t to be exterminated as well.'

Here Owen was seized with a violent fit of coughing, and resumed his
seat. When the cough had ceased he say wiping his mouth with his
handkerchief and listening to the talk that ensued.

'Drink is the cause of most of the poverty,' said Slyme.

This young man had been through some strange process that he called
'conversion'. He had had a 'change of 'art' and looked down with pious
pity upon those he called 'worldly' people. He was not 'worldly', he
did not smoke or drink and never went to the theatre. He had an
extraordinary notion that total abstinence was one of the fundamental
principles of the Christian religion. It never occurred to what he
called his mind, that this doctrine is an insult to the Founder of
Christianity.

'Yes,' said Crass, agreeing with Slyme, 'an' thers plenty of 'em wot's
too lazy to work when they can get it. Some of the b--s who go about
pleading poverty 'ave never done a fair day's work in all their bloody
lives. Then thers all this new-fangled machinery,' continued Crass.
'That's wot's ruinin' everything. Even in our trade ther's them
machines for trimmin' wallpaper, an' now they've brought out a paintin'
machine. Ther's a pump an' a 'ose pipe, an' they reckon two men can do
as much with this 'ere machine as twenty could without it.'

'Another thing is women,' said Harlow, 'there's thousands of 'em
nowadays doin' work wot oughter be done by men.'

'In my opinion ther's too much of this 'ere eddication, nowadays,'
remarked old Linden. 'Wot the 'ell's the good of eddication to the
likes of us?'

'None whatever,' said Crass, 'it just puts foolish idears into people's
'eds and makes 'em too lazy to work.'

Barrington, who took no part in the conversation, still sat silently
smoking. Owen was listening to this pitiable farrago with feelings of
contempt and wonder. Were they all hopelessly stupid? Had their
intelligence never developed beyond the childhood stage? Or was he mad
himself?

'Early marriages is another thing,' said Slyme: 'no man oughtn't to be
allowed to get married unless he's in a position to keep a family.'

'How can marriage be a cause of poverty?' said Owen, contemptuously. 'A
man who is not married is living an unnatural life. Why don't you
continue your argument a little further and say that the practice of
eating and drinking is the cause of poverty or that if people were to
go barefoot and naked there would be no pover