The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-09-14


to Fleet Street. the Strand and Trafalgar
Square to celebrate the occasion. =.
Many Of them have been drinking all
day and more are drinking now the
crowd consists of women and men, boys
and girls rushing, pushing and 1ostiing
one another as they move UP and down
the sidewalks and roadways. AT times
they stop the buses and the hanson caoS
must 60 at q walk.
The faces are hard and many OF them
are red with drink. Even the women are
drunk, and at every few steps you meet
a party of them who are singing ana
dancing and throwing their arms around
one another in their nebriate JOY Some
have men with them and men and women
pass along embracing as they go.
Young girls have long peacock feathers
with which they tickle the men indiscrim-
inately under the chins as they pass.
stopped and leaned against the wall TO
make mental notes of the crowd. Every
now and then some g1ddy Whitechapel
maiden with her hair frizzled over her
ears and a sailor hat on the side OF her
head chucked me under the chin or put
a feather in my nose and told me TO
"larf." Indeed 1t made me blush.
Drinking in London.
| was surprised at the drunkenness of
the crowd, and especially at the number
of intoxicated women. l have seen every
great city Of the world, but nowhere have
/ seen women drinking publicly in the
saloons as they do here. On the peace
night l saw drunken girls of Is and some
who seemed younger, although there were
signs on the saloon windows saying that
children under IA would not be served.
There were scores of women with ba-
bies dancing and shouting, their breaths
redolent with whisky and gin. Some OF
the babies were not more than two weeks
old, but their mothers bundled them up
to their breasts and sang and danced with
the rest.
The saloons along the Strand were filled
with half-drunken people of both sexes. i
looked into saloon after saloon and did
not find one in which there were not
women drinking. Many of the women
were gray haired and even these were
drunk. This drinking prevails throughout
London. The women patronize the sa-
looms almost as much as the men, and
lions Ola Saturday evening without see
ing drunken women dancing, shouting or
quarreling.
Amnog the Pickpockets.
The scenes make me think of Dickens
novels, and especially of oliver Twist.
The characters of that story were every
where and Fagin and his pickpockets
were abroad. There are no more expert
thieves in the world than here, and l saw
a good specimen of their work as l stood
against the wall. Two men lost their
watches inside of two minutes. The first
was an old fellow with his wife. AS the
thief rushed away the good woman shed
tears, saying: Yes, they've stolen my
husbands watch"
The other was dude in tall hat, wire.
like myself. was out to see the fun. One
thief Knocked off the hat. another pushed
the dude and a third grabbed at his
watch chain and took his gold repeater
before he could turn around. L buttonel
my coat up tightly and pushed my way
through to one of the policemen. telling
HIM OF the plckpockets. He replied;
Yes. this Is the plckpockets harvest.
There will be hundreds If watches stolen
tonight and we cannot prevent it. You
had b. tier keep off the side streets. There
Is such jam here that we cannot watch
the alleys which lead off the Strand The
girls will entice men into the dark places.
when their pals will knock them down
and rob them. The work is done in u
minute and the thieves get away"
In the next days paper | saw the report
of a number of rohharies Of this kind, one
man being knocked down and killed by
the roughs.
Fifteen Thousand Policemen.
And still London has 1900 policemen,
and they are, I believe, about the best
police in the world. The city is 80 great,
however, that they cannot take care of 1t
Continued on Page Twelve.)