New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-05-10
NOTES OF A JOURNEY,
WANT IN D-CONSERvATlsM IN Hull
LAND-THE ART UNIVERSAL.
Ronn am Rhein. April %.

reaching England after ten-years absence wac
the evident increase of want. Not only Dy inc
aged and the infrm, but by the Destitute Oh all
ages: despite the law, even by children. VINO
are so Young that they can scarcely speak piainV'
YOU are everywhere besieged for penny 10 puy
n bite to eat. Neither are they imposters' 90
too many are made to believe. II you VIII Ioi-
low these same people to the damp cells thaO
they call home, and see how they live. or ratner
wonder they do not die, you VIII undersVan'
something of the desperation little short of starva-
ton that drives them out at all Eours oil oaS
and night to beg. In Liverpool month ago.
with air full and pavement covered with snow, In
. ,vaI, of about two miles between twelve and one
o,clocx at night. I counted thirteen barefooted
bors and Girls irving TO sell box OF matches
or n flower. or sing song, or beg penny; some
of whom. when given something TO eat devoured
H. like famished beasts. What better can they
do? There is no work. The season is late ana
all kinds of provisions short in supply, and conse-
ouently high in price. worthy woman ABOVE
the insnuation of shamming, cried as she uoi"
me that bread had just gone up three ma pence
the nound and penny on the baking. Her
husband / met frequently. He is representa-
tive skilled workman, an expert machinist, m
dustrious teetotaller and very intelligent After
seven years apprenticeship, his wages are only
TWENTY-FIVE shillings S5 34) per week when III
full time, which often he is not; with wife ana
four children to support This is fair picture
Of the best of them. What can be guessed OF
the others? This growing restitution is certainly
not for the want of asylums and warehouses, and
police officers and detectives, and laws Inc
number of these and the enormous penalties
for small offences, is something appalling. Yet
paupersm is certainly on the increase in Eng
7 lar Holland.
cities and small in the country, and among some
of the poorest classes of people, without being
once asked for aims or even seeing beggar The
same is true of Germany, with the single exception
of an old soldier who had lost a limb IN an en-
gagement against the French. The children OF
the poor are better clothed, better fed and better
housed than in England 1t is no wonder that
these wretched people, with nothing to do and
no way Of learning how to do anything outlawed
by those more fortunately situated, should take
to drink and that you continually running
over drunken men, and having drunken women
stumble against YOU. One night in an English
city / heard child crying piteously Crossing
the street, found that tlT father was trying 70
carry little girl about eight years old, but
was staggering that the child, at every reel
would scream for fear of being dashed against
the pavement She begged me to take her. |
gerng along to show the way. When saw the
idrained, mouldy pestilence breeding cellar that
he called home could pity but scarcely blame
him.
One understands better after numbers Of such
sights the working of the Salvation Army. With
all its eXtravagances and useless poundings, 1t
speaks to thousands of people who never knew
friend before. On Easter Sunday, in what is
called I believe, Rag Tag Alley" Liverpool l
watched a Salvation woman-evidently a true
woman-while she was telling about fifty children
of all ages something about Easter. After speak
ing of Christ in manger, she asked:
How many of you ever slept in bed, real
bed?
Only three hands went up do not know what
it is but there is something radically wrong in
civilization no matter how splendid, of which
such scenes as this are outgrowth. 1t is no
wonder that hundreds of thousands OF these people
strain every nerve to get to America. If there
were any way to walk all of them would start and
We should then have in all what we now have in
MARIA most difficult social problem TO face, for
whose complications we are not at all responsible,
and whose solution does not in any just sense be-
long TO us.
Many of those in better circumstances who come
seem to have an eve to business from the start.
A bright young Irishman, knowing my business,
came TO me one day TO ask about situation IN
America. / told him there was plenty to do for
those who were honest, loyal and able and will
ing TO work.
"Warl5.s he yelled with disdain; och, its not
warx Pm ahfther Pm wantin gavernmlnt
clarkship, or to be perlicemun."
Another outgrowth of this civilization creates
even greater surprise to a young American IL Is
the aimlessness of the lives Of many OF the men
who belong to the titled classes A prominent
London paper of last week claims special credit
for Sir John -, the most popular man IN "aies,
because for twenty-five years he has gwen mmSeir
over to otter and fox hunting, and has the pc
culiar talent of being able to hunt both these AMI
mails from the same pack of hounds. Sir James
- has magnificent appetite; Sir Charles -
is honorably distinguished as one OF the pest
judges of drinks in the country; no one can hoid
his own against Lord - at FEAST ana he
corder - is a great gourmet
MANY Of the younger men, who cannot be con-
tent vet with merely eating and drinking, instead
of spending their splendid energies to uplirt thei
fellow men, divide their time between the chase
and the raeecourses. One Of them. Lord -, Is
busy taking bets of 100 to 80 on his two-year-oio
colt another Sir X. -, has won tl7,ooo al
Sandown and plays fine game OF oiiiiarus'
another Colonel -, so far this season has won
ES ,000 beside an equal amount IN slde De's' anu
expects TO win f2 900 and the Derby before the
season is over It is astonishing how little good
the so-ealled best blood of England is doing for
her to-day. While Lord - is following pack
of hounds across a farmers fields, throwing his
fences and trampling his grain-for which there Is
no redress-a poor man is fined ten ShliilngS ior
being detected on the way home to his hungry
children with n hare that he found caught In
hedge.
An American is amused at such official compl-
cations as the following, which is but one OF many
similar expressions of anxiety upon the same
question in all the leading Conservative papers;
The health of Prince Eddie is giving a great
dol % oInvio,,, in hgh places. IL does not i'm