The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-15

tress as that at present prevailing
among the poor Of London has been
known here in many years, and the
question of coping with the difficulty is
one now absorbing the attention Of
some of England's best thinkers.
Of course there is always a condi-
ton of poverty in London such as one
seldom sees anywhere else, a poverty
so unspeakably sordid that mere words
could never convey a perfect impress
sion of it-a pinched, soulless, death
like poverty, so completely abject as
to pass the comprehension of those
who have not touched and felt it-a
living phase of humiliation comparable
only to the living pictures of starva-
ton one sees in India during the prevH
alence of the plague.
1t was my lot a few days ago to
witness one of these parades of the
unemployed with which Londoners
have become so familiar.
1t started somewhere in the East
End, Mile End road 1 believe, and when
it reached Hyde Park numbered some
five thousand persons. The scene was
terribly striking and sad. Those in
the front Of the procession tried to
raise a song. and struck up in the
'Marseillaise," but there was no re-
Spouse from the ranks. The men had
no heart to sing. They tramped along
like prisoners being led or pushed along
TO execution. Hl-clad, ill-shod, spirit
less and sloUching, they We're the very
incarnation Of mortal distress. Most
of them were staggering as they grew
weary in the march, and the deathlike
palIOr Of their faces told the story Of
the relentless internal work of the mi
crobe Of famine. Many of them were
understood and emaciated, showina
that they could boast the birthright of
having been born in London slumS-a
ConsumptiVe tendency. There were old
men who would never work again.
and young men perhaps who had never
worked, but there were others who
were Enthusiastically members of the
great labOring class. The trained OBJ
server could pick out the voorhees,
NAVY, the leatherworker from the
BermOndsey swamp" the stunted tail
or from the Whitechapel sWeatshops
and the double-spectacled matchmaker
from ClerkenwelI.
1t seemed to me like the march Of
an army of specters rather than men,
Even the collectors ratified their boxes
In istless manner, as If it mattered
not If they ever got filled or not, for
perhaps the game was after all hardly
worth the candle
While these people were marching
TO Hyde Park, where speeches were
ultimately made and collections taken
up, another great crowd was surging
in the direction Of CamberwelI, for the
distress in South London keeps pace
with that in the East End.
In every thOrOughfare converging to
Albany road there was to be seen a
pitiful stream of pinched, scantily-
clothed, badly-shod, often shoeless.
women and children. They are all CO.
ing to the great soup kitchen started
by X. White d Co., the ginger beer
Many Of these persons had walked
miles: The utensils they carried were
of all shapes and all sizes. Some
brought pickle and jam jars, and others
wash hand jugs and mantel orna-
ments.
The soup kitchen is probably the
largest and best appointed in London.
Between 1000 and 5000 poor people
look away quart or more of this
nouffshing soup, and their famished
looks We're eloquent of their need.
Women furuvely hid their jugs I'M
der their shawls in the endeavor to
conceal their dire poverty from their
neighbOrs; others, for the same reason,
carried utensile in bags.
Many of the demagogues who hold
forth at the open air meetings Of the
unemployed and in fact not few
of the students of the question, attrib-
ute the pitiful condition Of these I'M
fortunateS to the unres tricted dump
ing on these shores of paupers from the
continent.
A sample of prices paid for labor
In some occupations is offered through
the statements made by the applicants
Tor relief at one Of the warehouses.
From these 1t appears that keeping
the wolf from the door in London is
condition, not a theory. One woman.
widow with four children to support
SAID her only means of making a liv-
ing was by covering whalebones for
ladies' dresses, for which she was paid
cent and a half a gross. Another
widow with small family, one of
whom was blind kept body and soul
together by sewing fur at a cent a.
yard. A wife, whose husband had
been lost In the shuttle for bread, and
who had blind child to support, fin
lshed trousers at cents a pair, an
other woman was employed making
babies shoes, which included soleing
them with leather and making button
holes, etc, at cents to Z cents Der
dozen pairs.
Other women testified to making
match boxes for 1-2 cents a gross,
nndlng their own paste and Irvine.
Dolls arms were made by another
woman, who provided all the materials.
Tor 20 cents gross of pairs. In fact
the wages paid to SCTne of these folks
are incredible.
A prominent East End clergyman.
IN speaking OF the foreign invasion
from the pulpit, recently said that the
alien question was rapidly assuming
menacinS proportions and that unless
the government did something to en-
able an Englishman to live in his own
way there would be trouble ere long.
He said that he soon expected to see
military called out to quell riots, for
II the government did not bestir itself
the people would take the matter into
their own hands.
1t is not the cheap continental la
Dor alone with which the native has
to contend. Go to any English port
where they have docks for ocean ship
ping and you will find the docks
sWarming with Lascars and Chinese.
The Seamen and Firemen's union Is
having the fight of its life now on this
question, and If half it's officers say
about the situation be true it is a dis
grace to the owners of the British
mercantile marine.
One of the officials said to me:
There are about $4,000 Lascars in our
English ships today, no fewer than 1000
have been introduced last year. In
the meantime our men are starving
and hanging around the shipping
wharves waiting for work The trouble
arises from the greed and parsimony
of ship owners.
The lord mayor Of London-a ship
owner, prefers Cinnamon and carries
them in ships under his control for
cheapness. One left London last week