RUSKIN'S LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL.
In 1843, the first volume of Ruskin's "Modern Painters" appeared, and created the greatest sensation. No art critic had yet appeared with such a wealth of language, and such an affluence of imaginative ideas combined with the most striking powers of observation, and an earnestness bordering on enthusiasm. Never thinking beforehand of the subject, his philosophy and criticism consists mostly of brilliant invective, and he is continually involving himself by his inconsistencies, yet, so great was his power, a new school in art was founded by him, with such disciples as Millais, Holman Hunt, and others, equally well known.
He is sometimes diffuse and discursive, and is far behind Henri Taine for perspicuity of style, though far more solid, concentrated, and vigorous, in his blows. The first volumes of Ruskin's "Lamps of Architecture" made their appearance in 1849, and were followed by the first volume of "The Stones of Venice," in 1851, the illustrations in the latter provoking much hostility, but displaying to great advantage his artistic powers. Ruskin has lectured and written on Manufactures, Gothic Architecture, and Painting, and he has said to have realized, by his works the sum of £95,000. He has a careworn face, sloped shoulders, and wavy silken hair. His habits are simple, and it is said that he is Brahminical in his tastes, never touching butcher's meat. His large private fortune enables him to extend his benevolence to struggling students, and others who are in need of assistance. Ruskin has taken up the cause of the workingmen of England with great zeal, and is now in his forty-ninth year.
FROUDE, THE HISTORIAN.
Since the death of Macaulay, England has had no successorto that eminent and great man in the field of history, until of late years James Anthony Froude has risen like a meteor to irradiate the dark places and bloody scenes of English history. The author of the "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey," may well claim a niche among the loftiest names who have searched the archives of empire and statecraft. James Anthony Froude comes of a High Church clerical family, and was born at Dartington, Devonshire, April 23, 1818. His father, the late Venerable R.H. Froude, was Archdeacon of Totnes, and young Froude went to Westminster School, the most aristocratic of its kind in England, and afterwards was graduated with high classical honors at Oriel College, Oxford, obtaining the Chancellor's prize for an essay on "Political Economy," and was elected Fellow of Exeter College in 1842.
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JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.
For some time he was connected with the High Church party led by the Rev. J.H. Newman, and so much was he imbued by its doctrines, that he wrote the "Lives of the English Saints," and took deacon's orders in 1844. He has also written "The Shadows of the Clouds," 1847, and "The Nemesis of Faith," in 1849, both of which works had to undergo the severest condemnation of the University authorities, for the Puseyite opinions broached in their pages.
In 1850, Froude laid the foundation-stone of his fame by a series of articles, chiefly on English History, which were contributed to theWestminster ReviewandFrazer's Magazine, andin 1856 he published the two first volumes of his "History of England." This is his greatest work, in ten volumes, and for clearness of thought, powerful intensity, and acute understanding of those stormy periods of Henry VIII, Elizabeth and Mary, there are few passages in written history to equal Froude's descriptions of the age, and his grand delineations of character. He is, however, prejudicial in many things, and his view of the characters of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth, is altogether different from the view which all modern historians have taken of these two women.
In 1867, a work entitled "Short Studies on Great Subjects," was published by Mr. Froude, and the historical sketches in this volume are of the most masterly kind in English literature. Mr. Froude is now Editor ofFrazer's Magazine, whose pages his powerful genius illuminated some twenty years ago. This magazine had formerly for its contributors some of the finest scholars and best thinkers in Britain.Frazer's Magazineis issued by Longmans, Green & Co., Paternoster Row, one of the great publishing houses, and whose business is only rivaled by that of John Murray, McMillan, Sampson, Low & Son, and Smith & Elder, among London booksellers.
