No photograph could give the slightest idea of their appearance, for dirt and misery are not revealed by photography.
Let us look at them, for the human eye sees most! What do we see?
Squalor, vice, misery, dementia, feeble minds and feeble bodies.

Old women on the verge of the grave eating scraps of food gathered from the City dustbins.

Dirty and repulsive food, dirty and repulsive women! who have begged during the day enough coppers to pay for their lodging by night.

Girls of twenty, whose conduct in their homes has been outrageous, and whose life in London must be left to imagination.
Middle-aged women, outcasts, whose day has past, but who have still capabilities for begging and stealing.

The whole company presents an altogether terrible picture, and we are conscious that few of the women have either the ability or the desire to render decent service to the community, or to live womanly lives.
At length the door opens, and we watch them pass silently in, to sleep during the night in the boxes arranged on the floors, their bodies unwashed, and their clothing unchanged.