On this page
-
Text (1)
-
384 THE WOKKHOTTSE .VISITING SOCIKTY.
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-«»- • What Is There To Be Said Upon Wor...
such gross irreverence . We "were told—rand seeing the facts of tlie case fronx tlie two tablets , we believed it—that they cannot take
clothe up one s of out the —to flagstones get dirty of — their without courts turning , where 1 up they ' bones hang . ' their Nobod clean y ,
lias even put down a layer of asphalte _, so as to seal up the forefathers effectually ; there they lie , London citizens of the age of the
Great Plague and the . Great Fire , on terms of the closest familiarity with some five hundred unfortunates of both sexes and all ages , and
a master and matron who appear to do all that can be done for their charge under the circumstancesbut whovery naturally ' don't
, , , fancy drinking the -water !' The wards are , furthermore , ill built , ill . arranged ; and the
kitchens destined to victual this immense mass of human beings are worse—they have not even a kitchen range ! In one of the
graveyard courts a young woman was carrying about a miserable baby called ' John Htingerford' because it had been picked up in
Hun-, gerford Market . We looked at the poor , wee pinched face and sickly body , and thought that John Hungerford would surely die .
It was in this workhouse , last year , that a young lunatic , aged nineteenwho had been brought in the night beforekilled an aged
, , pauper male nurse , who had charge of the imbecile ward . Watchinghis opportunity , the lunatic seized the poker , and struck the old
man on the head . The one hope we were told for St . Martin ' s Workhouse lay in the
_^ National Gallery ! Public _jDliilanthropy and private rate-payers will not give it a new and well-arranged building ; but it was hoped that
the ground on which it stands -would be wanted for the enlarged gallery which was in contemplation—when the better housing of our
Raphaels and Turners would contribute indirectly to the better housing of our poor !
We were also taken to a third workhouse , which being the worst in all this huge metropolis—nay , perhaps the worst in the
kingdomshall not be specified here by name , lest any man or woman known to be connected with that dangerous periodical , The English Woman's
Journal _, be henceforth and for ever refused admission , even on visiting day . Protected by a local act , this huge town within a town ( its
population averages two thousand souls ) is alike unassailable by public indignationor by the central authority . _Disgtisting bread ,
, scanty tea , insufiieient washing , and vermin of various kinds , are the peculiarities of this establishment .
It was while walking down a dismal ward in this last mentioned workhouse , the ward appropriated to bedridden inmates , that our
attention was arrested by a very old woman , lying flat on her back , and looking drearily round the roomand up at the white-washed
, ceiling with a pair of fine melanchply blue eyes , those eyes which yet preserve their youth when the other features are withered up
with time . On being asked if she would not like to read ; " Yes
ma ' ana , " said she , " if I had any spectacles . " So for want of _spectacles
384 The Wokkhottse .Visiting Socikty.
384 THE _WOKKHOTTSE . VISITING SOCIKTY .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1858, page 384, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081858/page/24/
-