The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-04-14

A Walk Among the East Of s-ssdsn Sess. |
We had occasion the other dsy 70 wait |
for brief space near the India House, IN
Leadenhal street. Time passes but slow
ly with the listlrss lounger Of the pave
nent, so it did with US. We inspected
ten times over the stores of nautical instrtl-
menls, the masses Of ready-msde clothes
for the buried emigrsnt, the Libraries OF
books Of colonial interest," the plates Of 10.
diamen in hurricanes of the Cape, and Of
apocryphal naval battles, wherswith most
Of the shop windows in that most mara
time Of the city thoroushfares are stocked;
and at length, tired OF what We saw, turned
down st. Mary Axe into the great Jewish
colony of London.
tits not savory locality, the city Ghet-
to. PicturesqueLess and dirt however,
frequently 90 together, and here assuredly
were both. For hundreds Of years the
labyrinth Of small, crooked streets. blind
lanes, and Urtucus passages, ending in
tiresome cul de sacs, which stretches away
north OF Leadenhall street, has been inhab-
tied, as il is inhabited now, by Jews. The
ancestors OF the bearded men you meet
lived and died in those quaint, dirty, high
g ayelled houses about you. For hundreds
OF years the Passover has been kept in
these streets, and the probability is. that il
will be observed there hundreds Of years 10
come. Everything about you is entirely
and essentially Jewish. Five minutes
walk has brought you from Christian
city 10 Judaic colony. Il is not solita-
ny example OF such isolated colonies. =
Every now and then, in exploring the
swarmiDg regions Of Eastern London, you
come upon a cluster OF Jewish lanes. You
may know them by the almost universally
opened windows, by the men and women
seated in chairs upon the pavement before
their neutrality-suspicious. memorial OF
the patrarchal times, when every man sat
under his own fg-ree-by the dingy shops
Of secondhand wares, the clusters Of dirty
frippery hung from door.posts, the plates
of old-dried fish displayed in the cook
shops, and the masses OF old iron and fnsty
rags, blurred phials with unwholesome
breath, and all the chaos Of grimey ODDS
and ends which go to make up the stock in
trade of the dealer in marine stores.
The West End Jews are few and less
CHARACTERISTIC, being in general mole or less
fallen off from the nation. Many, in point
Of fact are in no way distiDguishable from
the classes OF English gentry; they are 10
reality Englishmen, only of Jewish de.
scent, and of the ancient Hebrew faith,
and tina! such persons, not to speak Of the
Jews generally, do not possess all the or.
binary privileges Of the British subjects,
is by no means creditable to our national
polity. TO neither the Hebrew gentlemen
nor the Hebrew merchants and tradesnlsr
in the central and western parts Of the me
hopolis, can we refer for the true Jewish
characteristics. We must look to the Jew
in the East as the true objsct OF interest,"
He lives where his father lived; he drive
the trade his father drove, he marries
woman OF his own race; and sends hi
children to the synagogue to do after hin
what be has done himself. Such is tn,
class Of people you meet about the Cloths
Mart of Leadenhall street. To the ey,
accustomed to the polished Judaism Of tn,
Quadrant OF the Haymsrket these Eas
End Caucasians appear exaggerated Jews
Noses seem moro hooked, ringlets NOR,
yeasily black, and eyes more piercingl,
lustroos. Everything about this quartz
wears dirty. slovenly, yet busting aspect
The houses are old and high, and appea
crumbling and fading away. There is
damp, iusiy odor lingering over the Who'll,
district. The glimpses you catch of old
stained wooden panelings and musty. moth
eaten window curtains. bring up unpleas
ant associations Of spiders spinning undis
turbed, Of ancient hereditary black beetles
and other hunters Of places unsavoy.-
These suspicious mansions are evidently
crowded from the ground to the roof. I'm
shorn men in their shirt sleeves, smoke a
the opened windows; children go scream
ing about the doors; dirty drsbs q womss
shout to each other from house to house
and knots Of men, many OF them bearded
all Of them black.haired and black eyed
lounge round the thresholds, bargaining anc
disputing in that harsh, snivelling, Jewish
accent, which makes you somewhat doubt
whether those who use it be speaking
English or no. And thus you fish youl
way along the cutlery stones, amid Noting
vegetables, fish oEais, we'll churned and
trampled mud, and host Of other abomi.
nations, turning from one narrow, dirty
lane into another, catching glimpses OF
elose-confned courts and narrow. soddsn
wynds, with yellowish-hued linen flutser.
ing alolt from poles, and everywhere sur.
rounded by the same piles OF high, grinsy
houses, smoke-hued, and reeking with hot,
fetid vspors.
At length, perhaps, you will turn unex-
pectedly into a small square. Instantly
you feel that you are in new hemisphere.
Although still on Jewish ground, you have
left behind you the smell Of fish, and the
frowzy odors Of Old clothes, to experience
in exchange an intense etinsion OF the per.
fume Of oranges. You tread on something
soft, and perceive that you are trampling
upon small mountain of orsnge-peel
mingled with NASTY Jumps of seft and
decayed fruit. All round you are orange
shops, or rather stalls--dark, dismal pla-
ces-on which you can see piles Of the
fruit arranged upon low tables and count
ers, and superin!ended by dirty Jewish
boys, and as dirty Jewish NATIONS. You
are in the Orange Change, where all the
itinerant Hebrew dealers in the fruit come
to purchase their stocks, and whence they