The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-05-26

done in u room opening on smnu
courtyard at the end OF short blind
alley. This court is not moro then
twelve by sixteen feet in size, and n
constable was surely standing In it
while the murder and it's following
horrors were going on. Add to this
fact the others that the man could not
have done the work without light,
curtainless, and the proof that the
crime WINS actually witnessed by that
cowardly constable seems complete.
But, after all, it is scarcely fair to OK
pect man who works for thirty shil-
lirgs week to fisk his life in ON en-
counter with such a desperate cut
throat AZ Whitechapel's historic muir
derer must have been.
On the scene of one of the sidewalk
murders tiny cockney was swinging
on chain hanging from the tail OF a
truck. He observed us with indiffer-
cnce, but when he saw Murder Mag he
scurricd away into one of the hole-lile
doorways, rs might frightened rat
She was too horrible for even n case
hardened Nhitechapel gamin TO gaze
on with complaccncy.
refer thus ct length to the Jack the
Ripper murders because they marked
mn era in this strange district. For
many years it had been allowed TO net
rs sinkholc, into which the worst of
l.ondon's moral sewage drained, there
to tester in its own decay, UNDECIDED by
the other sections of the city, practically
unknown to any but the police, and
only disturbed by them when some par
ticularly migrant offense forced them
to momentarily probe the depths. Lon
don ohic!nldom had gone ON the theory
that certain percentage of humanity
must necessarily sink to this degraded
level, and was rather proud that the
refuse was concentrated in one locality.
But the Ripper murders-frightful eli
max of this neglcct--wcrc SO ghas.ly il.
their nature and persistent in their re-
currence, that the attention not only of
all London but of all tho world, was
focused on the neiehborhood, and the
authorities were forced to such action
rs have described in previous let
tiers. Tho number of police was
quadruplcd down there, and with
such speed as was possible the
destruction OF the old stun en-
vironmcnt was begun. Nearly every
ono OF the old narrow streets on
which the murders were committed has
been torn out and widcned. with both
sides built up in substantial and sani-
tary artisans dwellings," to take the
place of the old-tinc rooiSeries, and the
lodging houses, hitherto permitted to
conduct their business as they pleased,
have been placed under strict rcgula-
tions, rigidly enforced. This has re-
suited in one-sided reform. The uc-
tual criminal classes-the thugs, high
way robbers, room thieves and like per-
sons have been to great extent
driven out or compelled to mend their
ways. Thus Whitechapcl now is prob
ably frcer from that manner of offensc
than the Fourth ward OF New York
But, as this is the case throughout Lon
don, vice-as distinguished from crime
has not boen interferred with. No
effort has been made here or elsewhere
in the city 70 drive dcpraved women
from The streets. The public houses
have been conducted in n way which
would not be tolerated. for one moment
in any American city with which am
familiar, and, so far as have been able
to discover, ihodcsty and virtue are I'M
known quantities in Whitcchapcl.
Wonanhood is without the safe
guards Of either lazy or custom. A