"DARKEST LONDON."

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13671, 9 April 1908, Page 3

"DARKEST LONDON."

HEY. JAMEJS FLANAGAN'S LECTURE.

The Theatre Royal was crowded last night. When the Rev, J. s Flanagan, of the Squth-east London Mission, de-livered-his lecture on "Fourteen Years in Darkest London." Mr Flanagan has a fine, breezy style, and for upwards of two* hours he held the closest attention of his audience. He drew most idealistic pictures of the sad spectacles to -bo aeon daily in the slums of the Great Metropolis. ' Tho Mayor (Mr E. Dookrill) presided." ' lfc a few introductory, remarks he said he considered England had never done her duty, or such a terrible state of tnings as existed in the slums of all ;the large cities would not have been flowed to e^ist so long. Mr l Stephens gave an impressive rendering of '/The New Song." The Jecturer, who met with a warm reception on rising, said that London was not only the ohief city of the Erftpire, sljo was the, capital of the world. It was a great mystery which only God coujd^ understand. There were many Loftdqns. There was 'London by night and London by day ; there was London rich, there was London poor; there was a London that Was signinod by the east, there was; a different London altogether Signified by the west ; there was a London under the ground, there was a London over ground. It was the custom in the Old Country for employers of labour to run special trains for their workpeople to sco the sights of the wonderful city - They usually started in special trains about midnight, and the passengers arrived in London. $ay ajjput 5 o*clock in the morning. They, jfeturned home from the city usually about midnight the same day, and When got back, home they talked about what ai wonderful place, London was — that thejy kriew all there was in London, that they had seen it all in about fifteen hours, and that nobody could tell them anything about London. : He could not understand the wonderful brain oapacity of such people, or was it ignorance? He had been iq one part of London — a part to which he had in imagination to take them — for over fourteen years, and, whijtat he knew his district as well as any living man, ho declared that London was aa great a mystery and as great a problem to him as ever. He waiyted, to take them to this part of the great city, and to tell them not what he had read, but of Bcenes from actijd}! experience.*- Surely the .'testimony of a man who had seen for himself and toiled among * these people should be worth as much or even more than that of those who studied the conditions of the people through books or the, silken curtains of the arawingxopm Window. In the first place it sejemed needful that he should justify the.' title o| his lecture. General Booth wrote a book some years, ago which he titled "Darkest England and the Way Out,','. Thew, title of his lecture was "Fourteen Years in Darkest London." But which was darkest London? And tfh&t.did^ htf mean, by, darkest? He did not giean $he most wicked ; he did not mean the most vicious. If he had to fin<3 tne most "wicked j>a,rt of London he would not go where the poor were at aU. He would go amid the lights of Piccadilly, ainidl the glories and laxafteV of Hy^e Park. Tho most Wickdd/tJarit of jSotfdori was not where! hungW^Ha«°to' fee' faced day by day, But in "those parts where the "people had nothing to do bat to eat and drink and dress a,nd study new, forms of costly pleasure. When he" spoko of darkest London he was thinking of overcrowding, of disease, of poverty, and" of death — stains that seemed to lower the .dignity and .grandeur of our great ancr glorious land. The minister then explained the. position his parish Occupied in the Metropolis. He stood on London BHdge^— the bridge on which more human hearts had broken than on any, other spot on God's earth. Often the . dark waters of the river beneath h"ad a apace made fn their depths 'as some poor unfortunate, thankful fforr r the relief, made a lasi plunge from the parapet. The boundary lines of the district he referred io weir* 4 in the centre of London Bridge': "Standing here with your hack to the city," he said, *'draw an imaginary line, first on the right-hand side for about three-quarters of a mile. and then sketch another on the lett for two miles; then join these two points in *emi-circular form, and yon hive my parish.?' Continuing, he said Ke felt deeply grateful that God gave to him the privilege of drawing the curtain which for, many generations had hidden, iftis cancer from the gaze 6f hundreds jbf thousands of men-; and women; for tne popular idea was that the worst poverty covering the (largest area was. in the east end of London. This was a mistake. In the district to which he referred they haS the highest percentage of. poverty. On, the authority of the greatest statistician of the day, Mr CharUs <Booth, poverty ra thw area rose to the enormous total of 8U per cent. Take ah illustration of what this meant. Here they had a town, he supposed, with a population of five or six thTdsand- peopV What would be the feeling of the Government of /this ' country and of every tfew 2«alancler if in this town of New Plymouth there were 80 persons o\lt of every 100 who when they cot up in the morning had not bread md did not know .where the bread was coming front for" the rest df the day? Imagine that for a day, imagine that for a week,, imagine that for a.fortnight, for a month, and ho would ask what sort ot a feeling it would crente in «tho minds ot the Qabinet of this country, and tho hearts of the people of tho citips an 3 towns. If tt was reported in the daily press of New Plymouth, that of 5000 people 80 per cent, lad not known where to get the bresu ' from for the rest of the day he could imagine that New Zealand would be horror stricken and that such a state of things would not be allowed to continue even a week before from all quarters relief would be coming. Now imagine a parish with 10,000 people and 80 per cent, of the people in this this position — not for a day, not for a week, for a month, for a year, for ton years, but for a hundred years. Ho was, talking not about some mere epidemic of poverty, but as Mr Booth had said —-historic, To-day it was chronic for generation after generation this had been the condition of things. Many of th© things of which ho would tell them were truo mor no longer ; he spoke of things that were actually true some 16 or 17 years ago when he first went into the district, but now after these years of toil in the heart of London's cancer and shame, his heart had never been more hopeful for London becoming a city of God than it ■ was at that hour. (Applause.) "Don't believe the men," he said,' "who come and stand in your public halls and tell you that London is going to the devil. London was never, never, never, more worthy of her name and worthy of her glories of b«»ing the Capital of this great Empire than today. (Applause.) That's my testi-

