14
On the opposite side of tlie road some food, or money> I forget which, was being distributed to a hungry crow d by another hospitable merchant. Evidently the supply *was limited, and it was a case of first come first served. 'The desperate struggle that was going on amongst that little crowd of some fifty or sixty people was pitiful to behold.
Now the present system, while better than nothing, is fraught with many serious objections, with which I am sure "my Indian readers will agree.
1* The weakest must inevitably go to the wall. It is the strong able-bodied lusty beggar who is bound to get the best of it in struggles such as I have :above described, although he is just the one who could and ought to work and who least needs the charity. He is able also to cover more ground than the weak and sickly. To the latter the struggle for existence is necessarily very severe; and while needing and deserving help the mosl they get the least.
*2. This unsystematic haphazard mode of helping the poor is bound to be attended with serious inequalities ; while some get more than is eithei good, or necessary, others get too little, and f 0] the majority even supposing that on two or thre< days of the week they succeeded in getting \ mifficiency, the chances are that on four or fiv they would not get nearly enough. It would b interesting to know the total amount of foo<Hlm distributed and the number of mouths that claii a share*