第31章

At last we were permitted to enter the feasting hall, where we found the 'ticket men' washed but unfed.All told, there must have been nearly seven hundred of us who sat down- not to meat or bread, but to speech, song, and prayer.From all of which I am convinced that Tantalus suffers in many guises this side of the infernal regions.The adjutant made the prayer, but I did not take note of it, being too engrossed with the massed picture of misery before me.But the speech ran something like this: 'You will feast in paradise.No matter how you starve and suffer here, you will feast in paradise, that is, if you will follow the directions.' And so forth and so forth.Aclever bit of propaganda, I took it, but rendered of no avail for two reasons.First, the men who received it were unimaginative and materialistic, unaware of the existence of any Unseen, and too inured to hell on earth to be frightened by hell to come.And second, weary and exhausted from the night's sleeplessness and hardship, suffering from the long wait upon their feet, and faint from hunger, they were yearning, not for salvation, but for grub.The 'soul-snatchers' (as these men call all religious propagandists)should study the physiological basis of psychology a little, if they wish to make their efforts more effective.

All in good time, about eleven o'clock, breakfast arrived.It arrived, not on plates, but in paper parcels.I did not have all Iwanted, and I am sure that no man there had all he wanted, or half of what he wanted or needed.I gave part of my bread to the tramp royal who was waiting for Buffalo Bill, and he was as ravenous at the end as he was in the beginning.This is the breakfast: two slices of bread, one small piece of bread with raisins in it and called 'cake,' a wafer of cheese, and a mug of 'water bewitched.'

Numbers of the men had been waiting since five o'clock for it, while all of us had waited at least four hours; and in addition, we had been herded like swine, packed like sardines, and treated like curs, and been preached at, and sung to, and prayed for.Nor was that all.

No sooner was breakfast over (and it was over almost as quickly as it takes to tell) than the tired heads began to nod and droop, and in five minutes half of us were sound asleep.There were no signs of our being dismissed, while there were unmistakable signs of preparation for a meeting.I looked at a small clock hanging on the wall.It indicated twenty-five minutes to twelve.Heigh ho, thought I, time is flying, and I have yet to look for work.

'I want to go,' I said to a couple of waking men near me.

'Got ter sty fer the service,' was the answer.

'Do you want to stay?' I asked.

They shook their heads.

'Then let us go up and tell them we want to get out,' I continued.

'Come on.'

But the poor creatures were aghast.So I left them to their fate, and went up to the nearest Salvation Army man.

'I want to go,' I said.'I came here for breakfast in order that Imight be in shape to look for work.I didn't think it would take so long to get breakfast.I think I have a chance for work in Stepney, and the sooner I start, the better chance I'll have of getting it.'

He was really a good fellow, though he was startled by my request.

'Why,' he said, 'we're goin' to 'old services, and you'd better sty.'

'But that will spoil my chances for work,' I urged.'And work is the most important thing for me just now.'

As he was only a private, he referred me to the adjutant, and to the adjutant I repeated my reasons for wishing to go, and politely requested that he let me go.

'But it cawn't be done,' he said, waxing virtuously indignant at such ingratitude.'The idea!' he snorted.'The idea!'