Oscar Wilde, God rest his soul, voices the cry of the prison child, which, in varying degree, is the cry of the prison man and woman: 'The second thing from which a child suffers in prison is hunger.The food that is given to it consists of a piece of usually bad-baked prison bread and a tin of water for breakfast at half-past seven.At twelve o'clock it gets dinner, composed of a tin of coarse Indian meal stirabout (skilly), and at half-past five it gets a piece of dry bread and a tin of water for its supper.This diet in the case of a strong grown man is always productive of illness of some kind, chiefly of course diarrhoea, with its attendant weakness.In fact, in a big prison astringent medicines are served out regularly by the warders as a matter of course.In the case of a child, the child is, as a rule, incapable of eating the food at all.Any one who knows anything about children knows how easily a child's digestion is upset by a fit of crying, or trouble and mental distress of any kind.A child who has been crying all day long, and perhaps half the night, in a lonely dim-lit cell, and is preyed upon by terror, simply cannot eat food of this coarse, horrible kind.In the case of the little child to whom warden Martin gave the biscuits, the child was crying with hunger on Tuesday morning, and utterly unable to eat the bread and water served to it for its breakfast.Martin went out after the breakfasts had been served and bought the few sweet biscuits for the child rather than see it starving.It was a beautiful action on his part, and was so recognized by the child, who, utterly unconscious of the regulations of the Prison Board, told one of the senior wardens how kind this junior warden had been to him.The result was, of course, a report and a dismissal.'
Robert Blatchford compares the workhouse pauper's daily diet with the soldier's, which, when he was a soldier, was not considered liberal enough, and yet is twice as liberal as the pauper's.
PAUPER DIETSOLDIER3 1/4 oz. Meat 12 oz.
15 1/2 oz. Bread24 oz.
6....oz.Vegetables 8 oz.
The ***** male pauper gets meat (outside of soup) but once a week, and the paupers 'have nearly all that pallid, pasty complexion which is the sure mark of starvation.'
Here is a table, comparing the workhouse pauper's weekly allowance with the workhouse officer's weekly allowance.
OFFICERDIET PAUPER7 lb.Bread6 3/4 lb.
5 lb.Meat1 lb.2 oz.
12 oz.Bacon2 1/2 oz.
8 oz.Cheese 2 oz.
7 lb. Potatoes1 1/2 lb.
6 lb.Vegetablesnone 1 lb.Flour none 2 oz.Lardnone 12 oz.Butter 7 oz.
none Rice pudding1 lb.
And as the same writer remarks: 'The officer's diet is still more liberal than the pauper's; but evidently it is not considered liberal enough, for a footnote is added to the officer's table saying that 'a cash payment of two shillings sixpence a week is also made to each resident officer and servant.' If the pauper has ample food, why does the officer have more? And if the officer has not too much, can the pauper be properly fed on less than half the amount?'
But it is not alone the Ghetto-dweller, the prisoner, and the pauper that starve.Hodge, of the country, does not know what it is always to have a full belly.In truth, it is his empty belly which has driven him to the city in such great numbers.Let us investigate the way of living of a laborer from a parish in the Bradfield Poor Law Union, Berks.Supposing him to have two children, steady work, a rent-free cottage, and an average weekly wage of thirteen shillings, which is equivalent to $3.25, then here is his weekly budget:
(shillings) (pence)
