NBWTA Report 1904-051
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98 99 possibility now of dealing with the criminal class of inebriates in homes adapted for the purpose, and every year, no doubt, the experience gained by those who work these institutions will give them a greater measure of success. But the patients whom we receive at Duxhurst are of another calibre. The majority have not been criminals, but drunkenness has desolated their homes. Men from the artisan class with small means,. struggling tradespeople, the very poorest, all come to us to endeavour to obtain information as to whether it would be possible for us to receive their wives, their daughters, their sisters, or their mothers, and these cases are so piteous, that it is obvious that help should be afforded those who thus desire to aid their relations, and to the women who, at the urgent request of those they love, are willing to be helped. Un- doubtedly, the so-called voluntary cases are the most hopeful, because in many instances, however bad the curse of inebriety may be, it is comparatively incipient. But even among the cases sent from police courts, under magistrates’ orders, there are many that can be reclaimed, for while it is true that women who have committed some assault or theft must be classified as criminals, yet in many instances they give real hope of reform, because drink was the incentive to crime, not only an incident in a criminal life. As a rule, however, we confine ourselves to receiving voluntary patients, and although in some instances we shall receive, as we have hitherto done, police-court cases, we shall do our utmost first of all for those who cannot be received in any state-aided reformatory. How wr DETAIN 0OUR WOMEN. In the early days there were many ready to criticize or prophesy failure. Wiser and older workers shook their heads at the rash experi- ment. ‘‘Where are the protective barriers?” said one. “You will need miles of wall to safeguard the inmates,” said another, and truly gates and bars were all wanting. But we were fearless, for if our scheme was to succeed, we were going to detain the women by something stronger than bars and bolts, and hold them within our keeping with a more subtle power than is afforded by the most intricate Bramah lock. For no work can succeed unless an appeal is made to the spiritual nature of those for whom it is undertaken, and our aim has been to show the women from the very first moment they come into our midst that love is the spirit that controls the colony, love for the crushed and despairing lives that come to us, and then to lead them on, gently and tenderly, to believe that human love is but the faint reflection of the great love that is in the Shepherd’s heart, Who seeks for the wandering ones-until He finds. As a matter of fact, during the whole nine years that the institution has now been existent, only eight cases have absconded. A YeEAR’s Stay NEEDED. The nine years in which the Colony has been opened have been sufficient to prove that inebriety in women is not a hopeless, incurable evil, but that it yields to wise treatment. It may be said a thousand times that the woman who gives way to drink is irreclaimably lost, but of all the wandering ones whose feet were guided to Duxhurst, consider- ably more than half have been restored to womanhood, usefulness, and happiness. And this percentage is obtained even when we reckon the insane, the dying, those unfit for treatment, and those who do not stay the full twelve months. If we deal only with those who fulfil what we consider the conditions necessary to cure, the percentage is much higher. But there is another side to the cures that are made at Duxhurst. I know that it has been said that it means a great deal of time, and a great deal of money, to rescue only a few women from drunkenness, but we must consider two aspects of the question. First of all, we are absolutely bound to try to rescue them. We do not consider life from the point of view of the survival of the fittest. We believe that every human life is of inestimable value ; that if one has fallen by the wayside, we dare not, however imperative our call to other aspects of our work, pass her by, but rather we are bidden to pause to spend money, and time, and personal care, until she is sheltered and protected from ill. Thus, and thus only, can we really be sister to her who has fallen among thieves. Secondly, we have got to recollect that when we deal with such a woman, we are often not Again there are women who helping one individual only, but we are touching the lives of whole families. I could show you women sur- rounded now by little children, who have been inmates at Duxhurst. Every one of those children’s lives is changed by her sojourn there. give to the world sons and go back from us, and who are destined to daughters, to bring wholesome, happy chil- dren into being, instead of deformed, idiotic, and defective children ; and therefore where you may have benefited say, a hundred women at Duxhurst, you have probably influenced at least three to four hundred lives, to say nothing of the men whose homes have been changed, and whose lives, from being a veritable hell, have become lives of peace and happiness. It would be difficult after these nine years to compute the number of people who have thus benefited, but it certainly would present a very imposing array, and you who have so generously given in the past have, therefore, the satisfaction of knowing that not to a few only have you extended your help, but many whose names are unknown to you have cause to bless you at this hour. I look back at the way in which the British Women’s Temperance Association have from the very first helped and forwarded the scheme. I think of the hundreds who have denied themselves in order that good might be accomplished there, and when the sense of personal gratitude 1s strong in me I remember that, though I am aware that, in a measure, the affection which has existed between us has to some extent prompted your gifts, it is not to me that you have given, but rather to the Lord, who has commanded us to be brother and sister to all in adversity, to give help to all who need our care. And therefore I have never looked upon your unbounded generosity to Duxhurst as personal, but rather I |