The Open Air Season

From 'Heathen England' (GSR 1877)

"Look at the crowds who fill the bar of every public-house, with the cold draught from the great swinging doors continually let in by some new-comer! Look at the surging multitude pushing about the pavement, and jamming the entrance of the music hall and the theatre! Count the men and women sitting in the covered yards of brewery taps, perfectly open to the street, before the low tables that are just wide enough for "refreshments" which destroy body and soul! Observe, just as you pass by, the crowds gathered to laugh at the ribald songs and obscene jokes of the street comic or Christy Minstrel! As you pass along, the butcher and cheesemonger of the poor, bustling up and down in front of their shops, will fill your ears with their cheery shouts, as line after line of women gather round them to "Buy, buy, buy," as they are continually exhorted to do. The lusty voice of the costermonger, male or female, who has been at it since the early morning and is not yet hoarse, will greet you in every side street, and the comfortable " All-hot! " of the chestnut and potato men, surrounded by a waiting group, will make an impression on your memory. ... God help The Salvation Army still to preach, and always to preach while the millions are streaming into hell! "

Yours irrepressibly under Christ and over the devil!

Andrew