The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-29
to those who have never been here, will
awaken in the breasts OF the initiated neither
unbelief nor surprise


Assuming it to be early in the evening
most of the vehicles that dash hither and
thither over the smooth streets will be carry
ing their human freight to the different
places OF amusement. Let us follow them,
The lions share will find their way to the
theatres. There are thirty-six places of this
KIND in the metropolis, representing an in
Vestment in land of more than 5000, 900 900,
in buildings OF more than $125, 900, 600, and
IN other property, enough to make up the
gross amount of $500, 100000. These theatres
regularly employ 10000 persons, and give
employment indirectly to as many more,
Their aggregate seating capacity is u, 900, and
the average attendance each night, as shown
by the Lord Chamberlain's report, is 81, 000
But don't expect to find these London the
aires with imposing eXteriors and broad
trontlr2s on the public streets. Space is too
precious here for that. With few ex-
ceptlons narrow entrance-way, brilliantly
illuminated, is all that marks their location,
anu not few are positively stuck away in
back alleys. But some of them are magnif-
Gently fitted up within, and are of immense
size. OF course you will see on the Lon
don stage the best talent and the most
popular plays the world produces. 1t is
gratifying to know, too, that most OF the Lon
don theatres are conducted by those who
seem anxious to make them as respectable
as possible The strange woman finds in
them little or no liberty to ply her shameful
traffic, and hence she is not the conspicuous
figure in the London playhouse that she is
In provincial theaters. This, however can
not be said of the metropolitan music-halls
PatroniZed though some OF them are by peo-
pie OF good standing in society, the deplora-
bic fact still remains that the bulk of those
Nrhn hDv, Il IL
baser sort, and that the management specially
cater to this class. Here the demi-monde
flourish in their gayest colors and the young
men about town revel without restraint in
those forbidden delights which charm only
to kill. What pity the authorities do not
try to purify these centers of moral pesti-
lence. Thronged nightly by the youth of
both sexes, who find in the appointments of
the place so many temptations to wrong
doing, and that seductive glamour which
seems for the time TO strip vice of its hideous-
ness, their influence for evil is simply meal
culable, and the wonder is that the decent
people in the city do not seek some means,
legal or otherwise, of wiping them out of
existence.
But come back now, once again, INTO the
streets. The air is purer here than in the
gilded dens which we have just left, though,
If it be getting late, you will see even on the
thoroughfares the same evidences of human
depravity, and proofs, equally shocking with
any you can find indoors of the
Astounding wickedness of this modern
Babylon. Those brilliantly lighted fronts
that you observe at short intervals as the
eye sweeps up and down the sidewalk, mark
the location OF neutrality-suspicious.. These
London gin-palaces differ from those found
in American cities in being much more pop
ular and much more numerous; also in car
rying on their business with less attempt at
Gconcealment and in being .patronized so
largely by women. You need not enter to
learn what is going on inside; a full view can
be had in most instances through the large
windows or naIf-open DOORS Representatives
of all classes crowd about the bars and the
drink is served mostly by fair hands that
look sadly out of place engaged in such an
occupation These bar-maids of England,
what mischief they do (unintentionaly, l
grant,, by adding the Establishments of social
chat to the pleasures of tippling; ave, and
into what shame and sorrow many of them
are plunged by the vile associations of their
calling. But we must not tarry. Flower
women, and those engaged in selling matches,
papers. pictures. ETC., are familiar objects in
the London streets at night. The paper boy
will furnish you anything from the most re-
spectacle evening journal to The Rag"
whose name sufficiently indicates its nature,
This sheet has appropriate companions in
THE Masher," 1.-The Matrimonial News
and "Town-Talk," a saVory lot. scarcely fit
to kindle a fire with. The picture-stands
that rest on the edge of the sidewalks, are
very deceiving. Better let them alone,
though it is a pity the police should do so.
The surface portraits are of the leading
celebrities but the real traffic at this hour
is in the obscenity that hides beneath Lon
don is fearful place in this respect. With
scarcely any molestation, these street-hawk-
ers and many of the same ilk who do bust
ness in stores on the back streets, carry on
systematic sale of the most loathsome
articles and are gathering riches from their
vile traffic.
London by night! How many. as the
hours wear on, will find themselves house
less and homeless in this city of palaces and
mansionsl What tragedies its top atties
and dark cellars and dismal river banks
may witnessl How many will die tonight,
and how many more vainly wish they could
do so as way of escaping shame that is
worse than DEATH The numbers who will
complain, with the heroine of a popular
drama, that London is so cold and so
crue!" The crimes and mysteries those
glistening stars will look down upon! Last
year twenty-three children and 154 adults
were entirely lost in this city, How many
may be lost tonight? The waters of the
Thames yield generally from fifty to a
hundred corpses that are never identified.
How many unknown and unfortunate ones
may plunge madly into that black flowing
river tonight Two hundred and seventy
four suicides here in the last twelve months
and 40 burglaries-nearly all committed of
course, after the sun has gone down. But
1.-The lights of London" which witness so
much that is evil and sad, see also not
little that is grand and sublime. If the out
casts are abroad, SO, likewise, are the
Sanaritans, and you will be peculiarly un-
fortunate if, before your travels tonight
are over, you do not see some of these in
vting wanderers TO places of refuge and
seeking to win the vicious from the error of
their ways. H. t.
The Grave of a Fool
Swimmer Beckwith, in New York Herald
T