The record-union., 1896-05-03
GREEN LION PAVEMENT.

Green Lion Pavement is the name of
one of the streets in the great manu-
featuring town of Melchester. 1t is no.
an imposing thoroughfare; it is narrow,
badly lighted, undeniably dirty; indeed,
not to put too fine a point to it, even to
the casual observer it unavoidably sug-
gests the slum.
Unattractive as 1t is, there are yet
better times to see it than on a rainy
night, for then Green Lion Pavement is
at it's worst Light from the street
lamps outside the public houses, which
guard each end of the court, f1ickers
waveringly, and is reflected in the pools
collected in the holloWs of an uneven
pavement It's rays, as far as they
reach, show how wet and greasy the
f1agstones are, and reveal untemptlng
heaps of cabbage leaves, sodden and
trampled upon, which lie around most
of the doorsteps. Men with their hands
in their pockets, and their collars
turned up about their ears, lounge about
in the immediate vicinity of the pubic
houses smoking and splitting. Every
now and then the swinging door of one
OF other of the gin palaces is thrown
open, as some one goes in or comes out
more often goes in-and then broader
stream of light reveals the squalor or
the street. 1t shows those dark
scarcely distinguishable objects against
the wall to be women sitting on the
Gcorsteps, their shawls huddled over
their heads and drawn closely around
their shoulders. The children play at
their feet, quite Indifferent to the driz-
zling rain Some of them crawl along
the greasy pavement with evident de-
light-it is impossible to spoil their
clothes-others turn much-knotted
and ancient rope, skipping wildly, while
they shout and scream at one another
with shrill voices. A barrel organ be-
gins to play at the other end of the
court, perhaps, and the rope is thrown
down INSTANTLY. The children take
hands in couples, and began to dance
gravely and with considerable grace, in
spite of their large dilapidated boots.
Such quaint little figures! Their hats
when they have any, battered down on
to their heads till there is hardly any
face visible, their hair draggled and
hanging in rats tails from the rain.
Most of the children in Green Lion
Pavement have at some time or other
danced in the Melchester pantomime,
hence the elaborate steps and the grace
full postures. Two or three men pres
entity stroll up the street and look on,
their pipes in their mouths, except when
they remove them for moment to laugh
or to utter some forcible comment on
the performance.
But this al fresco dancing is not the
only entertainment of the kind which
goes on in court, or, at any rate, in the
Immediate vicinity. At first sight the
neighboThood does not suggest that its
Inhabitants are in the habit of giving
dances, for instance, yet 1t IS neverthe-
less a fact that real dance takes place
very frequently in one of its dilapi-
dated houses-a house, moreover, in
which the members of fiourishing club
for factory boys and girls meet every
evening.
On one of the evenings dedicated to
this before mentioned feStivity a young
man came quickly up the street. 1t was
early in the year and a deteStable night.
Sleet was falling, the pavement was
slippery with black half-frozen snow,
and Green Lion Pavement presented
about as uninviting an appearance as
was well possible. The young fellow
shivered, rubbed his red hands to-
gether and dragged at his thin coat, to
wrap it more closely around him as he
walked. At an open door he stopped
and entered square stone lobby, light
ed by wire-protected gas lamp.
Sounds of revelry were audible from
the passage in which the young man,
whose name was Figson, stood, stamp
ing the mud off his boots.
Figson was, or had been an in,por-
tant member of the club in it's early
days. Indeed, as he was won't IL re-
mark, There 'ad bin tonne wen e
'ad ran the Green Lion" and there was
no denying that it was chiefly owing to
his energetic efforts that the club had
been started. 1t was he who had looked
up eager would-be members, confirmed
the inclination of the wavering, elected
himself President, and prepared an
elaborate code of rules for the guidance
of the faithful.
Everything in fact was in readiness
for the opening of the club, with the
rather important exception of a room
in which to assemble. But even this
difficulty was overcome, and in a man
ner perhaps not entirely unforeseen by
Figson, who, some months previously
had made the acquaintance of a CEN
tleman of philanthropic disposition
(providentially supplemented by maans)
who occasionally visited the factory in
which the young man worked. Once
having discovered the existence of this
rarest of combinations, Figson did not
neglect his opportunities, with the re-
suit that rooms on the ground floor in
one of the houses in Green Lion Pave
ment We're presently presented to .he
members, rent free, subject only to a
condition as to proper supervision of
the meetings.
Since then, however. as Figson some
times tersely remarked, tonnes 'ad
changed a Bit The club was no
longer, as in the good old days. de-
voted exclusively to the Improvement
of the mind Frivolity had crept in.
(This happened when the membership
was foolishly extended to girls, Figson
declared dar<ly) And to make things
worse, his old-time comrades had
fallen from grace and, what was in
reality the same thing, their allegiance
and now boldly declared that "dancin'
was better than Lors of Eth emmy
d'y"
This evening he smiled superciliously
as the strains of 'Ta-ra-ra Boom
decay reached his ears
same old toon." he remarked aloud,
ringing the bell.
There was scuffle within. and the
door was opened by a younger boy
"'Ullo, Bill, 'ow are yer?" exclaimed
the youth. conventionally.
The salutation was not used at all
Sr, -,ercnpal cauca E,iUco,, wall -,