f to me the parting with
one thing after another, but I go on hoping for better days that I may
regain them; alas! many are now beyond recall.

"The parish doctor has been suggested again, but I feel I would
rather die than submit, after all this long struggle and holding out,
especially, as I have been able to keep things a little near the mark;
when they get beyond me, rather than debt I must give in!

"Still, I hope for better days, and trust things will brighten for me
and others, for God knows there are many silent sufferers ebbing their
lives away, plodding and struggling with life's battle. My heart bleeds
for them, yet I am powerless to help them or myself."

Time and space do not avail, or I could tell story after story of such
lives, for in the underworld they are numerous enough. Who can wonder
that some of them "are made bitter by misfortune"? Who can wonder that
others "are driven to wrong"? Who can be surprised that "many drift
into lives of hopeless uselessness"? Surely our friend knew what she was
talking about, in the underworld though she be. She sees that there are
deeps below the depths, that she herself is in. Though ill, starving and
hopeless about her own future, she is troubled for others, for she adds,
"since I have known the horror of this life, my heart goes out to others
that are enduring it."

Now this class of woman is not much in evidence till the final
catastrophe comes, when the doors of a one-roomed home are closed
against them. Even then they do not obtrude themselves on our
observation, for they hide themselves away till the river or canal gives
up its dead.

But it is not every woman that maintains such a high tone, for once in
the underworld the difficulty of personal cleanliness confronts them,
and dirt kills self-respect. Poverty makes them acquainted with both
physical and moral dirt, and the effect of one night in a shelter or
lodging-house is often sufficient to destroy self-respect and personal
cleanliness for life.

I am quite sure that I am voicing the opinion of all who have knowledge
of the underworld in which such women are compelled to live, when I say
that the great want in London and in all our large towns is suitable
and well-managed lodging-houses under municipal control and inspection,
where absolute cleanliness and decency can be assured. Lodging-houses to
which women in their hour of sore need may turn with the certainty
that their self-respect will not be