The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-07-05 00:00:00

!ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
AMBITION'S LADDER.
By the Author of " Atherstone Grange," "4 AA for
a Love," 4-c.

CHAPTER I.
BRED IN THE STREETS

A narrow pass there is. with houses low,
Where ever and anon the stream is eyed,
And many a boat soft gliding to and fro;
There oft are heard the sounds of infant woe,
The short, ttick sob, loud scream, and shriller squall.
lass than a score years back the south bank of the
"names between the ancient archiepiscopal palace
'of Lambeth on the one hand and Westminster-
bridge upon the other, was a neighbourhood to be
Avoided by prudent passengers—as much because
of the evil smells and miry footways that there
abounded, as on account of its denizens, who,
though for the main part a hardworking, indus-
trious and comparatively honest community of
hawkers, costermongers, and others, whose daily
•avocations were pursued in the open streets, yet
numbered a fair proportion of inhabitants of a pre-
datory class ; women of dirty, slatternly, unkempt
-appearance, loud - tongued and voluble; men
Slouching in their gait and generally reserved
'of speech, but ready on the slightest provocation
to pour forth a string of foul-mouthed, horrible
blasphemies—men who walked with their heads
bent down, their sharp, ferret-like eyes incessantly
Upon the watch for plunder as they went—their
shoulders rubbing the walls of the dirty, dilapidated
•houses that lined the narrow, evil-odoured streets
Stangate Bank.
Then, where now stands the stately, palatial
building known as St. Thomas's Hospital, facing
the equally handsome pile wherein the wisdom,
valour, and genius of England assembles to pass
laws and make enactments for its better govern-
ance, thousands of the masses for whose well-
being and amelioration their rulers strive honestly,
if not always wisely, lived huddled together in such
-squalid misery as only great cities can show.
it had long borne an evil reputation, but at no
,time worse than that more immediately preceding
its demolition to make room for the well-paved
court-yards and terraces, the lofty corridors and airy
-wards, where pain and suffering arising either from
-accident or such "ills as flesh is heir to," are now,
as far as possible' alleviated by skilful treatment,
kind nursing, and unstinted nourishment. But at
the period spoken of such radical changes were yet
-to come, 111-looking, evil smelling, and of un-
healthy associations, not even the erection on the
• opposite bank of England's stately Senate House,
nor the proximity of the noble bridge which there
Spans the broad, swift-flowing river, could do away
with the hideous appearance of the slimy foreshore,
lined as it was with damp, dark tenements built for
the most part of wood, foul, rotten wharves and
dirty boat-houses.
Here, some twenty years ago, hidden from obser-
vation by a couple of coal barges left half-buried in
the soft, black mud by the receding tide, was
gathered together a group of men and boys upon a
small patch of comparatively dry ground. There
were but two or three who could, in years at least,
be classed as adults, the majority being composed of
Youths from sixteen to twenty, some tall, well-built
lads in costermonger's garb of corduroy, with fur
caps having broad flaps tied up with tapes or rib-
bons, closely cropped hair in most instances betray-
ing a recent acquaintance with the prison shears.
Others were mere boys, some almost children, but
all bore the same stamp of countenance, a precocity
of intelligence fostered by an intimate acquaintance
from the cradle —if such luxuries ever found their
way to Stangate—with craft, cunning and vicious
habits.

One, in the bright intelligence of his really hand-
some, well-cut features, his frank, open, and some-
what daring expression, seemed out of place among
StlCh companions. But the stranger who had
Judged Alick Wood by. these ontWi ri signs, and
plar._ed trust in him because of them, or believed
lhe clear, unclouded eyes of dark grey to be an
index to his mind, would probably have had cause
to repent his confidence and confess ruefully that
appearances are not always to be implicitly relied
Upon.

Scarcely fourteen as yet, and not looking older
than his years, Alia: Wood was in experience of
crooked ways and knowledge of all things evil an
adept, but with less excuses than could be made
for the majority of those he chose as his associates.
Of bright parts and no common aptitude, he hall
Speedily learned as much as could be taught him at
the day school to which he had been sent by his
father, an ignorant, untaught, hut honest man,
some What given to over indulgence in-liquor, but
industrious and reputable, and quite unconscious
that the boy of whom he was so proud was the daily
associate of thieves and pickpockets.
Perhaps, indeed, under purer conditions Alick
might have developed other traits of character, but
his surroundings were against him. His home,
the house in which his father was born before him,
and carried on his business—that of a small retail
dealer in provisions of all sorts - was situated in the
very centre of the squalid district just clo,cribed.
His only playground the streets, his sole companions
those whom he met there, it is after all little wcnder
that the contaminating influences to which he was
exposed shoal(' do their work and debase him to the
common level.

