The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-10-20
LONDON BY GASLIGHT
SATURDAY NIGHT STREET SCENES IN
THE CITY OF THE DOCKERS.

A Break In the Fearful Dreariness That
Marks the Life of the Toiling Thousands
of the East Side of che Great Metropolis.
Music, Songs and dances.
The memory of Saturday night in
the City of the Dockers is like the recol-
lection of troubled dream. for on this
last night of the week the great, hot
streets are filled with the pentup life of
100000 houses Zone cannot call them
homes), and all the varied phases of this
hand to hand struggle for existence ap-
pear. The decker is prodigal of his few
shillings on Saturday night, the maxi
mum of his iberality being shown
most often in the public house and on
the catch penny street conjurer, while
the minimum is apparent at the stalls of
the grocer and butcher. But men, wom-
en- and children are out on the streets,
and, whatever else it be, Saturday night
is something of break in the fearful
dreariness that marks the life of the east
London toiling thousands.
The people love music. Their inter-
probation of music is rather rough and
loud. The bass drum of every band that
parades in labor demonstration of a
Sunday gets terribly punished before the
day is over, but it commands great fol-
lowing, and on Saturday night the street
musicians and singers easily gather their
crowds and reap an abundant harvest.
The barrel organ is found everywhere,
and wherever it is rafting out the popu-
lar Daisy" or 1.-The Man Who Broke
the Bank at Monte Carlo" the sidewalks
will be crowded, while two or three
couples of little girls dance on the flag
stones.
Nearly every girl of can dance, many
of them have already appeared in public
at the cheap concert halls, and as one
watches them, hatless. dirty, but with
faces beaming with delight, he does not
know whether to be glad of their joy or
to pity their hollow present and hopeless
future the more. Often part in these
street dances will be taken by the older
girls, factory girls, as they are all called
in east London, who are out in crowds
on Saturday night. They are an un-
tanned, fantastic lot. All wear enormous
hats, adorned with feathers, and train
their hair about the forehead by curling
it forward quite fercely. They are in
tensely loyal to the customs and tradi.
tions of their own ''set," and forced as
they are to subsist on an income of to
8 shillings per week they are vexing
problem to the east London philanthro-
pist and reformer.
Besides the barrel organs, there arc
violins, accordions and any number OF
soloists unaccompanied by an instru-
ment. Blind women. old men and the
poor wrecks of this awful struggle for
existence here stand at the curbstone
and in weak, thin voices sing their songs.
The restless crowd moves on, save when
some one more curious or more kindly
than the rest stands near to look Drills
ten. A bent woman, whose thin shawl
was thrown over her shoulders, was
feebly singing some old song in the
midst of the jostling throng around a
public house. saw a strong young girl
of IA come kindly toward her, drop a
penny in the little box held by the feeble
hand and then hurry away out of sight.
Happy will the strong young lass be if
the swirl of the turbid stream of east
London life does not bring her some time
to the place of the curbstone singer. In
deed there is no place that have ever
seen where mirth and pathos, vice and
virtue, meet and mingle as on these
streets in a night like this.
One sees very little begging. There is
not much street begging anyway
ther"'s no use begging; the people are
too or. The mendicant fees Canning
town for the weather. residential quar-
tiers. Of course the children beset one.
The sidewalk artist is sometimes found,
but the most common form of appeal is
from the ragged little fellows who turn
handsprings or stand on their heads for
you. They really do their athletics
very nicely, and there is something so
appealing and "old mannish" in their
looks that it is hard to resist them. I
was hurrying through the crowds in
Victoria docks one night about 10 when
boy of came out and ran beside me,
relating some sort of verse, thought
Three repetitions made it clear:
ma p ny won't VIII yer,
Penny won't break yer,
Tupnce won't send yer t. the workus.
He was evidently working on grad
uated scale of benevolence adapted to
the abilities of the donor" l believe by
the emphasis laid on the last item that
he estimated me from my gold bowed
spectacles at tu'pence.
The barrows of east London delicacies
abound in the streets where marketing
goes on. The woman who sells cold
picked pigs feet is in fair demand. The
man who retails shrimps at penny a
bag gets a good trade, but the couple
who preside at the barrow filled with
cookies and wrinkles" have their hands
full. The delectable mollusks are dis
played on little dishes as large as ''indi-
vidual buffers" with bit of xarnishing
Of parsley, and are eaten with vinegar on
the spot.
These barrows are found especially at
the entrance of Victoria Docks road, a
great marketing place in Canning town
on Saturday night Clothing very cheap
and shoddy and called "slops'), little