In the workhouse of an unidentified place, on an unspecified date, a child is born. As the infant struggles for survival, the pretty young mother's life is ebbing. An old pauper has assisted the attending surgeon, supported by the contents of a green bottle. She explains to the doctor that the young woman was unknown and had been brought in the night before, after being found lying in the street.
At the sound of her child's voice, the mother murmurs faintly, "Let me see the child and die." Both wishes are granted. As he leaves, the surgeon looks at the girl's left hand and comments: "The old story: no wedding-ring."
The newly arrived inmate is clothed in old garments that have seen much service. Thus he is immediately "badged and ticketed . . . a parish child — the orphan of a workhouse — the humble, half-starved drudge — to be cuffed and buffeted through the world — despised by all, and pitied by none."
Young Oliver is kept in the workhouse for eight or ten months, but the accommodations there not being suited to the care of infants, he is transferred to a private asylum. This haven for juveniles is run by Mrs. Mann, an entrepreneur who prospers by starving the children and pocketing most of the allowance dispensed for their sustenance. The youngsters perish with regularity, but investigation always sustains the report that death was due to natural causes or "accident."
Under this gentle system of charity, Oliver Twist spends his first nine years. His birthday is celebrated with a beating and confinement in the coal cellar with two other malefactors for "atrociously presuming to be hungry."
