xt weekly parade comes round.

Unemployable! yes, but so much the greater pity; and so much more
difficult the problem, for they represent a very large class, and it is
to be feared a growing class of the manhood of London's underworld.

We cannot blame them for their physical inferiority, nor for their lack
of ability and grit. To expect them to exhibit great qualities would
be absurd. They are what they are, and a wise country would ponder the
causes that lead to such decadent manhood. During my prison lectures
I have been frequently struck with the mean size and appearance of the
prisoners under twenty-two years of age, who are so numerous in our
London prisons. From many conversations with them I have learned that
lack of physical strength means also lack of mental and moral strength,
and lack of honest aspiration, too! I am confirmed in this judgment by
a statement that appeared in the annual report of the Prison
Commissioners, who state that some years ago they adapted the plan in
Pentonville prison of weighing and measuring all the prisoners under the
age of twenty-two.

The result I will tell in their own words: "As a class they are
two-and-a-half inches below the average height of the general youthful
population of the same age, and weigh approximately fourteen pounds
less."

Here, then, we have an official proof of physical decadence, and of its
connection with prison life. For these young men, so continuously
in prison, grow into what should be manhood without any desire or
qualification for robust industrial life.

I never speak to them without feeling a deep pity. But as it is my
business to interest them, I try to learn something from them in return,
as the following illustration will show.

I had been giving a course of lectures on industrial life to the young
prisoners in Wormwood Scrubbs, who numbered over three hundred. On my
last visit I interrogated them as follows--

"Stand up those of you that have had regular or continuous work." None
of them stood up! "Stand up those of you who have been apprentices."
None of them stood up! "Stand up those of you who sold papers in the
street before you left school." Twenty-five responded! "How many sold
other things in the streets before leaving school?" Thirty! Seventeen
others sold papers after leaving school, and thirty-eight sold various
articles. Altogether I found that nearly two hundred had been in street
occupations.

To my final question: "How