THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS

by Jack London

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE EXPERIENCES RELATED in this volume fell to me in the summer of

1902. I went down into the under-world of London with an attitude of

mind which I may best liken to that of the explorer. I was open to

be convinced by the evidence of my eyes, rather than by the

teachings of those who had not seen, or by the words of those who

had seen and gone before. Further, I took with me certain simple

criteria with which to measure the life of the under-world. That which

made for more life, for physical and spiritual health, was good;

that which made for less life, which hurt, and dwarfed, and

distorted life, was bad.

It will be readily apparent to the reader that I saw much that was

bad. Yet it must not be forgotten that the time of which I write was

considered 'good times' in England. The starvation and lack of shelter

I encountered constituted a chronic condition of misery which is never

wiped out, even in the periods of greatest prosperity.

Following the summer in question came a hard winter. To such an

extent did the suffering and positive starvation increase that society

was unable to cope with it. Great numbers of the unemployed formed

into processions, as many as a dozen at a time, and daily marched

through the streets of London crying for bread. Mr. Justin McCarthy,

writing in the month of January, 1903, to the New York Independent,

briefly epitomizes the situation as follows:-

'The workhouses have no space left in which to pack the starving

crowds who are craving every day and night at their doors for food and

shelter. All the charitable institutions have exhausted their means in

trying to raise supplies of food for the famishing residents of the

garrets and cellars of London lanes and alleys. The quarters of the

Salvation Army in various parts of London are nightly besieged by

hosts of the unemployed and the hungry for whom neither shelter nor

the means of sustenance can be provided.'

It has been urged that the criticism I have passed on things as they

are in England is too pessimistic. I must say, in extenuation, that of

optimists I am the most optimistic. But I measure manhood less by

political aggregations than by individuals. Society grows, while

political machines rack to pieces and become 'scrap.' For the English,

so far as manhood and womanhood and health and happiness go, I see a

broad and smiling future. But for a great deal of the political

machinery, which at present mismanages for them, I see nothing else

than the scrap heap.

JACK LONDON.

Piedmont, California.

《深淵居民》是傑克·倫敦描寫1902年倫敦東區人民生活的一部著作。其內容都是他自己的親身體驗，數月裡他一直呆在該地區的濟貧院甚至露宿街頭以體驗生活。當時倫敦大約有50萬有類似遭遇的人們