The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-12 00:00:00

THE SKEELS I

Entrance to these dancing " skeels" is generally by an
unlighted close, up a common stair to a large room on the
first floor. The door of this room—on which " Dancing
here" is legibly inscribed—is kept by a scowling individual
—probably the proprietor of the establishment—who receives
the pennies of his young patrons, unlocks the door, admits
them, and locks them in.

In this room, lighted by gas or candles according to the
taste or means of the proprietors, a hundred or a hundred
and fifty are speedily assembled—ranged around the room
on forms placed against the wall. They are of all ages
from the boy and girl of seven or eight years old to the men
and women of two or three and twenty, but the majority are
girls and boys averaging from 12 to 15 years. me boys
are chiefly apprentices or young thieves ; the girls are of the
usual poor class—more than usually poor prhaps—thrse-
fourths of them without shoes and stockings, and all of
them bonnetless, as is usual amongst the Scotch girls. The
boys are several degrees removed from clean, but the
" hassles," as they are generally termed, are, without an
exception, bright-faced, glossy-haired damsels, who have
evidently been at ro ordinary pains to render themselves
attractive and presentable. Here and there is evident a
little effort at finery in the shape of a pair of ear-rings, or
a necklace of sham coral, and their poor and scanty gar-
ments aro in many cases destitute of any signs of ragged..
ness.

The master of the ceremonies, carrying a fiddle or kit
under his arm—occasionally bag-pipes are substituted for
the violin—calls out the dance. In all cases a Scotch
dance of the simplest character is chosen ; the dancers are
arranged, music is struck up, and the festivity begins
with a hideous clatter of thick soles and heels from the
masculine portion, and a soft pattering of naked feet from
the majority of the feminine. There is much setting to
partners, and an infinitude of solo performances, winding
up with the usual twirling and twisting common to Scotch
dances in general ; and in the midst of all this heat and
dust and bustle, the man sits perched above his scholars,
fiddling rapidly, and glaring at them like the evil genius of
the place,
They are all known to him—every face is familiar.
To the elder girls, who may have encouraged strangers
there, he is friendly and fatherly and watchful ; he
knows that before the evening is out the strangers
will probably bo robbed, and there will bo an uproar,
and it may be necessary for some kind friend to turn
the gas out or knock the candles over, and leave
the entire company to grope their way down the com-
mon stair into the close—,or the man at the door, who
is a prize-fighter by profession, will be called in to keep
order, silence the remonstrants or turn them out of the room.
As a rule, the proprietor objects to robbery in the " skeel"
itself, and has a room on the other side of the landing whore
such things may be conducted with greater ease and save
the " skeel" from falling into disrepute. Night after night,
in these Scotch cities, still goes on this hideous revelry;
still are attracted girls and boys from their homes, still are
engulphed the heedless youth of both sexes. Many innocent
children of poor, even respectable, parents are lured hither
to imbibe a love for danciag and bad company. The ap -
prentice robs to get here, the girl begs in the street, or
thieves her way to admittance ; step by step to ruin surely
and swiftly proceed these untaught, uncared-for children,
and they are past hope, and have left all childhood behind
them, at an age that is horrible to dwell upon.
Deprived of her infant child by death (a death for
the child itself perhaps very merciful) Jane Cameron
becomes a confirmed and hardened criminal of the
very worst class. Her adventures are numerous and
most affecting. She suffers frequent imprisonment,
at the last for a series of years, during which she
passes through the system of a reformatory charac-
ter in vogue at Millbank and at Brixton.
Fortunately the eventual result of this
probationary period, proves to be most bene-
ficial. When released she relapses. But
her reclamation is at length completely efficacious.
It is beyond the Atlantic, while still in service as
a good and honest domestic, that she breathes her
last, this poor repentant creature of whom wo have
read here at times, no doubt, with loathing, but at
length with an overmastering pity. Several of the
minor characters flitting before us as we read this
work—individuals with whom Jane Cameron comes
her
into contact during the chequered period
most woful history—are very cleverly depicted
cf ted
amongst them Mary Loggia " the friTd,
Jock, Jane's boy-"Cush"—poor
thatin terrible
6macvee
the kind-hearted evenmatmaker—and
Black Barney, Jane's older " Gus h , when she has
fairly gone out into the world as awotnan, Black
to others,
Barney, who is so fierce and formidablefTt;
though to her ever all gentleness . e work as a
whole is eminently well worth havingbeen written,
and—now that it is written—eminently well worth
also being Foul and dark though the path it
leads us trough, road.
there are light and purity shining
brightly upon us at the close.