Among the contributors toFrazerare Max Muller, F.W. Newman, E. Lynn Linton, Jean Ingelow, Shirley Brooks, R. A. Proctor, Moncure D. Conway, a Massachusetts man, and a personal and intimate friend of Carlyle,—I believe he is to write the biography of that dogmatic old thinker, who has failed to prevent the earth from revolving on its axis, when he is gathered to his fathers, in the little churchyard in Dumfriesshire. William Howard Russell, James Spedding, Frederick Denison Maurice, a liberal clergyman and a professor in London University, and others whom I do not recollect, are contributors toFrazer. This magazine contains 134 double-column pages of large print, on fine white paper, and is sold for two shillings and sixpence. The same matter and workmanship could not be sold in America for less than one dollar and twenty-five cents, I am informed. Miss Ingelow, one of its contributors, is by no means a Miss in her teens, being now inher forty-first year, but it is tolerably certain that such delightful verse as hers could not have been written by one who had not endured sorrow and trial. The several editions of her poems have realized for Miss Ingelow the comfortable sum of £8,500, and I was told by a leading London bookseller, that Mr. Froude, whose last article was on "Salmon Fishing in Ireland," sold the copyright on four of his books for £39,000. Miss Ingelow is a Suffolk girl, and rumor says has never married because of a blighted affection in early life.
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ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE—POET.
A worthy successor to Lord Byron, in my opinion, is Algernon Charles Swinburne, the most passionate English poet who has lived for one hundred years. Swinburne is in his twenty-eighth year, and at that early age he has attained for himself a position among the poets of his native land, surpassed by none. For wealth of language, beauteous and fervent passion, and gorgeousness of imagery, Keats alone is his peer. Swinburne is an earnest republican, and sympathizes with revolution in every land. He is a great admirer of Italy. For a poem of one page in an English magazine he received two hundred and fifty pounds, a larger price than was ever paid before in England for a poetical fragment.
SWINBURNE'S BOYISH DAYS.
Swinburne, though a republican in sentiment, belongs to one of the oldest Roman Catholic families of Northumberland, and comes from ancestors who have followed the Percy in plate armor against the fierce barons of the House of Douglas. I am sorry to say, however, that the poet does not look like aman who would wear a steel jerkin and hang a battle-axe at his saddle bow. He has long curling hair, a pair of weird fascinating eyes, a loose and slender frame, and a face which does not impress one favorably at first. Take him altogether he seems like a man who might like to recline on a bed of roses, with an Amphora of Falernian by his couch, and half a dozen Syrian damsels to wait on him and hand him flowing bumpers of golden wine.
His boyish days were spent at Eton, and here he was noticed only for his utter dislike to athletic sports, including the darling amusement of every Etonian—I mean the cricket field. He was finished at Oxford, but did not receive his degree from Alma Mater. From the University he went to Florence, and there he contracted a warm friendship for that great gothic and rough-angled character, Walter Savage Landor, which was ardently reciprocated by the latter. Returning to England in 1861 he published the "Queen Mother," and "Rosamond," neither of which attracted much attention. His first great and decided success was in that classic poem "Atalanta in Calydon," published in 1864, when Swinburne had attained his twenty-first year. This poem took the cultivated minds of England by storm, and was followed by "Chastelard," "Poems and Ballads," "Laus Veneris," and a biography of "William Blake," the painter, in quick succession. Since then his copy-rights have amounted to £27,000, so rapid has been the sale of his books. This moneyed success does not, however, prevent the poet from being afflicted with a very penurious spirit, and it is said that he is in the habit of giving waiters and servants sixpences for the pleasure of taking the gifts back.
JOHN STUART MILL.
The greatest publicist in England, at this juncture, and the man whose views demand most attention from press and people, after Carlyle, is John Stuart Mill, the eminent writer on Political Economy, who was formerly a clerk in the India House, like Charles Lamb, as his father had been before him. Mr. Mill is now sixty-six years of age, and has lately taken up the cudgel for the Woman's Suffrage party, in England, along with Miss Harriet Martineau, after having exhausted Utilitarianism, Political Economy, Parliamentary Reform, Logical Systems, Auguste Comte, Positivism, Philosophy, and other light and airy subjects. Yet all his great powers of thought did not prevent him from being badly beaten by a Mr. Smith, a news agent, for the representation of the Borough of Westminster, in the late parliamentary elections. Mr. Mill has a grand broad forehead, a pair of deep steadfast eyes, a firm mouth, and is of studious habits. Like all students his oratory in Parliament, when first elected, was more ornate and logical than impressive or forcible. His English is vigorous and sterling, and it must be said of this venerable old man, that his whole life has been devoted to an idea.
