To the Master, who is the supreme authority in the workhouse, under the direction of the Board of Guardians of the parish, I explained my motives for visiting the paupers' residence, and he welcomed me with much politeness, offering me every facility to inspect the place. He was a medium sized man, of middle age, plainly dressed, and after having issued orders to several of the inmates of the establishment he prepared to accompany me through the premises. Here and there, in the walks and corridors, and courts of the workhouse, we met with an occasional pauper, the males in a grey, rough, shoddy uniform, and the women in check or plaid gowns, of a coarse cotton material, and wearing caps of a faded whiteness upon their heads.
They all had a vacant, listless look, and seemed lost in astonishment to see a stranger with the Master, to whom they made the most servile of salutations.
I had seen, in my travels on the English railways, when I sought the not very wholesome refuge of the third class carriages to study character—just such poor, faded-looking people, among the families journeying wearily to their various destinations, as these poor old relics, who were now clustering around the workhouse tea tables. Oh, God! how lonely they looked, and distant from all human kind. The same wan, woe-begone faces, but more quiet and reserved than those I saw in the close railway cars devoted to poor people.
Smoking is a common thing in these crowded and close carriages, and delicate women, and puny, weak children, are forced to travel for hundreds of miles in these cattle boxes—I cannot call them aught else—until they are sometimes known to vomit from the bad air and worse stenches.
Making inquiries of this gentleman as I went through the buildings, I may as well give his explanations of workhouse life, and of the condition of the poor and destitute of London. I freely admitted to him that I had heard very strange stories in regard to the treatment, food, and medical attendance of the paupers in the Unions, and that I would be obliged to him if he could clear up my reasonable doubts on many points.
SUGAR AND TEA.
In answer to one of these doubts the Master took me into a large, long and clean-looking room, in which were about forty female paupers. These women were engaged in getting supper for themselves, and were all above middle age, and haggard-looking.
A THIRD CLASS RAILWAY CARRIAGE.