Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-10-24
4 Rough Alley London sketch.

a To its origin.-Frqser's Hdgazips.
Rough Alley-A London sketch.
Rough's alley happens to be in my
case short cut 20 railway, train-car or
omnibds; 50 | know it pretty well,
though | never entered it by choice,
especially in hot weather. The space
between the miserable little holes of
houses is not wider than the room in
which l am writing. \ gutter runs
down the middle. The alley is unusu-
ally noisy with ragged and dirty child
ren, quarrelling wOmen-alsO ragged
and drunken men. All these are
hideous with dirt. 1 do not believe
the women wash their faces once in u
week. How the poor creatures man
age to breathe in these small low room,
with fires in them, il is hard to say. In
hot weather the whole population gets
out of doors as much As possible. Half
a dozen of the old men beg of you a.
you pass along. There are one or two
birds kept, and there are cats-the sight
of the latter, tortured, NANCY skeletons.
adding greatly TO the generally
miserable appearance of the place.
One very close Sunday morning | was
about 10 pass along this alley for times
sake, but was stopped by what | saw.
EvervbOdv-man, women and child
appeared 10 have turned out in state
of half undress. At the first glance
you might have said that the inhabi-
tants of Rough's alley had all got some
frightful spotted fever upon them.
But the object that made me turn away
and choose another route. at the cost OF
cab, was quite sufficient key to all
the rest OF the spectacle. Ii was a
woman, sucking child, and both
looked well enough-they were Ger
tainly fat enough. The woman's apol-
ogy for body-linen garment was rent,
and, coming suddenly round the corner
as did, l saw, a she got up with an
execratiOu TO go indoors, saw, to speak
plain English-but no, | cannot speak
plain English-the woman and child
were one mass of pink from the bites
of vermin. This Is nauseating To read,
but il was more nauseIting to see; and.
as have said, tnrned away. Once |
ventured, driven by my natural
curiosity, to walk down by the back of
one side of this alley. There again
saw among other things, woman still
more nearly Unclad, who made indie
scribable gestures and called after me.
But that was nothing. IL was my nose
that suffered, and through my nose my
whole system. have never repeated
that experiment. And about the NOR
ais of ROugh's alley: Well, before go
ing down the back of it that day | had
taken care to leave my watch on the
mantel-piece; but, in fact, | saw no hu-
man creature there except the shame
less woman. | only saw aud smell
unutterable things. But you will. Of
course, be prepared To hear that in
Rough alley there is plenty of drunk
enne>S. Here the women drink gin till
they cannot stand and till they forget
the lowest forms of decency. | have
seen-Ou that open pavement, within Il
stones throw Of Il busy thoroughfare-
| have >ccn-no, that must also 90 un-
written. If any policeman should read
these lines he may draw upon his
recollections of the drunkards' cells aI
the >tati"n-houses. Here. too, there i
Here there is gambling.
Indeed at midnight. and after midnight.
gambling and boozing are carried ON
so common in the beer shops about here
that | cannot possibly believe the police
are ignorant of the facts, though ! do
not like to assume that they are bribed.
Here is the house or den in which the
man commits incest with his daughter.
aged 16, in the very room in which his
wife is lying in with her seventh or
eighth dhild; and when she complains
Of the e-discourtesy, shall we say -
rot daring to hope for morality in such
a place-he smaShes the windows. puts
out her last blink of fire with her last
drop of tea, lays the tongS about her
D3ck, anu nall kill> Jlc odDN III Hi-
eagerness to hit her on the breast.
And here, too-to end a sickening story
and let in a breath of sweet air-here
the missionary is TO he seen on his
here | have seen one or two
lovely children; here have watched
poor coster lad gradually making his
way up in the fish and watercress line
till he has got donkey aud gone to
better neighborhOOd, And, almost in
the alley itself, are two or three very
decent families. OF one. the head is l
secularist; of the other, the head j. a
Methodist and teetotaller. Close by
is gin-shop, and there is more than
one beer-shOp-one ofthe latter actually
in the place.-CoRtc@pordTy Recie,r.