Here the room was filled by about 150 men, all of whom had been rescued, and were then working in the various Shelters or elsewhere.  I may say that I have seldom seen a congregation of more respectable appearance, and never one that joined with greater earnestness in a religious service.

I will take this opportunity to observe that the Salvation Army enforces no religious test upon those to whom it extends its assistance.  If a man is a member of the Church of England or a Roman Catholic, for instance, and wishes to remain so, all that it tries to do is to make him a good member of his Church.  Its only sine qua non is that the individual should show himself ready to work zealously at any task which it may be able to find for him.

The rest of that afternoon I spent in interviewing ex-criminals who were then in the charge of the Salvation Army.  To give details of their cases in this book is impossible.  Here I will only say, therefore, that some of these had been most desperate characters, who had served as much as thirty or forty years in various prisons, or even been condemned to death for murder.  Indeed, the nineteen men whom I interviewed had, between them, done 371 years of what is known as ‘time.’

I cannot honestly report that I liked the looks of all these gentry, or believed everything that they told me.  For instance, when such people swear that they have been wrongly convicted, an old lawyer and magistrate like myself, who knows what pains are taken by every English Court to safeguard the innocent, is apt to be sceptical.  Still, it should be added that many of these jailbirds are now to all appearance quite reformed, while some of them are doing well in more or less responsible positions, under the supervision of the Army.

The Salvation Army Officers have authority from the Home Office to visit the various prisons, where the inmates are informed that those who are desirous of seeing them must give in their names.  Then on a certain day, the Officer, who, under Commissioner Sturgess, is responsible for the Prison work of the Army in England, appears at the Wandsworth or the Pentonville Prison, or wherever it may be.  There he finds, perhaps, as many as 150 men waiting to see him, the total number of ex-prisoners who pass through the hands of the Army in England averaging at present about 1,000 per annum.  He interviews these men in their cells privately, the prison officials remaining outside, and stops as long with each of them as he deems to be needful, for the Governors of the prisons give him every opportunity of attaining the object of his work.  This Officer informed me that his conversation with the prisoners is not restricted in any way.  It may be about their future or of spiritual matters, or it may have to do with their family affairs.

The details of each case are carefully recorded in a book which I saw, and when a convict is discharged and given over to the care of the Army, a photograph and an official statement of his record is furnished with him.  This statement the Army finds a great help, as in dealing with such people it is necessary to know their past in order to be able to guard against their weak points.