Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Animal Husbandry, Utilitarianism, Class, Nutrition, Disease, Hospitals, Sanitation

    Reports that 'certain Vestrymen and [poor-law] Guardians' are preparing a show of 'poor lean' paupers similar to the 'annual Fat Cattle Show', in which 'Bumbles' are given prizes for being 'the biggest brutes' in their 'treatment of these creatures'. Adds that prizes will also be awarded to paupers who can 'live upon the smallest nutriment' and cause their parish 'least expense', and to the 'legal representatives of paupers' who are 'starved nigh to death's door' and do not complain about being removed to a filthy sick ward. Like cattle, the pauper's age and weight will be 'posted at his back' as well as his 'diet and cost'. Also suggests that, like a cattle show, the pauper exhibition will include displays of 'implements and models' including the handiwork of vestrymen, 'comprising frothy, foolish claptrap, bunkum speeches'.