The George Street " Model" Lodging House.

is of goodly depth as ivell as frontage ; has a metal \) latform hung before it , ancl on this , when the breakfast-taking is in full activity , as from seven o'clock to about half-past eight , there may be seen a thickened cluster of coffee-pots and tea-pots , while higher up , as in regimental order , the fall-down top bar of the grate is covered over in the like manner . Just imagine the scene in the full flash of action in this way ; the great fire , of the liveliest red in the under parts , and a-top all gas-spurt and blaze ; and several fillers-up of

coffee or tea pot standing one by the other for their soonest turn at the kettle in use ; and now while some hurry away at once to get coffee or tea beverage into the cup and then down the throat , at the table close by , others , not so much pushed for time , or more greedy to force out every possible virtue of the mixture called coffee and chicory , or green and black tea-leaves , proceed more leisurely . Prom nine o'clock to ten , this chief fuss of the breakfast proceedings generally lessens ; while at eleven o ' clock it is a chance to

find a single kettle on boil ; for now the fire has to be put in requisition for the dinner pots ; ancl then again there will bo found an eager strife going on for room , —one with big pot in hand , another with some smaller pot , another with frying-pan spread over with steak and sliced onion , another for his 'tripe browning ; though , supreme over all , the regular cook of the place " rules the roast ; " ancl yet not from any positive right he may possess to do sobut simply because of the forbearance whieh the position he has

, assumed has obtained , being but a lodger himself , paying as other lodgers pay ; and yet somehow he has got into office , ancl no doubt usefully so , seeing there is no compulsion on any inmate to sit down at his twelve o ' clock table-d'Jiote ; though if you take your seat and eat of his good things , you must of course pay the charge made , —sixpence or f ' ourpence for your plate of roast or boiled , so much tor yoiu * share of potatoes and greens , and so much also for your gooseberry or cherry pie .

The Sunday dinner-hour of the kitchen is held somewhat later in the day than on the six preceding ones , though rarely all that is provided for these occasions is eaten up at the exact hour of dinner , soa" plate" is commonly to be had by any after-comers ; while , if

. nothing of the " ready-cooked" remains , the cook will soon prepare an equivalent in steak , chop , or a fry of rashers ancl eggs . The week in which this writing is done is one in the month of July ; and so , if truth be stranger than fiction , it must also prove more satisfactory where fact is the main object at value ; and hence it is that the following copy of the daily bill-of-fare of this cook of the George-street Model is given , the time being extended to a week , in order to arrive afc a fuller appreciation of these matters of the

stomach and pocket conjoined . "Bin or EAEE . —Sunday : roast beef , roast mutton , stewed meat , peas , new potatoes , rhubarb pie , baked plum-pudding . . Tuesday : stewed meat , vegetables , & c . Wednesday -. meat pie . 'Thursday : roast beef . Friday : liver ancl bacon . Saturday ( a blank ) . " Now , is there not much for reflection here ? much in the singularly graduating and varying of those daildishesfrom the

y , plentiful Sunday to the abstemious Saturday ? But so it is ; ancl , possibly , no one knows better how to take a faithful guaging of these changes than this cook of the George-street Model ; a cuisinier who only can afford to get ready what he knows will be eaten and paid for , the small profits he in this obtains being his only means of keeping clear in his rent , securing his own share of the food he daily provides , and retaining a coat to his back . Most sagacious man , . therefore , is he to have thought of this mode of

living , and as able as prudential in working it into profitable practice . Then below , from rasher time in the morning till the hour of dinner , and next from soon after dinner till rasher time again in the early evening , he is always to be found ; and then up he may emerge to the reading-room for his morsel of daily news from the journals ; ancl after which he may once more be seen clown below at the height of the supper hours , or from eight to ten o'clock , ancl -then bedward he to be up in befitting time the next morning .

goes , . This seems his regular life , the only bits of changes in it , from the description just given , being those of his marketing journeys to the butchers , the ham-shop , or the greengrocers ; and these cannot be considered as enforcing to either much change or much pedestrian exertion . Many of the inmates , however , do not dine in the place , the nature , or the distance of their employments not allowing an

opportunity ; while many others are their own dinner cooks , as they are their own coffee or tea beverage preparers . These are generally of the less employed class , —men who feel it quite time enough for their pockets , if not for their stomachs , to sit down to their breakfast some time between ten and eleven o ' clock in the forenoon ; their subsequent meal to be a conjoined one of dinner and tea , ancl possibly to go supperless to bed . Such , then , are some of the common orders of facts observable inrespect to these matters , ancl the more especially as witnessed in . the spacious sitting or reading room , among tho newspapers and

other journals there to be seen , the joint pleasure of mastication and information going on at the same time . At night , when the gas is full on , and those havo returned who had been absent at their different kinds of daily labour , the thronging of incomers becomes extreme . Rut soon they will all be seen to seat themselves along the fronts and backs ofthe various tables ; there , head chatting with head in close proximity ; here , the mouth as busy at ^ its feeding operations ; ancl at the other places eyesspectacled and

