Morning journal and courier., 1882-02-02
One of the Night Scenes in London.
Moonlight on the Roguss' Walk. From the London Daily Ne~Bl

From the London Daily ce%sJ
 At 10 o'clock the Rogues' Walk-that broad ribbon of pavement stretching from Pieadilly Circus past the Criterion Theatre and restaurant to the top of the Haymarket resembles more nearly the scene of re- cent riot than thoroughfare in the heart of London. It is almost desola:e so far as way
 farers are concerned, gaslight and moonlight fully Illuminating the white sidewalk, dotted just now by the dark figures of the police
 An hour or an hour and half later more po- licemen are visible, and passengers hurry along, the majority of these being persons who have been to the play or to the music hall opposite, or to other places of amuse- ment. The theatres in the Haymarket, in Panton street. and in Leicester Square con tribute immediately, and those in the Strand and Dean street, Drury Lane and Bow street, indirectly, to swell . the number Of decent and fairly well behaved street and on to the Rogues' Walk. % But these passers-by are not the promenaders who have earned the place it's unenviable mo- toriety They are sober husbands and fath- CTS, who with wife and family are hoping toi catch an omnibus at the circus, and have nothing in common with the revelers who make the Rogues' Walk and Lower Regent street their own for at least two hours past midnight. These only begin to arrive toward the stroke of twelve, and are easily distin- guished in several ways. To begin with, they come to an obvious rendezvous; they do not merely pass through. And they come after the fashion of March, like lion. They ar riTe with noise and fuss and chatter. Styl- ishly, too styliskly, dressed girls, some of ex- treme youth, drive up with rattle and l bang in "headlong hansoms. " The ultra -styi- ish ones halt at the glove shop, while yet It IS open, and don new gloves. Their next pro- ceeding is to light cigars-not cigarettes, but manly cigars, corresponding in masculine tone with the bowler hats, male all-round collars, and brown Newmarkets" worn by | the majority. Other hansoms now drive up | furiously, and disgorge the division of male ! humanity attracting or attracted by the brown l Newmarkets aforesaid or other sirens in seal | skin. Many greetings are exchanged, bols- l terous and otherwise, and there appears to E be general anxiety on the part of all pres l ent to get as much to drink before half-past twelve as possible. Probably the business | and pleasure of the Rogues' Walk require a | great deal of alcoholic stimulant but, how l ever this may be, there is plenty of drinking | at the last moment. Then, as the clock 1 strikes the hour of closing public houses, a 1 flood of noisy women and raffish men pours over the Rogues' Walk and lnundates Lower 1 Regent street. l The shops are closed now, except perhaps | a few tobacconists', and there is less gashght l on the pavement thickly crowded with roys- 1 terers of both sexes, who walk here by l moonlight, because they have nowhere else
 to go It is true that they might go home to | bed, but this solution hardly commends it.
 self to women who have just come out in all
 their Haunting fnery to display their attrac- | tions under the lamps. The scene is extraor- dinary, and completely unlike anything else | in the world. Girls arm-in-arm, three
 abreast, not one of whom can be more than
 eighteen years old at the utmost. come rol.
 licking along, all smoking, swaying backward
 and forward and making observations which | will not bear repetition. Not only
 blasphemy, not mere suggestiveness
 but downright obscenity enters in to every other sentence. It must not be imagined that all this coarse and some 1 times loathsome talk is carried on in an un
 dertone. The last drain of ardent spirits ana
 the fumes of tobacco seem to have complete
 ly taken away from the hundreds of girls as
 sembled the last vestige of shame; and brutG
 obscenity speaks aloud in every tone of tn
 human voice. Perhaps the most saddenini
 feature of the ghastly scene is the youth c
 the great majority of the girls. They are no
 at least I do not see any-of the tender az
 sometimes spoken of, but they seem to rang
 from II to about IS or 20, the younger great ly predominating. This is the peculiar char aoter of the crowd on the Rogues' Walk. l is mainly young English women who crow'
 the pavement immediately after the Criterion and other places of refreshment have beel closed. The thin cheeks, however coarsel raddled, the painted eyes, and even the shar
 and vulgar voice screeching filthy oaths, can
 not conceal the fact that these hardened, de bauched creatures are in their teens; an they shriek louder as the night, or rather th s morning, wears on.
 F The men are strange sample of Londo
 humanity. First of all they include anon
 them the rabble which in former times lurke
 | among the purlieus of Panton street and th Haymarket, the Keepers and door openers ( f the grog shops and supper houses, the shar