hand-barrow accommodating the entire household
goods and the sleeping children), it is next to
impossible to keep track of them. If the Public
Health Act of 1891 were suddenly and completely
enforced, 900,000 people would receive notice to
clear out of their houses and go on to the streets,
and 500,000 rooms would have to be built before
they were all legally housed again.

The mean streets merely look mean from the
outside, but inside the walls are to be found
squalor, misery, and tragedy. While the following
tragedy may be revolting to read, it must not be
forgotten that the existence of it is far more revolt
ing. In Devonshire Place, Lisson Grove, a short
while back died an old woman of seventy-five years
of age. At the inquest the coroner s officer stated
that " all he found in the room was a lot of old
rags covered with vermin. He had got himself
smothered with the vermin. The room was in a
shocking condition, and he had never seen any
thing like it. Everything was absolutely covered
with vermin."

The doctor said: " He found deceased lying
across the fender on her back. She had one
garment and her stockings on. The body was
quite alive with vermin, and all the clothes in the
room were absolutely gray with insects. Deceased
was very badly nourished and was very emaciated.

[[215]]

p214 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p215w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p216

v?