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JOHN STUART MILL—POLITICAL ECONOMIST.
The very opposite of John Stuart Mill is Benjamin F. Disraeli, who was born in Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, Dec. 21, 1805. It is more than positive that Mr. Disraeli has never sacrificed any thing for an idea. Mr. Isaac Disraeli, his father, was a Christian, and an author, who had written the "Curiosities of Literature," and the "Amenities of Literature," the latter being a book in which the misfortunes and failings of authors occupy a large space. The grandfather of the great politician was a Jew of the Jews, I believe, and he who is now leader of the Conservative party in the House of Commons, and who was Lord Chancellor of England, has ever had a deep feeling for and faith in Judaism, although he has been for many years the Champion of the Anglican Church. At twenty yearsof age, Disraeli, who was then as fond of velvet shooting jackets and jewelry as he is now in his old age, or as Dickens was in his prime, began to write novels, and from 1825 to 1881 he had written "Vivian Grey," "The Young Duke," "Henrietta Temple," "Contarini Fleming," "Venetia," "Alroy," and "Coningsby."
disraeli
BENJAMIN DISRAELI—POLITICIAN.
In 1837, he entered Parliament, and made a miserable failure as a speaker and was laughed down, but he was not of the stuff to be frightened. Since then he has filled the greatest offices of trust that it is possible for a commoner to fill in England, and at times a radical revolutionist, and then again a most staunch monarchist, he has had greatness of soul enough to refuse a title offered him by the Queen, when he retired from the Cabinet in which he was Prime Minister. The honor tendered him was politely refused with many thanks, but he accepted the title of Viscountess Beaconsfield for his noble and devoted wife, who enriched and has sustained him in all his severest struggles.
It is told of this brave lady, that while accompanying her husband in a carriage to the House one night, Disraeli became lost in thought about a great speech which he was going to make, and the carriage door having closed on one of her fingers, she never uttered a sound of pain until the equippage drove into the Palace yard at Westminster, when the footman jumped down, and she fainted in her husband's arms. One hundred and fifty thousand copies of Disraeli's "Lothair" havebeen sold, and it is more than probable that the sale will not stop short of 250,000 copies. The bitterest article in review of this book was written inBlackwood's Magazine, by Lawrence Oliphant, author of the "Piccadilly Papers by a Peripatetic," in London Society. Mr. Oliphant deserted fashionable London society to found a Communistic association on the shores of Lake Erie, and having accumulated a secretion of gall and wormwood there he went back to England and poured it out on the head of Disraeli.
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CHARLES KINGSLEY—NOVELIST.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
The Rev. Charles Kingsley, formerly rector of Eversley and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, and now Dean of Rochester, is the defender of Muscular Christianity in English literature. He is the son of a clergyman, and is descended from the ancient Saxon family of the Kingsleys, of Kingsley, in the Forest of Delamere. He was educated at Kings College, London, and Magdalen College, Cambridge, and is nearly fifty years of age. From his advocacy of the cause of the workingmen he has been called the "Chartist Parson." His chief works are, "Hypatia, or New Foes with Old Faces," "Alexandria and Her Schools," "Westward, Ho," "Two Years ago," and "Hereward, Last of the Saxons." He delivered the "Roman and Teuton Lectures" while professor of Modern History at Cambridge University. He has also written a series of children's books on historical subjects, which are very popular in England. His brother, Henry Kingsley, a novelist of considerable reputation, is eleven years younger,and is a contributor to theGentleman's Magazine, the oldest periodical of its kind in England, which is sold for one shilling.
Anthony Trollope, the most voluminous English novelist now living, was born in 1815, and comes of a literary family, his mother having made a certain sort of fame by her book of American travels which did not redound to her credit. Many years after the issue of Mrs. Trollope's book, her son visited America and sought to redeem the unfavorable impression made by his parent's villification of our people, in his "North America," published in 1861. Anthony Trollope was educated at Winchester and Harrow, and at thirty-two years of age wrote his first novel, "The McDermotts of Ballycloran," a picture of Irish middle class life. Since then he has furnished to the publishers of his works enough material to fill a small library. Many of his genial novels appeared in theCornhill Magazine, which was edited by Thackeray at one time, and subsequently by Frederick Greenwood, who was, during the former's management, a proof reader on the Cornhill, and is now the editor of thePall Mall Gazette, the establishment of which journal was the realization of the dream of Thackeray's life.
