milk, and eggs, and very little or
no meat. It was cheaper and seemed to give me more endurance; and the
real value of money was dawning on me.

Victoria Park is one of those open forums where every man with a sore
spot goes out to air his grievance. On Sundays there were little
groups around the trees where orators debated on everything from a
patent medicine to the nature of God. Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs.
Annie Besant were associated together in iconoclastic efforts against
orthodox religion, and there was so much truth in some of their
contentions that they were making no little disturbance. Hanging on
their skirts were a whole crowd of ignorant, dogmatic atheists, who
published a paper called "The Freethinker," which, while it was a
villainous and contemptible rag, appealed to the passions and
prejudices of the partially educated. To answer the specious arguments
of their propaganda an association known as the Christian Evidence
Society used to send out lecturers. One of them became quite famous
for his clever arguments and answers, his ready wit, and really
extensive reading. He was an Antiguan, a black man named Edwards, and
had been a sailor before the mast. I met him at the parish house of an
Episcopal clergyman of a near-by church, who, under the caption of
Christian socialism, ran all kinds of social agencies that really
found their way to the hearts of the people. His messages were so much
more in deeds than in words that he greatly appealed to me, and I
transferred my allegiance to his church, which was always well filled.
I particularly remember among his efforts the weekly parish dance. My
religious acquaintances were apt to class all such simple amusements
in a sort of general category as "works of the Devil," and turn deaf
ears to every invitation to point out any evil results, being
satisfied with their own statement that it was the "thin edge of the
wedge." This good man, however, was very obviously driving a wedge
into the hearts of many of his poor neighbours who in those days found
no opportunity for relief in innocent pleasures from the sordid round
of life in the drab purlieus of Bethnal Green. This clergyman was a
forerunner of his neighbour, the famous Samuel Barnett of Mile End,
who thought out, started, and for many years presided over Toynbee
House, the first big university settlement in East London. His workers
preached their gospel through phrases and creeds which they accepted
with menta