The Express.
London, England, 1865-01-09 00:00:00

THE HOMELESS POOR.

Although the aggregate number of casual paupers
admitted at the various metropolitan workhouses
during the week just past has been as much below
the accommodation provided as when Mr. Parnell
drew up his report, there have been such
wide differences in the number of applicants
at each as to call for more minute
statistics than have yet been given. Taking
the workhouses of St James, Westminster, of St.
Giles-in-the-Fields, of the Strand Union, and of
Bt. Martin's-in-the-Fields, as fair types of the rest,
it is striking to mark the discrepancy in the figures
returned by each. The establishment first named
is in Poland-street, Oxford•treet, but its new
casual wards, which have been duly approved by the
Poor-law Board, are entered from Dufour's-place,
a ciel de sew running out of Brad-street. We were
present during the reception of applicants last
Friday evening, noted the formalities of their
admission, inspected the process of bathing the
males, and examined the hou.seless poor books siooe
the commencement of the year. The little crowd
which were formerly assembled at the principal door
of the workhouse every evening prior to the hour
of admission is now warned off by a placard direct-
ing applicants to Dufour's-place, and threatening
all loiterer* with the terrors of the polio,. On
arriving at this ossual ward door we found that the
first batch of applicants had been admitted, that
the bell had been clogged from the inside to prevent
its ringing, and that the kicks and knocks of two
able-bodied visitors and a policeman failed to rouse
the janitor supposed to be at the gate. After
some delay, during which the women,
boys, and girls who were clustered iround the
entrance to the baths and washhonsecnext door,
indulged their humour by facetious allusions to the
compulsory bathing all people admitted must un-
dergo, the door was opened, and, after crossing a sort
of lumber-yard. we were as the booking-office of the
wards themselves. Theft are substantial sheds
built in • partially enclosed portion of
the yard, and have above them a huge
metal tank used as a tepid swimming
bath. They are warmed by hot air from the boilers
supplying thetaak, have the barrack beds, the mat-
tresses, the shelves for clothes, the ventilator, and
the bath-room, recommended by the Poor-law
Board, and are fair specimens enough of the place
of reception contemplated by the framers of the new
met. The department for men is on one side, that for
women and children on the other, and the names,
occupation, and last resting place of all comers, are
entered in the houseless poor book previously
described. The time for admission is eight o'clock,
and up to au hour later but five men, seven women,
and four children, presented themselves. Nor was
it probable that these numbers would be materially
increased, for, on the preceding night (sth Jan.),
but five men and five women were admitted ; on the
4th Jan.,l3 men and eight women ; on the 3rd Jan.,
seven mem, 12 women, and two children ; on the
2nd January, 7 men, 10 women, and 3 children ;
and on the let January, 6 men, 4 women, and 1
child. Beds are provided here for 20 men and 20
women, and the rule is that two children reckon as
one adult ; so that as the figures just given show
an average admittance of leas than 16 people a
night, it will be readily seen that some sixty per
seat. of the beds provided have been unoccupied.
The books at Bow-street show that during the week
ended 6th January but 16 men and 5 women, or
an average of three per night, were admitted into
the Strand Union Workhouse. in Cleveland-street ;
that in the week ended 30th December but 14 men
and 4 women ; and that in the week ended 23r.1
December but 9 men and 3 women ; and though
the figures make a sudden jump in the week before
this, in no case do they reach a total of seventy.
We should mention that but one of the persons
applling here during last week was refused an ad-
mission ticket, and that this refusal arose from the
double reason of the applicant being drunk, and
of his belonging to the adjacent pariah of St.
Odes. After smashing the lamp outside he was
provided for in one of the oells of the station itself,
and was subsequently sent to prison by the magis-
trate of the day. The Bow-street officials have
frequent communication with St. Giles's Workhouse,
and it is on their authority we state that on no
one evening have its casual wards been full. Passing
to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, we find the returns to
be so greatly in excess of those already quoted es
to defy summary generalization, and to almost
stagger credibility. During the week ended 24th
December 191. "casuals" were taken in ; during the
week ended 31st Deo., 243 ; and during the nights
of this year as follows :-Ist Jan., 36 ; 2nd Jan.
42 ; 3rd Jan., 48 ; 4th Jan.. 62 ; sth Jan., 50 ;
4th Jan., e4—or a total of 272 during the very six
nights hen the workhouse of St. James's, West-
minster, in Poland-street, had to accommodate 94,
and when that of the Strand Union had but 21
casuals within its gates.
. . .

The gradation in numbers may be readily marked,
either by the obstructions put in the pauper's way,
or the *mount of what he considers discomfort he
Las to endure. The guardians of St. Martin's have
not the certificate of the Poor-law Board, and
have consequently to pay out of their rates every
penny they expend on the casual poor. They do
not enforce the bath test, for the beat of all reasons,
they have erected no baths ; and though the
quantity of bread given out at night and morn-
ing is lees liberal than at the other two
workhouses, and is unrelieved by the tea
or gruel given at the latter, yet it would
seem that their mode of treatment is, on
the whole, exceedingly popular with the wayfarers
and wanderers who apply. The usual rug is here
supplemented by blankets, and this fact, coupled
with its central and prominent situation, the vici-
nity of the barracks, the constant, and, to the men-
dicant, lucrative traffic about it; doors, all tend
to make St. Martin's one of the best known and
moat numerously visited workhouses in the metro-
polis. even here, however we are soured that
there have been no refusal.; to admit within the
last few weeks, though it is not denied that were
the place completely full, the recommendation to
take the paupers to a common lodging-house would
not be carried out. It is unfortunate that a bitch
should have arisen between the authorities here
and the Board of Works. It is believed that the
entire block of buildings constituting this work-
house will shortly be purchased by the crown,
and it was argued that as the bill was only tem-
porary in the first place, and the abode
was far from permanent in the second,
it would be the height of imprudence to
build new casual wards unless re-imbursement
were certain. This was not made sufficiently clear
to those interested, and the result is that one of the
parishes nabitnally relieving ten times as many way-
farers as some of its neighbours cannot claim the
Necessary certificate. and has to pay every expense
it incurs out of the parochial pocket.
At the Poland-street workhouse the bath acts se
a preventive, at the Oleveland-street one the ordeal
at a police office is superadded to the bath, and the
figures we have given show how consistently and
uniformly each influence works. On the night we
were present during the bathing at the former
establishment we saw nothing to provoke indigna-
tion or excite pity—nothing, that is, either in the
mode of administering the law, or in its effect on
the people operated upon. We will not at this time
re-open the question as to the propriety or impro-
priety of compulsorily bathing all the ill-fed, half-
sled wretches who oome for shelter ; but confine
ourselves to the statement that the men we Raw
_ _ _

washing themselves from head to foot under watch- I
fill superintendence, and afterwards munching their
suppers in bed, did not appear to be harshly treated.
The water was of comfortable temperature, the bath
was of the ordinary kind, soap and towels were pro-
vided, and each pauper, as soon a► dried, trotted in
his shirt to ins bed on the other aide of a partition
in the same room. There were two young men who
looked muscular and hearty, one wbo was gaunt
sad wan, and a middle-aged Irishman, who was a
very tolerable specimen of the shifty, worthless,
do-nothing tramp. This man lied during his
examination with a fluent readiness which flourished
ea refutation, and only culminated after be bad
bees convicted several times. He confessed to
haring done no work for weeks, had astir begged,