, unspectacled , bent intently over the printed page , the reading so provided being in a sense common reading , free to all who will but subscribe a weekly penny to pay the cost in this way involved . But who is the collector of these pence , as also the erqjencler , and what the mode of proceeding in respect to the choice of the purchases so made ? These matters are ordered thus : the superintendent , Mr . Taylor , takes , with the weekly half-crown lodging

money , the penny in demand for the use of the reading ; that is , supposing the lodger is willing to be so accommodated , for if not , there is no compulsion to pay . And now , what is the general character of this reading , as indicative of the class of mind which has its own uncontrolled option in its providing ? Ancl here a clue to some probable answer in this way maybe arrived at , by giving attention to the following list of

the publications which are at present in ascendant favour among the George-street model lodgers : — The Times , Morning Chronicle , Morning Star , Express ( evening ) , daily ; and then come , the weeklies , which are these : Illustrated London Neivs , Illustrated Times , Examiner , Weelcly Dispatch , Lloyd's Newspaper , Punch , Builder , All-the-Year-Eound , Once-a-WeelcWelcome GuestChambers's JournalLondon Journal

, , , , Family Herald , Cassell's Family Paper , Leisure Hour , Sunday-at-Some , and lastly , Cassell ' s History of England—which , although not of the strictly periodical grade of literature , yet , as it issues in weekly penny numbers from the printer , has been allowed to creep in in company with the more legitimate cast of periodicals . Lately ( and this happens in the beginning of every month ) , the subscribers to the just mentioned newspapers ancl periodicals held

their publication meeting , " when a report of the income and expenditure was read over , as furnished by the superintendent , ancl from which it appeared that there were a few shillings in hand , and thus that all was going on pretty well . On these occasions , a sort of auction also is held , should it happen that any of the publications are to be given up by parties who previously had them knocked down to them and paid for them .

' Now , who among the fund-finders ancl otherwise zealous friends of the Model Lodging-house , Model Family Dwelling , Model Wash-house , Model Soup Kitchen , & c , —who among these wellmeaning parties but must be pleased to have a faithful relation of the kind of daily doings carried on within walls which , perhaps , they have never seen but as mere walls ; and this , too , even at times of a purposeful inspection—times when all , as if by magic ,

becomes so changed at the hearing of the first footfall of the painstaking stranger , who , stepping forward , staidly looks about him from floor to ceiling , at the tables , at those who thereat have their seats—either with breakfast-cup , or dinner-plate , or newspaper before them—ancl then , exchanging a few words in a satisfied undertone with the superintendent who accompanies him , thinks and says " Very , very comfortable , " turns his back , ancl departs . These latter remarks naturally lead to others of a kindred bearing , and which may be opened with the question . But is everything here so really comfortable ? All necessary cleanliness

enforced or practised , nor any evu-engenclenng remissness permitted ? Grave questions these , ancl deserving of as gravely honest answers . Get , then , into a quiet , earnest talk on such matters with some of the oldest and most sedate of the lodgers , and you will soon hear , "No , all is not yet with the place as it should be , and as easily might be ; ancl this although many good changes have recently been effected— -effected , it is true , without the willing concurrence of fche chief house-officialor that of either

, of his subordinates ; but still the thing has been clone , and so far to satisfy . " " Well , but what was the motive or motives to the difficulty so experienced ?" "This can be explained readily if you will hear—hear a rapid history of the thing . Hear how in Byrom ' s superintending time , now some twelve years ago , there were great complaints on many

heads , —of negligence in the bed-making , the bed-clothes changing , the closet cleaning , as also of . much undue favouritism ; a young Scotch 'doctor , ' as he was called , being almost in the constant habit of coming in late at night ancl drunk , and when he would commence , to the sure disturbance of all who slept in the same ward in which he had his bed , an almost incessant How of ribald chatter , or to sing , or to smoke , and yet was he allowed to remain for week after week . " Relations like these you will hear enough about . You will hear , too , of many petty thefts which were committed at that period