The representative., 1900-10-25
EnGllsh Poverty.

\I00 COuSerV8tOI, fnllaQelp0la, Sept.s
19oo.)
Never was distinction so sharp be-
tween the poor-the sullen poor who
stand scornfully and desperate at the
street corners-and the well-to-do. The
contrast now extends to every one who
can afford black coat. It Is not con-
fined to the millionaire. The contrast
is with every black coat. Those who
only see the drawing room side of So
ciety, those who move, too, in the we'll
oiled atmosphere of commercial offices,
are quite ignorant of the savage ami
mostly which watches them to and from
the Office or the drawing room from the
street corner. Question it is if any
medieval soldiery bursting abroad in
Sinigaglia were so brutal as is the street
rough, that blot and hideous product Of
modern civilization. How easy it is to
point to sobriety and the good sense Of
the working class and smile in assum-
ed complacency! What have the sober
AhcSo VI tAC WI hAA6 CioSo " wv '" ACA
it? No more than you or l, or the
Rothschilds, or dukes of royal blood.
There the thing is, and it requires no
great sagacity to see that the present
mode of dealing with it is failure, and
likely to become worse. If you have
gunpowder, you should not put it under
hydraulic pressure. You should not stir
il up and hold matches to it to see if it
is there. That is what prosecutions
and imprisonments do.
Hydraulic pressure, in the name Of
science, progress, temperance and SINH
lar prevented things, is being put on the
gunpowder-or the dynamite, if you
like-of society. Every now and then
some individual member of the Army
of Wretches turns and becomes the
Devil of modern civilization. Modern
civilization has put out the Spiritual
Devil and produced the Demon of Dyna-
mite Let me raise voice, in pleading
for more humane treatment Of the poor
the only way by which society can
narrow down and confine the operations
of this new devil. A human being is
not a dog, yet is treated worse than a
dog.
Force these human dogs to learn to
read with empty stomachs-stomachs
craving for a piece of bread while edu-
cation is crammed into them. In man
hood, if unfortunate, set them to break
stones. If imbecility intervene, give
them bread and water. In helpless age
give them the cup of cold water. This
is the way to breed dynamite. And
then at the other end of the scale let
your Thames Embankment boulevard
be the domain of the street rough; let
your Islington streets he swept by bands
of brutes; let the we'll dressed be afraid
to venture anywhere unless in the glare
Of gas and electric light! Manufacture
it in one district and give it free scope
and play in another. Yet never was
there an age in which the mass of So
ciety, from the titled to the cottager,
was so full of real and true humanity,
so ready to start forward to help so i'm
bued with the highest sentiments. The
wrong is done in official circles. No
steel clad Norman baron days, no ruth
less red stockinged cardinal, with the
Bastile in one hand and the tumbril IN
the other, ever ruled with so total an
absence of heart as the modern "of
ficial," the tyrant Of the Nineteenth CEN
tury, whose rods are hobbies in the
name of science miscalled, in the name
of temperance prevented, in the name
of progress backwards, in the name of
education without food. 1t is time that
the common sense of society at large
rose in revolution against it.
RICHARD JEFFERIES.