[Illustration:  AT ONE OF THE ARMY FOOD DEPOTS.]

Case Three.—­A man was cursed with such a fearful temper that he could keep no situation.  He came to London in a state of fury, with a razor in his pocket.  Happening to see the words ’Salvation Army Shelter’ on a building, it occurred to him to hear what the Suicide Officers had to say before he cut his throat.  They dealt with the matter, and showed him the error of his way.  He is now in a very good single-handed situation abroad where, as he cannot talk the language, he finds it difficult to quarrel with those about him.

Case Four.—­Telephone operator, who was driven mad by that dreadful instrument and by domestic worries.  The Army Officers saved the man and smoothed over the domestic worries; but how he gets on with the telephone instruments is not recorded.

Case Five.—­Unsuitable marriage and bad temper.  The wife had become involved in some trouble in early life, and unwisely, as it proved, confessed to the husband, who brought it up against her every time there was a quarrel between them.  In this instance, also, suicide was averted and the domestic differences were arranged.

Case Six—­A man in a business firm, married, with children, was through no fault of his own thrown out of work, owing to the appointment of a new manager.  He came at last to the Embankment, and afterwards applied for a job in answer to an advertisement.  The advertiser told him it was a pity that as he had been so near the river he did not go into it.  The man determined to commit suicide; but the Officers dissuaded him from this course and helped him.  He returned a year later in a condition of considerable prosperity, having worked his way to a Colony where he is now doing extremely well, his visit to England being in connexion with the business in which he had become a partner.

And so on ad infinitum. I might tell many such stories, some of them of a much more tragic character than those I have instanced, but refrain from doing so lest by chance they should be identified, especially where the individuals concerned belonged to the upper strata of society.  Perhaps enough has been said, however, to show what a great work is being done by the Army in this Department, where in London alone it deals with several would-be suicides every day.

Of course, some of these people are frauds.  For instance, one of the Officers told me that not long ago a medical man, who was evidently a drunkard, called on him and said that he would commit suicide unless money were given to him.  He was informed that this was against the rules; whereon the man produced a bottle and said that if the money were not forthcoming, he would drink its contents and make an end of himself in the office.  As may be imagined the Officer went through an anxious moment, not quite knowing what to do.  However, he looked the man over, summed him up to the best of his judgment and ability,