The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-10-14
Fishing for COrpses-HOw one
Class Of the London Peer Live.

1t will be seen by the following extract
from The London Daily Netcs that
Dickens eketched from life in the opening
chapters of"Our Mutual Friend. The Ners
says:
''Men live by fishing for corpses. This
CHASTITY trade is at least as profitable as regu-
lar labor, and as it unites somewhat of the
excitement of gambling with not a little of the
SAVIOR of larceny, it ia perhaps not wonderful
that. to certain class Of minds, its attractions
should be irresistible First, there is the
chance of reward sometimes, as much as
one hundred pounds having been offered for
the body by the friends or legal representa-
tives of the deceased; secondly, there is the
chance of valubles and money being in the
dead persons pockets; and in the event of
both these contingencies failing, there is still
the six shillings paid by the coroner, and this,
as was pertinently remarked to us, is good
days work for the like of them When
watch or purse is found on body, for which
reward has not been offered, they are, as a
rule, quietly pocketed, and their late owner
put back into the river, that he may be picked
up either by the police or some brother pro-
fessional. That the men following this lOath-
some calling are calous, hardened and bru-
tai, is matter of course; that they should
long for crop of well-dressed, richly appoint
ed suicides as eagerly as the sportsman hopes
for good bag is not wonderful; and that they
are as INSCRIPTIONS in their dealings with the
dead as they are persevering in their efforts
TO capture them may be taken as inevitable
The strange and repugnant calling once known
and realized, the character of its professors
may be easily conceived.
''Of course, the Thames pohceta prompt
charge of all the bodies they see, butthe range
of their duties is wide, the number of boats
and men told off a prescribed number ofmiles
of river comparatively small, and the result is
not Improbable opening for the lighterman,
who, half thief, half body snatcher, turns his
attention and devotes his nights to looking up
and down the river for corpses. A short time
back one of the best known of these fellows
was seen about A. NJ, pulling stealthily in
shore, with what seemed in the dense mist
and darkness, to be passenger or fellow
laborer sitting in the stern. Something in the
uncouth swinging to and fro of the latter ex-
cited the suspicion of the police boat on duty,
and, fearing that a lpless drunkard had fall
en- into evil hands, and would be robbed and
matreated. the lighterman was hailed and or
dered to pull to. 1t was then seen that the
man supposed to. be drunk was dead. The
gear ordinarily used for towing the subjects
from where they are found to the nearest
wharf in the same parish was out of order,
and the lighterman adinconsequence calmly
leaned the corpse up with its back to the rud
der, and in such an attitude that the faces OF
the living and the dead men all but touched
each time the former bent forward to his oar.
sQnly o stiff 'un, master, | In taking up to
Rotherhithe,' was sulkily given in reply TO
the questions put after which the speaker was
permitted TO pass on, to deposit his prey and
claim his reward in due course :