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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40122 ***
+
+GLIMPSES INTO THE ABYSS.
+
+
+
+
+GLIMPSES INTO THE ABYSS
+
+
+BY
+MARY HIGGS
+
+Author of "The Master", "How to deal with the Unemployed"
+
+
+LONDON:
+P. S. KING & SON
+ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
+1906
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+The author has conducted social research for a number of years on an
+original plan.
+
+Securing a lodging where a destitute woman could be accommodated, and
+providing cleansing and dress, she has steadily taken in through a
+period of six years every case of complete destitution that came to her,
+willing to undergo remedial treatment. The work grew; accommodation for
+four was provided, with two paid helpers. The small cottage used acts as
+a social microscope, every case being personally investigated as to past
+life, history, and present need, and dealt with accordingly. The writer,
+as Secretary to the Ladies' Committee of Oldham Workhouse, next became
+personally acquainted with the working of the Poor-law and studied it by
+means of books also. By degrees the Rescue work came to cover
+Police-court and Lodging-house work, and, as there was no other Shelter
+in Oldham, cases of all sorts came under her notice. She thus studied
+personally the microbes of social disorder.
+
+By degrees she came to understand the existence of certain "classes"
+(classifying them much as observation led her to classify objects
+observed in physical studies). Also, she clearly perceived that causes
+were at work leading to rapid degeneration, and was led to pre-suppose
+currents working for social destruction.
+
+She then commenced investigating remedial agencies and interrogating
+social observers. She found among them a similar experience of great
+waste and lack of salvage through defects not to be remedied by private
+action.
+
+This led her more and more to consider national aspects of the question.
+She visited personally Hadleigh Farm Colony, questioned experts at West
+Ham, visited and interrogated Police, Prevention of Cruelty to Children
+officers, Vigilance officers, and others; and by degrees obtained a
+mass of information. But still the root problems of poverty remained
+dark to her, and she became convinced that nothing but accurate and
+scientific exploration of the depths would reveal the currents leading
+to degradation.
+
+After the idea dawned upon her, some months elapsed before she felt able
+to arrange to face the ordeal, but during this time proofs accumulated
+of the uselessness of any other methods. She reflected that exploration
+was the method of science, and became herself an explorer of "Darkest
+England." The results amply justified the experiment. She has now
+carried through the following explorations, each time with increasing
+knowledge:--
+
+(_a_) A tour through West Yorkshire, embracing one municipal, one common
+lodging-house, two tramp wards, and a women's shelter.
+
+(_b_) An investigation into a Lancashire tramp ward.
+
+(_c_) Investigation of a Salvation Army Women's Shelter.
+
+(_d_) An investigation into the lodging-house conditions in a
+neighbouring town.
+
+(_e_) An investigation into conditions in women's lodging-houses in a
+Lancashire centre.
+
+(_f_) Investigation into a London casual ward; also enquiry and
+investigation as to women's lodging-houses in London.
+
+These investigations have placed her in possession of facts which form
+the basis of the introductory essay.
+
+In addition, however, her possession of experience and knowledge have
+opened to her many sources of information not available to the general
+public. She has received much private information embodied in these
+pages, and has had the privilege of attending and taking part in
+official discussions. Also by visits to a common lodging-house she
+obtained much light on the views of the class that occasionally find
+themselves in the tramp ward. She has also collected information from
+the Press, and studied the literature obtainable which threw light on
+vagrancy legislation in other countries.
+
+Recently she has visited Denmark and had the privilege of investigating
+the working of the Poor-law system. The official view was obtained, and
+workhouses, etc., visited, and the system seen in operation. But also by
+a visit to Salvation Army Headquarters in Copenhagen, and from other
+sources, she obtained as thorough an idea as possible of the actual
+working of the nation's remedies for poverty. Also the connection of the
+Poor Law with the Municipality was studied.
+
+She also undertook a literary investigation into deterioration of human
+personality, viewed from the psychological, medical, and religious
+points of view, writing an essay which won the Gibson Prize at Girton
+(1905).
+
+It seemed to be the necessary corollary to the acquisition of a wide
+collection of facts to form some unitary theory capable of correlating
+them.
+
+A very simple theory, which will be found to accord with Plato's
+diagnosis of the degeneration of a State or an individual, with Meyer's
+"Disintegrations of Personality," and with James' "Phenomena of
+Religious Experience," therefore underlies this essay; but it is apart
+from its objects to do more than state it. It is enunciated more fully
+in an article in the _Contemporary Review_, now out, entitled "Mankind
+in the Making." It is this:--
+
+(_a_) The psychology of the individual retraces the path of the
+psychology of the race.
+
+(_b_) In any given individual the _whole_ path climbed by the foremost
+classes or races may not be retraced. Therefore numbers of individuals
+are permanently stranded on lower levels of evolution. _Society can
+quicken evolution_ by right social arrangements, scientific in
+principle.
+
+(_c_) Granted that any individual attains a certain psychical evolution
+in _normal_ development, either evolution or devolution lies before him.
+Wrong social conditions lead to widespread devolution. The retrograde
+unit retraces downwards the upward path of the race, and can only be
+reclaimed along this path by wise social legislation, bringing steady
+pressure to bear along the lines of evolution, (barring extraordinary
+religious phenomena, which often reclaim individuals or communities).
+
+(_d_) Society has now arrived at a point of development when these facts
+must be recognised, and the whole question of the organisation of
+humanity put on a scientific basis. It will then be possible to reduce
+the sciences of sociology and psychology to scientific order, and our
+national treatment of such questions as vagrancy will be no longer
+purely empirical.[1]
+
+      NOTE.--The Committee on Vagrancy, before which the author appeared
+      as a witness (see Appendix IV.), was sitting during the months
+      occupied in the writing of this book. Its conclusions, with which
+      the author is in substantial agreement, are therefore added in the
+      form of notes and appendices.
+
+      This Preface was not originally written as such, but formed the
+      introduction to the Gamble Prize Essay, in connection with which
+      the essayist was required to furnish a history of personal
+      research in connection with the subject chosen.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] See pp. 83-86.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                             PAGE
+  I. VAGRANCY: AN ESSAY AWARDED GIRTON GAMBLE PRIZE, 1906              1
+
+      I. Vagrancy as an underlying social factor, p. 1--II. Vagrancy
+      from the commencement of the nineteenth century, p. 7--III.
+      Special legislation for vagrancy, p. 11--IV. Examination of
+      vagrancy as it exists at present: statistics, p. 17--V. Further
+      (personal) investigations, p. 23--VI. Indictment of the tramp ward
+      (correspondence with a working man), p. 33--VII. The common
+      lodging-house, p. 46--VIII. Summary of results of investigation,
+      p. 52--IX. Vagrancy legislation in other countries, p. 54--X.
+      Tentative attempts in England, p. 64--XI. Reforms having reference
+      to vagrancy, p. 71--XII. Conclusion, p. 82.
+
+  II. FIVE DAYS AND FIVE NIGHTS AS A TRAMP AMONG TRAMPS               87
+
+      I. A night in a municipal lodging-house--II. A night in a common
+      lodging-house--III. First night in a workhouse tramp ward--IV.
+      Second night in a workhouse tramp ward--V. Night in a woman's
+      shelter.
+
+  III. A NORTHERN TRAMP WARD                                         136
+
+  IV. A NIGHT IN A SALVATION ARMY SHELTER                            175
+
+  V. THREE NIGHTS IN WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSES                          197
+
+      I. First night--II. Second night--III. Third night.
+
+  VI. COMMON LODGING-HOUSE LIFE                                      232
+
+      I. In a northern town--II. In a northern city.
+
+  VII. LONDON INVESTIGATIONS                                         255
+
+      I. London lodgings--II. A London tramp ward.
+
+  VIII. A SYMPOSIUM IN A COMMON LODGING-HOUSE                        269
+
+  IX. VAGRANCY: ITS RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION            284
+
+
+APPENDICES.
+
+  I. TRANSFER OF CASUALS TO POLICE SUPERVISION                       303
+
+  II. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE               305
+
+  III. LABOUR COLONIES: SUMMARY                                      309
+
+  IV. WOMEN: REPORT OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE                            312
+
+  V. EVILS OF SHORT SENTENCES                                        316
+
+  VI. PREFACE BY CANON HICKS, OF SALFORD, TO
+  "FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS AS A TRAMP
+  AMONG TRAMPS"                                                      317
+
+  VII. IMMORALITY AS CAUSED BY DESTITUTION AMONG WOMEN               319
+
+  VIII. COMMON LODGING-HOUSES _versus_ SHELTERS                      324
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  INDEX                                                              329
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+VAGRANCY.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+The word "vagrancy," from the Latin _vagare_, to wander, now implies a
+crime against civilised society (Vagrancy Report, p. 3, footnote). Laws
+to restrain or abolish it form part of the code of European and other
+civilised States.
+
+Nevertheless, the _fact_ of vagrancy is one deep rooted in human nature.
+The tendency to it recurs both in the individual and in the race. In one
+stage of development the child, unless restrained by watchful care, is
+essentially a vagrant, and a "roaming fit" seizes many of us at times.
+Before considering therefore historically, the legislation and remedies
+applied to the _crime_ of vagrancy, it will be well to dwell briefly on
+the underlying reasons for it.
+
+
+I. VAGRANCY AS AN UNDERLYING SOCIAL FACTOR.
+
+If we take the history of any country we find that human life has
+covered it at different times much as geological strata cover the face
+of the earth. In Victoria Cave, Settle, for instance, human remains and
+relics of the corresponding animal and social life were actually found
+stratified. If you take the lowest stratum of society in any country the
+aboriginal man was, and still is, in countries where aborigines survive,
+a vagrant. The nomad is the foundation stone of human society. He is
+therefore a _survival_, and should be treated as such.[2] So long as
+mankind was nomad, the only way in which a man could be a vagrant in the
+modern sense of the term would be by some crime that excluded him from
+the companionship of his fellows like that of Cain. A man with his hand
+against every man would be a vagrant. A whole tribe might become vagrant
+relatively to other tribes, as the Bushmen of South Africa, or the
+gipsies of all countries.
+
+As civilization proceeded they remained as representatives of a prior
+stratification of humanity.
+
+As by degrees men became pastoral and acquired flocks and herds, the man
+of no possessions would be relatively left behind as the unabsorbed
+nomad. But the world was wide, the best land alone was appropriated, and
+even when England had become largely agricultural there was plenty of
+room for Robin Hood and his merry men, and doubtless countless others,
+to lead the nomad life.
+
+Though the great majority of the population was settled on the land,
+there was an amount of authorised travelling that, relatively to the
+facilities for travel, was considerable. Pilgrimages to shrines and
+military expeditions and merchants' journeys led many on to the roads
+with money in their pouch, and the less wealthy could make use of the
+hospitality of abbeys. Fuller describes the old abbeys as "promiscuously
+entertaining some who did not need and more who did not deserve it"
+("Church History," ed. 1656, p. 298). Even the funds of the Church did
+not suffice for the number of people roaming the country in idleness and
+beggary, as by degrees the country became settled, land enclosed, and
+the opportunity for sustenance by a vagrant life less and less
+certain.[3]
+
+As far back as the reign of Richard II., in 1388, it became necessary
+for the protection of society to legislate against vagrancy.[4] The
+natural thing when society was almost wholly agricultural, and
+stationary in villages or towns, was to legislate against and forbid
+vagrancy. Beggars impotent to serve were to remain where the Act found
+them, and be there maintained or sent back to their birthplace. This is
+the germ of the law of settlement, by which every Englishman was
+supposed to have a birthright in his native parish. The laws were made
+stricter and stricter, yet vagrancy did not cease, even when the penalty
+was whipping, loss of ears and hanging for the third offence.[5]
+
+Even now society does not recognise that units squeezed out of true
+social relationships _must_ become vagrants, as surely as soil trodden
+on the highway becomes dust.
+
+The amount of vagrancy, _i.e._ of those obliged to revert to primitive
+conditions, depends as surely on the drying up of means of sustenance as
+the highway dust on the absence of refreshing showers.
+
+Any change in society that displaces a large number of units is sure to
+result in increase of vagrancy. Of those forced out many cannot regain a
+footing if they would.[6]
+
+But as time went on another class was added to the nomad as akin to it,
+and yet its origin is wholly different. The man unable to settle because
+of his affinity to a roving life is one thing, the man _squeezed out_ of
+the pastoral or agricultural life is another. The latter is akin to our
+"unskilled labourer," a social unit unfitted for any but a primitive
+kind of existence, unfitted for industrial development, but not
+essentially nomad.[7]
+
+As early as Henry VIII., 1531, we find a second class, that of the
+"incapable," those who could not work, who were "licensed to beg."
+
+The formation of this class was accelerated by the failure of the Church
+to provide for the assistance of the poor, by suppression of abbeys,
+etc., at the same time that the abolition of villeinage, which was still
+recent, threw off from organised society dependents very unfit to live a
+self-supporting life. (See Note 2.) Thus again the drying up of means
+of subsistence created as it were another layer of easily drifting dust.
+
+These two classes, that of the "poor, impotent, sick, and diseased,"
+_i.e._ the incapable, and of the "lusty," form the foundation of our
+Poor-law system.[8]
+
+It is thus seen that changes in the social organisation left behind
+another stratum to be provided for by legislation. So long as the
+half-feudal, half-ecclesiastical framework of society existed, there was
+nutriment for the individual who was left stranded. He was shepherded in
+some way or other either by church or lord. But when social change left
+him unshepherded the charge fell on _the nation as an organised unit_.
+The Poor Law began. The necessity for it arose at once when "all parts
+of England and Wales be presently with rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
+beggars exceedingly pestered, by means whereof daily happened in the
+same realm horrible murders, thefts, and other great outrages."
+
+Since, therefore, a transition period leaves behind such a layer of
+social _débris_, it is only to be expected that we should find the third
+great change that has passed over society, which is still recent,
+namely, the change to the industrial epoch, to be productive of another
+layer of social _débris_ or dust.
+
+
+II. VAGRANCY FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
+
+If society was profoundly affected by the change from agriculture to
+sheep farming that took place in the Elizabethan period, and other
+social changes that followed, how much more must we expect to find the
+effects of such a tremendous change as the Industrial revolution! John
+A. Hobson points out (in "Problems of Poverty," p. 24) that "the period
+from 1790 to 1840 was the most miserable epoch in the history of the
+English working classes." It is doubtful indeed whether we have really
+recovered from the "sickness" of that period. The rise in wages has
+largely been swallowed up by the enormous rise in rent, estimated by Sir
+Robert Giffen at 150 per cent. in fifty years, which in city life is
+felt most oppressively. "Classes" have, it is true, risen out of the
+"masses," including the upper working class, but the poverty of large
+populations is still extreme. It is a matter of grave moment for
+civilized society that in London, for example, according to Charles
+Booth's investigations, it can still be said that out of a population of
+891,539, 111,000 might be swept out of existence and "no class nor any
+industry would suffer in the least." For the origin of such a mass of
+hopeless poverty, we must look to the miseries of the early factory
+times, and the oppressive pressure of capital on labour, only slowly
+being counteracted by legislation.
+
+We have in fact added to the class of hereditary vagrants and those
+driven from means of subsistence by incapacity and helplessness, a third
+class which we may call "inefficient." The origin of this class is
+directly due to the incoming of the factory system and the
+specialisation of industry. As the demand for labour in towns grew,
+numbers of poor were attracted. Of these some were capable of attaining
+industrial skill, others were not. The latter became hangers-on to the
+rising industries. It is not sufficiently recognised that the pressure
+of the demands of capital on labour are continually increasing, and
+that, therefore, many fall below the standard of efficiency _now_ who
+originally would not have done so. For example, in cotton mills the
+number of spindles per worker has greatly increased, and also the
+"speeding" of the machinery. A man who could work at the old pace might
+not be able to work at the new, and would therefore be rejected as
+"inefficient," but he would only be _relatively_ "inefficient." Yet such
+is the skill necessary in British industries, that "low-skilled labour"
+is all that numbers of working lads can ever attain to, through defects
+in physique or education. It will easily be seen that this mass of
+"low-skilled" labour furnishes a third class from which vagrancy may
+easily be recruited, by slight relative changes in the prosperity of the
+community.[9]
+
+Also there is another change, due to wide social differences in
+organisation, between the preceding century and the nineteenth, which
+has a direct bearing on the question of vagrancy, but has been little
+noticed. It is evident that _facilities for migration_ must have some
+relation to amount of migration. In the days when it was a formidable
+journey to travel from London to Manchester, the fact affected all
+grades of society. The coming of the steam engine has meant more than
+industrial revolution, it spells social revolution. It has acted as a
+disintegrating as well as an integrating force. On the one hand the
+_community_ is more closely bound together by newspapers, common
+customs, facilities for intercourse, and quick transit. On the other
+hand family ties are loosened, and a vagrant habit of migration,
+seasonal and otherwise, makes residence in a strange place no longer
+formidable. As a social solvent the effect of the railway can hardly be
+exaggerated. But an _individual_ separated from family or social ties
+is easily loosened, if means of support fail, and quite a new form of
+vagrancy arises from "inefficient" industrials migrating in search of
+work.[10]
+
+We must therefore consider next the attempt of the social organism to
+provide for the vagrancy of the new era, the reasons for its
+ineffectiveness, and the remedies most likely to succeed.
+
+(1) The _attempt_ we shall find in the provision of the tramp ward.
+
+(2) The reasons for its ineffectiveness will best be elucidated by an
+examination of the actual conditions of things in respect to vagrancy at
+present. This will be given largely as a result of research work done by
+the writer, or of facts she has collected.
+
+(3) It will then be necessary to examine first some remedies tried in
+other countries.
+
+After this some attention may be paid to tentative experiments in our
+own country.
+
+(4) It will then remain to sketch the lines of future development and if
+possible elucidate scientific outlines of possible progress from the
+collected facts.
+
+The mass of these is so great that for the sake of brevity this historic
+prelude has been made very short. A most interesting historical study
+could be made of the relation of vagrancy to the ebb and flow of
+national life.
+
+
+III. SPECIAL LEGISLATION FOR VAGRANCY.
+
+With the disturbances due to a change of condition of the working
+classes, and to the oncoming of a new epoch, arose an impulse towards
+repression, similar to that which in Elizabeth's time led to the laws
+against "sturdy beggars." The pressure of poverty, driving off
+individuals into the unattached or "dust" condition, causes of course an
+increase of beggary. This is resented by the upper classes, and if they
+constitute the main proportion of government, the natural consequence is
+sterner legislation with a view to putting down the evil. Thus, in 1824
+was passed an Act, still in force, by which a beggar wandering alone, or
+asking alms in public places, may be punished as an idle or disorderly
+person with imprisonment for one month with hard labour. If already
+sentenced, with three months' hard labour. If again sentenced, twelve
+months' hard labour with whipping.[11] The severity of this law has been
+mitigated by the magistrates' unwillingness to convict for "the first
+offence."
+
+But all legislation is unavailing to control vagrancy by _repression_ if
+it springs from widespread social evils. The state of England under
+heavy tariffs grew worse and worse. Rose in his "Rise of Democracy" says
+that duties were imposed on 1,200 articles--"a system which was
+disastrous to the nation's finance, and to the manufacturers and
+operatives who formed the backbone of the nation. Manufacturers had
+enormous stocks of unsaleable goods, operatives had the bitter
+experience of an empty larder." "The state of society in England," wrote
+Dr. Arnold to Carlyle in 1840, "was never yet paralleled in history."
+"Alton Locke" and Cooper's "Autobiography" reveal something of the
+prevailing wretchedness. Lord Rosebery (speaking at Manchester Chamber
+of Commerce, November 1st, 1897) gave a picture of Manchester in 1839:
+"118 mills and other works were standing idle; 681 shops and offices
+were untenanted; 5,490 dwellings unoccupied. In one district there were
+2,000 families without a bed among them; 8,000 people whose weekly
+income was only 1_s_. 2-1/2_d_. In Stockport 72,314 people had received
+relief whose average income was 9-1/5_d_." Wheat was at 65_s_. a
+quarter. Strikes followed in 1842 and 1844.
+
+Such a state of things must inevitably have led to the gradual breaking
+down of numbers into vagrancy. The process is a slow one. Homes
+successfully resist disintegration, often for a surprising length of
+time, but if trade depression continues they yield. First the worst go,
+and then better ones follow. This leads to pressure on public
+accommodation, at first hardly noticed, but as it increases there arise
+rumours of need for fresh legislation. This again is accompanied by
+investigation, often lengthy, and tentative experiment also covers
+ground, and so time passes.[12] It is not surprising, however, to learn
+that by degrees workhouses came to be regarded as "poor men's hotels,"
+that the roving vagrant population seriously increased, and that
+pressure on accommodation led at last to legislation. In London
+especially the number of "sleepers-out" increased so much that the
+existence of a poor class practically outside the law of settlement and
+requiring at any rate temporary accommodation was recognised.[13] It was
+at first a _humane_ measure to supplement the old severe Vagrant Act, 5
+Geo. IV. c. 5, of imprisonment for one month with hard labour for
+wandering about, begging and neglecting family, or for three months,
+with hard labour if previously convicted, or found in uninhabited
+buildings, or if vagrants without visible means of subsistence. This was
+supplemented by the Metropolitan Houseless Poor Acts, 1864 and 1865 (27
+& 28 Vict. c. 116, and 28 & 29 Vict. c. 34), which provided for
+destitute wayfarers and wanderers and foundlings shelter for the night.
+
+But the creation of a new pauper class, _i.e._ CASUALS, needed a very
+wise statesmanship. We shall see later that the same need in other
+countries has led to much wiser measures.
+
+In England, by the extension of this system to all workhouses, the
+CASUAL WARD was created in 1871.[14] Legislation since has principally
+been directed to making it deterrent and severe. It has never been a
+_provision_ for migration such as the _German relief station_ affords.
+It does not deal effectively with either vagrant, incapable, or the
+special product of the industrial period, the ineffective. The charges
+to be made against it must, however, be backed up by evidence. It will
+be sufficient now briefly to sketch what can only be considered as a
+national costly experiment which has failed in its purpose.[15] At first
+only _shelter_ was provided, then _food_ to obviate beggary, but of the
+most meagre description[16]: in many unions still only bread and water
+and a small portion of cheese is given, even with hard labour,[17] At
+first the casual was only detained till 11 A.M. or till completion of
+task. But as the numbers were found to increase, by the Casual Poor Act
+of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 36) it was ordered that the casual poor should
+be detained till the second day and discharged at 9 A.M., after a full
+day's task. There are still, however, many unions where this is not
+enforced.[18]
+
+A task of work in return for food was first demanded in 1842 after the
+commencement of the tide of vagrancy of which I have spoken.
+
+It will be seen what a tremendous national experiment thus gradually
+arose under most unfavourable conditions. The nature of these adverse
+conditions may be summarised thus:
+
+(1) The legislation was at best "hand to mouth," not taking into account
+the real causes at work.
+
+(2) It was the result to a large extent of class prejudice, and all
+homeless wanderers, from whatever cause, are lumped together as
+"vagrants."
+
+(3) It was impossible for the Local Government Board, however much it
+wished to do so, to secure a _uniform system throughout the country_. It
+does not even yet exist.
+
+(4) The system attempted to deal with a class without any effective
+control over them. There is less control over vagrants than over
+paupers.
+
+(5) Considerations of self-interest would obviously cause guardians to
+attempt to keep down casuals, regardless of statistics of sleeping out
+and beggary.
+
+(6) Official opinion would hardly be in favour of a troublesome class,
+and grave abuses might easily arise.
+
+To show that the casual ward is ineffective and costly, and open to
+grave abuse, evidence will now be given. It must be clearly noted that
+_provision for migration_ is a new need of the Industrial age, and
+should not be confused with repression of vagrancy. _Vagrancy proper_
+was the _crime_ of individuals who dropped out of a settled, mainly
+agricultural, society into the wandering life. _Vagrancy as induced by
+modern conditions_ may be no crime. It is not a crime for a man who
+cannot obtain work to migrate to find it, or for a man to return home on
+foot from a distance. Yet, if there is no proper provision for
+_migration_, a man may, by contact with vagrants proper and
+degeneration, become incapable of settled existence. To prevent this
+should be the aim of social legislation. This would be _true_ repression
+of vagrancy.
+
+
+IV. EXAMINATION OF VAGRANCY AS IT EXISTS AT PRESENT.
+
+STATISTICS OF INVESTIGATION.
+
+It is very difficult at first sight to examine the phenomena of
+vagrancy. Statistics covering the whole nation are comparatively
+useless, except that a great _general_ rise, such as has recently taken
+place, has grave significance. The policy of guardians in different
+parts of the country changes. Severer tasks and harsher conditions
+naturally reduce the number of candidates for the casual ward. Therefore
+statistics of reductions in inmates may be most misleading.[19] Mr.
+C. H. Fox, of Wellington, Somerset, has for a long time taken pains to
+observe the tide of vagrancy flowing through his union, which receives
+casuals journeying northward. The stringent order of the Local
+Government Board, February 25, 1896, asking for the detention of casuals
+for two nights instead of one, and advising the separate cell system,
+had the following results: "The number of casuals applying for police
+orders in Somerset from July, 1895, to July, 1896, twelve months before
+the more stringent order, was 25,062; and the number from July, 1896,
+seven months after the more stringent order, was 19,789. This shows a
+diminution of 21 per cent., and the current saying was 'Behold the
+success of their severity.' But, alas! during the latter period the
+cases of begging in the country rose no less than 83 per cent. and
+sleeping out 39 per cent., showing that severity only drove men to beg
+and find lodging where there was no imprisonment." The same observer
+shows how casual statistics depend upon statistics of unemployment by
+the following observation:
+
+      "He lived on one of the main arteries of nomadic travel from
+      London and the north to Plymouth and the west, and had peculiar
+      opportunities for observation, of which he freely availed himself.
+      Casuals applying for police orders 1890-91 (years of fairly good
+      trade), 2,109; casuals applying for police orders 1893-94 (years
+      of depressed trade) 4,705. Certainly the additional 2,596 were not
+      "professional tramps," but, as usual, unfortunate _inferior
+      workmen who were the first to receive notice when trade was
+      bad_."[20]
+
+That the same results are occurring now, namely, the crowding into the
+tramp ward of unemployed workmen travelling in search of work, I have
+ample evidence. A few facts will suffice to elucidate this point, but it
+must also be remarked that in addition to _increase_ there is also an
+actual _displacement_ of the ordinary vagrant by the unfortunate
+ineffective or even effective workman out of work. The reason for this
+is not far to seek. Times of general distress and unemployment are
+_harvest times for the man who lives by preying on society_. He who is
+not ashamed to beg can easily invent a "moving tale," and find his
+harvest of charity ready. Consequently, he is seldom too hard up to get
+a bed in the common lodging-house. "Mouchers" of all descriptions, both
+infirm and otherwise, may be found enjoying themselves, getting usually
+plenty of drink and food, while the "genuine working man" roams the
+country with a sinking heart and empty stomach, sleeping in the open or
+forced into the casual ward.[21]
+
+This little-noticed fact is attested in various ways.
+
+Here are the statistics of male casuals examined in Rochdale by an
+expert workhouse official during the closing weeks of 1903: "Of 936
+persons reported on, the majority were in the prime of life. There were
+only 26 under the age of 21, and 34 over 66. Only 62 were married; 133
+were widowers and 741 single. There were 391 skilled artisans, 555
+'labourers,' 125 ex-soldiers and sailors (many with excellent conduct
+records), and one was an ex-member of the Royal Irish Constabulary."
+
+Thirty-nine admitted that they had lost their work through drink.
+Doubtless there were others of whom the same could be said (Dr. Pinck,
+the workhouse medical officer at Rochdale, is of opinion that a
+comparatively small proportion of true vagrants owe their poverty to
+intemperance.) Of all the 936 persons reported on, the workhouse master
+said _he could not describe more than 33 as habitual vagrants_. Mr.
+Leach himself, who has made a close study of the subject, is convinced
+that a large proportion of the men on the road are tramping because they
+want work and cannot find it at home. The report continues: "Upon these
+the present regulations press with senseless severity."
+
+A similar investigation, summarised in the "Toynbee Record" for
+February, 1905, gives the result of two voluntary investigations in the
+months of November and December, 1904, conducted at Whitechapel casual
+ward. Of 250 men only 15 admitted marriage, 56 per cent. were between 30
+and 50 years of age, 20 per cent. had been in the Army. Dockers and
+labourers were numerous, but other occupations were represented by quite
+a few members apiece. There was only one tailor. The investigators "were
+surprised at the thoroughly decent appearance of a large proportion of
+the men."[22]
+
+Okehampton found (winter 1904-5) that "a large proportion of tramps were
+discharged soldiers from the Army, 25 or 30 per cent."[23] At a
+conference on vagrancy in Manchester (winter 1904-5), attended by
+masters, matrons, relieving officers, and guardians, similar reports
+were given, and a unanimous resolution was passed in favour of fresh
+legislation, while the failure of the present system and its result as
+_manufacturing_ vagrants was freely acknowledged. With regard to the
+growth of vagrancy as a result of bad trade, the following investigation
+may be of value. It will illustrate also the _irregularity_ of
+treatment, and the natural tendency of wanderers to go where the
+treatment is less harsh.
+
+It is self-evident that large increases in vagrancy in consecutive years
+cannot possibly be due to a _normal increase_ in vagrancy, but _must_ be
+due to extraordinary pressure forcing individuals into it. Thus the
+relation of vagrancy to unemployment is amply demonstrated. (See note
+19.)
+
+_Investigation into 54 Unions in Eastern Division by Lynn
+Guardians._--43 replies; 4 had no vagrants; 37 show a striking increase
+for September, 1904. September, 1903, 2,859 vagrants; September, 1904,
+4,082; increase, 1,223. Decrease in 6 unions.
+
+_Task._
+
+  In 16. Oakum picking,                Remainder. Sawing wood,
+  4 lbs. unbeaten, 8 lbs. beaten       stone breaking, or working
+  oakum.                               on the land.
+
+  _Dietary:_       8 oz. of bread and water         ...       Breakfast.
+                   8 oz. bread, 1-1/2 oz. cheese    ...       Dinner.
+                   8 oz. bread and water            ...       Supper.
+
+In a very few gruel.
+
+_Smallburgh._--Task, 12 cwt. granite. September, 1903, none; September,
+1904, 9. _This task is considered remedial, as by it the number of
+vagrants was reduced from 173 (January to November, 1903) to 52 (1904)._
+
+_Cosford._--50 per cent. increase.
+
+_Henstead_, after introducing oakum picking, found "a remarkable falling
+off." Year ending Lady Day, 1897, 2,337; Year ending Lady Day, 1904, 62.
+
+_Docking Union._--Decrease. Task, pumping the well and working on the
+land.
+
+_Freebridge Lynn._--September, 1904, only 4 men. Task, oakum picking. In
+1893 the number of vagrants relieved was above 900, but "the tramp of
+late has given the place a wide berth." Only 24 have been admitted.
+"Probably the road-army came by another route than Docking and Gayton to
+the 7-cwt. stone-breaking at Lynn, fighting shy of oakum-picking and
+well-pumping." _But they come, and the decrease in these two unions has
+resulted in an increase at Downham, Wisbech, and Lynn._
+
+At _Thetford_ "the cells and stone-breaking have prevented any material
+increase in the number of vagrants."
+
+At _Halsted_, in spite of oakum-picking, there have been 41 vagrants,
+compared with 9 in September, 1903.
+
+At _Chelmsford_ there were 205, September, 1904, as against 126,
+September, 1905.
+
+At _Walsingham_ a slight decrease, owing to oakum picking being
+enforced.
+
+So great is the pressure, however, that even oakum-picking or
+stone-breaking and corn-grinding have not prevented a large increase in
+Maldon, Ipswich, Saffron Walden, Norwich, Dunmow, Swaffham, and Wisbech.
+
+_Downham_ increased from 64, September, 1903, to 167, September, 1904.
+No task is imposed save gardening.
+
+
+V. FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS (PERSONAL).
+
+Investigations from the official point of view are interesting and
+instructive, and, if conducted in a scientific spirit, would eventually
+be of great value in solving social problems. But in the present
+confused state of things there is also special value in the observations
+of witnesses who, by descending into the abyss, explore its conditions,
+and form an independent judgment. So far as my personal observation
+goes, everyone who has done this expresses surprise at the result,
+namely, that the impression that the vast majority of so-called
+"vagrants" are "loafers," vanishes, and the inmates of the casual ward
+are mostly found to be seekers for work. Little short of a revolution
+may be made in preconceived opinion by actual experience.
+
+We all know that a rise in pauperism has taken place. In the year ending
+Lady Day, 1904, £587,131 was expended in poor relief in excess of the
+corresponding period 1903; 869,128 received relief, as against 847,480
+in 1903, on January 1st. But these increases in _actual_ pauperism
+represent enormous increases in _potential_ pauperism. The hold of a
+family or of an individual on sustenance gradually loosens, and the
+least competent or more unfortunate are shaken off and drop into the
+abyss. At a meeting of the City Council of Manchester in the winter of
+1904 it was deliberately stated that "between 40,000 and 50,000 people
+were on the verge of starvation." An investigation undertaken by the
+Rev. A. H. Gray in an area between All Saints' and the Medlock, in
+Ancoats by the University Settlement, and in Hulme by the Lancashire
+College Settlement, revealed in 3,000 houses about 900 people without
+employment, "of whom 442 were heads of families." In addition, numbers
+were only partially employed. One man "trudged once every week to a
+smaller town 18 miles off where one or two days' work have been
+procurable."
+
+It will be seen, therefore, that changes in _averages_ of unemployment
+must result in increase of vagrancy. The average of unemployed returned
+by trade unions in January for 10 years (1894-1903) was 4.7 per cent.;
+in January, 1903, it was 5.1 per cent., and in January, 1904, 6.6 per
+cent. (See p. 76.) Of course, unskilled and unorganised industries are
+still more affected.
+
+Mr. Ensor, who tramped for a week, 150 miles, in the northern counties,
+and whose experiences were given in the _Independent Review_, relates
+that "where to obtain work" is a "burning question" among the inmates of
+the vagrant ward. It can hardly be imagined how soon a destitute man is
+forced of necessity to wander; in the absence of money, being even too
+poor to buy a newspaper, he is dependent on vague information received
+"on the road," and naturally is driven to seek food and shelter wherever
+it is to be had. A slightly more humane treatment in any part of the
+country may lead to an influx of these unfortunates.[24] Thus the
+comparative comfort of Welsh workhouses led in the winter of 1904-5 to
+an "incursion of tramps." Even the prisons were filled by tramps who
+rebelled against regulations. "Two or three times a week batches of
+tramps have to be removed from the prisons of Carnarvon and Ruthin to
+Shrewsbury and Knutsford, and even to gaols in English towns." With
+regard to this result of the present vagrancy regulations, there is much
+to be said. A working man cannot sustain himself in a condition fit for
+work on the tramp ward dietary.[25] I have personal experience of the
+exhaustion consequent upon it. Unless supplemented by begging, a man
+must inevitably lose strength if he tramps from ward to ward. Mr. Ensor
+himself saw a young man throw up work and triumphantly march to prison
+from sheer hunger. Tramp ward regulation rations (including gruel)
+contain only 21-1/2 ounces of proteid as against 31-1/2 ounces _in the
+lowest prison fare_. But this does not represent the real state of the
+case. In many workhouses there is only dry bread with a small portion of
+cheese, the gruel being omitted without substitute. (See note 16.) The
+bread is often coarse, dry and crusty, leavings from the workhouse, and
+most unappetising. Then dry bread _alone_ can scarcely be eaten, and
+even water is not always to be obtained to wash it down. (Pp. 112, 124,
+152.) The following are reports given by tramps themselves as to food to
+the writer.
+
+A man said he was too disturbed in mind to eat it, but if he could have
+done so "he could not have lived upon it." This man "had been in two
+situations over thirty years," and appeared clean and respectable. He
+said the majority of men in with him at Bury were also working men out
+of employment.
+
+One man said he had been in a workhouse where the "skilly" was brought
+in a bucket, and the men had to dip it out as best they could in
+jampots.
+
+In this investigation, conducted personally by the writer, there was a
+general consensus of opinion that prison was less hard.[26] (See also
+Chap. VIII.)
+
+The actual difference in legal dietary is appended:--
+
+_Prison Dietary--Lowest Scale._
+
+  Breakfast       ...       8 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
+  Supper          ...       8 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
+  Dinner          ...       3 days, 8 oz. bread, 1 pint porridge.
+                            2 days, 8 oz. bread, 8 oz. potatoes.
+                            2 days, 8 oz. bread, 8 oz. suet pudding.
+
+_Daily Average_, 28-1/2 oz. solid, with 2-1/4 pints gruel, 1/2 pint
+porridge.
+
+_Prisoners' Task_, 5 or 10 cwt. stones, 2 lbs. oakum.
+
+_Legal Dietary for Casual Paupers._
+
+  Breakfast    ...       6 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
+  Supper       ...       6 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
+  Dinner       ...       8 oz. bread, 1-1/2 oz. cheese.
+
+_Daily Average_, 21-1/2 oz. solid, with 2 pints gruel.
+
+_Casuals' Task_, 14 cwt. stones.
+
+Evidence comes from all over the country of increase in prison
+statistics through crimes due to a desire to escape from tramp ward
+conditions and preference for prison fare.[27]
+
+Such instances as this are continually occurring.
+
+"What am I to do if I cannot get work?" asked John Rush, a tramp, when
+brought before the King's Lynn magistrates on a charge of refusing to
+break stones in the casual ward.
+
+"You are to go to prison for twenty-one days," replied the magistrate.
+
+Rush had been required to break 7 cwt. of stone. He asked to have it
+weighed, as he was of opinion that it was 12 cwt. His request was
+refused, and he declined to do the work.
+
+A large number of tramps at Andover were sentenced to twenty-one days'
+imprisonment for refusing to do their task.
+
+"Seventeen vagrants were marched from the workhouse to the police-court
+at Canarvon (_North Wales Chronicle_, 25th February, 1905), handcuffed.
+Seventeen out of twenty-three inmates refused to work. They alleged that
+they had been forced to sleep on a wet tiled floor and were 'almost
+perishing.' They were sent to prison for a month with hard labour."
+
+Such incidents come from all over the country and are backed up by
+prison statistics. Prosecutions for offences of this kind rose in 1901
+to 5,118, and have risen further. In one prison, Devizes, they doubled
+the inmates.
+
+It must be remembered that pressure on the tramp ward, as our country's
+provision for destitution, has been much lightened by the rise of many
+large shelters. These deal mostly, however, with the town unemployed. It
+has not been sufficiently considered that owing to the massing of
+population in towns, the destitute unemployed are sure to appear in the
+tramp ward, but that our present system _forces_ them to migrate, at any
+rate in a small circle, as after claiming the tramp ward they cannot
+claim shelter again in the same place _for a month_, except under
+penalty of four nights' detention. All masters of workhouses witness how
+this tends to make a _forced migration in a limited circle_.[28]
+Therefore to the town unemployed the shelter is a boon, as it enables
+him to remain in one place and look for work, and the testimony of all
+who are working shelters and labour bureaux is that numbers who avail
+themselves of them _do_ obtain employment. But if they belong to the
+"inefficient" class this employment cannot be permanent.[29] So much is
+the tramp ward disliked, and so useless is it as a remedy for
+destitution, since at best it affords only a night's shelter with poor
+food and hard labour, that numbers prefer to "sleep out." The London
+County Council's census of the homeless poor, Friday, 29th January,
+1904, revealed 1,463 men, 116 women, 46 boys, and 4 girls walking the
+streets, and 100 males and 68 females sleeping in doorways, etc., a
+total of 1,797 homeless poor in a small area in London (from Hyde Park
+in the west, to the east end of Whitechapel Road, from High Holborn, Old
+Street and Bethnal Green, in the north, to the Thames, in the south). In
+the winter 1903-4, no fewer than 300 people were known to be sleeping
+out every night in Manchester.
+
+The fate of many unfortunates is a career of gradual physical and moral
+deterioration from which there is, humanly speaking, no escape.
+
+A man may _begin_ a prison career accidentally. An incident related to
+me is as follows:--A man went to a place where there was a local
+merry-making, hoping to pick up a little. There was no room either in
+tramp ward or lodging-house; he slept out, unfortunately for him, on
+private grounds. For this he got three months' imprisonment. (See Chap.
+VIII.)
+
+The case of those who sleep out may end otherwise, but as tragically,
+after long privation. Here are two examples:--"Alfred Mather, aged
+about 33, no fixed home and no occupation, latterly on the tramp. Found
+ill on a seat opposite Temple Gardens, and taken by the police to Bear
+Yard Infirmary five days before death. Died from epilepsy accelerated by
+exposure." "Jos. Lucas, no fixed abode, 'knocked up and down mostly,'
+getting odd coppers when he could, found dead in yard of White Hart,
+Royton." Such incidents might be multiplied, but the facts of disease
+and death are masked, because people suffering from illness in the
+street usually obtain pity. Recent statistics show that the percentage
+of the death rate in common lodging-houses is appalling. (See Appendix
+IX., Vagrancy Report.) No one who has been in a tramp ward can fail to
+have been struck by the low vitality and even serious illness of
+inmates, yet by common report it is difficult to obtain the services of
+a doctor, and illness is constantly taken to be "malingering."
+
+With regard to evidence as to actual tramp ward conditions, however, no
+clearer account can be given than the following. The writer is
+personally known to the author of this paper. He is extremely truthful,
+and where investigation has followed, his statements have been fully
+endorsed. They furnish most valuable evidence. He is himself a working
+man of superior education, driven by misfortune into restless habits and
+occasionally to the tramp ward. Let him speak for himself.
+
+
+VI. TRAMP WARD. FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM A CORRESPONDENCE WITH A WORKING MAN.
+
+      "I was an interested listener to your address on casual wards and
+      common lodging-houses. Your experience coincides with mine, with
+      the exception of the casual wards. Your description was much too
+      favourable.
+
+      "I have been in several. This is an account of the last one I was
+      in. After walking twenty miles with nothing to eat before I
+      started or during the day, I was received, had a bath, and was put
+      to bed. They gave me nothing to eat or drink; out next morning at
+      six o'clock: for breakfast had a drink of water and a tinful of
+      broken crusts, seven pieces in all, and I should say not more than
+      six ounces. I suppose they had been left by the children or at the
+      infirmaries. Same for dinner (six pieces), with a small piece of
+      cheese; for supper, water and five crusts. On going out next
+      morning, water and six crusts. I should put the value at one penny
+      altogether, and that for cheese; the bread was simply waste.
+
+      "This is what I did for the value I received, Sweep, wash, and
+      scrub out twelve or fourteen cells; ditto eighty-seven square
+      yards of cement flooring; ditto a flight of stone steps (about
+      fifty), four feet wide with three landings; ditto one bath-room
+      and two lavatories; clean bath and closet pans; and polish
+      sixty-seven sets of brasses. I started at seven o'clock and had
+      done at 4.30, and was then locked up in the cell. I forgot to say
+      that I had twopence when I went in, which the porter annexed,
+      which, as he said, 'would help pay expenses.'
+
+      "I was free from vermin when I went in, but was not when I came
+      out; and whatever the chairman may say about coming out of their
+      place clean, I say it is impossible to do so.
+
+      "I may say that I get my living on public works, and this as you
+      know may take you across the country."
+
+SECOND LETTER.
+
+      "The remarks made by your chairman on stone-breaking were very
+      misleading. He said, 'The stones required to be broken by a man
+      were ten hundredweight. Why, he knew a man who could easily break
+      two and a half yards in a day, and in each yard was twenty-two
+      hundredweight, so that his hearers could see that the casual's
+      task was not hard.'
+
+      "He did not say that the stones his man broke were probably twice
+      the size of those broken by the casual, and that he had no grid to
+      put them through, which takes almost as long as the actual
+      stone-breaking.
+
+      "With regard to entering the casual ward early, I myself when I am
+      on the road always make a point of doing twenty miles a day. Is a
+      man after doing twenty miles fit for work? Navvies and men
+      working on public works like to get from one job to another
+      without delay. Very often a man will start, we will say from
+      Yorkshire to Devon: if he can pick up a day's work on the way he
+      will do so; but his object is to get to Devon, and he is going to
+      get there as soon as possible. He is pretty certain of work when
+      he gets there because he is known either to the ganger or the
+      agent, or some one in a position to start him, which is really the
+      reason he goes such a distance. As a rule he sets himself twenty
+      or twenty-five miles a day, and he does it unless it is very wet.
+      He therefore wants a rest at the end of the journey, not work."
+
+Replying that this was not the class for whom the casual ward was
+intended, I received the following:--
+
+
+THIRD LETTER.
+
+      "I should suggest, for the benefit of the man looking for work,
+      that in all casual wards there should be cells set apart for him
+      at a charge, say of threepence per night. He should be taken in as
+      early as six o'clock and let go next morning at six o'clock; if
+      there is any work going he would stand a chance of getting it: you
+      would not be pauperising him--he would be no charge on the rates,
+      and your pauper returns would be greatly reduced. Very likely the
+      argument would be that the guardians would be interfering with
+      private rights, _i.e._ lodging-houses. In answer to this, I have
+      to say that in a great many towns there are no lodgings of any
+      kind, and in others they are so bad that no decent man will sleep
+      in them. I have paid for a bed in such places as Birkenhead,
+      Chester, Wrexham, and others, and after seeing what they were like
+      have left them, not caring to sleep there. Also the lodging-house
+      keepers, if they found the new system reducing their takings,
+      would waken up to the fact that decent beds may bring them their
+      trade back.
+
+      "Many a man is spent up when he left a job to look for another,
+      because if money is found on him in the workhouse he loses it.
+      Give him the opportunity of paying and he will do so if he can get
+      a _decent bed_.
+
+      "As regards those on the road who can work but will not, the
+      authorities would not be interfering with the liberty of the
+      subject in taking them off the road and making them work for their
+      keep, and in doing so he need not be classed as a pauper.
+
+      "There are others who cannot work, old men and women and children;
+      in all cases such as these I should have them sent to the place of
+      birth, no matter how long they had left there they must go back.
+      There would be a chance of reclaiming them when they knew they had
+      to go back, and there would also be an inducement for their
+      friends and relations to show what they are made of by helping to
+      keep them. Of course there are numbers who do not know where they
+      are born, also foreigners; these the Government should take in
+      hand. It's the policy of the Government to let destitute
+      foreigners land here, you must therefore make them responsible for
+      them.
+
+      "These suggestions could be easily worked out to the satisfaction
+      of the people at large; you would rescue a great number from
+      self-imposed misery; you would be clearing the roads of a disgrace
+      to the country; and I have not the slightest doubt that you would
+      do away with a great deal of disease and crime. I have noticed on
+      more than one occasion that when small-pox has broken out in a
+      part of the country it has been reported that the cause has been
+      traced to tramps.
+
+      "I remember going in at T ... when several of us were in the
+      bath-room at one time, and of course one hot water for all. I
+      noticed one man who had stripped was covered with sores, raw,
+      festering sores. I did not object to his bathing, but of course
+      refused to be bathed in the same water. After drawing the
+      attention of the attendant to the man's state he was sent off
+      without his bath; he was given the usual rugs, which of course
+      were placed with the others next morning, and not stoved, because
+      they have no stove there. This man had been going from place to
+      place, and could not get to see a doctor, he told me himself, and
+      I can well believe him. I have had occasion to ask for the doctor
+      myself and have been refused.[30] Also on this night there were
+      more tramps than they had room for, we had to sleep two in a cell,
+      one on the board let down from the wall, and the other on the
+      floor underneath. In the cell next me one of the men wanted to go
+      to the w.c., but could get no answer to his repeated calls. Now
+      under these circumstances if disease breaks out who is to blame?
+
+      "I think that if the rules laid down by the L.G.B. were strictly
+      carried out things would be better, but there is too much left to
+      the discretion of the guardians, which means the workhouse master
+      and his subordinates, with the result that they do pretty much as
+      they please.
+
+      "I think it is generally allowed by guardians that the most
+      successful master is the one who can keep down the number of
+      casuals. Why that is I do not know, because if a man is found
+      sleeping out or begging he goes to prison. I have never been in a
+      prison myself, but from what I hear I should say that he is better
+      off than the man under the thumb of a workhouse master.[31]
+
+      "It ought to be generally known that it is only by starvation and
+      heavy tasks that a master can keep down his pauper returns. In
+      passing I should like to say that I have found it a pretty general
+      thing for several men to go through one lot of water."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After travelling from Kent to Devon, finding employment very bad (winter
+1904-5) correspondent came north. He travelled to East Yorkshire to a
+harvest job where he was expected, but found the harvest short and only
+got two days. He found that numbers of men who usually found harvest
+employment could not obtain it, and that hard-working men were roaming
+from place to place, and, being forced to take refuge in the tramp ward,
+were fast losing heart. The following is his experience in a tramp ward,
+where he was forced to take refuge one rainy day. Usually he slept in
+the open.
+
+
+FOURTH LETTER.
+
+      "On going in you have your bread, and before you have time to eat
+      it you are taken to the room for undressing. This is not very
+      large, only for nine or ten to sit down, and there were many that
+      night. You will see that room was limited. There were two
+      dirty-looking baths there, but how many made use of them I could
+      not say. I did not. Your clothes are tied into a bundle and put
+      all together into a heap in the room you undress in. Your clothes
+      may be good and clean and free from vermin when you undress, but
+      what will they be like in the morning?
+
+      "You have a shirt and two rugs given you, and go to the sleeping
+      room on the boards. Some have a board for their head. I had not.
+      It is a large room, and it need be, for there were twenty-four of
+      us in it. It is infested with bugs. The shirts and rugs, I should
+      say, have not been washed for months, and are full of vermin. Mine
+      was, and the complaint was general, so I suppose they were all
+      alike. Sleep is impossible. You get up, have your bread and cold
+      water, and are put on the pump, eight on and eight off, every
+      half-hour. There are two pumps kept continually going all day, so
+      it cannot be for the want of water that dirt reigns supreme.
+      Cheese and bread for dinner, bread _and bread_ for supper, and
+      then the awful night to go through again. Get up and have some
+      bread and water. Then you are turned out. It was raining in
+      torrents. I was soaked in twenty minutes after I had left."
+
+Walking north in the vain search for work, my correspondent crossed to
+Lancashire and encountered the following experience.
+
+
+FIFTH LETTER.
+
+      "I was admitted at 8.10. They gave me coffee and bread, and sent
+      me to a very nice large and well-ventilated room, a room large
+      enough to sleep fifteen men in easily. There were three others
+      there, and after waiting till nine o'clock, during which time nine
+      more arrived, they started bathing us. There are four baths there,
+      three for each bath, and how many more after used the same water I
+      do not know. Given a shirt, you are sent to the cells. I noticed
+      on going to mine that there were eleven cells on the right, and
+      nine on the left. My cell was four from the top on the left. The
+      right side was full, and the three on the left above mine also
+      full. I noticed three pairs of boots outside each cell; a
+      pleasant prospect. There were two men already in my cell. I made
+      the third. That made forty-five men for the fifteen cells, then
+      there were the eleven men I left in the bath-room, who would fill
+      four others, that would make fifty-six men in nineteen cells. Now
+      when I tell you that these cells are four feet six inches wide,
+      and my two comrades were bigger men than me, and I am not a small
+      one, you can fancy the situation. What I suffered from cramp alone
+      was punishment enough for a lifetime. You have one rug each, not
+      enough to keep you from coming in contact with the other men's
+      flesh. As soon as you are in the door is closed and you are in
+      black darkness, yet the gas is burning in the passage all night. I
+      could see it by the crack in the door, and if they would cut a
+      hole in the door it would serve both for ventilation and light.
