THE POOR IN ENGLAND.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14830, 22 November 1913, Page 14

THE POOR IN ENGLAND.

A FEW PEN" PICTURES. (spicially written: for "th* pbkss.") . (Bt Hopk.) Poverty, as it is in the Old Country, has never been seen or endured in this more favoured Jand, where there is work for all who will work. I took the sorrows of the poor co much to heart as a child that as as I left school I commenced to visit amongst them, in the hope that I might bring some alleviation, however slight, to their condition.

I had a large district in a manufacturing town in tho north of England. Tt was not unusual to find several families occupying the same house, even tho same room. In one room in particular, there were four tenants; in one corner stood a four-post bed owned by a man whose wife and three children shared il with him. No doubt they thought themselves in clover when they slept in it, as it was the only bed the room contained. The right-hand corner by the fireplace was rented by the widow of an old soldier, who lived in it all by herself. She was intelligent and vivacious, and could talk of many and varied experiences in many countries, and notwithstanding her vicissitudes," was bright and cheerful. I used to call her '*My Old Soldier," and always enjoyed listening to her conversation. One bitterly cold day, when the snow lay deep on the ground, I found her suffering very much from the cold; bo I gave her my eiderdown petticoat (which I had just re-covered with bright red, as the down was making its way original covering). She thought it very resplendent, and would insist on wearing it outside her dress, which made mc feel shy, for at that moment one of the curates came in. Other days, other ways—'tis the absence of the petticoat that makes one feel shy in these days of X-ray dresses. • The occupants of the other corners were never in at the time of my visits, so I do not know how many went to each corner. So dense- and putrid was the air of the room that one had to screw up one's courage and hold one's breath before facing the odour which seemed to rush against ono when tho door was opened. There was another door loading into a room at the back, but I was warned not to penetrate through it.. Angels' Court and Paradise Alley were not synonymous with their " names. Paradisei Alley wns .certainly a shade better than Angels' Court, though side by side one would see a dirty, ill-kept cottage and one with bright, clean windows, a clean muslin blind and a flowering geranium on tho windowsill —that faithful friend of its humble cottago lover. Two little angels came to the Court, their stay was brief, for soon they spread their wings and flew away to One Who said, "Suffer little children to come- unto Me." The twins Were always delicate. One day their mother stood looking at them, and said, "Oht yes, they'll soon be dead." What contrasts the -world affords: one woman weeps unavailing tears and breaks her heart over an empty cradle; wftilo another woman calmly stands by waiting for tho end. Next time I went, the twins lay dead. I could not feel sorry. Bound the corner from Angels' Court lived a man and his wife; the woman was hard-working, the man was v drunkard. Often she told mo her troubles in barely intelligible Lancashire dialect, Oα my approaching tho district on a certain day, she came running to meet mo with "her hair flying and her dress in disorder. It appeared that her husband had como home drunk, had first beaten her, then turned her out of the house- and commenced his usual procedure under these circumstances— : that was to break, all the things capable of being broken." His wife asked mc to go and speak to him. We found the door locked. As we stood outside listening to tho wreckage going on, 1 watched tho poor woman's face: as crash after crash rang out, she seemed to be- able to tell by the sound what was being broken. Once she said, "That will be the teapot, Miss." 1 fancy that teapot was more to her than many of the other things. As the front door was locked, tho wife suggested 1 should try the back. The back yards of that row were divided from, tho back yards of Paradise Alley by a narrow passage-way. I found the man in the yard taking the air in company with his donkey (which he tised in his trade). He was gaining strength .to finish what was left of his household possessions. I asked him why he was acting like that: his only excuse was that his wife- was as the dogs of the field when he married her — whatever that may mean. As a considerable time had elapsed since he entered into wedlock, 1 conld not see what that had to do with tho present crisis. One could not help thinking as one saw him standing by his "moke" that the four-footed animal was the nobler animal of. uio two. The upshot of the interview was that he promised mc to let his wife into the house and be good to her., though he was drunk he was quite respecttul in his manner. I was pluckier tsen than.l should be now: true, youth and innocence succeed where ago and experience would fail. It has always been my idea that the saying "An Engfshmnn's home is his castle" applies equally to the poor as the rich, so part of my success in the district arose from acting on that idea, nlso because I was Hot paid- The poor greatly resent the visits of paid workers. Yet another reason may have been/that I mnde the distributing of tracts as little offensive as possible. If I had my way, there would not have been any tracts distributed. It did not seem conducive to good feeling to present tracts with the following choerfnl titles—"AVhv arc you a drunkard?" "Sinner, Repent," and "Tho P.oncl to; Hell." et<\ ' About a mile-nnd-a-half from the

i-o'.d parish Church, thero was a UniJ tnrian stronghold. The »icar suddenly awoke to the fact that it wae in the I parish and r -decreed that it must be ! visited. To my lot fell the undertaking. I rather dreaded making a plunge into what miiiht prove a hostile area. It was greatly to the credit of the peonle that they received mc very well. j The <?lite oL the dietrirt lived in a row of nic»> cottages in Barton Lane. Tfiey v:ctc ench approached by a wellkept garden whore all the old-fashion-ed homely' flowers grew. Simple aa they jron? they had power to call up memories. "Wordsworth, that lover of

Nature. =ays. "To mc the meanest flower that bJows can give Thoughts that da often lie too deep for fears."

