One Home,
Without A Window, No Floor But The Ground, Not A Chair Or Table, Dark
With Smoke, And So Small That We, Standing On The Floor, Took Up All The
Available Room, Paid A Rent Of $16 Per Year, Paid Weekly.
The husband
was out of work, the wife kept a stall on market days, and sold sweets
and cakes on commission.
Another hovel, divided into two apartments like stalls in a horse
stable, a ladder leading up to a loft where an old gate and some
indescribably filthy boards separated it into another two apartments,
accommodated four families. The rent of the whole was $52 per year, paid
weekly. One of the inmates of this tenement, an old, old man, whose
clothing was shreds and patches, excused himself from going into the
workhouse by declaring that there were bad car-ack-ters in there, while
he and his father before him were ever particular about their company.
Children, like the field daisy, abound everywhere. In one hovel a brand
new baby lay in a box, and another scarcely able to walk toddled about,
and a lot more, like a flock of chickens, were scattered here and there.
In one of these homes a small child was making a vigorous attempt to
sweep the floor. On asking for her mother, the little mite said, "She is
away looking for her share." This is the popular way of putting a name
on begging.
One inhabitant made heather brooms, or besoms, as they are called here.
He goes to the mountain, cuts heather, draws it home on his back, makes
the besoms, and sells them for a halfpenny apiece.
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