some reader of virulent morals so
chooses to apply it; for far be it from this historian to prevent any
reader forming his or her own judgment on the facts set forth. And if to
any of these Max appears as one whose springs have run riotously down
and now need setting up again--if his seems to be a heart that has never
yet ticked domestically, because it had not been legally registered, I
can at least promise them this--that before they come to the end of this
history they will have an eminent ecclesiastical authority agreeing with
them, and expressing their sentiments with an eloquence which I cannot
hope to rival. And so having done with digression, let us return to the
social education of Max, now trying to become acquainted with the lowest
stratum of all.

IV

After a few weeks he began to distinguish in the squalor of the faces
that surrounded him the separate causes of their malady--to know drink
from disease, dissipation from destitution, the drug-habit from hunger.
Complexion and facial expression stood more than dress as an indication
of trade, habit, and environment; from physiognomy he began to learn
history, and from Monday's streets a commentary on the linked sweetness
long drawn out of Jewish followed by Christian sabbath. He became inured
to smells, to the breathing of foul atmosphere, to contact with foul
bodies, to a nakedness of speech such as he had not dreamed of, to a
class-hatred that struck from eye to eye like murder, to an apathy of
dead hopelessness that revolted him yet more. From Sister Jenifer he
learned the hardest lesson of all, that to understand social conditions
he must refrain from gifts of charity. And so, afraid of his own
frailty, he came to his district with empty pockets, and going hungry
himself spent hours among sale-dens, pawn-shops, the alleys where
half-starved middle-men received the piece-work of sweated labor, and
the black staircases where rent-collectors, hard-driven by competing
agencies, plied a desperate piece-work of their own.

In every place he visited cleanliness was discouraged, and the water
system seemed a mere after-thought. In most cases the taps were buttons
requiring continuous pressure, and then yielding only an exiguous
supply; a kettle took nearly a minute to fill, so that while one tenant
drew service others stood waiting. He spoke indignantly of it to Sister
Jenifer. What were the sanitary authorities doing? he asked.

"Oh, yes," she said, "those