REVELATIONS OF A WORKHOUSE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 244, 20 April 1866, Page 3

REVELATIONS OF A WORKHOUSE.

— ♦ — (From the Pall Mall Gazette.) At about nine o'clock on the evening of Monday, the Bth Jan. a neat but unpretentious carriage might have been seen turning cautiously from tbe Kenningtonroad into Princes-road, Lambetb. Tbe curtains were closely drawn, and tbe coachman wore an unusually responsible air. Approaching a public-house which retreated a little from tbe street, he pulled up ; but not so close that tbe lights should fall upon the carriage door, not so distant as to unsettle tbe mind oi any one who choose to imagine that be bad baited to drink beer before proceeding to call for the children at a juvenile party. He did not dismount, nor did any one alight in tbe usual way ; but any keen observer who happened to watch bis intelligent countenance might have seen a furtive glance directed to the wrong door — that is to say, to the door of the carriage which opened into the dark and muddy road. From that door emerged a sly and ruffianly figure, marked, with every sign of squalor. He was dressed in what bad once been a snuff brown coat, but which bad faded to tbe hue oi bricks imperfectly baked. It was not strictly a ragged coat, though it bad lost its cull's — a bereavement which obliged the wearer's arms to project through the sleeves two long inelegant inches. The coat altogether was too small, and was only made to meet over the chest by means of a bit of twine. This wretched garment was surmounted by a " bird'seye pocket handkerchief of cotton wisped about tbe throat hangman fashionl ; above ail was a battered billy-cock hac with a dissolute drooping brim. Betweei the neckerchief and the lowering brim o. tbe hat appeared part of a face unshaven and not scrupulously clean. Tbe man's bands were plunged into his pockets,, anc be shuffled nastily along in boots, wbicl were tbe boots of a tramp indifferent tc miry ways. In a moment be was out o sight, and tbe brougham, after waiting i little while, turned aoout and comfortably departed. This mysterious figure was that of the present writer. He wai bound for Lambetb workhouse. Arriving at which be lifted tbe bi< knocker, and knocked ; the .door wa promptly opened, and be entered : — " What do you want ?" asked tbe mai who opened the door. " I want a lodging," " Go and stand before tbe desk," sai tbe porter ; and I obeyed. " You are late said," said tbe clerk* " Am I, Sir ?" " Yes. If you come in you'll have batb, and you'll have to Bleep in tb shed." " Very well, Sir." " What's your name ?" "Joshua Mason, Sir." " What are you ?" "An engraver.'. (This taradiddle invented to account for the look of m hands,

" Where did you sleep last night ?" "Hammersmith," I answered — as I hope to. be ..forgiven. "How many times have you been here?" " Never before, Sir." , " Where do you mean to go when you are turned out in the morning ?" " Back to Hammersmith, Sir." These humble answers being entered in a book, the clerk called to the porter, saying. " Take him through. . You may as well' take his bread with you." Near the clerk stood a basket containing some pieces of bread of equal size. Taking one of these, and unhitching a bunch of keys from the wall the porter led me through some passages all so scrupulously clean that_ my most serious misgivings were laid to rest. Then we passed into a dismal yard. Crossing this, my guide led me to a doorcalling out 'Hillo ! Daddy,. I've brought you another." Whereupon Daddy opened to us, and let a little of his gaslight stream into the dark where we stood. " Come in," said Daddy, very hospitably. " There's enough of you to-night, anyhow ! What made you so late ?" " I didn't like to come in earlier:" " Ah ! That's a pity now, because you've missed j^our skilley (gruel). It's tbe first night of skilley, don't you know, under the new act ?" " Just like my luck ! " I muttered ~ dolefully. b The' supposed casual followed Daddy s into another apartment, where there 0 were ranged three great baths, each one *i containing a liquid " disgustingly like mutton broth." Having stripped, and 3 plunged into the mutton broth, and made i up bis things'into a bundle, for which he 1 got a ticket, he proceeded, without any other rag than a checked shirt f and rug, to the sleeping place, with y naked feet in the draught