The Cecil Whig., 1885-11-14
Rom'"ss. A"ssaots. fiction.
THE GENESIS OF A FREAK
A Thrilling Sketch of Low Life In St.
Giles, London.

'The Lost Child of Seven Dials"-A New
Phase of Crime to Which a Wretched
Father Fell an Unconscious Victim
ByJohn Paul Bocock, Copyrighted by s.
S. Mcclure.
1t was Saturday night in Seven Dials.
In the flare of the gas lamps men and
women were swarming in and out of
the little streets which interlace the
neighborhood. The air was damp
with the breath OF the crowd, hot with
the yellow lights, and heavy with the
odors of the wares exposed for sale
along the curb. Here was a barrow
of old boots, there a barrow of fried
fish. Between them a wretched-look-
ing creature, in woman's clothes, bar
gained with the musty merchant whose
barrow hard by displayed a creased
and wrinkled but "smart" silk dress.
Behind the barrows stood their owners,
while in the streets and cutters men,
women and children shouted and
swore, and, with drunken good nature,
sang songs that reeked of Gin lane and
Beer street.
The silk dress was sold for two and
sixpence, satisfactorily to the old man
and the young woman. She pushed
her way into an open tavern, jostling
an unshaven man whose dull eye
seemed to seek no thoroughfare. An
drew Kilgour, for this was he, was
still dreaming of the child he had lost
seven years ago. In all his features
there was hunger, but rather a longing
that had lost its poignancy than un-
satisfied appetite. 1t was not because
he liked their society that he had now
fallen to associate with thieves, fakirs,
abandoned women, blind men and
one-legged men.
His poverty had been all-compell-
ing, for it was not Immediately after
losing his position as assistant to Sur
geon Syme, of Endell street, that he
had come to live in Garbage court.
Seven years of suffering separated this
kilgour from that trim young "saw-
bones" whose skill in anatomy had be-
come known in more than one of the
alleys that run from Endell street to
Garbage court, St. Giles. The light
went out of his life with the boy, and
comfort and even decency were not
slow to follow.
When this pert purchaser of the
secondhand silk pushed him off his
balance his face regained look of in
telligence and he tried to get his bear
inss. Turning half about he faced a
less thronged alley, in which there was
no particular business doing, because
everybody there seemed drunk. Here
there was only dull interrupted sue
cession of ribald songs and smothered
cries. This was his nearest way home.
Kilgour's foot was uplifted over the
gutter when he saw a face directly
under him. A young woman lay
placidly in the open drain, with a
smile on her face and a baby at her
breast. His heel had grazed the baby's
head, and splashed in the filthy gutter
stream, which was deep enough to
eddy over one of her shoulders. With
not dry thread on her, she was asleep
and the babe content.
He looked around for help. 1t
didn't seem to occur to him that it
was absurd for such a wretch as he to
help so contented being. But just
then a big curved stick in big boned
hand came cropping around the corner,
and there in the nick of time was his
friend the Blind Man Of Garbage
Court, a sort of genius of the place,
who had no home as far as any one
knew.
When they raised the glrl from the
gutter the baby began to cry. With
that an oath was Kissed over their
shoulders and Kilgour was pushed of
the curb and the blind nan against the
wall. A swarthy, heavy set ruffian,
lowering of brow, demanded to know
what they were doing to his "girl." As
he whirled kilgour around this black
browed man recognized him.
l haxes yer pardon, Mr.. Kilgour
does, indeed, sir. l wouldn't hardly
ave knowed yer. What ails the girl
drat her l might "a knowed she'd "a
blowed in the Doodle for rum. Never
you mind, sir, please ; Pm take 'er 'ome.
and I'd serve 'er right to drag 'el
hevery fut of the way, 'eels hup,
through the gutter"
Black -Brows was in no hurry O.
alarm on her account as he held hel
over his arm he took time to whisper