Advent Calendar December 6th

It was Christmas Day in the workhouse

Eventide. A Scene at the Westminster Union (workhouse) 1879.

IT IS CHRISTMAS Day in the workhouse, and the cold, bare walls are bright
With garlands of green and holly, and the place is a pleasant sight;
For with clean-washed hands and faces in a long and hungry line
The paupers sit at the table, for this is the hour they dine.

The poem was first published in 1877 by George R. Sims, a campaigning journalist and author. It tells the story of a bitter old man who stops eating his Christmas dinner because he and his wife had sought help from the Workhouse the year before. His wife was starving, but she had refused to go into the Workhouse because it would have meant the couple being separated. She died on Christmas Day.

And the guardians and their ladies, although the wind is east,
Have come in their furs and wrappers to watch their charges feast;
To smile and be condescending, putting on pauper plates.
To be hosts at the workhouse banquet they’ve paid for — with the rates.

O, the paupers are meek and lowly with their ” Thank’ee kindly, mums! “
So long as they fill their stomachs what matter it whence it comes?
But one of the old men mutters and pushes his plate aside,
” Great God! ” he cries, ” but it chokes me; for this is the day she died! “

Read it in full HERE.

The painting is by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, a Bavarian-born artist who lived in England from the age of eight. A highly successful society portrait painter, many of his early works depicted the harsh realities of working class life which he knew first-hand from his own childhood experiences.