The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1845-05-15
FROM CHAMBERS JOURNAL.
LIFE IN

Il
Few who walk along the streets of Lon
don, and see mile on mile OF ca~rriage-way
and foot pavement stretching out before them
and branching off on every side reflect upon
the vast and wonderful schemes of sewerage
that extends underneath. From the remot-
est district of London to the river, small
sewers flow into larger ones-and these, "a
gain, after a long course and many winnings,
into the Thames. Were a map executed of.
these subierranean currents, so Intricate, yet
so regular, like the large veins and arteries
of the body, it would convey a grander idea
Of the civilization of the capital than even
the magnificent streets, filled with the pro-
ductions of the world, that extend above
ground. Formed of substantial brick work,
well arched and secure, they represent a
sunken capital which has been variously esti-
mated at the enormous sum of from one mil
lion and a half 10 two millions sterling. 1t is
an interesting sight when any of the main
sewers is under repair in aprincipal thorouh-
fare, to see how deep the excavation is, and
how many lines of gas and fresh water pipes
have TO be trayersed before the strong cur
rent Of foul water, running in its capacious
brick channel, is reached by lis workmen.-
Several of these main eve were open
streams, m~eandering through the fields, be-
fore London became so gigantic as ii is now:
and among the number may be cited the
| Fleet. running from beyond lslington, through
Bagnigge Wells lerkenwell, Fieldham, Hol
born and harrington street, into the Thames,
once capable, it appears, ofbearing merchant
vessels as far as Holborn; the Wallbrook
running from Moor6eld past the Mansion.
House, and BY the church Of ST. Stephen,
MAlh2onk and by Dnwoate into the Thames;
and the Lang, or Long, Bourne, which still
gives name 10 one of the wards Of London
Any one who has walked over Blackfriars or
Waterloo Bridge when the tide is down may
have observed men and boys, and occasion
ally women, walking upon the shores of the
river, knee-deep in the Slime, with baskets
upon their backs, or slung over their arms,
picking up pieces of wood that have been
left behind by the tide, or bits Of coal that
have fallen from the numerous coal barges
that come up laden from the pool, where the
collier vessels are moored, 10 discharge their
cargoes at the wharfs further to the vest
THESE "mud-larks," as they are sometimes
called, bear generally a bad character; being
accused of not contenting themselves with
prizes they find on the shore, but of robbing
| the coal barges, or other vessels, on board of
which they can creep at night-fall without de-
lection. However this may be, their func-
tons do not end with the shore, but in the
sewer. With torch in hand TO preserve them
from the attacks of numerous large and fe-
~rocious rails, they wade, sometimes almost up
TO the middle, through the stream of foul wa
Ter in search of stray articles that may have
been thrown down the sinks of houses, or
dropped through the loop holes in the streets.
They will at times travel for two or three
miles in this way, by the light of their torch
es, aided occasionally by CLEAN of sunshine
from the grating by the way slde-far under
the busy ~thoroughfares of Cornhill, Cheap
side, the Strand, and Holborn-very seldom
able to walk upright in the confined and
dangerous vault, and often obliged to crawl
on all fours like the rats, which are their
greatest enemies. The articles they mostly
find are potatoes and turnips, or bones, wash
ed down the sinks by careless scu~llery-maids;
pence and a halfpence, and silver-coins; &C
casionally a silver spoon or fork, the loss OF
which may have caused considerable distress
ard ill-will in some house above and not I'M
frequently more valuable articles, which
thieves, for fear of detection, have thrown
down when they have been hard pressed by
the officers of justice. 1t might be thought
that a life amid the vilest filth, and amid SO
much danger and unpleasantness OF every
kind would allure but few; but the hope OF
the great prizes sometimes discovered IN this
miserable way, deprives it of its terrors, and
all the principal sewer that branch into the
Thames have their regular frequenters.-
Were it not that the tide gives them too lit
tie time for that purpose, they would extend
their researches TO the extremities of Lon
don; but, two or three miles inland is the ut
most bound of their peregrinations. Those
who value the;r lives will not be tempted To-
extend their researches further, lest they
should be drowned by the rising waters ofthe
river. About two years aao, these and some
other particulars of their mode of life were
first elected in consequence Of the following
circumstanc An old man who had long
pursued this calling, was suddenly missed.
Every search was made for him by the few
10 whom he was known; and his wife and
family, not without many fears that he had
lost his way in the sewers, or had been sur
prised by the tide, and drowned in his eft
forts to escape, made anxious inquiries at
every police Office in London, but without
receiving any tidings of his fate. Months