LONDON PRIDE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2680, 14 September 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON PRIDE.

PENITENT THIEVES. [By James Gkees'wood, in Buistol Tim es. ] A curious fact in connection with London Pride is that it by no mean 3 follows that the citizens of tho greatest metropolis in the world are always ready and anxious to promote and prosper thoso institutions they hold in highest esteem. They may bo unstinting iu their praise ; but should the vital question of pecuniary support be mooted, they are often but too apt to treat the suggestion in the spirit of the tender-hearted philanthropist, who declared that ho never met a fellowcreature in deep distress but he wished that somebody would bestow half-a-crown on him.

For example, there can be no question that to lessen the number of the criminal classes is a matter that affects the welfare of the community at large to an extent it would be difficult to exaggerate. From the moral aspect it is, of coarse, our bounden duty to check, if we cannot altogether eradicate, the devastating social disease in question wherever we find it making briskest headway ; and, from a merely lscrcenury point of view as well, it is pre-eminently a business that returns good interest on the outlay. Our standing army of swindlers, rogues, and robbers iuliict a constant and heavy tax on the honest industry of the country. We are told that it) London alone there are upwards of twenty thousand individuals who are predatory by profession. Half this vast number, probably, are " known to the police," as the phrase is, and better known still to the waders of the various prisons, who recognise them as regular customers, and are liot sorry to see them again, when, after a spell of emancipation, more or less protracted, they return to the old quarters. A gaol is built to accomodate only a certain number, and the "old hands," who know all about the rules and regulations of the establishment, and are familiar with cell economy, and past-masters at oakumpicking and treadmill labour, give less trouble than the novice, who, on admission, cannot even sling his hammock or make his bed without instruction. There is nothing shocking to the oft-convicted one in being sent to prison, and it is feared that, beyond the inconvenience of being temporarily deprived of liberty, and shut away from his associates, the deterrent effects of a few weeks' incarceration are not of much account. The habitual criminal is aware beforehand of all that will liipen to him when lie is tried and sentenced. He knows the sort of bed he will have to sleep on, and to half an ounce how much of solid food, animal and vegetable, will bo apportioned him at breakfast, dinner, and supper. As for what is called " hard labour," experience has made hira acquainted with many little tricks and devices that enable him to take bis tasks quite easily ; and while the poor downhearted captive, new to the business, is torturing his bleeding fingers in an attempt to shred short lengths of tarred ship rone, liard as wood, the practised jail bird, whose hands are innocent of corn or blister, has fiuished his task three hours since, aud is using the heap of " soft stuff " as a comfortable cushion until the clock strikes surcease of toil.

All the same, there is always a considerable percentage among; what tuny be termed our prison population who, not being absoluto fools as well as rogues, would elect to make a change and lead a honest life, and so be freed from tho prccurioustiess and the unceasing anxieties inseparable from a thief's life, if they could but soo their way to so doing. ]>ut it is far from being as easy as many good people imagine. In theory, when a man has served the term of his sentence, and tho jail doors are opened for him, ho is oncc again a free agent, and if ho has a mind to refrain in future from dishonest pursuits there is the straight path as well as the crooked, both commencing at tho very threshold of tho prison outer gate, and he has but to take tho oue and all will be well with him. Practically there is much to prevent his doing anything of the kind. True, there is the straight path, but his feet are unfitted for it. He halts in bis gait, and cannot hold up his head and look those he meets fearlessly in the face, but shulHes shyly along, conscious that he is a trespasser. It is hopeless for him to conceal what his past has been from those from whom he challenges iuquiry, and he would be no better off should lie frankly confess it, at the same time craving permission to re-enlist in the army of honest toilers from which he was long ai»o a deserter. There are no watchful recruiting sergeants anxious to press on his acceptance the Queen's shilling in that service. It is already over-full, rank and file, of those who have no black mark against them, and there are thousands of equally eligible on the alert to squeeze in wherever they can see a place vacant. There is really no chance for him unless he can find a good friend, who, knowing exactly the state of the case, is willing to take him by the hand. There is a most useful institution that precisely bits bis purpose, known as the " Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society." It is not tho only oue in London, There is another that has been longer established, with ample funds at its command and the advantage of Royal patronage. For all I know to the contrary it is quite deserving of the support it receives, and there is no doubt that it does a groat amount of "ood. But the other, in its humble way, has, in my opinion, a preferable method of management. It has no grand offices