of the frosty > air: — I It was not a long way, but I would 3 have given much not to have trodden it. ' It was open as the highway — with flag- [ stones below and the stars overhead, and, 3 as I said before, and cannot help saying again, a i'rosty wind was blowing. '* Straight acrosss," said Daddy, "to s where you see the light shining through. ~ Go in there, and turn to the left, and " you'll find the beds in a heap. Take one I of tbem and make yourself comfortable." And straight across I went, my naked feet seeming to cling to the stones as though they were burning hot instead of * icy cold (they had just stepped out of a bath you should remember) , till I reached s the space through which the light was ' shining, and I entered it. No language with which I am acquainted, is capable of conveying an adequate conception of the spectacle I then encountered. Imagine a space of about 30 feet by 30 feet enclosed on three sides by a dingy whitewashed wall, and roofed with naked tiles which were furred with the damp and filih that reeked r within. As for the fourth side of the shed, it was boarded in for (say) a third of its breadth ; the remaining space being 1 hung with flimsy canvas, in which was a • gap two feet wide at the top, widening to ■-, at least four feet at bottom. This far too } airy shed was paved with stone, tbe flags I so thickly inerusted with filth that I mis--3 took it first for a floor of natural earth. 1 Extending from one end of the bed-room 3 to the other, in three rows, were certain \ 3 iron " cranks " of which I subsequently learnt the use), with their many arms ' raised in various attitudes, as the stiffened arms of men are on a battlefield. My 3 bedfellows lay among the cranks, distrib uted over the flagstones in a double row r , ; on narrow bags scantily stuffed with hay. j At one glance my appalled vision took in 30 of them— 3o men and boys stretched r upon shalloAV pallets with but six inches 3 of comfortable hay between tbem and the l stony floor. These beds were placed close j together, every occupant being provided j with a rug like that which I was fain hug I across my shoulders. In not a few case i two gentlemen had clubbed beds and rugs l and slept together. In one case (to be 1 farther mentioned presently) four gentlel men had clubbed together. Many of my f fellow casuals were awake — others asleep t or pretending to sleep ; and, shocking as b were the walking ones to look upon, they L were quite pleasant when compared with 3 the sleepers. For this reason, the practised 3 and well-seasoned casual seems to have a s peculiar way in putting himself to bed. j Me rolls himself in his rug, tucking himself 1 in, bead and feet, so that he is completely - enveloped ; and, lying quite still on his „ pallet, he looks precisely like a corpse t covered because of its bideousness. Some i were stretched out at full length ; some i lay nose and knees together ; some with f an arm or leg showing crooked through l, the coverlet. It was like tbe result of a s railway accident ; these ghastly figures I were awaiting the coroner. To sleep here was impossible, notwith,f standing the kindly aid of Daddy, who a came in to see bow things were going on. y Daddy gave bim bis bread, which be bad s forgotten to take, and which he divided s with a young fellow who asked it of bim. o. The young lad bad no sooner eaten the is bread than he began to swear with frightful imprecations that he was going n to have a smoke, and immediately put his threat into execution. Thereupon his _, fellows sat up and lit their pipes too : — But ho !'. if tbey bad only smoked — if tbey bad not taken such an unfortunate fancy to spit at the leg of a crank distant a a few inches from my head, how^ much Le misery and apprehension would have been spared me. To make matters worse tbey ' united with tbis American practice an Eastern one : as tbey smoked they related little biographical anecdotes — so abominable that three or four decent men who I lay at the further end of tbe shed were so ry provoked that they threatened, unless the talk abated in fiithiness, to. get up and

