The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-17
WHITECHAPEL ROAD.
Saturday Night in London's Great East En-
Thoroughfare.


I sauntered along it last night taking
in its sights. I tried to liken it to the
Bowery, New York, on a Saturday
night, but failed utterly.
1t was in some of the small bystreets
and courts which run off from this
road where the terrible murders were
committed some years ago. This was
Jack the Ripper's stamping ground.
explored two or three of the courts last
night and found them ugly, squalid and
horrible. A queer feeling came over me
in one of them. l thought it was
place in which some awful human mon
strosity might indeed be bred-some-
thing Shiny, octopuslike and destroying.
I shivered and half expected to see such
a thing creeping toward me. The night
was gloomy with fog, and I had been
thinking of the murders.
I care not what any one says or
writes, there is no part of New York so
awful looking at nightti me as the back
alley courts and bystreets Of this part
of London. The squalor is hardly de-
scribable. It is misty, weird, damp.
menacing squalor. You can feel that
around and about you things are foul
and rotten-that not all the cleaning in
the world could really remove the in
herent filth. Last night thought of the
grewsome, dim bells of Dante.
But out in the main road-White-
chapel road = things were different.
Low London was enjoying itself, spend
ing its Saturdays wages. There were
all sorts of ways and devices for the
Turing and capturing of the nimbIe
peHny. Here was the humping ma
chine-''three thumps a penny''-
where young London could develop its
hitting powers. This machine was pa
tronized mainly by urchins from 10 to
Is years old. The man who owned it
went into the public house facing him
to get refreshment, l presume. He left
a small boy in charge. AS soon as his
back was turned the fun began. The
other boys tried to thump the machine
without paying. But the diminutive
sentry was loyal and plucky. He hit one
of them in the jaw, another in the nose
and another in the eye. He must have
practiced long and faithfully upon the
machine itself just as the scrimmage
was assuming big proportions the re-
freshed man came back, restored order
and gave the sentry twopenoe.
There were small show tents, where
you could see the most wonderful things
that were ever allowed to exist for a
penny. You felt, on listening to the
Snowman in front of them, that many
great orators were lost to the nation.
Some Of them were really most eloquent
and interesting, and if they dropped
their his in one place they picked them
up in another, thus giving the queens
English all that was coming to it. I
talked to one of them during a IuII in
business, and he told me that he had
been in the United States and liked it,
but that the English people were easier
to gull. Another of them, surprisingly
intelligent African, was telling the
crowd how much fire he would eat pro-
viding, he could get 10 pence. The
strong man and the fat woman were
also in evidence.
1 must say that have great deal of
respect for the assurance and talent Of
the London fakir. He CHATS the crowd,
and the crowd chaff him, and both chaff
together. He shows up at his best in
the selling of medicine One of them
last night was selling medicine at four
pence a bottle that would cure anything
and everything. His face was very red,
and his nose showed signs of ginhouse
cultivation. He was very convincing.
eff it was the last fourpence you 'ad in
the world, :" he said, ''you ought to give
it for this BOTTLE" 'You'd give your
last fourpence for 'ot rum, some one
in the crowd retorted. eff I lad to get
the fourpenoe by pawning all your
clothes, I'd ave to do without it, !" re-
piled the fakir.
In the entrance ways of some of the
public houses there are frescoes on the
walls represen ting scenes from English
history. One of them attracted me par
ticularly. In it a man was being attack
ed by women armed with hatchets and
hammers. They had evidently pulled
him off the death cart and the guards
were trying to rescue him. Beneath the
fresco was this inscription:
Burton lynched by the women of
Whitechapel for the murder and rob-
berry of his foster mother, 1923. ;"
To show you that London fakirs have
the keenest sort of knowledge of human
nature will tell you of a game that
one of them had in progress. On line
no had several bottles hanging by the
neck from strings and at the back Of
them a canvas sheet.
For three shots a penny he allowed
the boys to fire hard wooden balls at
these bottles from a distance of about
ten feet. Whenever one was broken he
would replace it by another. This game
was the most popular one of all. It ap-
pealed to the boys love for driving balls
through windows and other forbidden
places. I think this game would go we'll
with the youth of Amreica.
At the butchers shops the women
were bargaining for pieces of meat for
their Sunday dinner. I noticed that the
meat was very much dearer than it is
in America. The women had to pay sew
enpenoe and eightpenoe a pound. 1 4 or
Is cents, for meat they would have to