There was no security for "any one, and every one was tempted to live from hand to mouth.
Thus, here as elsewhere, we see a vacillating hand-to-mouth policy, at the mercy of a passion for power or for sensual gratification.
It is estimated that there are no less than 35,000 people living from hand to mouth in the utmost misery, partly in the extensive catacombs beneath the city.
In view of this approaching revolution, both the Church and the world were regarded as living from hand to mouth.
He was drifting about with no higher aim than a " hand-to-mouth " policy, whilst the Holy See could feel the superiority with which the consciousness of centuries of tradition had endowed it, and took full advantage of the mistakes of its opponent.