Identifier: eastlondon00besa (find matches)
Title: East London
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Besant, Walter, Sir, 1836-1901
Subjects: Poor
Publisher: New York, The Century Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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or a whole pint may behad for a penny. In the evening their favorite supper isthe dish familiarly known as haporth and haporth—thatis, fish and potatoes at a halfpenny each. So far their lifeis healthy, with plenty of work and plenty of food, and, inmost cases, strong drink is neither desired nor taken. Thecraving for drink comes later. The dangerous time of lifeis the age when the boy passes into manhood. Then thesimple meals at the coffee-house no longer suffice. Then itbecomes necessary to have beer, and beer in ever-increasingquantities. Then the boy grows out of his work; he becomestoo big to carry beer for the bargees or to go round with thenewspapers, or to sit at the back of the van, or to carryabout cabbages in a basket. What is he to do next ? There are, even for a grown man, many situations whichdemand no training and no apprenticeship. In all the ware-houses, in the great shops, in offices of every kind, there arewanted men to fetch and carry, to load and unload, to pack
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East Londun Loafers THE KEY OF THE STREET 171 and unpack. In the docks there are wanted troops of mento load and to unload. In the markets and on the railwaysthere are wanted men to carry and to set out the goods. Inevery kind of business servants must be had to do that partof the work which requires no skill. Unfortunately thesupply is greater than the demand. There are many ladswho get into the service of companies, railways, or facto-ries, and remain in steady work all their working lives inthe same employment. There are, on the other hand, agreat number who have to hang about on the outskirts ofregular work, who are taken on in times of pressure andfind it difficult to get work when times are slack; theseare the men who become the casual hands; these are themen who hang about the dock-gates and loaf round streetcorners. The process of degeneration by which the promising ladsinks into the casual hand is easy to follow. The work, whatever it may be, is finished at half-past sixor se

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