James Greenwood, the "Amateur Casual," a brother of Frederick Greenwood, has written a number of books of adventure of the most stirring kind, and was attached to the LondonMorning Star, a penny morning paper, which advocated the cause of the North during the Civil War, and local sketches every alternate day were furnished by him to its columns, for which he received sixteen guineas a week.
Mr. John Morley, whom I have to thank for much courtesy, was editor of theStarduring my sojourn in London. He is now editor of theFortnightly Review, with which he was formerly connected. TheStarsuspended publication about six months ago. I believe John Bright held a stockholding interest in theStarprevious to its suspension, and had, on some occasions, directed its editorial opinions.
THE MAGAZINES.
Mr. Trollope has an eminently literary look, and wears huge large shaggy whiskers, and a pair of spectacles. His pictures of Irish middle class society and English clerical characters,are the best and truest ever drawn by an British novelist, his Irish characters being infinitely superior to those of Charles Lever, whose heroes swagger and strut in a most atrocious manner. Anthony Trollope has a brother, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who is also a literary man of considerable note, and is five years the junior of Anthony. Adolphus Trollope resides chiefly in Florence, and has written several works of fiction connected with the very romantic history of that city. The younger Trollope has been twice married. His first wife was an authoress, named Miss Garrow, who died in 1865, and eight months after her decease he was again married to a Miss Ternan, who is now living. That was what an unprejudiced mind might call quick work for a novelist. Anthony Trollope is the editor, and also, I believe, the proprietor ofSt. Paul's Magazine, which is sold for one shilling a number.
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE—NOVELIST.
The circulation of the numerous London magazines and periodicals is only to be computed by millions. Of course the cheap magazines have the largest circulation, and the cheapest are not by any means the worst edited. TheTemple Barmagazine, which was established by George Augustus Sala, a well known correspondent of theMorning Telegraph, sells for a shilling, and has among its contributors Mrs. Edwards, Florence Maryatt, Miss Harriet Martineau, who is also a contributor to theDaily News, H. Sutherland Edwards, John Holingshead, who was formerly the dramatic critic of theDaily News, and is now manager of aLondon Theatre. TheBrittania Magazineis well edited and has original stories and sketches, and sells for sixpence.Bow Bells Magazineis a good local periodical, selling for eightpence, andBelgravia, edited by Miss Braddon, sells for one shilling, as does theSt. James, which is well known for its clever Parliamentary sketches. Cyrus Redding, the famous octogenarian writer on wine culture, was for many years a constant contributor toColburn's Monthly, in which many of William Harrison Ainsworth's sensation serial stories have appeared. Louisa Stuart Costello and her brother Dudley Costello, and Mrs. Ward, for many years contributed to the pages ofColburn's Monthly.Blackwood's Magazineis too well known to need any enumeration of its famous writers.Blackwood'ssells at two-and-sixpence the number.
