So far has the divorcement of the worker from the soil proceeded, that the farming districts, the civilised world over, are dependent upon the cities for the gathering of the harvests.

Then it is, when the land is spilling its ripe wealth to waste, that the street folk, who have been driven away from the soil, are called back to it again.

But in England they return, not as prodigals, but as outcasts still, as vagrants and pariahs, to be doubted and flouted by their country brethren, to sleep in jails and casual wards, or under the hedges, and to live the Lord knows how.
It is estimated that Kent alone requires eighty thousand of the street people to pick her hops.

And out they come, obedient to the call, which is the call of their bellies and of the lingering dregs of adventure-lust still in them.

Slum, stews, and ghetto pour them forth, and the festering contents of slum, stews, and ghetto are undiminished.