Still, up to the time which intro4nces him to the
reader, Alick Wood had kept aloof from actual
crime, such as might have brought him within the
reach of the law. It was not any conscientious
scruples that made him refrain from the theft, indeed,
but simply caution, and the further fact that his
father's inordinate fondness f, r him made it always
easy to obtain such small sums as for the present
bounded his desires and enabled him to indulge in
the one amusement which above all others delighted
him, a visit to the theatre.

Unfortunately, those most easily accessible pre-
sented pie::es to their patre,-ns far from elevating in
tendency, and though Alick Wood had read most of
the works of our '()Teat dramatic poet, and even knew
by heart and was fond of spouting some of the parts
to his admiring parent, his vitiated taste revelled
more in the "blood and thunder" school of drama
as pourtrayed at his favourite resort. "Claude
Duval," Sixteen-String Jack," and others of that
ilk were the heroes he delighted to applaud, whose
feats of rascality roused all his admiration, and to
behold whom in their bravery he alternately ca;oled
and bullied his doting parents for the means of
entrance to the theatres at which their deeds were
represented.
But Alick Wood senior had his obstinate moods,
when it was impossible for the boy to wheedle the
necessary coins from him, and one of these occasions
happened at a time when more than ordinary attrac-
tion offered in the revival, "For one night only!' as
the bills of the Transpontine playhouse advertised
with all the adventitious aid of immense type and
flaring posters of the celebrated drama "Jack Shep-
pard."
"I don't care, I will go," doggedly muttered the
boy,- as he flung out of the low roofed little shop,
from behind the counter of which his usually indul-
gent father had just obstinately resisted the demand
upon his purse, "I know the trick of opening the
till well enough, and if the old hunks only gives me
half a chance I'll do it. Half a bull won't satisfy
me then, I'll collar half a sow, and do it to rights.
But Mr. Wood was not unused to his son's
method of obtaining what he required, and kept so
rigid a watch the whole of that day that Alick found
it impossible to carry out his design, and as the
Afternoon wore away his spirits sank to a very low
ebb indeed at the prospect of being debarred the
treat he had anticipated.
There was one chalice left to him, though a poor
,one, and he regarded the two copper pieces which
formed his sole riches with doubt as to whether he
should risk the loss of them. Armed with that
sum, small as it was, he might hang about the
gallery door till some one, not quite so enthusiastic
a play-goer as himself, should come out and con-
sent to barter his return check for the money. But
that, after all, would only enable him to witness a
portion of the performance, and Alick hungered for
a complete feast, not a mere taste.

"I know how to twist 'em proper," he reflected,
sPinning the coins deftly in the air. "I'll chance
it."

With which he quickened his pace, and passing
through several crooked lanes and bye streets, even
-more villainously foul than that he had left, he
'emerged upon the shore, and joined the group made
mention of already.
_" Hallo ! here's Curly," was the greeting with
. Which he was received. "Come to try your luck,
oldvh... pap There's room for a little 'tin like you.
move in."
..,__Tii° lad nodded his head, and pushed his way
fuwooremuth hst raenie,ircle of spectators till he stood in the
" i've only got owt-yenep " (twopence), he said,
4‘ SO it's no us,i,-,'
win the best twlaYtossing ;
z
but I'll back Carrots to
quieipitehes out of three."
"Done,"
.exclaimed one of the bystanders,
-and then the
Players
to the initiated as thatproe°eded with their game,
which was Sim
I, piterels of gambling known
-
, It was not difficult to guess that
losing,
the player whom
Alick had elected to back was—
vas very pale, and the corners of hi:lg', for his face
though he
anxiously
kept them firmly compressed, twitched nervously
watched the
-every now and then as he
0n,p...t.
• coins sent spinning into the air by his 4._ .
"Tails it is !" he cried exultingly, aasrg
they fell to
the ground. " That's the first one to me for the
last half-hour. You've clanged my luck, Curly,
an i
d I'll go you halves n the next three spins if it
keeps good."
The result of which promise was that a few
rioraents afterwards Alick found himself in posses-
sion of coppers amounting to nearly a shilling, and
here) had he followed his first impulse of caution,
he would have rested content with his easily gotten
gains and retired from the scene of the contest.
.tut besides that a certain code of honour which
Exists even amongst such as these men forbade the
stq, with the usual infatuation that follows a first
success in games of chance the lad determined to
have another trial, entering the lists himself, win-
laing at first, till he held quite a considerable sum in
Silver and coppers, which dwindled, however, still
1:a •
ore rapidly : and at Wit he left the ring without