MORE HORRORS FROM CLERKENWELL.

Timaru Herald, Volume V, Issue 110, 16 June 1866, Page 3

MORE HORRORS FROM CLERKEN WELL.

The pest-houses of Clerkenwell are as revolt-ingly-unfit for sleeping-places as when we commented on them last. On Sunday evening forty men ami women were crammed into wards with nominal accommodation for thirty, and, having been locked up m the dark, were left to scramble or fight for room as they thought tit. At 9.30 p. m. the padlock was, at our request, removed from the door of the ward, on the western side of the yard, and, after borrowing a workhouse lantern from a pauper attendant, we walked to its extreme end. It was but a few paces, yet we aro unable to fully describe the scene, from physical inability to remain m the foul effluvia we met. The instant the door opened a chorus of complaints was ottered np by the occupants of the buuks, who were lying perfectly naked upon straw matresses, with a single nig over them. A division between each sleeping place lias been put np, as ail vised by Mr. Farnall; but these divisions are made to aggravate the very evils they are designed to prevent. In many of the narrow spaces partitioned off for one person, there were, on Sunday, two naked tramps lying, their bodies m such close contact as to look like one many-legged double-headed monstrosity rather than two human beings. When asked why they took oil' their shirts, tlie reply was the same as at our previous visit : " It's impossible to keep them on for— (imectt)." Ko shirt or substitute for shirt is provided by the workhouse, no bath is given, and no work enforced Two st.npidlooking dazed youths had not succeeded m forcing themselves into ouo of the already occupied bunks, or m rinding room to lie down, anil were now sitting patiently m the dark, at the feet of their more fortunate brethren. They neither looked at the faces of those coming m, nor spoke, nor moved, but followed the lantern with hungry eyes, as if its light conveyed some dim sense of warmth and comfort. Meanwhile, those m bed clamoured loudly on the insulficiency of straw m the mattresses ; the impossibility of sleeping two m a bed ; the cold, the insects, and the thinness of the rugs. Accepting an invitation to see "the sort o' thing a poor mail had to lie on who would have to louk for work to morrow," we passed to the far end of the closet. It was impossible to stay there. Ko one had conipluiued of the smell, but the foul, acrid stench of human bodies and human breath was so overpowering that it was with some difficulty we struggled" against nausea and dizziness, and made for °the door. This was re-locked, whilu the people within growled and shouted, and finally kicked at it, and were left to wallow iv the d.-nkncss ami tilth, like so many obscene animals who were disgusting to others aud hateful to themselves. Crossing the narrow yard and descending a few steps, we are at the door of the cellar where the remaining male tramps are lying. This unlocked and opened, the first object the light from the lantern falls on, is the figure of a perfectly naked man, who has just succeeded m opening his cellar-window. This forlorn being goes back to his lair, and, wrapping his rug round him. cowers down m a corner, m a manner horribly suggestive of a wild beast. " We're bein' poisoned^' "We can't breathe for the bad smelL" "Turn out the man with the sore leg," " Here's another one with fever," were shouted out ; it was found that the window had been opened and the disturbance made becau&e the dreadful noisome condition of one casual made Ids presence dangerously offensive even to the obtuse senses of the poor wretches round. He was an. old feeble creature, who had gone to bed m his clothes, and who promptly turned up his trouseas when asked what he suffered from. A foul and dirty bandage, saturated with matter and discoloured with blood, concealed his sore, the rankj putrescent smell of which filled the atmosphere of the ward. Bad as the stench of the first sleeping place was, it became insignificant when contrasted with this; while the closely-packed naked figures, and squalid room, and the darkness, made np an aggregate of disgusting horrors exceeding anything yet revealed of any other workhouse m England. The man with the bad leg eagerly availed himself of an offer to be taken into the house, and was removed to the receiving ward. Shake-downs were ordered for the two lads ; the casual ac-

cused of fever denied the charge, and so was again locked up with the rest, and who were left to squabble for room, to swear, to recriminate, and to inhale the shockingly poisonous'air until the morning. — Daily Xews.