The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-01-08
CHAPTER III.
PEEP AT THE POOR AND DEPRAvED OF

CHAPTER IL.
PEEP AT THE POOR AND DEPRAvED OF
LONDON.
Having in the previous chapter given the
reader general idea of outside London,
we shall now introduce him to some inte
rior views. He will not see in them the
most pleasing, interesting or populur as
poets of metropolitan life, but there are
plenty of writer's who riot in descriptions of
the beau monde, by which we mean the
world Of wealth, rank and fashion, for
neither wit nor learning are elements in
it. On the other hand the number is small
indeed, of those who are willing to take the
less attractive, not to say revolving part, Of
portraying scenes where vice wears no veil
and decency forever bushes.
During long residence in London, the
author gathered the information embodied
in this chapter by personal visits to the
haunts of the destitute, and the dens Of
thieves. He was sometimes accompanied by a
clergyman Of the District, but more frequently
by brace of we'll armed policemen. The
scenes disclosed to him deepened his con-
vctions that London forms no exception to
The rule that sunshine may fall upon the
earth and bless it, but the shadow is ever at
its side. To know London you must see
both sides OF the picture-its dens Of mis-
cry, its regions OF squalid poverty and peren-
nial suffering, as well as its West.end man.
sions and shops, its noble squares and ex-
tensive parks. Prominent as is the mighty
Babylon Of our day for its wealth and
grandeur, it is equally disgraced by its ex-
ceptlonable regions Of poverty, which excite
pity and of crime which awaken fear. While
it is undeniably pleasant thing to con-
template man in all the exaltation Of
bis wisdom and virtue, it is also of service
to us to occasionally look into his obliq uities
and to distinctly remark how great and por-
tentious are and haye been his folles, his
crimes and bis sufferings.
Penetrate into remote quarters, and you
find behind the smiling exterior of West
end wealth and splendor, masses of miser-
dUlG3 ONcl'ClOWQEd HOuoCof Iu1LuuAC03 as ~
were, in close and narrow streets, from
which narrower alleys radiate, where the
sun never peeps and broad daylight is never
seen; swarms of poverty-stricken people,
pale with grief and suffering, emaciated,
toiling men and women, by the side OF beg
CARS and thieves, and all maintaining des-
perate struggle with want-lterally fighting
for life. No belle, glittering with jewels,
rolls in her coach to the Queens Drawing
room without startling the ear of dying
poverty in some hcvel of wretchedness and
despair. No gaily dressed congregation
reaches it's fashionable church without en-
countering the fumes Of taprooms and gin
palaces, and mixing with their crowd of
squalid, drunken customers. Thus is exem-
plified the truth:
wherever God erects house of prayer,
The Devil always builds chapel there"
The Royal Palace has its disgusting back
ground of reeking sinks, slums and novels
in Pimlico. The opera has it's counterpart
in the low, vice engendering penny theatre.
and the balls OF the aristocracy are set off by
the costermonger's two penny hop. The
fine shops of Regent street and Piccadilly
draw their supplies Of silks and rich stuffs
from the poverty stricken dens of Spital-
fields. The gayesJ and most brilliant streets
of the West-end are close upon St. Giles, the
darkest London haunt Of crime and misery.
Hordes of beings rise every morning with
out as much food as will serve them through
the day, and who derive precarious exist
ence by sweeping the crossings. selling
matches, gathering bones or rags, riddling
cinders out Of dust holes, retailing apples
and oranges. collecting and selling the re-
fuse vegetables Of the markets, running
errands, and, worst of all, girls selling their
pershing charms for the wherewithal to
buy bread and meat. The stranger dreams
not of these things when sauntering through
Piccadilly or Pall.Mall, where beggar is
rarely seen, and the panorama of which is
but a successive procession of prosperous
industry and superfluous wealth. The NOR
al geologist of London, however, can map
out the localities OF the different classes,
each having its haunt, as clearly as the
physical geologist does the chalk and clay.
mari and gravel deposits of any given sec
ton of country. Each of these localities is
known to them. They can point in an
instant to the retreat of the burglars, the
shop filters, the coiners, the dog stealers.
the pick-pockets, the garroters, the murder.
ers, the house burners, and like hiding pla.
ces of the infamous generally, where no
policeman dare venture alone.
In former times. one OF the most notorious
of all these haunts was st. Giles, very
cesspool OF moral pollution, one OF Dickens
favorite resorts for studying low life and
obtaining materials for his inimitable sketch.
es. st. Giles was, however, broken up nv
the extension OF Oxford street through ;ts
heart. The inhabitants did not cease 70
sct - Hoo