II
It has drawn recruits, in the second place, from that large body of the middle and working-class population which has no link with any of the organised Churches. Mr. George Haw, writing in the Daily News census volume of 1904, gave a picture of Sunday as spent by non-churchgoers in greater London. Among the artisans “the day opens with an idle morning, divided between nap and newspaper. After a late dinner the afternoon sees a saunter, sometimes with wife and children, through the streets, or a walk into Epping Forest … or by the banks of the Lea. An early supper and a pipe close the day.” That section of the working classes represented by clerks, shop assistants and warehousemen spent Sunday, as Mr. Haw had observed, in visiting and entertaining. “Thoughts of taking part in public worship are as far from their minds as thoughts of taking part in public life.” “Games and concerts in their little parlours beguile many a Sunday night.” Spiritualist lecturers to-day are teaching such people to “form home circles” for the evocation of spirits.