The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-06
Dru,Y Lane at Night.


is described as follows by the London Ne,os
OF December 15:-
"The dense poverty and wretchedness OF
many of the streets abutting ON the lane,
where swarms of dirty unkempt children are
making dirt pies and padding in the cutters
at all hours Of the day, and where the weeks
or perhaps the days washing for the family
hangs suspended from broom-handles and
broken sticks and boards like eccentric flags of
truce between the inmates Of different floors
this dirt and wretchedness overflows into and
makes merry in the lane. 1t haunts at the
ginshop doors, it crowds their bars, it chat
fers for sprats and fried fish at the Jewish
merchants, who have dispensed with shop
fronts, as il to assimilate their establishments
to the costermonger carts, 1t swears and
shrieks upon the curbstones, it indulges not
infrequently in warlile fandangoes which ter
inmate in the tearing of lock. hair, in the claw
ing of faces, IN screams for the police, and in
an addition to the occupants Of the Bow street
| cells. 1t gossips amicably as WELL and may
| be heard comparing notes as to the hardness
and unreasonable punctuality of the collector
| of the weekly rents, or the misfortune of poor
| Tommy, whose difficulties are connected with
a watch, and who is expected out in three
weeks from now; or the badness of the times,
| with never bit of luck Tor any one OF US,
more's the pity
"This irrepressible wretchedness le e9vens
| but does not constitute the lane. The prox-
| unity of the theatres, of the artists color
shop, of the Italian gallery of busts and
statues, and the various half hidden trades
| and calings connected with each, all make
| in ha nd in ha
ance of the wayfarers felt ON the pavement
| The figures in canvas blouses like brown hol-
| land pianofores, but we'll spotted with red,
black and blue paint, are assistant scene
painters or property men, who have slipped
out from the heated property rooms of Drury
fresh air as the lane can yield. II
! is busy time in those property
rooms just now. The masks alone are
enough to weigh upon mans mind with
as much force as her boarders' dnner-gravy
did on that of Mrs. Todgers. VAST vacuous,
| ruddy, they are at first like huge dish-covers,
| or giant pies with the knobs of meat or fruit
making hills and valleys on their surface.
Then, by means of dexterous mouldings and
punchings, nose, eyes, and cheeks assume a
more grotesque human look: squinty, para
lytic seizures, the glare OF idiocy, the fatuous
leer of the sot, the rage OF the stage lunatc,
are all initiated in the pasteboard, until row
of hideous faces lying out to dry and grim 4cing
fxedly at the locker on, testfes to the dett
fingers and weird skill OF the manipulators
To be shut up in property-room at night,
with no other company than bad conscience,
must be trying to the nerves
''The condition of the pawnbTokers shops
is another evidence of the theatrical associA-
tions of the lane. Paste diamonds and stage
fnery abound among the pledges unredeemed
| And your pawnbrOker is among the most aris-
tocratic of the shops hereabouts. Take away
the great stationers, who are such power in
the printing and publishing state, and whose
name s always mentioned revereptially by
struggling men; the tobacco manufactory,
which sends out an olfactory stimuaut gratis,
pass its door at what hour you will, and from
which the flavor of cigars and fragrant tobacco
| gushes up through the window grating at
your feet the hardware Dealers who sell old
and new iron in various FORMS bulbous
| masses of metal which are like so many sur
gical preparations or human malformations
transmuted the ready-made boot-shops,
| where Wellingtons at IS. Cd. have hung in
graceful festoons up to the first floor window
for the last twenty years, and where stout
walkings' and double dumps are almost
given away; the nondesoript marine stores,
where everything is of the earth earthly, aud
where nothing suggests the sea except an odd
salt-cellar; the cheap publication mart, at
which the details Of the splendid vices OF the
aristocracy have been retailed at penny
week, until the whole neighborhood must bs
more intimate with the hidden secrets OF the
mansion of a depraved nobility than Asmo-
deus himself; the comparatively newly opened
shop for eDgravings Old and new, at which a
magnifcently framed portrait of the great and
good George ~ stuck 30 long on hand that
It's mimic gilt frame crown fell of to decorate
the classic head OF the late Miss Msnken -
take away these, and the pawnbrokers, the
publicans, and the dealers in eatables are the
principal vendors in the lane. Among tue
former is firm which vaunts its having been
in business two hundred years.
Bohemia is represented in the windows OF
the pawnshops and the things for sale. Acting
editions of popular plays, greasy, bethumbsd,
and torn, lie among This lot Al. each at the
open bookshOps preponderance of fashy
rings and pins; of gaudy scarfs and stocks; Of
paint-boxes and palettes; of oil-paintings,
half finished, some of them of much irregular
and unequal promise, have been pledged.
The silver plate department seems sparsely
stocked, the make believe very much re-
commended by the marchoness to Mr.. Richard
Swiveller, is necessary to the proper apprecia-
citation OF many of the articles for sale.
"The crushing poverty, too, OF certain por-
tions of the lane-notably the northern half,
above Great Queen street and Longacre, which
intersects district bounded by Endell street
on the one side, and Little Qaeen street on
the other, not to be inspected without a
shudder-this crushing poverty is enlivened
by a certain jaunty smartness elsewhere. The
ladies of the ballet often traverse the lane,
and the warmest interest is taken even in the
humblest shops, at the fate of every new piece
brought out 'over the way II is a fond