Foreign News: Willies' Nighties

U. S. hoboes, scanning papers on park benches, long to be in England now that Labor is in power. Published a fortnight ago was a report of the British Ministry of Health suggesting a long list of improvements to make life more pleasant for the British Bum.

When British tramps, known locally as Weary Willies, wish lodgement at the public expense, they do not apply for a vacant cell in the county jail, as in the U. S., but go to the local poorhouse where they are lodged in what is known as the Casual Ward. Here each one is given a meal, a bath, a bed, a nightshirt. The Ministry of Health after an exhaustive investigation of Casual Wards recommended the following improvements:

Spring mattresses for all beds.

Shaving mirrors in the bathrooms.

Showers, sprays, footbaths.

Wash basins with hot & cold running water.

Central heating maintained until a sufficiently late hour.

On the subject of the Weary Willies' nighties the commission wrote:

"Such shirts, commonly made of a coarse hessian, require to have their pristine stiffness removed by a good boiling before being issued."