+
+      "I can safely say that I had never such a night in my life. Sleep
+      was out of the question, even if you had not been disturbed by the
+      groans and curses that were going on more or less all night, a
+      sort of song you would fancy they sing in the Inferno.
+
+      "One of my mates was an old man. He had been drinking. Some one
+      had given him a couple of pints of 1-1/2_d_. beer, and I suppose
+      he had had an empty stomach, anyway he said it upset him.
+      'Diarrhoea,' he called it. Now the foul air arising from other
+      causes was bad enough, but when I tell you."... Here follows a
+      description of consequences. "The old man said it was useless to
+      call to the attendant, he had been in before." When at 5.30 the
+      door was opened it was only to fetch rugs and shirts. Permission
+      to leave the cell or empty the vessel was refused by two
+      attendants, and also to men in other cells. "It's a mercy I did
+      not go off my head," my correspondent remarks concerning that
+      horrible night.
+
+      "The second attendant also brutally refusing to allow the vessel
+      to be removed 'because it was against rules,' said 'it would do to
+      go with the ham and eggs.'
+
+      "'Ham and eggs' in the shape of coffee and bread appeared at seven
+      o'clock, and those who could consume it had to do so in that
+      atmosphere of horror. We were kept locked up until about 8.20, and
+      then let out. I shall never forget the feeling in all my life.
+
+      "I have noticed on more than one occasion that when small-pox has
+      broken out in various parts of the country, that it has been taken
+      there by tramps. Now supposing small-pox broke out in a place
+      having such a tramp ward, who would be to blame?
+
+      "The guardians cannot say they had not the room, there is the room
+      I have mentioned. There were another row of cells I noticed, about
+      twenty, that had the appearance of being unoccupied. There were
+      certainly some of them empty; the doors of others were closed so I
+      cannot say if all were, but that can easily be found out.
+
+      "There were thirty-four men kept in, and about twenty of us were
+      sent to the wood-yard. I had asked to see a doctor. I was too ill
+      to work, but was told to go to the yard. I went but did nothing. I
+      could not. I felt I had not the strength of a baby, and had a hard
+      matter to keep on my feet.
+
+      "At about ten o'clock the labour master came round. At least he
+      was pointed out to me as the labour master, but as I did not see
+      him again all day, I doubted it. Anyhow he asked me what I was
+      doing; I told him I could do nothing, and wanted to see the
+      doctor. He told me that I was a malingerer and that I should not
+      see the doctor. 'Doctors are not for such as thou,' says he, and
+      that I should have no dinner. I asked him to send me before a
+      magistrate: I would have done a month gladly if I could have made
+      this statement before a magistrate. I had forgotten to mention the
+      state of the cell; it was very damp and coated with dirt and spit,
+      quite enough to spread disease.
+
+      "Although I was to have no dinner, I was given some, but gave it
+      away, as I could eat nothing until I was coming out next morning.
+      I did not work till the afternoon, when I felt a little better and
+      very cold. I thought I would see what I could do, but I could not
+      do much. At 4.30 o'clock work ceased and we had a roll each.
+      Afterwards I noticed that a number of men crowded round the door
+      leading to the cells. Thinking there was something in it, I got as
+      near the door as possible. At 5.30 this door opened. The rush of
+      boys on opening the doors of a penny gaff was not in it. It turned
+      out that on the second night there are two rooms to be slept in,
+      each containing nine bedsteads, hence the rush. The first eighteen
+      would get them--I was the lucky eighteenth.
+
+      "There were thirteen in the room I was in--four on the floor. I
+      could not say if the remainder slept in the other room or not; I
+      had a better night than the one previous. We were up at 5.30, and
+      after having roll and coffee were let out at 7.30.
+
+      "I see some of the northern counties are holding a conference,
+      under the chairmanship of Sir John Hibbert, in order to study the
+      vagrant problem, and he quoted the punishment of vagrants in Henry
+      VIII.'s time. I think if Sir John had studied the matter he would
+      have seen that at that time vagrants were favourably dealt with in
+      comparison with their betters. There was many a better head than
+      even Sir John's stuck on Temple Bar for only saying what they
+      thought.
+
+      "One of the favourite complaints at this conference will be the
+      burden to the ratepayers, and the cost of their maintenance will
+      be supplied to them by the various union masters. Now, how does it
+      work out?
+
+      "The thirty-four men who were kept for the two nights and a day
+      had 170 rolls, thirty-four portions of cheese, and 102 lots of
+      coffee. This during a year would mean a considerable sum. For
+      this the ratepayers think they would have to do a day's work--but
+      do they? There were twenty-two men put to wood sawing, and here I
+      assert, if the whole of the wood cut during the day had been
+      equally divided between these men, and given to them as a task, it
+      could have been done in two hours. Now, why were these men kept in
+      their cells from 5.30 to 8.20?--why were they not sent to the
+      labour yard at six o'clock and worked for this two hours, given
+      their breakfast, and sent about their business? The ratepayer
+      would have the same amount of work done, and have saved the price
+      of 102 rolls and thirty-four lots of coffee, and thirty-four
+      portions of cheese. To give an instance of the work done. There
+      were two men nearest me who started to saw a sleeper with a
+      cross-cut saw at nine o'clock, they had not finished at three
+      o'clock, and the old man took one away, and I helped to finish it
+      myself. This was the style of work all round, there is no task
+      there; the old man in charge is an inmate and is laughed at, and
+      they do what they like. The professionals dearly love a day's rest
+      and an extra night's rest, and the working man is not going to do
+      much for no pay if he can help it.
+
+      "If you want to study the ratepayer, take a man in a night, turn
+      him out after two hours' work, he will have earned his twopenny
+      feed in that time, and it does not cost more. You will give the
+      man looking for work a chance, you will reduce the number of
+      casuals, for you will soon break the professional tramp's heart,
+      and greatly relieve the ratepayer.
+
+      "In conclusion, may I say that if you consulted half a dozen men
+      who understood the game, you may be able to solve the tramp
+      problem."
+
+
+VII. THE COMMON LODGING-HOUSE.
+
+Before we can pass in review the results of investigation into the
+working of the tramp ward, it is necessary to correlate with it the
+examination of the common lodging-house. It is not sufficient to look on
+the tramp ward as a _deterrent from vagrancy_; it is evident from the
+evidence already given that it most imperfectly fulfils another
+function, namely, that of a _refuge for wayfarers in extremity_.
+
+How is it that such a need has arisen? It has arisen from a
+little-considered change in social customs, which has gradually led to
+accumulating evils. In old times there was a double provision for
+travelling, for rich and poor, the hospitality of the abbey and that of
+"mine host" at the inn. When the abbey was suppressed, more must have
+devolved on the inn. Accommodation there could be found both for rich
+and poor, though that for the latter might be only a bed of straw.[32]
+But by degrees, as travelling became common, the rich absorbed the
+accommodation of the inn, which itself evolved from "hostel" into
+"hotel," and catered for the rich only. A travelling poor man therefore
+was put to it to find some other shelter. Hospitality is most freely
+exercised still by the very poor. By degrees some individual became
+known as willing to entertain strangers for a small charge, and so by
+degrees also evolved the _common lodging-house_. A description of one
+such formed by natural evolution will be found in Chap. II., pp. 97 _et
+seq._ It was simply an old house, probably once a farmhouse, now
+situated in a slum quarter of a northern town. The sanitary arrangements
+for numerous lodgers were a sink in the common kitchen, and a w.c.,
+perfectly dry, and in a dreadful condition. The house was kept by a
+widow woman, who could exercise no effective control over the motley
+inmates. Men, women and children were crowded in the dormitory,
+separation of sexes being quite insufficient. Insect pests abounded, and
+cleanliness was but of a surface character. Yet this, and one reputed to
+be worse, constituted the only accommodation for working-class
+travellers, men and _women_, in a fairly large town.
+
+Investigation in another direction, on the main route from Manchester to
+the south, revealed a similar state of things. The "best lodging-house
+in the town" contained no separate sitting-room for women, and a small
+sink without water laid on was all the accommodation for washing
+purposes. This was in the common kitchen, and water had to be fetched
+from the single men's room. The bed slept on was infested with
+vermin.[33] A London investigation revealed that similar accommodation,
+which in the north cost 4_d_., cost 6_d_. A description is given by a
+male investigator of the state of such a lodging-house. The common
+sitting-room was a half-cellar with a concrete floor, very dirty,
+_débris_ of meals and dust were just swept under the tables. Spitting
+was in evidence everywhere. In the dormitory of another a notice was
+posted that "Gentlemen are requested not to go to bed in their boots!"
+Nevertheless it was evidently not obeyed. The state of the beds was such
+that my informant left without trying them. (See Chap. VII., p. 257.)[34]
+
+It is true that a somewhat perfunctory "inspection" is supposed to
+enforce sanitation. But inspection is insufficient where the
+accommodation is not of the right kind to begin with, and it appears to
+be easily evaded. The fact is that it is not to private interest to
+provide anything but _minimum_ requirements. Nor is it likely that
+there will be _sufficient_ accommodation for the maximum demand. It is
+reckoned "lucky" to get into some lodging-houses if you apply even as
+early as seven o'clock for a bed. It is quite possible to be crowded
+out.
+
+Dr. Cooper, of the London County Council, said recently:
+
+      "No civic community ought to allow what is going on at the present
+      time. No man can afford to build really good lodging-houses,
+      because the return for his money is so small. This is a public
+      danger, both as regards the safety of the streets, and also the
+      character of those who are unfortunately homeless." He thinks that
+      "the whole of the outcasts should be absorbed into London County
+      Council shelters."
+
+The following is an account of the state of things at a lodging-house
+_repeatedly warned_:--"The floors of the kitchens and bedrooms were in a
+very dirty state. The beds and clothing were very dirty and
+insufficient. The bedding was so filthy that on the lodging-house
+keeper's attention being called to it he took the sheets off and put
+them in the fireplace."[35] Defendant was fined £3 and costs, but the
+lodging-house was not suppressed.
+
+Such places as this breed disease, yet an honest working man travelling
+with money in his pocket to pay for his bed cannot be _sure_ of a
+cleanly place. Even in a _municipal_ lodging-house there may be only
+"surface cleanliness." (See Chap. II., p. 33.) _Every one not sanitary
+is a centre of contagion._
+
+There exists even in the mind of such social adepts as Mr. John Burns, a
+prejudice against "Rowton Houses," and other "poor men's hotels,"
+possibly grounded on the supposition that they cater for and encourage
+the life of vice and idleness. But the fact is one that cannot be
+denied, that in the present precarious condition of things these masses
+of homeless men exist. It would seem more sensible to bring them under
+effective sanitary control, and by investigation of their needs remove,
+if possible, obstacles to matrimony than to condemn them to
+insanitation, disease, and death. The following account gives an inner
+view of a Rowton House. It is not to be supposed that the majority of
+inmates would _prefer_ such a life, if only they knew a way out.
+
+      "It is possible to live there fairly comfortable on 10_s_. a week,
+      and to exist on about 7_s_. Of course, there are all kinds of men
+      there; some of them have known considerably better days. A lot are
+      working men. A lot of men there seem to live by addressing
+      envelopes; they have a nice warm room to sit in and work, but it
+      is a heart-breaking job when all is said and done, for they only
+      get 3_s_. per 1,000, and it will take a good man to do 1,000 a
+      day. I made a good many enquiries about labour bureaux; they are
+      to be avoided like poison, except the Polytechnic, the others keep
+      you moving about the place, and you are lucky if you don't get
+      charged heavily for doing so." The isolation and selfishness of
+      the life impressed my informant. It was by no means one to be
+      sought.
+
+It will at any rate be seen that the question of absolute destitution
+and the question of provision for migration are bound up with the
+question of proper sanitary lodging-house accommodation. Before a
+travelling working man, even with money in his pocket, there lie at
+present three alternatives:--
+
+1. He can find a common lodging-house, which means too often dirt, or
+worse.
+
+2. He can enter the tramp ward. To do this he must make away with his
+money or hide it. He will, it is _supposed_, get clean accommodation,
+but endure hardship and degradation.
+
+3. He may "sleep out." This is best; if he can find a cosy corner he can
+"keep himself to himself," and sleep clean. But it is _illegal_. Numbers
+of men are condemned all over England even in the depth of winter for
+this offence.[36] Unauthorised promiscuous herding in the open, such as
+occurs on Manchester brickfields, is a grave social evil. "A night on
+the Thames Embankment" is hardly an "earthly paradise." But neither is a
+night in a doss house or a tramp ward. It will be seen that there is
+_real need_ for social provision of shelter for the homeless or
+migrating poor.
+
+
+VIII. SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION.
+
+We may summarise results as follows:
+
+1. There exists at the bottom of society the hereditary vagabond or
+"tramp" proper. He is the remains of a vagrant class squeezed out of
+society and preying upon it. He may be "born" or "made." He knows how to
+get his living, and is usually to be found in the "doss-house"; if he
+frequents the tramp ward, it is for cleansing purposes or casual need.
+These are estimated by experts to be only about ten thousand in all
+England.[37]
+
+2. There exists also a class of "incapables," _i.e._ those infirm, old,
+blind, lame, epileptic, etc. These are supposed to be provided for by
+our Poor-law system, and should be inside workhouses. But numbers of
+them are allowed to wander in penury and beggary. They "earn" a
+precarious livelihood, and often drift into tramp wards, but cannot as a
+rule fulfil the labour conditions, which often are not demanded from
+them. (See Chap. III., p. 148.)[38]
+
+3. There exists a large class of "inefficients," the special product of
+the Industrial revolution. It is not probable that they will disappear
+as a factor in social evolution, save by means of wise social
+arrangements, because:
+
+      (1) They are continually renewed from the lower levels of the
+      population, who breed quickly.
+
+      (2) The standard of industrial requirements rises, and leaves many
+      behind stranded.
+
+      (3) Employment after middle age is difficult to obtain.
+
+      (4) The shifting of industries and changes in employment leave
+      units unprovided for.
+
+It is evident therefore that the whole legislation of our country must
+be remodelled, for _it is on the social organism as a whole_ that social
+provision now devolves.
+
+Green relates that the whole mass of Elizabethan poverty was absorbed
+into healthy life by a wise poor law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be our next duty to examine how far other nations furnish us
+already with an object lesson in this respect.
+
+We may summarise the case against the tramp ward as follows:
+
+1. It makes no attempt to classify.
+
+2. It pauperises without relieving distress.
+
+3. It is unequally and often unjustly or defectively administered.
+
+4. It provides for destitution a worse treatment than that of prison for
+crime.
+
+5. It therefore exerts pressure towards vagrancy and crime instead of
+acting as a true deterrent.
+
+6. Its existence blinds the public to the fact of _the absence of public
+provision for migrating_, and the evils of sleeping out and unsanitary
+lodging-houses accumulate.
+
+
+IX. VAGRANCY LEGISLATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES.
+
+We have now to consider the treatment received by vagrants in other
+countries. Have they been more successful than ourselves? If so, why?
+Count Kropatkin shows in "Farms, Fields, and Factories," that the
+Industrial revolution is not confined to England. Belgium for instance
+is a country with large manufactures. It is also a small country, and it
+is easier to examine the entire working of a Poor Law in a small country
+than in a large one. A most interesting account is given in a pamphlet
+printed by W. K. Martin, 290, High Street, Lincoln, of the Belgian
+Labour Colonies, personally visited by H. J. Torr and R. A. Marriott,
+Major, D.S.O., Governor of Lincoln Prison.
+
+A vagrancy committee was appointed from Midsummer Sessions, Lincoln, in
+consequence of the number of vagrants committed to Lincoln Prison and
+the unsatisfactory nature of the prison treatment. They report "that
+the present short sentences, especially in view of the improved prison
+dietary, are a treatment of no deterrent value." They are of opinion
+"that the present methods of dealing with offences under the Vagrancy
+Acts are not satisfactory in their effect on the habitual vagrant,
+whilst they make no provision for the man who, gradually slipping out of
+employment through inefficiency, forms the readiest recruit for the
+professional vagrant class." "Prison conditions indeed, to persons with
+so low a standard of physical comfort as the average vagrant, must be
+extremely comfortable and even attractive." (See note 25.)
+
+They show that in Lindsey alone 722 vagrants were committed to prison
+from January to July, 1903, while in Holland only 178 were admitted. The
+number of vagrants in Lincoln Prison during six winter months increased
+from 703 in 1901 to 1,002 in 1902.
+
+The vagrancy returns from different unions likewise increased as
+follows:
+
+  1900       11,980
+  1901       15,053
+  1902       20,556
+
+They gave cases of two men aged thirty and thirty-seven, against whom
+there were twenty-two and thirty-one sentences, each one being short,
+showing that the men entered prison almost as soon as out of it. The
+cost _without subsistence_ for travelling expenses of prisoners and
+escort amounted to £28 10_s_. for the two. They believe that "the
+workman slipping out of employment" should be treated in a penal labour
+colony as "a patient requiring care, not as a criminal requiring
+punishment," and that his downward career should be checked before his
+industrial skill is lost. "The large amount of highly-skilled labour
+found at Merxplas, compared with the utter incapacity of the average
+English prisoner committed for vagrancy, indicate, they believe, the
+measure of the difference between the tramp at the commencement of his
+career and the same man after any lengthened period of life on the
+road." They point out that while this skill may not maintain the man
+outside, in face of the drink difficulty, it may make him nearly
+self-supporting inside, and forms a valuable national asset. The annual
+cost per man in these colonies is smaller than that of prison or
+workhouse.[39] It will be seen therefore that whereas we _manufacture_
+vagrants, the Belgian labour colonies _arrest_ their development. It is
+impossible to give a full account of the Belgian labour colonies. It
+will be found in the Report referred to. There are five, two for women
+and three for men. Those at Hoogstraeten and Wortel constitute a _Maison
+de Refuge_, and that at Merxplas a _Depôt de Mendicité_. (See Appendix
+III.)
+
+Simple vagrancy, on first detention, would involve detention at Wortel
+for one year or until the man had _earned_ fifteen francs. For the
+second offence, and more serious ones, the man would be committed to
+Merxplas for not less than two years or more than seven years. Laziness,
+habitual drunkenness, or disorderly life as vagabonds, qualify for
+admission.
+
+Inside the colony there is a sixfold classification. The worst classes,
+_i.e._ men sentenced for immorality or arson, men sentenced after
+imprisonment, and men known to be dangerous, never mix with the others.
+There is a _quartier cellulaire_ for the refractory. To these belonged
+on September 3rd, 1903, only one hundred and forty-two men.
+
+On, the other hand, the class of "vagabonds, mendicants and inebriates"
+numbered three thousand and sixty-six.
+
+Besides this there is a class for "infirm and incurable," who do light
+work or none. The latter are allowed three centimes daily for small
+luxuries, and may play games.
+
+Those under twenty-one form another class and are given schooling. All
+except the infirm work nine hours a day, receiving board and lodging and
+from three to thirty centimes a day. They can spend it by means of
+tokens, or it is banked for them until they leave the colony. There are
+quite a number of trades. Very little machinery is used, so that more
+men are employed. As far as possible materials used are grown on the
+farm. The colonists themselves do all the work of every kind.
+
+There is only a small staff. Control is mainly by means of transfer from
+one class to another, and, in the last resort, summary punishment by the
+Director, consisting of solitary confinement on bread and water. Escape
+is easy and frequent, but men, if unable to support themselves, are soon
+committed again.
+
+The cost is under £10 per year _including_ cost of buildings, etc. (See
+note 33.)
+
+At Lincoln Workhouse it is £16 per year _exclusive_ of cost of
+buildings, etc.
+
+English prisons cost £22 11_s_. per year _exclusive_ of cost of
+buildings, etc.
+
+English convict prisons, £28 per year _exclusive_ of cost of buildings,
+etc.
+
+The writer has personally examined the _Danish_ system of penal poor
+law. She is assured, however, that there are in Denmark _no vagrants
+proper_. The penal workhouse in Copenhagen is about to be replaced by a
+new one surrounded by a moat. The working of the system can however be
+understood by the present arrangements. If a man fails to support
+himself, his wife and family, or his illegitimate child, he can be
+committed for six months, or a destitute man can claim admission. The
+men in the lightest class of labour are sent out in gangs to sweep the
+streets. Others are employed in breaking up stone to obtain crystals:
+these sit at benches. This is comparatively light labour, and the task
+is apportioned to the worker, not uniform; others carry on weaving,
+spinning, wood chopping, etc., etc.
+
+All these workers receive one kroner a month, which is saved up for
+them. From the higher classes a man can go out if he has certain work.
+The earnings of a defaulting husband are appropriated. The severer side
+of the workhouse contains the refractory or dangerous; here also the
+work is paid for, but on a lower scale. Solitary confinement and also
+changes of rations are used for discipline. It is said that a law
+authorising, in extreme cases, corporal punishment is likely to be
+passed. A man can rise from grade to grade, or sink if "malingering."
+Accommodation on the premises is provided for fourteen days for those
+who become homeless; their furniture can be brought in, and the home
+carried on. Meanwhile, by means of the municipal labour bureau, efforts
+are made to find the man work and prevent the final breaking up of the
+home. The commune will pay house rent for _three months_ for a genuine
+case of unemployment. Thus no one need be destitute in Denmark, and the
+consequent tightening up of the whole national life is evident even to
+the casual visitor. Institutions exist for the proper care of the aged
+(who also, if deserving, have old age pensions), for destitute women and
+girls, for the feeble-minded, etc., while the relieving officer is _the
+friend of the poor_. All poor-law relief is regarded as a debt to be
+repaid to the State.
+
+In _Germany_ again we have a national provision which cannot fail to
+excite our admiration, though its working is not quite so perfect.
+
+The example of Germany is chiefly valuable as showing us how to deal
+with the problem of industrial migration. Throughout the land exist
+numbers of Relief stations. These are places to which a man can go, and
+by doing a certain task of work _earn_ tickets entitling him to bed,
+supper and breakfast. In Germany, even more than in England, it is the
+fashion for a workman to migrate. No young man's education is considered
+complete unless he has been on _wanderschaft_, and thereby gained
+experience of various workshops. Consequently all over the country
+"Workmen's Homes" exist. At these a man can do a task of work in return
+for food and lodging. They are said to be _superior_ to Rowton Houses at
+_less_ cost. If a man is without money he can work his way from Relief
+station to Relief station. The Relief stations are maintained by local
+authorities, the _Herberge_ or lodging-house by a society. Each station
+is practically a labour bureau. They are in telephonic communication all
+over the country. Consequently a man can tell if he has a chance of
+employment. He is given a "way-bill," and must pass along a certain
+route. If he fails to get employment he is relegated to a labour colony.
+The defect of Germany is the want of classification in the latter, but
+this will probably be remedied.[40]
+
+The following account of Berlin will show how the vagrant is treated
+there: "Let a ragged man appear in any of the numerous open spaces and a
+policeman is on him in a minute. 'Your papers!' If it is proved he has
+slept in an asylum for the homeless more than a certain number of nights
+he is conducted to the _workhouse_ and made to labour for his board and
+lodging. Every person is known to the State, and also insured by it."
+"Fall sick," says the State, "and we will nurse you back to vigour; drop
+out of employment, and we will find you work; grow old, and we will
+provide you with bread and butter; but become lazy and vagabond and we
+will lock you up and make you work till you have paid the uttermost
+farthing of your debt." (See note 27.)
+
+Berlin has a huge building, like a factory, where the unemployed--whole
+families--are received and provided for. But no one can use this
+hospitality more than five times in three months. Otherwise they are
+sent to the workhouse. Private enterprise has provided an asylum where
+men can go five times in one month. "Dirty, ragged, unhappy wretches
+dare not show themselves in the decent world as they do in London. They
+slink into these asylums at five o'clock, have their clothes
+disinfected, cleanse themselves under shower baths, eat bread and drink
+soup, and go to bed at eight like prisoners in cells. Everybody feels it
+is better to work than to fall into the hands of the law. There is a
+central bureau for obtaining employment. The State placed out 50,000 men
+in one year."
+
+With regard to the labour colonies, which provide mainly for men weak in
+character and physique, one interesting fact is the merely nominal
+expertise at which they can be run. The Luhterheim Colony costs £3,200
+per annum, but the average cost per man after _all_ expenses, including
+interest on borrowed capital, have been paid, is only 2_s_. 7_d_. per
+week. An error in the Board of Trade Report, 1893, describes the inmates
+as mainly criminal. This is not the case. Of the 40 per cent. in German
+colonies classified as criminal only 20 per cent. are criminal in the
+English sense, the remainder being "casual warders," while 60 per cent.
+are not _in any sense_ criminal. (See article by Percy Alden, _British
+Friend_, October, 1904.)
+
+Holland has also interesting colonies, "free" at Frederiksoord for the
+deserving unemployed (chiefly deficient mentally or physically) and
+"penal" also.[41]
+
+Switzerland also has diminished mendicancy of late to an extraordinary
+extent by the following measures:--
+
+(1) Providing special facilities for men travelling in genuine search
+for employment.
+
+(2) Taking steps against the lazy.
+
+(3) Adopting stringent police measures.
+
+Forced labour institutions are the means employed. At the farm at
+Witzwyl with 150 inmates, two officers are in charge of each group of
+ten or twelve, and _work with them_. The men sleep and eat in cells and
+have a liberal diet, and a fair chance when discharged of commencing
+life afresh. At St. Johannsen the older and more hardened offenders are
+confined.[42]
+
+In order to facilitate migration there is an Inter-Cantonal Union over
+fourteen of the twenty-two cantons. The Union issues a "Traveller's
+Relief Book," by means of which the workman may tramp all over the
+country and be fed and lodged. He has not to work his way, but beggars
+and drunkards and idlers fall into the hands of the police, for if work
+is refused when provided, the man proved "work-shy" is sent for from
+three months to two years to the "forced labour" institution. The loafer
+may be sent _either_ to prison, for from two to six months, or to the
+forced labour institution, for from six months to two years. Almost
+every canton has its forced labour institution. In Canton Schwyz persons
+giving alms are _fined_ up to ten francs![43]
+
+A description could also be given of the Austrian Poor Law, which
+appears to be very similar to the Danish. It will thus be seen that
+there already exist in several Continental countries methods of dealing
+with vagrancy far superior to English methods. In fact our present chaos
+may be considered as the effect of gradually accumulating errors. Ten
+years before we formed the tramp ward the Germans began the Relief
+station. We can hardly overestimate the results that would have
+followed, in toning up our national life, from the substitution of real
+remedies for futile attempts at repression, adapted to a bygone age, but
+not to present conditions. It is time we retraced our steps, as all such
+evils are cumulative in their effects.[44]
+
+
+X. TENTATIVE ATTEMPTS IN ENGLAND.
+
+It may first be stated that the stringent order of February 25th, 1896,
+asking guardians to enforce the Casual Poor Act of 1882, not only has
+not been universally obeyed, but also in some parts of England met with
+opposition. The Poor-law Conference of the Western Counties felt that
+while a stringent application of the Board's regulations would lessen
+the number of vagrants applying at casual wards, "what would have
+happened would be this, that those who would otherwise apply for legal
+shelter would be driven to join the majority of 'sturdy rogues' who now
+subsist in comfort by begging, who sleep in outhouses or pay for
+lodgings, and never enter a casual ward with its restrictions and
+taskwork." They considered that the only true way of dealing with the
+question is to provide simple but sufficient food and a night's lodging,
+demanding an equivalent of work for food, with no punitive detention,
+"which is simply another expression for imprisonment for twenty-four
+hours with hard labour." They recommend a mid-day dole to prevent
+begging.[45]
+
+That such results as they mention _did_ follow the application of the
+more stringent order is shown by careful statistics kept by Charles H.
+Fox, at Wellington, Somerset, on the high road to the west. From August
+to October, 1896, police orders to the casual wards were 536, those
+sleeping in lodging-houses 1,152. Thus about two to one did not seek the
+legal shelter, besides those "sleeping out." As the number of casuals
+was decreased by the severity, the number in lodging-houses increased,
+and also there was a large increase in the percentages of offences of
+sleeping out and begging (as shown in a previous section, p. 18). It is
+evident that the only result of the change of policy was that mentioned
+by the Conference.
+
+Opinions such as these were expressed also in a practical form by what
+is known as "the Gloucestershire system." A valuable report as to the
+working of this is given by Colonel Curtis Hayward. Quotations from it
+run as follows:--
+
+      "To prevent migration in times of great disturbance in the labour
+      market--if desirable--is not possible; but we should take care
+      that those who are driven by stress of circumstances to take to
+      the road do not find it so pleasant or profitable as to induce
+      them to take to it as an occupation, and join the ranks of
+      professional vagrants.
+
+      "We, in Gloucestershire, in normal times have reduced vagrancy
+      within very narrow limits."
+
+The principle proceeded on is to discourage _almsgiving_ by _providing_
+for migration, and so respecting the feelings of the public. "Severity
+never had a good effect."[46]
+
+The system adopted in Dorsetshire of giving bread tickets to the public
+to give to wayfarers failed because of defects in working.
+
+The authorities in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire resolved to co-operate,
+as Gloucestershire is a great thoroughfare. In 1879, 1880, 1881, the
+annual average of casuals was 60,882.
+
+The result of a memorial to quarter sessions was the adoption of what
+was then known as the Berkshire system. It failed in Berkshire owing to
+want of co-operation.
+
+It is as follows: A wayfarer on entering Gloucestershire or Wilts
+receives, on application to the relieving officer, a ticket, on which is
+written his general description and the place he is bound for, viz., his
+_final_ destination. With this he goes to the vagrant ward, where he is
+fed night and morning, for which he has to do a certain task. On his
+discharge the name of the union to which he is to be admitted the
+following night--the direct route--is written on his ticket, also the
+name of the intermediate station he passes on his road, where between
+the hours of one and three he is supplied with his mid-day ration of
+half a pound of bread by the constable on duty. Leaflets explaining the
+system and requesting the public not to give to beggars are periodically
+left at every house in the county. The cost of the rations is defrayed
+by voluntary subscriptions.
+
+It is claimed that this system during the first quarter reduced vagrancy
+returns 50 per cent. Colonel Curtis Hayward does not think that
+compulsory detention acts as a deterrent. In 1891 when trade was brisk,
+in March quarter, this system reduced the numbers to 4,497 as against
+13,313 in 1881, and on the whole year from 60,000 to 22,000, whereas
+other counties tell a different tale, the numbers being stationary or
+only slightly smaller for Bucks, Oxford, and Warwick.
+
+Worcestershire gives bread tickets to "selected honest wayfarers," but
+nearly double the amount was spent, namely, £65 3_s_. 5_d_., to that
+spent in Gloucestershire without selection. Colonel Curtis Hayward
+thinks discrimination impossible. Exact statistics for Worcestershire
+are not obtainable, but in nine unions the figures are:--
+
+   1881.       1891.        1894.
+  10,392       6,349       12,935
+
+so that this system does not appear to have affected the returns.
+
+From the Chief Constable's office, Dorchester, I have obtained a
+valuable report of the Dorset Mendicity Society. It has been established
+thirty-four years and provides food for the wayfarer in exchange for
+bread tickets. Posters displayed at police stations deter the public
+from giving doles. A large increase of vagrancy is admitted, but it is
+claimed that there has been no increase in vagrant crime. The
+professional beggar is said to avoid the county or to hurry through
+it.[47]
+
+In this report W. P. Plummer says: "It is a generally accepted idea that
+all wayfarers are worthless idlers, and the only proper way of dealing
+with them is to make the regulations of casual wards so universally
+severe that men will avoid them. I have no hesitation in saying that a
+more erroneous idea could not exist. My experience is that when a _bonâ
+fide_ working man finds himself out of employment he very naturally
+commences to search for fresh employment in his own neighbourhood, but
+when funds get low he finds he must go further afield to try his luck,
+and the casual ward must be his hotel. For what reason should he be so
+treated as to make him prefer the shelter of a barn or rick? Every
+facility should be given him, but where is there an employer who will
+start men in the middle of the day when discharged from casual wards?
+What about a mid-day meal? _He must beg to live._ He follows it up for a
+week or two of necessity and he finds it pay. In a few weeks you have a
+_properly manufactured moucher_." He suggests that in place of casual
+wards there should be in each municipal borough or urban district a
+State common lodging-house with labour yard, used also as a labour
+registry, and backed by labour colonies under control of the Prison
+Commissioners.[48] In 1904, £176 2_s_. 9_d_. covered expenses of 38,998
+bread tickets, and administration. He wishes the justices, if they
+convict, to have no option but to commit for third offence in one year
+(or on the sixth altogether) for begging, sleeping out, hawking without
+licence, disorderly conduct, etc. Tramps should be identified by
+finger-marks. The governor of the prison should on receipt of list of
+previous convictions re-arrest and charge the man before justices as an
+habitual vagrant, and the justices should commit to a penal labour
+colony.[49]
+
+The various experiments of the Church Army, Salvation Army, Lingfield,
+and other charitable agencies show the existence of a large class of men
+willing to live under restraint and work for bare livelihood. All such
+charitable agencies however are handicapped by the absence of
+_compulsion_ at the bottom of our social system. Those on whom it is
+most necessary to _enforce_ labour throw it up.[50] As experiments these
+institutions are most valuable, but in the absence of definite State
+provision they themselves often add to the confusion existing, by
+providing merely temporary control for undesirable cases. A certain
+amount of eligible deserving cases are rescued, the rest sink down after
+considerable and disheartening expenditure of time and money.[51] It is
+impossible for _private_ enterprise to tackle effectually what is the
+duty of the community as a whole, or to undo the mischief wrought by a
+radically wrong vagrancy system.
+
+At the same time it is invaluable to know that numbers of men eagerly
+desire to obtain employment, and that such an institution as the labour
+house connected with Central Hall, Manchester,[52] can be made
+practically self-supporting, after first cost, by wise management.
+_Experiments_ must at first be costly, but pioneer work is necessary to
+find out what suits English conditions. This is what makes each
+attempted colony now most valuable. Lingfield appears to be especially
+so, both as redeeming 40 per cent., as fitting them for emigration, and
+also training helpers for social service. The capital cost was £160 per
+head, the cost per man is £33. The inmates received are very
+debilitated, and their work counts for _nil_ on arrival. Hollesley Bay
+and Laindon have also been recently established.[53] We must now proceed
+to consider the question from a national standpoint.
+
+
+XI. REFORMS HAVING REFERENCE TO VAGRANCY.
+
+Having endeavoured to make it clear how essential to organised society
+is a proper treatment of the vagrancy question, it remains to consider
+what reforms are necessary in England. It must be remembered that we
+cannot adopt wholesale the policy of any other nation. We must work out
+our own salvation. It is not possible, if it were desirable, to have the
+individual as much under Government surveillance as in Germany for
+example. Individualism and liberty of the subject are deeply rooted in
+English soil.
+
+It will be well if we first outline the objects to be aimed at.
+
+(1) There should be at the bottom of society a _provision for
+destitution_ to be _earned_ by honest work, sufficient to deter from
+beggary and crime. This provision should be meagre but not worse than
+prison fare. (See note 23.)
+
+(2) There should be provision, ample and sanitary, for migration.[54]
+
+(3) For women there should be some provision more eligible than vice.
+(Appendix IV.)
+
+(4) It is a national mistake to recognise a tramp class of women.[55]
+
+(5) Those willing to work should be sorted from those unwilling.[56]
+
+(6) It should be so arranged that the public understand there is
+_sufficient_ provision for destitution, and are themselves deterred from
+promiscuous charity.[57]
+
+(7) Some place of detention other than prison should be provided for
+vagrants convicted.[58]
+
+(8) It is desirable also to provide labour colonies for defective
+industrials.[59]
+
+In discussing the _method_ by which such reforms can be brought about we
+must recognise that there are many "lions in the path." It is not
+certain that the necessary reforms can or will be carried through by
+Government. In other countries an example has been set by private
+enterprise, and has afterwards been adopted or subsidised by
+Government.[60] We must, however, recognise that our English problem is
+a huge one, that we have to make up for years of neglect, and that evils
+are accumulating.
+
+The great majority of our population live in towns. Vagrancy is
+therefore one of our town problems, closely woven with the unemployed
+problem. But we have not the great advantage possessed by many
+Continental towns, that the Poor Law is under the control of the
+municipality. In Copenhagen, for instance, the four burgomasters control
+education, poor law, charity, municipal labour bureau, and old age
+pensions, as well as municipal organisation. This gives unity to city
+life. The new legislation in connection with the unemployed gives power
+to the _Municipality_ at present mainly permissive, yet the _Poor Law_
+is still separate, also the magistracy often works against the poor law
+by the extreme leniency of their sentences. A poor-law officer cannot be
+sure of convictions.
+
+If lodging-houses are provided this falls to the municipality also.
+There seems to be great need for unification of authority, and a
+thorough over-hauling of our poor-law system in view of modern
+conditions. It is also to be feared that the old traditions with regard
+to treatment of tramps are very deeply engrained in the minds of
+poor-law officials. The labour yard also is very seldom run on true
+business principles, and it would be difficult to create through the
+length and breadth of the land a thorough reform of the tramp ward, as
+difficult as it has been found already to secure uniformity.[61]
+Nevertheless, to create entirely new machinery when expensive buildings
+already exist seems foolish.[62] The imperative need for reform,
+however, calls for Government action, and so urgent is the call for a
+_universal_ system, and so large are the issues at stake, that it would
+seem to be the best to recognise the whole matter as a cause for
+Government interference. It might be best if both the migratory and the
+unemployed questions were recognised as calling for a new Department of
+Labour, and the tramp ward or its substitute placed under the new
+authority.[63] In the case of the Poor Law Reform of 1834, Poor Law
+Commissioners were given wide authority to work radical reforms and
+unify the parishes for poor-law purposes. Something like this seems to
+be again necessary, but with still wider national needs in view.
+
+These, for instance, are some of the reforms necessary:--
+
+(1) To arrange definite _national_ routes of travel, and settle the
+migration stations along these routes, including ration stations (unless
+mid-day ration is given on leaving a station).[64]
+
+(2) To close _unnecessary_ tramp wards, and publicly notify the
+available routes.[65]
+
+(3) To arrange for centres of population some plan by which a man may
+make use of the tramp ward for three or five nights, and search for
+employment.[66]
+
+(4) To arrange a national system of Labour Bureaux.[67]
+
+(5) To arrange the incidence of taxation for support of the stations.
+The Poor-law Unions might be debited in proportion to percentage of
+vagrants over last 10 years, and deficiency nationalised, or tramp
+wards transferred to police.[68] (Appendix I.)
+
+(6) To secure sufficient sanitary accommodation in every large centre
+and on national routes, both for the destitute and for the _bonâ fide_
+working man.
+
+(7) To make uniform the supply of rations, the accommodation, and the
+task of work, and see that the latter is on a proper business
+footing.[69]
+
+(8) To arrange for public charity to flow into authorised channels, and
+discourage promiscuous almsgiving.[70]
+
+(9) To provide detention colonies for the confirmed idler, vagrant, and
+habitual drunkard, if committed by the magistrate.[71]
+
+(10) To arrange a system to distinguish between the idle and the
+"willing to work" unemployed.[72]
+
+In addition to this, the facts in relation to unemployment show, that
+there are periods of good and bad trade, leading to wane and flux of
+employment.
+
+Thus the wave from 1886 to 1893 in skilled trades was as follows:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It will be seen that unemployment almost disappeared in 1890. There are
+also seasonal waves, summer and winter. It is for the equalisation of
+such differences that some provision must be made, as well as for the
+care of the "industrial invalid." In times of depression individuals are
+thrust out who become a burden on the country all the rest of their
+lives, either by idleness, beggary or crime. It must not be forgotten
+that each of these _at present_ costs the community a far greater sum
+than they would cost if provided with labour. Therefore:--
+
+(11) Arrangements should be made whereby, by work specially arranged to
+coincide with seasonal unemployment, the national cost of the incapable,
+the inefficient, and the temporarily unemployed could be minimised. (See
+"How to Deal with the Unemployed": Chap. V., "The Labour Market," by the
+author.) (Brown, Langham & Co.)
+
+(12) It would only be possible for _Government_ to carry out such large
+schemes of afforestation or of reclamation of waste lands as would
+effectually grapple with the whole problem.
+
+There is, however, one question we must briefly deal with in considering
+either private or public action.
+
+It is said that if employment is found for the unemployed, if vagrant
+and other colonies are formed, the result will only be to displace by
+their products other workers. There is, it seems, a kind of vicious
+circle, by which, for example, if prisoners made brushes, other
+brushmakers are displaced, and so on.
+
+It is forgotten that every day new and extensive businesses arise, and
+their competition with others is not regarded as an evil. (These often
+undersell, colonies need not.) But besides this it has been found by
+investigation into the working of German labour colonies that their
+products do not disturb the labour market. To a great extent the
+colonists are engaged in supplying their _own_ need.[73] Kropatkin also
+shows how the more careful cultivation of the land enables it to
+maintain a larger population. To place the waste man on the waste land
+seems to be true social economy. It must be remembered also that, to the
+extent to which a pauper is made self-supporting, the money that before
+supported him is set free. If, for instance, the cost of a pauper could
+be reduced from £12 (English workhouse) to £5 (Belgian labour colony),
+£7 would be set free for other expenditure. The weight of the Poor Law
+is heavy upon us. In London alone indoor paupers rose from 29,458 in
+1857 to 61,545 in 1891. Besides this, enormous sums are spent in
+charity,[74] which forms as it were an additional tax on the
+well-disposed. An effective law dealing with idleness would tone up our
+whole population, and dispose many to work. The home market would
+improve as taxation was lightened. We must go to the _root_ of social
+disease.
+
+The Continental system of providing an incentive to labour in the shape
+of a very small wage is well worth consideration.[75] It makes
+government easy and provides for sifting one class from another. It is
+not sufficiently recognised that undesirables act as social microbes. If
+they can be got to live under restraint, much evil is averted. The
+modern organization of labour is such that it ought to be possible to
+place our Poor Law on a sound economic basis, instead of the present
+haphazard system. The cost of administration as it is, goes up by leaps
+and bounds without adequate return.[76]
+
+I have outlined above the _national_ reforms necessary. But we are slow
+reformers, and it may be well to indicate reforms _immediately_
+possible. These are outlined in a series of articles published last
+March in the _Poor Law Officers' Journal_. They include changes in
+administration of the tramp ward, such as the provision of a diet equal
+to the lowest prison fare, suitable drink, and a mid-day ration, a
+proper bed or hammock, absolute prevention of overcrowding, clean water
+for the bath, and thorough carrying out of Local Government Board
+precautions for cleanliness.[77] With regard to women, I strongly advise
+admission to the workhouse proper, detention of children, and the
+appointment of a lady protectress in connection with each workhouse,
+whose duty it would be to investigate cases of need. Women should not be
+allowed to tramp the country. A detention colony is badly needed, and
+proper provision for the feeble-minded. In the case of women the moral
+danger is a grave additional reason for prevention of vagrancy.[78]
+
+I also recommend an _immediate_ modification of our tramp-ward system,
+which would sort vagrants into two classes. By early admission and a
+half-task of work, the wayfarer might be enabled to earn one night's bed
+and board and go on his way, having a way-bill for his route. The
+unemployed town-dweller might be given an identification note enabling
+him to return for from two to three nights and to seek work meanwhile.
+If he did not find it he could have a way-bill to another town. The idle
+man who came late would be detained _two_ nights with double task.
+Identification marks would be taken. If a man fell into the hands of the
+police for offences against the law he would be deported to a vagrancy
+colony.[79]
+
+These changes would only need:
+
+(1) The formation of one experimental vagrancy colony.
+
+(2) Local Government Orders modifying the present tramp ward
+regulations.
+
+They are therefore _immediately_ possible, pending a further national
+reform movement.[80]
+
+As, however, even this would require a good deal of discussion and
+delay, it would be well if the admirable suggestions made by Mr. J. H.
+Jenner-Fust at the Conference on Vagrancy, held at Lancaster on Sept.
+1st, 1905, could be carried forward. He suggests a combination of
+unions, for relief of the casual poor, (under sect. 8, Poor Law Act,
+1879). A joint committee holding office three years could be formed.
+This committee would have power to acquire land and erect buildings,
+and maintain inmates, etc. If a combination of several counties were
+effected, a 1_d_. rate on No. 11 district and Cheshire would produce
+£129,000. Such a committee could arrange to dispense with certain
+workhouses and rent or lease others, to arrange for rules of travel,
+uniform administration, keeping children from vagrancy, the way-ticket
+system. Also for "test-houses" for the "work-shy" able-bodied. Perhaps
+also for a labour colony, as experiments must be tried.
+
+The Conference passed a resolution in favour of farm or labour colonies
+under State control, or under control of the guardians of a county, for
+detention of the habitual tramp, and also in favour of the provision of
+a mid-day meal.
+
+A committee was appointed to give effect to the resolutions, to consist
+of representatives from each union in the conference district.
+
+
+XII. CONCLUSION.
+
+It remains now to place on a _scientific_ basis the facts related and
+the reforms proposed.
+
+Mankind has evolved from the nomad to the pastoral, from the pastoral to
+the agricultural, from the agricultural to the industrial. These stages
+represent also the development of the _individual_, and are expressions
+of an underlying _psychical_ development.
+
+The child is at first unable to fix his attention long on any one
+object. He roves from one thing to another, and is essentially _nomad_.
+
+By degrees certain objects become centres of consciousness with memories
+attached. He cares for these, they are to him what flocks and herds are
+to the _pastoral_, but he is still restless, unable to concentrate long
+on one object. By degrees, as he unifies, some one object becomes
+supreme, or rather he himself assumes the supremacy of his environment.
+He arranges it so as to minister to his dominant passion. The girl
+craves for the doll, the whole nursery ministers to the beloved object.
+The child in this stage is essentially _agricultural_. In the next
+stage, the _industrial_, he or she becomes plastic to educational
+influences, and is "educed" or drawn out in the direction of natural
+specialised ability.
+
+This is the _normal_ development. But multitudes stay in one or other
+stage. There are grown-up people incapable of concentration or of true
+industrialism. Yet they may be efficient examples of "a lower type,"
+_i.e._, capable of toil in a limited environment under direction.
+
+Multitudes again are incapable of fixity of occupation continued over
+long periods. Yet alternation of employment will keep them busy and
+happy.
+
+Others again cannot fix their attention any more than a child, only the
+simplest of occupations is possible to them, yet they can be restrained
+from evil.
+
+It must be noted also that human nature _degenerates_ down this ladder.
+The industrial highly skilled loses his trade. He is quite "at sea" out
+of his usual environment. But at first he has no desire to rove. He
+would cling to any environment that found him sustenance; and take eager
+interest in a new trade. Thus in the Lancashire cotton famine many
+industrials became skilled out-door workers. But if he cannot get
+employment he roves to find it, and becomes "unsettled." It is hard then
+for him to "settle down," he becomes fond of a day or two's work and a
+day or two's play alternating. Finally, he becomes a true vagrant--a
+nomad. It will be seen then that the arrest of vagrancy depends on the
+application of scientific principles. Habitual and hereditary vagrancy
+could soon be suppressed, or might even be neglected and allowed to die,
+by gradual absorption of the _children_ of vagrants into the ranks of
+the more developed population. It is the constant _recruiting_ of
+vagrancy that is such an evil. It would seem as if the free leave given
+in Germany for a man to enter and leave a colony, and then enter and
+leave another, but at the same time to be under compulsion to earn his
+living, is adapted to the "pastoral" class, who cannot easily settle yet
+will intermittently work. To let them degenerate into "loafers" is
+fatal.
+
+Then again the slum dweller clings to his environment, and it is useless
+to _force_ him to wander, and so send him down the ladder. For such
+populations as West Ham, work on the land in return for sustenance seems
+to be the way out. They are essentially "agricultural" in attachment to
+environment, and would no doubt be suitable subjects for schemes of Home
+colonisation.
+
+A fully developed industrial, on the other hand, is best employed _as_
+an industrial. In connection with new developments, there will be need
+for such industrials. Therefore, if, as in Belgium, the needs of the
+colony were supplied by "industrial" inmates, but the more untrained
+were kept to farm work, on some form of simple manual labour, it would
+seem as if the right organisation would be arrived at.[81]
+
+It is probable that in our towns many forms of social waste occur, and
+that new industries might be developed in connection with Labour
+Bureaux, for temporary employment over crises. Much lies in the power of
+the municipality. An interesting _new_ industry for utilisation of old
+tins (waste) has arisen in connection with Central Hall, Manchester. In
+the cotton famine the laying out of building plots gave employment to
+many Lancashire weavers, and was ultimately remunerative.
+
+It will be seen that the Tramp Ward, though in itself apparently only a
+minor provision in our complicated poor law, is really a foundation
+stone for our national treatment of destitution. Unless we get back to
+the sound principles that underlie organised society, that if a man will
+not work he must be made to do so, and that to enforce honest toil is a
+social duty, we shall see national evils accumulate to national
+destruction. Let me now pass in review the personal investigations which
+led me to these conclusions.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] "Low as is the standard of comfort of the ordinary vagrant, that of
+the class of people who frequent the charitable shelters or habitually
+'sleep out' in London and other large towns is still lower. The casual
+pauper is at least clean, while the man who sleeps in his clothes at a
+shelter, or passes the night on a staircase, is often verminous and
+always filthy. These people seldom or never go to casual wards, and they
+can only find a living in large towns" (Vagrancy Report, p. 26). These
+town-dwellers are not, however, _hereditary_ vagrants as a rule.
+
+[3] "No doubt the coming into existence of a pauper class was a new and
+startling phenomenon of Tudor times; it is probable, too, that the
+suppression of the monasteries led to a large increase of the vagrant
+population" (Vagrancy Report, p. 6).
+
+[4] This was, however, only a portion of the "Statute of Labourers" (7
+Rich. II., ch. 5; Vagrancy Report, p. 3).
+
+[5] The Vagrancy Report gives a full historical summary of this
+repressive treatment (chap. 1, sections 8, 11), but points out (section
+12) that all legislation was then harsh, and that some punishments, such
+as branding, may have been intended for identification, as with lost
+sheep. It questions the existence of a widespread social evil.
+
+[6] Statistics of vagrancy (Vagrancy Report, section 74) estimate the
+difference between the number "on the road" in a time of trade
+depression as 70,000 or 80,000, as against 20,000 or 30,000 in times of
+industrial activity (as in 1900). See also effect of South African War
+(section 76).
+
+[7] The Report points out that the term "vagrant" is elastic, including
+gipsies, hawkers, pedlars, and those employed in hop-picking or
+fruit-picking (section 78; see also sections 400, 401). It appears
+(section 402) that arrangements for these seasonal migrations are
+improving in the hop-picking and fruit-picking counties, owing to the
+action of local sanitary authorities and philanthropic societies. The
+"casual labourer," on the contrary, is a constant addition to the ranks
+of vagrancy (see section 81). "The vagrant of this class is usually a
+man who has been unable to keep his employment from idleness, want of
+skill, drinking habits, or general incapacity, or perhaps from physical
+disability. As time goes on, he succumbs to the influence of his
+demoralising mode of life, and falls into the ranks of the habitual
+vagrant." Lack of unskilled employment, which is mainly seasonal, is as
+large a cause.
+
+[8] "The penal laws against vagrants were enacted contemporaneously with
+the establishment of poor relief for the aged and infirm, and with
+repeated attempts to build up a system for the correction and
+reformation of the vagrant" (section 11, Vagrancy Report; see also
+sections 257-260).
