George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London

My story ends here. It is a fairly trivial story, and I can

only hope that it has been interesting in the same way as

a travel diary is interesting. I can at least say, Here is the

world that awaits you if you are ever penniless. Some day I

want to explore -that world more thoroughly. I should like

to know people like Mario and Paddy and Bill the

moocher, not from casual encounters, but intimately; I

should like to understand what really goes on in the souls

of plongeurs and tramps and Embankment sleepers. At

present I do not feel that I have seen more than the fringe

of poverty.

Still I can point to one or two things I have definitely

learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all

tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be

grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men

out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation

Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor

enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.