Crime -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social conditions; Poor -- England -- London
Blind men, the deaf and the dumb and the physically disabled need our
pitiful consideration. Some of the sweetest, cleverest, bravest men I
know suffer from great physical disabilities, but they have pleasures
and compensations, they live useful lives, their compensations have
produced light and sweetness, they are not useless in a busy world, they
are not mere cumberers of the ground. They were trained for usefulness
whilst they were young.
But a far different case is presented with the disabled among the very
poor. What chance in life is there for a youth of twenty who loses an
arm or leg? He has no friends whose loving care and whose financial
means can soften his affliction and keep him in comfort while training
for service. Who in this rich, industrial England wants such service as
he can render? Very few! and those who do make use of him naturally feel
that his service is not worth much.
Numbers of my acquaintances like Angus half lose their sight! Who
requires their service? No one! But these men live on, and they mean to
live on, and Nature furnishes them with the means by giving them extra
cunning. Many of these fellows, poor disabled fellows, inhabit the dark
places of the underworld. Let us call them out of their dark places and
number them, classify them, note their disabilities!
Truly they came down to the underworld through great afflictions. They
form the disabled army of civilisation's industrial world who have been
wounded and crippled in the battle. All sorts of accidents have happened
to them: explosions have blinded them, steam has scalded them, buffers
have crushed them, coal has buried them, trains have run over them,
circular saws have torn them asunder. They are bent and they are
twisted, they are terrible to look at; as we gaze at them we are
fascinated. March! now see them move! Did you ever see anything like
this march of disabled men from the gloom of the underworld?
How they shuffle and drag along; what strange, twisted and jerky
movements they have; what sufferings they must endure, and what pain
they must have had. All these thoughts come to us as we look at the
march of the disabled as they twist and writhe past us.
The procession is endless, for it is continually augmented by men and
women from the upperworld, who as conscripts are sent to the army below,
because they have sustained injuries in the service of the world above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account