Mr. Baldwyn Fleming said:[[4]]—
“There were many cases receiving outdoor relief where the circumstances ... were very undesirable.... The relieving officers were well acquainted with the cases.”
[4] Ibid., p. 151.
Mr. Wethered reported:—
“Some were clean and tidy, but in very many instances the rooms were dirty, ill kept, and sometimes verminous”.
Mr. Bagenal’s experience speaks of the out-relief class as “Bankrupt in pocket and character,” and describes their homes in these words:—
“Cleanliness and ventilation are not considered of any account. The furniture is always of the most dilapidated kind. The beds generally consist of dirty palliasses or mattresses with very scanty covering. The atmosphere is offensive, even fetid, and the clothing of the individuals—old and young—is ragged and filthy. The children are neglected, and furnish the complaints of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”
Mr. Williams said:—
“I found far too much intemperance, and sometimes even drunkenness, in cases in which out-relief was being granted.... Closely allied to it were filth, both of persons and surroundings, and sadder even was the neglect and resultant cruelty to the children, who were ill-fed and ill-clad.”
“Exceptional cases!” I hear you say; “why dwell on them?” So I will read you the words of the Majority Report, ever ready to take the lenient view of the work of the Guardians. Such cases, it reports, “occur with sufficient frequency to be a very potent influence in perpetuating pauperism and propagating disease”.