The ancient Athenians were a restless, inquisitive people. At the
Areopagus it was that Paul preached of an unknown God. Their popular
assemblies met on the Pynx. There mob orators decreed the ostracism of
Aristides the Just, and the death of Socrates the Good. In the
metropolis we have no Pynx where our _demoi_ are wont to assemble, but we
have several spots that serve for popular gatherings on the Sunday--our
working-man's holiday. One of these is the Obelisk at the Surrey end of
the Blackfriars-road. The district I allude to is what is called a low
neighbourhood. If I am to believe a popular poet, it was there that the
Ratcatcher's daughter lived; and I should imagine, from the seedy,
poverty-struck appearance of the place, that her papa's avocation was not
so highly remunerative as some other professions, or he would have
pitched his tent, _alias_ become a ten-pound householder, in a more
fashionable quarter.
May I attempt a description of the neighbourhood? Circumstances
compelled me to be there one Sunday, just as Sabbath bells were ringing
for divine service, and the streets were crowded with hungering
worshippers. Newman Hall's place of worship was full, as was St. John's
Episcopal Chapel, and there was between them a Methodist Assembly, which
was by no means scanty; yet all round me there were crowds to whom Sunday
was no Sunday in a religious sense, to whom it was a mere day of animal
rest, who were yet pale and heavy with the previous night's gin and beer.
What were they about? Well, from the Surrey Theatre, all placarded with
yellow bills of "The Wife's Revenge," to the Elephant and Castle, there
was a busy traffic going on, far busier, I should imagine, than on any
other morning of the week. Happily the public-houses were shut up, but
as I passed the coffee-houses were full of working-men reading
newspapers, and an easy shaving shop (I write so from the placard on the
door, not from actual experience) seemed doing a tremendous trade. Such
shops as were open, and they were numerous, were very full, and opposite
such as were shut up, what rows of barrows and costermongers' carts there
were, with all the luxuries of the season, such as Spanish onions,
carrots, cabbages, apples and pears, chestnuts, sweetmeats! Did you want
your likeness taken, there were artists to do it at sixpence a head. Did
you need to buy old clothes, there were Hebrew maidens waiting to sell
you them to any amount. One old lady was doing a thriving business in
what she denominated as "spiced elder." Boot-cleaning, though not by
Lord Shaftesbury's boys, was being carried on upon a gigantic scale. Two
or three vendors of cheap prints, chiefly fancy subjects--portraits of
imaginary females with very red cheeks and large eyes, and gay
dresses--collected a great crowd, but I fear one consisting chiefly of
admirers rather than purchasers. It may be that the tightness of the
money market was felt in the Blackfriars-road, and that the lieges of
that district felt that, with the Bank charging even two-and-a-half per
cent., something better might be done with the money than investing it in
works of art. The butchers' stalls were well attended, though I regret
to say, from casual remarks dropped as I passed by, the keepers of rival
establishments were not on such friendly terms as are desirable amongst
near neighbours. Women were bringing their husbands' dinners, children
were flocking about in shoals, and sots were yawning, and smoking, and
gossiping, waiting for one o'clock and their beer. You ask, was no
effort made to get this mass under the influence of religious teaching?
Oh, yes; all the morning there was service of some kind of other at the
Obelisk. As soon as one man had finished, another had commenced; and at
times one man was preaching on one side and another on another. The
first man I heard evidently was a working-man; and if to preach all that
is required were fluency and a loud voice, evidently he would have done
an immense amount of good: but he was too fluent to be clear and correct.
I question whether a working-man is a good preacher to a working-man.
The chances are, he imitates the worst characteristics of some favourite
preacher, instead of translating Bible truth into plain every-day
language. My friend had got all the stereotyped phrases, such as the
"natural man," &c., which can only be understood by persons accustomed to
religious society, and therefore I did not wonder when I found he had but
some twenty or thirty to hear him. To him succeeded, I regret to say,
two men in seedy black, with dirty white chokers, and cadaverous faces,
whose portraits were I to give, you would tell me I was drawing a
caricature. I don't doubt but what they were most respectable,
well-meaning men; but I do think it is a mistake to send such out into
the highways and byways. The men who go there should be of an engaging
aspect, as in the crowd that pass by you may depend upon it there are but
too many disposed to sneer at and ridicule religion even when it is
placed before them in the most attractive form. How they got on I cannot
tell, as just at that time a host of men very earnest in discussion
attracted my attention. A teetotaller was hard at work, not repeating a
set of phrases parrot-like which he had learnt by heart, but discussing
teetotalism with a crowd evidently well ready to go into the whole
subject. Short and sharp question and answer were flying fast, and all
seemed very good tempered. I don't know whether my friend succeeded in
getting any to sign the pledge, but I could see that he had more success
than the preachers, who seemed to me to make no impression whatever. We
may depend upon it these discussions are better than speeches or
lectures; they require, perhaps, greater gifts, but they will be found to
yield a richer harvest. It is in the streets we find the victims, and in
the streets we must seek to save them. You would not get these loungers
round the Obelisk to take the trouble to come to a temperance lecture,
but they, well fortified in their prejudices as established truths, were
not unwilling to engage in a discussion in which they found themselves
worsted. The temperance orator had an advantage over the divine. The
latter could only speak of a future joy or sorrow, the former could tell
the sot how much better he would have been, how much fresher he would
have felt, how much more money he would have had in his pocket, if he had
kept sober last night; and there stood the sot, all dirty and stupid, yet
repentant, and half influenced by the orator to become a sober man
himself. Such teaching is good in such places; but the speakers must be
prepared to rough it--to give and take, to be ready in repartee, to be
abundant in anecdote and illustration. They must have pliant tongues and
good voices, or they may find their congregation moving off to listen to
a social orator over the way; or, what is worse still, remaining to
confute, and jeer, and laugh.