WAIFS IN LONDON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 318, 2 April 1875, Page 4

WAIFS IN LONDON.

Within one week two inquests have been held—one in St. GeorgeVin-the-East, touching the death of Thomas 'Salter, a carpenter, ngel sixty-six, and the other .in Bethnal .greelii, touching the death of Henry Branch, a rag-dealer, aged sixty-eight. In theopse ot Salter, it appeared by the evidence that the deceased, who was unable from) general debility.-to work and his wife wete allowed Is. 6d. and a 41b. loaf per vijeek by the parish. They had nothing buVthe Is. 6d. to live on, and were not ablef to get even a.-few. scraps of meat nor any beer, but lived cliiefly on bread with occasionally a cup of tea. They had nothing, in the shape of bedding but. a few old frags, nor had the deceased anything to cover him in*.his illness. They were unapje to procure anyfire during the severe w-teather, and when the doctor visited the dyjmg man by parish order he found hint"Tying on a bed wilh neither sheets nor blankets, and with merely a jacket thrown'|ver his shoulders, tokeep him from the 6old. Ilis death, said the doctor, was due-Jo degeneration of the internal organs from exposure tc the cold and privation.' The jury- returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, but complained bitterly of the neglect of the parish, and insisted, on adding to their verdict (hat the parish authorities were highly censurable for the inadequate relief given to the deceased, which was the cause of :his-death. In the other case, that of ilenry Branch, it appeared that the deceased lived and died in a loft, with no window, and in which it was impossible for a man to stand upright. In order to extricate the corpse from this den it had to be pulled by a rope" through the roof. Branch's wardrobe consisted of n pair of trousers, in rags, and his only furniture was/an old chair, " with no back to it and the bottom out." A verdict was returned accordingly, and all that can be said is that Branch's lot' wasnot more pitiable than Salter's, nor Salter's than Branch's.