DOI issue:
January 12, 1884
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17756#0026
A NEW RUNG IN THE SOCIAL LADDER
Todeson takes to “Slumming,” and comes across Lady Clara Robinson {nee Yere de Vere) in a Frightful Den near
Bethnal Green. Oh joy^ ! she actually invites him to Dine with Sir Peter and herself in Grosvenor Square !
But, alas ! instead of Rank and Fashion, it is only to meet an East End Curate and his Wife, devoted to the Poor ;
—and Miss Fullalove (the Matron of Lady Clara’s Home for Juvenile Thieves in Bermondsey), whom he has to lead in
to Dinner, and who persists in mistaking him for one of those reclaimed specimens of the “Lower Middle Class Cri-
minal” Her Ladyship is so fond of being kind to! [Todeson thinks that “ Slumming’’ doesn’t pay, after all!
THE BETTER CRY OE BUMBLEDOM.
“The Local Authorities have already large powers vested in them for
dealing with insanitary dwellings of the labouring classes, and the Board
desires to impress uporf*the Authoritie^the responsibility which consequently
attaches to them, and to urge them,-by a vigorous exercise of the powers
with which they are intrusted, to secure an improvement of the dwellings.”—
Local Government Board's Circular to the Vestries and District Boards.
Bumble loquitur
Pouf! Nice pooty sort of' a noosance ! Wot next, I should like to
he told.
0 I know all this “ Bitter Cry ” bosh wich a gullible public has sold,
Would make worry and work for the Westries before werry long.
There ’s no rest!
Some fools chivvies up a old hen most afore she is snug on her nest,
And then look for chickings ! Hugh Owen, I’m owin’ you one, my
line feller!
Expect snug dry cribs in a garret, and Rtmmel’s perfooms in a cellar.
Now don’t you? Wot rubbige it is, all this muck about labourers’
dwellings!
Wheresomever the poor is there’s hound to be breakages, dirt, and
bad smellings.
Poor thrives on ’em. Ask them as knows,—not your Parsons, and
scribblers, and Presidents,
As goes sniffin’ round in the slums, to the jolly disgust of the
residents ;
But proper Porochial parties, as knows that the labouring classes
Are half of ’em regular prigs, and the rest noisy Radical asses.
Us to blame ? That’s a capital notion! Drat them and their
“statutes” and “ digests.”
“ Convenience of reference.” Ah ! that is one of their imperent sly
jests.
The Westries and Boards don’t want woritting. Worrit is just my
abhorrence.
We know all about their fine Acts, whether cooked up by Cross oe
by Torrens.
But to act upon Acts at full drive, as though we was mere waifs in a
Workus,
A-doing our bit on compulsion,—they might as well treadmill or
burke us !
Permissive they ’re all werry well, leaving us to be starters and
judges;
But puttin’ the screw on like this is just making us porper-iike
drudges.
Removal of Noosances ? Yah! If we started on that lay, per-
miskers,
There’s more than a few in the Westries ’ud feel suthin’ singin’ their
wiskers,
Or Bumble’s a Dutchman. Their Cir’clar—it’s mighty obliging—
defines ’em,
The Noosances namely; I wonder if partiesreac/s Cir’clars as signs ’em,
If so, Local Government Boarders must be most owcommonly
knowin’,
And I’d like to ’eave bricks at that Dilke and his long-winded
myrmidon, Owen.
The Public’s got Slums on the brain, and with sanitry bunkum’s
half busted.
We make a more wigorous use of the powers with which we ’re
intrusted ?
Wy, if we are at it all day with their drains, ashpits, roofs, walls,
and windies,
Wot time shall we ’ave for our feeds and our little porochial shindies ?
And all for the “labouring classes,” the greediest ongratefullest
beggars!
I tell you these Radical lot, and their rubbishy littery eggers,
Todeson takes to “Slumming,” and comes across Lady Clara Robinson {nee Yere de Vere) in a Frightful Den near
Bethnal Green. Oh joy^ ! she actually invites him to Dine with Sir Peter and herself in Grosvenor Square !
But, alas ! instead of Rank and Fashion, it is only to meet an East End Curate and his Wife, devoted to the Poor ;
—and Miss Fullalove (the Matron of Lady Clara’s Home for Juvenile Thieves in Bermondsey), whom he has to lead in
to Dinner, and who persists in mistaking him for one of those reclaimed specimens of the “Lower Middle Class Cri-
minal” Her Ladyship is so fond of being kind to! [Todeson thinks that “ Slumming’’ doesn’t pay, after all!
THE BETTER CRY OE BUMBLEDOM.
“The Local Authorities have already large powers vested in them for
dealing with insanitary dwellings of the labouring classes, and the Board
desires to impress uporf*the Authoritie^the responsibility which consequently
attaches to them, and to urge them,-by a vigorous exercise of the powers
with which they are intrusted, to secure an improvement of the dwellings.”—
Local Government Board's Circular to the Vestries and District Boards.
Bumble loquitur
Pouf! Nice pooty sort of' a noosance ! Wot next, I should like to
he told.
0 I know all this “ Bitter Cry ” bosh wich a gullible public has sold,
Would make worry and work for the Westries before werry long.
There ’s no rest!
Some fools chivvies up a old hen most afore she is snug on her nest,
And then look for chickings ! Hugh Owen, I’m owin’ you one, my
line feller!
Expect snug dry cribs in a garret, and Rtmmel’s perfooms in a cellar.
Now don’t you? Wot rubbige it is, all this muck about labourers’
dwellings!
Wheresomever the poor is there’s hound to be breakages, dirt, and
bad smellings.
Poor thrives on ’em. Ask them as knows,—not your Parsons, and
scribblers, and Presidents,
As goes sniffin’ round in the slums, to the jolly disgust of the
residents ;
But proper Porochial parties, as knows that the labouring classes
Are half of ’em regular prigs, and the rest noisy Radical asses.
Us to blame ? That’s a capital notion! Drat them and their
“statutes” and “ digests.”
“ Convenience of reference.” Ah ! that is one of their imperent sly
jests.
The Westries and Boards don’t want woritting. Worrit is just my
abhorrence.
We know all about their fine Acts, whether cooked up by Cross oe
by Torrens.
But to act upon Acts at full drive, as though we was mere waifs in a
Workus,
A-doing our bit on compulsion,—they might as well treadmill or
burke us !
Permissive they ’re all werry well, leaving us to be starters and
judges;
But puttin’ the screw on like this is just making us porper-iike
drudges.
Removal of Noosances ? Yah! If we started on that lay, per-
miskers,
There’s more than a few in the Westries ’ud feel suthin’ singin’ their
wiskers,
Or Bumble’s a Dutchman. Their Cir’clar—it’s mighty obliging—
defines ’em,
The Noosances namely; I wonder if partiesreac/s Cir’clars as signs ’em,
If so, Local Government Boarders must be most owcommonly
knowin’,
And I’d like to ’eave bricks at that Dilke and his long-winded
myrmidon, Owen.
The Public’s got Slums on the brain, and with sanitry bunkum’s
half busted.
We make a more wigorous use of the powers with which we ’re
intrusted ?
Wy, if we are at it all day with their drains, ashpits, roofs, walls,
and windies,
Wot time shall we ’ave for our feeds and our little porochial shindies ?
And all for the “labouring classes,” the greediest ongratefullest
beggars!
I tell you these Radical lot, and their rubbishy littery eggers,