The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-26 00:00:00

SUNDAY TRADING IN SHOREDITCH,
LONDON.

Strange as it may seem, it is, nevertheless, true of
mighty London, that "one half the world does not
know how the other half lives." What a contrast
meets the eye each returning Sabbath, whilst the bells
chime the how of prayer, as a stranger wanders from
Belgravia to Shoreditch ! and how it saddens the
heart ! Within sight of church and chapel, and
almost within the bearin; of the preachers' voices,
what oaths and blasphemies ! what buying and
selling !—as if defiant of the beneficent command to
make the Sabbath Day an interval of rest and worship.
The following description, from The Times, of the Fair
held every Sunday at the East-end of London, whilst
it will interest the reader, may be instrumental for
good:—
. . . .

The man who asserted a short time ago that the East-end
of London was as little known as Patagonia to the residents
of that part of the metropolis west of Temple-bar was not
very far wrong. Not one in a thousand of the people of the
West-end has over been in Radcliffe-highway, and to most of
theta Sin treditch suggests nothing hut the name of a railway,
and their opinions of the commercial morality of Petticoat-
lane are certainly not founded on personal observation. But
we may go further and say that to thousands of those who
live east and north-east of Aldgate pump there aro regularly
recurring circumstances occurring in their own region, of the
existence of which they may have heard vague reports, hut
of the character of which they could never have formed a
definite notion. Moralists, novelists, and essayists have
described a thousand times the terrible contrasts which are
presented in those parts of London in which the wealthiest
of the laud most do c.,ngregate—how luxury ni placed cheek
by jowl with squalid poverty, and how the "revelry by
night" in St. James's is ahnost hushed by the cry for bread

. . .
So great had the nuisance arising front the proceedings of
those who persisted in holding a fair on Sundays in the neigh-
bourhood become, that about a twelvemonth since the Bishop
of London addressed a letter to the Commissioners of Police
recommending that some measures should be adopted for
the suppression of the Sunday trade. . . . . But in the pre-
sent state of the law the authorities, thougn able perhaps to
modify, are powerless in their efforts to destroy what the
most indulgent observer must confess to be a flagrant viola-
tion o (Christian feeling and social decency.
We propose to introduce those who will be willing to
follow us to the fair which is held every Sunday within five
minutes' walk of the Shoreditch terminus of the Great
Eastern Railway. . . .
The district in which the fair is held is comprised within
the limits of the parkh of St. Matthias and that portion of
Shoreditch which is under the spiritual direction of the Holy
Trinity Missi, ,e Fassi. g from the High-street of Shoreditch
by Anchor-street, we reach that portion of Itetlmal-green
which is the bead-quarters of what is known as the Spital-
fields silk trade. I tore it was that the Huguenots who tied
to England after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day
took refuge. and here they fixed the seat of their industry.
The aspect of the now unpicturesque anti neglected streets
is full itt melmcholy and instructive association. The
broad rectangular windows, with their small diamond-shaped
panes of glass, suggest at once the recollection of grand
ennobling historical traditions. Even now, in one of the
wretched attics of the neighbourhood, with its broken
Italics badly mended with paper, a dirty rag, and the moist
dark plaster peeling front the mouldy walls, a man who bears
the name of Rad., De Foe, Ney, Unpin, or Fontaineau
nmy he easily discovered. Hither the exiles of France
lonnight their traditional love for birds and flowers, and
though, after a wide lapse of time, many of the national
associations have faded away front the memories of their
descendants, there is scarcely a habitation in which some
sickly plant may not be seen struggling for life in the fetid
atmosphere in which it is reared, or some bird does not
mingle its song with the Milli of the loom. It was to the ,
prevalence of the taste of which we have spoken that the
~iri',ziil of w hat is known as the Sunday Bird fair is mainly
I attributable In justice, however, to the inhabitants of the •
district of which we are speaking, it must be stated that to
them the desecration of the Sabbath in the East-end is not
to be imputed. Accident has converted what were refining
influences in the case .4 one class into the agency of debane-
, Meld in another. That the multiplieatitm of rare and
beautiful birds in a single locality conduced to a gradual
development of a market for their sale can supply no cause
of wonder. That the trona; should be carried on on Sunday
is an stronge as it is lamentable.
The opmathms if the fat r extend over Ilve streets—Club.
etc Bacon-street, brick-lane, Sclater-street, and Hare-
street. Ilare-Street le all extension of Sclater-street, and the
four other thoroughfares term an irregular quadrilateral.
We have called the Exchange a lord-fair, simply from the
reason that ornithology is more extensively cultituted within
'ts limits than any other branch 1,1 natural hi,tory, but we
must mid that Miele is scarcely on article for domestie use,
or, as farm, Eastern tastes go, of :esthetic recreation, which
is not sibundantly
One Word regarding the moral condition of the people of
fir, neighlmurhosal The necessity of itelierttmg this will be
Presently understood. Those who are best acquainted with
the facts say that in the locality there is but little venal vice
and little professional crime. The evils to be dealt with
ar those of exe.'saive indigence, and the prevailing spirit
of irreligien which indig.eneeso ofhli entails. Exelusive of
tl lone Who keep shops in tile neighbourhood, the people who
frequtnt the fair have no connexion with the district. Every
-outlay Rotherld'e. and Bermondsey send up their contin-
geuts ; the come ercial ii terests of the Borough, Chelsea,
Watalswtrth are carefully regarded, and even such
remote places as Norwood and Croydon are not entirely un-
represented. For the most part these men have no definite
occupation. The predilections of the hird-fanciers, however,
cannot be mistaken, fir their Short thick necks, their closely-
pited hair, and their supereilous contempt foes display of
e4ollar or shirt Inuit. pro udahn an hereditary admiration for
the gladiators of the ring. We proceed, forthwith, to de-
scribe sonm of the features of the fair held on Sunday
n
. . . . . . .

