FROM POLICEMAN TO PREACHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

FROM POLICEMAN TO PREACHER.

ONCE A SAILOR, THEN A 'VALET, BUT A POET ALWAYS. The announcement of a new volume of poems by the Rev. Ceo. Mitchell recalls his previous book, "Ballads in Blue," published about six years ago when the author was Police-Constable Mitchell, of Shepherdess Walk police station, City Road, London. From the policeman-poet ho is becomo the preacher-poet, and now is a Baptist pastor at. Walthamstow, with a chapel built for £1100, most of which was raised largely through his own enthusiasm. Born 36 years ago ho entertained as a boy tho ambition of becoming a prizefighter. Afterwards ho heard " the call of the sea," and made two unsuccessful attempts to run away from home to join the navy. His parents then consented to his wish, and he was accepted on tho training ship Warspito, where in duo course ho worked his way up to tho position of chief petty officer. Looking back upon his life as a. sailor he is of opinion that the discipline was terrible and unnecessarily severe. " I have often had to get out the canes and straps for the boys to be thrashed," be stated in an interview. "All tho portholes were shut becauso the boys scream, and as each stroke raises a weal on the back you can imagine what tho punishment is like." After leaving the Warspito, Mitchell sen-fed as a messroom servant on a ship bound for Russia. That voyago sickened him of the sea, and he camo back unexpectedly to his parents. Then ho became a valet, ono of his masters being the statesman, Sir Oeorgo Trevelyan, who presented him with a good edition of Macaulay'a life and works.

In 1901 he joined the police force. He was in tho CI division most of tho time, and saw a good deal of the seamy fcnde of life in the district round Finsbury and Clerkenwell. It was after an exciting burglar hunt that he received his " call to the ministry. The " Call." "Late one night a comrade and I had a rough chase over the roofs after a burglar. He eluded us, and I slipped through a skylight. 1 fell 15ft to tho floor of a warehouse, but escaped without serious injury. "While sleeping, after this trying experience, I dreamed that I was in a place of worship with a crowded congregation all waiting in hushed silence for the minister, till suddenly a young man went up to tho pulpit and held out his hands to tho people with a pathetic, pleading action, as if his heart were too full to speak. When I awoke it seemed to mo that I had had a revelation, and that I wag to be that young man." Mitchell had already been an amateur preacher to his comrades in blue. Ho took a small organ to the police office and led the hymns, which were sung so heartily that passers-by were astonished. He admits also that police duties became distasteful to him.