a where the bulk of the people live onerous lives, and manfully
perform their duties, we allow a host of parasites to thrive and swarm.

The more this host increases, the weaker the nation becomes, and its
existence may ultimately become not a sign of freedom but a proof of
national decay. For parasites thrive on weakly life, be it individual
or national. So while we have a profound pity for the nomads, let us
express it with a strong hand. They cannot care for themselves in any
decent way. Let us care for them, and detain them in places that will
allow permanent detention and segregation. And the results will be
surprising, for prisons will be less numerous, workhouses, casual wards
and asylums less necessary, lazar houses with their pestilential breath
will pass away, and England will be happier, sweeter and more free!

CHAPTER V. FURNISHED APARTMENTS

What fell power decreed that certain streets in London should be devoted
to the purpose of providing "furnished apartments" for the submerged
I do not know. But I do know that some streets are entirely devoted to
this purpose, and that a considerable amount of money is made out of
such houses.

I ask my readers to accompany me for a visit to one of these streets,
and make some acquaintance with the houses, the furniture and the
inhabitants.

The particular streets we select run at a right-angle from a main
thoroughfare, a railway divides them from a beautiful park, and on this
railway City merchants pass daily to and from their suburban homes.

I question whether in the whole of London more misery, vice and poverty
can be found located in one limited area than in the streets we are
about to visit. I know them, and I have every reason for knowing them.
We make our visit in summer time, when poverty is supposed to be less
acute. As we enter the street we notice at once that a commodious
public-house stands and thrives at the entrance. We also notice
that there are in the street several "general" shops, where tea and
margarine, firewood, pickles, paraffin oil and cheese, boiled ham and
vinegar, corned beef and Spanish onions, bread and matches are to be
obtained.

We stand in the middle of the roadway, in the midst of dirt and refuse,
and look up and down the street. Innumerable children are playing in
the gutter or on the pavements, and the whole place teems with life. We
observe that the houses are all alike, the shops excepted. They stand
three-storey high;