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    • -.> VERDICT, "DIED OF STARVATION: "MAN OR DOGr?

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    rg ^ H E" Ti mes of Wednesday and Thursday contains striking X illustrations of the sublimie of the ridiculous , and tin extreme of the horrible . From Wednesday ' s impression w extract the following-paragraph :- — "Death fkoji Starvation . —An inquest was Tmld on Monday the Scarborough Arms Tavern , Sfc . Mark-streefc , Whitechapel , on th body of Sfary Lipschitis , aged forty , the wife of a labourer residing Tenter-street , G-oodmanVfields . It appeared that t ^ e 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 de posed to by the woman of the house in which they lodged , vras , 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 . '" N " ow , when we consider that in material wealth England is the richest country in the world , and the one in \ vhich the . means of satisfying human needs are the most abundant , it follo-. vs thrtt ¦ death-, ibr ' want of the necessaries of life is a more frightful anomaly here than elsewhere . . Relatively speaking- the pariah class in England . must be considered worse off than the corresponding class in less favoured countries . That amonguntutored : savages , void of provident foresight , and without any of the means and appliances of civilization , numbers should lead the life of brutes , and perish by famine whenever there is a season of scarcity , is just what might be expected . But thati in Christian and civilized England , death should take place , on 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 inetropolis as cpmprehending 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 Times , they were upwards of 100 , 000 twelve years ago . Then there is the class just hovering above the dangerous" classes . jr—tbe class that is oscillating between the " pariahs" and the " respectables , "— -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 strives in Vain to prolong ; by an honest calling . Multitudes of helpless workwomen , who , when in full employment , can only earn about six shillings a week by toiling sixteen hours a clay , 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 hunger and cold when they have no means , which society deems 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 mnke more money in half-an-hour than they could by a month ' s labour . We are not in this place justifying or extenuating their conduct —we are simply accounting for it . Pity it is that morality is so much a financial question ; and that , as Pat-isv said , he could not afford to keep a conscience , so there are thousands , not to any millions , who absolutely cannot afford to be honest , While , on the other hand , how many 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 merely abundance of necessaries or even comforts , but luxuries , will take the trouble — to sny nothing about incurring the risk—of pickin g a , pocket , or oloing acts derogatory alike to self-esteem and personal convenience . It is no pleasant thing to parade London streets in all weathers and ull seasons , seeking what may be pic ked up thore , whether in the shape of valuable stray clogs ( which wo shall como to presently ) , or other stray things that may he met with , living or dead , not forgetting purses , ] iockot-book « , and pocket-handkerchiefs . Indeed , the wondor is that rich people , with everything that is supposed to moko home huppy and life comfortable—plonty of money , and doting wives , should compromise thomselvos as they do , i and forfeit all these odvnntngoa . Wo nocd not hero onuihorato i the " rosj > oetablo" delinquents , who lmv . o of Into yoars figured < in ouv Criminal Courts , and some of whom aro now expiating i 1 thoir nusdoods in ponal servitude and penal settlements ; nor < allude more directly to acts that aro ooasidorort equally ( immoral , though not within scope of our Police Courts or t the Old BailQy . We may , hovyever , be permitted to marvel « that , without tho slightest temptation , exoopt that which is <

    < ai < in - , involved in the very fact of illicitness , the rich should dp those things , which in the j > oor , though the bitter fruits of S" necessity , axe considered so heinous ; and still more worthy te of admiration is that elastic conventional morality which e pardons the former for horse-stealing , while it punishes the latter with ruthless , inexorable severity ^ for looking over lt the hedge . ^ There is one point that strikes us in the case of " death d from starvation" before us . We l-ead , that the husband of . this poor woman could " only earn ten shillings a week in e the best of tirnes , ' and that he , had " a wife and family . " > - Nowj we do not intend here to discuss the question , * ' whether j a poor man has not the same natural right as a rich one to ^ lave a wife and family ; ' * we shall confine ourselves to a } simj > le statement of the fact , that , if a man with ten shillings ? a . week undertakes to maintain a wife and family , he 3 undertakes a responsibility he cannot properly discharge- — and some such result as that , recorded above is pretty sure * to be the consequence . Where is it supposed that the bulk of the 5 predatory and prostitute classes come from ? Clearly from the offspring of those who incur the heavy responsibility of a wife 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 inxprove their minds , and the pecuniary means to educate and bring , irp their children to be happy and useful members of society . To increase the multitude of Hiiserable , outcasts withpiit education , without moral training , without the rneans of subsistence , except "b y some easual job or crime , or who , " . 'in . thebest of ' timesj can . only earn 10 s . . a-week , " is ceitaml-y not the way to advance the prosperity of a cxmntiy , or to produce individual good . Wo now come to the other point indicated in bur title . The ¦ Tiines of Thursday , tipon the principle of employing a steam-engine to crush a butterfly , devotes , a leader to the ridicule of au Asylum for Decayed and Destitute Dogs . We know , nothing : of this novel institution except through the . Times ,- but such an one appears to be actually in existence . The first thing that strikes xis is the ingeniotisness of the contrivance , and the pectiliarity of the principle upon which this national charity is founded . Fools and their money are proverbially easy of separation ; the greater the folly proposed the 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 , ll Here ' s all the fools , your patients , " the latter retorted tli . it he should be quite content to take all the fools and leave the rest to his competitor . This we take to be the secret of the canine charity in question . The Times alludes to the old

    bachelors and old maids -who love their pet dogs with a love which , we may be permitted to remark in the terms with which Captain Majrkvat apostrophises his darling tobacco , surpasses the love of woman . We must confess ourselves curious to know the secret of the peculiar fascinations which these favoured animals possess over their doting masters and mistresses .. Is it that those incapable of sympathy with their follow human beings , are made wondrous kind , by an abnormal fellow fueling -with their four-footed favourites ? Is , there some remote mesmeric ; influence at work like that of the rattlesnake oyor the dove ? We hope the thing will not be donq by hnlvos , but that the com forts of canjnity will be . duly ntfcendod to . Dogs , , nny more than ' rf ' ian , do not live by food aloivc ; they luiv ' o sympathies and > aflbctionfi ; they liavo on intellect , almost a morale not exactly that of man , it ' is true , though sometimes man might take example from it with profit . Byron says , lie Hatters men by comparing them to dogs ; not complimentary to the former , certainly ; nor , perhaps , in the sense he intended , any m-y great encornium on the latter . Sir Walter Scott said , io could believe anything of the sagacity of n dog . Thoir love ' or their masters , at all events , surpasseth that of woman ; it s perfectly disinterested , and in the case of the faithful spaniel , f we may believe the proverb , thrives most upon ill-usage . Well of course , there is to be provision for the wornl and ipiritual , as well ns the physical wants of the doga . They ore o have , a due proportion of old mmd » and old iniohclorH— -wo uppo . se to lovo find fondle , and we expect to soc nn ndvertipeaont shorcls' ndtlressed to the elderly celibntariunfl of tho ' onimunity : " " Wanted—Suitable companions for tho inmates f the Aeylum for unfortunate dogs . " Hut dogs ulso have " ympathies for one another . The society of the soxea is an fesential element of modem manners . Without it social inter * ouree is a , blank , Some g-iillant » nd royal pereouage intro-

    Untitled Article

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

    • -.&Gt; Verdict, "Died Of Starvation: "Man Or Dogr?

    • -. > VERDICT , "DIED OF STARVATION : "MAN OR DOGr ?

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1860, page 875, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2370/page/5/