Down and Out in Paris and London

A plongeur is a slave and a wasted slave doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work ultimately because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people who should be on his side acquiesce in the process because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him. It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars for when one has consorted with them and found that they are ordinary human beings one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that society takes towards them. People seem to feel that there is some essential difference between beggars and ordinary working men. They are a race apart--outcasts like criminals and prostitutes. Working men work beggars do not work; they are parasites worthless in their very nature. It is taken for granted that a beggar does not earn his living as a bricklayer or a literary critic earns his. He is a mere social excrescence tolerated because we live in a humane age but essentially despicable.