Mystery: The Returner of the Stars

Chapter 22 Poor Law and Legal Knowledge Small Classroom

Today's Professor Wayne obviously has something on his mind, otherwise he wouldn't have said such a thing just now and let himself cooperate with him.

He vaguely guessed some of Professor Wayne's thoughts from this behavior.

Workhouses are nominally charitable institutions that accommodate and relieve the poor.

After the introduction of the "George III Poor Law", under the watchful eyes of the gods, workhouses were established everywhere.

In addition to the kingdoms themselves, a poorhouse will be built near the churches of the seven righteous gods to help the poor and at the same time promote the benevolence of God.

This starting point is of course good and worthy of affirmation, but the greed of the people will make them even want to get involved in charities like the poorhouse.

It will be the greatest irony when philanthropy becomes a sharp weapon against the poor.

Hastur believes in the goodness of people, but also in the ugliness of people.

From what he has seen so far, and from some of Professor Wayne's words, he can predict that there is definitely a problem with this workhouse.

Professor Wayne insisted on eating in the same restaurant as the children, probably because he wanted to find out what was wrong with this workhouse.

No matter how well the other party's superficial skills are, as long as there is something wrong, it will definitely leave traces.

And children often can't hide many things.

Soon, an administrator came and said that the table on the first floor had been set up, and it was time for the children to eat lunch.

"Our place is relatively simple, and some of the food is not so exquisite, which may not suit your appetite." There seems to be a deep meaning in Dean Da'en's smile.

Professor Wayne said calmly: "I also came from a poor family, and every piece of food deserves respect."

"I'm just worried about being poorly entertained."

Dean Dahn didn't say anything, and led Hastur and the others downstairs.

On the way, Hasta carefully observed his surroundings. It was already noon, and he came out of a nearby house. There were quite a few people who came here to eat. Most of the children were between the ages of eight and 12. Fifteen and sixteen There are very few children.

According to the provisions of the Poor Law promulgated in the era of George III, those who are able-bodied and able to support themselves outside cannot occupy the resources of the workhouse all the time, and are not allowed to stay overnight in the workhouse at night.

In order to show kindness and care for different groups of people, adults can come to the workhouse once a day to receive food, and children who do not live in the workhouse can come to the workhouse twice a day to receive food.

The so-called food for the poor is freely adjusted and arranged according to the economic conditions of the local poorhouse.

Most of the workhouses can provide dairy products and bread. The workhouses with better conditions can sometimes have meat, and the very good workhouses can even eat meat openly, and occasionally beer can be provided.

Such living conditions are better than those of some workers' families.

Of course, poorhouses with such good conditions are in the minority.

Most workhouses can barely keep people full. In some poorhouses, there is only soup and other food, which is not enough to eat at all, and there may be only one meal a day, and the rest of the time can only be hungry.

The children there don't have to wash the dishes after eating, because their dishes have been licked very clean.

After every table in the restaurant was full of people and filled with food, an administrator rang the bell in his hand and shouted at the same time: "No conversation, no play, no behavior that affects other people's dining!"

After the eating rules were read out, the children began to eat quietly.

The main food at noon today is a sufficient portion of white bread and a glass of milk, and there is also a large bowl of slowly simmering sweet soup.

Although there is no meat to eat, compared to black bread, having white bread as a staple food is already very good, and there is also milk, which can already meet the nutritional needs of children.

On the surface, at least from the lunch meal, I can't find many faults.

"It was a touching scene."

Lecturer Flon sighed, in his opinion, it is already remarkable that a workhouse can feed poor children.

"Yes, I hope all children can grow up healthily." Professor Wayne was also quite touched.

Hastur did not comment on the scene in front of him, his eyes fell on the clothes on the children.

They looked similar to the children in the docklands, with gray and black old coats, baggy knee-length trousers, and some wearing round-brimmed felt hats, which is a normal dress in a workhouse.

What made Hastur a little puzzled was that their clothes were loose and messy, as if they were temporarily put on by someone.

Another point is that the performance of these children is too calm.

It stands to reason that children of this age like to play and new things the most. Even if they don't show interest in people like themselves, they will sneak a few glances, right?
But since entering the gate, every child I met along the way behaved calmly and well-behaved, not even talking loudly or playing.

This is not normal.

"Let's have lunch too." Dean Dahn greeted, and the administrator brought lunch.

Their lunch was pretty much the same as the little ones, except for a small steak.

