The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1873-11-13
ENGLAND's POOR.
The Dark Side OF English Lifo


The Dark sid OF English Life.
Lecture BY the Author Of "Giux's Baby"
The amazing vitality and wealth OF
England ~transtix the foreigner with as
constituent. The endless streets Of no.
Bile mansions in Belgravia and May Fair,
the magnifcence Of the merchants, the
shipping on the rivers, gives the specta-
tor ideas of fabulous wealth, among
which il would seem impossible for
poverty 10 have a place, But there exists
Il poverty and degradation so terrible
that it is q greater marvel than the
gDlendOr which covers it. ] stood the
other day gazing at the magnificent pile
of buildings in London erected on the
plans Of England's greatest architects
Where all these now stand, | used eight
years ago to visit week after week the
population Of the artisan and laboring
classes. Here were alleys with rude
tcncments occupied by families, each
occupying one room. The population
was 10 dense that in one square were
1000 people. There was an innumerNble
quantity Of giu-shops, which could not
be diminished by prayer-meetings, or
churches, on bibles. What use was it
10 preach temperance and morality
where the circumstances made them not
merely solf-dcnial, but martyrdom ?
But the government walked IN and
showed ont these people. Where were
they to go? They had to live near their
work. The SINGLE ones got quartered
on families, occupying Il share OF the
room AMI Il ninth Of the bed. The
families got into cellars or encroached
on other families; got into holes like
spiders. Intolerable are the conditions
Of life Of a %populace packed like that.
Health is simply II name for modified
disease. All they care for is II nights
lodging, Most of them live in the
streets all day. You look at ahuge ami
nal cruelty striking the thin creature
which strives to guide him hOmeward.
You see boys of ten or twelve with old,
hard faces and cunning eyes, taking
their brandy and cigars. Considering
how they all live, what is left to them
but to seek nopenthe in suicide or in
toxication? In England I have heard
men deny these things, which existed
around the corner. This picture, you
say, is that Of a philanthropist. 1t is
true of almost every district in London
where tue poor cOngregate. 1t is true
not only of London, but of hundreds
and thousands of other places. 1t is re-
ported that there are &c, 900 houses in
Liverpool occupied by families in single
rooms; that Mt least one-third of the
population of that city were living in
that condition. What are their rooms
like In rnomN AZ feet and II feet high |
lived eight persons, paying n rent of
four shIllings per week. Some Of the
rooms are occupied by relays Of human
animals. Persons attending ut the thea
ters let them out to market people who
begin thcir work when the others cease,
We can give worse examples than that.
Sir james Simpson visited n man living
Mt the top Of the house in whose Don
was an OF M pig, He asked the
man, GLOW did this pig get up here?'
"Surc, said he, che never WAS down
Let us hasten to breathe the purer
air Of the country. There, amid clipped
hedges, the fields OF wheat, where the
meauest dwellings, are covered with run
ming vines, there, at all events, You say,
we shall find health md happiness. You
talk with the old, bent man, who is still
toiling with the spade, and he takes you
to his garnet, where he has slept with
seven or eight others for 10 or 20 years.
Or if you are a novelist, you may have
storiestcld You Of the verydepth Of wick
educss Of this fair country. Earning
two or three dollars per week, the fami-
lies regularly fall back in the winter
upon the poor rates. Such in many II
country OF England is this lot OF those
who till the soil. Now when you con-
slider these facts you may begin to think
of the problem that English reformers
have to face. | can only say this If
you were to go out INTO the street md
think that every seventh mar was re-
cejving help from your pocket, or one
man in every twenty of those yon would
meet in the country, you may lmaginelt