The two pounds that B. had given me lasted about ten days. That it lasted so long was due to Paddy, who had learned parsimony1 on the road and considered even one sound meal a day a wild extravagance. Food, to him, had come to mean simply bread and margarine — the eternal tea-and-two-slices, which will cheat hunger for an hour or two. He taught me how to live, food, bed, tobacco, and all, at the rate of half a crown a day. And he managed to earn a few extra shillings by ‘glimming’ in the evenings. It was a precarious2 job, because illegal, but it brought in a little and eked3 out our money.
One morning we tried for a job as sandwich men. We went at five to an alley-way behind some offices, but there was already a queue of thirty or forty men waiting, and after two hours we were told that there was no work for us. We had not missed much, for sandwich men have an unenviable job. They are paid about three shillings a day for ten hours’ work — it is hard work, especially in windy weather, and there is no skulking4, for an inspector5 comes round frequently to see that the men are on their beat. To add to their troubles, they are only engaged by the day, or sometimes for three days, never weekly, so that they have to wait hours for their job every morning. The number of unemployed6 men who are ready to do the work makes them powerless to fight for better treatment. The job all sandwich men covet7 is distributing handbills, which is paid for at the same rate. When you see a man distributing handbills you can do him a good turn by taking one, for he goes off duty when he has distributed all his bills.
Meanwhile we went on with the lodging8-house life — a squalid, eventless life of crushing boredom9. For days together there was nothing to do but sit in the underground kitchen, reading yesterday’s newspaper, or, when one could get hold of it, a back number of the UNION JACK11. It rained a great deal at this time, and everyone who came in Steamed, so that the kitchen stank12 horribly. One’s only excitement was the periodical tea-and-two-slices. I do not know how many men are living this life in London — it must be thousands at the least. As to Paddy, it was actually the best life he had known for two years past. His interludes from tramping, the times when he had somehow laid hands on a few shillings, had all been like this; the tramping itself had been slightly worse. Listening to his whimpering voice — he was always whimpering when he was not eating — one realized what torture unemployment must be to him. People are wrong when they think that an unemployed man only worries about losing his wages; on the contrary, an illiterate13 man, with the work habit in his bones, needs work even more than he needs money. An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable14 out of work as a dog on the chain. That is why it is such nonsense to pretend that those who have ‘come down in the world’ are to be pitied above all others. The man who really merits pity is the man who has been down from the start, and faces poverty with a blank, resourceless mind.
It was a dull rime15, and little of it stays in my mind, except for talks with Bozo. Once the lodging-house was invaded by a slumming-party. Paddy and I had been out, and, coming back in the afternoon, we heard sounds of music downstairs. We went down to find three gentle-people, sleekly16 dressed, holding a religious service in our kitchen. They Were a grave and reverend seignior in a frock coat, a lady sitting at a portable harmonium, and a chinless youth toying with a crucifix. It appeared that they had marched in and started to hold the service, without any kind of invitation whatever.
It was a pleasure to see how the lodgers17 met this intrusion. They did not offer the smallest rudeness to the slummers; they just ignored them. By common consent everyone in the kitchen — a hundred men, perhaps — behaved as though the slummers had not existed. There they stood patiently singing and exhorting18, and no more notice was taken of them than if they had been earwigs. The gentleman in the frock coat preached a sermon, but not a word of it was audible; it was drowned in the usual din10 of songs, oaths, and the clattering19 of pans. Men sat at their meals and card games three feet away from the harmonium, peaceably ignoring it. Presently the slummers gave it up and cleared out, not insulted in any way, but merely disregarded. No doubt they consoled themselves by thinking how brave they had been, ‘freely venturing into the lowest dens,’ etc. etc.
Bozo said that these people came to the lodging-house several times a month. They had influence with the police, and the ‘deputy’ could not exclude them. It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.
After nine days B.‘s two pounds was reduced to one and ninepence. Paddy and I set aside eighteenpence for our beds, and spent threepence on the usual tea-and-two-slices, which we shared — an appetizer20 rather than a meal. By the afternoon we were damnably hungry and Paddy remembered a church near King’s Cross Station where a free tea was given once a week to tramps. This was the day, and we decided21 to go there. Bozo, though it was rainy weather and he was almost penniless, would not come, saying that churches were not his style.