In the first cottage, an old dame of much character and many years dwelt with her daughter, a dried-np little" old maid of ninety, who was much in aw of her autocratic mother. The mother was distinctly younger in manner and nppearanc?. No doubt being possessed of great-great-crandchildron bad an exhilarating effect .on her, for she certainly was most sprightly. No one knew the age of old Mrs

Owens, but she must 'have been well over a hundred, and no doubt married at the age of fourteen, as was Jtlie habit of people in days gone by. History relates the fact that when Lord Nelson was seeking a wife, his choico fell upon a lady of eighteen, who was already a widow with a child of three years. Mrs Owens had a mania for being in time for everything, so in. order to be in time for her funeral'she had kept a coffin under her bed for many years. She showed it to mc with great pride. The most punctual person would hardly, care to imitate her. A few doors further on lived Mrs Grey, a dear little woman with such, blue eyes and fresh, dainty appearance. She had beautiful old furniture, which was polished till it shone, like glass. Sao had some lovely Persian kittens, ofwhich sho was very proud. She recounted tales of their ancestors to the third and fourth generation; they all appeared to belong to a noble and brave race. Tho kittens were not her only pride: her son loomed .largo on her horizon. He was musical: on an open harmonium, the '"Twelfth Mass" was resting. :

In the last cottago lived a woman, Brown by name, and brown in appearance. She greatly reminded mo of a nut. She presented such a hard exterior on our first acquaintance. On opening the door to mc, she by no means looked a welcome, but stood in an attitude of defiance and said: "It is washing day." Of course, I said, "I will come another day." I. made a ■ special journey, hut it was still washing 5 I day. On my saving, '-Oh. never mind, 1 will come another day, ,, she smiled and said.. "Come in!" After that we ! became great, friends, and I found the kernel was sweet though the shell wns hard. Her parlour was full of beautii lul pieces of furniture, picked up at for the poor woman had lost her first home through no fault of her own. By thrift and perseverance she had laboriously got together another home; little by little her story was unfolded, and 1 then knew that it was force oi circumstances that made ' her grow that outer shell to protect herself from the hard blows that fate 8O often ■ dealt iier. It appears that all tho furniture had been dirty at the time ot purchase, but none so dirty as a beautiful mahogany, brass mounted tea-tray, which was simply encased in grease and tea stains. %• dint of much ••elbow-Krease" as the dncJshiro brilliantly that it might ha/c done duty for Beauty's Mirror. Indeed m-mV cottages have furniture t£? weak y ¥"P l ?™£ h \°™y and collectors have found their choicest pieces in-the better class or cottages. < Now we leave these da.ntv cottages and turn into James street, "in which r Ve l .V B ? n » na ? ie!li " m > there also lived "Kate." who had her residence of ?«?f 7!°?? unsh a/ed. To get to Kate's Castle one turned out of James street into an alley, then turned again to the right, and one was at her door strange to say. Kate's room was at the back of Bill s: what 2i3u onco been a large room had boon divided as there was a tsecond entrance it Jiad been let to two tenants. Thcjse two old people were very jealous of each other ,and eafih thought that I the other the most time. The dividing wall was very treacherous and let the sound of talking through. One Jay oil calling at a house in James street, I found there was a case of- scarlet fever there. The poor. mother was .vorn out with nursing her boy and had no one to help her. I wanted to go in rind take her place until she could get some rest, but she would not let mc. I told her that I was not afraid but still she refused. She stood with arms stretched across the doorway and said she would never forgive herself if any harm came to my father's daughter. On entering, another house, I inHtantly felt that death was there. I little thought how close to mc the corpse was. I asked the cv ncr of the cottago for the tract which was left last time (for it was my unpleasant ' duty to collect the old tracts and lcuvo new. ones). It could not be found. Tho woman hunted about: finally shts ■ lifted a shajrl which was hruling over a clothes-horse, disclosing - :i man lying dead on the sofal Then she exclaimed, "Here it is, I put it under th' mon's head to raise it." How callous such peoote are: they cook their food, eat and live with only a shawl between them and the sofa, with its awesome burden.

These reminiscences .ire. not only from memory, for strange to say. some letters I wrote to a friend at that time have lately come into ttv hands and the incidents here recorded are taken word for word from them.

As an instance of unselfishness, also of mother-love, I will give tho following extracts.

"There has been such a dreadful accident here. This morning a poor fisherwoman was run over by a butcher's cart, just in front of the house. Tlie cart had gone over her ankle atd nearly taken off her foot. It was a compound fracture. Poor thing! I felt so sorry for her. I. telephoned for Ij—— tin; Doctor, but it \vnn a long tim«, before lie ciirao. I was in a dreadful stnie. It- seemed no horrible not to be able to case, her .sufferings her screama and groans wore pitiful to hear. Notwithstaiulinc: her suffering, she kept nmking; remarks. I could rso,t help smiling when she eaid : 'BUT>oosing the Lord had taken mc to Himself, I .should never hove been able to earn anyone's living again.' Fancy in all her agony, her thoughts dwelling on earning someone else's living. "There has been another accident, a woman was run over to-day, but mho was not bo badly hurt, nevertheless she , suffered a great deal. Through all her pain,-her thoughts hovered round her son. He was not a good son, bnt nhe loved him. He hnd got drur'c and had taken the Queen'e shilling. When Tim over, she was hurrying on her way to buy him off, having scraped tho monoy together to do so, no doubt at a sacriiice of-her worldly goods."

.After a time I married and came to New Zealand, but my Old Soldier, the blind girl and several others never forgot, mc and constantly sent messages.