Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-30
In PetticOat Lane.
A Moral and Physical PeSt-Hole i'm the Heart of the English Metropolis.
 [Mr Arthur Klein in London News.l

A Moral and Physical PeSt-Hole i'm the
 Heart of the English Metropolis.
 INT. Arthur Klein in London News.I
 The fact that the great majority of the reading public must be ignorant of the actual condition of things existing in the heart of this metropolis has urged me to beg of you the space for few lines in order to draw at tention to the state of lawlessness, and con- sequently of misery, degradation and vice, in which thousands in this city are plunged
 Having made point of personally inspect ing notoriously bad quarter, the centre of which is thoroughfare with the official name of Middlesex street, but which official name has become illegible by reason of the dirt which hides it, and the whole street Is The Lane, will confine my remarks to this quarter in particular. The thoroughfare leads directly from Bishopsgate street with out into Commercial road, is narrow and suualid at the extremities, but widens and improves somewhat towards the centre.
 Grossly are we misled by those who tell us that such places are perceptibly improved since Charles Dickens wrote about them.
 The universality of the evil is diminished, no doubt, but, to our shame be it spoken, the living proof is before our eyes that the evil still exists in defined dis tricts, in as dark colors as 1t ever did. Dickens, describing those ''foul and frowsy dens where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn the haunts of hunger and disease, and rags that scarce hold togeth- er" has not overdrawn the picture, which is open, gratis and at any time, to any inquir- ing observer. No true thought of religion,
 be it from Christians Jews or from any other point of view, seems ever to have budded there Although Sunday morning, and during church hours, it was high fair in s"rhe Lane" Goods of every description freely bought and sold shops, such as they are, open drinking places crowded by men women, drinking and drunken. Literature of the vilest character, photographs and prints the most obscene offered in broad day for sale, these latter, in many cases, by chil- dren three and four years of age. I suppose that nowhere can the world reproduce such 8 terrible-looking crowd as that which surged around me at this Sunday fair. The following are among the distinctly illegal practices which came directly under my notice: 1. The public sale of intoxicating liquors during church hours. ?. The sale of articles which, it cannot be doubted, are stolen goods. 3. The sale of forged coin. 4. The exposure for sale of obscene literature and prints. 5. The un- restricted use of brutal and indecent Ian guage; and 6. Unrestrained acts of brutal violence. The public have right. would affirm it to be a positive duty, to demand an inquiry into the circumstances attending so disgraceful a blot on our national honor. There is no need for going to Ireland to find the law in abeyance. The law is a dead letter here. The police are powerIess to enforce l it ]; they stand in little knots together, it 1 would seem for mutual protection, but nc
 sooner does some drunken fray arise than
 they vanish most magically. They dare not
 interfere Shall such things be? Shall not 1 the law of the land be enforced in our capi l tai, and shall not Jews residing in this coun- I try be amenabIe to the laws? I will not be
 misunderstood. In my regard for the Jew ! ish nation I will yield to no one. I think all admiration is due to the heroism so richly
 displayed in their history, to their patience, their perseverance and their strong sense oi l duty, often so conspicuous in their character
 It is, indeed, more especially to the Jew themselves that I would appeal, and tho country has right, in the first place to look for the initiation of re