The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-30
THE LARRiKIN OF LONDON.
FatIesS. Capless and TireIesS, He Gives
Chnsn 70 Tho Ionr-MheeIer.


FatIesS. Capiess and TireIess. He Gives
Chase to tho Four-wheeIer.
The several societies and the many amateur
philanthropists who have made the fate OF tho
small 10y the object of their care have nearly
cleared the great London streets of the gamin
and gamiDnc. They are still to be seen in the
slums fighting in their rags for a rotten apple
or dancing in their tatters around a hurdy-
gurdy, but they have been killed, philan-
thropized and societied off the thoroughfarcs.
Poor Jo' Is thing of the past, and the
places he occupied are filed by the Joootblack
brigade, the newsboys and the organized
street cleaners. There is one youth, however,
that neither the policeman, the philanthropist
nor the novel writer has been able 10 sup
press, and that is the larrikin.
I had an experience with him when less
than two hours in London, and after that
studied the habits of the beast with much in
terest. We were making for quiet lodging
house in Ellington, ourselves inside and our
baggage on top Of "growler,' and were
about six seven streets from the place
when | saw the slimmest of youths dart
around corner and give chase to the four
wheeler. FatleSs, capless and tireleSS he kept
up run along the sidewalk, lodging his
way among the passers-by as though he were
CREASED, watching each turn of the hack with
a keen eye and darting down whichever
street tue CtlbBN SleeTctl MS nbTse.
When the house was reached, there at the
area gate stool the skeleton youth. When
the horse was pulled up, with all four feet
stuck out like the legs of n chair, the fleet
lad rang the hell BY the time had
alighted he had our trunks on the pavement,
and 10y the time our identity had been cstab-
lished with the landlady he had carried our
trunks upstairs To our apartments.
Then came the explanation. He was not a
II
convenience for guests; neither was lie the
hack drivers son He was larrikin, gaunt
hunter of baggagc-ladcn strangers. He had
marked US for his prey, had chased down the
quarry and his price was siXpence. After that
| saw him Often-that Is, those of his kind.
His favorite hunting grounds were the great
lodging Observation-Disclosures Camberwcll,
Brixton, Stoke Newington. Camden Town,
eta, and u foUr-wheeler with trunks on the
roof and people looking curiOusly out of the
windows was u sure sign of fair game. His
distinctive conduct was the precipitancy with
which he did everything. No matter how
long the run might have been, he would dart
at the impedimeuta and haul them of rs
though fresh from lounge. Old ladies were
a great catch for him, and he would so sly
around and bang things about that they
would deliver up backshcesh before they
thoroughly knew what they were doing.
Sometimes they would chase down the same
prize and 30 bewilder the victim with sham
quarreling that they would be paid for tho
sake of peace. No attempt seems to be made
to abolish these Bedouins of the London dos-
ert, yet they are as truly plunderers Us their
brethren of Arabia. The city Arabs, as the
gaInins used to be called, We're not nearly rs
knavish these fellows, for what the one
begged these cxtort.-LOndon Cor. san Fran
cisco Chronicle