Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-04-18
naunts of Crime in London.

The following extraordinary state,
ment is made by a writer in the London
Times
l had heard much of thieves houses
and was anxious TO see what they we're
and what power the police had ovel
them. 1 therefore applied to Scotland
yard for permission for myself and Z
friend to visit these places with the
police. An inspector of cheap lodging
houses, an inspector of police, and one
of the cleyerest sergeants of detectives
were placed at our disposal to escort US
Our examination occupied US three
nights and part Of one day. When We
started I thought l knew London per
feetly both by day and night. Now
see that l knew as little of it as | do now
of Bokhara or Samarcand.
We went through penny theatres,
music halls, casual wards, refugees,
thieves haunts, low b~eer-houses, leaving
shops, and cheap-lodging houses. The
great haunts of crime are the low beer
houses, low lodging-houses, and the
leaying-shOps and over these the police, as
police, have nc control. The penny the
alters the music-halls or even the infamous
neighborhoods of Tiger bay and Blue
gate-felds are very minor ~nuisances as
compared with these. Let US take the
beer-shOps first. Over these the police
have no power in any way. Over the
beer license the Excise only has power,
and as long as a man is willing to pay
for it he gets it, no matter What his char
aeter. Thus it follows that the beer
shop-keepers are recruited from publ
cans who have been considered not fit to
hold a spirit license. The man loses
his spirit license for misconduct. He
turns his public-house into a beer-shop,
and his wife opens a green grocer's next
door. On Sunday morning all customers
who come ostensibly for cabbages ear
also get their beer, and the well known
bdbitHes can, during all church time, 90
into the back room behind the shop and
get their gin and rum, too. OF course,
beginners are now and then found out
and punished, but these victims don't
form one per cent Of the community.
which thrives and grow rich. The
supervision Of these is quite within the
capacity Of the police, but the law, as it
stands at present, has put them beyond
their reach. Take a high-class one, for
instance. 1t is brightly lighted, clean,
and comfortable. The landlord and
landlady are behind the little bar. Both
are known to be convicted thieves,
lucrative receivers and expert disposers
of stolen goods. Under a magisterial
system these people could not hold
their license for a day. The parlor is a.
very wide, well furnished cofee-rOom
the walls amply garnished with glaring
pictures, and at the tables some eight or
nine well-dressed men are sitting over
their cigars and beer. These we're the
elite of the swell mob. There was moth
ing to distinguish them from the or
binary frequenters Of Pall-Mall or St.
James street, yet there was not one who
had not been convicted of robberies
from the person over and over again.
Our entry seemed to throw a general
damp upon the company. There was an
utter silence, ana then, at intervals of a
few seconds, n after another went out
to get a cigar or a glass of old and bitter.
all Of which they must have found it
particularly difficult to find, as none of
them came back, and our sergeant
at the idea that his coming
would be likely to keep the house quiet
and scatter its customers for a day or
two. The landlord, who had evidently
arrived at the same conclusion. was not
in SO jOcose a mood, a~nGscowled at MS
fercely as We passed out. This was a
iirst-elass thieves beershop. The low
beerhouse for the worst class of thieves
is generally in an ill-fayored slum, i'll.
looking and worse smelling, with a group
Of tawdry women choking up its narrow
entrance, aud half-naked children play
ing about barefooted on the slimy flag
stones, hiding amid the dust-heaps, from
among which they only sally out when
older inhabitants have come forth to
-ook upon the phenomenon of a respect
dressed stranger venturing into
heir district. At the upper end of the
court is a broad dim light, to which our
party made their way and passed
through a low bar into a small tap-room.
Quick as We were, We were not quick
enough to prevent the large party secret
Dg the cards with which they were
practising. Most Of them were occupied
n attaining perfection in the three-card
rick or in ringing the endless variations
IN the cards, with view to future profit.
An Unlocking bulldog came towards rs
IS we entered, but was at once called off
~ its master, and then we sat down in
,ur corner amid a dead silence. broken
,nly by a few muttered words Of slano
IF an occasional splitting on the table to
face the chalk marks by which thew !
lad been practising some gambling .
.ame. We found ourself in a %curions
lace and in curious society. The room
Tas low, ill-smelliDg, and very full Of
he lowest description of broken down
men, card and skittle sharpers.
nd thimble Triggers. As with the swell
hieves beer-house so with this infamous
iaunt, as soon as cur party came in, its
occupants instantly and silently ,
with the difference that while
be first named affected gentility Y in their :
.eparture and wished good night. the +,
did not conceal their fear. but +,
lunk away. Yet both classes equally i,
both we're known as having :
wed by crime only and as certain only !
live by crime while they were at large.
Tet to neither one class or the other
ould the detectives say a single word.
or there was no specific charge against
hem, and they went out as usual to