These men of the spike, the peg, and the street, are encumbrances.

They are of no good or use to any one, nor to themselves.

They clutter the earth with their presence, and are better out of the way.

Broken by hardship, ill fed, and worse nourished, they are always the first to be struck down by disease, as they are likewise the quickest to die.
They feel, themselves, that the forces of society tend to hurl them out of existence.

We were sprinkling disinfectant by the mortuary, when the dead waggon drove up and five bodies were packed into it.