and disagreeable not to say
_shameful_, that the majority of them would leap to do the
most menial tasks that would deliver them from a bondage so
painful.

Have you ever solicited help and been refused? Have you known what
it is to feel the awful sickenings of heart at hope deferred? Have
you known what it is to be regarded with suspicion, with contempt,
with dislike, with scorn, or even with _pity_ by your fellow men?
If so, you may be able to realise the experiences that every beggar
has to go through a hundred times a day, many of them with feelings
every bit as sensitive as your own. Will he demean himself and work
hard at so miserable a calling and yet be unwilling to do some
light work, with which he can earn an honest living? I for one
cannot believe it, till I see it.

(d) Our experience further contradicts it in dealing with the more
depraved, hardened and supposed-to-be-idle criminals and
prostitutes, whom we receive into our Prison Gate and Rescue Homes.
When Sir E. Noel Walker was visiting our Prisoners' Home in
Colombo he was astonished at the _alacrity_ with which the men
obeyed orders, and the _eagerness_ with which they worked at their
allotted tasks. He asked the Officer in Charge whether he ever
_"hammered"_ them, and was surprised at finding that the only
hammer he ever required was the _allsufficient_ hammer of _love._
And yet the gates were always open and they were free to walk out
whenever they liked. Moreover, beyond getting their food and a very
humble sort of shelter, their labour was entirely unpaid.

(e) Finally by means of a judicious system of rewards and promotions
we should educate and encourage them into working, besides teaching
them industries which would be useful after they had left us.

(3.) But some one else will say "They are thievish and will rob you.
They are roguish and will decieve you. You don't know whom you have to
deal with." Well, if we don't know them, we should think nobody does! I
would answer,

(a) Granted that some of them cheat us. All will not. And why should
the honest suffer with the rogues?

(b) What if we do lose something in this way? It would be little in
comparison with the enormous gain. I feel sure it would in no