Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-01
OUR LONDON LETTER.
A CHAPTER OF DARK SHADOWS AT
The METROPOLIS.
The Abode of Misery and want-Fo Wed
ded notwithstanding Caused by
Henesty-Misery Personifed.
LONDON, November S, 1883.

LONDON, November o. 1000.
"The Bitter Cry of Outcast London"
Such is the title of pamphlet Just issued
by one of the religious denominations, con-
tanning the results of recent visitations
among the abject poor of this metropolis.
This little book, so full of startling dis
closures, is undoubtedly the sensation of
the day. The newspapers are discussing
it, preachers are preaching about it, philsn-
thropists are weeping over the tale of sor.
row it tells, and even the Government Is
aroused. 1t is as much talked of as last
weeks dynamite horror, and the condition
of things it lays bare is considered by
thoughtful people to pressge greater dan
ger than the latter to this mighty city's
welfare. Over the spectacle it holds up to
view tears might well be shed, not only by
Londoners, but by the entire civilized
world. In the interests of humanity, and
in the hope that their sylnpathies may be
drawn out toward the poor and suffering at
their own doors, 1 will give your readers
PEEP AT THIS PICTURE.
| Naturally, being the work of religionists,
the pamphlet deals first with the non-at-
tendance of these poverty stricken masses
at public worship. Out of ,29O persons
! living in consecutive houses at Bow Com.
mon, only eighty-seve adults and forty
seven children ever attend a sanctuary
under any circumstances, and many OF
them 90 only once or twice year. One
street off Leicester Square contains 246
families, and only twelve of them are ever
represented at church, while in St. Georges
in-the- East the proportion of church goers
ia thirty-nine out of 4, 235. These, how
ever are trivial facts compared with others
+ that are given. and considering the condi-
ton in which these miserable people live,
the wonder is that religious aspiration Is
not entirely extinct among them. Tens of
thousands are crowded together amidst
horrors which call to mind what we used
to hear of the middle passage of the slave
ship. To get into their abodes you have
| to penetrate courts reeking with
POISONOUS AND MALoDoRoUs GASES
Arising from accommodations of sewage and
refuse scattered in all directions and often
/ flowing beneath your feet; courts, many of
| them, which the sun never penetrates,
which are never visited by breath of
fresh air and which rarely know the viz
tues of drop of cleansing water. You
| have to ascend rotten staiTCases which
threaten to give way at every step, and
which in some places have already broken
down, leaving gaps that lmperll the limbs
and lives of the unwary. You have to
grope your way along dark and filthy pas
sagss swarming with vermin. Then, if
not driven back by the intolerable stencil,
you will enter dens compared with which
the lair of wild beast would be comfort
able and healthy. Sight feet square ia the
average s;z7 of these rooms. Walls and
ceilings are black with the
ACCRETIoNs OF FILTH
Which have gathered upon them through
long years of neglect. 1t is exuding
through cracks in the boards overhead !; it
is running down the walls; it is every
where. What goes by the name of a win
dow is half of it stuffed with rags or COW
cred with boards to keep out wind and
rain, and the rest is so begrimed and OBJ
scured that scarcely can light enter or
anything be seen outside. AS to furni.
ture, you may perchance discover a brok en-
chair the tottering relics of an old bed
stead, or the mere fragment OF a table
but more commonly you will find rude
substitutes for these things in the shape oil
rough boards resting upon bricks, an old
hamper or box turned upside down, or,
more frequently still, nothing but rubbish
and rags. Every room in these rotten and
reeking tenements houses family, and
often two. In one cellar a sanitary in
spector reports finding father, mother
THREE CHILDREN AND FOUR PIGS.
In another room a missionary found a
man i'll with smallpox, his wife just re.
covering from her eighth confinement, and
the children running about half naked and
covered with dirt. Here are seven people
living in one underground kitchen, and a
little dead child lying in the same room.
Elsewhere is a poor WIDOW, her three chill
dreE, and a child who had been dead thir-
teen days. Another apartment contains
father, mother and six children, two OF
whom are i'll with scarlet fever. In an
other nine brothers aud sisters, from 29
years of age downwards, live, eat and
sleep together. Here is mother who
turns her children into the street in the
early evening" because she let's her room
for immoral purposes until long after mid.
night, when the poor little wretches creep
back again if they have not found some
miserable shelter elsewhere.
MARRIAGES UNPOPULAR.
immortality is but the natural outcome
of conditions like these. Marriage, as an
institution, is not popular in these dis
tricts. Ask if the persons living together
in these rookeries are man and wife, and
your simplicity will cause a smile. No.
body knows nobody cares nobody ex-
poets that they are. In exceptional cases
only could your question be answered in
the affirmative. Incest is common, and no
form of vice causes surprise or attracts at
tention. Those who appear to be married
are often separated by mere quarrel, and
they do not hesitate to form similar COM
Partnerships Immediately. One man was
pointed out who for some years had lived
with woman, the mother Of his three
children. She died, and in less than a
week he had taken another woman IN her
place. a man was living with woman in
the low district called - The Mint" He
went out one morning with another man
for the purpose of committing burglary,
and by that other man was murdered.
The murderer returned, saying that his
companion had been caught and taken to
prison. and the same plight he took the
place of the murdered man in her compan-
ionship. The only check TO communism in
this regard is jealousy, not virtue.
THE vILEsT PRACTICES
Are looked upon with the most matter-of.
fact Indifference. the low parts OF Lon
don are the sink into which the filthy and
abominable from all parts OF the country
seen to flow. Entire courts are filled with
thieves, prostitutes and bloated convlcts.
10 one street are thirty-fye houses, thirty
two of which are known TO be brothels.
In another district are forty three OF those
houses, and ADS fallen women and girls,
many of them not more than II years OF
age. a neighborhood whose population is
returned at 10, 100, contains 400 who fol-
low this odious traffic, their ages varying
from thirteen to fifty and OF the moral
degradation OF the people some idea may
be formed from the following incident
An Elst-end missionary rescued young
girl from an immoral life and obtained for
her a situation with people who were going
abroad. He saw her to Southampton, and
on his return
WAS VIOLENTLY ABUSED
By the girls grandmother, who had the