The papers have this week been full of cases in
which "casuals" have torn up their clothes, and of suggestions for the prevention of the ,practice. The difficulty is, that as English decency will not permit the casuals to remain naked they must have clothes, and having them, would in this weather as soon be in prison as anywhere else. Flogging is out of the question, as the practice is almost as common among women as men, and solitary imprison- ment scarcely deters those who have never suffered it. We can, however, offer what we believe is a new, and may be an effective, suggestion. Whenever any casual tears up his clothes, stop the next meal to the whole ward. Tearing will then be a breach of tramps' etiquette, and the thrashing the tearer will get from his own comrades will do him good, and will not brutalize them.
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