The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-09-24
NO. 80.
A London Five Points.


Whitechapel, says the Danbury man,
is but one of the boundaries of o SEQ
ton of London of which Petticoat Lane
is the heart. It is but a lane-crooked
enough and Shiny enough to be snake.
Its entrance from Whitechapel is ap-
propriately fanked by two low rum
shops, from whose several doors escapes
a con vivial stream that is not in the
least inviting.
was particularly warned by friends,
newspaper articles and guide books, not
to venture within. its precincts unless
under the guardianship of policeman.
With feeling of almost hysterical ex-
ultation, Englishmen had dwelt upon
the striking cuteness of English pick
pockets, and Petticoat Lane became
especially known to me as the place
where the stranger lost his pocket hand
kerchief at one end and found it hang
ing up for sale at the other. l thought
L should like to see my handkerchief
thus exposed for sale, and intensely
wondered who would buy it. 1 didn't
think could afford to.
It was late in the afternoon when I
got into Petticoat Lane, and for full
three hours kept up ceaseless tramp
along it and through the narrow and
noisome alleys and courts leading out
of it.
There were secondhand shops in
abundance, meat stalls and groceries III
every direction. The lane itself had
about eight feet of roadway, and from
foot to two feet of sidewalk.
There were bloated women and one
eyed men, and deformed children, and
repulsive dwarfs among the dirty horde
who lounged on the walks or loitered in
the streets. A striking popularity of
the tenements was IN the slze-but few
of them exceeding two stories in
height. There were no half-dozen
flights of crazy stairs to climb or fall
down. No fourth, fifth, or sixth story
window to topple out of and injure the
pavement.
The houses were of brick, defaced by
age and dirt, and the first floors to all
of them were either on level with the
street, or foot or so below it. There
were an abundance of courts and alleys
adjoining, and in them the pedestrian
found much difficulty in making his
way. Some of the alleys were SO mar
row that four people could not walk
through them abreast, and when their
smallness was considered, it was really
wonderful the amount of stencil they
contained.
1 found boys and girls here in the
full enjoyment of happiness, snd acting
dreadfully natural. It brought the
tears to my eyes to see seventy-five of
them helping to raise kite to the un.
bounded evaporation of the boy who
had hold of the string, and when half
dozen of them came rushing by me
with dead cat attached to a cord, I
felt too full to breathe. And took
every care not to breathe until they got
by,
Petticoat Lane is the home of the
costermongers whom we meet in the
more respectable thoroughfares at all
hours of the day and night.
But il is of Sunday that Petticoat
Lane shines forth in its happiest light.
At the hour of noon on that day it is
the busiest. All the shops are the
busiest the costermongers fill the road
ways and those who feel that they have
received call to go into business, un-
accompanied by sufficient cash to rent
a store or buy a cart, plank down their
stock on the narrow strip of pavement
which forms the sidewalk, and sing out
the attractions and advantages of their
goods at a lively rate. The people in
their holiday attire, consisting princi-
pally of breastpin, flock about and
among the venders, pickering about the
prices, chatting each other, and getting
in everybodys way. l don't under
stand, really, why this neighborhood,
SO abounding in elements of vice and
contention, is yet SO free from distur-
Dances. In my three hours among its
lanes and courts L saw neither row
nor policeman. Of course, at home,
I should not expect to see both of them
at once. Perhaps it is because the po-
lice here are SO efficient that their SIM
pie reputation is enough without their
presence to keep down the turbulent
mass.
And the simple secret of their success
is that they have the full respect and
sympathy of all respectable people, and
thus backed up, are almost omnipotent
in maintaining order.