"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

The clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.

'Scrooge and Marley's, I believe,' said one of the gentlemen,   referring to his list. 'Have I the pleasure of addressing  Mr Scrooge, or Mr Marley?'

'Mr Marley has been dead these seven years,' Scrooge  replied. 'He died seven years ago, this very night.' 

'We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,' said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

'It certainly was, for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous word liberality, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.

'They are.  Still,' returned the gentleman,' I wish I  could say they were not.'

'The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge. 

'At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.'

'Are there no prisons?"

'Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the  pen again.

'And the Union workhouses.' demanded Scrooge. 'Are  they still in operation?'

'Both very busy, sir.' 

'Oh. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Scrooge. 'I'm very glad to hear it.'

'Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,' returned the gentleman, 'a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?'

'Nothing!' Scrooge replied. 

'You wish to be anonymous?' 

'I wish to be left alone,' said Scrooge. 'Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned-they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.'

'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.' 

'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better  do it, and decrease the surplus population."

---from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Comments

[Rameau's Nephew]

some illustrations for your Dickens posts, from Ronald Searle.

thanks for a good year's reading, by the way.

joyeux noel