s, removed from Soho to the City, and
being too poor (as trustees) to renovate the structure, they have forced
me to get money for that purpose from my uncle, the Prime Minister. But
the money is my own, apparently, my uncle having in my interest demanded
from my father ten thousand pounds out of my mother's dowry, and got it.
And now I am spending two thousand on the repair of my church buildings,
notwithstanding the protests of the Prime Minister, who calls me
'chaplain to the Greek-Turks,' and of Mrs. Callender, who has discovered
that I am a 'maudlin, sentimental, daft young spendthrift.' Dare say I am
all that and a good deal more, as the wise world counts wisdom--but it
matters little!

"Have not waited for the workmen, though, to begin operations. Took first
services last Sunday. No organist, no choir, no clerk, and next to no
congregation. Just the church cleaner, a good, simple old soul named
Pincher, her son, a reformed drunkard and pawnbroker, and another convert
who is a club waiter. Nevertheless, I went through the whole service,
morning and evening, prayers, psalms, and sermon. God will be the more
glorified.

"Have started my new crusade on behalf of women, too, and made various
processions of three persons through the streets of Soho. First, my
pawnbroker bearing the banner (a white cross, the object of various
missiles), next my waiter carrying a little harmonium, and familiarly
known as the 'organ man,' and finally myself in my cassock. Last
mentioned proves to be a highly popular performance, being generally
understood to be a man in a black petticoat. We have had a nightly
accompaniment of a much larger procession, though, calling themselves
'Skellingtons,' otherwise the 'Skeletons,' an army of low women and
roughs; who live vulture lives on this poor, soiled, grimy, forgotten
world. Thank God, the ground of evil-doers is in danger, and they know
it!

"Behind my church, in a dark, unwholesome alley called. Crook Lane, we
have a clergy house, at present let out in tenements, the cellar being
occupied as a gin shop. As soon as these premises can be cleared of their
encumbrances I shall turn them into a club for working girls. Why not? In
the old days the Church came to the people: let it come to the people
now. Here we are in the midst of this mighty stronghold of the devil's
kingdom of sin and crime. Foreign clubs, casinos, dancing academies, and
gambling houses are round about us. What are we to d