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    326 FACTS AND SCRAPS.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Present State Of The Black Country. ...

    instead of the hrigh . t groups to be seen when trade is good _; the idle knots of men at " play "—grim play it is to them , ending in

    starvation that drives them to the hated refuge of the workhouse _;—ive to it an appearance of wretchedness and misery impossible to

    p g icture . The workhouses are at the present moment so full , that it is a in utter of serious consideration what can be done if the

    number of applicants continues to increase , as they must do with trade in its present state and the severities of the coming winter in

    prospect . The distress is general , affecting both rich and poor , the latter of course suffering most . The miner and puddler , instead of

    working full time , is , in many cases , only able to get two and a half or three days' work in a week—numbers of them have none at all .

    Many things must be done without in the home ; clothing * is scantily purchasedin very many instances none at all being procurable ,

    even by those , accustomed to be comfortably and sufficiently clothed . The shoelesshalf-naked children wandering- about our streets are

    p with itiable its si la ghts , ; sunken and many and a childish inched face features , old before tells its its tale time of , , rge eyes p

    , misery in language more eloquent than words . Families unable to pay rent for separate homes crowd together in numbers past

    credence ; some of them , hopeless of improvement here , seek employment in the distant iron and coal-fields of Wales and Yorkshire ;

    and of these many , unable to obtain it , return to their friends , if the few shillings required for their transit can possibly be obtained ,

    poverty and hunger being more endurable to tliem at home than in a land of strangers . In a parish numbering about 24 , 000

    inhabitants there are , at the present moment , nearly 600 houses toilet ; and most melancholy is the constant sight of closed shutters and

    doors , chalked over by listless children and idle youths . In one side street alone , the writer has counted nineteen empty houses . This

    fact speaks for itself . For the owners of property , as will be perceived , it is a disastrous

    time . Many a hard-working man has built his dozen or half-dozen smaD tenementsand perhaps in his old age retired upon the rents ,

    , which were amply sufficient for his wants while his houses were occupiedbut now he has possibly five out of sixor nine out of

    twelve , of , them vacant . This is the case in more than , one instance known to the writer . Larger owners of property are also suffering

    in similar proportion . Tradesmen , again , are equal sufferers . Customers are " few and far between" and these few purchase only

    , in the smallest quantities , and the commonest articles . They are thus unable to render half the assistance needed by their poorer

    neighbors , who become impatient under refusals which they believe power originat . e It in is a -want hard of for will them , not to , as understan is really d the how case peop , in le a living want in of

    comfortable homes cannot have aid to bestow , forgetting the many claims that must be met , the debts to be forgiven to those unable

    to pay , yet the tradesman must pay for his goods .

    326 Facts And Scraps.

    326 FACTS AND SCRAPS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1862, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011862/page/38/