absence on the ground that "he had to go to a concert at the Radical Club." Another young woman is in the workhouse, and her husband in Canada. She has received a large number of affectionate letters expressing a hope that she will join him, but the only address given is 1063 James' Street, North America, and all letters come back from the Dead Letter Office.
Another family has been in and out for a number of years. They stay out most of the summer, and come in regularly in the winter. Most of the children have been adopted by the Guardians to save them from an in-and-out career; but a new infant is born nearly every year; only a few weeks ago it was reported that Mrs W—— had presented the Guardians with another baby.
The great majority are quite well behaved whilst in the workhouse, and work fairly well under supervision. They are, except in rare instances, not unpleasant to deal with. Though impervious to exhortations to self-support, they bear no malice, and are quite friendly. Some time ago a hawker, who had been prosecuted again and again for wife desertion, and against whom a warrant was still outstanding, presented himself at the workhouse door and offered to sell the master a "bunch of sage." He was, of course, arrested and taken to the police station. On his way, he invited the warrant officer to have a drink with him.
The path of a Workhouse Examination Committee is no easy one. Its members have to deal with every variety of human nature. They are engaged in an unceasing attempt, on the one hand, to discourage pauperism; on the other, to give a helping hand to any one who shows any sign of a desire for better modes of life. They begin by the belief that every one has some good in him. Every able-bodied man who comes in for the first
