So long as the father is in regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum.

But such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty.
Though the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of London the difference is less than commonly supposed.

Mr Booth estimated that of the total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent.

were living in poverty.

The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm Rowntree[4] at the slightly lower figure of 27.84.These figures (in both cases exclusive of the population of the workhouses and other public or private institutions) may be taken as fairly representative of life in English industrial cities.