The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1907-07-31
| ONDON'S EAST SIDE,
Fearful Picture Of Poverty and
Dissipation.
A SATURDAY NIGHT SCENE.
The Awful Spectacle That a Bitterly
Cold Evening In Winter Disclosed to
the Wayfarer In the Streets-The
Hucksters and Their Customers.

The Awful Spectacle That Bitterly
Cold Evening In Winter Disclosed to
the Wayfarer In the Streets-The
Hueksters and Their Customers.
Let me show you something which is
more terrible than tragedy and more
hidcous than vice II is close wcdgcd
procession III thousands Of happy bat
shabby men and women and children
passing at Il crawl between shop win
dows and costerm0ngers barr0WS on
n Saturday night in winter In south
east London The wind from the
Thames blows hither and tbithcr the
flames and naphtha lamps and makes
them tug and hiss al the greasy burn
ers. II is bitterly cold Women draw
their gray shaWls closer over their
heads; men turn mp their coai collars,
hump their shoulders and thrust their
hands deeper in their pockets. and the
blue faced children, squeezed between
the legs of the crawling multitude,
SILVER and shuttle as they creep 50
slowly forward with ehattering teeth
and purple lips which tWlteh and
sluddcr. half from cold and half from
hunger
Look 1T some Of the faecs The
women have their lair dragged back
from their foreheads The eyes are
hardly isiblc The noses are short and
broad The blubber lips reach across
their swollen faces The men have
shlfty eyes. Their underiaws project
There Is nothing in their faces which
suggests dignity or Kindness. on all
the Faces yon read satisfaction and
content Even the starving children
peep about with excitement
On the top rail of II stall. stuck upon
hooks and Just high enough To grin
above the multitude. are the heads Of
two sucking pigs. The eyes are half
open and wear n CLASSY smile. Round
the rim of the ears and nj the edge OF
the open erinnine lips is II line of
blood They seem 10 hing there Hike
the presiding deilies Of the markct Tia"
gods Of This s0rdid festival
butchers stanA before their open
windows, calling loudly and briskly
for customers and reaching down joints
of meat from steel hooks, which they
fling 70 man inside 10 he weighed
Children. barehea1od aud in rags
thrust themselves among tie crowd
Offering beet roots on pieces of dirty
newspaper The street is filled with
cries There is smell Of fish and
fusty garments. Into our faces AS we
20 forward foul. fat women with
hoarse voices shove handfals Of animal
matter things all bloody and dreadful
and tell us that the cost IS only two
pence At another barrow an old wo
man aud her three daughters are sell
ing for pennies, twopenccs. three
peuecs and fourpcuccs the loathsome
oddmcuts from their rag shop. Houses,
stays. petticoltS, nightdrcSS"s, trou
sers. Waistcoats aud caps all of them
SO sodden and mustX that we doubt If
they would burn are Snatchcd up from
the wide stall. nourishcd in the light
of the naphlha lamps and flung across
To The highest bidder for II few coppers.
And while this marketing Is going on
and while the air is filed with the
hoarSc shouts Of the hHeksters, out
from the public houses. like bees dis
lodged from II swarm drop men and
women many of them carrying babies
in their arms, and slouch away into
the darkness of some neghboring
court The gin shops are erammed
crammcd with men. women aud chill
dreu The more careful housewives