[ or handsomely remunerated staff of officials, and the penitent thief who applies, earnestly determined to turn over a new leaf, is in no danger of growing fainthearted, and perhaps turning away, in consequence of the tedious formalities he has to face at the outset. Newly released from a common jail or from a convict priion, he can go straight to the secretary of the Saint Giles's Christian Mission, whose ollice is in Brooke-street, Holborn, and a quarter of an hour's perfectly private conversation with that worthy gentleman will probably settle tho whole

matter. Provided the ex-prisoner's statements will bear investigation, and he is really sincere iu his proffered willingness to turn his hand to anything that will enable him to lead an amended life, he may rely on it the opportunity will be afforded him,

Tho Saint Giles' Christian Mission, when first it turned its attention to tho reclaiming of "jail birds," was content to deal with thoso that as yet wore not verv

steeped in crime. Bat it was sound, practical work, nevertheless. Tho great prison in_ Coldbath-fields, Clerkenwoll, was in existooce then, and so constantly crowned with inmates that almost every morning a batch, ranging from a dozen to twenty, received their discharge. The indefatigable secretary took a house immediately opposite, and had the kitchen fitted up with tables and forms, and between eight and nine a.m., all tho week through, thoro was a breakfasting party there. Recognising the great value of tho movement, the governor of the jail permitted Mr Whcatlcy to coino within the gates, and tho batch of discharged prisoners being mustered, without fuss or ceremony, ho gave them lo understand that if they chose to come across tho road

thoy would find plenty of hot coffee and

bread and butter, with nothing to pay, and if they had anything to say to him he would bo happy to listen to them. If they all did not know what this meant, there was pretty sure to be one or two of the number who did, and they would tell the others. It meant that if there wero any man or lad among thein, whose desperate poverty had tempted him to commit tho crime for which ho had suffered imprisonment, and who, being now as a matter of course, even worse of? than before —if he wished for assistance to-

wards getting an honest living, his application would ba entertained. Not that the benevolence of the mission was

restricted to thoso comparatively mild cases. Tho Coldbath-fields prisoners were

generally individuals whoso sentence had

not exceeded a few months, but, having taken to thieving as a trade, tha majority had been " in" perhaps half a dozen times. Tho helping hand was for them

as well, if they were really desirous of grasping it.

As a rule, however, it was only those who had been convicted of a first, or, may be, a second oft'euce, and who saw no prospect before them but to steal or starve, who readily accepted a breakfast, ticket. The confirmed thief would civilly or sneeringly reject it. But on several occasions (I used not (infrequently to look iu at breakfast time) I have known habitual ofl'euders sneak in, shamefaced, when the meal was half over, and linger over their Gating and drinking until the others had been dealt with, so

,hat they might interview the secre

tary alone, and ascertain from him whether it was a fact that, if they " turned up the old garno," which they

were heartily sick of, he would put them

iu the way of " uoing straight," and keeping so. And tho two have struck a bargain thero and then —conditionally on the part of the judicious secretary, as need scarcely be said—that in tho end proved satisfactory to all parties concerned. But the secretary is a shrewd tactician, and long experience has sharpened his wits amazingly, as is best

iroved by the fact that of the several

thousands of cases taken in hand by the mission since its commencement, nearly fifty per cent have yielded satisfactory results.

