ely found.

Mr. A. C. Pigou has said that the aged poor, and the residuum which
compose the "submerged tenth," constitute 71 per cent, of the population
of London. Which is to say that last year, and yesterday, and to-day, at
this very moment, 450,000 of these creatures are dying miserably at the
bottom of the social pit called "London." As to how they die, I shall
take an instance from this morning's paper.

SELF-NEGLECT

Yesterday Dr. Wynn Westcott held an inquest at Shoreditch, respecting
the death of Elizabeth Crews, aged 77 years, of 32 East Street,
Holborn, who died on Wednesday last. Alice Mathieson stated that she
was landlady of the house where deceased lived. Witness last saw her
alive on the previous Monday. She lived quite alone. Mr. Francis
Birch, relieving officer for the Holborn district, stated that
deceased had occupied the room in question for thirty-five years. When
witness was called, on the 1st, he found the old woman in a terrible
state, and the ambulance and coachman had to be disinfected after the
removal. Dr. Chase Fennell said death was due to blood-poisoning from
bed-sores, due to self-neglect and filthy surroundings, and the jury
returned a verdict to that effect.

The most startling thing about this little incident of a woman's death is
the smug complacency with which the officials looked upon it and rendered
judgment. That an old woman of seventy-seven years of age should die of
SELF-NEGLECT is the most optimistic way possible of looking at it. It
was the old dead woman's fault that she died, and having located the
responsibility, society goes contentedly on about its own affairs.

Of the "submerged tenth" Mr. Pigou has said: "Either through lack of
bodily strength, or of intelligence, or of fibre, or of all three, they
are inefficient or unwilling workers, and consequently unable to support
themselves . . . They are often so degraded in intellect as to be
incapable of distinguishing their right from their left hand, or of
recognising the numbers of their own houses; their bodies are feeble and
without stamina, their affections are warped, and they scarcely know what
family life means."

Four hundred and fifty thousand is a whole lot of people. The young
fireman was only one, and it took him some time to say his little say. I
should not like to hear them all talk at once. I wonder if God hears
them?

CHAPTER V--THOSE ON THE E