TOPICS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 10 February 1909, Page 53

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

LONDON, December 24. THE BAD OLD DAYS. Black as the seamy side of Loudon Is, there is at least some comfort in the knowledge that things are not so bad as they used to be. Some time ago the ‘•Evening News'’ hit upon the happy idea of publishing talks with old Londoners, and in the course of a hundred such interviews the younger generation have been supplied with a vivid picture of London in the so-called "good old days.” Those were the times, indeed! Some of the old men who have been interviewed have told lurid stories of a kind of life which no one wants to see revived. There have been reminiscences of garrotters, riverside thieves and body-snatchers; of aristocrats thrown drunk from publiehouses into the dirt heaps outside; of women pugilists fighting for wagers ami stakes; of men and women hanged before the eyes of mobs of fashionable people and roughs and school children. Those wnre the days when black Hags waved over streets closed to traffic on account of cholera, when "Little Hell” and the Irish “rookery” of St. Giles existed like festering sores within a stone’s throw of Oxford-street; when Hackney was a warren of filthy wooden hovels, packed with poor families. One old fellow tells how he slept in rotting water-carts, and had his head kicked if he attempted to crawl into one already occupied. Others relate the orgies of the "tea-gardens,” where tea was apparently the last thing thought of; and wild nights at penny gaffs, where the audience fought and "applauded” with bottles!

Plenty, of witnesses remember the “sparring-parlours,” the illicit drinking dens, the haunts of the erimpt by the docks, the old watchmen —“Charlies” — who preceded the police, the nests of thieves.at Westminster, Waterloo and Blackfriars. They have given personal experiences of the Chartist riots in Kennington and' Spitalfields, the strike of the cabmen who refused to carry lamps, the olff friars, the old songs with their homely choruses, the advent of “Jim Crow,”. the debut of George Leybourne, the acting of Madame Vestris, the visit of Queen Victoria as a little Princess to a show "opposite where the Alhambra is now,” the freezing of the Thames and the roasting of an ox upon the ice, the fires of the Houses of Parliament, Tooleystreet, the Royal Exchange, and the Tower of London. Others again, with genuine pathos, have summed up their life history in London as "work, work, work —and at last the workhouse.” More than one of the old people interviewed had worked all their lives in one locality, and worked so hard that they have never had any leisure to speak of, and knew nothing of what was going on around them. Invariably they ended in the workhouse, when through old age they could workno more. Such was their life. But nearly all the old people agree that, although there is less squalor in present day London, we have more hunger and more unemplovment. We are not yet so far advanced that we can afford to feel so very superior towards the London of 50 years ago. One person in every four in this metropolis still dies in a workhouse, an asylum or a gaol. A COLOSSAL HOAX. There must be a good many guilty consciences in Germany, to judge by the effect of the latest hoax that has been played upon the well-to-do classes in the Fatherland. The first post on Saturday morning last brought to nearly half a million homes a neat envelope, of a quality much better than is generally used for private Tetters in Germany. It contained a correspondence card to match, with the following mysterious communication written entirely with the pen:— "Dear Herr So-and-So, — "I have just read the latest novel . with a purpose, ‘Double-faced Morality.’ Inconceivable! A scandal of the worst kind. We see here once more that the Public Prosecutor fails where he is most necessary, for otherwise Such a book could never obtain publi-

cation. Gr is it a piece of political calculation? And , who is hiding behind the anonymous author? At any rate, H. and R. are attacked in the most terrible manner, and will be bound to take action. Will you, too, associate yourself with this prosecution! Unhappily, I have been drawn into the affair as well. Terrible! In haste, “Yours very truly, The signature here was an illegible scrawl. The effect produced by this extraordinary missive is described thus by the “Telegraph's” Berlin correspondent — "The booksellers’ shops had hardly taken down their shutters before they were besieged by pale-faced men and trembling women, who whispered in hor-ror-stricken tones into the ears of the attendants inquiries for the new novel. The only answer they could obtain was that the book, though expected, had not yet reached the retailers. To the astonishment of the shopkeepers, the applicants received this announcement as if it had been a blow in the face. Some of them burst out into furious tirades, others uttered' despairing sighs, and not a few gave way to tears. A number- of them lushed off to the newspaper offices to see if they could there get any inkling of the threatened revelations.” But the panic did not last long. The hoaxer had overdone the thing. People began to compare notes, and when it was found that the letters were all identical, in form, the aid of the police was called in. Before the day was out the person responsible for the hoax was discovered at Munich, and arrested. He is a man named Peter Canter, who hit upon this daring scheme to advertise a new novel and make his fortune in the process. Ha had taken'an office, where he spent a year and a half in writing or having written 400,000 letters in the above form. These have been posted in the past day or two in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Dresden, and a number of other large towns. Had the scheme worked smoothly, the profit upon the book would have been enormous. Preparations had been made fcr an unprecedented sale, and 200.000 copies are at present lying at Leipzig alone. But all Canter’s hopes will be disappointed, for even if the police embargoes are withdrawn, the public has been warned, and the booksellers in many towns have unanimously agreed not to sell the novel at all. Canter will probably be prosecuted for causing annoyance to the public. PAUPERISED LONDON. One of the most disheartening features of the year now drawing to a close is the terrible growth of pauperism in London. At the present time, the “richest city in the world” contains over 130,000 persons in receipt of poor relief. This means that about 27 people out of every thousand Londoners are wholly or partly dependent on the rates. The number is greater than in any year since 1870, and represents an addition of over 27.000 to the number of paupers recorded at the beginning of the present century. The exact figures, as given in the latest return of the Local Government Board, are 130,543. Of that tiumber 81,500 are classified as indoor paupers, and 49,037 as receiving outdoor relief. Compared with the corresponding period of 1907, the figures show an increase of 4478, and with that of 1900 an increase of 7408. Previous black years were those of 1904 and 1905. The records for both years have now been topped, that of 1904 by 2920, and that of 1905 by 3471. There are, of course, many theories as to the cause of this great growth of pauperised humanity. In some it may be regarded as symptomatic of the amount of unemployment which has been prevalent during the year. A lax system of outdoor relief in many districts, coupled with the indoor pauperpampering methods in vogue in others, has however, undoubtedly assisted materially to increase the number of persons in receipt of poor law relief in one shape or- another. The administration of the Poor Law of London is in the hands of 31 separate