This part of the business of St. Giles's

Mission has vastly increased of late years. Over and over again judges and magistrates have born public testimony to

the incalculable good that has been achieved, and the Government now avails

itself of tho assistance of the small, but eminently capable, staff in Brooke-street

in dealing with ticket-of-leave men who express a desiro to reform. The goodconduct money the convict lias earned dur-

ng his term of sentence is forwarded to

he olficc, and within a few days of hiischargo the tiekot-holdcr attends and 'states his views." I have spent some,

if not exactly enjoyable, highly-interest-ing half hours iu that little audience chamber. The penitent convict is, as a rule, merciless to his former self—to the crime-stained ruffian he has now turned his back on for good and all. While the ncccssary questious are being put to him respecting his past career, he is frank and free on " peaching" on the wicked fellow,

ml lias nothing to say iu extenuation of

the atrocious misdeeds of which he has been guilty. One experiences strange sensations in such a presence. He is attired in ordinary garb, but li is facc is tanned with the sun and the wind of breezy Dartmoor or Portland, and his hands are coarse and corned with quany

svorU. His figure fits awkwardly in the unaccustomed coat ami waistcoat-, and it seems that lie has but to unbutton those garments to reveal an underskin of blanket-serge festooned with broad arrows. In his demeanour he is profoundly respectful, and meekly subservient to the situation, itow can ho prove liis sincerity ? By aeeidenthe displaces a quill pen lying on the table and it lodges on his lap, but with calm reliance on his firmness of purpose, with inexorable rectitude, he hands its swiftly to ihe secretary with an expression of countenance that seems to say, "It is but a paltry pen ; but were it a bag of gold, uncounted, I could now no more think of inis.iit11i-upiatincr it than of flying out at that window," All the same, this is a man —you hear him say it—who has been three times sentenced to penal servitude for burglary,and once "did" three years, with the additional punishment of twenty strokes " with an instrument called a cat," for being actively concerned with two others in a garrotting case, He does not explain whether, on that villainous occasion, he. acted as "front stall," " back stall," or "nasty man"—which,

interpreted, means the man who walked ahead of the victim to see if the coast was clear ; he who brought the rear, to be handy in ease assistance was needed ; or the ruffian who seized the belated pedestrian by the throat from behind, ami choked him within au inch of his

life. I noticed, however, that he had a supplelooking hand with long fingers, and to that extent, anyhow, lie was qualified for "nasty man." How did hrs like the cat? the president asked him. J Lis reply was brief, but so eloquent that 1 should like some of those gentlemen who would deny the armed burglar-brotherhood the benefit of the corrective in question to have heard it,

" Never no more !" said he, and as he gave utterance to the words he winced involuntarily, and made a grimace, as

though the painful proceedings of that memorable morning were still as fresh in his memory as the events of yesterday.

" It is never too late to mend," however, ancl the man's hearty affirmative response, in reply to the secretary's question as to whether he would take a job at street-sweeping as a start, justified the hope that, at all events, he was earnestly willing to try. Men, with even a blacker

record against them, as I am informed by the worthy secretary, have turned from the crooked to the straight path, and there remained.

Such cases, however, are exceptional, and do not fairly represent the vast Dumber with which the good folk of the St. Giles's Christian Mission so successfully deal. They take especial interest in lads and young men who have been once or twice " committed," and who, havinjr forfeited their fair character, would, no doubt, have given themselves up to a career of crime but for timely intervertion. Tim main difficulty is to induce those who are in a position to do so '0 provide employment for men who havo been convicted of crime. The lnastern might not bo unwilling, but there is a natural repugnance on the part of his "hands" to admit to their midst an individual with the prison taint on him. The society, however, have in my kind supporters who are large employers of unskilled labour, and always willing to give such a man a trial. They have, as well, good friends too at Grimsby and other places extensively engaged in the fishing interest, and scorcs of young fellows have had their moral health complet.-ly restored by the sea-water cure ; while a still larger number, who formerly were mechanics, have horn provided with the necessary tools of their craft, and put ill the way of earning the bread of honest industry.

In short, such a tiling as an idle day at the little office is unknown, with the result that many hundreds of men and lads are now leading blameless lives, who, hut for this admirable society, would have remained thieves and most expensive pests to the community at large. The only pity is that such an institution is not enabled, by increased public support, to do ton times the good it is at present doing.