Down and Out in Paris and London Read online

  XXXVIII

  AFTER WE LEFT the spike at Lower Binfield, Paddy and I earned half a crown at weeding and sweeping in somebody's garden, stayed the night at Cromley, and walked back to London. I parted from Paddy a day or two later. B. lent me a final two pounds, and, as I had only another eight days to hold out, that was the end of my troubles. My tame imbecile turned out worse than I had expected, but not bad enough to make me wish myself back in the spike or the Auberge de Jehan Cottard.

  Paddy set out for Portsmouth, where he had a friend who might conceivably find work for him, and I have never seen him since. A short time ago I was told that he had been run over and killed, but perhaps my informant was mixing him up with someone else. I had news of Bozo only three days ago. He is in Wandsworth-fourteen days, for begging. I do not suppose prison worries him very much.

  My story ends here. It is a fairly trivial story, and I can only hope that it has been interesting in the same way as a travel diary is interesting. I can at least say, Here is the world that awaits you if you are ever penniless. Some day I want to explore that world more thoroughly. I should like to know people like Mario and Paddy and Bill the moocher, not from casual encounters, but intimately; I should like to understand what really goes on in the souls of plongeurs and tramps and Embankment sleepers. At present I do not feel that I have seen more than the fringe of poverty.

  Still, I can point to one or two things I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.

  THE END

  1 Footnotes from the French translation and any editorial comments are indicated by an asterisk in the text.

  * See footnote p. 179

  * The French translation has this note (in French): A famous English miser.

  1 It is a curious but well-known fact that bugs are much commoner in south than north London. For some reason they have not yet crossed the river in any great numbers.

  1 Pavement artists buy their colours in the form of powder, and work them into cakes with condensed milk.

  * The French translation has this note (in French): In Hindustani, there are two pronouns for the second person singular. One, ap, is the more respectful and corresponds to our [= French] polite use of vous. The other, tum, is used only between very close friends or by a superior to an inferior; it is the equivalent of our tu. An Englishman in India would not tolerate being called 'tu' by a native.

  * The French translation has this note (in French): A name once given to the district of Whitefriars, which was, in the seventeenth century, a regular refuge for all kinds of wrongdoers by virtue of a right of sanctuary which was finally abolished in 1697.

  1 It survives in certain abbreviations, such as 'Use your twopenny' for 'Use your head.' 'Twopenny' is arrived at like this: head-loaf of bread-twopenny loaf-twopenny.

  * The French translation has this note (in French): A word for which there is no precise equivalent in French. In Hindustani, bahin means 'sister' and chut 'the sexual organ'. To call someone bahinchut is to remind him gratuitously that you are on the most intimate terms with his sister. Barnshoot is the same word corrupted by the English soldiers who brought it back to England; it has completely lost its original meaning.

  1 I have been in it since, and it is not so bad.

  1 This must be an underestimate. Still, the proportions probably hold good.

  1 In fairness it must be added that a few of the casual wards have been improved recently, at least from the point of view of sleeping accommodation. But most of them are the same as ever, and there has been no real improvement in the food.

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  First published by Victor Gollancz 1933

  Published in Penguin Books 1940

  This edition first published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in the Complete Works of George Orwell series 1986

  Published in Penguin Books with an Introduction and a new Note on the Text 1989

  Reprinted in Penguin Classics 2001

  Copyright 1933 by Eric Blair

  This edition copyright (c) the Estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell, 1986

  Introduction copyright (c) Dervla Murphy, 1989

  Note on the Text copyright (c) Peter Davison, 1989

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  ISBN: 978-0-141-18438-8