The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-12-04
-.cHapEL wEErcHEDNEss
Of Misery In London's Pau
Ues -~r rfstrfct.

~ Misery in Londen's Pau
per District.
,.rdop Ie,fsrin New York weird. !
bo. nn-d sWhitechapel' has passed
lnsrb into the vocabulary of the
Hs.aI classes. No less than dozen
e1n,n ~ the street have complained
rons ss4siIant in the police courts
-. sek that he threatened to
tsEx ;sscbapel'' them. Within a few
sse word has assumed a horrible
90 ;scsnre. The Whiteehapei muir
have startled the whole world
otIs ,,srure locality In a great metropo-
~ ~ border line between Poverty
snd the affiueut spiendor of the
W I'm End is forced into lurid glare
E-.,tIicity. Mysterious murders are
x topic Of the day. Politics and
srsrvtbing else that newspapers usu-
n nrint and the public reads about
-. tined out in smudge OF blood.
~ u .who is the murderer" peo-
.. srs asking. What and where Is
VII i usually called the White
..snsl district is about equivalent in
s.s-storr 30 the east side OF New York
q. from, Houston street to Frank
~ street. bounded on the west by the
pa.erv and Chatham street. There
worse slums in London than
Whitechapcl, Just as there are worse
Jrms IN New York than are to be
ssrnd ii the territory | have indi-
sssed, Through this populous region
~ Whitechapel road runs obliquely,
srcb az Broadway runs through New
Val city. This thoroughfaTe is the
lsrerx OF London. but twice as big.
thrics q wicked, and with four times
h number OF people pushing and
s-oyding through il after nightfall.
nc dissoIute and the vicious of all
sIimss eongregate there-blaek Las
49, sailors from India crazed with
am. CAV girls from Paris who had TO
isaye the city or go to prison for puri-
srstion. men and women who have
sdone their time" in the prisons, 9TH
~. who have escaped and never stir
ant in the daylight, thieves and thugs,
house-breakers and hariots-there
shsy All are. The sky is agiow with
m glare of splendid gin palaces.
rbesp theatres, and the smoking
aaphfba lamps of thousands OF street
yenders. You may see the reflection
oft for miles.
But they are not all wicked people
that You see in Whitechapel at night.
Il Is the shopping street of the re-
spec.able laborer and his wife. He
NAV buy there at what we call in New
York sBowery prices" Large, roomy
,hops. with snowy windows and |
pronpt sales-people 10 do his bidding, |
IA for his trade. 1t is one OF the |
ueat trade arteries Of the metropolis, |
one OF the unique thoroughfares of |
the world. Not one in 100 OF the |
troops OF Americans who come here |
every year ever go 10 Whitechapel or
a. even remote idea where ID IL. /
Basdecker informs us, in these lines,
that II Is n district devoted TO artisans /
and sugar refineries. That is very |
much like describing Brooklyn as a
place devoted to preachers and ele-
rated railways. venture here to offer
A suggestion to Americans coming to |
London who want to see novel, excit- |
ing spectacle; get top OF Bow bus.
In the Strand. any Saturday night and |
ride through Whitechapel road.
So far as the condition OF the streets |
s concerned. Whitechapel is cleaner
than the territory ! have referred TO
q the average appearance of the |
houses go, il is not nearly so dilapi- |
3aGcd as the Communist 9p-sters
Of Paris. But you VIII ma more
s,uaIid. ragged children there, more
half-fed, wretched-looking men and
women than you can scrape up In
New York and Paris put together. lt
10 the loose women of Whitechapel
that make il one of the strangest and
saddest spectacles in Christendom.
Hundreds upon hundreds OF these for
iorn creatures tramp the streets from
dark till dawn. They have no home. |
1t Is seldom that they sleep two nights |
under the same roof.
These uncertainties ply their yoca-
ton in the open streets, in the hah-
yays OF lodging-houses and in the
sheltered squares where they cap1
gain privacy. In bitterest weather they |
rsggs houseleHs. creeping in stairways |
% sleep, budding In untenanted eel. |
lars, packed close 10 one another for |
warmth and heat. Until these muir. |
iers began no policeman disturbed |
hem. So long as they did not quarrel |
hey were allowed to forget their mis- |
Try in slumber. All that Is changed |
now. The policemen are ordered to
-oute the unfortunate creatures out,
md they tramp about all night and
iext day till they can get foul pence to
hire a bed. While looking mp the
murders for the World was asked for
/ penny by one girl not IL years old,
who declared that she had not been
lble to find place to sleep undis-
Iurhed for As hours. And she looked
i. They live and breathe in a putrid
of pitiabie misery and un-
speasahle vice. Here Is what a young
woman who is doing missionary work |
among these people says:
THE terrible difficulty We have to |
encounter is that of trying 10 find
them work. We had last year very |
touching case of awoman who seemed |
DESTROYS of amending, but |
who was over the age at which they |
are usually admitted TO homes. After |
q great deal of difficulty We found an
opening for her, and she went to the |
home; but some of these places, | am |
afraid are managed too vigorously. |
and the matrons of them are some
times wanting in sympathy with their /
inmates, who find il extremely diff |
cult to submit TO the discipline. Ii
was the case with this woman. She |
found the discipline of this place more
than she could endure and she left;
but she came to us again, and still
seemed sick and weary of the wretch
cd life she led. Ii she could only find
something TO do she really would try.
but OF the home she seemed to have
positive horror. We could find her
no work, and she tried charring and
Washing. and believe did her earnest
best TO maintain herself that way.
But III was gradual starvation, often
We found she was whole days
without bit of food; and
those she lived with say that
emily at the last extremity did she al
low herself TO be driven again to her
Old courses. | am afraid, however,
she driited back, but still she would
come TO our meetings. and would
borrow from our library books that
you would never imagine she would
care 10 read. She came to our meet
ng one Tuesday night Ill and scarcely
soie TO stand, and on Thursday she
eled. The woman who looks after
mese mission rooms continued the
Speaker, was another Of the same
eass, and she used 20 be an associate
q Tie poor creature murdered in Ber-
neFs street She saw her only last
thursday, and she--that is. the muir
atfed Noman-sail then that she felt |