+
+[9] The Report on Vagrancy does not appear to the author to deal with
+the origin of this class (see sections 82, 83). The presence of the
+"work-shy" class is recognised, and in section 81 the additions to it
+from the ranks of casual labour attributed to bad habits or incapacity.
+But the fact that the existence of this class is a _necessary result of
+rise in capacity_ of the artisan classes is not alluded to. It would be
+interesting to investigate how many of the "unskilled" and "work-shy"
+have worked and earned their living for years, but have found it
+impossible to keep a foothold. As _capacity_ rises, the strata of
+"inefficient" must be left behind.
+
+[10] In section 79 the Report deals with the _bonâ fide_ working man
+looking for work. The author believes that though the Committee regarded
+such as only a small proportion, this does not represent the real facts.
+If, as is stated, the number of "vagrants" doubles in times of
+unemployment, it is evident that the 50 per cent. squeezed out were
+previously employed in some way. Evidently the ranks of vagrancy are
+largely recruited from "working men," though by those most inefficient.
+Six weeks' tramp has been stated to the author as long enough to turn a
+"working man" into a "loafer."
+
+[11] See Vagrancy Report, section 20.
+
+[12] It will be seen that in 1848 the increase of vagrancy called for
+attention. The report given by the inspectors led to a minute of the
+Poor Law Board, signed by Sir C. Buller, on "the growing evil of
+vagrancy." The decrease in vagrancy was put down to more stringent
+regulations, but may have coincided with better industrial conditions,
+as in 1853 the numbers again rose (Vagrancy Report, sections 28, 29,
+30).
+
+[13] It is not surprising that London should be the first to feel the
+pressure of migratory destitution resulting in the Houseless Poor Acts,
+1864, 1865 (see Vagrancy Report, section 33).
+
+[14] See sections 38, 39 (Vagrancy Report).
+
+[15] Mr. Curtis, clerk to the King's Norton Guardians, says: "In my
+judgment the present measures have _totally failed to achieve their
+object_" (Vagrancy Report, section 113).
+
+[16] In 1866 a dietary was prescribed (Vagrancy Report, section 37).
+
+[17] "In 374 unions the casual pauper gets only bread for breakfast and
+supper ... for the mid-day meal 474 unions give only bread and cheese"
+(Vagrancy Report, section 95).
+
+[18] "The rule to detain vagrants two nights is but little observed"
+(Vagrancy Report, section 94).
+
+[19] See section 49, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[20] "In the four years 1891 to 1895 the figures (for Jan. 1) rose from
+4,960 to 8,810, an increase of 3,850; while the recent rise spread over
+five years (1900 to 1905) was from 5,579 to 9,768, an increase of 4,189"
+(Vagrancy Report, section 76).
+
+[21] See section 70, Vagrancy Report, respecting vagrants in common
+lodging-houses. It is surprising how many inmates are "without settled
+home." I have personally interrogated many women who have been homeless
+for years with their husbands, but have lived in lodging-houses. The
+seasonal migration of the rich produces a reflex tide of migration of
+"hangers on" of all kinds; there are also other seasonal migrations such
+as that of the navvy (see section 33, Vagrancy Report).
+
+[22] It is probable that a larger proportion of the inmates of casual
+wards in London are of the "work-shy" class than in the north, because
+London acts as a kind of national cesspool attracting the dregs, partly
+by reason of its charities. The same may be said of a large centre like
+Manchester. But if sufficient skilled observation had been given over
+long periods, it would probably be found, as I have indicated, that
+there are great changes in the _personnel_ of the tramp ward. It is
+indicated in the Report (section 87) that the free shelters attract the
+_lowest_ class. Hence the rise in the standard of cleanliness may mean
+that the tramp ward now actually accommodates a higher social stratum
+than formerly.
+
+[23] See Chap. XV., Vagrancy Report. It is doubted that the percentage
+is so high. It will vary in different localities.
+
+[24] "Evidence before us shows that severity of discipline in one union
+may merely cause the vagrants to frequent other unions."
+
+[25] It is acknowledged that the present dietary is insufficient, not
+only owing to absence of a mid-day meal (section 160), but also as a
+minimum for "a fair day's work," which requires (section 307) at least
+2,500 calories in heat-producing value and 55 grammes of proteid. The
+proposed amended dietary is as follows:--
+
+Breakfast: Bread, 8 oz.; margarine, 3/4 oz.; cocoa (made with cocoa
+husk), 1 pint.
+
+Dinner: Bread, 8 oz.; cheese, 1-1/2 oz.
+
+Supper: Bread, 8 oz.; margarine, 3/4 oz.; potatoes (cooked), 6 oz. Salt,
+1 oz. per five men daily.
+
+This would provide 2,500 calories with 63 grammes of proteid.
+
+[26] The superiority of the prison dietary is freely acknowledged in the
+Report (see sections 203-206).
+
+[27] See sections 197-201, Vagrancy Report. "Many tramps openly declare
+that they prefer prison to the casual wards."... "Vagrants assigned as a
+reason for refusing to work that they wished to lay up for a fortnight
+during the winter in gaol." Window-breaking and tearing-up clothes are
+freely resorted to in order to get into prison. On the 28th of February,
+1905, 3,736 male prisoners out of 12,369 were reported by the prison
+governors as persons with no fixed abode, and with no regular means of
+subsistence (section 59). In London, in 1904, 1,167 casuals shirked work
+or tore their clothes (section 107).
+
+[28] See Vagrancy Report (section 41) with regard to the enforcement of
+the four nights in London. In 1904, 16,060 cases were detained four
+nights. A list has been made of 950 habitual tramps who live in London
+tramp wards (section 110). A similar list might be made of tramps who
+circle round in the towns in the Manchester district. In 1904, in
+London, 21,367 people were _refused admission_ to tramp wards (Vagrancy
+Report, section 104).
+
+[29] The opinion of the Committee is very unfavourable as to shelters
+(see sections 338-359). It does not, however, appear to be sufficiently
+recognised that these shelters have arisen as a direct result of the
+repressive policy of the tramp ward and the insufficient national
+provision for destitution. The dregs of our social system must
+congregate somewhere; they will naturally gravitate where conditions are
+most favourable, and where existence can be maintained. It is impossible
+to sustain existence on a tramp-ward dietary, and regulations will not
+allow the homeless wanderer to settle there. Consequently he goes
+elsewhere. Until a more effective national provision is made, the
+shelter is at any rate a provision for the most destitute. Free
+shelters, however, especially if in an insanitary condition, may
+constitute a danger, being out of relation to the true national policy
+of dealing with destitution. The care of this lowest class is better
+understood abroad. If the State accepts the care of the destitute, some
+provision must be made for those "past work." The Report is written as
+if the state of these men was due to the "demoralising effect of the
+shelters." Mr. Crooks, however, says: "The poor chaps have become
+degenerate; they cannot work; they have got quite _past work_; they can
+hardly beg; they go in and have a meal, good sound food, stop all night,
+and come out in the morning. What do they do in the morning? All life is
+objectless; they have nothing to do; they have simply to loaf away
+another day without any object in life at all."
+
+In his evidence he attributes this to "general break-up," due to the
+absence of proper food and shelter. He shows that people of this
+character "loafing and lurching with eyes like the eyes of a dead fish,"
+were "improved out of all knowledge" at the Laindon farm colony.
+
+A few nights' "sleeping out" may reduce a man to a most miserable
+condition. It is a wonder that many survive. The writer has been
+receiving for years _women_ reduced to the extremest destitution and
+incapable of work without rest and food. The majority have passed on to
+employment, but in the state received it would have been impossible for
+them to obtain it.
+
+[30] Repeatedly asserted by tramp ward inmates.
+
+[31] Note 25.
+
+[32] See section 15 as regards Shakespeare's "vagrom men."
+
+[33] It is surprising how little is said in the Report about common
+lodging-houses, though in the chapter on spread of disease by vagrants
+useful recommendations are made as to stricter enforcement of existing
+laws. As a rule, cleanliness in shelters (in spite of the use of the
+"bunk" for sleeping) is far in advance of the common lodging-house.
+Beds, especially flock beds, are often most insanitary for this class of
+persons. Inspection is often merely perfunctory or too infrequent to act
+as a check. Even in London inspection leaves much to be desired though
+conditions are greatly improved.
+
+[34] This lodging-house has since been removed or suppressed.
+
+[35] This was a northern lodging-house.
+
+[36] The average number _prosecuted_ in 1899-1903 reached 9,003. It
+would be much greater but for the leniency of the police (Vagrancy
+Report, section 379). On the 7th July, 1905, in Holborn district, 1,055
+males and 176 females were found "principally on the Embankment, the
+larger number of them on the seats."
+
+[37] The Vagrancy Report gives very varying estimates (section 74),
+varying from 25,000 to 80,000. But it is to be noted that these figures
+include all persons "without settled home or visible means of
+subsistence." The writer estimates at 10,000 those belonging to the
+confirmed tramp class. A number of those estimated in the total are
+included in "Vagrants Wandering to their own Hurt," see sections
+389-391.
+
+[38] See "Vagrants Wandering to their own Hurt," Chap. XIV., Vagrancy
+Report.
+
+[39] An account of the labour colonies in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and
+Switzerland is given in the Vagrancy Report, sections 228-256. In
+Germany the average net cost is £6 per head per year. At Merxplas,
+Belgium, it is £9. See also Appendix III.
+
+[40] The German Relief System is described (sections 168-170), Vagrancy
+Report. The adoption universally of the way-ticket and provision for
+"seekers for work" would assimilate our system to this.
+
+[41] See sections 228-230, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[42] See sections 249-256, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[43] See sections 171, 172, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[44] "In view of the subsequent history of the law as to casual paupers,
+it is matter for regret that Parliament should have thus abandoned the
+older tradition by which county authorities were charged with a
+responsibility for vagrants nearly akin to the responsibility falling on
+parochial authorities in respect of ordinary paupers" (Vagrancy Report,
+section 260).
+
+[45] The way-ticket system appears likely to pass into legislation (see
+sections 173-182, Vagrancy Report).
+
+[46] The Gloucestershire way-ticket system is described in sections 160,
+161, 176, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[47] See section 164, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[48] It will be seen that these recommendations are in substance adopted
+by the Committee, Appendix II.
+
+[49] This is also practically adopted in Report (see sections 221, 222,
+224).
+
+[50] "The short period during which, on an average, a colonist stays at
+Hadleigh, and the absence of any power of detention, militate against
+the possibility of financial success" (Vagrancy Report, section 267).
+
+[51] Only 158 remained in Hadleigh Colony more than six months of 523
+persons received during the two years ending September, 1904. Sixty
+"satisfactory" cases were readmitted later (Vagrancy Report, sections
+263, 264).
+
+[52] See "How to Deal with the Unemployed" (Brown, Langham & Co.), pp.
+181-184.
+
+[53] See sections 268-271, Vagrancy Report, also Appendix III.
+
+[54] The "way-ticket" system will partly meet this need, but it cannot
+be properly met with without the provision of better lodging-houses,
+well-regulated and sanitary.
+
+[55] See sections 403-409, Vagrancy Report, Appendix IV. and VII.
+
+[56] "We are strongly of opinion that some better provision should be
+made to assist the man genuinely in search of work" (section 155).
+
+[57] "It is most important to remove the excuse for casual almsgiving"
+(section 155). (See also sections 385-388.)
+
+[58] See evils of short sentences (Appendix V.).
+
+[59] The comprehensive scheme for labour colonies is outlined in
+sections 227-286, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[60] "The general principle of a compulsory labour colony on habitual
+vagrants may be borrowed from abroad, but the essential details must be
+worked out at home." The proposal is to bring subsidised philanthropic
+institutions to bear on the problem, but to form one State colony for
+vagrants (Vagrancy Report, sections 277-305).
+
+[61] The proposal to place the casual ward in charge of the police will
+tend to this unification.
+
+[62] See section 132, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[63] The placing of the tramp ward under the police is a step in the
+right direction, but further reforms are urgent in poor-law
+administration.
+
+[64] Section 179, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[65] Section 130, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[66] This need does not appear to be recognised in Vagrancy Report.
+
+[67] Sections 184, 185, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[68] Section 136, Vagrancy Report. The transfer of vagrancy charges to
+police will greatly simplify the question of finance.
+
+[69] Sections 95, 181, 308-10; sections 93, 148, 149, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[70] Sections 345-388, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[71] Sections 284, 285, 304, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[72] Sections 178-182, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[73] Section 300, Vagrancy Report.
+
+[74] It is estimated that £100,000 is given away in London in a year to
+street beggars (section 386, Vagrancy Report).
+
+[75] "We believe that the best and simplest method of securing the
+desired end (incentive to work) would be to allow the colonists to earn
+by industry and good conduct small sums of money, a portion of which
+would be retained till discharged and a portion handed over to them
+weekly to spend, if they like, at the canteen of the colony." Vagrancy
+Report, section 260.
+
+[76] See enormous cost of casual wards, Vagrancy Report, Chap. IX.
+Paddington cost £195, Poplar £219, and Hackney £346 _per head_. The
+_average_ cost in the country is £60 and in London £150 per head. See
+also "The Extravagance of the Poor Law," _Contemporary Review_, June,
+1906.
+
+[77] The proposed reforms go much further in the right direction. It is
+to be hoped they will not be minimised in passing into law.
+
+[78] See sections 403-409, Vagrancy Report. The Committee regard the
+question of "female vagrants" as "comparatively unimportant." But it is
+not sufficiently considered that the disparity in numbers of men and
+women vagrants (887 females to 8,693 males on January 1st, 1905), and
+the smaller numbers of women found "sleeping out," are due to the
+existence of a possible method of livelihood for women by prostitution,
+absent in the case of men, but exceedingly harmful to the State. The
+temptation to prostitution through destitution should be as far as
+possible removed. (See Chap. V.)
+
+[79] See recommendations 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, Appendix II.
+
+[80] The one objection to the Report is the delay consequent on the
+necessity for legislation. It is a pity that there is not a
+recommendation to proceed at once by Local Government Board Order in the
+direction of the finding of the Committee. Legislation may be postponed
+till after the Poor Law Commission.
+
+[81] The author has more fully developed the psychical principles
+involved in right classification of the undeveloped in an article
+published in the _Contemporary Review_, June, 1906.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+FIVE DAYS AND FIVE NIGHTS AS A TRAMP AMONG TRAMPS.[82]
+
+
+I. A NIGHT IN A MUNICIPAL LODGING-HOUSE.
+
+Having gradually been brought to the conviction, by investigation of
+numerous cases of destitution among women, that there were circumstances
+in our social arrangements which fostered immorality, I resolved to make
+a first-hand exploration, by that method of personal experiment, which
+is the nearest road to accurate knowledge, of the conditions under which
+destitute women were placed who sought the shelter of the common
+lodging-house or the workhouse.
+
+It was necessary to find a friend willing to share the possible perils
+of such an experiment, and to arrange in such a way that it should be
+unknown to all but a few. I was fortunate in finding a fellow-worker
+willing to go with me, and as to the truth of the following story she is
+a sufficient witness.
+
+We dressed very shabbily, but were respectable and clean. We wore shawls
+and carried hats, which we used if desirable, according to whether we
+had sunshine or rain, or wished to look more or less respectable. We
+carried soap, a towel, a change of stockings, and a few other small
+articles, wrapped in an old shawl. My boots were in holes, and my
+companion wore a grey tweed well-worn skirt. My hat was a certificate
+for any tramp ward, and my shawl ragged, though clean. We had one
+umbrella between us.
+
+Our plan of campaign was to take train to a town some way from home,
+arriving in the evening, and then to seek lodging. We had five nights to
+spend, and were expected at a town some way off by friends who thought
+we were on a "walking tour"! We cut ourselves off from civilisation on
+Monday with 2_s_. 6_d_. in our pockets and a considerable distance
+between us and home. We were expected on Saturday by our friends. We
+thought that we should be able to sample only two workhouses after the
+first night, expecting to be detained two nights at each.
+
+Escaping observation by going to a country railway station, we took
+train to a town about fifteen miles from home. We enquired of the police
+and others, and found that there was a large municipal lodging-house, so
+we bought a loaf and a quarter of a pound of butter, and applied for
+beds. We were just in time to get a double bed in the married couples'
+quarters, for which we paid sixpence. We were shown by a servant--a
+young woman, about twenty-three apparently--into a large, lofty
+kitchen, furnished with wooden tables and benches. There was a splendid
+kitchen range, and all was clean and tidy; hot and cold water were laid
+on to a sink, and boiling water for making tea could be drawn from a
+tap. Pots and pans, and _basins_ to drink out of, were kept in a handy
+cupboard. One roller towel, however, was all the convenience for
+personal washing or for wiping pots. There was a dish-cloth, and we
+preferred to wash our pots and put them away to dry rather than to wipe
+them on the towel used by our fellow-lodgers.
+
+Our first difficulty was as follows: We had bread and butter; we had,
+also, in our bundle, some tea and sugar, the latter mixed with plasmon,
+as we feared we might not keep our strength up till the week-end without
+some such help. But we had neither spoon, knife, nor fork, so we could
+not spread our butter nor stir our tea. A woman, with a girl of twelve,
+whose language left much to be desired, told us we could have the three
+necessary articles, and also a locker in which to keep our food, by
+depositing one shilling. We accordingly did this, but were not given a
+locker, as we were only staying one night. We had to put our provisions
+in the corner of a cupboard used by others, but they were not touched.
+Provided with the necessary implements, we proceeded to make tea, and to
+cut our bread and butter receiving friendly hints from people who saw we
+were novices, and studying our companions. We drank out of basins.
+Besides the loud-voiced woman and child of twelve, there was a man and
+his wife, and a very nagging woman, whose husband received a great deal
+of abuse. The inmates appeared to know each other somewhat, and talked
+about others who had lived there.
+
+We made enquiries for the closet, and found that the key hung by the
+fireside, and gave admission to a single water-closet, very small, in a
+yard through which everyone passed to the kitchen. This appeared to do
+duty for the single women also, as they used the same kitchen and
+sitting-room as the married couples. There was a good flush of water
+caused by a movable seat. There was no lavatory or any convenience for
+washing except the sink in the kitchen used by all the lodgers, men and
+women alike, but there was a notice up that "slipper baths" could be had
+for twopence. This absence of any opportunity for personal cleanliness,
+apart from extra payment, must lead to uncleanliness of person where
+people are all living on the edge of poverty; it is, too, most desirable
+that women should be able to wash apart from men.
+
+After tea we found our way upstairs to a sitting-room, also furnished
+with wooden tables and benches and fairly clean. Beyond it was a bedroom
+for single females, separated by wooden partitions into cubicles. The
+servant was in attendance, and was the only official we saw during our
+stay, except when we purchased our bed at the office, and obtained and
+returned our knife, fork and spoon. Being very tired, we asked for our
+bed, and were shown a boarded-off cubicle, the door of which we could
+bolt. It was lighted by a large window, and in the dim light looked
+fairly clean, but the floor was dirty. The top sheet of the bed was
+clean, the bottom one dirty, and the pillows filthy. We spread a clean
+dress skirt over them and resigned ourselves. The bed was flock, and was
+hot and uncomfortable; it smelt stale. We opened the window. There was
+no furniture besides the bed; we hung our clothes on nails in the
+partition. I killed a bug on the wall close to my head.
+
+Compared, however, with our further experiences, this lodging-house was
+fairly comfortable--indeed, one of our fellow-lodgers, who apparently
+was a respectable working-man, said it was "a palace" compared to
+others!
+
+We had a restless night, disturbed first by the coming to bed of several
+married couples in adjacent cubicles. We could hear all the
+conversations, and the nagging woman kept telling her husband, in a tone
+of voice much louder than his own, to "Shut up!" Then sleep was
+difficult in such strange surroundings: outside, trams went past till
+after midnight; inside, many of our companions were audible by snores.
+We got some uneasy sleep, but were awakened very early as some of the
+men were called about five o'clock. Towards six o'clock we got up
+ourselves, with a longing for fresh air. We dressed, but could find
+nowhere to wash but the sink in the kitchen, with all our clothes on, as
+a man was already in possession, and was washing up his pots when we
+came down. We reflected that with only this poor lavatory accommodation,
+however clean our fellow-lodgers looked, they _could_ not be personally
+otherwise than dirty, if they stayed on here; unless, which is very
+unlikely, they kept on spending twopence for "slipper baths"!
+
+We got our breakfast in the same manner as tea, and were prepared to go,
+but had to wait an hour before we could get our one shilling deposit
+returned, the office not being open till eight o'clock. We sat in the
+sitting-room, watching and talking to our fellow-lodgers. Their talk was
+very free and often profane. Several women and the little girl were
+sitting round a table, crocheting the articles which are hawked from
+door to door. Men were reading papers. One by one the single women
+lodgers came out of the inside room and went downstairs to wash and get
+breakfast. The servant was sweeping the room. Her language was not
+altogether clean; she smoked a pipe and mentioned a drink. It did not
+seem altogether desirable that a young woman should practically be left
+in charge. Her presence could be no guarantee for conduct or language,
+and she might easily herself be tempted into immorality by men lodgers.
+Her language showed that she was not much above the rest of the
+inmates.
+
+The conversation turned first to the accommodation. We learned that we
+had been fortunate in our cubicle, as some were infested with bugs. One
+woman described how they harboured in the crevices between the woodwork
+of the cubicles, which were not close fitting, and how she cleared them
+out with a hatpin and exterminated them. The relative merits of various
+cubicles in relation to the absence or presence of these insect pests
+were discussed at length. The conversation naturally turned on the
+accommodation at various lodging-houses, and we heard of horrors that
+explained why this was called "a palace," and was so much appreciated,
+that we were reckoned lucky to obtain a bed after seven o'clock at
+night. We were told of a place where eight married couples slept in one
+room, with _one bucket_ for all purposes. As the time went on the
+conversation turned to visitors, and we learned that people came once a
+week to sing and speak, and were much appreciated. "It was only what
+they ought to do." We tried to get a little more information on this
+subject, but the talk veered round to the Moat Farm murder. The
+execution was due just at eight o'clock, and all eyes followed the
+clock, and surmises as to the murderer's feelings were coupled with
+references to the crime, with which all present seemed to be familiar.
+We were glad when eight o'clock put an end to this topic and our
+sojourn, as we could obtain our deposit and depart.
+
+
+II. A NIGHT IN A COMMON LODGING-HOUSE.
+
+The morning was fairly fine, though grey, and we inquired our way to a
+town on our route, about nine miles distant. We left the road for the
+canal side, and sat down in the fields to rest a little, and then walked
+on. We passed some men who were working in a barge; they shouted to us,
+and invited us to come to them. We walked away and took no notice, but
+repeatedly on our journey we were spoken to, and I could not help
+contrasting the way in which men looked at us with the usual bearing of
+a man towards a _well-dressed_ female. I had never realised before that
+a lady's dress, or even that of a respectable working-woman, was a
+_protection_. The bold, free look of a man at a destitute woman must be
+felt to be realised. Being together, we were a guard to one another, so
+we took no notice but walked on. I should not care to be a _solitary_
+woman tramping the roads. A destitute woman once told me that if you
+tramped, "you had to take up with a fellow." I can well believe it.
+About mid-day we dined on our loaf and butter, as well as we could
+without a knife. A woman, also tramping, came to sit by us; she was
+going to seek her husband, she said, in the town to which we were also
+going. She was accustomed to tramp, as he went to different towns in
+search of work, and she was anxious to push on to get there early. As
+she seemed to know the neighbourhood, we asked her about lodgings. We
+had determined to sample a common lodging-house, as we were not yet
+sufficiently destitute to claim the workhouse. She told us of two
+lodging-houses where single women were taken, but one was "very rough,
+and the beds so crowded that heads almost touched heels." She recommended
+the other one "on t'hill" as a respectable lodging-house, suggesting
+that we could get a married couple's furnished room for sixpence a
+night. We decided, therefore, to make for this _respectable_
+lodging-house.
+
+Towards one o'clock, after we resumed our route, it began to rain hard.
+We found a path off the main road that led into a wood, and managed to
+rest and shelter under the trees till the rain began to drop heavily
+upon us. We then began to walk again, and found that outside the rain
+had moderated. We were rather stiff and cold, so as soon as we came to
+the houses we looked out for somewhere to get a cup of tea, and were
+fortunate enough to find a coffee-shop, where we got a mug of hot tea
+each for one penny, and ate some more of our loaf. We still had a good
+walk, through outlying streets, before we reached the town, and by dint
+of many enquiries we found the lodging-house. We first asked a postman
+(after sending a post-card home, which we wrote at the post-office). We
+gathered from his looks that, if respectable, our chosen lodging-house
+was nothing very special; but it was "Hobson's choice" apparently, for a
+man in charge of another lodging-house, where we made enquiries, said
+it was the _only_ place where they took single women, the "rough" place
+having given up taking them. So we found ourselves, between six and
+seven o'clock, at the door of the house, which was not bad-looking
+outside--an old-fashioned, roomy-looking, stone house, which might once
+have been a farmhouse and seen better days. The landlady, a stout,
+pleasant-faced woman, received us cheerfully. She told us that the
+"furnished apartments" were not in order, but we could have a
+boarded-off apartment and sleep together for eightpence the night. The
+bed would be clean. This sounded just as good as we could expect, so we
+paid her eightpence and turned in. I shall never forget this interior.
+Fortunately it was getting dark, and not till morning did we fully
+realise the state of the place. We found ourselves in a double room,
+consisting, probably, of a kitchen and front room thrown into one, each
+possessing a kitchen firegrate, and the back room a tiny sink. Round the
+wall was a wooden seat, and wooden tables and benches completed the
+furniture, except that the corner was occupied by a large cupboard.
+Numerous articles of apparel were hanging from lines; saucepans,
+tea-pots, etc., were to be found on the kitchen mantelpiece and over the
+sink (all more or less dirty), and mugs, to be had for the asking. Two
+perambulators partly stopped the large opening between the two rooms;
+one belonged to a mother with children, the other to a blind man and
+his wife, and contained their musical outfit and belongings. Two doors
+led into this double apartment; one gave access to the entrance passage
+and the landlady's rooms, the other to a small yard. In this was the
+only sanitary convenience for at least forty people, the key of which
+hung by the fireside--one small water-closet, _perfectly dry_. The
+stench in it was enough to knock you down; one visit was enough to
+sicken you. Yet some of the lodgers had been there _six weeks_. This and
+the small sink by the fireside were the only provision we could discover
+for sanitary purposes of all kinds.
+
+Yet it was not the place itself, but its inhabitants, that are quite
+unforgettable. We sat down on the wooden bench behind a table, and
+immediately facing us was a huge negro with a _wicked_ face. By his side
+a quiet-looking woman, who had a little girl and boy, was sitting
+crocheting. An old woman, active and weather-beaten, was getting supper
+ready for her husband, a blind beggar, who shortly afterwards came in
+led by a black dog. A woman tramp was getting supper ready for the
+negro; she wore a wedding ring, but I question if she was his wife.
+Several young children, almost babies, were running about, or playing
+with the perambulator. A young man on the seat near us was tossing about
+a fat baby born "on the road," whose healthiness we duly admired. It was
+not his own, but belonged to a worried-looking woman, who also had a
+troublesome boy. The next room was full of people, whom we could hear
+but not see distinctly. The little boy of two caused much conversation,
+as he was always doing something he should not, and caused disgust by
+his uncleanliness, freely commented on. His mother made raids on him at
+intervals, but neither cleanliness nor discipline was possible in such
+surroundings. The most striking character, next to the negro, was a
+girl, apparently about twenty. She wore a wedding ring, and belonged to
+some man in the company, but from the character of her conversation I
+doubt if she was married. The negro told some story, and she capped it
+with another; evidently she was noted for her conversation, as she was
+laughingly offered a pint to keep her tongue still! Her face would have
+been handsome, but for a crooked nose and evident dissipation. All the
+stories were more or less foul, and all the conversation, on every side,
+was filthy or profane. The negro told how he had outwitted a harlot who
+tried to rob him. The whole story of his visit to her house was related
+in the most shameless way, with circumstantial details, no one appearing
+to think anything of it. He told how he discovered where she kept her
+money--in a flower-pot--and hid _his_ money there, shammed sleep, and
+watched her surprise when she found nothing in his pockets, coolly took
+all her money in the morning, driving off in a hansom after a good
+breakfast. He _said_ he bought new clothes, and danced with her the same
+night, being taken for a "toff," and hearing the story of her wrongs,
+but refusing her blandishments! The girl told, sitting on the table near
+the negro, how she had got her nose broken by an admirer and made him
+pay for it. A conversation sprang up about the treatment of wives, and
+it was stated that a woman loved a man best _if he ill-treated her_.
+This theory was illustrated by examples well known to the company. The
+girl related that she had lived in the same house with a man who used to
+beat his wife. If he came home singing a certain song his wife knew she
+was in for it. She used to try to hide, but one day he caught her and
+beat her severely with a red-hot poker. The police got him, but _she
+refused to bear witness against him_. Similar instances were given both
+by men and women. Such sentiments augured no very good treatment for
+wives of this class--in fact, the position of a mistress seemed
+preferable. All the conversation was unspeakably foul, and was delivered
+with a kind of cross-shouting, each struggling to make his or her
+observations heard. A man read--or tried to read--amid frequent
+interruptions, replied to by oaths, the story of the execution of the
+Moat Farm murderer that morning, and other interesting police news,
+freely commented on. Little children were running about all the while,
+and older ones listening. As time went on more and more came in,
+including the landlady and her children, and a married daughter with a
+baby. It could not be possible for a woman to exercise any effective
+control under such circumstances, as it would be her interest to keep
+on good terms with her lodgers. The strongest man might be needed as a
+"chucker-out" if there was a row. All present that night were "down in
+their luck." A gala day at the park near by had been very unsuccessful
+owing to the wet, and there was but little drink going; otherwise we
+might have seen and heard still worse. One could imagine how swiftly a
+brawl would arise. A rascally-looking "cadger" came in from his rounds,
+and proved to be the father of the troublesome boy and husband of the
+worried mother. He and a companion had been doing a regular beggar's
+round, but had missed each other. His luck was so bad that his wife had
+to borrow his supper. All the company except a few appeared to be of
+that sort that preys upon society. The black man had been on board ship;
+he was powerfully made, and looked cruel and lustful. I avoided his eye,
+he kept staring at us. His mistress was, however, kind to us; she
+brought us a mug of their tea, which we drank for courtesy with
+considerable difficulty, eating some of our food with it. I suppose the
+company thought us very poor, for almost everyone had something tasty
+for supper, and the smell of fried bacon, onions, potatoes, and
+beefsteak, the steam of cooking and drying clothes, mixed with tobacco
+smoke and the stench of unclean humanity, grew more and more unbearable
+as the doors were shut and all gathered in for the night. The continual
+shouting made one's head ache, and no one seemed to think of putting a
+child to bed. At last, about nine o'clock, we decided that upstairs
+would be preferable. I may say that no one interfered with us or
+questioned us, except one old woman, who was satisfied when we told her
+that we had spent the last night in a Model, and were going on tramp to
+a neighbouring town. She saw we were new to "the road," and descanted on
+the _healthiness_ of the life, pointing to the baby in proof of it, and
+assuring us we should "soon get accustomed to it." She told us this was
+a very decent lodging-house, and that there were "nice, clean beds." We
+hoped so, and asked the landlady to show us upstairs. After we left the
+fun waxed still more fast and furious. Just before we went upstairs a
+man in the inner room propounded the question, "Who was Adam's father?"
+The conversation on the subject seemed to cause great amusement.
+Afterwards they began to sing, not untunefully, various songs; amongst
+others several hymns. I wished almost that we had stayed below to
+ascertain what led to the singing of "Jesu, Lover of my soul." It
+sounded odd, sung lustily by lips so full of profanity; yet I could not
+but thank God that there was _One_ who loved sinners, and lived among
+them.
+
+Upstairs we found rooms full of beds, but we were to have a "cubicle."
+Apparently it was the only one, and it was very imperfectly partitioned
+off. The door fastened with a wooden button, but by the head of the bed
+was an entrance, _without_ a door, to a compartment which held a bed
+occupied by a man, this again being accessible by an entrance without a
+door to the rest of the room. Anyone could therefore enter if so
+disposed. Three beds, occupied by married couples and their children
+(who shared the same bed), filled the room, and beyond was another
+apartment crowded with beds, and, so far as we could see, without
+partitions. The landlady told us not to mind the _man_ who slept in the
+next bed, for he was blind! He slept there, and so did his dog. The
+other occupants of the room, who came to bed later, we could not see,
+but we could hear them plainly. From the conversation we think the
+nigger and his mistress slept just outside, and next to them (no
+partition) a married couple with a baby and a child. A third couple
+would be round the corner. The room barely held the beds and partition,
+with room to stand by the side; there was no ventilation but a chimney
+close to our bed. We could hear someone continually scratching himself,
+and the baby sucking frequently, and other sounds which shall be
+nameless.
+
+When we first went to bed, however, we were in peace, except for the
+noise from below. We found our sheets were clean, and fortunately could
+see no more by the light of the candle, without candle-stick, which our
+landlady gave us. For two hours the noise went on downstairs; comic
+songs and Sankey's hymns alternately came floating up the stair. Then,
+at about eleven o'clock, suddenly everyone came to bed with a _rush_. It
+almost seemed as if they were coming _on top_ of us, so great was the
+noise, and all was so near. The blind man stumbled in so close, and
+half-a-dozen people, all talking, got to bed close by. My companion woke
+frightened and clutched me. A candle flickering in the next compartment
+revealed a huge bug walking on the ceiling, which suddenly _dropped_
+over a neighbouring bed! By degrees, however, the noises subsided, and
+my companion and I fell into an uneasy slumber. I woke in an hour or
+two, in dim daylight, to feel _crawlers_. The rest of the night was
+spent in hunting. I had quite a collection by the time my companion
+woke. They were on the bed and on the partition. I watched them making
+for our clothes; but there was no escape till morning was fully come.
+Besides, my companion was resting through it all; so I slew each one as
+it appeared. We found that the clean sheets concealed a _filthy_ bed and
+pillows.
+
+About five o'clock two working men were roused by their wives'
+admonitions, and got up to go to work. We rose at six o'clock, leaving
+our neighbours still slumbering. We searched ourselves as well as we
+could (with a sleeping man next door, audible if not visible). We could
+see him if we stepped forward a pace.
+
+We thankfully bundled up our things, including food, which we had
+brought upstairs to be safe, and we crept downstairs, hoping for
+cleanliness. The kitchen fire was lit--apparently it had never been
+out--and a kettle was on the bar; a working man was getting his
+breakfast ready; a girl, the landlady's daughter, apparently about 12,
+was sweeping the floor. We could now _see_ the filth. The floor was
+strewn with dirty paper, crumbs, and _débris_, and dirty sand. All the
+cleaning it got was that it was swept and then freshly sanded by this
+small child. It then _looked_ tidy. "Appearances" are proverbially
+"deceitful." But what we were not prepared for was, that all the wooden
+benches were occupied by _sleeping men_. The small child sweeping was at
+first quite alone with them. There was no place to wash but the small
+fireside sink: one man considerately cleared out from its neighbourhood,
+and I thought we were alone in that half of the room till I looked and
+saw a slumbering man on either side. They moved, as if uneasy on their
+hard couches. Of course, it was utterly impossible to attempt
+cleanliness, except hands and face. Yet our fellow-lodgers had some of
+them lived there for weeks, and it was reckoned by their class a
+_superior_ lodging-house. I can hardly describe the feeling of personal
+contamination caused by even one night in such surroundings. Yet we
+escaped well, finding afterwards only two live creatures on our clothes.
+Cleanliness of person would be so _impossible_ under such circumstances
+that it would soon cease to be _aimed_ at. Yet most of the inmates had
+fairly clean hands and faces, and the tiny sink was used for washing
+clothes, which were dried in the room, and were hanging overnight from
+lines. Is it any wonder that such places are hot-beds of disease? How
+can one of this class possibly avoid spreading contagion under such bad
+sanitary conditions? It struck me that public money would be well spent
+in providing lodging-house accommodation under good sanitation and
+management, rather than in extending small-pox hospitals.
+
+We did not feel inclined for breakfast, but the kettle was boiling, and
+a working-man showed us where to find things. We carefully washed the
+dirty-looking tea-pot and mugs, and borrowed a knife and spoon: no one
+insulted or questioned us. If our stay had been longer, however,
+doubtless we should have been obliged to get on friendly terms with our
+fellow-lodgers. We ate our food at the table farthest from the sleeping
+men, the sweeping still going on, and then we bundled up our things and
+left without seeing our landlady again.
+
+The fresh air was sweet. Nowhere inside _could_ be clean. Vermin might
+harbour in the wooden seating, doubly used by day and night: the
+imperfectly washed clothes, the _un_washed humanity, the crowding, the
+absence of proper sanitation, would break down personal cleanliness in a
+very short time if a respectable woman was forced to sleep in such a
+place. Yet two shillings and fourpence a week, at fourpence a night,
+should surely finance some better provision for the needs of a migatory
+class. It must be considered that social conditions have entirely
+altered since the days of railway travelling have loosened social ties
+to particular neighbourhoods. Work is a fluctuating quantity, and men
+and women have to travel.
+
+My own experience had taught me that single women frequently get shaken
+out of a home by bereavements or other causes, and drift, unable to
+recover a stable position if once their clothing becomes dirty or
+shabby. The question, To what circumstances and surroundings will a
+respectable destitute woman drift if without employment? is one which
+concerns society deeply, as immorality must be fostered by wrong
+conditions.
+
+
+III. A FIRST NIGHT IN THE WORKHOUSE TRAMP WARD.
+
+We were glad that the next ordeal before us would be the workhouse bath!
+For we were now really "destitute"; after purchasing a little more food
+we had only twopence left. We were so jaded by the imperfect sleep of
+the two last nights that we decided not to leave the town, but to wait
+about all day, and enter the workhouse at six o'clock. We had noticed a
+reading room and a park: to the latter we found our way. The day was
+gloomy and damp, but not actually wet, except for a slight drizzle at
+intervals. In the park we found shelter, drinking water, and sanitary
+convenience. We disturbed a sleeping man in a summer-house, and quickly
+left him. We wandered into every nook in the park, and talked, rested,
+or slept. The hours went very slowly, but we grew refreshed. Towards
+mid-day we made a frugal meal on our remaining provisions, drinking from
+a fountain. We still had a little sugar-plasmon left and a pinch of tea.
+In the afternoon, growing cold and stiff, we went to the free library,
+and stayed there reading an hour or two. Two or three ladies were there
+reading, but they took no notice of us beyond a stare; we had put our
+shawls over our heads, and might be taken for mill-hands. As soon as we
+thought it was time we set off to find the workhouse. It was about two
+miles, as near as we can guess, from the centre of the town, and on the
+way to it we made the acquaintance of an old woman who was going there.
+She was lame in one leg with rheumatism, and walked slowly, and she also
+stopped to beg at houses _en route_. She got a cup of tea and a glass of
+hot milk between the town and the workhouse. She was walking from P----
+to H---- to find her brother, having been in the workhouse infirmary for
+many months. She said she had received a letter from her brother,
+offering her a home if she would come to him. She lost his address and
+could not write, so she had no resource but to walk from workhouse to
+workhouse till she reached her destination. She was very tired, and
+groaned with pain during the night, and almost lost heart and turned
+back, but in the morning she plucked up courage to go on. She had the
+advantage of being too infirm to be made to work hard, and she evidently
+knew how to beg food. She seemed a decent woman, and had reared a large
+family of children, who were all married, and had "enough to do for
+themselves." Her brother, she said, was in comfortable circumstances,
+and she would be all right if she found him. Her clothing was well
+mended, but not clean.
+
+We arrived, alone, a few minutes before six, at the workhouse lodge,
+which stood all by itself down a long lane which ended in iron gates.
+This lodge was very small, and was occupied by a man, the workhouse
+buildings being a little way off. There were a good many trees around,
+and it was a pretty spot, but lonely. The man was a male pauper, and no
+one else was in sight. We had to enter his hut to answer questions,
+which he recorded in a book, and we were then out of sight of the house.
+The nearest building was the tramp ward, the door of which stood open;
+but there was no one in it, as we afterwards found. A single woman would
+be completely at the mercy of this man. If our pilgrimage has had no
+other result, I shall be glad to be able to expose the positive wrong of
+allowing a male pauper, in a lonely office, to admit the female tramps.
+When we first arrived at the gate he told us to wait a few minutes, as
+we were before time. Some male tramps came up, and we saw him send away
+one poor, utterly ragged man, who begged pitifully to be admitted. The
+lodge-keeper told him he could not claim because he had been in that
+workhouse within the month. So he limped away. He could not possibly
+reach another workhouse that night. The man admitted three others, and
+sent them on to the male quarters. He let us in at five minutes to six.
+We thought this was kind, as he might have kept us waiting, and it had
+begun to rain. He took my friend's name, occupation, age, where she came
+from, and her destination, and then sent her on, rather imperatively, to
+the tramp ward. She stood at the door, some way off, waiting for me. He
+kept me inside his lodge, and began to take the details. He talked to me
+in what I suppose he thought a very agreeable manner, telling me he
+wished I had come alone earlier, and he would have given me a cup of
+tea. I thanked him, wondering if this was usual, and then he took my
+age, and finding I was a married woman (I must use his exact words), he
+said, "Just the right age for a bit of funning; come down to me later in
+the evening." I was too horror-struck to reply; besides, I was in his
+power, with no one within call but my friend, and all the conditions
+unknown and strange. Probably silence was best; he took it for consent,
+and, as other tramps were coming, let me pass on. I made a mental vow to
+expose him before I left the place. He took my bundle, and asked if I
+had any money. I gave him my last penny. I received a wooden token for
+the bundle. I then joined my friend, and told her she had better give up
+her umbrella and her penny. She went to do so after some tramps had
+passed, and though I stood and waited, and she was only gone a moment,
+he tried to kiss her as she gave him the things!
+
+When she joined me, very indignant, we went forward into an oblong room
+containing six bedsteads with wire mattresses and filthy straw pillows.
+A wooden table and bench and "Regulations for Tramps" were the remaining
+articles of furniture. There were big, rather low, windows on three
+sides; the bottom panes were frosted, except one, which had been broken
+and mended with plain glass, and overlooked the yard where the male
+tramps worked. Presently our wayfaring friend arrived, and we all three
+sat and waited a considerable time. A solitary woman might have been at
+the mercy of the man at the gate some time. No one was in sight, or came
+near us, till at last a motherly-looking woman entered by a door leading
+to a room beyond. She asked us if we were clean. Our fellow-traveller
+(whose garments were at any rate _not_ clean) was let off, as she had
+spent the last night in a workhouse tramp ward. We said _we_ should like
+a bath, and were shown into a bath-room and allowed to bathe ourselves.
+Our clothes were taken from us, and we were given blue nightgowns. These
+looked fairly clean, but had been worn before. They were dirty round the
+neck, and stained in places; we _hoped_ they had been stoved! The old
+woman dressed in one without bathing. We found in the morning that both
+blankets and nightgowns were folded up and put away on shelves, just as
+we found them, apparently, and left for new comers. We were told that
+the blankets were "often stoved," but I have since ascertained that they
+are not stoved at all workhouses every day. All kinds of personal vermin
+might be left in them by a tramp who went straight out of dirty clothes
+to bed, and even a bath might leave them open to suspicion. We saw
+several bugs on the ceiling in this ward. Perhaps the using of others'
+dirty nightgowns was the most revolting feature in our tramp. At neither
+workhouse were the garments handed to us _clean_. We found afterwards
+that by Government regulation clean bath water and a clean garment can
+be _demanded_, but this we did not know. It should be _supplied_. After
+the bath we were each given four blankets and told to make our beds and
+get into them. The art of bed-making on a wire mattress, without any
+other mattress to cover it, is a difficult one, even with four blankets.
+The regulation number is two, and with these I fancy the best plan would
+be to roll yourself round and lie on the mattress. For the wire
+abstracts heat from the body, and _one_ is an insufficient protection.
+Even with one spread all over and another doubled under the body and two
+above I woke many times cold. In winter the ward is warmed by hot-water
+pipes, but the blankets are the same. A plank bed, such as is given in
+some workhouses, would probably be warmer, though harder. Put to bed,
+like babies, at about half-past six, the kind woman in charge brought us
+our food. We felt rather more cheerful after our bath, with the large,
+airy room, instead of the foul, common lodging-house; only one thing had
+exercised my mind--"What did that pauper mean by my going to him later?"
+However, I told the portress all about what he said. She was very
+indignant, and said I must tell the superintendent of the tramp ward
+next morning, that she had to leave us, but would take good care to lock
+us in, and I need not be afraid, he could not get at us. We were _very_
+hungry, having had nothing to eat since about twelve o'clock. Anything
+eatable would be welcome, and we were also thirsty. We were given a
+small lading-can three parts full of hot gruel and a thick crust of
+bread. The latter we were _quite_ hungry enough to eat, but when we
+tasted the gruel it was _perfectly saltless_. A salt-box on the table,
+into which many fingers had been dipped was brought us; the old woman
+said we were "lucky to get that." But we had no _spoons_; it was
+impossible to mix the salt properly into the ocean of nauseous food. I
+am fond of gruel, and in my hunger and thirst could easily have taken
+it if fairly palatable. But I could only cast in a few grains of salt
+and drink a little to moisten the dry bread; my companion could not
+stomach it at all, and the old woman, being accustomed to workhouse
+ways, had a little tea in her pocket, and got the kind attendant to pour
+the gruel down the w.c. and infuse her tea with hot water from the bath
+tap. We were then left locked in alone, at eight o'clock, when no more
+tramps would be admitted. The bath-room, containing our clothes, was
+locked; the closet was left unlocked; a pail was also given us for
+sanitary purposes. We had no means of assuaging the thirst which grew
+upon us as the night went on; for dry bread, even if washed down with
+thin gruel, is very provocative of thirst. I no longer wonder that
+tramps beg twopence for a drink and make for the nearest public-house.
+Left alone, we could hear outside the voice of the porter. I wondered if
+he expected us to open a window. However, we stayed quiet, but had one
+"scare." Suddenly a door at the end of the room was unlocked, and a
+_man_ put his head in! He only asked, "how many?" and when we answered
+"Three," he locked us in speedily. I could not, however, get to sleep
+for a long time after finding that a _man_ had the key of our room,
+especially as our elderly friend had told us of another workhouse where
+the portress left the care of the female tramps to a man almost
+entirely, and she added that "he did what he liked with them." I
+expressed horror at such a state of things, but she assured me it was
+so, and warned us not on any account to go into that workhouse. She
+said, however, that it was some time since she had been there, and
+"things might be different."
+
+At last my companions slept the sleep of weariness. Sounds outside had
+ceased; within, my friend coughed and the old woman groaned and shifted.
+The trees waved without the windows, and two bugs slowly crawled on the
+ceiling. I measured distances with my eye. They would not drop on _my_
+bed! I pity the tramp who has only two blankets on a wire mattress. I
+could not get thoroughly warm with four; some part of me seemed
+constantly to feel the cold wire meshes through the thin covering. The
+floor would be preferable. I have been told since at one workhouse, with
+considerable surprise on the part of the portress, that the male tramps
+prefer the floor to their plank bed! I do not wonder. The pillow was too
+dirty to put one's face on, so I covered it with a blanket.
+
+In this workhouse the management was lax--too lax to ensure cleanliness;
+clothes and towels appeared to have been used, and blankets were
+probably unstoved. As our own clothes are taken away and locked up, it
+would be impossible for a tramp to wash any article of personal
+clothing. Consequently she must tramp on, growing day by day more dirty,
+in spite of baths, especially as _really dirty_ work is required of her
+in return for "board and lodging!" There was no comb for the hair;
+fortunately we had one in our pocket.
+
+In the morning we were roused about seven o'clock and told to dress. Our
+clothes were in the bath-room. We had the luxury of a morning wash. Our
+garments had been left on the floor just as we took them off, and so
+were our companion's, which looked decidedly unclean by daylight. The
+kind attendant said she had to go, but waited till I had told the
+portress (who arrived to set us our task) the conduct of the man at the
+gate, and I claimed her protection, as I should have to pass him when
+going out. Both exclaimed when I told his words, and one said, "Plenty
+of cups of tea I expect he's given, the villain!" The portress assured
+me she would watch me out, and that I need not fear him, as he daren't
+touch me when she was there, and she said that after I had gone she
+should report him.
+
+Before this happened, however, we had our breakfast given us, which was
+exactly a repetition of supper--saltless gruel and dry bread. We ate as
+much as we could and were very thirsty. I had drunk some water with my
+hand from the bath-room tap as soon as I got up. We put what bread we
+could not eat into our pocket as a supply for the day, and were told to
+empty the rest of our gruel down the w.c. It thus disappeared; but what
+waste! A mug of coffee or tea would at least have washed down the dry
+bread; or a quarter of the quantity of gruel, properly made, would have
+been acceptable, with a mug of cold water for a proper drink.
+
+The following list shows how we had spent our money:--
+
+  Lodging, first night       6_d_.
+  Lodging, second night      8_d_.
+  Loaf                       2-1/2_d_.
+  Two cobs                   3_d_.
+  1 brown cob                1-1/2_d_.
+  1 tea-cake                 1_d_.
+  1/4-lb. butter             4_d_.
+  1/4-lb. cheese             2_d_.
+  In hand                    2_d_.
+
+We ate the cheese for dinner for two days. I do not think we could have
+kept our strength up for five days' tramping if it had not been for the
+plasmon mixed with our sugar, which we ate on our bread and butter or
+drank in our tea. My companion was very exhausted before evening this
+day, and her cough troubled her a great deal. Another week of this life
+would have made us both thoroughly ill. It is not only exposure and poor
+food, but _anxiety_ as to the next night's experience, that tells on the
+mind. Yet we knew that in two nights we should be no longer friendless.
+Pity the poor woman who has _no home_. Is it not almost inevitable that
+she should sink?
+
+As we had now no food, we were glad to appropriate the remainder of our
+workhouse bread, putting it in our pocket. We should have nothing else
+that day, for the portress told us when we had done our work we might
+go out at eleven o'clock. We thanked her--we had expected to stay
+another night, and perhaps pick oakum, but we should have almost starved
+on the food, as our sugar was in our bundle, so we were relieved to find
+we had only to clean the tramp ward and go. We were told to "_sweep_ the
+ward and make all clean." We did not think of _scrubbing_ the room,
+which, as it was large, would have been a big task, but the portress
+afterwards scolded us for not doing so. It was not dirty, so we swept
+it, cleaned the taps, bath, and wash-basins, washed up the pots, dusted,
+and, having made all tidy (except that we could find nowhere to empty
+our dust-pan, unless it was the w.c.), we waited for release. We sat on
+the form, and when the portress came in and saw us sitting down she
+spoke to us very sharply. I suppose she did not like to see us idle. We
+told her we would have scrubbed the floor if we had known we ought; but
+we did not know, as we had never been in a workhouse before. She was
+somewhat mollified, and let us off with a mild scolding some time before
+eleven o'clock. She stood at the door and watched us receive our things
+from the male pauper and leave the gates. He hastened to give us them
+without a word, and also restored our two pennies. We said farewell at
+the end of the lane to our companion, who was going the opposite way,
+and commenced our tramp. We expected the next workhouse to be about
+four miles away, in a town which we knew lay between us and our final
+destination. But it turned out that the Union we were leaving and the
+Union on the outskirts of the town to which we were ultimately bound
+absorbed all the paupers from the intervening places, though of
+considerable size. So we had really a very long walk before us; but, not
+knowing this, as it was very gloomy and inclined to rain heavily, we
+thought we had better seek shelter. We bought some butter with a penny,
+and walked on to find a quiet place to eat something, as it was some
+hours since we had had breakfast. We could not find anywhere but a damp
+stone wall in some fields. There we _feasted_ on bread and butter and
+plasmon sugar; but we were _very_ thirsty, so we took courage to beg, as
+we had a screw of tea left. I went to a cottage and asked for a drink.
