Cost and standard of living -- England -- London; London (England) -- Economic conditions; Working class -- England -- London
There is one little picture which must be described, though the child
and its mother were unknown. The visitor in Lambeth Walk met a thin,
decent woman carrying a pot of mignonette. By her side, a boy about seven
years old was hopping along with a crutch under one arm. His other arm
encircled a pot in which was a lovely blooming fuchsia, whose flowers
swung to his movements. The woman was looking straight ahead with grave,
preoccupied eyes, not heeding the child. His whole expression was one of
such glorified beatitude that the onlooker, arrested by it, could only
feel a pang of sharpest envy. They went on their way with their flowers,
and round the next corner the visitor had to struggle through a deeply
interested crowd, who were watching a man being taken to prison.
Questions are often asked as to how these children amuse themselves.
They are popularly supposed to spend their time at picture palaces.
As far as close observation could discover, they seemed to spend their
play-time—the boys shrilly shouting and running in the streets, and the
girls minding the baby and looking on. They played a kind of hop-scotch
marked out in chalk, which reminded the visitor of a game much beloved
by her in extreme youth. Boys whose parents were able to afford the
luxury seemed to spend hours on one roller skate, and seemed to do
positive marvels when the nature of the roadway and the nature of the
skate are considered. Girls sometimes pooled their babies and did a
little skipping, shouting severe orders as they did so to the unhappy
infants. One party of soldiers, whose uniform was a piece of white tape
round the arm and a piece of stick held over the shoulder as a weapon,
marched up and down a narrow street for hours on the first day of the
August holidays, making such a noise of battle and sudden death that the
long-suffering mothers inside the houses occasionally left their work
to scream to them to be quiet. The pathways were full of hatless girls
and babies, who looked on with interest and envy. Needless to state, no
notice was taken of the mothers’ remonstrance. The best game of all is an
ambulance, but that needs properties, which take some finding. A box on
wheels, primarily intended for a baby’s perambulator, and with the baby
inside, makes a wonderful sort of toboggan along the paved path. The boy
sits on one corner and holds with both hands on to the edges, the baby
occupies the centre, and off they go, propelled by vigorous kicks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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