The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
In treating of the horrid want and misery that prevail among the very
poorest class in London, I have as yet only partially uncovered the
picture. We will draw the curtain back a little further, not to present
the entire truth in all its fidelity, for that would be too harrowing.
In the streets of London I have seen women and children contending for
the possession of a bone drawn from the slush of the kennel. I have seen
boys fight and bruise each other for a crust of bread dropped upon the
pavement, and covered with wet mud, or even unsightlier filth. I have
entered the abode of this desperate poverty, led thither by children,
who have clamored at my side for alms, and found such misery as I am
incompetent to express in words. I have seen the living unable to rise
from sickness, in the same bed with the dying and the dead. I have known
an instance where a living man in strong health, bating the exhausting
effects of privation and sorrow, has been compelled to seek repose in
the straw beside the body of his dead wife, his children occupying the
floor, and there being in the room neither chair in which he could seat
himself, nor table on which he could stretch himself for rest. I have
seen an infant crawl for nourishment to its dead mother's breast, and
there was not in all the house the value of a cent to buy it food. I
have seen a wife, in following her husband's body to the grave, drop in
the road and die before medical assistance could be procured. A
_post-mortem_ examination proved that she died from hunger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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