+There was a boiling kettle on the fire, so I said we had a little tea of
+our own, and the kind young woman, who had a blind old father, made us
+tea and sweetened and milked it for us. I knew the town to which we were
+going well, so we talked about the changes in it of recent years, as I
+was "returning to friends there." She did not know the distance of the
+next workhouse, but told us about the intervening towns. We left
+refreshed, but it was beginning to rain, so we walked on, looking for
+shelter. We saw a church surrounded by trees standing all by itself,
+with a large graveyard. This looked a hopeful spot, so we made for it,
+though it was rather out of our route. There we stayed an hour or two,
+sheltering under trees or in the porch, and eating the last of our
+workhouse bread about one o'clock. Part of the time it rained very
+heavily, and though it was summer time we felt cold. At last the rain
+moderated, and we set off for a steady tramp.
+
+
+IV. A SECOND NIGHT IN THE WORKHOUSE TRAMP WARD.
+
+The miles between us and our destination seemed to _grow_ as walked. The
+replies we got varied from four miles to eight; we discovered that some
+were directing us _back_ to the union we had come from. I do not know
+what the distance really was, but if we added up the distances we were
+told it must have been nearly eleven miles. I believe we went
+considerably out of our direct route. We had come about two miles, and
+after we began to tramp in earnest we only rested a short time once or
+twice to dodge heavy showers. We were walking from about two o'clock
+till nearly eight before we reached the workhouse, but my companion grew
+so weary she could only crawl, and I pushed her up the long, long hills.
+We seemed to go up and up, and always a long hill in front. We _had_ to
+give up trying to dodge the rain, and walk steadily on through the wet,
+which grew worse and worse. We were very wet indeed before we reached
+the shelter of the Union, and only just in time to be admitted. I feared
+we should have been left shelterless. The workhouse was in such an
+out-of-the-way place that it was hard to find; we thought we should
+never find it, and grew very discouraged, but could not walk faster. To
+ease our minds we told each other the story of our lives from childhood,
+taking turns as we got tired and out of breath. We had now had no food
+for nearly seven hours. At last we came to a dirty lane, by the side of
+a high stone embankment, leading to big gates. We plunged down it; our
+feet by this time were soaked and our shawls nearly wet through. With
+some difficulty we found the lodge, a large, substantial stone building,
+with an office occupied by a single man. He looked more respectable than
+the other one, and asked us the questions in a straightforward
+matter-of-fact way that was a pleasant contrast. He told us to sit on a
+seat and wait for the portress. We sat for quite a quarter of an hour in
+our wet things. Two young men, who seemed to be related to officials and
+familiar with the place, passed through; otherwise we were quite alone
+with this man, and he began to talk in a familiar and most disagreeable
+manner. He asked me where my husband was, and insinuated that I had been
+leading an immoral life. He said a married woman needed to "sleep warm."
+He told us he was a pauper and lived there, asked how we liked his
+house, said if there was one woman "he often shared his breakfast with
+her." He produced a screw of salt and gave it us as a favour. Being
+_two_ we were protection to each other, and passed off the conversation
+as well as we could, telling him that we were not of _that_ sort, that
+we had only taken shelter, and were going to friends. He said he hoped
+he should see us in the morning. _We_ hoped not. He told us the portress
+often kept a single woman more than two days to do her cleaning, giving
+her rather better food. We dared not offend him. What might happen to a
+single woman alone with such men?
+
+At last, to our great relief, the portress came. She was comparatively
+young, dressed somewhat like a nurse, very quick and sharp, and
+evidently she had many other duties, and this part of her work was
+distasteful to her. She was very cross at being summoned so late, and
+said at first we ought not to have been admitted, as it was past eight;
+but the man told her we had been waiting. We should have been glad of a
+little of "the milk of human kindness" in our wet, weary condition, but
+we were "only tramps," and were ordered about sharply. She told us to
+follow her to the bath-room. It was a stone-floored room at the end of a
+stone passage, from which led out four stone cells. Each contained a
+bed, and was imperfectly lighted by a square aperture, high up, leading
+into the passage. The walls were stone, spotlessly whitewashed. She
+asked what we had got in our pockets, but did not search us. She took
+our bundles and asked how much money we had, but did not take our
+solitary penny. She insisted on a bath, and watched us undress, telling
+us to leave our clothes, and giving us nightdresses doubtfully clean.
+(The necks were _dirty_.) We hurried for fear of offending her. She
+asked if we would sleep together or alone, as the beds were double. We
+were glad to be together. My friend said she should have cried all night
+if shut up alone in one of these prison-like cells. I was ready first,
+and was given four blankets. To walk on a stone floor straight from a
+warm bath in a thin cotton night-dress and make your bed is not very
+nice. But I have since seen nightdresses made of rough bathing flannel,
+and as broad as they are short! I suppose "anything is good enough for
+tramps." It is hardly realised that respectable destitute women might
+have no other shelter. The conditions are such that probably few do
+apply. The accommodation at this workhouse, which appeared to be a large
+one--four cells, with beds for a possible eight--showed that few
+probably applied at that Union, while the porter said that often there
+was only one. Yet there are many destitute women, as Homes and Shelters
+show. Are they forced into the common lodging-houses--or worse? The bed
+was a most peculiar affair. In addition to the wire mattress it had a
+_wire_ pillow, and _no other_. This was a flat, woven wire _shelf_
+raised a few inches above the mattress. Its discomforts were still to be
+experienced.
+
+I made this curious bed as well as I could, spreading one blanket over
+it and the pillow, doubling another for our backs, and reserving two to
+cover us. We got into bed and were given the regulation mugs of porridge
+and thick slices of dry bread. We were then locked in and left. We had
+one spoon between us. There was no light except from the aperture, but
+it was not yet dark. We were prisoners indeed, and a plank bed would
+have been more comfortable. The pillow was a cruel invention--it was
+impossible to place one's head upon it; the edge cut the back of your
+neck, even through a blanket, and the rough meshes hurt your face. We
+could not spare a blanket to double up for a pillow, we were cold as it
+was; the blankets underneath barely kept off the rough wires, and two
+were little enough to cover in a cold stone cell. The pillow was a
+torture; we finally put our heads _under_ it and lay flat, screwed up
+into any position that gave ease. Over our heads was a framed motto and
+verses about "Jesus only." I wondered whether _He_ would think this the
+proper lodging for a "stranger!" We were thirsty and hungry--but alas!
+when we tasted our gruel, our _only_ drink, it was sweetened to
+nauseousness with treacle! It was, indeed, to all intents and purposes
+"treacle posset." Anyone with a grain of common sense can realise the
+effect on the system of taking this sort of stuff immediately after a
+warm bath, following a wetting. In fact, the diet produced a peculiarly
+loosened feeling in the skin, as if all the pores were open, which made
+it very hard to work. I usually perspire little, but next morning,
+while working, I was again and again in a profuse perspiration, and this
+produced a feeling of weakness, and culminated in a sharp attack of
+diarrhoea--fortunately after I had reached my friends. Anyone who
+thinks will see that this would only be a natural result of the diet
+with many people. We were terribly hungry, and ate our bread; this made
+us still more thirsty, but there was nothing to quench our thirst but
+the thick, sweet gruel--very good in quality, but most nauseous. The
+thirst we suffered from that night can be imagined better than
+described. "I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink," kept running through
+my mind whenever I turned my eyes up to spell out the words of "Jesus
+only." This was our worst night; we were very weary, but could get no
+ease; we fell into restless slumber, to wake again and again from thirst
+or cold or some pain caused by our uneasy couch. Long before we were
+called we were wide awake, longing to get up. About six o'clock,
+probably, our cell door was unlocked, and we were told to dress. We
+hastened to the bath-room and drank eagerly at the tap. Our wet clothes
+were lying just where we left them. They were still quite damp and our
+boots wet through. Had we known, we might have left them in a rather
+different position, on some hot pipes; but we thought they were sure to
+be stoved, as the portress knew we had taken shelter from pouring rain.
+We had told her we could not reach our friends in the neighbouring town
+because of it. There was nothing to do but to put our wet things on and
+set to work. A woman brought us a pair of men's boots, very damp, with
+blacking and brushes, and told us to polish them for her before we had
+our breakfast. We did this, which doubtless was extra, and were rewarded
+with a mug of her coffee, with one mug of the same sort of gruel, and
+two thick slices of bread. The coffee was such a treat. I have made some
+enquiries since, and have found at least one workhouse where the gruel
+is replaced by coffee, though this is contrary to regulations. The
+reason given is that the tramps never eat the gruel, and frequently
+_throw_ it about, and even at one another, making a great mess! Also,
+being made in summer overnight, it turns sour, and "is not fit for
+pigs!" Is any comment needed? How many tons of good oatmeal must be
+wasted every year! It is _absolute_ waste, as we were again told to
+empty our mugs of the night before down the w.c., and put them away
+clean. So not even the pigs have the benefit of it!
+
+There was no room to sit in, or seat, except a short form, just big
+enough for two, in the bath-room. No table--and mugs and bread were put
+on a window-sill. We sat on the form by a window, a few inches open,
+that looked on some shrubs, and as we sat there a man--a pauper--passed
+and stared in. We moved away. He went, and we again took our seats, but
+presently he returned and stood staring in. We had fled to either side
+when we saw him coming, but presently my friend _peeped_, and there he
+was, standing staring in. She gave him some sharp words and ordered him
+off; he disappeared, but evidently this was a means of communication
+between men and women. The window, however, would not open wide, but
+conversation would be easy. Presently the portress came, very brisk and
+sharp. I was told to clean and stone a larder some distance off. We had
+already done a little work while waiting. Knowing we should have to do
+it, we folded our blankets, washed our pots, and cleaned the bath-room
+taps. All was made clean and tidy when the portress came, but we were
+not to get off so easily! My friend was told to stone the place
+completely through, including the three cells not used (which looked
+clean), to black-lead the hot-water pipes all down the passage, dust
+everywhere thoroughly, and clean the step. Meanwhile I had first to do
+some shelves and then stone a spiral stair and the floor of a small
+larder, and then go on to other work. I think, probably, the work we did
+would have taken the ordinary tramp a full day, and earned another bed
+and breakfast. But we did not dawdle, but worked steadily on, and
+pleased the portress so much that eventually she said we might go that
+day. We could not finish our task by eleven, so she kindly gave us our
+dinner and let us go after it, saying we should have time to reach our
+friends. Evidently she saw we were above the usual tramp, and our work
+pleased her. She asked us a few questions, but our answers, that we were
+tramping from L---- to B----, having come short of money before we
+reached our friends, satisfied her, being true. This portress came
+backwards and forwards pretty frequently, and so did our acquaintance of
+the previous night, who seemed to have numerous errands by the larder
+where I was cleaning, but I neither looked at him nor spoke, so he did
+not make any advances. It would have been easy to "carry on" with him in
+the intervals between the times when the portress came. The woman pauper
+who brought in the boots was, however, to be seen within call, in a room
+near by, the door of which was open, so I felt protected. She was a
+decent woman and kind to us. She said she "didn't do it for everyone,"
+when she afterwards brought us part of her dinner. After finishing the
+larder, the portress set me to turn out bundles, which were stacked in
+compartments on either side of a long, high room, right up to the
+ceiling. I had a high pair of steps, and was to take each bundle out and
+dust it with a brush, sweep out the compartment, and replace it. Each
+parcel, as a rule, was wrapped in rough linen wrappings, but a
+considerable number of things were unparcelled, and some dirty and
+foul-smelling--probably they had been only stoved and put away. All the
+bundles which were not tightly tied were more or less moth-eaten. It
+made my heart ache to see these clothes in such a state, remembering
+that they were all that some poor people possessed. I had often noticed
+the lack of care with regard to destitute women's clothing, having
+fetched girls out of the workhouse whose clothes were so crumpled, even
+when decent, that everyone stared at them--and had received from poor
+people many complaints that their clothes were lost or spoiled. After
+seeing the state of this store-room I can well believe it. Behind the
+bundles were cobwebs simply festooned with moths. They had attacked the
+bundles at every opening. The coverings kept them off, but some bundles
+were rotten, and one sad thing was that if a bundle was rather more
+respectable, and contained more clothes, it was not so tightly tied, and
+was, therefore, more open to attack. Besides, not a few things were
+quite unprotected and swarming. The place was heated with pipes. A
+better breeding ground for moths could hardly be imagined. Yet a simple
+expedient would have prevented _most_ of the mischief. If each bundle
+had been provided with _two_ wrappers, and the second one tied over the
+openings of the first, the moths could not get in. Besides this,
+however, the whole should be examined more frequently. I turned out more
+than a hundred bundles, and was then told to simply _dust down the
+front_ of the remainder. Doubtless this had been done often, and all
+_looked_ right. I showed the portress, however, so many moth-eaten
+bundles that she said she must have them all stoved. She came and said
+I might stone the floor and finish, my companion having finished about
+the same time. We had rough aprons given us to work in; but I should
+like to mention, as a subject for thought, that all this rough, hard
+work naturally made our clothes dirty, and would soon wear them out. We
+were, after only two nights in workhouse tramp wards, far more dirty and
+disreputable in our clothing than when we left home. The sleeves of my
+blouse were very dirty by this time. Yet in the workhouse, as bundles
+are confiscated, there is no chance to change, and no opportunity to
+wash a garment. One is "between Scylla and Charybdis!" In the common
+lodging-house you can wash your clothes, but not yourself; in the
+workhouse tramp ward you can wash yourself, but not your clothes!
+
+We had bread and cheese given us for dinner; we had our bundles given
+us, and mashed our last tea with water from the bath tap. The kind woman
+brought us part of her dinner, telling us to return the plate and not
+let the portress see it. We then got leave to go. The portress was in
+the lodge, and we passed out without remark.
+
+Once more we were free!--but very exhausted. We felt completely tired
+out, and struggling up the dirty lane we found a reservoir and some
+public seats. We took turns to rest, lying on a seat, for some men were
+about, and kept walking backwards and forwards and laughing at us. The
+ground was damp, so it was no use seeking a more sheltered place. We
+rested an hour or two, till we began to grow cold.
+
+
+V. A NIGHT IN A WOMAN'S SHELTER.
+
+We knew that three good miles lay between us and our friends, but we
+were also a day beforehand, as we had expected to be detained two
+nights. What to do for this last night considerably exercised us! Should
+we give in, and go to our friends a day earlier? This would be to lose
+an opportunity for research which might be long in recurring. Should we
+go to another workhouse? This would be to risk detention over Sunday.
+Should we try a night in the open? I knew the neighbourhood fairly well,
+and it might be possible to find shelter; but the weather was gloomy and
+damp, and it would hardly do to risk making an appearance in a police
+court when I had been announced to speak publicly on Sunday evening. So
+we determined to walk on, and, if we could not find any other
+alternative, to pawn our spare shawl for a night's lodging. Only we
+neither of us cared to face a common lodging-house; it would be hardly
+fair to our friends to arrive at civilisation straight from such
+surroundings. At any rate, we had the rest of the day for experiment,
+some workhouse bread, some plasmon sugar, and _one penny_! We went to a
+park, and spent part of the afternoon sheltering from rain, and then
+pushed on for the town. I passed the houses of friends who would have
+stared indeed to see me, but probably no one would have recognised us.
+It got near tea-time, and we tried again and again to spend our last
+penny on _butter_. No one would sell us a pennyworth, so finally we went
+to the third-class waiting-room of the station and ate our bread with
+plasmon sugar. Here our problem was solved! We saw by a notice that
+there was a "Woman's Shelter": beds 3_d_., 4_d_. and 5_d_. Just the
+thing! Here was a new and final experiment: we should not have to give
+in! So we went out to search for the shelter and a pawnbroker's, and
+easily found both; we changed our best shawl for the poor one that
+covered our bundle, but would do as a substitute, and pawned the
+shawl--which had cost 8_s_. 11_d_.--for 2_s_. 6_d_. We were then
+"passing rich"! We enquired at the shelter, which had only just been
+re-opened after the small-pox epidemic, and after engaging two fourpenny
+beds we went to a coffee-house near by, and indulged in the luxury of
+two half-pints of tea; my friend had some sausage and I a tea-cake
+_buttered_. After this welcome meal we returned to the shelter. It was a
+great relief to find ourselves once more in a decent place, and with
+women only. I cannot too highly commend this shelter as being _just the
+thing needed for the class it provides for_.[83] It was not a _charity_,
+though doubtless not wholly self-supporting. We paid for what we
+received, and were free to come and go unquestioned. Particulars were
+entered similar to those in the workhouse (in addition, we were asked
+the address to which we were going). Women could enter up to eleven at
+night. The place was a converted mill. The basement consisted of a
+large, comfortable kitchen, with a large stove, benches and tables and
+shelves. There was also a well-appointed lavatory, deep basins, plenty
+of hot and cold water, a wringing machine for clothes, and baths could
+be had _free_. We easily begged a bucket to wash our tired feet. There
+was _everything necessary for personal cleanliness_, and in the presence
+of women only (especially as only one or two were in the lavatory),
+changes of clothing could be made. The women were friendly and cheerful,
+and appeared to appreciate their privileges. There was no _restraint_,
+but a pleasant, elderly woman in charge sat in the kitchen and prevented
+foul talk and brawls. Upstairs was a large, pleasant hall, with a piano.
+Some women of a better class apparently preferred this, and sat working.
+This also was easily supervised, without its being noticeable, by the
+presence of someone in the adjoining office. We could go to bed at nine,
+ten, or eleven, but not between, so that the bedrooms were only
+disturbed at these hours. Three stories above contained bedrooms--large,
+airy rooms, with beds at graded prices. The w.c.'s were in a yard out of
+an upper story, and were clean and well flushed.
+
+Altogether I was most thankful for this opportunity of seeing just the
+sort of provision for migrating women which should exist in _every_
+town. Even if some of the inmates were immoral, they were in no
+temptation at least while there. One woman told another she knew she had
+given way to drink, but was glad to get back to "the old place," and
+there appeared to be some who lived there who tried as much as they
+could to exercise a good influence. There was a "Sankey" on the piano,
+and I played a few tunes as well as I could without spectacles; this was
+warmly appreciated, and several joined in singing, my stumbling playing
+suiting my condition of "having seen better days!" Some young ladies
+passed through and said, "Who is she?" but made no further remark.
+
+We went to bed at nine. My bed was clean, but my companion's was dirty,
+and a very dirty woman slept next, who had had drink, and got out
+frequently in the night, and _sat_ on my friend's bed. She saw some
+vermin, but I saw none, and slept very fairly well. People came in at
+ten, and at eleven a woman and some children came in, and settled down
+rather noisily. Room-mates got out of bed at intervals, and early trams
+ran outside, and some got up early, but on the whole we had a good night
+compared with other experiences. The cleanliness of the floor left
+something to be desired, and we were told to make our beds before we
+went downstairs; so they would be left for the next comer, clean or
+unclean. We heard several expressions of thankfulness for the place,
+only one woman said, "They only did what they were paid for, and she
+didn't see that it was much charity." We found our way downstairs for a
+wash, and after sitting a little while in the kitchen we went to the
+neighbouring coffee tavern for breakfast. After this we had still 1_s_.
+1-1/2_d_. left out of our 2_s_. 6_d_., and some spare provision,
+including some workhouse bread. The remainder we decided to spend on
+making ourselves _respectable_. It may be thought that this would be
+difficult, but by a little contrivance we managed to make ourselves
+sufficiently presentable to elude scrutiny, and to pass for shabby
+tourists on a "walking expedition." Our luggage had been sent on, and
+supplies of money awaited us. Therefore the only problem was that of
+changing from "tramps" to "tourists." Bad weather would account for
+boots and untidiness. We found a cheap shop, and bought a hat and
+trimmings, tie, and belt for a shilling. My friend put on a more
+respectable underskirt of mine over her linsey petticoat. Her hat and
+shawl would pass muster. My new hat, tie, and belt "converted" me into a
+lady! We went to a park to trim the hat with pins, which we bought for a
+halfpenny. There we remained till afternoon, dining on our remaining
+bread, except what we gave to the swans. Immediately overlooking this
+park friends lived who little guessed that one who was to visit them
+shortly was dining under their windows as a "destitute woman!" Our
+destitution was, however, at an end, and with hearts full of
+thankfulness at the successful issue of our research expedition we found
+our way at the appointed time to the house where we were expected by a
+friend, who thought she quite understood our desire for a speedy change
+of apparel after our "walking tour!"
+
+These latter experiences of eluding questions caused us some amusement.
+But _supposing_ we had had no friends, no cheerful welcome, no waiting
+supplies. What could we have done? Before us would have stretched, in
+grey monotony, the life of poverty, a possible search for uncertain
+work, a gradual pawning of every available article for food, more
+workhouses, more common lodging-houses. The last article gone,
+cleanliness lost, clothing dilapidated or dirty--what then?
+
+To wander helpless and homeless, driven to tramp, or to descend still
+farther into vice. From such a life "_facilis descensus Averni_."[84]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[82] See Appendix VII.
+
+[83] See p. 30.
+
+[84] See Appendix VII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A NORTHERN TRAMP WARD.[85]
+
+
+Having, with a friend, spent five days and nights of the summer of 1903
+as a "Tramp among Tramps,"[86] I was led to pursue social investigation
+a little further. The reasons were many. It was suggested in several
+quarters that our experiences might be exceptional, that they were the
+result of specimening isolated workhouses, that mismanagement in detail
+was possible. Abnormal conditions might prevail by accident. It might
+also be that in the larger centres of population cleanliness and food
+were both better managed. Also the time of year at which we went was one
+when the tramp ward was empty; we did not come in contact with others
+and learn their character. It was possible that conditions which pressed
+hardly on us were easy to them. It seemed very desirable to ascertain
+exactly the winter circumstances in some large centre of population.
+There were reasons which made the one we chose exceptionally interesting
+as an experiment. The story of our Tramp was a matter of public
+knowledge; the personal assurance of Guardians had been given that the
+evils mentioned did not exist. They had examined and convinced
+themselves that, as regards the destitute poor, their workhouses were
+free from blame. Not only so, but the workhouse tramp ward chosen had
+been frequently mentioned in the public Press. A large "sleeping-out"
+problem existed in the town. It was suggested that it might be desirable
+to relax regulations so as to make it easier for destitute persons
+staying there to go out in the morning to look for work. "It was thought
+that in this way men who shunned the casual ward might be induced to
+enter it in preference to sleeping out." So said the public Press. The
+experiment of slightly relaxing the rules was tried. Very few availed
+themselves of it.[87] The Guardians also opened the wards early, but
+very few men came. The applicants were mostly men "tramping in search of
+work," but all who applied had slept in the neighbourhood the night
+previously.
+
+The Clerk added that "the experiment made it clear to the public that
+there was no necessity for the men to sleep in the brickfields."
+
+Here evidently was an exceptional Board of Guardians, bent on meeting a
+public need. With such a desire on their part, probably ideal conditions
+would prevail. An ungrateful vagrant class, "men in search of work, but
+who don't want to find it," nevertheless refused to flock to the
+provision made for them. They obstinately preferred brickfields after
+six weeks of relaxed conditions! Was it ignorance or prejudice on their
+part? Or was it possible that the Guardians were mistaken in thinking
+provision had been made? One thing only could test the matter: another
+descent from respectability, and identification with the claimants for
+relief. One night as a tramp might give insight into real conditions. It
+is so surprisingly easy to become a tramp that it is strange it has not
+occurred to Guardians personally to test conditions by sampling each
+other's workhouses, or at any rate by sending into them some trustworthy
+witness.
+
+So my friend and I started on a well-planned tour of investigation. We
+dropped out of civilisation in a town far enough away to tramp from, and
+set our faces towards a place where friends were ready to receive us. We
+told no lies. We were at 5.30 P.M. so penniless that through a partial
+miscalculation we had only 3-1/2_d_. between us (besides two pennies
+husbanded for after needs) wherewith to procure the substantial tea with
+which we wished to fortify ourselves! Consequently we could not afford
+2_d_. for a cup of tea, and our first surprise was to find that a 1_d_.
+cup was hard to procure. It was only by searching in a poor
+neighbourhood that our evident poverty procured us, as a favour, a cup
+of tea each and four slices of bread and butter for our 3-1/2_d_. The
+usual price was 2_d_. for a "pot of tea" in a small, poor, but clean,
+shop, and bread and butter was 1/2_d_. a slice. When I asked the woman
+to give us 1-1/2_d_. worth instead of a twopenny plateful, she gave us
+two extra slices "free gratis for nothing." Evidently we were objects of
+charity, poor and respectable, and we appreciated her kindness. But,
+considering the real price of food, we paid for what we had. Cheap cups
+of tea are a preventative of evils. Thirsty men and women must drink.
+Surely a penny cup of tea easy to be obtained might keep many out of the
+public-house. Of course, we were ignorant of where to go to obtain cheap
+food, but so, maybe, are other wanderers who are not habitués.
+
+Refreshed, but not satisfied, we began to search for S---- Street. No
+one knew where it was, so we had to resort to the usual refuge and
+"asked a bobby." He knew, and knew why we asked! After a moderate walk
+through a very poor neighbourhood we easily identified the place by a
+row of six men propped up against a wall waiting, and one woman hovering
+near. We found, somewhat to our surprise, that the hour of admission was
+one hour later than that which prevailed in the towns we knew. Seven
+o'clock is late on a winter's night, and it may be you will suffer from
+cold, snow, or sleet if you arrive as a stranger at six o'clock.
+Besides, what about early admission? However, no one was being let in,
+so we took a short walk and returned. All the loiterers had disappeared
+inside, so we followed. We were, however, only admitted to further
+waiting under cover in a curious ruinous shed. It was a very cold place,
+the roof would let water in through holes in the skylight. It was,
+however, a fine night, and only moderately cold. So we joined two women,
+and saw the men, about fifteen by that time, arranged in a row against
+the opposite wall. Two women were sitting on a step and one on the
+handle of a wheelbarrow. We sat on the edge of a plank with our backs
+against a hole that gave a view of a place we found afterwards was under
+the tramp ward, apparently used for bricks. A married woman, somewhat
+respectably dressed, came in with her husband. One by one men dropped
+in. The women spoke little, but a buzz of conversation went on among the
+men, whose numbers grew to over thirty. Two facts struck me. Hardly any
+one was old, most were in the prime of life, and, with a few exceptions,
+if you had met them in the street, you would say they were ordinary
+working men. Some few, however, were evidently of the "moucher" type. We
+waited, growing cold, for a full half-hour in this draughty place, and
+then, as the hands of the office clock pointed to seven, we women were
+told to crowd into a corner near the office window, "married people
+first," and an official in uniform proceeded to take particulars.
+Husband and wife, in the case of three couples, had to give name, age,
+where they came from, and destination and occupation. Then began, as
+each candidate came forward, a process which I can only describe as
+"bully-ragging." If the unfortunate applicant stated the facts in a meek
+and ordinary voice, this official asked, "Have you been here before?" If
+the reply was "No," "See that you don't come here again," "Sponging upon
+the rates!" and various other expressions not to be repeated were used
+in a hectoring tone of voice. If the reply was "Yes," he became
+threatening and violent in language. One married woman ventured the
+reply, "Not since before Christmas." He flew out upon her and used
+insulting language. This preyed on her mind so that in the course of the
+next two days she frequently said to us, "I only said 'not since before
+Christmas,' and he said I sauced him." One poor woman with a bandaged
+head was summarily dismissed. "Get out with you, you ----!" "Off with
+you ---- sharp!" Threats of five days' detainment or of "gaol" for
+"impudence" were used, and he announced as a clincher, "All you women
+will have to stay in two nights and pick three pounds of oakum."
+
+My heart sank low. These must be desperate, well-known characters with
+whom I was to associate, the very scum of the earth, to be treated so.
+Even this habitual imposture hardly could justify the official's
+language. He was evidently a "lion in the path," and not muzzled! But
+_I_ was a decent, married woman rejoining my husband who was working in
+a neighbouring town, too far from him to reach him that night, without
+means to procure a bed, and seeking shelter simply in order not to be
+on the streets at night, and to proceed as soon as permitted. I gave
+particulars which were true, and in answer to the question, "Have you
+been here before?" could truthfully say "No." But this was not enough.
+"And what are you doing here?" "I am going on to my husband." "You've no
+business to be here imposing on the rates. Do you know I could give you
+three months for it? I've a good mind to send you off and make you tramp
+to him to-night." I was so dumbfoundered, my friend says, I replied, "I
+wish you would!" Then he proceeded to insinuate I was a woman of bad
+character; my eyes fell and my face flushed, and I suppose gave colour
+to his statement. Reply or justification was worse than useless. I grew
+so confused I could not state correctly the number of my children, but
+said I had "one or two." Evidently a bad character, leaving children up
+and down the country. "See you don't come here again. I shall know your
+face, and it will be worse for you if you do." I earnestly replied, "I
+won't," and was allowed to pass on. I waited at the top of a flight of
+stairs while he "bully-ragged" my friend for going about the country
+with such a bad character. He made her cheeks flush by insinuating she
+was no better. She said when she joined me, piteously, "Do I look like a
+prostitute?"
+
+We entered together the tramp ward, a barn-like room, furnished with a
+wooden table and three forms. We found afterwards that the whole ward
+was the top storey of a converted mill. It was skylighted and divided
+into several rooms--a very large dormitory, a bath room with w.c.'s, an
+attendant's private sitting-room and store-room, and the day-room we
+entered, which was approached by a flight of stairs from outside. The
+room was very little heated, apparently by a steam pipe overhead. There
+was no fire, and a very cold draught from outside, when, as frequently,
+the door was left ajar. The table was so placed that the draught came to
+those who sat there. We were told to hang up our shawls and sit down. A
+very stately officer in spotless uniform received us and marshalled us
+like soldiers, peremptorily, but not unkindly. We sat at table and were
+given brilliantly polished tin mugs and spoons. Then each of us was
+helped to gruel, very good in quality, almost thick enough to be called
+porridge, and sufficiently salted not to be tasteless. A salt-box was on
+the table. We each received also a thick slice of good bread. We fell to
+with appetite after our slender tea and long waiting. Gruel was not so
+bad--for the first time! The table and floor were spotlessly clean. So
+far good. I did not at the time reflect that it is usually supposed to
+be bad to have a bath immediately after a meal.[88] As soon as we had
+finished eating it was, "Now, women, come to the bath, two of you." My
+friend and I eagerly embraced the first turn, and were soon marshalled
+each to a corner of the bath-room, searched (for pipe and tobacco!), and
+told to get into the six inches of warm water, which a notice told us we
+were entitled to, and carefully asked if it was too hot or cold. We had,
+however, only soft soap to wash ourselves with, and were told to wash
+our hair. This we had previously escaped. My friend had very long hair,
+needing careful drying, and the prospect of wet heads was not cheering.
+If you wish to frequent tramp wards it is desirable to have short hair.
+However, there was no help for it, so with the officer standing by to
+hand a clean towel and enforce haste--"Come, hurry up, women"--I hastily
+bathed, dried my hair as well as I could, and got into the garments
+provided--a modern substitute for a hair shirt--a coarse garment of dark
+blue bathing flannel of most peculiar shape. It just covered the elbows
+and barely came to the knees! The neck, of white calico, was dirty. I
+had to perform an act of self-sacrifice in leaving my friend the
+cleanest. Blankets and nightgowns are stoved every night, rendering
+insect pests impossible, but, unless I am greatly mistaken, they are not
+washed often. My friend, who afterwards folded the blankets, found they
+made her hands filthy. It is not very nice to think of sleeping thus,
+but it would, of course, be impossible to wash the blankets every time.
+But it might be possible to give a person a clean nightgown, and the
+same one for two consecutive nights. As it was, we knew the second night
+we must be wearing some one else's. They were lumped and sent to be
+stoved. With regard to the blankets, every night the regulations have to
+be relaxed for one or two women unfit to be bathed. These sleep in their
+own clothes. They cannot be clean. But in the morning all the blankets
+were also lumped and stoved. Consequently, the next night you might be
+sleeping in your neighbour's blankets. Two women on one night slept
+without changing or bath. It would seem to be a simple precaution to
+wash the blankets from these beds, and thus in rotation wash all.
+However, these delights were yet to come. We folded our clothes and were
+marched through the sitting-room in our scanty costume to fetch from the
+store-room pillows and blankets. An American leather pillow, very low,
+and a straw pillow with a white cover were allowed us, but the second
+night only the American leather one was allowed. This was much too low
+for comfort. One woman begged a white one, but we were stopped from
+asking. It was only for women who had just washed their heads! It was a
+special favour to her.
+
+We were then marched into the large dormitory and told to let down a
+wide board propped against the wall, one for each. A row of sleeping
+women occupied similar "plank beds." There were a few straw beds on
+bedsteads, but only for sick folks, and also some children's cribs. A
+gas jet or two burned all night and revealed the gaunt rafters and
+skylights. Now to test the delights of a plank bed! We were told to make
+it "one blanket below and two above." So we meekly did so, and the
+officer retired.
+
+Now began, about 7.30, a night which I can only describe as one of
+long-drawn-out misery.
+
+The human body is not made to accommodate itself easily to a plank bed
+even with "three good blankets." If you lie on your back your hips are
+in an unnatural position unless the knees are raised; then the air comes
+under the narrow doubled blankets. Try first one side and then another.
+Your weight rests on hip and shoulder squeezed into flatness and
+speedily sore. Add wet hair, a low pillow very hard, a garment that left
+arms and legs uncovered and pricked you all over, and conditions are not
+easy for sleep. Double a blanket under you four-fold, get another round
+you, and place the third on top double. This is more tolerable, but
+still cold. My back was sore after three nights in a soft bed. Do not
+imagine either that we slept more uneasily than others. Everyone
+complained of their hard couches, though some said even they were
+preferable to wire mattresses, on which you "couldn't get warm." A
+simple expedient would provide an efficient remedy. If a strong hammock
+material was fastened in a frame bedstead by eyelets on pegs, this could
+be removed and stoved, washed, if necessary, would give to the body,
+and allow of easy sleep. But even on this uneasy couch sleep might have
+been obtained but for a number of disturbances which made the night
+prolonged torture. The end of the room was occupied by a large cistern.
+At intervals, day and night, a flush of water was sent along a pipe for
+sanitary reasons. A very good arrangement, but we happened to be at the
+cistern end of the room. Anyone who knows how a cistern behaves can
+imagine the peculiar noises that issued. It seemed possessed by a demon
+bent on preventing sleep. It would s-s-siss for a few moments, then
+gurgle, then hiss, then a rush would come, followed by a steady tap,
+tap, tap that speedily became maddening. Water on the brain with a
+vengeance! Wet hair and running water in combination! This proximity to
+the cistern was, however, an accident carefully avoided the second
+night, but several poor unfortunates would always have to suffer it. It
+was, however, a minor evil compared with others. The beds were so close
+they almost touched, quite unnecessarily, as the room was large, but so
+we were ordered. Your neighbour breathed right in your face, and you had
+all the twisting and turning of a sufferer on each side to add to your
+own. Most of the women had bad colds, and you succumbed yourself under
+the double influence of contagion and chilliness. Then your coughing and
+sneezing added to the common misery. Only the women there for the second
+night lay still--apparently, but not really, asleep. Later, I knew why:
+sheer fatigue and exhaustion prevented restlessness. But all of us
+newcomers turned and squirmed, some sighed and groaned; others gave vent
+to exclamations of misery. "My God, what a hell hole of a place," said a
+woman, roused from uneasy slumber for about the sixth time. Far the
+worst thing of all, which made it a punishment fit for Tantalus, was the
+interruption to slumber. Nominally, women could be admitted till 10
+o'clock, but really, for one reason or another they were admitted till
+past midnight, under protest. An officer was in charge, and in each case
+her manner of procedure was as follows: She turned the handle of the
+door with a loud noise, marched in the newcomer (after previous cistern
+gurglings connected with bathing operations), ordered her in a loud tone
+of voice to let down the plank bed. Down it came with a bang, startling
+all sleepers. Then she administered some rebuke, mixed with orders, left
+the new unfortunate, and shut the door sharply. One newcomer was a poor
+old granny, very bad with rheumatism, whom she loudly accused of drink,
+probably with truth. This old woman sighed, groaned, and moaned, "Oh!
+deary me!" "Lord help us!" most of the night, and was in real pain. She
+got out of bed twice with numerous sighs and groans, taking a quarter of
+an hour at least each time. Bed after bed was let down and dragged
+across the floor. A woman came in very late, could not settle, was moved
+to a straw bed, was too frightened to sleep (perhaps _d.t._), finally
+was allowed to go out in the middle of the night. No doubt the post of
+this night watching officer was tiresome and onerous, but a little
+thought might have brought about considerable improvement. If a number
+of spare beds were placed ready overnight, and scoldings administered in
+the day room, if doors were opened quietly, and orders given softly,
+with some consideration for a room full of weary sisters, one would have
+been thankful. As it was, people grew more and more restless; some one
+was constantly wandering to the adjoining lavatory, or sitting up and
+coughing or moving uneasily. It was nearly impossible to snatch more
+than a few brief moments of restless slumber before, with early morning,
+sheer weariness reduced us to quietude. Then at 5.30 we were roused by
+the mandate, "Now then, women, all of you get up; be sharp now." A hasty
+obedience, swift and unwavering, is enforced by several stern sanctions.
+In the first place, before you lies a day of service, the conditions of
+which can be made hard at will. Behind that is the possibility of being
+detained four, or, if Sunday intervenes, five days, for "cheek" or
+"impudence." No one could face such a prospect with equanimity. Yet for
+very slight cause it was possible. We had an object lesson before us of
+the tender mercies of officials. A poor woman, a silk weaver by trade,
+who had been reduced to live by casual labour at charing or by selling
+bootlaces, had entered the previous night. She was ignorant of the two
+nights' detention, and had a cleaning place to go to. When she found she
+was to be detained she begged and prayed to go, and the officer was
+moved by her tears to take her to the matron and give her her liberty.
+But this took time, and she reached her charing place too late. Work was
+denied her, and she wandered about all day, and came back rather late to
+claim her second night, having difficulty in re-finding the place, and
+having nowhere to go. I have every reason to believe her story was true,
+for she repeated it to us again and again, it fitted in with her
+character and history, and she had no motive for deceiving us. But for
+this offence of returning, after having asked off, she was condemned to
+remain five days. Her story was not believed, though she begged with
+tears to go out and seek work. One officer, indeed, spoke to almost all
+in a most peremptory, and one might also add, insulting manner, casting
+doubt on the truthfulness of what was told her. Reply was useless, as it
+would only provoke penalty. She hurried people up and ordered them
+about. One woman, an old hand, the second morning said, "Come, come, you
+needn't be so knotty with us," but no one else ventured anything that
+could be interpreted as disobedience or "impudence." She turned a deaf
+ear to one poor, tired woman whose feet were swollen, and who wished to
+remain another night, and tried her best to order poor old Granny out.
+"You won't stay here," "You can walk right enough," "You won't come over
+me with your tales." Fortunately for us, her régime was limited. We had
+altogether dealings with three officers. One was careful and stately,
+strict but kind, only not considerate in the matter of protecting our
+sleep. This one was "knotty," and the third far more kind. Fortunately
+her share of us fell at dinner time, but of that more anon.
+
+I should remark that I felt considerable sympathy for these our task
+mistresses. Even with a cosy sitting room, and stove, and sofa, it must
+be an irksome and disagreeable task, and our "knotty" friend looked
+weary. By the end of the time she had sufficiently differentiated us to
+tell us before leaving "not to believe" the others. But I think she was
+to a great extent harsh and wrong in her judgments; at any rate, the
+assumption that all were liars was wrong. My friend and I are accustomed
+to judge characters of this class, being engaged in Rescue work, and
+having destitute women constantly in hand. You cannot live a whole two
+nights and a day with women, under pressure of hard circumstances, in
+fellowship, without eliciting confidence. The women who went out after
+one night with us we did not know. They ate, or did not eat, a hasty
+breakfast, and departed very early--about 6.30 probably--some of them to
+join husbands. But the following may be taken as a truthful description
+of our sisters who remained. The main impression on my mind is a double
+wonder at their patience in affliction, and at the qualities revealed in
+them, and a wonder whether, if I had selected a similar number of better
+class friends and placed them in like circumstances, they would have
+borne the test as well.
+
+Our morning ablution had to be performed with cold water and soft soap.
+Our clothes were restored to us mostly stoved (in which process some are
+said to be ruined, becoming limp and creased). Breakfast, the same as
+supper, was meted out to us. Gruel a second time, and dry bread is not
+appetising. Oh for a drink! The room was cold, and only cold water from
+the bath tap available; it tasted of metal polish or soft soap.
+
+We sopped our bread in our porridge, and, knowing we had the day to
+face, ate all we could. No one ate all their porridge and bread. We were
+not exceptional, hardly anyone ate much. Some kept their bread and
+munched it at intervals through the day. The porridge, including some
+nearly full mugs, and what remained in the can, was simply thrown away.
+Naturally enough, when the officer left us and we waited for the task
+mistress, the conversation turned on food and treatment. Those who knew
+other workhouses declared that this was "the worst they knew." In the
+course of the day we heard the merits of most of the workhouses near,
+and of some far away. It may be well to summarise as follows: The
+comparative merits of a tramp ward depend first on drink; the women
+feel dreadfully the need of drink, especially after hard work. Coffee or
+tea makes all the difference to dry bread. Gruel is not drink. Some can
+bring in a bit of tea and sugar, and as a favour beg hot water, but it
+is often denied them. We procured it once, and it was once denied in our
+hearing. We had but a screw of tea and sugar, and some had none.
+
+The second requisite would seem to be food, but it seems as if only a
+few can eat the gruel more than once a day. It is played with and left
+by most. Hence dry bread and a morsel of cheese at dinner is the real
+fare. As the quantity of food allowed is not even that which will
+sustain life in an adult, semi-starvation is the result.[89] The tramp
+men who brought back the stoved blankets, eagerly and hungrily hid under
+their jackets the pieces of bread the women had left.
+
+Now to commence, after a night of misery, with a freshly-caught cold, to
+sit in a cold and draughty room with no fire, and feast on gruel and dry
+bread, with a possible drink of water, is _punishment_, not charity, or
+alleviation of misery.
+
+The third merit or demerit of a tramp ward is the bed. Straw beds are a
+luxury, wire mattresses disliked for cold, plank beds for hardness; the
+floor is preferable, as there is more room.
+
+The fourth and perhaps the most important item is the character of the
+officers. Any who have even a drop of the milk of human kindness are
+remembered with appreciation. But they seem rare. Not, I believe, that
+there are many intentionally unkind. "They know not what they do." The
+constant habit of dealing for so brief a period with individuals
+prevents the formation of the customary links of human kindliness; the
+worst characters return, the best stay so short a time and are lost to
+sight; any act of kindness meets apparently no reward. Kindness for
+kindness' sake is difficult, a peremptory official habit easily
+acquired. There may be texts in an officer's sitting room, and yet the
+Christian qualities fortitude and patience and self-sacrifice may be
+better exhibited to one another by the tramps outside her door than by
+the inmate in authority. Some workhouses are to be avoided like poison.
+There positive cruelty and insult reign, but the slightest resentment
+might be interpreted as "insubordination" and earn prison. A cast-iron
+system administered in a cast-iron way may, without intentional
+unkindness, be responsible for a vast sum of human misery.
+
+The task mistress came and asked us if we could wash or clean. Three of
+us were set to pick oakum. I could not volunteer to stand over the
+wash-tub, and, besides, I wished to unravel the mysteries of oakum
+picking, and learn the histories of my comrades in misfortune. So we
+three sat on a wood bench in a cold room, and three pounds of oakum each
+was solemnly weighed out to us. Do you know what oakum is? A number of
+old ropes, some of them tarred, some knotted, are cut into lengths; you
+have to untwist and unravel them inch by inch. We were all "'prentice
+hands." One woman had once done a little; we had never done any! After
+two hours I perhaps had done a quarter of a pound, and my fingers were
+getting sore, while the pile before me seemed to diminish little. Then I
+was asked if I could clean, and gladly escaped to a more congenial task.
+One woman only picked oakum all day; she was the one who was penalised.
+She had never done it before, and did not nearly finish her quota,
+though I helped her a little later on. Fortunately it was not demanded,
+but it might be at the will of an officer.
+
+It will easily be perceived that long before this any dream I had of
+ideal tramp ward conditions had vanished. I was instead filled with
+amazement that any enlightened and Christian men and women could
+consider this a refuge for destitution, and wonder at a preference for
+brickfields and liberty. Prison treatment would be preferable, but my
+wonder was still to grow.
+
+For the prevailing idea in my class of society, which I to some extent
+shared, was that tramps as a class were so incorrigible, and so
+determined to lead a nomad existence, that the life had somehow a
+mysterious charm for them, and the only thing was to severely penalise
+vagrancy in order to deter men and women from it. Viewed in this light,
+it might be desirable that the treatment in a tramp ward should be
+equalised to that of a prison as a deterrent. A suspicion had been
+gradually growing in my mind that there was a destitution that was not
+voluntary vagrancy, and an actual forcing of lives into nomad existence.
+But I had not realised the pressure our system exerts in the direction
+of a wandering life.
+
+Let me introduce you to my companions and assure you I shall ever regard
+them with affection and respect.
+
+There is first of all "Granny," a poor old body of seventy sorrowful
+years. Once she had a little home of her own, and brought up a family of
+five sons and daughters. But her "old man" died; still her son supported
+her, and she led a precarious existence, much plagued by "rheumatics."
+But one day, not long ago, the place where her son worked was burned
+down, and she lost her stay and was turned adrift. She had mother-wit
+enough to beg her way; people gave her tea and pence. She "paid her way"
+in tramp wards, taking in a little tea and sugar and "tipping" officials
+with a penny for hot water. She offered me a halfpenny for a screw of
+sugar. She had begged unsuccessfully of a child at a door before coming
+in; the mother stood behind and refused. "As if a spoonful of sugar
+would have hurt her," Granny scornfully said. One thing remained to
+her--liberty--but to keep this she was forced to walk from town to town,
+sampling tramp wards. She had not done it long, but it was too much for
+her. One arm was too painful to be touched; it was hard to put on her
+tattered garments; she provoked the wrath of officials by dilatoriness.
+Her legs were a study. Each leg was swathed in bandages, her feet
+wrapped in old stocking legs and bandaged, and men's boots put over all,
+a long--long process. Poor old soul! she wanted to end her wanderings,
+and told us, I believe truthfully, that she had tried to get into two
+workhouses, but had not succeeded. Knowing the reluctance of officials
+to admit paupers out of their own parish, I can well believe it. She was
+really ill when she came, besides possible complications of having been
+"treated" to a drink of whisky. She could hardly stand, had a cough and
+looked feverish, and only fit to lie down; we had to help her on her
+feet several times. Perhaps her ailments bulked large--most old people's
+do--but she did not after all groan so very much considering. She was
+ordered out, but she said with truth that she might "fall down in the
+street." It did seem likely she might just go wandering on "till she
+dropped," so we all advised her to stay and see the doctor, who might
+order her into the House. She seemed to have only a mazy idea of how to
+go to work to get in, but she took our advice, saw the doctor, and was
+allowed to stay another night, but not ordered in, as she could stand.
+However, she might the next day, after being turned out, herself apply
+for admission, and this we all united to advise her to do. The one
+effect her wanderings had produced in her was a deadly hatred of
+workhouse officials. In the afternoon, after singing a hymn, I comforted
+her by telling that her wanderings might soon end in a better place. She
+was not sure of going to "heaven," but she felt sure she should meet
+many of these her tormentors in hell, and "then," she said, "I'll heave
+bricks at 'em!" I couldn't help suggesting "hot bricks" as appropriate,
+and then talked to her about "loving her enemies." "I can't help it,"
+she said, "if it keeps me out of heaven, I hate 'em--I hate 'em all!"
+Poor old soul, she lay on a form most of the day, obviously ill, worried
+out of the bed on which, in the absence of an officer, she laid her poor
+old bones. The officer next morning truly said that the workhouse, and
+not the tramp ward, was the place for her; but she scoffed unbelievingly
+at her story of having tried to get admission. Yet Granny continually
+told us she longed to get in and have "a good bed," and one can imagine
+a poor old body like that, with no one to speak for her, might have
+difficulties with a relieving officer. But we had to leave her behind
+us, though one longed to take her by the hand, and see her safely in. I
+was not in a physical condition to stand the long hours of waiting from
+6.30 A.M. till the office at which she would be admitted was opened. We
+advised her to stay as long as she could, and then go there. Next in
+order was a married woman, whom I would gladly own for my own relation.
+Her husband was on the men's side. "That's my old man," she said, on
+going out; "I know him by his cough." She had been well brought up and
+had sisters in good circumstances comparatively. She was the "black
+sheep of the family," and had drifted, probably through marriage, into
+destitute circumstances. She and her "old man" were comfortably
+ensconced in a workhouse where, as a good steady worker, she was
+probably not unwelcome. But she heard her sister in a distant town was
+dying, and they took their discharge and walked there and back, close on
+seventy miles, arriving in time and staying for the funeral. She was
+very, very weary with the long tramp, accomplished within a week. I
+believe they were re-entering the workhouse. This woman had a pleasant
+face and manner, and took several opportunities of doing small
+kindnesses; she did not grumble, she only mildly complained of the task
+set her. I think she had cause--she was set to scrub a very long and
+wide corridor. She steadily scrubbed away for hours; she had no kneeling
+pad, and it was "hard lines" on poor food and in a tired state. How many
+of us would have walked seventy miles to see a dying sister, and, weary
+and sorrowful, work without complaining, and with a cheerful face, and
+an eye for others' sorrows?
+
+A woman who interested me much was also a married woman. Once she had
+been waitress in an hotel frequented by the gentry, a place I knew
+well, and travelled with her wages in her pocket to buy clothes. She was
+still better dressed, a shapely woman, with a face almost handsome,
+graceful in her movements and a capital worker. Her husband did not look
+a bad specimen of a working man. Her story was that they had had a
+comfortable home; he was once a singer in a church choir. But his
+particular branch of trade failed, and he had to seek a growingly
+obsolete kind of work where it was to be found. They had tramped north
+in vain to find it, and were now tramping back to their old
+neighbourhood in the hope that things would be better. This woman also
+did not complain, and behaved in a self-respecting manner, not a foul
+word or reproach; she worked steadily, but was very weary and restless
+at night. She had a heavy cold on her and grew worse instead of better.
+I seem to see her sitting wearily up in bed, unable to get the needed
+repose. They had walked long distances recently.
+
+A more doubtful character was "Pollie," who apparently was well known to
+the officials. She was left stranded, as her husband, one fine day,
+being let out of a tramp ward before her, left her behind. She
+complained bitterly that the men were let out so long before the women,
+they had time to get "miles out of the road." If she caught him he would
+"get three months." Meanwhile she intended to visit a sister who would
+give her a few shillings, and then make tracks for another sister. Her
+face was not unhandsome, but her nose betrayed the real reason of her
+misfortunes, and her tongue was ready, and not too clean. She knew the
+workhouses far and wide, and had had her tussles with the authorities.