McMillan's Magazineis issued at one shilling a number by the publishing house of McMillan & Co., Bedford street, Covent Garden, having 78 double column pages of matter. Among its contributors are Frederick W.H. Myers, Edward Nolan, S. Greg, Thomas A. Lindsay, Dr. Boyce, Edward A. Freeman, Charles Kingsley, Jean Ingelow, Menella Bute Smedley, Mrs. Brotherton, F. Napier Broome, Thomas Hughes, Godfrey Turner, T.W. Robinson, and F.W. Newman.Cornhillis published by Smith, Elder & Co.All the Year Roundis edited by Chas. Dickens, Jr., who is rated very high as a sketch writer, and is also well known as a rowing and yachting man.The London Society Magazineis published at 217 Piccadilly, and the most aristocratic of all the London magazines, being beautifully illustrated, and having excellent social, club, and fashionable sketches. TheLondon Societyis sold for a shilling, and has a number of lady artists who make drawings for its pages. Watson, W. Brunton, Lionel Henley, Adelaide Claxton, H. Tuck, A. Thompson, and F. Walker, are among the best known artists on this magazine. Walter Thornbury, author of "Haunted London," Lawrence Oliphant, Edmund Yates, and Lascelles Wraxall, are contributors to theLondon Society. The "Graphic," the finest illustrated weekly ever published in London, is edited by Arthur Lockyer, who has succeeded itsformer editor—H. Sutherland Edwards. The circulation of the different magazines is computed as follows:
Cornhill, 36,000;McMillan, 28,000;Blackwood, 39,000;London Society, 24,000;Frazer, 17,000;Colburn's Monthly, 7,500;Temple Bar, 19,000;St. Paul's, 16,000;Gentleman's Magazine, 25,000;Britannia Magazine, 26,000;St. James', 15,000, andBelgravia, 16,000.
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DELIVERING THE "TIMES."
The circulation of the principal critical Weeklies is:Saturday Review, sixpence, 38,000;Spectator, sixpence, 22,000;Athenæum, sixpence, 29,600;Examiner and London Review, 13,000. TheSaturday Reviewhas forty pages of double-column matter, large print, twelve of which are devoted to advertisements, the remaining pages being taken up with editorials, book reviews, notices of the drama and fine arts. TheAthenæumhas twenty-two quarto pages of three columns each, ten of which are taken up by advertisements, and the remainder by book reviews, and dramatic, fine art, and scientific notes. The editor of this journal is Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, M.P., who wrote an excellent book of travel, entitled "Greater Britain." Ruskin and Huxley have been contributors to theAthenæum. TheSpectatorhas twenty-eight pages folio, and is chiefly noticeable for its valuable historical studies, and its short and spicy paragraphs on the first four pages of the paper. Any of these weeklies will be sent abroad for the additional cost of a penny stamp.
THE LONDON TIMES.
The first number of theLondon Timeswas printed January 1, 1788, by John Walter, and the first newspaper printed by steam in Europe was theTimesof November 29, 1814. Applegarth and Cowper's four cylindered presses, printing five to eight thousand sheets an hour, were in use by theTimesfor many years. These were succeeded by Hoe's press with Whithworth's improvement, and now the Bullock press modified, which prints on an endless sheet, is used by theTimes. The circulation of this, the leading journal of Europe, varies from 57,000 to 65,000 copies a day, and the owner is Mr. Walter, the son of its founder. John Thaddeus Delane, the son of William F.A. Delane, the former financial manager, who has been succeeded by Mowbray Morris, is the editor of theTimes. He is an Oxford man, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. Since 1839 he has been connected with theTimes, to whose editorship he succeeded in 1841, on the decease of its then famous editor, Mr. Thomas Barnes. The value of theTimesnewspaper property has been estimated at three million pounds, or fifteen million dollars. As Thackeray said, its ambassadors are everywhere; one may be seen pricing potatoes at Covent Garden, while another is committing to paper the Cabinet intrigues at Berlin. Among its most celebrated writers have been Barnes, Sterling, Horace Twiss, William Howard Russell, Thackeray, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Baron Alderson, Louis J. Jennings, the American correspondent, now editor of the New YorkTimes, and others. Southey was offered the editorial management at a salary of £2,000 a year, and the same offer was made to Thomas Moore, the poet, but both declined acceptance. TheTimes, with supplement, has seventy-two columns of matter, on sixteen pages, and 2,250 advertisements have been inserted in one day's issue, seven tons of paper, with a surface of thirty acres, and seven tons of type, being used.
CIRCULATION OF JOURNALS.
