, 1885-02-01
THE SEVEN DIALs."
VISIT TO THE RENDEZVOUS OF LON
DoN's D~EsPERADos.
rhs re.,sae-. OF the Tough a- seen In thu
Engiish capital-A Bruts's Face
Swine Of n Tenement
House.


Dickens has made the Seven Dial"
famous 1t is tho roost and rendezvous Of
the AForty Thieves and scores OF the most
abandoned and desperate dare-devils 10 DO
found ia the precincts VI the wicked metr1p-
oils. Strange to say, It Is in the heart otrAe
city. and within a few squares OF some q the
principal streets It is a near cut 10 many
Important places, II you don't gol your
throat cut on the way. As ! stated before,
seven streets radiats from it, hub, and you
drift into Il from almost any direction II
gets it, nanio from the fact that formerly
each Of the Aevun buildings that face upon
the square had a clock on its fronf-hence
The Seven Dial~.'
A walk OF a few minutes brought us to ths
center OF the Seven Dials.u We were now
about 70 enter in medias res sure enough
Tho Inspector stepped up TO the policeman on
duty, and gently exhibiting his card and
some other sort OF insignia, exchanged a few
words soto voce. Tn shrin whistle OF the
policeman sounded and another uniformed
knight bobbed up serenely as though from
the bowels OF the earth.
We formed a procession eight strong, and
set out down one OF the dreariest streets fol-
lowed by a viIlainous crowd, who were Ger
tain that an arrest was going to be made. A
short distance and we stopped in front OF a
dilapidated old building. One OF the police
mon went to tho head OF the column and the
other brought up the rear, while we moved
on the enemy. We groped our way, Indian
file. through dark Railways down a narrow
staircase into a d~imly-lighted cellar-room
filed with ferocious and crestfallen charac-
ters. There they were OF all ages, from the
1Gyear old boy 10 the hoary head They
were taking their sorry suppers, and our
visit was a surprise party.
Il was a sight / shall never forget They
were the toughest of the tough, and their
photographs would mako our American
rogues' gallery blush. It was a study to SOC
the various expressions OF the hard, hellish,
crime-stampod faces Some affected an air
OF indifference to our presence, and went on
munching their meals without looking up,
others gazed at us with an assumed eye OF
innocence, which seemed to say. #You ara
shockingly rude to even suspicion me,D q
few did not disguise their displeasure at our
-unannounced call, and corrugated their
brows and snarled and showed their teeth
like dogs. The youngest, a boy OF not over
10, n soon as he got eyer his scare. "guyed"
US, and offered 10 treat to the stale beer in
his pewter tanknrd His bravado sat sadly
on such young shoulders A man stood in
front OF the fireplace who had evidently seen
better days His eyes were fixed the floor.
and he never once lifted them. His cloth
ing was ssedy, hut a trife neater than those
about him. and a badly demoralized plug
hat raised him several degrees above his sur
roundings. His features were deeply-fu
rowed by vice, but through the hard lines
you could read a few traces Of former re-
s~peetabIlity. An old man, whose sharp, sly,
sneaking face seems to AVE Inherited sin as
a birth-right. and feeding himself from n
pocketful OF uncooked vegetables, which he
bad no doubt stolen from some green grocer,
or market stand.
The most Individual character was a
rather young, stout. built man in whose face
there was scarcely an Indication Of a human
being. There wasa fearful fascination In
his features that held you with a snalelike
charm His features were square, bold and
British His nose lay fiat on his face aud his
large, yeIlowish-gray eyes had the wide-open
roll and oagerness OF a panther. His ex-
preston seemed to say, Il could lap blood
and deem 1t a dainty dish" He sat bold,
upright, with a cap on his head, and glared
full upon Us. have never sean just such a
face, and am at a loss how to describe it 1t
appeared to be a nature but a bit above the
brute, and unconscious of its degradation.
1t was o scene worthy of Dickens pen u a
great painters brush. lit was not a hot
house of Hades ] am no judge.
When we had fully surveyed the scsna the
inspector asked US, as a matter Of form, IL
we recognized any ons.n and npon our re-
spending in the negative we filed out as we
came in, the police parading with presented
batonz A few jeers and guys were fired
at US Is w departed The inspector always
asked US IN these dens II I'VE recognized any
one" as he was supposed to be In search Of a
culprit Had the thieves thought otherwise.
there would haye been a row at once, as they
are not fond of visitors chnperoned by blue
coats.
We were told tina the proprietor of the
wretched den we had visited was wealthy,
pulled the rins over a pair, and lived in
sumptuous style He never sees the place,
but collects through an agent His father,
It seems. ave his personal supervision 10 a
similar rancho until he got seven years for
receiving stolen goods, and his rookery was
RACED TO the ground by order OF tho CITY
council Our route tool US to a tenement
structure down an alley where 600 Of these
wretches, male and female, are sheltered
and fed as 30 many swine. The policeman
on duty said the guests were nearly all out
at that hour, and hat many OF them did not
get In until after midnight We boarded
the underground railway and had a look
through east London, notorious In criminal
annals Hundreds OF abandoned people herd
together in that district, where they are
fed and housed by wholesale at a small
figure. A man or woman superintendent
has charge, and secs that their meals. such
as they are, are served up satisfactorily.
Tho inspector told US that be had made
many OF his most noted arrests In this dis
trict
In nearly all these places we could near
the word "wantedn softly passed as soon as
we crossed the threshold. Thai meant u
warrant was out as they thought, and It
showed they were accustomed to the ap-
pearance OF such documents. Almost in
variably those we saw braced themselves
with a rigid would-be expression OF inno-
cence, which was painfully artificial from
the s~uddenness with which - had been
masuued