bodies with different ideals and methods, and something like 35 millions per annum is spent annually in maintaining 60.000 indoor paupers, 50,(NX) outdoor paupers, and over 18,000 in asylums, etc. The salaries alone of the officials responsible for the administration of the Poor Law’ runs to something like .€8(50.000! That London gets value for money either in respect of what is spent on the paupers or on the salaries paffl to officials, nobody believes. Until, however, something is done in the way of centralising the work, and systematising the methods of poor relief, no better result can be obtained. At present, though recent prosecutions of guardians and others have no doubt had a beneficial effect in checking roguery, gross extravagance still obtains in many of the great metropolitan workhouses, and outdoor relief is given to hundreds who have no real claim to it. Instances of gross extravagance and waste could be cited by the score, but one will suffice. In a certain workhouse there are over fifty able-bodied paupers under sixty years of age, yet the guardians actually employed outside labour to clear the workhouse gardens of the leaves which had fallen from the trees, and dig over the shrubbery. THE PARIS SCHOOL CANTEEN, There are some tilings they do better in France, and Paris long ago set London an example in the matter of feeding, clothing, and medically treating necessitous children. The Paris system has been in operation for twenty-five years, and now some fifteen million meals are served in the schools in the year. The “Caisse des Ecoles,” which undertakes the work, is supported by voluntary contributions, but works in close relation to the municipal Government, and its system and finances are annually inspected by the Prefecture of the Seine. In addition to meals it supplies about 100,000 pairs of boots, shoes and goloshes a year, maintains public dispensaries where children can get not only medicine and medical advice, but also free baths and douchesit also maintains orphanages, and organises "fresh air” excursions to the seaside or the country for the school children in the holidays. Each municipal district in Paris has its own “ Caisse de Ecoles,” which is entirely independent of the others. Some are richer than others, but all seem to manage to cater adequately for the needs of the children of the district. The “ cantine ” at each school is attended to by a special staff, usually from three to five matrons and assistants, who work from 8 a.in. till 4 p.m. They are all salaried officials, drawing from 25 to 60 francs a month. Only the midday meal is furnished. The children arrive at the school at 8 in the morning, and, when the classes arc over, at eleven o’clock, they are given a short recreation, and at half-past eleven the big hall that is attached to each school is turned into a dining-room with neat white tablecloths spread over the desks, which for the moment have become dining tables, and metal bowls, spoons, and napkins in place for each child. Tiny white marble washstands are fixed in rows of ten to fifteen along one wall, or in the centre of some of the halls, and not more than 18in. or 20:n. high, to accommodate the tiniest tot, and the children are first made or helped to wash their hands, and sometimes faces, before sitting down to their meal. The " cantine ” furnishes each child with two rations, portion of meat and another of vegetables. Although only two rations are given, still in reality each child may have four, as the servant passes twice and gives each child an additional quantity to satisfy the appetite. The object of this is also to avoid waste, and as a matter of fact the bowls are well cleaned up and nothing remains. The “ cantinehowever, does not supply the liquids. Eaidi child is supposed to bring its own milk or wine, which the mother puts in its kit or basket in the morning on sending it to school. In ease a child should want it, water, previously boiled and cooled, is supplied. , The delight with whie lithe youngsters boys and girls, rush into the dining room is worth seeing, says the Paris correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph,” from whose account of the system the above details are obtained. They find everything clean, fresh and appetising, and probably far better than what they are av-ustomed to, for the most part in their own homes, and as such it is in itself an education for them.