The weekly Butte record., 1862-05-17
London by Night.

the other part Of London the hours from nine
10 midnight are the busiest Of the twenty four.
Let US first enter this gin palace, gaudy
with gilt and plate glass. Here is the portly
landlord, always bald; the bartender chewing
straw the bar maidstone from respectable
families and the motley crowd Of customers
all calling for gin. Costermongers, thieves,
rowiies. dirty women. old men, children, and
the seedy gentleman who has no money, aud
stands rubbing bis hands and glaring at the
gin casks with such thirsty eyes! Presently
there is fght-ludicrously represeuted-the
combatanis dodging about, bat never hitting
each other.
Leaving this scene we visit Butchers Row,
Whithchapel, the great market Of the poor.
Here, seen under the glare Of Gas, are miles Of
legs, loins, joints, hearts, kidneys-meat. meat,
nothing but meat. On the opposite side, on
open stands, are for sale every nameable arti-
Gle, from brooms to Bibles. and such Babel
Of noise. swearing, laughing. fighting. fun and
confusion Here you see big butchers, lean
butchers. short butchers. tall butchers, and
tha; other sort described by the boy when he
called a butcher who kicked him off the side
walk, a dropsica old sausage -
Next comes the penny theatre, where the
tragic style is affected. Here is peep show,
" the very one which Her Majesty exhibits to
the little Princes every Monday morning, and
borrows it for the rest Of The week" In
Ratclif Hiehwah we meet the ballad sellers
aud such ballads" fourteen verses about Mo
ses in the bulrushes, and all for penny! -
Pharaoh's daughter went down TO the Nile
To take a bath in style,
And running on the bank to dry her skin,
She hit her foot agin the basket that Moses was
lying in
4 visit 10 police station introduces US to
the machinery Of the London police, with its
fifty FIVE thousand constabes and inspectors.
A little man is brought in, drunk, for knocking
at Mr.. Browns door What is your name,
sir ?" Dono." How old are you? -
Dono." His watch is gone, bat its number
and the name of its maker are sent to every
police station and before morning every pawn
brokers' shop IN the city IS visited
But we must visit the Victoria Theatre
the costermorgers theatre-one Of tAe grea.
curiosities of London. The electromagnetic
contraction of costard mongers. the small ap-
pies which they sell having formerly been call
ed costdrds-are q class by themselves, the
heather of the great world Of London, venders
of small wares, which they carry about in
baskets They have very crude notions of
religion, and can't understand how any one can
feel any interest in the salvation OF their souls.
They don't understand loving their enemies,
but think it manly to pitch in and punch
en- The young costermonger early sets up
himself, and gets girl to keep house for him.
One OF them said to me, i" It's VERY curis
that a gal thinks the more Of feller the more
he wallops her. 1t hurts, ye see and all the
while it hurts it makes her think of you, and
so keeps you in mind" This theatre is pat
ronized by the young costermongers and their
girls--ffteen hundred or two thousand of them
in an immense gallery, and as they support the
theatre the actors plays only to them. Ii is a
sight to see them-Such mass of faces upon
the move. They shout, they laugh, they fight.
they pitch nutshells into the girls bonnets hung
upon the railing, they interrupt the actors,
keeping up running commentary on every
thing said, and all is quietly submitted to by
the manager. They don't understand senti-
mental scenes, but enjoy fights, and when they
are over sho1, encoure, and the dead man must
get up and fight 1t over again, Or Hamlet must
give them a comic song in his soliloquy, or the
ghost give them fancy dance. We come
here not to see the play, but the audience
From the theatre to the lodging houses, the
haunts OF thieves the encounter with pickpock-
cts. the noble Institutions of charity, the ragged
schools and the movement for the reformation
of prostitutes. by inviting them to tea at q
restaurant, where clergymen wait upon them,
and conclude with Christian exhortations which
move the hardest hearts. Places of refuge
are provided for them and numbers have been
saved John B. Cough.
WHEN the Strelitzes were being executed in