The People of the Abyss

t, and forgiveness of my stomach for the vileness which I have thrust into it. I have been to t

till six, but at that early hour I was number twenty, while the news had gone forth that only twenty-two were to be admitted. By four o'clock there were thirty-four in line, the last t

cold-blooded, matter-of-fact way. I learned that the average mortality was one in six, that one of them had been in three months and the other three months and a half, and that they had been "rotten wi' it." Whereat my flesh began to creep and crawl, and I asked them how long they had been out. One had been out two weeks, and the other three weeks. Their faces were badly pitted (tho

working when smitten by the disease, and both had emerged from the hospital "broke," with the gloomy task before them of hunting

nother man-"Ginger" we called him-who stood at the head of the line-a sure indication that he had been waiting since one o'clock. A year before, one day, while in the employ o

other hospital and was patched up. But the point is, the employer did nothing, positively nothing, for the man injured in his employment, and even refused him "a light job now and again," when he came out. As far as Ginger is concerned, he is a broken man. His only chance to earn a living was by heavy work. He

y in ever having left. England had become a prison to them, a prison from which there was no hope of escape. It was impossible for them to get away.

as nothing good in it for me. To head for the coast and bend every effort to get away on a ship. To go to work, if possible, and scrape together a pound or so, with which I might bribe some steward or underling to give me chance

tates as a young fellow, and in fourteen years' residence the longest period he had been out of work was twelve hours. He

had been from 7 a.m. to 10.30 p.m., and on Saturday to 12.30 p.m.-ninety-five

d, "and I had to chuck the job. I had a little money sav

As soon as he emerged, he intended to start for Bristol, a one-hundred-and-t

opeful, who had run to meet him, could climb in. But the cart was big, the young hopeful little, and he failed in his several attempts to swarm up. Whereupon one of the most degraded-looking men stepped out of the line and hoisted him in. Now the virtue and the joy of this

t the one stray wisp of the white hair that was flying wild, deftly twirled it between his fingers, and tucked it back properly behind her ear. From all of which one may conclude many things. He certainly liked her well enough to wish her to be neat and tidy. He was proud of her, standing there in the spike line, and it was his desire

ought I, a greenhorn, might expect to earn at "hopping," he sized me up, and said that it all depended. Plenty of people were too slow to pick hops and made a failure of it. A man, to succeed, must use his head and be q

n. "It was 'is fust time, but 'e come back wi' two p

of admiration in his voice. "'E was quick

" And in addition, sleeping out without blankets and living the Lord knows how. There are moments

e me some sterling advice, to which same give heed, you soft and

Tell you wot you do, lad. Run around in the mornin' an' look in the dust pans. You'll find plenty o' tins to cook in. Fine tins, wonderful good some o' them. Me an' the ole woman got ours that way." (He pointed at the bundle she held, while she nodd

this time with the dead certainty tha

n' two or three pounds together an' fixin' up for winter. The only thing I don

h the fingers, "paddin' the 'oof," which is walking, was beginning to bear heavily upon them. And I l

he woman, because she was a woman, was admitted into the spike; but he was too la

e view commanded by their front doors and windows. One workman sat in his door directly opposite us, taking his rest and a breath of air after the toil of the day. His wife came to chat with him. The doorway was too small for two, so she stood up. Their babes sprawled before them. And here was the spike line, less than a score of feet away-neither priva

superintendent; and as I turned I was startled by a man's thrusting into my hand something that felt like a brick, and shouting into my ear, "any knives, matches, or tobacco?" "No, sir," I lied, as lied every man who e

Then I stumbled on to a still darker room, where were benches and tables and men. The place smelled vilely, and the sombr

moving their shoes and unbinding the filthy rags with which their feet were wrap

days. The pannikin contained skilly, three-quarters of a pint, a mixture of Indian corn and hot water. The men were dipping their bread into heaps of salt scattered over the

tter. This bitterness which lingered persistently in the mouth after the skilly had passed on, I found especially repulsive. I struggled manfully, but was mastered by my qualms, and

he stood me too good a

bite since yesterday

sked. "Will the bloke bo

. This is the easiest spike goin'. Y'ought

up. "This super'tendent 'ere is always writin' to the pa

s he say?

seen a mug ever do. Las' thing of 'is I see, 'e was tellin' 'ow a mug gets out o' the spike, wi' a crust in 'is pockit. An' w'en 'e sees a nice ole gentl

yarn, and from somewhere over in the deeper

e it. I jest came up from Dover, an' blessed little tommy I got.

ent," spoke a second voice, "th

I see any tommy. An' I always notices as the blokes as talks about 'ow much they can g

hey want, an' they never think o' goin' to the country. Stay in London the year 'round. N

rus verified

clever, them chaps," s

to it, I say. Them chaps 'ave ben openin' cabs an' sellin' papers since the day they was born, an' their fa

nt that there were "mugs as lives the twelvemonth 'round in the spike

es. Winter-time, an' the cold was cruel. T'other two said they'd be blessed if they do it, an' they didn't; but I kept wearin' into mine to warm up, you know. An' then the

for two or three days and nights on the streets, when they are driven in again for another rest. Of course, this continuous hardship quickly breaks

hardest problem they have to face, harder even than that of food. The inclement weather and the harsh laws are mainly responsible for this, while the men themselve

and on the floor-a beautiful scheme for the spread of vermin. Then, two by two, we entered the bathroom. There were two ordinary tubs, and this I know: the two men preceding had washed

brushed it off with a towel wet from the bodies of other men. My equanimity was not restored by s

etched, not hammocks, but pieces of canvas, six feet long and less than two feet wide. These were the beds, and they were six inches apart and about eight inches above the floor. The chief difficulty was that the head was somewhat higher than the feet, which c

skin crept and crawled till I was nearly frantic. Grunting, groaning, and snoring arose like the sounds emitted by some sea monster, and several times, afflicted by nightmare, one or another, by his shrieks and yells, aroused the lot of us. Toward morning

to scrubbing and cleaning, others to picking oakum, and eight of us were convoyed across the street to the Whitechapel Infirmary where we were

llotment was considered the best and the other men d

y," warned my working partner, as I held open a

o touch me. Nevertheless, I had to carry the sack, and other sacks, down five flights of stairs an

or use to any one, nor to themselves. They clutter the earth with their presence, and are better out of the way. Broken by hardshi

k," and I found they were all agreed that the poor person, man or woman, who in the Infirmary gave too much trouble or was in a bad way, was "polished off." That is to say, the incurables and the obstreperous were given a dose of "black jack" or the "white potio

the outside of roasted joints, bones, in short, all the leavings from the fingers and mouths of the sick ones suffering from all manner of diseases. Into this mess the men plunged their hands, digging, pawing, turning over, examining, rejecting, and s

ong disinfectant. "They was a prime lot, no end o' meat on 'em, an' I 'ad 'em into my arms an' was out the gate an' down the street, a-lookin' for some 'un to gi' 'em to. Couldn't see a soul, a

er performed outside the Abyss. It was fine of Ginger, and if the old woman caught some contagion from the "no end o' meat" on the pork-ribs, it was still f

two nights and a day; but I had seen sufficient for my purpose,

of my mates, pointing toward the open gat

fourtee

get a

said complacently. "An' another

opinion, so I was forc

back 'ere again for a

they could not comprehend; and, dodgin

ish bath, I was sweating out whatever germs and other things had penetrated my epidermis, and wish