of his being so seldom inter- 
 fered with in a somewhat obtrusive work, 
 speaks something for the genial nature of 
 publicans in general.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTOX. 75 
 
 Feeling considerable interest in the work of 
 tavern visitation for evangelistic purposes, I 
 some time ago cultivated the acquaintance of 
 a missionary in Marylebone, and gave to the 
 public the fruits of a brief study of his opera- 
 tions.* Having since become acquainted with 
 another missionary in Paddington, I now pur- 
 pose detailing something of what he has also 
 effected in the good cause. 
 
 From what many of us know of City Mission 
 work, we shall, perhaps, suppose that the 
 public-house visitor must be a picked man 
 a man in some respects a head and shoulders 
 above his compeers. Such as are partially 
 illiterate may become excellent workmen in 
 ordinary districts, and many such could be 
 named whose labours are evidently much owned 
 of God. He, however, whose beat includes a 
 
 * See the chapter entitled ' Sunday Night in the 
 Taverns,' in 'The Romance of the Streets.' (Hodder 
 and Stoughton.)
 
 76 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 large number of taverns, must not only have 
 tact and kindliness, but also a large amount 
 of information, both Biblical and secular : in- 
 deed, it would be difficult to name any literary 
 accomplishment which such a man is not 
 able to utilise. It is indispensable that he 
 be a ready textuary, that he be acquainted 
 with the ordinary infidel arguments against 
 the Gospel, and be possessed of ready wit. He 
 must also be one who is not easily ruffled in 
 temper, while he must have an eye to perceive 
 and a hand to seize opportunities as they 
 occur. An agreeable testimony is offered when 
 it is said that neither of the public-house 
 visitors already named betrayed symptoms of 
 falling short of the standard described. 
 
 Being no stranger to the efforts now put 
 forth in public-houses, I felt curious to look 
 yet further into the working of this remark- 
 able agency. I therefore arranged to meet 
 the missionary who has charge of the Pad-
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 77 
 
 dington district, the time being a fine Satur- 
 day evening in August. Though you may 
 never have met him before, you can readily 
 detect the City Missionary, and he will tell 
 you himself that it is impossible for persons 
 of his profession to conceal their calling. It 
 was not long ere my friend involuntarily 
 convinced me of his peculiar fitness for 
 his chosen work, for he seemed fully aware 
 that to succeed in anything one must have 
 a liking for the work undertaken. His circuit 
 embraces four hundred houses of call; for- 
 merly a thousand houses were included in 
 the area, and out of that large number not 
 more than half-a-dozen landlords have offered 
 any opposition to his aggressive operations. 
 Estimated at its best, this is necessarily an 
 arduous and a difficult calling, and fortunate 
 is the missionary when his labours are en- 
 couraged by the advice and kindly assistance 
 of some sympathising superintendent. Such
 
 78 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 exactly is my friend's felicity. Not only has 
 each publican in Paddington been gratuitously 
 supplied with ' Prayers for a Week,' each has 
 also accepted a copy of the New Testament, 
 all being the gift of Mr. Ellis, Barrister-at- 
 law. Besides such extraordinary donations 
 of a more expensive kind, the distribution of 
 tracts and other publications regularly pro- 
 ceeds ; two thousand tracts, and two hundred 
 and fifty copies of religious periodicals, being 
 the allowance received monthly 'from the com- 
 mittee of the London City Mission. While 
 it is not easy to estimate the influence which 
 one devoted man may thus be able to exer- 
 cise, the fact speaks for itself when houses 
 here and there are found closed on the Sab- 
 bath, in deference to the evangelist's advice ; 
 or when donations to good objects are made 
 in return for benefit received. An instance 
 has occurred in which a publican willingly 
 suffered a loss of eight hundred pounds a
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTOX. 79 
 
 year in his receipts through closing on Sun- 
 days. There are comparatively few landlords 
 who do not appreciate what is being done for 
 themselves and their customers. Sometimes, 
 when a member of the trade is laid aside, 
 or when any person in whom they feel extra 
 interest falls sick, landlords will do their best 
 to supply them with Christian instruction and 
 consolation by acquainting the 'missionary. 
 
 Walking with my companion from the 
 Bishop's-road station, the streets are found 
 to wear that busy aspect supposed so well 
 to harmonise with the last night of the 
 week, though the quietness of preparation for 
 the Sabbath would to our mind be far more 
 appropriate. One looks into one, and then 
 another, of the taverns of the larger order, 
 thickly studding this 'good drinking neigh- 
 bourhood/ and can only account for the lavish 
 expenditure of substantial architecture and 
 decoration by remembering how large a pro-
 
 80 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 portion of the wages of certain persons goes 
 in drink. The field is indeed -white unto 
 the harvest, and I am glad to find that my 
 companion considers himself well adapted for 
 the work he has undertaken, seeing he has 
 been acquainted from childhood with the 
 manners and customs of licensed victuallers. 
 He confesses to having been born in a public- 
 house, and while the bar constituted the first 
 infant-school he attended, the duly gilded an- 
 nouncement, ' Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, and 
 Company's Entire,' was the first complete 
 sentence in English with which his opening 
 mind was enriched. That the son of a pub- 
 lican should desire to promote the publicans' 
 benefit, and should thus become an active 
 witness for Christianity among the class to 
 which his father belonged, some will think 
 sufficiently strange. A more striking anomaly 
 is found in the fact that my friend's family 
 were succeeded in the public-house by a tee-
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 81 
 
 totaller, and one who remained such until 
 death. The anomaly - hunter will find wares 
 ready-made to his hand in bars, and in scenes 
 hehind the bars. 
 
 We are now out on a special mission, and my 
 companion, who does not usually visit on Satur- 
 day evenings, but has made this an extraor- 
 dinary occasion, is equipped for service with a 
 bundle of tracts in one pocket, a Bible in the 
 other, and a black leather case which encloses 
 ' The Cottager,' ' The Sunday at Home,' and ' The 
 British Workman,' all to be distributed among 
 tavern proprietors and their servants. We now 
 come up to a large corner establishment or 
 restaurant, where two waiters loitering at the 
 side-door are soon in our confidence, and 
 admiring a large engraving in * The Cottager,' 
 of 'A Dinner Party at the Zoo.' With tact, 
 readiness, and good nature, some necessary 
 Christian lessons are conveyed ; for the city 
 missionary, who has a genius as well as a heart 
 7
 
 82 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 for his work, is the most surprising object a 
 novice is likely to meet with during an evening 
 tour through London streets. Those waiters, 
 for instance, can laugh and chat laughing and 
 chatting seem to make up their native language 
 but they can look serious too when some good 
 thing is sent direct to their hearts. Leaving 
 these, and turning the corner, we enter a capa- 
 cious bar, a place which strikes one as being 
 an interesting portion of the territory we are 
 so strangely invading. The area being large and 
 the company numerous, the servants can allow 
 us but small attention, though each takes a 
 paper, and returns a kindly recognition. The 
 landlord here so unmistakably favours the 
 work of Christian visitation, that a collecting 
 box for the funds of the City Mission is con- 
 stantly kept in use. There is a Babel-like 
 confusion of conversation, combined with a 
 clatter and clinking of pots and glasses, which 
 at first is likely to make one involuntarily ask
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 83 
 
 if this be not a strange place wherein to speak 
 of Christ and to read His words. What do the 
 people themselves think about the question ? 
 Mr. Landlord, who is far too considerable a 
 person to be visible other than in his repre- 
 sentatives, says, by his general approval, ' Do 
 these people whatever good you can.' As 
 regards the servants, they really do value the 
 attentions paid them, and would, if examined, 
 acknowledge their obligations. But what say 
 the people, the wider constituency of public- 
 house customers ? Opinions differ among these 
 witnesses on this, as on all other questions of 
 the age. Listen a moment to those two young 
 fellows who are pushing their way towards the 
 bar : they are quietly expressing to one another 
 their disapproval of obtruding religion into a 
 public-house. Per contra, turn your attention 
 to that gentleman in an opposite corner, and 
 who is too far removed from the last speakers 
 to catch their observations. He looks like a 
 
 rj *
 
 84 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 man who prides himself in knowing what's 
 what, and now he advances the outspoken 
 opinion that 'Eeligion ain't no disgrace to 
 nobody.' The tracts, of which there is an 
 abundant supply, are now in requisition. Here 
 is one called ' Peaceful and Happy.' ' Ay, 
 "Peaceful and Happy," that's your style, 
 governor ; ' and the man who, maybe, thinks 
 that it ought to be his style, accepts the little 
 messenger, confessing that the brochure does 
 not describe his condition. Then there is the 
 history of ' Polly Pond, the Miner's "Wife ; ' and 
 the ' ladies' tract ' is well received by those for 
 whom it was prepared. ' " Sounding Brass ; " 
 "Sounding Brass." Who will have that?' 
 One here, and another there, until that finds 
 favour also. ' " Poor Tom ; " where is he to be 
 found ? " Poor Tom " any one here named 
 Tom ? ' ' My name's Tom.' ' Ah, there you 
 are.' The namesake of ' Poor Tom ' is a tall, 
 wiry-looking man, not far advanced past middle
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 85 
 
 age. He takes the tract with a show of civil 
 satisfaction, and as his name corresponds with 
 the title, he finds much to say, and with con- 
 siderable volubility proves to the company that 
 he can form an opinion for himself. He had 
 even heard a sermon from the Hon. and Eev. 
 Baptist Noel, and having once been coachman 
 to a well-known shipowner at Tottenham, who 
 fitted up one of the first missionary ships, he 
 appeared to think he had more than ordinary 
 claim on our Christian regard, and complained 
 of my companion's want of consideration in not 
 having called upon him at his own house, and 
 hoped to enjoy the pleasure of seeing him before 
 long. It may be remarked here, once for all, 
 that in this and other instances, the private 
 addresses of several persons were taken down, 
 to be visited at their homes during the ensuing 
 week. 
 
 There is no one in this bar who ventures to 
 decry the word which is boldly, and, it may
 
 86 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 be said, nobly spoken. Would any one fulty 
 realise the weight and authority of God's 
 truth, they would do well to embrace an op- 
 portunity of hearing it proclaimed to a rough 
 congregation, like that of a tavern bar on a 
 Saturday night. There is no time for trifling 
 or for showing off; for, distrusting the best 
 words he can command, the evangelist will 
 again and again fall back on the very words 
 of Scripture. To say that I myself, as an ad- 
 miring onlooker, was instructed and edified, is 
 not to say much; and hence the encouraging 
 comments, too lowly spoken to reach my com- 
 panion's ear, came as a welcome testimony. 
 ' I hold with a man like that,' said a young 
 man of the mechanic class, to another of his 
 own station. ' And so do I : there's no kid 
 about it,' was the ready answer.. These bar 
 frequenters are illiterate and devoid of taste, 
 but they can prize honesty and courageous 
 endeavours to do them good. Oppose their
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 87 
 
 prejudices by direct appeals to the Bible, and 
 you may often gain an easy conquest over 
 them. 
 
 'A good beginning,' I said, when we again 
 breathed the pure air of the street. 
 
 Well, yes, my companion thought so too. 
 He signified that the work must be taken as it 
 comes. At times some profitable conversation 
 is secured; at other times he is doomed to 
 disappointment. 
 
 Pursuing our way, we next confront a large 
 establishment which, as an omnibus station, 
 and in other respects being a house occupying 
 a commanding position, is said to be worth 
 twenty thousand pounds in the open market. 
 Though a regular attendant at public worship, 
 and one who encourages his employes to copy 
 a good example at least once on the Sabbath, 
 Mr. Landlord does not wholly close on the day 
 of rest, the receipts being too large to allow 
 of his making the sacrifice. Though not
 
 88 BTEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 numerous, the company here retains some 
 special traits of interest. There stands a man 
 at one end of the bar, with a half-finished glass 
 of ale before him, who strikes one as being 
 ' a character.' He is of middle age, and his 
 countenance still bears those traces of refine- 
 ment which arise from education. Instinct- 
 ively, it would seem, he stands alone, and so 
 keeps aloof from the vulgar herd of the street. 
 Our entrance seemed to awaken him into good 
 humour, for he at once became quite affable, 
 his conversation being free from any profane 
 or even coarse expressions. ' Give me the cast 
 of your eye ! ' he cried, in rapid, authoritative 
 tones. My companion at once looked the man 
 straight in the face, and received his thanks 
 for being so readily obliging. This stranger, 
 who seemed to have made the human eye a 
 special study, said that while the features in 
 general might alter, the expression of the 
 organs of vision remained virtually the same
 
 THE TAVERXS OF PADDIXGTON. 89 
 
 throughout life. He grew really excited on this 
 harmless topic, and laid down many rules for 
 the preservation of sight, which were not with- 
 out interest and value to students. Yet, after 
 he had observed how divers periodicals were 
 handed over the counter, the tracts appeared 
 to occasion him some perplexity. Who were we, 
 and in what did our business consist ? We 
 might belong to a respectable species of colpor- 
 teurs, or we might be of a genus of which he 
 had never heard in the great world of money- 
 getting. When he was offered a tract he rather 
 awkwardly hesitated, and then, in a polite un- 
 dertone, declined taking one, because well, yes, 
 if the truth must be told, his features seemed 
 to say because 'I have no money to-night/ 
 When assured that the distribution was entirely 
 gratuitous, he gladly took a copy, though even 
 then he manifested signs of impatience at re- 
 marks upon religion, or concerning what in his 
 vocabulary was equivalent theology. Another
 
 90 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 person in this bouse, second only in interest ' 
 to the genteel-looking stranger, was the barman, 
 whose face brightened when the missionary 
 went up to the counter. The poor fellow was 
 in trouble, being about to resign his situation 
 in consequence of being physically unequal to 
 the heavy toil and the excessively protracted 
 hours attached to Sabbathless weeks. The 
 hours of service required of the employes in 
 some of the more frequented taverns are amply 
 sufficient for a double set of hands; and were 
 landlords more humanely sensitive in this 
 direction, a double set would be provided where 
 one set is now overtaxed. The position of these 
 people is frequently not far removed from 
 slavery. They have no time for self-improve- 
 ment ; there are no opportunities of attending 
 public worship, for were they to attend, as 
 sometimes desired, they would find it impossible 
 to keep awake through the sermon. To the 
 mind of a man like our friend the barman,
 
 THE T AVERTS OF PADDIXGTOX. 91 
 
 the ordinary working hours of bricklayers and 
 carpenters are as easy as could be desired. 
 "With the weekly half-holiday, those hours pre- 
 clude all necessity for opening museums and 
 picture galleries on the Sabbath, consequent on 
 want of time to attend them during -the week. 
 That barman, a smart, good-looking, active 
 young fellow, said he would be glad enough 
 to get a situation at twenty-three shillings a 
 week, and escape the thraldom of the bar. 
 
 Still pursuing -our way, we are everywhere 
 civilly received, the employes in the bars of the 
 larger houses still giving us a genial welcome, 
 but to refer to every character met with would 
 be impossible in a limited space. Here is seen, 
 in one group, a respectable-looking widow, a 
 modest-looking girl, and a young fellow who 
 is treating them to stout. Though the widow, 
 as a portly person, can evidently take her 
 couple of glasses without inconvenience, the 
 girl holds the glass daintily in her gloved hand,
 
 92 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 laughs at every witty remark of her protector, 
 the gallant swain, and affects coyness in gene- 
 ral. These accept our tracts, and listen re- 
 spectfully to what is said. Then we encounter 
 a woman, who, coming in for a jug of beer, 
 says she is glad to see the missionary abroad; 
 while in the same place is a cabman much 
 depressed in mind, consequent on his child 
 having been lately drowned in a water-tank, 
 and his heart being soft, he listens to kind 
 Christian advice with apparent thankfulness. 
 The tracts are still eagerly received by old and 
 young, only one man during our evening round 
 openly refusing to accept the Gospel message. 
 Many of the people even manifest a kind of 
 pride in showing tracts received on former 
 occasions, and take some trouble to explain 
 that the papers are never destroyed. The 
 , children, also, are always remembered, and in 
 one house a little girl comes forward to seek 
 her portion of religious literature.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 93 
 
 In front of one bar, among the crowd, stands 
 a young man, who, being civil, and even com- 
 plimentary, assures us he detected our business 
 as soon as we entered. His mind is stored 
 with texts of Scripture, learned at a Sabbath- 
 school, and his views of the plan of salvation 
 are also in the main correct too correct, indeed, 
 to suit the taste of an argumentative individual 
 standing by, whose judgment is probably more 
 trustworthy as regards beer than as regards 
 theology. Two or three yards away, several 
 workmen, with pipes and pots, surround a 
 large * barrel, and one of these, observing what 
 attention others are receiving, grows jealous, 
 suspecting he will be overlooked, and so he 
 steps forward to attract notice. These men 
 speak their mind in a rough and ready 
 manner, and with a pleasant freedom from 
 improper language. Speak of man's duty in 
 reading the Bible ; one of these declares that 
 he does not know that he ever read a chapter
 
 94 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of Scripture during his life. Speak of man's 
 corrupt heart ; another says that he knows his 
 heart is evil, because it has again and again 
 led him astray. He may give up drinking for 
 a time, to put himself financially straight, hut 
 then his evil heart, as he confesses, leads to 
 his again breaking in upon the store. Un- 
 educated, outspoken men, who will confess so 
 much as this, may be nearer to the kingdom 
 of heaven than their respectable neighbours 
 suspect. 
 
 Such was our experience in the larger taverns. 
 We now turned attention to houses of a much 
 inferior class, and situated in the back streets, 
 each being a rendezvous of dustmen and others, 
 who, as a thirsty clan, are considerable cus- 
 tomers. The landlord of one of these places 
 is mentioned as ranking among the few who 
 opposed the operations of the missionary on 
 the occasion of his first calling. The house 
 itself immediately strikes one as being a decid-
 
 THE TAVERXS OF PADDINGTON. 95 
 
 eclly unpleasant place. Mr. Landlord being an 
 intemperate, depraved character, the customers 
 are also of a low order ; and one might be ex- 
 cused for feeling ill-at-ease in the evil precincts 
 of such a bar. On looking round the frowsy 
 interior, nothing is discovered which tends to 
 make vice more sightable. Everything repels 
 one by its frowning gloom ; the company, even, 
 consisting of a man and a woman, separated 
 by the length of the bar, being the most un- 
 canny people met with during the evening. 
 Mark well that man, if he really be a man. 
 To the unassisted eye he resembles a reeking 
 bundle of rags, whence issue forth sounds of 
 imbecile merriment, the laughter evidently 
 being provoked by my companion's kindly 
 inquiries after Mr. Landlord's health. Poor 
 old creature ! We must regard him with pity 
 rather than with contempt, even though he 
 wear the drunkard's uniform, and does not, 
 to judge by external evidence, patronize soap
 
 96 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and water, at the most prosperous of seasons. 
 He laughed internally, making little noise, 
 and another fit of merriment occurred on his 
 taking a tract, and listening to some remarks 
 addressed directly to himself. He seemed to 
 think religion, and all connected with religion, 
 the funniest things on earth, Anon, he refers 
 to his 'missus' and 'gal,' making one shud- 
 der involuntarily to hear of such a creature's 
 possessing either wife or daughter. Yet while 
 the Son of man comes to seek such as are lost, 
 who shall say that the Gospel is spoken to such 
 outcasts in vain ? 
 
 In other beerhouses the usual fraternity of 
 dustmen were found congregating in force. 
 Though in many instances they were noisy 
 and profane, the fact must he placed to their 
 credit that they offered no direct incivility 
 or opposition to our progress ; they were even 
 pressingly hospitable, and seemed unable to 
 understand the fortitude and self-denial on our
 
 THE TAVEEN8 OF PADDINGTON. 97 
 
 part which successfully resisted their impor- 
 tunity to partake of a rich Saturday night 
 concoction of ale and ginger-beer. This dust- 
 men's district, as it may be called, was 
 formerly very effectively served by one who 
 some years since went to his rest, and it was 
 striking as well as affecting to find how the 
 good missionary's memory is cherished and 
 honoured by the rough people who were once 
 his constituents. In one beerhouse, and then 
 in another, men and women paid voluntary 
 tributes of respect to the memory of Henry 
 Pearson. 
 
 The men patronising their favourite houses, 
 are often found with their wives, muddling 
 their brains and squandering their resources 
 by drinking inordinate quantities of spirits 
 and beer. 
 
 The reader will perhaps now admit that 
 the beershop on a Saturday night is not only 
 a legitimate sphere of missionary action, but 
 
 8
 
 98 BYEWAT8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 is a place likely to supply some phases of 
 street-life alike useful and interesting to legis- 
 lators and philanthropists. The house we are 
 now entering is crowded, the hour-hand of the 
 clock is fast approaching eleven, and some 
 of the company have taken rather more than 
 is good for them, though no cases of far-gone 
 drunkenness are observable. The women are 
 numerous, and are of the slatternly genus, but, 
 unthrifty as they are, they can speak a good 
 word for the well-remembered Henry Pearson. 
 ' Polly Pond,' as ' a lady's book,' finds favour 
 among them, as do other similar productions. 
 An old fellow comfortably reclining on a bench 
 shows a disposition to be boastful of his good 
 sight and reading powers, but is soon compelled 
 to apologise for his inability to spell out 
 a couple of lines from 'Poor Tom.' Yes, 
 it is true that he is growing old, and his eyes 
 are becoming treacherous, and so, holding the 
 tract at arm's length, he remarks, '"Well,
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTON. 99 
 
 sir, yer see, I've 'ad a little beer to-night.' 
 How much drink under such circumstances 
 might be accounted ' a little,' it was not 
 possible to learn, though his wife admitted, 
 'He've 'ad a good deal, sir.' They were 
 not willing to admit that they ever committed 
 any flagrant sin. ' Though we hev a little 
 beer, we don't do no 'arm ; we don't thieve, 
 nor rob nobody,' remarked the woman who 
 spoke before, 'Ah, but drunkards shall not 
 inherit the kingdom of God,' replies nay 
 companion. 
 
 As we elbow our way about the crowd in the 
 hot, smoky atmosphere, the tracts continue 
 to be civilly received, and remarks, humorous 
 and otherwise, are offered for our enlighten- 
 ment and entertainment. A dark-complex- 
 ioned gentleman, whose height does not greatly 
 exceed five feet, evinces considerable irritation 
 at being publicly pointed out as ' an old snob.' 
 Then followed honourable explanations. In 
 8*
 
 100 BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 his youthful days that man was taken hy the 
 hand and started in life by the good missionary 
 Henry Pearson, and Henry Pearson placed 
 him at the shoemaking craft, besides giving 
 him much valuable instruction and advice. 
 It may not be desirable to have one's private 
 history proclaimed from the housetops, or, 
 what may be equivalent, to have one's secrets 
 published in a thronged beerhouse on a 
 Saturday night, but with a look combining 
 scorn and injured innocence, the late ' snob ' 
 insists that ' a man must rise.' Had his 
 knowledge been greater, he might have named 
 several worthy men who have risen, and risen 
 none the less honourably because they also 
 once were called ' snobs.' Go where you may, 
 you find members of two of our most useful 
 crafts, those of the tailor and the shoemaker, 
 subjected to odium on account of their calling. 
 What is the reason for this ? 
 We did not conclude our evening round
 
 TEE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 101 
 
 without gaining at least one welcome piece of 
 information. Itinerants who visit among the 
 lower orders in the manner described have 
 abundant reason for encouragement, and have 
 grounds for the hope of God's one day reviving 
 His work in the world. How must civilisation 
 have progressed even among the masses since 
 the times of early Methodism, when ribald 
 mobs sought every opportunity of opposing 
 and maltreating those who desired their present 
 and eternal good. The very words of Scripture 
 are now spoken or read in public-houses by 
 men whom even the most depraved respect 
 for their work's sake. To accompany one of 
 these evangelists for the purpose of watching 
 his work is sure to excite your admiration, 
 and may also prove bracing to your finer 
 instincts, by strikingly revealing the hidden 
 power lying within the words of Inspiration. 
 In our late visit we were more than well 
 received, and more than civilly treated. The
 
 102 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 worth of holy things was openly recognised. 
 One brawny fellow, who begged for a copy of 
 'Mother's Last Words,' stoutly maintained 
 that that highly popular tract was the best 
 thing in our language, and a production which 
 no man, however steeled his heart, could listen 
 to without tears ; a rash affirmation, perhaps, 
 as coming from one whose acquaintance with 
 literature was not of the broadest kind. Who, 
 however, could do otherwise than respect such 
 a man's opinion ? I was glad to hear that 
 preference for a good little book boldly spoken 
 in a London beershop, at 10'45 p.m., on a 
 Saturday night. 
 
