Regeneration | Page 5

to
pay the running expenses of the establishment. Under less favourable
circumstances, however, where the building and equipment are a
charge on the capital funds of the Salvation Army, the experience is
that these fees do not suffice to meet the cost of interest and
maintenance.
The object of this and similar Shelters is to afford to men upon the
verge of destitution the choice between such accommodation as is here
provided and the common lodging-house, known as a 'kip house,' or the
casual ward of a workhouse. Those who avail themselves of these
Shelters belong, speaking generally, to the destitute or nearly destitute
classes. They are harbours of refuge for the unfortunates who find
themselves on the streets of London at nightfall with a few coppers or
some other small sum in their pockets. Many of these social wrecks
have sunk through drink, but many others owe their sad position to lack
or loss of employment, or to some other misfortune.
For an extra charge of 1d. the inmates are provided with a good supper,
consisting of a pint of soup and a large piece of bread, or of bread and
jam and tea, or of potato-pie. A second penny supplies them with
breakfast on the following morning, consisting of bread and porridge or
of bread and fish, with tea or coffee.
The dormitories, both of the fivepenny class on the ground floor and of
the threepenny class upstairs, are kept scrupulously sweet and clean,
and attached to them are lavatories and baths. These lavatories contain
a great number of brown earthenware basins fitted with taps.
Receptacles are provided, also, where the inmates can wash their
clothes and have them dried by means of an ingenious electrical

contrivance and hot air, capable of thoroughly drying any ordinary
garment in twenty minutes while its owner takes a bath.
The man in charge of this apparatus and of the baths was one who had
been picked up on the Embankment during the past winter. In return for
his services he received food, lodging, clothes and pocket-money to the
amount of 3s. a week. He told me that he was formerly a commercial
traveller, and was trying to re-enter that profession or to become a
ship's steward. Sickness had been the cause of his fall in the world.
Adjoining the downstairs dormitory is a dining and sitting-room for the
use of those who have taken bed tickets. In this room, when I visited it,
several men were engaged in various occupations. One of them was
painting flowers. Another, a watch repairer, was apparently making up
his accounts, which, perhaps, were of an imaginary nature. A third was
eating a dinner which he had purchased at the food bar. A fourth
smoked a cigarette and watched the flower artist at his work. A fifth
was a Cingalese who had come from Ceylon to lay some grievance
before the late King. The authorities at Whitehall having investigated
his case, he had been recommended to return to Ceylon and consult a
lawyer there. Now he was waiting tor the arrival of remittances to
enable him to pay his passage back to Ceylon. I wondered whether the
remittances would ever be forthcoming. Meanwhile he lived here on
7-1/2d. a day, 5d. for his bed and 2-1/2d. for his food. Of these and
other men similarly situated I will give some account presently.
Having inspected the upper floors I descended to the basement, where
what are called the 'Shelter men' are received at a separate entrance at
5.30 in the afternoon, and buying their penny or halfpennyworth of
food, seat themselves on benches to eat. Here, too, they can sit and
smoke or mend their clothes, or if they are wet, dry themselves in the
annexe, until they retire to rest. During the past winter of 1909 400 men
taken from the Embankment were sheltered here gratis every night, and
were provided with soup and bread. When not otherwise occupied this
hall is often used for the purpose of religious services.
I spoke at hazard with some of those who were sitting about in the
Shelter. A few specimen cases may be interesting. An old man told me
that he had travelled all over the world for fifty years, especially in the
islands of the South Pacific, until sickness broke him down. He came
last from Shanghai, where he had been an overseer on railway work,

and before that from Manila. Being incapacitated by fever and
rheumatism, and possessing 1,500 dollars, he travelled home,
apparently via India and Burma, stopping a while in each country.
Eventually he drifted to a lodging-house, and, falling ill there, was sent
to the Highgate Infirmary, where, he said, he was so cold that he could
not stop. Ultimately he found himself upon the