e not
hard times in England. Things are going on very much as they ordinarily
do, and times are neither hard nor easy.

And then came the policeman. "Get outa that, you bloomin' swine! Eigh!
eigh! Get out now!" And like swine he drove them from the doorways and
scattered them to the four winds of Surrey. But when he encountered the
crowd asleep on the steps he was astounded. "Shocking!" he exclaimed.
"Shocking! And of a Sunday morning! A pretty sight! Eigh! eigh! Get
outa that, you bleeding nuisances!"

Of course it was a shocking sight, I was shocked myself. And I should
not care to have my own daughter pollute her eyes with such a sight, or
come within half a mile of it; but--and there we were, and there you are,
and "but" is all that can be said.

The policeman passed on, and back we clustered, like flies around a honey
jar. For was there not that wonderful thing, a breakfast, awaiting us?
We could not have clustered more persistently and desperately had they
been giving away million-dollar bank-notes. Some were already off to
sleep, when back came the policeman and away we scattered only to return
again as soon as the coast was clear.

At half-past seven a little door opened, and a Salvation Army soldier
stuck out his head. "Ayn't no sense blockin' the wy up that wy," he
said. "Those as 'as tickets cawn come hin now, an' those as 'asn't
cawn't come hin till nine."

Oh, that breakfast! Nine o'clock! An hour and a half longer! The men
who held tickets were greatly envied. They were permitted to go inside,
have a wash, and sit down and rest until breakfast, while we waited for
the same breakfast on the street. The tickets had been distributed the
previous night on the streets and along the Embankment, and the
possession of them was not a matter of merit, but of chance.

At eight-thirty, more men with tickets were admitted, and by nine the
little gate was opened to us. We crushed through somehow, and found
ourselves packed in a courtyard like sardines. On more occasions than
one, as a Yankee tramp in Yankeeland, I have had to work for my
breakfast; but for no breakfast did I ever work so hard as for this one.
For over two hours I had waited outside, and for over another hour I
waited in this packed courtyard. I had had nothing to eat all night, and
I was weak and faint, while the smell of the soiled clothes and unwashed
bodies, steaming from pent animal heat, and blocked solidly about me,