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    Oct 20, 1860] The Saturday Analyst and L...

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    VERDICT, "DIED OF STARVATION : " MAN OR ...

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    Oct 20, 1860] The Saturday Analyst And L...

    Oct 20 , 1860 ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 877

    Verdict, "Died Of Starvation : " Man Or ...

    VERDICT , "DIED OF STARVATION : " MAN OR DOG ? nnHE . ' Times of Wednesday and Thursday contains striking JL illustrations of the sublime of the ridiculous , and the extreme of the horrible . From Wednesday ' s impression we extract the following paragraph : — ¦ ¦ " Death fuom Stakvatiojt . —An inquest was liflcl ou Monday at tlie Scarborough Arms Tavern , Sfc . Mark-street , Wliitecliapol , on the body of Mary -liipscliitis , a & ed forty , the wife of a labourer residing in Tenter-street , Goodman ' s-fields , It appeared that the deceased

    woman ' s husband could , at the best of times , only earn 10 s . ^ a week ; but that he managed to keep his wife and family upon it . For some time , however , he had been out of work , and the consequence , as deposed to by the woman of the Louse in which they lodged , was , that the deceased never had enough to eat , and sometimes was without food altogether . The son left his mother one morning , and on his return found her dead . The surgeon , who was called in to examine the body , stated that the deceased had evidently not had any food for a long time , and the jury returned a verdict of 'Died from the want of the

    common necessaries of life . Now . when we consider that in material wealth England is the richest country in the world , and the one in which the means of satisfying human needs are the most abundant , it follows that death for want of the necessaries of life is a more frightful anomaly here than elsewhere . Relatively speaking , the pariah class in En gland , must be considered worse off than the corresponding-class in less favoured countries . That among untutored savages , void of provident foresight , and without numbers

    any of the means and appliances of civilization , should lead the life of brutes , and perish by famine whenever there is a season of scarcity , is just what might be expected . But that , hi Christian and civilized England , death should take place , oh the average , every twenty-four hours from inanition , would be incredible if statistics did not prove it . Defining the pariah classes of the world ' s metropolis as comprehending those who in the morning find themselves without the means of obtaining a meal of food throughout the day , except by some chance job or illicit act , we shall find they number between one and two hundred thousand ;— -according

    to the authority of the 1 'injes , they were upwards of 100 . 0 Q 0 twelve years ago . Then there is the class just hovering above the "dangerous" classes ;—the class that is oscillating between the pariahs" and the " respectables , " r— now sinking into the one , now emerging into the other , as work is obtainable or not ; the class that gets its'having partly by legitimate means and partly by illicit courses , leaving to eke out by forbidden practices" the existence it strides in vain to prolong- by ah honest calling . Multitudes of helpless workwomen , who , when in full employment , can only earn about six shillings a week by toiling- sixteen hours a day , are in this position . Unfortunately , poor people require as much nutriment as rich , and , though ' they ought , we know , to lie down patiently to die of which deems

    hunger and cold when they have no means , society honest , of procuring food ; yet , considering" the infirmity of poor weak human nature , this can hardly be expected of them . There are illicit ways of obtaining- the wherewithal to procure food , and lodging-, and clothes , by which they can make more morioy in half-an-hour than they could by a month ' s labour . We ore not in this place justifying- or extenuating their conduct —we are simply accounting' for it . JPity it is that morality is so much a financial question ; and that , as Pat-ic y said , he could not afford to keep a conscience , so there are thousands , not to say millions , who absolutely canuot afford to be honest , While , on the other hand , how rnnny millions are there who are only not law-breakers and violators of conventionalism , because their-wealth saves them the trouble and the odium of

    committing unfashionable acts ? It is not to be supposed that people with not meroly abundance of necessaries or evon comforts , but luxuries , will take the trouble ¦— to say nothing about incurring- the risk—of picking a pocket , or doing acts derogatory alike to self-esteem and , personal convenience . Xt is no pleasant thing 1 to parade London streets in all weathers and , all seasons , seeking 1 what may be pickod up there , whether in the Bhape of valuable stray clogs (¦ which wo shall come to presently ) , or other stray things that may bo met with , living or dead , not formatting

