On Tuesday, the London County Council decided, by 87 votes
to 24, to undertake the erection of a model lodging-house, to accommodate from 300 to 350 persons, on a plot of vacant land, now in the possession of the Council, in Shelton Street, St. Giles's. It is said that the policy of building and owning common lodging-houses adopted by the Glasgow Municipality has been a complete success,-5 per cent. being earned on the outlay, and a great boon conferred on the class of persons who, having only 4d. to spend on a bed, are, if the matter is left to voluntary effort', obliged to sleep in evil-smelling dormitories, where it is impossible either to be clean or to avoid intimate contact and association with bad characters. Of course, if
wholesome and respectable " paying " casual wards can be provided without any burden to the rates, a great deal of misery and degradation might be prevented. Our only fear is lest the vagrant life, always very attractive, should be made too pleasant. The dislike of dirt and squalor acts in some measure as a preventative against vagabondage.
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