| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 43 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
When the cough had ceased he sat wiping his mouth with his handkerchief and listening to the talk that ensued. `Drink is the cause of most of the poverty,' said Slyme. This young man had been through some strange process that he called `conversion'. He had had a `change of 'art' and looked down with pious pity upon those he called `worldly' people. He was not `worldly', he did not smoke or drink and never went to the theatre. He had an extraordinary notion that total abstinence was one of the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. It never occurred to what he called his mind, that this doctrine is an insult to the Founder of Christianity. `Yes,' said Crass, agreeing with Slyme, `an' thers plenty of 'em wot's too lazy to work when they can get it. Some of the b--s who go about pleading poverty 'ave never done a fair day's work in all their bloody lives. Then thers all this new-fangled machinery, |
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