    purses , pocket-books , and pocskct-haudkcrclueis . Indeed , the wonder is that rich people , ' with everything that is supposed to mnko homo happy and lifo comfortable—plonty of roonoy , and doting wives , should compromise themselves as they do , and forfeit all . theso advantages . " Wo npod not here enumerate the rospeotnblo" delinquents , who haveaf l « te yearn figured in ouv Criminal Courts , and Rome . of whom nro now expiating their misdeeds in . penal sovvitudo and penal settlements ; nor allude moro directly to aotH that are cpnsiclorod equally immoral , though not within scope of our Polioo Courts or the Old Bailey . We may , bovver , be permitted to marvel that , without tho slightest temptation , except that which is

    involved in the very fact of illieitncss , the rich should do those things , which in the poor , though the bitter fruits oi necessity , arc considered so heinous ; and still more worthy of admiration is that elastic conventional morality which pardons the former for horse-stealing , while it punishes tho latter with ruthless , inexorable severity ™ for looking over the hedge . There is one point-that strikes us in the case of " death from starvation" before us . Wo read , that the husband of this poor woman could " only earn ten shillings a week m the best of times , ' and that he had " a wife and family . " Now , we do not intend here to discuss the question , " whether td

    a poor man has not the same natural right as a rich one have a wife and family ; " we shall confine ourselves to a Simple statement of the fact , that , if a man with ten shillings a week undertakes to maintain a wife and family ,- ho undertakes a responsibility ho cannot properly discharge "— - and some such result as that recorded above is ' pretty- sureto be the consequence . Where is it supposed thatthe bulk of the predatory and prostitute classes come from V Clearly from the offspring of those v / ho incur the heavy responsibility of a wile and family , without the means ,-of-properly . providing for them . To increase- and multiply this section of the . population" of a country , is certainly not the way to promote its prosperity . The progress of a country depends upon the increase of that section of its inhabitants having leisure to

    cultivate and improve their minds , and the pecuniary means to educate and bring up their childrea to be happy and useful members of society . To increase the multitude ot miserable outcasts without education , without moral training , without the means of subsistence , except by some casual job or crime , or who , "in the best of times , can only earn 10 s . ¦ a -week , " is certainly not the way . to advance the ¦ ¦ prosperityol a country , or to produce individual good . * i We now come to the other point indicated in our title . The Twies of Thursday , upon the -principle of employing a steam-engine to crush a butterfly , devotes a leader to the ridicule of an Asylum for Decayed and Destitute Dogs . \ V o know riothmc of this novel institution except through the

    Times ; but such an one appears to be actually in existence The first thing that strikes us is the ingemousness of the contrivance , and tho peculiarity of the principle upon which this national charity is founded . Fools and their money are proverbially easy of separation ; the greater the folly proposed tbe greater the fool likely to be caught by it , and the greater the fool the greater the haul of cash likely to be netted . When the physician proposed to the quack as a toast , " Here ' s all the fools , your patients , " the latter retorted that he should be quite content to take all the fools and leave the rest to his competitor . This we take to be the secret ot alludes to the old

    the canine charity in question .. The Times bachelors and old maids who love their pet dogs with a love which , wo may be permitted to remark in the terms -with which Captain Ma . rkyat apostrophises his darling tobacco , surpasses the love of woman . We must confess ourselves curious , to know the secret of tlio peculiar fascinations which these favoured animals possess over their doting masters and mistresses . Is it that those incapable of sympathy with their fellow human beings , nrd made wondrous kind by an abnormal fellow feeling with their four-footed favourites ? Is there some remote mesmeric influence at work like that ol the rattlesnake over the dove ? We hope the thing will

    not bo done by halves , but that the comforts oi cimimty will bo duly attended to , Dogs , any more than man , do not livo by food alone ; they have sympathies and ailbetions ; they have an intellect ; , almost it morale , not exactly that of mnn , it is true , though sometimes man might take , example from it with profit , Bykon Buys ,, he flutters men by comparing them to dogs ; not complimentary to tho former , certainly ; nor , perhaps , in the sense ho intended , any very great encomium on tho latter . Sir Wai / ticu Scott said , of heir love

    ho could boUcvo anything of the sagacity " a dog . I for their masters , at all events , surpasseth that of womnn ; it is perfectly disinterested , and in tho caso of tho faithful spaniel , if we mnv believe the proverb , thrives most upon ill-usng-o , WeJl of course , there is to be provision for the moral nna spiritual , as well as tho physical wnnts of tho < oga . I My ni to have a due proportion of old mnidu and old bnchclora ^ o suppose to love and fondle , and wo cxpoot to see nn «« v «* * - meiit shordv acldreeml to the elderly cel . batarmn * community i Want . eil-Suitnlilo <*» m <™ ( ™ * XTto ™ ^ rssarr ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20101860/page/5/