The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-29

Saturday than all the other days of the week.
On other evenings he was to be heard as late as
ten, and even eleven O'clock; but on Satur-
days, even thoughlyou wanted an organ-man, it
would be difficult indeed TO end one after four
or hve O'Clock In the afternoon. How was thisY
was saturday evening an ''off-timen with the
grlnderY Was he patron of the Saturday
hafholtday movement? Ii So how did he
proht by the indulgence? Did he belong to
some corps of volunteers ?-not likely. Did he
make one OF four for quick pull up the river
he could not well accomplish such feat with
out dlVestlng himself of that peculiarly blue
corduroy jacket OF his; and the sight of an
organ-man in his shirt sleeves is one that never
yet met human gaze. Did he take cheap ex-
Sursloh %nraO Ycket and go to the Isle of Wight or
nnssro5,s Mnat M without his organ? Pre-
DAY evening he could spare from drudgery?
me only way to set the question at rest was by
personal investigation. No time like the pre-
noon. w..
Putting on slovenly coat and q slouchy cap,
at once set out for Saffron Hill, making it my
business to call on my road for an artist friend
whose sketches have often delighted the readers
oI Inls magazine. My pretense for desiring his
company was that there was a probability of his
hndlng picture worth sketching in some Que
OF the many strange places l purposed taking
MN to; but my main object in soliciting his
company was that l might be benefited by his
protection in the event Of my being forced into
doubtful company-our artist being man of
extraordinary size and muscular development.
1t was lonely evening for such O wild-goose
chase as was ours-dark over head, miry under
loot and drizzling wretchedly of rain. l call it
q Wlld-goose chase, and it was little less, for
beyond the popularity accepted belief that the
nome OF the organ'grnder was somewhere in
the nelghborhood of Hatton Garden,n we were
in utter ignorance of the abiding place of the
individual of whom we were in search. Hatton
Garden, as the reader is possibly aware is a
long and wide street opening from the crown of
Holborn Hill.
AT Z P. NJ, the darkness and the drizzling
rain nothing abated, we arrived at Hatton
Garden, and diligently perambulated that
lengthy and retired street from this end to the
other, but either in or out of harness not soli-
tary organ-man did we meet. [ say out of har-
ness on my companions account, not mine own;
he was quite sure, he said, that he could detect
an organman even though disguised in the garb
OF a Quaker. No opportunity, however, for a
display of his extraordinary sagacity occurred; (;
and we arrived at the end of Hatton Garden
and found ourselves at Hatton Wall, no wiser,
as far as the object of our search was concerned
than when we turned out of Holborn.
Hatton Wall is by no means nice place for
a stranger to find himself blindly groping about
on dark February night; indeed, making
an allowance of sixty per cent. for time
and wealth, 1 should be inclined to
say 1t was one of the ugliest if not
the most ugly, spots in London. There may be
uglier. In ones peregrinatiOns round about
London you never know when you have arrived
at the worst. l thought l had done so when
first beheld Meals Buildings in Seven Dials, but
was tatn to acknowledge my error on an inves-
and even this-the hideously renowned Tiger
Bay-must, as I afterwards discovered, knock
under to Little Keate street, Whitechapel Yet
it is hard to award the palm, the claim to the
supremacy OF ugliness being based each ON diff
ferent grounds. Meals Buildings is nothing
worse than the stronghold of Irish sdualor
and all manner OF flthiness and rags and
beggary. The women squat in groups on the
squelchy pavement of Neal's Buildings on hot
summer days, airily garbed and with toothed
instrument OF horn sleeking their golden tresses,
and smoking stumpy pipes, and singing good
old Irish songs, and holding cheerful converse
with their male friends, some spTawled over
the door thresholds, some lounging half out
of first and second-hoor windows, their shocks
of fiery hair surmounted by nightcap, and so
full OF gaping and ,yawning as to give rise to
out of bed. Tiger Bay is less repulsive at
first sight; indeed, it is only when night
closes IN, and the women, turned wild beasts,
leave their lairs to prowl abroad and hunt
for sailors, and the born whelps and jackals
| and hyenas in man shape congregate and lurk
! in washhouses and coal-holes, ready to pounce
out on, and beat and worry nigh & to death the
| hapless wretch the females of their tribe have
! lured 10 the common den, that Brunswick street
| appears uglier than its neighbors. Little Keate
! street, again, taken as street, Is not particu"
! larly Unlocking; and the traveller might limo.
Gently enough take it as promising short cut
| TO eastern parts of the metropolis. Neverthe
less it is terrible street. II is from thence
that the midnight burglar Isallies with his
candle and his lucifer matches and bis
life.preserver. These, however, are amongst
the better sort of tenants inhabiting Keate
| street - fellows who can pay their way
handsomely, and being 10 man liberal dogs
| the stay of any poor wretch OF their acqualnt-
| ance who may stand in urgent need of assist
| ance Ask the shopkeepers of the neighbor-
| bood-ask the butcher and the cheesemonger
concerning his Keate street customers! lfthey
| tell you as they told me when year or so since
| it was my business to be making such inquiries
they will say that they live luxuriously. Its
nothing, bless you," said the butcher, ''for them
to order quarter of flamb-and that when it's q
shilling a pound-as late as 10 O'Clock, to be
| cooked that night for supper. They ike thelr
knicknacks too, and oftenmy boy is running all
| over the town to get them sWeetbreads for
| breakfast 'You'd think, to stand atop OF the
street and take view of it both sides OF the
| way, right to the bottom, that they wouldn't
| scIapings and bacon hooks and that sort OF
| thing said the cheesemonger; "Lor' bless you !!
It amt single no, nor yet double Gloster thatll
| do for lem. 1t must be best Cheshire or none.
| Same with butter. Same with ham and eggs.
| The very best and never mind the price IS thelr
motto."' The rufians of Keate street, how
| ever are not all of this superior order. me
| common pickpocket finds home there, and the
''smasher," ;" and the area sneak, and the snow
| gatherer," as the rascal who makes the thleVlng
of linen his special study POLITICALLY styles him
| self: and, worse than ALL swarm OF likely
| young fellows who as yet cannot lay claim to De
| called robbers, but who are satisfactorily pro.
| crossing under the teaching Of Moss JACOBS ana
| Barney Davis. If roguery stands there would
| be no approaching Little Keate street by a mile.
| / should not like to say that Hatton Wall was,
in a Ke9te street sense, as ugly as Keate
street. have not such great en-
| mity against the organ.grinders as to wish
that it might be. To look at, however, IT