 It is not too much to say that the most 
 demoralising scene we visited during the entire 
 evening was a music-hall in a main thorough- 
 fare. There we saw an agency in active 
 working order, warranted to ruin young persons 
 surely and swiftly. The confusion and noise 
 in the gilded and expensively-decorated bar
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTOX. 103 
 
 were indescribable, while in the great hall, 
 the admission to which was one shilling, there 
 were, perhaps, over a thousand persons present. 
 There were brilliant lights, sensual scenery, 
 skilfully-performed music, and questionable 
 songs, besides intoxicants ad libitum, such as 
 each chose to order. What more potent means 
 could be devised for encompassing the moral 
 overthrow of the young, especially of inex- 
 perienced and unsuspecting girls, who are too 
 often blindly led into the fatal arena?' One 
 -need not hesitate in denouncing tavern music- 
 halls as breeders of moral pestilence, and as 
 an abuse of the liberty awarded by the State 
 to licensed victuallers. Undoubtedly such 
 places should be summarily dealt with by the 
 legislature. In no well-ordered community 
 should low concert-rooms and drinking- saloons 
 be allowed to combine and work together in 
 their work of corrupting the people ; and were 
 the licensing powers of each parish handed
 
 104 -BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 over to the vestry, those whose families are 
 imperilled by the present state of things might 
 have a chance of checking a growing evil. 
 Very few publicans, comparatively, have music 
 licenses, so that, happily, these remarks affect 
 but a small section of the trade. Concerning 
 the Christian visitation in general of their 
 houses, I repeat that the mission is a noble 
 attempt to reach the masses, many of whom, 
 perhaps, would not be easily reached by any 
 other road. The public needs only to become 
 more fully acquainted with the working of the 
 public-house mission, to award it their support, 
 their sympathy, and, above all, their prayers. 
 
 If the commencement of the public -house 
 mission was not so auspicious as the too 
 sanguine anticipated, its earliest fruits gave 
 promise of a more plentiful harvest in the 
 future. It is to my mind both remarkable 
 and encouraging that the first coster, whom 
 the pioneer tavern missionary accosted in a
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 105 
 
 London bar, should have become a Christian ; 
 and should afterwards have died, exclaiming, 
 ' Christ died for poor me, and He has made 
 it all right now, and I shall go up to Him.' 
 I think there is something equally consoling 
 in the fact that the landlord of the first house 
 entered by the first -appointed missionary to 
 the publicans, should have surrendered to the 
 Gospel. The man showed a disposition to be 
 violent and abusive, and the best welcome he 
 afforded the missionary was to seize him by 
 the arm, and, with curses, push him out of 
 doors. On falling ill, this man became glad 
 
 of the Christian attentions so lately abused, 
 
 
 
 proved himself a really changed character, and 
 died at length a triumphant death. 
 
 My friend himself gained the acquaintance- 
 ship of a landlord who doggedly set himself 
 against Christianity, and refused to see any 
 Christian counsellor, until persuaded to do so 
 by a brother publican, to whom the missionary
 
 106 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 had been made useful. The sick man listened 
 to the Gospel message, repented, and believed. 
 Change of air being necessary in his still weak 
 state of health, friends advised his removing 
 to a shooting-box which he owned a few miles 
 out of London. ' No,' he replied, ' I cannot 
 do that, for if once I get down there, my old 
 companions will surround me, and the tempta- 
 tion will be too strong.' The sincerity of his 
 conversion was seen when he sold the estate, 
 together with -its dogs, horses, and guns. This 
 man likewise subsequently died rejoicing in 
 a good hope through Christ. 
 
 Having now given in detail some impressions 
 
 
 
 taken during a Saturday evening round in com- 
 pany with an energetic public-house missionary, 
 some other particulars of the every-day work 
 of the same agent may very properly follow. 
 I give my friend credit for being a ready wit 
 and smart at repartee. He is well aware that 
 no evangelist can have better opportunities of
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTOX. 107 
 
 utilising general knowledge than one in bis 
 position, and he shapes his action accordingly. 
 Supposing, e.g., that, as in the present instance, 
 the battle-field is Paddington, he will take care 
 to store his mind with such local history as 
 can be readily found, as well as with other 
 miscellaneous information. He knows when 
 certain streets and squares were erected, what 
 persons of note in bygone times resided in the 
 vicinity, and he can speak about the fashion- 
 able taverns and pleasure - gardens as they 
 existed in the time of Queen Anne. He recol- 
 lects what duels were fought when the area 
 was in a great part open fields, and he can 
 recite many very interesting inscriptions on 
 tombstones in the parish church. It may not 
 always be expedient to press religion on a 
 stranger's notice at the first moment of meet- 
 ing, and hence the gift is profitably cultivated 
 which enables a man to become an entertaining 
 companion on the shortest notice.
 
 108 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 It is well known that many of the more 
 considerable publicans are holders of very 
 valuable property in a commercial sense. Im- 
 mense sums are expended in the erection of 
 large taverns, and still greater capital would 
 be necessary to purchase the lease and good- 
 will of some of their commanding sites. Con- 
 cerning the landlords of these establishments, 
 we may safely confide in the testimony of men 
 who as evangelists spend their time among 
 them and their customers ; and these men 
 assure us that, taken as a whole, the upper 
 class of publicans are a good, moral-living, 
 and hospitable race, who attend well to their 
 families, and generously support the licensed 
 victuallers' institutions. Still, the truth must 
 be confessed that some few others of the 
 publican world are scarcely alive to any sense 
 of propriety, and care little whose ruin they 
 encompass if only their selfish ends are gained. 
 Of the want of moral principle among such
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 109 
 
 we are able to judge from a notice like the 
 following, exhibited to tempt those to indulge in 
 greater excess whose besetting sin is drinking : 
 
 ' For this day only. Notice ! On Sunday, 
 April 8th. Meux's splendid porter, 2^d. per 
 pot ; Finest Old Tom, 3|d. per quartern ; 
 Jamaica rum, 4d. per quartern. Not less than 
 a pot of beer or a quartern of spirits at the 
 above prices. No change will be given.' 
 
 Characters who can descend to these low 
 tactics require managing with considerable 
 tact. Then my friend is no stranger to odd, 
 or even to tragic occurrences, which happen 
 on his wide district. Fancy, for example, 
 that you see a company of enterprising roughs 
 who have planned a novel kind of 'lark.' 
 They watch Mr. Landlord leave his house 
 the one they themselves frequent then im- 
 mediately enter, overpower the landlady, and 
 regale themselves to the full with spirits and 
 cigars. Fancy, further, that when these gen-
 
 110 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 tlemen are prosecuted, their indignant 'pals' 
 cease using the prosecutor's house, and so 
 oblige his retiring to another part of the town. 
 All this has heen known to occur. An unfor- 
 tunate barmaid has even had a preparation 
 of pepper thrown in her eyes, for the sake of 
 facilitating another robbery. 
 
 But we may look a little further into my 
 friend's work, which, being extremely diversi- 
 fied, meets with ever-varying success. To-day, 
 a beam of sunshine darts down suddenly and 
 unexpectedly; to-morrow, comes rebuff and 
 discouragement. The reader must now sup- 
 pose the time to be a little after nine on a 
 Sabbath evening; the place being a narrow, 
 uninviting street at the west end of the town. 
 In the sombre shade of this thoroughfare 
 stands one of those public-houses of question- 
 able repute, where people assemble who have 
 more than a taint of suspicion resting on their 
 character. The landlord of a den like this
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTOX. Ill 
 
 must be judiciously and kindly dealt with. 
 You cannot respect him, but to excite his ire 
 by telling him so would be to defeat your own 
 purpose. The missionary, however, who has 
 common sense as well as tact, and knows how 
 to ingratiate himself into the confidence of 
 landlords and their subordinates of every shade 
 of temper, walks forward into an inner room, 
 where are congregated some thirty men and 
 women of loose moral habits, and whose 
 business is thieving. They are taken suddenly 
 by surprise, occupied as they are in their 
 Sabbath recreation of gaming, drinking, and, 
 perhaps, concocting plans for future depreda- 
 tions. 'Hallo; who's this cove?' calls out 
 one of the most sensitive of the gang, in sen- 
 tinel-like tones. 'All right, gentlemen; don't 
 disturb yourselves,' is the reply. ' I've brought 
 you some capital little books.' There is ever 
 something tempting in books, even to the most 
 illiterate. Those who cannot read them like
 
 112 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 looking at the engravings, and asking what 
 the pictures are about. The case of tracts is 
 at once opened, several pairs of eyes curiously 
 watching the process. ' Who'll have this ? ' 
 calls out my intruding friend, holding up that 
 readable poetical production, ' Oh, if I were 
 the Squire?' 'That's my tract,' answers an 
 idle-looking fellow, who at once accepts the 
 paper. But that black case contains an ample 
 supply of * ladies' books ' also, and care is 
 taken to distribute these wisely and liberally. 
 Now there comes uppermost another readable- 
 looking article, ' Trust the Pilot.' ' Ah, ah ! ' 
 cries a sailor, or a quondam sailor, among 
 the throng, awakened into consciousness by 
 a nautical allusion. ' Ah, ah ! Why the 
 gen'l'm's got his eyes on a brother tar. Hand 
 that here, and give us one for a mate.' 
 
 In such a company the tracts are almost 
 invariably well received, and a text of Scrip- 
 ture is usually repeated in each instance.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 113 
 
 The seed thus sown will sometimes show symp- 
 toms of yielding fruit even at the season of 
 sowing. See, now, there is a man who is 
 revolving in his mind some words from the 
 New Testament he has just been hearing. 
 ' Guv'nor ! ' he cries, ' you told me when you 
 gave me this book that if I'd believe in Jesus 
 Christ I should be saved. Now just tell me 
 how we're to do that?" Eejoicing in any 
 favourable signs, and especially glad to hear 
 a straightforward question asked in such a 
 godless company, the evangelist compliments 
 the man for being honestly open, and is 
 proceeding to reply more particularly, when 
 the clatter and confusion of tongues well-nigh 
 drowns his voice, and at least prevents his 
 being heard. 
 
 ' Silence, there ! ' roars one of the most 
 
 interested of the audience ; while another, 
 
 prompted to interfere by love of order, threatens 
 
 to break the heads of any who do not cease 
 
 9
 
 114 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 talking. ' Silence, there ! question's asked, 
 and gen'l'm's goin' to give a answer.' 
 
 One who can provoke a crisis like this needs 
 to be in command of both knowledge and 
 wisdom. Without desiring to pay compliments, 
 I may say that I have never observed a city 
 missionary fail in showing a readiness of utter- 
 ance at the proper time. In the present in- 
 stance a concise explanation of the Gospel 
 followed, made plainer by being accompanied 
 with what all easily comprehend an illustra- 
 tion from daily life. All in that room had 
 heard about the fever which had broken out 
 in the workhouse yonder. Now, suppose there 
 were two men in one ward, and both alike, ill 
 both alike lying at death's door. The doctor 
 knows of one medicine which will cure them, 
 and of only one, and that is infallible. Strange 
 to say, while the restoring draught is freely 
 offered to both patients, one, while knowing 
 of its healing power, refuses to drink, and con-
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 115 
 
 sequently dies. The other is more eager to 
 recover. He knows this to be his only chance 
 of life ; he dreads death ; he drinks and lives. 
 Well, now, everybody is infected by a worse 
 poison than typhus, for all have sinned. Yes, 
 all have sinned, and unless we go to the Phy- 
 sician of souls we shall surely die of our 
 disease. Jesus Christ is the Physician who 
 offers the water of life, and unless we go to 
 Him, unless we drink and live, we shall surely 
 perish. It is not possible to give all which 
 was spoken on either side, nor were all alike 
 willing listeners. Interruptions came from the 
 players, and were peremptorily opposed by 
 ' Shut up ! ' from one who was interested ; 
 while another would call out, ' Go on, guv'nor ; 
 he's a fool, and can't understand ; you never 
 mind 'im.' Difficult work is that of speak- 
 ing to a congregation of outcasts ; but rea- 
 lising the importance of sending something 
 home to their hearts, the good evangelist 
 9 *
 
 116 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 counts himself happy when able to rise to the 
 occasion. 
 
 But some progress is surely being made ; 
 a spirit of inquiry is awakened, for numbers 
 gather round to see and hear what is going on. 
 
 ' Look here ! ' cries an ill-dressed man, who 
 is at least possessed of curiosity, if not of a 
 longing after good. "'Look here, I wasn't always 
 the cove I am; I once had a good suit of 
 toggery. Well, in them days I was 'vited to 
 
 go and 'ear a parson called F , somewhere 
 
 up Maida-hill way. He preached on two 
 women ; one he said was Martha, and t'other 
 he called Mary. He told us just what sort 
 of women they were. One of the women stuck 
 to her work like a brick ; but the other dropped 
 her broom, and began to jaw just like a woman. 
 Now, what I want you to tell us, guv'nor, is 
 this : The parson said in one place, " One thing 
 is needful," and he never told us what it was, 
 and I could never make it out. It's been up
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTON. 117 
 
 and down in my mind many a time. You 
 explain that to us, like you did that other ques- 
 tion, and let's 'ave a illustration.' 
 
 How good illustrations do tell by striking 
 home to the heart ! The people now listen to 
 an account of a ship in a storm. She strikes 
 on a rock; she springs a leak ; she threatens 
 to sink, and drown her crew. What is the 
 ' one thing needful ' for a sinking ship ? 
 'A life-boat!' Yes, that's right; a life-boat. 
 'I'm a wreck,' continues the speaker; 'that 
 woman's a wreck ; the great waves of sin are 
 fast drowning us. " One thing is needful." 
 There is a life-boat for us, a refuge for us, 
 a Saviour for us. He is able to save unto 
 the uttermost. A drowning man once cried 
 out, " Lord, save me ! " and immediately Jesus 
 stretched forth His hand and caught him. 
 It was the " one thing needful." ' 
 
 Characters whom we too readily regard as 
 so far sunk in moral degradation as to be
 
 118 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 irrecoverable, are not beyond the reach of God. 
 They are not indisposed to listen to the Gospel 
 if the truth be presented in a becoming way. 
 It might defeat his purpose were their instruc- 
 tor to approach and cry out indignantly, ' You 
 are going to hell ! ' But if he will point out to 
 them the road to heaven, he will get willing 
 listeners even in a thieves' rendezvous. ' Good- 
 night, guv'nor,' cry out the men : ' come again 
 soon, and give us another stunning lecture.' 
 
 My friend now goes further afield, and 
 probably does not proceed far without meeting 
 with one of the most obstinate members of 
 the human genus, who is prejudiced against 
 religion because of the inconsistencies of Chris- 
 tian professors. The gentleman's servant, 
 as we meet with him in tavern parlours, 
 is a study worthy of the pencil of Hogarth. 
 He is pompous, affected, and prouder than his 
 master, and were his acquaintance with 
 English more perfect, he would not be more
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 119 
 
 entertaining. One of these will look with dis- 
 favour on Christianity because the bishop 
 of so-and-so, the duke of this or that, and 
 my lady something else, are one and all 
 inconsistent. They ride in their carriages to 
 church ; they indulge in every kind of luxury ; 
 they do many other things which James cannot 
 emulate. Anon, another objector to the tracts 
 appears. He is a Eomanist, and dislikes 
 Protestant tracts because there is nothing 
 in them about 'the Mother of God.' These 
 all call for kindly persuasion, argument, and 
 warning. Though the good results springing 
 from the constant effort put forth are smaller 
 than we could wish, they are still large 
 enough to bring encouragement and reward. 
 
 Probably the missionary is not more un- 
 popular with any class than with those fast 
 young men who, though frequenters of taverns, 
 affect gentlemanly airs, and make brave en- 
 deavours to atone for want of understanding,
 
 120 BTEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and general emptiness of mind, by foppish dis- 
 play, and claiming to come of a gentle origin. 
 Let us notice a couple of this description who 
 appear on the scene during a Sabbath evening 
 in summer. The neighbourhood is wealthy, 
 being bounded by one of the West-end parks, 
 and streams of well-dressed people are going 
 and coming in air directions, and enjoying the 
 air. The two fast youths enter a large tavern 
 where my friend happens to be standing. Look 
 well at them, and your eyes must be untrained, 
 indeed, in observing different phases of street 
 life, if you do not instantly see through the 
 disguise which the cheap tailor and the haber- 
 dasher have been able to provide, and beneath 
 the thin veil you detect low-bred vulgarity 
 peeping out to mock at pretty actions and pre- 
 tentious words. While some specimens of this 
 species may work for their bread, others, per- 
 haps, procure what cash is necessary for meet- 
 ing daily engagements in ways they prefer
 
 THE TAVEEXS OF PADDIXGTOX. 121 
 
 not to have explained ; but, in either instance, 
 they are small fry whose recreation consists 
 in persecuting unwilling barmaids with ' atten- 
 tions' and small talk. The poor girls could 
 do well without this patronage, and would, 
 perhaps, be more determined in resisting, were 
 they not compelled to keep an eye on an 
 employer's profit. If you inspect the hats and 
 canes of these gentry and they expect all to 
 look at them you may reasonably ask yourself 
 if the manufacturers of such superb articles 
 should not rapidly rise in popular estimation. 
 There is surely no doubt about the finish and 
 the style. Even the very movements of these 
 gay butterfly personages are calculated to 
 attract observation. Their actions speak truer 
 language than their tongues. "What practice 
 must be needed ere one can assume that grace- 
 ful posture in public ; and who else beside the 
 man at your elbow could rap his nose just like 
 that with the head of a dainty cane, or drink
 
 122 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 a glass of ale from first to last so precisely like 
 a connoisseur? Well-dressed, handsome bar- 
 maids act like potent forces in inspiring the 
 little minds of these little men. 
 
 'A beautiful evening, miss,' remarks one of 
 the fast little men, in blandest tones. ' We're 
 just taking an airing round the park. Suppose 
 you don't often get out ? Great pity ! Your 
 company would have much enhanced our 
 pleasure. Female society greatly adds to the 
 beauties of nature. Any evening you're likely 
 to be disengaged, and will honour us with your 
 company, it will greatly add to our felicity.' 
 The girl bows, my friend, meanwhile, harbour- 
 ing doubts as to the wisdom of offering tracts 
 to these full-blown gents. He begins to question 
 whether he will not be annihilated in the blaze 
 of so much display. However, he ventures to 
 be sufficiently bold to offer a tract, ' The Lamp 
 kept always Burning.' The fast little man 
 shapes his features into an expression of high
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 123 
 
 disdain ; he smiles sarcastically, and then 
 speaks in the best wit his little brains can 
 muster. 'What a queer title "The Lamp 
 kept always Burning." I suppose that is in- 
 tended for young married men who stay out 
 late at night, and keep up their poor wives 
 burning the candle?' Then he does worse 
 than make small puns ; he waxes profane, and 
 provokes some well-deserved rebukes, until, 
 weak as he is morally and intellectually, he 
 perceives the policy of apologising, and even 
 of promising to read the tract. Barmaids who 
 are beset by customers of this sample, if they 
 themselves possess any strength of character, 
 value the talk of such worthless admirers as 
 they value the meaningless chatter of parrots. 
 They shrink in disgust from their familiarity, 
 and regard them with general contempt. 
 
 My friend, however, cannot afford to regard 
 even one of his constituents with aught ranking 
 lower -than pity. He knows that if some of
 
 124 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 these youthful pretenders could be followed in 
 their life-course, a few more years would show 
 the bloom and even the gaiety of life to have 
 vanished. There is no longer any romance 
 linked with life when a man's dissipation and 
 general fastness of living have come to an 
 abrupt termination by wearing out the frame. 
 See yonder man with a broken arm, standing in 
 front of a bar, where a number of ' pals ' have 
 'treated' him into semi-senselessness. That 
 man has let slip fair opportunities. The tide 
 of life, which taken at the flood would have led 
 on to fortune, has subsided never to rise again ; 
 and what is still worse, his parents are found 
 descending with their grey hairs in sorrow to 
 the grave. ' This is a friend of ours,' remarks 
 one of the men, alluding to the broken- armed 
 simpleton. ' He's been in a good bit of pain, 
 so we thought it would be a charity to give 
 him something to drink, and so you see we've 
 made him drunk. Can you do anything for
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 125 
 
 him ? His case is a real one, take our word 
 for it. We wouldn't tell a lie.' ' The money 
 you've spent during the last hour would have 
 helped him far more than anything I can do,' 
 answers my friend. ' Well, so it would, that's 
 true, only we didn't think of it till you gave 
 us these tracts,' adds the man. 
 
 Now look into a poor home, where are a 
 broken-hearted mother and a stricken father, 
 the man lying ill in bed. ' Oh, sir, it must be 
 my son you mean,' cries the old man, as my 
 friend seats himself by the bed, and refers to 
 the broken-armed simpleton. ' He's not been 
 home since Sunday. He often stays out all 
 night, and there is no telling what company 
 he is with. I was a linen-draper once, and 
 comfortably off, but our son cost us in one 
 year between seventy and eighty pounds. He 
 went into the army, and the navy, and has 
 given us no end of trouble and sorrow. He 
 has met with a dreadful accident now, but it
 
 126 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 hasn't made him better. Soon he is going to 
 be married to a very respectable and good 
 young woman, who has saved some money, 
 and supports her old mother in the country. 
 We all hope he'll be better then, and start in 
 business and get on.' The poor old people 
 became much affected when kindly spoken to, 
 and are addressed in the words of the twenty- 
 third Psalm. That 'a very respectable and 
 good young woman ' should be closely associated 
 with such a scene, is one of those anomalies of 
 life too often met with in London. 
 
 It will not be supposed that the aim of the 
 public-house missionary is merely to benefit 
 the customers of publicans. He 'looks well after 
 these, and is rewarded by attracting the atten- 
 tion of casual passengers, but his mission is also 
 a special one to the publicans themselves and 
 to their servants. Among these he has an 
 extensive auditory, and, through advising them, 
 he is their valued counsellor and friend. He
 
 THE TAVERXS OF PADDIXGTOX. 127 
 
 can tell of publicans who have become Chris- 
 tian converts through his instrumentality, and 
 of barmaids and barmen who have admitted 
 that only by reading what has been put into 
 their hands, and by acting upon the advice 
 offered, have they been saved from the ruin to 
 which they are continually exposed. Then 
 there is another class to whom the precepts 
 of the Bible come like life-salvation, the widows 
 of deceased publicans, who, occupying covetable 
 business positions, attract an inconvenient num- 
 ber of undesirable admirers. These women are 
 peculiarly subject to annoyance from shameless 
 and worthless adventurers, who come with pro- 
 posals of marriage, and to be of service to such 
 unprotected females is to reap at least some 
 reward. ' I hope God will keep me from mak- 
 ing a fool of myself,' exclaimed one woman 
 who ' wa.s thus tormented. Hence, admitting 
 his honesty of purpose in visiting them, the 
 publicans commonly encourage their friend's
 
 128 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 visits, there being but one house out of four 
 hundred wherein objections to his calling are 
 raised. The licensed victuallers are far from 
 ignoring religion. Their chief school is con- 
 ducted on Christian principles, having a duly 
 qualified chaplain, and an annual sermon, while 
 every child who leaves the institution is pre- 
 sented with a copy of the Bible. 
 
 To give in detail every instance of individual 
 good received the fruits of this mission 
 which has come within my knowledge, would 
 too greatly extend the limits of this article. 
 Hopeless as it may seem to go into taprooms 
 to distribute tracts among the profane, the 
 sensual, and the illiterate ; or to invade 
 ' parlours,' to drop the good seed of the 
 Kingdom among the fast living and the 
 opinionated, experience proves that the work 
 is not hopeless. In front of yonder bar stands 
 a young man half intoxicated, but still able to 
 take home a well-deserved rebuke for using pro-
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON . 129 
 
 fane words. Is he quite a lost character ? If 
 any are too far gone to be recoverable, surely 
 you may conclude they are such as he. Now 
 he becomes sufficiently communicative to give 
 his name and address. He is a well-to-do 
 middle-class man, living in his own house, 
 and respectably connected. On being visited, 
 he is found to be in an exceedingly dejected 
 state of mind, and he makes an open con- 
 fession : ' I am a ruined and lost man ! My 
 wife has been crying ever since Sunday 
 night ! I can never trust myself again ! 
 I cannot tell what possessed me ! I always 
 go to church, and my children to a Sunday- 
 school. When I went out the night you 
 met with me, I had no intention of taking 
 anything to drink, but meant to attend a place 
 of worship. No one persuaded me to go to 
 a public-house, and I cannot tell what led 
 to so much wickedness. After you left I got 
 into the worst of company, and was so drunk 
 10
 
 130 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 that I couldn't walk home. My poor wife 
 was frightened when she saw me, and she 
 says I called her the most shocking names, 
 and threatened to ill-use her. If I go out 
 alone I may very likely do the same thing 
 again.' 
 
 What good signs are fear and grief in 
 a transgressor. That man was counselled 
 with the wisdom of the good Old Book, and 
 though the peace which he needed, and which 
 his friend longed to welcome, was long in 
 coming, it did come at last, and the man, 
 lately overtaken in a fault, became a changed 
 character. He grew even anxious for the con- 
 version of friends, and not long since he 
 undertook a long journey for the sake of 
 offering Christian consolation or instruction 
 to an ailing relative. 
 
