The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-08-16

v~HA /~ik
AHNsN Is by common consent the
- worst, most dangerous and
most hopeless thoroughfare in England,
and perhaps IN the civilized world. In ?
the rivalry for pre-eminence in crime
1t has gained the right to change names
with Blood alley" which leads out Of
1t. There are streets in Cairo and in
the Further East that doubtless surpass
Dorset street in depravity. but for sheer,
downright brutality and bloodshed this
"Whitechapel' lane takes the lead.
The word ''Whitechaper' has to go IL
quotation marks because Dorset street
isn't really in Whitechapel at all, but in
the neighboring district Of Spitalfelds
When Jack the Ripper attracted the at
tention of the world by his mysterious
succession Of horrors in this region the
whole field of his operations was labelled
'Whitechapel' in the news reports, al
though most of the murders took place
in Spita1fields, and poor Whitechapel thus
became the generic name with most folk
in London and OUT for the blacklist of
the slum districts in the metropolis.
Whitechapel has protested again and
again that Spitalfields was the guilty
Parish, and Spitalfields has been unable
to deny it, But the name now sticks
fast. -. .'= .,..~, '.-.
This was the district in which Dickens
Bill Sykes lived and in which poor Nancy
vas murdered. 1t was remarked Of
Spitalfields years ago that compared
with it Whitechapel is a paradise and
Drury Lane fashionable resort" and
time has made the neighbOrhood wors;
instead of better. But Spitalfelds' con-
ditions reach their climax in Dorset
street, which contains exactly ffty-four
soualid buildings, separated by' darksone
alleys, each with its grUeso1ne history,
in which are huddled together, regardless
Of sex or condition, over fifteen hundred
people. G - ~Se->s~s
eaE% Crimes Breeding PLACE.
Dorset street is famed-or Ill famed
for variety of products. Here, rearing
their heads above the squalid cottages
common to the street. are a dozen of the
choicest breeding places of crime-the
cheap, ask-no-questions lodging houses,
made up OF a l.oadred or more wretched
cubcles, in one Of which the latest muir
dered victim was found; here 1ourishes,
as a greater menace to morals than. IN
any other section of London, the demor-
alizing traffic known as the FURNISHED
room SYSTEM" here scores Of adult
thieves. coners and househreakers hav"
their lairs, and here, too. half a dozen
Fagins train up mere children, boys ana
girls alike in the art of rifing pockets.
But more revolving tran the worst of
these conditions is the streets long and
black record Of murder and assault. Dor
act street was right in the center OF the
"A.lpper s. district and 1t was In tiny,
unkempt four-room cottage here that
Mary Jane Kelley, the last Of his victims,
was found dead and indescribably man.
gled in 1898. The wretched nome which
never will cease to be associated with the
crime opens on reeking paSSageWay,
dubbed, from the countless tragedies OF
which it has been the scene, Blood al
ley OF the cheap apartment house
which bounds the alley on the other side
it is whispered darkly that MURDER has
taken place in its every room. The lodg-
Ing house, No. 35, where the most recent
atrocity was perpetrated,, has record
only q shade TESS CHASTITY. and the inhab-
itants Of the neighborhood will tell you
freely that there are few houses in the
street where at least one killing has not
occurred. - ~. H.
A Clergyman's Evidence. ...
In the light of such ! history it Is not
surprising to find both the police and the
few representative members Of the de-
based community calloused to affrays
which end fatally. =. $3.50 .+.: g.
TT isn't every night" said police
constable, but it's night after night that
murders and outrages happen here" The
men die, stabbed in drunken brawls
the women, like Annie Austen the osler
night, ut the hands Of brutes only SHADE
more sdepraved than they themselves
"Bashings,' the knocking down .of a
strange in the alley In broad day.
light, that his pockets may be emp
tied and any attrative part of his clothing
stolen, are too common even to be no.
ticed. 1t is a significant comment .upof
the awful record Of crime that mounts
up in the course of a year that Scotland
Ycrd refuses 20 make public the statistics
Of Dorset street, whereas it gives out
those of other localities. @ ~ II 1s
I'm Dorset street." wrote Church OF
England Clergyman who has known con-
diticrs there for years, children gaze
won the brutal fight and the bruised face
without emotion; and / have seen "a child
at play upon floor still red with the
murdered mothers blood. Wells and
courses that would terrify most men 3and
women scarcely disturb the children's
play.''
Many OF the single rooms in the SIX
cent lodging houses are occupied by boys
ard girls of not more than thirteen OF
fourteen, waits who have been lured away
from their homes by Dorset-street Fa-
gins and padrones with tales Of the fresl
life to be attained as soon as the art q
the sDodge.. is mastered. The men ant
women of Dorset street are such boys
ana girls grown l,p. Esq MS 9; +
nd There is prohahlv nothing in America
TO compare VIII me EIoFses-SlrseNt g Gu
bicle' lodging houses or the system O
furnished rooms Which of these in
stitutions most fosters crinlesis the sub
tect sof considerable dispute. OF the Gu
bicles No. SO Dorset street, " here tn
Austen woman was murdered, is worth,
specimen. It will house -145 people, usa-
ally two to room, and the price FOL
each lodgec ranges from. foarpenca on or
binary Mig ats to a shilling and sixpenct
II on Saturdays, when patrons are supposet
TO be more than ordinarily affIuent- Th
rooms are unf FINISHED save for a woodel
tedstead of the cheapest sort the wall
are never more than an inch thick no
nc re than seven or eight feet hi h.s 'Th
rooms are reached by winding, unIighte
flights of stone stairs, at the bottom 9
which is a.sspay window by which strae
giles the motley crew that makes up tn
clientele of the house. no objection hs
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