The Bitter Cry of Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Condition of the Abject PoorMearns, Andrew
Religion
The Bitter Cry of Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Condition of the Abject Poor
Mearns, Andrew
Poor -- England -- London
The child-misery that one beholds is the most heartrending and appalling
element in these discoveries; and of this not the least is the misery
inherited from the vice of drunken and dissolute parents, and manifest
in the stunted, misshapen, and often loathsome objects that we
constantly meet in these localities. From the beginning of their life
they are utterly neglected; their bodies and rags are alive with vermin;
they are subjected to the most cruel treatment; many of them have never
seen a green field, and do not know what it is to go beyond the streets
immediately around them, and they often pass the whole day without a
morsel of food. Here is one of three years old picking up some dirty
pieces of bread and eating them. We go in at the doorway where it is
standing and find a little girl twelve years old. "Where is your
mother?" "In the madhouse." "How long has she been there?" "Fifteen
months." "Who looks after you?" The child, who is sitting at an old
table making match-boxes, replies, "I look after my little brothers and
sisters as well as I can." "Where is your father? Is he in work?" "He
has been out of work three weeks, but he has gone to a job of two days
this morning." Another house visited contains nine motherless children.
The mother's death was caused by witnessing one of her children being
run over. The eldest is only fourteen years old. All live in one small
room, and there is one bed for five. Here is a poor woman deserted by
her husband and left with three little children. One met with an
accident a few days ago and broke his arm. He is lying on a shake-down
in one corner of the room, with an old sack round him. And here, in a
cellar kitchen, are nine little ones. You can scarcely see across the
room for smoke and dirt. They are without food and have scarcely any
clothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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