The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
thought was the glare of madness in his eyes, 'I reads the "Ananias" every week, and I generally takes the "Daily Chloroform" or the "Hobscurer", so I ought to know summat about it.'
'Just listen to this,' interrupted Easton, wishing to create a diversion and beginning to read from the copy of the 'Obscurer' which he still held in his hand:
"GREAT DISTRESS IN MUGSBOROUGH
HUNDREDS OUT OF EMPLOYMENT
WORK OF THE CHARITY SOCIETY
789 CASES ON THE BOOKS
'"Great as was the distress among the working classes last year, unfortunately there seems every prospect that before the winter which has just commenced is over the distress will be even more acute.
'"Already the Charity Society and kindred associations are relieving more cases than they did at the corresponding time last year. Applications to the Board of Guardians have also been much more numerous, and the Soup Kitchen has had to open its doors on 7th Nov., a fortnight earlier than usual. The number of men, women and children provided with meals is three or four times greater than last year."'
Easton stopped; reading was hard work to him.
'There's a lot more,' he said, 'about starting relief works: two shillings a day for marriedmen, and one shilling for single, and something about there's been 1572 quarts of soup given to poor families wot was not even able to pay a penny, and a lot more. And 'ere's another thing, an advertisement:
"THE SUFFERING POOR
Sir—Distress among the Poor is so acute that I earnestly ask you for aid for The Salvation Army's great Social Work on their behalf. Some 6,000 are being sheltered nightly. Hundreds are found work daily. Soup and bread are distributed in the midnight hours to homeless wanderers in London. Additional workshops for the unemployed have been established. Our Social Work for men, women, and children, for the characterless and the outcast, is the largest and oldest organised effort of its kind in the country, and greatly needs help.
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