carried on there sub rosa. One Board of Guardians at least has interfered with such amusements by appointing "mental instructors," whose business it is to spend a certain time in the day-rooms, and to endeavour to influence their inhabitants in the right direction.
The question of the able-bodied inmate has been much discussed during the last few years. We have heard much of "paupers' paradises" and the like, which shows which way the wind blows though the particular Board gibbeted is often no worse than its neighbours.
In illustration of the attractiveness of the workhouse for able-bodied women, two stories may be quoted, both quite authentic, from the same workhouse. In both cases situations had been found for the women by the matron or otherwise. In the first case, the inmate in question consented to go to the situation, but represented that she must be back at the workhouse in time for the "Christmas entertainment." In the other case, that of a girl with an illegitimate child, she went to the situation, but soon came back to the workhouse, as she said that the work was not so hard there, and the hours were shorter. Moreover, in private service she had to get her own breakfast.
The following lines, accompanied by a cartoon, were sent to the writer by an inmate who had evidently been studying this question:—
"I'm the able-bodied Fee-Foh-Fum—
From the warm workhouse ward I come;
And whether they can or cannot pay,
I swallow ratepayers every day."
There are a few other points in connection with workhouse management. The first is whether it is wise to give clothes to those who are leaving the workhouse. Of course there are times when it is necessary to do this. The inmates' own clothes may have been
