are a motley lot, are my friends
and acquaintances; they are as varied as humanity itself. So they
represent to me all the moods and tenses of humanity, all its personal,
social and industrial problems. I have a pitiful heart; I try to keep a
philosophic mind; I am cheery with them; I am doubtful, I am hopeful!

I never give help feeling sure that I have done wisely, I never refuse
the worst and feel sure that I have done well. I live near the heart of
humanity, I count its heart-beats, I hear its throbs.

I realise some of the difficulties that beset us, I see some of the
heights and depths to which humanity can ascend or descend. I have
learned that the greatest factors in life are kindly sympathy, brotherly
love, a willingness to believe the best of the worst, and to have an
infinite faith in the ultimate triumph of good!

CHAPTER II. LONDON'S UNDERWORLD

London's great underworld to many may be an undiscovered country. To
me it is almost as familiar as my own fireside; twenty-five years of
my life have been spent amongst its inhabitants, and their lives and
circumstances have been my deep concern.

Sad and weary many of those years have been, but always full of
absorbing interest. Yet I have found much that gave me pleasure, and it
is no exaggeration when I say that some of my happiest hours have been
spent among the poorest inhabitants of the great underworld.

But whether happy or sorrowful, I was always interested, for the
strange contrasts and the ever-varying characteristics and lives of the
inhabitants always compelled attention, interest and thought. There is
much in this underworld to terrorise, but there is also much to inspire.

Horrible speech and strange tongues are heard in it, accents of sorrow
and bursts of angry sound prevail in it.

Drunkenness, debauchery, crime and ignorance are never absent; and in it
men and women grown old in sin and crime spend their last evil days.
The whining voice of the professional mendicant is ever heard in its
streets, for its poverty-stricken inhabitants readily respond to every
appeal for help.

So it is full of contrasts; for everlasting toil goes on, and the hum
of industry ever resounds. Magnificent self-reliance is continually
exhibited, and self-denial of no mean order is the rule.

The prattle of little children and the voice of maternal love make
sweet music in its doleful streets, and glorious devotion dignifies and
illumines the poorest homes.