A few nights' "sleeping out" may reduce a man to a most miserable condition. It is a wonder that many survive. The writer has been receiving for years _women_ reduced to the extremest destitution and incapable of work without rest and food. The majority have passed on to employment, but in the state received it would have been impossible for them to obtain it.
[30] Repeatedly asserted by tramp ward inmates.
[32] See section 15 as regards Shakespeare's "vagrom men."
[33] It is surprising how little is said in the Report about common lodging-houses, though in the chapter on spread of disease by vagrants useful recommendations are made as to stricter enforcement of existing laws. As a rule, cleanliness in shelters (in spite of the use of the "bunk" for sleeping) is far in advance of the common lodging-house. Beds, especially flock beds, are often most insanitary for this class of persons. Inspection is often merely perfunctory or too infrequent to act as a check. Even in London inspection leaves much to be desired though conditions are greatly improved.
[34] This lodging-house has since been removed or suppressed.
[36] The average number _prosecuted_ in 1899-1903 reached 9,003. It would be much greater but for the leniency of the police (Vagrancy Report, section 379). On the 7th July, 1905, in Holborn district, 1,055 males and 176 females were found "principally on the Embankment, the larger number of them on the seats."
[37] The Vagrancy Report gives very varying estimates (section 74), varying from 25,000 to 80,000. But it is to be noted that these figures include all persons "without settled home or visible means of subsistence." The writer estimates at 10,000 those belonging to the confirmed tramp class. A number of those estimated in the total are included in "Vagrants Wandering to their own Hurt," see sections 389-391.
[38] See "Vagrants Wandering to their own Hurt," Chap. XIV., Vagrancy Report.
[39] An account of the labour colonies in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland is given in the Vagrancy Report, sections 228-256. In Germany the average net cost is £6 per head per year. At Merxplas, Belgium, it is £9. See also Appendix III.
[40] The German Relief System is described (sections 168-170), Vagrancy Report. The adoption universally of the way-ticket and provision for "seekers for work" would assimilate our system to this.