bound to die since fifty-five per cent of the East
End children die before they are five years old, the
body is laid out in the same room. And if they
are very poor, it is kept for some time until they
can bury it. During the day it lies on the bed;
during the night, when the living take the bed,
the dead occupies the table, from which, in the
morning, when the dead is put back into the bed,
they eat their breakfast. Sometimes the body is
placed on the shelf which serves as pantry for their
food. Only a couple of weeks ago, an East End
woman was in trouble, because, in this fashion,
being unable to bury it, she had kept her dead
child three weeks.

Now such a room as I have described, is not
home but horror; and the men and women who flee
away from it to the public house are to be pitied,
not blamed. There are 300,000 people, in London,
divided into families that live in single rooms, while
there are 900,000 who are illegally housed according
to the Public Health Act of 1891 a respectable
.recruiting ground for the drink traffic.

Then there are the insecurity of happiness, the
precariousness of existence, the well-founded fear
of the future potent factors in driving people to
drink. Wretchedness squirms for alleviation, and
in the public house its pain is eased and forgetful-
ness is obtained. It is unhealthy. Certainly it is,

[[304]]

p303 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p304w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p305

v?