| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
 |
|
| Page | 1201 |
|
|
| Chapter | -- |
|
|
| Text |
All through the summer Owen continued to make himself objectionable and to incur the ridicule of his fellow workmen by talking about the causes of poverty and of ways to abolish it. Most of the men kept two shillings or half a crown of their wages back from their wives for pocket money, which they spent on beer and tobacco. There were a very few who spent a little more than this, and there were a still smaller number who spent so much in this way that their families had to suffer in consequence. Most of those who kept back half a crown or three shillings from their wives did so on the understanding that they were to buy their clothing out of it. Some of them had to pay a shilling a week to a tallyman or credit clothier. These were the ones who indulged in shoddy new suits - at long intervals. Others bought - or got their wives to buy for them - their clothes at second-hand shops, `paying off' about a shilling or so a week and not receiving the things till they were paid for. |
|
|
|
|
