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
is but the natural outcome of conditions like these. "Marriage," it has
been said, "as an institution, is not fashionable in these districts."
And this is only the bare truth. Ask if the men and women living
together in these rookeries are married, and your simplicity will cause
a smile. Nobody knows. Nobody cares. Nobody expects that they are. In
exceptional cases only could your question be answered in the
affirmative. Incest is common; and no form of vice and sensuality causes
surprise or attracts attention. Those who appear to be married are often
separated by a mere quarrel, and they do not hesitate to form similar
companionships immediately. One man was pointed out who for some years
had lived with a woman, the mother of his three children. She died and
in less than a week he had taken another woman in her place. A man was
living with a woman in the low district called "The Mint." He went out
one morning with another man for the purpose of committing a burglary
and by that other man was murdered. The murderer returned saying that
his companion had been caught and taken away to prison; and the same
night he took the place of the murdered man. The only check upon
communism in this regard is jealousy and not virtue. The vilest
practices are looked upon with the most matter-of-fact indifference.
The low parts of London are the sink into which the filthy and
abominable from all parts of the country seem to flow. Entire courts are
filled with thieves, prostitutes and liberated convicts. In one street
are 35 houses, 32 of which are known to be brothels. In another district
are 43 of these houses, and 428 fallen women and girls, many of them not
more than 12 years of age. A neighbourhood whose population is returned
at 10,100, contains 400 who follow this immoral traffic, their ages
varying from 13 to 50; and of the moral degradation of the people, some
idea may be formed from an incident which was brought to our notice. An
East-end missionary rescued a young girl from an immoral life, and
obtained for her a situation with people who were going abroad. He saw
her to Southampton, and on his return was violently abused by the girl's
grandmother, who had the sympathy of her neighbours, for having taken
away from a poor old woman her means of subsistence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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