SAD PICTURE OF LONDON DEPRAVITY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 27, 31 December 1883, Page 2

SAD PICTURE OF LONDON DEPRAVITY.

A remarkable pamphlet has just been published describing a condition of things amongst the poor m London, which it is extremely painful to contemplate. Were it not that the pamphlet^ is issued with the authority of a religious organisation, there would probahl y_ Jbe^a.dispositipn t'o_ doub t"4ts trustworthiness.*- • To-maa^, itsTrevelatious will seem incredible. They are of a character so truly awful that it would be a gross reflection upon the humanity of Englishmen to pass them by. In the very centre 'of the- metropolis, we are told, there ik a vast mass of moral corruption, of heartbreaking misery, and absolute Godlessness concealed by the thinnest crust of civilisation and decency. People live m "courts reeking with poisonous malodorous gases arising from accumulations of sewage and refuse ;'' m datk and filthy buildings with rotten staircases, and other dangers and abominations; and this, the writer of the pamphlet says, " is the befct paying property m London,.';. , Wq are told there is a family m every room of these rotten and reeking tenements, and that m some cases there are two families ; that one apartment contains father, mother, and six children, two of whom are ill with scarleo fever; that m another,, nine brothers and sisters, from 29 Years downwards, live, eat, and sleep together ; and that one mother turns her children into the street m the early evening because she lets her room tor immoral purposes until long after mid-" night. The pamphlet declares that the vilest practices are looked upon with the matter-of-fact md fferenco ; that m one street- containing 35 houses, 32 are known to be brothels ; "in another district," he' Adds, ■"' there are 43 of these houses, 428 fallen women anil girls, many of whom are not nior£ ctjhan 12 years of age. A neighborhood, the population of which is returned at 10,100, contains 400 who follow this imntoral traffic, their ages ▼a.rying from 13 to 50 ', while the moral degradation of the people is, deplorable." >In the midst of ail this pollution there are those who try to live honestly. Some of them make match boxes at 2^d a gross, finding- their own fire ior drying the boxes, paste, and string. Women employed m the work of trouser finishing — sewing m linings, making, but ton holes, and stitching on the buttonsreceive 2£d a pair, and have to find their own thread; for making men's shirts they are paid lOd a dozen, lawn tennis aprons 3d a dozen, and babies' hoods irom Is 6d to 2s 6d a dozen. Stories of terible destitution are narrated, and the whole of the revelations are of a character so shocking and distressing that if they applied to the in* habitants of a Zulu kraal or of a Bulgarian city they would create an outburst of indignation which would be beard throughput the country;. That they should exist m London is little, short of nation disgrace.