At atiout half-port ten o'clock small groups of people as-
semble opposite the bird-fanciers' shops in the streets which
we have specified. Their variety of attire is considerable,
and s,une of the toilettes are worth the costumier's study
But, whether they sport corduroy, "Petticoat-lane vol.
vetoes," or '• shoddy," that has been tortured times out of
'shod by that omnipotent instrument known in Whitechapel
as 'the Devil," few of them ever neglect the mother-of-
petal buttons so dear to Dr. Marigold, and no one is so false
ti the Distal, no of his race as to deqiise " a hankerchief
loose awl easy ',slid his neck. There you have 'em again,
as large as life." Those who have nothing to sell and want
nothing to Imp are generally the first in the fair. In a few
minutes a boy linn's up a goat and takes sp his position on
the lise, and he is immediately succeeded by two or three of
the " fancy." who carry cages under their arms, carefully
covered. They shut out the light from the birds, it is Bald,
s 4. that when they make "a singing match "their representa-
tives may sing hauler and longer than they otherwise would.
The practice of musing hot medics into the eyes of singing
lon Is has not, scare afraid, been yet altogether abandoned.
Atter deems o'clock accessions are made every minute to the
numbers. The fair is now in full swing. In Brick-lane all
the shops are open, with a few exceptions. In that thorough-
fare one can boy all the more material creature comforts
which Ids exchequer can command, while in the hours dur-
ing which the worship of Bacchus is prohibited on
' Sunday he can refresh himself with sherbet or gingerheer
at a halfpenny a glass. In Bacon-street whole re,iments of
white mice, mate innocent of petty larceny, work treadmills
which, like the Laureate's brook, "go on for ever." On the
long line stretching from Anchor-street to St, Matthias'
Church the gathering presents a kaleidoscopic variety. A
knowin' tut who shows off the paces of an anatomical
pony, is followed by a boy rolling the amputated wheels of a
dissbled perambulator, which he offers for sale, and the rear
of the incongruous trio is brought up by an attenuated old man
leading a yelping. mangy Newfoundland. At the corner eta
by street a preacher who announees himself as " Black
Jimmy, the cutler, preacher a panegyrie on himself which is
heard with a certain attention by the listeners, albeit tradi-
tional appreciation is Reel ...led to winkles and walnuts. Old
keys, old locks, old hardware generally invite large crowds
of loectators. :1111 I a small boiler which lies in the footway is
arl ' .ed as a triumph of mechanical skill. The sound of the
church organ is drowned by the Babel outside, and the cry
of " Pies all 'of, all 'ot," rising high above the indistinct
hubbub which is meant on every side. Little boys toss for
pies. and the policeman stoves them MI ; Ind when the con-
stituted authority is about ten yards off, the watchful vendor
of "the mysteries" makes a no,to voce demand for another
appeal to fortune.
Club-row is the head-quarter for birds. In a shop a glaring
advertisement informs the intended buyer that " the finches
sold arc warranted cocks." The reason for this will be
understood when we say that in many cases hen Mids. which
are cheaper, are painted or supplied with an unlimited
quantity of hempseed, which, being a very strong stimulant,
makes them look brisk Rllll hailil, as if newly caught. The
tricks practised by the bin I-duffers, mrs they are caned, are In
many cases ingenious. Sonietimes they fasten a topknot on
a linnet's heal with glue, and then sell it for some foreign
bird which has just arrived from the Fiji islands or the
Mountains of the Moon. When canaries are not of a good
colour, they are re-dyed with what is known as the Queen's
ycllirslhiorritiirda arc dyed a deeper black by the grit taken

