y years. Others make use of
it for a few months, and then vanish for a period, especially in the
summer, when they go hop or strawberry picking, and return in the
winter. Every day, however, fresh people appear, possibly to depart on
the morrow and be seen no more.

I asked whether the aged folk had not been benefited by the Old Age
Pensions Act. The lady Officer in charge replied that it had been a
blessing to some of them. One old woman, however, would not apply for
her pension, although she was urged to take a room for herself
somewhere. She said that she was afraid if she did so, she might be
turned out and be lonely.

I visited this Shelter in the late afternoon, before it was filled up.
A number of dilapidated and antique females were sitting about in the
rooms, talking or sewing. One old lady was doing crochet work. She
told me that she made her living by it, and by flower-selling. Another
informed me that it was years since she had slept anywhere else, and
that she did not know what poor women like her would do without this
place. Another was cooking the broth. Her husband was a sea captain,
and when he died, her father had allowed her _L1_ a week until he
died. Afterwards she took to drink, and drifted here, where, I was
informed, she is doing well. And so on, and so on, _ad infinitum_. The
Hanbury Street Women's Shelter is not a cheerful spot to visit on a
dull and rainy evening.

THE SLUM SETTLEMENT

HACKNEY ROAD

Slum work is an important branch of the Social labours of the
Salvation Army, Thus last year the Slum Sisters visited over 105,000
families, over 20,000 sick, and over 32,000 public-houses, in which
work they spent more than 90,000 hours of time. Also they attended 482
births, and paid nearly 9,000 visits in connexion with them.

There are nine Slum Settlements and Posts in London, and nineteen
others in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The old system used to be
for the Sisters and Nurses to live among the lowest class of the poor,
lodging in the actual tenements in which their work was carried out.
This, however, was abandoned as far as possible, because it was found
that after the arduous toil of the day these ladies could get little
rest at night, owing to the noise that went on about them, a
circumstance that caused their health to suffer and made them
inefficient. Now out of the 117 Officers engaged in Slum work in Great
Britain, about one-half who labour in London live in five