stop it by main force. Instantly, the voice of every blackguard in the room was raised against the decent ones. They were accused of loathsome afflictions, stigmatised " as fighting men out of work" . (which must be something very humiliating, I suppose), and invited to '* a round " by boys young enough to be their grandsons. For several minutes there was such a storm of oaths, threats, and taunts —such a deluge of foul words raged in the room— that I could not help thinking of the fate of Sodom ; as, indeed, I did several times during the night. Little by little the riot died out, without even the slightest interference on the part of the officers. Soon afterwards the ruffian majority was strengthened by the arrival of a lanky boy of about 15, who evidently recognised many acquaintances, and was recognised by them as " Kay," oi perhaps " K." .— He was a very remarkable-looking lad, and his appearance pleased me much. Short as his hair was cropped, it still looked soft and silky; he had large blue eyes, set wide apart, and a mouth that would have been faultless but for its great width ; and his voice was as soft and as sweet as any woman's. Lightly as a woman, too, he picked his way over the stones towards the place where the beds lay, carfully hugging bis cap beneath his aim. " What cheer, Kay ?" " Out again, then, old son !" " What yer got in yer cap, Kay?" cried his friends; to which the sweet voice replied, " Who'll give me part of his doss (bed) ?: my eyes and limbs if I ain't perishin' ! Who'll let me turn in with him for half my toke" (bread) ? I feared how it would be ! The hungry young fellow who had so readily availed himself of half my " toke " snapped at Kay's offer, and after a little re-arrangement and bed-making, four young fellows instead of three reposed upon the hay -bags at my head. " You was too late for skilley, Kay. There's skilley now, nights as well as mornins." " Don't you tell no bleedin lies," Kay answered, incredulously. " Blind me, itfs true. Ain't it, Punch ?" " Eight you are !" said Punch, " and spoons to eat it with, that's more ! There use to be spoons at all the houses one time. Poplar used to have 'em ; but one at a time they was all nicked, don't you know." ("Nicked" means "stolen," obviously.) " Well, I don't want no skilley, leastways not to-night," said Eay. " I've had some rum. Two glasses of it ; and blow out of pudding' — regier Christmas plum pudding.' You dot know the cove as give it me, but, thinks I this morning when I come out, blessed I don't go and see my old chum. Lordatruth ! he was struck ! ' Come along,' he ses, ' I saved you some puddm,' from Christmas.' ' Whereabouts is it ? I ses. ' In that box under my. bed,' he says, and he forks it. That's the sort of pal to have ! And he stood a quartern, and half a nounce of hard-up (tobacco). .That wasn't all, neither ; when I come away, ses he, ' How about your beaklus'?' ' Oh, I shall do, ses I. ' You take some of my bread and butter,' he ses, and he cuts me off four chunks buttered thick. I eat tw r o on 'em comin' along." " What's in you cap, Kay. ?" repeated the devourer of " toke." " Them other two slices," said Kay ; generously adding,' 'There, share 'em ainongt yer, and somebody gave us a wiif lof'uaccu." Kay told stories of thieves and thieving, and of a certain " silver cup " he had been " put up to," and that be meant to nick it 'afore the end of the week, if he got seven stretch (? years for it.) °The cup was worth ten quid (*? pounds), and he knew where to melt it within ten minutes of nicking it : — He made this statement without any modulation of his sweet voice, and the others .received it as seric us fact. Nor was there any affectation of secrecy in another gentleman, who announced, with great applause, that he had stolen a towel . from the bath-room ; " And s'help me, it's as good as new ; never been washed more'n once ! " " Tell us a 'rummy ' story, Kay," said somebody ; and Kay did. He told stories of 30 "rummy" a character that the decent men at the further end of the room (some of whom Lad their own little boys sleeping with them) must hav|> lain in a sweat of horror as they listened. Indeed, when Kay broke into a "rummy" song with a roaring chorus, one of the decent men rose in his bed and swore that he would smash Kay's head if he didn't desist. But Kay sang on till he and his admirers were tired of the enter-

