THE SPECTRE OF FAMINE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14327, 12 April 1912, Page 7

THE SPECTRE OF FAMINE.

FIRELESS HEARTHS.

A SKETCH OF POVERTY IN ENGLAND.

Tho following sketch of poverty in tho Old Country is taken from a "Daily Telegraph" to hand yesterday. It must be borne in mind that it was written in tho early days of the strike, after which the distress would becomo much more acute. The article was written in Birmingham by a special correspondent of the paper.

"If you like to como with mc," said a young Black Country doctor, "yon can see how things aro for yourself. I'm starting on my rounds now." 1 accepted, and we stepped out into tho rain.

Wo struggled through driving showers until we dived suddenly into a black alleyway. Mean houses with dismal brick fronts ran in parallel lines down two sides of it, joyless and sordid except for an occasional window where ono had sight of a fern or plant in a pot, welcome as an oasis in Sahara. My companion pressed the latch of ono of tho houses, and we entered.

It was a low-roofed wood-ceiled room —my head almost touched tho roof as I stood. There was no furnitnro in it beyond a sort of wooden bench with .a high unyielding back, common in Black Country houses, a chair or so, and a second bench by tho fire. On this a woman sat waiting for the doctor. Her foot troubled her, she said. "Y'ou've got a fire, I'm glad to see." said tho doctor. "It's about the last," sho said, "if tho strike goes on." There was no sign of food anywhere. "Pretty wretched, isn't it?" said my friend. He looked at the foot, prescribed, and we went out. Through mud and rain, by black courts, with black pools filling as we passed, we ploughed a miry way. At length wo stopped at another house- "There's a miner's wifo here," said tho doctor. It was in a poorer quarter this, and the rooms were even more barely furnished. The mother was still in tho twenties, and the bloom in her cheeks had not yet faded. She was nursing a fretting child. "He's boen in pain all night," she said. Threo other children appoarcd, from nowhere it seemed.

The doctor sounded the child, and whilo ho was sounding it asked the woman about her husband.

He's been trying to get back to work again." she replied, "but they won't let him. I wish he could get back. Ho went yesterday and the dny before, but it's no use. I don't know what we're going to do. I paid 6d for a quarter of coal this morning, and it's perished coal to look at it." In tho next house we visited. . . . tho patient, who was suffering from bronchitis, lamented tho strike with bitterness. Sho said:

"My son in Derbyshire writes to mc: 'Dear mother. I can't help yon now. 'cause I only has my strike pay.' And 'o can't neither; lies his own family to keep. And I want help, I do. I. can t get the things I need with having to pay the price for coal. I have to keep a bit of fire on with this complaint." I had not been nwaro of the fire, but I look eel and discerned, in a grate of tho dimensions cf a toy fan. a glimmer, through grey ashes. "Doesn't seem much," said the woman, "but I dasen't poke it. Not with coal at the prico it is." In the next of these habitations of tho poor there sat by the littlo fire a woman over whom the hand of death was stretched. She held up an arm no thicker than a bamboo canC. "Cancer." said the doctor, briefly. "Starving and clemmed to death, I am." sho eaid to us. ''God help in this house if tho strike lasts. We can't buy foorl and coal." Her daughter sat beside her, cowering over thc hearth. After that wo passed through yet another black court, in which hens and ciiodren strayed, and a duck slipped out when we lifted the latch to enter our next house. There was an empty grate here- The -master," by which name in the Black Country a husband is sought to be denominated, came forward to meet us. "We don't run to two fires, he explained. 'Ihe missus; is up there (pointing to the stairs) with the little ono fhats just come, and they need all the coal." The tare might; be multiplied and made' grimmer reading still by selecting cases, but tho tour was not made with such a purpose. Enough has been said, perhaps, to conjure up the picture of what i.s net every day just now througnout the country' hy doctors who practise among the poor. In all the houses we saw there was a positive dread of thc horrors that a strike would bring. Every woman and every man prayed that' it -would end soon- lor the spectre of famine laces them it it does not end. of death through cold and hunger. Even now they are just

able to keep their heads above water; ii they are thrust under they must sink. The following additional subscriptions in aid of tho above have been received at the Christchurch office of "The Profs": — ■ £ s. d. Previously acknowledged 421 ■17 8| "Starvation to all Agitators" ... ... 0 2 <H E.H.C. ... 1 0 0 Avon ... ... ... 5 0 0 J. Field ... 0 10 O Helper ... 010 tf ' Collect eel by J.B- - I 9 a "A Friend "of the Poor" 010 0 J.N 0 10 O Charlie and Walter ... 0 2 5 X.P... 0 5 0 E.E ... 0 3 0 "A Friend." Hombv... 0 2 0 "A Friend'" ... ' ... 0 3 6 WG.B. ' ... 10 0 A.F.E. 0 5 v •■Sunshine" ... ... 0 5 0 Sydenham Schoo! ... 312 71 Ah Pea 10 0 MS.H. O 5 0 N.Z. 0 2 0 Bebe ami Nancy ... 0 2 0 Erie::'s " 0 6 0 X.C.li. O 6 0 B.L.R. ... ... 0 1 0 Victorian 0 2 6 H.C.D. 0 10 0 Two Friends 0 5 0 B.S.S 0 5 0 F.L.S. ... ... 0 3 0 Christchurch ... ... 0 6 6 R.S.M. 0 2 0 A.L. 0 10 0 A. and M.H.W. ... 015 0 Girls High School, pupils and teachers 13 10 0 Employees Beath and Co. 7 10 Pensioner 1 0 0 Mrs J. L- Bell ... 10 0 G.R. and G.A 0 5 0 C.B. ... ... 010 0 M.H.D. 0 10 0 Mrs Chrvstall 10 0 G.D. 0 3 0 Anonymous ... 0 3 0 .Anonymous 0 10 0 W. J. Cresswell and family 5 0 0 A.H.C•'■ 1 0 0 Anonymous ... ... 0 5 0 C.E. ' T 5 0 W. Howarth 0 2 6 Two Enjlish Girls ... 015 O Mrs C.W.F. 110 C.W.R 110 D.D.B. ... ... 0 10 0 Mrs Waterman -•■• 0 7 6 L.H.0.5.. Waikari ... 0 2 6 IC. J. Herdman, Waikari 0 2 0 S.T.. P.P.. W. 8.. and H.T. ... 110 H. 0 3 0 Total on Christchurch office list ISO 14 8* Kaiapoi Agency:— Previously acknowledged 017 6 J.H ... 0 8 0 Total Kaiapoi office ... 1 5 6 Ashburton Agency:— Previously acknowledged 5 611 Rangiora Agency:— Previously acknowledged 010 0 Lytteiton Agency:— Previously acknowledged 2 5 0 Grand total of "The Press" fund to date 400 2 H (PRESS ASSOCIATION! TELE-BAM.) INVERCARGILL, April 11. Thc "Southland Times" fund in aid of tho stnrving strike children in Great Britain has reached £200.