How the poor live

              HOW THE POOR LIVE.
21
and girls stop at school who might be earning good money
towards their support, is terrible. Often these children are
the sole bread-winners, and then the position is indeed a
hard nut for the kind-hearted official to crack.
After the children have passed a certain standard the
officials have the power of granting " half-time " ; that is to
sny, the boys and girls can earn money so many days a week,
and come to school for the remainder. "The half-time
grant" is another feature of the "B" meeting.
The worst duty of the official who presides is to authorise
the summoning before a magistrate of the parents who
cannot or will not send their children regularly. The law
leaves him no option. All children must come unless
illness or some equally potent excuse can be urged, and
if they don't the parent must appear before a magistrate,
who, if the case is made out, is bound by the law to
impose a fine. I will endeavour to show you, as the
meeting progresses, a few of the parents who thoroughly
deserve the penalty.
A " B " meeting is held in the up-stairs room of one of
the Board Schools. Here is a sketch of one in full swing.
The summoned parents are waiting in a huge crowd outside.
They come in one by one to be disposed of. You will
easily recognise the president of the meeting, with the book
before him, in which the cases to be heard are fully entered
up. Beside him sits the Board official, the inspector of
officers, who advises him on little points of School Board
law, and who marks the papers which are to be returned
to the School Board officer "in charge of the case" to be
acted upon.
The gentlemen standing round the room are the School
Board officers of the different divisions in the district. They
are familiar with the history and circumstances of every one
who will come into the little room, and they will supplyucon-
firmation or contradiction as the necessity arises.
Somewhere or other in the scene the artist has, I perceive,
depicted " us." Where, I leave the reader to discover. We
are accepted by the parents who come and go as
part and parcel of the " Inquisition," and some care is
necessary in executing our task, for this class is very great
on the rights of property; and more than one energetic
dame, if she knew her face was being " scratched " by
an unauthorised interloper, would literally return .the
compliment.
" The short and simple annals of the poor," here related
in their own words, will induct the reader into the mysteries
of " How they live" far more thoroughly than I could
do did I fill pages with my own composition; so, silence,
pray, and let the " B " meeting commence.
Here is a lady who very much objects to being summoned.
"What bizerness 'as he to summings me," she says,
pointing to the officer, "just cus my boy ain't bin fur a
week? He's'arsh and harbitury, that's what he is. 'Arsh
and. harbitury. D'ye think I ain't got anything to do
without a-trapesin' down here a-losin' my work. I tell ye
what it is "
The chairman mildly interposes—"My good lady-
" Don't good lady me.    I ain't a lady.    If I was you
daren't treat me like it, you daren't; it's only because
I'm "
" My good woman, will you allow me to say one word? "
" Oh—yes—certainly—if you've got anything to say-
go on,"
Thus encouraged the. chairman points out to the voluble
lady that her son has not been to school for a fortnight.
" Well, it's all through the boots,"
" Boots!" says the chairman ; " why, that was what you
said last time, and we gave you an order on a shoemaker
for a pair."
The woman acknowledges this is so. Some charitable
people have started a fund to let a few bad cases have boots,
and this truant has been one of the first recipients.
': I know you was kind enough to do that," says the
mother, " but they 'urt him' and he can't wear 'em."
v\$3-
' HE'S  'ARSH AND   HARBITURY,   THAT'S    WHAT   HE   IS,   'ARSH   AND
HAEBITURY."
Here the officer who has brought the lady up before the
Board tells his story.
"The boy had a decent pair of boots supplied him, sir;
but Mrs. Dash went back to the shop with him, and said
they weren't good enough—she wanted a pair of the best
the man had in stock, and made such a noise she had to be
put out."
" Which, beggin' your pardon," strikes in the angry
lady, " it's like your imperence to say so. They 'urt the
boy, they did, and he haves tender feet, through his father,
as is dead, being a shoemaker hisself."
The officer chimes in again, " If he can play about the
streets all day in the boots, Mrs. Dash, they can't hurt
him very much."
" My boy play about the streets ! Well, of all the ouda-
cious things as ever I 'erd !    And as to his comin' to school