+She had thrown her bread and cheese at a matron who gave her it after
+hard work, giving another woman a workhouse diet. She had been in prison
+for "lip." She was, in fact, a tramp proper, and with a little drink and
+boon companions probably foul-mouthed and violent. But she and Granny
+were the only ones who used expressions not polite to give point to
+their opinions, and that only occasionally. They were under no
+restraint, unless our interior character insensibly sweetened the
+atmosphere, for no one, not the most travelled, suspected us. We had
+been "on the road," could refer to workhouse reminiscences, and "knew
+the country" far and wide. We freely rewarded confidences by real bits
+of history. As we sang in concert, probably that was thought to be our
+"line of business." We were complimented on our voices--I, like the
+husband above mentioned, had once "been in a choir." I felt sure we
+should have got a good living "on the road." A tramp man who passed us
+told us he thought we should have been "miles further by now." He
+watched us, and made in the same direction. I twitted my companion on
+the loss of a chance for life.
+
+It might be thought our speech would betray us, but I do not know that
+it was more educated than that of one at least of our companions. We
+were with "all sorts and conditions of women" but not the worst.
+
+There remains to be described a little Scotch woman, also married. She
+had been a servant, and was a "neat-handed Phyllis." Born near Glasgow
+she married south. Work failing, she and her husband had tramped the
+weary miles to her friends in the hope of work. They had returned, _viâ_
+Barrow, and were bound further south, so far seeking work and finding
+none. They had become habituated to tramp wards on the long march, and
+could tell the character of most, and the stages of the journey.
+
+These were the only ones we got to know intimately; a sorrowful woman
+with a sickly-looking child, who came overnight, were seeking admission
+to the workhouse that morning.
+
+If these were tramps, with one exception they were made so by
+circumstances.
+
+Shall I picture my brave little friend and companion, who worked on hour
+after hour with a splitting headache caused by a sleepless night? She
+had to clean the officer's room thoroughly, and to scrub tables, forms,
+floor--everything in short, in the large day room and down the stairs, a
+big piece of work. Meanwhile the two married women scrubbed the big
+dormitory and the bath room. The Scotch woman was told off to wash, by
+her own request, and related gleefully how she managed to wash and dry
+some of her own clothing before the officer came and told her to "mind
+and wash nothing of her own." We were meanwhile growing dirtier, and in
+more need of a bath than the first night. One woman washed a pocket
+handkerchief and dried it on the steam-pipe. Nothing else was possible.
+
+I was taken away after two hours' oakum picking and set to clean. While
+waiting for a bucket I saw a fire. Welcome sight. I dried my boots and
+warmed my feet, wet from the previous days' tramp. I was provided with
+materials, shown where to get water and set to clean, "Scrub, mind you,"
+two lavatories, two w.c.'s, and a staircase with three landings and
+three flights of stairs. I was also to clean the paint in the
+lavatories, etc., and do the taps and the stair-rods. Of the latter
+task, however, I was relieved by a pauper woman, who said her work, of
+which she was thoroughly sick, was constantly to clean brasses. I like
+cleaning, and set to work with a will, only one soon comes to the end of
+one's strength after a restless night and an insufficient breakfast. I
+found I must moderate my speed or I should not last the day out. Men
+were doing a cistern in the downstairs lavatory, and kept passing and
+re-passing with dirty boots as fast as I cleaned. My taskmistress, after
+one inspection, left me alone to it. I fetched bucket after bucketful
+and completed my task to my own satisfaction, and hers apparently, by
+twelve o'clock. She was not unreasonable, but a little sharp. She sent
+me back to dinner in the tramp ward, and "hunger sauce" enabled me to
+finish the bread and cheese allotted, washed down by tea. We all brought
+out our husbanded treasures, and the kinder official let us have boiling
+water. The man in the office sneered at her and remonstrated, "You _are_
+soft!" "_I can't help it_," she replied. May God bless her, for it can
+hardly be imagined what a warm drink was to a thirsty soul, even without
+milk and with little sugar. We gave Grannie some, and all ate our frugal
+meal without repining and with thankful hearts. We were allowed an hour,
+and resting my head on the table I snatched a few moments of most
+badly-needed rest. Then it was time to work. I was taken to the House
+and given a new task, to wash out an office, the little Scotch woman
+dusted the board room and my room. All had to be ready before three. I
+finished to satisfaction in good time, being once rebuked for sitting to
+do the last piece of floor (I had been on my knees without a pad for
+hours), and once for not saying there was no coal in the coal-box. But
+these were gentle rebukes. I was now very tired and could hardly carry
+my bucket. I slopped the water a little; perhaps my taskmistress saw I
+was tired, at any rate, she laid on me nothing further, but sent me back
+to the ward.
+
+There my friend's task was by no means ended, she was on her knees
+scrubbing painfully, a quarter of the floor yet to do. I tried my hand,
+but was not quite "in the know," so I sang to her to cheer her and the
+others. Even old Grannie cheered up to the sound of "When ye gang awa',
+Jamie," an old favourite of her youth. It was easy without offence or
+suspicion to pass to hymns that might leave some ray of comfort in
+sorrowful hearts, and to get in a few words about the bourne "where the
+wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." I could not help
+considering that probably nowhere in the wide world were there souls
+more dear to our suffering Saviour than such as these, who were sharing
+the life He chose on earth. Grannie used to sing, "Oh, let us be joyful,
+when we meet to part no more," and all were ready for the "Kindly light"
+to lead them home. I have discovered that this and "Abide with me," with
+"Jesus, Lover of my soul" are tramps' favourites. Could the deep-seated
+religious sentiments of the human soul choose better expression?
+
+The little Scotch woman loved some of the "songs of bonnie Scotland." In
+spite of scrubbing, my friend chimed in, and the hours passed. I grew
+rested in thought and body. Then our taskmistress appeared just as the
+floor was finished; she had forgotten the store room, it was locked up
+and not cleaned. She chose my poor weary friend, but I could not stand
+it, and volunteered instead. I had watched till I knew how, so I set to
+work with a will and acquired a new accomplishment, how to scrub a floor
+with sand and soft soap! My performance "gave satisfaction." At last
+all was finished, and we awaited the next meal, not with eagerness, for
+the third time of gruel and dry bread "pays for all," but at any rate
+with hunger. It was a long, long wait from twelve dinner to somewhere
+about six. A slender breakfast at six, dinner at twelve, and hard work
+left something lacking; the morning gruel was slightly sour also, and I
+began to have uncomfortable feelings. Nevertheless, after a seemingly
+long wait, during which we all grew quite "chummy," and I extracted much
+information and confirmation of personal histories and social condition,
+at last supper arrived, and I finished the gruel with appetite, but
+could not, without a drink, eat dry bread.
+
+Then another wait. We all grew tired to utter weariness. I longed even
+for a plank bed. We sat in various listless attitudes, half starved,
+cold, too weary to talk. There was nothing to see, skylighted as the
+room was, nothing to do but to pick oakum, which still lay in measured
+heaps on the floor, no literature save the "regulations for tramps" on
+the walls.
+
+This, then, was the kind of thing which left "no necessity for men to
+sleep in the brickfields!" I questioned the married women, none of them
+knew anything of any relaxation of rules. Evidently in their world it
+was not a matter of public knowledge that a man might enter earlier and
+go out after one night.[90]
+
+At last it was bed time once more, we were "officered" to our uneasy
+couches. We were allowed to remove our shawls to the room where we
+slept--a great boon, as I smuggled mine into bed, covering my bare arms,
+and securing a little more comfort. But I was sore from the night
+before, and no position gave ease. Being near the week-end few came in,
+as it meant an extra day's detention, but the same ordering and bumping
+went on. I shall never forget my next door neighbour who came in rather
+late and was near enough to touch. She was a respectable woman of the
+barmaid class, slightly grey, and therefore rather old for employment.
+She was well dressed. She was out of a place, and had applied at a
+Shelter too late to be admitted, and was sent here. She had never been
+in such a place before, and her astonishment at the conditions amounted
+almost to horror. We told her how to make the most of her bed--none of
+us near her were asleep. She twisted and turned her wet, grey head on
+the hard pillow, sneezing with a commencing cold. She sat up and lay
+down. "My God!" I heard her say, "one can't sleep in this place." And
+with reason, for though the interruptions were not so numerous, they
+were sufficient to effectually break sleep. Grannie did not groan so
+much, but she got out of bed, was scolded, and had to be helped in.
+"Don't be so soft," I heard the hard official say, as she gave an
+involuntary small scream when one of her aching limbs was touched. It
+was true she had given trouble, but she was old, feeble, and ailing. It
+would not have been hard to be kind. I was myself by this time ill. The
+last meal of gruel coming as a distasteful meal on a tired body had not
+been digested. Sickness came upon me, and I had to be a disturber of the
+peace by three times getting up, and parting with my hardly-earned
+supper. Each time, paddling over great bare spaces in scanty attire, I
+grew colder, but I was in terror of attracting the attention of the
+officer, being considered ill and detained. Anything rather than another
+day in such a place of torture. As on the night before, some slept the
+sleep of utter weariness, most groaned and twisted, some lay awake. I
+never understood so well the joy of the first dim daylight, the longing
+of those who "wait for the morning." A woman sat up. "I'm dying of
+hunger," she said. It was the poor woman condemned to stay five days.
+What would she be at the end? I felt a mere wreck. Only two days ago I
+was in full health and vigour. It was no absolute cruelty, only the
+cruel system, the meagre and uneatable diet, the lack of sufficient
+moisture to make up for loss by perspiration, two almost sleepless
+nights, "hard labour" under the circumstances. Before me lay home and
+friends, a loving welcome, good food, sympathy, and rest. What about my
+poor sisters? "I have nobody, nobody in the wide world; I wish I had,"
+said the poor soul next me, new to such treatment. A good-looking woman
+beyond had never been in before. I shuddered for those I should leave
+behind, new to such conditions.
+
+Is this the treatment England gives in Christ's name to His destitute
+poor? What if some are "sinners." He chose such, and "Inasmuch as ye did
+it not to one of the least of these my brethren, yet did it not to me."
+My heart burned within me. Thank God for every bit of suffering that I
+may bring home the truth. A public newspaper states, "The guardians only
+hear _ex-parte_ statements, those of the men themselves." Supposing they
+speak _true_!
+
+During the afternoon one poor woman had said, "If only the rich
+guardians, and the heavy ratepayers, knew how their money was spent, and
+how us poor things had to live, they wouldn't allow it." They felt
+bitterly the irony of so many officials being paid to order them about,
+and get the maximum of work out of them while they were practically
+starved. The conclusion of the whole matter is, the more rigidly the
+system is enforced in its entirety, the more hardly it presses on the
+destitute poor, while it makes no provision for their need. It is not
+even preventive, and it is costly.[91] Morning dawned slowly as I
+pondered, and the welcome call came. My neighbour slept, her face drawn
+in sleep as if with suffering, her profile and grey, tossed hair as she
+lay on her back, as the easiest position, an appeal of sorrow to the
+eye of the Watcher of men. She woke with a start and moan.
+
+No help for it. "You women all get up, be quick now; be quick and hurry
+up, Grannie." Short, sharp, decisive marching orders. Sick and
+shivering, with aching head and body sore from head to foot, I did my
+best to hide any sign of illness that might come between me and liberty.
+My companion suffered also from violent headache, neuralgic pains, and
+an aggravated cold.[92] Pollie's face was drawn and tired. No one
+complained much. I heard only one grumble at having to wash an already
+smarting face with soft soap. One produced a precious bit of white soap
+and lent it--a kindly deed. Grannie got under weigh with many a groan,
+very slowly. "Hurry up, women; three of you have not put your boards up.
+Now then, Granny, don't be all day." We will pardon her, for she has
+been on duty all night, and is also tired; but surely the woman who
+said, "Come, now, you needn't be so knotty with us," spoke true. We had
+little chance or time to speak much. It was only the early cold grey
+dawn of a winter morning, but already the message had come up that
+husbands were waiting. Gruel and bread for the fourth time. No one going
+out did more than pretend to eat it, some pocketed the bread. Neither my
+friend nor I could have touched it if you had offered us a
+sovereign--my soul loathed it so I could hardly bear to look at it.
+
+The poor woman condemned vainly hoped for release; she wept, but this
+only hardened the officer. She was not to be "come over" this way.
+"Don't you believe her." Grannie must swathe her poor old legs and go;
+she had better get into the workhouse. We had to leave them to their
+fate. I shall never forget the last few moments of waiting. A raging
+passion for freedom took possession of me. I dare not ask to go a moment
+before I was ordered to for fear lest it should be construed as
+"impudence." May be I wrong the officer, but she interpreted so easily
+any appeal as interference. Oh, to be free! Oh, to lie down anywhere
+under God's free sky, to suffer cold and hunger at His hand. "It is
+better to fall into the hand of God than the hand of man." We both
+agreed we would face a common lodging-house and its pests, or even the
+danger of prison for "sleeping out," rather than pass again through such
+an experience.[93]
+
+Do I exaggerate? It must be _felt_ to be realised.
+
+At length we escaped with "Pollie," leaving Grannie and the victim with
+the newcomers. It was very early, and about two hours lay between us and
+succour; my friend was almost too tired to walk. But God's free air was
+round us. Thank God for a fine morning! We are "on the road," and
+nothing in front can be so bad as what lies behind. We are tramps and
+"mouchers"; we can beg, for we need pity; sing for our living, sell
+bootlaces, and turn over the money; even if we steal, prison only waits
+us, and it cannot be worse--our companions, who have tried it, prefer
+it.[94] One thing we could not do--we could not at this moment work for
+an honest living. It is physically impossible. By hook or by crook one
+or two restful nights must be put between us and the past. Strength to
+work has gone. One might perhaps tramp, for the air is reviving, and
+people are kind to a wayfarer. Do you wonder at our _national tramp
+manufactories_?
+
+For this is what it amounts to. An obsolete system adapted to the times
+when population was stationary, is supposed to meet the needs of a
+population necessarily increasingly fluid.
+
+Labour shifts from place to place where it is needed. Individuals drop
+out or are thrust out. There is never, on any one night, in our great
+centres of population, sufficient provision for this ebb and flow. The
+houseless and the homeless are a great multitude, as sheep without a
+shepherd. Day by day they make a moving procession.[95] The decent man
+or woman who is stranded joins them, at first with the honest intention
+of gaining a livelihood. If it cannot be obtained, what is he to do?
+The common lodging-house can never be a sufficient provision for this
+need. It would never pay the private owner to provide the maximum number
+of beds required.[96] Our friend "Pollie" grumbled that in many
+lodging-houses the price of a decent bed was 6_d_., and "then you could
+not be sure it was clean."
+
+What is needed may take away the breath of a conservative public. It is
+nothing less than the entire sweeping away of the tramp ward, and the
+substitution of municipal lodging-houses, coupled with strict
+supervision of all private ones. The maximum need with regard to
+sleeping accommodation on any one night in a great city must be met.
+Shelters, sanitary and humane, not charitable institutions, but simply
+well-managed "working people's hotels," must be run privately and
+supplemented publicly, providing accommodation for everyone.[97] To meet
+destitution, these should be supplemented by "relief stations" on the
+German plan, where supper, bed, and breakfast can be earned. Freedom
+need not be interfered with beyond demanding work sufficient to pay.[98]
+Payment should be on the graduated ticket system. The tramp proper hates
+work. If once a national system sufficient for destitution was
+inaugurated, the man who will not work could be penalised. A labour
+colony is his natural destination. The classification of workhouses and
+their adaptation to various necessarily destitute classes, such as
+epileptics, feeble minded and aged, might remove much destitution,
+placing it under humane conditions. But the immediate and crying need is
+for the abolition of an old, inhumane and insufficient provision for
+suppression of vagrancy, in favour of adequate provision for the modern
+fluidity of labour, coupled with honourable relief of destitution,
+neither degrading nor charitable.[99]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[85] First published in _The Contemporary Review_ May, 1904, under title
+"The Tramp Ward."
+
+[86] See previous chapter.
+
+[87] Probably it was not known. News filters from one to another slowly.
+Besides, a man may not return to the tramp ward, after seeking work, for
+another night.
+
+[88] Official regulations say the bath should come first, "as soon as
+possible after admission." This means giving food in bed, and is, no
+doubt, often evaded.
+
+[89] See p. 26.
+
+[90] See p. 137.
+
+[91] See p. 78.
+
+[92] My companion was a "working woman," used to a hard day's work.
+
+[93] See p. 51.
+
+[94] See p. 28.
+
+[95] See p. 30.
+
+[96] See p. 49.
+
+[97] See p. 50.
+
+[98] See p. 75.
+
+[99] See p. 64.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A NIGHT IN A SALVATION ARMY SHELTER.
+
+
+Having occasion to spend a week in a southern city, I determined to do
+what I could to ascertain the condition of its common lodging-houses, in
+order to find out whether the same problems existed as in the northern
+towns.
+
+I was willing to go into a women's lodging-house, but, not having my
+fellow tramp, it was desirable to make enquiries. These enquiries
+revealed a state of things so bad that I did not feel it was safe to
+sample any of the common lodging-houses alone. Briefly, what had
+happened in this old town was this: A certain quarter possessed houses,
+which, having once been occupied by the better classes, would be fairly
+roomy, but would, of course, only have the sanitary arrangements
+intended for one family. These houses had courts at the back, which
+perhaps had been long ago gardens, but were now built over, access being
+through the house. A number of these houses had gradually become common
+lodging-houses. So profitable is this trade, that the successful owner
+of one, even if only of the same low class as frequent the houses, could
+go on annexing others, till, as I was told, a whole street had fallen
+into the possession of one person, who was quite unconcerned about
+anything but private gain. The most speedy way of gaining wealth was to
+let rooms, in connection with the lodging-house, "for married couples."
+The buildings in the back courts could easily be so let, and the police
+had no access. Therefore the whole of this district was honeycombed with
+immorality, while even in the more respectable houses the conditions
+must be filthy and insanitary.
+
+But my surprise was greatest at finding that in H---- _there did not
+exist a lodging-house for women only_ apart from the charitable
+institutions. The only refuge for a destitute woman, therefore, was the
+common lodging-house with men and women (ostensibly married). I felt
+that to go alone into one of these would be like putting my head into a
+lion's den, for I was told that one of the men had put his arm round the
+waist of a lady visitor with the easy freedom born of sex relations
+there prevailing. What must have been the conditions for women in a town
+of this size before the erection of the Army Shelter some four years
+ago? The common lodging-houses, poor as they were, afforded shelter, I
+was assured, only for about seventy women, including those really
+married. But _between_ service, or respectable occupation of any kind,
+and the common lodging-house, existed in all its ramifications, like a
+spider's web, "the life," as a way out of destitution. Only those who
+fell out of this life through illness or from other causes, as a rule
+descended to the "lowest depths," the common lodging-houses, which
+therefore contained only the most abandoned women. Some efforts to reach
+these were being made, but the helpers despaired of really raising them,
+and with good cause. It is evident that though hope must not be
+abandoned for anyone, a woman who has sunk into poverty even out of a
+life of vice, and who still retains all her desire for it (which she
+indulges in if it is obtainable) must be a woman out of whom womanhood
+is perishing, love of drink taking hold in most instances. Yet God
+forbid that we should judge these poor creatures, often capable of love
+to one another, and of kindnesses which might make us blush. We do not
+know what circumstances, for which we may be responsible in God's sight,
+gave them the push downward.[100]
+
+But, evidently, unless in this town there were charitable institutions
+dealing with the problem of destitution among women, a life of vice
+would be their only alternative, simply from the fact that a certain
+degree of poverty would force them to lodge with those to whom it was
+familiar, and they would naturally succumb.[101]
+
+I had no means of ascertaining what other homes or remedial agencies
+existed, except that I was told there did exist one other
+semi-charitable refuge to which the police took girls found on the
+streets. I gathered, however, that this was more of the nature of a home
+than of a lodging-house. The municipality was building a large men's
+lodging-house, but not one for women.
+
+It appeared, therefore, that the only real attempt to tackle the problem
+was that of the Salvation Army, and, thinking that I should probably
+hear something from the women themselves about the lodging-houses, I
+resolved to "try the Army," as so many poor destitute women have
+done--not in vain.
+
+I obtained the requisite clothing to be one of the poor, and set out,
+about nine o'clock, to find the street where the Army Shelter was. One
+thing was agitating my mind, which doubtless, though for a different
+reason, weighs in the mind of many poor women against entering any kind
+of charitable Shelter. What questions would they ask? I had determined,
+if absolutely necessary, to reveal my real identity. But how much should
+I be forced to tell? Would it be possible to escape personal
+interrogation? The "bullying" in the Workhouse was fresh in my mind, and
+in contrast with this the perfect freedom of the common lodging-house
+has its attractions. You may come and go, and "mind your own business."
+No one has any right to interfere with you as long as you "pay your
+way." I did not, of course, expect anything but kindness, but I thought
+I might be interrogated "personally," questioned as to my antecedents,
+and possibly about my soul. It would then, of course, be impossible for
+me to preserve my "incognito."
+
+In thus thinking I was probably sharing the feelings of my poor sisters
+(your feelings undergo a curious assimilation to those of the class you
+represent). Many a woman may be deterred from entering a suitable Home
+by fear of cross-questioning. Poor thing! The only thing that belongs to
+her is her past.
+
+However, my fears were needless. I only relate them to illustrate the
+reasons why a woman may hold back from places where she might find
+friends.
+
+I asked several women the way to the Shelter, whom I met in the street.
+One said it was "right enough," another said, "I should think it was
+better than going into the common lodging-house among a lot of
+'riff-raff;' you can put up with it for a night anyhow." A third, with a
+child in her arms, said she had lived there some time, and "was very
+comfortable." So encouraged, I found the place. It was a large,
+clean-looking building, fronting the street, with apparently two doors.
+
+While I was hesitating as to which was the right one, and as to whether
+I must ring or enter, a man on the other side of the street came and
+offered me a drink. I, of course, refused. But at the very door of
+salvation a poor tempted woman might be lost.
+
+There was a large notice, "Clean, comfortable beds," but not an open
+door as in most common lodging-houses. I feel diffident in recommending
+anything to the Army, their methods are so tried and proved, even to
+minute particulars, but it struck me that it would be well to have an
+inside and an outer door--the latter standing open, as a clear
+indication of the place of entry. You can walk into a common
+lodging-house as far as the deputy's room or office without ringing. It
+is a small matter, but a timid woman might not have the courage to knock
+or ring.
+
+The door was opened by a pleasant-faced young woman in uniform, who
+asked me in. One word went to my heart. She called me "my dear!" She
+said in reply to my request for a bed, "Yes, my dear, we have twopenny
+bunks, but I should recommend you to try the fourpenny beds with nice,
+clean sheets."
+
+I was glad to consent, for though I should have liked for some reasons
+to "try the bunks," I had already seen them in London, and I wished to
+ascertain what the Army was able to offer at the current price of
+fourpence, and also whether the beds would bear inspection. But what a
+contrast such a reception was to the workhouse! Nothing but my name was
+asked, not even as in the Bradford Shelter, my destination, and where I
+came from. There was no "heckling," no inquisition, nothing but
+kindness. God bless the officer who said, "My dear" to a poor stranger
+in Christ's name.
+
+I was asked if I would like to go to bed, as it was already late. I
+wanted, however, to see something of other inmates, so said, "No." The
+officer took me into the fourpenny sitting room, which was pleasant and
+beautifully clean, but had no fire lit. As it was lonely, the officer
+asked me if I would like to sit with the "twopenny women" for company. I
+gladly assented, and was shewn into another day-room in which was a
+cheerful fire, by the side of which were shelves for pots and pans. It
+was furnished with wooden tables and benches, and all was clean, except
+for recent use. Two or three women were in possession. I asked them if I
+could get anything on the premises to eat. They said I could get coffee
+and bread and butter for a penny! It was the cheapest meal I ever had. I
+asked the officer for them, and she fetched them herself--a good mug
+full of thick brown coffee, with rather a peculiar taste, but similar to
+some I got in Manchester at a cheap breakfast shop, only about half as
+much again in quantity. It had sugar and milk in it, and was palatable.
+With it were two thick slices of bread and butter, quite sufficient for
+a meal, the butter tasted good.[102]
+
+I sat and ate my supper and watched the other women. They had lived
+there some time, and were evidently accustomed to "the ways of the
+place." They said they were very comfortable, and that the beds were
+good. One of them explained the scarcity of utensils. (So far as I could
+see, one kettle, one saucepan, and one frying-pan seemed to be the
+stock-in-trade.) She said people stole so, even taking cups and saucers,
+and the sheets off the beds. The officers in consequence had to reduce
+the supply and to keep a sharp look-out!
+
+I sat and listened. A woman came in with a baby; the same woman I had
+seen in the street. She exclaimed about the difficulty she had had in
+getting money for the night. Apparently she had been begging, going
+round to one and another whom she knew, and getting a penny or halfpenny
+from each. She said the man who accosted me had given her a penny. Her
+boy was a fine little fellow, very well nourished and contented. She was
+very proud of his little fat legs! She undressed him to his shirt. One
+bit of pride remained even in poverty. She said she "wouldn't let her
+child sleep in a bunk!" She seemed to prefer being out all night, which
+had, I believe, been her case recently, when she could not make her
+bed-money.[103] She was a widow.
+
+One of the other women had had a day's charing, and was congratulating
+herself that she was "set up for a bit." It had been hard work, but well
+paid. She was generous to those worse off.
+
+An unsolicited testimonial to one of the officers was given. "Captain
+is back to-day." "Is she, bless her; I do love that woman, _though she
+never gave me anything_!"
+
+It is much to the credit of the Army, and of the individual officers,
+that in the free conversation I heard no real complaint. One of the
+officers was alluded to as "a sharp 'un." No doubt a necessary quality
+in dealing with some cases. One woman grumbled at the coffee, and
+another "carried on" because she was stopped from talking in the
+bedroom, where she was disturbing others, but the general feeling seemed
+to be one of thankfulness. "Thank God I have got in to-night," came
+involuntarily from several lips.
+
+I resolved to go to bed, as it was ten o'clock. The officer who had
+admitted me, when I went to her to ask, showed me upstairs into a large
+light room. Apparently the building had once been a mill or warehouse.
+
+The floor was beautifully clean, the beds not inconveniently crowded,
+and the promise of "good, clean beds" was amply redeemed.[104] I can
+hardly understand how they could be so clean, for when the women were
+undressed (and, of course, like all their class they slept in their
+day-garments, partially undressing), their under-garments were dirty and
+ragged in almost all cases, even when their outside appearance was
+respectable. Hardly one had a whole or clean garment, and among this
+class a nightgown is unknown, or unused. One woman kept on a black
+knitted jersey, though it was summer-time!
+
+My bed was beautifully clean, and the others looked so. The most careful
+arrangements were made to insure cleanliness. The wire mattress had a
+piece of clean brown wrappering tied over it, which could be removed and
+washed. The mattress, which was very comfortable, was covered, and under
+the covering was a mackintosh. There were two thick dark blankets, not
+divided. I suppose this would make it difficult to steal them. The
+sheets were white, and so was the pillowslip. There was a good soft
+flock pillow.
+
+I noticed several wise precautions. The gases were too high to be
+reached, and no taps were visible. The gas was turned on or off outside
+the room. No one could light a pipe.
+
+The crevices close to the wall were filled in with wood, so that insects
+could not harbour. Each person had a well-scrubbed wooden box by the
+bedside, on or in which to place their clothes. There was, in a lavatory
+adjoining, a spacious sink, to which hot and cold water was laid on.
+There was one roller-towel, but no soap. It is usual in lodging-houses
+to find your own. There was a well-flushed w.c. Beyond were some
+cubicles at sixpence a night.
+
+Several women were in bed. One had had some drink, and was disturbing
+others by talking. It was found out afterwards that she was in the
+wrong room, having only paid twopence. She was a married woman, and her
+husband had apparently deposited her in safety, but only paid twopence!
+She was, or pretended to be, very wroth, and she was also foul-mouthed.
+When it was discovered, the little Lieutenant really could not eject
+her, and had to be satisfied with telling her she must pay the other
+twopence next day!
+
+It was a very interesting occupation to try for about an hour and a half
+to gather from conversation some hints as to the character of the "waifs
+and strays" who were temporarily my room-mates.
+
+A young woman next me was a servant temporarily out of place. An amusing
+scene took place. Another young woman came in and spoke to her before
+going to her cubicle. Evidently there was some animosity between them,
+for the only greeting she got was, "Shut up." Finding she could make no
+impression, the newcomer began to insinuate.
+
+"I wouldn't stand with the Army and then go into public-houses!"
+
+The other girl at first made no reply, except, "Get out with you!"
+
+But as the insinuation was repeated, she began to get wroth.
+
+"Why don't you speak to me, Mary?"
+
+She half sat up in bed.
+
+"Get out with you, you----"
+
+Then they began to slang one another in earnest:--
+
+"It's all very well to go to an Army meeting and then take two men into
+a pub!"
+
+"Well, I never! What will she say next, I wonder!"
+
+And so the conversation waxed louder and louder. At length the girl in
+bed half sprang out.
+
+"I shall go and tell the Lieutenant how you're talking. She'll put you
+out!"
+
+With that the offender moved off to her cubicle.
+
+The other girl kept muttering, "Well, I never! Did ever you hear! Me
+that has never been inside a pub! I'll tell the Lieutenant in the
+morning."
+
+It was fortunate that the offender had paid for a sixpenny bed, as at
+one time they seemed almost coming to blows.
+
+The noisy woman in a bed on the opposite side kept up a conversation
+with herself, or with anyone who would speak to her. Finally, the
+Lieutenant, who seemed to keep a sort of patrol, but was not round
+frequently enough to preserve peace, caught her talking, though not at
+her loudest. She was engaged in relating portions of her past life to a
+woman who said it was the anniversary of her wedding-day. The story of
+the courtship and marriage took some time to tell, but the crowning
+incident was that, having been ill for some days, her friends encouraged
+her to take "a small whisky," which apparently led to more, and she
+became so "blind drunk" that she remembered nothing further.
+
+Several women with children came in. Some on meeting congratulated each
+other on having money enough to get in.
+
+"Thank God I'm in to-night," said one.
+
+It made me realise how many are living on the very edge of starvation,
+for several had only lodging-money, not a halfpenny for food.[105]
+
+The interruptions were a bar to sleep. I think the Bradford plan of
+letting the women go up to the dormitory at the hour, and not between,
+was a good one, and would make superintendence easier.
+
+At length, past eleven, all grew sleepy, the little Lieutenant had, I
+think, given place to a night watcher, who stole quietly in to turn the
+gas down, and again to admit a late girl to the cubicles, and once or
+twice during the night, when all were sleeping, to look at her
+safely-folded sheep, going lovingly round the beds, apparently to notice
+who was safe "under her wing."
+
+I did not stir, or show I was awake, but I said mentally, "God bless
+you, sister, and God bless the Army!"
+
+For here, safely folded in peace and comfort were just those whose
+presence on our streets is a disgrace to our civilisation, and a social
+danger. It was abundantly evident that they were those who needed a
+helping hand. Few realise how terribly hard the present conditions of
+our social system press upon women. If a girl, a woman, or worse--a
+mother and child--are forced to remain out all night, God pity
+them.[106] Yet it is terribly hard for a woman, once down in the
+friendless state, with no one to speak for her, with clothing getting
+daily more dirty and ragged, to obtain any employment. What can the
+widow do? What about the deserted wife? The cry of the widow and orphan,
+the suffering of the friendless is daily before the eyes of the God
+England professes to serve.
+
+Only one who is daily receiving the stories of the manifold ways in
+which women drop out or are forced out of homes, can understand the
+silent disintegration of womanhood that is forced upon many. Sometimes
+they are carefully reared, with a parent's love as protection, shielded
+from any real knowledge of life's hardships. But the protector dies and
+the struggle begins, a hard struggle for daily bread. No one is forced
+to keep them, save the workhouse. This they shun, or in some cases have
+extreme difficulty in gaining admission, the relieving officers having
+to be "begged and prayed," sometimes unsuccessfully, to admit even a
+starving woman, putting them off on one excuse or another.
+
+Meanwhile, by degrees everything that can be turned into money goes for
+food. What wonder that the poor soul, desperate at losing all that makes
+life worth having, easily yields to the man ever ready to "treat" her?
+Such men are everywhere.
+
+"Come and get a drink," is the usual way of accosting a woman. Yet if a
+solitary woman once acquires the drink habit, it is nearly impossible to
+lift her up, the craving is too strong. In the temporary "elevation" of
+drink she regains her past, forgets the poor bedraggled "low woman" she
+has become, and dreams of "better days." Suppose she resists drink, at
+any rate keeping apparently steady, and lives as a "charwoman," it is a
+most precarious existence, varying with the "times." Such women are
+taken "on" and sent "off" without compunction. It needs a "good
+connection" to make a livelihood, at any rate it requires a capacity for
+continuous hard work, which all do not possess. There are some few
+trades for destitute women hardly worth calling "trades," yet in some
+hand-to-mouth fashion thousands of solitary women exist, who are not
+idle, but try hard to "keep out of the house," so retaining their last
+possession--liberty! Is it not desirable that these our struggling
+sisters should live under the conditions that will preserve for them
+some sort of a "home" feeling?
+
+The "pit" lies just beneath them, that terrible pit, where honour, love,
+and womanhood are swallowed up. They cling to those who love them, and
+many of them struggle, oh, so hard! just to keep afloat. God pity them!
+Every night in this England of ours our sisters are driven by poverty to
+sin.
+
+"I _must_ get my lodging money and a bit of food," they say. Money, even
+twopence, is not within the reach of every widow and orphan, and our
+poor-law conditions are almost prohibitive. Save as a temporary
+expedient, the casual ward, with its continual "move on," is no refuge.
+To descend to the common lodging-house is the last stage, just above
+utter homelessness. There the drink temptations are such that few women
+can withstand them. In many towns there do not exist lodging-houses for
+women only.
+
+Yet above all, these women need to be protected, to live under good
+sanitary conditions, if in poverty. Such a shelter, therefore, as I was
+sleeping in, is a real social need. It would prevent countless women
+from drifting into vice if there was somewhere for them to live out of
+temptation during the night hours. As they grow old especially, their
+state grows more and more pitiable. They end their days in the workhouse
+usually, but stave off the evil day as long as they can. I do not
+believe that even women from the higher ranks can well help drifting to
+destitution if from any cause friends and foothold are lost. Most people
+distrust a friendless woman. Yet in many cases it is a matter of
+clothes!
+
+There is a theory that "a good worker is always worth her salt!" So she
+may be, but if she looks down-trodden no one will give her the chance to
+earn it! In spite of the constant dearth of servants it is not likely
+that a woman will get employment unless she has character and clothes.
+There are, besides, quantities of semi-"unemployable" women, women who
+would--after a fashion--succeed in looking after their own home and
+rearing children; but who, divorced from home, are not "worth their
+salt." Besides these, preyed upon, alas! by human sharks, are the
+defenceless "feeble-minded," and half-imbecile.
+
+Meditating on the woes of womanhood I fell asleep. All my sisters
+apparently slept soundly and well. Very early the officer in charge
+stole in to call a sleeper. Every now and then someone, self-roused, got
+up for toil. It was a contrast to the heavy sleep and utter absence of
+any provision for going forth to toil which I had seen in a _private_
+women's lodging-house, inhabited by girls and women evidently living by
+sin.[107] There they were called at 9.30!
+
+By 6.30 a considerable number had got up, and promptly the lieutenant
+appeared with a whistle, which she playfully blew, not only for the
+room, but also near each sleeper, calling them by name. "Now, Mary, get
+up!" "Now, Jane, don't go to sleep again!"
+
+So I also arose and found my way to the sitting-room, where a woman was
+frying a chop (using a lot of unnecessary sticks). It was the woman who
+was "in luck." She made a great can of tea, and shared with others,
+especially with some of the mothers with children. Poor little things!
+They looked sleepy, for most had not gone to bed much before eleven.
+
+One by one women came in, hawkers, cleaners, widows, about whom one
+wondered how they kept afloat. Some were evidently very dirty, insect
+pests were in evidence on the person, and it was surprising that the
+place was so clean. I learnt that you might remain till ten, and
+re-enter at twelve. Probably the necessary cleansing of the day-rooms
+was done in the interval. The kitchen filled. All seemed very poor; some
+had no breakfast save a borrowed drink. I had some dry bread and sugar,
+but no tea, so I asked if I could get a penny breakfast.
+
+Yes! Early as it was, the officers were already in the kitchen, and at
+seven o'clock breakfast could be obtained. I sat and waited. Three
+mothers had children; one brought down in a shift was badly bitten. One
+woman was to wash for "the Army" that day, and so was "in luck." There
+was, I heard, a good laundry, and under certain regulations, inmates
+could wash their clothes.
+
+It would not have been a bad bit of investigation to stay a week and
+learn the life of the inmates. But my time was brief. I made one of a
+string of women standing at the kitchen door, waiting for the penny
+breakfast, and received in my turn a good cup of tea (not a mug, but a
+cup and saucer) and two thick slices of bread and butter. The eating
+habits of my friends in the twopenny room were not very appetising, so I
+sought the fourpenny room, a plain, clean, sitting-room with spotless
+table and forms, by this time nearly filled.
+
+The inmates of this room were, as might be expected, superior in dress
+and manners; the personal appearance of most was clean, and they were
+fairly well clothed, at least outwardly, but the night view had shewn me
+that "appearances were deceitful."
+
+One poor woman had a baby in arms, five months old. Her husband had
+cruelly ill-used her; she had a black eye. He had been sent to prison
+for a month, and she, with feeble health, and a babe in her arms, had
+come to this refuge. How would she fare in a common lodging house?
+
+Another mother, with a good face, but very poor, had a little boy, very
+nicely mannered. She made him say grace before he took his food, and
+reproved him for taking a bite first out of a piece of bread and butter,
+given him by a kindly girl who had gone in for a whole pennyworth. This
+woman looked as if the Army had claimed her life for God. She was going
+to a day's cleaning, and said thankfully that she had a good place, and
+more than she could eat, so she always brought something "home" for her
+boy, "as she couldn't bear to think she was eating and he had none." I
+suppose she would make some arrangement for him to be looked after. How
+would he fare in a common lodging house?
+
+As a contrast to her there was a rather loud-spoken girl, whom the
+officer evidently knew. To judge by her face she knew sin and shame. She
+was, however, very good-natured. She nursed the baby with evident
+pleasure, and she shared her breakfast with others.
+
+Several of the girls were quite young, and might be servants out of
+place. One by one they went out to some occupation or other. It was
+still early, but time for me to go. I returned my cup, saucer, and
+plate, and passed out with no interrogation.
+
+The streets were full of young women just going to business. In the free
+life of to-day, when so many women earn their own living, often away
+from their homes, how slight an accident may shipwreck a life! Is it not
+evident that we should make provision for such a certain need? We make
+charts of our coasts, we know each shoal, we bell-buoy our sand-banks,
+we build warning lighthouses, and we make safe harbours. But probably
+the lives lost on our coasts are not a tithe of the lives--the
+souls--lost on our streets. A floating shipwrecked woman immersed in the
+waves, in peril of death, would call for a host of rescuers. But in
+many towns in England there is no Rescue home. Even where there are such
+homes, they are usually _for those who have gone under_. We need some
+provision for those who manage to keep themselves just above water, but
+are in daily peril. Nothing is so effective as such _preventive_ work.
+If we were about to build a harbour, we should entrust the work to a
+firm that understood harbour-building.[108]
+
+In the Salvation Army we have a branch of the Christian Army and Navy of
+Salvation accustomed to harbour-building. Let us employ them. If Army
+methods succeed, it is only common-sense to finance the firm that can do
+the work!
+
+Many of our refuges are but ill adapted for the needs of the class that
+most needs help, the struggling, self-supporting woman, who may be kept
+from falling further.
+
+We must approximate, as the Army does, to the needs of the class we
+cater for. We must have "Women's Hostels" for the needs of various
+classes, under regulations that attract them. We need not bribe them
+into what seems to be a species of imprisonment, and keep them
+expensively for long terms. This may be _necessary_ for the fallen, but
+not for _preventive_ work.
+
+The Army succeeds better than most in making its shelters almost
+self-supporting, when once initial expenses have been met. It has an
+immense advantage in its system of training officers specially for such
+work, which requires daily self-sacrifice.
+
+It may also be that military discipline has its advantages where a
+certain precision of detail, an invariable routine, similar to workhouse
+regulations, but more free, is a _sine qua non_. In our workhouses large
+bodies of people live under discipline, who, without it, would most of
+them be a danger or a drag on the community. Could we induce the
+"floating population" of men and women to live a less restricted life,
+yet a sanitary and wholesome one, much would be accomplished in a
+generation.[109] The policy of allowing the catering for the needs of
+this class to drift in a "happy-go-lucky" way into the hands of anybody,
+has resulted in many accumulated evils. To redress evil we must live the
+self-sacrificing life, and we may think ourselves happy that there are
+still men and women who will in a very real sense "lay down their lives"
+to minister in Christ's name to His poor, who count nothing too trivial
+to be well done for the Master, and who strive to unlock hearts by the
+magic key of love.
+
+Surely upon them rests the blessing, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
+one of these, my sisters, ye have done it unto Me."
+
+Can we not have an Army Women's Shelter or its equivalent in every large
+town?[110]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[100] See Appendix VII.
+
+[101] See Chap. V.
+
+[102] Contrast tramp ward fare, pp. 112, 124, 152.
+
+[103] See Appendix VII.
+
+[104] See p. 48, note.
+
+[105] See Appendix VII.
+
+[106] See p. 132.
+
+[107] See Chap. V.
+
+[108] See page 49. Lodging-houses for women do not exist in many towns,
+there are only common lodging houses, worse still than the above. See
+pp. 96-105, also Chap. VI.
+
+[109] See pp, 45, 50.
+
+[110] See Chap. II., pp. 130-135, also Appendix VII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THREE NIGHTS IN WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSES.
+
+
+I. THE FIRST NIGHT.
+
+On a bright evening in May, when the trees were fresh with Nature's
+tracery, and the sky glowed with colour, my friend and I found our way
+by train and tram to a house, which was professedly a lodging-house for
+all sorts and conditions of women. The building, a large, tall,
+better-class dwelling-house, set back in a front garden, looked almost
+too respectable for us, as we had donned our tramp's attire. Some
+children were playing in the passage, and called "the missus," who made
+no objection to our engaging two beds at sixpence each, warning us we
+should have to share a room with strangers. She then showed us into a
+small kitchen, clean and comfortable, but with little accommodation--two
+short forms and a dresser were the furniture, with shelves in the wall
+and a sink. A door gave access to a yard with sanitary convenience, and
+there was a good fire and plenty of boiling water. We sat a little while
+to rest, and to listen to one or two inmates--a woman who smelt of
+liquor, an elderly woman who appeared to help the person in charge, and
+a rather handsome dark girl, nicely dressed and clean, who told us she
+had been married a few months, and was deserted by her husband. We
+learnt afterwards that she had been in hotel and restaurant service. We
+soon decided to go out and buy some provisions, and to have a walk
+round. We had only expected the beds to be fourpence a night, so were
+rather short of money. We laid out our scanty resources as follows: Tea
+1_d_., sugar 1_d_., bread 3_d_., butter 2_d_. (and 1_d_. we paid for the
+loan of a knife to be afterwards returned). With these we went back, but
+not being hungry yet we decided to go to the common sitting-room. This
+we found in possession of several women, mostly young. It was now
+nearing 10 P.M., and they were all busy tidying themselves, rouging
+their faces, blacking their eyelids, and preparing to go on the streets.
+All this was done perfectly openly, and their hair was curled by the
+fireside. It was wonderful how speedily they emerged from slatterns into
+good-looking young women. Each then sallied forth, and, being left
+alone, we returned to the kitchen and prepared to make tea and cut
+ourselves some bread and butter. Meanwhile various women passed and
+re-passed. Three cats were on the hearth--one, a tabby, was called
+"Spot." A Scotch woman was rather genteel in appearance, about forty,
+but who openly boasted she had been drunk every day for more than a
+week; she came in and went out more than once. She sat on the form and
+related _apropos_ of "Spot," that she got a situation as housekeeper,
+"though she could not say she had not a spot on her character." A
+widower with several grown-up sons wished to engage her as housekeeper.
+He asked about her character, she said: "Without thinking, I replied, 'I
+am afraid it will not bear too strict an investigation,' and, by Jove!
+if he didn't engage me at once!" She said it was a good place, and she
+might have been in it all the time but for "a bit of temper." "Yes, and
+married the master!" added another. A considerable flurry was caused by
+the advent in the corner of two or three huge black beetles, or
+"blackjacks" as they were called, which made everybody draw up their
+skirts. The form was removed to the middle of the room. The dark young
+lady told us a good deal about her past; how she had an old mistress who
+died in her chair and "looked heavenly," and how her daughter wished to
+take her to London, and even sent her fare, but she would not go. She
+sighed over it, and said, when we asked her if she was not sorry, that
+she had wished many times she had gone; "but," she added, "I was young
+and foolish, and had no one to advise me." A nice, bright-looking young
+girl, who had come in looking very weary, and who had a bad cough,
+interested us much. She had been out since eight, but obtained no money.
+She said she had been out all one night, and so got her cough. Later we
+learned her story. She had been out late one night when in service on a
+gala day, and, having a strict mistress, she was afraid of returning to
+her place. A companion persuaded her to take train to N----. The girls
+had just enough money, and were landed as strangers in a strange town.
+They walked about and found this lodging-house. They entered, and, being
+destitute, fell at once into prostitution.[111]
+
+By this time we thoroughly understood the character of the house. It may
+be there were exceptions, but they would be but few. The inmates,
+probably about sixty, young and old, were living a life of sin, and we
+were told that the proprietor of this lodging-house owned fifteen
+others. We learnt that a house could be taken for £2 11_s_. a week, and
+8_s_. for a servant. We learnt that most of the girls came home very
+late--many as late as two o'clock--and in such a state that they kept
+the others awake, singing and talking, drunk or maudlin. The house was
+open till two at any rate every night.
+
+We stayed up till twelve o'clock to learn as much as we could; then, as
+the proprietress seemed rather anxious for us to go to bed, we went
+upstairs and were shown into a fair-sized room with seven beds, low iron
+bedsteads with wire mattresses, and fairly clean mattress, sheets, and
+pillows. A woman who had a terrible cold and cough and our Scotch friend
+came to bed, the latter being comparatively sober, though she had had
+many drinks that day. Later on the other beds were filled. One had had
+over eleven shillings in the morning, but seemed to have "got without
+it." The woman with a cold insisted on having the window closed, and the
+room was very stifling, otherwise clean and comfortable (compared with
+some of our experiences); but our companions, some of them, had on
+filthy underclothing when seen by daylight.
+
+The woman of the house called us about nine o'clock,[112] and we had to
+get up "willy-nilly." There was a bath-room, with wash-basins and hot
+and cold water, and we learnt there were some 1_s_. beds with separate
+washing accommodation.
+
+A woman whose hair was going grey ascribed it to constant dyeing. A
+young girl had to go to see the doctor.
+
+We found our way to the kitchen and prepared breakfast, securing our
+knife once more which we had returned. We took our breakfast to the
+dining-room, where a number of dissolute girls--some handsome, almost
+all slatternly--were already collected. We saw our young acquaintance of
+the night before, apparently breakfastless, and invited her to join us,
+which she gladly did. We learnt that she had had no food the day before,
+except a drink of tea and a little bread and butter, having had "no
+luck." Evidently she was starved into prostitution, about which she was
+still very shamefaced. She had been in several lodging-houses. The town
+ones were "ten times worse." A private one she had been in one night had
+had no lavatory accommodation; she had to go and wash at the station,
+paying twopence. She was afraid to solicit in town; the "bobbies" kept a
+sharp look-out, and sometimes were in plain clothes. One had stopped her
+when she was only walking, told her she was on the streets, asked her
+where she came from, and advised her to go home to her mother. He asked
+why she was "on the town," and when she told him she had got no work, he
+said, "You all say that." As she was afraid in the town, she was in the
+habit of going out to the suburbs. Her friend had quarrelled with her,
+and even struck her in the street. She was in another lodging-house, and
+"doing well" on the town.
+
+This forlorn girl had tried in vain to find a true friend among the
+others. One had borrowed and not repaid, one had been friendly and cast
+her off. We promised to try and help her.
+
+Breakfast over, we sat and watched the scene, being three times moved to
+make room at the tables. Round the fire was a group of girls far gone in
+dissipation; good-looking girls most of them, but shameless; smoking
+cigarettes, boasting of drinks, or drinking, using foul language,
+singing music-hall songs, or talking vileness. The room grew full, and
+breakfasts were about, onions, bacon, beefsteak, tea, etc., filling the
+air with mingled odours. A girl called "Dot" and another danced "the
+cake-walk" in the middle of the floor.
+
+On this scene entered the girl who had to go to the doctor. She was
+condemned to the Lock Hospital, and cried bitterly. An animated
+conversation took place about the whereabouts and merits of various lock
+wards or hospitals, and everyone tried to cheer her up. "Never mind,
+Ivy, you'll soon be through with it!"
+
+Later entered a distressed mother. Her girl was wrongly accused of
+stealing. She had traced her to another lodging-house, but it was
+closed. She spoke to say that "she was her child whatever she had done,
+and she would see her through and take her home if she could find her,
+as she was her best friend." "Tell her if you come across her that the
+back door is always open, and she will be welcome." Several girls cried,
+thinking of their mothers, and a woman offered to take her and search
+for her daughter later on. This scene brought tears to the eyes of our
+young friend, and I said, "That's what your mother will say." We had now
+to leave her, under promise not to go out until we returned. We left our
+tea and bread and solitary penny, and gladly escaped to the fresh air.
+
+During the time these scenes had gone on several girls received notes.
+One was packing up to go somewhere; one was told "the landlord wanted
+her." A further visit gave further light.
+
+
+II. THE SECOND NIGHT.
+
+Returning at 10 o'clock, we purchased, at the little shop which caters
+for this lodging-house, a loaf of bread for 2-1/4_d_., two ounces of
+boiled ham, a penny tin of condensed milk, and a pennyworth of sugar;
+tea and butter we had with us. Armed with these, in the kitchen we
+speedily obtained hot water and made our tea-supper. We took it into the
+dining-room for coolness' sake, and established ourselves at a table.
+This room had three long wooden tables and forms. It was an oblong room
+with one fireplace, and out of it was another kitchen with fireplace and
+gas stove.
+
+There were hardly any girls in when we entered, and, to our great
+disappointment, our acquaintance of the day before was out. She had gone
+out at nine o'clock. She was not out long, but returned drunk; she had
+been "in luck." She had had "two small whiskies and a soda," and they
+had bowled her over. She had plenty of money now, and was talkative, and
+staggering. We felt we could not do anything with her that night. She
+came and talked to us a little, asking us our "luck," to which we
+replied "that we had done very well," and were going on to another town
+next day. I had improved my appearance, wearing hat, tie, and belt, so
+this bore out my story.
+
+The proprietress as we entered had told us not to mind a woman who was
+"gone dotty" with drink. She also was in this room, properly maudlin.
+She had a chemise, which she kept tucking into her breast, pulling up
+her under-garments, and examining her stockings. She was taking more
+drink still, brought in in a bottle, and though warned, I believe she
+insisted presently on sallying forth, and would probably fall into the
+hands of the police. The other women present humoured her to avoid a
+quarrel.