I if a fryingpan.
The Moses, too, are not entirely ignored. Pere an ad-
miring :Dom speculate on the excellence of a concertina,
and there a fiddle is 'tiered " fort song." The iduck and
maim:ince of a bull-dog is discussed at another point by a
circle of low betting-men, whose head-dresses, their dis-
tinctive article of apparel in the East, may be divided into
two classes—brown caps, with a conspicuous button an the
top, or a mmlified porkpie hat, with the turned-up leaf in
high relief. But it is vain to specify details, the phases of
the motley crowd are so many and so changing. Women
lounge outside their doors, or watch the moving throng
beneath from Use rooms of the miserable tottering,ffil houses,
the size of which only reveals the approach of their de-
struction. A moment, and one hears words of ejaculation or
disappointment as the result of a pigeon match which has
been just decided is known, but the expressions are intensi-
fied by the most terrible blasphemy. lif particular incidents
of obscenity which cannot fail to meet the eye 011 a visit to
the fair we cannot, for obvious reasons, speak. If a cheer-
ing consideration can be suggested by the associations of the
gathering, it is that but very few women take part in the
proceedings of the Exchange.
Elaborate and ingenious devices are adopted for the pur-
pose of obtaining liquor during the course of the time the
sales are being carried 011. There are in the parish of St.
atthias, with 6.000 inhabitants, thirteen public-houses and
seven beershops, and in the Holy Trinity Mission district a
similar number. It is against the beershop-keepers prin-
cipally that the police have to contend in their efforts to pre-
vent the illegal trade on Sunday mornings. Arrangements
are made with the people ,if neighbouring houses, so that the
beer is passed out through the latter to those who demand •
it, and in some cases a beerhouse situate in one street bag
a means of communication through its back yard with ano-
ther house in a different thoroughfare Yesterday week
four police made their way into one of these places, and
found about fifty or sixty men sitting in a yard with two
barrels of beer in their immediate sicii,uty. Cases like this
are frequent, lest the difficulties in the way of depriving
beershop-keepers of their licenses are so great that the po-
lice are comparatively powerless. %%lien summoned, the
offenders are fined, but they are seldom deterred by that
from a repetition of the offence. The Rev. Isaac Taylor and
the Rev. W. if. Jenkins, the incumbents of the churches
mentioned above, are exerting themselves energetically to
diminish the evils of which this Sunday market is the cans e
but in the present state of the law, while they snap lie sac
cessful in preventing the increase of the scandal, an attempt
to suppress the fair altogether would be absolutely hopeless.

GAMBLING AT t,TRASBOURG. The Times, in a leader, commenting on the above
arhcle, says:—
,f7;:ostvhd does A correspondent writes :—" The people who go inWei=ee Ve.lntohtartetlAi,zweetartrtn:llgrood and those
not conic front the d'is'triet. It is a known place for belong, of course, to all nations ; but it is a saying at 1
Homburg, that the Russians are the most, and the . of lands, and we suppose for the sale of them ontSunedleye
the symptom of a too wide-
French the least, successful, while the English hold a I but the Fair, with all its worst features, is an importation!
Itoinu,lehut:Ttoiinr,seaLlal•te in the social
iii,i,i,,tl liasinginocn lair Ilat,dywitl,tuv
middle place. Those Russians who gamble, however,
usually bring 1114,11ey in prods toss am unto and their
gains are often exaggerated. The other day tine of ' tPord7 wahiech gatheiel4ontae
them, who seemed a vetitahle (cleans, left the room , spot. It is not merely the lower classes of the YEas
convenient
them,
amid general admiration, carrying from the croupier of Bermondsey, of Rotherhithe, of the Borough. of Chelsea,
20,000 francs. ' Ah,' said a laystandbr, and, I should of Wandsworth, and even of Norwood and Croydon, of which
judge, a most accomplished frequenter of this this scene is a revelation. They are gregarious animals, and
• Paradise," but yesterday he lost ,t 0 000 some of inter by %ere ill:nit:1
vErortiLheiu=e
troertn it may be of
your 'Muscovite millionaires, in fact, open endless ' n
, kiVete'ont'ess,trotleed, that we and it hard to understand
wblz.
Icredits at the bank ; they act the part of great lows, they should bot. Sunday trading is, we believe, illegal, and
flinging. down their notes and rouleaux among, the such barefaced infractions of thelaw might, one would 1
think,
minnows who are risking thalers. They are contena- he readily prosecuted. The incumbents of the district and
plated by envious crowds; and who, except the the Bishop himself appear to have appealed to the police
croupiers or a few practised gamesters, can determine zit hori:ii,e:, andihaiv:. atkr,ig,,hut ttoje:T.lii.ntl,t,ir d. But, as
whether they lose or win? It is ontputed that the , „mi.= f;or,r,n.: place to another. You break uptheg
lgang
bank at Homburg, notwithstanding the combined in one spot; they the away and may be hidden for a time,
attacks upon it in every moment of every hour, dears I but they are sure to reappear elsewhere. The nuisance via-