The circulation and prices of the leading London journals, are as follows:Times, 65,000, four pence;Daily News, 48,000, one penny;Daily Telegraph, 175,000, one penny;Morning and Evening Standard, 80,000, one penny;Morning Advertiser(rumseller's organ), 35,000, one penny;Pall Mall Gazette(evening), 30,000, one penny;Echo(evening), 75,000, one penny;Globe(evening), 8,000, one penny;Punch(weekly), 55,000, six pence;Illustrated London News, 60,000, four pence;Graphic, 80,000, six pence;Bell's Life(sporting), Wednesday and Saturday, 66,000, one penny;The Field(sporting, weekly), 18,000, six pence;Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper(Sunday), 140,000, one penny;Weekly Times(Sunday)—owned byLondon Journal, which has a circulation of 200,000—110,000, one penny;Cassell's Weekly Magazine, 90,000,Weekly Dispatch(Sunday), 215,000, two pence;Reynold's Newspaper(Sunday), 280,000, one penny;Jewish Record(weekly), one penny, 7,500;Tablet(Catholic weekly), four pence, 36,000.
telegraph
SUB-EDITOR'S ROOM, "TELEGRAPH" OFFICE.
TheMorning Telegraphis the most popular daily newspaper in the world. During periods of great excitement its circulation increases to over 200,000 copies a day, and it takes four ten-cylinder, and four six-cylinder Hoe's presses, to strike off its daily editions. The correspondent of theTelegraphat Paris, Mr. Whitehurst, is hand and glove with Napoleon, and his salary amounts to £10,000, with a horse and brougham thrown in. The editor of theTelegraphis Thornton Hunt, son of Leigh Hunt, who was for twenty years on the staff of theSpectator. The sub-editor of theTelegraph, for they have no managing editors in England, is Mr. Ralph Harrison, to whom I am much indebted for courtesies received. The owner of theTelegraphis a Hebrew gentleman named Levy. TheDaily Newsis owned by the Liberation Society, a Dissenters' association, and is edited I believe, by Mr. Edward Dicey, formerly a special correspondent of theTelegraph, who went to Suez for that journal. Tom Hood, son of the poet, was editor of theTomahawkformerly, and lately of theLatest News, a penny Saturday paper, and Arthur A. Becket has editedFun. James Grant is now editor of theMorning Advertiser, at a salary of fifty pounds a week, and Blanchard Jerrold receives £800 a year for editingLloyds' Weekly. The salaries of editors on the London press vary from fifteen to fifty pounds a week, according to the ability displayed, and the circumstances of the journal on which they are employed.
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soup
HALF PENNY SOUP HOUSE.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE POOR OF LONDON.
BEYOND comparison London exceeds all other cities of Europe for the number of its poor, and the misery and suffering of those who individually make up the gross totals in work-houses, back slums, and miasmatic tenements.
One of the most interesting—if not the most curious and cheerful scenes in the metropolis—may be witnessed any day by a visit to the East London "Half-Penny Soup House," an institution established by good and merciful people, whereby the poor little castaways and waifs of the city are provided with a dish of soup, a piece of meat, and a small loaf of bread, once in each twenty-four hours.
The children are gathered from the promiscuous juvenile assemblages that may be, at any time, found in the London streets, and are taken to the Soup House where large and steaming dishes of soup are given them, by charitable ladies, after which they are dismissed until the next twenty-four hours have elapsed, when again they assemble to partake of the same plentiful and grateful food. This nourishment costs but a half-penny per head, all the attendance and time being given gratuitously by the good ladies who seek the little ones for their own merciful purpose.
The struggles of the London poor to keep soul and body together, are very wonderful to understand or relate. Out of every five poor families in London—it is known that at least three are compelled, between Easter and Christmas, to denudetheir households of all the most necessary articles of clothing and furniture, to take them to the pawnbroker's shops in order that bread and meat may be procured for their little ones. And what terrible scenes are witnessed in these pawnbroker's shops, on Saturday nights when the goods are reclaimed by dint of economy and hard scraping? None but God, the police, and the pawnbroker, ever see such struggles.
shop
A PAWNBROKER'S SHOP.
One day I paid a visit to the Workhouse of St. Martin's, in the Fields, which is not far distant from Trafalgar square. This workhouse looks like a vast prison, stern, gloomy, and frowning, in the very busiest quarter of the city. Opposite to its entrance was the barracks of some regiment of infantry, and round the doors, were talking and smoking, half-a-dozen of long-legged and slim-waisted private soldiers, in red shell jackets, whose chief occupation seemed to be that of switchingtheir manly calves with slender rods which they jauntily carried in their hands.
