The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-11-05
A Phase of London Life.

| A curious Sunday scene in London is
described by the Times:
Every Sunday morning, it seems.
about 10 o'clock, a crowd of men and
boys take possession of tour streets
within few minutes walk of the Great
! Eastern Railway station at Shoreditch.
They belong to the toughest class, and
they bring with them for sale the most
nondescript collection of articles
Birds are the most numerous. and from
them the scene is the Shoreditch Bird
Fair. Birds of all kinds are to be found
singing birds, common English birds,
rare foreign birds, manufactured birds.
with red bodies and false heads, or dyed
birds, made "beautiful forever" by
Shoreditch Rachels. But the "bird duff
fers'' are only the centre of the Fair
We read of dogs, mice, anatomical po-
nies, brokendown perambulators, old
keys, locks and hardware. and even fid-
dies and concertinas. The crowd, too,
like an army, brings its camp followers
-venders of pies and ginger beer, low
betting men, and even street pr each
er, whose quality may be imagined
from his title of Black Jenny the
Cutler
''B eer and spirits cannot be openly
sold, for it is Sunday and the hour OF
Divine SERVICE and the public houses
and beer shops are shut. But the re-
striction is easily evaded. Holes are
cut in partition walls, through which
the drink is passed to the neighborine Q
houses. Where two streetszare parallel
it is easy to admit customers into the
backyard through an opposite house
and, in fact, the police have found par
ties of men sitting in the yards of pub
lie houses with barrels of beer by theil
SIDE. The buying and selling at the
fair is conducted with the usual noise
and amid the grossest and loudest OBJ.
scenity and blasphemy. And all thi;
on Sunday morning between ten ant
one o'clock, and under the very shadow
oftWo churches, which are so near tha
the shouts and curses of the fair inter.
rupt the worship of the congregations
and the sound of the church organs il
heard amid the indecencies of ths
crowd
elaborate and ingenious
devices are adopted for the purpose O
obtaining liquor during the sales
There are in the parish of St.Matthias
with six thousand inhabitants, thirtec1
public houses and seven beer shops ,ant
In the Holy Trinity Mission district
similar number. 1t is against the beer
shop keepers principally that the polio,
have to contend in their efforts to pre-
vent the illegal trade on Sunday morn
ings. Arrange ments are made Will
the people ofne.g boring houses so tha
the beer is passed out through the lat
ter to those who demand it,and in SOM
eases beer house situated in one stree
has means of communication through
: its back yard with another house in
different thoroughfare. One Sunday
four policeman made their way int,
one of these places, and found abou
fifty or sixty men sitting in yard Will
two barrels Of beer in their immediate
vicinity. Cases like this are frequent
but the difficulties in the way of depri
wing beer-shop keepers of their license
are so great that the police are compare
lively powerless. When summoned, ,th
offenders arc fined, but they are seldom
deferred by that from a repetition 0
the offence