BEGGARS PLACARD. 49 



CHAPTER VH. 



Liverpool Continued Irish Beggars Condition of Laborers Cost of 

 Living Prices Bath House Quarantine The Docks Street Scene 

 " Coming Yankee " Over Nonsense Artistic Begging. 



T HAVE learned nothing reliable about the price of labor here; 

 * the Irish emigration keeps it lower in Liverpool than else- 

 where. This reminds me of beggars, and of a placard posted 

 everywhere about the streets to-day. The beggars are not very 

 frequent, and are mostly poor, pitiable, sickly women, carrying 

 half-naked babies. The placard is as follows : " The SELECT 

 VESTRY inform their fellow-citizens, that in consequence of the 

 extremely low price of passage from Ireland 4c?. (8 cts.) great 

 numbers are coming here apparently with no other object than to 

 beg. They earnestly desire that nothing should be given them. 

 As a specimen, they mention the following : An Irish woman, 

 pretending to be a widow, was taken up, who had obtained 3s. 

 2d. (80 cts.) in an hour and a half after her arrival. Her hus- 

 band was found already in custody." 



The people all seem to be enjoying life more, or else to be 

 much more miserable, than in America.* The laborers seem 



* I was surprised to find this remark in my first letter from Liverpool, for it is the pre- 

 cise counterpart of my impression on landing again in the United States, after six 



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