He leaned out over the palisading and reached with both his arms eastward.

'There,' he cried, frantically, 'you have seen one.
There are thousands and tens of thousands of houses like this, a million crawling vermin who were born into the world in your likeness, as you were born, my fine gentleman.

Day by day they wake in their holes, fill their lungs with foul air, their stomachs with rotten food, break their backs and their hearts over some hideous task.

Every day they drop a little lower down.

Drink alone keeps them alive, stirs their blood now and then so that they can feel their pulses beat, brings them a blessed stupor.