mony, and I come from the worst part." He added that what those men Had that say who came from the beat part he did not know. His district was the poorest, but lie was proud of it. There was not another spot in the whole, world excopt that where the Son of God was crucified that had done more , for civilisation and for humanity in' tho production of grand personalities than t>Ue parish oi - St. Saviour. Slum folks though they were, how hishetfrt thrilled whqn he thought of what they had done for tht> Empire! He told how the Kings and Queens had for centuries ttyvvellod by way 0$ Southwark when on thoir way to be crowned. It was in this poverty stricken . area that King Henry V prayed the night through and gained strength which enabled him and his few hundred followers to overthrow the Frenoh at Agincoiirt, it w.as from here that nearly all the best of the world's literature , came, from hero that tho great painters came. ( Many of the best assets thei .English nation ever possessed emanated from that, district. Puoceeding, the Iqcftirer gave souio heart rending word pictures of London slum life, of sin and poverty, and then told how he was sent by Qonferonce to this whati had always, beep considered a "forlorn hope." Tho jftrst thing they did was to drop his salary £200 a year. He had one of the finest churches and largest congregations — a congregation i that would give him. , anything he asked, but he left it all %o wprk in the slums. He related .with grim humour how his wife and he journeyed to London — how when they eventually got to their destination they found a card in the window bearing the words "Thisj house to let." There was no food in the house, and ho hurried to tlie nearest grocer's shop for provisions. They had their first picruc \on the brick floor, "under the shadow of the palms." { He had to contend with what seemed almost unsurmouxitablo difficulty for the first five years, but by the| chapel into a play room for tho street lads and teaching them to love him he eventually got a hold on the parents. He was thankful-^fsr the day he was sent into that area, for to-day it was almost an impossibility for a woman to die of neglect or a, child for want of a mouthful of bread. Time had worked wonders.

At the close of the lecture the Rev. Mr Flanagan thanked iithe Mayor for presiding. The gathering dispersed after the pronouncement of the Benediction. SOME INTERESTING FACTS. Mr Flanagan told a Herald reporter some ' interesting facts # about the results of mission work in London. Last year 5280 poor children and several hundreds of widows and orphans were taken' for a day in the country, and 400 couples and poor children participated in the benefits qf tho Seaside Home. During the year meals were supplied to : 6310 homeless and destitute men and women. Gospel services were held Specially for this ohtss. They clothed and assisted in one form or another 8616 ill-clad and starving men and women, gave free breakfasts to ,83,144/ .hungry children, Christmas dinners to 1 890 couples and waifs, and entertained 3800 waifs at the annual festival, while 3400 poor families who lived at, starvation point w@re assisted with food and clothing. In connection with, the mission is a class for young disoipkte attended 1 by ;about*£fty young peopja; the£Sttndav 'School- prospers, th^vbeing T2OB 'children on the roll in addition to those attending the Poor Children's Mission. Of the social \?ork of the mission much might be written. There are connected with it, 'among other organisations, a Poor Children's Mission, Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, Orchestral Band, the Waifs' Festival, Free Meals for Children, Destitute Men's Meals, Labour Bureau, Old Clothes Cupboard, Mothers' Meeting, Clothing Club, Coal Club, Summer Picnics, State Clubs, Investment Society, Temperance Guilds, Sisters Settlement, Working Girls' . Guild, etc. One of the most interesting of these institutions is the Cripples' Guild, at whose. meetings the »^r^g a fe atten 4" ance for last year reacfiedT 6ooo. AN APPEAL. The Rev. J. Flanagan, at the conclusion of his lecture last night, said he had just received a letter from the Eev. Joseph Johnson, in charge of the South-east London Mission, in which he stated they had never had so many crying for, bread at the doors ot the mission as during the past 1 winter, and, although he was not herfe for begging, he wished them to clearly understand that, if anyone w.ould like to help their poor, struggling fellows m the great metropolis,, the, help, however small, would 6e/ gratefully r % ceived and acknowledged. 4 ny » ai 1 could be forwarded through the Rev.l Mr Guy or the editor** of the local newspapers, or Jie would forward it himself. , •