The Curse Upon Mitre Square — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

WHITECHAPEL ROAD BY DAY. 67 of passers-by, and try and find a _ happy-lovking face! How dismal they all look; what a weight of care they seem to carry ! Early in the morning thousands pass along, to earn their daily bread. MHalf-starved clerks, with shiny coats, shabby hats, and pinched-in faces, presenting an appearance of beggarly gentility, that most pathetic sight of modern civilisation. Could we look into the tuil-pockets of many of their black coats we should see, carefully ensconced with all privacy and care, a slice of bread which, with the addition of an apple, and eaten in some sly corner of the streets, frequently constitutes the dinner of these respected and worthy souls. | And such as these, with successful tradesmen, form the aristocracy of a population as large as many a stately city! Then, lower in the scale, we see the skilled mechanics, the most useful men of all; but these look gloomy now the foreigners are stepping in and making rotten goods, getting employment by working longer hours for shorter pay. And then the factory hands, the lowest class, limp- ing to the badly-ventilated rooms to work, perhaps for fifteen hours for a wretched little pittance. Look at their wan faces, and thin, ill-fed bodies ; what a tale could they tell of misery and over-work ! And the vast army of the unemployed who loaf about the streets, stand outside public-houses, and level curses and obscene language at innocent passers-by ! CONNIE DOO KS (E (0) m