The man in charge of this apparatus and of the baths was one who had been picked up on the Embankment during the past winter.  In return for his services he received food, lodging, clothes and pocket-money to the amount of 3s. a week.  He told me that he was formerly a commercial traveller, and was trying to re-enter that profession or to become a ship’s steward.  Sickness had been the cause of his fall in the world.

Adjoining the downstairs dormitory is a dining and sitting-room for the use of those who have taken bed tickets.  In this room, when I visited it, several men were engaged in various occupations.  One of them was painting flowers.  Another, a watch repairer, was apparently making up his accounts, which, perhaps, were of an imaginary nature.  A third was eating a dinner which he had purchased at the food bar.  A fourth smoked a cigarette and watched the flower artist at his work.  A fifth was a Cingalese who had come from Ceylon to lay some grievance before the late King.  The authorities at Whitehall having investigated his case, he had been recommended to return to Ceylon and consult a lawyer there.  Now he was waiting tor the arrival of remittances to enable him to pay his passage back to Ceylon.  I wondered whether the remittances would ever be forthcoming.  Meanwhile he lived here on 7-1/2d. a day, 5d. for his bed and 2-1/2d. for his food.  Of these and other men similarly situated I will give some account presently.

Having inspected the upper floors I descended to the basement, where what are called the ‘Shelter men’ are received at a separate entrance at 5.30 in the afternoon, and buying their penny or halfpennyworth of food, seat themselves on benches to eat.  Here, too, they can sit and smoke or mend their clothes, or if they are wet, dry themselves in the annexe, until they retire to rest.  During the past winter of 1909 400 men taken from the Embankment were sheltered here gratis every night, and were provided with soup and bread.  When not otherwise occupied this hall is often used for the purpose of religious services.

I spoke at hazard with some of those who were sitting about in the Shelter.  A few specimen cases may be interesting.  An old man told me that he had travelled all over the world for fifty years, especially in the islands of the South Pacific, until sickness broke him down.  He came last from Shanghai, where he had been an overseer on railway work, and before that from Manila.  Being incapacitated by fever and rheumatism, and possessing 1,500 dollars, he travelled home, apparently via India and Burma, stopping a while in each country.  Eventually he drifted to a lodging-house, and, falling ill there, was sent to the Highgate Infirmary, where, he said, he was so cold that he could not stop.  Ultimately he found himself upon the streets in winter.  For the past twelve months he had been living in this Shelter upon some help that a friend gave him, for all his own money was gone.  Now he was trying to write books, one of which was in the hands of a well-known firm.  He remarked, pathetically, that they ’have had it a long time.’  He was also waiting ‘every day’ for a pension from America, which he considered was due to him because he fought in the Civil War.