Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-01
CRewDED AND WICKED LONDON.

1t occurred to me last night, as | watched
the surging, restless crowds passing up and
down the Whitechapel road, how little the
average American who visits London really
knows of the teeming life of this great city.
Not only to the stranger, but to large num-
bers of her residents, the East Eod is a
veritable terra incognita. a few adven.
turous spirits have crossed Houndsditch,
and penetrated even beyond Radcliffe high
way 10 the maze of small streets that he
around Stepney, and when they returned
to their friends, and, seated over their
maraschino at the Cafe Royal, told them
of the wonders that lay beyond st. Pauls,
their adventures were as strange to their
hearers as the yarns of the Arizona liar in
a Chatham.stree schooner house ale 10 the
average Bowery loafer. OF the 4, 500, 900
persons who make London their home, it
is estimated that over half live below Lon.
don bridge, and by far the larger proper.
tion of these locate themselves to the east
of Houndsditch and Oldgste. In that
deDsely populated quarter of Londen ly.
ing along the river, the poor OF this vast
city are huddled together, forced by ruin
Gus rents to crowd into small space, and
subjected to all the miseries which oontor-
tion can inhict upon poverty. The swarm
ing parishes of Bethnal Green, White
chapel, Spitalfelds, Stepney, Mile End,
and in fact all that district pierced by the
three great main thoroughfares Com
mercial, WhitechapCl and Bethnal Green
roads-contain probably more inhabitants
to the square mile than any other spot of
ground in the world The scene in the
Whitechapel road-the London Bowery-
S,I,rl,xr ,IrhA ha,,r,oru JaanrfnkfOr
Imagine a street three times as broad as
Superior street, with pavements fifty feet
wide, bcrdered for miles on both sides with
vendors of every conceivable article known
to man an ola podrida of monkeys, song
books, performing dogs, itinerant shows,
rifle galleries. lemonade stands, jugglers,
patent medicine vendors, fortune tellers,
bird sellers, " ole cloes men, stolen dogs,
dren. You will have plenty of time to
survey the scene, for quick locomotion
for a pedestrian is out of the question
owing to the dense throngs. The principal
business transacted seems to be the sale Of
alcohol under various forms, and the
stranger is struck with the large prepon-
derance of young girls who swarm in and
out of the gilded saloons. You might
imagine they were simply nymphes du pave
but they are not, except perhaps in an
amateur way. Nearly all of them are fac
tory girls who have just received their
week's wages, and are out for a lark" D"
Their utter freedom from conventionality
is charming. But although to become ac-
qusinted with one is very easy, and mutual
introductions are deemed entirely superfu-
ous, there always exists species of sign
j - IA Il.
dispensable to know before addressing
Whitechapel belle. The immortality of
large classes in this end of London is
simply appalling, l should think it is be-
low the truth if | said that SO per cent Of
the factory hands in the East End are
unchaste. Why should they be other
wise? Huddled together in narrow
courts, accustomed from childhood
to scenes of degradation and vice,
without education, religion or social
ejuoyments, compelled to work at
unhealthy and severe manual labor for a
mere pittapce, and no prospect Of rest or
change, the wonder is that there are any
who retain their virtue. Even to the girl
who has the misfoI tune to become the
mother of an illegitimate child, no blame
or disgrace whatever attaches itself. To
her friends and relations it is Ct a misfor-
tune" and nothing more, and should she
succeed in securing from the father the
two shillings and sixpence week which
the law allows in such a case, it is often
matter for eongratulation, for it is self.
evident fact that such a sum, COM
ing in regularly every week for fourteen
years, is a very material addition to an in
come which, at the very best of times, does
not exceed ten shillings a week. More.
over, the chances are that the puny child
will not live to trouble its unfortunate
mother, for more than so per cent. of the
children born in many of the East End
parishes perish before they attain the age
of 5 years -[Corr, Cleveland Herald.