THE RURAL EXODUS 83 



drunken, now the most sober, country in 

 Europe. The crowd, the talk, the fun, the 

 gossip which is provided every evening at 

 a comparatively trifling cost these things 

 represent to the average labourer the one 

 social institution which he can thoroughly 

 understand and appreciate. If we could 

 reproduce the image which in the labourer's 

 mind sums up his notion of enjoyment, we 

 should often find a picture of a narrow, half- 

 lighted room, cheerful companions round a 

 bright fire, a sanded floor and the gleam of a 

 pint of ale in a pewter mug. There is again 

 the economic difficulty of running village 

 clubs on the small subscription which the poor 

 folk can afford to pay. I have myself had 

 one disappointment after another with regard 

 to such clubs. In poor and depressed counties 

 like Suffolk, Berkshire, Dorsetshire and so on, 

 the men and boys gradually cease to attend, 

 they are fit for little except bed after their 

 long hours of work, and the reading-room 

 dies slowly of inanition. The poorly paid 

 English labourer, the social product of long 

 centuries of oppression and neglect, possesses 

 neither the time, money nor enthusiasm for 

 club life. The young men who still linger in 

 the villages look forward to the moment of 

 their departure or, at any rate, their abandon- 