SiWV, iii fact, in the men and boys, and even. In
themselves ; they represent the moral drainage of this great
city, which you cannot pitch into the river, or transport. It
lies festering about us on all sides, and we do but toss it from
place to place: we pull down one rookery to supply birds for
a second. Indeed, it is perhaps an advantage that the mis-
chief has tins tendency to concentrate, and grow from time
to time to a visible head Otherwise, we should too pro-
bably overlook it, or underestimate it. But we have here
the monsl abominations of London forced upon our atten-
tion, and even brought shit: by aide with its iuost sacred and
most civilizing influences
The problem, therefore, is not in the Shoreditch Bird
Fair, but in the state of things which produces the Shore-
ditch Bird Fair. The question is not merely how to drive
away these unhappy people from St. Matthias and Holy
Trinity districts, but how to prevent the existence of such
people, or, at least, how to improve them now they exist. It Is
an intolerable scandal that men and women should be found
within a stone's throw of our churches so utterly lost to all
sense, not merely of religion, but of decency awl humanity.
I The most distressing feature in such a scene is the absenceof
all reasonable motives or feelings in the crowd. They are pre-
datory animals herding together for the purpose of their prey,
and none of the impulses or thoughts that stir the classes
above or around then, find the least answer in their nature.
They now hold a Bird Fair within sound of a church organ;
they would just as soon hold it within the church itself,
or, indeed, within Westminster Hall or St. James's Palace.
There is nothing its their world but birds and dogs and
prize-lighters; and the only refinements of their language are
curses and obscenities. How is it that such people exist in
a country which boasts of being Christian, which has an
Established Chimth, with clergy who are responsible for
every soul in every parish, which sends missions to the
heathen, which, as this very locality witnesses, recognizes
missionary work at home, awl is now busily engaged in
establishing "mission districts," and missionary clergy,
and all sorts of lay agency? One would have thought it in-
conceivable that where there is such ostentatious hus-
bandry there should be soil which bears no truce whatever
of any good seed having been dropped into it, but, on the
contrary, is rank with the foulest tares.
We are much afraid that if the whole history of such a
scene could be sifted we should come upon sheer neglect of
some sort or another ; awl though we do not wish to pass a
hard judgment on mei, who have a very hard task, we think
many might take warning against the least neglect of their
duties. But there is one form of neglect, rife at the present
time, to which such a spectacle is an ovenvhelining rebuke.
In the face of such a fact as this, what can we thick of all
the metaphysical quibbles, and the vestment squabbles, and
the gratuitous i iiii ovations, which are now distracting
the attention of half our clergy, and which they think,
and are sometimes encouraged to think, the great
questions of the day? It is worse than Nero fiddling
while Rome was burning. While they are compassing sea
and land to make one proselyte to lighted candles, there are
thousands of people around them ignorant of the very
alphabet of morality and reason. While a gross pollution
Is spreading under the cognisance of tliesr very senses,
they must needs spend their own energies and waste
the energies of others upon embroidered dresses, and in-
cense, fuel hynins to the Virgin Mary, and associations
for promoting the unity of Christendom. This spectacle
is pr of how gigantic a work lies before the clergy,
and it is grevious that their exertions should be for a
moment diverted Isy these trumpery controversies. They
are perpetually devising new machinery, rearranging build-
ings, inventing new agencies, and, in short, making endless
preparations to evangelize the people, but failing to throw
their whole energies into the actual task. The work drat is
necessary among such people as hold the Bird Fair
in Shoreditch can be done equally well by any ma-
chinery or by no machinery. Earnest men, with their
hearts in their work, have done wonders in such scenes
with no other instrument than toe Bible in their hands. In
fact, it is the Catechism, not the Prayer Book, the Ten Com-
mandments, and not the Thislymine Articles that are
needed. Yet we will be bound to say that Dr. Gray has en-
listed far greater exertions in his squabble with Dr.
Coleus°, and that tar warmer feelings have been called out
by Mr. Lyne's extravagancies in Lombard-street, than the
Shoreditch Bird Fair is likely to raise. Yet the Brd Fair
and the people who compose it offer a terrible reality,
utterly beyond dispute or exaggeration. We know that no
time and no labour can be misemployed there When will
people be more concerned with the certain good, and the
certain evil, which lie before their feet than with the specu-
lations and the vain ansbitiom which are so is/easing to the
fancy just because they are are so wholly unreal?