The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

HELP NEEDED.

Let the reader picture to himself, as a field for mission-
ary labour, a famous slum, called Charles street, Drury-
lane. Here, and roundabout, poverty, vice, and crime are
strewn thick as the leaves in Vallambrosa Vale. The curi-
ous stranger may direct his steps to the north•-east corner
of Drury-lane, which lies against Holborn. He will find
women in dirty gowns and shawls, and with matted hair,
lounging at the corner whatever hour of the day or even-
ing it may be. In this north-east block of poverty and
crime, men, women, and children are packed so close to-
gether that it is wonderful they are still alive to prove the
extent of human endurance. The city missionary pays his
visits to these 165 houses and 16 common lodging-houses
where the vagrant, the beggar, the prostitute, and labourer
out of work rest their tired limbs at night together. There are
degrees of misery even here amid these black and gaunt
houses, They who have their own furniture have not
reached the bottom of misery's ladder. Fate has done her
worst with a man when he has come to be the inhabitant
of a furnished room in Charles-street, Drury-lane. Here
the patterer and the hodman, the thief and the costermon-
ger, the street-singer and the prostitute, the strong-boot-
maker and the beggar pay their 7d. or Bd. per night.
In King-street are market hands and orange-sel •
lera; in Coal-yard and Smart's •buildings working
folk who are ready to do any odd work. There are
numbers of shoemakers also hereabouts. The common
lodging-houses tempt all who can pay only 3d. or 4d. for a
bed, and so the honest, poverty-stricken man finds himself
lying beside the felon. Shame festering in rags fills Bar-
ley, Fagerty's, and Shaw's courts. Here is a dense and
dangerous mixture of the poor and the wicked. All kinds of
cunning and cheating are well represented, About 300 come
trooping to these repulsive houses in company—the broken-
down labourer, with the beggar, the patterer, and the burg-
lar, In the low, long, whitewashed common room, groups lie
and lounge, or huddle over the coke fire ; while abandoned
women talk the slang of the neighbourhood, and the men
curse and swear. It is an evening school for the propaga-
tion of vice. If a man is seen to affect reading, he is
soundly rated and ridiculed. The sick lie unregarded along
greasy benches; and beyond, clothes black as soot are
washed in water dark as ink. For the young who are
compelled to pass their nights here what hope is there ?
Their daily companions and their bedfellows are the vilest of
the vile; their nightly supper is seasoned with stories of
crime. They are poor, and the poor cannot choose their
companions.—Morning Post.

