had food, for my sight would get better." Dr. G. P. Walker said
deceased died from syncope, from exhaustion from want of food. The
deceased had had no bedclothes. For four months he had had nothing
but bread to eat. There was not a particle of fat in the body.
There was no disease, but, if there had been medical attendance, he
might have survived the syncope or fainting. The Coroner having
remarked upon the painful nature of the case, the jury returned the
following verdict: "That deceased died from exhaustion from want of
food and the common necessaries of life; also through want of
medical aid."


"Why would witness not go into the workhouse?" you ask. Well, the
poor seem to have a prejudice against the workhouse which the rich
have not; for of course everyone who takes a pension from Government
goes into the workhouse on a grand scale: {20} only the workhouses
for the rich do not involve the idea of work, and should be called
play-houses. But the poor like to die independently, it appears;
perhaps if we made the play-houses for them pretty and pleasant
enough, or gave them their pensions at home, and allowed them a
little introductory peculation with the public money, their minds
might be reconciled to the conditions. Meantime, here are the
facts: we make our relief either so insulting to them, or so
painful, that they rather die than take it at our hands; or, for
third alternative, we leave them so untaught and foolish that they
starve like brute creatures, wild and dumb, not knowing what to do,
or what to ask. I say, you despise compassion; if you did not, such
a newspaper paragraph would be as impossible in a Christian country
as a deliberate assassination permitted in its public streets. {21}
"Christian," did I say? Alas! if we were but wholesomely UN-