Folun showed hesitation and said, "This, isn't it good?"

It was a little too much for the kids to eat white bread while I ate a nice steak.

Dean Da En showed an embarrassed look, and said apologetically, "It's because I didn't consider it very carefully."

As he spoke, he ordered the administrators on the side to order them to distribute all the steaks at noon to the children.

"Principal Dahn, you are really a kind person." Fran was very satisfied with Dean Dahn's actions.

Professor Wayne and Hastur just watched quietly without expressing their opinions.

Adhering to the eating rules of not talking when sleeping or eating, Hastur and others did not speak aloud. After lunch, Dean Dahn asked them to take them to the workhouse.

The entire workhouse can be roughly divided into five areas, living area, residential area, teaching area, working area, and confinement area.

The living area refers to the area where you can move freely and play. Children can move freely in the living area for a certain period of time after finishing their classes and adults finishing their work.

The residential area is divided into three parts, the first part is where children under the age of 14 live, the second part is the area where the workhouse administrators, chefs, workers, etc. The area where people who have a job in a workhouse live.

The place where the children live is at the innermost part of the building on the left, the workhouse administrator and others are in the middle, and the staff are at the outermost.

There are iron gates between each other, except for the patrolling guards, most people don't have keys to get in and out.

Once someone is caught across the district, the punishment will be very strict, this is also to try to protect those children from being violated.

The teaching area is the place where children learn knowledge in class. The teaching here is very basic. If they can learn and use Loen language, and add and subtract within one hundred, they can be considered as graduates.

In addition, there is another kind of teaching, which is to learn some skills that can go out to find a job, such as basic survival skills such as sewing clothes, pasting matchboxes, and washing clothes.

The work area is an area that only people over the age of 14 can enter. The workhouse will pick up some simple jobs from the outside and let them do labor. Firstly, they can exercise their working ability, and secondly, they can earn some money to subsidize the workhouse’s finances. , The third reason is to let these people have work to be busy, so as to avoid causing other bigger troubles.

Take the workhouse here as an example. Because it is built on the mountainside, it is convenient to mine stones. Many workers dig stones from the mountain in their daily work. Smaller or weaker women are responsible for secondary processing of the stones they transported. .

The confinement area is used to detain some people who make mistakes, which may be noisy children or workers who fight.

This area is mainly located in the basement so as not to affect the normal life on the ground.

After shopping around for an hour and a half, Professor Wayne told the administrator that he would live here tonight.

Dean Da En, who received the news, agreed with the matter with a smile, and said that they could live in the workhouse for as long as they wanted.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Professor Wayne led Hasta, Lecturer Furren, and two administrators of the workhouse to leave the workhouse and came to the dock area.

This time, the reason why Professor Wayne came to the wharf area was not only to rest at the Sunrise Workhouse for one night, but also to popularize legal knowledge for the workers who were unfairly treated here during the day, and at the same time provide some legal knowledge for free. assistance.

Professor Wayne told Hasta that during this period of time, the Loen Kingdom had amended the laws many times regarding workers and the economy in an attempt to improve the treatment of workers, and this news was very valuable to the workers in the dock area. .

If they don't have a certain amount of legal knowledge, they don't know how to fight for their own rights, which will keep them squeezed, and the harder they work, the harder it is to live.

Professor Wayne is an idealistic lawyer?
With the in-depth contact with Professor Wayne, Hastur felt more and more his pity for the poor people from him.

Since the first contact, he felt that Professor Wayne was a bit different.

Commonly speaking, when dealing with noble children like myself, many teachers teach in a perfunctory manner, and generally do not expect a nobleman to concentrate on being a lawyer.

After all, the profession of lawyer cannot be compared with the title of nobility.

But Professor Wayne still taught very seriously, and he also consciously told himself that there were many injustices in the current law.

It is audacity and audacity to tell a nobleman that there is something wrong with the law that protects the nobles.

The few people walked and chatted, and came to the area where the workers lived in the dock area. The two administrators of the workhouse were in charge of notifying nearby residents who were free to come here to attend classes for free.

Hastur and Lecturer Furren moved two tables and a dozen benches by hand.

Professor Wayne found a blank board and a piece of burnt coke.

Twenty minutes later, people came one after another curiously, wanting to see what program these outsiders were going to put on here.

When there were more than [-] residents who came to watch, Professor Wayne began his small class on the popularization of legal knowledge.

(End of this chapter)