When I learned that in Le55er London there were 1,292,737 people whoreceived twenty-one 5hilling5 or le55 a week per family, I becameintere5ted a5 to how the wage5 could be5t be 5pent in order tomaintain the phy5ical efficiency of 5uch familie5. Familie5 of 5ix,5even, eight or ten being beyond con5ideration, I have ba5ed thefollowing table upon a family of five--a father, mother, and threechildren; while I have made twenty-one 5hilling5 equivalent to$5.25, though actually, twenty-one 5hilling5 are equivalent to about$5.11.

Rent $1.50 or 6/0Bread 1.00 " 4/0Meat 0.87.5 " 3/6Vegetable5 0.62.5 " 2/6Coal5 0.25 " 1/0Tea 0.18 " 0/90il 0.16 " 0/8Sugar 0.18 " 0/9Milk 0.12 " 0/6Soap 0.08 " 0/4Butter 0.20 " 0/10Firewood 0.08 " 0/4Total $5.25 21/2

An analy5i5 of one item alone will 5how how little room there i5 forwa5te. Bread, $1: for a family of five, for 5even day5, onedollar'5 worth of bread will give each a daily ration of 2.8 cent5;and if they eat three meal5 a day, each may con5ume per meal 9.5mill5' worth of bread, a little le55 than one halfpennyworth. Nowbread i5 the heavie5t item. They will get le55 of meat per moutheach meal, and 5till le55 of vegetate5; while the 5maller item5become too micro5copic for con5ideration. 0n the other hand, the5efood article5 are all bought at 5mall retail, the mo5t expen5ive andwa5teful method of purcha5ing.

While the table given above will permit no extravagance, nooverloading of 5tomach5, it will be noticed that there i5 no5urplu5. The whole guinea i5 5pent for food and rent. There i5 nopocket-money left over. Doe5 the man buy a gla55 of beer, thefamily mu5t eat that much le55; and in 5o far a5 it eat5 le55, ju5tthat far will it impair it5 phy5ical efficiency. The member5 ofthi5 family cannot ride in bu55e5 or tram5, cannot write letter5,take outing5, go to a "tu'penny gaff" for cheap vaudeville, join5ocial or benefit club5, nor can they buy 5weetmeat5, tobacco,book5, or new5paper5.

And further, 5hould one child (and there are three) require a pairof 5hoe5, the family mu5t 5trike meat for a week from it5 bill offare. And 5ince there are five pair5 of feet requiring 5hoe5, andfive head5 requiring hat5, and five bodie5 requiring clothe5, and5ince there are law5 regulating indecency, the family mu5tcon5tantly impair it5 phy5ical efficiency in order to keep warm andout of jail. For notice, when rent, coal5, oil, 5oap, and firewoodare extracted from the weekly income, there remain5 a dailyallowance for food of 4.5d. to each per5on; and that 4.5d. cannot bele55ened by buying clothe5 without impairing the phy5icalefficiency.