+
+By this time we felt quite "at home," knowing the faces of a good many
+of the inmates. Most were out, but one and another we recollected came
+dropping in, in some cases to go out again. Our dark friend came and
+questioned us as to how we had got on. We told her we had done very
+well. She said, "I suppose you have been round the town?" Evidently she
+was fishing for our occupation, and I fear she would gather the wrong
+impression from our affirmative reply; but we really had been about and
+could not "give ourselves away." This little person seemed to keep from
+drink, though she told us she had lost her last place through buying,
+with her own money, bottles of stout, and so horrifying her mistress,
+who, she said, was "a religious woman, but a regular pig." This mistress
+took drink herself, but "would not own it," and "suffered from
+indigestion." She had the doctor, and he recommended change, society,
+etc., but she lazed about most of the day and drank. Little Dark Hair
+said she could have stood it if the woman had been straight, if she had
+told her she took drink and it wasn't good for her; but to call it
+"indigestion," and dismiss her servant for buying in a few bottles of
+stout out of her own money, it was too disgusting! She left, and didn't
+feel like asking for a character, as what she said was regarded as
+cheek! She was evidently very low-spirited, for she said she wished she
+was "in a bandbox," and then explained she meant her coffin. She said
+she would get out of this if she had a home; but she had no home, no
+friends. She was soon to become a mother--she would soon have to go to
+the workhouse. We gave her the address of a friend who would help her,
+but could not ourselves do so because of our _incognito_.
+
+There was a great difference in the characters and appearance of the
+various women. One old woman apparently got her living by running
+errands and doing odd jobs for the girls. I think one woman was a
+pedlar. The former woman showed by her conversation that she had lived
+an immoral life. There were several women about thirty or forty, who
+behaved quietly and were dressed comparatively modestly and cleanly.
+Some looked quite superior to their position, but I believe they had
+only acquired the wisdom of reticence, as they dressed themselves up and
+went out like the others, and one I thought particularly quiet, who
+seemed to watch us a good deal, smoked like the others, after she had
+been out. Some explanation of the probable life of these elder women was
+afforded next morning by a woman, rather stout, and more talkative. She
+had gone out overnight, setting off for her regular place, which was
+apparently some way off in a suburb. A "toff" took her to have a drink,
+and promised her money to go with him to an hotel. He afterwards gave
+her the slip, leaving her penniless. Another girl, young and pretty,
+said she was given in the dark two pennies silvered over! A dark girl
+told her she "wasn't so soft; she always felt the edges of her money in
+the dark and knew by that."
+
+There were no old women, except the one or two who seemed to live on the
+others, by cleaning or by sewing or running errands. One girl was said
+to get her living by doing this, and "drank all she got." Most of the
+younger ones seemed to get more or less drunk every day. They had to
+drown thought, but drink and dissipation were fast playing havoc with
+their good looks, and several had very severe coughs, due to exposure to
+night air. A girl who did not gather lodging money might be out all
+night, as our friend the runaway had been, and none were very warmly
+clad. They had to take off underclothing and replace it after it was
+washed, apparently being almost all improvident. One or two, notably
+"Dot," a small dark girl, who kept herself clean, and was pretty, with a
+kind of perky prettiness that hid vulgarity, seemed to be better fitted
+up. She had a basket of clothes, and seemed to be going somewhere by
+appointment. We heard it several times mentioned that Mr. S---- wanted
+one and another, and that they must have "a note" from him, or "a
+paper." He was "the landlord."
+
+But I am anticipating the morning. We sat watching until we were weary,
+between eleven and twelve, and then went to our bedroom. The same beds
+were reserved, and one woman who was said to work for her living, and
+had a very bad cough, was already in bed. We were speedily in bed also,
+and for a while were quiet. The room was very stuffy, in spite of two
+ventilators; the sheets not very clean, but still fairly so. The beds
+were filled by degrees, all but one, that previously occupied by the
+Scotch woman. One girl who came in late said she was not on the streets;
+that she had begged money for her lodging, as she was out too late to
+return to her place. It was holiday time, being Whit week.[113] One girl
+who came in late, and had had drink, which made her talkative, said she
+was a servant, and had just left a place where she had been ten months.
+She said she had been to a pleasure resort all the night before with her
+young man; that her mistress begged her not to come to this
+lodging-house; she was very good to her, but she said she had had some
+drink, and it got late, and she couldn't go anywhere else. She had no
+money to buy breakfast, and had an appointment with her young man at
+eight o'clock next morning. He promised to give her some money. She
+meant to "enjoy herself" over the holiday and then go to service
+again.[114] She did get up early, complaining she felt poorly, and she
+went to her appointment, but I think he did not meet her. We offered her
+some breakfast before she went, and she joyfully recognised us when she
+returned without it, and we gave her the rest of our provisions.
+
+One girl who had been in before grumbled that her bed had been slept in,
+and was dirty; but her own underlinen was far from clean. No one seemed
+to possess a nightgown; all slept in their underlinen.
+
+We had the door a little ajar, and far into the night the door bell kept
+ringing, and girls were admitted and laughter and conversation drifted
+up the stairs. Our room settled down some time past midnight, but the
+girl who was drunk several times tried to begin a conversation. At last
+we all slept; two, however, had bad coughs. I woke at intervals through
+the night, and finally, at 6.30, I woke longing for fresh air. I put on
+a skirt and went down to enquire the time, and decided to get up and go
+out for a quiet stroll. The bath-room was empty. The bath had old papers
+in it, and did not look as if it was often used. There was a table with
+looking-glass, and a good deal of rouge about. The w.c. had a good flush
+of water. The washing basin was very small, and no soap was provided.
+There was a roller towel for everybody. We had learned by experience to
+take our own soap and towel, and we lent the soap several times.
+Articles of clothing seemed to be frequently lent. We saw girls trying
+on each other's hats, and there were complaints that they were also
+stolen. Several locked boxes were in the bath-room, and some empty ones.
+No convenience existed for keeping things privately except this. Some
+women had a few things in drawers in the kitchen, but they were not
+locked. The woman in charge had a sitting-room and a piano, and she kept
+knives in her room. You paid a penny to have one, and it was returned to
+you when you gave back the knife. Knives also were lent from one to
+another. A girl whose head was questionably clean wanted to borrow my
+friend's shawl to go an errand, but we made an excuse and did not lend
+it.
+
+My friend got up more slowly, so I slipped out to the bright freshness
+of a May morning, and walked in the direction of a park. There were
+plenty astir, trams running, and people going holiday-making. The park
+was not open, as it was not yet seven, but just outside I found a
+resting-place. What a contrast the fresh budding life of the trees was
+to that perversion and decay of budding womanhood I had left behind me!
+A tree cut down in its prime to make way for building furnished me with
+a parallel. What _artificial_ conditions of man's making are pressing on
+those young lives, snapping them off from true use to rottenness and
+decay? Why do they not grow healthily? A crowded bedroom, an uneasy
+couch, a bare dining-room, wooden slats and tables, a precarious
+livelihood--these are not things to draw a girl, and the excitement of
+"the life" has to be covered by drink and degradation. Is it true, that
+once _in_ it, it is too difficult to get out, and that a girl may be
+trapped unawares and wound round and round as in a spider's web by a
+multitude of threads of circumstance which prevent her escape? Is there
+even at the back an _organised_ system, seeking victims and preying on
+them? This much is certain, that there is room for an alliance of greed
+and wickedness against defenceless and destitute womanhood. For if a
+woman "cannot get work," where is she to go? What is she to do? Can all
+our Homes and Shelters together prevent many from drifting "on the
+streets"? Do we not need a national provision for migration and
+temporary destitution among women?[115]
+
+Musing thus, I returned to my friend, and we went out together and sat
+about half an hour on some public seats. The open air refreshed us, and
+once more we returned to get our breakfast. I found a cup and saucer
+with difficulty, for by this time most were in requisition. Every one
+had her own provisions, but they all seemed to live from hand to mouth;
+there was nowhere to keep them, and there were complaints that they were
+stolen. Bread and butter, tea, bacon, or ham, or an egg, were the staple
+diet. There were no forks, only a very common blunt knife to be had for
+the penny, and tin spoons rusty with use. The walls were bare, except
+for a print of the infant Christ bearing a cross, over the kitchen
+mantelpiece. "Oh, Christ!" was a favourite exclamation. The language was
+often foul. The girls chatted together also about their previous night's
+experiences, but mostly in groups of two or three exchanging
+confidences. We asked A---- to join us, and she offered me an egg, and
+went out and fetched herself some tea, butter, and crumpets. We were now
+going to make a struggle for this girl's salvation, but it was very
+difficult to do so without exciting suspicion. We tried to persuade her
+to go to B----. I had written overnight to secure a place for her; but
+she would not do this, or go home, fearing her father's wrath. She was
+also wretched after her previous night's indulgence, and ashamed of
+herself, and in a difficult irresolute state. Reference to her mother
+made her weep, and this attracted attention. The woman of the house
+came, without any apparent reason, and borrowed her shawl. We asked her
+to go out with us, and her shawl was not returned, but a small grey one
+was _lent_ her.
+
+I spoke to the little dark young woman, and she gratefully received an
+address to which she might apply for help after her confinement.
+
+We succeeded in getting A---- to give us her mother's address, and
+promised to write for her. With this, I think, we should have been
+content, but she offered to go out with us after all a little way, and
+we hoped to persuade her. We knew of a Shelter near by, and we actually
+succeeded in getting her there; but she would not remain, and we had to
+let her return, fearing that she would probably drink again to drown
+recollection. We spent altogether nearly two hours in trying to get her
+to some satisfactory resolution. Meanwhile the girls were talking,
+laughing, singing, or dancing about the room. Two were particularly
+playful; both handsome girls, but already dissipated in looks. Both had
+an abundance of fair hair, apparently "all their own." One girl
+sportively asked one of them to "lend her her hair." I thought she was
+joking, but presently she crossed the room, and untwisted a lock of hair
+from the head of one of them and twisted it up and fixed it on her own!
+It was many shades fairer, and was speedily returned to its owner. These
+two girls were constantly striking up bits of comic songs, or larking
+with one another or dancing "the cake walk."
+
+I fear in our endeavour to secure our young friend we lost other
+opportunities. But it was a continually-changing scene. Most sat round
+comparatively quiet; some, very weary, lay on the forms or lolled on one
+another; some smoked cigarettes, some talked, and one or two were
+washing their clothes in another room. One girl took off her stockings
+to wash them. There were one or two strikingly handsome girls--one had a
+face that reminded me of some painting I had seen--but the majority
+were only good-looking when rouge and powder had effaced dissipation or
+accentuated their good points; by morning light they looked flabby,
+coarse, and unhealthy. One girl, Joy, with a pink-and-white complexion
+that bore the light, had to go to the Lock Hospital. Apparently most of
+these girls had outgrown the fear of this or of prison. "Bless you! they
+don't mind being 'pinched,'" said one woman; "it gives them a rest."
+Here, then, was womanhood devoid of fear! Social restraints had
+vanished--as with the tramp, so with the harlot![116]
+
+The only fear left was that of each other's opinion, and this had
+sufficient force to draw back to "the life" the one we wished to rescue.
+On her soul lay the knowledge of the _horror_ of respectable society
+towards what she had become, and the _attraction_ of the fellowship of
+those who would receive her freely. We succeeded in getting her to go
+out with us in a small borrowed shawl, and we coaxed her to a place
+where she would have received shelter till her friends were communicated
+with. But it was no use--she must go to her _friends_. Persuasion was
+useless. We would have taken her with us, but she would go back. All we
+could do was to give her the address of a friend and take that of her
+parents, in the _hope_ of a chance to save her.
+
+It is, I believe, hardly possible to rescue a girl deep in harlotry,
+though it might be possible to steer poor souls who have passed
+disillusionment to some harbour of refuge where moral purity was to be
+recovered. They must "get their living." Who would knowingly employ
+them? The national recognition of the right of the individual to
+employment and subsistence seems to me to be the remedy for the harlot
+as for the tramp. The harlot is the _female tramp_, driven by hard
+social conditions to primitive freedom of sex relationship.[117]
+
+
+III. THE THIRD NIGHT.
+
+During the week that intervened before we could again visit, we
+succeeded in finding out that there was a "welcome home" for the
+wanderer. Armed with a letter from her mother, but with some misgivings
+as to success, we went to the lodging-house, intending to see her
+quietly; but when we reached the door the woman in charge stood there.
+We asked for the girl by name. She said she was not there; that a letter
+had come for her, but they had not been able to give it to her, as she
+had left. We asked where she had gone. She did not know. Baffled, but
+uncertain as to whether she was telling the truth, we stood hesitating,
+when who should come to the door but the girl herself! The woman was so
+nonplussed that she gave way and invited us in! We gave the girl her
+mother's letter, and watched her read it. The girl's face changed,
+softened. She cried, but she only said, "My sister has written it," when
+an elderly woman came and began talking to us. As the girl was opposite
+us we could no longer speak privately. After a while, however, she
+changed her place so as to get near me, and we began talking, but a
+young woman also came and asked if she were going out with her. We did
+not wish to attract too much attention, so it was only by degrees we
+could tell her we were ready to send her away next morning, having had
+the money to do so given us.
+
+She made difficulties about being ashamed to go home in dirty clothes.
+We asked her to wash them. She said if she left them to dry overnight
+they would be stolen. We told her to exchange them for others. She
+wanted to go out and get money for some things, and go home well
+dressed. We were not sure as to what might happen if she did this, and
+urged her to give up "the life" for her mother's sake and meet us in the
+morning. Fearing too much pressure would act in the wrong direction, we
+decided to leave her, trusting to God to bring her to the right
+decision. This He did, for she went out and had "bad luck," and received
+only two halfpennies!
+
+We set out once more to search for lodgings, intending to make straight
+for a street we had heard of by name. We took a penny tram-ride to the
+heart of the town, and asking directions of a woman, got a very bad
+impression from her of the street whither we were bound, a mild
+recommendation to one lodging-house, and a warm one, coupled with an
+invitation, to the one whither she was going. However, we "preferred the
+worst," and so with thanks we left her. When, however, after a long walk
+we found the street, it was narrow and unsavoury, and the lodging-houses
+were all small cottages. We looked through open doors at a few
+interiors--and flinched! We knew what they would be like only too
+well![118] Besides, as we wanted to see as much "life" as possible, we
+preferred a larger one. We could be _sure_ of what these low-class ones
+were, if a slightly better one was unsatisfactory. So we sought a street
+near by, which we had also heard mentioned, and which, being a principal
+thoroughfare, was flanked by houses of a larger type, once inhabited by
+the well-to-do, but which now had descended to be lodging-houses.
+
+A female lodging-house (next door to a men's lodging-house) looked clean
+and respectable, although through the open door we caught a glimpse of a
+girl who was dressing, and who attracted some attention from passers-by
+by her condition of half-undress. We paid sixpence each, and secured two
+beds in the same room. We then were "free of the house," which consisted
+of a long passage leading to a small kitchen. Leading from the passage
+was a front parlour occupied by the "deputy" and her husband, a larger
+dining-room furnished as usual with tables and forms, and a door leading
+to a yard with sanitary conveniences. A stairway with oak balustrading
+led above; a door which could be locked had been placed at the bottom,
+and no one was allowed upstairs till they went to bed--a good precaution
+for cleanliness and decency.
+
+In the kitchen there was a fire, and hot water in a boiler by the side.
+A couple of tables and two forms, accommodating each about four people,
+were the only furniture besides a rack in the wall and some shelves
+filled with hats and other clothes. There was no room for more, as a
+small sink with hot and cold water occupied the corner by the fire.
+There were a few pots in much request, and two large tins. These formed
+the only apparatus for washing of all kinds. We saw them used overnight
+for bathing the feet, etc., one girl washing her feet in them; we knew
+they were used for washing clothes, and we saw them full of dirty pots
+in the morning. As we heard the state of one girl alluded to as
+contagious, "but she won't go to hospital," it is easy to be imagined
+that we could not bring ourselves to eat and drink there. Nor did we
+consider it safe to use any sanitary convenience except upstairs, for it
+was easy to see the character of the house. We sat on the form in the
+kitchen for nearly an hour, while the girl we had seen made her
+elaborate toilet. She had a most severe cough, and could hardly speak,
+yet she sat, often in full view of the front door, in a low chemise and
+skirt, both of good quality if they had only been _clean_, which they
+were not. She had finished her washing process, but there were many
+others. She powdered her face and breast, she rouged herself with great
+care (being chaffed meanwhile by some of her companions), she burnt a
+match and blackened her eyebrows, and then by slow degrees she did her
+hair in numerous rolls, finishing up by curling the little ends and
+putting a net over all. Then, after some discussion as to which hat
+suited her (apparently hats, though they had owners, were common
+property), she put on first a very thin muslin blouse with a hole at the
+shoulder, then a clean skirt and a costume skirt and jacket (the latter
+very open at the neck), and finally the selected hat. She looked, when
+thus disguised, a handsome young woman, but her face was really thin and
+wan, and it was almost death to her to go out, as she did, into the cold
+night air with only a thin tie to protect her chest. She returned in the
+morning, saying she had been at the C---- Hotel all night, and had been
+drinking all the time, and had not slept at all. She looked very weary,
+and rolled up some clothes and lay full length on a form to attempt to
+sleep. She could not long survive such a life. One girl had died the
+previous week there.
+
+While her long toilet was taking place, a succession of girls entered,
+most of them going out again after a brief rest. The first, who sat by
+me and told her story, was not, as yet, on the streets.[119] She had
+been sent when five years old to an orphanage, and from that to a
+laundry home, where she had received a good education, and from which
+she got a good situation. She was not strong, however, and, becoming
+anæmic, was sent to hospital. There she was questioned as to her
+parents, whom she had not seen for years, and sent, when discharged, to
+the town where they lived to seek for them. She found her mother living
+in sin with another man, by whom she had children. Her father was a
+drunkard, who had been many times convicted; he lived with her sister in
+lodgings. She clung to him as her own, and all the right feelings
+cultured in her gave intensity to her affection for her long-lost
+father. He kicked and ill-used her, but promised amendment. He broke out
+again, and had that morning been sent down for a month. She had nowhere
+to go. Her sister was cold to her and to her father; probably she took
+after her mother, and had reason enough not to love her father, who had,
+however, in his way looked after her. She was working and could support
+herself, but this poor girl was stranded. Her one cry was that she
+_must_ meet her father when he came from prison; she was sure he would
+do better. She had no money, and feared she should have to walk the
+streets. I paid her lodging, and one or two of the girls gave her a
+little food. She said she intended next morning to seek work in a
+laundry. We urged her, if she did not obtain it, to go to a relief
+agency we knew, and she seemed quite willing to do so, and a woman
+present also recommended it. She was in the same mind the next morning,
+so I hoped she would do so, as she did not seem to wish to drift to
+evil. Her father, bad as he was through drink, was not bad in that way.
+Her mother was a thoroughly immoral woman. This girl, well intentioned
+and well brought up, but feeble in health, ought never to have drifted
+to such a place.
+
+I have before had occasion to notice the harm done by hospital
+authorities in sending friendless girls, without sufficient enquiry (or
+even though knowing they are quite friendless), back to their native
+town. Girls such as this should be passed on to some agency that would
+"mother" them. It is easy to see how a little indecision, and the
+pressure of hunger, might anchor a girl to sin.[120] For most of those
+who entered were openly leading a life of shame. Girl after girl came
+in, rested, and went out. We learnt their "by-names," and those of
+others. "Red Jinny," distinguished from "Scotch Jinny" and other
+Jinnies, was living with a companion in prostitution.
+
+The pathetic history of a young woman who began her toilet by having a
+foot-bath (in one of the tins), her legs being swollen with varicose
+veins, will illustrate this life. She had a good home, a kind and strict
+father. The way home was always open to her, for her parents had not the
+slightest idea she was living in sin. They thought she was in service.
+She had actually been home over the week-end, and thoroughly enjoyed
+herself, going on Sunday to church and Sunday school. ("I wish I was as
+good!" sighed one when she heard it.) Yet for two or three years she had
+really led the life of a prostitute. Her history was a sad one. She kept
+company five years, and then her young man betrayed her. She managed to
+conceal this from her parents, and in order to maintain her baby she
+went on the streets. For two and a half years she lived with a
+prostitute friend, and worked and struggled for her little one, coming
+home one day to find her scalded and her companion "blind drunk."
+However, the child survived, only to perish of bronchitis and pneumonia.
+Her mother had worked for her and clothed her with her own fingers,
+making all her clothes herself. She was clever, for as she talked she
+unpicked a hat and twisted and turned it to new account. After her child
+died she left her companion--or was deserted by her--and now for some
+months she had been living here, except for home visits. She found it
+hard to get out of "the life," because she had kept up the deception
+that she was entangled in. "Her father would die" if he knew she was in
+such a place! But he must get to know in the long run unless she got out
+of "the life." Already she had been twice in the hands of the
+police--once for drink, and once for accosting. The second time she got
+off for "first offence." She gave an assumed name and paid the fine, but
+next time she would have to "go down." We got a good opportunity to
+press her to go where we knew she would find friends, as she was the
+only one in bed in our room by twelve o'clock. She did not go out
+because of a superstitious feeling that "something was going to happen,"
+which, she said, had also preceded her being taken up. She said she
+wished she was at home in her own good bed, which was always kept for
+her; that she was getting to drink and swear, and this life would soon
+kill her. We placed before her as strongly as we could the path to
+safety, and urged her to struggle free for the sake of father and child.
+It made one long to go and _live_ continuously with these girls,
+gradually acquiring influence, and being able to speak to them as a
+Christian woman, and save them from the web in which they were
+entangled. Such work would be difficult and delicate, for it would be
+necessary to live quietly, maintaining oneself among them and acting by
+character, not by profession.
+
+But surely something more is possible. There should be large,
+well-ventilated, well-provided women's lodging houses, open even to the
+prostitute, but under the care of wise, motherly women. Here it was
+impossible for a girl even to keep her own property; there was not a
+locker or any place to put anything away. Girls slept with their hats on
+their beds for security. Everything was "borrowed" or "made off with." A
+little care would keep a decent girl steady and safe, and bring many a
+wanderer back to goodness. Here everything tended to demoralisation. The
+sanitary arrangements were deficient. I cannot defend the shameless
+toilet in full view of an open door to the street, which we saw
+repeated, even to half-nudity, several times over. But this kitchen was
+the only place in which to wash and dress, and the door must needs be
+open. The constant talk was filthy--not on the part of all, but on that
+of many--and the life most were leading not in the least disguised. The
+more successful girls were sometimes out all night. Two or three came in
+very drunk and were piloted to bed by friends. Shameless expressions
+which cannot be repeated were used with regard to actions which decency
+conceals. Yet listening were other girls not so far gone in sin.
+
+A young girl in a shawl, hardly more than a child, came in apparently on
+an errand, and stayed some time. She was asked if she was going to "mash
+for a quid." An old woman called "Old Mackintosh," from her wearing a
+long mackintosh cloak, and also affectionately called "Ma," was
+apparently the sport of the girls, and yet regarded with a sort of
+affection. They teased her and stole her things, and even hit her. She
+had a bad temper, and scolded, which afforded them amusement; but if
+they went too far they made it up by embracing her. Poor woman! I fear
+drink was her trouble. They said she had hardly anything under her
+cloak. She seemed ravenously hungry, and how she got her living I don't
+know. One or two elderly women were apparently not prostitutes, but
+earned money by cleaning. It was, however, rather difficult to settle
+how they lived. One woman was very coarse and fat, with an ugly scar on
+her shoulder, which she exhibited in the morning when she indulged in
+the luxury of "a good wash," but was not clean. She put on a ragged
+bodice, the silk of which was hanging in shreds, and which had a big
+hole under the arm showing a great patch of bare flesh; yet over all she
+put a most respectable cloak, and a bonnet that would have done credit
+to a Quaker. I was astonished to see her emerge as almost a lady!
+Evidently the "clothes philosophy" is well understood in Slumdom, for
+whatever purposes it is used. Indeed, it has given me somewhat of a
+shock to realise that many of these, even if dwellers in actual filth
+and disease, would not be distinguishable in any way from ordinary
+individuals.
+
+Nothing was more noticeable in both lodging-houses than the existence
+of at least three descriptions of prostitutes. There was the apparently
+quiet, modest one, whom you would take to be a respectable girl. One of
+these gave an account of how "her boy" had met her and spent an hour or
+two trying to persuade her to go away and get work. He even cried! But
+apparently he did not move her. She promised him as a put-off. This
+quiet sort of girl is most to be dreaded; she may act as a tempter.
+
+There was, in the second place, the good-natured girl, naturally
+affectionate. "Everyone likes me wherever I go," said the girl who had a
+home. This girl should have been a happy wife and mother. Her fate lies
+at the door of him who wronged her. Once in "the life," the ties of
+friendship and a vivacious, sociable disposition would draw her to it
+again and again.
+
+The third kind may be the second gone to ruin, or those who, having had
+a worse bringing up, are naturally more shamelessly immoral. Drink has
+fascinations for them. They go "on the town" to get drink. One such, who
+was drunk over night, gave a long and involved history of her doings in
+the morning. She had received money and drink from three soldiers, but
+she declined to descend to the level of "Soldiers' Jinny," whose
+unmentionable doings were related at length. She left them and got more
+drink, piloted a couple to a "safe house" and was tipped for it, was
+treated to "bottled stout"--much to her disgust, as she preferred other
+drink--came along certain streets gloriously drunk, daring policemen,
+and arrived home happy, just sufficiently quarrelsome to get a free
+berth from everyone. She was a handsome dark girl of a low class. Her
+language was unspeakably foul, every sentence being interspersed with
+gory adjectives. She evidently expected admiration from her hearers for
+a sort of dare-devilry.
+
+It was pitiable, as the evening went on, to see the state of many. Two
+elderly women in the other room carried on a maudlin conversation, just
+on the edge of a quarrel, the substance of which was that they
+"understood one another," and would not blab each other's secrets!
+
+All the time this was going on a man, and sometimes other men, were in
+the passage frequently. There was in this passage a locked door,
+constantly unlocked, leading to the next door men's lodging-house.
+Apparently the husband caretaker in our house was also caretaker in
+this, hence comings and goings. I have no reason to suppose there was
+any illicit communication as regards the house itself; but girls were
+frequently asked for by name, and the presence of a man or men was not
+desirable. The caretaker himself was familiarly addressed as "Pa."
+
+The hours slowly wore away. One girl sat patiently for eleven o'clock to
+strike. She "never went out till eleven," she said. She was a quiet
+girl, not very good looking. About half-past eleven two girls in shawls
+came in and had something to eat. From conversation between them (they
+slept in our room), they seemed to be working girls who had been turned
+out of home. One worked at a mackintosh warehouse, the other, I think,
+at tin-plate. One at least intended to go to work in the morning, but
+was not up when I came away.[121] And this was not wonderful, for with
+the best intentions youth and sleepiness would make them lie long in the
+morning; for at twelve, when I went to bed, only a few had gone
+upstairs, and right on till two o'clock at least the interruptions were
+far too numerous for rest.
+
+Besides the usual comings and goings, locking and unlocking of doors,
+drunken stumbling upstairs, and loud good-nights exchanged, a tragedy
+that turned to a comedy was being enacted. A woman known as the "Mussel
+Woman," who carried an empty basket on her arm--which those who knew her
+called a "blind," as she hardly ever had anything to sell--came and
+claimed a lodging, having nothing to pay. After a good deal of
+"language," she was made to understand that she could not have it,
+whereupon she said she should "keep shouting all night" if they did not
+let her in. She was as good as her word for half an hour at least,
+shouting at the top of her voice the most abusive personal language,
+and banging the door at intervals. I do not know whether seasons of
+quiet were due to police rounds, but she shouted and banged, and then
+desisted at intervals, for quite two hours. No sooner was everything
+quiet than she again appeared. Several angry colloquies took place with
+the deputy. Once she was let in, saying "Jinny" would pay for her, and
+came all round the beds looking for "Jinny" with the deputy. "Jinny" was
+not found, and she was again ejected, I believe; but finally a policeman
+intervened, said he could not have her in the street, and forced the
+lodging-house keeper to accept her, money or no money. I should not like
+the berth of a "deputy"; she could have had no rest till two at the
+earliest, yet was up cleaning and sweeping before seven.
+
+Our beds and bedroom could not be called _clean_, yet were not dirty; at
+any rate in this respect, that we did not see any insects. That is a
+great deal to be thankful for. I woke after a brief and broken slumber
+at 6.30. All were young in my room save my companion and myself, and all
+slept soundly. There was nothing to tell the time, so I dressed without
+disturbing them, and on arriving downstairs found it was ten minutes
+past seven. I washed my face at the sink with my own soap and flannel,
+and sallied out in search of a clean and cheap breakfast. I succeeded
+beyond my expectation, finding on enquiry a small shop where I got a cup
+of coffee for 1/2_d_. and a good substantial 1/2_d_. bun. Thus
+fortified I spent a pleasant hour looking at pictures in shop windows
+and observing passers by, and returned about 8 o'clock to wake my
+friend. She had gone to bed at 9.30 the previous night with a bad
+headache, which was no better for a disturbed night, so we escaped as
+quickly as possible to fresh air and a cup of coffee, and then by tram
+to keep our appointment with the girl we wished to save.
+
+We entered the house by the open door and sought the dining-room to look
+for her, but were met by reproof on the part of the deputy. She said we
+had no right in when we hadn't slept there. She had allowed it as a
+favour the day before, but could not again permit it. To solve this
+difficulty my friend paid for her bed for the night, and was then of
+course free of the house. I had to leave her to wait to see the girl,
+and if possible to send her to her mother; and I am glad to say that she
+succeed in dispatching her safely to the far-distant home, where I trust
+loving hearts may hold her too closely for return.
+
+I have tried to tell a plain, unvarnished tale--in which nevertheless
+much is left out that would not bear printing--of the way in which these
+our young sisters live. The pity of it is that though some may from
+sheer wickedness seek it, more--perhaps most--are drawn in by frivolity
+and misfortune. It may be exceedingly difficult to rescue them when
+contaminated, surrounded as they are by all those invisible ties of
+friendship which chain a woman's heart. We make elaborate institutions
+to _rescue_ them, which are often surrounded by such restrictions that
+they defeat their own end.
+
+Can we not do something to solve the problem by providing suitable and
+sufficient women's lodging-houses under good management, where freedom
+is not interfered with unduly, but influence for good is steady?
+
+In Christian England a friendless girl should never want a friend and a
+home. And to guard our girls is to preserve our nation from the worst of
+evils--the corruption of a 'trade' based on greed and dishonour. Yet how
+else can a destitute girl get her living without a friend?
+
+_When all else is sold she sells herself to live!_[122]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[111] See p. 193.
+
+[112] See p. 190.
+
+[113] See p. 194 for contrast.
+
+[114] See p. 194.
+
+[115] See Appendix VII.
+
+[116] See p. 28.
+
+[117] See Appendix VII.
+
+[118] See p. 97.
+
+[119] See p, 193.
+
+[120] See Appendix VII.
+
+[121] See p. 190, and as a contrast p. 200.
+
+[122] See Appendices VII. and VIII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+COMMON LODGING-HOUSE LIFE.
+
+
+I. IN A NORTHERN TOWN.
+
+There are certain elementary considerations of decency with regard to
+accommodation for women that we might expect would receive attention in
+every town of considerable size, especially those along the main
+thoroughfares by which travel takes place. To leave provision for a
+certain need entirely in private hands is to ensure in the end great
+public expense. It is not to private advantage to provide maximum but
+minimum comfort. The margin of profit is small, and the class provided
+for will put up with a great deal. Inspection may swoop down on flagrant
+neglect, but does not avail to prevent a state of things most
+undesirable from every point of view.[123]
+
+Under the conviction that nothing but investigation into the actual
+state of things will shed light on the nature of the reforms needed, my
+friend and I set out once more on pilgrimage, our object being to
+investigate the state of things in a town not twenty miles from
+Manchester, on the line of constant travel, with regard to
+accommodation for women.
+
+Thinking it desirable to make some preliminary inquiries, we first
+visited a friend who belonged to "the Army"; we could, however, get
+little information, so we visited the Captain, hoping to learn something
+useful. We found that "the Army" visited the men's lodging-houses, and
+that there were frequent inquiries for a Shelter, but they did not
+possess one in this town. Finally we learned that there was not in the
+whole town a lodging-house for women only! Possibly there may be some
+charitable institutions. But for a woman coming to the town not
+absolutely destitute, able to beg or earn fourpence for a bed (which
+means, it must be remembered, two-and-fourpence a week, without food),
+there were only three places, and in each "married couples" were also
+taken.[124]
+
+One was described to us as "full of gay girls," a second was small, and
+the single men had to pass through the sitting-room to bed; we were
+assured, however, that the proprietress did her best to prevent
+"carryings on." The third being described as "the best in the town," we
+decided to try it. But it is obvious that no town can be considered in a
+satisfactory condition that makes no provision for homeless women, apart
+from men. Widows and friendless girls are to be found everywhere, and it
+is most important that a safe place of refuge should exist to arrest,
+if possible, a downward career.[125]
+
+We found a group of men outside the lodging-house, and one of them
+kindly showed us the way to the office, a lighted room up a sort of
+court. There was a movable square of glass in the window of this room,
+and through this we paid our money, sixpence for a double bed. We were
+told we should have to come through that room to bed and that we must go
+"up a stair to the right," and with this our communication with our host
+or hostess begun and ended, for there was no one in the room when we
+passed through to bed, and when we came away there was only a child in
+possession, half-dressed.
+
+The room up the short stair, in which we found ourselves, was lofty and
+airy and might have been pleasant,--if it had been clean. There was a
+large fireplace with a fine range.[126] On the mantelpiece some wag had
+drawn, upon a round piece of board, a clock face, with the hands
+pointing to five-to-twelve, and the legend written underneath,
+
+"No tick hear (_sic_) all stopped to-day."
+
+Also a large frying-pan hanging on the wall bore the humorous
+inscription, "Out of work."
+
+The walls were painted light above and dark below, various shawls and
+hats were hanging up, shelves by the side of the fire contained a
+non-descript collection of food and other possessions, and there was the
+usual stock-in-trade of frying-pans and saucepans, but no kettle. Hot
+water for any purpose (and cold also) had to be fetched from the "single
+men's" side of the building.
+
+There was a small sink in one corner, but the water was cut off. There
+was absolutely no convenience for washing of all kinds--personal,
+family, or for culinary purposes--save this sink.[127] Men and women
+alike must fetch water from the other room, even to wash the "pots." A
+card on the wall informed the lodgers that they were expected to wash
+their own. The "pots" were a few enamelled basins, soup-plates, and
+tea-pots, some very much worse for wear. The sanitary conveniences were
+out in the yard, and apparently common to both men and women.
+
+We took our seat at one of the tables, which, with wooden forms, were
+the only furniture, except what has been already alluded to. We then
+began to take stock of our fellow-lodgers.
+
+On the other side of our table, a man with dark hair (and plenty of it)
+was employed in "cobbling" his wife's boots. It took him most of the
+evening to fasten on pieces of leather with nails, and to knock the
+nails down. His job was then pronounced "first-rate" by the men, but the
+wife reserved her opinion till they had been tested by the next day's
+march! He confided to us that she was "no walker" and "took an hour to
+walk a mile" (this is the gist of his speech, which was much garnished).
+She claimed to have walked five miles. I should not have liked to walk
+in her shoes.
+
+Meanwhile at another table several men and women were sitting, some
+eating, some smoking (women as well as men). Also on the short forms by
+the fire were several people and children, and there were two
+perambulators, each with a sleeping child, against the wall in the
+background.
+
+In a little while we were better able to disentangle the relationships
+of the various groups. A young and rather good-looking woman was the
+mother of three small children, one a babe at the breast, the next
+hardly more than a baby, and the third about four, apparently quite able
+to take care of herself and go to shop for the family! They were all
+very healthy, and the baby was much admired; the father seemed kind, and
+helped his wife to nurse. They did not seem destitute, but one wondered
+how they lived, whether they were "on the road," or crowded out of a
+home; the perambulator and the healthiness of the children favoured the
+former hypothesis. Another pretty little child seemed almost
+"unattached," but next day we identified her father; she was fair, and
+had long golden curls and a black velvet dress, and thus dirt did not
+show. It was most amusing to see this child, not more than six, take
+possession of the only washing bowl, get water, and proceed in the most
+business-like fashion to wash out three pocket handkerchiefs (one of
+which had lace round the edge), they were then placed on the rack over
+the fire to dry.
+
+A man and woman were very busy making paper mats in a very quiet and
+steady fashion; they also began again next morning, and had a small tin
+box in which they kept their stock in trade. It was really curious to
+see such fancy articles made in such a place, and kept clean. For the
+dirt must not be left out of my description. The boarded floor was
+sanded over, the walls were clean, as far as could be seen, but under
+the tables and forms, and in every corner, there was a miscellaneous
+collection of sweepings of all sorts. Remains of food, dirty papers,
+filthy sand, dust and dirt, remained there unswept, and was still there
+when we came away. No attempt had been made to clear them, and what
+cleaning of pots and pans was done was expected of the lodgers, probably
+the room received a clearing up once a week, possibly a sweeping later
+in the day.
+
+It is impossible for human beings to be or keep clean under such
+circumstances, and clean they were not. Yet I think most of them were as
+clean as they could be under these conditions, and, as will be seen
+later, there were degrees of uncleanliness to which they were very
+sensitive.
+
+There were several working men who got into conversation about the
+doings of the Manchester corporation:
+
+"Taking on two or three hundred at stone-breaking out of thousands!"
+
+"Breaking granite! It's not much as them as aren't accustomed to it will
+make of that!"
+
+"A man can't claim the Union unless he's resided two years."
+
+"But I will say this, there's nowhere worse than Manchester for men
+knocking about as doesn't belong to it."
+
+Two of the men settled down into earnest conversation about the state of
+employment, but, owing to the incessant knocking of the cobbler, I could
+not catch what they said, even when I moved nearer. A pleasing interlude
+from serious talk was afforded by the following humorous conversation (I
+omit the various unsavory adjectives with which it was interlarded, as I
+cannot do justice to them, and they were probably meaningless):
+
+Enter the mother and baby.
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Oh! don't you know? he's Billy Bailey!"
+
+"Bill Bailey? eh! There was a man as had a bicycle accident, fell off
+and lay in the road. A chap came along. 'What's the matter?' 'Broken a
+rib,' says he; 'can't move.' 'What's your name?' says the man. 'Bill
+Bailey,' says he. 'Bill Bailey!' says the man, and goes off and leaves
+him. He lies there half an hour, then another chap comes along. 'What's
+up?' says he. 'Run and get me a doctor, for God's sake,' says the man.
+'My name is Bill Bailey,' says he. So the chap runs off and tells the
+nearest doctor that there's a man down the road wants him. 'What's his
+name?' says the doctor. 'He says he's called Bill Bailey.' 'Bill
+Bailey!' says the doctor. 'Get along with you!' says he. So he wouldn't
+go. At last the man got a doctor to go who didn't ask the chap's name;
+but the poor fellow lay there two hours with a broken rib, all because
+his name was Bill Bailey."
+
+"There were a chap that went into a beer-house," struck in another man;
+"there was some glasses of beer called for, and a chap ordered one and
+went in the yard; when he came back his glass were drunk. 'Who's done
+this?' he says. 'Bill Bailey,' says someone. 'Where is he?' says he.
+'Just gone out,' says the man. 'I'll be even with him,' says he; with
+that he goes back in the yard, and, as luck would have it, there were a
+chap there called Bill Bailey. 'Where's Bill Bailey?' he sings out,
+''cause he's wanted.' 'What for?' says Bill Bailey. 'I'll give you what
+for,' says the man; and with that he pitches into him, and gives him a
+right-down good thrashing. And all the while the chap doesn't know what
+it's all about!"
+
+After these humorous incidents had raised a good laugh, the conversation
+became general and hard to follow.
+
+A woman, who was afterwards one of my room-mates, seemed to consider it
+her duty to supply liquor to the company; she apparently had money given
+her by the men, and went and fetched beer in a quart bottle. I counted
+at least six times. But the liquor did not appear to take effect on such
+"old stagers," except, perhaps, to loosen the tongues still more.
+
+One man, who sent most frequently, had a nose that betrayed his
+proclivities, and to him this woman paid considerable attention. By this
+time the evening was growing late. Already there had been two loud
+thumps at the door, accompanied by the shout, "Bed!"
+
+Apparently this summons came at the hours, and then those who wished to
+go cleared off. One or two went as early as eight o'clock, a few more at
+nine--mostly, as it seemed, working men with their wives--politely
+wishing us all "good night."
+
+We went out to a little corner shop and got something to eat and a
+pennyworth of tea and sugar, and made some tea.
+
+None of the children had as yet gone to bed, but towards ten the mothers
+undressed them, of course in public. One child had its face washed in
+the soapy water that had been used for the handkerchiefs; this was all
+the toilet we saw.
+
+When we came away about nine in the morning, three of them were still
+running about, unwashed and undressed, in the scanty garb of one
+garment, shift or skirt. These little things, each pretty if only clean,
+tried each in their own way to find amusement. One got three sticks and
+tried to hammer them together as the cobbler was doing to the shoe! One
+in the morning tied himself to a post with an old scarf, and went round
+and round. It was almost pathetic to see the childish love of play
+developing amidst such untoward surroundings. The baby was fed and
+became sleepy. At last ten o'clock came and another summons. As only
+about six were staying up, we decided to go ourselves.
+
+We went through the sitting-room of the landlord, which was empty, and
+stumbling up a narrow stair, found a young woman who was arranging the
+lodgers and allotting beds.
+
+We were shown into a small room, which we afterwards heard was the only
+one for single women. It had two large double beds and a single bed. We
+were given a very small candle-end, which was put to flare down on the
+mantelpiece.
+
+By the dim light the sheets looked fairly clean. Two women came to bed
+at the same time, and one of them, a single woman apparently, explained
+that she did not know who would be her bed-fellow; she hoped it would be
+some one decent and clean; she had "a terror of a woman" the night
+before--so bad, in fact, that "Jim" (who apparently was the
+lodging-house keeper) had to turn her out; she didn't mind if it was a
+decent body. Fortunately for our night's repose, she did not till
+morning make to us any revelations concerning our bed. She said she had
+been there six weeks.
+
+She was not very communicative about herself. "Times were bad; she had
+never seen them worse, but there were some good folks in the town." We
+gathered that her "trade" was begging.
+
+The candle-end went out before we were fairly in bed. It was not
+possible to investigate, but we soon knew that the bed was not
+untenanted! It is long drawn-out torment to lie in the dark and know
+that you are being investigated by an uncertain number of "insect
+pests"! The only comfort was that daylight would come some time, and
+that the worse it proved to be, the more such a state of things needed
+to be exposed. Is it not a shame that with all our boasted
+"civilisation," a poor respectable woman cannot be sure of getting a
+clean bed though she pays at the rate of two-and-fourpence a week?
+
+We got what sleep we could. At eleven another woman came to bed: she
+said she had been sitting downstairs, but would have come to bed if she
+had known there was anyone in her room to talk to! We did not
+particularly welcome her conversation at that hour. Next day I heard two
+of the other women call her a "cheeky thing," who wanted to know "every
+one's business," and then went and told the "missus." Various sounds of
+"revelry by night" came up the stair, and "Move off" from a policeman
+outside.
+
+At last, towards half-past eleven or twelve, silence reigned. The long
+night passed slowly. Both of us were "plagued" and restless. We feared
+the worst, but hoped the best.
+
+Morning dawned, and welcome daylight. No one called us, and we found our
+room door was locked outside. It seems, however, that you might be
+called "by request." At eight no one had stirred. One of our
+fellow-lodgers said it was "all right if you were down by nine, and on
+Sunday you could lie till further orders."[128]
+
+This did not seem to us much of a boon, as we longed to escape from
+torture, so about eight we began to dress, or rather to "slaughter"! I
+am not enough of an entomologist to be able to name the animals we
+found, as I had never before made the acquaintance of their species. Big
+and little, all sorts and sizes! It took us fully half-an-hour to get
+moderately free. While on this unpleasant subject, I must state
+deliberately that I do not believe that a woman who slept in that bed
+could possibly get free again under lodging-house conditions. Her
+cleanliness would be effectually destroyed by that one night.
+
+Without the advantages of a bath, carbolic soap, and privacy, such as is
+unobtainable in a lodging-house, she _could not get free_.[129]
+
+The woman in the next bed said it was a shame, she remarked to another
+woman on what we had suffered. Evidently she appreciated cleanliness of
+that sort. She told us that a very dirty woman with a bad leg had slept
+for six weeks in our bed.
+
+"Lizzie was not a bad sort," she said, "but she wouldn't keep herself
+clean." She gave her a garment out of pity, as she had "nothing to
+change into." She got her living by begging, and got lots of things
+given her, but pawned them for drink. At last the lodging-house keeper
+sent her away, for "she was not fit to stop."
+
+Nevertheless, knowing the state this woman was in, the lodging-house
+keeper put us into the bed, perfunctorily changing the sheets. The woman
+said she was "terrified" to put her things on the bed, or to step on the
+floor, and as "Lizzie" would sit on her bed, she "found things." She was
+not very clean, but evidently her standard was miles above "Lizzie's."
+
+But surely in view of the possibility, nay, the probability, of this
+kind of lodger, there ought to be care exercised. The commonest
+precautions were not in evidence. The floor was bare board, very dirty,
+and under the beds was dirty oilcloth very dirty and frayed at the edge,
+itself sufficient to harbour any amount of vermin. The bed was flock,
+without a removable cover, and not clean. Surely, if the house was
+managed in the interests of the lodgers and not solely in the interest
+of the proprietor, it would seem right to do something to prevent such
+a state of things. It is the folly of "laisser faire" that has allowed
+the supply of a public need to be so entirely in private hands, that,
+even in apparently well-managed lodging-houses, private profit
+over-rides public convenience.[130] We "pay the piper" in small-pox
+hospitals, workhouses and hospitals, for where the commonest matters of
+cleanliness are neglected how can infection be avoided?
+
+It seems the height of folly on the one hand to erect costly sanitary
+apparatus,[131] and on the other by insufficient inspection, and by want
+of enforcement of right conditions (even in "certified" houses) to
+actually connive at sanitary conditions below that of the class which
+most needs raising higher.
+
+When one first enters a common lodging-house, one charitably hopes, in
+the uncertain light, that it may be a particularly good specimen of its
+class. Evening covers defects, but an experience of such a night
+reveals, as nothing else can, the essentially uncleanly nature of the
+arrangements. If men and women herd together in small space, with no
+opportunity for proper ablution, with no privacy, with all the culinary
+operations done in the one living room, and if, as a guarantee for care
+you have only the selfish interest of a proprietor who stands in small
+fear of the infrequent "inspection," how can things requisite for public
+welfare be attended to. Practically the house is no cleaner than the
+dirtiest person in it, and is a most ingeniously contrived hot-bed of
+infection.[132]
+
+After such a night, to descend to the unswept "living-room," to see the
+débris of yesterday, possibly of days, lying in unsavoury dusty heaps
+under the tables, to watch your fellow-lodgers proceed, without washing,
+to cook bacon in greasy pans, half washed at the only sink, to see the
+clothes, worn perhaps day and night, in various stages of uncleanliness,
+and above all to see little children growing up untutored, save in the
+reverse of what we recognise as right, is to feel heart-broken for the
+"evils to come" that must spring from such neglect of the "stranger
+within our gates."
+
+Hospitality, which has perished as a personal virtue to a large degree,
+must now devolve on the community. It is not to its interest that it
+should be neglected. Especially would I point out with all the strength
+I possess, the folly of indiscriminate herding together of the sexes,
+without the commonest precautions for decency and sanitation. If it does
+not pay to have in every town a lodging-house for single women, under
+sufficient control to secure decency, such a lodging-house should be
+provided. To this the married women with children might with advantage
+be admitted, for if a father cannot provide a decent home for his wife
+and children, he ought not to drag them down with him, but to be glad if
+they are a little better provided for. If women were accommodated apart
+from men, proper sanitary provision for each sex would be easier to
+arrange. It would be no hardship to insist on separating the sexes, for
+a man can always, with a little extra exertion, obtain a furnished
+apartment for himself and family, and though these also need careful
+sanitary inspection and are open to many evils, they do, at any rate,
+preserve a vestige of family life, and there is not that indiscriminate
+herding together of the sexes, which is a cover for all sorts of
+immorality, as well as a danger to sanitation.[133] I believe, from
+personal investigation, extended to towns in different parts of England,
+that it is exceptional to find a town that has any adequate provision
+for lodging single women apart from men--except as a matter of charity
+in more or less restricting institutions. Yet the preponderance of
+single women, necessitated by the excess of one sex over the other,
+implies, without widowhood and desertion, a floating population of women
+who fall an easy prey to wrong conditions. If a woman is not the
+carefully-guarded inmate of a sheltering home, on whom devolves the duty
+of caring for her? Surely on the manhood of the nation. The community
+that fails to shield its women to the utmost of its power will either be
+roused to its duty by the trumpet call of flagrant wrong, or will perish
+by decay of manhood and of the family.
+
+There are not wanting signs that such decay is upon us. If side by side
+with large aggregations of men, living under insanitary and unnatural
+conditions, we allow the mixed common lodging-house--unclean in every
+sense of the word, what can we expect?
+
+I do not mean to imply that it is impossible to live, even as a single
+woman, a moral life in a common lodging-house, or that many of the
+proprietors do not do their best to secure morality. But if, in any
+stratum of society, men and women herded together under such conditions,
+it would be only exceptional characters that could stand the strain.
+Young men and women can, and do, go and live together in common
+lodging-houses. You may go in on Sunday afternoons and find crowds of
+young people, not all inmates, but all imbibing the fatal atmosphere of
+unrestrained vile talk. In some of these lodging-houses older women live
+who make a practice of tempting in younger girls, who thus are lost. It
+would be much more easy to control many public evils if lodging-houses
+were provided, decent and sanitary, and the sexes kept distinct.[134] We
+exercise control over the inn, but the lodging-house, which is the
+hostel of the travelling working-man, is not even sanitary in many
+cases.
+
+We did not feel able to eat breakfast under such conditions. I waited
+for my friend in the living-room, and an amusing incident occurred. One
+of my room-mates came down in a skirt--forgetting her top skirt. But she
+had not forgotten another adornment, namely, a huge pocket suspended
+round her waist behind, which proclaimed her as a "moucher"! She
+exclaimed:--
+
+"Look what I've been and done! I've been over to the shop like this!
+Good job a 'bobby' didn't see me!"
+
+There was room enough in this capacious pocket to "pinch" any number of
+articles, but we will write her down "beggar" not "thief"!
+
+We left the children, undressed and unwashed, but some of them
+breakfasting, at nine o'clock, and found our way to a cheap restaurant
+where we got a good plain breakfast for fourpence each.
+
+Then we returned home to sundry necessary ablutions, as prelude to a
+civilised existence. Alas! for those who cannot escape, but must needs
+drift. Whither?
+
+It must be remembered that to a woman, for respectable existence,
+cleanliness is an absolute necessity. An unemployed man may obtain work
+at various occupations to which dirt is no hindrance. In fact, to some
+occupations, respectability would be a bar. But a woman must "look
+tidy," or no one will employ her. Therefore conditions destructive to
+cleanliness are for her equivalent to forcing her down lower and lower
+into beggary and vice. Once at a certain stage she cannot rise, "no one
+would have me in their house," say, rightly enough, poor miserable
+creatures "with scarcely a rag to their back." Those in this
+lodging-house were not so badly off, but why? Because they had learned
+to prey on society that rejected them. Each single woman was probably
+supported by that foolish "charity" that acts as a salve to the
+conscience of those who pity but do not bless the poor.
