The Authoritative Life of General William Booth | Page 4

"In those days angling was my favourite sport. I have sat down on those
banks many a summer morning at five o'clock, although I rarely caught
anything. An old uncle ironically used to have a plate with a napkin on
it ready for my catch waiting for me on my return.
"And then the motor brought us to the ancient village of Wilford, with
its lovely old avenues of elms fringing the river.
"There were the very meadows in which we children used to revel
amongst the bluebells and crocuses which, in those days, spread out
their beautiful carpet in the spring-time, to the unspeakable delight of
the youngsters from the town.
"But how changed the scene! Most of these rural charms had fled, and
in their places were collieries and factories, and machine shops, and
streets upon streets of houses for the employes of the growing town.
We were only 60,000 in my boyhood, whereas the citizens of
Nottingham to-day number 250,000.
"A few years ago the city conferred its freedom upon me as a mark of
appreciation and esteem. To God be all the glory that He has helped
His poor boy to live for Him, and made even his former enemies to
honour him."
But we all know what sort of influences exist in a city that is at once
the capital of a county and a commercial centre. The homes of the
wealthy and comfortable are found at no great distance from the
dwellings of the poor, while in the huge market-places are exhibitions
weekly of all the contrasts between town and country life, between the
extremest want and the most lavish plenty.
Seventy years ago, life in such a city was nearly as different from what
it is to-day as the life of to-day in an American state capital is from that
of a Chinese town. Between the small circle of "old families" who still
possessed widespread influence and the masses of the people there was
a wide gap. The few respectable charities, generally due to the piety of
some long-departed citizen, marked out very strikingly a certain
number of those who were considered "deserving poor," and helped to

make every one less concerned about all the rest. For all the many
thousands struggling day and night to keep themselves and those
dependent upon them from starvation, there was little or no pity. It was
just "their lot," and they were taught to consider it their duty to be
content with it. To envy their richer neighbours, to covet anything they
possessed, was a sin that would only ensure for the coveter an eternal
and aggravated continuance of his present thirst.
In describing those early years, The General said:--
"Before my father's death I had been apprenticed by his wish. I was
very young, only thirteen years of age, but he could not afford to keep
me longer at school, and so out into the world I must go. This event
was followed by the formation of companionships whose influence was
anything but beneficial. I went down hill morally, and the
consequences might have been serious if not eternally disastrous, but
that the hand of God was laid on me in a very remarkable manner.
"I had scarcely any income as an apprentice, and was so hard up when
my father died, that I could do next to nothing to assist my dear mother
and sisters, which was the cause of no little humiliation and grief.
"The system of apprenticeship in those days generally bound a lad for
six or seven years. During this time he received little or no wages, and
was required to slave from early morning to late evening upon the
supposition that he was 'being taught' the business, which, if he had a
good master, was probably true. It was a severe but useful time of
learning. My master was a Unitarian--that is, he did not believe Christ
was the son of God and the Saviour of the world, but only the best of
teachers; yet so little had he learnt of Him that his heaven consisted in
making money, strutting about with his gay wife, and regaling himself
with worldly amusements.
"At nineteen the weary years of my apprenticeship came to an end. I
had done my six years' service, and was heartily glad to be free from
the humiliating bondage they had proved. I tried hard to find some kind
of labour that would give me more liberty to carry out the aggressive
ideas which I had by this time come to entertain as to saving the lost;
but I failed. For twelve months I waited. Those months were among the
most desolate of my life. No one took the slightest interest in me.
"Failing to find employment in Nottingham,