the under-world. That which made for more life, for
physical and
spiritual health, was good; that which made for less
life, which hurt,
and dwarfed, and distorted life, was bad.
It will be readily apparent to the reader that I saw
much that was bad.
Yet it must not be forgotten that the time of which I
write was
considered "good times" in England. The starvation and
lack of shelter I
encountered constituted a chronic condition of misery
which is never
wiped out, even in the periods of greatest prosperity.
Following the summer in question came a hard winter.
Great numbers of
the unemployed formed into processions, as many as a
dozen at a time, and
daily marched through the streets of London crying for
bread. Mr. Justin
McCarthy, writing in the month of January 1903, to the
New York
_Independent_, briefly epitomises the situation as
follows:-
"The workhouses have no space left in which to pack
the starving
crowds who are craving every day and night at their
doors for food and
shelter. All the charitable institutions have
exhausted their means
in trying to raise supplies of food for the famishing
residents of the
garrets and cellars of London lanes and alleys. The
quarters of the
Salvation Army in various parts of London are nightly
besieged by
hosts of the unemployed and the hungry for whom
neither shelter nor
the means of sustenance can be provided."
It has been urged that the criticism I have passed on
things as they are
