he club,
being at the time deeply attached to some dock labourers among whom
she worked in a slum near the quay. The Y.M.C.A.--she belonged to
them--did not want to part with her. But we got her in the end, and
she became mistress, mother, queen of the club.

The colonel's speech was a success, a thing which seemed beforehand
almost beyond hope. He told those boys the naked truth about
themselves, what they were, what they had been, and what they might
be. They listened to him. I found out later on that those boys would
listen to straight talk on almost any subject, even themselves. Also
that they would not listen to speech-making of the ordinary kind. I
sometimes wonder what will happen when they become grown men and
acquire votes. How will they deal with the ordinary politician?

I cherish vivid recollections of the early days of the club. I think
of J., patient and smiling, surrounded by a surging crowd of boys all
clamouring to talk to him about this or that matter of deep interest
to them. J. had an extraordinary faculty for winning the confidence
of boys.

There were evenings, before the electric light was installed and
before we had any chairs, when Miss N. sat on the floor and played
draughts with boys by the light of a candle standing in its own
grease. I have seen her towed by the skirt through the rooms of the
club by a boy whom the others called "Darkie," an almost perfect
specimen of the London gutter snipe. There was a day when her purse
was stolen. But I think the rest of the club would have lynched the
thief if they could have caught him.

There were wild boxing bouts which went on in pitch darkness, after
the combatants had trampled on the candle. There was one evening when
I came on a boy lying flat on his back on the floor hammering the
keys of the piano, our new piano, with the heels of his boots. The
tuner told me afterwards that he broke seventeen strings.

But we settled down by degrees. We had lectures every afternoon which
were supposed to be--I think actually were--of an educative kind.
Attendance at these lectures was compulsory. The boys were paraded
and marched to the club. As we had not space in our lecture room for
more than half our members, we had one set of boys on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, another on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays. Each lecturer delivered himself twice.

The business of keeping up a supply of lectures was not so difficult
as we expected. Officers we