Volcano weekly ledger., 1856-04-12
Night Scene in London.

ductor of this journal, accompanied by q
friend well known to the public, accidently
strayed into White Chapel. 1t was msera-
bic evening; very muddy, and raining very
hard.
Ihere are many woful sights in that part
OF London, and it has been well known to
me IN most of its aspects for many years.
we had forgotten the mud and rain in slowly
walking along and looking abont us when we
iound Ourselves, at o'clock, before the work
house
Ciouched against the wall of the work
house, in the dark street, on the muddy pave
ment-stones, with the rain raining upon them
were five bundles Of rags They were notion
less, and had no resemblance to human form
Five great bee hives, covered with rags-fve
dead bodies taken out of graves, tied neck
and heels, and covered with rags-would
have looked Ike those five bundles upon
which the rain rained down in torrents in the
public street
What is this? said my companion, What
is this?
Some miserable people shut out of the
casu'l ward. / think said l.
We had STOPPED before the FIVE ragged
mounds, and were quite rooted to the spot
by their horrible appearance Five awful
Sphinxes by the wayside, crying to every pass
er-by Stop and guess? What is to be the
end of state of society that leaves us
here?'
As we stood looking at them, decent
working-man, having the appearance Of a
stone-mason, touched me on the shoulder
This is an awful sight sir, said he, in a
Christian countryp
God knows it is, my friend said /
have often seen il much worse than this,
as have been going home from my work. |
have counted fifteen, twenty, fve-and-twenty
many time. Its shocking thing to see,
sir
:" A shocking thing, indeed, said !, and
my companion together. The man fingered
near us little while, wished us good night,
and went on.
We should have felt it brutal in us, who
had better chance Of being heard than the
workman, to leave the thing as it was so we
knocked at the work-house gate / undertook
to he spokesman The moment the gate was
opened by an old porter. | went in, followed
close by my companion. lost no time in
passing the old porter, for saw in his watery
eye strong disposition to shut us out.
Be so good as to give that card to the
master of the work-house, and say will be
glad to speak to him for moment
We were in kind of covered gatewav,
and the old porter went across it with the
card. Before he had got TO door on our
left, man in q cloak and hat bounced out
of it very sharply, as if he were in the night
ly habit Of being bullied and of returning the
compliment.
what do you want herep
First said |, will yon do me the favor
to look at that card in your hand? Perhaps
you may know my name'
: Yes says he, looking at it; L know this
name
Good / only want to ask you a plain
question in a civil manner, and there is not
the least occasion for either of us to be an
CRY. 1t would be very foolish in me to blame
you, and | don't blame you. | may find fault
with the system YOU administer, but pray un-
derstand that know you are here to do a
duty pointed out to you, and no doubt you do
it. Now, hope You won't object to tell me
what want to know
"No,' said he, quite Modified, and very
reasonable mot at ALL What is itr
Do you know that there are FIVE wretch
ed creatures outsidep
81 haven't seen them, but dare say there
are
DO you doubt that there are?
No, not at all. There might be many
more
Are they men or womenT
Women, i suppose Very likely one or
two of them were there last night, and the
night before last
There all night, do You mean
"Very likely"
Nv companion and looked at one anoth-
er and the master of the work-house added
quickly, why Lord bless my soul, what am
to do? What can / do? The place is al
ways ful--every night. / must give the
preference to women with children, mustn't ]?
You wouldn't have me not do that?
"Surey not said T. 1T is a very humane
principle, and quite right; and am glad to
hear of it. Don't forget that don't blame
you
"Well,' said he, and subdued himself
again
"What want to ask you,' went on. is
whether you know anything against those FIVE
miserable beings outsider
Don't know anything about them, said
he. with waive of the arm.
81 ask for this reason; that we mean to
give them q trihe 10 get a lodging If they
are not sheltered because they are thieves, for
instance. You don't know them as thievesY
al don't know ANYTHING about them.' he