Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-08-07
From the illustrated New York Newsl
what have seen in Lo n d o N.
by OUR rRAvELLING EpIroR.

narrow table almost touches the extremities Of the
room, and along each side, runs wooden bench
roughly constructed, which is the only seattle place
affords The knives and forks chained to the Ia
BILE. Strange implements they are, and thief, one
would think, must be reduced to shifts indeed, II
they could offer him temptation. Almost every
fork has lost of its prongs, and every knife has
been notched and otherwise abused. The plaster has
mostly fallen from the walls, the very laths are cut
away, and the naked bricks ard rude masonry are
exposed. The ceiling is bIackened with tobacco
smoke of years, ascending every night from over an
hundred pipes. The filth that is accumulated IS seldom
cleared away, but is swept into heaps IN the corners
and remains there for weeks. A stencil pervades
the place, and horrible moisture settles upon the
walls. This room every night has the appearance
of market place, where beggars yend, and where
beggars are the purchasers A dim light suspended
! from the roof. The daily contributions of the
charitable in articles of food and clothing, are here
disposed Of what one has, another lacks. Bread is
at discount, and meat is at premium. Old coats,
old boots and shoes, old hats and old gowns, are
freely bartered for tobacco and gin. Old women
from neighboring rag and clothes shops attend to
buy, and candle makers send their agents to collect
mutton fat. A fidder-one of themselves-paid for his
services in tobacco and spirits, strikes up his merry
music; dancing commences, and goes on till mid
night, and sometime far into the morning. Under
the sun or moon, save in such lodging houses such
dancing and such dancers were never seen. Those
who during the day have been lame, blind par
alysed, Jig in turn, and shake theirlegs unto the
There may be aching hearts in May Fair or Begrave
Square, but here the rollicking god makes all his
creatures happy. Burns has pictured the scene in
his Jolly Beggars," and he is the laureate of the
night.
/ Would YOU know what kind of dormitories these
people nhabt, come with me, and we will enter one,
which will serve as a specimen of the rest. Mind
how you ascend the rickety staircase. The atmos-
phere is inolerably foul, and you feel that weeks
confinement in such den would cause your death.
constantly reeking from the floor, must materially
tend 10 shorten life, there can be dispute. Well,
/ these the beds. Heaps of straw, matted with
long service, each with one sheet that is never
washed, but, as you see, is almost as black as the
hat which is your head-and filthy foul rug,
which coverlid. The sleepers have no other
covering in summer winter. These beds change
their occupants, perhaps, every night for beggar
seldom sleeps two consecutive nights in the same
place. Do not approach too near them, for they
alive with loathsome vermin How many sleep in
this room, at time? There are twenty-five beds in
a rOOm thirty feet by fourteen, and in each bed
two, and sometimes three placed. When the
landlord is doing good business, he puts three
dodgers in every bed Seyenty-fve sleepers in that
confined space! For such accommodations each
rGger pays six cents per night, always in advance
And this is quite respectable lodging house. There
are four cent lodging houses, with accommodations
not near good, where there is only straw without
any covering, through all the seasons. And there are
but only bare boards, rotting beneath crustation
of dirt and filth, which is never washed off.
These are professed beggars, and although their
Suerngs are at times great they must not be cassed
with the deserving poor. You will see the latter lin
gering at night at the doors of warehouses. have
seen some two hundred of them, on winters even
ng when the frost has sharply bound up the lakes in
the parks and the fountains in Trafalgar Square, shv
ering in semi-nudty, on the bare and bitter pave
ment, waiting for admission. The houses of the
rich, where lap-dogs were fed on hot and savoury
steaks, on dantier poultry, standing around
and the heavens were as brass 10 the walls of the
wretched crowd. / have fairly staggered at such
sights. / remember that occasion, a man
dropped dead in the street where was while on his
way TO the workhouse and ii proved, on enquiry.
that he fell from exhaustion being starved TO death
They sit and lie before the warehouses, at such
} times huddled almost upon one another, and form
ing such groups of hungry, squalid and degraded
humanity not seen elsewhere by the Sun
wherever any dialect of the old Saxon tongue is spo-
E ken: Old and young, men, women, children, and
babies, grove on those bleak stones, till the stones
: themselves seem hard-hearted for affording them
such deadly rest OF the number that apply for adj
misSion-to be turned out again the next morning
perhaps onehalf will be rejected who must shelter
themselves under the dry arches of the bridges,
creep into hidden doorways up narrow alleys where
The police not likely to find them; if they were
found, they would be seized and taken before
gstrate TO be punished for being homeless and with
out food. Many Of them do not dread this punish
ihehI out VIII seek 10 deSerV9 IL Dy more CRIMINAL
conditions than enforced indulgence, and helpless
hunger. They will break street lamps and trades
S mems windows to get months Imprisonment, with
food and rest and shelter for that period. Others,
and the majority, have prouder spirit. They will
escape prison by the help of God. Be the crime
OF starvation not theirs but society's; they will
make clean end of it. Their number is very great
There are fifty thousand of them it is said in Lon
don, who rise every morning without knowing where
. TO procure breakfast. God be with them.
y In the streets of London | have seen women and
+ children contending for the possession of bone
: thrown from the slash of the kennel. / have seen
boys fight and bruSe each other for crust of bread
dropt upon the pavement. have entered the abodes
OF this desperate poverty, led thilher by children
n who have clamored at my side for aims and found
s such scenes words inadequate to express.
, have the living unable to RISE in the same bed
J. with the dying and the dead | have known an In
stance where living man, in stout, strong health
batting only the eXhausng effects of priyation and
II sorrow, has been compelled TO seek repose on the
e straw where lay the body of his dead wife, his chill
i dren occupying the floor, and there being in the
room neither chair in which he could seat himself
nor table on which he could stretch himself for rest
It have seen an infant crawl for nourShment to its
u dead mothers breast, and there was not in all tho
house the value of cent to buy it food have seer
wife, following her husband tc the grave, drop il
the road and die before medical assistance could bt
procured. post norton examination proved tina
J. she died from hunger.
u, Let no one say that there are charitable asylum
:. enough in London to supply all needs there are
not; or if there are their doors-eud appeal 10 al
II Englishmen who know anything about the working
of the Poor Law System in their country, whether
do not record the truth-are closed in three
e out OF FIVE against the applicant Charity in Lon
don is suspicious, and its is chilling to the