The Seven Curses Of London - free ebook by James Greenwood

THE SEVEN CURSES OF LONDON.

By JAMES GREENWOOD, The “Amateur Casual.” LONDON: STANLEY RIVERS AND CO....

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CHAPTER I. STARTLING FACTS.

The Pauper Population .— Pauper Children .— Opinions concerning their proper Treatment .— A Hundred Thousand Children loose in London Streets .— Neglected Babies .— Juvenile “ Market Prowlers .” It is a startling fact that, in England and Wales alone, at the present time, the number of children under the age of sixteen, dependent more or less on the parochial authorities for maintenance, amounts to three hundred and fifty thousand. It is scarcely less startling to learn that annually more than a

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CHAPTER II. RESPECTING THE PARENTAGE OF SOME OF OUR GUTTER POPULATION.

Who are the Mothers ?— The Infant Labour Market .— Watch London and Blackfriars Bridges .— The Melancholy Types .— The Flashy , Flaunting “ Infant .”— Keeping Company .— Marriage .— The Upshot . Instructive and interesting though it may be to inquire into the haunts and habits of these wretched waifs and “rank outsiders” of humanity, of how much importance and of useful purpose is it to dig yet a little deeper and discover who are the parents—the mothers especially—of these babes of the gutter.

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CHAPTER III. BABY-FARMING.

“ Baby-Farmers ” and Advertising “ Child Adopters .”—“ F. X. ” of Stepney .— The Author’s Interview with Farmer Oxleek .— The Case of Baby Frederick Wood . Although it is not possible, in a book of moderate dimensions, such as this, to treat the question of neglected children with that extended care and completeness it undoubtedly deserves, any attempt at its consideration would be glaringly deficient did it not include some reference to the modern and murderous institution known as “baby farmin

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CHAPTER IV. WORKING BOYS.

The London Errand Boy .— His Drudgery and Privations .— His Temptations .— The London Boy after Dark .— The Amusements provided for him . The law takes account of but two phases of human existence,—the child irresponsible, and the adult responsible, and overlooks as beneath its dignity the important and well-marked steps that lead from the former state to the latter. Despite the illegality of the proceeding, it is the intention of the writer hereof to do otherwise, aware as he is, and as every t

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CHAPTER V. THE PROBLEM OF DELIVERANCE.

Curious Problem .— The Best Method of Treatment .— The “ Child of the Gutter ” not to be Entirely Abolished .— The Genuine Alley-Bred Arab .— The Poor Lambs of the Ragged Flock .— The Tree of Evil in Our Midst .— The Breeding Places of Disease and Vice . The curious problem—“What is the best method of treatment to adopt towards improving the condition of neglected children, and to diminish their number for the future?” has been attempted for solution from so many points of attack, and by means s

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CHAPTER VI. THEIR NUMBER AND THEIR DIFFICULTIES.

Twenty Thousand Thieves in London .— What it Means .— The Language of “ Weeds .”— Cleverness of the Pilfering Fraternity .— A Protest Against a Barbarous Suggestion .— The Prisoner’s great Difficulty .— The Moment of Leaving Prison .— Bad Friends .— What Becomes of Good Resolutions and the Chaplain’s Counsel ?— The Criminal’s Scepticism of Human Goodness .— Life in “ Little Hell .”— The Cow Cross Mission . The happily ignorant reader, whose knowledge of the criminal classes is confined to an occ

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CHAPTER VII. HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE BRITISH THIEF.

The Three Classes of Thieving Society .— Popular Misapprehensions .— A True Picture of the London Thief .— A Fancy Sketch of the “ Under-Ground Cellar .”— In Disguise at a Thieves’ Raffle .— The Puzzle of “ Black Maria .”— Mr. Mullins’s Speech and his Song . Although , as most people are aware, the great thief tribe reckons amongst its number an upper, and a middle, and a lower class, pretty much as corresponding grades of station are recognised amongst the honest community, it is doubtful, in t

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CHAPTER VIII. JUVENILE THIEVES.

The Beginning of the Downhill Journey .— Candidates for Newgate Honours .— Black Spots of London .— Life from the Young Robber’s Point of View .— The Seedling Recruits the most difficult to reform .— A doleful Summing-up .— A Phase of the Criminal Question left unnoticed .— Budding Burglars .— Streams which keep at full flood the Black Sea of Crime .— The Promoters of “ Gallows Literature .”— Another Shot at a Fortress of the Devil .—“ Poison-Literature .”—“ Starlight Sall .”—“ Panther Bill .” I

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CHAPTER IX. THE THIEF NON-PROFESSIONAL.