 Many striking and pleasing circumstances 
 come directly beneath the notice of my active 
 friend, the tavern evangelist. Numbers of
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDINGTON. 131 
 
 private histories with which he necessarily 
 becomes acquainted are of a character such 
 as render it neither prudent nor kind to give 
 them publicity, while of others a bare outline 
 has to suffice, so as not to give unnecessary 
 offence. He points out a certain house where 
 there lived a widow, who, to personal charms, 
 added the substantial attractions of a thriv- 
 ing trade, and four thousand pounds in ready 
 money. This woman was wooed, and actually 
 won, by a rascally French adventurer, who 
 at once left his wife to mourn over her folly 
 in having heeded his beguiling words. As 
 a welcome set-off against this, is the case 
 of a man who, having forsaken the religion 
 of his fathers during thirty years, was re- 
 claimed to God and virtue by means of a word 
 spoken in a tavern, one Sabbath evening, 
 whither he had gone to procure some re- 
 freshment. Here is found a quondam publi- 
 can, who relinquished his trade after reading 
 10*
 
 132 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 a book lent him by the indefatigable agent.* 
 Still more pleasing, in another place, is 
 a Christian worker a publican's daughter 
 who, having a tract district of her own, 
 is a regular visitor among the poor. 
 
 Seeing so much as he does of life, and well 
 understanding the power of the Gospel, as 
 well as the obstacles which truth has to 
 overcome, my friend, I am delighted to find, 
 is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He 
 is a hard worker, who is fully alive to the 
 magnitude and importance of the warfare 
 engaged in by the City Mission ; and yet 
 he is not accustomed to take too sombre views 
 of the situation in London. Seeing what 
 he does, he thinks truth is prevailing, and 
 is destined to prevail. If we ask what are 
 the chief discouragements in a work like this, 
 
 * NOTE BY MR. SPURGEON. And a very sensible 
 man too, for this article shows what sort of a trade it 
 is. The most friendly eye cannot but mark the awful 
 perils which surround it.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF PADDIXGTOX. 133 
 
 we find out that there are things quite as 
 seriously obstructive as the corrupt human 
 heart. There are the writings of a deistical 
 bishop, whose sense of honour does not 
 prevent his living to spread abroad among 
 the people a set of imbecile opinions. There 
 are the vagaries and fooleries of Eitualism, 
 and the grovelling notions of Divine truth 
 held by the extreme broad-churchmen. Many 
 of the poor are themselves as fully alive to 
 the evils besetting them as are their instruc- 
 tors. Some of them, after embracing the 
 Gospel, will, even in cases of sorest need, 
 avoid applying to a minister at all, through 
 fear of being attended by an aspiring Ritualist 
 or a Jesuitical Eomanizer. My friend tells 
 of one good woman, who herself actually dis- 
 pensed to a dying daughter the bread and 
 wine, commemorative of Christ's dying love. 
 She did this rather than risk having the un- 
 welcome services of an assuming ecclesiastic
 
 134 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 whose religion had no worthier foundation 
 than priestcraft and millinery. If she sinned 
 by acting disorderly, who, in such times as 
 ours, will venture on casting a stone at her ? * 
 After what has been said, it is hoped that 
 none of my readers will question the need 
 existing for an agency like the public-house 
 mission, on which the Divine blessing is mani- 
 festly resting. We may one and all congratu- 
 late the Church on being able to command 
 the services of skilful and earnest men, who 
 seek for spoil in places likely and unlikely. 
 Seeing what I have seen of their daily toil 
 and procedure, I believe in the honest sincerity 
 of these men. Indeed, I have never doubted 
 their devotedness to a high service, finding 
 it difficult to suppose that Englishmen with 
 able hands and common sense would choose 
 
 * NOTE BY MR. SPURGEON. "We see no disorder in 
 it if she and her daughter were believers. It is flat 
 Popery to suppose that a minister's presence is neces- 
 sary at the communion.
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 135 
 
 the thankless profession of a city missionary 
 merely for the sake of gaining a poor liveli- 
 hood. "What does England, as a nation, owe 
 to modern town missions? Far more than 
 the busy merchant or excited place - hunter 
 allows himself time to calculate. To what 
 depths of ruin would 'the dangerous classes' 
 have sunk by this time had no missionary 
 reclaimers set up their meetings among them, 
 and had not such gained the confidence of 
 the people by visiting them, and by attending 
 the bedsides of their dying friends and rela- 
 tives in close courts and alleys ! And, to 
 keep to the immediate subject in hand, what 
 would the taverns of London become if cut 
 off from every Christian influence, and if 
 religion is to be set aside as so ' out of place 
 in a public-house,' as some still loudly insist ? 
 
 What public-houses might be, or what they 
 really should be in a Christian country, is 
 not the argument, and no word-picture of the
 
 136 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 kind need be attempted. Many taverns are 
 far more respectably conducted than some 
 persons are aware of, and Christian landlords 
 are sometimes found behind the scenes. What, 
 however, the gin-palace or low beerhouse is 
 capable of becoming in less scrupulous hands, 
 we also know. Is not the gin-palace a centre 
 of evil, a place where the unholy passions 
 of our fallen nature riot without check or 
 hindrance? Is it not there that the depraved 
 vent their blasphemy, and as slaves of lust 
 or crime inflame their grovelling propensities 
 by the readiest means at command ? Is it 
 not there that the simple and the unsuspecting 
 are beguiled to take their fatal first step to- 
 wards destruction, and do not the young there 
 find the fence already broken down the safe- 
 guards of virtue which fond parents had set 
 about them before sending them forth into 
 the uncertain world? Under the exciting 
 influence of the reigning tyrant, Alcohol, is
 
 THE TAVERNS OF P ALDINGTON. 137 
 
 not female innocence betrayed or surrendered, 
 and a thousand other things committed which 
 degrade men to the level of devils ? Who, 
 then, would not have the warning voice raised 
 even in the public -house, so that the hand 
 of a Christian Mend may at least bring some 
 back into the good old way, or may be laid 
 on the shoulder of some young, unsuspecting 
 thing, to warn her from the precipice, on the 
 edge of which she stands in unsuspicious 
 gaiety? We can hail with acclamation a 
 victory won even in a field like this ; and 
 while not classing landlords as a body with 
 encouragers of vice, we know that some sink 
 to that low level, and we also know that 
 whether a landlord will have it so or not, 
 bad characters of every name make a ren- 
 dezvous of the public-house. 
 
 The Christian visitation of public-houses is 
 a mission worthy of the Church. Neverthe- 
 less, how little is being done for want of
 
 138 LYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 labourers, and at a time when the people 
 show a readiness unknown to former ages to 
 listen to the Gospel. What are our rich and 
 great provincial towns doing in this special 
 work? What is Scotland the land of hope 
 in these days of Eitualistic declension doing ? 
 We found no missionary to the Edinburgh 
 whiskey shops. Never in the history of the 
 Church were there louder calls to action to 
 work while it is called to-day. Opportunities 
 are here, they are quickly passing, and the 
 night cometh wJien no man can work.* 
 
 * NOTE BY MR. SPURGEON. These two papers upon 
 tavern-visitation have been painfully interesting to us. 
 We would not for a moment discourage the workers 
 in such an atmosphere, bxit how needful is it to keep 
 our fellow-men from entering into it! Will it always 
 be so ? Is the nation given over to drunkenness ? It 
 behoves Christian men to see that they make no gains 
 by the ruin of souls, and use their best endeavours to 
 discourage excess in every class of society.
 
 III. 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS.
 
 in. 
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 
 
 >Y frequent visits to a place of wor- 
 ship in the vicinity, I formerly be- 
 came more familiar than was pleasant 
 with the Sabbath morning bustle and ribaldry 
 of Petticoat-lane. The peculiar hubbub occa- 
 sioned by ten thousand Gentile and Hebrew 
 tongues, chaffing and bargaining, could not 
 only be heard distinctly in the pews, but the 
 price of a coat, or the proposed abatement 
 on a hat, was too audibly spoken not to inter- 
 fere with the preacher's comfort as he officiated 
 in the pulpit.
 
 142 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Lament it as we may, as a stain on modern 
 civilisation, the 'Lane' is an institution of 
 low London; and the most popular preacher 
 cannot hope to attract by eloquence and wit 
 so vast a throng as gather here week by week 
 to banter, bustle, jostle, and swear, under the 
 presidency of the Lord of Misrule. The Jews, 
 it is true, take the profit, but the Gentiles 
 monopolise the fun. Two races, of opposite 
 sympathies, meet in close proximity, for the 
 ostensible purpose of serving each other. 
 Roughs and thieves are here in shoals, though 
 great numbers also assemble who pass for 
 respectable mechanics. They are wanting 
 cheap clothes, second-hand tools, or flash 
 jewellery; and so while dinner is preparing, 
 and while Mrs. Housewife is tidying the too 
 narrow lodging for the festivities commencing 
 at one p.m. or, otherwise, with some select 
 female companions, is discussing the delin- 
 quencies of men in general, and those of her
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 143 
 
 own husband in particular, the man himself 
 is getting more satisfaction and excitement 
 here than is obtainable in his own home. The 
 public-houses are closed, but refreshments 
 can be had. There are whelks, pickled salmon, 
 fish fried in oil, sweetmeats, sherbet, and if 
 you have no appetite for these, there are 
 medicines to create one; while to entertain 
 the mental faculties there are shouts, screams, 
 and whistling, each and all intended to signify 
 something, if only you have the capacity to 
 catch what that something may be. 
 
 Probably few easy-going middle-class people 
 would wish to share the hilarity of the ' Lane ' 
 on market-day, as the Sabbath morning may be 
 called. Yet those who for any special purpose 
 desire to see the place at all, must go when the 
 crowd is in' force, or in the Sunday forenoon, 
 when ten or twelve thousand persons are com- 
 puted to be present, and when you have to 
 push in a determined manner through the
 
 144 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 throng, meanwhile getting pressed and jostled 
 rather roughly for your pains. Here are the 
 lower strata of the social fabric ' the dangerous 
 classes' a sixth part of the whole being classed 
 with those who make thieving a profession, and 
 Sunday morning in this notorious market is 
 confessedly a harvest for the fraternity of pick- 
 pockets and cadgers. The majority, however, 
 are mechanics and labourers, who claim to be 
 accounted honest and respectable, but who 
 prefer passing the morning here in deshabille 
 to any other attraction, sacred or secular. 
 Thus buyers, sellers, idlers, and thieves make 
 up a motley company, which a lower civilisation 
 than ours, in a city like London, might reason- 
 ably have forbidden to assemble. 
 
 There are a number of policemen on the 
 ground, who would keep order were such an 
 achievement a thing among possibilities. Keep 
 order? In the 'Lane' law and decency may 
 be outraged with comparative impunity, the arm
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 145 
 
 of authority not being strong enough to inter- 
 pose check or hindrance. You need not neces- 
 sarily possess a very keen eye to detect the 
 manner in which pocket-handkerchiefs migrate 
 from their owners' possession to the dealers' 
 pegs; while the ribald blasphemy and revolt- 
 ing obscenity which at every turn assail the 
 unwilling ears, makes a chance visitor wish for 
 the power of becoming deaf at will. What do 
 the police think of the business ? ' How do you 
 like your office here ? ' one man was asked. 
 ' We are obliged to like it,' he replied : 'they 
 claim it as a charter.' 
 
 After the church bells have ceased tolling 
 worshippers into their appointed places, 'the 
 'Lane' traffic reaches its height. The mere act 
 of taking a noontide view of the scene seems to 
 beget sensations of bewilderment, so that to un- 
 derstand what is going on it is necessary to give 
 attention to individual characters. There may 
 meet your eye a young thief, who has lately 
 -11
 
 146 BYE WAY 8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 succeeded in taking a haul, and perhaps he is 
 offering to dispose of a gold chain for a sum 
 six times less than its original worth. Then 
 there at your elbow, talking with a low-browed, 
 villanous -looking broker, are some experts at 
 passing base coin, and who find this a con- 
 venient market for replenishing their stock. 
 Note how hawk-eyed Jewish dealers are look- 
 ing out for sellers as eagerly as for buyers. The 
 majesty of the law is represented by a score 
 or so of constables, more or less; but what 
 cares this chaffing, bantering host for the 
 bhie uniforms of city police, when, as they 
 would tell you, law is a luxury only suitable 
 for well-to-do people? Eobberies can be com- 
 mitted with impunity even under the eyes of 
 the officers. The strong arm of justice may 
 grasp at the offender, but, as a policeman once 
 remarked, he has only to ' stoop down and cut 
 away,' and capture becomes impossible. Under 
 such circumstances it is useless to think of
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 147 
 
 taking a thief; and Mr. Policeman pointedly 
 adds, ' There are so many of them, that they 
 cover one another.' 
 
 The market is a very general one. The 
 faint-like effluvium peculiar to a London crowd 
 does not overpower the more pleasant but by 
 no means appetising odour of edibles, either in 
 their natural state, or as prepared by the art 
 and devices of Hebrew cooks. Stalls and bas- 
 kets are laden with the bounties of the season, 
 and only those seem to forego luncheon who 
 have no means to pay for some of the variety 
 of refreshments provided. Then more im- 
 portant wares are recommended in stentorian 
 tones. If not already aware of the fact, you 
 learn that ' Now's your time for a good' tile.' 
 You will be invited to lay in ample stores of 
 stockings, books, slates, pencils, pictures, fur- 
 niture polish, newly-invented blacking, medi- 
 cines, ointments, and a thousand-and-one other 
 things supposed to be necessary to human com- 
 11*
 
 148 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 fort in our present high state of civilization. 
 It is an uproarious fair ; and the eagerness 
 with which trade is carried on by vendors, who 
 seem to possess lungs of horse-power, is ap- 
 parently stimulated by the remembrance that 
 the harvest is as transient as morning sunshine, 
 seeing poor people dine at one o'clock. 
 
 Some of the bargains effected are sufficiently 
 ludicrous to interest the public. An evange- 
 list who visits hereabout once watched a man 
 negotiating for a pair of red-topped morocco 
 boots, which, as the perquisites of some Jeames 
 or other, may have found their way into this 
 ready receptacle. The poor fellow's feet, not 
 used to such smartly-cut articles, resisted the 
 effort to pull them on; but the seller stood 
 encouragingly by. ' Oh, you'll git them on in 
 time, never fear, and they're jist the boots 
 that'll wear.' The buyer at last succeeds in 
 his endeavour, but does so to make an unwel- 
 come discovery 'They're too long!' 'What's
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 149 
 
 that you say ? ' retorts the woman. ' Too long ? 
 Not a bit of it, not a bit of it! They're jist 
 your fit ! It's all the fashion now to have 'em 
 a bit too long in the toe !' That argument 
 certainly carries some point, and partially 
 reconciles the purchaser to what he in igno- 
 rance supposed to be a defect. The man now 
 stands looking half admiringly, when, alas, a 
 more damaging fact comes to light 'They're 
 odd ones!' 'What's that you say?' indig- 
 nantly cries the stall-keeper. 'Don't tell me 
 that : 'tain't likely I'd come here to sell odd 
 boots or shoes. I should not sell so many 
 as I do if I sold odd ones. All my customers 
 come again. Now they're a nice fit, young 
 man; what's the most you'll give?' After 
 this energetic speech a satisfactory termina- 
 tion to the business might have been expected : 
 but in reply the man only makes the unchival- 
 rous offer of 'two bob.' This ends the entire 
 business, for with the contemptuous reproof,
 
 150 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. ' 
 
 'Do you think I stole 'em?' the lady flings 
 away the goods, and the mechanic walks away. 
 All this takes place while the citizens are com- 
 fortably seated in their churches and chapels, 
 worshipping the God of purity, love, and peace. 
 The atmosphere is charged with physical as well 
 as moral poison. Yes, Petticoat-lane is a centre 
 of moral pestilence in the first city of the world. 
 We may inquire, How did such an eyesore 
 as the ' Lane ' originate ? Eag Fair was 
 formerly established in Eosemary-lane, a 
 thoroughfare leading from Tower-hill to St. 
 George's-in-the-East, abounding in fever courts, 
 and in the last century associated with the 
 famous mystery of Elizabeth Canning. Petti- 
 coat-lane has lately changed its name to Mid- 
 dlesex-street ; but this alteration is totally 
 disregarded by the fraternity who compose 
 the Sabbath concourse. The ' Lane ' is likely 
 to retain its old name so long as it continues 
 a nuisance to the metropolis.
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 151 
 
 With one side bounding Whitechapel and 
 the other belonging to the City proper, Middle- 
 sex-street has successfully rivalled the more 
 ancient market of Eosemary-lane. One ad- 
 vantage prized by the present frequenters is 
 the covered exchange, the fee to which is one 
 halfpenny. Having been erected by a Jew, 
 this has aided in increasing the traffic which 
 seems to increase with the growth of the City, 
 though in past times perhaps the disorder was 
 even greater than at present. Some old 
 attendants at a once celebrated chapel in the 
 neighbourhood, remember times when Eag 
 Fair encroached on the very precincts of the 
 sanctuary, the Jews having tacked their wares 
 on to the side wall of the chapel. 
 
 In regard to the trade of Eag Fair, it is 
 somewhat extensive, while the scale of prices 
 of wearing apparel and other articles is not 
 without interest to the uninitiated. Several 
 years ago a gentleman desired to supply funds
 
 152 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 to a city missionary for the purpose of his 
 fitting out any deserving couple who were 
 about marrying and starting in life. The 
 donor's wishes, on being carried out, entailed 
 an outlay which no less surprised himself than 
 it conduced to the delight of the happy pair 
 immediately concerned the man's outfit cost- 
 ing three shillings and threepence, and the 
 lady's trousseau three shillings and one penny, 
 according to the details of the invoice : 'A 
 full-fronted shirt, very elegant,' cost sixpence, 
 and light-coloured trousers, becoming so festive 
 an occasion, were obtained for a like sum. 
 Despising white waistcoats, one of black cloth 
 was selected, and at the reasonable charge 
 of threepence, while minor articles, such as 
 braces, shoes, gloves, cap, &c., were in each 
 instance put down at one penny. More im- 
 portant, and a garment entailing perhaps 
 undue anxiety in selection, was the bride- 
 groom's coat ; but all difficulty was finally
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 153 
 
 overcome by the timely choice of ' a black 
 beaver fly-fronted, double-breasted paletot coat, 
 lined with silk a very superior article,' at 
 eighteenpence. The bride's requisites were 
 supplied on terms equally advantageous. The 
 wedding dress cost tenpence; petticoats four- 
 pence each, a head-dress twopence, stays two- 
 pence, and a shift one penny. The most 
 considerable figure in the list, and one which 
 nearly corresponded to the bridegroom's coat, 
 was 'a lady's green silk paletot, lined with 
 crimson silk, trimmed with black velvet, quilted 
 and wadded throughout.' This also cost ten- 
 pence. On completing his settlement with the 
 dealer, the good missionary found he had dis- 
 bursed a sum of six shillings and fourpence, 
 and it may be doubted if six shillings and 
 fourpence ever produced more pleasure in the 
 hearts of two needy people. As it was, the 
 outlay considerably exceeded what it would 
 have done had not the benefactor's instruc-
 
 154 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 tions to his friend been imperative that he 
 was not to be parsimonious. 
 
 This, then, is a field white unto the harvest 
 for our London city missionaries to take pos- 
 session of; and the unobtrusive earnestness, 
 not to say frequent self-denying heroism, which 
 they show in their work, is nobly encouraging. 
 In this repulsive district a missionary some 
 years ago was struck down by fever, after la- 
 bouring in fetid courts and alleys during seven 
 years, and what seemed strange, the disease 
 occurred after his removal to a healthier sphere. 
 'In the lowest and most depraved parts of the 
 district he was best known,' said his wife. 
 ' The bed of sickness and the obscurest hole 
 of wretchedness were where he loved best to 
 be.' The last hours of this devoted man were 
 happy, and his Christian triumph complete. 
 Is not the enthusiasm of such as extraordinary 
 as it is pleasing, and is not the grace which 
 enables them to sacrifice themselves, and even
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS, loo 
 
 to love their tainted districts, as wonderful as 
 it is common? One agent, who laboured at a 
 close, foul station, not far from the 'Lane,' 
 was once found to be succumbing to bad air 
 and the ceaseless strain on the nervous system, 
 so that his committee decided on removing 
 him to a healthier spot. Most persons might 
 suppose that one so situated would eagerly 
 seize the boon of pure air and green lanes. 
 What he really did was to declare an aversion 
 to a separation from the poor people who had 
 learned to value his services. Yet, notwith- 
 standing objections, this visitor was taken into 
 the suburbs, where he also died of fever, after 
 preaching * his last best sermon on his dying 
 bed.' The beneficial influence arising from the 
 life-work of these toiling evangelists among 
 the masses cannot well be overrated. The 
 faithful visitor soon gathers a constituency of 
 his own. On first entering a district he may 
 meet with opposition, but in time opposers
 
 156 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 learn to respect and even to hold their in- 
 structors in affection and honour. What is 
 better, they learn to make him a confidant, 
 and will gently complain should he not call 
 at their rooms sufficiently often. 
 
 But it will be well just to refer to the trials 
 of London city missionaries who visit Jewish 
 families in this quarter, the annoyances some- 
 times coming from mere children, whose bigoted 
 and ignorant parents encourage rudeness in 
 their offspring. On going his rounds, when 
 first appointed to a Houndsditch district, one 
 visitor was followed by numbers of undisciplined 
 urchins, who seemed to derive peculiar pleasure 
 from pelting him with rotten fruit, small bags 
 of flour, and such other missiles as they could 
 conveniently procure. Because these and other 
 distractions hindered the work, the man grew 
 disheartened, and resolved on resigning an office 
 apparently surpassing human strength ; and 
 an adventure, encountered in a Jewish court,
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 157 
 
 was not calculated to alter his determination, 
 had nothing happier subsequently occurred. 
 After trying in vain to gain a hearing from 
 a rabble of low Hebrews, the inhabitants of 
 some dirty tenements near at hand, the mis- 
 sionary was leaving amid a volley of abusive 
 epithets, when a lad, seemingly anxious and 
 excited, hastened up and politely inquired if 
 the gentleman would visit a sick woman, who, 
 lying on a bed of weariness, desired instruction 
 and comfort. The missionary readily con- 
 sented to go, and followed the boy into a 
 forbidding looking house, and up some dark 
 stairs, until coming to a garret, his conductor 
 exclaimed, ' Walk in ; you need not knock.' 
 The unwary evangelist entered the room, to 
 find it empty; and when the door closed, and 
 the key turned harshly in the lock, he realised 
 the unpleasantness of being entrapped by a 
 practical joker. The vexation of one in such 
 a position would naturally be overwhelming,
 
 158 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and it \vas not lessened by the unrestrained 
 merriment of the court below. It was a difficult 
 crisis to come out of with safety and dignity. 
 The eager spectators of the street, who at a 
 few minutes' notice had planned this ' lark,' 
 were disappointed when the captive did not 
 stamp, threaten, and call for the police ; but 
 as such violent action would have reflected no 
 credit on the London City Mission, their agent 
 adopted a contrary course. Quietly opening 
 the casement, he read in a loud voice, rising 
 in its tones above the clamour below, the 
 fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and explained how 
 the words prefigured Christ. The tide turned 
 against the jokers ; the laugh was defeated, 
 and one was heard confessing to another, ' The 
 fellow has pluck ! ' The fun being over, an 
 amply-bearded German Jew" presently appeared 
 at the chamber door and said, ' They have 
 used you shamefully ; mind when you go down ; 
 they have strewn the stairs with tobacco-pipes.'
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 159 
 
 Persevering after this, the missionary lived to 
 see the day when he could number twenty- 
 eight avowed converts, besides a hundred Jewish 
 believers in Christ who made no open pro- 
 fession. 
 
 While pursuing his arduous calling in such 
 districts, the missionary will necessarily make 
 Saturday the most leisurely day of the week. 
 It is then that, after calling on a few urgent 
 cases of affliction, he will take an excursion 
 into the open country, make up the journal 
 which the rules of the Society require shall be 
 kept, or do a little extra in the way of self- 
 culture. Viewing him thus, as the friend and 
 adviser of a little world, the London City 
 Missionary becomes an object of interest, be- 
 cause we recognise in him a real friend amidst 
 the world of poverty and suffering in which 
 he moves. Most of his constituents well under- 
 stand the nature of the connection between 
 themselves and the mission, and, accordingly,
 
 160 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 value their adviser on account of spiritual 
 services alone ; but the manner in which 
 others, of less delicate sensitiveness, strive to 
 turn better things to pecuniary account, is 
 both perplexing and surprising. While con- 
 trasting his respectable appearance with their 
 own too often unprosperous condition, the 
 people will account the evangelist a well-to-do 
 v gentleman, and push upon him their need of 
 relief. Nor is all this confined to the indigent. 
 To-day he may be asked for bread and coal 
 tickets; to-morrow, a person of too superior a 
 caste to receive those petty charities, will con- 
 fidentially request to be accommodated with 
 20 ! Another will want a workshop furnished 
 with fittings, and knowing no other more 
 likely friend, he will be obliged by the mis- 
 sionary's signing for the necessary amount ! 
 Others will represent the desirability of his 
 purchasing certain things which they have to 
 dispose of; and one has been known to go
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 161 
 
 so far as to solicit a loan of 5, for providing 
 the dejeuner at his daughter's wedding, because 
 he desired to have ' a bit of a flare up.' 
 
