The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-01-05
LIFE IN EAST LONDON.
sir Walter Besant's Description of
the olive of Working Bees"
That He Knows So Well.

The dominant note of East London is
that it is a hive of working bees. There
are, it is true, few drones in it. They
are not the fat and luxurious drones
of the other London, those who live in
luxury without labor, and are down.
trodden with the curse of idleness. Our
drones, the East London drones, are
the residuum, the lees of humanity,
who cannot and will not work; they are
miserable, half-starved, skulking
drones. They beg, they thieve, they do
any thing with a willing hand so long
as it is not work. They dwell in the
slums; they are, in the language of
che day, the Submerged" but all OF
The kings horses and all Of the kings
men cannot drag them out of the
slough, nor can any river-not ALBANIA
or Pharpar, or even the Jordan itself
cleanse the Augean stable OF their
mind. The helping hand grows tired
of pulling and tugging at them; they
will not come; they sink back into
their male bolge; the black mud closes
over their heads. Let them be.
1t is city of working bees. AS we
| linger and loiter among the streets null
| titudinous, we hear, as from hive, the
| low, contented murmur of continuous
and patient work. There are 100000
of working people in this city. The
children work at school; the girls and
| boys, the men and women, work in fac
| tory, in shop, and at home; in dock and
| in wharf and in warehouse, all day long
and all the year round, these millions
work. They are clerks, accountants,
managers, foremen, engineers, stokers,
| porters, stevedores, lockers, smiths,
craftsmen of all kinds. They are girls
who make things, girls who sell things.
| There are among them many poor,
driven, sweated creatures, and the
sweaters themselves are poor, driven,
sweated creatures; for sweating once
begun is handed on from one to the
other as carefully and as reiigiously
as any holy lamp of learning. They
work from early morning till welcome
evening. The music of this murmur,
rightly understood is like the soft and
distant singing Of a hymn of praise.
| For the curse of labor has been mis-
understood; without work man would
be even as the beasts of the field. 1t
is the necessity of work that makes
him human; because he must, he de-
vises and discovers and invents; be-
cause he would die if he did not work,
he has to subdue the animal within him.
The animal is solitary; the man must
be gregariGus. He must make a friend
of his brother; he must obey the
stronger; he must make laws; he must
fight with nature, and compel her to
give up her secrets. 1t is only by means
of work that man can rise; it is his lad
der; in the sweat of his face he eats
his bread-yea, the bread of life. 1t
is not with any pity that we should
listen to this murmur. 1t should be
with pure contentment and gratitude;
for the murmur, though it speaks part
ly of the whir of ten thousand wheels
and partly of those who stand and
serve those wheels, speaks also of the
blessed quality of work, that it enables
men to use the body for the sake of
the soul Men must work
Imagine, if you can, what would fol-
low if you held up your hand and said:
''Listen, all. There will be no more
work. You may stop the engines, or
they may run down of their own ac-
cord. You may take off your aprons
and wash your hands. You may sit
down for the rest Of your lives. Your
food will be waiting for you when you
want it, Eat, drink and be happy if
you can" If they can! But can they,
with nothing to do-no work to do,
only, like the sheep in the field, to
browse, Or, like the wolves in the for
est, to rend and tear and slay?-Cen-
fury.