The Children's Friend. Illustrated. One Vol. pp.
192. Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.
This is a charming gift-book for the young. It
abounds with short, pleasing, and Instructive tales,
well adapted to point a moral for the juvenile ap-
preciation. Teaching hor
-1 example is at once the
most easy and the most practicable mode of impart-
ing instruction. The story of naughty "Kitty,''
who objected to say " please"—that of the generous
Meta, who gave away her ,‘ New-year's gift"—and

many others of a kindred character, will effect more
good in the nursery and school-room than a hun-
dred sermons, or scoldiugs without end. The volume
is prettily illustrated, and contains many easy
hymns and poems.

The Comic News Christmas Box. Edited by

Henry J. Byron. Maddick and Pottage.

Capital news for the boys and girls—for all those
young people who like the good things of this life,
and among those good things one of the best of all,
a goad innocent hearty laugh ! Capital news, that
is, in the mere announcement of this large-sized four
penny Christmas-box, in which, like a store ofcandied
citron peel, and muscatel raisins, and sugar and spice,
and all that's nice, as the nursery song has it, there
may be found by all those who care to speculate to
the extent of that little rough-edged fourpenny bit,
all sorts of comicalities in prose and verse and
woodcut illustrations. Among these—a collection
of rhymed nonsense, written by Charles Matthews !
An account of a tripe supper, by W. Brongh. A
Plutonic Dream, by Edmund Yates. A
chapter on The Smiths, by Sterling, Coyne.
One onThe Browns, by Arthur Sketchley.
The Editor's
description of Christmas in a
Chop-house. And—plentifully scattered through
the letterpress—comi
Brunton, and illustrations by Bennett,
M'Connell. Perhaps the best among
these illustrations, is the frontispiece, in which
the bright young face of the Byron of Burlesque
upon the holiday-loving
looks laughingly down
children. As about the very worst of the literary
contributions to the
" Christmas Box" is Mr.
ary
and the Hair Dresser.
(if it really be a
Sothern's wretchedly feeble joke
joke !) about Lord Dundee
Our only comment upon which efete whimsicality,
must be a mere echo from Mr. Sothern's better self
--" Th-th-that's wong !"

Liverpool Cotton Market—This Day.

Market firm. Sales about 5,000 bales.

MARKETS—This Day.

COVENT GARDEN.

The supply of fruit on sale in to-day's market was sea-
sonably good, and the show of most kinds of vegetables was
large. Generally speaking the demand ruled steady, as
follows :

FRUIT.

Pine a s. d. s. d.
8 0 to 1 0
Colonialples do., each 0 0 to 00 0
Grapes,per lb 4 0 to 10 0
Foreign do 1 0 to 2 0
Melons 0 0 to 0 0
Nectarines, per dz 0 0 to 0 0
Apples, per hf-sv. 2 6 to 4 0
Pears, per do
Oranges, per 100..3 6 to 8 0
Lemons, per 100 3 6 to 7 6
Gooseberries hf sveo 0 to 0 0
Strawberries pr pt 0 0 to 0 0

s. d. s d
Mulberries,prpt 0 9to 1 0
Cherries, per lb. 0 oto 0 0
Foreign ditto, punt) oto 0 0
Filberts, per lb 0 9to 1 0
Walnuts, per 100 1 oto 2 0
Cobnuts, per lb 0 oto 0 0
Almonds, per bus 0 oto 0 0
Figs, per doz. 0 oto 0 0
Peaches..
Currants, per h.sv 0 oto 0 0
Plums, per do 0 oto 0 0
Greengages, pr do. 0 oto 0 0