Then all with one accord began to make excuse. It was the difficulty of book-keeping, they said. It appeared they were prepared to stint the poor rather than add to the book-keeping.
From that day an improved dietary scale was introduced into our workhouses. The man who fed the poor in Poplar saw the workhouse poor of the kingdom better fed in consequence.
What kind of food was it that Poplar dared to give to the poor? Those "luxuries for paupers" down at Poplar, about which the world was to hear so much, what were they? A working-man had appeared, and after years of unwearied well-doing had got rid of "skilly" and "greasy water," substituting, with the approval of two Presidents of the Local Government Board, the following simple articles of food.
Observe the list carefully, for the kinds and quantities of food here set out were precisely those supplied to the able-bodied inmates during the outcry that arose over "paupers' luxuries" at the time of the Local Government Board Inquiry in 1906. The list is the official return of the food supplied in one week to each inmate.
A MAN'S DIET FOR A WEEK.
(Cost, 4s. 2d.)
| Breakfasts | Bread | 3½ lbs. |
| Butter | 3½ ozs. | |
| Coffee | 7 pints. | |
| Dinners | Mutton | 13½ ozs. |
| Beef | 4½ ozs. | |
| Bacon | 3 ozs. | |
| Irish stew | 1 pint. | |
| Boiled pork | 4½ ozs. | |
| Bread | 14 ozs. | |
| Potatoes and greens | 4½ lbs. | |
| Suppers | Bread | 3½ lbs. |
| Butter | 3½ ozs. | |
| Tea | 7 pints. |
A WOMAN'S DIET FOR A WEEK.
(Cost, 4s.)