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

! covered beds with withered hays, who
! drank beer and sang snatches of songs half
awake and half drunken, apparently IN a
stupor; and as we passed through the
long alleyways between the hunks they
stretched out their shaking hands and
bawled piteously for penny to help the
poor darling. We looked into other
chambers that were empty, where ahoZen
cots. covered with filthy rags, were swalt-
ing the return of some assassin to edOwn
and drink and riot in the early Sabbath
morning The boys and girls OF these
loathsome dens were as bright as crickets,
and the detective said they could pick a
pocket more artistically than the old 'uns.
Then we went upstairs through wind
ing passageways where a stranger would
be lost before half way to the roof On
every floor were little rooms no larger than
a closet, with a bed inside for one or two
persons. Strong drink or anything you
wished to eat was served for few pennies.
Beggars followed us wherever we went.
When we entered the cellar it was
enough to make a cannibal sick. Talk Of
sending missionaries to Africa to civilize
the heather 1t is doubtful if a Digger
Indian or a HottentOt could be hired TO
live IN one of the White Chapel dens.
AS rule, most of these people are in
very good circumstances as far as money
is concerned, for they live by begging and
stealing. In one room we saw twenty or
thirty old women, each face character
study for a painter-some withered and
wrinkled others marked with disease and
covered with wart-like excrescences hide
GUS to behold, but every face beamed with
treachery and deceit, so necessary in ex-
Treating money from the public Every
one of these creatures ought to be hanged
as much as the train robbers of Arizona,
1t was remarked, yet the district swarms
with them.
A child may be kidnapped, a watch
stolen, mansion robbed OF its silver and
diamonds, and all swallowed I'D in these
dives by the receivers of stolen goods and
no one be the wiser. Their establishments
are on every corner. Their traffic is dis
guised in one place as a grocery store, in
another as a confectionery shop, in an
other as a cigar booth or bakery. Any
thing is good enough for a thief who has
goods IRON another thief to take care OF.
As we left these dismal dens we stopped
on a corner to see how the thieves were
fed. 1t was an open restaurant, and a
woman stood by the easement with a
bundle of newspapers suspended from a
nail on the wall. They we're illustrated
with wood-cuts. On the table in front of
her were chunks of boiled pork, beef,
mutton, veal and large wooden bowls Of
boiled cabbage, green's and potatoes nicely
Drowned. Men, women and children
came out of the lodging houses until the
scene was like a first night at theater,
and they stood there for an hour awaiting
turns to get their midnight dinner. AS
fast as the boiled food was exhausted
fresh supplies were brought from the
kitchen below. Nothing was eaten on the
premises. Everything was weighed on a
pair of scales that stood on the table.
Selling a picture OF Ellen Terry on
the printed newspaper the woman
weighed a 2-pence worth of pork
sliced from the side of a boiled
hogs head, laid it on the paper
with couple OF potatoes, a spoonful OF
boiled cabbage and bit of thin pudding,
and this mess, which entirely covered the
picture of Ellen Terry, she rolled up with
dexterity and gave to a middle-aged thief
with a wart on bis nose, who glided into a
back alley.
A girl with long braids Of hair down her
back that looked like spun glass called for
two-pence worth of beef. Her portion was
laid on a picture of a ballet girl, and
vegetables were likewise added. As the
girl was leaving she said she wanted some
gravy. The woman opened the package,
poured out a spoonful or two of rich
brown gravy and wrapped it up again.
How the girl got away with it without the
paper falling TO pieces is a mystery. Every
leading actor in London, and most of the
actresses, were served up with pork and
green's during our brief stay.