Some one having remarked to Johnson that a
young lady's performance on the pianoforte was very diffi-
cult, the Doctor grumbled out, " Ah, sir, would it were
quite impossible."
Jebb's lambs are pronounced black sheep, and
the fat pasture must be cleared of them. There must be no
mote such Dartmoor mutton.—. Examiner.
ILLUSTRIOUS EXILES.—In two of the greatest
victories ever achieved over the English, those of
Beauge and Almanza, the Frenoh were commanded, in the
former by the famous Scotch General, John Stewart, Earl
of Buchan, and in the latter, by the equally renowned
English commander, James Duke of Berwick. Singularly
enough, at Almanza, while the French were thus under an
English general, the English army was led by a French
officer, the Marquis de Ruvigny. In more modern times
there was scarcely one of the Marshals of Napoleon abler or
mole considered than Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum; and
in our own day Patrick M'Mahen, Duke of Magenta, has
given another illustrious addition to the roll of British
names associated with foreign renown. 'Under every na-
tion's banner but their own the Irish fought with success,
and some of them attained the highest rank. Marshal
Brown, who contended so ably against the great Frederick,
De Lacy, who organised the Russian army, and the heroic
Mahony, who saved Cremona, who gained immortal glory
at Almanza, and became eventually Lieutenant-General
and Commander of Castile, were Irishmen.--Sir Bernard
Burke's Vicissitudes of Families.
ANGLICISED WELCHMEN.—" For the third time
I spoke to him in Weleh ; whereupon, looking at
me with a grim and savage contempt, and showing a set of
teeth like those of a mastiff, he said, ' How's this P why,
haven't you a word of English ? A pretty fellow you with
a long coat on your back and no English on your tongue.
Ain't you ashamed of yourself ? Why, here am I in a
short coat, yet I'd have you to know that I can speak Eng-
lish as well as Welsh; aye, and a good deal better.' 'All
people are not equally clebber,' said I, still speaking Welsh.
Clebber,' said he, clebber I what is clebber P Why can't
you say clever ? Why, I never saw such a low illiterate
fellow in my life;' and with these words he turned away,
with every mark of disdain, and entered a cottage near at
hand."—George Borrow's Wild Wales.
THE DUKE'S HORSE COPENHAGEN.—" Among
the chargers brought over by Gen. Grosvenor was
a mare, which proved to be in foal, and, after her safe re-
turn to England, produced a colt, which was named
Copenhagen. This horse being afterwards sold to Major •
General Sir Charles Stewart was taken by him to the Pen-
insula, and when that officer quitted the army in 1813, on
the death of his first wife, it was sold and became the pro-
perty of the Duke. At Vittoria and other battles his Grace
used no other charger, and it became a great favourite with
him. That horse also carried the Duke of Wellington
throughout the glorious day of Waterloo, when it is said he
bore him for 18 hours on his back, and when at length re-
leased at its close, gave uo sign of fatigue. He was of a
full rich chestnut colour, with a strong dash of the Arab in
his appearance, and showed at all times an endurance of
work that was very remarkable. He died in 1835 at the
age of 27, and was buried at Strathfieldsaye with military
honours. His mane and tail furnished a great many rings,
brooches, and bracelets, which were presented by the great
commander to enthusiastic ladies; so that this celebrated
charger obtained a renown which will probably long con-
tinue, for these memorials will not cease to be regarded as
the heir-looms of many a aoble family. Copenhagen was
modelled for the horse of the Wellington statue upon the
arch in London."—Sir Henry Cust's Annals of the IPars
of the 10th Century.
UTILITY OF SPIDERS.—One species of spider is
very common in gardens, and about autumn is
especially conspicuous. It has a great liking for the grape
vine, and its webs may often be found covering the clusters
of grapes. The webs should be sedulously protected, for
though slight in texture, they are an admirable protection
to the grape, intercepting the many insects that love to
prey upon that delicate fruit. In some places it is so plen-
tiful that almost every bunch of grapes has its protecting
net-work thrown over it,—Routledge's Natural History.
AMERICAN ESSAYS ON WIDOWS.—They are the
very deuce. There's nothing like them. If they
make up their minds it's done. I knew one that was ter-
ribly afraid of thunder and lightning, and every time a
storm came on she would run into Mr. Smith's house (he
was a widower), and clasp her little hands and By round
till the man was half 6istracted for fear she would be killed,
and the consequence was that she was Mrs. John Smith
before three thunderstorms rattled over her head. Wasn't
that dip'omatic F—American .Paper,
HYDROPHOBIA. —A farmer at St. Meurice (Soan
et Loire) has just died in horrible suffering from
hydrophobia after more than three months from the time of
being bitten by a dog. When the bite took place he made
use of some quack remedy, and paid no further attention to
the wound, which healed up. Just 06 days after he felt
the first attacks of the fearful malady, and seeing that his
case was hopeless, he put his affairs in order. On the
fol-
lowing day he was raving mad, but between the paroxysms
had sufficient presence of mind to warn the bystanders
te
o
keep out of his reach. As his fury
kept onincreasing
assistance of gendarmes was obtained, and he was rolled in
,
a blanket and bound on a bed, where he died, three days
from the time of the first attack.—Galignant.

others,
;p1 uce
A PIG'S ER-EAK.—On Monday, while a man was
driving some
be r
one
of their m
number of
boys gave chase, when i i his pgehp, to baulk their efforts,
v number pigs
strayed along
from by
the AVe llinon
ran first into the Lower Justice 111'11-dam, and after that
proceedel into the covered lead, which it ascended for
nearly 80 yards. The lead was so narrow that it could not
turn round to get back; so, after remaining in its prison
for some 20 hours, a " shaft" was next day dug right
down to where it stood, and the pig pulled up, nothing
the worse, apparently, of its confinement, Ab erdeen
golf0i;