The man's
eyes were wide open. He was staring out over the water and thinking,
which is not a good thing for a shelterless man with a family to do. It
would not be a pleasant thing to speculate upon his thoughts; but this I
know, and all London knows, that the cases of out-of-works killing their
wives and babies is not an uncommon happening.
One cannot walk along the Thames Embankment, in the small hours of
morning, from the Houses of Parliament, past Cleopatra's Needle, to
Waterloo Bridge, without being reminded of the sufferings, seven and
twenty centuries old, recited by the author of "Job":-
There are that remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks
and feed them.
They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox
for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way; the poor of the earth hide
themselves together.
Behold, as wild asses in the desert they go forth to their work,
seeking diligently for meat; the wilderness yieldeth them food for
their children.
They cut their provender in the field, and they glean the vintage of
the wicked.
They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the
cold.
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