The Labor enquirer., 1884-01-05
Iondon,s Horrors.

TheEhorrors of the poor of London are
the common subject of comment in all
all classes Of society in England, since
the subject has been shown up in its ap-
palling reality. TheIsketch of an inyes.
tigator is continued:
u We now arrive at house where the
staircase is SO pitch dark that I have to
grope my way up on my hands and knees.
This il one of the cheerful abodes where
forty-seyen human beings are packed
into six rooms. 1t is the strangest ex-
perience Ihave ever encountered. Here
in this hovel children are about to be
born; here women and men are dying;
here newborn infants are yelling for
food, guarded by baby nurses, whilst the
expectant mother is off on some errand /;
here children Of all ages and sizes swarm
about the filthy floor, with matted hair
and rags on their poor little bodies. By
the aid of the missionarv's umbrella we
mount to the top Of the house. We rap
at door and it is opened. A picture
frame maker lives here, but he is out of
work, as needs he must be, since,in the
first place, he has pawned his tools to get
bread, and, in the second, he has scarcely
sufficient clothing to 60 out and search
for employment. The wife is in bed, -
suffering from acute rheumatism; the fire
is almost out, and one of the children,
without any shoes Or stockings, is hug
ging the cat that is kept to insure an
absence of rats and mice for the! sake of
the wretched people compelled to lie on
the floor. We hear no grumbling, no
com plaint, no execration, no despairing
cry; even these poor folk, with their
empty stomachs and their fireless CRATES,
listen to prayer when it is offered up,
though it sounds strangely in such
place and under such circumstances.
Talk to these people of the workhouse
and they refuse to discuss the question
further. The workhouse means separa-
ton from husband and child. They
would sooner starye or die here than
that. I thought had seen already the
filthiest of conceivable rooms, the frow.
ziest of tenements, the grimiest of pow
erty. Men on straw and women in sack
ing, rooms denuded of anything in the
shape of furniture, empty cupboards
starved children, gloom and a despair
beyond description all these I had wit
messed. But had not yet come to Blue
Anchor alley. It.was here the mission
ary watched child, the other day, wait
until the back Of the cats-meat man
was turned, and then rend and devour a
lump of horsefesh in corner. Let us
mount to the topmost story of enc of the
hogels. 1t is tenanted by shoeblack
who lost his health years ago from work.
ing in whitehead factory. The room
is DO small that two strangers can scarcely
squeeze into it. It was SO dark and filthy
that for moment thought was in a
cellar. Squatting on the ground, within
aninch Of the fading fire, was the wife,
eaten up with rheumatism and trying to
coax little warmth out of the cinders
The smell of the room was appalling
every now and then child would
emerge out of the gloom, and at last, tc
my surprise, voice came forth from q
filthy rug on the bed in a flthier corner
The shoeblack had come home with a
bronchial cough, and, except in the case
of the children, it was sad sick-room
One would have thought that not an
other human being could have beer
squeezed into this dirty den, and yet the
wretched folk have been compelled tc
let off a grimy corner in their room tt
another woman and her offspring, 8
woman who by and by would come home
to her corner lodging, where she woulc
have to get rest as best she could in {
room belonging to family in whom she
had no interest, and in whose domestic
conversation she could not share. 1
/ was relief 10 get free from the foul ant
fetid atmosphere Of this loathsome court
and to find myself at last on the platform
Of the Shadwell station, in q dark ant
1 seemingly forgotten and neglected world
/ Bur the new pamphlet, Evolution o
Revolution" For sale at this Office
price, Is cents.