THE MASTER OF THE WORKHOUSE.
The workhouse door was shown to me by a squad of small boys who were at play in the adjoining gutters, clad in a pauper's uniform of blue, and on whose heads were dirty but comfortable caps of plaid pilot cloth.
"Yes, master, there is the Workus, over yander. Will ye give us a penny? We are all Workus," said they in chorus.
I entered the low entrance and stood in a small vestibule, where stood a shelf, or stand, upon which was placed an open blank or visitors' book, in which each caller was to inscribe his name and residence, together with his object for visiting the workhouse. On the opposite page were blank spaces, on which an attendant entered the hours when a visitor called and when he left the institution.
A miserable, worm-eaten looking old man, devoid of teeth, and shambling in his gait, a perfect wreck, shuffled up to me with a deprecating look in his eye, as if he were asking pardon for being alive. Heavens! how the iron of poverty, and the bitterness of dependence, must have eaten away that poor wretch's soul before such enduring lines of degradation could have been impressed on his features.
This old pauper was detailed to wait upon the visitors, and to see that their names were inscribed, with the warning that he should not attempt to ask for or receive any gratuity.
He faintly said in a childish voice:
"What can I do for you, Sir? Do you wish to see the Workus? Ah, yes, of course, a goodish bit of people comes to see the poor paupers, now and then, but we are never allowed to take anything, Sir. No never, never. Poor paupers, poor paupers," and so he mumbled away until the Master of the workhouse was announced by his footsteps that came in echoes as I sat in the little, poverty-stricken ante-room.
To the Master, who is the supreme authority in the workhouse, under the direction of the Board of Guardians of the parish, I explained my motives for visiting the paupers' residence, and he welcomed me with much politeness, offering meevery facility to inspect the place. He was a medium sized man, of middle age, plainly dressed, and after having issued orders to several of the inmates of the establishment he prepared to accompany me through the premises. Here and there, in the walks and corridors, and courts of the workhouse, we met with an occasional pauper, the males in a grey, rough, shoddy uniform, and the women in check or plaid gowns, of a coarse cotton material, and wearing caps of a faded whiteness upon their heads.
They all had a vacant, listless look, and seemed lost in astonishment to see a stranger with the Master, to whom they made the most servile of salutations.
I had seen, in my travels on the English railways, when I sought the not very wholesome refuge of the third class carriages to study character—just such poor, faded-looking people, among the families journeying wearily to their various destinations, as these poor old relics, who were now clustering around the workhouse tea tables. Oh, God! how lonely they looked, and distant from all human kind. The same wan, woe-begone faces, but more quiet and reserved than those I saw in the close railway cars devoted to poor people.
Smoking is a common thing in these crowded and close carriages, and delicate women, and puny, weak children, are forced to travel for hundreds of miles in these cattle boxes—I cannot call them aught else—until they are sometimes known to vomit from the bad air and worse stenches.
Making inquiries of this gentleman as I went through the buildings, I may as well give his explanations of workhouse life, and of the condition of the poor and destitute of London. I freely admitted to him that I had heard very strange stories in regard to the treatment, food, and medical attendance of the paupers in the Unions, and that I would be obliged to him if he could clear up my reasonable doubts on many points.
SUGAR AND TEA.
In answer to one of these doubts the Master took me into a large, long and clean-looking room, in which were about forty female paupers. These women were engaged in getting supper for themselves, and were all above middle age, and haggard-looking.
carriage
A THIRD CLASS RAILWAY CARRIAGE.
"Now, Sir," said he to me, "you, of course, can see something of which you speak, for yourself. Here is one of the busy wards of the Union. Each of these old women is allowed an ounce of dry tea per day, and enough sugar to moderately sweeten four cups of tea, which they make in their own tea-caddies, or, sometimes they mess together—three or four in a mess—and those who do not care for sugar will trade their surplus sugar for the surplus dry tea with some other paupers."
All the women arose from their low seats or benches, some of them being clustered around a grate in which were a moderate stock of burning coals, and bowed to the Master, who waved his hand and told them to sit down again, which they did with courtesies and many feeble expressions of thanks.
