London, whereas in Paris there are several on the Seine. Why should not floating public swimming-baths for both sexes be established. by scores from Greenwich to Putney? Why should not washing establishments such as are to be seen on the Seine be likewise erected, both paid for and managed by the municipal authorities? These floating baths and washhouses would cost but little in their erection, and their maintenance would be a mere trifle compared with the sums which are thrown away by corporations and vestries on much less profitable objects. I see the political economist rise in indignation at the proposal. And yet it is not supposed to be iniquitous for the nation to pay for the free opening to the people of a National Gallery, nor when the least admirable portion of the plebs has drunk itself into penury is it thought to savour of Communism if the prudent and respectable portion of society be compelled by the State to support the former in workhouses. The pre

of the people is in my

The State:

public wash-houses

nd swimming laths, an importan

step wid, without dela, be taken t

health and increasing
city pepitiations.

】

325

SOME SOCIAL WANTS OF LONDON.

II.

CLUBS FOR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN.

Reprinted, by permission, from the 'Quiver' of
November 1884.

THE announcement which lately appeared in
an evening journal 'that an attempt is about
to be made, under good auspices, to form a
Company for the establishment of residential
clubs for young men' is satisfactory, inas-
much as it shows that some practical out-
come is likely to result from the attention of
the public having been drawn by that journal
to the existence of this social need.
suggestion, though on
on the whole most
favourably received, as shown by the tenor

The

of the correspondence on the subject which

the press, has not escaped

It has been said that club li is calculateu

luxury and dishness, and to

isposing men from entering into

married tate.

We have been warned

the

Such a club would get

the upper han

the steady-going, and that

in a short time the institution would des rate into a gambling hell, unless supervision and restrictions were imposed which would be resented by the young men.

I am

aware that the young men who fill our West end clules, or the working lads who frequent our numerous working-men's clubs, are mor, less self-restrained. more addli

to drinking or gambling, or

more averse

to marriage, than were their ancestors

a similar period of life; nor do I see

of self-restraint and of self-government than the classes which have already tried the experiment, and found it succeed. To say that club life discourages marriage is only to say that the selfish man, if he belongs to a club, finds it suits his purpose better to remain unmarried than to make a drudge and a slave of some poor woman whom he has solemnly promised to love, comfort, and honour. The man who is worthy of marriage will not be induced to forego linking his lot for better or for worse with the woman of his choice, because he may have to renounce some small measure of material comfort. Better that a woman should remain unmarried than that she should be linked for life to a worshipper of self; better for the State and for society that the curse of selfishness should not, perchance, be transmitted to another generation.

My present object, however, is not so much to combat the arguments of those who