Regeneration | Page 6

streets in winter. For the
past twelve months he had been living in this Shelter upon some help
that a friend gave him, for all his own money was gone. Now he was
trying to write books, one of which was in the hands of a well-known
firm. He remarked, pathetically, that they 'have had it a long time.' He
was also waiting 'every day' for a pension from America, which he
considered was due to him because he fought in the Civil War.
Most of these poor people are waiting for something.
This man added that he could not find his relatives, and that he
intended to stop in the Shelter until his book was published, or he could
'help himself out.'
The next man I spoke to was the flower artist, whom I have already
mentioned, whose work, by the way, if a little striking in colour, was
by no means bad, especially as he had no real flowers to draw from. By
trade he was a lawyer's clerk; but he stated that, unfortunately for him,
the head partner of his firm went bankrupt six years before, and the bad
times, together with the competition of female labour in the clerical
department, prevented him from obtaining another situation, so he had
been obliged to fall back upon flower painting. He was a married man,
but he said, 'While I could make a fair week's money, things were
comfortable, but when orders fell slack I was requested to go, as my
room was preferable to my company, and being a man of nervous
temperament I could not stand it, and have been here ever since'--that
was for about ten weeks. He managed to make enough for his board
and lodging by the sale of his flower-pictures.
A third man informed me that he had opened twenty-seven shops for a
large firm of tobacconists, and then left to start in business for himself;
also he used to go out window-dressing, in which he was skilled. Then,
about nine years ago, his wife began to drink, and while he was absent
in hospital, neglected his business so that it became worthless. Finally
she deserted him, and he had heard nothing of her since. After that he
took to drink himself. He came to this Shelter intermittently, and

supported himself by an occasional job of window-dressing. The
Salvation Army was trying to cure this man of his drinking habits.
A fourth man, a Eurasian, was a schoolmaster in India, who drifted to
this country, and had been for four years in the Colney Hatch Asylum.
He was sent to the Salvation Army by the After Care Society. He had
been two years in the Shelter, and was engaged in saving up money to
go to America. He was employed in the Shelter as a scrubber, and also
as a seller of food tickets, by which means he had saved some money.
Also he had a £5 note, which his sister sent to him. This note he was
keeping to return to her as a present on her birthday! His story was long
and miserable, and his case a sad one. Still, he was capable of doing
work of a sort.
Another very smart and useful man had been a nurse in the Army
Medical Corps, which he left some years ago with a good character.
Occasionally he found a job at nursing, and stayed at the Shelter, where
he was given employment between engagements.
Yet another, quite a young person, was a carman who had been
discharged through slackness of work in the firm of which he was a
servant. He had been ten weeks in the Institution, to which he came
from the workhouse, and hoped to find employment at his trade.
In passing through this building, I observed a young man of foreign
appearance seated in a window-place reading a book, and asked his
history. I was told that he was a German of education, whose ambition
it is to become a librarian in his native country. He had come to
England in order to learn our language, and being practically without
means, drifted into this place, where he was employed in cleaning the
windows and pursued his studies in the intervals of that humble work.
Let us hope that in due course his painstaking industry will be rewarded,
and his ambition fulfilled.
All these cases, and others that I have no space to mention, belonged to
the class of what I may call the regular 'hangers-on' of this particular
Shelter. As I visited it in the middle of the day, I did not see its
multitude of normal nightly occupants. Of such men, however, I shall
be able to speak elsewhere.

THE SPA ROAD ELEVATOR

BERMONDSEY
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