The Registered and the Unregistered Thieves of the London Hunting-ground .— The Certainty of the Crop of Vice .— Omnibus Drivers and Conductors .— The “ Watchers .”— The London General Omnibus Company .— The Scandal of their System .— The Shopkeeper Thief .— False Weights and Measures .— Adulteration of Food and Drink .— Our Old Law , “ I am as honest as I can afford to be !”— Rudimentary Exercises in the Art of Pillage . There are unregistered as well “registered” thieves. How many of the form

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CHAPTER X. CRIMINAL SUPPRESSION AND PUNISHMENT.

Lord Romilly’s Suggestion concerning the Education of the Children of Criminals .— Desperate Criminals .— The Alleys of the Borough .— The worst Quarters not , as a rule , the most Noisy .— The Evil Example of “ Gallows Heroes ,” “ Dick Turpin ,” “ Blueskin ,” &amp;c. — The Talent for “ Gammoning Lady Green .”— A worthy Governor’s Opinion as to the best way of “ Breaking ” a Bad Boy .— Affection for “ Mother .”— The Dark Cell and its Inmate .— An Affecting Interview . No less an authority th

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CHAPTER XI. ADULT CRIMINALS AND THE NEW LAW FOR THEIR BETTER GOVERNMENT.

Recent Legislation .— Statistics .— Lord Kimberley’s “ Habitual Criminals ” Bill .— The Present System of Licence-Holders .— Colonel Henderson’s Report .— Social Enemies of Suspected Men .— The Wrong-Headed Policeman and the Mischief he may Cause .— Looking Out for a Chance .— The Last Resource of Desperate Honesty .— A Brotherly Appeal .—“ Ginger will Settle Her .”— Ruffians who should be Imprisoned for Life . Regarding the terms professional thief and habitual criminal as synonymous, now that

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CHAPTER XII. THE BEGGAR OF OLDEN TIME.

“ Only a Beggar ”— The Fraternity 333 Years ago — A Savage Law — Origin of the Poor-Laws — Irish Distinction in the Ranks of Beggary — King Charles’s Proclamation — Cumberland Discipline . Were it not that the reader’s sound and simple sense renders it quite unnecessary, it might be of importance to premise that to be “only a beggar” does not constitute a human being a curse against his species. There are those amongst the greatest and most famous who have been beggars, and many of the mighties

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CHAPTER XIII. THE WORK OF PUNISHMENT AND RECLAMATION.

The Effect of “ The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity ”— State Business carried out by Individual Enterprise —“ The Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society ”— The quiet Work of these Societies — Their Mode of Work — Curious Statistics — Singular Oscillations — Diabolical Swindling . The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity has done more towards checking imposture, and bringing evildoers to punishment, than the Government itself, notwithstanding all the elaborate and expensive machinery at i

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CHAPTER XIV. BEGGING “DODGES.”

The Variety and Quality of the Imposture — Superior Accomplishments of the Modern Practitioner — The Recipe for Success — The Power of “ Cheek ”—“ Chanting ” and the “ Shallow Lay ”— Estimates of their Paying Value — The Art of touching Women’s Hearts — The Half-resentful Trick — The London “ Cadger ”— The Height of “ The Famine Season .” The “dodges” to which an individual resolved on a vagrant life will resort are almost past reckoning; and, as a natural consequence, the quality of the impostu

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CHAPTER XV. GENTEEL ADVERTISING BEGGARS.

The Newspaper Plan and the delicate Process — Forms of Petition — Novel Applications of Photography — Personal Attractions of the Distressed — Help , or I perish ! Besides those I have enumerated, there are at least two other specimens of the beggar tribe that deserve mention. They are genteel impostors both. One avails himself of the advertising columns of the newspaper to apprise the benevolent of his modest desires, while the other prefers the more private and delicate process insured by ou

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CHAPTER XVI. THIS CURSE.

