Chapter IX

The Spike

>>>>The old Spartans had a wiser method; and went out and hunted
>>>>down their Helots, and speared and spitted them, when they grew too
>>>>numerous. With our improved fashions of hunting, now after the inven
>>>>tion of firearms and standing armies, how much easier were such a hunt !
>>>>Perhaps in the most thickly peopled country, some three days annually
>>>>might suffice to shoot all the able-bodied paupers that had accumulated
>>>>within the year.
>>>>-- Carlyle

First of all, I must beg forgiveness of my body
for the vileness through which I have dragged it,
and forgiveness of my stomach for the vileness
which I have thrust into it. I have been to the
spike, and slept in the spike, and eaten in the
spike; also, I have run away from the spike.

After my two unsuccessful attempts to penetrate
the Whitechapel casual ward, I started early, and
joined the desolate line before three o clock in the
afternoon. They did not let in till six, but at
that early hour I was number 20, 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 ten hanging on in the slender
hope of getting in by some kind of a miracle.
Many more came, looked at the line, and went

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v?