+
+
+II. IN A NORTHERN CITY.
+
+When shall we apply common sense to the daily matters of town life? Not
+till we recognise that a community is a unit, composed of many parts,
+but when one suffers, all suffer.
+
+Having occasion to visit a northern city to address important gatherings
+on social questions, I determined to devote one evening, previous to
+speaking, to social investigation. I desired to find a woman, if
+possible a lady, living in the district, willing to dress up and go with
+me. As, however, my friends failed to find me one, I had to be content
+to go alone, shadowed by a policeman in plain clothes. My object was to
+find out where I should have to sleep if I arrived at night as a
+stranger able to pay 6_d_. for my bed. The city is a very old one, and,
+as usual, in the ancient parts houses are huddled together. I visited
+some of the worst streets, and have never anywhere before seen such
+closely packed humanity. Streets of houses back to back were huddled
+under the shelter of a large flour mill working day and night, and
+filling the air with dust. Some houses could never have daylight. Most
+of the workers in the mills and factories came, I was told, from these
+narrow streets, and some of the firms were very rich. It seemed to me
+likely to be a hot-bed of consumption, to say nothing of vice and crime.
+At the hour at which I went, between nine and ten, most of the houses
+were closely shuttered, and few people were in the streets, except a few
+lads and lasses who were courting at street corners. The friendly
+"bobby" told me, however, of turbulent times and sudden brawls, making
+this the worst quarter of the city. After public-house closing was
+probably a lively time. He informed me that there were in the city but
+two lodging-houses where women were taken at all. Both were common
+lodging-houses, and very low places. It required a guide to find them.
+One was in a court up an entry out of a narrow main street. I had to go
+alone, for it would have roused suspicion had my guide accompanied me.
+After knocking at one or two wrong doors I found it at last. The door
+opened into a large kitchen packed full of men and women. I enquired
+timidly if a bed was to be had. "No, we are quite full," shouted some
+one. "Come in, you can have half my bed," shouted a man. This raised a
+laugh. The company gazed curiously at me. I asked if there was anywhere
+else where a woman could get a lodging, declining the proffered honour.
+I was told a name previously heard from the policeman, and thanking the
+informant turned away gladly. "You'd better share along of me," sang out
+the man, and rather hurriedly I beat a retreat to my friendly "shadow."
+The other house was still harder to find. I could not have retraced my
+way through the maze of lanes and entries. My companion said he would
+walk down the street in front of me to indicate the door, and then would
+return and wait. A narrow dirty lane with houses on one side only, had
+in it some of the smallest cottages I have ever seen. One of these had a
+few sweets and eatables in the window, and was indicated as the place
+where "the landlady" lived. Knocking, I was told to come in, and in the
+minute room, shop and living room, lying on a wooden couch was a very
+dirty woman with a still dirtier child. She was "the landlady"! She
+looked at me and said she would take me in. I was to go two doors lower
+down the street. I found I had to pay her 6_d_. for a bed. There was
+only accommodation for five single women.
+
+Going down the street to the house indicated, I found myself in a
+moderate-sized kitchen such as you find in a house of the olden times,
+low but fairly large. A sink was partitioned off in the corner. A man
+was cutting up wood, and one or two women and children were there. They
+were talking about a man who had gone away deserting his wife and
+children. One asked if I had not my man with me. I said "No." They had
+seen my "bobby" friend pass. They said a man had passed. I said "I
+thought he was a bobby." They said, "Right you are," and appeared to
+accept me. I got a tea-pot and made myself some tea, and cut (with a
+borrowed knife) some bread and butter. Thus making myself at home I
+could observe the place and company. It was fairly clean for such
+places; the company, both in appearance and language was low, and I was
+glad I was not going to stay the night. It would probably have proved
+much the same as the lodging-house in which I spent the second night
+when on five days' tramp.[135] Having used my eyes well, after about
+half an hour, I said I was going out, and left not to return, joining my
+policeman friend. He told me this was the only other accommodation in
+all that large city for women. He added that there was, however, a
+charitable home or shelter, and if they found friendless women on the
+streets at night they usually sent them there.
+
+It was the same old story, absence of decent sanitary self-respecting
+accommodation for women. No "charity" can replace this. Rescue homes
+pick up those who _have fallen_.
+
+The policeman told me much about the general condition of the city. He
+said a municipal lodging-house was much wanted; that there was no
+accommodation for travellers save common lodgings, often dreadfully
+crowded and unsanitary. "I will let you have a look round one," he said.
+"I will introduce you, and you must have a good look to see if your
+'man' is there!"
+
+Accordingly he took me into an ordinary dwelling house at the corner of
+a street. A boarded-off sanded passage led to a small room hardly as
+large as in an ordinary dwelling house. The wooden seating round the
+walls was filled with men, most smoking. They stood up and stared at me
+and I at them. "You can't see your man," said the bobby. "No, he isn't
+here," I replied. So I followed him elsewhere. He told me all the
+lodging-houses were of this character, and insufficient in number. A
+good lodging-house would be a boon, for in the holes and corners and
+narrow lanes where those common lodging-houses are found, police
+discipline is very difficult. By this time it was about 9.30 P.M., and
+I returned to my friends for ablution and a change of raiment, able to
+give point from personal experience to my remarks on the following day.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[123] See p. 49; also Appendix VIII.
+
+[124] See p. 195.
+
+[125] It is not sufficient to provide a refuge, there should be
+accommodation not charitable, not for _rescue_ but for _prevention_, as
+working women require to be free to come and go.
+
+[126] Contrast, p. 257.
+
+[127] See pp. 92, 104.
+
+[128] See p. 200.
+
+[129] A woman has, during the day, no access to a private room, where
+search is possible, and the washing places are in the common kitchen
+usually, or at any rate not private. Few lodging-houses have stoving
+apparatus, it is too costly.
+
+[130] See Appendix VIII.
+
+[131] The contrast between the sanitary precautions of the tramp ward,
+and the absence of common sanitation in the common lodging-house is
+startling.
+
+[132] See pp. 36, 47.
+
+[133] These rooms, as they exist at present, are a grave social danger.
+They also should be inspected and under municipal control See as to
+Berlin arrangements, p. 21. These rooms are largely used for
+prostitution. All places used as temporary dwelling places need most
+careful and rigid supervision. Coroner's inquests often reveal sad
+dangers to child-life, in such "holes and corners" as are now let at
+exorbitant rents. A man can let _each room_ at a price that may cover
+the house rent. 8_d_. per night is a usual charge in the north. Light
+and fire to be found. See Appendix VIII.
+
+[134] See Appendix VII., VIII.
+
+[135] See p. 97.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LONDON INVESTIGATIONS.
+
+
+I. LONDON LODGINGS.
+
+I have been deterred from specimening women's lodgings in London by this
+difficulty--that one could not be sure of emerging in a fit condition to
+be received into the house of respectable friends.
+
+Being anxious, however, to find out something about them, previous to
+speaking at a public meeting, at about 8 P.M. one evening, I started
+from near one of the principal stations, with my son to shadow me. He
+was dressed as a working man, and I as a woman of the vagrant class,
+fairly decent. I was supposed to have arrived in London and to be
+seeking a night's shelter. I crossed the street to enquire of an old
+applewoman where a bed was to be had. Her answer was not very
+encouraging. "There is a lodging-house for women at ---- Street, but
+it's a bad place. I wouldn't advise you to go there if you are
+respectable. There is another in ---- Street, it's a charity place." We
+determined to try to find both. We found the bad one with difficulty,
+and were again warned by a neighbour. So I did not venture there. Some
+low streets near appeared to be frequented by doubtful characters. We
+sought the "charity place." It was respectable, but, for one who was an
+investigator, not desirable. I might have tried it, but found on enquiry
+the price was above my purse, 8_d_. a night! Hardly a "charity,"
+therefore, though doubtless a boon to more wealthy women.
+
+We determined next to find out (as after repeated enquiry we could hear
+of no other lodging-house) whether if I had happened to be really
+stranded in London, I could at that hour get into the tramp ward. I
+passed down through a crowded street with booths and a market. "Poor
+thing," said one woman, whom I asked for the "Spital." "Have you got to
+go _there_." I escaped questioning, and further on asked again.
+
+"Yes, you can get in,"--but again the look of pity. I thought it argued
+badly for my treatment if I went in. I found the place, but did not
+apply. I found I should have to walk a considerable distance to the
+tramp ward. I could not on that day enter, not having time to spare for
+two nights detention, but it was this tramp ward which I afterwards
+specimened, and my experiences in it justified the pity.[136]
+
+I rejoined my son; we had satisfied ourselves that respectable lodgings
+for women at my price were at any rate not easily found. Time was
+passing; we heard there were lodgings in the city. We had already spent
+over an hour in search, so to save time, we did what a tramp would not,
+took 'bus to the heart of London. There by the simple expedient of
+"asking a bobby," I at once found what I wanted. Up a narrow entry from
+one of London's well-known thoroughfares was a lodging-house for men,
+side by side with a lodging-house for "women only." So far good. I need
+not have my son with me. So about 10 P.M. I sent him for a walk to
+return before 11 P.M., and entered the court alone. I found that to
+secure a bed I must go into the _men's_ lodging-house and pay my
+money--6_d_.--to a man who was playing cards with several others. No
+rude language was used, the men eyed me, that was all. I paid and passed
+in next door. Upstairs was a small room in which a number of women, all
+with their hats on save one--the "deputy"--were sitting. Some passed in
+and out, but being a stranger I was not welcome, and was told to "go
+forward." This was downstairs; and I found myself, after some turns I
+cannot remember, in a long low cellar room, with concrete floor, very
+dirty looking. A window at one end was half underground. A fireplace on
+the right had bars and hobs, but no oven or range or proper kitchen
+convenience. This was, however, the living and cooking room. Plenty of
+garments were hanging up to dry on strings. Under the tables were heaps
+of dirt and _débris_. A number of women were present sitting on forms,
+who seemed to be hawkers, or women gaining some scanty livelihood. The
+general conditions were much the same as in northern lodging-houses,
+where 4_d_. is charged for a bed, only the cooking facilities were
+poorer and the price was higher. I learned that in London a bed was not
+easily got under 6_d_. "It took a good bit of getting," one woman said.
+The sanitary state was no better than in the north, and I was thankful I
+had not to stay the night. Towards eleven the deputy came with a bunch
+of keys, calling out "Anyone for bed." I thought it best to escape, and
+making an excuse rejoined my son.
+
+My remarks on this adventure at a subsequent meeting led to enquiry into
+the state of this lodging-house. It was reported to be "regularly
+inspected twice a week and nothing wrong with it." All I can say is that
+either the visits of the inspector must be expected and prepared for,
+_or_, as I have frequently remarked, inspection leads to purblindness.
+"Anything is good enough for such inmates" comes to be the official
+view.[137]
+
+Wishing to satisfy myself that I had not been mistaken, and as I had
+that time no fellow-workers, I got my son subsequently to enter the male
+side of the same lodging-house. His account not only confirmed mine, but
+he found things worse than I had stated. The men's side had the same low
+half cellar, not properly lighted or ventilated, deficient cooking
+accommodation, dirty floor and _débris_. In addition, the habit of
+smoking and spitting rendered the place abominable. The deputy appeared
+to have no control, indeed, he laughed at extra filthy jests as if they
+were to be enjoyed. My son said he should have been afraid to specimen
+the sleeping accommodation. He has visited other lodging-houses--one
+where a notice is up "Gents are requested not to sleep in their
+boots"!--a notice often disobeyed. He is acquainted with Rowton Houses.
+He says this is a particularly bad specimen. So after all my judgment
+does not appear to have been at fault. A low standard of inspection
+prevails in many places besides London; but the place itself was unfit
+for the purpose for which it was used.[138]
+
+
+II. IN A LONDON TRAMP WARD.[139]
+
+Towards six o'clock on a pleasant evening in March, my companion and I
+found our way to the casual ward of a London workhouse, selected
+because, on the testimony of Guardians, it was supposed to be
+well-regulated and ideal. _Real_ beds and _porcelain_ baths, perfect
+cleanliness and good management would surely afford comfortable
+conditions. We did not go together, as I was announced to speak publicly
+and known to take a companion, and it might therefore be difficult to
+escape detection. But we were, as it happened, the only inmates, save a
+woman going out in the morning.
+
+The ward was spotlessly clean. The brown bread and gruel, at first
+glance, not unappetising. Alas! the bread was sour. Food first, and hot
+bath to follow, wet hair, though more time than usual to dry. Clean
+nightgown, and actually a bed. So far good.
+
+Locked in at about seven o'clock to solitary meditation, I rejoiced to
+have found better conditions. Alas! I had not reckoned on the physical
+effects of the unwholesome combination of the sour bread, followed by
+hot bath, and backed up by imperfectly dried hair. Before long I was
+violently sick, and every portion of my first meal returned. In the
+darkness it was impossible to see if there was any means of
+communication to beg a welcome drink of water. Presently my friend began
+coughing and groaning. It seems the effect of the bath and wet head on
+her was to produce a violent cold, headache, and sore throat. Then in
+another cell a woman began retching and coughing badly. In the morning
+we learned she also had been upset by the bath when she entered, but no
+complaints were noticed. Her cough sounded like asthma or bronchitis,
+and very bad. We asked her why she did not see a doctor. "No tramps were
+allowed a doctor," she said.[140] She intended when out to try to get
+into an infirmary. She had been in three days, and could not eat.
+
+This information, received after we had got up at 5.30, was somewhat
+disheartening, for we were both ill. Breakfast none of us touched. Our
+fellow tramp played with hers, pointing at the thick scum on the
+unappetising gruel (very salt), served in a worn enamel mug, with no
+spoon. "God alone knows," she said. "They will have to answer for it."
+She told us she was detained a third night because she had been in
+another casual ward during the month, and the officer "spotted"
+her.[141] She was evidently a regular casual. "They all have to do it"
+(_i.e._, to go from ward to ward), she said, describing how other wards
+were better and how harsh this one was--and no one came in who could
+help it. We asked how it was she came in herself. She said she had had
+"business" in that part of the town, and could not reach another ward.
+She said she was quite clean, as she had "been down" the previous
+week-end. She said the treatment had made her ill; at the time we hardly
+believed her. Later we knew. Seven o'clock, and a summons to work. We
+began cheerfully under charge of an old woman. But already some
+conception that we were under a hard taskmistress was dawning upon us.
+"Be sure you only do what you are told," said the woman. The ward was
+apparently clean, but the whole must be scrubbed. My portion was to do
+four cells and a long, long passage leading past eighteen cells (nine on
+a side), and two bath-rooms, and a lavatory with two w.c.'s. Cloths,
+bucket, and soda were provided, no aprons till later. I had a kneeling
+pad, my friend none. She was told off to the bath-rooms.
+
+It seems such a simple thing to tell that it is hard to convey the real
+conditions. Presently our taskmistress came round. She was not unkind,
+but one of those women to whom, in ordinary health, work is a joy in
+itself, and the utmost scrupulosity of finicking cleanliness a thing to
+be exacted as a matter of course. For every single detail a standard was
+to be attained, at whatever cost to flesh and blood. For instance, all
+blankets to be re-folded to an exact shape, and laid so--no otherwise.
+To work hard, all day and every day, would probably be to her no task,
+and the difference between working hard on a full and on a meagre diet
+had never dawned upon her. Sickness was to be discredited--probably a
+"dodge"--in any case, the fault of previous misdoings. Work was to be
+exacted to the very last farthing. Faithfully she did her duty--as she
+knew it. Nine hours' solid work (five in the morning, four in the
+afternoon)--that was what the law exacted--and she got it.
+
+Now, to work as a charwoman on a comfortable breakfast, with a pause for
+lunch, and prospective dinner, and the opportunity to chat and "take
+your own time" is one thing. To work for a taskmistress with prison in
+prospect for the slightest shirking--with no pause and no food--is
+quite another. The matron knew I had been very sick--her assistant told
+her--and also that I had had no food. "That old tramp, whom she couldn't
+bear," as she told my friend, "had been eating stale fish; that was what
+made her sick. She could tell that sort, she always knew what people
+were like." This was so humorous that it decidedly relieved the
+situation! We compared notes as we refilled buckets, but did not dare to
+loiter or show knowledge of one another. Walls had ears, or, at any
+rate, keyholes were handy. So we worked steadily, my friend's fate being
+worse, as she worked under the taskmistress's eye. She won prime favour,
+but never, never, in all her working days, had she worked so hard.[142]
+She cleaned the bath-rooms and a whole flight of stairs, and then was
+put on the private sitting-room, to be done most particularly, not even
+the old woman attendant could be trusted to do it, it was usually the
+matron's own work; but she had been ill, and it had "got neglected." How
+hard my friend laboured she alone can tell. Every inch was gone over
+many times under the vigilant eyes. Meanwhile, the "old tramp" laboured
+as diligently as possible--when the eyes were upon her! They detected
+some signs of "scamping," when her back was turned, so doubtless I was
+"an old hand!" The fact of the matter was, that without such careful
+"scamping" I positively could not have sustained the long, long hours
+of labour. Four bucketsful of water--one for each cell--seven for the
+long passage, two for lavatory and w.c.'s, brasses to clean, paint to
+dust. It seemed a Sisyphean task, no sooner ended than a new one was
+exacted. I wondered if by carefully husbanding strength I could hold
+out. At dinner-time, twelve o'clock, we stopped for an hour. I could not
+touch food. My friend, though fresh from the tantalising smell of beef
+steak and onions, managed to eat a small portion of bread and cheese,
+washed down by cold water. Our tea and sugar had been confiscated.
+
+Tired! That is no word for it! We had already done a charwoman's day's
+work. My friend could hardly speak, and I had no strength save to lay my
+head on the table and wonder how I should survive the afternoon.
+
+One o'clock and hard labour. My friend, on finishing two bedrooms, was
+put to clean the store-room. So weary was she, that towards the close
+even her taskmistress saw that she had overrated her strength, and gave
+a sign of grace by saying she would help her to finish. Meanwhile, the
+"old tramp" must do the day-room--it only served her right for the way
+she "tickled the boards!"
+
+Five long and very ornamental forms and two long tables, to be scrubbed
+on every inch of surface to immaculate whiteness with soap and water.
+The floor to be scrubbed and every place dusted. Kneeling had become
+such torture that the straining of the body up to scrub the
+under-surface of the forms almost produced faintness. It must be
+remembered that all this work was exacted without a particle of food.
+The matron had come in at dinner-time and seen my food untasted. I told
+her I could not touch it. She looked at it as if it was some rejected
+dainty. "What a pity," she said--not at all as if it was a pity I could
+not eat, but a pity to leave such good food!
+
+Flesh and blood found it hard to bear the long four hours' labour; over
+and over again I failed quite to please my taskmistress and tried her
+patience. She confided to my friend that she should have to keep out of
+the room or lose her temper. She did not recognise the arm growing
+weary, the heart sick and faint. But she did recognise the work of my
+friend, and rewarded it by a cup of tea and two slices of bread and
+butter. To eat these she was shut up in the store-room, and was by no
+means to tell "that tramp" how she had been favoured! She did, however,
+manage to run in and give me a drink of tea, but such was my internal
+state, that it made me immediately violently sick. This was when work
+was over, fortunately. For one blessed three-quarters of an hour before
+I finished the taskmistress was away. She was very suspicious as to how
+I had done the work in her absence. It passed muster. I did not dare to
+stop, but certainly "hurried." It was necessary to survive.
+
+At last--five o'clock and respite. We both were more dead than alive. It
+must be felt to be realised.
+
+Again we could not touch the food, but my friend had had a little. Again
+no notice was taken of any symptoms of illness on my part, but a lozenge
+was given my friend for her throat, as she was "prime favourite."
+
+At last 5.30, and we might seek bed. My friend was allowed to wear some
+of her underlinen, as she had been very cold the previous night. The
+"old tramp" must do as best as she could. What happened was another
+night of long misery, desperate sickness on an empty stomach--no sounds
+save the London sounds without, and the groaning and sighing of my
+tortured friend within, close by in another cell.
+
+Long, long hours; would God it were morning! The cross-bars of the
+window faintly seen against the sky spoke of the cross that is never
+absent, of the woes of men and of Him Who is crucified in the least of
+these, His brethren. When will the long torture of the ages end, and men
+care for the poor? At last the torment ended--6.30. It was possible to
+rinse the mouth with water. Oh, what it is to know thirst and sickness
+combined!
+
+Every limb ached; my poor friend was no better; her knees were too sore
+to touch. But soon there would be freedom. We ate no food, of
+course,--but welcome liberty! To me the worst agony was the last
+half-hour of patient waiting. No words can tell the passionate longing
+that seized me to breathe free breaths. No such inward struggle may come
+to those inured to hard conditions. Yet for them, also, the summer life
+is free, and for freedom they sacrifice much. Who knows how a tramp
+feels, save God? At last we are free; our money, tea, and sugar are
+returned. Shelter and friends are near.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But for them? At this hour a procession of women issues from our casual
+wards--hundreds, perhaps thousands, all over our land. Their faces are
+set in the grey dawn--whither? Not to the tramp ward again--not at
+once--it cannot be borne immediately; later it may be again a necessity.
+Now anything is preferable. Prison? It has lost its terrors--it cannot
+be harder.[143] It is only an incident in life to "go down." Sin? What's
+the odds? It may pay for a decent bed and food. The river? That is best
+of all, if one could manage to face it. Silence, oblivion, and the mercy
+of the God above Who knows. Yet life is sweet, and it is a pleasant
+thing to behold the sun. To be a beggar is best--spring stirs
+already--God opens hearts. Food and shelter may be begged as "charity."
+It is best to fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of man. The
+vagrant life is sweetest. This is how tramps are made.[144]
+
+
+_Note._
+
+The severity of the treatment experienced in this tramp ward was such
+that it brought on hæmorrhage, from which the author had not suffered
+for years. She was obliged to remain in London ill, and to have medical
+attendance. Dr. Jane Walker and Mrs. Percy Bunting can vouch for the
+facts. Her fellow tramp was also ill and did not recover until she had
+had a complete rest. It was a month before the author regained her
+strength. If the effects of the treatment were such on those going in
+with full health and strength (from a life in which food and rest had
+continued till the last moment) able to return to good food and every
+comfort, how must the destitute suffer under such treatment? They drift
+and die, as the awful mortality from common lodging-houses proves.[145]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[136] See pages 259-267.
+
+[137] See p. 49. This lodging-house is now suppressed.
+
+[138] See Appendix VIII.
+
+[139] Reprinted from _Daily News_ of April 18th, 1905.
+
+[140] This is not true, but where a doctor is not in residence it
+appears as if officials often will not take the trouble to detain tramps
+to see him, and permission if asked for is often refused. See pp. 43,
+157.
+
+[141] See p. 29.
+
+[142] My friend was at one time accustomed to wash for a family of nine.
+
+[143] See pp. 26, 213.
+
+[144] See p. 171.
+
+[145] See pp. 30, 49.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A SYMPOSIUM IN A COMMON LODGING-HOUSE.
+
+
+I.
+
+My friend and I have the rights of friendship in a lodging-house which
+we frequently visit. The inmates of lodging-houses are often very dull
+on Sundays. They cannot walk the streets, full of well-dressed people.
+No one can have any idea who has not tried, how they welcome a friendly
+visit, appreciate the gift of some magazines, and how often one or
+another is in want of food, or even a few pence short of a bed. Few beg
+on Sunday except from sheer necessity. This particular lodging-house
+therefore, we tried to visit every Sunday, to sing for or with them, and
+talk--not preach--to them. It was the "married and single quarters,"
+which consisted of two long low rooms in an old building in very bad
+repair. I do not know whether it has anything to do with our frequent
+visits, but the place is a great deal cleaner and tidier than when first
+we went. It has been painted and whitewashed, and the floor seems to be
+kept cleaner. But this leaves much to be desired! The women's
+sitting-room upstairs (which always contains as many men as women) is a
+room with a coke fire, the fumes from which are often almost
+overpowering. A bench round the room, and tables covered with metal for
+protection constitute the only furniture. The claim to be a
+"sitting-room" consists in the fact that no cooking is done there, but
+plenty of eating. There is but one gas-jet, and you can hardly see in
+the farthest corners. A stair out of the room leads upstairs, where, I
+am assured there are "good clean beds," a room for single women, and
+cubicles for married folk, who pay 6_d_., and 1_d_. for each child who
+sleeps with them, the unmarried paying 4_d_.
+
+Poor as it is, this room contains "the aristocracy," for though both
+rooms appear to be free to all, you find above the regular residents who
+are residing some time, though some of these even have a preference for
+the democracy. Yet one can hardly understand why, for the room below
+must be uncomfortable in the extreme. It is, to begin with, a half
+cellar room approached by a stair, but leading out into the yard which
+contains the sanitary arrangements. The roof is in such bad repair that
+the laths of the ceiling are giving way, and water often drips from an
+imperfect pipe. The position of the doors ensures a through draught when
+they are opened, which is constantly happening. A dark entry with no
+door gives access to a room containing the lavatory accommodation--a set
+of wash-basins, above each of which is inscribed the motto, "Be just."
+This room, which is quite open to everyone, is the sole lavatory
+accommodation for both men and women. In the centre of the room is a
+huge stove, the heat from which is terrific, and makes this part of the
+room near the solitary gas-jet almost unbearable. Yet these two rooms
+accommodate about sixty inmates, and I am assured that the cooking
+arrangements are so deficient that they cannot get their food except in
+turns, and dinner is often delayed till very late in the afternoon for
+this reason. The place is, however, always full, for it is the cheapest
+place in town, and the beds, I am told, are far better than many others
+where the sitting room and lavatory accommodation is superior. There are
+clean sheets once a week! A woman can keep herself respectable, as the
+deputy and his wife endeavour to exclude prostitutes.
+
+In these rooms are gathered every Sunday a motley assembly of men,
+women, and usually a few children. The inmates change, but there are
+always enough of the old to carry on the tradition of friendship, and
+some few are permanent. There is a living to be had in a lodging-house
+for a woman who can repair clothes, or earn a little by cleaning the
+rooms, or do a little washing.
+
+To this lodging-house I took one Sunday night a letter "On Tramps, by a
+Tramp," which appeared in _The Daily News_, and reads as follows:--
+
+      "SIR,--I am a tramp, a man without a habitat. No outcry uprose in
+      winter while the East End sheltered the tramp. When he trudges
+      west after waste food and a grassy couch, the press rises up in
+      arms. Each one of these 'bundles of rags' on the grass has a
+      history, some an interesting one. I have been despoiled of the
+      fruitage of my labours; have acted the role of errand lad, shop
+      assistant, clerk, traveller, market-man, barber, canvasser,
+      entertainer, mummer, song-writer, and playwright. I have dwelt
+      within workhouse, asylum, and prison-walls; have scrubbed the
+      filthy, tonsured the imbecile, tended the aged, soothed the dying.
+      A pedlar of toys, many a time I have enjoyed a night on a turfy
+      bed, the stars my coverlet, the hedge fruit my morning meal, my
+      bath the shallow stream. Nature suns the nomad as well as the
+      traveller. Derelicts, wastrels, paupers, pests, vagrants, bundles
+      of rags! dub us what men will, we are human. There are tramps and
+      loafing tramps; ill-clad and well-tailored loafers. Make all work,
+      west and east. Loafing is infectious.
+
+  "Rowton House.
+  "O. QUIZ."
+
+We visited downstairs first, and, sitting on the table, as the cleanest
+place, giving a view of the company, I read it in a tone of voice
+calculated to reach the further corners of the room. It elicited great
+admiration. "That chap knows what he's writing about"; "He's put it well
+together." I joined in the praise, and told them I had come to get their
+opinion on tramp wards. I wanted them to help me for a speech I was
+going to give on vagrancy, and I had in my mind a good many things to
+say, and wanted to know if they were all right. One man burst out about
+detention. He wanted to know what chaps were to do if they were kept in
+till eleven if they went for a night's shelter. He said a man couldn't
+get work, and all he could do was to walk ten or fifteen miles to
+another workhouse, and then he was no better off. I mentioned a
+neighbouring workhouse where they were detained two nights, and let out
+at an early hour. But they appeared to dislike two nights' detention
+upon such poor diet, and said they had "no right" to keep a man more
+than one night. One said that by favour he had got out at 5.30, and that
+was much better; it gave a man a chance.
+
+I next proposed discussion on the diet. One and all waxed eloquent on
+this topic. They declared it was "starvation," bread and water, scalded
+meal in some workhouses. "It wouldn't hurt them to give us a drink of
+tea." Most of the gruel went to the pigs and there wasn't bread enough
+to keep a man from being hungry. Prison fare was better. "What about the
+tasks set?" I said. "Three sleepers to saw," said one man; "15 cwt. of
+stone to break," said another. "It isn't good enough." One man reckoned
+you could _earn_ 3_s_. 6_d_. for sawing that amount of wood (two saw
+together). "How much do you reckon the bed and food is worth?" I said.
+"Bed!" broke out one, "you gets two blankets and bare boards; sometimes
+three in a cell. Twopence is all it's worth, and 3_d_. the food." "Then
+you think they make something out of you?" "Yes," replied another, "you
+could get 2_s_. 6_d_. in the roads for less stone-breaking. A chap goes
+in tired and hungry, because he's nowhere to go, and they set him hard
+work, and he comes out worse." "What about the bath?" "The bath's all
+right, but they stove your clothes, and they come out all soft and
+creased." "Then they can tell you've been in the workhouse?" I said.
+"Yes, or in jail." "And that doesn't help a man to get work." "I should
+think not!" was the response. One man waxed eloquent with indignation.
+"I was passing a workhouse when the chaps was coming out," he said. "I
+hadn't been in myself, but I seed one or two I knew and they had on good
+clothes the day before, they were all crumpled" (here he took hold of
+his trouser leg and creased it up), "and burnt in places. One man showed
+me his shoes; they had even put _them_ in the oven, and the toes was
+turned up with the heat; he couldn't get them on his feet and had to
+walk barefoot." There was a chorus of indignation. The verdict was that
+tramp wards were to be avoided. The open was better, but a "cold shop"
+any night of the year, but a man could go on his way any time he
+liked.[146]
+
+I then explained to them the German system of Relief Stations and
+Workmen's Homes. They were much interested and thought it excellent.
+They gave appreciative particulars of experiments in this direction in
+Manchester, and of an "ex-convict" who "knowed what a chap's feelings
+were," who had during the last winter opened a large room every night
+and let in as many men as it would hold, and let them stay till morning.
+I had not heard of this before. They said hundreds were turned away from
+the Church Army Shelter, where they could chop wood for bed and board.
+
+I then introduced the subject of Colonies to set a man on his feet.
+Opinion seemed in favour, but not enthusiastic. Thanking them for their
+frankness, we left them after singing "Abide with me," the tramp's
+favourite hymn, and went upstairs.
+
+
+II.
+
+We spent an hour over a lively discussion which would have done credit
+to any debating society. I read the letter as before, and it was
+received with admiration. "That chap's a champion writer." They told me
+about one part of London that was "sleeping-out" quarters; one park went
+by the significant name of "The Lousy Park." I wondered if its
+frequenters by day knew this. I asked them why a man preferred to sleep
+out to going to the tramp ward. A man got up and stood in the middle of
+the room and waxed indignant. Food and detention, as below, came in for
+scorn. "The Local Government Board will give you 2_s_. 6_d_. for
+breaking 10 cwt. of stone, and _they_ gives you 15 cwt. and prison if
+you don't do your task." "A man comes in who has walked fifteen miles,
+and they give him bare boards to sleep on," broke in another. "How is a
+fellow to get work when he's let out at eleven, I should like to know;
+he can only tramp to another workhouse." "There was a councillor once,"
+broke in another, "he met a chap in the road, and he says, 'Young man,
+change clothes with me. I've got plenty of good clothes at home,' then
+he changes clothes and goes in the tramp ward; he's quite upset by what
+he sees, and when he's coming out he says, 'You can have my share, I'm
+going to have a good breakfast.'" "Yes," said another, "that was
+Councillor S---- of S----, and he did _give_ it to the guardians." "What
+about prison fare?" I said. "Prison is better; you get good soup, better
+food all round."[147] "And what about the work?" I said. "They don't
+make you work harder than you're able. Hard work may be oakum picking."
+"The worst of prison is the being kept in," broke in another. "You can
+do with a week, but a fortnight is too much of it." Then it suddenly
+seemed to occur to them that they had been "giving themselves away."
+"We're a nice lot," he said, "prison and workhouse, but I've been in
+prison more than once; I'm not ashamed to own it." Wishing to "save
+their face," as the Chinese say, I suggested that it was not hard for a
+man who was down to get into prison. "That's true for you," he replied.
+"I got a month once for sleeping out.[148] I was going to N----, where
+they keep a week at May day" [He is a cripple who gets his living by
+singing] "and I went the night before. The workhouse was full and the
+lodging-houses were full, so we had to sleep out. We goes to a heath
+that was common ground, but there was a bit of private ground near it,
+and we gets among the bushes. A bobby comes round. 'You might let us
+stop,' I says; 'we can't get in.' 'Keep where you are and don't let any
+other police see you,' he says. In about five minutes he comes back;
+'Come along of me,' he says, and locks us up. I gets a month for that,
+'trespassing and sleeping out.'" I remarked that in court the prisoner's
+side was often not properly heard. "Yes," he said, waxing indignant.
+"When they says, 'Any questions to ask the officer?' I says, 'Didn't you
+tell me to stay where I was and not let the officers see me?' 'No, I did
+not,' he says. 'Very well,' I said, but I knowed what he had been
+after--he had been down to the police-station and told on us, and the
+superintendent had told him to lock us up." We all agreed it was a mean
+trick. "They'll kiss the book and swear themselves red in the face,"
+said another. "I've seen 'em, they know they're not telling truth, but
+it's 'We must believe an officer,' and if you say a word it's 'Wow, wow,
+wow'"--and with a significant gesture he showed how the magistrates put
+down a man who attempted self-defence, and all the room laughed in
+sympathy. "Perhaps you've had a drop of drink," he said, "but you're
+walking steady; an officer puts his hand on your shoulder and gives you
+a shove, if you say anything he has you, 'Drunk and disorderly!' A
+magistrate once saw an officer take a man who was quite quiet, and he
+followed him. The man got let off."
+
+I was able to cap their story by a true incident that had come under my
+own observation. A quiet little man, devoted to his wife and children,
+and decidedly henpecked and without vices, was taking a country walk one
+Sunday and saw a knot of men in a quarry. Interested in their
+proceedings he got on a hill and watched them. He and they were raided
+in by the police; they were gambling and he was charged with "aiding and
+abetting." The police swore he was signalling! As a matter of fact when
+suddenly arrested he lifted his arms and said, "My God!" This was
+interpreted as a "warning." It was only through the good character given
+him by his parson that he got off. The room appreciated the story. "What
+about relieving officers?" I said, feeling the way was open. A look of
+unutterable disgust crept into their faces. A woman came forward and
+began to relate how they treated an old man, but she was not allowed to
+speak, for everyone had something at the tip of his tongue. "If the
+public knew their carryings on and how they blackguards you," one summed
+up, "there'd be a stop put to it, it's shameful." Evidently if a
+policeman's reputation was bad, that of a poor law officer was worse.
+"They've no right to do it," was the general verdict. Prison again came
+in for preference. "You've nothing to do but walk up to an officer and
+hit him in the ear-hole, and you'll get sent down for free lodgings.
+Breaking plate-glass windows is the way they do it in London."[149]
+
+I asked some questions about preference with regard to plank, chain, or
+straw beds to change the subject, but all agreed that "they weren't
+worth calling _beds_." "You do get a _shelter_," said one, raising his
+hand and arching it to imply there was something over your head, "but
+_beds_! You get the floor and two blankets, perhaps three in a cell if
+they are full.[150] I think they ought to give you that free; it's not
+worth 2_d_. The Salvation Army give you what they call a bunk--like a
+coffin, and oilcloth to put over you--for 2_d_.! That's charity for you
+and religion!"
+
+I propounded the German Relief Station system as below. It was received
+with great attention and warm appreciation. "It would be ever so much
+better," they all agreed. "The Salvation Army has a metropole at
+Leeds," one volunteered. Another referred appreciatively to Central
+Hall, Manchester. "You can go in at 3.0 and work and get out in the
+morning early." I mentioned earning tickets for food and shelter. "That
+would do for us men," he said, "but not for women--they'd give anything
+for drink." A chorus of protest and laughter greeted him. "You're very
+hard on the ladies," I said. "You're wife won't thank you for a
+character." "But it's true," he said. It was a warm subject, so I
+changed it by asking about accommodation for women. I learnt in reply
+some startling facts. It was stated that in some towns, notably Leeds,
+women could not get sleeping accommodation. Lodging-houses had been
+pulled down where women used to be taken, and they actually could not
+get shelter. "It's harder on them than us; we can protect ourselves, but
+a woman gets run in." Evidently here is a great social lack. Women's
+lodging-houses--and what can be more needful for the morals of the
+community? I asked about accommodation in this town. "They take women
+everywhere," was the reply. "Not everywhere," said another; "there are
+not so many that take women as there used to be." All agreed that
+accommodation was short for women in many towns, and might be for men,
+but of that they were not sure, only they knew numbers were taken up for
+sleeping out. "Four men were taken up for sleeping in a hole near a
+coal-pit the other day," they said. I suggested prices of beds might go
+up, but this did not seem to have happened. 4_d_. a bed was the
+standard, but 6_d_. for a married couple was not always accepted, and
+children were charged for. "I have two children in an Industrial Home,"
+said one.
+
+I mentioned the Labour Colony, but though I sang its praises, it did not
+seem to be very acceptable, though tolerable if a step to better things.
+Regular tramps known by the name of "hedge sparrows" could always get a
+living. Either "he" or "she" hawked or "did some'at" and got a living
+for both. _They_ never went into the workhouse, they "knew better." It
+was "us poor folks that was hard up had to go in."[151]
+
+"How about the regular workhouse diet," I said. "No one gets fat on it."
+"See them come out, they can hardly crawl." "The pigs get most of the
+porridge." "Porridge and skim till we're sick of it." "They're very hard
+on us young men." "'Marjery Jane'--that's what we calls it--and bread."
+"Bread and cheese for your Sunday dinner." A chorus of disapprobation!
+Evidently to be an inmate was not inviting. One told a legendary story
+of a guardian who stood by when a man complained of his porridge and
+argued with another guardian who wished to change his food. "What would
+become of the pigs?" the guardian was reported to have said as a
+clinching argument! The humane guardian was reported to have gone off
+the Board in disgust! One woman began to relate that a workhouse existed
+where they were allowed rations freely and it didn't cost the guardians
+half so much, but she was promptly put down by two others, a man and a
+woman. Such a thing was out of the question. _He_ had been in the union
+she mentioned and it was no such thing. Finally she had to admit she had
+"heard tell of it" but "had not been in herself." I thanked them for
+their stories and information. I ventured to inquire into a practice I
+knew existed in the workhouse of selling food.
+
+"A man will do anything for baccy," said one; "if you've been used to
+it, and are sitting with a roomful of men all smoking you fair crave for
+it. I'll tell you what. I went into the workhouse for sickness, and all
+I had was 3_d_. I laid it out 1-1/2_d_. on sugar, 1-1/2_d_. on tea, and
+I kept selling a bit. I sold my cheese too, eating the dry bread, and
+when I came out I had half a sovereign! It was cold and wet the day I
+was going out, and knowing I had been ill the officer said, 'What are
+you doing, going out such a day; you haven't got nothing to go with.'
+'Look here! I've got that!' says I, and shows him the half-sovereign,
+but he couldn't take it off me!"
+
+Having myself been offered a halfpenny for a screw of sugar in the Tramp
+Ward I could believe him. I thanked them again for their information,
+and told them I should try to make a good use of it, and couldn't "give
+them away," not knowing any names. We closed our interview by singing
+"Light in the darkness, sailor," and I spoke a few words about my
+sincere desire that some change in our country's laws should create a
+better "life-boat" than the present Tramp Ward.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[146] See p. 51.
+
+[147] See p. 26.
+
+[148] See p. 31.
+
+[149] See p. 29.
+
+[150] See p. 41.
+
+[151] See p. 19.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+VAGRANCY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
+
+
+If you stand, in the clear fresh dawn of an early summer morning, on a
+hill-top in the northern country where I live, and look towards the
+dawn, you see outspread before you a wide stretch of bare green hills,
+intersected by the dark stone lines of fields. Your eye follows
+caressingly each dip and fold of the bosom of Mother Earth, beautiful in
+bareness, the outline clear against the sky. In each nook and hollow lie
+grey patches, clumps of stone houses, witnesses to human habitation, and
+blue spires of smoke ascend revealing the hidden lights of homes. From
+each group arises the tall spire of a mill chimney, not yet belching
+smoke, and in the valley cluster the giant mills of to-day, each larger
+than his brother. As the eye takes in each feature, the mind can by a
+"bird's-eye view" reconstruct history. There far away is the hill top
+whereon our Celtic forefathers worshipped when all the British were rude
+dwellers on hills and in dales--_Short shrift to the vagrant of another
+tribe in those days!_ There, over yonder hill, lies a Roman camp, to
+which leads an old Roman road, civilisation was imposed on barbarism;
+now roads intersect the landscape on every side. With communication
+comes travel, and the vagrant becomes possible. But _vagrancy is not a
+problem of unsettled and warlike times_.
+
+On yonder hillsides, if the snow lay thinly on them, you could trace
+even now by disused furrows the patches of arable land, amid fields for
+pasture, lying round each little clump of houses, speaking of the day of
+village communities and communal rights. Between the scattered hamlets
+lay wide stretches of moor. There would then exist survivals of the past
+savagery, nomads living a wild life like gipsies; or the marks of the
+new era, pilgrims bound to shrines making use of the roads, roving
+soldiers, travelling merchants, here and there a vagrant, made so
+probably by crime, slipping out of his place in society, but _with all
+the wide stretches of country between villages to choose from if he
+would_. Such a man, an involuntary vagrant, was looked on with
+suspicion, his hand against every man. Bands might gather and live in
+the forests, like Robin Hood and his merry men.
+
+But yet again, you may watch in thought the spread of those grey lines
+which speak of ownership of the soil. The village sucks in the
+surrounding country, the very moors become enclosed, _small space is
+left for the nomad life_.
+
+Watch! The clustering cottages develop into industrial communities,
+yonder village bears a name borrowed from Holland, and there still stand
+the loom cottages empty of looms. Now the landscape is crowded with
+busy hives of industry, town and country go hand in hand, the farmer and
+the weaver live side by side or combine the two occupations. Agriculture
+gives place to pasture for sheep, as wool is needed. The displaced
+husbandman, after a period of restlessness _in which the vagrant problem
+first arose_, settles to weaving or kindred industry. None need now
+wander save by choice, from hereditary nomad taste for liberty, and the
+bold life of soldier, sailor, or smuggler lies open for such.
+
+But again comes change. The small grey mill rises in the landscape, the
+clustering village becomes the small town, houses thicken, land grows
+scarce--what now is to become of the nomad? _He must "take to the road"
+for nowhere else is left him._ Society no longer wants him, and barely
+tolerates him. Hospitality, a virtue of scattered communities, dwindles
+to--the Tramp Ward!! He must needs, if he would travel, turn to prey on
+the communities who will not recognise him otherwise. He becomes hawker,
+tinker, pedlar, beggar and thus in his turn acquires a trade. We might
+let him survive as an interesting relic of the past, and die a natural
+death, by the catching and cultivation of his children.
+
+But hark! A sudden noise breaks the stillness of morning. A noise like
+nothing else on earth, a whistle and a boom combined. It is the
+"buzzer." The landscape has changed again, and there, the landmark of
+_the Industrial Revolution_, stands the giant mill; and now comes a
+rush of human life, clank, clank, clank, the stream of mill-hands in
+clattering wooden clogs is hastening to work. It is the daily _migration
+of labour_, the tide morning and night ebbs and flows. Yet no two days
+will the stream be alike. Accident, sickness, misfortune, or fault, will
+each day leave some units stranded, and others take their place, and if
+you look you see another feature in the landscape, a long line of
+railway stretches as a link for swift travel between town and town. Here
+is something _altogether new_. These human units, divorced from native
+communities, cannot be expected to be readily anchored, and accordingly
+you see around each ancient community and interspersed with it, crowds
+of workmen's cottages, _each a tent rather than a home_, taken to-day,
+and left in a month or two. If you could uncover life and watch it as
+you do an anthill, you would find that it had attained a new and fresh
+activity. On every side Humanity is becoming organic. Huge
+conglomerations which we call cities blacken whole stretches of country,
+and the feature of the life of most men is _daily migration_. By train,
+tram, or road, tides of humanity move to toil; every holiday sees crowds
+covering green fields in pleasure parties, or transported by train. The
+whole of life has grown _migratory_. Is it not evident that we have here
+not the ancient problem of the _Tramp_, but the _modern_ problem of the
+_Fluidity of labour_! To expect our Tramp Ward--the _repressive
+provision of a stationary society_ for the sparse survivals of a
+previous age--to cope with the needs of _Migration of Labour_ is about
+as reasonable as it would be to expect the ancient windmill to grind
+corn for our modern population!
+
+Let us examine the new state of things in reference to that citadel of
+national life--_the home_. I shall place before you the problem in a
+startling light, if I ask you whether the present Vagrancy problem is
+not to a large extent _the disintegration of the home_; and whether,
+therefore, we are not face to face with the root problem on which the
+very existence of our civilisation depends, since _by the preservation
+or extinction of the home a nation stands or falls_.
+
+Right down through all the changes but the last, you would have found
+the population mainly stationary. Even now the existence of local names,
+so widely spread that you may have fourteen or fifteen families in a
+small district of the same surname, reveals the remains of the
+stationary life. But for good or for evil it has gone. Examine any
+family you like and it will be the exception to find it whole.
+Individuals are scattered far and wide when up-grown, perhaps in
+England, perhaps over the world. Only the stagnating slum population is
+stationary. And this is not their virtue. If they had a little more
+initiative they would not stagnate; they form a _pool_ of underfed and
+ill-paid labour, and constitute by far the largest part of the modern
+problem of the unemployed. The alert and well-trained workman is
+_migratory_--at the news of a "better shop" he will be off to another
+town, with or without wife and family. The young man will desert the
+country side to try his luck in some great centre--the girl may go to
+service. We no longer _expect_ families to stay whole. Greater freedom
+has brought greater travel, and a relaxing of the bonds of parental
+discipline. Our streets are crowded nightly by the young, on whom the
+restless activity of our age has taken such effect that they cannot and
+will not seek sleep till evening is far advanced. The very "day of rest"
+is a day of travel.
+
+What is the result of all this increase of migration? The old inn has
+become the modern hotel, the occasional "apartment to let" has
+multiplied a thousand-fold, the seaside resort has sprung up with
+apparatus of pier and promenade, since we must move about even on a
+holiday. The whole world is on wheels or on a walking tour. But what
+about the destitute pedestrian? Is it fair to dub him a _tramp_? Travel
+he must if he is to live, but truly he is between Scylla and Charybdis.
+For, unmoored from home and friends, he has on the one side the tender
+mercies of the Tramp Ward, which are often cruel, and on the other the
+horrors of the common lodging-house. Society hustles him hither and
+thither, throwing him a dole; or offering him a prison, if he ventures
+to sleep out. He can hardly exist at all, unless he is clever enough to
+prey on the community; he becomes a bundle of rags, fain to lie all
+night in a London park, or sleep near a brick-kiln. It is "hard lines."
+If he would die out quietly it would be all right for Society; he would
+not be missed, no one wants him, and this he feels bitterly. But,
+unfortunately, his class, in the absence of any provision of Society for
+his needs, is constantly being recruited. _It is no longer a question of
+the suppression of hereditary vagrancy._ The vagrant class is
+microscopic by the side of the _stranded inefficient labourer_, who
+recruits the necessarily migratory class of the "unemployed." Unless
+Society will take into account this new factor, it will be the worse for
+Society. For _every member of a community who is not living a wholesome
+life is a danger to it_, and the increase and propagation of an
+underfed, ill-bred, uneducated offspring is the menace of civilisation.
+
+Let me sound the alarm note as loud as I can, for already evil has gone
+far. While we have been elaborating costly tramp wards, erecting baths
+and stoving apparatus, and frightening the genuine tramp away, common
+lodging-houses have been increasing on every side. The following is the
+testimony of the Rev. Arthur Dale, of Manchester, and it is not one whit
+exaggerated:--"The men who habitually live there are almost universally
+morally bad. Many are married, but have left their wives and families;
+nearly all are the victims of drink. A few, but very few, are honest.
+Some are idle, and profess their inability to get up early enough to go
+to work. Some will work for a day or two and then 'slack.' There are
+large numbers out of work simply for this cause. Fornication and
+gambling are both practised largely."[152] Yet in every large town these
+men are now counted by hundreds, sometimes by thousands, every night.
+Has not the disintegration of the home proceeded very far? For, by
+common experience, prosecutions for child maintenance and separation
+orders as between husband and wife are granted daily, and with terrible
+facility the marriage bond is practically annulled, and yet the
+individual is not freed. What is the consequence? The man removes to
+another town and lives in nominal celibacy. Vice and idleness may make
+him a _tramp_. He can no longer have a home; for if he takes a partner
+and rears children they have all the fatal taint of illegitimacy, they
+will not respect or obey him. The whole of our lower working class is
+thus becoming leavened with immorality. And what about the woman? The
+life and death of our nation depends on an awakening to the gravity of
+the menace that threatens the true home on every side. An unstable
+society has brought about fear. People fear to fall out of employment
+and be thrust down into the abyss, and hence the custom of _limitation
+of family_, with all its consequences, is spreading to the upper stratum
+of the working classes. I cannot recall any one of the many respectable
+young couples I have known married during the last sixteen years with a
+large family of living children. Fear has also _postponed marriage_,
+except in the improvident. Many spend the flower of their youth in
+gathering for a home. The improvident alone rush to marriage as boys and
+girls, and rear an unhealthy offspring, to whom they can never teach
+self-control.
+
+Hence to the _male_ vagrant problem is added the corresponding half, the
+_female_. Since the balance of the sexes is in England already against
+women, _what becomes of those who in our large towns correspond to the
+hundreds or thousands of men who live in lodging-houses or lodgings,
+homeless_? The answer has been becoming ever more plain to me, but it
+has only been demonstrated by personal suffering. I could not have
+believed had I not seen. Our streets contain an army of prostitutes, and
+there has arisen over against the male problem a vast female problem
+with which our increasing Homes and Refuges and Shelters are unable to
+cope. _The correlative of the male wanderer is the female prostitute._ A
+woman must "get her living," and she does it "on the streets." The man
+who should support her honourably as a wife is himself a wanderer,
+afraid to incur family ties, but bound by no wholesome home influence to
+self-restraint. In 1904 I spent three nights in so-called respectable
+female lodging-houses.[153] They contained between them close on a
+hundred women, and, with few exceptions, they were all living by
+prostitution. The hour when a decent woman retires found almost all
+perambulating the streets. No rest was possible till the early morning,
+as at all hours they were admitted, many of them drunk. Those not
+admitted spent the night in hotels, or in some of those "furnished rooms
+for married couples," which are multiplying in districts near common
+lodging-houses with fatal rapidity.