 But though the most crowded, Petticoat-lane 
 is only one of the many Sabbath morning 
 fairs of London. The 'Lane' and one or 
 two others, such as the bird-market in Spital- 
 fields, have distinguishing traits of their own, 
 but in regard to the rest, to describe one is 
 to describe them all. The air is close and 
 heavily charged with tobacco-smoke and 
 effluvia; the shops have their shutters all 
 down, and their doors are thrown back. The 
 pavement is thronged, while the confusion of 
 voices arising from bawling costermongers, 
 broad-chested butchers, shrill-tongued women, 
 hoarse ballad-mongers, and the deep bass 
 under-current of sound coming from a multi- 
 tude of buyers and sellers, are alone sufficient, 
 so the missionary thinks, to give the unini- 
 tiated visitor nervous fever. There are groups 
 12
 
 162 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of unwashed men, whose marred faces and 
 slouching mien speak of the previous night's 
 carousal, and of a still inward craving for 
 more fiery stimulants, which cannot be legally 
 supplied until the gin-palaces open at one 
 o'clock. These men are supremely indifferent 
 to what seems to be the reigning confusion. 
 It is home to them a time of leisure and 
 they take no active part in the business of 
 the morning beyond passing low jokes to 
 female acquaintances who pass with crying 
 babies and heavily-laden baskets; or perhaps 
 they find additional diversion in kicking some 
 luckless howling cur to the other end of the 
 street, because the animal shows signs of 
 being discomfited by the performance of a 
 blind piper at the corner of a court. The 
 conversation of these idlers is found to be of 
 an unedifying kind, and chiefly relating to 
 prize-fights, tap-room exploits, and divers 
 home adventures and upbraidings in conse-
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 163 
 
 quence of having 'spent the blunt in lush.' 
 The whole sight is sufficiently disheartening 
 if not heart-sickening, and one can scarcely 
 realise the possibility of gathering from such 
 a rabble persons who will form a meeting for 
 the worship of God. 
 
 Yet in some regularly appointed room, 
 slightly secluded from the noisy throng 
 without, the city missionary sets up, week 
 by week, on the Sabbath morning, a meeting 
 for prayer and exhortation. In this hard 
 service he sometimes accepts the grateful 
 co-operation of former converts, who volun- 
 teer to go round for the purpose of compelling 
 the people, in the Gospel sense, to come in 
 and be saved. By such means the low and 
 the outcast hear the truth, and not unfre- 
 quently are arrested in a downward course, 
 ultimately to become new creatures, their 
 outward reformation being no less striking 
 than the inward change. Poor women, too, 
 12*
 
 164 n YE WA YS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and not always of the slatternly caste, who 
 have just finished their morning marketing, 
 will call at the mission station for a few 
 minutes, their aprons, meanwhile, being filled 
 with wares from the baker's, the general 
 dealer's, and the greengrocer's. Sometimes 
 men, half intoxicated, will stumble into the 
 room, and shed tears, which are too soon 
 forgotten among degraded associates. Some 
 attend for diversion's sake, to find the cir- 
 cumstances of the situation much against 
 their purpose ; and more singular still, the 
 illiterate Irish will take a timid peep at the 
 Protestant congregation, and will turn away 
 in horror because the City Mission provides 
 neither crosses nor candle-lit altars. 
 
 The practice of Sabbath marketing is fraught 
 with evil to all parties, and in most instances 
 the shopkeepers would consent to have the 
 custom abolished by authority. In one dis- 
 trict, notoriously addicted to this desecration
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 165 
 
 of the day of rest, as many as ninety-seven 
 out of a hundred tradesmen have been known 
 to declare against themselves ; and three out 
 of four of a number of shopkeepers who 
 opened on the Sabbath, formerly expressed 
 their desire to enjoy the weekly boon, but 
 because all could not agree, things remained 
 as they were. In such cases legislation would 
 be welcomed as a becoming interference. 
 Both the publicans and the working classes 
 are supposed to have thanked Parliament in 
 their hearts for having closed the public- 
 houses on Sunday morning. 
 
 Any who will look into the matter for 
 themselves will find that the chief business 
 in the Sabbath market commences at church 
 time ; and is not confined to edibles or wear- 
 ing apparel, household furniture entering into 
 the category of traffic. At one time a weak 
 effort was made to induce tradesmen to close 
 at eleven o'clock, but this failed entirely ;
 
 106 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIFY. 
 
 and now, in many places, Sunday morning 
 is the busiest part of the week; and while 
 the whole of the inhabitants of a district are 
 injuriously affected by a pernicious custom, 
 the chief sufferers are the working people 
 themselves, to whom the practice is supposed 
 to be a convenience. It is well known that 
 the traders charge higher prices, and push 
 the sale of inferior articles, such as they 
 would not venture to sell during the week. 
 Nor are the reasons for this imposition very 
 far-fetched, for extra wages are demanded by 
 the assistants for their seventh-day labours. 
 Some classes of mechanics, from choice 
 rather than necessity, adopt the idle habit 
 of postponing their purchases until the 
 Sabbath, and this being so, it was elicited 
 from several, witnesses before a Committee 
 of the House of Commons, some years ago, 
 that the benefits springing from compulsory 
 closing would principally go to the working
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 167 
 
 man ; for were not the shops open after 
 Saturday night, the husband would not be so 
 well able to loiter about, smoking and drink- 
 ing, until too late to provide the weekly stores. 
 ' Suppose she (the wife) could not buy on 
 Sunday, when would she buy?' was asked. 
 ' The husband,' replied the witness, ' would 
 then take care to be at home in sufficient 
 time to have a comfortable dinner on the 
 Sunday.' Even the more respectable Jews 
 declare against the custom, and it breeds 
 contempt for Christianity in Hebrew minds 
 when Christians are found ignoring the claims 
 of conscience. Hebrews themselves risk being 
 discarded by high-principled connections should 
 they carry on business during their own 
 , Sabbath. 
 
 The individual efforts of missionaries to pro- 
 mote reform against overwhelming opposition 
 are in appearance insignificant, but are not 
 
 N 
 
 so ineffective as might be inferred from the
 
 168 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 circumstances of the situation. The visitors 
 frequently succeed in persuading persons to 
 relinquish Sunday business altogether. In the 
 early days of the City Mission, a certain shoe 
 and leather-seller became a striking example 
 of the utility of the , gentle persuasions of 
 itinerant evangelists. The warehouse remained 
 open week after week, and regularly, though 
 seemingly without effect, the visitor called, 
 gently to rebuke the sinful custom of the 
 family. The man could not see the influence 
 he was wielding, as little by little the strong- 
 holds of the trader's conscience surrendered. 
 The shop was closed, after repeated solicita- 
 tions and warnings. A daughter was converted 
 at the weekly meeting, and her influence 
 widened until the whole family was Chris- 
 tianized, and until the father died rejoicing 
 in faith. 
 
 As I began my sketch with the ' Lane,' 
 the Jews' market, I will add a few lines illus-
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 169 
 
 trative of the experience of those who labour 
 among the Scattered Nation. 
 
 The poor Jews of London are intensely 
 opposed to the Gospel, and the journals of 
 Christian visitors sent among them abound with 
 records of ill-usage. The missionaries are 
 abused, and even have rubbish thrown at them* 
 This evil arises from other causes than national 
 prejudice. Among the vulgar Hebrews great 
 ignorance exists ; and where ignorance reigns, 
 it matters not whether the subject be Jew or 
 Gentile, passion will bear rule. As a body 
 they are also remiss in educating the young, 
 a failing which sometimes springs from a 
 mercenary spirit the children's labour being 
 turned to profit. 
 
 Many of the lowest class Jews, who live by 
 working for old clothes dealers and such-like 
 employers, exist in a deplorable condition. 
 ' Their dwellings, abounding in vermin, are a 
 mass of filth and corruption,' says one who
 
 170 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 laboured in a Houndsditck district : ' the sad 
 description of them may be summed up in three 
 words dirt, emptiness, and wretchedness.' 
 
 Of the twenty thousand Jews who reside 
 in London, three-fourths of the number are 
 included in a small radius from Aldgate Church. 
 Popular notions concerning them are often 
 erroneous. They have a thirst for gain, strong 
 and deeply rooted, but their hereditary passion 
 is not gratified so freely as people believe. 
 ' The greater part of them are poor, and 
 much destitution prevails among them.,' says 
 a missionary of the Minories. ' Some are 
 often in want of the necessaries of life, and 
 some are scarcely able to obtain a sufficiency 
 to support existence. This is most prominent 
 in the case of the Dutch Jews. Their national 
 charities are numerous and very bountiful, but 
 even they fail to administer sufficient relief.' 
 
 Though as a rule even middle-class Jews are 
 not remarkable for cleanliness, they enjoy better
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETEES. 171 
 
 average health than Gentiles, and evince a 
 strong taste for fine, showy clothing. Neither 
 are the lowest among them so drunken and 
 so licentious as the ordinary run of vulgar 
 Englishmen, and the women receive a greater 
 amount of respect. As a partial set-off to 
 this honour awarded to the weaker vessel, she 
 is accounted greatly inferior to the man, and 
 too often she is suffered to grow T up in blank 
 ignorance ; a Hebrew proverb ' Every one 
 that teacheth his daughter the law is considered 
 as if he taught her transgression' showing 
 the national sentiment in regard to females. 
 The Jews contemn a woman's testimony, and 
 refuse her a seat with men in the public con- 
 gregation. In numbers of instances girls are 
 purposely reared in total ignorance, not so 
 much as a knowledge of the alphabet being 
 communicated. Even among men the standard 
 of education is not high, not more than five 
 in every hundred being supposed to know
 
 172 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Hebrew. Both men and women are fond of 
 light amusements, and find much satisfaction 
 at the theatres, as well as at the large taverns 
 where dramatic entertainments are provided. 
 
 The advancement of education during the 
 present century has led to a wider expression 
 of opinion ; so that while numbers who can 
 judge for themselves reject the superstition of 
 the Talmud and advocate reform, others still 
 adhere to the letter of tradition. While, how- 
 ever, we speak about the spread of knowledge 
 in the Hebrew nation, we may remember that 
 education progresses slowly among a people 
 whose children, on attaining the capacity of 
 earning a shilling a day, are sent to labour 
 rather than to school. But youthful Jews 
 among the poor are not universally neglected, 
 nor does national prejudice entirely exclude 
 them from the benefits of Christian instruction. 
 Their children are taught in Christian Sunday- 
 schools, and, indeed, the Jews themselves have
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 173 
 
 copied our example of opening the Scriptures 
 to youth on the Sabbath, and they also employ 
 religious itinerants to go among the poor and 
 sick of their own persuasion. 
 
 The Jews are a sober people, the women 
 being especially circumspect in this respect. 
 ' I cannot charge my memory,' says a visitor 
 in one district, ' with having witnessed a single 
 case of a Jewish woman under the influence 
 of drink.' A partial attempt is made to 
 honour the Sabbath by perpetuating the 
 Mosaical observances ; but even the orthodox, 
 who burn two candles on a white cloth during 
 Friday evening, and who refuse to work, will 
 yet descend to many frivolities. The Germans 
 are most easy of access, though their seeming 
 liberality is sometimes rooted in indifference. 
 The Poles and Dutch are reputed to be the 
 most bigoted. ' They know the Bible,' we are 
 told, ' say their prayers in a gabbling way, 
 put on their phylacteries, and curse every one
 
 174 B YE 'WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 who does not join in their opinion.' The 
 Rabbins show little anxiety about spreading 
 scriptural knowledge among the poor, so that 
 little can be expected from a people so neglected 
 more than a piety of formalism. One boy 
 signified that he should not recognise the Sab- 
 bath but for the baked dinner provided for that 
 day. Then, to other adverse influences which 
 oppose the endeavours of evangelists, we have 
 to add the opposition of low Eomanists, who 
 gladly join the Jew in checking the Gospel. 
 Irish zealots and vindictive Jews have been 
 known to pelt the Christian visitor beyond the 
 precincts of their filthy habitations. But the 
 work has a bright side. 
 
 The joy of sincere Jewish seekers after truth 
 on discovering Christ to be the Messiah is 
 full and lasting. In Whitechapel stood the 
 establishment of a photographer, with whom 
 the district missionary became friendly, but 
 without seeing any immediate good results.
 
 JEWS AXD SABBATH MARKETERS. 175 
 
 The artist would not concede that Christ 
 ranked higher than other great historical per- 
 sons ; but heing fond of discussion, he one day 
 cautiously introduced an intelligent assistant, 
 and one supposed to be sufficiently versed in 
 Eabbinical lore to confute the Christian argu- 
 ment. This person proved himself an able 
 ^disputer, and the saloon became the scene 
 of many discussions. Then affairs took an 
 unexpected turn. The assistant, astonished 
 and perplexed at the ground assumed by the 
 Christian, each position being strengthened by 
 quotations from Hebrew Scriptures, exclaimed, 
 ' I wish you had never talked to me. What 
 book is it that teaches you to explain those 
 prophecies which the Eabbins hold as mys- 
 teries?' Being told that the book was the 
 New Testament, the reference to Christ pro- 
 voked harsh language, till in a tone of affected 
 honesty he cried, 'I will read that New Testa- 
 ment, not to believe, but to show you, when I
 
 176 BYEWATS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 compare it with my books, it is all falsehoods.' 
 These words were acted on; hut instead of 
 , finding his position impregnable, the inquirer 
 grew bewildered, his features wore a troubled 
 expression, and depressed spirits told of gloom 
 within. The sequel was interesting, and even 
 remarkable. Early one morning there came a 
 knock at the door of the Christian's house, 
 the visitor being the young artist, showing an 
 uneasy manner and a troubled countenance. 
 'I had a terrible night,' he cried. 'I could 
 not sleep. I therefore got up, and as I opened 
 the New Testament, my eyes fell on the third 
 of John. I suffer now from the burden of 
 my sins.' Thus this inquirer embraced Chris- 
 tianity, but found he could not do so with 
 impunity. The landlord of the photographer's 
 shop declared he would give his tenant notice 
 to quit if he employed an apostate. What 
 must have been the man's chagrin at hearing 
 the master himself confess the Christian tenets ?
 
 JEWS AND SABBATH MARKETERS. 177 
 
 'You may give me notice to leave,' he cried; 
 ' my soul is of more value than all else. I 
 am now quite convinced that Messiah has 
 come, and that He is Jesus, and in Him I 
 hope to believe.' In this manner both master 
 and servant professed themselves sincere con- 
 verts, through the instrumentality of a city 
 missionary. In Eag Fair, in the New Cut, in 
 Leather-lane, in the bird-market of Spitalfields, 
 and in kindred places, a good and great work 
 is going on, worthy even of the Sabbath 
 morning. 
 
 13
 
 IV. 
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON.
 
 IV. 
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 
 
 INBELIEF is continually shifting its 
 ground or altering its professions, 
 to suit times and circumstances, 
 and so retain its hold on the age. Deists of 
 the eighteenth century mould are a com- 
 paratively rare genus now-a-days, and pure 
 Atheism is not fashionable, because men who 
 wish to appear before others as persons with 
 minds will not lightly embrace the philosophy 
 of fools. Even those weak natures who may 
 have strayed into the uninviting paths of 
 that modified Atheism which is known as
 
 182 BYE WAY 8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Pantheism, will not be comforted by remem- 
 bering the aphorism of Mr. Disraeli ' Nothing 
 can be more monstrous than to represent a 
 creator as unconscious of creating.' That 
 horrible and heartlessly cruel lie, which, having 
 an origin in the regions of darkness, gained 
 strength, and stalked abroad in the last cen- 
 tury, is becoming in a measure obsolete. 
 Atheism is such an unscientific, boorish sort 
 of belief, that even an artisan with any pre- 
 tensions to culture and power of mind, will 
 hesitate before avowing among his shopmates 
 that he is only a mere Atheist. The profession 
 carries a degradation with it with which few 
 who have any self-respect care to become 
 associated. It is in fact saying, I am nothing, 
 because I have not the sense to be anything. 
 Thus, in a valuable work* recently published, 
 we read : ' Naked Atheism is a repulsive creed. 
 
 * Modern Scepticism. A Course of Lectures v de- 
 livered at the request of the Christian Evidence Society. 
 Hodder and Stoughton.
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 183 
 
 It is a heart-withering negation. It touches 
 no sympathy ; it stimulates no play of intellect ; 
 under the deadly chill of its unlighted vacancy, 
 imagination cannot breathe.' 
 
 It appears, then, that in these days even 
 infidelity must not walk abroad clothed in too 
 coarse a habit, unless it would rather disgust 
 than attract votaries. That old beggarly thing, 
 Atheism, in the rags and poverty which presage 
 ultimate decay, may still retain sufficient 
 strength to enounce its absurdities in obscure 
 byeways or in repelling 'halls of science,' 
 but to retain its hold of the more respectable 
 classes, modern unbelief must change both 
 its name and tactics. The contemptible dwarfs 
 who find pleasure in enticing people, more 
 ignorant than themselves, into mere Atheism, 
 will never rise into anything higher than 
 dwarfs small creatures who account them- 
 selves rewarded when complimented on their 
 height by auditors who cannot see.
 
 184 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 A striking instance of the manner in which 
 Atheism and its work can bring people to the 
 darkness and misery of dire poverty, occurred 
 some years ago in London. A missionary who 
 was visiting in the neighbourhood of Saffron - 
 hill came to a dilapidated house with a broken 
 door. Knocking, he entered, in response to a 
 weakly-spoken ' Come in,' to find a man and 
 woman living in a condition of shocking wretch- 
 edness. Indeed, the spectacle was so utterly 
 horrible that the visitor involuntarily shud- 
 dered and sickened at what he saw, familiar 
 as he was with strangely repulsive sights. 
 The man, as an invalid, would have been 
 confined to his bed had he possessed one, 
 but wanting that convenience, he lay on a 
 little straw, beneath a coarse wrapper, with 
 a brick for a pillow ! The remainder of the 
 furniture consisted of an old chair and a 
 saucepan. There was no fire, and the 
 woman in attendance, being subject to fits,
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 185 
 
 sat in speechless misery, as if resigned to her 
 fate. 
 
 It might have been supposed that such a 
 scene was the result of uncommon profligacy, 
 or that ruin had come from the imprudent 
 and false steps which are taken through ignor- 
 ance. It was not so, however. The man who 
 lay like a heast in that pestiferous hovel was a 
 gifted author ! While in health he had worked 
 for an infidel publisher. He had written 
 poems against Christianity, besides publishing 
 a book to disprove the doctrine of the soul's 
 immortality. A more singular example of 
 the blighting nature of immoral opinions is 
 rarely discovered. When found, such things 
 are worth recording, if only to serve as 
 warnings to others. 
 
 At first the sufferer was not disposed to be 
 communicative to the friend who had so un- 
 expectedly invaded a hidden corner in the 
 great City, where a fellow mortal seemingly
 
 186 B7EWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 lay within a few days of death. Yet the two 
 prohably understood each other. Perhaps the 
 outcast detected the expression of sympathy 
 on the Christian's countenance ; for, as he 
 looked up from his bed of straw, and cast his 
 heavy eyes around the room, he said, ' THIS 
 is THE WRECK OF INFIDELITY ! ' A wreck, in- 
 deed ! His situation was truly dreadful, for 
 poverty and sickness were far from being the 
 only evils borne. The woman in attendance, 
 when maddened by the fits to which she was 
 subject, raged like a hungry tigress, and would 
 spring at her charge with glaring eyes, biting 
 and scratching with the strength of insanity , 
 Then when the fit passed away she became 
 kind and docile. 
 
 Of this strange couple the evangelist en- 
 deavoured to make friends. The man was 
 highly intelligent, and with a cultured mind 
 prejudiced against the Gospel, it was necessary 
 to begin with the evidences of Christianity.
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 187 
 
 He listened attentively to the relation of the 
 advent of Christ, and exclaimed, 'Well, that is 
 remarkable.' He was then more fully referred 
 to the prophecies pointing to the Messiah, 
 and he said, ' They are quite overwhelming. I 
 do not believe any man can contradict them.' 
 He was spoken to about the Saviour's suffer- 
 ings, and it was observed that tears ran down 
 the poor infidel's cheeks. He was touched 
 in the heart. His faith in Atheism vanished, 
 though the question of miracles seemed still 
 to be associated with some difficulty. ' Sup- 
 pose I read the narrative of the Jew who 
 received sight?' said his friend. 'Do, sir, I 
 should like to hear it.' The man listened to 
 the passage and then said, ' That must be 
 true; it carries conviction on the face of it.' 
 He then heard the account of the raising of 
 Lazarus, and on learning how 'Jesus wept,' 
 he interrupted, 'Ah, that was compassion like 
 a God. I cannot help admiring the character
 
 '188 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of Christ.' The poor fellow became more 
 deeply impressed and was greatly affected. ' I 
 believe now there is a God,' he cried, 'though 
 I have for a long time doubted; but I will 
 never write against Christianity again if I re- 
 cover. I see such a loveliness in the Christian 
 system, since I have been afflicted, that I begin 
 to love it. Infidelity now appears a cold and 
 heartless thing.' 'Yes,' answers the other, 
 'it leaves a man to die like a brute. Not so 
 the Gospel of Jesus. No ! That blooms 
 with immortality.' Still the man remained for 
 some time in gloom and doubt. He admired 
 prayer, though he could not use it; for after 
 such a course as his, it looked like mocking 
 God. He would have given worlds to appro- 
 priate as his own a hymn which was read: 
 
 ' Let the sweet hope that Thou art mine,' &o. 
 
 He was now frequently found in tears, and 
 on his friend's leaving, he would say, 'When 
 will you come again?' He also confessed,
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 189 
 
 'My trust in Infidelity is gone. You have 
 no conception of the agony my mind is in. 
 Virtue "without Christ is folly.' A dark array 
 of terrors passed through his soul, which 
 gradually subsided as he became enabled to 
 make the coveted gift of prayer his own, and 
 to rejoice in faith. His health was provi- 
 dentially restored. He separated from the 
 woman with whom he had lived in adultery, 
 and returned to his wife and home. After so 
 singular and painful an experience he could 
 well testify, ' Infidelity is an aching void, a 
 blank, a blot, a dark and fearful chasm in 
 which hope sinks, and all that renders life 
 desirable is swallowed up ; but religion lights 
 up the gloom, and dispels the dark clouds 
 which hang over human destiny.' 
 
 "With such facts to enlighten, and with such 
 examples of infatuation to perplex us, we might 
 again ask, What attractions are found in un- 
 belief, and what difficulties are removed by
 
 190 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 embracing any one of its many systems? 
 Deism, as half obsolete, retains few attractions 
 and may be summarily dismissed. Atheism, 
 or believing in results without a cause, is too 
 gross a folly to be accepted by any beside 
 grovelling, ignorant minds. But is not a 
 pseudo-scientific Pantheism more reasonable ? 
 Is there not at least a kind of fascination, a 
 halo of mystery about the idea of ' God in 
 everything ' ? Happily there is no need in 
 this place to reply to such follies. None of my 
 readers are in any danger of sacrificing their 
 high moral attributes, those endowments which 
 exalt man infinitely above all other creatures 
 of God on earth, and the chief value of which 
 consists in the ability they afford us of taking 
 advantage of the unspeakable privilege of 
 drawing near to Him who is the source of all 
 goodness and of all joy. ' God in everything,' 
 may be a fascinating faith to such as wish in 
 their hearts that there were no God at all.
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 191 
 
 It may suit the ' intellectual ' and the 
 ' cultured ' men who have become engrossed in 
 scientific pursuits until they lose sight of the 
 Author of science. These ' advanced ' sages 
 may go their way, and the only favour we 
 ask from them is that of being allowed to go 
 ours, since the truest philosophers find it far 
 ' easier to believe in a personal God than in 
 such an impersonal divinity as this Protean 
 force.' 
 
