I have called this chapter The Battle of the Music Halls, and well, I think, does the title epitomise the story I have to tell.
It is a dual story. It shows Frederick Charrington himself going into the gravest personal danger, and fighting the most tremendous of fights with a few devoted adherents, and it also tells of efforts made in the newly-constituted forum which was to rule the destinies of London—the London County Council.
I will begin with the "Battle of the Music Halls" proper.
In connection with Mr. Charrington's campaign against the music-halls of the East End, and one in particular, one of the most sensational law cases upon record held the public mind for a considerable time.
I shall shortly quote from those legal proceedings, shall draw upon a store of drama, unequalled in the history of Evangelism.
And, as an introduction, I shall tell certain facts of the inner history of this affair which have never yet been published, and which I have wrung from Mr. Charrington, with his reluctant consent to use them.
Let me begin, then.
Mr. Charrington's attention was first called to the question of music halls by something that a poor man, to whom he was speaking one day, said to him.
This poor fellow was in great distress of mind, and in the course of the conversation, he was asked if he was a married man.
His reply was, "No; those reptiles at —— ruined my wife."