The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-31
WHITECHAPEL ATMIDNIGHT

! drove down by st. Paul's, past the bank
of England and on through Cornhill,
where, turning to the left, we followed up
Bishopsgate to the famous underground
drinking dive known in history as Dirty
Dicks" The detective thought it would
be interesting to begin the evening with
visit to this celebrated place. II dates
back nearly century, and seventy years
| ago Dirty Dick was one of the characters
of London.
Charles Dickens Household Words"
devoted a sketch and poem to Dirty
Dicks life and peculiarities. The rules
that governed his establishment were that
no person is to be served twice. No per-
son to be served if intoxicated. No error
admitted or money exchanged after leav-
ing the counter. No improper language
permitted. No gambling allowed.
Into this historical cellar we entered.
| Every foot of space was occupied. Men,
women and children were packed together
like fish, all drinking smoking and swear
! ing, at intervals telling loud" stories,
while in the corners, sitting on benches or
staggering against the walls, were women,
old and young, in various degrees OF in
| toxication.
One miserable creature, evidently in
the last stages Of sanity, grinned hideously
as she leaned over the bar with a wee
/ babe in her arms begging for another
! drink, as she had already spent her last
| penny. Along the walls above the bottles
| of the bar were the skeletons of rats and
mice and other household vermin, in
! Guiding several cats and dogs. They were
! found in the hollow walls when the old
/ building occupied by Dirty Dick was de-
molished several years ago to make room
| for the present structure. To a stranger
the dive seemed a filthy der of vice and
! disease, but on our return from White
| Chapel it seemed a very respectable place.
The next stop was made at the Blue
| Anchor tavern, further down toward
| White Chapel. To sporting men it is one
of the most celebrated places in England,
for it is the headquarters of the PROBES
/ sional prize ring. The landlord, Tom
| Symonds, was at home aud showed US
over the place. He is the treasurer OF the
! London prize ring, is an ex-champion
! boxer, and for many years his house has
| been the training-school for the most
noted pugilists of the world. 1t was here
! that Jem Smith and dozens of other celeb
rites took their first lessons in the manly
art for professional boxing.
Jem Goode, another ex-champion, who
once fought in the United States, dropped
into the big billiard hall, which is used
| for boxing once or twice week. The
rooms are decorated with full-length por-
traits OF the principal prize-hghters and
sports of the world. \ buXOm young
woman. with a motherly smile. stood be-
hind the bar and served out drinks in the
old-iashioned English style of fifty years
ago. 1t was an interesting place for any
one to vista sort OF an appetizer for a
stranger about to explore the mysteries
of White Chapel.
From Tom Symonds' Blue Anchor tav-
ern it is but a short ride into the slums Of
White Chapel.
1t should be explained for the benefit OF
those unfamiliar with the geography of
London that the White Chapel district is
a colony of thieves situated nearly north
of the Tower of London on the Thames.
a few blocks further down the river are
the famous London docks. Many of the
lower classes OF men employed along the
river and the numerous water thieves of
the wharves live upon White Chapel. 4
hundred years ago, in the time OF George
III, White Chapel road was just outside
the eastern walls of London-a sort of
suburb for the poorer classes, who had
little money to pay for rent. Now it is in
the center of a vast and populous district,
with well paved streets and alleys thanks
to modern improvements cutting the dis
! trict In every direction, with horse rail-
way and bus lines following the principal
streets, which in olden times were the
kings highways. Vast warehouses, pri-
vate and bonded, and manufacturing es-
Establishments rise darkly and silently in
the night on the borders of these slums.
Then there are big breweries, hospitals,
| cemeteries, alnshouses and other institu
tons not far away. A surprising feature
of the neighborhood is that we'll lighted
streets with tramways and bus lines are
but few squares away from where these
murders were committed. The White
Chapel district NAV be likened to certain
localities in the country where dark and
gloomy swamps filed with pestilential
vapors lie between the great highways a
visitor walking up White Chapel road
would little dream of the horrible dens
within a stones throw of the brilliantly
lighted shops Only the policemen on
duty there recognize the flashily dressed
men and women who hurry along the
pavement as the worst types OF London
thieves and murderers. Their restless eyes
and SCARED faces long haunt one after he
takes a second look into their villainous
countenances.
1t was but a few minutes after the de-
tective turned off the Aldgate road that
we found ourselves in a dark crevice-like
lane, with the darkest and most forbid
ding buildings OF the slums rising on
every side of us. The streets are as well
paved as Broadway in New York, but
some of them are not more than five feet
wide. and when we entered this Petticoat
lane of history, celebrated among thieves
from Cheyenne to Australia, all the world
seemed cut Off A feeling of indescriba-
BILE loathing and horror came over one as
he got sight of the scenes within the
tenements. The lane is the headquarters
of the most dangerous thieves in Europe.
Every class and nation is repre-
sented. Low Jews, Gentiles, convicts aud
prison birds of every grade swarm the
place like vermin. AS a Saturday night
scene the region about Petticoat lane has
no equal on the globe" said the detective.
At every few steps were passageways
leading out of the lane, like tunnels in
mine. No cave could be gloomier or more
forbidding. AS we walked up the long,
black alley called Petticoat lane one OF
the government officials said: you see
Dickens did not exaggerate." People I'M
familiar with these districts think Dick
ems drew his characters from his magma
ton. The man was right, the SDlikes, the
Olirer TUists, the FdginS and the Dick
Swireuers were as thick as flies.
An ordinary American child would live
about three DAYS in such place, yet there
were hundreds of children hardly able to