changed. Happy are such women when some
trumpery theft lands them in prison, for there at any rate a change of
clothing is provided, and a bath is compulsory.

If we stand outside a men's shelter, we see a similar state of things, a
waiting crowd. A passive, content, strange mixed lot of humans. Some of
them who have been well educated, but are now reaping the harvest that
follows the sowing of wild oats. The submerged males are, on the whole,
less repulsive than the women; dirt is less in evidence, and they
exhibit a better standard of health. But many of them are harking back
to nature, and remind us of the pictures we have seen of primeval man.

I want to say a few words about the submerged that congregate on
the Thames Embankment, and the humanity we have seen enter the cheap
shelters.

My experience has shown me that they constitute the lowest grade and the
least hopeful class of the submerged. Amongst them there are very few
decent and helpable men and women who are capable of rising to a higher
life. Say what we will, be as pitiful as we may, those of us who have
much experience of life know perfectly well that there exists a large
class of persons who are utterly incapable of fulfilling the duties of
decent citizenship. It may be that they are wicked, and it is certain
that they are weak, but whether wicked or weak, they have descended by
the law of moral gravitation and have found their level in the lowest
depths of civilised life.

And they come from unexpected quarters, for some who have known comfort
and refinement are now quite content with their present conditions.
Whether born of refined parents, or of rude and ignorant parents,
whether coming from a tramping stock, or from settled home life, they
have one thing in common. It is this--the life they live has a powerful
attraction for them; they could not if they would, and would not if they
could, live lives that demand decency, discipline and industry. Nothing
but compulsion will ever induce them to submit themselves to disciplined
life. But let it be clearly understood that I am now speaking only of
the lowest class of the submerged. While my experience has taught me
that they, humanly speaking, are a hopeless lot, I have learned that
they have their qualities. They can endure if they cannot work; they can
suffer if they cannot strive. After all I am persuaded that they get a
fair amount of happiness. Simple pleasures are the greatest, perhaps the
on