 Some few years ago there flourished a cer- 
 tain undertaker in London, who being afflicted 
 with the common disease of furor loquendi, made 
 quite a pastime of ' holding forth ' in an in- 
 stitution near his home, classically designated 
 the Athenaeum. This Athenaeum was a ren- 
 dezvous for infidels of the district, and lectures 
 against Christianity were frequently given. 
 The gifted savant, though an undertaker, made 
 some professions of charity and liberality, and 
 also delighted to pass among all men as a
 
 192 BTEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 person of straightforward integrity. He would 
 doubtless have regarded with high scorn any 
 who supposed that he could descend to a mean 
 or underhand subterfuge. But with what 
 inquisitive eyes some people do go about. It 
 did not escape the notice of a certain city 
 missionary, also signally gifted in readiness of 
 speech, and who visited thereabout, that this 
 cultured undertaker had caused the device of 
 ' I. H. S.' to be inscribed and borne upon his 
 hearses ! What ? Was not this appropriation 
 of a Christian motto a little inconsistent ? The 
 inquisitive missionary decided on going to the 
 Athenaeum, thinking he could find something 
 to say bearing on the subject, and something 
 which might benefit a congregation of infidels, 
 though it might fall far short of the soaring 
 intellect of the speaker-in-chief. Accordingly 
 a night was set apart for this purpose of visita- 
 tion, when the undertaker was found to be 
 lecturing, and lecturing, too, on so original, if
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 193 
 
 not striking, a theme as, 'Found! a Better 
 Book than the Bible ! ' Nor was the subject 
 alone remarkable. Some of the able lecturer's 
 remarks were uttered with a profane boldness 
 at which probably some of the less-seasoned 
 frequenters of the Athenseum shuddered, while 
 only listening. He said : ' Jesus Christ never 
 died to save man, and man needs no Saviour, 
 nor is there any truth in Christianity, because 
 so many of its professors are inconsistent.' 
 The inquisitive and ready-tongued city mis- 
 sionary heard these extraordinary utterances, 
 and his tingling ears and heart-swelling in- 
 dignation appear to have occasioned his sitting 
 uneasily in his chair. The undertaker was 
 evidently mistaken, as all undertakers are liable 
 to become mistaken when they thus neglect 
 their business to handle theological difficulties ; 
 and why should not a city missionary, meek 
 Christian though he might be, set even a 
 great tradesman right. He rose in the body 
 14
 
 194 BYEWATS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of the hall : the eyes of the audience were 
 turned in one direction, curious to see what 
 so humble a creature would do. First, there 
 would of course be a faint cheer ; then a good 
 many hisses; all of which were needless, for 
 the intruder wished merely to tell a little story. 
 Had even extreme boldness been needed, that 
 missionary would have been equal to the occa- 
 sion, for he had spoken of Christ in the more 
 than plague-stricken wards of the Lock Hos- 
 pital, so that a room filled with infidels could 
 not equal the horrors of the former place. 
 Now, however, he desires to take exception to 
 those words of the undertaker just quoted, e. g. : 
 ' At the time of the French Eevolution the 
 leaders adopted the motto, " Death is an eternal 
 sleep." This motto they placed over their public 
 buildings, their churches, and their tombs. 
 Now, if I as a Christian teacher had gone to 
 France at that time, and adopted the Atheis- 
 tical motto, and placed it over my door for the
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 195 
 
 sake of getting into favour with the infidels, 
 what would you have thought of me?' This 
 was a straightforward appeal to manly self- 
 respect, and as such was easily comprehended 
 by the cultured intellects of the Athenasum. 
 'What punishment would have been deserved 
 under such circumstances as those described ?' 
 The response came ringing from all parts of the 
 hall, ' You ought to have been scouted.' An 
 advantage was undoubtedly gained when the 
 people answered just as the speaker desired. 
 But what of that? All frequenters of the 
 Athenaeum were safe enough. When or where 
 were Free-thinkers ever found dealing in such 
 double-faced humbug as corresponded to that 
 French Eevolution illustration? Very good. 
 And now Mr. Missionary has something further 
 to say. ' You are all very right: I ought. But 
 your lecturer is guilty of precisely such a 
 crime ! He has adopted the Christian's motto, 
 "I. H. S.," which means, " Jesus the Saviour 
 14 *
 
 196 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 of men ; " and he has put this motto on his 
 Gothic hearses. Now let him first go home 
 and pull off that motto, before he comes here 
 to find fault with Christians for their incon- 
 sistency with their principles ; for as long as 
 he has that motto on his hearses you must 
 necessarily regard him as himself an incon- 
 sistent man.' The able undertaker did not go 
 to the Athenseum in any way prepared for this 
 surprising turning of the tables. The hubbub 
 of confusion which ensued, however, may at 
 least have supplied an excuse for his remaining 
 silent. 
 
 But our friend had not yet done with 
 diverting adventures. The Christian mis- 
 sionary, who thus presumed to baffle a public 
 character, seemed ever to stand in the way, 
 ready to spoil the effects of that public 
 character's best efforts. The paltry affair of 
 merely placing religious devices on hearses 
 might soon be forgotten, were that all. It
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 197 
 
 was not all ! This missionary's memory, 
 joined to the fund of illustration he possessed, 
 made his presence even more than undesirable. 
 It was absolutely annoying. But men of 
 knowledge and influence must hold on their 
 way and preserve their temper. The under- 
 taker won a living among Christians, so that 
 it would, perhaps, suit his policy not to be 
 too hard. He would still lecture, but it should 
 next be on the more liberal subject of 'The 
 Benevolence of those who have rejected 
 Christianity.' Benevolence among Atheists ? 
 Yes ; though a man be an unbeliever, and 
 even an unbelieving undertaker, it is pleasant 
 to pass through the world as a genial and 
 large-hearted fellow. The lecture was delivered, 
 and scarcely had the cheers of an admiring 
 audience died away, than that ubiquitous 
 meddlesome city missionary was, as usual, on 
 his legs. What ! Another story ? Yes, Mr. 
 Missionary had another story to tell, a very
 
 198 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 seasonable one, too, for it was illustrative of 
 * The benevolence shown by men who have 
 rejected Christianity.' He said : ' A poor 
 family lost several of their children in succes- 
 sion by scarlet fever, which occasioned them 
 great pecuniary distress. At their request I 
 waited on the undertaker they employed, to 
 beg of him to reduce his charges on the last 
 interment, on account of their distress. He 
 was out. I saw his wife, but she positively 
 refused to do so, and would not abate one 
 penny. I had therefore to raise the money 
 among my friends who professed Christianity. 
 But the undertaker was an infidel.' Shouts 
 of ' Name ! ' from the indignant auditors 
 were now heard. * Shall I tell you the name 
 of the man?' continued the speaker. The 
 only reply was ' Name ! ' * That man,' 
 replied the missionary, finishing his speech, 
 'that man was your lecturer, and this is the 
 practical confirmation of what he has been
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 199 
 
 telling you.' Thus the good work of the 
 itinerant evangelist proceeds. It is a warfare 
 both offensive and defensive, and great vic- 
 tories are not wanting. 
 
 In these infidel lecture-rooms the agents of 
 the City Mission do more than speak: they 
 distribute hundreds of tracts and handbills on 
 the fallacies of infidelity. With few exceptions 
 these are taken by the men, though occa- 
 sionally the spirit of unbelief is shown, when 
 the distributors of the little messengers have 
 their papers thrown back to them. Or a 
 venturesome Atheist may perhaps offer to 
 dispute on a given evening; and then, when 
 actually pressed to do so, will find that he 
 has miscalculated his strength, and so makes 
 a timely retreat. On one evening, a man, 
 whose hairs were become grey in a bad service, 
 rose to give an account of an experiment 
 tried by a certain surgeon, who, sympathising 
 with the advanced liberalism, magnanimously
 
 200 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 devoted a few spare hours of his valuable 
 time to the furtherance of ' science.' This 
 enlightened surgeon minutely examined the 
 brains of several dead persons, in order to 
 discover traces of mind! His researches were 
 completely unsuccessful, and therefore was it 
 not plain, to any but the most unreasonable 
 and prejudiced, that mind or spirit becomes 
 extinct at death? Now, an argument so 
 curiously original against the doctrine of the 
 soul's immortality, might have passed current 
 with customary honours had it not been for 
 a circumstance perhaps unforeseen on the 
 part of the speaker. That same meddlesome 
 and talkative evangelist, who had ventured 
 even to rebuke a literary undertaker, happened 
 to be present, and, as might have been ex- 
 pected, he neutralised the intended effect of 
 the last speaker's words, appropriating as his 
 own what fun the discussion afforded. 'Your 
 surgeon,' he said, 'was as great a fool as
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 201 
 
 the boy who cut the bellows open to see 
 where the wind came from ; and one experi- 
 ment proves as much as the other ! ' 
 
 Secularism was started in London some 
 years ago, and probably this specious system 
 has been more readily embraced than some 
 others by persons who have received religious 
 training and have backslidden from early 
 teaching. Secularism would seem to be a 
 middle way, into which the doubting are 
 invited to walk. It does, not shock people's 
 finer instincts, like Atheism, and has not so 
 many subtle turns to exercise and perplex 
 feeble intellects, as Pantheism. Its leading 
 doctrine is, make the most of this life, eat, 
 drink, and enjoy yourself, for you know no- 
 thing about any other state beyond the present 
 world. In fact, Secularism is a short-life- 
 and-a-merry-one kind of creed, and one such 
 as. is likely to be embraced by those who are 
 ready to accept any secondhand belief which
 
 202 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 grants them license to indulge in sensual 
 gratification. It professes to make the most 
 of life; but probably not a few, by embrac- 
 ing its principles, have made the worst pos- 
 sible use of this world, even in pecuniary 
 matters. 
 
 Many who read these lines may perhaps 
 remember the dingy little depot in Fleet- 
 street, whence, during some years, the pub- 
 lications of Secularism emanated, and which, 
 happily, in course of time, was necessarily 
 closed. The organ of the system, The 
 Reasoner, was issued weekly at a penny, and 
 was then started as a full-priced weekly 
 newspaper, until, through lack of support, its 
 publication was discontinued, the office being 
 now occupied by ordinary publishers. All right- 
 thinking Christians must regret that men 
 like some of the leading exponents of Secu- 
 larism men whose knowledge and abilities 
 eminently fit them to act as the friends and
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 203 
 
 the guides of the working classes should 
 seek to satisfy the cravings of their higher 
 nature hy straying into the uninviting ways 
 of this already effete system. Yet while 
 thoroughly assured that the ethics of the 
 Secularist can never satisfy those whom they 
 delude, we should in justice distinguish be- 
 tween them and the rampant blasphemy 
 and coarse democracy of certain Atheistical 
 fanatics, who unfortunately have ready access 
 to the ears of large numbers of the working 
 classes. The more moderate system is de- 
 structive to the soul, in common with its 
 horrible competitor, but it is not so disgust- 
 ingly repelling to decent people. 
 
 Secularism accepts and appropriates much 
 of the morality of the Bible. It will introduce 
 many of the sacred precepts into its every-day 
 life, though it rejects all notions of inspiration, 
 disbelieves in a future state, and without 
 wishing directly to acknowledge the humili-
 
 204 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ating fact, the creed appears before us as 
 Deism re-habited and re-named. Though it 
 preaches liberality, theory and practice do not 
 always harmonise even with Secularists. All 
 classes of unbelievers, and especially such as 
 are deficient in knowledge, are intolerant 
 towards others, and impatient under contra- 
 diction. How else can we account for the 
 frightful blasphemy and insanely violent 
 language too frequently heard in ' Halls of 
 Science ' ? Freedom of opinion and of dis- 
 cussion? What does it mean when pleaded 
 for by men who become enraged if a wife be 
 found reading a Christian book, or infusing 
 into her children's minds the life-lessons of 
 the Bible? 
 
 The more persons become familiar with 
 Infidelity as it really is, the less will they 
 incline to a belief in the heart-sincerity of 
 those who embrace any one set of the con- 
 flicting tenets. In the majority of instances,
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 205 
 
 we may fear that poorly educated persons 
 imbibe the sentiments of leading authors of 
 the sceptical school, and then, in pride or 
 obstinacy, defend them in very desperation. 
 It is well, nevertheless, that conscience often 
 capitulates when hard pressed. The faintest 
 spark of a love of something better may 
 sometimes be fanned into a living flame if 
 the proper means be used. 
 
 One evening a man, who resided in South- 
 wark, attended a missionary's meeting for the 
 special purpose of lauding Paine and Voltaire 
 as writers whose moral sentiments surpassed 
 in beauty anything of the kind found in the 
 Bible. What this objector to the Gospel had 
 to say was listened to with deference, and 
 then he was asked if ever he had read the 
 volume he contemned. Yes, he had read the 
 Bible, in common with other books. 'Have 
 you a family ? ' asked the missionary who was 
 presiding over the little assembly. Yes, the
 
 206 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 speaker possessed a wife and little ones. 
 Which, then, would he recommend to them, 
 the life-companion who was dear to him 
 and the children . whom he loved Infidelity 
 or Christianity ? The company may have 
 looked curiously to see what shape the infidel's 
 answer would assume, but they could little 
 have suspected what its import would be. 
 What was their astonishment when the 
 champion of unbelief, of a few minutes before, 
 burst into tears, and then cried, 'I never 
 heard that kind of argument before. I would 
 rather give them the Bible than any infidel book. 9 
 Such are the victories of kindness and pa- 
 tience which hard-working evangelists achieve 
 in their daily work. 
 
 The manner in which infidels are taken, 
 as it were, in their own meshes, by skilful 
 disputants, would form both an instructive and 
 piquant chapter in the annals of street 
 evangelisation. Some years ago there lived
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 207 
 
 in London two boorish shoemakers, who were 
 commonly found pursuing their craft on Sab- 
 bath mornings. Besides being avowed infidels, 
 they sympathised with Eepublicans and Char- 
 tists, meanwhile stoutly maintaining that the 
 Bible hindered the progress of mankind. 
 Would nobody volunteer to go and tell these 
 desperadoes of their errors and duty ? It was 
 scarce to be expected that genteel church-goers 
 could think, even, of turning aside from their 
 pathway of respectability to do anything so un- 
 fashionable. Talk of the Gospel to unwashed 
 cobblers on a Sabbath morning ? Impossible ! 
 Then in regard to the city missionary ; he had 
 been warned by a friendly voice not to venture 
 near so notorious a den as the shoemakers' 
 room. Why? The men were sheer heathens, 
 and probably dangerous. Yet, notwithstanding 
 these kind warnings, the evangelist ventured 
 into the forbidden precincts, and on entering 
 the apartment he was not directly insulted.
 
 208 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 On the contrary, he met with a negative sort 
 of civility by being allowed to stand for some 
 time unnoticed. As it would have been un- 
 wise to have begun at once about religion, a 
 conversation respecting America was first 
 introduced. The speaker, having once lived 
 in the New World, remembered having worn- 
 pegged boots there. Ay, to be sure, America 
 was the place for good workmen. ' I wish I 
 had gone ten years ago/ said one of the men, 
 though in rather ungracious tones. An advance 
 in the right direction was made when the visitor 
 referred to the great numbers of places of 
 worship with which America abounded. ' It 
 may be all the worse for that,' growled one 
 of the men. ' I am sorry to hear you speak 
 so,' was the reply. ' You know the Scriptures 
 assure us that righteousness exalteth a na- 
 tion.' This remark provoked quite a fierce 
 explosion of wrath. 'I don't mind what the 
 Bible says. . . People who talk most about
 
 INFIDELITY IX LOXDOX. 209 
 
 religion are the greatest liars, and they are 
 the hardest men I ever worked for.' ' Ay, that 
 they are,' put in the other man, who hitherto 
 had remained silent. From the conversation 
 which now followed, it appeared that the first 
 speaker, like so many ill-informed objectors to 
 the claims of religion, had never read the pages 
 of Inspiration he so vehemently denounced. 
 On being driven into a corner in the argument, 
 he could say nothing more effective than, ' I 
 have read quite enough of it.' In truly com- 
 mendable good temper and moderation the 
 missionary replied, ' That is not the open answer 
 I expected from you. You have declared the 
 Bible to be false and foolish : have you come 
 to that awful conclusion after close and dili- 
 gent study ? ' ' Indeed, I have other things 
 to study,' cried the shoemaker, impatient over 
 this interruption to their morning's labour. 
 ' I don't want to know anything about it 
 I am busy just now.' One might turn 
 15
 
 210 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 from such a place, and from such a man when 
 in a bad temper, heart-sick and despairing ; 
 might almost conscientiously resign such to 
 their fate as incorrigible, or say something 
 hastily which might provoke them beyond 
 reclamation. Only by special tact, blessed 
 by heaven, can seeds of truth be sown in this 
 not always sterile soil of unbelief. The visitor 
 continued : ' You appear to be a hard-working 
 man, and to possess some knowledge of your 
 line of business. Now, about ten days ago, 
 I purchased a pair of shoes for eight shillings 
 and sixpence. Do you think I gave too much 
 for them?' 'No, if they were a good pair,' 
 said the man. ' Do you think them a good 
 pair ? ' enquired the other, emphatically. ' Show 
 them to me, and I'll soon tell you.' ' They 
 are at home,' still answered the other. ' Cannot 
 you tell me whether they are good or bad, 
 without seeing them ?' ' None but a fool would 
 ask such a question,' said the man. Not ask
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 211 
 
 such a question ? Why not ? Here was surely 
 a very unaccountable circumstance. A crafts- 
 man, thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of 
 a certain trade, confesses inability to judge 
 whether articles are good or indifferent without 
 first handling and testing them. In the mean 
 time a book, which likewise he has never read 
 or examined, he unhesitatingly pronounces to 
 be an imposture. ' I am but a stranger,' now 
 said the visitor, * yet I cannot forbear telling 
 you that the Scriptures have given me great 
 peace, and I sincerely desire your peace and 
 happiness. This has brought me to your house, 
 and has kept me waiting here for nearly an 
 hour, and this it was that made me pass by 
 your long ungracious silence after I entered 
 your room.' Now, even shoemakers love victory 
 in argument; but here one was unmistakably 
 defeated. All that men can do in such circum- 
 stances, is to retail a few threadbare objections 
 to- Christianity, and make a show of intel-
 
 212 11 YEW AYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ligently comprehending what they profess to 
 believe. It is likewise very galling to be 
 silenced before fellow-workmen. ' I'll tell you 
 what,' cried the man, who all through had 
 maintained the argument, ' had you come in 
 preaching and canting, I would have chucked 
 you through that door.' Clearly perceiving his 
 defeat, however, he was in no mood for con- 
 tinuing hostilities. In a surprising manner 
 he gracefully surrendered the position. He 
 even rose from his seat to offer the visitor a 
 chair, and probably for the first time in his 
 life listened attentively to the Gospel. That 
 man in time became a real convert, a devoted 
 Christian, and a diligent student of Scripture. 
 "While such things are occurring, shall we not 
 take courage ? How many gems may be won 
 for the seeking. How many souls, living on 
 husks, and shivering in rags of their own patch- 
 work, might wear the wedding robe and sit 
 in their Lord's banqueting-house, were the
 
 INFIDELITY IN LONDON. 213 
 
 messengers abroad only to compel them to 
 come in. 
 
 Possibly some unbeliever may scan these 
 lines. To such I say, do not rest satisfied 
 with merely doubting Christianity. Be sure you 
 are right. Weigh the best things of your 
 system against the Christian's peace and hope, 
 and deal honestly with your own heart. Test 
 a question with such tremendous issues free 
 from the prejudice which perhaps you have 
 taken second-hand from infidel writers and 
 lecturers. Test your principles before death 
 comes to test them for you ! BE SURE YOU ABE 
 EIGHT !
 
 V. 
 
 LONDON BOUGHS.
 
 V. 
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 
 
 'N all hands in our vast and little 
 understood London we find examples 
 of the human genus with characters 
 indigenous to their various districts. 'You 
 knows I believe what you say,' said one of 
 the rarer species, in docile ignorance, address- 
 ing a missionary ; ' but you know the likes of 
 us, that never had any laming, who have 
 always been travelling the country ever since 
 we was born, it aren't to be thought that we 
 could know much about these things. My
 
 218 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 father was a great drunkard all his life ; lie 
 could earn plenty of money, but he used to 
 spend it as fast as he earned it. I was born 
 on the road, as we was travelling at least, 
 so my mother tells me, poor old girl ! but 
 she has been dead for years. From a boy 
 I always travelled with my father. Warn't I 
 frightened once ! Why my old dead father 
 said to me once as we was near a wood, " I 
 say, boy, I have often said I will never die 
 with my shoes on ; " so he climbed up a tree 
 I at the same time crying to him not to do 
 it, for I was quite a boy, about twelve years 
 old. He got up a tree, chucked me down his 
 shoes, and says, "Here goes, boy! "and hung 
 himself with his neck-handkerchief. I ran to 
 a man close by in the road, filling a cart, and 
 told him my father had hung himself, and 
 asked him to come and cut him down ; but 
 he would not, saying he warn't going to cut 
 him down if he was fool enough to hang
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 219 
 
 himself. So I ran crying, and met two gentle- 
 men in the road. They came just in time to 
 save my poor old father's life ; but he was 
 ill a long time, and at last he died raving 
 mad through drink a few years after. I go 
 to church sometimes; but you knows the par- 
 sons are so learned, that such poor ignorant 
 creatures as us cannot understand them. We 
 can understand all you say, because you make 
 it so plain to us ; and when we come home 
 my old woman gets the Book and reads it 
 all over to me again.' This man and his wife 
 seemed to derive much pleasure and profit 
 from the Sabbath evening meetings, and gave 
 satisfactory evidence of having undergone the 
 saving change. 'We see,' said this itinerant 
 tinker, 'that none but Jesus Christ can save 
 such poor sinners as we are.' 
 
 Strangers settling in London, as well as 
 older residents, will do well to learn that it 
 is not always safe to trust the testimony of
 
 220 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 eyes and ears. What is seen and heard may 
 need explaining, and few interpreters of the 
 manners and customs of the poor surpass our 
 city missionaries. Ordinary passengers see 
 numbers who flaunt abroad a specious poverty, 
 while they fare only too abundantly : the 
 visitor of a poor district can tell of numbers 
 who, though scorning to solicit alms, are 
 pinched by bitter poverty. 
 
 There once lived a certain lady in London, 
 who, being of an artless nature, was kind and 
 sympathising, ever ready to lighten another's 
 burden and to show kindness to the afflicted. 
 Near her house a crossing was kept by one 
 who fattened on the kindness of his neighbours, 
 and seemed not only to accept as a right such 
 coins as were dropped into his capacious hat, 
 but also many left-off garments of gentlemen 
 who walked over the cleanly-swept roadway. 
 But there is no need for exercising unceasing 
 industry, even on the part of crossing-sweepers,
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 221 
 
 provided they have ordinary ingenuity. Say, 
 a charitably disposed lady lives at No. - . 
 Very well. She has the reputation of being 
 peculiarly liberal to persons laid aside by 
 sickness. So far all is very good. If you 
 cannot make yourself ill, or do not care to 
 tamper with your constitution, a feigning of in- 
 disposition will still serve your purpose. So, 
 at least, appears to have reasoned our in- 
 telligent crossing-sweeper. The roadway was 
 forsaken; the man of the broom lay up 
 comfortably, and giving out that he was 'very 
 bad,' probably also taught his wife to shake 
 her head and look as miserable as a woman 
 should do in immediate prospect of widowhood. 
 The notice of the lady was soon attracted ; 
 and, what was of more moment, the crossing- 
 sweeper's humble larder was speedily re- 
 plenished with many good things which he 
 knew the visitor was not backward in dis- 
 pensing. But why stop short at mere sickness ?
 
 222 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 A benefactor who will supply half-crowns, 
 mutton-chops, wine, and preserves, merely be- 
 cause one suffers from influenza or a liver 
 affection, would behave even more handsomely 
 in defraying the expenses of a worthy body's 
 funeral. So, again, as it would seem, reasoned 
 the keen-witted genius of the crossing. / Ig- 
 norant of the proverb which warns the living 
 against personating the great enemy, he boldly 
 resolved on feigning death ; and, as he opined, 
 
 the lady of No. soon appeared at the 
 
 house of mourning, with sympathy expressed 
 even in her nod and step. The usual con- 
 comitants of death were visible the darkened 
 room, the bedstead, bearing the remains of 
 the loved one, neatly covered with a sheet, 
 and the 'widow,' with a sombre cast of coun- 
 tenance, treading lightly, as though fearful of 
 disturbing her husband's repose. Then there 
 would be the half-whispered thanks, and recitals 
 of the manner in which the last hours of the
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 223 
 
 deceased were cheered by the half-crowns, the 
 mutton-chops, wine, and preserves, so con- 
 siderately contributed. t But one heavy consi- 
 deration remained. How could she, a lone 
 woman, raise funds for becomingly interring 
 such a husband? Should she have recourse 
 to the parish ? Abhorrent thought to a woman 
 of self-respect and feeling! Her husband, in- 
 deed, should never be carried to the grave like 
 
 a pauper ! The lady from No. , in her 
 
 artlessness, did not look very closely into 
 matters, and never suspected the reality of 
 what she saw, nor the truth of what she 
 heard. Moved by pity, she went straightway 
 from the crossing-sweeper's lodging to make 
 a collecting tour among some friends, who, 
 appreciating these efforts to relieve deserving 
 poverty, subscribed sufficient for providing a 
 decent funeral. The money was carried to 
 the tearfully grateful widow, and was doubtless 
 accompanied by suitable words of counsel and
 
 224 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Christian consolation. How grateful would be 
 the emotions of such a philanthropist while 
 retracing her homeward way ! Doing good 
 brings its own reward ! Deserving poverty 
 must be searched after ! The lady had not 
 progressed far, however, when she discovered 
 the loss of a glove. She returned, and, there 
 being no necessity for ceremony, abruptly en- 
 tered the apartment she had left but a few 
 minutes before. Judge of her sensations when 
 the ' corpse ' appeared sitting up on the bed, 
 conversing with the ' widow ' in a very earthly 
 fashion; and, as it also seemed, well satisfied 
 with the net gains of the ' dying ' scheme, 
 though a little discomposed at the unbecoming 
 
 reappearance of the lady from No. . This 
 
 man's brazen-faced impudence enabled him 
 to return to his crossing; but he subsequently 
 became influenced for good by the London 
 City Mission. 
 
