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Oct 20, 1860] The Saturday Analyst and L...
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VERDICT, "DIED OF STARVATION : " MAN OR ...
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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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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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 ^
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Citation
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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/
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