Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great BritainHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Religion
Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of The Salvation Army in Great Britain
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Great Britain -- Social conditions; Salvation Army
I asked her what she considered to be the main underlying cause of
this misery. She answered that she thought it was due 'to the people
flocking from the country to the city,' thereby confirming an opinion
that I have long held and advanced. She added that the overcrowding in
the district was terrible, the regulations of the Public Health
Authorities designed to check it being 'a dead letter.' In one case
with which she had to do, a father, mother, and nine children lived in
a room that measured 9 ft. by 9 ft., and the baby came into the world
with the children looking on!
The general weekly rent for a room containing a family is 5_s_., or if
it is furnished, 7_s_. 6_d_. The Sister described to me the furniture
of one for the use of which this extra half-crown is charged. It
consisted of a rickety bed, two chairs, one without a back and one
without a seat, and a little shaky table. The floor was bare, and she
estimated the total value of these articles at about their weekly rent
of 2_s_. 6_d_., if, indeed, they were worth carrying away. In this
chamber dwelt a coachman who was out of place, his wife, and three or
four children, I wonder what arrangement these poor folk make as to
the use of the one chair that has a bottom. To occupy the other must
be an empty honour. With reference to this man the Sister remarked
that as a result of the introduction of motor vehicles, busmen,
cabmen, and blacksmiths were joining the ranks of her melancholy
clientele in numbers.
This and some similar stories caused me to reflect on the remarkable
contrast between rents in the country and in town. For instance, I own
about a dozen cottages in this village in which I write, and the
highest rent that I receive is 2_s_. 5_d_. a week. This is paid for a
large double dwelling, on which I had to spend over £100 quite
recently to convert two cottages into one. Also, there is a large
double garden thrown in, so large that a man can scarcely manage it in
his spare time, a pigsty, fruit trees, etc. All this for 1_d_. a week
less than is charged for the two broken chairs, the rickety bed, and
the shaky table! Again, for £10 a year, I let a comfortable farmhouse;
that is, £3 a year less than the out-of-work coachman pays for his
single room without the furniture. And yet, as the Sister said, people
continue to rush from the country to the towns!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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