Outside the church quite a hundred men were waiting, dirty types who had gathered from far and wide at the news of a free tea, like kites round a dead buffalo22. Presently the doors opened and a clergyman and some girls shepherded us into a gallery at the top of the church. It was an evangelical church, gaunt and wilfully23 ugly, with texts about blood and fire blazoned24 on the walls, and a hymn-book containing twelve hundred and fifty-one hymns25; reading some of the hymns, I concluded that the book would do as it stood for an anthology of bad verse. There was to be a service after the tea, and the regular congregation were sitting in the well of the church below. It was a week-day, and there were only a few dozen of them, mostly stringy old women who reminded one of boiling-fowls. We ranged ourselves in the gallery pews and were given our tea; it was a one-pound jam-jar of tea each, with six slices of bread and margarine. As soon as tea was over, a dozen tramps who had stationed themselves near the door bolted to avoid the service; the rest stayed, less from gratitude26 than lacking the cheek to go.
The organ let out a few preliminary hoots27 and the service began. And instantly, as though at a signal, the tramps began to misbehave in the most outrageous28 way. One would not have thought such scenes possible in a church. All round the gallery men lolled in their pews, laughed, chattered29, leaned over and flicked30 pellets of bread among the congregation; I had to restrain the man next to me, more or less by force, from lighting31 a cigarette. The tramps treated the service as a purely32 comic spectacle. It was, indeed, a sufficiently33 ludicrous service — the kind where there are sudden yells of ‘Hallelujah!’ and endless extempore prayers — but their behaviour passed all bounds. There was one old fellow in the congregation — Brother Bootle or some such name — who was often called on to lead us in prayer, and whenever he stood up the tramps would begin stamping as though in a theatre; they said that on a previous occasion he had kept up an extempore prayer for twenty-five minutes, until the minister had interrupted him. Once when Brother Bootle stood up a tramp called out, ‘Two to one ‘e don’t beat seven minutes!’ so loud that the whole church must hear. It was not long before we were making far more noise than the minister. Sometimes somebody below would send up an indignant ‘Hush!’ but it made no impression. We had set ourselves to guy the service, and there was no stopping us.
It was a queer, rather disgusting scene. Below were the handful of simple, well-meaning people, trying hard to worship; and above were the hundred men whom they had fed, deliberately34 making worship impossible. A ring of dirty, hairy faces grinned down from the gallery, openly jeering35. What could a few women and old men do against a hundred hostile tramps? They were afraid of us, and we were frankly36 bullying37 them. It was our revenge upon them for having humiliated38 us by feeding us.
The minister was a brave man. He thundered steadily39 through a long sermon on Joshua, and managed almost to ignore the sniggers and chattering40 from above. But in the end, perhaps goaded41 beyond endurance, he announced loudly:
‘I shall address the last five minutes of my sermon to the UNSAVED sinners!’
Having said which, he turned his face to the gallery and kept it so for five minutes, lest there should be any doubt about who were saved and who unsaved. But much we cared! Even while the minister was threatening hell fire, we were rolling cigarettes, and at the last amen we clattered42 down the stairs with a yell, many agreeing to come back for another free tea next week.
The scene had interested me. It was so different from the ordinary demeanour of tramps — from the abject43 worm-like gratitude with which they normally accept charity. The explanation, of course, was that we outnumbered the congregation and so were not afraid of them. A man receiving charity practically always hates his benefactor44 — it is a fixed45 characteristic of human nature; and, when he has fifty or a hundred others to back him, he will show it.
In the evening, after the free tea, Paddy unexpectedly earned another eighteenpence at ‘glimming’. It was exactly enough for another night’s lodging, and we put it aside and went hungry till nine the next evening. Bozo, who might have given us some food, was away all day. The pavements were wet, and he had gone to the Elephant and Castle, where he knew of a pitch under shelter. Luckily I still had some tobacco, so that the day might have been worse.