The Difficulty in handling it — The Question of its Recognition — The Argyll Rooms — Mr. Acton’s visit there — The Women and their Patrons — The Floating Population of Windmill-street — Cremorne Gardens in the Season . The only explanation that can be offered to the supersensitive reader, who will doubtless experience a shock of alarm at discovering this page’s heading, is, that it would be simply impossible to treat with any pretension to completeness of the curses of London without including i

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CHAPTER XVII. THE PLAIN FACTS AND FIGURES OF PROSTITUTION.

Statistics of Westminster , Brompton , and Pimlico — Methods of conducting the nefarious Business — Aristocratic Dens — The High Tariff — The Horrors of the Social Evil — The Broken Bridge behind the Sinner —“ Dress Lodgers ”— There’s always a “ Watcher ”— Soldiers and Sailors — The “ Wrens of the Curragh .” Let us in the first place consider the extent to which the terrible malady in question afflicts us. I am not aware if more recent returns have been made than those I have at hand. Were it

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CHAPTER XVIII. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE QUESTION.

The Laws applying to Street-walkers — The Keepers of the Haymarket Night-houses — Present Position of the Police-magistrates .— Music-hall Frequenters — Refreshment-bars — Midnight Profligacy —“ Snuggeries ”— Over-zealous Blockheads . Six or seven years since, such alterations were made in the laws applying to nocturnal street-walkers and disorderly persons generally, as enabled the London magistrates, with the assistance of the police, to reduce the great Haymarket disgrace to manageable dimens

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CHAPTER XIX. SUGGESTIONS.

Ignoring the Evil — Punishment fit for the “ Deserter ” and the Seducer — The “ Know-nothing ” and “ Do-nothing ” Principle — The Emigration of Women of Bad Character . It is easy enough to understand, if one finds the courage to face this worst of all social evils, and inquire calmly into the many shapes its origin takes, how very possible it is that there may be living in a state of depravity scores and hundreds of women who are what they are out of no real fault of their own. “Then why do th

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CHAPTER XX. ITS POWER.

The crowning Curse — No form of sin or sorrow in which it does not play a part — The “ Slippery Stone ” of Life — Statistics — Matters not growing worse — The Army Returns — The System of Adulteration . Whatever differences of opinion may arise as to the extent and evil operation of the other curses that, in common with all other cities, afflict the city of London, no sane man will contest the fact that drunkenness has wrought more mischief than all other social evils put together. There is not

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CHAPTER XXI. ATTEMPTS TO ARREST IT.

The Permissive Liquors Bill — Its Advocates and their Arguments — The Drunkenness of the Nation — Temperance Facts and Anecdotes — Why the Advocates of Total Abstinence do not make more headway — Moderate Drinking — Hard Drinking — The Mistake about childish Petitioners . There has recently appeared on the temperance stage a set of well-meaning gentlemen, who, could they have their way, though they would sweep every public-house and beershop from the face of the land, are yet good-natured enough

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CHAPTER XXII. “ADVERTISING TIPSTERS” AND “BETTING COMMISSIONERS.”

The Vice of Gambling on the increase among the Working-classes — Sporting “ Specs ”— A “ Modus ”— Turf Discoveries — Welshers — The Vermin of the Betting-field — Their Tactics — The Road to Ruin . There can be no doubt that the vice of gambling is on the increase amongst the English working-classes. Of this no better proof is afforded than in the modern multiplication of those newspapers specially devoted to matters “sportive.” Twenty years ago there were but three or four sporting newspapers

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CHAPTER XXIII. METROPOLITAN PAUPERISM.

Parochial Statistics — The Public hold the Purse-strings — Cannot the Agencies actually at work be made to yield greater results ?— The Need of fair Rating — The heart and core of the Poor-law Difficulty — My foremost thought when I was a “ Casual ”— Who are most liable to slip ?—“ Crank-work ”— The Utility of Labour-yards — Scales of Relief — What comes of breaking-up a Home . The following is a return of the number of paupers (exclusive of lunatics in asylums and vagrants) on the last day of t

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CHAPTER XXIV. THE BEST REMEDY.

Emigration — The various Fields — Distinguish the industrious Worker in need of temporary Relief — Last Words . All other remedies considered, we come back to that which is cheapest, most lasting, and in every way the best—emigration. This, of course, as applying to unwilling and undeserved pauperism. These are the sufferers that our colonies are waiting to receive with open arms. They don’t want tramps and vagrants. They won’t have them, well knowing the plague such vermin would be in a lan

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