 Striking and valuable as a revelation into
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 225 
 
 the character of the roughs was the experience 
 of a missionary on the eve of the execution 
 of the murderer Mullens, some years ago. The 
 case exciting universal interest, the night prior 
 to the final tragedy saw the taverns around 
 Newgate crowded with the lowest of the popu- 
 lace ; and when these houses closed for the 
 night, half-drunken men and women, as one 
 vast, blaspheming, noisily obscene rabble, occu- 
 pied the ground before Newgate, to await the 
 final spectacle. Being abroad on his district 
 on that evening, a missionary entered a public- 
 house near the prison ; but before leaving the 
 bar Mr. Landlord honestly warned him that 
 on such an occasion, when the ruffianism of 
 London inundated the vicinity, it would con- 
 stitute mere wanton rashness to court insult 
 among the company of the taproom. Deaf to 
 these good-natured cautions, the visitor unhe- 
 sitatingly proceeded to the dreaded apartment, 
 where, in an atmosphere thick with fumes of 
 16
 
 226 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 spirits and tobacco, a hardened company were 
 joking, scoffing, swearing, and conversing in 
 general about the murderer and the murdered. 
 The stranger's entrance produced a marked 
 sensation. There were immediate cries of 
 'Bonnet him,' 'Kick him out,' &c., while one 
 gentleman called to the waiter, 'Bring a 
 quartern of gin and two outs (glasses), for me 
 and this chap to drink Mullens' health.' But 
 the villanous crew little suspected the quality 
 of the human metal they were dealing with, 
 or misapprehended the strength of character 
 by which they would easily be checkmated. 
 First they thought to frighten the intruder by 
 closing around the door to prevent his escaping ; 
 but instead of sudden flight he called out in 
 a loud, clear voice, 'If a thousand savages 
 were here I'd have my say out ; and do you 
 think I am to be cowed by sixty or seventy 
 Englishmen? Why, I have come to tell you 
 of the last dying speech of a Friend who was
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 227 
 
 executed.' These words were effective, for 
 silence was immediately demanded in such 
 peremptory terms as ' Muzzle,' ' Hold yer mug,' 
 ' Shut up,' &c. Then followed the great history 
 Once upon a time, many centuries ago, two 
 notorious malefactors were condemned to execu- 
 tion ; and then, as now, throngs of spectators 
 entered the city to witness their death. But 
 one greater than a creature, the God-man, who 
 had done no wrong, voluntarily laid aside His 
 glory to redeem the guilty. He was also con- 
 demned to crucifixion, and on His cross our 
 sins were nailed. Some unseen angel might 
 have inspired with reverence this wildly wicked 
 company, so eagerly and silently did they 
 listen to the relation of the heavens darkening, 
 the rocks being rent, and how earth quaked. 
 The whole spectacle presented at Calvary was 
 described ; and on the speaker's coming to the 
 last scene, and repeating the words of Christ, 
 ' It is finished,' pipes were laid down all round
 
 228 B7EWA7S OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 the room, and wonder sat on many a counte- 
 nance. No resistance being now offered to the 
 missionary's leaving, numbers rose in respect 
 as he passed, and two men, who followed him 
 into the street, promised in God's strength 
 to forsake their wicked course. From such 
 examples of Christian bravery we learn to 
 appreciate the Gospel's irresistible, all-con- 
 quering power. 
 
 Some of the characters classed as roughs are 
 so notoriously iniquitous that they become a 
 source of terror and amazement to such as are 
 themselves of sufficiently low morals. Yet even 
 these are sometimes highly susceptible of truth, 
 which once having entered their hearts, they 
 hold with a tenacity not always shown by , 
 persons who have enjoyed higher privileges. 
 
 It is touching to discover what kind of cha- 
 racters fraternise at the little gatherings known 
 as the missionary's meetings. ' Did you know 
 that you lately had at your meeting one who
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 229 
 
 had been in chains at Newgate under sentence 
 of death ?' ' Have you been in that melancholy 
 situation?' was enquired. 'I have; and your 
 simple remarks affected me very much as you 
 spoke of prisons and what you had seen in 
 them.' This subject, after serving at Ports- 
 mouth, became a ragged-school teacher. 
 
 Notwithstanding their ignorance and blunted 
 instinct, even the roughs of a district foster 
 attachment for those who live for their welfare. 
 When one indefatigable missionary was acci- 
 dentally killed some years ago on the London 
 and North Western-Kailway, his unlettered 
 constituency showed deep concern for the loss 
 sustained. On the day of the funeral the shops 
 of the vicinity many of them not ranking 
 above coal-sheds and cats'-meat establishments 
 were half closed, and groups at street corners 
 bewailed the general bereavement. ' God help 
 me ! What shall I do now Mr. Miller is gone ? ' 
 cried an Irishwoman in tears. ' He was
 
 230 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 always at me about the drink, and I thought 
 at one time he would make a good job of me.' 
 A crowd followed the cortege as far as Waterloo 
 Bridge, and numbers . being too poor to pay the 
 toll, turned back weeping. ' Ah,' cried an 
 invalid in St. Saviour's and Christ Church 
 Union, 'you don't know how great our loss 
 is. If God's people lose their pastor they can 
 go to another ; but Mr. Miller came to us.' The 
 Mr. Miller mentioned as having been accident- 
 ally killed, was returning home with a small 
 party, and at the moment of the fatal collision 
 they were singing the Evening Hymn. 
 
 Christian England is doubtless making praise- 
 worthy efforts in the work of evangelisation, 
 but perhaps not according to her ability. 
 Would that our fathers had shown more soli- 
 citude for the good of perishing thousands ; for 
 it is painful to reflect how one generation after 
 another has passed from the fetid courts and 
 alleys of London without having the Gospel
 
 LONDON BOUGHS. 231 
 
 carried among them. Then evidence contin- 
 ually comes to the surface of the gratitude of 
 those who receive benefit. Testimonials have 
 repeatedly been presented to missionaries ; and 
 one case happened of a laundress, who, as- 
 cribing conversion to this agency, insisted on 
 acting as unpaid nurse when the missionary of 
 her district was seized with cholera. Another 
 pleasing sign is the eagerness after knowledge 
 shown by persons coming under Christian in- 
 fluence persons who otherwise would continue 
 coarse and repelling. 
 
 A wood-chopper of Bethnal-green, who bore 
 an indifferent name, thus answered a first 
 Christian appeal: 'Perhaps, after all, you are 
 right. I never learned a letter in my life, and 
 so can't judge. I'm told the Bible is a pack 
 of lies ; and here's one to begin with. It says 
 a man gave five hundred hungry men as much 
 as they could eat out of five loaves and two 
 fishes. Why, if they wasn't as big as a house,
 
 232 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 there wouldn't have been a bit apiece. I believe 
 it's all a lie, I do.' He listened to the true 
 account and its explanation that Christ, the 
 Son of God, fed not five hundred, but five 
 thousand, as described in the Gospel. The 
 man at once did homage to truth. ' What a 
 blessing it is to know the right thing ! ' he 
 said. ' I have lived all these years, and know 
 nothing. Nobody never took no trouble to 
 learn me nothing when I was a boy. I wish 
 I had been a scholar; I shouldn't act as I do. 
 I should like to read this here Bible, particular 
 about Him you was speaking about; but there, 
 nobody won't take no notice of such as me, and 
 I hangs about anywhere.' Thousands of such 
 subjects as this old wood-chopper are waiting 
 to have the Gospel carried to them, and to be 
 gathered into the Church. 
 
 Hard-working missionaries learn not to limit 
 the power of God. Were they for a moment 
 to lose confidence in the invisible power sus-
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 233 
 
 taining the good cause and strewing the path 
 of the faithful with blessing, they would lose 
 ground, disheartened. Prejudice, bigotry, hard- 
 heartedness, and ignorance have to be over- 
 come ; but happily the conquest belongs to 
 God. A man might as well hope to splinter 
 a mass of granite with his fist as to subdue 
 by human means the stony heart. But faith 
 and persevering labour are constantly working 
 miracles. 
 
 In a squalid room in a low district flourished 
 a cobbler, of whom the neighbours heard little, 
 excepting when family brawls brought him 
 under prominent notice. The offspring par- 
 took of their parents' nature. A son was 
 already dead, having been driven mad by 
 drunkenness. The wife of another son, find- 
 ing it impossible to live with her husband, 
 had left her home, while the only daughter 
 lived a life of shame. When he first sought 
 admission at the door of the attic wherein the
 
 234 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 old shoemaker and four others herded, the 
 missionary might well have retreated in dis- 
 gust, and have asked himself if venturing 
 thither was not merely exposing holy things 
 to ridicule. To make the first impression more 
 lasting, if less favourable, two pigs were vehe- 
 mently demanding a meal in one corner, while 
 a dog roamed over the room in frolicsome play- 
 fulness. In this home, however, the Gospel 
 wrought amazing changes, the more surprising 
 as none of the family were able to read. The 
 room became clean and orderly; peace suc- 
 ceeded brawling; and the wife by her altered 
 walk and conversation won the sobriquet of The 
 Lady. These results are the best rewards for 
 toiling workers. Every such triumph stamps 
 their message as Divine. Another couple were 
 encountered whose quarrels astonished when 
 they did not terrify beholders. The man and 
 his .wdfe fought like wild animals when intoxi- 
 cated, and vied each with the other in demo-
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 235 
 
 lishing the household furniture, for while the 
 woman would destroy a window-pane, the more 
 competent masculine fist would shatter a look- 
 ing-glass. Then each would seize a chair, 
 and each would excite the other's rage by the 
 readiness with which they converted furniture 
 into firewood. Such are the roughs among 
 whom the Gospel is promoting civilisation. 
 There is one sad reflection in connection with 
 this subject : when men and women become 
 thus utterly depraved, the women are the more 
 repulsive. Nor is this merely an opinion. 
 In the refractory wards of workhouses a 
 missionary has been received civilly by men, 
 w r hile women have assailed him with abuse 
 and obscenity. 
 
 The danger or injury to which our itinerants 
 are exposed is well known. On opening the 
 door of a room in a west-end district, in re- 
 sponse to a welcome of ' Come in,' there 
 appeared a company of Irish carousing over
 
 236 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 a can of beer. Supposing them to be half 
 intoxicated, the visitor judged it unadvisable 
 to do more than lay some tracts on the table 
 and speak a few passing words; but as he 
 retired, a powerful fellow obstructed the door- 
 way, and called out with an oath, 'No going 
 out of this room until you have paid your 
 footing.' The company rose, and amid noise 
 and confusion commenced pulling the intruder 
 hither and thither, trying to make him drink, 
 till a woman, whose bonnet had just been 
 pawned to supply the liquor, interfered. ' You'll 
 frighten the man; he has not been used to 
 such treatment.' ' Frighten ! ' replied the 
 prisoner, with seeming unconcern ; ' do not I 
 know what Irish are too well to be frightened 
 at them?' At these words peace was imme- 
 diately proclaimed, and they listened for an 
 hour to instruction and exhortation. 
 
 It is pleasing to find how highly the mis- 
 sionaries rank in the affection even of rough
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 237 
 
 characters. Vicious and dishonest people 
 abound who would not bemean themselves by 
 offering insult to the messengers of Christ. 
 They at least may walk infamous districts 
 without molestation. Many seemingly trivial 
 occurrences have shown how deeply rooted in 
 man is a reverence for what he knows to be 
 right. A St. Giles's visitor has lost a hand- 
 kerchief, to have it returned with apologies as 
 taken by a 'new-comer.' Another 'new-comer' 
 attempted a like robbery in a court, when he 
 was immediately surrounded by other thieves, 
 and made to render polite reparation. 
 
 These things are good so far as they go; 
 but still more grateful is the simple faith of 
 the 'rough' species on their first taking to 
 religion. Some of us have scant sympathy 
 with a modern fashion which raises men once 
 eminent for wickedness into responsible Chris- 
 tian teachers. It is probably better that ex- 
 thieves, ex-pugilists, and ex-roughs in general
 
 238 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 should forbear intruding into the pulpit, since 
 religion gains more by their good example in 
 private life than by their assumption of public 
 stations. 
 
 A concluding reminiscence may be .given 
 relating to the rather novel experience of three 
 missionaries, who a few years ago endeavoured 
 to impart religious instruction to the most re- 
 nowned of modern prize-fighters. In connection 
 with one celebrated combat, this man and his 
 prowess for the moment were a leading theme 
 of popular conversation, and his gains, including 
 many presentations, appear to have amounted 
 to a small fortune. The ignorance of this 
 pugilist was deplorable ; but possessing enough 
 native shrewdness to see that his own profes- 
 sion clashed with the principles of Christianity, 
 he for long refused to tolerate 'a parson.' 
 Eobust as was his constitution, and singularly 
 great as was his muscular power, disease early 
 sapped his vigour, and he was laid aside in
 
 LONDON ROUGHS. 239 
 
 helpless weakness. Hearing of his illness, the 
 first missionary sought admission to the house, 
 without success. The second was more for- 
 tunate ; for, visiting the ' champion,' he read 
 and prayed with him, and left some little 
 volumes, but when the patient partially re- 
 covered, the good impression seemed to wear 
 away. Then came a relapse, and a third 
 missionary regularly attended him until death. 
 The poor fellow in his last illness showed no 
 reluctance to receive Christian counsel ; on the 
 contrary, he valued the services rendered, and 
 several times sent specially for his instructor. 
 Interesting, if not remarkable, were the events 
 of the last day of this man's life. When symp- 
 toms of speedy dissolution appeared, a cab was 
 despatched in haste after the missionary, and 
 approaching the bedside of the dying man, he 
 read the chapter containing the words, ' This 
 is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepta- 
 tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
 
 240 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 save sinners, of whom I am chief.' The last 
 clause was caught up by the pugilist, and he 
 faintly repeated, ' Of whom I am chief.' The 
 tear of pity may fall, but charity hopeth all 
 
 things. Poor , he confessed that drink had 
 
 involved him in ruin and death. Then he at 
 least honoured the Gospel by separating from 
 the woman with whom he had been living in 
 adultery. Unhappily, of any further progress 
 of grace in his heart we cannot speak. We 
 may nevertheless 'rejoice that he and such as 
 he are not allowed to pass from mortality 
 without hearing of that Divine mercy which, 
 making' no distinction among sinners, calls on 
 all in common to take their iniquity to the cross 
 of Christ to believe and live.
 
 
 PAET II. EDINBURGH. 
 
 EDINA, SCOTIA'S DARLING SEAT, 
 
 ALL HAIL THY PALACES AND TOWERS! 
 
 Burns. 
 
 I. 
 
 A DAY WITH THE MEDICAL 
 MISSION. 
 
 17
 
 I. 
 
 A DAY WITH THE MEDICAL 
 MISSION. 
 
 ERSONS who need rest from labour, 
 either mental or physical, can al- 
 ways secure a profitable change by 
 arranging for a temporary sojourn in 
 'Edina, Scotia's darling seat.' 
 
 The pride of Scotland, Edinburgh, will con- 
 tinue to maintain her prestige while travellers 
 are found who appreciate cultured society, his- 
 torical relics, and a highly romantic natural 
 situation. The city possesses every gratifica- 
 tion to allure and detain educated visitors. 
 17*
 
 244 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Nature enters into an alliance with literature, 
 science, and art, to render the city favoured 
 and famous. 
 
 Observant English visitors who walk out into 
 Edinburgh for the first time notice what a 
 different aspect the town presents from some 
 other capitals with which they are familiar. 
 There is a classical and refined look about the 
 New Town, with its gardens, Scott's monument, 
 museum, and picture gallery, quite unique and 
 striking, and which can never be seen in great 
 commercial centres. The pedestrians, the 
 young women not excepted, include a large 
 proportion of students, and carry a literary air. 
 Even the shopkeepers look studentish, and in 
 many instances are persons of respectable 
 attainments. Then how thickly strewn are 
 the relics of the past on this famous historical 
 site from the ancient little chapel, wherein 
 * good Queen Margaret ' prayed, on the top 
 of Castle-rock, to the now dilapidated pulpit
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 245 
 
 of John Knox, or the murderous Grass Market 
 'Maiden' in the Antiquarian Museum. Dr. 
 Guthrie thinks that, with the exception of some 
 parts of Old Paris, Europe does not contain 
 a more interesting place than Old Edinburgh. 
 An inquisitive visitor who passes along the 
 now squalid, but once important, thoroughfare 
 of the Cowgate, towards the Grass Market, will 
 be sure to have his eye attracted by a quaint 
 and slightly decayed building, dating from the 
 sixteenth century, and ornamented with a spire 
 in the centre. Over the entrance is an inscrip- 
 tion, ' HE THAT HATH PITIE VPON THE POOH 
 LENDETH UNTO THE LORD, AND THE LORD WILL 
 KECOMPENSE HIM THAT HE HETH GIVEN.' In 
 addition to the motto from the Book of Pro- 
 verbs, may be noticed the arms of the Guild 
 of Hammermen, keeping company with the 
 crest of the founder of what was in old time 
 an hospital, Michael Macquhan. The chapel 
 and the buildings attached, now standing in
 
 246 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 the very worst part of the Cowgate, have long, 
 long since parted with their ' praying men' 
 and monkish associations, and are now the chief 
 dispensary of the Edinburgh Medical Mission. 
 
 The premises pointed out will amply repay 
 inspection, in consequence of their being a 
 curious and well-preserved relic of pre-Eeforma- 
 tion times. In the coloured window of the 
 chapel are seen the arms of the founder of the 
 house, with those of Mary of Guise. In the 
 centre of the room, beneath what is now the 
 pulpit, with its marvellously-carved high-backed 
 chair, is the identical table on which the corpse 
 of Argyll was laid after execution, on the last 
 day of June, 1685. Within this same building, 
 so little altered by time since the most stirring 
 days of Scottish history, John Craig, the con- 
 temporary and assistant of Knox, preached in 
 Latin after his return from exile. Here, too, 
 tradition says, the first General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland was convened.
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 217 
 
 This hospital having much in common with 
 the ordinary monastery, was established in the 
 sixteenth century, and was intended for the 
 ' Sustentation of several poor men who should 
 continually there put forth their prayers to 
 Almighty Qod.' When once founded, ' the 
 Crosse House' had its endowments from time 
 to time augmented by pious donors, whose 
 supplementary gifts to the charity of Michael 
 Macquhan are carefully chronicled in the panel- 
 ling of the chapel. The ancient table, antique 
 chair, the now rusty sword, formerly used on 
 state occasions, and all the other furniture of 
 this Magdalen Hospital, seem to bid us linger 
 and learn what they can tell us of the past ; 
 but perhaps a still more interesting object is 
 the tomb of Dame Macquhan, the founder's 
 wife, which bears the inscription, 'Here lyes 
 ane honorabil woman, Janet Ehynd, ye spous 
 of umquhil Micel Makquhan, burges of Edin- 
 burgh, founder of yis place, and decessit ye
 
 248 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 iii a day of December, A.D. 1553.' Such is the 
 home of a mission which seeks to relieve suffer- 
 ing in its severest form, and to teach the igno- 
 rant the way of salvation. Let us follow its 
 agents to their work, and see in what their 
 labours consist. 
 
 To see the Medical Mission in actual opera- 
 tion, I repair to the Cowgate on a week-day at 
 two p.m., when the patients congregate in an 
 apartment used on Sabbath evenings for the 
 Ragged School. If we enter the room now that 
 service has just begun, we shall find a motley 
 group of characters, each having some bodily 
 affliction, or acting as the messenger of others 
 whose weakness prevents personal attendance, 
 or lending assistance to those too weak to 
 reach the place alone. The middle-aged man 
 with wasted cheeks and deep sepulchral cough 
 sits by the side of ailing youth, or the dame 
 whose addiction to whiskey has occasioned her 
 being injured in a nocturnal brawl. The dis-
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 249 
 
 tressed mother sits there, keeping close to her 
 afflicted child both looking worthy objects for 
 the advice and medicine here bestowed. The 
 room is well filled, and the congregation, though 
 a small one, presents an uncommon picture 
 of patient and impatient suffering. These 
 people have bodies to be healed ; but, while 
 giving them the best service they are able, those 
 in office never forget that they are Christian 
 teachers as well as medical practitioners. 
 Happily, our friends know their art and un- 
 derstand their opportunities. They know that 
 persons benefited physically are almost cer- 
 tain to open their hearts to receive religious 
 teaching. Moreover, many in the room are 
 Romanists, who would surely shun these pre- 
 cincts were no advice or medicine forthcoming. 
 Better rot and die in squalid ignorance than 
 be raised to respectability at the expense of 
 imbibing Protestant teaching ! So think some 
 of the savagely bigoted teachers of these poor
 
 250 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Irish teachers who also say that there is less 
 sin incurred in shooting a man than in eating 
 meat on Friday ! Still the people come, and 
 for the sake of the good Samaritan's oil and 
 wine listen to exhortation about the need of 
 all sinners coming to have their souls healed at 
 the hands of the Great Physician. A low and 
 ignorant Eomanist may risk little when he 
 abuses a mere evangelist ; he will hesitate 
 ere he molests the medical missionary. The 
 kindness of the Christian surgeon is of too 
 precious a kind to be lightly valued. 
 
 The service being over, the presiding sur- 
 geon and his assistant retreat into the con- 
 sulting room, a sanctum into whose precincts 
 the patients are admitted singly, the signal 
 to each in turn being the ringing of a table- 
 bell. It will be as well to sit awhile and 
 watch the examining and advising business 
 as it progresses, for by so doing we shall 
 learn more about the needs, and the sins
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSIOX. 251 
 
 too, of a proverty- stricken district, and of 
 blessings springing from the working of a 
 noble society, than could be done by any 
 other means. We will take a place at the 
 table, in the meantime keeping our friend 
 company who has the large ledger and his 
 pen ready to note anything about old cases, 
 and to enter others. The superintendent, who 
 has been favouring us with a few words of 
 explanation, is now in readiness also seated 
 in an arm chair of some dignity, as becomes 
 a medical oracle who respects his office. Eing 
 the bell. 
 
 The bell rings, and the door is opened 
 slowly, as by a reverent hand, and forthwith 
 there enters a middle-aged man, wearing a 
 rather woe-begone expression on his counte- 
 nance. The occasion of his concern is no 
 secret : his chest is faulty and his frame is 
 shaken by that racking cough. He may not 
 have been indifferent while listening a few
 
 252 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 minutes ago to what was spoken about the 
 healing power of the Physician of souls; but 
 the man's intensity of desire to be benefited 
 medically is absolutely painful to behold ! 
 How minutely and carefully he answers en- 
 quiries ! How his eyes are strained to catch 
 a favourable opinion in the physician's face ! 
 Does pain hinder his sleeping at nights ? Oh, 
 yes, yes ; but not so badly as it did ; no, no, 
 it is not quite so bad as it was. A few words 
 in an undertone are spoken to our near neigh- 
 bour, the clerk with the ledger, and the patient 
 receives an order for the dispensary. He 
 seems to leave the room with far less gloom 
 than he brought in. A doctor's kind words 
 are as valuable as medicine. One might al- 
 most believe that a dose of good spirits had 
 been surreptitiously administered to this lately 
 depressed invalid. A good beginning. Eing 
 the bell. 
 
 The bell rings. This time the door opens
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 253 
 
 to admit a stout slatternly woman of the 
 unmistakable Cowgate type. To look at her 
 casually you might be tempted to believe the 
 last spark of womanliness had long since been 
 extinguished in her heart. What leaden- 
 looking eyes ! What bleared and sottish 
 features ! Her face carries traces of recent 
 physical suffering; but, hopelessly degraded 
 as she appears at first sight, a second and 
 more charitable inspection show's that there 
 lingers in her mind a genuine feminine shyness. 
 She is averse to being too communicative on 
 the origin of her ailment. Something has 
 happened of w r hich she is ashamed. She 
 complains of soreness and of a sharp pain in 
 the left side, from which she has suffered 
 since Saturday evening. The doctor has 
 his suspicions of the cause; but anon the 
 woman's wincing and long-drawn sighs show 
 that the examining hand has found a fractured 
 rib!
 
 254 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 'Had you been drinking?' enquires the 
 gentleman. 
 
 'A wee bit, I had,' replies the woman, in 
 self- accusing tones, such as I am glad to hear. 
 
 Here follow a few words on the evils and 
 dangers attending the dissolute and drink- 
 abandoned life so common to the Cowgate. 
 Then the poor victim departs with an order 
 on the dispensary, and an aching side, which, 
 it is hoped, .will testify more forcibly than 
 verbal arguments against the evils of whiskey. 
 Eing the bell. 
 
