The meeting over,the singing girls go back to the Training Home,and the men prepare for bed.Our sleeping arrangements are somewhat primitive;we do not provide feather beds,and when you go into our dormitories,you will be surprised to find the floor covered by what look like an endless array of packing cases.These are our beds,and each of them forms a cubicle.There is a mattress laid on the floor,and over the mattress a leather apron,which is all the bedclothes that we find it possible to provide.The men undress,each by the side of his packing box,and go to sleep under their leather covering.The dormitory is warmed with hot water pipes to a temperature of 60degrees,and there has never been any complaint of lack of warmth on the part of those who use the Shelter.The leather can be kept perfectly clean,and the mattresses,covered with American cloth,are carefully inspected every day,so that no stray specimen of vermin may be left in the place.The men turn in about ten o'clock and sleep until six.We have never any disturbances of any kind in the Shelters.We have provided accommodation now for several thousand of the most helplessly broken-down men in London,criminals many of them,mendicants,tramps,those who are among the filth and offscouring of all things;but such is the influence that is established by the meeting and the moral ascendancy of our officers themselves,that we have never had a fight on the premises,and very seldom do we ever hear an oath or an obscene word.Sometimes there has been trouble outside the Shelter,when men insisted upon coming in drunk or were otherwise violent;but once let them come to the Shelter,and get into the swing of the concern,and we have no trouble with them.In the morning they get up and have their breakfast and,after a short service,go off their various ways.We find that we can do this,that is to say,we can provide coffee and bread for breakfast and for supper,and a shake-down on the floor in the packing-boxes I have described in a warm dormitory for fourpence a head.
第43章 TO THE RESCUE!--THE CITY COLONY.(3)（1 / 3）