+
+Men and women are making fortunes out of this state of things. To my
+knowledge, a man who was a barman is said now to own sixteen
+_lodging-houses_, and a cobbler has risen to be proprietor of lodgings
+for 600 and _two public-houses_. A man can rent a house at 4_s_., and
+get a little furniture in, and can then let _each room_ for more than
+the house-rent per week. To places like this drift many young men or
+women who are stranded far away from home. A girl gets out of a
+situation; she seeks a women's lodging-house, and if she enters one
+where the management connives or winks at vice, in three weeks, or less,
+she may be manufactured into a full-blown prostitute. This state of
+things is such as should shock every right-thinking English man and
+woman. In one street in a northern town a young man of eighteen, fresh
+from home, who was with a companion who unfortunately "knew too much,"
+passed in a short walk seventy-five prostitutes. With these problems on
+our hands in such magnitude, can we stop to tinker at our Tramp Ward
+and ask if we are to amend it by giving coffee instead of gruel? The
+wonder is that any one seeks it; that it is used at all shows the stern
+pressure of destitution more than anything else. For, as I have stated,
+and must state repeatedly, the Tramp Ward is itself a factor in national
+degradation, the mockery of a provision for need; meaning often
+semi-starvation, weary toil and unrest. A man or woman _must_ emerge
+from it more unfit for toil, and learn to avoid such a place if possible
+in future. The tramp uses it as an occasional disinfectant; the genuine
+working man or woman who is stranded may be forced into it temporarily
+and learn to be a _tramp_. Mr. Long recently stated that not more than
+25 per cent. of the vagrants of the country were in any way within reach
+of the Local Government Board. The remainder were not paupers, for
+somehow or other they got a living for themselves. I believe his
+percentage is too high, owing to the number who simply _sample_ a Tramp
+Ward and never again enter it. A recent census in Lancashire revealed
+that out of 936 persons reported only thirty-three were habitual
+vagrants.[154] Why should they go there? A man who "keeps" (?) a woman
+can live in idleness on the produce of her industry or sin; a woman can
+live "on the streets." This has a great deal to do with two features of
+present-day life--the number of incorrigibly idle, worthless men, who
+apparently can exist to loaf and drink, side by side with _the
+deplorable increase of drunkenness among women_.
+
+I am convinced that many of the lower public-houses simply play into the
+hands of the harlot, and that the marked development of the public-house
+is due to the homelessness of our people. Alderman Thompson has pointed
+out in "The Housing Handbook" the existence of a universal house famine.
+He says: "Putting the case in its simplest form, we find, in the first
+place, that if every room, good and bad, occupied or unoccupied, in all
+the workmen's dwellings in the country be reckoned as existing
+accommodation, there are not enough _of any sort_ to house the working
+population without unhealthy overcrowding.... In the second place, we
+find that, so far from new rooms being built in sufficient quantities to
+make up the deficiency, there is a distinct lessening in the rate of
+increase" ("Housing Handbook," W. Thompson, pp. 1-2). This _total_
+overcrowding accounts for the pressure on Shelters and common
+lodging-houses and tramp wards. Numbers in London are _refused
+admission_ to tramp wards; numbers sleep out.[155] Inevitably the class
+that can pay least, or cannot pay at all, will be crowded out, if house
+accommodation is scanty, and this will especially be the case with the
+migrating "out-of-work" who has no particular claim on any one. Even if
+he has money in his pocket, it is difficult to say whether he is not in
+as grave danger, moral and sanitary, if forced to be a lodger in some
+already overcrowded home, as if forced into the common lodging-house.
+Like a sponge, a slum neighbourhood sucks up by overcrowding in winter
+those who in summer obtain varied occupation far and wide. Is it any
+wonder that the children of such overcrowded homes, deprived of the joys
+of nature, succumb to the attractions of the brilliantly lighted street?
+If the predatory female nightly angles there, in all the attraction of
+her tawdry finery; if large numbers of men, divorced from home ties, are
+there to be angled for, and money can freely be obtained, the customary
+"drink" being proffered; what wonder if the home itself becomes insipid,
+if the husband seeks the flaring and enticing public-house or not less
+fatal club, and the wife seeks _him_--or some other man--in the same
+places, while the children, never at home if they can help it (for home
+means unpleasantness, or inconvenient toil), walk out with one another
+in the dangerous thoroughfare, and learn in mere boyhood and girlhood
+the fascination of passion without responsibility?
+
+How must we face such grave national issues? _The home must be made the
+centre of all our thought, the focus of national consciousness._ We must
+educate each boy and girl to be primarily father and mother; we must
+worship at the cradle of the child. The _community_ must assume
+fatherhood and motherhood, and enforce a right conception of their
+duties on its subsidiary units. To counteract the restlessness of modern
+life we must make of our Fatherland a Home, where every man, woman and
+child will be rightly cared for, disciplined if need be, but embraced in
+the wide brotherhood of Humanity.
+
+We cannot turn back the hour-glass of time and stay the new-born
+activity, but we can utilise the new energy of Humanity as we have
+learned to utilise steam and electricity. The units divorced from true
+use in our social system may, nay must, become a desolating flood,
+unless we dig channels and build reservoirs, and so direct the living
+stream back to the formation of true homes, utilising the resources of
+the smiling acres of our native land, spreading out our cities, and
+afforesting our barren moors.
+
+The Fluidity of Labour is a fact that has come to stay. Modern
+subdivided employment depends on _the ready supply at particular places
+of necessary workmen_. If a man is destitute through remaining too long
+where work is not to be had, he must travel, and we need to
+_facilitate_, not to hinder, his rapid transit to the right place, and
+to furnish him with all information as to whither he should go. We need
+to provide him, in fair return for a moderate task of work, with bed and
+board on the journey. _Except in exchange for work we should give
+neither State aid nor charity to the traveller_, since, if he cannot
+work enough to find bed and board, he belongs to the _incapable_, for
+whom a special provision is required, or the "_won't work_" for whom
+compulsion is best. The universal provision of a proper remedy for
+migrating destitution would soon avail to sort men into the three
+classes of _refractory_, _incapable_, or simply "_unemployed_." The
+Relief station method of Germany is the key to the situation.
+
+But the Relief station alone will not cope with the evil _unless the
+common lodging-house is reformed from top to bottom_. It is necessary to
+recognise the existence not only of _destitute_ homelessness, but of
+_migratory_ homelessness. It is necessary to get into safe and sanitary
+surroundings the whole of the outcasts who sleep out, and to purify our
+parks and streets. One thousand four hundred and sixty-three men walking
+London streets in one night constitute a social danger. In addition to
+this we have on the same night 21,058 single men under the undesirable
+conditions of the common lodging-house. London common lodging-houses are
+only required to find 240 cubic feet of air for each lodger, as against
+300 cubic feet in the provinces, and 350 cubic feet in an ordinary
+dwelling house. Alderman Thompson says (p. 22): "Anything less than 350
+cubic feet per head ought to result in a conviction before the most
+reactionary justices." Add the number crowded into London slums, what an
+army of homelessness!
+
+The one thing in the finding of the Vagrancy Committee with which the
+author does not agree is the stricture on Shelters. The Shelter reveals
+the magnitude of the problem that is upon us. It is the provision that
+has arisen over against this grave national danger. It is insufficient,
+it is not always well managed. But _it is seldom less sanitary and well
+managed than the common lodging-house_. The dangers it replaces are
+largely out of sight, but they are none the less real. It is true that
+the lowest class gravitate to the Shelter. Let us be thankful that it is
+so. "Out of sight is out of mind," but not out of existence. How real
+and keen the competition for bed and board is, is demonstrated by the
+pressure on prisons. It has come to something serious in our national
+history when the last social deterrent to crime has been removed and
+_men seek prison as their only home_. Even girls "do not mind being
+pinched," it "gives them a rest."[156]
+
+It is absolutely necessary that good and sufficient Workmen's Homes,
+municipal or State, should supersede the common lodging-house. Glasgow
+has been able to make its seven lodging-houses, accommodating 2,166 men
+and 248 women, pay a reasonable interest on capital. London has only
+one, and accommodates but 324.[157] The cost per head of 68_l_. per bed,
+as against 39_l_. per bed in Glasgow, militates against financial
+success, though the charge is 6_d_. per night as against 3-1/2_d_. and
+4-1/2_d_. Nevertheless receipts appear to more than cover expenditure
+(2,942_l_. against 2,844_l_.), and the benefit to the community must be
+reckoned an asset. London has 611 common lodging-houses, Manchester 268.
+In Glasgow the provision of municipal lodging-houses has reduced the
+total to 81; most of the old insanitary ones have disappeared, and those
+newly built are superior even to the municipal ones. Thus Glasgow has
+demonstrated the way out. The Glasgow Women's Lodging-house pays 5 per
+cent., is orderly, closes at a decent hour, and is well managed and
+sanitary. The pressure on its accommodation shows that another is
+required, as women are turned away for want of room. Where do they
+sleep?
+
+It is not enough to receive destitute women into the workhouse. In every
+town there is needed _some safe place for a working woman to sleep_, and
+some provision of employment that will just earn bed and board to stand
+between a struggling woman and vice. In every town there should be some
+co-ordinating charitable institution, like the Citizens' Guild of Help,
+or the Charity Organisation Society at its best, to link together the
+benevolence of the district, to pass persons on to employment or to the
+Poor-law authorities. _It is necessary to sound the depths of our
+poverty problems, or our charity is unavailing._ It is necessary to
+have compulsion at the bottom of our social system and apply it to the
+wastrel.
+
+For men we need at the back a graded system of colonies, such as is
+described in Mr. Percy Alden's recent pamphlet on "Labour Colonies"
+(price 1_d_., 1, Woburn Square, London, W.C.).
+
+But the author is convinced that while such national reservoirs are
+essential as a background, the real problems of poverty must be worked
+out in connection with the _municipality_. Charity cannot cope with
+accumulated national evil, neither can the State redress it. The State
+can "way-bill" the migrating workman, can sift the mass of vagrancy and
+apply "compulsion to work," can link labour bureaux, can reform the Poor
+Law. But we possess, at present hardly tapped, a vast fund of local
+patriotism. _It is to reconstructed civic life we must look for the
+solution of civic problems_, the abolition of the slum, the education of
+the child, the provision of "unemployed" capital to place "unemployed"
+labour on "unemployed" land, and thereby convert "a trinity of waste
+into a unity of production." A great step has been taken by the
+Unemployed Act, however imperfect. The whole subject of unemployment the
+author has dealt with in a book entitled "How to Deal with the
+Unemployed" (Brown, Langham & Co.), and she regards the chapter on "The
+Labour Market" as the key to the solution of the problem.
+
+We shall have to recognise the maintenance of the home by the
+recognition of the _droit au travail_--"the right to work"--in some form
+or another. The streams of labour, which, if let loose in misery and
+idleness, are destructive, can, if rightly husbanded, fertilise the
+soil.
+
+Grave as are the problems to be solved, menacing as is the danger if
+reforms are neglected or delayed, I believe the Spirit of God which
+created in the mind of our forefathers the ideal of the "_Commonwealth_"
+will guide our national policy into right channels,
+
+  "True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[152] It must be remembered that the largest cities attract such, and
+form, as it were, cesspools of degeneration. The honest traveller may be
+in some lodging-houses in larger proportion, but he has to herd with the
+worst, or sleep out. See pp. 35-37.
+
+[153] See Chap. V.
+
+[154] See p. 19.
+
+[155] See Minutes of Evidence before Vagrancy Committee, 10,482-10,492.
+
+[156] See p. 213.
+
+[157] Rowton Houses, however, accommodate large numbers of working men
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+TRANSFER OF CASUALS TO POLICE SUPERVISION.
+
+
+The placing of Casual Wards under police authority is a bold step, but
+one of which the author thoroughly approves. The Report of the Committee
+on Vagrancy was issued subsequently to the writing of this book. It is
+in substantial agreement with the author's facts and opinions. The prime
+necessity for a consistent and uniform national policy will be much
+better met in the way proposed than by any mere _reform_ of the Tramp
+Ward.
+
+The policeman, by his constant contact with life of all kinds and by his
+opportunities for observation, is much more fitted than the isolated
+Poor-law official for wise treatment of "all sorts and conditions of
+men." If women were still considered vagrants, grave evils might arise
+from transfer of casual wards to police authorities. But if all
+destitute women can at once claim the protection of the Workhouse, there
+is no reason why the police should not deal with vagrancy.
+
+Theoretically a destitute woman can at present enter the Workhouse, but
+practically there are difficulties. She cannot claim entrance unless she
+has slept a night in the town and can give her address. If she gives a
+lodging-house address she would be presumed to be only suitable for the
+Tramp Ward, if lately come to the town. It is but little considered how
+much the ancient right of "settlement" continues to hamper the
+administration of the Poor-law as a provision for destitution. A case
+in point is as follows: A woman visiting her husband, from whom she had
+been parted for years, was given in charge for drunkenness and got a
+week's imprisonment. She lost her work in a neighbouring town, and
+returning to her birthplace, being unable to find shelter, took refuge
+in the Tramp Ward. Next morning she applied for admission to the
+Workhouse, being quite destitute. The Relieving Officer told her to
+apply to the Guardians _the following Wednesday_. It was then Friday.
+What was she to do meanwhile? I have selected this incident because it
+is not implied that the woman was "deserving," and it is evident that
+the Relieving Officer was justified in using caution in the present
+state of the law. Nevertheless, it illustrates the fact that _immediate
+shelter pending inquiry_ is, in the case of women, a prime necessity.
+Delays in admission, coupled with the fact that re-admission to the
+Tramp Ward is discouraged, must often, in the case of women, be _fatal_.
+
+Undoubtedly difficulties will arise in the course of transfer, but it is
+probable that our whole Poor Law system and its relation to the
+Municipality will be largely modified before long.
+
+The change from an agricultural England to an industrial England and the
+massing of population in large towns, calls for unification of authority
+in our great industrial centres for effectual dealing with problems of
+poverty. The proposed change is therefore to be welcomed as one step in
+the right direction.
+
+It will also solve the knotty problem as to the incidence of local
+charges and national charges.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE.
+
+
+429. The following is a summary of the principal recommendations made by
+the Vagrancy Committee.
+
+
+CASUAL WARDS.
+
+1. Wards to be placed under control of police authority (120-147).[158]
+See Appendix I.
+
+2. Existing buildings, where required, to be rented or purchased by
+police authority (132-3). P. 74.
+
+3. Superfluous wards to be discontinued (130, 133). P. 75.
+
+4. Where practicable, existing officers of wards to be continued in
+office (135).
+
+5. Where wards adjoin or form part of the workhouse, arrangements to be
+made with the guardians for supply of stores, heating, etc. (134).
+
+6. Diet to be adequate, and provision to be made for mid-day meal on day
+of discharge (95, 181, 308-10). Pp. 26, 75.
+
+7. Task of work to be enforced, and to be a time task[159] (93, 148-9).
+P. 76.
+
+8. Detention to be for a minimum of two nights, except in case of men
+with way-tickets (151-2, 180). P. 81.
+
+9. Expenses of wards to be charged to the police fund (129, 136, 142).
+Appendix I.
+
+
+ASSISTANCE TO WORK-SEEKERS.
+
+10. Tickets to be issued by the police to persons who are _bonâ fide_ in
+search of work (178). P. 81.
+
+11. The ticket to be for a definite route, and available only for a
+month, with power to police to alter route if satisfied that this is
+necessary (179, 182). P. 80.
+
+12. The holder of a ticket to be entitled to lodging, supper and
+breakfast at the casual ward, and to be able to leave as early as he
+desires after performing a small task (179-80). Pp. 75, 80.
+
+13. The holder of a ticket to have a ration of bread and cheese for
+mid-day meal given him on leaving the casual ward in the morning (181).
+P. 67.
+
+14. Information as to work in the district to be kept at casual wards
+and police stations for assistance of work-seekers (184-5). Pp. 75,
+76.
+
+
+VAGRANCY OFFENCES.
+
+15. Short sentences to be discouraged. Where the sentence is for less
+than fourteen days, it should be limited to one day, and the conviction
+recorded (196, 224). Appendix V.
+
+16. Habitual vagrants to be sent to certified labour colonies for
+detention for not less than six months or more than three years (221-3,
+286). P. 72.
+
+
+LABOUR COLONIES FOR HABITUAL VAGRANTS.
+
+17. Labour colonies for habitual vagrants to be certified by Secretary
+of State and generally to be subject to regulations made by him (284-5,
+304). P. 81.
+
+18. Councils of counties and county boroughs to have power to establish
+labour colonies, or to contribute to certified colonies established by
+other councils or by philanthropic agencies (284-5, 287-8). P. 82.
+
+19. Exchequer contribution to be made towards cost of maintenance of
+persons sent to labour colonies (287-8). P. 75.
+
+20. Subsistence dietary to be prescribed. Inmates to have power to earn
+small sums of money by their work, and, by means of canteen, to
+supplement their food allowance (290, 312-5). Pp. 59, 79.
+
+21. Discharge before the conclusion of sentence to be allowed on certain
+conditions (286). P. 59.
+
+22. Industrial as well as agricultural work to be carried on (299-302).
+See Appendix III.
+
+
+ECONOMY IN BUILDINGS.
+
+23. Buildings for casual wards and in connection with labour colonies to
+be erected cheaply (291-2, 317-23).
+
+
+COMMON LODGING-HOUSES (OUTSIDE LONDON).
+
+24. Common lodging-houses to be licensed annually by local authority
+(326-7). Pp. 46-51.
+
+25. Stricter supervision and control to be exercised by local authority
+(326-7). P. 61.
+
+26. Police to have right of entry (327). P. 61.
+
+
+REGULATION OF SHELTERS AND FREE FOOD DISTRIBUTIONS.
+
+27. Shelters to be licensed and regulated by local authority (366-7). P.
+76.
+
+28. Free food distribution to be subject to veto of local authority
+(360). P. 76.
+
+
+SPREAD OF DISEASE BY VAGRANTS.
+
+29. Necessity of stricter enforcement of existing law (375, 377). Pp.
+37, 42, 49.
+
+30. Notice to be given to neighbouring districts of small-pox occurring
+in common lodging-houses or casual wards (377).
+
+
+SLEEPING OUT.
+
+31. Sleeping out to be an offence whenever it takes place in buildings
+or on enclosed premises, or is a danger or nuisance to the public (384).
+P. 30.
+
+
+PEDLARS.
+
+32. Practice as to issue, renewal and endorsement of certificate to be
+uniform (400).
+
+
+WOMEN.
+
+33. Female vagrants to be received into the workhouse instead of the
+casual wards (405-8). Appendix IV.
+
+
+CHILDREN.
+
+34. Children of persons dealt with as habitual vagrants to be sent to
+industrial schools or other place of safety (428). P. 84.
+
+35. Child vagrants to be received into the workhouse instead of the
+casual wards (406, 428). Appendix IV.
+
+36. Section 14 of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, to apply to vagrant
+children (418).
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[158] References in parentheses are to sections in the Vagrancy Report.
+
+[159] I do not agree as to time task. See p. 45. See pp. 181-184, "How
+to Deal with the Unemployed."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX III.
+
+LABOUR COLONIES.[160]
+
+
+The Report as to Labour Colonies may be summarised as follows:--
+
+
+  HOLLAND.                              BELGIUM.
+
+1818. Société de Benéficence established _Free Colonies_ (_i.e._,
+_Fredericksoord_, _Willemsoord_, and _Willewminsoord_). Population
+decreasing (1902, 1,460). Also _Beggar Colonies_, _Wortel_ and
+_Merxplas_, handed over to Government in 1859.
+
+In 1831 Holland and Belgium separated.
+
+  HOLLAND now possesses:                BELGIUM now possesses:
+
+  _Veenhuizen_ for men: 3,000           _Hoogstraeten_, _Wortel_,
+  to 4,000 inmates. Committed           _"Maisons de Refuge,"_
+  by magistrates, six months            voluntary colonies.
+  to three years.
+
+  _Hoorn_ for women: Vagrant            _Merxplas "Depôt de Mendicité":_
+  class.                                5,110 inmates, 1905.
+
+                                        Agricultural and industrial.
+
+                                        Net annual cost per head, £9.
+
+                                        Average detention, 16 months.
+
+                                        Earnings per day, 1_d_. to 3_d_.
+
+                                        Vagrant class.
+
+
+  GERMANY.                              SWITZERLAND.
+
+  _Labour Colonies_, 34:                _Labour Institutions_ in nearly
+                                        every canton.
+
+  About 4,000 inmates.                  Vagrants committed for two to
+                                        six months.
+
+  Admission voluntary.                  Examples:
+
+  Example: _Wilhelmsdorf_,              _Witzwyl:_ About 200 inmates.
+  founded 1882. Agricultural.           Agricultural and industrial.
+
+  Small wage allowed.                   _Appenzell:_ Pays its way.
+
+  Also _Workhouses_ (arbeits            _St. Johannsen:_ £6 per head.
+  hauser), 24:
+
+  Forced labour. Detention,             _Lucerne:_ £14 per head.
+  one year. Accommodate
+  14,836. Cost small, e.g.,
+  _Westphalia_, cost £17 8_s_.,
+  earnings £8 14_s_.; _Moritzburg_,
+  cost £14 9_s_. 2_d_., earnings
+  £11 10_s_. 8_d_.
+
+  Mainly handicrafts.                   _Voluntary Colonies:_
+
+                                        Example: _Herdern_, more
+                                        expensive, £50 per
+                                        head.
+
+
+  HADLEIGH.                             LINGFIELD.
+
+  _Salvation Army._                     _Christian Social Brotherhood._
+
+  _Inmates:_ Paupers, men               _Inmates:_ Workhouse cases and
+  from "Elevators,"                     inebriates; private cases.
+  private cases.
+
+  _Capital cost_, about £300 per        _Capital cost_, about £160 per
+  head.                                 head.
+
+  _Average annual cost_, nearly         _Average annual cost_, £33 per
+  £34 per head.                         head.
+
+  Agriculture and brick-making.         Training in farm and dairy work.
+
+                                        Forty per cent. emigrate to
+                                        Canada.
+
+
+  HOLLESLEY BAY.                        LAINDON.
+
+  _London County Council._              _Poplar Guardians._
+
+  Established 1904-5.                   Established 1904.
+
+  Principally "unemployed."             Able-bodied paupers.
+
+  Cost of food per week,                Cost of food per week, 5_s_.
+  6_s_. 3_d_. to 7_s_. 1_d_. per        8_d_. per head.
+  head.
+
+  Agriculture.                          Spade labour.
+
+                                        Accommodates 150 inmates.
+
+
+RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE VAGRANCY COMMITTEE.
+
+_Labour colonies_ on the lines of inebriate reformatories.
+
+Compulsory detention for from six months to three years.
+
+Also _State colony_.
+
+Equal contributions from the State and local authority.
+
+Small wage as incentive to work.
+
+Simple subsistence diet, supplemented by canteen.
+
+_Estimated cost, 1s. 6d. per week per head_ (section 315).
+
+Industrial and agricultural.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[160] Chapter VII., Vagrancy Report.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX IV.
+
+WOMEN.
+
+_Extract from Report of Vagrancy Committee, pp. 111-112._
+
+
+403. At present separate accommodation, under the charge of female
+officers, is provided for women in the casual wards. The rules as to
+their detention are the same as in the case of men, and their diet is
+also the same, though less in quantity. The task of work which is
+prescribed for them by the regulations is picking oakum (half the
+quantity given to the men) or domestic work, such as washing, scrubbing,
+cleaning, or needlework. Oakum picking as a task of work for females,
+however, has been discouraged for some time by the Local Government
+Board, but it is still in force in many unions.
+
+The number of female vagrants is comparatively small. Out of 9,768
+vagrants relieved in casual wards in England and Wales on the night of
+1st January, 1905, only 887, or 9 per cent., were women. On the 1st
+July, 1905, there were 813 female casual paupers out of a total of
+8,556.
+
+404. We have proposed that casual wards should be continued for the
+reception of male wayfarers, but we are strongly of opinion that women
+should be provided for elsewhere. Mrs. Higgs said:--
+
+"I should propose that single women should be received into the
+workhouse proper. I would do away with the casual ward for women. The
+reason of that would be three-fold. First of all, the woman, if she
+were admitted into the workhouse proper, would receive the workhouse
+clothes; therefore, she would not work in her own, and her own would not
+be destroyed. She would go out in as good a state of cleanliness as
+before. Besides that, I think it is altogether wrong to recognise a
+class of vagrant women at all. I think it is a great evil to recognise
+that a woman has the right to go about from place to place in that
+unattached kind of way. I think she should be received at the workhouse
+proper.... I think it is a great mistake for our country to educate any
+women into vagrancy." And as regards women who are tramping with their
+husbands, she said:--
+
+"I think that women ought not to be allowed to travel about like that. I
+think it would be better if they were taken into the workhouse, and the
+husbands were made to pay for them. I think they could go out with their
+husbands, if there was a reasonable presumption that the husband was a
+working man travelling about for work, after the ordinary detention."
+
+405. We entirely approve of this suggestion. At present the treatment
+that female casuals receive is often unsatisfactory, and the complaints
+that Mrs. Higgs made of her experience in certain wards cannot be
+disregarded. But apart from this, we think it undesirable to encourage
+the female tramp. No similar provision is made for this class in other
+countries; and we feel that great advantage would ensue from the closing
+of the casual wards to women in this country. We gather from experienced
+officers that only a small percentage of the female tramps are with
+their husbands; temporary alliances seem rather to be the rule of the
+road. No doubt there may be exceptional cases, where a woman may have
+satisfactory reasons for tramping, but in any such case, if she is a
+decent person, she could hardly fail to prefer the accommodation of the
+workhouse to that of the casual ward. To a woman who is an habitual
+vagrant the workhouse would probably be a deterrent.
+
+406. In many workhouses there are receiving wards where female vagrants
+could well be lodged for a night or two; but in any case we do not think
+that there need be any insuperable difficulty in arranging for their
+reception. If they are able-bodied, their services will be useful in
+many workhouses for domestic work, as there is often a difficulty in
+getting sufficient help from the ordinary inmates. From the point of
+view of the woman the change from the casual wards to the workhouse will
+be of considerable benefit. In the workhouse she will be given other
+clothes to work in, and will thus avoid the hardship of which Mrs. Higgs
+complains. Moreover, she will receive better treatment generally, and,
+in many cases, may be brought under reformatory influences which in the
+casual wards she would escape. In the case of children, also, the
+workhouse is obviously a more suitable place than the casual ward.
+
+407. We suggest that admission should be on an order from a relieving
+officer or assistant relieving officer,[161] or, in sudden or urgent
+cases, on the authority of the master of the workhouse, and that
+discharge should be subject to the notice which is now required in the
+case of ordinary inmates of the workhouse. The possession of a way
+ticket would entitle a woman to admission to the workhouses on her
+route, and if she was tramping with her husband she should be allowed to
+discharge herself on the morning after admission so as to join her
+husband. It is not likely that such cases would be numerous.
+
+408. The removal of women from the casual wards will be of material
+assistance in connection with our proposal for placing the control of
+the wards in the hands of the police. It will greatly simplify the
+provision of the necessary casual wards, and there will be no need, as
+now, for a female staff. We think, however, that in the case of some of
+the larger casual wards now existing, where ample provision both in
+accommodation and staff has been made for the reception of female
+vagrants, it may be desirable, for some time after the transfer of the
+wards to the police authority, to continue to receive females in them.
+We do not contemplate that any such arrangement as this should be other
+than temporary, and we trust that it will be found practicable
+eventually to establish a uniform system throughout the country.
+
+409. Apart from the reception of women into the workhouse, we do not
+propose that their treatment should differ materially from that proposed
+for men. The female habitual vagrant should, we think, be liable to be
+sent to a labour colony, which, of course, should be one appropriated to
+women only. We do not anticipate that there will be many cases which
+will need to be sent to a labour colony, and probably one or two
+institutions for the whole country would be sufficient. It seems to us
+that there would be special advantage in these being provided--at any
+rate, in the first instance--by private enterprise, and it is possible
+that there are institutions at present in existence which might properly
+be certified for this purpose. They should be subject, in so far as they
+are used for the compulsory detention of vagrant women, to the
+inspection and control of the Home Office.
+
+410. We are inclined to accept the view that the question of female
+vagrants is comparatively unimportant,[162] and that if the men are
+removed, the women and children will soon disappear from the roads.
+Without the men, the women will find it easy to maintain themselves, and
+their case will present little difficulty.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[161] See Appendix I. Great care will be necessary to ensure admission
+to _all really destitute_.
+
+[162] See Appendix VII.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX V.
+
+EVILS OF SHORT SENTENCES.
+
+
+These evils may be summarised as follows:--
+
+(1) Uneven administration of justice, as sentences frequently vary from
+three to twenty-eight days for the same offences, _i.e._, refusing to
+perform workhouse task or destroying clothing. The sentence of a
+stipendiary often differs from that of a local magistrate in the same
+town.
+
+The great majority of sentences (13,831 out of 16,626 for begging, and
+5,198 out of 6,219 for sleeping out) are for less than fourteen and
+probably for only seven days.
+
+(2) Such short sentences are not deterrent, and are very costly. Two
+vagrants cost in travelling expenses alone £12 and £16 10_s_. Hardly any
+work can be exacted during a short sentence.
+
+The committee recommend that a minimum sentence of one day should be
+_recorded as a conviction_ for vagrancy. If again convicted the prisoner
+could be then committed to a labour colony.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX VI.
+
+PREFACE, BY CANON HICKS, OF SALFORD, TO "FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS IN A TRAMP
+WARD."
+
+
+The narrative may be relied upon as true in every detail. The facts were
+burned in upon the minds of the two pilgrims, and were put on paper at
+once.
+
+Certain names are omitted for obvious reasons; they are known and can be
+verified.
+
+The lady whose courage and devotion first suggested this descent into
+the Inferno, who took the lead in it and then recorded its results, was
+inclined, when it came to printing them, to suppress certain revolting
+particulars. At my express desire they were retained. They are essential
+to her case. For, of course, the facts here revealed are a terrible
+indictment of our present arrangements, and cry aloud for reform. In the
+interests of morality alone, our Workhouse Tramp-wards and Municipal
+Lodging-houses need far more careful supervision. It will be found also
+that efficiency, common-sense, and kindliness would tend to economy and
+prevent waste. As to the Common Lodging-house, it is a focus of moral
+and physical mischief.
+
+It is hoped that this pamphlet will stimulate local authorities; will
+awaken the ratepayers to a livelier interest in the appointment of Poor
+Law Guardians, and will quicken the conscience of many more women to
+offer themselves for election.
+
+  EDWARD LEE HICKS.
+  _Manchester, January, 1904._
+
+      _N.B.--This Pamphlet was published by the Women Guardians and
+      Local Government Association, 66, Barton Arcade, Manchester, and
+      may still be had from them, price 1d._
+
+      _Chapter III., "The Tramp Ward" price 2d., Chapter IV., "A Night
+      in a Salvation Army Shelter," price 1d., Chapter V., "Three Nights
+      in Women's Lodging-houses," price 1d., may be obtained in pamphlet
+      form from the Author, post free._
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX VII.
+
+IMMORALITY AS CAUSED BY DESTITUTION AMONG WOMEN.
+
+
+The causes of immorality among women are deep-seated in modern life.
+They are due to--(1) widespread changes in sex relationship, combined
+with (2) changes in modes of life due to the industrial revolution, and
+complicated by (3) psychic developments in humanity itself.
+
+(1) Suppose we take the largest and most universal change first. In
+modern civilisation the psychic relationships of man and woman are
+changing. Intensity has come into sex relationships. It is reckoned
+right, or at least pardonable, for men and women to do "for love" what
+may be against the dictates of common sense. To a large extent this is
+ephemeral, and belongs to the erotic age alone. But necessarily the
+effect on the young of both sexes of the "novel" with its coloured
+picture of life, must be great, and greatest on the most emotional sex.
+Fictitious views of life influence minds just endeavouring to grasp life
+as a whole. A woman may be placed in circumstances of destitution in
+pursuit of the _ideal_ life. It matters little to evolution that
+thousands of lives perish. The evolution of woman involves, like all
+other evolutions, _sacrifice_.
+
+(2) Let us now look at the second large factor--what is called the
+Industrial Revolution. It has been pointed out by Mrs. Stetson, that
+hitherto man has been the economic environment of woman. We are still
+in a transition period, but largely in the middle and working classes,
+women before marriage, and even after, are escaping to economic
+independence. This change is so vast and far-reaching (involving an
+adjustment of all our social institutions) that we can hardly yet
+appreciate it. Once begun, it must go forward. But at present, as half
+begun, it means in all directions the danger and sacrifice of individual
+lives. Over against the problem of unemployed men, we now have
+unemployed women also--women not dependent, but on their own economic
+footing.
+
+(3) Changes in sex relationship rapidly follow on changes in economic
+status. The attainment of economic status as distinct from economic
+value is imperceptibly modifying marriage and the family. Woman and man
+are partners. While the child becomes more and more the centre on which
+public interest focusses, at the same time the ties both of wifehood and
+of parentage and of brotherhood and sisterhood are relaxed. Community
+interest and life replaces by degrees parental restraint and
+responsibility. Freedom has its blessings and also its penalties.
+
+Let us trace a woman through her normal life and see what dangers of
+destitution beset her.
+
+As at first born, the home is her support and natural habitat. But
+economic independence being possible at an early age, parental restraint
+is lighter. I have known cases of girls even of fourteen and sixteen
+leaving home, and with a companion or two, clubbing together and setting
+up house. They were then free to invite young men, with what
+consequences may be imagined. A girl in "lodgings" or "with friends" may
+easily become destitute through changes in employment.
+
+In addition to these wandering children, parents often cast off girls on
+very slight grounds. To turn a child into the street, if the girl is out
+of work or supposed to be idle or disorderly, is by no means uncommon.
+It is so common that some provision for it should be made in every town.
+
+Short of actually leaving home, our girls are now exposed to the
+temptations of the free life of the street, of largely unrestricted
+intercourse, often under wrong conditions, with the other sex. This
+intercourse, however, cannot under modern circumstances, be prevented
+except by exceptional parents. It should be under healthy conditions and
+wise control. But at present it is a large factor in destitution, for
+the lad and lass spend their earnings largely on sex attraction and are
+penniless in emergencies sure to occur. Hasty and ill-considered
+marriage may follow. A national education for motherhood is much to be
+desired; it is perilous and unwise to keep up the old conventional ideas
+as to "innocence" and "purity" being fostered by ignorance. Let us face
+the question boldly, and encourage the teaching of right and pure and
+true views of marriage. Forewarned is often forearmed. At any rate, at
+this period in life, orphanhood, or some change in family relations,
+stepfatherhood or motherhood being frequent, may throw the girl much on
+her lover. There is no reserve of maidenly provision as in many
+countries. The legislation of betrothal might even be a good thing, and
+the State might require at least a little forethought. More and more the
+State becomes the universal child-parent. It is time it studied its
+responsibilities.
+
+Before our typical woman lie two paths. Into the usual one of marriage
+the vast majority of industrial women are carried. The marriage state
+still involves support, but also involves a change in economic
+relationship which more and more galls. Curious partnerships result
+where both are self-supporting, one or the other being predominant
+partner. In middle-class life still, conventions largely rule; but in
+industrial centres the marriage bond itself is much less binding than of
+old. Separations become more and more common. The amount of support that
+can be claimed by a wife is so insufficient that often they come
+together again perhaps only to part. Both are often young. Before the
+man lies a long celibate life, he is under no vow--self-restraint is
+normally not attained. The large numbers of imperfectly-mated men
+leading a life divorced from home ties constitute a grave social peril.
+In every town a great number of middle-class and many working men live
+free from social responsibility to support women, yet do partially
+support some at any rate, either as lovers, as betrothed sweethearts, or
+in less sacred relationships. Destitute and deserted wives are common,
+cast-off sweethearts not a few; women derelicts abound; they are the
+"unemployed," alas not unemployed in sin, but a source of moral
+contagion in their easy life.
+
+For the other career of womanhood is hard, and as yet a path not for the
+many, and therefore all the harder. A woman may attain economic
+independence; but she is sadly handicapped. Her wage is low, often
+lowered by dress expense; and her woman nature, especially under modern
+pressure of sentimental literature, demands satisfaction in husband and
+child. What wonder if she gives up the hard struggle and strays from
+this path. Society owes much to the women who toil on, cutting by
+degrees the stairs of progress. If they succeed in self-support, how
+often age overtakes them as toilers; women's physical disabilities
+(created or complicated by a false civilisation) leave them stranded.
+The middle-aged unemployed female is a most serious national problem at
+present. It calls loudly for universal sisterhood. Drink too often
+claims the unloved and unlovable spinster. She can no longer spin; she
+must work under conditions in which she ages fast. Independence is
+hardly to be won. Our workhouses are full of derelict womanhood. Nor is
+the married woman always more fortunate. Industries often kill husbands
+when still young. Widows abound. It is extremely difficult to make a
+woman self-supporting with more than one, or at most with two children,
+in such a way as to secure sufficient food and clothes for these
+children. Into married destitution, if the husband lives, I need not
+enter; it is part of the unemployed problem, and a serious one.
+
+How can we face these problems? They are on every hand. We have no
+effective State provision. The Tramp Ward is a mockery, a robbery and
+insult to womanhood. The common lodging-house is a snare and a trap.
+Surely _it belongs to womanhood to befriend womanhood_. It is little use
+to multiply Rescue Homes while we leave untouched the causes that are
+stranding more and more of our sisters.
+
+What is needed is--in every town an industry for destitute women; in
+every town a Shelter to pick up strays and guide them to self-support;
+in every town Women's Hostels under kind, wise, but not restrictive
+supervision; in every town provision for glad, free girl life, and
+joined to this distinct, clear, national purity teaching. What is needed
+is a pure, free, enlightened womanhood, ready to stand side by side with
+man to mother the world.
+
+  MARY HIGGS.
+
+      [_Read at Conference of Reformatory and Refuge Union and National
+      Association of Certified Reformatory and Industrial Schools,
+      Birmingham, June 21st, 1905._]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX VIII.
+
+COMMON LODGING-HOUSES VERSUS SHELTERS.
+
+
+The laws of evolution apply to social phenomena. Tested by these we see
+that _the Shelter_, the _Municipal Lodging-house_, and the _Rowton
+House_ are replacing the _common lodging-house_. Is there any reason why
+they should not, when for the rich the hotel has replaced the inn? It is
+a question of national moment what provision should be made for the
+floating population of men and _women_.
+
+In smaller towns the common lodging-house is _disappearing_ (see Minutes
+of Evidence before Vagrancy Committee, section 1752). In London the
+accommodation is _decreasing_ (see _ibid._, section 5784). Is this to be
+deplored or hastened? The poor must sleep _somewhere_. Let us first of
+all distinguish between the _Free_ Charitable Shelter and _Free_ Meals,
+and the question of provision of adequate housing accommodation for our
+floating population.
+
+The provision for _absolute destitution_ belongs to the _State_. Only
+the State, or the State through the Municipality, can exercise
+sufficient authority to sift the incapable and "won't-works" from the
+simply "unemployed." The former should be in some State or
+State-subsidised institution, unless supported by relatives. The
+"won't-works" require coercion. Any form of charity that impedes right
+State action is harmful. It has arisen because the State has shirked its
+duty. The public should be satisfied that every _destitute_ man and
+woman gets bed and board, with even-handed justice, in return for a
+task, if capable, or with proper care if incapable. Then Free Shelters
+and Free Meals would disappear.
+
+But _provision_ of proper accommodation for those who are struggling to
+earn their living is another matter. Hitherto it has grown up haphazard,
+sanitary regulations have slowly been made, still more slowly enforced,
+and are often a dead letter.
+
+If the question of the common lodging-house were simply that of
+enforcing on the proprietor of a certain house, by means of adequate
+inspection, a certain standard of cleanliness and decency, there would
+still be reasons why a Municipal lodging-house or charitable Shelter
+would, if under strict supervision, be a better provision for the poor.
+I will tabulate these.
+
+  COMMON LODGING-HOUSE.                 MUNICIPAL LODGING-HOUSE
+                                        OR SHELTER.
+
+  _Interested Management._              _Disinterested Management._
+
+  Not to proprietary _interest_ to      Against interest to have
+  put down vice and drunkenness,        disturbances, and therefore
+  and to call in police.                desirable to prevent vice
+  Interest to secure greatest           and drunkenness from
+  number of lodgers.                    commencement.
+
+  Interest to provide _minimum_         Interest to provide
+  that will pass muster, _e.g._,        _maximum_ consistent with
+  usually no stoving apparatus          cleanliness. Usually apparatus
+  to prevent vermin,                    for stoving, and
+  and no lockers to prevent             lockers for private property.
+  theft.
+
+  Imperfect sanitary arrangements,      Sanitary arrangements considered
+  deficient arrangements                in building.
+  for cooking and                       Proper arrangements for
+  washing.                              cooking and washing.
+
+  Deputy (usually chosen from           Management removes at
+  inmates) exercises little             once any warden suspected
+  control.                              of ill conduct.
+
+  Regulations if made, hard             Regulations being made by
+  to enforce, as _interest_ is          management can be more
+  retention of lodgers.                 easily enforced.
+
+  Small number makes better             Larger number allows of
+  provision not profitable.             better provision.
+
+But it is not a question _merely_ of the state of the common
+lodging-house. Bound up with this is the fact that around the common
+lodging-houses in each large town is growing up silently a great evil, a
+network of single "furnished rooms," which are the last refuge of
+evicted householders, but also the home of immorality. The insufficient
+provision of the common lodging-house is being silently largely
+supplemented by these. These evils are flagrant. Yet they cannot be
+_suppressed_. The homeless must have somewhere to go. The crowding of
+slum areas by "lodgers" is as grave an evil.
+
+The "way out" is to _provide_ in every town, under charge of the
+Municipality, _well-regulated sanitary_ and _sufficient_ accommodation.
+As a _national_ provision is required, Municipalities of smaller towns
+might be encouraged by loans for building purposes on national credit,
+Government in return exercising care as to expense. Glasgow has shown
+that such enterprises
+
+(1) Suppress the poor insufficient houses,
+
+(2) Provide adequate return on capital,
+
+(3) Lead to the rise of still better accommodation for working men.
+
+A Municipal lodging-house should be linked to remedial agencies, and a
+chain should exist on routes of travel.
+
+Especially for _women_, municipal lodging-houses are a _necessity_. With
+regard to the question of "bunks" _versus_ "beds," it is strange that
+while on the one hand for sanitary reasons the Government allows plank
+beds and wire mattresses, it is about to enforce _for a class
+confessedly dirtier_ (see Vagrancy Report, 335) a universal bed. The
+idea that "inspection" can keep beds clean without stoving is futile.
+Some of the vermin most troublesome to get rid of are microscopic. Also
+the idea that people undress to go to bed, and do not undress in a bunk,
+is not correct. The class that possess only "what they stand up in"
+possess no night garments. Women keep some of their garments on. Men may
+undress (for _protection_ from vermin). All the garments not worn all
+night are usually tucked into the bed for fear of thefts. I have seen
+women undressing similarly in a bunk. The Salvation Army keeps its
+shelters spotlessly clean and free from vermin. Unless cleansing of the
+person is compelled by law, all that can be done for the lowest class of
+all is to provide some easily cleansed resting-place (see p. 30).
+Something must be done to prevent the scandal of "sleeping out" in our
+wealthy cities.
+
+The popularity of the Shelter shows it meets a social need. Also in
+connection with public institutions, remedial action and sorting into
+classes is possible, which is impossible in places provided for private
+profit. We should aim at getting every individual into a safe and
+sanitary shelter at night. How can a _destitute_ woman find 3_s_. 6_d_.
+per week for bare shelter? If she pays this should not it entitle her to
+a place which is clean, where she can keep herself clean, and can _keep
+her self-respect_?
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+     Aboriginal Vagrant, 2
+
+     Admission, Refusal of, 29
+
+     Afforestation, 77
+
+     Agricultural Vagrancy, 5, 83
+
+     Appenzell, 310
+
+
+     Beggars, 11, 19, 97-100
+
+
+     Casual Ward, Admission to, 109, 120, 139-142, 295, 304, 312-315;
+     Bath, 37, 39, 40, 80, 111, 121, 144, 260; Bed, 114, 122, 146, 167,
+     279; Cleanliness, 34, 37, 39, 80, 111, 114, 144, 145; Cost of, 79;
+     Defects of, 53, 54, 111, 113, 124, 125, 147-149, 168, 172, 274,
+     294; Detention, 29, 81, 273; Drink, 113, 124, 129, 164, 260; Food,
+     26, 27, 33, 40, 44, 75, 112, 115, 123, 125, 129, 143, 168, 260,
+     305; Institution of, 14; Investigation of, 33; Overcrowding, 37,
+     39, 41, 42, 44, 80; Task, 22, 28, 33, 34, 40, 45, 96, 117, 126-128,
+     154, 162-165, 261, 264, 273
+
+     Casuals, Statistics of, 17, 18, 19, 20, 65, 67, 68, 294
+
+     Central Hall, Manchester, 71, 85, 280
+
+     Charity, 58, 76
+
+     Common Lodging-House, 35, 36, 47, 94-106, 175-177, 232-254,
+     269-271, 307; Beds in, 48, 49, 101, 102; Cost in, 48; Cleanliness
+     of, 47-49, 103-105, 237, 241, 242, 245, 246, 252, 270; Overcrowding
+     in, 47, 104, 252, 254, 271, 298; _versus_ Shelter, 324-327
+
+
+     Danish Poor Law, 58
+
+     Department of Labour, 74
+
+     Dietary, Tramp Ward, 26
+
+     Doctor refused, 37, 43, 157
+
+     Drink, 20, 139, 161, 186, 189
+
+
+     Ensor, Research by, 25
+
+
+     Forced Labour, 59, 61, 63
+
+     Fuller on Vagrancy, 3
+
+     Furnished Rooms, 176, 247
+
+
+     German Relief Station, 14
+
+     German Colonies, 62, 310
+
+     Glasgow Municipal Lodging-Houses, 299-300
+
+
+     Herdern, 310
+
+     Hibbert, Sir John, 44
+
+     Home, Disintegration of the, 12, 288-297, 321, 322
+
+
+     Identification, 81
+
+     Impotent, 6, 32, 36, 42
+
+     Incapable, 5, 7, 32, 42, 150, 151, 156, 157, 298
+
+     _Independent Review_, 25
+
+     Inefficient, 8, 10, 20, 26, 53, 290
+
+     Inspection, 48, 258
+
+     Investigation, Value of, 23
+
+     Investigation into Belgian Labour Colonies, 54
+
+     Investigation into Manchester poverty, 12
+
+
+     Labour Bureaux, 62, 75
+
+     Labour Colonies, 82, 173, 271, 281, 301, 306-311; Cost in, 58, 62,
+     76, 173, 309-310, 311; _English:_ Hadleigh, 310; Hollesley Bay, 71,
+     311; Laindon, 71, 311; Lingfield, 71, 310; _Foreign:_ Belgian, 56,
+     57, 309; Dutch, 62, 309; German, 62, 310; Swiss, 63, 310; Visit to,
+     34; Wage in, 79
+
+     Legislation against Vagrancy, 3, 4, 11-15, 53, 64, 81
+
+     Legislation, Faults of, 15, 16
+
+     Lodging-houses, 35, 36, 47-49, 76, 94-106, 173, 191, 197-231, 233,
+     293, 299 (_see_ Shelters); German, 60; Municipal, 49, 74, 89-93,
+     178, 299, 324-326; (Glasgow), 299; Rowton Houses, 50, 324; Women's,
+     197-231. 255-259, 280
+
+     London Lodging-houses, 48, 254-259, 298, 300; Tramp Ward, 259-268
+
+     Low-skilled Labour, 8
+
+     Lucerne, 310
+
+     Luhterheim, 62
+
+
+     Magistrates, 11, 69, 306, 316
+
+     Merxplas, 56, 57, 309
+
+     Migration, 9, 19, 29, 35, 38, 51, 66, 72, 287-290, 297
+
+     Moritzburg, 310
+
+     Municipality, 73, 301
+
+
+     Nomad, 1
+
+
+     Pastoral Vagrancy, 2
+
+     Personality, Theory of, xxi.
+
+     Police, 303-305
+
+     Prison, 25, 28, 29, 31, 38, 55, 56, 172, 214, 276-279, 299; Cost,
+     58; Food, 27, 276
+
+     Prostitution, 200-203, 206-208, 212-216, 220, 222, 226, 231, 292,
+     294, 296, 319-327
+
+
+     Relief Station, 14, 60, 61, 63, 65, 173, 275, 279, 306
+
+     Rose, "Rise of Democracy", 12
+
+     Rosebery, Lord, 12
+
+     Rowton Houses, 50
+
+
+     Settlement, Law of, 4, 303
+
+     Shelters, 29, 30, 48, 130-135, 173, 190, 195-196, 295, 299, 307,
+     324-327; Beds in, 133; German, 61; Salvation Army, 175-196, 233;
+     Beds in, 180, 183; Food in, 184, 192
+
+     Sleeping Out, 13, 18, 30, 31, 38, 51, 65, 137, 166, 171, 275, 308
+
+     Small-pox, 37, 42, 105, 245, 307
+
+     Soldiers discharged, 21
+
+     St. Johannsen, 63, 310
+
+
+     Task of Work, 15, 33, 34
+
+     Theory of Personality, xxi.
+
+     Tramp Ward defects, 53, 54 _See_ Casual Ward.
+
+
+     Unemployed, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29-32, 35, 36, 50, 51, 56, 69, 72, 84,
+     137, 150, 162, 167, 188, 189, 215, 220
+
+     Unemployment in England, 73, 76, 77, 301; in Denmark, 59; in
+     Germany, 60-62
+
+     Unions, Combination of, 81
+
+     Unskilled Labour, 5, 9, 18, 20, 70
+
+
+     Vagrancy Definition of, 1; in early England, 3, 284-285;
+     Agricultural, 5, 11, 83, 85, 285; Industrial, 6, 83, 85, 286;
+     Modern, 7, 16-23; in other countries, 54-64
+
+     Vagrancy Committee, Recommendations of, 305-308
+
+     Vagrancy Reform, 71-82
+
+     Vagrants, Number of, 4, 5, 10, 17, 20, 21-23, 25, 43, 67, 261
+
+     Veenhuizen, 209
+
+
+     Way Tickets, 60, 63, 65-69, 80, 81, 306
+
+     Westphalia, 310
+
+     Wilhelmsdorf, 310
+
+     Witzwyl, 63, 310
+
+     Women, 312-315, 319-327; Dirty Clothing of, 129, 191, 244, 250;
+     Lodging-Houses for, 93, 95, 176, 190, 191, 195, 196-231, 233, 247,
+     248, 252-259, 280, 300; Sanitation for, 92, 93, 104-105, 235, 242,
+     243, 257; Vagrants, 80, 114, 116, 135, 160-161, 188, 193, 211, 225,
+     228, 237, 249, 267, 304, 308, 312-315
+
+     Workhouse, Cost in, 58; Austrian, 64; Danish, 58, 59; German, 61
+
+
+
+
+How to deal
+with the
+Unemployed.
+
+
+_By_ MARY HIGGS,
+_Author of "Five Days and Five Nights as a Tramp among Tramps."_
+
+
+A Contribution of Value towards
+the Solution of Social Problems.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Crown 8vo, Paper, 6d. net._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The book is a genuine effort to solve the great problem of the
+unemployed by scientific methods."--_To-day._
+
+"The book is an attempt to analyse the whole of the unemployed
+problem."--_Review of Reviews._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Glimpses into the Abyss, by Mary Higgs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40122 ***