 The bell rings, and ushers in a mother 
 and daughter. The woman, a middle-aged 
 body, shows a mother's anxiety written on 
 her face for the young thing who keeps close 
 to her natural protector with that shyness 
 common to childhood in the presence of a 
 doctor. The poor little patient is debarred 
 from society and excluded from school on 
 account of being afflicted with skin disease
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 255 
 
 over the head of an extremely rare type. The 
 sight presented is a spectacle sufficiently dis- 
 gusting to the mere visitor; but it is sure to 
 possess extraordinary attractions for the medical 
 gentlemen present, because of its rarity. The 
 casual visitor may turn away his head, or 
 hold his hat before his eyes, to spare qua- 
 vering nerves ; the others gather round, bend 
 over, observe and criticise the symptoms with 
 a keen interest and readiness becoming men 
 whose art is healing, and who must gather 
 knowledge as they go along. I am given 
 to understand that it is an exceedingly in- 
 teresting case a most rare and perfect 
 example ! Non-medical as I am, I cordially 
 concur in these opinions, though unable to 
 share my companions' curiosity. Indeed, I 
 am somewhat relieved to hear the superin- 
 tendent say, ' Put on your hat, my dear/ to 
 the afflicted maiden, who looks as though she 
 could not quite comprehend why she should
 
 256 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 excite so much apparent admiration. An 
 order for admission to the infirmary is, in 
 this case, indispensable. In the meantime 
 the heavy-hearted mother walks away, with 
 some gratitude warming her heart for the 
 helping hand of the Medical Mission. But 
 enough. Eing the bell. 
 
 The bell rings, and we have before us a 
 young man whose constitution has been shaken 
 by adverse influences. He looks as though 
 he had been a subject of dissipation, but we 
 cannot be certain, and may not judge. He 
 may be reduced by misfortune ; he may be 
 even now repenting of past errors. We 
 can only yield him our sympathy, and take 
 notice of that same painful eagerness to be 
 benefited observable in others who have 
 passed before us. He takes an order to the 
 dispensary, and again the bell rings its per- 
 emptory summons, while our superintendent 
 rises from his consulting chair to wel-
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSIOX. 257 
 
 come a brother surgeon who has just now 
 entered. 
 
 A short, dark-featured, sharp-eyed Irish- 
 woman walks from the inner room, her prin- 
 cipal costume consisting of an old snuff-coloured 
 gown and a dirty nightcap. In a room hard 
 by this woman has a bedridden mother, who 
 lies not only in extreme weakness, but endures 
 much pain. The daughter has come for 
 medicine and advice, and complains a little 
 of her mother's restlessness. Look now in 
 her face, and read what ? If her features 
 speak at all, do they not say, ' Ah, it is a 
 heavy cross when an active body has to nurse 
 and work for a worn-out old relative ' ? 
 
 Perhaps the young man at my elbow is 
 reading something of this sort in the woman's 
 face, for he glances up from his great ledger, 
 and remarks, drily, 
 
 ' You are not kind to her.' 
 
 What is that the gentleman is saying ? Not 
 18
 
 258 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 kind to a poor bedridden mother? The little 
 Irishwoman's dark eyes sparkle with an indig- 
 nation we are as gratified to see as we were 
 pleased to discover a few minutes ago some 
 embers of shame in this woman's broken-ribbed 
 neighbour. There is at least a remnant of 
 humanity left when eyes can speak like that, 
 and flash an unwelcome insinuation back in 
 your teeth, even though they are speaking 
 falsely. The transgressor who is subject to 
 shame is still sensible of the presence of evil. 
 This woman, for example, winces under rebuke, 
 and knows she has done wrong; so that, not- 
 withstanding the whiskey and every-day de- 
 pravity of this sin-abounding Cowgate, she has 
 not lapsed into evil beyond reclamation. Some 
 part of the better nature of woman is still 
 preserved intact. 
 
 ' Thin nobody's kind to her, if I ain't,' she 
 says, with a ringing emphasis, which we are 
 afraid does not impart truth to her words,
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 259 
 
 much as she would like to demonstrate that 
 she has been wrongfully accused. 
 
 Stout denial, however, is of no avail. The 
 phlegmatic gentleman at the great ledger is 
 inexorable. His heart is steeled to resist the 
 feminine art and copious vocabulary of the 
 dark-eyed little Irishwoman. He actually re- 
 peats the offensive words slowly and emphati- 
 cally, and does so, too, with a nonchalance 
 which must be quite surprising to the woman, 
 ' Ah, you are not kind to her ! ' 
 ' Thin nobody's kind to her, if I ain't.' 
 I shall not follow the dialogue that ensued. 
 I can only hope the rebuke will tell for 
 good; and that the unfortunate invalid, who 
 is lying day after day, lonely and weary, in 
 the close dingy room yonder, will gain a little 
 extra attention, and enjoy a little more of a 
 daughter's tenderness. 
 
 In the meantime the bell rings, rings again, 
 and then again, and at each summons the 
 18*
 
 2CO LYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 door opens to admit from the inner room a 
 subject of affliction, or a victim of transgres- 
 sion, to whom the helping hand of the Medical 
 Mission is held out for the purpose of com- 
 forting and instructing in the way of salvation, 
 and, if possible, of healing. We have only 
 seen a small portion of one afternoon's work. 
 The work goes on from day to day, from the 
 beginning of the year to the close. Every day 
 at two p.m. an afflicted and poverty-stricken 
 congregation assembles at the dispensary to 
 be spoken to about the healing power of the 
 Gospel, and then to be called into the audience- 
 chamber by the tongue of the table-bell. 
 Better than all, perhaps, the students who 
 are trained by the kind of work I have 
 described take up their abode at foreign sta- 
 tions, while others fill their places. Such are 
 the operations of the Edinburgh Medical Mis- 
 sion, a society which merits the sympathy and 
 support of the Church at large.
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION, 2G1 
 
 This Christian agency extends its influence 
 beyond the dispensary and the daily religious 
 service. Thousands of visits are paid annually 
 to the sick and to poor women, while medical 
 skill and medicine are freely given. Great at 
 all times, the blessings dispensed appear even 
 more manifest when a direful epidemic sweeps 
 over the city, as happened during the earlier 
 months of last year. In those sad days, had 
 it not been for such an agency as this, we are 
 told : ' Many would have sunk from sheer ex : 
 haustion for want of necessary food ; many 
 homes (if homes such wretched abodes can be 
 called), with one, two, three, or four of the in- 
 mates stricken down with the pestilence, were 
 destitute of every comfort a bundle of straw 
 on the floor for a bed, an old coarse sack for 
 a blanket, no ventilation, no fire, and no food, 
 no accommodation for the sufferers in the 
 already over-crowded hospital, and with no 
 help but what we were able to bestow our
 
 262 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Medical Mission, in these circumstances, proved 
 a real blessing to very many.' 
 
 Though the great Value of medical missions 
 as evangelising agencies has long been acknow- 
 ledged, the Edinburgh Society has been enabled 
 only very gradually to widen the basis of its 
 operations. It is now about fifteen years since 
 possession was taken of the present dispensary 
 the extinct Magdalen Hospital and since 
 entering the Cowgate the influence of the 
 Society for good has perhaps become more 
 perceptible. The premises, however, were used 
 as a common dispensary for some time pre- 
 viously to 1858, by a philanthropic physician, 
 who adopted this method of assisting the poor. 
 The young men who were then in course of 
 training for foreign service sought to improve 
 their experience and confer some benefit by 
 seconding the good doctor's endeavours. This 
 friendly co-operation continued awhile, although 
 ' dear old 39,' as its friends call the chapel,
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 263 
 
 was territory still quite independent of the 
 mission committee. At length a change oc- 
 curred, and the coveted station passed into the 
 hands of its present managers, to become 
 henceforth a part of their every-day machinery. 
 It is now an active centre of Christian work, 
 as well as a valued house of relief for the 
 poorest of the city, where the best medical 
 advice can be had for the asking. 
 
 There are many ladies found in Edinburgh 
 who manifest a deep interest in the welfare 
 of the Medical Mission, and who aid its opera- 
 tions as only true womanly natures can aid 
 such endeavours. These visitors devote much 
 of their time and substance to the interest of 
 the poor, and one or another of their number 
 may be frequently seen among the congrega- 
 tion at the Cowgate dispensary. While that 
 little table-bell is ringing the patients into the 
 consulting-room, one of these effective pleaders 
 will sometimes remain in the inner chamber,
 
 264 B YEW AYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ' to place before tliem a Triune Jehovah a 
 Heavenly Father who cannot look upon sin.' 
 Is not this a thankless office ? No ; but it is 
 work requiring the tact and patience of cultured 
 womanliness. How should the Irish be treated? 
 As Komanists, the Irish would be glad to dis- 
 pense with Gospel teaching. The best things 
 one can say to them they call Protestantism, 
 and Protestantism they account defiling heresy. 
 Talk to them about Christ, and they will 
 answer, ' Oh, the Virgin will intercede for us ! ' 
 Thus the speaker must preserve her own self- 
 respect, and must do this without awakening 
 the superstitious bigotry of her rude con- 
 stituents. Besides the Irish, however, other 
 characters are present whom we can regard 
 more lovingly. Eags, dirt, and vice have not 
 quite destroyed hope regarding them. They 
 begin to see, or think they do, something at- 
 tractive in the Cross. On hearing the name 
 of Christ, they will look up and say, 'Ay, He
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 265 
 
 is the One to save us.' To kindle any interest 
 in the minds of such people is at least en- 
 couraging; but while pleased at one symptom 
 of success, perhaps the lady has her ardour 
 damped when one shows peevishness at having 
 time occupied by prayer. ' I've got no time 
 for prayer ! ' 'No time for prayer ? No time 
 for prayer ? ' cries the visitor. ' One day you 
 will have to find time for death ! ' Some, too, 
 manifest an impatience common to rude na- 
 tures, and so provoke a reprimand from the 
 more peaceably inclined ; e.g., ' Can't you be 
 quiet? If you don't want to listen to the lady, 
 ice do.' A few choice spirits who sometimes 
 appear, and evince a genuine interest in what 
 is said, probably find their way into one of 
 the Cowgate mission churches. ' A friend of 
 mine,' said one of this class, ' heard you the 
 other day talking about these things here, and 
 when she came home she told the whole of it 
 to us.' ' Go and do likewise,' replies the lady.
 
 266 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Then there is a little girl sitting on the bench, 
 whose love of Bible stories appears to inspire 
 her relatives with excusable pride ; for the 
 mother whispers confidentially to her instruc- 
 tor, ' She will tell it all over again to-night ! ' 
 There are many winning traits also found in 
 some of the people here congregated ; traits 
 showing that even the Cowgate cannot totally 
 destroy the heart's susceptibility of good im- 
 pressions. How do we know this ? Because 
 more than once, when the little table-bell of 
 the adjoining room has uttered its quick sum- 
 mons, unbidden tears have dimmed the eyes 
 of patients little accustomed to weep. Wives, 
 in whose hearts one might have supposed the 
 last flicker of feminine generosity had died 
 out long ago, have shown their appreciation 
 of the word spoken in season. Gaunt, power- 
 ful men, too, in whose hard, vice-marred 
 features, you might look in vain for what you 
 would take to be sympathy, have uttered such
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 267 
 
 words as ' Good-bye, ma'am ; I won't forget 
 what you have been telling us.' 
 
 A cheering instance of the power of the 
 Gospel in reclaiming youth from the seemingly 
 hopeless moral defilement of evil associations, 
 came to light one Sabbath morning at the 
 Cowgate Dispensary. It happened to be the 
 first Sunday of November, and the beginning 
 of the winter campaign of active service. 
 Only a short time previously there had been 
 an excursion into the country a treat still 
 fresh in the memories of both teachers and 
 taught. After having been instructed in their 
 separate rooms, the ragged classes were ga- 
 thered in the chapel to listen to an address 
 from one of the Medical Mission staff, and to 
 receive copies of an ornamental card contain- 
 ing a brief, pointed prayer 'Lord, show me 
 myself ; Lord, show me Thyself. Give me Thy 
 Holy Spirit.' The services being ended, the 
 children passed out along the narrow passage
 
 268 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 into the street. The surgeon-superintendent 
 was also leaving, when he observed one little 
 fellow yet lingering in the rear. To look at, 
 the boy was a perfect scarecrow, the bundle 
 of rags constituting his costume being retained 
 on his body by certain well-known contrivances, 
 noticeable among which was an ingenious and 
 plentiful use of string. One of the most ragged 
 of the ragged classes, he was a phenomenon 
 even in the Cowgate. At the moment it was 
 supposed that this could be no other than a 
 begging subject, and a feeling of impatience 
 came over the doctor in prospect of being im- 
 portuned for alms at the first meeting of the 
 school after the annual outing. When the 
 youngster approached, the teacher, involun- 
 tarily as it were, put his hand into his pocket, 
 as if to protect his coin, the thought mean- 
 while occurring, ' What'll he want ?' Unconscious 
 of the uneasy emotions he was occasioning, 
 the lad came still closer; and, as if fearful
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 269 
 
 of being too bold or too confident, whispered, 
 publican-like, in the superintendent's ear, ' I 
 just wanted to tell you, doctor, I can't help think- 
 ing but that Jesus Christ has been kind to m>i 
 soid.' The kind physician Dr. Burns Thomson 
 instantly feeling rebuked, bowed his head in 
 silent thanksgiving as his eyes filled with tears. 
 But had he made a mistake ? He looked at 
 the boy again. The little outcast still pre- 
 sented the appearance of a caricature of hu- 
 manity. ' What is it, my little man ? ' was 
 asked, and the speaker bent low, placing 
 his best ear close to the Arab's lips. Still 
 the confession was the same, as the convert 
 repeated it with quiet satisfaction ' I just 
 wanted to tell you that Christ has been kind 
 to my soul.' Never was a warrior more en- 
 couraged by tokens of victory than was the 
 good medical missionary encouraged by that 
 artless confession of a Cowgate Arab. 
 I hope that my readers will now perceive
 
 270 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 the value in general of medical missions in 
 crowded towns ; and I hope they will learn 
 to regard with favour the parent society at 
 Edinburgh, which so admirably serves as a 
 training institution. Into the innermost dens 
 of sin-stricken districts the agents penetrate, 
 and, with the Bible and their healing art for 
 passports, find welcome everywhere. Many, 
 ignorant of the Gospel or of morality, are 
 brought into light and liberty, and frequently 
 succour is carried to the destitute, or the re- 
 duced by misfortune, during the most trying 
 season of life. I give an instance of every- 
 day work from the diary of a Manchester 
 visitor : 
 
 ' I had a patient lately, whose education and 
 intelligence were very much beyond the common 
 run of working people. Whenever I essayed 
 to speak to him of Jesus he was dissatisfied. 
 He often used to say, " Well, I don't think the 
 same as you ; we shall not agree upon that
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSION. 271 
 
 point." His principles were evidently sceptical, 
 and at times he would hardly listen to me. 
 The end was approaching. I asked the Lord, 
 many times, how to reach his heart. God 
 answered in a way I did not expect. The 
 patient was confined to his bed, and could 
 hardly breathe, not having strength to ex- 
 pectorate. One very bitter day he looked 
 blue with the cold. On leaving him I said, 
 " You look cold." " Yes," he replied, " I am." 
 I turned down the bed-quilt, and found only 
 a thin covering beneath. On passing down- 
 stairs, the children's bedroom door was open, 
 and evidently the bed-clothing on the cots was 
 very poor. On questioning the wife, I ascer- 
 tained that some had been taken from the 
 children's bed to cover the patient. A pair 
 of blankets was sent in. At my next visit 
 there was a decided change in his manner of 
 speech. After a few words I left him, telling 
 him to look at the fourth chapter of John's
 
 272 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Gospel, a few verses of which I quoted. The 
 next time I called, to my great joy, I found 
 he had asked his wife to read to him out of 
 the blessed Book. We had now, for the first 
 time after four months' intercourse, prayer to- 
 gether. This poor sinner at last saw the 
 wondrous and mysterious love of God in Christ. 
 On referring to his previous state of mind, he 
 said, " The way the 'Gospel has been pre- 
 sented to me is very different to what I have 
 experienced in times gone by. You see, I now 
 understand what the Saviour meant in that 
 passage of Matthew's Gospel: 'For I was 
 an hungred, and ye gave Me meat : I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave Me drink : I was a 
 stranger, and ye took Me in : naked, and ye 
 clothed Me : I was sick, and ye visited Me.' ' 
 Having to be out of town for a day, I went 
 to see him before leaving. I told him it was 
 probably the last time we should meet on earth. 
 "Well, doctor," he replied, "we shall meet
 
 THE MEDICAL MISSIOX. 273 
 
 in heaven, before Him who died for us." The 
 next day I received a hurried message that 
 he was dying, and that he wished me to pray 
 with him, and bid him farewell. On entering 
 the room, he held out his thin hand, grasped 
 mine, and with difficulty I released it. His 
 wife raised him up, and we bowed in prayer, 
 and again did this afflicted one strive to 
 pray. His hand was held out again, and he 
 expressed his hope to meet me in the presence 
 of his Saviour. Less than ten minutes after 
 leaving his bedside his soul passed away. I 
 asked his wife what seemed to have impressed 
 him so suddenly. "Well, doctor," she replied, 
 "/ think it ivas the blankets. He was com- 
 pletely broken down after that." ' 
 
 ' And He sent them to preach the kingdom 
 of God and to heal the sick.' Medical mis- 
 sionaries copy the example of those who re- 
 ceive Christ's command, and therefore merit 
 the countenance and sympathy of all who long 
 19
 
 274 BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 for the conversion of the world. To such we 
 commend the workers and the work. The 
 Medical Mission of Edinburgh is an immense 
 blessing to the poorest districts of the city. 
 It is a blessing elsewhere also. A harvest of 
 souls is being reaped in other towns of the 
 empire ; while from heathen climes tidings 
 of suffering alleviated, and of Christian con- 
 quests won, gladden the hearts of those who 
 look on from afar. It was a privilege to have 
 an opportunity of inspecting this powerful 
 philanthropic agency. It will be a reward if 
 my readers, having their interest and sym- 
 pathy awakened, put their hand to the great 
 work.* 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. President : 
 W. Brown, Esq., F.E.C.S. Vice-Presidents : Professor 
 Balfour and the Eev. G. D. Cullen, A.M. Treasurer : 
 E. Ormond, Esq., M.D., 43, Charlotte Square. Secretary : 
 B. Bell, Esq., F.E.C.S., 8, Shandwick Place. Superin- 
 tendent: Eev. John Lowe, F.E.C.S., at the Students' 
 Home, 56, George Square.
 
 II. 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE. 
 
 19 *
 
 II. 
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE. 
 
 ;HILE ranking among the most in- 
 teresting of cities, Edinburgh may 
 be said to be a world in itself. The 
 situation is romantic, the society is refined, 
 the majority of the tradespeople are well-in- 
 formed, and the historical associations of the 
 town are so remarkable that no genial-minded 
 Englishman grudges the proud capital of the 
 north her self-asserting title of ' The Modern 
 Athens.' We do not pass a mere compliment 
 when we say that ancient Greece never rose 
 to be half so attractive as modern Scotland.
 
 278 BYKWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 Having something to say about the experience 
 of a Sabbath evening which I recently spent 
 in the lowest parts of the city, I shall preface 
 my sketch by briefly referring to Sabbath morn- 
 ing, as it is 'observed in the more respectable 
 districts. 
 
 It is related of a distinguished English states- 
 man, who was staying in a Scotch village, 
 that he' expressed high satisfaction on behold- 
 ing the Christian union which apparently 
 everywhere reigned. The parish was orderly 
 and sober, and all seemed to be of one mind 
 as they met regularly to worship God in the 
 Free Church. 'I suppose you have no Dis- 
 senters here?' remarked the gentleman to the 
 church - keeper. Dissenters ! Oh, yes, there 
 were some Dissenters. There were at least 
 half a dozen specimens of that discontented 
 genus, and they might be found at the 
 Established Church over the way! This 
 intimation, accompanied by a significant
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 279 
 
 jerk of the thumb over the speaker's shoulder, 
 at once showed the visitor what kind of delu- 
 sion he had harboured. 
 
 This anecdote will illustrate the state of 
 religious parties in Edinburgh, and, indeed, 
 throughout Scotland generally. While the 
 majority of the better sort of people adhere 
 to the Free Church, and stoutly defend her 
 claims, the outsiders, as they may truthfully 
 be called, belong to the State-provided Es- 
 tablishment ; but all, in common, are subject 
 to a strong love of Presbyterianism. Between 
 ten and eleven o'clock on Sabbath morning 
 the streets of the town present a spectacle 
 such as we believe cannot be witnessed in 
 England. The thoroughfares are thronged 
 with passengers, grave and thoughtful, all 
 making their way to their respective places of 
 worship. Then the clocks chime eleven. The 
 streets are empty. The churches are full. 
 
 One Sunday, last January, being a stranger
 
 280 BYEWATS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 in Edinburgh, I walked to 'Free Saint George's,' 
 which, as the cathedral of the Free Church 
 of Scotland, has its pulpit occupied by Dr. 
 Candlish, a divine who deservedly occupies a 
 foremost place among the leaders of theolo- 
 gical thought. The elegant and spacious edifice 
 is receiving a broad stream of people, remind- 
 ing one of the crowds which find their way into 
 one or two of the largest of our London chapels. 
 The congregation, too, is quite worthy of the 
 church, including, as it does, the elite of the 
 city population. The numbers who are pass- 
 ing in carry a thoughtful and devout look 
 with them, and one celebrity and then another 
 can be recognised among them. Meanwhile, 
 the plates at the doors, standing on little tables 
 with spotless napkins, become piled with coins, 
 as though a special collection were being made, 
 instead of the usual Sabbath offering. Now 
 the people are seated; there is a hush as the 
 Doctor ascends the pulpit, and we are eagerly
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 281 
 
 anticipating the sermon. Dr. Candlish is 
 doubtless what the Puritans would have called 
 'a solid and painful preacher;' and looking 
 round, one can discern at a glance, in the 
 calm and undivided attention of the great con- 
 gregation, that it is mainly composed of hearers 
 who are educated up to the exceedingly high 
 standard of pulpit teaching which is main- 
 tained at ' Free Saint George's.' 
 
 On leaving the church, the streets are again 
 found to be thronged with the same orderly 
 crowds as before. I say orderly, because the 
 absence of light conversation, laughter, or even 
 smiles, is peculiarly observable. If the country 
 were England, we should now be going home 
 to dine ; but there is no dinner in Edinburgh 
 until after the second service at a quarter after 
 two, which will close the public exercises of 
 the day. Having seen the real cathedral of 
 the Free Church, we now repair to the ancient 
 sanctuary of Saint Giles, which in less happy
 
 2S2 BYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 times was the seat of a Bishop of Edinburgh. 
 Saint Giles's is a great historical site, and as 
 a mere building, is the largest church in the 
 city ; yet the congregation assembling within 
 its walls and that assembling at ' Free Saint 
 George's ' so widely differ that they have little 
 in common. The one is a congregation of the 
 first class ; the other is a congregation of the 
 fourth class. Nevertheless, the hour spent in 
 High Church, as Saint Giles's is also called, 
 was one to be remembered. The service was 
 impressive, and the sermon one to be highly 
 appreciated, even though, while sitting in the 
 fine old sanctuary of Knox and the Scottish 
 Reformers, we could not but keenly realise 
 that 'Free Saint George's' really represents 
 the Church of the nation. Historical Saint 
 Giles's merely retains ' the half-dozen Dis- 
 senters ' of the Establishment. 
 
 Though the above may be a correct picture 
 of respectable Edinburgh as the city appears
 
 SL'XDAY NIGHT IX THE COW GATE. 283 
 
 in the earlier part of each Sabbath day, the 
 evening will surely bring a less satisfactory 
 experience. The church -going populace have 
 gone home to dine, and to spend the remainder 
 of the sacred hours in the profitable exercises 
 prescribed by the religious customs of their 
 country. Vulgar Edinburgh, which, to a casual 
 observer, appears as little subject to Chris- 
 tianity as a colony of Hindoos or Chinese, 
 has not been to church at all, and has no 
 intention of going, and, accordingly, the Church 
 must needs follow those waifs and strays 
 who refuse to seek anything good for them- 
 selves, and press the Gospel upon their ac- 
 ceptance. There is no necessity to travel far 
 from the handsome streets and squares to find 
 subjects worthy of compassion. Looking down 
 from an arch of George the Fourth's bridge, 
 we obtain a view of a picturesque but squalid 
 and riotous thoroughfare, and the inhabitants 
 moving hither and thither might, to judge
 
 284 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 from appearances, belong to another economy 
 in the universe from those with whom we as- 
 sociated in the morning. That picturesque 
 thoroughfare is the Cowgate. We will go 
 down and see what new phases of life are to 
 be met with in that unfashionable region, and 
 learn something of the agencies which seek 
 to relieve its abounding ignorance and desti- 
 tution. 
 
