The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1877-10-04

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From The Contemporary RsviewrsiIi an vail
Rough's alley bappens 70 be IN my
case 3 short cut 70 railway trPm-car
or omnibus s's0 know IL pretty ,weIl,
though 4 never enter Il by choice. CO. /
pecl9lly n bot weather; The space
houses y not wider than the room In
which ann writing. Angutter ruhs
DOM the middle; The alley, 10 ustl|
sa|s p9lsS X,sR sSsS ssS a aIsS
ragged, and drunken men. oAllithese
were hi(leOus with dirt y IL ,d0nut Be-
lieye the women, wash their faces once
In y week. How the poor creatures
Inanage TO breathe In these small, low
rooms, with fires In :them, 10 is.hard TO
say. In, hot weather the whole popu-
lation gets out OF. doors as much as
possible HALF dozen OF the old men
beg ofy0u as you pass along. 3nphere
are Que or two birds kept, and there
are cats-the sight Of the latter, tortur-
ed NANCY skeletons, adding greatly to
the general miserable appearance OF
the place. One very close Sunday
morning was about to, pass along
this alley for times sake, but was
stopped by what i saw. Every body
imam, woman and, child1-appeared to
have turned out In q state Of half un-
dress. AT the first glance, you might
have said that the inhabitants of
Rough's Alley had all got some fright
full spotted fever upon them. But the
object that made me turn away and
choose another route, at the cost Of
cab, was O quite sufficient key TO all
the rest of the spectacle. Itwas.a wo-
man sucking child, and both looked
well enough they were certainly fat
enough The woman's apology for q
b0dy-linen garment was rent, and
coming suddenly round the corner rs
I did, saw as she got up with an ex.
ecration to go indoors, / saw, to speak
plain English;--but no, 1 cannot speak
plain English, 1.-The woman and child
were one mass of pink from the bites
Of vermin. This Is nauseating to read,
but It was more nauseating to see; and
as have said, / turned away. N
Once ventured, driven by my natur-
al 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
indescribable gestures and called after
me. But that was nothing. 1t was
my nose that suffered, and through
my nose my whole system. ! have
never repeated that experiment.. And
about the morals Of Rough's alley?
Well, before going down the back OF
1t that day / had taken care to leave
my watch on the mantel-piece; but,
in fact, i saw no human creature there
except the shameless woman. only
saw and smelt unutterable things.
Of ha rap,o a
hear that in Rough's alley there Is
plenty of drunkenness. Here the wo-
men drink gin till they cannot stand
and till they forget the lowest forms of
decency. / have seen-On that open
pavement, within stones throw of a
busy thoroughfare-I have seen--nO,
that must also 90 unwritten. If any
policeman should read these lines he
may draw upon his private rec0llec
tions of the drunkard's cells at the sta
ton houses. iin slfe -
Here, too, there is wlfe-beating.
Here there In gambling. Indeed at
midnight. and after midnight, gam
bling and boozing are carried on 30
commonly in the beer shops abouS 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 sixteen, in the very
room in which his wife Is lying In
with her seventh or eighth child; and
when she complains of the-the dis
courtesy, shall we say ?-not daring to
hope for morality In such q place-he
smashes the windows, puts out her
last blink of fire with her last drop of
| tea, lays the topgs about her back, and
half kills the baby I'm his eagerness to
hit her on the breast. And here, too,
| Ito end sickening story and let in q
breath Of sweet air,-here the mission
ary is to be seen, on his rounds; here /
have seen one or two lovely children !;
here have watched q poor cOster lad
gradually making his way up In the
Ash and watercress line TIL he has got
q donkey and gone to a better neigh
borhOod. And, almost I'm the alley IT.
self, are two or three very decent fam
lilies. Ofone, the head Is secularistt
of the other, the head Is Methods;
and a teetotaller. Close by IL q gin
shop, and there is more than one beer
shop-one of the latter actually in the
place. iiN W.