The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-08-19
LIFE In PETTICOAT LANE,
.sPettfcont Lane" and the People
Found Therefore Man who is
ALWAYS Protected from Harm.

One of the very worst districts OF Lon
don probably the very worst, now thai
Hatten garden is no more), writes a Lon
don correspondent OF the St. Louis Post
Dispatch, is that long, narrow lane. with
it's ncishborhood, known to the initiated
~ "Pctticoat" lanc-to the animated rs
MiIdleseX street.
The dangerous classes of London and
Paris differ in one most essential respect
from the same kind of people in Amerl-
ca. Probably the very worst s'ums OF
New York contain nc creatures whose
criminal gcnealogy dates back beyond
one or two generations.
London, on the contrary, was a great
city prior to the discovery of America.
Its slums reckon their age by centuries,
while the inhabitants are the result of
long generations of depravity, and could,
were it fashionable in those localities to
keep q family tree, trace their descent III
crime back from father to son for many
generations. Petticoat lane has one lea
ture peculiar to itself. That is the great
Sunday market from which Rag Fair
takes its name. On week days the
ncighborhool is nearly deserted, at
night almost equally so. The Grim
inal tendencies OF Pctticoat lane are
not Of a noisy or demonstrativc sort.
This is the great criminal mandatory
Of the world. Here the most dangerous
thieves, houscbrcakcrs, and murdcrcrs
graduate and serve their apprenticeship
live, and die. Many of them are utterly
unknown to the police save oy name and
the effects Of their life work. Scores OF
them have never been seen by mortal eye
other thai their "pals." Here the Fagins
of London society ply their trade.
In al! appearances MiddlcscN street Is
one of the q~uictcst streets in London.
Occasionally, however, q knot of villain
~ous-looking men will gather in some cor
ner of the street, talking in low tones,
and in q language as unintelli glble, to
ordinary mortals as Sanscrit. at night
the whole n%eighborhood is dark, silent,
and deserted. Now and then the sound
of a scutflc is heard in one OF which the
dark, blind alleys, leading nowhere, with
which the ncighborhood abounds. Ere
the police can reach the spot all is again
silent, though frequently the blood.
stained sidewalk is u silent witness to
what has happened. But few lights ap-
pear in the windows, and no suspicious
character is ever seen issuing from the
doors.
Into the houses which line each side
of ,AIiddlcsex street, and fill the courts
and alleys within the arms Of that great
cross, no one save the inhabitants or the
police in trios and quartcttes have
ever set foot. Yet, stay, there is
one person who is always wei.
come, and whom the vilcst and
most murderous ruffian would protect
with his life, and that is the doctor. The
inhabitants of London slums have learned
that in the cpidcmics which now and
~again-almost every year, in fact-ragc
with the fury of the plaques Of old among
the dcnizcns of those filthy and over
crowded houses, q doctor is a necessity.
When wounded and bleeding. as the re-
suit of some unholy midnight raid, the
modern Bill Sykes flies, like q wounded
stag, to his covert, death will surely en-
sue unless a doctor can be persuaded to
take the case in hand. 1t is n religion
with London hcathcns-thc only one
they know, save the honor that exists
among thievcs-to protect the doctor.
Protected by two policemen in uni.
form and a detective in plain clothes,
the writer of this article once made o
pilgrimage through all that was visible
of five of these houses. They were not
the worst, for into those nothing short of
force could gain admission, but they
were very bad. In two of them the police
showed a large trap in the floor. 1t was
so butt as TO be quite invisible. At the
touch Of Il spring in the wall some dis.
lance oil the slab flew downward, dis
closing a we'll, whose depth we had no
means of asccrtaining. A stone dc.
scendcd in silence for many seconds, and
then came a loud splash! The ticndish
continuance is for the benefit of spies. y
person entering a ho'sc whom the inhab.
itants suspect, or wish to be rid of, IS
cnticcd on the invisible sab.
But Middlescx street Oil weekday, and
the same ~thorcughlarc on Sunday, pos
sesscs stronger points of difference than
Broadway, New York, when q procession
is passing. and when it is not. For
MANY months, though as well acquainted
with the ncighborhood as is safe for a
nonresident to be in its weekday dress,
the writer was not aware that this great
fair was held in those parts. At last
did hear Of it, and the following Sab
bath bchcld me Invested of the garments
of responsibility and arraycd. pro tenn, in
those as nearly resembling disrcspccta-
bilitv us | could fashion in clean mate
rails.
There was no need of a police escort
this time. There is safety in numbers
says an Old truism, beside which, on
Sunday morning, picked co%nstables, the
flower Of the force, are distributed
through tie fair at intervals of fifty yards.
| arrived at my destination at $40 4. NJ,
and found p%andcnonium in full swing.
Up the narrow roadway are placed stalls
three deep, on which arc to be found
every kind of salabIc article from meat
to mouse traps. Pctticoat lane is devoted
TO general merchandise, and the cross
streets to second hand clothing cxc!u.
sivcly. The stolen goods of the week
from all quarters appear in tempting ar
ray. Every species Of merchandise,
food. clothing, books and live stock,
every style of clothing, from a priests
s%urpIicc to q secdy frock coat, from a
duchess toilet to chiId's pinaforc, may
be seen on these stalls.
And the crowd! the molly cosmopoli-
tan crowd! who throng and surge on
the narrow footpath, forming Il solid,
moving mass of humanity. Human rats
who vcgctatc underground for six days
of every week emerge on the seventh
for one single hour like molcs in wet
weather, with a coin in their skinny
hands, to purchase the necessities OF
life.
At II o'clock sharp all Sunday fairs
close by act of parliament. AS the mel
odious bells from various churches chime
the hour of noon there is Il general stam-
pedc. Barrows are wheeled away, stalls
arc cleared, merchants vanish with their
goods, and the Surging crowd mclts like
the mi>ts of Il summer morning or clouds
before tho rising sun. The whole pic
turc vanishes in five minutes, like the
scenes in Il panorama, the tavern doors
(closcd by law during Sunday morning.
are thrown wide opcn, and rag fair be-
comes a memory of the past until next
Sunday awakcs it into fresh activity.