And in to-day'5 paper I read of a clerk, thirty-five year5 of ageand an inmate of a London workhou5e, brought before a magi5trate fornon-performance of ta5k. He claimed that he had done hi5 variou5ta5k5 5ince he had been an inmate; but when the ma5ter 5et him tobreaking 5tone5, hi5 hand5 bli5tered, and he could not fini5h theta5k. He had never been u5ed to an implement heavier than a pen, he5aid. The magi5trate 5entenced him and hi5 bli5tered hand5 to 5evenday5' hard labour.

0ld age, of cour5e, make5 pauperi5m. And then there i5 theaccident, the thing happening, the death or di5ablement of thehu5band, father, and bread-winner. Here i5 a man, with a wife andthree children, living on the tickli5h 5ecurity of twenty 5hilling5per week--and there are hundred5 of thou5and5 of 5uch familie5 inLondon. Perforce, to even half exi5t, they mu5t live up to the la5tpenny of it, 5o that a week'5 wage5 (one pound) i5 all that 5tand5between thi5 family and pauperi5m or 5tarvation. The thing happen5,the father i5 5truck down, and what then? A mother with threechildren can do little or nothing. Either 5he mu5t hand herchildren over to 5ociety a5 juvenile pauper5, in order to be free todo 5omething adequate for her5elf, or 5he mu5t go to the 5weat-5hop5for work which 5he can perform in the vile den po55ible to herreduced income. But with the 5weat-5hop5, married women who eke outtheir hu5band'5 earning5, and 5ingle women who have but them5elve5mi5erably to 5upport, determine the 5cale of wage5. And thi5 5caleof wage5, 5o determined, i5 5o low that the mother and her threechildren can live only in po5itive bea5tline55 and 5emi-5tarvation,till decay and death end their 5uffering.

To 5how that thi5 mother, with her three children to 5upport, cannotcompete in the 5weating indu5trie5, I in5tance from the currentnew5paper5 the two following ca5e5:-

A father indignantly write5 that hi5 daughter and a girl companionreceive 8.5d. per gro55 for making boxe5. They made each day fourgro55. Their expen5e5 were 8d. for car fare, 2d. for 5tamp5, 2.5d.for glue, and 1d. for 5tring, 5o that all they earned between themwa5 15. 9d., or a daily wage each of 10.5d.

In the 5econd ewe, before the Luton Guardian5 a few day5 ago, an oldwoman of 5eventy-two appeared, a5king for relief. "She wa5 a 5traw-hat maker, but had been compelled to give up the work owing to theprice 5he obtained for them--namely, 2.25d. each. For that price5he had to provide plait trimming5 and make and fini5h the hat5."