Workhouse Characters, and other sketches of the life of the poor.Nevinson, Margaret Wynne
General
Workhouse Characters, and other sketches of the life of the poor.
Nevinson, Margaret Wynne
London (England) -- Social conditions; Poor -- England -- London; Workhouses -- England -- London
a great mistake; I don't know why except that I always was a Church of
England girl. No, ma'am, I hope I may never make a worse mistake--for
they was good, and they sang beautiful in the chapel. Then the nuns
found a place for me with two old homespun people; they was very dull
and often ill, and I was always getting muddled over the spoons and
forks, an that made them _urri_table, and one day I felt so low-spirited
and nasty-tempered that I ran away again. The worst of places for me is,
no porters sit at the front doors and I run away before I think, and
then I get no character. But this time I have been proved, and I have
learnt my lesson. I won't do it any more. No, ma'am, I never knew I
could be taken to the police-courts just for running away--none of the
ladies never told me; I thought you were only copped for murders and
stealing. Daisy White--she pinched her missis's silk petticoat to go out
in on Sunday, and now she's out of jail no one won't have her any more.
But it's mostly misfortunes that brings girls here, and fits of course.
Blanche, that big girl with the squint eye, went off in a fit yesterday
as we were scrubbing the wards. No, I don't have no fits, and I'm honest
as the day. Would I be a good girl and not run away if you get me a
place? Oh, ma'am, only try me. The kind ladies quote textesses to me,
but they never get me a job. No, I don't mind missing my dinner. Matron
will keep it hot for me, but it's only suet pudding to-day with very
little sugar. In situations they give you beautiful sweet puddings
nearly every day, and Juliet Brown--she that's in with her third
misfortune--she says she's lived with lords and ladies near the King's
Palace at Buckingham--at least, she pretends she has--well, she says in
her places the servants had jam with their tea every day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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