At half past eight Paddy took me to the Embankment, where a clergyman was known to distribute meal tickets once a week. Under Charing46 Cross Bridge fifty men were waiting, mirrored in the shivering puddles47. Some of them were truly appalling48 specimens49 — they were Embankment sleepers50, and the Embankment dredges up worse types than the spike51. One of them, I remember, was dressed in an overcoat without buttons, laced up with rope, a pair of ragged52 trousers, and boots exposing his toes — not a rag else. He was bearded like a fakir, and he had managed to streak53 his chest and shoulders with some horrible black filth54 resembling train oil. What one could see of his face under the dirt and hair was bleached55 white as paper by some malignant56 disease. I heard him speak, and he had a goodish accent, as of a clerk or shopwalker.
Presently the clergyman appeared and the men ranged themselves in a queue in the order in which they had arrived. The clergyman was a nice, chubby57, youngish man, and, curiously58 enough, very like Charlie, my friend in Paris. He was shy and embarrassed, and did not speak except for a brief good evening; he simply hurried down the line of men, thrusting a ticket upon each, and not waiting to be thanked. The consequence was that, for once, there was genuine gratitude, and everyone said that the clergyman was a — good feller. Someone (in his hearing, I believe) called out: ‘Well, HE’LL never be a — bishop59!’ — this, of course, intended as a warm compliment.
The tickets were worth sixpence each, and were directed to an eating-house not far away. When we got there we found that the proprietor60, knowing that the tramps could not go elsewhere, was cheating by only giving four pennyworth of food for each ticket. Paddy and I pooled our tickets, and received food which we could have got for sevenpence or eightpence at most coffee-shops. The clergyman had distributed well over a pound in tickets, so that the proprietor was evidently swindling the tramps to the tune61 of seven shillings or more a week. This kind of victimization is a regular part of a tramp’s life, and it will go on as long as people continue to give meal tickets instead of money.
Paddy and I went back to the lodging-house and, still hungry, loafed in the kitchen, making the warmth of the fire a substitute for food. At half-past ten Bozo arrived, tired out and haggard, for his mangled62 leg made walking an agony. He had not earned a penny at screeving, all the pitches under shelter being taken, and for several hours he had begged outright63, with one eye on the policemen. He had amassed64 eightpence — a penny short of his kip. It was long past the hour for paying, and he had only managed to slip indoors when the deputy was not looking; at any moment he might be caught and turned out, to sleep on the Embankment. Bozo took the things out of his pockets and looked them over, debating what to sell. He decided on his razor, took it round the kitchen, and in a few minutes he had sold it for threepence — enough to pay his kip, buy a basin of tea, and leave a half-penny over.
Bozo got his basin of tea and sat down by the fire to dry his clothes. As he drank the tea I saw that he was laughing to himself, as though at some good joke. Surprised, I asked him what he had to laugh at.
‘It’s bloody65 funny!’ he said. ‘It’s funny enough for PUNCH. What do you think I been and done?’
‘What?’
‘Sold my razor without having a shave first: Of all the — fools!’
He had not eaten since the morning, had walked several miles with a twisted leg, his clothes were drenched66, and he had a halfpenny between himself and starvation. With all this, he could laugh over the loss of his razor. One could not help admiring him.
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1
parsimony
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| n.过度节俭，吝啬 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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skulking
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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stank
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| n. (英)坝，堰，池塘 动词stink的过去式 | |
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illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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rime
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| n.白霜；v.使蒙霜 | |
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sleekly
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| 光滑地，光泽地 | |
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lodgers
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| n.房客，租住者( lodger的名词复数 ) | |
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exhorting
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的现在分词 ) | |
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clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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appetizer
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| n.小吃，开胃品 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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blazoned
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| v.广布( blazon的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布；夸示；装饰 | |
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hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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hoots
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| 咄，啐 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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bullying
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| v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈 | |
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humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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40
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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41
goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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42
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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43
abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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45
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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46
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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47
puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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51
spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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52
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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54
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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55
bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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56
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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57
chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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amassed
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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