With the Red Jersey.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 4

With the Red Jersey.

PEEPS INTO ARMY HOMES. ' The Salvation Aruiy does well in. helping women. . In the forefront of its fighting line, among its "captains courageous whom death could. not daimte," is many a "bravo bonny, lasse, Mary Arabree.". Is it by chance, or from a deliberate sense of relative importance, that thero are three Army homes in this city, and only one, a very temporary homo, for men ? A hard place, also, is the men's home. Its inmates do'not sing that* thero is 110 place like it. The\ Workmen's Homo in Buckle Street, designed primarily to afford food and shelter to the "dossers" of Wellington, lias seemed a place of wicked tyranny and extortion to somo few ultra-sentimental souls. If the dossor is unable to pay fourpence for lub bed he is expected to cut sticks. That or somehting like it was no ill occupation to Prince Ferdinand. But often the "dosser's" soul rebels. He pours, his piteous woes.-into the.wir of some street orator, who makes I thorn each a tonguo for provoking indignation. , In an outhouse of the Workmen's Home, a' journalistic visitor fqiind some little bundles of kindling wood and a few light boards. "This is the hard she-oak that wo make thorn split," Brigadier Albiston said laughingly. "This is tho tremendous ''axe." With a tiny-tomahawk he split in a few moments almost a bundle of sticks. "Twelve bundles for a bed or dinner," he remarked. "I think we could earn our dinner pretty soon." "And if a man's too tired he gets the dinner lirst," put in the Major in charge. But then we usually 'fall in.' " The Pressman had a sixpenny meal in three courses which he did not earn, and found it-plain, substantial and quite appetising. Thero were * dozen diners—working men. The fourpenny meal, .he was assured, was just tho same, but'instead of a neathanded Phyllis in ■ Salvation attirn, the dinner is less deftly served by a crude male. . Fifty-four bunks, ranged together, in two tiers and closo as cells, in a honey-comb, but for two passages, did not look fastidiously inviting. Hygienic air space must be.only-just available, thougli there 1 are worse quarters 011 board ship. Tho- Brigadier explained that the Army was as far from being satisfied with this accommodation as some critics. "But what can we do? This place was never built for us, and we liave been trying for a long while to securo more suitable premises," but without success. We are ready at any timo to lease another property if wo-can get the chance." The reporter saw somo shilling beds and rooms for Jetting—airy, snug and homely'. ■ The cleanliness of the old, unsuited building was a». tonishing. In a poor' shed a man was making mats, of which the Army ! turns out many scores. The principle of the Home, it was explained, is to .support men's self-respect. A - man may liave his meal' or bed for fourpence, if fourpenco is beyond his means 110 may have a meal for a [penny. But if lie canr.ot pay for 1 what' he'has,-there must- be..at.least"' an appearance of earning it by \iis work. Therefore, -he chops sticks. Any man may. leavo the first moment lie likes. Newspapers are provided,! and, if a job is advertised winch some, man thinks lie can secure by hurrying, the Army is glad to drive him to it.

Gratitude is not unknown in che Workmen's Homo. ■'

Shrill music tells the whereabouts of the Maternity Home in Thompson Street. The Brigadier has decided that wo shall, do tho rounds thoroughly. A kindly-matron opens the door, and louder grows the, music upon entrance. A bright, sunshiny little dormitory, and fourteen dots in thirteen cots sounding a variety of notes! "Look at the size.of those twins I" exclaims the enthusiastic matron, pointing to a doubly-bur-dened cot. The babies are disposed "lioad and tail," and thoy are clamouring for dinner. Soon they, will, attack each others' toes.

In a sitting room, with comfortable fire, the unringed mothers and prospective mothers stitch and chat, if t-iioy should fall again they will find 110 homo • here. Bright and cheery are tho mothers' dormitories and nurses' rooms. Sewn in immense red letters, 011 each pillow in the mothers' rooms,. are the words "Jesus Saves," and other pillows boar tfyo word "Redeemed." This Homo was Army built, and its arrangements reflect credit. Tho; babies are adopted out or boarded, and generally their mothers claim them directly thoy find work or husbands. .

Tho Paulina Homo, a brand-new, Army-designed, finely-situated home at Newtown, lias accommodation for sixty criminal and destitute women. Half a dozen of them are going now from dinner- back to tho wnsh-tubs, they dodge down a rear path so that the' Brigadier may not see them with their sleeves tucked up, and to their great surprise come full upon him. They smother laughter in thoir aprons, and giggle liko a crowd or school girls, and reply to banter. It is tho Salvationist girl overseer who works hardest in this washhouse. Tho interior of the Home has 11011 c of that decent. meanness, characteristic of too many "institutions." It is cosy, bright-, even artistic in its furnishings and trifles. In the wide dormitories and smaller nurses' rooms one notes the sane message-flaming pillows, and the one sign that this is an "institution'' after; all. Each nurse's room has a small shuttered window giving a commanding view of tho adjacent dormitory. An inmate may bo 'sick—oven refractory.

l'leasantest of tho Army's Homes to visit is tho Homo for Orphan and Destitute Girls, which stands just opposite. There is provision for sixty girls. The home is full, and thirty more have been refused admission. Hero avo long rooms, filled with row on row of. tiny beds, and others filled with row oil row of bigger beds. "You ought to come at night, when they are all tucked in,'' says tho fond matron.' "Such an array of little heads." Instead we se'o them in the school room, golden heads, brown heads, black heads, bent over tasks, but raised as the Brigadier enters. Hands are lifted to them in the Army salute. All theso sixty girls are taught within tho orphanage, and by the Army teachers. Smaller girls, at play, laugh and scamper without doors. They see us at a wiudow. The smallest hand is lift-id in salute, and tho cheery greetings of tho , Brigadier are answered blithely. Yonder little orphan girl is 0110 of fivo sisters, to whom the Army has been mother for six years. "This is our most hopeful work," remarks the Brigadier. "AYc save thom right at the beginning here."

The Army is always finding mor« to do. It is negotiating now for a two-acre site at Island Bay, on which to build a home for discharged prisoners. Hore men will met their tutu*