 Being now fairly landed in the Cowgate, 
 and remembering our late experience, we seem 
 to be suddenly transported to some far-away 
 land, at the antipodes of the world we moved 
 in during the morning. To add to the melan- 
 choly discomfort of the scene, a mizzling rain 
 is falling, while the air is charged with effluvia 
 similar to that which obliged Dr. Johnson to 
 confess, on his arrival in the Canongate, that 
 he could smell the Scotch capital in the dark. 
 On either side of the way stand tall ancient 
 houses, with grimy windows, gaunt - looking
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 285 
 
 fronts, and heavy stone stairs ascending from 
 the street, some of which must have done duty 
 ever since those stirring days when their worn 
 steps were trodden hy heroic Covenanters and 
 steadfast Christian confessors. The region 
 has an altogether dark and forbidding aspect, 
 while the evidences of the existence of a dense 
 and unruly population are painfully manifest. 
 Unwashed men and roystering youths swagger 
 about the middle of the roadway, and hard- 
 featured women are to be encountered on all 
 sides. The whisky shops are closed because 
 their landlords dare not trifle with Scotch law ; 
 but numbers of chandlers have their gas burn- 
 ing, their doors open, and, to judge by what 
 we see, the Sabbath brings by no means a 
 scant trade to this low, grovelling race, and 
 their frowsy-looking stores. The children, 
 prompted by natural instinct, have turned the 
 street into a common playground, and the 
 Scotch and Irish nationalities would seem to
 
 280 II YE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 coalesce satisfactorily, so far as the juveniles 
 are concerned; for the romping and shouting 
 does not include too large a proportion of the 
 quarrelsome element. There is one peculiarity 
 however, about these children, which I have 
 never observed in London : no sooner do we 
 essay to speak to them, than the girls especi- 
 ally hie away, like frightened aborigines from 
 a white man ; imagining, perhaps, that we wish 
 to accommodate them with places in the ragged- 
 school or the mission chapel. 
 
 But where are we ? In the Cowgate of Old 
 Edinburgh ? Yes, and in spite of the heavy 
 atmosphere, the sickly-looking shops, and the 
 teeming, degraded populace, let us realise that 
 we are now treading on classical ground 
 that we stand among buildings which in 
 prouder days were made to play a conspicuous 
 part in the history of Scotland. Here was 
 the Solemn League and Covenant drawn up 
 and signed in 1638. Here was the young
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 287 
 
 and beautiful Queen Mary entertained by ad- 
 miring citizens, before troubles, preshadow- 
 ing death, overtook her. And here, too, in 
 a quaint little chapel, wherein the Medical 
 Mission holds its weekly meetings, the first 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 
 is said to have been held. Eich in historical 
 association, and picturesque notwithstanding 
 its squalor and abounding vice, is this ancient 
 thoroughfare. Evil days and a bad reputation 
 may have fallen upon its weather-beaten homes ; 
 but choice words of Scripture on the walls, 
 quaintly spelt, peep out from the encrusted 
 dirt of ages, to remind us of noble names 
 belonging to the past, and to inspire us with 
 the hope of seeing better days in the future. 
 
 We have now arrived at the chapel, or the 
 Cowgate station of the Medical Mission; a 
 building of great historical interest, dating 
 its foundation from pre-Beformation times. 
 Passing down a dimly-lighted, narrow passage,
 
 288 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and catching b}* the way some uncompli- 
 mentary remarks from divers natives, who 
 are watching our progress with needless 
 curiosity, we soon emerge into a small court- 
 yard, where are a number of rooms and a 
 dispensary, all of which in other days formed 
 the hospital apartments belonging to the 
 quaint little chapel in the front. Here the 
 ragged - school classes assemble on Sabbath 
 evenings; and the students of the Medical 
 Mission are now earnestly engaged in teaching 
 troops of little outcasts, fresh from the dens 
 of this dreadful Cowgate, the first principles 
 of Christianity. ' Barren ground ! ' ' Casting 
 pearls before swine ! ' we are tempted to 
 exclaim in our short-sighted wisdom, as we 
 stand watching the teachers' painful efforts. 
 Let us, however, be sparing of sentimentality. 
 God is blessing the seed so faithfully and 
 unsparingly sown ! There is an unmistakable 
 Northern inquisitiveness implanted in the
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 289 
 
 young hearts before us, and the eagerness 
 with which they listen to what is spoken is 
 at least encouraging. The lessons for the 
 evening are printed on large sheets, pasted 
 on boards, each being embellished with a 
 large engraving; and now and again, when 
 something striking is said, the heads of a 
 whole class bend forward to reinspect the 
 picture and to catch the meaning of what is 
 being explained. Perhaps the scene is as 
 unlike a London ragged-school as Scotland is 
 unlike England. Several of the pinched little 
 faces carry an expression painfully striking, 
 as if their owners were already old in vice, 
 through being thrown among associations 
 cruelly out of keeping with bodies so young. 
 These we may pronounce to be the children 
 of whiskey-drinking parents. There are others, 
 on the contrary, whose pretty youthful features 
 bear the stamp of childishness, while their per- 
 sons are cleaner and their clothing is better 
 20
 
 290 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 kept than is the case with their more unfortu- 
 nate companions. It is a sight calculated to 
 make one yearn for the little creatures' welfare. 
 Nor shall we yearn in vain ; for now the 
 lessons are finished we pass from the hot, 
 close atmosphere into the open court, feeling 
 that the efforts thus put forth in faith, or even 
 in tears, will surely be blessed by God and 
 yield a full return. 
 
 At half-past six a meeting will be held in 
 the mission chapel, when one of the medical 
 students will give an address ; but, meanwhile, 
 the congregation has to be sought literally 
 compelled or persuaded to come in. Though 
 some may scoff and refuse compliance, others 
 will yield, so that the assembly is quite a 
 motley company, full of interest to a student 
 of human nature. See them now gathered 
 together. There sits an aged Scotchman, in- 
 firm and afflicted, who by misfortune, perhaps, 
 rather than by wilful misconduct, has been
 
 SUXDAY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE. 291 
 
 driven into the notorious locality of the 
 Cowgate; and he appears to profit hy what 
 he hears. Near the old man is a decent, 
 demure - looking woman in widow's weeds, 
 who also prizes the religion of her fathers, or 
 her features belie her heart. The sad picture 
 has its lighter shadings, hut is a melancholy 
 study taken as a whole. The background 
 contains nothing cheerful, being chiefly made 
 up of a number of young men and lasses, 
 whom to look at even makes one's heart ache 
 with misgivings. The most promising thing 
 in connection with them is the fact of their 
 being found in the mission chapel at all. 
 
 One of the mission churches is also open 
 to-night ; for, as the regular services close 
 with the afternoon, this building is used for 
 evening lectures by the Free Church students 
 of New College. This practice should success- 
 fully introduce ministerial candidates to an 
 effective style of preaching. In the main it 
 20 *
 
 292 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 doubtless conduces to this end, though we 
 turned from this service disappointed. As a 
 missionary effort, the whole was a failure. 
 The young speaker, an able classical scholar, 
 and one read in general literature, made so 
 ready a use of book -lore, that his sermon re- 
 sembled the Gospel according to the English 
 Poets. 
 
 There are many other evangelistic agencies in 
 the Cowgate, which I cannot notice, but their 
 existence and success reflect high honour on 
 the Christian community of Edinburgh. There 
 are ragged schools, children's services, and 
 churches founded on Dr. Chalmers's territorial 
 system, all reaping a precious harvest, surpris- 
 ing to contemplate when we recollect the nature 
 of the ground in which the good seed is sown. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the marked success of 
 the missionaries in this chosen retreat of sin, 
 we cannot be surprised when we find the workers 
 themselves half imagining that Christianity is
 
 S VXD AY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE. 293 
 
 losing ground in a degenerate age. It is true 
 these brave men work and succeed, and they 
 are persons well qualified to take a correct mea- 
 sure of their success; but in places exceptionally 
 degraded, a band of Christian labourers, how- 
 ever successful, cannot produce an impression 
 very visible to outside observers. They succeed 
 in reclaiming certain numbers, and these they 
 raise in the social scale, by engendering those 
 higher tastes and soberer habits which always 
 accompany religion. But what are the imme- 
 diate consequences ? The converts become the 
 subjects of new desires and aspirations, and 
 these oblige them to flee from their old quarters 
 as from a lazaretto or a doomed City of Destruc- 
 tion. They almost invariably move away to 
 respectable neighbourhoods, while new-comers 
 as surely fill up the vacancies in the common 
 haunt, to invite in turn the attention of the mis- 
 sion pastors. This is what is continually hap- 
 pening in the territorial churches of the Cowgate
 
 294 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 and Westport; and Mr. Pirie, of the former 
 place, assured me that he expected it would so 
 continue till the end of his days. 
 
 It may be in a sense disheartening to hard- 
 working men, whose lot is cast in a low and 
 degraded neighbourhood, to see their converts 
 move off to swell the roll of prosperous churches ; 
 but none the less does the general result, so far 
 as this one vicinity is concerned, appear to be 
 magnificent. Into one mission church in the 
 Cowgate no less than two thousand persons 
 have been received in about a dozen years, and 
 two hundred and ten of the number were ad- 
 mitted during the past year. Nearly the whole 
 of these have been fairly drawn from the native 
 populace have, in reality, been won for Christ 
 on one of Satan's most fiercely-contested battle- 
 fields. True indeed it is that the fair city of 
 Edinburgh, like our own great London, does not 
 and cannot know herself, while about a third part 
 of her two hundred thousand inhabitants refuse
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 295 
 
 even to enter the places set apart for the worship 
 of God. On this account do we sympathise with 
 the misgivings of some in the face of abounding 
 difficulties. Would any learn what these diffi- 
 culties are ? Let them watch the faces and 
 catch the conversation of an Edinburgh mob 
 when aught exciting draws them together, and 
 they will have a study of human nature as ap- 
 palling as our empire can supply. A place like 
 the Cowgate, where outcasts herd together in 
 surprising numbers, is an intricate network of 
 dens as closely packed as cells in a honeycomb. 
 Stand for a minute in one of the closes, and 
 remember that a population as large as a 
 moderate village dwell in that confined area ! 
 Nay, further; in the rooms approached by one 
 flight of stairs, between two and three hundred 
 wretched beings have been found crowding 
 together in shocking indecency, without a ray 
 of hope either for this world or the next ! The 
 most commonplace necessaries of life are never
 
 296 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 theirs. They do not know what enjoyment 
 means ! There are sinners here who have 
 forgotten, or who never knew, the difference 
 between right and wrong ! Virtue could not 
 preserve her purity untarnished for an hour in 
 their pestiferous haunts ! As though prompted 
 by the demon of despair, these poor creatures 
 seek to deaden the pain of their monotonous 
 misery by swallowing the vile cheap whiskey 
 which is sold at their very doors and sold, 
 perhaps, by their own heartless landlord, who 
 feeds like a vampire on the degradation and 
 final ruin of his helpless tenants and cus- 
 tomers. 
 
 The Rev. John Pirie's mission church in the 
 Cowgate now numbers nine hundred members, 
 nearly a fourth part of whom have been added 
 during one year. It was agreeably surpris- 
 ing to find that so fine a mission station is 
 fast becoming self - supporting ; for, while we 
 scarcely comprehend how persons who possess
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 297 
 
 ' one half-crown to rub on the back of another ' 
 can live in so notorious a rookery, the pastors 
 do not complain of any painful lack of money 
 among the populace. On the contrary, money 
 must abound, when more than thirty spirit 
 shops are liberally supported in one street. 
 Though it is not easy to say whence the money 
 comes, it seems obvious that many persons of 
 stations in life superior to the locality are con- 
 tent to live in the lowest parts of Edinburgh. 
 Printers, compositors, and skilled workmen, 
 whose families should be the pride of better 
 homes, are found neighbouring with Scotch 
 cadgers and Irish hodmen. Such is the varied 
 constituency ; and we honour the men who, like 
 Mr. Pirie in the Cowgate, and Mr. Tasker in the 
 Westport, have taken up their position and are 
 devoting time and talent to the highest service. 
 This they do, not as evangelists merely, but as 
 ordained pastors, qualified and selected for work 
 peculiarly arduous. They are pastors, too, whose
 
 298 BYEWA7S OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 preaching powers to judge from a sample we 
 heard in the Westport church might be co- 
 veted by the most wealthy churches of the city. 
 In the low parts of Edinburgh Old Town 
 public -houses and pawn-shops abound; and 
 these appear to work in unison, if we may judge 
 from the number of pledges which whiskey- 
 slaves are constantly offering in their mad 
 eagerness for stimulants. More than eighty 
 spirit- shops may be counted during a walk from 
 Holyrood to the Castle, and many hundreds 
 of others exist in the various districts of the 
 city. I learned that as many as eleven thou- 
 sand pledges have been taken at one pawning 
 establishment in a single month in the begin- 
 ning of the year, the articles including trinkets, 
 books, clothing, and household furniture. I 
 even heard of a Bible having been snatched 
 from the pillow of a poor invalid, to procure 
 money for purchasing spirits ! I heard fur- 
 ther of a man, whose wife had so repeatedly
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 299 
 
 pawned his Sabbath clothes in order to gratify 
 her craving for drink, that at length, to save 
 his garments, he resorted to the necessary but 
 inconvenient expedient of changing the suit for 
 another at a neighbour's, each Sunday evening 
 before returning home. In such an atmosphere 
 childhood is contaminated before it can know 
 the meaning of either virtue or sin. Even chil- 
 dren learn to become drunkards, and unless 
 they are rescued in time especially the girls 
 they pass swiftly onward to reinforce the ranks 
 of crime and immorality. 
 
 In these lurking-places of sin the children 
 must form the basis of our hopes for the 
 future; and the crowded condition of the 
 children's church leads us to anticipate refor- 
 mation and renovation for these abodes of 
 squalor and vice. It is easy to see at a glance 
 that there are many rough gems among the 
 Edinburgh Arabs. A vein of humour runs 
 through their nature, which may be either
 
 300 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 amusing or annoying, obliging those who know 
 them best to tell us that they are characterised 
 by 'a matchless impudence.' They are, how- 
 ever, willing learners and eager readers, so 
 that, considering the amount of trash they 
 devour while lacking wholesome literary food, 
 it will be well when the asked-for library is 
 provided. Some of the children have curious 
 histories histories which show that philan- 
 thropic feeling can live even in the Cowgate. 
 ' It is years now since,' says Mr. Pirie, ' visiting 
 in one of the closes, I entered a humble abode, 
 the dwelling-place of a poor but honest and 
 hard-working family. While I was conversing 
 with the mother, a little girl entered the room, 
 apparently from school, and commenced a 
 meal which was awaiting her. I asked if 
 this was her daughter, and the woman told 
 me that she was not. The mother of that 
 child had been a stranger, and without an 
 earthly home. In the house of that poor
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 301 
 
 family the wanderer had sickened and died, 
 leaving the poor child without a friend on 
 earth ; and this woman, out of the goodness of 
 her own heart, spread her own wing over the 
 little orphan, and for years had been unto 
 her as her mother. Perhaps she did more 
 than any of us ah 1 .' * 
 
 Any person acquainted with the poor loca- 
 lities of other cities, will pronounce the Edin- 
 burgh Cowgate to be as vile a collection of 
 dens as can be found in the empire. The 
 pastors who have spent some of their best 
 days here can testify to the ' almost savage de- 
 gradation ' which everywhere confronts one, and 
 which, notwithstanding the success of the 
 mission churches, compels the evangelists, in 
 their fits of despondency, to shed tears of 
 despair, and to regard their territory as 'a 
 
 * See Mr. Pirie's timely pamphlet, ' The Lapsed ; and 
 Suggestions as to the best Means of Raising them.' 
 (Edinburgh : John Maclaren.)
 
 302 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 God-forsaken soil.' No nation should boast 
 of its civilisation while such plague-spots re- 
 main. ' When death cuts off a member of 
 the family,' says Dr. Begg, speaking of these 
 localities, ' how dreadful to think of all the 
 rest being forced to eat and sleep beside the 
 dead body ! We drag a dead horse out of 
 the stable of the living ; but here such a se- 
 paration is impossible. How can we wonder 
 that human nature, in such circumstances, is 
 found at the lowest point of degradation, 
 defying the ordinary modes of cure, and 
 spreading moral as well as physical evil like 
 a pestilence ! A decent man comes from the 
 country, driven, perhaps, by want of work. 
 He is obliged to live in one of these wretched 
 abodes. Let us suppose that he has been 
 accustomed to the decencies of society, or 
 even that he is a true Christian. How dread- 
 ful to have his children, like Lot in Sodom, 
 exposed to the sound of blasphemy, and the
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COWGATE. 303 
 
 example of every form of wickedness ! There 
 society is corrupted to its very core. City mis- 
 sionaries go their rounds in despair. Oceans 
 of soup and floods of water are lavished in 
 vain. The managers of infirmaries, the keepers 
 of prisons, the masters of charity workhouses, 
 stand aghast at a tide flowing from such a 
 corrupted mass, and which, instead of being 
 driven back, is continually rising, like the 
 prophetic waters, and threatening to sweep 
 away all that is sound and healthy in the com- 
 munity.' 
 
 As we pass along in the mizzling rain, the 
 heavy flights of stone stairs look as if they 
 had been made privy to suffering and shame, 
 as well as to deeds of sin, dark and horrible, 
 
 which will remain untold till the last day ! 
 
 / 
 Besides being dark and filthy, the passages 
 
 are a common receptacle for the refuse of the 
 rooms. ' Think now,' says our missionary, 
 ' of a family of nine, ten, and sometimes
 
 304 SYEWAY8 OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 twelve, and in not a few instances more than 
 one such family, doomed to dwell day and 
 night, to eat, drink, lie down, sleep, and rise 
 up, and perform all their domestic duties in 
 an apartment smaller than an ordinary dressing 
 closet ! ' Sometimes a clean room is discovered, 
 and when found is as refreshing to the visitor 
 as an oasis to travellers in the desert. But 
 none can, with impunity, live clean and moral 
 lives in this dreadful place ; and those who try 
 to do so will tell the evangelist, with troubled 
 looks, of the annoyances which spring from 
 the drunken revelries of profligate neighbours. 
 Be you as orderly as you will, you cannot have 
 either peace or repose at pleasure in the Cow- 
 gate ; for, as if purposely designed to reduce 
 all its inhabitants to one level of ruin, the 
 house - partitions are so slight that the foul 
 conversation spoken in one room can be plainly 
 heard in another. Many a life has been wrecked 
 here beyond hope of recovery ! It is a region
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW a ATE. 305 
 
 which awakens at once our pity, sorrow, and 
 indignation a very devil's acre, where, having 
 planted their standard and marshalled their 
 hosts, the demons Crime and Despair success- 
 fully defy and resist the menaces and assaults 
 of Christian Scotland. 
 
 Such was the Edinburgh Cowgate in the 
 month of January, 1873. A more ' graphic ' 
 delineation of its miseries and character might 
 have been attempted had such been my design, 
 but I have preferred keeping to unvarnished, 
 simple truth, for the sake of stimulating those 
 who are working, and encouraging others to aid 
 the good cause who have as yet held aloof. 
 Whence has the broad torrent of evil, at which 
 we have been looking, its spring ? Was there 
 ever an infernal conclave held to select a subtle 
 agent to subject and hold this seemingly- 
 doomed place in captivity ? If so, the demon 
 WHISKEY must have stood up to demand a 
 commission. ' Send me ! ' Drunkenness is the 
 21
 
 306 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 master-curse of the Scotch capital, and will 
 continue so while the city harbours eight 
 hundred public-houses, or one to each two 
 hundred of the population ! ' Fancy,' again 
 says our missionary, ' thirty-one spirit-shops 
 some of them in threes continuously in a 
 small street like the Cowgate, over against its 
 two Protestant churches, and the revenues of 
 each of the spirit shops that of the church 
 perhaps three times over ! ' We might stand 
 unnerved and helpless in the presence of such 
 enormous evils, did not faith find reassurance 
 in the grand fact that the battle is not ours, 
 but God's. 
 
 An Englishman who first walks out into the 
 streets of Edinburgh speedily discovers that 
 whiskey is a leading article of commerce in 
 the city. I was even given to understand 
 that the poor regard beer very much as a 
 luxury, and retain the spirits as an every-day 
 beverage. The populace suffer severely by
 
 SUXDAY XI GET IX THE COW GATE. 807 
 
 their pernicious predilections. Nay, what is 
 more important, sanitary reformers are directly 
 tracing the relationship between disease, va- 
 grancy, and crime, and the drinking customs 
 of the people, since the poor of Scottish cities 
 delight in vile concoctions doled out to them 
 as genuine spirits, or ' Our celebrated Toddy 
 Mixture ' at one shilling and ninepence per 
 bottle. For a long time past the excessive 
 mortality of Glasgow has occasioned perplexity 
 and even alarm among philanthropists and 
 well-to-do citizens, and very praiseworthy have 
 been the efforts made to lower the frightful 
 death-rate. It has been in vain, however ; and 
 recently the local newspapers have been using 
 severe language towards one sanitary reformer 
 who professes to have discovered in spirit- 
 drinking a fountain which stimulates the growth 
 of hot-beds of fever. Looking at the question 
 from the temperance rather than from the 
 teetotal standpoint, I confess to having been
 
 308 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 appalled by the figures and conclusions of this 
 'teetotal child,' as his opponents style the 
 gentleman referred to. In one part of the city 
 of Glasgow, where the doomed inhabitants herd 
 thickly together in close, damp courts, and 
 where a spirit-shop flourishes for each eight 
 score people, as many as eleven per cent, of 
 the inhabitants were stricken by fever in a 
 single year ! I do not infer that this horrible 
 state of affairs has its spring solely in drunken- 
 ness ; but a continuous consumption of raw, 
 inferior spirit, by an underfed populace, must 
 be attended by fatal results. Cheap fiery 
 liquors are poisons which quickly and effec- 
 tively complete their deadly work, so that to 
 dispute the ground with the evils arising from 
 their use does not merely belong to Good 
 Templars and other teetotal clubs. It is the 
 legitimate work of the Christian Church in 
 common, and in few places is this realised so 
 keenly as in Edinburgh.
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE COW GATE. 309 
 
 In the meantime, the great work of renova- 
 tion progresses, while we, perhaps, are asking 
 in perplexity, only relieved by faith, What 
 shall be done to reclaim such moral wastes 
 as the Cowgate and the Canongate the fatal 
 retreats of every ill which oppresses human 
 nature ? Fanciful descriptions of the ' Special 
 Commissioner' class serve to amuse, but yield 
 no substantial fruit. Indeed, 'graphic' exag- 
 gerations of the misfortunes and miseries 
 of the indigent and fallen have too often 
 given offence to the people directly referred to. 
 Such writing seldom tends towards reforma- 
 tion. What, then, shall be done to raise 
 these myriads of our brethren and our sisters 
 in Edinburgh, to whom the most common- 
 place requisites of civilisation are unknown 
 luxuries ? First, the localities absolutely re- 
 quire to be razed to the ground, so that proper 
 buildings may be erected. Our evangelists 
 labour under cruel disadvantages when stand-
 
 310 BYEWAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 ing in the presence of a mass of squalor and 
 disease, which a corps of masons and labourers 
 could, in a great measure, speedily remove. 
 Clean dwellings or dwellings which might be 
 clean at the will of the .inmates are indis- 
 pensable. Would we could hail the dawn of 
 those better days which we long to see ! 
 Light, water, and pure air are not so expen- 
 sive or scarce but that all might enjoy 
 them. It is almost heart-breaking work to 
 persons of fine Christian instinct, when they 
 have to speak of Christ and of moral duties 
 in dirty rooms opening into dark, loathsome 
 passages, where the air is tainted by the 
 refuse which chokes up the corners or even 
 obstructs the pathway. Eeplacing ancient 
 rotten buildings by decent houses is, after all, 
 not a task of superlative difficulty. Such a 
 work is actually going forward, though more 
 slowly than the urgency of the case demands. 
 Private beneficence is doing a little, and city
 
 SUNDAY NIGHT IX THE COW GATE. 311 
 
 corporations are doing something also. Accord- 
 ing to common report, Mr. Kuskin achieved 
 a noble triumph some years ago under this 
 head. He purchased a dilapidated pile of 
 tenements, which a -former landlord had com- 
 placently relinquished to the reign of moral 
 disorder and physical disease. On passing 
 into the possession of their new owner, the 
 houses were completely renovated, thoroughly 
 repaired, and made in all respects convenient, or 
 even attractive. Then a woman blessed with 
 a knowledge of domestic matters was appointed 
 overseer as well as rent collector ; and this 
 matron did her part in teaching such of the 
 occupants as chose to become pupils something 
 about cooking, and the science of housewifery 
 in general. What some have thus done in a 
 small way, we want to see done on a larger 
 scale. Not until such works are earnestly 
 taken in hand, shall we have a ready answer 
 when confronted with such an appalling enigma
 
 312 BYE WAYS OF TWO CITIES. 
 
 as, What shall be done to diminish the savage 
 degradation and suffering of places like this 
 ancient Canongate and historically - renowned 
 Cowgate ? We can provide an army of mis- 
 sionaries brave and enterprising ; but why 
 should the devoted band be ever missing 
 their mark, wasting moral force, and hazarding 
 failure, when a corps of sappers and miners 
 could prepare them a way which would lead 
 to an easier victory ? Those who will provide 
 better dwellings for the poor in great cities 
 can by so doing aid evangelistic work in an 
 important degree. More than this : we see no 
 reason why owners of fever-breeding haunts 
 should not be compelled by law to replace 
 by creditable habitations those piles of rotten 
 tenements which disgrace our civilisation, and 
 in which the moral instincts of the young are 
 blunted before they can know what religion or 
 morality means. 
 
 UNWIN BROTHERS, PKINTEBS, CULLWOKTH AND LONDON.