Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1911-12-01
thrust. out Of the regular channels Of

thrust. out OF the regular channels Of
trade, find here a ready market
/ think that the thing which Inn
pressed me most was not the poverty
which was evident enough. but the
sombre tone Of the whole proceed
ings. It was not happy crowd
there were no bright colors and very
little laughter. 1t was an addressed
crowd, made up OF people who had
long been accustomed to live, as II
were, at secondhand. and, In close re-
lations with the pawnbroker.
In the south II would be hard to
and q colored man who did not make
some change in his appearance on
Sunday. The negro laborer Ia never
so poor that he forgets to put on q
clean collar or bright necktie OF
something out Of the ordinary out OF
respect for the Sabbath. In the midst
of this busy, pushing throng 1t was
hard for me to remember that l was
in England, and that It was
Sunday. Somehow or other
had got q very different notion of the
English Sabbath. 3p.s
Petticoat Lane Is in the midst of the
sweating" district where most of the
cheap clothing in London is made
Through windows and open doors
could see the pale faces Of the garment
makers bent over their work. There
Is much furniture made in this region
also, understand. Looking down into
some Of the cellars as / passed saw
men working at the lathes. Down al
the end Of the street was q bar rooR
which was doing rushing business
The law in London is. as understand
that travellers may be served at a
public bar on Sunday but not others
To be a traveller, a bona f1ds" trav
eler, you must have come from dis
lance OF at least three miles. There
we're great many travellers in Petit
coat Lane on the Sunday morning that
I was there.
This same morning, visited Beth
nal Green, another and quite differ
emit quarter of the East End. There
are number Of these different quar-
tiers of East End, like, Stephney, Pop
lar, st. George In the East, and sc
forth. Each of these has its pecul
lar type Of population and Its own pc
culiar conditions. Whitechapel il
Jewish, st. Georges in the East IL
Jewish at one END and Irish at the
other but Bethnal Green is English. Fol
nearly half mile along Bethnal Green
Road found another Sunday market
in full swing, and it was, If anything
louder and more picturesque than the
one in Petticoat Lane.
1t was about one o'clock in the morn
ing; the housewives Of Bethnal Green
were out on the street hunting bar
gains in meat and vegetables for the
Sunday dinner. One of the most in
teresting groups passed was crowd
ed about pushcart where three sturdy
old women, shouting at the top Of
their lungs, were Keeling of bolt after
bolt of cheap cotton cloth to crowd
81 women gathered about their cart.
At another point a man was knock
ing down" at auction cheap cuts Of
frozen beef from Australia at prices
ranging from four to eight cents 8
pound. Another was selling fish, an
other crockery and q third tinware
and SO through the whole list d
household staples. n . L
The market on Bethnal Green roai
extends across street called Bricl
Lane and branches of again from that
into other and narrower streets. Ir
one of these there is market exclu
sively for birds, and another for vari
GUS sorts Of fancy articles, not of the
first necessity. The interesting thing
about all the traffic was that. although
no one seemed to exercise any sort
of control over It, somehow the differ
ent classes of trade had managed to
organize themselves SO that all the
wares o, one particular sort were dis
played in one place and all the wares
of another sort in another, everything
In regular and systematic order. The
streets were so busy and crowded that
! wondered If there were any people
left in that part Of the town to attend
the churches.