i tainment.. "Now," said he, "let's have 3 a swearing club ! yeu'll all be in it ? " t The principle of this game seemed to , rest on the impossibility of either of the ' young gentlemen making half-a-dozen ob- - servations without introducing a blasp hemous or obscene word ; and either the . basis is a very sound one, or for the sake 3 of keeping the " club " alive, the members 3 purposely made slips. The penalty for i " swearing " was a punch on any part of j the body, except a few which the club 1 rules protected. The game was highly successful. Warming with the sport, and indifferent to punches, the members vied " with each other in audacity, and in a few 3 minutes Bedlam in its prime could 3 scarcely have produced such a spectacle 3 as was to be seen in the beds behind me. One rule of the club was that any word 5 to be found in the Bible might be used ' with impunity, and if one member r "punched " another for such a word the error was to be visited upon, him with a double punching all round. This natu- ' rally led to much argument, for in vindi- [ eating the' Bible as his authority a mem- > ber became sometimes so much heated as I to launch into a flood, of "real swearing," , which brought the fists of the club upon [ his naked carcase as quick as hail. l These and other pastimes beguiled the » time until the church chimes tolled 12. 5 After this the noise gradually subsided, J and it seemed as though everybody was going to sleep at last : — I should have mentioned that during i the story -telling and song-singing a few » " casuals " had dropped in, but they 5 habitues, and cuddled down with their : rugs over their heads without a word to ' anyone. I ' In a little while all was quiet, save for r the flapping of the canvas curtain in the ' night breeze, the snoring and the horrible, ' indescribable sound of impatient hands '• scratching skins that itch. There was L another sound of very frequent occurrence, and that was the clanking of the tin pannikin against the water pail. > Whether it is in the nature of workhouse bread or skilley to provoke thirst is ' more than my limited experience entitles me to say, but it may be truthfully asserted that once at least in the course of i 5 minutes might be heard a rustling of ■ straw, pattering of feet, and then the - noise of water dripping, and then was to * be seen at the pail the figure of a man l (sometimes stark naked) gulping down ' the icy water as he stood upon the icy stones. '■'■■- ■ At 1 o'clock occurred a still further com- [ plication of misery to the amateur casual ; 10 more men appeared : — In they came at* the rent in the canvas - — great hulking ruffiians, some with rugs and nothing else, and some with shirts and nothing else, and all madly swearing because, coming in after 11 o'clock, there was no " toke " for them. As soon as these wrathful men had advanced to the middle of the shed they made the discovery that there was insufficient number of beds — only three, indeed, for ten competitors. " Where's the beds ? D'ye hear, Daddy ? You blessed, truth-telling old person, where's the beds ?" : " You'll find 'em. Some of 'em is lying on two, -or got 'em as pillows. You'll find 'em." With a sudden rush our new friends plunged among the sleepers, trampling over them, cursing their eyes and limbs, • dragging away their rugs ; and if by chance they found some poor wretch who had been tempted to take two beds (or bags) instead of one, they cooly hauled bim out and took possession. There was no denying them and no use in remonstrating. They evidently knew that they were at liberty to do just as they liked, and tbey took full advantage of the i privilege. One of thorn came up to me, aud shouting, " I want that you ," snatched at my "bird's-eye " nightcap and carried it off. There was a bed close Ito mine which contained only one occupant, and into this one of the new comers slipped without a word o warning, driving its lawful owner against the wall to make room. Then he sat up in his bed for a moment, savagely venting i his disappointment as to "toke," and declaring that never before in his life had . he felt the need of it so much. This was my opportunity. Slipping' my^ hand : under my bed, I withdrew that judiciously \ hoarded piece of bread and respectfully s offered ito him. He snapped at it with i thanks. By the time the churches were chiming ' two matters had once more adjusted > themselves, and silence reigned to be diss turbed only by drinkers at the pail, or s such as, otherwise prompted, stalked into j the open yard. Kay, for one, visited it, - I mention this unhappy young wretch