"That old woman over there in the corner," said the Master, pointing to a female of sixty years of age, who sat alone rubbing her bare arms, and chatting to herself senselessly, "has lost her wits. She is here forty-five years, and will die here in all probability. We have about 400 in-door paupers in this workhouse, and perhaps twice as many out-door poor, whom the parochial authorities assist as well as they can. Every pauper whom we support in this house costs the rate-payers of this parish about seventeen pounds six and ten-pence per head, which does not include charge for rent, taking the interest of the value of the property. For the children we have a school, and they get the rudiments and that's all. It is an idea with some, and I am afraid, with many poor people, "once a pauper always a pauper." The children who are born in this place, would never become independent of the parish if it were not that as soon as they grow up we send them to schools of an industrial kind outside of London, where they learn a trade, or are taught some occupation, such as gardening, blacksmithing, carpentering, or, in fact, anything that will enable them to make a living. The feeding and schooling of the children, with the nursing, &c., costs more per head for them, strange to say, than it does for a grown person's subsistence and clothing in London.
WORKHOUSE RATIONS.
"In this parish alone we have to take care of 478 children, and in some of the London parishes in Bethnal Green, and Hackney, or Stepney, they sometimes have to provide for from 1,500 to 2,000 children, of both sexes. Of course, in the very large parishes they cannot afford to educate the children, but have to content themselves with feeding and clothing as many as they can inside the workhouse, while the majority receive, with their parents, out-door relief, but the large and heavy parishes could not afford to have such fine schools as we have in the suburbs, with grounds attached, and sometimes goodish pieces of land, where farming and gardening can be taught the children. It costs the rate-payers of this parish twenty pounds a year to support and educate the parish children, and, along with all the rest of the taxes, it is no wonder that the peopleare grumbling and asking why we do not send the beggars to America or Australia."
"And why do you not?" said I to him, "if the sustenance of a pauper, together with his clothing, costs the parish £21 annually."
"Because, the people of London have an idea somehow or other, that the Americans will not receive paupers, and then again, if £21 was given to a pauper to go to America, they would raise a row in Parliament that too much money was going out of the country. Why," said he, "down at Birkenhead, near Liverpool, schools were built for paupers at a cost of £15,000, with bath-rooms and fine dining-rooms, and the people there raised an awful row because the cost to the rate-payers came to ten shillings per head per annum to every inhabitant in the place. They didn't want to give them bath-rooms or fine dining-rooms. They turned a man away there who was frozen, and he had to lose all of his toes on account of their neglect. In some of the work-houses, in the North of England, they are beginning to let the children out to board by the week, with farmers and families who can afford to take them, the parish authorities allowing, for each child, three shillings per week for board, with an outfit on leaving the workhouse, and six shillings and sixpence a quarter for mending and repairing their clothes, an offer which has been very cheerfully accepted by many families who are in decent circumstances."
"A 'Casual,'" said the Master, "is a pauper who is house-less and destitute in a different parish from which he has lived. When he finds himself in a strange place, as in London, he has to apply at the Police Station for a ticket, which is given him as a reference to ask for one night's lodging at the workhouse in the district. The ticket is shown to the Master, who receives him, and I will send him down here, but before he is sent down he gets a loaf of bread, weighing a pound and a quarter. He must apply to the House for lodgings before ten o'clock at night, or we will not let him in. Then he takes the loaf of bread and eats half of it for his supper, and the otherhalf he saves for his breakfast. We give him, with the remaining half loaf of bread in the morning, a half pint of coffee or tea. But before he goes he has got to earn the breakfast which we give him, and is compelled to pick oakum from six o'clock in the morning until nine, when he leaves the House."
Before I left the workhouse the Master allowed me to inspect the beef, bread, butter, and beer, which are served out daily to the paupers. Each grown man and woman receives a twelve ounce loaf of bread, a pint of the best beer, an ounce of butter, daily, and five days in the week they receive six ounces of fresh meat, the other days being especially devoted to beans, and a liquid compound known to seafaring men as "skillagelee."
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