View report page

SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR. 63
the figures which I have cited as illustrating the
great utility of these institutions; and, as regards
their pecuniary success, it is impossible to furnish
you with better testimony than is comprised in the
fact, that the Guardians of the Poor in a great metropolitan
parish* have recently, out of the poorrates,
founded an institution of this nature. They
have become witnesses to the financial economy of
that sanitary and social boon. In their establishment,
which is not only self-supporting but amply
remunerative, the poor are enabled to have baths at
an expense of a penny for a cold-bath, and twopence
for a warm-bath; and the women are enabled to
do their washing, ironing, and drying, with an unlimited
water supply, and with other arrangements
of most admirable completeness, at an expense of
only twopence for the first two hours during which
they occupy the separate chambers allotted to
them. A very considerable proportion of the expense
is covered by the receipts for baths given at
the higher price of sixpence, and with some additional
luxuries, to persons of a higher grade in
society than those who use the ordinary baths; the
former, though used by a different class of persons,
being sought with almost as much avidity as the
latter.
In the sanitary point of view, I probably need
not insist much on the advantages which these
establishments have conferred. You will hardly
* St. Martin's in the Fields.