Section- i. -IMPROVED LODGINGS.

The necessity for a superior class of lodgings for the poor men rescued at our Shelters has been forcing itself already upon our notice, and demanding attention. One of the first things that happens when a man, lifted out of the gutter, has obtained a situation, and is earning a decent livelihood, is for him to want some better accommodation than that afforded at the Shelters. We have some hundreds on our hands now who can afford to pay for greater comfort and seclusion. These are continually saying to us something like the following :—

"The Shelters are all very well when a man is down in his luck. They have been a good thing for us ; in fact, had it not been for them, we would still have been without a friend, sleeping on the Embankment, getting our living dishonestly, cr not getting a living at all. We have now got work, and want a bed to sleep on, and a room to ourselves, and a box, or something where we can stow away our bits of things. Cannot you do something for us ? " We have replied that there were Lodging-houses elsewhere, which, now that they were in work, they could afford to pay for, where they would obtain the comfort they desired. To this they answer, " That is all very well. We know there are these places, and that we could go to them. But then," they said, " you see, here in the Shelters are our mates, who think as we do. And there is the prayer, and the meeting, and kind influence every night, that helps to keep us straight. We would like a better place, but if you cannot find us one we would rather stop in the Shelter and sleep on the floor, as we have been doing, than go to something more complete, get into bad company, and so fall back again to where we were before."

But this, although natural, is not desirable ; for, if the process went on, in course of time the whole of the Shelter Dépôts would be taken up by persons who had risen above the class for whom they