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382 THE WORKHOUSE VISITING SOCIETY.
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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Transcript
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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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-«»- • What Is There To Be Said Upon Wor...
might be used to bring Lazarus under the notice of forgetful Dives— - tiie miserable sufferer upon a workhouse bedunder the sympathy
, of the lady who in the very next street lies hour by hour upon her luxurious couch .
Doubtless many of our readers have never been within a Union Workhouse in their liveshave no conception of the outward and
, material frame work of this huge organisation called our Poor Law ; yet it is as profound , as it is an ofb repeated truth , that no form of
civilised life is so dramatically interesting as life among our poor . Novels are nothing to the stories which meet one on every hand ;
and just as the cottage "furnishes a thousand picturesque points to the pencil of the artist , which he would vainly seek in the trim
drawing-rooms of our middle class , so do the complications of life in those ranks where the passions have the freest playoffer to the
, pen of the story teller or the poet , dramatic plots and lyric suggestions without end .
We remember the first time we over passed through those grim portalswhere many an aged human creature " leaves all hope
, behind . " No private interest had ever hitherto called us to a Union "Workhouse , and the Old Poor Law and the New Poor Law were
vague names , denoting nothing more than a Parliamentary battle , lost and gained at one point in the thirty years peace . But
certain papers which required exposition did at last make it necessary that some idea of at least the inward aspect of these great public
institutions should be obtained ; and for this purpose we sought and obtained an appointment with the Government Inspector of
Workhouses for London and its outlying parishes , who selected two for inspection , typical workhouses , good and bad—one situate at
Kensington , the other at St . Martin-in-the-Fields . The building at Kensington is new and handsome . It is planned with strict
reference to the requirements of such an establishment ; its halls , wardsstore-roomscourtsand gardens being duly arranged and
, , , distributed for the keeping or employing of the different sections of depressed humanity which form its population . We were
exceedingly impressed hy the degree of order , cleanliness , and comfort attained ; and had previously no conception that such a population
as we knew well in its native haunts , could ever be washed , dressed , lodged , fed , taught , classified and restrained with such comparative
results . The children's wards were well managed , and the little things
looked happy . One small morsel of humanity , aged two years , and christened ' John Thurloe' because he had been picked uppoor baby
, , , in Thurloe Square , made great friends with the visitor . He was as lovely a child as ever blessed a mother ' a heartand had been
, cast out on the cold stones , to be picked up by the first comer , and trained anyhow or anywhere . Look to itye women of England ,
the why , and the wherefore , and the way , to amend this awful sin ,
and shame J
382 The Workhouse Visiting Society.
382 THE WORKHOUSE VISITING SOCIETY .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1858, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081858/page/22/
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