i8 2 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
witnessed. Mr Edward Clifford, the well-known artist to whom I introduced you just now who had been long labouring among the poor of the East End, attracted by what was almost a forlorn hope, joined in our mission. By his untiring zeal and intense sympathy, under terrible trials, he has rendered the most indefatigable help from almost the very beginning, and he has been the Treasurer of the Church Army ever since. For months the members of our mission in Westminster were treated like nine-pins, and the ordeal was very severe, especially for the young beginners. The publicans were our bitter opponents ; but the Skeletons a self-constituted army of roughs were a special terror to us. One of the most intrepid workers was Miss Cheshire, who is now on the London staff ; often has she had her clothes torn by the ruffians, and often has she gone forth scarcely knowing whether she would return alive. It was, by the way, while engaged in that year s campaign in the slums of Westminster, that I was smashed up by a gang of thieves. I was taken up for dead after the assault. I was destined to undergo six months illness, and the ringleader in that gang six months in gaol ! He is now a Christian worker abroad. During that time the work was pretty much at a standstill. It is impossible to over-estimate the wickedness that is perpetrated in some of the dark spots of London ; men and women living vulture lives upon Society ; truth esteemed foolishness ;
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