, 1884-06-24
LONDoNis DARK I D
The struggle for ExIstenee.-Hun-
gers DREADFUL Eareh---scsnes
OF Destitutton Around the
Palace Walls.

49, 1851 80
After realizing tbs statistics of animal food
produced and Imported into England, ono
finds 1t difficult to believe that tho poor
rarely taste such food, unless in the repul-
sive form of refuse and ofral. Tho English
are a nation Of beef-eaters, says tradition.
Behold the proof, says statistics. But the
fact is that tradition is out OF date and the
statistics out Of place. The English gem
orally were once u nation of beef eaters
The English of the aristocratic and middle
classes are still a nation OF beef-eaters, but
the English of the plebeian classes only
know what beef is by its remote relation to
cast-off food. butchers scraps, street bones,
offnl. drippings, rotten eggs and other putrid-
itics. In London the cast-of food business Is
OF important dimensions After the food of
the wealthy classes has passed the double
orleal OF the dining and kitchen tables it is
sold by the cook or scullion by the poun4
and purchased by merchants, who sort, ar
range and sell it again, chiefly to the chop
houses and cook shops frequented by the
poor. The ~@drippings" business is still moro
Important. What in America is called soap
fat, " the drippings of beef, mutton, pork,
fish, the grease and muck of the kitchen, is
called in England drippings. Instead of
being made into soap it becomes the butter
OF the poor. After being "tried,h clarified
and cooled by the manufactures, 1t is sold
to the grocers and by the latter to the poor,
and even the "lower middle" classes, and by
them spread upon their bread and eaten with
contentment, IL not gusto.
A CALLING.
The street bone and uffal business I leave
to the Imagination, except SO Ear as asserting
upon most creditable authority that there is
no sort Of animal refuse, however dirty or
disgusting. which the poor of London nre not
obliged to consume in some shape or another.
The rntton-egg business is peculiar and l can
speak OF 1t from observation. There are
dealers, seyerally, in fresh-laid eggs, packed
eggs preserved eggs, cracked eggs and hard
eggs. The two latter classes are often merged
together. There are certain manufacturers
who use the commodities for other
purposes than food, such as sizing
for bookbinders, glovemakers, p~apermakers
and as cement for glassware, etc.
There are others again who use them for
food, as bakers and confectioners. Some use
the yolk. some tho white, some both parts.
A large portion OF the cracked and bad eggs,
however, are sold directly to the poor, who
are very glad to get them for food. Fresh
laid eggs vary from . to 4 cents each, Mt re-
tail, according to the season. Cracked and
stale eggs eau be b5ught for l cant each and
less, according to condition. l have seen a
poor woman with two cracked eggs in a pa
per enter II cook shop, purchase a cup Of hot
coffee for a penny, boil the cracked eggs in
the coffee and eat them with a crust of bread
which she iished out of her pocket. She told
me she was q charwoman (chorewomnn or
house cleaner; ono who does odd work about
Il house where, usually, no servant is kept5
and had to have "hauiaIhl food hevery day
TO keep up my 'eaith, as l works very ard,
n does" Poor human machine, the very
dogs of London are better fed.
P~ovERTY's MEASs.
The practice of the guest bringing his own
food to DO cooked is n common one even
among classes Rnydegrees above poverty.
For example,, a young clerk on, say G30'a
year viii buy a chop at the Leadenhal mar
ket for his midday-perhaps his only solid"
meal and take it to u neighboring chop
house where it is cooked for him and served
with a piece OF bread for a penny. The
chop, half a pound of mutton, has cost 4
pence; total cost of solid meal, 5 pence. In
Paris | saw an old veteran soldier, one who
wore several medals, entor u soup-house on
the Rue Honore, buy a bow of hot bouielle-
a-bRise~for 8 cents, produce a roll OF bread
from his pocket and thus make a solid meal
for 3 cents, In France evea soup is consid-
erDd solid. Tn butcher-scrap business in
London affords, perhaps, tho most striking
proof OF the extremities TO which the poor
aie Fe1uCtu lOE lnuee nlLFOkenOuS clements
of food which a cold and wet climate
renders indispensable. The retail butcher
shops are open from dawn until about IL
o'clock at night, when they begin to close.
At this late hour there Is no chance of any
further demand for whole meats. Bot now
commences the trade in scraps. These con-
sist of ouch refuse as in America is thrown
to the dogs or given to the "swill' man. In
London the demand for il as human food is
30 strong that children are sent to stand in a
line and take their turn in purchasing the
coveted refuse at 10 and l2 cents per pound.
This trade continues up to l o'clock in the
morning, when the last little pauper is sent
home to his sxpectant parents with his six
penny worth of refuse, the gas is t turned oil,
and the butcher shuts up his shop, l have
often been r witness to such scenes, the first
one Of which made a strong impression on the
mind. Returning from the theatre at a late
hour, l passed along Buckingham Palace
road, and looking down Brewster street, a
little street to the left and within a few yards
of the palace OF that queen whose income
would support all the poor OF London tthe
revenues, salaries, emoluments and pensions
OF the royal family nearly equal the entire
amount expended on the poor, l saw this
sight:
A GAs-BURNING BUTCHER.
There was u butcher shop, brilliantly
lighted. Three men were TO be seen within.
There was not Il piece OF meat in sight, but
on one side OF the shop there were, say, 100
small packages in straw paper. On the OPP
posite side of the street from the butcher
shop were about 100 children, varying in
age from 7 to 10 years. These children
stood in a compact body. They did not dare
70 wander from the mass or to cross the
street, under penalty of not being served.
Each child held q ticket in its hand. Upon
this ticket was printed a number. Every
moment one OF the men in the shop would
shout out a number, when the child who
held the ticket with that number upon IL
would separate itself from the mass oppo-
site, dart across the street into the butcher
shop, give up the ticket, receive ono of the
brown-paper packages and run home as fast
as its little legs could carry it Tho gloom
had swallowed up a dozen Of these children
before 1 could ascertain the reason OF their
mysterious conduct A few pennies UNI
locked their tongues. j got a portion OF the
explanation from one and a portion from
another. No one could explain the thing
entirely. They did not know how ignorant
] was and they were SO inpatient TO get
home. 1t was a cold night and some of them
had been waiting nearly two hours for their
turn. How Punched and poverty -striclsen
they looked, how hungry, how cold And
how stout and well fed seemed the queens
lackeys who were opening tho gates Of the
palace, hard by. to stable the fst horses and