The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-01-08

| q
day, over gin sellers doors, siiDru,M her
for one penny, dead drunk for tsqgY pence
and clean straac ] for nothmg." Not even
it safe for the clergyman to enter this dis
trict without police attendance. In SOM
parts it is huge bagnio, in others thieves
caravansary T in others are ware, houses o
stolen goods and man OF decayine
poisonous food ), the whole district being ;
sink of nauseating stenches and mora
putridity. z4t-, vs.., 4..t..
=. Il Zone of the most offensive quarters, tt
+: (which particular reference may be made al
illustrative Of all, is that OF the, cat-gut mar
kets, entrail dealers and tripe dressers, in
the neighborhood ofBowling street. Inzthe
horse slaughterers and offal yards, (Which
abound here, covered With the hoofs OF
horses and oxen, heaps OF bones, dry and
moist)s may be seen at night, savage looking
men and women carousing and disappearing
round the teeming and boiling eauldrons. On
one, occasion, the author by appointment
visited this odious quarter W 18th q friend and
accompanied by two policemen as guides
and for protection. we entered a cat and
rabbit fur dresser's, and passing through a
dwelling house came into large she'd in a
back yard. The odor was so offensive that
we were forced back several times, but
finally succeeded in entering. The effluvia
was almost overpowering, but we managed
to bear it for a short time. 1t was some
| voip hafo holt hot
saw-In large dark wooden shed, floored
with red saw dust, % large tubs, three feet
high, were placed. In each there was
naked man, red as an Indian, jumping in
all sorts of attitudes, while in the passages
between the rows of denuded humanity,
women were passing to and fro, pursuing
their loathsome calling, the preparation of
cat skins. We were informed that the ma
ked men jumping in the tubs were working
up or kneading the skins in butter. Eyes
never beheld more disgusting scene, from
which we quickly retreated. In this district
justly regarded as one of the fithiest in Lon
don, the houses are crammed with wretched
human beings. In twelve houses hard by,
| we found on enquiry that there were 464
persons. We were told that these houses
were not so crowded before the destruction
of st. Giles, which would seem to raise
doubt as to the sanitary value Of that kind
Of improvement which consists of occupying
with frst.or second class houses, ground
previously covered by the tenements OF the
poor. The expelled inhabitants cannot, of
course, derive any advantage from these
new erections and are forced to invade the
yet remaining novels, suited to their means.
The circle of their habitat lions is contracted
while their numbers are increased and thus
larger population is crowded into less
space. sr54 m fss. va
But it is not in such ontlaying districts
alone that masses of human beings are hud-
died together in filthy courts and alleys. The
Royal Palace is close upon the sinks and
stews of Pimlico, the streets Of bagnios and
the dens of thieves who are the tenants OF
the Dean and Chapter of Westminster
Eaton Square, in famed Belgrayia, closely |
adjoins one of the still worse drained and
most squalid parts of the West.end. All |
around Westminster Abbey are reeking !
rookeries, under the very noses of the law
givers of the land. This is equally true of |
the fashionable quarter Of Regent street |
it lies in the midst of Iookeries, filled with |
human beings for whom modern civilization |
and progress has done absolutely nothing. |
The largest aud finest streets and quarters, |
indeed London over, have their back ground !
of wretchedness. In these favored locali |
ties the fine buildings are but screens for |
misery behind them, which shocks the mind !
and from which men avert their gaze. In too |
many cases industrious, hard working fam
iliesare huddled together in single room, a
sitting-room by day, and by night bed |
chamber. Many spots like Agar's Town |
have been squatted upon, and 1t is found i'm
possible to remove the squalid inhabitants. |
The ground is undrained, houses foul, the
streets filthy, water scarce and clean life |
impossible. 1t is the same case in the mino- |
ries, Shoreditch, Whitechapel Mapping, |
and in their antpodes Paddington, Ber-'
mondsey and Lambeth. The disreputable |
and the criminal classes and the working |
in dwellings which barely supply the most I
elementary wants Of our being, and where |
the moral as well as the physical atmosphere |
is full Of poison, especially for the suscepti.
bic nature of youth. IT there be goodness, |
generosity, nobility in any toiling inhabi-
tant, it is polluted and cramped by the pois-
on and penury Of all around. But Of these |
redeeming qualities there is, we fear, but lit |
tie. The majority of the resident families
are drunken and destitute, and filth and |
immortality abound to an extraordinary ex-I
tent. A9t
In the districts occupied by the better class |
of laborers-the porters, policemen and such |
like-there IS likewise extreme poverty |
Though their wages are high, theirrents are
enormous, such is the rapacity of their land |
lords and the greediness of avarice. Can any
one wonder that rent troubles exist in Eng
land as well as Ireland? There is another
drain upon them, the almost constant pres
ence of sickness in their dwellings, and the
want of medicines and medical advice. A
few years ago, the phianthropic Lord Shafts
bury made a visit to one of the favored 10
calities, as they are regarded, near Golden
Squares, and thus describes it: SIT is
quarter Inhabited by the most respectable of
the laboring classes. They were all deeply
sensible of the misery brought on them by
the condition Of their dwellings and the i'm
possibility of keeping them tidy, and by the
fetid smells to which even habit had not re-
conciled them. These families have each
but one room, about twelve feet square, in
which they sleep and live, and some in ad-
dition carry on their trade. found many
of them full of steam, exhaling from clothes
hung up across the room to dry, after hay
ing been washed, many OF them in the same
water, owing to its scarcity. In every fans
lily we heard of sickness and death some
| had lost two thirds, hardly any less than one