particularly, because he went out without a single rag" to bis back. I looked out at the rent in the canvas, and saw the frosty moon shining on him. When he returned, and crept down between Punch. and another, he muttered to himself, " Warm again ! Oh, my Gr — d ! warni again! . Tbe amateur " casual " persevered and went bravely through t_9 night, got his clothes back again, went through the form of breakfasting off bread and ' skilley," and took his share at the Crank labor which is ; demanded of every grown-up casual before leaving in the morning. He thus describes the breakfast : — A baker'-s man appeared with a great wooden tray piled up with just such slices of bread as we had received overnight Tbe tray was consigned to an able-bodied casual, who took his place with tbe taskmaster at tbe shed door;---and then in single file we re-entered the shed, each man and boy receiving a slice as he passed in. The bread devoured, a clamor for ' skilley,' began. The rumor bad got abroad that •on this morning, and all future mornings, there would be skilley at breakfast, and " Skilley ! skilley !" resounded through the shed. No one had hinted that it was not forthcoming, but skilley seems to be thought an extraordinary concession, and after waiting only a few minutes for it, tbey attacked tbe taskmaster in the fiercest manner. They called bim thief, sneak and "crawler." Little boys blackguarded him in gutter language, and looking him in the face, consigned bim to hell without nmcMng. He never uttered a reply, or showed a sign of impatience ; and whenever be was obliged to speak it was quite without temper. There was a loud " hooray !" when the longed-for skilley appeared in two pails, in one of which floated a small tin saucepan' with a .stick thrust into its handle, by way of a ladle. Yellow pint basins were provided for use, and large iron ; . spoons. " Eange round the walls !" the taskmaster shouted. We obeyed with the^ utmost alacrity; and then what I should judge ,to be about three-fourths of- a pint of gruel was handed to each of us as we stood. I was glad to' get mine, . because the basin that contained it was warm, and my hands were numb with cold. . I tased a spoonful, as in dutybound, and wondered more than ever at the esteem in 'which it was held by my confreres. It was a weak decoction of oatmeal and water, bitter, and without even a pinch of salt to flavor it — that I could discover. But it was hot ; and on that account, perhaps, was so highly relished that I bad no difficulty in per- ' suading one of tbe decent men to accept my sbare. It was now- past eight o'clock, and a certain quantity of labor bad to be performed by each man before. he was.allowed to go bis way. The labor was to be " crank " labor :— Tbe " cranks " are a series" of iron bars extending across the width of the shed, penetrating through the wall, and working a flour-mill on. the other side. Turning the " crank " is like turning a windlass. Tbe task is not a severe one. But tbe grind__tj are as lazy as obscene. At east one-half tbe gang kept their hands from tbe crank whenever- the miller was absent, and betook themselves to their private amusements and pursuits. Some sprawled upon the beds and smoked; some engaged themselves and their friends in tailoring, and one turned haireutter for • tbe benefit of a gentleman- who, unlike Kay, bad not just come put of prison.Other loungers strolled about with their - hands in their pockets, discussing the topics, of the day, and playing practicaljokes on the industrious few. The consequence of all this was that the cranks went round at a very slow, rate, and now and then stopped altogether. Then the miller came in; the loungers rose from their couches, the tailors ceased stitching, the smokers dropped their pipes, 'and every fellow was at his post. The cranks spun round furiously again, the miller's I expostulation being drowned amidst a shout of " Slap bang, here we are again !" ' or this extemporised chorus : — We'll hang up the miller on a sour apple tre£ We'll hang up the miller on a sour apple tree, We'll hang up the miller on a sour apple tree, And then go grinding on. G-lory, glory, Hallelujah, Ac. &c. The writer of tbis remarkable narrative adds, in conclusion, "I have some horrors for Mr Farnall's private ear (should he like to learn about tbem) infinitely more revolting than anything that appears is these papers."